To everyone who asked for it <3
The dream always started the exact same. It was a bright spring day at Camp Half-Blood, and the air was damp and a little sticky because Mr. D had elected to let it rain that morning. The ground of the strawberry field was still wet, wet enough to slowly soak your clothes if you laid on it, but Jason didn’t care. He was far too enchanted with the boy six inches away who was playing with Jason’s fingers.
Leo was most at home in a forge, Jason knew that, but he was prettiest out in nature. His curls caught the sunbeams to make a fuzzy halo of light around his face, his eyes were brighter and a deeper brown, and his skin practically glowed. Between that and his pointed ears, Jason understood why his father favored nymphs so much.
“What’s got your little hamster wheel of a brain spinning, Superman,” Leo asked suddenly, his smile just as lazy as his drawl. He couldn’t even be bothered to open his eyes more than halfway, which was a crime in Jason’s opinion, but one he’d magnanimously forgive.
“You’re pretty,” he answered with simple honesty. “Like really, really pretty. So pretty it melts my brain.”
Leo flushed red with delight, but chuckled dismissively. “Pretty sure the only thing melting your brain is the humidity.”
Jason didn’t bother to argue, he already knew Leo wouldn’t listen. “What are you thinking about?”
Leo didn’t answer right away, and that was how Jason knew it was important. He didn’t push, though. Leo reacted to direct questions like a cornered alley cat, so Jason always found himself just sitting back and waiting for whatever Leo needed to say. That was fine, though. Jason had always been very good at waiting for people.
“I was thinking about the future,” Leo finally admitted. “Like, I know it’s kind of presumptuous to do that, seeing as we still need to fight Gaea and all that, but still. It’s nice to have something to look forward to, even if you don’t necessarily think you’ll actually live to see it, you know?”
Jason didn’t know. Not really. He still couldn’t remember his life from before meeting Piper and Leo, but he got the feeling that he’d never made a plan for himself other than wait for the next order. But he also knew that saying that out loud would completely ruin the soft, lazy peace of the afternoon, and there wasn’t anything that could be done about it, so he just nodded. “Makes sense. What were you thinking?”
“I don’t really know,” Leo confessed. “Like, this whole demigod stuff still doesn’t feel real sometimes. It’s hard to plan your life around a completely unknown variable like that. What about you? You seem pretty settled in this mess, even with the amnesia.”
Jason thought long and hard about that. There was a half-memory tugging at his mind, something that told him a whole life had been laid out for him at the Roman camp. He didn’t know what it was, but it probably wasn’t that bad. It was a life he’d settle for, at least. “There’s… a school. At the other camp, I mean. I can’t really remember it, but I have a feeling I was supposed to go there.”
“Yeah.” Then Leo curled and uncurled Jason’s middle finger, and his breath hitched. “I don’t necessarily want to go there though.”
Lao paused and arched an eyebrow at him, which Jason had always found ridiculously impressive. “No? And where would you go instead?”
Leo went very, very still, like a prey animal that knew it was in a predator’s sights. Then he took a deep breath and forced a grin. “Wherever I go, huh?”
“Yeah. Wherever you are, that’s where I want to be.”
Leo went absolutely maroon at that. He dropped Jason’s hand to lean over and loom above Jason, elbow planted near Jason’s ear. The sun was almost directly behind his head, and Jason forgot how to breathe. “And what if I decide that I want to spend the rest of my life camping in the Amazon?”
“Then you’d better pack a two-person tent,” Jason answered before he could even think.
Leo laughed and the sound was bright and joyful and almost seemed surprised at his own sudden joy, and then leaned down that last little bit to kiss him properly. “Alright then,” he said, the words brushing directly against Jason’s lips. “Prepare for the world’s worst hike.”
Jason threaded his fingers through Leo’s curls, marveling slightly at the fact that he was allowed to and smiled helplessly up at him. “So long as you’re there, I’m ready for anything.”