This fic contains mature content. If you do not wish to read mature content, *points at your back button*

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and settings are the property of Rick Riordan, inspired by Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus. I am not making any money from writing this piece of fan fiction. I'm only playing in his sandbox.

XxxX

"Well, that sucked," Jason says, rolling his shoulder and grimacing, his hair and clothes plastered to his body.

Understatement of the century I think to myself, but I don't say anything. I climb to my feet, the rocky sand crunching beneath my shoes. I'm not wet, despite being caught up in a typhoon, along with Jason, and thrown several miles from where we started. My half-sister, Kymopoleia was not kidding when she said being feared by demigods was more important to her than being represented in action figure form. She kept the action figure, though. I have a feeling she's sweeter on Jason than she lets on, and I'm thankful for it. Seriously, she could have killed us, but settled for scaring us shitless.

I give Jason a hand and he pulls himself upright. He's shaking from the cold and seems to have trouble regaining his balance.

"Come on, bro," I tell him, offering my arm. "I got you. We gotta find somewhere to lie low for the night."

He drapes his arm over my shoulder, leaning on me as I lead us up the rocky beach to a row of dingy-looking hotels.

"Thanks, man," he says, teeth chattering. "I owe you one."

"Dude, you owe me like ten."

"Shut up, Jackson. Just get us somewhere warm."

I chuckle and half-carry Jason's heavy ass to the nearest hotel with a vacancy sign.

XxxX

I get us a room and Jason takes his key, suddenly perfectly able to carry his own weight.

"I'm gonna take a hot shower. Get us some food?"

He takes off before I have a chance to answer. I roll my eyes and turn back to the guy at the counter. "Any place nearby sell food?"

He points to a mini-mart across the highway.

I sigh, and head back out into the night. Grace really does owe me big time.

I'm lying to myself. It's so good to be back in the thick of adventure again. Finishing high school was a total bust. I know Annabeth is disappointed, but after working with half a dozen school counselors, it's pretty clear my way forward is gonna be a GED. I'm alright with that. The University in New Rome said they'd accept it without a problem. It was a fluke running into Jason when I'd gone to check it out, but when he mentioned visiting Kymopoleia to settle our score, there was no way I wasn't coming along.

XxxX

I have to jiggle the key in the lock, but finally get it to work and push open the hotel room door. Jason strolls into the room along with a billow of steam, a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Dude, yeah. You're the best," he says as I push the grocery bag into his arms and make for the bathroom. I have to piss like nothing else.

"Don't forget it," I call over my shoulder. "And leave me something to eat!" I slam the bathroom door behind me, so happy to see a toilet I could cry.

There's a rumbling sound coming from the cabinet beside the sink. I finish pissing, then take a look. I open the bathroom door a crack. "Is this a washing machine?"

"Yeah! Isn't it awesome?" Jason calls back. "My stuff should be done in about twenty minutes. It's gotta hang to dry, but you can use it next. Better than what we're used to."

"Right on." I close the door and strip myself. The idea of a hot shower and clean clothes is pretty close to Elysium after the typhoon. I'm not going to complain.

XxxX

I toss my clothes in the small washing machine and hang Jason's up on the shower curtain rod, then wrap a towel around my waist and return to the hotel room. Jason's stretched out on the bed and tosses the remote on the nightstand. It's the first time I've had a chance to look at our digs for the night.

"What the hell? There's only one bed?"

Jason sits up, holding his towel in place and dusting sandwich crumbs off his bare chest. "Yeah, and there's nothing good on TV either." I flop on the bed next to him and hold out my hand for the remote. He shrugs and hands it to me and I flick through the channels. There's only six of them and most are news. I drop the remote and grab the grocery bag.

At least he left me a sandwich, an apple, and a bag of chips.

Jason snorts as I take a bite and I raise my eyebrows.

"Unless you wanna check out what's in the DVD player. Seems whoever had the room before us left a disc."

I don't trust the smirk playing on his lips, but there's also a challenge hanging in the air between us.

I reach for the remote, watching his eyes light up in anticipation, then aim it at the television set and hit the DVD button. "Seriously?" I say, but it comes out a lot more like smmerschleee with my mouth full of sandwich. I finish chewing and swallow while Jason laughs his ass off. "Seriously, dude. Gay porn?"

Two can play at whatever game Jason thinks he's winning. I shrug and settle back against my pillow, munching my sandwich and settling in as if I'm actually fine with watching it.

After about a minute Jason clears his throat. "Umm, you're not really going to watch this are you?"

I finish my sandwich and take out my apple. "Nothing else on," and then the camera moves to a close up and my stomach turns. I hit the off button on the remote, my face scrunched up.

Jason starts laughing again. "Knew it!" He takes the remote from me and puts it back on the nightstand.

"Don't even start. They were licking each others' assholes. That's just not right."

It takes Jason a while to catch his breath. "I … I'm not sure that people really do that in real life. It's fake, right? Like for shock value?"

I take a bite of my apple and chew it. It doesn't taste right. I put it back in the bag and pull out the chips instead. "I dunno. Do you think …" I stop talking before I say something I'll regret and shove a handful of Lays into my mouth.

"Do I think what?"

Damn it, Grace. Can't you ever let a subject drop?

Apparently not. He's waiting for me to swallow my mouthful. I reach for the bottle of water on the nightstand and open it. Waste of an extra three dollars, but even the chips don't taste right at moment. I need to wash my mouth out and refuel.

After downing half the bottle, I put the cap back on. "You don't think, like, Nico and Will … nah. They wouldn't be into that, would they?"

"Nah," Jason says, and takes my water away and finishes it.

"Hey, you're gonna get my cooties."

Jason shrugs. "Figure I've already got them. I dunno. I've never really thought about Nico …" he gestures vaguely "… and sex. But I'd kill anybody who gave him a hard time about licking Will's ass if that's what he wants to do!"

I hold out my fist and Jason bumps it. "Damn straight."

Jason grins. It's his rile-me-up grin.

"What?"

"You know that's why you're not his type, right?"

I roll my eyes and then punch Jason in the arm. "That was a year ago. Drop it already."

Jason just keeps grinning. "Okay, fine. What do you want to do while we wait for our clothes?"

The atmosphere seems to have changed. I'm not sure I like it. It's more charged, like Jason's itching for some sort of challenge. I have to admit, it's been great seeing him again. I don't have the same sort of playful relationship with any of my other guy friends, and the last several months in the mortal world was bringing my mood way down.

It has to be the relief of just being around someone who gets me, I dunno, but I just want to mess with Grace's head. "Well, we could forward past the ass licking and make fun of the corny plotline in that porno."

Jason raises his eyebrows, his mouth twitching at the corner. He grabs the remote. "You really think there's a plot at all?"

I shrug as Jason hits the forward button on the remote and a new scene starts.