literacat

Latest Posts by literacat

jason's last words being to leo "don't do this, we have to stay together" and leo's last words to jason being "when are you going to trust me? i love you", fuck they should've met again but they didn't and they can't im so upset at that literally being the last time they speak to each other and leo blows up in flames and jason loses his grip on the air, storm and fire at the same time but yeah "we HAVE to stay together" and "WHEN are you going to trust me?", this never happens like this never happens fuck... like that's all they wanted through the books, that is LITERALLY their arcs, jason wanted something that stuck and something he understood, and leo was misunderstood and cast aside. but asking WHEN will we stay together? HAVE you trusted me? and the thing is, they did this from their very first quest!!!!! they made sure that it was just them in it no matter what set them apart or against each other but also that they trusted each other so much with the very private parts of their lives, like they saw things of each other that piper didn't even know, had conversations she never heard... and for it to end in jason's pov watching leo, and all they say is "we have to stay together" "when are you going to trust me" and of course the fucking final words of "i love you" fuck fuck fuck

My full Valgrace fic recs list

contains a mix of fluff smut and angst remember to always read tags !

Roommate Arrangement (Valgrace) by SevenKookies ( https://web.archive.org/web/20240529212758/https://archiveofourown.org/works/54710974/chapters/138657211)

Four idiots and four more idiots by PhoBOS_34 ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/57872989/chapters/147309475 )

A Lifetime From the Hunt by thatonefandomjumper ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/51232267/chapters/129453724 )

fall of grace by jasegrace ( https://archiveofourown.org/series/3991375 )

Uno Más by QueenJunoTheGreat ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/55664305 )

a grace period by Viva la Leo Valdez ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/54242536/chapters/137360470 )

a velociraptor's silly little valgrace fics by anon ( https://archiveofourown.org/sehttps://archiveofourown.org/works/51902923ries/3964135 )

i don't know what I'm waiting for by dirtysoupgirl ( https://archiveofourown.org/series/4038883 )

the medic problem by sapphsol ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/54124165 )

training wheels by ethannku ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/50542930 )

Storm and Fire - Valgrace by moonsappho ( https://archiveofourown.org/series/3479536 )

don't have the right name or the right looks but i have twice the heart by somerdaye ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/3619743 )

Of First Kisses and Burnt Lips by sunkelles ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/819714 )

Things I Wish You'd Never Asked by undead_dinosaur ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/51902923 )

sparks in storms by dirtandbugs ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/52489324/chapters/132785581 )

the last great american dynasty by takeimi ( https://archiveofourown.org/series/3902683 )

you're my best friend (and I love you so much) by rubyredketchup ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/29903322 )

Set Your Fire on Me by sleepingwhore ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/34098787?view_adult=true )

Rebuilding Rome (With Help From You) by Squippy ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/45289897)

A Graceful Death, and Reunion by MangoandAppleChase ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/45548599/chapters/114611899 )

Flame on! By Caora ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/55817026 )

You’d Have to Stop the World Just to Stop the Feeling by HuntingRays ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/58193518 )

Will Gives Demigods Shots, I Want To Kill Him by HuntingRays ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/57076183 )

I Gave A Second Chance To Cupid (Just Kidding!) by HuntingRays ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/56037433 )

S-Class by HuntingRays ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/55833547 )

The Archer by HuntingRays ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/55755847 )

The Moment by queer_alienbean ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/55938742 )

Kitchens and Kisses by AceFangirlLani ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/56876998 )

Engines and Explosions by AceFangirlLani (  https://archiveofourown.org/works/56686174 )

The Heroes of Juno by QueenJunoTheGreat ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/54202792/chapters/137250442 )

Manic Pixie Dream Leo by QueenJunoTheGreat ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/57040054 )

I've Missed Your Big Dumb Face by QueenJunoTheGreat ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/54040966 )

Runaways by Verose1234 ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/53909425/chapters/136454752 )

Valgrace Good Future by Ottpop (  https://archiveofourown.org/series/4113400 )

fall from grace, fall for grace by anon ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/54436744/chapters/137900197 )

seize the day by restinreeses ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/44861305/chapters/112874230)

follow you by amhras ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/28993044 )

Remember This Not by MaskedKing631 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/36584068/chapters/91245061 )

meet me at our spot by ethannku ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/34137139/chapters/84933631 )

a "short" story by pipermclean ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/10434213 )

hopeless case by restinresses ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/45419149 )

Strawberries in the Field by moonssappho ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/57056323/chapters/145107268 )

The Ebb and Flow (Of the List of Things That I Don't Know) by QueenJunoTheGreat ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/59893960 )

Small Town Affair by manygeese ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/59885428/chapters/152772709 )

august slipped away like a moment in time by clowningstar19 ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/59762137/chapters/152436793 )

being with you makes the flame burn good by gumtoof ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/31593176/chapters/78172310 )

You said, "Baby, no attachment" by Urmumitykins ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/59301340/chapters/151238689 )

Moments Together by QueenJunoTheGreat ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/60940348 )

Crisis of Rome by QueenJunoTheGreat ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/60916228/chapters/155606725 )

heartbeat under the floorboards intensifies by buoyantsaturn ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/43616394 )

"and playing video games" by SummerHome ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/61998850 ) 

And ease thy soul with slumber bright by QueenJunoTheGreat ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/62185138 )

worth fighting for by jankwritten ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/62460739 )

this will be updated as time goes on so I'll probably pin it to my blog :)

and of course shameless self promo: I have like 23 valgrace fics I'm just gonna put a short one shot here

Forever and a Bit by IWannaScreamEureka ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/59005273 )

(Also all the people that had said yes to the earlier post I made: @lazyscarhead @clevertimemachinepolice @siimplyapril @katiefromcabin7 )

Do any of u have decent recipes that are like 5 ingredients (not including spices) and take 45 mins or less to prepare i gotta stop eating sandwiches for dinner

his two victors 24 years after his games.. suzanne collins you absolute genius

The doubling of tribute numbers. The miscarried Abernathy twins. The Donner sisters who Haymitch carries a fascination for as consequence. Louella being replaced by Lou Lou, a name that only mimics the first half of her name, and a girl who matches her in appearance only. Tam Amber’s set of pins, one dropped down a well, the other discarded. The two versions of the games: the one that Haymitch remembers and the edited, falsified version of them without the real content. The two bags of gumdrops. The fraternal affection he feels for Louella and Lou Lou, the artificial twins, and Maysilee’s offer to be his sister—the second one she gives in the book. A bond with a real twin, both pairs healing the sisters he never did know. The split between what is natural and what is manufactured or forged, bonds that that grow on their own, or are forced into existance. And if the distinction makes any difference to the person it impacts.

is it finally time for me to read the book my friends have spent forever hyping up?

write on the wall

ok so Haymitch was also in love with a girl from childhood who was an angry rebel with a great singing voice. No wonder he agreed to help Peeta when Peeta explained that he needed Katniss to survive the games, so he needed Haymitch to prioritise Katniss' survival over Peeta's own.

bingewatching will never come close to bingereading. there is nothing like blocking out the entire Earth for ten hours to read a book in one sitting no food no water no shower no bra and emerging at the end with no idea what time it is or where you are, a dried-up prune that's sensitive to light and loud noises because you've been in your room in the dark reading by the glow of a single LED. it's like coming back after a three-month vacation in another dimension and now you have to go downstairs and make dinner. absolutely transcendental

No but the Hunger Games really said "what do you hate more- the atrocities or the people who commit them against you? Because like it or not there IS a difference. If you hate the people who commit acts of pure evil more than you hate the acts themselves, what will stop you from becoming just like your enemies in your pursuit of justice? What will keep you from commiting those very same acts against THEM when the opportunity arises? And what then? The cycle of pain and suffering will never stop. Round and round it'll go. Nothing will ever change. But. BUT. If you hate the atrocities. If you hate the vile, senseless acts MORE than you hate the people who did them to you. If you are able to see that evil is evil regardless of who does it... The cycle ends with you. No, you may never get justice. But you will never be responsible for making others, even your enemies, suffer the same crimes you have. The atrocities will never be committed by you, never by your hand. And that's the way you change the world. It's the ONLY way" and that's why I am sure it will never stop being one of the most relevant works of fiction ever created

lucy gray taking a bow after her reaping song. haymitch applauding snow while presenting him with louella’s corpse. katniss twirling around in her flaming dress in front of the entire country. peeta painting a portrait of rue for the gamemakers.

district twelve really said, “you want a show? we’ll give you a show.”

something to be said about how the arena from haymitch's games was a poisonous paradise where you could never truly trust your senses and how sunrise on the reaping is a book about the dangers of propaganda and how easy it is to fall victim to some pretty lies.

You guys should be glad I have no patience to get good at art because I’d do absolutely devastating things with it if I did

It's wild to me just how badly Vi's arc is misunderstood in S2. The claims I've seen that it was bad because she didn't join up with Ekko to help liberate Zaun or didn't "have enough stuff to do."

Big 'ole S1 Vi analysis under the cut because some "hot" takes seem to forget that Vi's S1 arc even exists.

Like, sorry, but that was never the direction her character was going to go. This was spelled out for us in the very first episode of the show when Vander is giving her that lecture.

"When people look up to you, you don't get to be selfish."

"Whatever happens, it's on you."

This is the first conversation in the show that carries an impactful character building statement. We are effectively being given the start of Vi's character arc verbatim.

She is not allowed to be selfish.

And as S1 Act 1 progresses, and Vi expresses a will to fight, to rebel, to revolt, she is constantly and consistently shut down and discouraged from that way of thinking by her father figure. She's fifteen years old or so, Vander is the only authority figure in her life that she respects. Why wouldn’t she internalize any of this as is, let alone after all the tragedy she's forced to endure at the end of this act?

Then we get to tragedy. Vander tells her two very specific things before and after the showdown with Silco.

"Take care of the family."

"Take care of Powder."

You know. Not, "hey, take over my mantle as Hound of the Underground."

Or "lead Zaun to freedom" or whatever the fuck.

He tells her to look after their family. The people closest to Vi.

And I don't know how many of you are older siblings. Or even older sisters. But I question if some of Vi's most heated critics are either neither of those things or lack any knowledge of sibling dynamics, period. When you are handed this tiny baby from a young age and are told "this is your baby sibling, you have to help take care of them, we won't always be here but they'll always have you" by your parents, that shit sticks with you forever. For better or worse.

If you're parentified on top of that through either circumstance or abuse, then that sentiment turns toxic. Vander, as well-meaning as he is in his talks with Vi, inadvertently presents a pretty black and white viewpoint. When paired with Vi's reaction to his (first) death and learning what Powder did, it becomes even worse.

Think about it. Most people seem to focus solely on Vi's anger issues when she strikes Powder for obvious reasons. But there's this selfishness that Vi temporarily succumbs to when she hits Powder as well. She's not thinking of Powder's emotional state or devastation as she realizes what she's done, Vi is mired in her own grief and anger.

She then walks away from Powder to take a moment to herself and presumably recollect her own composure, also a selfish move.

Now, when I call these actions selfish, I'm not assigning any negative connotations to them. Selfishness is not always a bad thing, putting yourself and your own needs first does not make someone a bad person by default. It can be healthy to take some time for self-care.

The "issue" is that Arcane is a tragedy. The narrative punishes Vi for lashing out and temporarily leaving Powder by having Marcus kidnap her and Silco adopt her sister. Not that Vi even knows that much when it happens. For all she knew, Silco murdered Powder.

So, then Vi spends something like seven years in Stillwater in constant limbo wondering if Powder is even alive. The sheer guilt she must have felt at "failing" to protect her baby sister would have likely been agonizing.

Seven.

Years.

Then she gets out. And all Vi cares about is finding her sister. She doesn't care about the Hexgem besides the fact that it's directly related to Jinx, and Caitlyn lied to her by ommission about it.

She's not trying to retake the Lanes in Vander's name. She only cares about bringing Silco's empire down because of what he did to her family. She wants her sister back first and foremost, she does not care to stick with the Firelights and even leaves Ekko and Cailtyn on the bridge initially to go after Jinx.

It's really her burgeoning feelings for Caitlyn that ever cracks this near obsessive compulsion to chase after her sister. Vi was going to choose Jinx until the point Caitlyn was injured and then the both of them were shot at by Jinx.

Even the moment she falls in love with Caitlyn is tied to her guilt about leaving Powder. The story she tells while they're on Caitlyn’s bed, her obvious grief and guilt over her sister. She's mired in this moment of pain until Caitlyn reaches out to comfort her. Like, Jinx and Caitlyn have always been intertwined in Vi's arc after she meets Caitlyn. There is no overarching thread to connect Vi to any of the political plot points in this story.

Vi's arc is character driven. Always has been. She's motivated by her warring desire to protect those she loves with EVERYTHING she has, and this by now guilty pleasure to finally develop something purely for herself.

It's why she pushes Caitlyn away during the infamous Oil and Water breakup. The class differences she's citing are an excuse, an easy thing she can point at to push Caitlyn away. What's really going on is that she failed to get the Council to decisively act against Silco. She's failed Jinx again in her own mind, he's still out there poisoning her mind, and now she needs to take care of him herself. Caitlyn proved to be a distraction from her goal, and so must be removed.

Even after teaming up with Jayce and then going her own way, Vi does not go after more shimmer factories. She's not rallying the Lanes to revolt with Hextech weaponry in (on) hand. She immediately goes to the Last Drop to challenge Sevika, someone she hates specifically because she'd betrayed Vander. She had every intention to confront Silco right after that.

Then we get the tea party, and Vi has to come to terms with the fact that the sister she loved is fundamentally changed in more ways than one. She's given an ultimatum to choose between her self-imposed duty as an older sister and Caitlyn. The only relationship Vi has ever formed purely for herself.

And she can't do it. It's an impossible choice. Jinx ends up triggered intensely, Caitlyn is struck by indecision and doesn't take the shot because of Vi's pleas, and Jinx goes on to fire that rocket.

Like this is just Season. One. Every single important character moment Vi has is tied to either Jinx, Caitlyn, or both. This is not a new thing S2 did with Vi's character. Her arc was always about how much she was giving to other characters without much thought to herself.

I just don't get how some people expected that to radically change in S2. It was never going to happen. I'll probably make an analysis on S2 Vi as well, but this is already getting very long. It's also a good way to remind some folks that each season of this show does not exist in a vacuum. I've read a lot of takes that seem to just... ignore S1. It's pretty bizarre.

The Tumblr link thing won't work so have an ugly ass hyperlink, I GUESS

Alrighty! It's time to ring in the new year, and I think it's only appropriate that my first post of the year is HoJ! :D @demigod-shenanigans and I were talking about what scenes I should do from MoA and we talked about Charleston and Jason not really remembering (or really even knowing) what happened there with Reyna but he DOES know that his best friend kinda got weird and distant, so he's got all this anxiety about Piper going to talk to that very same entity. Instead, I wrote this. Sorry, bestie <3

Now, may I present LEO Takes a Tumble: A Mark of Athena Scene

As Leo fell once again, he realized that he hadn't been scared when he was falling before. He hadn't been scared because he knew Jason was there and he knew with every fiber of his being that Jason would catch him. Jason wouldn't let him fall. But now they were both falling, and Leo wasn't really sure whose job it was to catch Jason. *** Leo free falls to his certain death. This is only really about half as dramatic as it should be.

As Leo fell through the air following Frank ‘Butterfingers’ Zhang’s spectacular performance (seriously, how did a giant eagle manage to drop him? Leo was suspicious of a deliberate attempt on his life) his only thought was a deep, heart-aching regret at the thought of the salsa he'd made the night before. It had been good right after he'd finished it, obviously, but after a night of letting it rest? Of letting all those flavors marry and meld? There wasn't much that could beat that. But now he'd never get to have it because Frank had gone and dropped him right above a demigod free-for-all throwdown. Somehow, the crew of the Argo II was managing to hold their own against the platoon of soldiers who'd attacked them, which was honestly a little embarrassing for the Romans, come to think of it. 

Before he could think too much about that, he was tackled in midair and brought in close to a remarkably familiar chest. He looked up to see Jason, all of his features sharpened with concentration, and he couldn't help but bite his lower lip in a grin and waggle his eyebrows. “Well, if it isn't the one and only Superman himself. Come here often?”

“Focusing right now,” Jason chided, ignoring the pink on his cheeks. “Be quiet.”

“You know me, Mr. Serious here. I'm practically stoic.”

Jason scoffed. “Yeah right.”

Unfortunately, even that brief moment of distraction was enough to sign the warrant on their certain doom. There was an explosion in the air right in front of them (Leo blamed Hedge) and Jason didn't have time to react. He didn't drop Leo, but he did lose control of the winds and the two of them were suddenly tumbling through the air like abandoned dolls. 

As Leo fell once again, he realized that he hadn't been scared when he was falling before. He hadn't been scared because he knew Jason was there and he knew with every fiber of his being that Jason would catch him. Jason wouldn't let him fall. But now they were both falling, and Leo wasn't really sure whose job it was to catch Jason. 

“Jason! Hey, man! Can you hear me?” Jason just continued to stare at nothing with that same dazed expression on his face, so Leo squirmed one of his hands out from where it was crushed between their chests and gently smacked Jason’s cheek until blue met brown. “Wake up, Jason!”

Jason blinked hard a few times to focus his vision, and when he did his eyes widened in terror at the sight of what Leo assumed was the rapidly approaching ground beneath them. “Hang on! This is gonna get rough!” he ordered over the sharp whistling in Leo’s ears. Then he tucked Leo’s head under his chin and squeezed him tight right as a powerful gust of wind slammed into them from the side. 

Leo clung tight to Jason, hands fisted in the front of his shirt, as the two of them tumbled through the air like one of Leo's failed projects. They were headed straight for a nearby hill, which Leo assumed was Jason’s plan, and Leo braced himself for a very hard landing, followed by getting squashed into a pancake by 230 pounds of solid Roman demigod muscle. Only, that didn't happen. The landing was hard, even harder than Leo had originally assumed it would be, but at the last second, Jason jerked in midair, making sure he hit the ground first. They rolled a few times, which did definitely squeeze the air out of Leo’s lungs but left him otherwise unharmed, until they settled with Jason sprawled out flat on his back and Leo on top of him.

Leo blinked hard a few times to get the stars out of his eyes before his attention turned to Jason. He was lying there, completely still with his eyes closed, and Leo was horribly reminded of the sight of him in the infirmary bed after New Rome. Panic welled in the back of his throat and he started smacking his cheek again, a little harder than he had in the air. “Jace? Jace, you there? C’mon, man, please? Houston to Superman: Come in, Superman!”

“Superman to Houston: Stop hitting me, please,” Jason groaned, weakly batting Leo's hand away from his face.

Leo didn't care. He grabbed both of Jason’s cheeks up in his hands and gave him an absolutely blinding smile. “Jace!”

Jason just smiled back at him for a moment before his eyes went wide and he sat straight up, forcing Leo to sit up with him. His hands started patting Leo down before he desperately raked his fingers through Leo’s hair and cupped his hands around his jaw. “Leo! Oh my gods! Are you okay?”

“I'm Gucci, bro,” Leo grinned through his forced fish face. Jason just wrapped him up in a hug so tight, Leo couldn't help but wonder if they were going to start their free fall again. He frowned when Jason started trembling. “Jace? Are you okay?”

“You were falling,” Jason muttered quietly from where his face was hidden in Leo’s shoulder. “I don't like watching you fall.”

Leo felt his heart twinge in sympathy, and he patted the back of Jason’s head. “Hey, man, don't sweat it. I never do. I've got my own personal Superman to Lois Lane me when I need him, remember? He'd never let me fall too bad.”

Jason huffed out a quiet chuckle before he emerged. He carefully pushed Leo off of his lap and got to his feet so he could scowl down at the demigods fighting below. “Dammit. This is not how I planned for this to go.”

Leo’s eyebrows shot up. “Yeah? How did you plan it? Were you looking for a hot date down in Charleston? Gonna hold somebody's hand while you walk them through the fort and gush about Civil War battle formations?”

Jason flushed maroon and he scowled at Leo, which just made him grin. “Shut up.”

“It's okay, buddy,” Leo comforted, patting him on the arm. “Next time we find a historical site, you can hold my hand and tell me stuff I won't listen to, if you can't find a real date.”

Somehow, Jason got even redder. “Shut up.”

Leo mimed zipping his lips, and Jason rolled his eyes. “Come on,  Houston. We need to get back to the ship.” He held out his arm like he was offering Leo a side hug. “You ready?”

“For you, Superman? Always,” Leo grinned as he took up his position. Jason's arm wrapped around him, and they shot off into the sky.

havent seen anyone point it out yet but jinx finally got new pants! she no longer looks like a half eaten circus tent

who wins plushies for the other? it's gotta be JINX

fym jason it’s leo core 😭😭

me everytime ever

I usually fucking loathe anyone who references 1984 on social media but I do feel like actually Microsoft deciding to underline every use of an intensifier as an error is some Newspeak bullshit. no you can't replace "very nervous" with "nervous" to make a sentence "more concise" actually, because the word "very" has an actual fuckdamn meaning that I am deliberately conveying, you soulless corporate horseshit shovelling cartoon paperclip ass motherfucker

Teo: Since when were you an expert on bird anatomy?

Aurelio, who watched the annual Quetzlan bird show every year since he met Teo just to see him judging it until it went from hyperfixation to special interest: I saw it on TV

Character hated in the series and loved by the fandom (Leo Valdez) and character loved in the series and hated by the fandom (Jason Grace.)

And they’re best friends.

100% not thinking about how Jason spent months looking for Leo after the explosion and never stopped believing he was out there while knowing full well that NOBODY looked for him when he went missing from Camp Jupiter.

they call me the problem ignorer for reasons that i know but dont feel like addressing right now

difference between bf and bsf i guess 😭😭

Teo: *applying chapstick*

Aurelio: what flavor is that

Teo: oh, it's guava

Aurelio: can I try it

Teo: *hands over chapstick* sure

Aurelio: *kisses Teo*

Aurelio: holy shit it does

Teo: *has stopped functioning*

Or alternatively

Teo: *applying chapstick*

Niya: what flavor is that

Teo: oh, it's guava

Niya: can I try it

Teo: *hands over chapstick* sure

Niya: *takes a bite out of it*

Niya: holy shit it does

Teo: What the fuck

finished the first book tn and can’t get my hands on the second soon enough thanks tumblr for keeping me fed while im waiting

Yeah, hey Aiden? This is a shockingly good representation of this aspect of the book. Fuck you.

“No she's not” Jason defends “Nothing here is yours”

“You are mine” the goddess snaps “You were gifted to me”

He just squares his shoulders and stands his ground “Yeah well, I've taken me back”

The glair Juno shoots him could strip paint “That boy changed you”

“Yeah” Jason smiles “yeah he did”

@lost-trio-week day 5: parents

Esperanza Valdez just made sense, Jason thought. Her ghostly figure was entirely silver in color, but Jason could see where Leo got his curls. She had pulled hers back with a bandana, but the way her eyebrows knitted together was very familiar. He could almost imagine her glaring at Festus because he ate all the hot sauce again, like a certain son of Hephaestus he knew.

But Jason had a mission- that certain son of Hephaestus’ birthday was coming up, and he was completely stumped on what to get him. Tools? He literally had a magic tool belt, and that came with all the wrenches, hammers, and breath mints a guy could want. Clothes? Piper had that covered, she was going to take him shopping at the mall that weekend. Books? Dyslexia was a bitch, plain and simple.

Yup, Jason had something of a problem. But! Nico had volunteered to help him, since he was in a similar situation with Leo’s birthday gift. So here they were, on an appropriately dark and spooky summer night, filling a pit with Coca Cola and french fries to summon some ghosts- or one particular ghost. It looked like it had worked.

“Good evening, my lady. I crave a boon,” Jason stated, kneeling before the spirit as one would to an Olympian.

Miss Valdez’s face scrunched up in both humor and confusion. “‘My lady?’ ‘Crave a boon?’ I’m flattered, kid, but I’m no goddess.”

“Sorry, my lady. I mean- ma’am.”

“You can get off of the ground, y’know? Your jeans’ll be ruined if you stay there any longer. Grass stains are tough.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” Jason resisted the urge to salute once he was done dusting himself off.

Miss Valdez snickered. “Before you get into craving boons and the like, why don’t you tell me who you are?”

“Jason Grace, former praetor of the 12th Legion Fulminata, current Pontifex Maximus of Camp Jupiter, hero of Olympus, slayer of the titan Krios, ma’am. Um, and more importantly, a friend of Leo’s.”

The ghost’s eyes seemed to light up at the mention of her son. “Mi hijo,” she crooned, clasping her hands together. “You’re a friend of mi hijo Leo? How is he?”

“Yes, ma’am. He’s doing quite well, ma’am.” He intentionally left out the part about Leo blowing himself up for the good of the world. That was a story for another time.

“How old is he? The clock doesn’t work so well down in the Underworld, it’s still saying BCE. Hard to keep track of time and all. Oh, he must be getting so big.”

Jason chuckled. “He’s fifteen going on sixteen, but nobody’s calling him big.”

Miss Valdez got this wistful look in her eyes. “You have to bring him to see me sometime. I miss him more than anything.”

Nico’s eyes widened and he waved his hands like he was calling a timeout. “I have an idea,” he mouthed, but Jason needed to get his prescription updated, so it looked more like “I have an IKEA.” Or an icee? Yeah, it was probably icee. But Jason knew this to be untrue, since he had just poured his last one into the pit. His brows furrowed, but he smiled politely at the specter before excusing himself. “Um, may I have a moment, ma’am?”

“Of course,” she answered, taking the time to press her ear to the side of a tree like she was trying to open a safe. “God, I haven’t seen real trees in years,” she muttered.

“Do you need more icees?” Jason whispered conspiratorially. “I can run down to the corner store if you need.”

Nico made a face. “What? No, I just have an idea. I was just thinking about what Esperanza said: maybe we could set up a picnic out here and then surprise him with a ghost visit. I know that I like to be ambushed by ghosts when I eat my lunch.” He snorted at his own half-joke.

Jason nodded enthusiastically. “A-and we could ask Miss Valdez about his favorite foods! And make them for him!”

“Hmm? What was that, kid?” Miss Valdez’s head snapped up from where it was trained on a blade of grass swayed in the breeze.

“Um, uh, do you remember what Leo liked to eat as a kid, ma’am?”

“Goodness, you can stop with the ‘ma’am’ thing. But he always loved tres leches cake! I can give you the recipe. And when I had the time, I would make him a grilled cheese for his lunch at school. It would be cold, but he always hugged me extra tight when he got home on those days.” Miss Valdez reached up to tighten her bandana. “Though now that I think about it, he probably just heated it up on his own. Clever boy.”

Jason nearly jumped for joy. He could have hugged her. And he did indeed try, which caused the woman to laugh when he fell through her apparition. “Thank you,” he mumbled into the dirt sheepishly.

“No problem, niño. Really, I should be thanking you! Fresh air is nothing short of a miracle when you’ve been dead as long as I have,” Miss Valdez responded, clearly joking, but something in her eyes said she was sincere. She had big, round ones, that were probably a wonderful shade of brown when she was alive.

Yeah, Jason thought he had hit the jackpot gift wise.

~*~

If you were to look up the definition of “tryhard”, a picture of Tristan McLean would pop up, Leo thought. Then again, he’d also appear if you looked up any of the following terms: bombshell, hot, gorgeous, gay awakening, etc.

He was on a quest with Will and Clarisse (God, that lady scared him- like she was cool and all, but he would be relieved when she left for Arizona at the end of summer). It was a classic “we don’t have phones nor do we trust the post, so you have to go give Camp Jupiter X, Y and Z” quest, but long story short, hellhounds sucked a lot and Leo’s legs were tired.

Chiron and the praetors of Camp Jupiter had been working on a sort of housing system for demigods- a network of safe havens all across the country. Piper’s dad had signed up as soon as possible, now that he knew a little about the demigod world. That had been one hell of a conversation.

So that was how he ended up sitting on the floor of a millionaire’s gigantic living room, tinkering with the skeleton of a Stymphalian bird, with a scary lady snoring on the couch behind him and a lanky blonde dude curled up on an armchair in front. He had taken the opportunity to catch up on some of his favorite shows while he had access to a TV.

“Hey, kid.”

Nothing like a spooky voice to wake a guy up!

Leo startled, making the Stymphalian bird fly up in the air. For one second, he almost thought it was alive again, so he reached for his tool belt.

“Woah, there,” the voice laughed, “hold your horses. It’s just me. Piper’s dad? You didn’t pull a Jason and forget your entire life, right?”

Leo snorted. “You weren’t even there for that part!”

Mr. McLean stepped forward into the dim light of the lamp. Yup, just as Leo suspected: he had a chronic case of looking-good-in-whatever-lighting-he-was-in-itis. Then again, he had already diagnosed his friend’s father with that condition last Christmas, when he spent the holidays with Jason at Camp Jupiter.

Truth be told, Leo was getting a little tired of the man. All throughout dinner Mr. McLean had been all “is there enough salt on it? Do you need more? What do you want to drink? Can I get you anything else? Tell me if you need anything.” At first, he had preened under the attention, but right now, what he needed was some time to get the logistics of his pet project figured out.

“What are you working on?” Mr. McLean asked politely.

“Carrier pigeon,” he answered.

“Nice. What’s it do?”

“Carries things.”

Mr. McLean smiled. “Why do you need it?”

“So, like, you know how we were sent here to deliver some important documents or whatever? Next time, this little guy is gonna do it for us. If I can figure out how to animate said little guy’s skeleton again, that is.”

“How are you gonna animate it?”

As a mechanic, Leo admired the fact that Mr. McLean was so persistent, but as a teen, he wished he would give up already. “I dunno.”

Mr. McLean gave him a soft, slightly awkward smile, like he was still trying to get used to using his facial muscles. “Listen, Leo,” the man sighed, “it’s getting late. You should sleep.”

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Oh, wait!” Leo snickered at his own joke.

“What?”

Oh, shit. He forgot that he and Piper had left that part out of the explanation of the demigod world they had given to Mr. McLean. Damn, that line would’ve killed with anyone else. Haha, see what he did there? “Uh, nothing. Ignore it.”

“No, what did you mean by that? ‘Oh, wait?’”

“Uh, I died,” Leo mumbled, hoping that he wouldn’t ask again.

Much to Leo’s chagrin, Mr. McLean asked again. Yay. “Huh?”

Leo decided to take a different route. “I died! I’m a ghost! Boo! All that jazz!”

The man snorted, though he still looked confused. “Alright. But you know what they say about ghosts- they sleep like the dead.”

Despite himself, Leo laughed. “That’s silly.”

“Not as silly as ghosts. They’re too boo-fy!”

Leo giggled. “God, that’s bad. Was-” he managed before succumbing to his laughter once again- “was that supposed to be goofy?”

“I don’t know, you tell me. You’re the one who’s a ghost, after all.”

“I’m not goofy. No, siree,” Leo denied.

“Oh really?” Mr. McLean ruffled his hair and pulled him up so that he was standing. He patted him on the shoulder. “Could’ve fooled me.”

“I can fool anyone, really,” Leo quipped. “I fooled Jason and Piper into being my best friends.”

Mr. McLean guided him towards a hallway that opened at one side of the living room. Leo could see that he was furrowing his dark brows. “What makes you say you fooled them?”

Leo shrugged, scowling inwardly. He just had to ruin it, didn’t he? “I mean, technically it was Hera.”

Mr. McLean shook his head. “I’m serious, Leo.”

Leo laughed awkwardly. “Hi serious, I’m dead?”

Mr. McLean frowned as he opened one of the doors in the corridor. It revealed a blank bedroom, probably for a guest. Desperate to get out of the conversation, Leo moved to go inside, but Mr. McLean stopped him with a hand on his shoulder and a concerned look. “People like you for you. You know that, right? You’ve never had to trick anybody worth anything into liking you. Remember that.” He tapped his temple to emphasize his point.

Leo gave a small, confused, sort of self-conscious smile, but it was still a smile. “Thanks, Mr. McLean.” Leo waddled over to the bed and collapsed on it, suddenly feeling very tired. It was only when he saw the door close completely that he realized he’d been tricked by his best friend’s dad into going to bed at an appropriate time. “Good game, Mr. McLean. Good game indeed.”

~*~

The Underworld kind of sucked, Piper found, especially when you were on a quest with an immortal huntress who was your best friend’s sister and the demigod equivalent of a Spirit Halloween, AKA Thalia Grace and Nico di Angelo. She had no problems with the people by themselves, but she had gotten sick of their arguing long before the murderous mania of a former blonde bombshell descended upon them.

She wasn’t even supposed to be there. She had made plans with Leo and Jason to meet up at a trampoline park, but then a fury showed up out of nowhere and whisked her away to what was effectively Hell, and it was like, this whole thing. Apparently, the lady had gotten her confused with Percy. One hell of a typo.

They had been headed to the fields of punishment because someone had escaped and Hades decided to make it their problem. Classic Gods. Their charge walked straight into them in the form of Beryl Grace.

“Nico, why isn’t she dying?” Thalia barked, shooting another round of arrows at the ghost, which just succeeded in embedding their silver tips in the tree behind it. She released a roar like that of thunder, although it could’ve just been the actual thunder from the lightning she was summoning. A bolt of it came down on Beryl’s head, but it just made her look slightly more insane.

The woman’s red lipstick was a stain on her otherwise pale face, twisting up in a mad smile. It was smudged. Maybe she had been kissing someone, or more likely drinking their blood. Her blue eyes were crazed, darting around like a prey animal.

She had seen that look before.

When Jason had woken up, after the fight with Ma Gasket, he’d shot upwards and whipped his head around. She had looked into his sky blue eyes and seen a deer and a hunter at the same time, ready to fight, not quite ready to die.

And his smile was a sign the apple had indeed fallen far from the tree, but the twitching of Jason’s lips when he hadn’t yet learned to laugh (or hadn’t accepted that he could) was reminiscent of the grin’s neverending movement.

“She’s a ghost, dumbass, she can’t die again,” Nico snapped. He had dropped his sword into the river Lethe, so he just stood there like a fuming GTA NPC.

Piper was the only one to notice that Beryl was backing up towards the forest, aiming to disappear into the fields of Asphodel most likely. “Guys?” She asked, looking around to the other two members of the quest. They were still squabbling. “Guys!”

“I’ve killed a ghost before! At least, I’m pretty sure I could,” Thalia yelled.

“What part of non-corporeal do you not understand?” Nico screamed.

Piper reluctantly began following the spirit just as it bolted into the woods. She swiped a rock up from the dusty forest floor, just to have something on her in case she had to attack. Look, she usually carried Katoptris on her, but she was worried they were going to confiscate it at the trampoline park, okay?

The only sound was the thump of her footfalls, puffs of her breath, and the whooshing sound Beryl made as she passed through trees. The branches were hanging low and, fortunately in most cases except this one, Piper was not a ghost, so she had to bat them out of the way. She was getting pretty damn tired of it. Apparently, ghosts could run fast. “Uh, Beryl- I mean, Miss Grace, can I get your autograph?” She tried.

The ghost’s head snapped back to face her. The gash in her midriff was bleeding somehow, leaking steam and a smell like rain. A piece of car door and shards of glass were lodged in the gap, signs of her death. Her fists clenched and unclenched anxiously at her sides. She stayed rooted in her place. “An autograph?”

“Yup,” Piper confirmed, rocking back and forth from her heels to her toes. “I’m a huge fan of your work.”

Beryl’s pointer and middle fingers twitched and she brought them to her mouth. She looked disappointed by the fact that they were merely flesh (or the ghost equivalent), no cigarette in sight. Her bloodshot eyes met Piper’s as she fumbled with the fabric of her dress. She grunted. “Oh, yeah? What’s your favorite?”

“Me and my dad watch your TV shows together,” Piper lied.

“Mhm,” Beryl hummed placatingly, turning around with her shaking fingers pressed to her mouth. Her glazed eyes disappeared under her dull blonde hair. “Just go get the groceries, Thalia.”

“Thalia? Um, Miss Grace, I’m not Thalia.” Piper followed, stifling a cough when she breathed in some of the fog.

“Nonsense, Thalia. I know you’re just trying to get out of it, you lazy brat,” Beryl spat. “Go get the goddamn groceries.”

“I… I don’t have any money.”

The ghost heaved a deep sigh. “Just get out of the house, Thalia. Mommy needs some alone time.”

Piper tried not to visibly recoil when the woman pushed her away, cold hand going right through her ribcage. “B-but, Miss Grace-”

“Thalia,” the spirit growled, frigid hands landing on both of her wrists, momentarily becoming solid, “I will not say it again, you little bitch.” Her tone was uneven and hostile. “Get the fuck out of my house.”

Piper’s forearms were completely numb where Beryl’s hands had covered them. The woman began to retreat mumbling something to herself that barely reached Piper’s ears:

“The day I get rid of those ungrateful little rats will be the happiest day of my life.”

Oh, yeah. This was the lady who left Piper’s best friend to the wolves at the tender age of two. Of course she was an asshole. Regretting not doing it earlier, Piper gripped the rock in her hand and made a last ditch effort to hurt the woman who had deprived Jason of what family felt like for so long. And if it let her, Nico, and Thalia finish their quest, that was a happy accident.

The stone split open on Beryl’s head, revealing an inky black ore on the inside. Stygian Iron. Huh. Piper guessed Tyche was on her side that day.

Thalia and Nico’s footsteps crunched in the dirt behind her, their yelps of belayed victory echoing around Piper, falling on deaf ears. Her gaze was still focused on Beryl’s unconscious head, hair spilling around her face. Her blue eyes weren’t open, but somehow, they were staring straight into Piper’s soul.

For a split second, Piper’s eyes flitted over to Thalia’s. She was glad she couldn’t completely understand the rage she found there. Now that she thought about it, she had seen that look in Jason’s eyes an unsettling amount of times.

Summary: “Where’s Jason?”

The moment the words left Leo’s mouth, Piper crumpled against him, sobbing uncontrollably.

Leo wrapped his arms around her, more impulse than conscious choice. His trembling fingers bunched up the fabric of her shirt.

“Piper, what the hell happened?” he asked. He looked around, and, seeing everyone’s grave expressions, he felt like he was eight years old again, sitting in the back of an ambulance, waiting for the paramedics to tell him that his mom was gone. He couldn’t breathe. “Tell me- tell me he’s not-”

He couldn’t get the words out. Couldn’t even begin to consider what it would mean if he’d failed to cheat the prophecy—if after everything they’d been through, he would never get to see Jason again. To his immense relief, Piper shook her head.

“He’s not- but Leo, it’s bad. Jason is really, really hurt, and we don’t have any stupid ambrosia left, and-” The rest of her sentence was swallowed by another bout of sobs. She was trembling like a leaf in Leo’s arms. “We’re not sure he’s going to make it.”

Written for @lost-trio-week Day 6: Reunion

Word Count: 6k

Rating: Teen and Up

TW for major character injury (Jason for the love of god please stop getting stabbed so much)

I did say I wanted to post two fics today, and I stuck to that, despite the fact that it’s currently absolutely unreasonable hours of the morning. I allowed myself exactly one heavy angst fic for the event, and it’s this one! Lots and lots and lots of hurt/comfort in this one. As with the other ones, some Valgrace that’s tied into a larger plot focused on the fact that all three of them care about each other so, so very much.

———

Leo could tell something was wrong the moment Festus touched down on the beach.

Everyone was looking at him, sure, but it was almost like they were looking through him. Not a single person managed to make eye contact.

Leo honestly wouldn't have minded this—direct eye contact felt really uncomfortable to him a lot of the time—but he’d learned over the years that when other people avoided eye-contact, it usually meant bad news.

For a moment, he was too caught up in his relief that Lester and Meg and Piper were fine to really let himself think about this, though.

He just went through the line of people and hugged everyone.

He paused in front of Piper—there was so much he needed to say to her, and he wasn’t sure she’d appreciate a hug before he’d properly apologized.

“Pipes, I-” he started, but then she looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes and everything stopped. Terror grasped his heart. “Where’s Jason?”

Leo hadn’t registered Jason’s absence as weird at first. He hadn’t known for sure Jason would be here. With everything going on in the demigod world, there could have been plenty of reasons he was busy elsewhere.

Please let it be that, he thought.

But the moment the words left his mouth, Piper crumpled against him, sobbing uncontrollably. 

Leo wrapped his arms around her, more impulse than conscious choice. His trembling fingers bunched up the fabric of her shirt.

“Piper, what the hell happened?” he asked. He looked around, and, seeing everyone’s grave expressions, he felt like he was eight years old again, sitting in the back of an ambulance, waiting for the paramedics to tell him that his mom was gone. He couldn’t breathe. “Tell me- tell me he’s not-”

He couldn’t get the words out. Couldn’t even begin to consider what it would mean if he’d failed to cheat the prophecy—if after everything they’d been through, he would never get to see Jason again.

To his immense relief, Piper shook her head.

“He’s not- but Leo, it’s bad. Jason is really, really hurt, and we don’t have any stupid ambrosia left, and-” The rest of her sentence was swallowed by another bout of sobs. She was trembling like a leaf in Leo’s arms. “We’re not sure he’s going to make it.”

“Pipes, hey, breathe,” Leo said gently, trying and failing to take his own advice on the matter. He couldn’t get a handle on his racing heart, but his arms around Piper felt a little steadier now. Hurt, even badly hurt, was a million times more manageable than dead. “Jason’s going to be okay. He’s way too stubborn to just die on us after everything we’ve been through.”

He said it with more confidence than he felt.

“It’s a miracle he’s even alive at all,” Lester said quietly. “But with the condition he’s in-”

“He’s going to be okay,” Leo repeated, because the alternative was unthinkable. Jason was going to be fine. They’d survived a lot of impossible shit together. He had to be okay.

Besides, Apollo— Lester —wasn’t the god of medicine right now. He wasn’t really the god of anything right now. That was sort of the point. 

What did he know, anyway?

“Where is he?” Leo asked, trying to ignore the anxious lump in his throat. “Can I see him?”

“Inside. Coach Hedge is with him,” Piper said immediately, slowly breaking the embrace. “Come on. Let’s go see Jason.”

~~~~

The former McLean mansion felt like a setting straight out of a horror movie. It was way too big, all the furniture was gone and the floorboards creaked as they walked inside. Piper’s hand was trembling in Leo’s as she led him down the hall to a room that smelled strangely of a mixture of disinfectant, mushrooms and gatorade.

Much like the other rooms, this one also didn’t have much furniture, with the exception of a lonely mattress. It was the most makeshift sick room Leo had ever seen. A bunch of supplies were loosely strewn about—some meds and bandages that had clearly been taken from a regular medical kit, along with what looked like sticks and moss and various other plants that he guessed were Hedge’s contribution.

Leo barely had the brain space to take in any of it. Instantly, his attention zeroed in on the mattress. 

Jason was pale as death. What Leo could see of his chest was wrapped in bandages. It rose and fell slowly, which was the only outward sign that Jason was alive at all.

Coach Hedge was sitting at his bedside and pressing a piece of cloth to his forehead.

“Still no change,” he said somberly. “The nature magic I used barely helped.”

“Thanks for trying,” Piper said quietly, squeezing Leo’s hand so tightly that it hurt. 

Leo had no room to complain. He was squeezing back just as hard.

“Yeah. I’m sure Jason appreciates it,” he agreed, trying not to think about the way Hedge’s attempt at sports medicine had looked and smelled when he’d tried to help with Piper’s broken ankle.

He knew the satyr meant well, and besides, Jason looked like he could use all the help he could get.

Hedge whirled around. 

“Valdez?” His eyes were wide with shock. “We thought you died!”

“Yeah.” Leo shrugged, eyes wandering back down to Jason’s too-still form. “I got better.” 

“I’d kick you across the room, but luckily for you, Mellie’s putting Chuck to bed right now,” Hedge said, his expression an attempt at fury that was dampened slightly by the fact that his eyes were misty. “He should be here for this. I need to set a good example,” he continued before Leo could attribute the first statement to the fact that he might not want to wake his sleeping child or something equally absurd.

“Good to see you, too,” Leo said, giving Hedge a weak smile. He dragged Piper along as he kneeled down by Jason’s side. 

“Hey. I’m back,” Piper said, gripping Jason’s hand. Her voice was quavering. “Leo’s here, too.”

Jason didn’t react. His eyes stayed firmly shut. 

Leo carefully reached out to touch his friend’s face. Jason’s skin felt cold and clammy, and it made Leo ill with terror.

But being so close to Jason meant he could at least hear his breaths.

Alive. Alive. Alive.

“We managed to free the Sibyl,” Piper continued, undeterred by the tears that had started to stream down her cheeks again. “She’s safe now. We couldn’t have managed it without your help.”

Jason’s unconscious form was unmoved.

“I’ve got some nectar left. It’s not much, but it’s probably better than nothing,” Leo said, rummaging through his bag for his flask. He cursed himself for not refilling it before he’d left Camp Jupiter. 

He hadn’t even considered asking if they could spare any. Not with the amount of people that were wounded. Not with another battle still looming on the horizon. Besides, he’d figured what he had would be enough, considering he’d be heading out of danger. 

Gods, he was such an idiot.

Piper’s face lit up just slightly when he produced the flask, despite the fact that it was nearly empty.

“We should wait until he’s a little more conscious, but yes, this will help.”

“What happened to him?” Leo asked, not sure he actually wanted to know the answer. 

“I-” Piper gulped, hard. He wasn’t sure what she saw, but her eyes had gone distant. He pulled her back into his chest.

“Sorry. You don’t have to talk about it if it’s too hard.” 

“I don’t know the details,” Hedge took over for her, “but he got a spear through his chest and a bunch of ocean in his lungs. Ocean generally isn’t great for children of Jupiter, even when it’s not in their lungs. He’s been out cold since yesterday.”

“I don’t know what I’ll do if he doesn’t wake up.” Piper’s voice was awfully broken and quiet. 

Leo couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t stand any of this. Not the way she obviously blamed herself. Not his own fear. Not Jason’s pale face or his bandaged chest or how ragged his breaths sounded.

What Leo said next was reckless, and stupid, and also horribly insensitive. He couldn’t say he cared very much. He’d spent ages traveling, trying to get back to his friends. The only reason he’d made it through all these months of fighting monsters and camping out in the wilderness, which had been terribly reminiscent of the time he spent on the streets, was thinking about this—being back with Piper and Jason. Finally having a home to go back to where he’d be welcomed with open arms, mad as the inhabitants would probably be at him for disappearing for so long.

He didn’t have it in him to be sensitive or reasonable or smart when there was still a chance he’d have half that home ripped away from him.

“Oh, he’d better wake up. I’m never talking to him again if he doesn’t,” Leo said, crossing his arms. He was furious. At himself for leaving and at the world who kept ripping all of his loved ones away from him and especially at his stupid best friend and the fact that he always had to play the fucking hero. “You hear that, Jason? I swear on the Styx, if you die on us right now, I will spend our whole afterlife ignoring you. I mean it. I did not go through all that nonsense with the physician’s cure for you to croak the moment I get back here.”

He learned later that a broken Styx oath was half the reason they were in this mess. He had time to feel a little bad about what he’d said, then.

Right now, though, Jason’s fingers twitched in Piper’s trembling hands, and Leo couldn’t bring himself to regret a damn thing.

****

The sun had dipped below the horizon an hour ago. 

Piper was curled up in a sleeping bag, staring intently at Jason’s sick bed.

Her father was in one of the other rooms in an old sleeping bag of his own, probably fast asleep. He was trying his best to help—he had made her and Leo a truly disastrous meal in an attempt to make sure they ate—but it was clear he didn’t understand the situation. Piper wasn’t sure what the Mist was showing him, exactly, but it must have had a hell of a time trying to make sense of the fact that they’d chosen to treat their severely injured friend with homebrew medical supplies in the house they no longer owned instead of calling an ambulance. 

Hedge and Mellie had left for Aeithales a few hours ago, hoping to fetch some more demigod-grade medical supplies. She doubted they’d be back before tomorrow afternoon. 

It would have been more effective to just take Jason there— safer, too —but they couldn’t move him while he was in this state, so this was the best they could do. 

Piper had offered to come, hoping that doing something proactive might help her feel a little better about everything that had happened, but Mellie had put a hand on her shoulder and told her “your friend needs you. Both of you,” and that had been that.

Piper was exhausted, so she probably should have slept, but she didn’t. It had been three days since she’d last so much as napped for half an hour.

She couldn’t bring herself to sleep. Couldn’t bring herself to take her eyes off her injured friend. Guilt was gnawing at her, hollowing out her chest until there was nothing left. 

She was supposed to protect Jason like he’d always protected her, and she’d failed him, in the same way she always seemed to fail her loved ones.

She was fifteen and her absentee goddess mom had to save her father because Piper wasn’t strong enough. 

She was sixteen and Leo didn’t trust her with his plan or the real physician’s cure, and then he was gone, and she couldn’t do a damn thing. Couldn’t find him, no matter how desperately she tried. 

She was almost seventeen and Jason was comatose because her powers had failed her when she’d needed them the most. 

Her mother was the goddess of love, for crying out loud. Her love for her friends should have been her greatest strength. 

It wasn’t. Her love was a dagger that she only ever managed to point at her own chest. Piper loved herself bloody, and it was never enough.

Every time she closed her eyes, she was back on that damned yacht. She saw the determined expression on Jason’s face, then the spear through his chest. She saw Jason stumbling into the chasm where the yacht was breaking apart, dropping like a rock.

She knew she couldn’t change what had happened. 

She still tried to reach for him every time. And every time, her hands grasped empty air.

She kept having to remind herself that Tempest had slowed Jason’s fall and dragged him back out of the water, but it barely helped. Nothing really seemed to help, with the exception of watching the slow rise and fall of Jason’s chest. Any time she turned away from him, she was afraid she might have imagined it—that she might turn back and find his body utterly still.

“Pipes?” Leo asked, looking up from where he was sitting on the floor. “You good?”

Having Leo back by her side should have been comforting, but it felt much the same way Jason’s survival did—like a dream she would wake up from any moment now.

Piper was used to waiting. She had spent much of her early childhood waiting for a mother who had never come back. Later, she’d spent ages waiting for her father—to come home, to visit her at school, to remember she existed for more than a few days a year.

She was great at waiting for things that would never happen. She had no previous experience with waiting for things that did.

She’d stopped hoping Leo would come back a long time ago. Now that he had, she wasn’t sure how to handle it. She kept waiting for the other shoe to drop—for Leo to dissolve into Mist like the rest of her life had.

“Fine,” she lied, moving closer to where he was sitting. Leo wasn’t doing much better than her, sleep-wise, but unlike Piper, he’d at least found himself something useful to do. Currently, he was in the process of inspecting one of Aurum’s diamond eyes that had come loose. Piper looked down to where the two dog automatons were lying in sleep mode, heart clenching again. “How’s it looking? They’re gonna be okay, right? Reyna will probably kill me if any of the damage is permanent.”

Aurum and Argentum had gotten pretty banged up dragging Calligula off Jason. They’d retaliated, getting in a few nasty strikes that would have been satisfying to watch if Piper’s heart hadn’t been dropping to the bottom of the ocean at the same time. Now, the damage they’d taken was just another item on the ever-growing list of Piper’s failures.

She hated the thought of anything happening to the dogs. She’d seen the way Reyna interacted with them—the fond smiles and head scratches and the inadvisable treats she snuck them whenever she thought no one was looking. 

To say Reyna struggled to let herself be soft would be the understatement of the year. But it was obvious to anyone with eyes that she loved her dogs to death, and after everything that had happened to her, the last thing Piper wanted was for her to lose them, too.

“‘Course I can fix them. But you know Reyna wouldn’t have given you the whistle if she hadn’t wanted you to use it, right?” Leo asked, putting aside the diamond before reaching out to touch her arm. “One of the first things she did when I got to Camp Jupiter was ask about you, and not in a ‘I’m worried she’s gonna wreck my automatons’-way.”

“I just…” Piper balled her hands into fists, losing the fight against her tears. “All of this is my fault. If I had-”

“Beauty Queen, hey. Don’t be stupid,” Leo said gently, pulling her into his arms. “There’s lots of people you could blame. Calligula is a really obvious one. Or Lester and his dumbass oath. Or, you know, me. Never yourself, though. None of this was on you.”

Piper looked at him with a startled expression. “Why in the world should I blame you? You weren’t even there.”

Leo deflated against her chest. “Yeah. Exactly.”

“Leo…” 

“I thought I could cheat the stupid prophecy,” Leo sniffled, holding her tightly. It was like her crying had made his dam break, too. “But I couldn’t. And now Jason’s hurt, and I- I wasn’t there.He could have died because I wasn’t there.”

“I think you did cheat your prophecy,” Piper told him, squeezing him back just as tightly. “It’s not your fault we failed to cheat ours.”

“The gods really seem to have it out for us,” Leo said, huffing a half-laugh, half-sob against her shoulder. He felt warm, in the nice, soothing way he always had. “Why else would we get so many shitty death prophecies, huh?”

“Yeah. I think we should get a refund on this whole demigod experience. I want my money back.”

“Tell me about it.” Leo opened his mouth to say something else—likely to make another joke, no matter how hollow it rang—but then he froze. “Jason?”

Piper turned, feeling cold as ice at the realization that she’d taken her eyes off him for a moment. She was terrified of what she would find.

But Jason’s chest still rose and fell steadily. More than that—he was moving his head, blinking in obvious confusion.

Leo and Piper were by his side in an instant. 

“Hey buddy,” Leo said shakily. “How are you feeling?”

“Hurts,” Jason rasped, wincing when Piper touched his face.

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry,” she told him, her lip wobbling. Jason’s eyes were glassy, and his skin felt way too warm. “Shit, I think he’s running a fever. Leo, we need-”

“On it,” Leo announced, already elbow-deep in his tool belt. 

With all the months they’d been separated, Piper had almost forgotten how naturally these things came to them. 

She remembered sitting at Jason’s bedside, re-bandaging the stab wound in his abdomen that refused to heal. Remembered Leo handing her bandages and disinfectant and holding Jason’s shoulders steady to make sure he didn’t move too much.

They’d done this before. They hadn’t needed words, then. They wouldn’t need them now.

For the first time in months, Piper actually felt like things might be okay.

****

Jason woke up tasting cocoa. He only knew three things for certain. One: from what he remembered, him waking up should not have been a thing. Two: everything hurt. Three: everyone was mad at him.

Things had been hazy and painful for a while. He could tell that people were speaking around him, but despite the fact that his aching head couldn’t seem to properly process the words, he could tell that the voices sounded upset. He was pretty sure that was his fault.

Everything was blurry and dark and a cold, wet thing was on his forehead and he couldn’t make sense of any of it.

“You’re gonna be okay,” someone said from the darkness, barely more than a blurry shape. Jason knew the voice, but he couldn’t remember how he knew it. He tried to make out the person’s features, but the harder he tried to focus, the more the image in front of his eyes swam. “What do you need?”

He registered he was trembling, mostly because it made his pain worse, but he couldn’t get his body to stop.

He wanted to ask for- Jason wasn’t actually sure what he was going to ask for. Something warm, probably. A blanket, maybe. Something to make the trembling stop.

But that wasn’t what came out of his mouth when he opened it.

“I wanna go home,” he said instead, feeling incredibly childish. “Please.”

There was a pause.

“You mean camp?” a different voice asked. It was just as familiar as the first, but something about it was strange, too. Jason hadn’t heard that voice in months. He didn’t know why, but hearing it kind of made him want to cry. “Dude, you got skewered less than a week ago. We’re not making a fucking cross-country trip right now.”

“No,” Jason said, feeling whiny and desperate. He didn’t care about camp right now. Camp hadn’t felt like home in forever. “I just want Piper and Leo.”

“Oh,” the second person said, voice quavering. Hands gripped his. Strangely, one of them felt several degrees warmer than the other. “Jeez, how out of it are you?”

For a moment, Jason struggled to process the question—which was probably an answer in and of itself. But then he remembered. 

Remembered that Leo had been gone for months and the only way he’d be seeing him again was making it to Elysium. Remembered the prophecy that had told him it had to be him or Piper. And he’d woken up, which meant it hadn’t been him, no matter how much he’d wanted it to be. 

If he was alive, that had to mean-

Jason wanted to cry. His lungs wouldn’t work right. The already blurry world grew even blurrier around him. 

“Jason? Jason, you’re okay. Breathe.” The hands squeezed his tighter. Fingers combed gently through his hair. The voice was so sweet that all thoughts vanished from his head until he could remember nothing except how to breathe, despite the horrible ache in his lungs.

“There you go. That’s better. No more stupid moves, alright, Superman?” the other blurry shape told him. “Piper and I are getting real sick of patching you up constantly.”

Finally, the voice slotted into its rightful place in Jason’s fever-addled brain, and now he felt like crying for a completely different reason. 

“Leo?” he asked weakly, then coughed a few times, which did really awful things to his aching chest.

“Gods, it’s been, what, six months? Did you already forget what I look like?” Leo asked, teasing and concerned and alive.

“No. You're just really blurry,” Jason told him, attempting to blink the spots out of his eyes without any success. Like he could ever forget what Leo looked like. Like he hadn’t spent the past months filling an entire sketchbook with portraits because he was terrified he’d forget the slightest detail. “My head hurts.”

“Of course it does.” Leo sighed. “Please tell me he didn’t get concussed again. At this rate, it’s a miracle he even remembers his own name.”

“Actually, I’m the one who ended up concussed this time. We decided we needed some variety,” the other voice said, and this time Jason knew it was Piper. She was okay. They’d both made it. 

“Yeah, I get it. Gotta switch things up occasionally,” Leo joked.

Jason was exhausted and everything hurt, but he didn’t care. Piper and Leo were right here with him, and nothing else mattered.

He was home.

~~~~

The next time Jason woke, someone had switched on the sun and his surroundings weren’t nearly as blurry.

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty. Feeling better?”

Leo was leaning over him. Jason could properly make out his features now that it wasn’t the middle of the night and he wasn’t quite as hazy with fever.

Leo had strange highlights in his hair, and it had grown a little longer since Jason had last seen him, but other than that, his best friend looked almost the same he had eight months ago. With a sting in his chest that was entirely unrelated to his injuries, Jason realized Leo also looked worn out in the same way he always had back on the Argo. His shoulders were slumped and he had deep rings under his eyes.

Jason couldn’t stop staring at him. Couldn’t process the fact that looking at Leo was a thing he got to do again.

Leo raised an eyebrow. 

“Are you checking me out?” he teased, smiling widely despite his obvious exhaustion.

The next thing Jason did was probably ill-advised, medically speaking, but he couldn’t stop himself. Wouldn’t have wanted to, even if he could have. He pushed himself up into a seated position and wrapped his whole body around Leo.

The pain came a moment later, bad enough to almost be blinding, but Jason didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, he was never letting Leo go again, no matter how badly it hurt.

“We thought you died,” he said breathlessly. The tears came unbidden. 

Jason had never really allowed himself to cry much. He hadn’t had time for it, and besides, it hadn’t felt like his place when he was supposed to be the brave, competent leader at all times. 

Crying in front of other people wasn’t a thing he could ever remember doing.

But he was past the point of caring about that right now, because his best friend was alive and breathing and so, so warm against his chest, and that was the only thing in the world that mattered.

“Dude, stop!” Leo said immediately, eyes wide with alarm. “You’ve got two broken ribs and a hole in the middle of your chest! You’re going to hurt yourself!”

“I don’t care,” Jason insisted, holding him tighter. “I thought I’d never get to hug you again.”

“I love you to death, okay?” Leo told him, sounding exasperated. He squeezed Jason just slightly, for barely half a second, before he expertly wiggled himself out of the embrace. “But it took me days to finally coax Piper into getting some rest. If she wakes up and you’re worse off than you were when she went to sleep, she’s going to kill me, and I doubt I can get her to nap for as much as half an hour again if that happens.”

He gestured vaguely to the other end of the mattress where Piper was curled up like a cat, snoring softly.

She was alive. All three of them were alive. 

Jason still couldn’t fully believe it.

“I’m not going to-” Jason started, wincing when he lowered himself back down onto the mattress. “Ow.”

“Told you so,” Leo commented, but he didn’t look very happy about it. “Take it easy and get better, okay? Then we can maybe renegotiate the hugging thing.”

“You suck,” Jason told him, but he couldn’t stop smiling. 

Leo was okay. They were all okay.

“Oh, I know.” Leo grinned. “I’m about to suck a lot worse, too. Hedge made more of that sports medicine stuff. Full disclosure, we’re not sure if it really does anything, but at worst, I figure making you take shitty meds will discourage you from getting stabbed a third time.”

“It’s not like I did it on purpose,” Jason grimaced, but he did drink obediently. 

Swallowing sucked. His throat hurt and his mouth felt parched and the strange liquid didn’t really help with either of those facts.

But, weirdly enough, he didn’t mind the taste too much.

“This actually isn’t that bad.”

Leo looked at him strangely, then turned towards where Piper was sleeping. 

“Pipes, are we sure he isn’t concussed?” She just continued to snore softly in response. “I’m gonna take that as a no.”

“Is Piper okay?” Jason asked, trying to sit up again to take a proper look at her. “She didn’t get hurt, did she?”

“Nuh-uh. None of that. You’re resting,” Leo protested, gently pressing his shoulder back down onto the mattress. “Piper’s not hurt. She’s just really tired. I think she’d be significantly more fine if her dumbass best friends would stop dying in front of her face, though.”

Jason winced. “I promised her I wouldn’t do anything stupid. But we were all going to die, and I just- I couldn’t lose anyone else.”

“Dude, Piper’s the one you have to apologize to, not me. I may not be happy about it, but I get it. I did the same damn thing, remember?”

Like Jason could ever forget. Like he hadn’t spent months dreaming of the burning sky. 

He reached out to grip Leo’s hand—warm and calloused and just enough to remind him that Leo was fine.

“Let’s just agree not to do that anymore, okay?” 

“Yeah, deal. I’ve died more than enough for one lifetime.” Leo grinned, but then his smile wavered. “So, you’re- uh- you’re probably wondering where the hell I disappeared to for so long.”

“Leo-” Jason started, trying to express just how little he cared in this current moment. That the only thing that mattered to him was that Leo was alive.

Leo went on talking like Jason hadn’t said anything.

“No, I get it. It’s a fair question. Also, you’re allowed to be mad at me. Everyone’s mad at me.” Leo rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. “I sort of went back for Calypso.”

“Oh.” 

Something clenched in Jason’s chest. He hoped it wasn’t showing on his face—Jason’s messy feelings were his problem, not Leo’s—but from the way Leo’s face fell, it was obvious he could tell something was up. 

“See? Told you you’d be upset with me.”

“I’m not upset with you. I just-” Jason sighed. “Are you two…?”

Leo looked confused, then utterly baffled in a way that immediately melted the ice in Jason’s chest. 

“I didn’t go back for her because I was in love with her. I knew this girl for like, a week, tops.” Leo laughed. “I went back for her because she’s been stuck on an island for three thousand years and that fucking sucks.”

 “Oh.” Now Jason just felt like an idiot. “So you’re not dating?”

“Nah. We’re not even very good at being friends, honestly. We argued almost the whole way back here. But she’s free now, and the Waystation seems to make her happy. She deserves that.” Leo shook his head. “Did you seriously think I ditched you guys to get a girlfriend? Wow, if that’s what everyone assumed it’s no wonder I got punched so much.”

Jason froze.

“What do you mean, you got punched?”

“Everyone at Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter was really mad at me for disappearing the way I did. People lined up to hit me. It was a whole thing.” Leo shrugged. The nonchalant way he said it made Jason feel nauseous. “So, yeah, if you think you’re feeling good enough to punch me, you and Piper still get a freebie. If you wanna yell at me instead, that’s cool, too. I’m not picky.”

Before Leo could say anything else, Jason had wrapped him in his arms again.

“Jason! Seriously, stop sitting up! This isn’t- if you make yourself worse-” Leo protested, but this time Jason didn’t let him go. He didn’t care that it hurt. He couldn’t just lie there and listen to Leo talk about himself like that.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Jason said, holding him tightly, feeling incredibly angry at the fact that he lived in a world where Leo needed that reassurance at all. “Nobody should hurt you just because they’re mad at you.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Leo insisted, but he was trembling slightly against Jason’s chest. “Besides, I sort of deserved it.”

“No, you didn’t.” Jason spoke softly into his hair. “You really, really didn’t.”

Leo didn’t say anything else. He just let his head drop onto Jason’s shoulder and cried.

A moment later, the mattress moved and another pair of arms wrapped around both of them.

“Gods, I let myself sleep for three hours and suddenly you’re not resting and you’ve managed to make Leo cry. What in the world did you two get up to?” Piper complained groggily. 

Jason wasn’t surprised they’d woken her up—they hadn’t exactly been quiet even before Leo had broken down sobbing. 

There were so many things Jason probably should have said to Piper. 

Thank you for saving me, for one. And, sorry I got myself stabbed.

But he wasn’t sure how to say any of those things. Since the breakup, he’d barely known how to talk to her in general. Things had been so weird between them in the last few months, and he had no idea how to fix that.

He ignored everything he didn’t have words for, and instead chose to just say “Leo got punched.”

“What?” Piper blinked at him. “Did he annoy Hedge or something?”

“Not right now,” Jason explained, then relayed everything Leo had just told him to Piper.

Unlike Jason, who had been more concerned than anything, Piper just got angry.

“Names. I need names,” she demanded immediately. “Whose idea was this? I swear, when I’m done with them, they’ll wish-”

“Okay, calm down!” Leo let out a startled laugh. “Guys, I appreciate this, seriously, but can we just group hug for now and put the murder plotting off until later?”

“I guess,” Piper grumbled. “As long as we will do it later.”

Jason had a feeling the later in question would be applied to a variety of things beyond murder plans, but right now, he couldn’t bring himself to think about everything they’d still have to deal with. Not when things were finally starting to feel normal again.

~~~~

Jason had managed to tear his stitches. 

Leo and Piper would not stop chiding him about this for the following half an hour as Mellie patched him back up and redid his bandages, which she covered in truly ridiculous amounts of aloe vera for reasons Jason didn’t entirely understand. If nothing else, at least the sensation was soothing.

In the end, he was sentenced back to bed rest.

When he told his friends he didn’t really feel like sleeping because he’d already spent the last few days unconscious, Piper suggested they watch a movie, so that was what they did. Leo got a miniature projector out of his tool belt that painted a large rectangular image on the ceiling, and then the three of them just laid there together, watching the movie and sharing the snacks that also came out of Leo’s tool belt. The movie was about talking cars that were also large robots, which Jason was pretty sure would have gone entirely over his head even if he hadn’t still been slightly feverish and his aching chest hadn’t made it impossible to focus. He didn’t really care that he didn’t understand the movie, though. Leo had picked it, and therefore he’d already decided he was going to like it, even if he couldn’t follow the plot.

Leo spent the first thirty minutes of the movie quietly mouthing along the words, which was endearing beyond anything Jason had ever witnessed. Then, suddenly, he was fast asleep with his head on Jason’s shoulder, radiating a soothing warmth. 

Piper didn’t speak. For a brief moment, Jason thought she might try to start a conversation about everything that had happened, but then she closed her mouth again, maybe deciding to save it for when he wasn’t distracted by pain and she wasn’t exhausted.

Instead, she just reached out and took his hand, squeezing it hard.

Jason knew she would forgive him, then. 

Lying there sandwiched between his best friends, the pain in Jason’s chest ceased to matter. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so completely safe and content.

Home had meant a number of things to Jason over the years. As a small child, from what little he remembered, home had meant people arguing and only ever feeling safe in his sister’s arms. With Lupa, home had meant protection in exchange for him proving his worth. Growing up in New Rome, home had meant chores and responsibilities and others looking to him for guidance. 

Jason was still getting used to the fact that it could mean other people taking care of him, too. That it could mean just existing in other people’s spaces and being loved for it, even if you had nothing beyond your own love to give in return.

And the quiet, selfish part of him that grew steadily louder told him that, given him the choice, he would always choose this—that he would always choose them —for as long as he lived. 

———

Fic Notes:

-Hey, I had to do at least one angsty piece of Injury Hurt/Comfort fic for this event, right? I’ve got a brand to stick to.

-Fun fact about this fic: I originally came up with the concept in the context of a completely different, far sillier valgrace fic that I have yet to finish. Part of the reason I didn’t finish it at the time was that I wanted it to be silly but then I started coming up with the backstory and it got way too angsty, lmao. So maybe that’ll be easier now that the backstory is a fic of its own.

-The reason Reyna’s automatons are here is Jason’s whole comment about how the word at the end of the prophecy has to be “die” because “one of us will dog” makes no sense. It’s immensely silly and I’m pretty of proud of that one. I feel kind of bad that they just disappear halfway through the fic, but Jason didn’t know they were there at all, so he doesn’t notice. Please assume Leo finished fixing them up while Jason was conked out and they’re doing well and are off doing Tyrant’s Tomb stuff with Reyna currently.

-Also yes, I did specifically put the punch line thing in because the fact that it happened at all makes me angry. People lining up to punch a kid we know suffered abuse in foster care is not very funny to me, actually. I’ve seen several angsty posts about how “Jason didn’t even get to punch Leo for disappearing 3” and I felt the need to point out that a) Jason wouldn't have punched him and b) he’d be horrified Leo would even suggest it at all.

-I’ve got one, potentially two more fics I’d like to set in the same universe as this (one of them being the aforementioned silly Valgrace fic), but I’ve always got too many fic ideas at once, so we’ll see if and when I get around to actually writing those.

Thank you so much for reading!! As always, feedback is immensely appreciated.

Aaaaaaaalllrighty everyone!!!!!! It's TIME!!!!!!! Let's fucking gooooooo!!!!!!! I am sososososososo excited to share @lost-trio-week with you all!!!! It's going to be SO much fun and I am thrilled beyond words! People's wonderful creations are already rolling in and I love each and every one of them SO much!!! YAYAYAYAYYAYAY!!!!

So, without any more delay, I'd like to present my day one fic: We Are Not Shining Stars (We Are Who We Are)

(CW: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse)

"Now, I’m gonna find your file. Seeing as someone won’t even tell me when his birthday is, I at least want that much. Assuming you didn’t delete it already, that is.” Eventually, Piper found his file and started her deep-dive, obviously disappointed at the barren field of information before her. She started reading off things about Leo that he obviously already knew (apparently, his birthday made him a Cancer. He didn’t know what that meant, really, but it was bitingly ironic) while Leo gasped in mock shock over her revelations and tinkered with a little wind-up toy. Then Piper got quiet for a moment, and giggled out her little mischievous giggle, which immediately put Leo on high alert. He squinted at her suspiciously. “What’d you find?” “Something weird,” she reported, still giggling. “They have the wrong name down for you on one of these documents.” He rolled his eyes, and looked back at his project, expecting her to come up with some dumb little nickname that would stick for about a week before they both got bored of it. “Yeah? And what name do they have?” “Emilio.” *** Piper learns a secret she was never meant to know. Lost Trio Week 2024 - Day One: Wilderness/Nicknames

Part 2 of Carry On (Wilderness School Fics)

To say that Dylan was a pain was more than a little bit of an understatement. You’d think that being in a school as big as Wilderness would have meant that you wouldn’t really cross paths with any one particular person too often, but Dylan somehow managed to surpass all expectations. He wasn’t actually in too many of Piper and Leo’s classes, but he found a way to bump into them in the halls almost every period, and he certainly made an effort to be as awful as possible in the little time he had with them.

His worst offense, by far, was the history class he shared with the both of them. Piper and Leo sat next to one another, like they did in every class they shared, and Dylan had made himself right at home in the desk directly behind them.  Considering his penchant for running his mouth, especially about Piper, and the teacher’s disinterest in stopping him, especially when it was about Piper, it was clear that Piper and Leo would have to take matters into their own hands. Leo had originally suggested tricking the teacher into abandoning him next time they went on a field trip, but Piper had given him one of those looks and he’d begrudgingly agreed to a solution that didn’t involve bodily harm. Again. 

The solution had come one afternoon when they were hanging out in the library and Leo had poked around for a bit on one of the computers he definitely wasn’t allowed on, then asked Piper if she had any grades she wanted him to change for her.

She squinted at him, then at his computer screen. “Wait, are you hacked into the school’s computer system? How’d you do that? Don’t you need to use, like, a super computer or something?”

Leo decided that going over all of her incorrect ideas about what “hacking” meant was probably a waste of time, so he just shrugged. “Just the grade books. The actual interesting stuff like personal records and junk is only really accessible on an admin computer. I mean, I could get to it from here, but it would require a lot of work.”

She arched her eyebrows at him. “And how, exactly, do you know that?” Instead of answering, he just winked and tapped the side of his nose, so she rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. Don’t tell me.”

“Wasn’t planning on it!” he chirped back at her.

After a moment, she gave him a curious look. “Can you change schedules from what you have there?”

Leo shook his head. “Nah, that’s all gonna be on that main system. This one is specifically easy to get into because the teachers need to be able to access it from home. There’s no need for them to access schedules and stuff, so that’s gonna be more secure.”

“Do you–” She cut herself off and thought for a moment while she sucked her teeth. “Do you think we could use that to get rid of Dylan?”

“What? You mean like mobster ‘Ay, let’s get ridda this guy’ or–”

“No, I just mean, like… changing his schedule? Just swap his math and history so we don’t have to deal with him any more.”

Leo hummed in thought. “What about P.E.? You wanna swap him out of that class, too?”

Piper weighed her options very carefully before shaking her head. “Nah. If it’s just the one class, that could be, like, a system error or something. If we go around changing a bunch of his classes, people might look into it. Besides, I think Coach Hedge hates Dylan, so we don’t really have to deal with him, so long as he’s around.”

Leo nodded in agreement. Hedge claimed that it was just because Dylan was on the track team and he needed to be in top form, but any time Dylan even tried to talk to Piper and Leo during PE, Hedge popped up out of thin air, blowing on his whistle until he was purple, and ordering Dylan to run another two laps. “Alright. Well, we’re gonna have to break into the headmaster’s office. I might be able to do it if we can only get access to the front desk, but it will be harder.”

“Wanna do it Thursday?” Piper suggested. “Mr. Thomas is supposed to be on hall monitor duty that night.”

Leo agreed, and together they started plotting. Leo was once again struck dumb by the breathtaking lack of security at this particular correctional facility. Sure, they had some of the harshest, meanest punishments they could get away with before someone (rightfully) accused them of child abuse, but they apparently had little to no interest in trying to stop anyone from breaking the rules. There weren’t even proper security guards, though most of the teachers were armed with school-supplied hand tasers. Instead, the night watch was taken on by a series of teachers all taking their turns to roam the halls until the sun rose up over the far distant horizon. Mr. Thomas was a wry, skittish sort of man that really had no business surviving in a place like this, but still managed to have the longest tenure of almost any of the staff. Still, he struggled to stay awake during his own lessons, dry-erase marker hanging limply in one hand and coffee cup clutched desperately in the other, so it was no surprise to anyone that he often “rested his eyes” when it was his turn to patrol the halls. Students weren’t supposed to know the rotation schedule, but, well. Piper certainly had her ways.

That Thursday night, Leo picked the lock on their dorm room door, and they silently crept through the many empty halls of Wilderness School, all the way down to the first floor where the headmaster’s office was. Breaking into those rooms had been even easier than breaking out of their dorm, so before too long Leo was sat in front of Dylan’s daily schedule, and with a few clicks Dylan’s 10:00 math class was swapped with his 2:00 history class, and emails were sent out to both teachers and student alerting them of the “sudden but necessary” change. 

“You said this has everyone’s personal records on it, right?” Piper asked, peering over his shoulder once he was done. He nodded and she grinned at him. “Cool. I wanna check yours out. I’m gonna find out what you’re hiding, Valdez.”

Leo scoffed loudly and rolled away, giving her free reign. “Be my guest. You’re not gonna find anything interesting.”

She raised her eyebrows at him. “You ran away six times, and you think there’s nothing interesting in your file?”

“I didn’t say that,” he corrected, grinning like a shark. “I just said you wouldn’t find it.”

She laughed at him, the sound bright and loud in the cramped office. “Whatever. Get out of my way; I wanna do some snooping.”

Leo got up and offered the chair to her, bowing obnoxiously. “Your throne, my lady.”

“Why thank you, my good sir,” she replied, equally obnoxious, as she took her seat. “Now, I’m gonna find your file. Seeing as someone won’t even tell me when his birthday is, I at least want that much. Assuming you didn’t delete it already, that is.”

Leo shrugged. He hadn’t gotten rid of stuff like his birthday and social security number from his file, but he didn’t really think that mattered all that much. He got rid of the important things, like why he’d gone into the foster system to begin with, or why he’d been removed from some of those awful places before he even had the chance to run away. Anything that mattered. Anything that tied him back to that little house in Texas and the choking smoke of a burning warehouse. He was past all that now. Keep moving forward, a gnarled old lady’s voice said in the back of his mind. Be quick and be clever, but always keep moving. He figured the past couldn’t catch him if he never let it exist in the first place. 

Eventually, Piper found his file and started her deep-dive, obviously disappointed at the barren field of information before her. She started reading off things about Leo that he obviously already knew (apparently, his birthday made him a Cancer. He didn’t know what that meant, really, but it was bitingly ironic) while Leo gasped in mock shock over her revelations and tinkered with a little wind-up toy he’d been working on. 

Then Piper got quiet for a moment, and giggled out her little mischievous giggle, which immediately put Leo on high alert. He squinted at her suspiciously. “Pipes? What’d you find?”

“Something weird,” she reported, still giggling. “They have the wrong name down for you on one of these documents.”

He rolled his eyes, and looked back at his project, expecting her to come up with some dumb little nickname that would stick for about a week before they both got bored of it. “Yeah? And what name do they have?”

“Emilio.”

 Immediately, the world stood still. He was four years old and that name was being sung to him while he clapped his hands in front of a fire truck birthday cake. He was five years old, laughing hysterically as he ran away from the mess he’d made and the sound of that name shouted after him on its own laugh. He was six years old and he was being told that all the teachers and kids at school were going to call him Leo, but he would always know what name was on his heart. He was seven years old and that name was sitting warm on his shoulders as stories about what an amazing life he would get to live were told to him in hushed whispers. He was eight years old and that name was being tapped out in Morse Code as his mamá told him how much she loved him for the very last time. 

“Don’t say that name,” he snapped. “Don’t ever say that name in front of me again, do you understand?”

Piper reared back, clearly startled. Her gaze flicked over Leo’s face, but he just continued to scowl death at her. He’d had this fight before, and he’d won it every time. He wasn’t afraid to have it again, even if he didn’t want to. She narrowed her eyes at him and very obviously sucked her teeth, preparing her interrogation.

Then she shrugged, turned back to the computer, and continued casually clicking around. “Okay. Hey, did you know that Macy’s middle name is Lucille? It’s like her parents wanted her to cause problems.”

Leo felt a bit like he’d been kicked in the chest by a horse, and if he hadn't been sitting down, he probably would have fallen on his butt. “What?”

“Yeah,” she said casually. “I mean, Lucille is a fine enough name, I guess, but it’s a really shitty middle name. Especially combined with Macy. Macy Lucille Milton. Bleh.”

“You’re just saying that because you hate her,” Leo said automatically. He shook his head. “I don’t mean that. I went all Incredible Hulk on you because you said some random name and your response is ‘okay?’”

She furrowed her brow at him. “Do you… want me to get all bent out of shape about it?”

“Uh, no. I guess not,” Leo stammered. “I just… was expecting you to?”

Piper shrugged. “We all have our secrets.” She offered him one of those grins he knew so well and a handshake. “You don’t quiz me about my relationship with my mom, and I pretend that the school didn’t mess up your file. Deal?”

“I– Yeah, deal,” Leo agreed, shaking her hand. He still felt a bit like he’d been spun around one too many times, and he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins from where he’d been geared up for a fight. 

She gave him a real smile then, all the playfulness gone and replaced with gentle, cautious affection. “Cool. Now show me how to send emails to the teachers from this account. I’ve got an idea.”

Leo’s eyebrows shot up and a grin curled over his mouth. “Oh? Do tell.”

“Not until you show me how to get to the email.”

They stayed in the office for probably longer than was advisable, only cutting the mission of mischief short when Mr. Thomas shuffled by, apparently having napped for long enough. They crept back to their dorm, and when they were back safely behind their locked door, they broke out into giggles, beyond pleased with themselves. 

“Ugh, I’m so gonna sleep through English tomorrow,” Piper whined, flinging herself on the bed. 

“You say that like you wouldn’t have slept through it after a full night’s sleep,” Leo accused, picking one of her socks up off the floor and throwing it at her. Piper let out some comically loud snores to avoid answering him, and he rolled his eyes, climbing into his own bed. 

Unbidden, the name came to the front of his mind. Piper hadn’t said it right. She’d pronounced it fine, but it still sounded wrong in her mouth. Her accent rounded out weird parts, and her tone had that nasally Valley Girl kick to it. That name was supposed to be said with a warm, rich voice. It was supposed to sound like laughter and feel like being wrapped up in a hug. It wasn’t supposed to be a slap in the face. 

He still felt a little bad about snapping at Piper, though. She didn’t know, couldn’t know. She’d been joking around one second, only for Leo to flip a switch on her out of nowhere. He could perfectly picture the way she’d stared at him in wide-eyed shock, and how her features had been tinged with the slightest bit of hurt. He wouldn’t have been able to really fault her if she’d been angry with him, demanding answers, but she hadn’t. She just shrugged and accepted it, more than happy to meet Leo where he was at.  She always did that. It didn’t matter how much Leo snarled at her or how bristly and defensive he got, she always stepped back and opened her arms, ready to give Leo the space he needed to go running back to her when he was ready. He curled up in a little ball and pressed his forehead to his knees. “Piper?”

“Yeah, Leo?” she replied immediately, every ounce of the exhaustion she’d been complaining about moments before gone. 

He pressed closer to his knees. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

There was a beat of silence, and then he felt Piper crawl into the bed next to him and press up against his side. “You don’t have to apologize. I get it.”

“No you don’t. There’s literally no way for you to get it.”

“Okay, I don’t get it,” she conceded. “Not really. But I get that it upset you, and I get that you don’t wanna talk about why. And that’s all I really need to get, I think.”

Leo chewed his bottom lip until he thought it would bleed. “Leo’s a nickname my mom gave me to tell the teachers and kids at school instead of using my real name.”

“Yeah?” Piper prompted gently. “Do you like it?”

Leo shrugged. “It’s not bad. It never felt quite right though.”

“Then how come you use it?” Leo squeezed his eyes shut and took in a deep, heaving breath, and Piper started gently stroking his back. “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”

He knew he didn’t have to. Piper wouldn’t push. She never pushed. Which is exactly why she was the one person on the planet he wanted to tell everything to.

“My mom was the last person who used my real name,” he said quietly. “Everyone else called me Leo, but she used my full name every time.”

Piper hummed softly, and he could hear the gentle smile in her voice when she said, “That sounds nice.”

“Yeah. I’m–” He cut himself off with a little choking noise, and Piper pressed that much closer. “I’m scared I’m gonna forget what it sounded like coming from her if other people use it.”

“Leo,” Piper breathed before finally wrapping him up in a hug. He clung to her, fists clenched in the back of her dumb Hello Kitty shirt. He didn’t cry, not really, but he did tremble from head to toe as she held him. After a moment, her voice whispered in his ear, “You may not like the name Leo, but I do. It’s the name of my best friend.”

Leo chuckled softly in the crook of her neck. “Yeah? I guess it’s not all bad, then.”

Piper didn’t say that name right. There was no one on Earth who could anymore. But maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing after all. She said Leo right. When she said Leo, it sounded like a smirk curling over lips and peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches shared when no one would even look at him. It sounded like stupid pranks and stolen Pokemon games and staying up past curfew to watch the stars. It sounded like the sort of kindness and acceptance he thought he’d never deserve again. 

It sounded like his name. 

Concept: Leo taking extra care of the Argo II because the original Jason died on the Argo.

Leo knowing the prophecy hangs over both of their heads. Leo who already knows he’s tempting fate with the name. And being even more careful with the upkeep.

Taking the others remarks about it in stride that he cares about it more then them.

All he can think about how the original Jason died crushed by the rotting mast of his ship.

And that that he won’t let his Jason die because of him.

this was so good it made me buy both the sunbearer trials and celestial monsters AND cry that this wasn’t a fully completed 500k word fic bc i would pull three all-nighters devour that omg

Summary: Under different circumstances, Leo would have been ecstatic about the prospect of getting to travel Reino del Sol with Piper for a week and a half.

The fact that it was due to the Sunbearer Trials, which would end with a fellow semidiós getting sacrificed, put a slight damper on his mood, though.

With both him and Piper being Jades, the chances of either of them being picked as a competitor was basically nonexistent, which would have helped… if it hadn’t been for the fact that Jason being chosen was basically a given.

Written for @lost-trio-week day 4: Godly Parent or Power Swap

Word Count: ~6K

Rating: Teen and Up

…is this me cheating on the prompt because while it’s technically a godly parent/power swap, it’s a power swap that takes place in a completely different universe? Maybe. Will that stop me? Probably not

Just to be safe: TW for mentions of human sacrifice If you’ve read tsbt, you’ll know what I mean. If you have not, think of it sort of in a similar vein as the HoO prophecy, where Leo and Jason know one of them has to die so the world won’t end.

You don’t need to have read the Sunbearer Duology to understand this fic! If you have, you’ll have some extra context for some of the things that are happening, but if you haven’t, you should still be alright!

This fic has a whole bunch of Leo and Piper friendship, a decent amount of valgrace, and Nyssa and Harley also make a bit of an appearance at the beginning, which I didn’t technically plan for but am not upset about!

———

Leo had been anxious about the upcoming Sunbearer Trials for a while now.

The trials were a decennial thing, and at fifteen years old, this was only the second trial Leo was around to witness. 

Ten years ago, he’d been too small to really understand what was going on. He’d known the very basics: that there were three kinds of gods, and one kind—the Obsidians—was dangerous and wanted to enslave all of humanity. That the deity Sol, or what remained of them, was the only thing keeping the Obsidians at bay during the day, and that the sun stones kept them away at night.

But the power of the sun stones was fragile, and so once every decade, they had to be recharged. That was what the trials were for.

Leo hadn’t really understood the horror of the trials, then. 

In his defense, he’d been five. Human sacrifice wasn’t really at the forefront of your mind at that age.

It was the only thing on his mind now, squished into a trajinera with the priests and his siblings as they made their way to Sol Temple.

His colorful wings twitched anxiously, repeatedly hitting his older sister Nyssa in the face. 

“Sorry,” he muttered for what was probably the fifth time in the last hour.

She waved him off, just like she had that morning when his little shaving cream on Jell-O prank had worked a little too well.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Usually, Nyssa wouldn’t have reacted this well. Leo knew his sister loved him to death, but that included her wanting to strangle him half the time. She’d never been a particular fan of his pranks or his general sense of humor. And, daughter of Quetzal or not, no one was a fan of getting a bunch of feathers in their mouth.

But Nyssa knew why Leo was anxious, and she was giving him a lot of grace because of it.

“He’s going to be okay. You know that, right?” she asked, gently squeezing his arm. Her huge brown wings, which had remained neatly folded at her side until now, protectively wrapped around one of his shoulders.

“Oh, please, I’m not worried,” Leo scoffed, self-consciously wiggling out of his sister’s winged embrace. “Why would I be worried? Jason’s, like, an obnoxiously perfect hero. He’s a literal poster child of a Gold semidiós. There’s no way he’ll lose.”

Despite the fact that it was normal and even expected for Gold semidioses due to their hero status, Leo still couldn’t believe there were posters and trading cards of Jason these days. Him and Piper had given their friend endless shit for it. Leo had Jason’s least favorite poster up in his room purely for the joy of seeing him cringe whenever he came to visit.

Not that Jason got the chance to visit a lot, busy as he was at the stupid hero academy. Maybe once he was done with school. If he-

Leo banished the thought. Jason would be fine. He’d be fine. He was ranked third in his class for a reason. There wouldn’t be bets about him participating and winning if it wasn’t obvious to everyone Jason had a very real shot at coming in first. He wouldn’t lose. He couldn’t. 

“You could still tell him how you feel, you know,” Nyssa said, nudging him gently. “Give him a kiss for good luck.”

“I will push you off this boat,” Leo hissed, blushing furiously.

“Right, that’ll inconvenience me greatly, considering I can fly.” Nyssa suddenly looked past him, craning her neck. “We’re coming up on the lake! Let’s see if we can spot the trajinera from Ciudad Afortuna. Surely the fact that you get to spend a whole week and a half exploring Reino del Sol with Piper will cheer you up.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “You just wanna look for Drew.”

“Well, it’s the same boat, so.” Nyssa shrugged. “You coming?”

He would never understand Nyssa’s obsession with Piper’s mean older sister, but she wasn’t wrong about the Piper thing. If it hadn’t been for the likelihood of Jason competing in the trials, getting to hang out and travel with his best friend in the entire world would have been a dream come true for Leo. He hadn’t seen Piper in months, which was absolutely criminal. He couldn’t wait to finally hug her again.

Leo turned to follow his sister to the front of the boat—there was a technical term for it, but Leo wasn’t the semidiós of boating, so he didn’t know it—but before he could, a little hand grabbed his sleeve, yanking on it so hard that it almost ripped.

He looked down to see the offending hand belonged to his little brother Harley. His anxious expression made Leo’s stomach churn.

“Be there in a sec!” he called after Nyssa before turning to their brother, who didn’t look like he planned to let go of him ever again. “Alright, Nestling, I get it. These outfits are kind of uncomfortable. I’d still appreciate it if you didn’t rip off my sleeve, though. You know mamá spent way too much money on those.”

“Yeah.” Harley dropped his hand from his brother’s sleeve. “I miss mamá.”

Leo relaxed marginally. Was that all his brother had wanted to talk about? The fact that he was feeling a little homesick? Leo could handle that. 

He was sure their diosa mom would shield Harley from the end of the trials, the way she’d done for Nyssa and Leo during the last ones, but he still hadn’t looked forward to having the whole “the person who loses the trials gets sacrificed to recharge the sun stones”-conversation with an eight year old.

“Well, you were gonna have to leave home one of these days, unless you want me to call you Nestling forever.” Leo ruffled his brother’s hair. “We’ll see her again after the trials are over. You know the only mortals who can come to Sol Temple are priests. Besides, even if she could, mamá’s got a big project at work. She can’t just ditch her team to come with us. They’d be lost without her.”

That was the downside of having a genius inventor for a mortal mom—whether she liked it or not, work kept her pretty busy. 

It had plenty of upsides, too: people said the name Esperanza Valdez with almost as much reverence as they did diosa Quetzal’s, which meant Leo could get away with damn near everything. Besides, her efforts to provide sustainable tech that protected Quetzlan wildlife was the reason his moms had met, so he supposed he couldn’t complain too much.

“I guess.” Harley huffed, blowing his curls out of his face. “That’s stupid, though.”

“Adult responsibilities are almost always stupid. That’s why you need me to set a terrible example.” Leo grinned. “So, were you pulling my sleeve out of boredom or did you actually want something?”

Harley mumbled something under his breath, so quietly that Leo didn’t catch a word he was saying.

“Sorry, hermanito, I think the light breeze drowned you out,” Leo teased, looking down at his little brother. “Let’s try that again, yeah?”

Harley didn’t meet his eyes, and he still spoke quietly, but it was loud enough for Leo to hear this time.

“Sol won’t pick you and Nyssa for the trials, right?” 

The idea was so absurd that Leo burst out laughing. 

“We’re Jades, Harls. Jade semidioses don’t get picked for the trials. That’s not a thing.” 

“Are you sure?” Harley wrung his hands, looking unconvinced. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“‘Course I’m sure, Nestling. The trials are for heroes that get put on posters. Not us.”

“But you saved someone yesterday. Doesn’t that make you a hero?”

Leo snorted.

“I barely helped, and it very nearly made me Leo flambé.” He cringed just thinking about it. “The only thing I really managed was to add myself to the list of people Jason and Percy had to save. Brotherly word of advice: take my bad example when it comes to funny pranks and skipping school. Do not try to match my shitty impulse control. It’s not worth it.” 

Leo had made Jason vow not to tell Piper he’d had to carry him out of a burning building. She’d never let him live that down. 

“Fine,” Harley agreed, finally cracking a smile. “We’re almost at the waterfall! I wanna see if I can stick my hand in!”

He didn’t give Leo a chance to reply. He just started pulling on his sleeve again, dragging him towards the front of the boat. 

Leo laughed.

~~~~

To head priest Hedge’s credit, he tried his best to keep Leo in the moving line of people, yanking on his arm and yelling in an entirely unpriestly manner whenever Leo stopped to look around for Jason and Piper. Leo had seen the boat from San Fuego—it was hard to overlook, giant ridiculous eyesore that it was due to both of Jason’s moms being awful show-offs—but Jason had arrived before he had and was already gone by the time Leo and his siblings had disembarked.

Unfortunately for Hedge, Leo spotted Piper in the crowd, at which point all of Quetzlan’s priests combined wouldn’t have been enough to keep him in line.

They were rushing towards each other the moment their eyes met, crowds and rules and yelling head priests be damned.

“Leo!”

“Piper!”

He slammed into his best friend’s chest with so much force that they nearly both toppled over, arms and wings wrapping around her simultaneously with no regards for the crowd surrounding them.

Several people cursed at him.

“Watch it, Bird Boy,” Drew scoffed, which Leo decided immediately would earn her more feathers to the face if he ever decided he was ready to let go of Piper again.

Piper hugged him back just as fiercely. She was trembling a little, and she’d looked strangely subdued when he’d spotted her—it had immediately been obvious that Leo wasn’t the only one anxious about their little Jason situation—but now her face split into a huge grin.

“I missed you so much,” Piper said, pressing her chin to the top of Leo’s head.

Menace that she was, she loved reminding him that she was slightly taller than him, even when they were being affectionate.

Leo didn’t mind too much. One of these days, he would have another growth spurt, and he’d take his revenge then.

“Right back at you. Keeping us apart so long should be illegal,” Leo announced, holding her even tighter.

“Can you two quit flirting and get a move on? You’re blocking the road,” Drew complained, earning disgusted expressions from both of them.

“We’re not flirting!” they protested simultaneously.

It wasn’t the first time someone had made that assumption, but it had never been like that between Leo and Piper. Piper was pretty sure she didn’t even like guys, and besides, assuming that two people were dating just because they were affectionate with each other was stupid, anyway. 

“Just admit you get absolutely zero hugs and leave us alone!” Leo yelled back at her. He would have been kind of sad for Drew if she hadn’t been such an ass.

“I honestly don’t really care what’s going on between you two weirdos, but please just get a move on. You’re holding up the line,” Drew complained, gesturing to the people around them that had to go out of their way to skirt around Leo and Piper’s little reunion party. “You can get back to whatever this is when we get inside.”

“Killjoy,” Piper grumbled, but she pulled her arm back, careful of her azabache bracelet the way she always was when they hugged.

The choice of jewelry had confused Leo at first—children of Mala Suerte didn’t generally need azabache bracelets to ward off bad luck, since their dad’s powers didn’t affect them the way it did other people.

But he’d quickly learned that her dad wasn’t the reason Piper wore it.

“Aw, Pipes, really? Don’t you think it’s time for me to get another haircut? Personally, I feel like my hair is getting kinda long.”

“Hardy har har.”

Leo stuck his tongue out at her. 

When they’d first become friends, the jewelry had ended up so utterly tangled in Leo’s curls that Hedge had had to cut it out with scissors, taking a bunch of Leo’s then chest-long hair with it.

Leo hadn’t been mad about it—it had been around the time that it had really started to click that the whole “being a girl”-thing wasn’t going to work out for him, but despite the fact that he’d hated his long hair, he’d not quite managed to work up the courage to ask his mamá to cut it. 

Piper had been kind enough to solve this problem for him not even an hour into their friendship—albeit not entirely on purpose—and they’d been inseparable ever since.

…well, slightly less physically inseparable than they’d been with Piper’s hand stuck in his hair, but still.

Leo looked back on that moment fondly for a variety of reasons, but as Piper’s best friend of five years, it was still his sacred duty to tease her about the incident every now and again.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Leo decided with a sigh, waiting for Piper’s nod before he started moving again.

They walked side by side, letting the large crowd of semidioses and priests push them towards the temple. It was a relief to not be doing this on his own—to have Piper there to distract him from the dread he’d been feeling all week.

They caught each other up on everything they’d missed during their time apart. 

Sure, they talked every chance they got, but it wasn’t the same when they couldn’t actually see each other. 

Hedge directed suspicious glances their way every few seconds.

“Is he still mad about what happened the last time I visited?” Piper asked, eyes glinting with mischief. 

“Yeah. Not sure why, though!” Leo grinned. “It’s not like he was using the boat when we borrowed it. And besides, it looked so much prettier when we returned it!“

“No appreciation for the arts.” Piper shook her head, making her expression overly grave. “It’s sad, really.”

“Truly.”

“Have you seen Jason yet?” she asked once they’d made it inside the temple.

They were surrounded by chatter and lively music, which seemed at odds with the fact that the trials were essentially someone’s very fancy funeral, but what did Leo know? 

“Nope! I saw his awful boat after we docked—which is in desperate need of a Leo and Piper makeover, by the way—but so far Goldie remains MIA.”

“Gods, yeah, you can tell Beryl really wanted to show off.” Piper rolled her eyes. “I hate that woman.”

“Tell me about it.” Leo gritted his teeth. “It’s like her and Lumbre are in constant competition for the position of world’s worst mom. Jason’s barely gotten a day off from the academy all year, and even when he has, half the time Beryl was hogging him for bragging purposes.”

“I still can’t believe she made him miss your birthday.” Piper scowled. “Have you gotten to see him at all lately?”

Leo hesitated. He really didn’t want to tell her about the fact that he’d had to be saved from his own dumbassery after he’d heroically locked himself and the person he was trying to help in a walk-in freezer, but he knew she’d pick up on it if he lied to her, and that was just bound to result in him getting grilled.

“…sort of,” he admitted. “There was a fire in Quetzlan yesterday. Jason and Percy dropped by to help. I did briefly see him, then.”

“I heard about that. Were you in the area when it happened? Did anyone get hurt?”

“A few people got treated for smoke inhalation. Nothing too bad.” If he’d been one of those people… well, Piper didn’t need to know that. “If you’re wondering if I know how he’s dealing with this whole situation… not really, unfortunately. You know what he’s like. He doesn’t talk about this shit.” 

“Maybe he won’t get picked,” Piper said, which Leo found awfully optimistic considering it came from the daughter of the god of bad luck. “I mean, he’s not ranked first, right? Maybe Sol will decide someone else is better suited.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Leo agreed, briefly letting himself imagine a scenario where he and Piper got to spend the next two weeks getting Jason in trouble. Realistically, he knew it wouldn’t happen, but it was a very nice thought regardless.

Leo craned his neck, making another attempt to try and spot Jason in the crowd.

It would have been easier if he’d used his wings to get a better vantage point, but he didn’t want to draw that much attention to himself, especially not with all the reporters around. He didn’t really care to answer stupid questions about his mamá or the fire or what he thought Jason’s chances of getting stabbed to death were. Besides, considering the odds of him and Piper pissing someone off during the course of the event were astronomical—though whether it would be on purpose or by accident was anyone’s guess—he didn’t want to risk photographic evidence.

Leo didn’t manage to find Jason this time, either. He spotted a few other Gold semidioses, though. 

Between Jason’s stories from school and the fact that Leo had seen several of them on the news, he at least vaguely knew who most of them were, despite the fact that he hadn’t met many of them in person. 

Percy and Annabeth clearly did not care to beat the power couple allegations, the way their arms were linked. From what Leo had seen of them on the news, he wasn’t surprised they both had Jason beat in the rankings.

Water and lightning were a terrifying combination, and Leo was glad he’d never have to face them in combat the way Jason did. 

For personal reasons, Leo still thought Jason’s powers were much cooler, though. 

A little way off, he spotted two of Guerrero’s youngest kids. Frank was chatting with a girl Leo only very vaguely recognized. As per usual, Clarisse was busy scowling at anyone in the general vicinity.

Suddenly, Piper nudged him. “No wonder we couldn’t find Jason. Look.”

He directed his attention towards where she was pointing, cringing at the sight.

Two semidiose reporters whose names Leo refused to remember out of pure spite had cornered Jason and were shoving cameras in his face. He was clearly trying his best to keep it together, but from the furrow in his brow and the way his lip was twitching, Leo figured he was a breath away from losing it.

Jason’s older sister Thalia, who was almost as famous for her short fuse as she was for her hero work, looked like desperately longed to set someone on fire.

“You wanna run a distract and extract mission before Thals kills someone?” he asked, already knowing Piper’s answer from the way she was scowling. 

“Obviously. As much as I’d love to see her punch a reporter, I don’t think it’d help Jason much.”

“So, what’s the plan? You wanna try and test your powers again?” he suggested carefully. “Make them trip on their shoelaces or something?”

Piper shook her head, glaring intently at the floor tiles. “You know that’s not how it works,” she said very quietly. 

He didn’t, actually. Neither did Piper. That was sort of the crux of the issue.

Unlike Drew, whose whole thing was warding off bad luck, Piper’s powers caused it. This could have been pretty cool, if it hadn’t been for the fact that she’d never been able to control said powers. Bad things just tended to happen around her, whether she wanted them to or not. 

The bracelet helped, but it wasn’t a perfect fix. Leo’s hair hadn’t been the first or only victim of Piper’s bad luck.

He knew it was a touchy subject. Maybe he should have stopped asking about it altogether. But a part of Leo was still hopeful that one day, Piper’s powers would come around and actually be a good thing. 

Maybe the fact that his feathers had changed last year, finally catching up with his gender and taking on the blue and green colors of a proper male quetzal, had made him a stupid optimist.

It was easier to be a stupid optimist, he supposed, when the worst thing you had to deal with on a daily basis was everyone knowing your moms and people being a little weird about your wings, instead of a dead mortal dad and people around you blaming you for every little thing that went wrong in their lives.

“Sorry. Forget I said anything.” He squeezed her hand, then let go of her so he could take off his backpack. “Let’s do it the old-fashioned way instead. How do you feel about a feathers and paint operation?”

Piper looked up at him. When she saw what he pulled from his bag—a little surprise he’d technically prepared to get back at Octavian for snitching on them after their last prank, but that would work just fine here—her lips slowly curled into a smile.

~~~~

The bad news about this strategy was that Leo’s bird friends were maybe getting a little too savvy at stealing things. The good news, well… it would be hard for the stupid reporters to harass anyone with a camera they no longer had. Also, Piper was great with distractions, and there was nothing that cheered her up quite like throwing paint bombs did.

Suddenly, the stupid reporters had a lot of things to worry about that weren’t the Lumbre siblings.

Before Jason knew what hit him, Leo had grabbed his hand and pulled him into the nearest corridor, running like hell.

“What the-” he asked, letting himself be pulled along despite his obvious confusion. Then his entire face lit up. “Leo?”

“At your service,” Leo joked, stopping once they’d rounded the next corner and bowing dramatically. “Piper’s gonna catch up with us in a second,” he told him. Before he got the chance to say anything else—“hello”, maybe, or “are you okay?”—Jason had scooped him up in the world’s tightest hug.

As was expected from a semidiós with fire powers, he radiated warmth. A hug from Jason always felt like being wrapped in a heated blanket. He smelt a little like an evening campfire. His curls brushed Leo’s forehead. It would have been so easy to reach out and run his hands through Jason’s hair…

Before Leo could do anything stupid, Piper rounded the corner, her delighted laughter echoing down the hall. The front of her shirt was absolutely splattered with paint.

“That was amazing. You should have seen their faces,” she giggled. The somber expression she’d worn earlier had been thoroughly wiped off her face.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you guys,” Jason admitted, and he and Leo simultaneously untangled one arm to pull Piper into their group hug, collateral damage via paint be damned. Leo’s mamá would probably forgive him. “Another second of being grilled by them and they’d have gotten great pictures of me having a panic attack in the middle of the hall.”

“You’d die without us, probably,” Leo joked, squeezing Jason’s shoulder. “But I’m pretty sure Thalia would have punched the reporters’ lights out before letting that happen.”

“I’m not sure which one of our moms would have killed us faster if that had happened,” Jason replied, chewing on the scar on his lip. He said it in a joking tone, but he still looked a little shaken. 

This didn’t exactly surprise Leo. Jason liked helping people—always had. But he’d never dealt with the public attention he got from hero work especially well.

Half the reason Leo and Piper had first befriended Jason was that it had always been blatantly obvious he didn’t deal with people well. At every ceremony the dioses and semidioses attended together, Jason had stood around either alone or clinging to his older sister’s skirts. Large groups of people tended to seriously overwhelm him.

He’d been okay while he still had Thalia, but things had gone from bad to worse when she’d graduated and started missing ceremonies because of her assignments.

Some four years ago, Piper and Leo had seen Jason standing beside a sour-faced priestess that was clearly less than thrilled to be demoted to babysitter for the day and had promptly decided that they were adopting him into their friend group, whether he liked it or not.

And, well, the rest was history.

“Have your parents been giving you a hard time about the trials?” Piper asked, expression fierce. “I’m not opposed to paint bombing a goddess if the situation warrants it.”

Jason laughed.

“Thanks, but I don’t think you getting incinerated would help,” he told her. Piper gently kicked him in the leg. “Hey!”

“I’m with Pipes here. Do not underestimate her skill to sneakily paint bomb people,” Leo tutted. Jason raised an eyebrow, gesturing at Piper’s paint-covered suit. “…current situation notwithstanding.”

“Traitor,” Piper complained, sticking her tongue out at Leo. 

“It’s just… Thalia ranked second in her trials, despite being the youngest participant,” Jason said quietly. “I don’t know what would happen if Sol didn’t pick me for the trials at all.”

“Oh yeah, having to put up with Piper and me for two weeks would just be horrible. Way worse than having to fight for your life,” Leo teased, though he knew what Jason was getting at. Jason already put a lot of pressure on himself, and coming from a long line of Sunbearers and having his strict as hell diosa mother as his principal definitely didn’t help.

Jason opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, someone cleared their throat behind them.

Leo turned.

His mother’s head priest was standing there, his arms crossed, eyebrows furrowed in displeasure.

“So that’s where you three ran off to.”

“Hedge! Hey! Fancy meeting you here,” Piper said cheerfully, giving him her widest grin. “How’s your wife?”

Hedge’s expression softened marginally. He loved to claim he didn’t like Piper all that much—he said it was because she got Leo into too much trouble, though objectively said trouble originated from Leo at least sixty percent of the time—but in truth, it was obvious he’d always had a soft spot for her.

“Mellie is great. But do not think you can distract me from doing my job right now. It’s almost time for the ceremony. I don’t know what you Fledgelings were thinking, but-” Hedge paused, taking in their outfits. “Why in Sol’s name are you three covered in paint?”

~~~~

An emergency cleaning session later, the three of them headed up the stairs towards the altar together. 

Leo’s stomach rolled. He’d been the happiest person alive upon seeing his two best friends again, but his cheerful mood had begun to abate as they ascended, and seeing the altar thoroughly killed it. The trials began and ended here. Even if it wouldn’t be Jason—Leo quietly prayed to his mother and Sol and any other deity that might listen that it wouldn’t be Jason—someone would die here soon. He felt sick just thinking about it.

“If you’d all gather around, we’ll start with the ceremony,” Diosa Luna announced.

She was the goddess of the moon, as well as Sol’s high priestess. Because they couldn’t be around to do it, she’d been in charge of the trials since they’d taken place for the first time, communicating with Sol all throughout and making sure their will was heard as best as it could be.

Leo squeezed Jason’s hand one last time before they separated. 

Then Jason went to stand with his mother and sister. 

Reyna—the one proper friend Jason had managed to make at hero school—looked from the remnants of paint on Jason’s uniform to Leo and Piper. She raised an eyebrow, but she said nothing.

Leo never quite knew what to make of her, though he supposed the fact that Jason was friends with her meant she couldn’t be all that bad.

The same could not be said for his classmate Octavian, who was openly scowling at Leo and Piper, and not just because they were late. There were still Golds who heavily frowned upon Jason “lowering himself” to be friends with two Jades, and Octavian had always made it blatantly obvious that he was one of them.

“Jackass,” Leo muttered under his breath, and Piper snorted, pulling him along until they reached their respective families. 

“You guys look like you had fun,” Nyssa commented, giving them an amused look.

“We did,” Leo confirmed, but he felt nothing as he said it. He didn’t even look at his sister. Instead, his eyes found Jason’s across the room. 

The dioses were standing behind their children, most giving them encouraging looks and nods. Quetzal ruffled Leo’s feathers. 

“You’ll be alright,” she reassured him gently.

“Yeah, I know,” Leo replied, sounding braver than he felt. 

He was a Jade. Like he’d told Harley, Sol didn’t pick Jades for the trials. They were only here as a formality. 

But there was still something nerve-wracking about standing around the altar, waiting for the ceremony to begin. 

Most people wouldn’t have been thrilled to be standing so close to the god of bad luck right now, but Leo was thankful. It meant he got to have Piper by his side for this, which made things a million times less miserable.

If he’d wanted to, he could have reached out and given her hand a squeeze, but he wasn’t quite ready to admit how afraid he felt.

Jason was still looking at him, smiling encouragingly.

Luna gave a whole speech about fortune and sacrifice and the role of the future Sunbearer, but Leo wasn’t really listening. He was looking at Jason across the altar—at his anxious stance and his smile—and trying desperately not to think about him ending up on said altar, his eyes empty and his warm skin growing horribly cold as golden blood dripped from the sacrificial dagger. 

Leo’s mother squeezed his shoulder with warm fingers.

“You don’t need to worry about Jason,” she told him gently. “He will do just fine.”

Leo still felt nauseous. When Luna asked the Dioses to present their eligible children, he mechanically stepped forward—Nyssa to his left, Piper to his right. He briefly glanced back to see his mother gathering an obviously anxious Harley up in her arms, soothing him to the best of her abilities.

They all gathered around the Sol Stone. It was unnervingly quiet. Then, the stone began to hum and glow, which Leo immediately decided was worse.

A moment passed. Then, there was a flash of light. Sol had chosen the first competitor.

Leo turned to look. A sunburst crown had appeared on Annabeth’s head. The golden metal glinted dully.

No one was exactly shocked that Annabeth had been picked. Her father, Tormentoso, rumbled in approval. Annabeth herself tried to seem all calm and collected as she adjusted the crown on her head, but it was obvious she was thrilled that she’d not only been chosen but had been chosen before anyone else.

She grinned over at Percy like she’d just won some sort of competition between them.

Percy was the next person Sol chose, which also wasn’t surprising.

The next two choices were the two children of Guerrero Leo had seen earlier. Clarisse, their oldest eligible daughter, and her younger brother Frank. That was unusual enough that Luna had trouble getting the crowd to quiet down. Leo had never heard of a pair of siblings competing in the trials the same year.

Clarisse looked thrilled. Leo didn’t think Frank looked quite as excited, but he squared his shoulders and did his best to mimic his sister’s proud pose.

Octavian was next, then a daughter of Tierra named Hazel. She was the youngest competitor that had been chosen so far, but she didn’t look afraid. She brushed back her curls and raised her head, expression fierce.

Reyna was next. That meant there were only three spots left.

With every crown that appeared on a head that wasn’t Jason’s, Jason looked more like he wanted to sink into the floor and disappear. Leo’s feelings were warring with each other. He hated the anxious look on Jason’s face—hated the way Lumbre’s fingers were digging into her son’s shoulders even more—but he still didn’t want Jason to be chosen. He wanted him to be safe more than anything.

Just three more spots. Leo almost allowed himself to hope. Not Jason. Not Jason. Not Jason. 

Of course, because the universe hated him, the next crown was Jason’s. Jason’s shoulders slumped in relief. Reyna squeezed his hand, smiling softly at him.

Leo found some comfort in the fact that at least Jason would have someone in his corner, but he was still having a hard time not freaking out. Not staring at the altar and thinking about Jason bleeding out on top of it, expression brave and determined and then completely still.

The next flash—competitor number nine—was so close to Leo that he was disoriented for a second. The crowd broke into surprised chatter again, much louder than it had been when Sol had picked the second one of the Guerrero siblings. Heads swiveled.

Leo was still staring at Jason, who looked right back at him, all signs of relief gone from his expression. His face was ashen, eyes wide with alarm.

“They can’t do that!” a familiar voice protested. Leo realized with a jolt that it was Drew.

He turned to his right, confused as to which Gold had been chosen that could possibly elicit that kind of reaction when everyone had been just fine with Hazel being chosen a moment ago. 

Piper was anxiously fiddling with the pendant of her azabache bracelet. Her face had lost all color. 

Leo’s eyes met hers.

Then they trailed upwards to the sunburst crown on top of her head, and the ground fell out from underneath his feet.

Leo couldn’t breathe. He felt like he had been dropped off a cliff, the ground hurtling towards him and his wings refusing to work. 

He hadn’t even considered the possibility that Piper might be chosen for the trials. He hadn’t even considered he might lose her. Why would he have? Jades were basically never chosen for the trials! 

This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t- this wasn’t real. He was stuck in some kind of bizarre nightmare. There was no way this was actually happening.

In what world would Sol choose Piper? She barely even had any powers, for crying out loud! How could she stand a chance against nine people who had been training for this for almost their entire lives? That wasn’t fair! She couldn’t- Leo couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t. 

He looked back towards his mom, whose expression of shock mirrored his own.

Leo did reach out to take Piper’s hand, then. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her, but he clutched her trembling fingers tightly, tapping Morse code on the back of her hand. Love you. Love you. Love you. Over and over again. After the third time, Piper started tapping the same message back at him.

Leo looked at Jason across the room. There wasn’t a word said between them, but they didn’t need words to express what they were both thinking.

Jason would do whatever he could to help Piper in the trials. They didn’t have to talk about it for Leo to know that he would.

There was another flash. Sol had chosen the final competitor. 

Leo didn’t want to care who it was—he didn’t think it could get any worse than both Jason and Piper being chosen—but, once again, the flash had been horribly, disorientingly close. Leo had to take a moment to blink the spots out of his eyes. 

If possible, Jason’s face had gone even grayer. There was a sobbing noise behind Leo that he was pretty sure was from Harley.

Leo’s heart hammered in his chest as he remembered that his sister was also eligible for the trials and that she was standing right next to him. Please not her, too. 

Leo braced himself as he turned around to look at Nyssa. It was harder than he’d expected. His head felt strangely heavy all of a sudden.

His sister’s head was thankfully crownless. This would have been a huge relief, except she was staring at him, an expression of utter terror written across her features.

Leo reached up with trembling hands, praying he’d imagined the new weight on his head. But despite him being surrounded by deities, it was clear none of them were listening.

As he tried to brush back his hair, his fingers touched the cold metal of the final sunburst crown.

———

Fic notes:

-This is hands down one of the most self-indulgent fics I have ever written, I had absolutely ridiculous amounts of fun writing this fic!

-Sunbearer Trials and Celestial Monsters are probably my favorite reads of the year (which is saying a lot considering how many books I’ve read this year) and I cannot stress enough that I think you guys would really enjoy them. This goes especially for the valgrace shippers. Aurelio is sooo Jason Grace coded you guys would love him.

-Just absolutely lovely books about a whole bunch of queer demigods with a super cool surrounding mythology that I promise is explained way better in the books than my very basic summary for the purposes of this fic suggests lmao. I cannot recommend them enough.

-If you’d like to understand the world building better, I’d recommend just checking out the prologue of the book! I did my best with trying to explain it but I’m not sure I succeeded, ngl

-Leo as Teo and Jason as a sort of Niya-Aurelio-mix were really obvious choices, but I struggled to figured out what exactly I wanted Piper’s role to be. When it clicked tho… made the whole fic come together. I’m so thrilled for the target audience of me and like maybe two other people in the universe who will get it to read this fic!

-Since this fic is intended to make people read the books, I thought this was a pretty good point to end it on! There’s some other scenes that could theoretically be fun to explore in this universe (I have one especially that I really want to do, but, well, spoilers). We’ll see how it goes.

Also specifically tagging @froglyberrys and @on-starrii-nights since you guys were interested in this concept when I first posted about it (hope that’s okay, let me know if you want me to remove the tag)