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1 -----The first date they go on is interrupted spectacularly. They're eating dinner at a small Italian restaurant when someone is thrown through the window, glass shattering and covering everything with sharp edges. The person lands on a table, breaking it in half with a loud crash. They roll over and lean up in an elbow with a groan and Percy can see that it's a young girl. Her hair hangs over her face, so Percy doesn't see that it's Hazel until she pulls her hair back with an arm and rolls onto her back. Jason shoves the table over when he stands up, running over to where Percy is already reaching for Hazel's arm. She looks up at them with a cheeky smile. "Sorry boys, didn't mean to get in your way," she laughs. Percy sighs and hauls her to her feet, but quickly grabs her more firmly when her ankle gives out and she stumbles. Jason frowns in worry. He quickly forgets about Hazel, confident that Percy can handle her, and nearly jumps out of his skin when a loud roar echoes through the restaurant. He idly wonders what the mortals are seeing as he flies himself through the broken window. Of course it's a hydra. A small one, but still. It is kind of weird that it's inside the city though. Jason touches down and starts sprinting to where the hydra is screeching and crushing cars. Jason knows that the stupid thing won't die unless he can get to the stupid thing’s heart. He can distantly heat Percy shout as Jason hurls himself straight at the monster. He collides sword first and it sinks straight where he wants it to by some stroke of luck. And then the Hydra disintegrates. Jason falls, and he hits the ground hard. His vision swims and then goes black. *****He wakes up to Percy’s face. “Hey,” he mumbles, “that didn’t go very well.”Percy laughs. “Guess we’ll have to try again,” he replies, cupping Jason’s cheek. 2——-The next time they don’t even get to leave Jason’s house. Leo descends upon them as soon as they step outside, screaming. That in itself isn’t really unusual, but the hoard of sprites that followed behind were. Percy sighs and pulls Leo behind him. “What did you do now?!” Percy hears Jason hiss. “Nothing!” Leo squeaks back, pressing as close to Percy’s back as he can. Percy just grumbles to himself, ignores them, and pulls out riptide. The sprites are on them almost immediately, their little faces scrunched up in anger, and their voices reaching a dangerously high pitch. Percy does his best to bat them away without hurting them, but sometimes he accidentally hits one with the sharp edge of the sword and they dissolve into yellow powder. He can feel the air pressing strangely, and knows that Jason has joined in. Leo seems to have pulled himself together a bit and is now holding palms of fire. The sprites can’t actually do much as they don’t really have magic of their own, and they’re very tiny, but there’s probably a thousand of them swarming around the three demigods. Percy groans and shouts at Jason to push them back while he gathers his power. There’s so many of them he’s not entirely sure it will work, but he spreads his awareness out and feels the blood rushing through their tiny bodies. ’It seems even they bleed.’ he thinks darkly before holding a hand out and stopping them mid assault. Every sprite freezes and falls, the beating of their wings stopping and Percy not bothering to hold them in the air. Percy trembles from the strain, but manages to hold on. “Blow them away Jason!” he calls, sweat running down his back. It’s so strange to feel his power spread so thin. It’s exciting. Percy feels that familiar darkness creeping in, telling him how easy it would be to just freeze the water, or pull it out of their bodies. If he just let go a little bit this whole thing would be a lot easier. So easy. And then the temptation is gone, along with the sprites. Jason blew them so far away that Percy can’t reach them, and his power retreats with a grumble. He sinks to his knees. Jason is quick to rush to him and Percy nearly immediately feels a hand running through his hair. Jason kneels in front of him with a worried look on his face. Leo stomp over to them, smelling faintly of ozone and burnt hair. “Thanks guys,” he says cheerfully, “I’d stay but... I don’t want to be here if the come back.” Percy ignores him and leans his forehead on Jason’s shoulder. “See you Leo,” Jason replies quietly for both of them, “maybe give us some more warning next time you decide to drop by.” Leo’s laugh sounds distant and then there is the sound of a car door slamming. Percy hadn’t even noticed how Leo had got there. He’d just kind of assumed he’d fallen from the sky. Percy closes his eyes and turns his face into Jason’s neck. He can feel a hand twisting in his hair and then Jason is singing quietly to him. It sounds strange and haunting, it reminds Percy of something, but he doesn’t quite know what. “Are you okay?” Jason asks softly when the song is done. Percy sighs and pulls away from the other boy. “It’s just that my own thoughts surprise me sometimes,” he mumbles. “I don’t know who I’d be if I went through with them.”Jason pulls him to standing then draws him in for a hug. “You’re just you, Percy. And you’ve been through a lot. It’s a wonder you’re still standing,” he offers. Percy smiles wetly against his boyfriend’s cheek. “I guess that date is going to have to wait,” he says wryly, his voice thick. Jason just squeezes him tighter. 3——-The third time isn’t even a monster disturbance. It’s just traffic. The stupid cars are moving about a mile an hour and Jason wants to scream. Percy has been sitting beside him quietly for the last fifteen minutes and Jason just wants to go home and watch a movie. At least they’d be together. It can’t be awkward while you’re watching Captain America beat up Iron Man. He doesn’t even know why it’s awkward. After the incident with Leo, Percy had seemed to shut down. He didn’t really say much to Jason even when he mentioned that he’d made reservations at a restaurant for the weekend. He wouldn’t say what was wrong and he only let Jason close when he was tired. It was like going back to before they’d kissed for the first time. So here they are, stuck in traffic or probably the next hour, already late for their reservation, and sitting in awkward silence. Jason should just turn around. Even though it would probably take just as long to get home. Percy slouches a little farther down in his seat. Finally Jason can’t take it anymore. “What’s wrong!” he bursts out, startling Percy. The other boy turns to stare at him with wide eyes. “Nothing?” He answers, but it sounds like a question. Jason doesn’t reply immediately, just turns to glare out the windshield. “Jason?” Percy questions softly. “You’ve been acting weird since that time on Wednesday that Leo showed up,” he states quietly. “You won’t let me touch you unless you’re super tired, you hardly talk, and you’re always tired. What’s wrong?” He continues. Percy stares at him mutely for a moment before looking away guiltily. “I didn’t think you’d noticed,” he replies quietly. Jason nearly bursts out laughing, the thought of not noticing something about Percy is so ridiculous. As it is, he manages to only choke on his own spit. “Percy, you basically live at my house usually. I’ve hardly seen you since then. I had to ask Annabeth to get you to answer me because you weren’t picking up your phone!” Jason finishes, staring straight ahead. Percy breathes out slowly and then turns in his seat so he’s basically facing Jason. “You’re right,” he says slowly. “Something did happen.”Jason tenses up, not sure if he’s going to like what he has to hear. But there’s not escaping it, and he practically asked for it. “I thought some things while I had those sprites frozen that scared me. I don’t trust myself around you because I wanted to do it. It felt like something rising in me, and I didn’t know how to control it. I wanted to hurt them, tear the water right out of their blood and through their skin,” Percy takes a shuddering breath. “It scares me that I could even do that in the first place, but to feel that uncontrolled about it? To want it like that? I don’t trust myself.”Jason watches Percy cover his eyes and reaches out a hand. He buries his fingers in the smaller boy’s hair and tugs gently. “I trust you, Percy,” he whispers, “just because you feel out of control sometimes doesn’t mean that you ARE out of control. You have no idea the amount out times I can feel the static in the air and just want to bring it down.”Percy leans into his hand, but doesn’t look up. “Why do you think the big three weren’t supposed to have children? We have only a small portion of their powers, but we could still lay waste to this world,” Jason continues quietly, thinking about his own mistakes, “it’s our choices that matter, not what we’re afraid we could do. I know you’d never do something like that to something harmless, you care too much.”Percy sniffles and wipes his eyes with his shirtsleeve. “You really don’t think I could hurt you?” he questions. “I don’t doubt you could,” Jason answers with a grin at the sight of Percy’s eyes, “but I know you won’t.” Percy smiles hesitantly back. A horn blares behind them and Jason is startled into realizing that the road in front of him is clear. Percy laughs quietly and Jason’s heart lifts. It’s much too late to even try to get a spot at the restaurant, so in the end Jason just grabs McDonald’s and they eat in a park, sitting on the swings. “This wasn’t how I planned it,” Jason says thoughtfully. Percy reaches for his hand, “we can try again tomorrow.” 4
——-Except they can’t try again tomorrow, because Athena suddenly decides that she wants back a mirror that she hasn’t had for centuries. Of course she wants Percy to do it. After Percy and Annabeth had broken up Athena had somehow warmed up to Percy and hated him even more. Percy doesn’t understand. He just wants to go on a date with his boyfriend. But no. The goddess just HAS to have this one specific mirror. And it couldn’t wait another week or so after sitting around in a dusty tomb somewhere for the better part of a millennium, she had to have it NOW. So he packs. You can’t really say no to a god. And Athena is probably the one god he never wants to risk being on their bad side. He goes with Annabeth, because she’s the only one smart enough to follow the clues Athena has left behind. Honestly, he’s not sure why he’s even going. It’s like the gods have a personal vendetta against his happiness. Annabeth seems to find it amusing. Percy might hate her a bit. The first clue is apparently a carving of Pegasus in blue topaz. Athena had actually given it to Percy, but told him nothing other than that Annabeth would explain. Annabeth laughs when she sees it and drags Percy off to find Nico. Nico is cooperative, if a bit annoyed at being pulled away from camp and his boyfriend. Percy can relate. (He’s not bitter. At all) The place they need to go is apparently an island that isn’t on any maps, that only a child of Poseidon can grant entry to. Go figure. And you wouldn’t believe it, but it’s shaped like Pegasus. Wow. The three of them follow a trail of topaz deeper into the island until they stand in front of a solid stone wall. Annabeth frowns at it. “Can you shadow travel through it, Nico?” She asks. “I can’t see the other side, so I wouldn’t risk it,” he drawls back. Percy sets a hand on the wall, it seems to pulse under his hand. He can feel someone watching him, and when he turns around Nico is staring with a strange expression on his face. It reminds Percy of loss and fear. It’s a strange thing to see on Nico’s face, he’s usually very careful. “What is it?” Percy asks, quietly enough that Annabeth, who’s checking every inch of the wall, won’t notice. “Nothing,” Nico quickly shoots back, looking away and schooling his features into indifference. Percy frowns, but can’t press because at that moment Annabeth lets out a happy cheer and the rock-face grinds open. A rush of dusty air meets them as the enter what appears to be a huge cavern. In the center, eerily surrounded by faint light is a full length mirror. As Percy gets closer he can hear faint whispering coming from it. Nico is the first to reach it, always the most comfortable with dark places and strange things. He seems to freeze when he catches sight of what’s in it. Percy, curious, peers over his shoulder; and nearly shouts, because there is Luke, and everyone lost in the first prophecy. Even his reflection looks different. Everyone is smiling. Then the image shudders and changes. He’s with Jason, watching a movie in what he instinctively knows is their house. Then it’s changing again. Him and Annabeth at the altar. Nico with Bianca, both of them smiling with his arms around their shoulders. Him and Nico sleeping wrapped around each other. Then it’s going too fast for him to see. All he gets is flashes. Luke. Thalia. His mom. Jason. All of a sudden it stops and all that’s left is him, standing alone. The mirror doesn’t seem to be reflecting Nico or Annabeth, both of whom are still staring blankly at the mirror. Percy takes a moment to study it, not quite sure what to do. It’s a full length mirror with an arched top and elaborate scrolling in the frame. The frame appears to be bronze, and there’s an inscription across the arched top. It says: ‘Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi’.
Percy frowns. After a few more moments Annabeth appears to shake herself out of it and takes a step back. “We need to get this to my mother,” she mumbles, keeping her eyes on the floor. Percy nods even though she can’t see him, still wondering what the thing did exactly. Nico has tears in his eyes but stubbornly refuses to take when Annabeth shakes him out of it. He doesn’t look in the mirror again the whole time he travels it back to America. *****When Athena comes down to retrieve it from him Percy asks what the mirror did. Annabeth has left as soon as they’d got back to New York, and Nico has left without a word right after her, leaving Percy by himself. Athena looks at him strangely. “It shows you what you desire most in your heart,” she replied, “could you not tell?”Percy frowns. “It didn’t show me just one thing,” he started, “and at the end, it didn’t show me anything.” Athena makes a strange noise. “You are an odd one, Percy Jackson. Perhaps have more going on in that head of yours than I thought,” she murmurs contemplatively. “What do you think that means?”
He asks. “I think it means that you have many things tying you down,” she starts. “but also many things keeping you up. Like I said, it’s interesting. It’s never happened before. Perhaps I will learn something new in the next bit.”Her eyes gleam at that. “Farewell Percy Jackson,” she calls, and then she’s gone, and so is the mirror. 5——-The fifth time is only a few days later. They’re trying to go bowling when the door is smashed in and in comes a Fury. Jason doesn’t particularly care which one. So that’s how they’re here, hiding behind the register with a bunch of shoes, cradling a bowling ball each because the Fury somehow managed to hold only Percy’s sword and Jason’s is shoved in his bag all the way across the room. There’s a wild roar and the monster swoops down on them. Jason throws his ball and prays it hits. It does and the Fury is surprised enough to drop riptide. In a few seconds Percy is clicking his pen and rising from their shelter looking like a true god himself. He’s gathered water around him from the broken tap that’s spewing everywhere and with the sun shining through the now shattered windows it’s glowing like a halo. He’s also hovering a few feet above the ground, standing on water. Jason stares. It’s almost over too fast after that. Percy’s gotten a lot stronger and faster since the Furies last fought him and with Percy’s new control over his powers he’s nearly a god himself.
Jason knows if it ever came down to him or Percy, he would lose. It’s not even a minute before the Fury is a pile of dust on the floor. The bowling alley is destroyed though, the floor is torn up and the bar is completely shattered. There’s pins everywhere and in one remarkable case, a bowling ball stuck in the ceiling. Jason sighs. He meets Percy’s eyes and can tell the other boy is thinking the same thing. “We should just leave this to the others to clean up. They owe us that much,” Jason says with a grin. Percy smiles back and reaches for his phone. “Annabeth?” he starts, “you’re cleaning this up.”“Yeah the bowling alley.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
“Think if it as payback for your mom.”Finally Percy hangs up and pulls Jason out the door. +1——-“We aren’t watching Avengers again,” Percy groans, “I refuse.” Jason pouts. “Just because you like Captain America doesn’t mean I should have to sit through a two hour film that I could probably quoto word for word by now!” Percy continues desperately. Jason pouts harder if that’s possible. Finally Percy caves with a load of mumbling under his breath. Jason smiles at him and selects the movie on Netflix. They cuddle up together on the couch, with Percy pressed against the arm and Jason with an arm around his shoulders pressed against his other side. It’s silent for the first bit of the movie. Then Jason turns to watch Percy. “Stop,” Percy grumbles without moving, “I can feel you watching me.”Jason smiles softly. “I don’t think I realized that I didn’t have to do a big gesture for you,” he starts. Percy sighs but finally looks at Jason, turning so that the blond is resting his head on Percy’s chest. He stretches his legs out so that they’re more or less lying flat with Percy on the bottom. “What are you on about,” he mutters fondly. “I kept trying to take you out,” Jason tried to explain, “like I had to impress you or something. Like I didn’t already know you. Maybe that’s why it never worked.”Percy laughs quietly, the tv murmuring in the background. “It could also be that we’re both children of the big three and we attract trouble,” he mocks. Jason just beams at him. “But this is good. I like this,” Jason says, scooting up Percy’s body so that his nose is pressed to his jaw. “You know I’d have been happy with whatever right?” Percy replies quietly, stroking Jason’s head. Jason blows on Percy’s neck and Percy jumps. “I know,” he confirms, his voice muffled, “but I wanted it to be special.”Percy smiles at him fondly. “It already is.”