shoutout to clark kent for curing me of my singular addiction to waifish men, going on a second date tomorrow with a total beefcake who sings opera to his blind cat and it's really all thanks to superman
do not ever ever EVER get attached to a podcast. you could have been listening to that shit since you were in 8th grade and then. it just ends. out of nowhere. and your Podcast is gone.
Jason was headed to the Big House when he caught sight of Nico leading a trio of terrified-looking twelve-year-olds to where Mrs O’Leary lay napping in the strawberry fields. It had been Nico’s idea to introduce some of the younger campers to monsters in what passed as a safe environment. He’d argued that Mrs O’Leary could be a great tool for teaching, and for making the kids less likely to panic when they first met monsters in the wild.
Nico looked more and more relaxed as the group got closer to Mrs O’Leary. She lifted her head to give a sniff, and Nico went straight to her and leaned on her sun-warmed flank. Jason always liked watching Nico interact with her. He looked so much more at ease around the hellhound than he did around most campers.
“Spending a lot of time with him recently, huh?
Jason did not jump. It took effort. Leo had materialized on his left, and he was looking at Jason as if he expected a response.
“Yeah,” Jason said once his heartbeat had returned to normal. “Nico’s really cool, once he gets comfortable around you.”
“Hm.” Leo squinted into the fall sunshine to where an Ares kids had tentatively held her hand up for Mrs O’Leary to smell. It was going well until Mrs O’Leary sneezed, and the kid flinched hard enough to fall on her butt.
Jason could almost hear Nico’s laughter from here, if he focused hard enough. He felt himself smiling in response.
“Should I be, like, nervous?”
Blinking, Jason turned back to Leo. “What?”
“Di Angelo isn’t trying to replace me or anything, right?”
Jason snorted. “Of course not.”
“You sure? He looks like a man who’s gunning for the Jason Grace Best Friend title belt,” Leo joked. Jason rolled his eyes at him. Nico looked like a boy who needed to lean on his SUV-sized dog to stay upright when he laughed.
“Aw, come on. You know it’s not the same.”
“How?!” Leo’s tone was light, so he was probably teasing, but Jason still had a hard time differentiating sometimes. Leo was good at hiding his real hurt behind jokes, but he also told a lot of jokes with no substance to them. Whatever raised a reaction. Jason wasn’t sure how serious he should treat this line of questioning.
“I don’t know, it just isn’t. We mess around a lot, right? I’m usually nicer to Nico—”
“So what I’m hearing is it’s different because you treat him better! I’m too late!” Leo cried out, finally pulling free a wire from the walkie talkie he’d been messing with. He flashed a grin at Jason, showing off the disemboweled gadget.
Teasing, then. Jason felt himself relax.
“You wouldn’t want me to be nicer and you know it. Besides, we both know you can take it.”
“And Nico can’t?” Leo was already turning his attention back to the walkie talkie.
“It’s not that, it’s more like…” In the field, Nico reached out his hand to the kid who’d stayed in the back of the group up until now. Even from this far away, the kid looked scared. Nico supported them as they walked up to Mrs O’Leary, though. He held their hand through something that had obviously scared them. It was such a Nico gesture, Jason couldn’t help but smiling.
“He could take it, sure, but he shouldn’t have to. He deserves to be treated gently.”
There was silence for a while, and Jason only really became aware of it when Leo slowly leaned forward into his field of vision. His eyebrows had made a migration toward his hairline, and they didn’t look like they were dropping anytime soon. Jason thought back over what he’d said and blushed. When had he started looking at Nico again, anyway? He turned away from the strawberry field to look at Leo full on.
“Dude,” Leo said.
“Shut up.”
“I was joking before, but like, now I’m not sure. Do I legit have to be worried you like him better?”
“I don’t like him better, I just like him different. It’s totally normal.”
It was true, too. Even more than he’d even realized when he said it. Friendship with Nico didn’t feel like any other friendship he’d ever had. It was… quiet. Intense. It felt charged, but relaxing at the same time. It was contradictory and almost addicting, Jason couldn’t really describe it. He caught himself before his eyes drifted back to the strawberry fields and made himself focus on Leo, who looked dubious to the point of being borderline offensive.
“Different, or—”
“Different,” Jason insisted. “Just like I like you and Piper different. Not better or worse, just… Different.”
Come to think about it, though…
“Sure fuckin' hope you like me and Piper different,” Leo grumbled. “You’re my bro, but I don’t want you pulling your Loverboy moves on me. I mean…” Leo kept going, but Jason was too busy spiraling to pay attention.
He’d said he liked Leo and Piper different, but did he? The way he felt about Leo was a lot closer to the way he felt about Piper than it was to what he felt for Nico, if he stopped to think about. Remarkably similar, really. His palms started to sweat.
