-x-

Act VIII: The Brother

-x-

Later upon Jason's insistence, Piper was in the company of Travis Stoll to exchange Christmas presents. He reassured both his friends that he wasn't going to burst into tears just because he was alone again. Besides—Jason happily gave the blooming couple his blessing when he saw Travis shuck off his dark sweater for a cold Piper to wear. Travis had grown up most of his life with Grecian influence, but he wholeheartedly welcomed Piper's mortal, more American traditions.

"Did you know his nickname for her is Peems?" Leo snorted as they watched Piper wander off with the Son of Hermes to who-knows-where. "If they have kids, they're going to be gorgeous and really good at stealing."

"I can only imagine," Jason replied wryly. He shivered at the thought of Piper's beautiful eyes combined with a Stoll Brother's naughty grin. Their child could probably steal the stars with no worry. Outside the window, red hues glowed in Piper's cheeks as she giggled under the door of the Aphrodite Cabin. Travis only smiled and pushed the hair out of her face. "So where's Percy?"

Leo made a face, which only called Jason's attention. "He's confused."

"Confused, or confusing?"

"Both," the other teen said simply. He jingled a hand in his tool belt and waved the second around dismissively, with fire simmering at the tips of his fingers. Chocolate brown eyes glanced to blue with befuddled frustration. "He went back home to his mom and Paul for Christmas. He'll be back by tomorrow morning or so."

"And you didn't go with them?"

Leo shrugged and Jason frowned.

"Leo—you didn't stay because—because of me, did you?"

"Don't get your panties in a twist." Leo nudged Jason in the arm and snorted. A snigger left his lips and he sighed. "Of course I did."

"Dude, you didn't have to. You shouldn't have had to—" Jason's lips morphed into a frown and he nudged the other boy with his hand. "You said you finally found a family."

"Yeah? Well, family will be there when you get back. Besides—it's not like I ran away or anything like that." A smile coiled over Leo's face, penchant, and he sighed again. "He's not so bad, you know. Percy might be a jerk to you, but he doesn't like that you're cooped up in your cabin either."

"Yeah, but—"

"You're not so nice to him yourself." Smirking, Leo readjusted himself until he sat cross-legged in front of Jason and made a face. "Look. As much of a smartass as he can be—which is a quality I like about him, by the way—he still puts his friends in front of his pride. He's worried about you the same way you'd be worried about him if the situation was the other way around. But like him, you let your thickheadedness get in the way of actually helping each other sometimes."

"I know. But—"

"You get defensive because of Nico's honor or whatever for how Percy took the guy for granted the same way Percy has it in his head that you betrayed me as a friend or something." Leo waved his hand and tapped something against the cement floor—a summation of Morse Code that Jason knew by heart. Smoldering chocolate brown eyes glanced Jason's way and the Son of Hephaestus shrugged. "I don't know di Angelo's story, but I know that Percy regrets not trying harder to get close to Nico when he could have. And we all know that you're in love with Nico, so Percy's probably jealous of how much Nico likes you better than him."

Like that wasn't the furthest thing from the truth. Jason shut his eyes and seethed. "Leo—"

"You really do love him." Leo's lips twitched and he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "You tapped that on the table back at the hospital."

Jason ceased. Was that what Leo'd freaked out about back in New Rome?

"It's the only phrase you know in Morse Code." The shorter teen shrugged nonchalantly, his hands jingling in his pockets. "I mean—let me tell you that I get it. The war, making everyone emotional. Being able to stay with one person. Someone who understands you. I don't know how di Angelo did it, but you seem happy. Well—seemed. I'm a bit concerned about your emotional state as of late and destroying the Hades Cabin—but if he liked you back, then I'm not opposed to it. Question is. Does he like you back?"

"He doesn't."

"Does he even like boys?"

Jason stiffened. He looked to his knees and ducked his head so he wouldn't have to look Leo in the face. That was another thing. The more people that knew that he was in love with Nico (depending whether it would or would not get around camp), the closer everyone was to finding Nico's secret. Jason could love Nico all he wanted, but he didn't want to be loved back at the expense of outing Nico when Nico didn't want to be.

"Okay. Normally I would brush this off because hey, I don't care about him the way you do anyway. But you got defensive when Percy said the same thing the other day." Leo leaned over, eyebrow arched in the air in both curiosity and concern. He reached over, nudging Jason in the arm, and tried to catch the other teen's eye. "C'mon. It's not like di Angelo made you swear on the River Styx to keep his sexuality a secret, right?"

Silence.

"Oh my gods." Leo's eyes widened and he pulled Jason in by the shoulder. "You—"

"Drop it, Leo." Jason's voice was nothing above a whisper. He tried to keep the anxiety and anger out of his throat and simply looked to his friend pleadingly. "Please."

Usually Leo was so excited off a discovery that it was hard to get him to stop jumping up and down. But Leo only stared back at him, brown eyes burning with disbelief before he settled back against the wall. "I have your Christmas present."

"You got me a Christmas present?"

"Well. Made you one." Leo dug into his pocket—

—and pulled out an imperial gold coin.

Jason blinked. He sat up against the wall to observe the coin, and Leo's nervous smile morphed into a smirk. "What...is that?"

"Flip it." Leo tossed the coin to him.

Catching it, Jason observed the coin as best he could. Leo was the best forger, mechanic, blacksmith, and engineer that he knew. He blinked as he saw the carvings. "Is that...Thalia?" Thalia was carved on one side, beautiful and intricate with piercing eyes, while a wolf was on the other.

"Flip it, man. C'mon!" Leo batted away a flame of excitement and grinned.

Hesitation fluttered through Jason's chest before he tossed the coin up in the air. He heard a WOOOSH, and suddenly the coin turned into a javelin. It landed in his hand as Jason stood to his feet, and he inspected the narrow rod. It was seven feet tall, pure celestial bronze with a firm grip at the base, and was sharpened to a tee. Jason could grip it firmly in his hands and feel a firm weight that wasn't too heavy or too light.

He held it like he was going to throw it and gave an experimental swing. The resistance stiffened in his muscles—enough for Jason to propel it wherever he wished an allow it to sink into a monster with sheer force. "Leo—it's perfect." It was better than his old coin.

"It was made by me. What do you expect?" The Son of Hephaestus smirked, standing to his feet all the same, and looked comically small compared to Jason's new weapon. The idea of Leo actually wielding it was worth a laugh or two. "If you flip Thalia, then you'll get your sword. I figure this is a lot easier to carry around than strapping your gladius to your belt loop."

Ah. Jason looked down to the very thing, which was lying dumbly against the floor since Jason returned to the cabin. He picked that up in his other and stared at it hesitantly.

"Or you can look guilty for some reason that I don't know about."

"It's not that. I mean." Jason strapped his gladius to his belt just like Leo said and tossed his javelin into the air. It turned back into a coin, and he tucked it in his other pocket. "Nico went through the trouble of finding my gladius for me when I lost it in the Rockies, and—"

"Okay, okay." Leo batted his handa round and rolled his eyes. "Obviously you're not going to drop liking di Angelo. So if you want me to take it back—"

"I'll keep both."

"—that's a good choice too." Leo sniggered and slapped the other demigod on the back. He leaned forward, curling a hand over his Jason's shoulder, and arched an eyebrow. "So. You think things would have turned out differently if you never left for Cali?"

"I dunno. I'm still confused about who I am like I've always been." Jason shrugged. "Maybe I wouldn't have fallen for Nico. Maybe…you and I would have—"

"Yeah." Leo patted Jason gruffly over the chest before he could finish that thought.

"Oof!"

"Let's not open up a can of worms that shouldn't be opened." The shorter teen smirked, his feet shifting back and forth over the wooden floor before he slipped away and stood parallel his best friend. "We're cool. Really. Okay?"

Jason hesitated hesitating. Being at camp again brought a surge of excitement that he thought he'd lost long ago. He thought about what it must have been like—to be Piper and not have contact with either of her two best friends, or Leo—whose best friends both left for the other side of the country. Even in LA, he never forgot how valuable they were to him. But just like camp, he took them for granted.

"Are you going to wear that face all night? Geez, Superman, I'm telling you that you're off the hook. I'm in love with the other thickheaded demigod. For good reasons. Even if he is an idiot." Leo elbowed him in the side. The corner of his lip rose into a coy smile, and tiny affectionate embers flickered in his irises. "Okay?"

Blinking, Jason took is favorite blacksmith's expression in. Maybe Leo was right. Besides. There was no point in causing more tension between them when they were finally comfortable around each other again. He clutched the coin in his pocket and smiled back softly. "Okay."

-x-

In the next few days under his house arrest, Jason felt better. He got visits from all of his old teammates—Annabeth, who gave him a few books to read before he reminded her they were both dyslexic, Leo and Piper, who made sure he was eating, and a begrudging Frank and forgiving Hazel. All except Percy—who, like everyone insisted, was not allowed to see him.

Jason went around in circles trying to figure out what to do next. Nico was right—he had nothing else planned past leaving the hospital. All Jason cared for when they got back to his apartment. Together. He toyed with the thought of trying to Iris Messaging Nico—but even if Nico answered, what was he supposed to say?

I really do love you. I never want you to leave me. I—I never want to leave you. I don't care if my life doesn't make sense, but having you, friend, boyfriend, or comrade, is all I want. I just want to be with you.

That was what he wanted to say. But what he wanted to say and what he needed to say were two things.

(Or were they? Jason couldn't tell where his problem lied anymore. He just wanted Nico back.)

He spent hours simply dribbling a gold drachma over his knuckles and pondering over what words to say. Nico undoubtedly would only listen to a select few—and every word in Jason's mind had to be the right ones.

There was no point going back to his apartment after New Year's. The only reason he had it was to rest and search for one Son of Hades. He could talk to his landlord and move out (given there wasn't much else there other than some rotten apples and a sleeping bag)—and maybe come back to his cabin. Percy and Leo would be occupied with school (and Jason was going to kill Leo if his best friend decided otherwise) while Piper continued homeschooling for the rest of the year near her father. Mr. McLean was happy to have her back.

So, even if he came back, Jason wouldn't have either of his best friends at his side. New Rome was always an option (and if Jason wanted, he could retire as a legionnaire), with an endless amount of people requesting his help. Yet he'd feel more like a hero than like a person with family. Thalia was out who-knows-where, and Apollo banned them from seeing each other.

A sour taste bled on his tongue as he clutched the newspaper clipping in his hand and stared at it. Jason spent hours memorizing the contour of his mother's cheeks, the way her hair fell, and the smile that graced her lips before Juno took him away.

Jason pushed his frustration out of the way when he heard a knock on the door. "Come in."

"Hey." Percy popped his head through. "Mind if I join you?"

Uh. "What…are you doing here?"

"Apologizing."

Jason blinked. He went from dabbling with a drachma in his hands to stuffing it in his pockets, where his new weapon lay. But instead of the ire from days of frustration, he caught himself staring at the other teen like Percy'd grown a second head.

"But," Percy said quickly, "I'm not doing it unless you do it." He stuffed his hands in his pockets in the same gesture Jason did.

"You're kidding, right?" Jason faintly wondered if Percy was holding Riptide between his fingers.

"Technically we've both been jerks here. It could be worse." The elder teen shrugged nonchalantly. "I could say you need to defend your honor and we could duel till death."

"I think I'd like that better."

"Me too." Percy wrinkled his nose and dared to step closer, touching the back of his head with his knuckles. Reluctant, he stood parallel to Jason, who had no choice but to step up on his own two feet as well. "But Leo won't get off my back until I do it."

"So you two made up?" Jason crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow.

"We were never fighting." Percy shrugged with one shoulder, still facing Jason with an expression that was mixed between weariness and his usual nonchalance. Jason wondered how the guy managed to get in here without Annabeth chewing Percy out. Then again—Jason knew that if he willingly left his cabin, he would probably try to swallow his pride to make up with one of the friends he respected the most, too.

And then probably fail.

"You're kind of hurting him, man." Jason tched under his breath and shoved his hands back in his pockets. To his surprise, Percy actually looked bewildered by the fact. "Do you have any idea how crazy he is for you?"

Percy frowned. Evidently, that was news for him. "I don't think that's any of your business."

"He's my best friend, dude."

"Funny. What do you call the last few months?"

"Hey—you're no better," Jason snapped. He felt the hairs on his arms stand erect and surge with electricity as he jabbed a finger at Percy's chest. A frown marred his lips and he glared. "You're the one who gave up on Nico—you made him promise to take us to Necromanteion and you didn't even think about his feelings!"

"What does he have to do with anything?" Percy's jaw tightened and he shoved Jason. "It's not my fault that he likes you better than me!"

"You have no idea, do you?" Jason grabbed the collar of Percy's camp shirt as he faltered backward and pulled the elder teen with him.

"What am I supposed to know?!" Percy yanked backwards, hands clutching Jason's wrists, and he scowled. "I'm so tired of hearing that! I don't care, you know, if you have a crush on him! So long as he's happy."

"Shows what you know—"

"I don't know anything, okay? I'm usually the last to find out, actually—" Gripping Jason's hands tightly, Percy unhinged the blond from his collar and pushed him against the wall.

"What the—" Jason blinked at impact—and opened his eyes to a sheathed Riptide at his neck. Immediately, his hand slipped to the coin still sitting in his pocket while Percy scowled at him.

The Son of Poseidon seethed, with his blood boiling under his skin, and he tapped Jason's Adam's apple with Riptide's cap. "Do you really want to settle this with a fight?"

They both knew this was coming. They'd go down this road because of some bad, bad argument. Bad words, then violent fights. It only made sense for it to be this one. But. Jason bit the inside of his mouth and ignored his stomach growling like a whiny child. He hadn't eaten properly in two days—and wasn't in the shape that he used to be.

"Good," Percy breathed, when he decided that Jason wouldn't budge from. He tucked away Riptide with a cautious flicker in his orbs—but said nothing along with it. Instead, Percy backed away at least three feet, giving Jason the room he needed.

There was a storm brewing outside.

Winds shrieked, while thunder and lightning roared—and a faint sound of the Canoe Lake roaring in waves could be heard.

Percy tapped Jason's pocket again when the blond wasn't looking. "Did Leo give you your new weapon?"

Jason bit the inside of his mouth and nodded.

"He's been working on it for a long time now." Percy bit the inside of his mouth and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Even when he was mad at you."

"I had a feeling." As great of a mason that Leo was, it wasn't a gift that looked like it'd been made in haste. Leo and Piper were the only ones who really knew what he could do with his Ivliv coin. The craftsmanship in both the sword and the javelin were finer than any mason in New Rome. "We made up. He and I talked."

"Yeah." Without warning, Percy fell to the ground and crossed his legs. Jason followed, realizing that this conversation would take longer than he wanted. Percy's lip twisted into something abstract—simply looking like he couldn't grasp his thought.

Pressing against the wall, Jason pulled his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms. His gaze fell to his pocket, and then back to Percy. "Look—"

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too."

"It's not…easy, okay?" Percy touched the back of his neck and thumbed the ends of his hair. He grimaced, gaze going to the statue of Zeus in the center of the room. "I'm confused."

"Well, Leo's confused too—"

"No. About the war." For the first time in four months, Jason saw the post-war frustration shrivel in Percy's demeanor. He blinked, while Percy pressed a hand to his own head. "Do you know what this war meant to me?"

No. The blond frowned and played with his tennis shoe. "Percy, you were the calmest about this. The one that made the camps—"

"I've had every mistake I've ever made thrown back in my face. Ones that I was wrong for when I didn't know I was wrong for something." Percy scowled and glared at his sneakers. "Annabeth spent the rest of our time outside of Tartarus looking at me with this fear because of what I did while we were in the Underworld—like I'm a different person. She's been my best friend for five years, and I loved her—and we had nothing."

"You two get along just fine." Jason's eyebrows furrowed together. Like Piper and him, Annabeth went to the west coast to try living with her family again. Camp was only a drive away where she would have a haven if things got too dangerous. All that was left was to brand her arm with the Symbol of Minerva.

"Yeah. We do now." Percy smiled grimly and ran his fingers across the two bars on his forearm. Jason could taste the irony in his comrade's tone—Percy's aspirations during the war was a safe life in New Rome where Annabeth and he could grow up and raise a family together.

Percy's speech came back to Jason's mind—of how being a demigod was the only thing that felt right. No wonder Percy was debating on returning to the legion.

"Look—I'm not saying you didn't contribute to the war. You and I were the bridge, and we know both Romans and Greeks were part of the fall of Kronos. But you don't know what it's like to be the Child of the Prophecy twice." Percy chewed on his lip before shaking his head. "The moment I found out I was the Son of Poseidon, I drowned in everything that came with being a demigod, okay? But Leo was the one who—"

"Who pulled you out of the water." It finally made sense in Jason's head. Leo wasn't the type of person who cared about your heritage—godwise, at least. He cared about personality first—whether or not that person was nice to him or not—and bloodline second. All he cared about, Leo told Jason one day, was that he finally knew people accepted him. Evidently Percy included.

"He's good about that."

"Yeah." It was one of the reasons why Jason clung to Leo after the war and after Piper. Everyone was distraught over what the war had done. Jason knew without a doubt that Piper, Leo, and he clung to each other as the best of friends and as siblings. Percy and he had the same mindset. He often wondered what it would have been like actually growing up Greek. If being Roman was just a fluke and if his mother was still alive.

She cared, Nico's soft voice reminded him. That sliver of information was so important to Jason that if someone ripped it away, they'd take his heart along with it. Leo used to joke that Jason's heart was with everyone he knew, and Jason never denied that thought. Thalia would have been his mentor if she was never turned into a tree, and maybe they could see each other more than just in passing when someone got hurt.

"I think that's the problem with you and me, Perce." Jason touched the back of his head and sighed, letting his favorite idea disappear from reality. Shaking his head, Jason knew having Thalia with him wasn't possible. She was a traveler all on her own—sort of like Nico, only cocky. She had abrasive smirks while Nico had gentle smiles. And—as of that moment, Jason still couldn't go more than five minutes without thinking about the boy who had been with him for the past months. "You and I are loyal. I wouldn't trade my friends even if it cost me my own life and neither would you."

"It's a problem alright." Percy lowered his head and curled his hands into fists. His gaze flickered thoughtfully, and Jason braced himself. Of all ways that this confrontation could go, he didn't expect for Percy to lower his shields.

And he didn't expect to lower his own, either. Jason reached over and placed a hand over Percy's shoulder. His eyebrows knitted together. "I don't…want that to be a problem. I don't want you and me to go at it and kill each other."

Come to think of it, the last time they were both standing in Zeus's Cabin, Percy and he were wishing each other good luck for the year.

"Hey. That's going to happen." Percy shrugged. His lips curled into a smirk and he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "According to our fathers, you and I are destined to kill each other."

"I'm not my father."

"But you want to be."

Jason bit the inside of his mouth.

Percy shook his head with a quaint smile at his lips, like he couldn't believe he was right. "That's okay, you know. You can be like your father and not be all sides of him. I feel that way about my dad too."

"Percy…you're not—"

"I'm a son of Poseidon. I know. But what you don't realize is that Zeus only has one domain. Poseidon rules the seas and Hades rules the Underworld. That's common knowledge. And like I said. I was the child of prophecy in the First War. You and I were switched because we were considered the camp leaders of both Camp Halfblood and Camp Jupiter."

Percy's gaze hardened, eyebrows knitting together. Jason swore that he could actually see the sorrow in that sea-green hue that usually belonged to Nico.

"Thalia became the lieutenant to Artemis's huntresses and Nico became the Ghost King within a year of losing his sister and finding out that he was a demigod. You're not the only one that worries about the people that follow him, Jason. That's part of the reason why we think alike. You and I both know personally what's at stake."

Oh. Jason blinked before his gaze fell to the ground, distress filling him again. He'd been so busy sulking about Nico that Jason forgot the other thing that bothered him. There was no longer a sense of identity with him now. Starting out in Los Angeles meant shedding both his Roman heritage and Greek identity, to which Nico'd pointed out several times. He was no longer the praetor, the camp leader, the one that people followed—and at that point he was barely a teammate.

And now he wanted it back. He wanted to be praetor, camp leader, and to be a teammate again. But coming back and picking things up wasn't as easy as it sounded. It wasn't like he'd gone away for the school year and then came back—Jason had every intention of finding a new him while he was gone.

"You may not realize it, but I see how lost you are. Like you don't know what you want, so you try to go with the flow. Going with the flow is usually my thing. Following an air current seems more like yours." Percy gestured to the statue of Jason's father in the corner and shrugged. "You can be as free as the wind, but if a gust is blowing, it blows. You just need someone to…I dunno—gr—"

"Ground me." Jason finished the sentence for him. He frowned, thinking back to what Nico'd told him weeks ago, and felt his heart tremble in his chest. That feeling…really wasn't going to leave, was it? The gaping hole in his chest was ready for that blast of air to rush through him and remind Jason that he felt empty. The pain was so incomparable that he wondered if it was a god's doing. "I know."

Their conversation was met with a gap, where Percy's lips pursed together and Jason rubbed his temples in effort to make his headache disappear. Hazel told him precisely why Nico'd ran away: the sudden confession of raw emotion, intimate contact, and the fact that Jason ripped it all away only seconds later before Nico could even process what happened.

His mantra since and before realizing how badly he was in love with Nico di Angelo was that Nico needed a guy that would give him the world. Someone great who Nico deserved—who even after years of commitment was still undeserving of Nico. Jason may have spent months getting close to the Son of Hades, but he was at the bottom of the list of people who should actually have him.

"You've looked lost since after the war, Jason. Every time I saw you after that, you looked like you couldn't find yourself." Percy shrugged, finally speaking once again. "Hanging out with Nico was the first time you looked like you knew what you wanted."

"That's because the only thing I wanted to do with myself was help Nico accept himself."

"I know. I don't get why he likes you so much. I mean—you kind of screwed up," Percy continued. His lips twisted into a frown and gaze flickered with the frustration and guilt that'd tormented him earlier. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have dipped in the River Styx. Having that armor on me was one of the reasons why I was still alive during the first war. I promised to keep his sister safe and I couldn't follow up on that. Somehow, you get him to stay with you. To trust you. I can barely get him to stand next to me for ten seconds before he runs away."

Wait.

"You're…trying to make amends with him?" Jason arched an eyebrow. If this was an ongoing problem, this was the first time he'd ever heard about it. (Then again, this was the first time Percy and he were having a peaceful conversation in a long time.) The first part of Percy's speech ran through his head and he tasted something bitter at the back of his mouth.

He doesn't like me, Jason thought. Nico liked Percy.

Sea green eyes raised upward, wary, before Percy bowed his head again in shame. He sighed sharply and shook his head. "He's the only reason why Annabeth and I were able to survive in Tarturus, Jace. I…" Percy's voice broke, and he grimaced. "I couldn't go back. Not without knowing he'd help me in some way."

Oh. "You need to talk to him."

"He won't listen to me."

"He didn't listen to me either when I went to find him. You have to make him listen." Jason watched Percy's doubt morph carefully. "Nico wants you to trust him as much as you want him to trust you. But he's given up trying."

The other teen studied him. "Is it going to bother you if we do?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation in Jason's answer. Understanding his feelings for Nico meant knowing that Percy was a big part of Nico's life too. But—"But I want him to be happy. More than I want to be happy. And…talking to you will let him do that." He would rather be miserable and lost for the rest of his life if it meant Nico could make peace with his old crush. "Let's…put it this way, Percy. He'll listen to me even less than he'll listen to you the next time he pops up."

"Mm." Percy's demeanor broke, gaze fogging over thoughtfully. He plopped next to Jason and shrugged. "So that's it then. I hated you because of how you ignored Leo and you hated me because I…"

"Because you were a jerk," Jason finished for him. "And…because it felt like the right thing to be for Nico's sake."

"Okay." Percy touched a hand to his hair and shook his head. "But for the record—"

"We're both jerks." There really wasn't anyone out there who could ignite Jason's impatience like Percy could. He figured it went with the idea that they thought alike. Thalia already found her path, but Percy and he were still two kids trying to sort out their lives. Percy had some out-of-the-galaxy strange ideas a lot of times, but it was a distinct quirk that made getting along with the other teen a blast. "So are you even…gay? I mean, I never expected you to pick yourself back up so quickly after Annabeth. Especially with—you know. My best pal?"

Percy's face twisted, lips curling into a frown. "Does it matter?"

It did to Nico. Jason could see why even if he didn't agree with that mindset. But it wasn't like he could point out how badly finding out about Percy and Leo hurt the poor demigod.

"I guess…I'm…me?" Percy shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Please. I grew up in New York, Grace. Plus, how am I supposed to sit down and think about my sexuality if ten seconds later, a monster is going to set the cafeteria on fire?"

Jason opened his mouth to protest. He couldn't. Growing up Roman meant he didn't understand the concept of being interested in just one sex or the other. "Okay."

"Hm." Percy snorted and slouched against the wall. His eyes glimmered with wryness and he shook his head. "Now look at that. We were able to talk everything out without killing each other."

Huh. "I…guess you're right." They'd been subtly threatening each other since New Rome. Speaking to Percy like this was a lot more satisfying. "Bros?"

The Son of Poseidon smirked and looked to Jason from the corner of his eye. They fist-bumped. "More than that. You and I are brothers."

-x-

The night before the first Capture the Flag game of the new year, Jason saw Nico in a dream.

With Thalia.

They sat in a diner against the window, where Jason could make out a freeway and a sign that read, Ohio, 36 miles. The walls were a burnt orange, tiresome to the eyes, with animal heads hanging near the counter. Several plates covered their table, and Jason watched as Nico pushed around a strawberry covered in red syrup.

To his surprise, Nico looked like he'd shirked off his jacket a long time ago, along with his scarf and hat. Without it, he looked his age. Like a kid that was growing into his own skin. Jason didn't think he'd recognize Nico—not with the way that he had his elbows resting on the table, fork digging into the remnants of his cake, and with a hand that ruffled through his own hair.

Thalia was no different. For once she wasn't wearing the silver tiara that defined her as Artemis's lieutenant—instead having it beside her in the booth seat. Both her leather jacket and winter parka sat in her lap, while she ate what seemed to be her fourth burger.

Once she finished with her milkshake, she spoke. "Nico, we've been sitting here for two hours and you haven't said a thing." Electric blue eyes flickered mischievously, and she pushed a choppy lock out of her face. "I love American food as much as the next person, but my Huntress paycheck is only so much."

"Sorry," Nico breathed. He looked tired. Unhealthier than usual. His bony face was narrower. Bags sagged around dull black eyes—and Nico looked like he hadn't eaten in a week. Less than usual.

Most of those plates were Thalia's, Jason realized. She probably ordered all of that food back-to-back, just waiting until her current accomplice uttered a word.

That…sounded an awful lot like something Jason would do.

"I don't mean to rush you, kid." Eyebrows gluing together, Thalia rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward to get a better look at the Son of Hades. "If I had it my way, I'd let you vent about whatever you needed to. But I really need to—"

"Apollo and Artemis forbid you and Jason to see each other." The tenor of Nico's voice grinded against his throat like gravel. It was painful music to Jason's ears, but it also made his heart flutter. A bitter chuckle echoed from the grim teen's lips and he shook his head while Thalia fell silent.

"He told you that?" He being him. Jason.

"He tells me a lot of things." Nico's virulent smile faded until it was a frown. The corner of the teen's mouth rose in attempt of a wistful smirk, but it was clear that it was just a pitiful attempt. "You know what Jason's biggest dream is?"

"I can take a guess."

"He wishes that your mother was still alive. That you and he got the chance to grow up together instead of being separated. He's so Greek now that he wouldn't care about being Roman. And if that were the case, then he'd either wish you never turned into a tree so you could be together or that he was there when you were yourself again." Nico shrugged and plucked the strawberry from his plate.

"Yeah, well—our mother's not one of my favorite people in the world. He is the only reason that I stayed." Thalia's gaze narrowed at the other teen. She had a cautious demeanor on, but Jason could tell she was also trying to consider Nico's words.

"I showed him where she died."

"What?"

"He deserves to know what really happened to her. And how she felt." Nico's demeanor hardened and he sat back against his seat. At this point, Jason remembered they were only a year apart. Nico was fourteen, and before her birthday, Thalia decided to remain eternally fifteen forever. From gaze alone, they looked more like siblings than Jason and she did. "That was the deal. I watch Jason for you, and you give me a name. I never told you what I'd do with it."

Thalia scowled at him—only for a moment. After that she shook her head in dismay and sighed. Her fingers laced around her glass of Pepsi and she leaned back in her chair. "You're right."

He was?

Nico nodded slowly and tightened his own hands around his glass.

"There were moments where the three of us were a happy family. And then the moments where you wondered how our mom was the same person that would sing my little brother to sleep." Shaking her head, Thalia ducked her head and glared at the ice at the bottom of her drink. "I want to tell him the good things about her. But every time I look at him, I think about what our stepmom made our mother do. And how easily that our mother obeyed her wishes. To Zeus and Hera—Jupiter and Juno—he's just been the pawn to go against Percy."

"He's more than that."

"I know. Look—I should be mad at you for sticking your nose in someone else's business, but maybe Jace really did need someone else's opinion. I'll give you that." Sitting higher in her seat, she reached over to place a hand over Nico's fingers. Electrifying blue eyes narrowed at the younger teen and Jason saw the sisterly look on her face that was usually directed at him. "But you and I both know that that's not the reason why you came to me. I'm flattered, actually. I'd think you'd go to Percy or Haz—"

"I came to you because you get it."

Nico's breath was shaky. He slouched against the booth seat and inhaled as much sanity as his lungs would allow. Yet Thalia watched his reaction calmly. Pulling Nico's hand toward her, she squeezed his fingers beneath her palm and stroked his knuckles in circles.

"What do I get?" she asked.

"You had your mind and body messed with." Rattling his ring against the table, Nico held the face that Jason saw right before the other teen had left. Confusion. Distraught. Anger—anger at the world like it didn't make sense and never would. "Your fate was altered so there was a chance that you would be the Child of the Prophecy. You had no choice but to move on when you found out your best friend in the world would no longer be there when you woke up. Even though nothing had been wrong before that."

Although he leered at Thalia, there was no anger directed toward her. Jason could sense the mix of miserable rage (directed at him) and sad morning in those orbs.

"You left Jason by himself after you two finally found each other—like…like how Bianca left me." The Son of Hades choked on his own words and smiled unhappily. "Because you both understood that neither of us needed your protection anymore.

"But you're like me too. You can't sit still every single day at Camp Halfblood and just do the same pattern. People know of you because you're Zeus's daughter and because you protected camp for years, but people don't know you. That's why being a huntress is so good for you."

Nico shook his head and choked on another breath.

Jason cocked his head to his sister, whose demeanor remained undeterred since they entered this conversation. She only nodded—returning Nico's tense words with short, calm nods.

Were sisters supposed to do that? Were they supposed to be so calm even when little brothers thought their world was going to collapse around them?

"You get to have your heritage as a Daughter of Zeus and be Tiffany Grace's daughter." Nico retracted both his hands and set them beneath the table. He looked at her with a hard gaze, but Jason couldn't read the emotions he saw. "But you also get to shed the past so that it only becomes fact, and live your life under a new god—Artemis."

"So you know what it's like to know your background as your mother's son and your godly father's offspring. And to want to get as far away as possible from it as much as you want to take pride in it." Thalia lowered her head and bowed it curtly in return. Pressing her lips together, she sat back against her booth and crossed her arms over her chest. "And we can't commit to anything because it's hard to find a middle ground. Is that why we're the same?"

The younger demigod chewed on his lip and nodded.

"As a big sister to a little brother, I can tell you that Bianca was being selfish. About everything."

Jason winced.

She arched an eyebrow when Nico stared at her in disbelief and pulled her hands away. "I'm the same way. You know that too. You're right in saying that I joined the Huntresses, but I did it because I didn't want to be reminded of who I was before: the Daughter of Zeus who lost her brother and dealt with her mother all those years. Hera tried to kill me at every turn, di Angelo. Artemis let me move on with my life, and I haven't regretted it. Which means I can't throw away everything just to be with my brother, who barely needs me anymore.

"Bianca was there for you for years since the end of the first war. We both know that she thought you'd be better at Camp Halfblood. Maybe she would've been right if she was alive. I don't know what to say about the current situation. But even in the afterlife, she had to leave. She could be waiting for you to summon her any time that you want, but she wouldn't have been able to live. So to speak. You wouldn't have been happy for her if she stayed a ghost for the rest of her life, if she had the choice of reincarnation.

"I will always love Jason, Nico. And I will always be there for him." A sad smile graced Thalia's lips and she fiddled with the bracelet over her wrist. "But I'm not the defining point in his life. He has to learn to accept himself in the only way he knows how, and so do you. Percy's done it. I've done it." The quaint smile curled into a half-joking smirk. "It's a Big Three thing."

She really was the best sister in the world. Jason was so entranced by her words that he didn't realize how moist his eyes had gotten.

Nico ducked his head and nodded slowly. He swallowed the frustrating lump in his throat and scowled at his empty plate. "Then may I make my own selfish request?"

"Always, kid."

"I can't keep my end of the promise. I can't keep up with it." Shutting his eyes, Nico touched his temples with shaky palms and held back his own tears. "I can't…see Jason anymore."

Silence.

Pain.

All the air in Jason's lungs suddenly depleted and his throat dried. His heart felt like his own gladius was piercing through him. The blood keeping him alive disappeared into nothingness and that was it. He felt empty.

Thalia's blue eyes widened and for once, she broke her composed stature.

"It," Nico breathed, "just…hurts—"

CLING!

The diner door opened, and instantly both demigods tensed.

Thalia tapped her silver bracelet once more—and Jason woke up.

-x-

Jason had a headache.

His mind was spinning with all the possibilities that Nico and Thalia could've been facing. Who came into the diner? Why did Thalia reach for Aegus?

No—they'd be fine. They were Nico di Angelo and Thalia Grace for crying out loud. He chastised himself for worrying so much, but the way they both dropped everything for whoever arrived made Jason impatient.

And Nico's confession only spliced his heart in half.

Every time the words crossed his mind, Jason's chest had another hole through it. His lungs felt empty, like he could no longer take his next breath, and Jason would have to keep from wanting to die right on the spot.

He messed up. Big time.

Nico no longer wanted to see him, and the last time the younger teen purposefully avoided Jason, they were without each other for a week. (One that had Jason on edge for what felt like an eternity.)

"How are you feeling?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Jason sucked in the air around him through his mouth to feel like him again. His oldest friend and partner, Reyna, looked at him with concern. Her brow pinched together beneath the imperial gold helm and he could see her frown in the moonlight.

They were split up exactly how Jason proposed it on the first day: Smaller Cabins and the First and Second Cohort versus Larger Cabins and the Fourth and Fifth. The new purple shirt looked good on her.

"I'm okay," Jason lied. He held his gladius close to him and smiled at her lightly. "I'm glad you're team captain instead of me."

He was playing for Zeus's Cabin while Percy played for the Fifth Cohort. Jason didn't think he'd seen Percy look so humble before when the Romans greeted him like a guy returning to family. He looked like he belonged with them so much that Jason went from being jealous to being content for the guy.

Leo was supposedly unfazed by Percy's debacle of going to New Rome after high school. He planned on getting an engineering degree and then going back to Texas to open up a workshop under his mother's name. Even though Jason was worried, he knew it was an issue that Leo and Percy would have to work out themselves. You know—when Percy finally got the nerve to ask Leo out.

"That's not what I meant." Reyna reached out and adjusted the strap on Jason's breastplate. Piercing eyes narrowed to him, inspecting Jason like he was a book. "You're my oldest friend, Jason. I know when you're hurting. Just like when you know I am."

That was true. Jason had friends who were willing to do anything for him. Like making sure he didn't get into serious trouble for wrecking another camper's cabin.

The rumors about his outburst were close to zero. (The latest, apparently, was that Mr. D struck him with hysteria and Jason was driven mad to murder Hazel. Mr. D mutilated that rumor all on his own.)

"He doesn't want to see me anymore." The blond smiled sadly and fell from his couch behind the shrub. Jason sighed. "I had a dream."

There was no question about who he was referring to. No one suspected it had anything to do with the other Child of Hades/Pluto. However, Jason's confession only threw Nico under the bus with their friends.

Yeah. Their friends.

One of Nico's more personal confessions was how he felt about the second war. The first one ostracized him from everything he knew and loved: his sister. He spent years honing his own powers so that being a Son of Hades would be mildly bearable. Nico didn't want to feel the way he did for Percy, but the other Greek demigod was the reason why he didn't think of himself as half dead. Everyone on the Argo II saw Nico being human. Crying. Sleeping. Frustrated. Angry. Relieved.

Even if there wasn't a mutual companionship (or really, any at all), Nico considered them closer to him than anyone else on the living plane.

"What are you going to do about it?" Reyna asked finally.

It pulled Jason out of his thoughts, and his heart only ached. "I never meant to fall in love with him."

That was the truth. His moral compass led him to Nico di Angelo to help him. To save Nico before the guy was whole dead. Falling in love with Nico was the worst thing Jason could have ever done.

Standing to his feet, Jason gestured to Team Red's territory in front of them. Capture the Flag was supposed to keep his mind off of the guy. It was the first time Jason ever said I love you to someone. And now Nico was all he could think about. Bringing the said Son of Hades up wasn't going to help. "C'mon. I know my way around this forest."

Fighting alongside Reyna was like old times—where she filled his blind spots and he maneuvered around her moves.

However, being at Camp Halfblood was what Jason missed the most. Here, he had friends who weren't just comrades—they were family too. They could laugh around a forum and make jokes around the ping pong table, even if the Roman in Jason was screaming that it was against…well, common sense. No one cared about his status as Zeus's Roman son, and his sister's legacy as the Daughter of Zeus reigned with a zest of pine in the air.

This was the haven his sister never had.

Jason would never be disgusted with his upbringing, but he could think freely without tradition or dwelling on how he was going against tradition and say it all aloud without being chastised by the campers around him.

Here Jason was a leader and he didn't have to be a leader.

Jason forgot why he loved it so much.

"Behind you—"

Reyna shoved the end of her javelin into someone's chin and the blood went flying from Kevin Bushman's mouth. Jason grimaced.

"That's…kinda violent, don't you think?"

A dark eyebrow darted in the air and she planted her javelin against the ground. Reyna snorted. "I think you're thinking a little too greek here, Jason."

"I think…that I'm still afraid of you." Jason couldn't help but chuckle against Reyna's serious tone. It was amazing how easy it was for them to fall in step since they hadn't seen each other in over a year. Conversation during the war was kept to swift battle plans before Gaea could make her attack. They still had their bond from years of tag teaming, but it was faint.

Now—Jason was reminded why he loved his upbringing as a Son of Jupiter, too.

They smirked at each other and then Reyna was off. Jason pushed the winds around him, causing branches to rustle as he leaped into the air and soared right after her. The atoms crackled at his finger tips and surged through his gladius as they trudged through the forest. Reyna disarmed two soldiers from the Third Cohort and flipped a girl from Demeter Cabin.

"I see the flag," Jason announced after ten minutes of trekking. He took Reyna by the hand as she shot it through the air and they flew together.

The good thing about being a Son of Jupiter was that no one saw him as intimidating. Greeks were themselves first and "war-like," like the Romans second. But they did love a challenge. Leo declared after two months at Camp Halfblood that the secondary goal of Cabin 9 was to "DESTROY" Jason Grace. AKA: find out what Jason's kryptonite was.

Ever since the three of them came to camp, they made changes happen. Cabin 9 was described as the most explosive (and unpredictable) cabin in all of Long Island while the Aphrodite Cabin was more respected—especially when Piper taught her siblings how to hone their charmspeaking and other skills. (Plus—some Hermes kids contributed into reshaping Cabin 10 once they were done pulling every prank in the book to get Piper and Travis together. According to them, the "one-unit" name for them was "Triper.")

Of everything that being Greek taught him, Jason relearned what he loved the most out of either camp: camaraderie.

A wall of water shot up in the air and forced Jason into a dead halt. It morphed into columns, spiraling around them like twin tornadoes. At the bottom of the eye, Percy gave them an impish grin.

"Throw me," Reyna said.

"What?"

"You stall him, I'll get the flag." Reyna swiveled downward and waved her javelin at a tree.

"That's at least a fifteen feet drop, Rey." Jason swallowed hard when he saw Reyna's smirk.

"It'll be fun. Like bungee jumping. I'll land in that tree."

Percy morphed the two columns back into a wall and slammed it against the pair. Before they were hit, Jason flung his partner toward the nearest tree and summoned a gust to help her land. At the ground, Percy's forearms were wrapped with water from the creek like armor. Riptide gleamed in his hands and the teen grinned—like saying, 'Hey man, we knew this was gonna happen.'

Of course it was.

And with that, Jason grinned from cheek-to-cheek.

He struck a hand through the torrent tower beside him and let sparks fly. Electricity clapped like a hissing cat in the whirling water and Percy jerked backward in surprise. When he recovered, Jason rocketed downward and spun. Winds followed his every turn coating him over the lightning that crackled against his skin. Percy put up the blunt side of Riptide in effort to repel the blond—but he failed. He doubled backwards as Jason shoved his gladius into Percy's breastplate and fell into his natural element.

As Jason landed, water froze from the creek and froze around his feet.

"Nice moves," Percy commented. He grinned like a child and held his sword in a Roman formation. "Mine are better, graecus."

"We're gonna go there then? Jason arched an eyebrow and smirked. In an instant, Percy charged forward with Riptide prepared to cut Jason's head off.

Touching his fists to the wet dirt, Jason sent a light charge through the water.

Percy stepped on a rock and swung his sword against Jason's gladius. The imperial gold weapon shot through the air and stabbed a tree. As soon as that happened, Jason broke the ice at his feet and flipped backwards in standard Roman formation. He tossed his new coin straight in the air and caught his new sword.

Once more, the brunet charged—shoving his elbow into the blonde's chest plate. Water followed, dousing all of Jason's clothes beneath the elbow pads, shin guards, breastplate, helm—and every other piece of armor that he wore. Instantly, it froze into thin ice and Jason felt a surge of frozen air against his flesh.

His teeth chattered, and despite the cold he slammed his sword against Riptide. "Y-You're pretty good, Jackson."

"Avatar: the Last Airbender." Percy smirked triumphantly and aimed his sword at the younger teen's feet. "Good TV show and good ways to learn new moves. Like…this." He lifted his fingers once again, and a cold fog surrounded them. Percy shoved Jason at least three feet away once they were shrouded in white mist.

Jason had to hand it to him. Living with the self-proclaimed Boy-On-Fire probably helped Percy strengthen what he could do. Flames were like breathing to Leo, which was why it was hard for him to suppress—so Percy taught Leo how to fight, and Leo taught Percy how to…well, breathe water.

In Jason's case, it was the same thing. He breathed in. A turbulent of hot air left his mouth and separated the mist before him. As the fog split in half, Jason caught glimpse of at least a dozen campers (on red and blue team) watching Percy and him like they were the favorite show on Hephaestus TV.

He took wind and shot into an aerial view of his opponent, then torpedoed downward on Percy, who, predictably, was standing with his feet in the creek.

One sword met the other, with the collision sending excitement into Jason's veins.

Percy released their bind with a naughty grin and aimed the sharp edge of his sword at the blond's left shin guard. He feinted—once Jason tried to dodge that attack, the Son of Poseidon summoned a whip of water to engulf Jason's entire face.

The Roman demigod grunted in surprise and fell to his knees. The moment his fingers touched water, Jason let a jolt of electricity course through the stream. Percy jumped, with the sudden shock paralyzing his calves, and instantly fell forward.

Jason's new sword collided with Percy's breastplate. If this was a battle without armor, then Percy's heart would have been floating through the bloody wound of his chest by now. Instead, Percy rolled over onto his stomach and sucked in a harsh breath of air. Water soaked him from feet to hair—and the next breath sounded less ragged than the last.

Sea green eyes flitted upward—mixed with a serious demeanor and the emotion of a guy that was having the time of his life. Most of the wounds Jason caused were gone—thanks to the dumb source of water that Jason should have led them away from a long time ago.

The elder teen jumped to his feet and rammed the blunt side of his sword through Jason's teeth—who faltered backward immediately.

"Whoa!" Another column of water shot upward, encasing Jason before he and the tower were sent rocketing toward the clouds. Percy's hand was balled into a fist, and he grinned. With one jerk of his pointer finger, Jason went twirling.

Crap.

Think, Jason. Think. He gritted his teeth and shut his eyes as Percy forced him to do a figure eight in the air. They always joked about how they could kill the other person—but both of them knew that it'd be one hell of a fight before that happened. (And—well, it wouldn't be this fight. If he weren't so frustrated and close to drowning by water tower, Jason would be grinning and whooping like Percy did.)

The idea struck him as hard as Riptide would have. Jason squeezed his eyes shut and forced the winds to spin counter-clockwise to Percy's forced twirling. The zephyrs matched the speed of the water around their master until Jason could finally come to a dizzying stop.

"Uh-oh," Percy muttered.

A smirk spread widely across Jason's lips and he tossed his sword into the air. It turned into a javelin immediately, and he held it high into the gray sky.

After that, three things happened:

Jason's team, Team Blue, burst through the forest with the Red flag in Piper's hand. She was held by the Stoll Brothers, despite them being on the other team, with all of her siblings (along with members of the First and Second Cohort) cheering from behind.

Percy and he stopped for two seconds to register that fact, while Piper was beaming like the sun.

"PERCY!"

"Tyson?" Before they knew it, Percy's big-little brother burst through the waters and pulled the other Son of Poseidon into a big bear hug. The cyclops jumped for joy and giggled—and while a hug like that should have snapped Percy in half, he was laughing too. "Hey, bro, what are you doing here?"

Towers of water shot up from the creek once again—bigger. Faster. Better. They swirled around a glowing entity as it rose from the waters—until a man appeared. He had a tan that one could only get at the beach, and wore roman robes that bore the colors of the sea. Over that was a breastplate with the carvings of Ancient Greek—Atlantean?—and entwined in his left hand was a thick imperial gold trident.

The man tried to look fierce—with a stern face and a military crop cut that looked like it spent the last thousand years in the water—but his eyes gave him away: gentle sea green pools as calm as the ocean.

Like Percy's.

Suddenly, a glowing yellow orb appeared over Jason's head—like what happened when a Greek demigod was claimed by his godly parent. Above him was the symbol of Zeus: a lightning bolt. But…he wasn't born Greek.

"That's not right," Percy said. Jason turned to him and saw that a sea green trident was resting above Percy's head, along with Tyson's as well. In the crowd, a dark purple sphere hovered over an astonished Hazel, who reached to touch the light for the first time. "You've already claimed me, Dad. Why are you here?"

Jason almost frowned. He couldn't believe how casually Percy was talking to his father—but he knew Piper and Leo to do the same thing.

Suddenly, the waters parted for the Lord of the Sea, who took steps forward—toward Jason. His voice was all-powerful—but as soothing, as powerful, as terrifying, and as calm as the ocean. "Jason Grace."

Remembering his presence amongst a god, Jason fell to one knee. He could hear tiny footsteps—of Hazel slowly coming to the middle to join Percy, Tyson, and him—and the four of them knelt respectfully. "Lord…Neptune?"

He confronted gods before. Hades and Apollo were only two examples, and even in the way they greeted him both excited and terrified Jason. Hades was supposed to hate Children of Zeus. And—so was Poseidon.

Yet the god in front of him went from looking stern and fierce to a gentle smile. "You must prepare. You four have a long quest ahead of you."