An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Rating: GA
Words: 1304
Type: completed oneshot
Description: His childish naivety had gotten the best of him –hoping to be able to find a home in Camp Half-Blood. He didn’t know why he continued to try. Why he continued to try to force things to work here when Camp Jupiter had actually offered him some form of stability.
thank you for asking this. i hope you wanted something really long, because not only is this really long but it’s also only half coherent.
jason was freshly eleven when he met the ten-year-old nico di angelo. it was early in the morning when he'd heard a centurion of the third cohort mention a disturbance in the forest. it wasn't exactly eavesdropping, he swears. he was just passing by them, when he knew he should've been asleep.
years later, he didn't know why exactly he did it, but he supposed he was young. he wanted to prove himself.
or maybe more accurately, he wanted to break his unearned reputation of being a golden boy. what better way to do that then to do something he wasn't supposed to?
being the dumbass kid he was, he went out alone to the forest, bringing his sword and nothing else. he didn't know what to expect but when he saw a black mass in the forest, sucking up the light like death itself, he was expecting a monster.
then the mass turned around, eyes afraid and hands shaking as they gripped a long black sword. and jason saw that he was just a kid.
before jason could do anything, the boy turned away and disappeared into shadows. freaking out about whether or not he'd just seen a ghost, he ran into the barracks and told the first person he saw. whispers go around fast, and by that afternoon jason hears the theories of who he saw in the forest— a son of pluto.
jason convinces the senate not to send patrols to look for the boy. "You didn't see him, he looked so scared." he'd say. "A patrol would scare him away! I'll look for him myself, every day, I promise!"
he keeps the promise, even when the boy doesn't show up for weeks after that. he keeps it because he knows what it's like to be left confused and alone, forced to fight things you didn't know were real. and he knows it's normal, he knows that's just what happens to demigods, but it doesn't change how much he remembered wanting someone to save him.
he sees the boy again weeks later. and before the boy can run away again he yells after him, "We know what you are!"
the boy freezes, and it looks like jason made it even worse but at least he bought himself time. "No, I mean— you're a demigod right? I am too, we all are here."
jason smiles at him, "do you want me to show you in?"
(actual headcanons following)
jason decides this guy, who's name is nico di angelo, is his best friend now. before bringing him into camp, he felt weird about possibly having another child of the big three around. but when nico confirms the fact three days later, all jason feels is relief.
nico bunks next to jason in the fifth cohort but says he can't pick one to join. he says it's because he can't stay for long, and jason asks why but nico doesn't give him a straight answer. so instead, he takes nico shopping for bedsheets. jason wants to make sure the bunk nico's claimed as his stays his, even when he's gone.
the reputation they build for themselves is incredible. as the only kids of the big three in camp, they're powerful separated but unstoppable together. (this proves for fantastic entertainment when they spar, and a very tough fight for whoever they're going up against if they're a team.)
it's also a worthy mention that not only do they become more powerful when they're fighting together, when they're off the battlegrounds they also get a whole lot stupider. they've got wild spirits, and though they reign it in when they're on their own, they cause shitstorms of trouble when they're together.
(more under the cut)
nico's gone for weeks at a time but every time he comes back jason never gets less excited. he greets him when he arrives and waves him off when he leaves again. that becomes the norm soon— whenever nico's here, you can find jason right next to him.
the senate said nico couldn't stay unless he picked a cohort, and if he picked a cohort he couldn't leave. when he one day comes back with a report from pluto himself explaining why nico has to come and go sometimes, they find a way for him to stay. (they won't hesitate to admit the boy's grown on the community. they wouldn't wanna say goodbye to him either.) and thus, nico was freshly eleven when he's made the ambassador of pluto.
jason isn't allowed to leave camp jupiter, so sometimes nico sneaks him out with shadow travel. the first time they did it, jason actually puked because his twelve-year-old system is a little weak. it was worth it though, because nico bought him his first mcdonalds. jason doesn't think he could ever go back.
that's also how he found out that nico's dad gives him unlimited money to spend on whatever. he realizes nico has zero budgeting skills when he was nearly persuaded to buy a twenty dollar ice cream
when they were both thirteen years old, they were both officially allowed to go on minor quests. on the first one they take, it goes haywire but they meet a little puerto rican girl their age. after a little bit of explaining (and also a little bit of de-escalating, because wow this new demigod is good with a dagger), they find her name is reyna, and they take her back to camp jupiter
jason adopts her immediately, and thus so does nico, because they're a two-in-one deal. they become an iconic trio immediately— some people throw around rumours about love triangles between them, but none of them are ever the same. some say nico and jason argue over reyna's love, some say nico and reyna are fighting for jason's, some say jason and reyna are fighting for nico's.
reyna gets phantom crushes on both of them, mostly out of feeling like she needed to have a crush on them. they're the two people she loves most in the world, so it felt like proper procedure. it fades fast once she realizes they're very clearly in love with each other. she doesn't say anything about it, wanting them to realize on their own. she just hopes it's soon.
by the time nico comes back to camp with a curly-haired daughter of pluto, he's already told jason and reyna of who bianca was. he doesn't answer their looks of concerns for a long time. (but they fucking love hazel. new adoptee)
nico comes back from the war with kronos to be told jason lead the roman army and defeated krios by himself. he flips his shit.
(but he still congratulates jason on the praetorship by taking him on a small trip to gold coast, australia. after battling a monster in public, they appear in the news for allegedly fighting six feral red kangaroos in the street)
jason is diagnosed with ptsd soon after the war. nico finds that he can't bring himself to leave, not when he's one of the only people who know how to calm jason down from a panic attack. he can't leave him, not when jason has never left him.
one of the ways his ptsd manifests is through night terrors. and he doesn't want to ask for help. he's always telling people "there's no shame in asking for help" or "you can ask for help when you need it, we won't judge". yet he can't bring himself to follow his own advice. it's different for him, he often thinks. it's just different.
one day, he gets an especially bad one. it's so bad he almost can't breathe, and it takes him nearly two and a half hours until he's even able to move. when he can feel his legs again, he walks to nico's private quarters.
jason doesn't even have to say anything, and nico is pulling him inside and settling him in his white sheets. the same ones they bought together when they were little, relocated after they'd both moved from barrack bunks.
they don't say anything, but jason quietly asks if nico will hold him. there's something unreadable in his dark brown eyes, but he says yes with such certainty that jason knows he means it.
a few weeks later, jason wakes up in the back of a school bus, holding a pretty girl's hand but not knowing her name. the only thing he remembers is the name nico di angelo.
Percy/Annabeth, set 3 days after the end of TLO. I’ve been really missing these kids and have been in a mood to write about them a lot. Enjoy!
It only took 3 days for Percy Jackson to feel like he ruined everything with Annabeth, so that was really a new record.
Only three days ago it was his birthday and she was smiling so nicely and, well, kissing him nicely, and he thought, maybe, just maybe, things could stay so nice for at least a week.
Why did he even try anymore?
Because now Annabeth was stomping away from him, her fists balled and swinging as she walked farther and farther from Percy.
Gods, what did he even say? He couldn't remember anymore. All he knew was that one second they were sparring and smiling and the next she was glaring and gone.
"I figured you guys would be at each other's throats soon enough," Clarisse said, and Percy turned in surprise. He'd forgotten she was there. Clarisse was becoming more and more tolerable since the end of the war. He just wished it wasn't because of Silena.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he grumbled as he grabbed a blade from one of the dummies. Annabeth had thrown it as she stormed away.
"You know what it means, idiot. You two can't be in the same room without screaming at each other."
"But it's different now."
"Yeah, sure you're kissing, but it doesn't change that Annabeth can't stand it when you say stupid stuff and you can't stand it when she acts all petty. And that I can't stand it when you two get in the way of my training. So scram."
Percy didn't really care about sparring anymore and gave in willingly. He dragged Riptide across the ground as he walked through the camp. Grover waved at him from what looked like a picnic with Juniper, and Percy raised his hand back.
He should have known their relationship wasn't going to be perfect. Annabeth and Grover were his best friends in the whole world, and he wouldn't trade anything for them, but that didn't mean they always got along. And he and Annabeth, if he were honest, only got along about half the time. So them having a spat wasn't really something to be concerned over.
Plus, Percy knew that Annabeth needed space or she would really be at his throat, and with a knife. But he felt something eating at him, looking at Grover laughing with Juniper, and realizing Tyson was with his dad, and Beckendorf...and Silena...
Gods, was his only other friend at camp Clarisse?
At that thought, he spun on his heel and made straight towards the woods Annabeth had run off to. He wasn't really sure where she could be, and she could have gone far if she kept at the pace she'd been at before, but he still pushed through the trees, keeping his sword close by at all times.
He looked behind rocks and trees as he made it around a quarter mile through the woods, and then he heard the cursing and screaming.
He started to jog toward her, sword at the ready, then realized that she was yelling out his name, along with a string of swears and "idiot"s. She came into view, her skin still dripping with sweat from training, and kicking a rock so hard he was surprised her sneakers weren't splitting seams.
She continued rambling to herself, picking up a rock and throwing it, then turning, and met his eyes for a split second, kept turning, then stopped. Stood still. And spun slowly back to look him in the eye.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, throwing a rock in his direction, but both of them knew it wasn't even close to hitting him.
"I felt bad."
Annabeth sighed, kicking up at the dirt. "Oh, really?"
"Why are you so mad?"
He knew it was the wrong thing to say even before her eyes became fiery and she took a threatening step forward. "Seriously, Percy?"
He took a step back, pretty close to walking back toward camp and sulk in his cabin, but he stood his ground. Maybe she was still made at him, and maybe they still fought, but something was different between them, and when things went wrong, they couldn't ignore it anymore.
"I feel bad because you're upset and I want to hang out because everyone else is busy and I kind of realized that a lot of my friends aren't...really here anymore, but if you don't wanna talk, then whatever." He leaned against a tree, watching as Annabeth's shoulders relaxed just a bit, and the fire rescinded from her eyes.
"Okay," she said.
"Okay?"
"It was something stupid, anyway. Don't we have archery next?"
Percy shrugged. "I dunno."
"Well, I do. And I want you there, so I guess you do too."
Percy grinned. If he'd known resolving conflict with Annabeth would be this easy, he would have tried a long time ago.
Okay so firstly, New Rome was full of queer people are you tellling me they didn’t have an extremely active dnd community??
Now onto Jason. Jason is THE BIGGEST DND NERD. He’s probably been playing as long as he possibly could.
When i was originally thinking about his character for when he plays and isn’t dming, my original thought was a half elf or aasimar paladin. Y’know, poke fun at jason and have a little projection.
After thinking about it though, I remembered some of my headcanons on how jason saw reyna (,,,,,,,,,,,which i need to write down somewhere. Hey self write those) and realized. Jason 100% would play a character that’s just how he sees Reyna. Cause Reyna is someone who he sees as what he should be and should aspire to be.
Anyone wants to help me with clearing up details about Reyna's past? Especially concerning her father. I'm rather shaky about that part of Canon. I want Forge to be as accurate as possible. Feel free to message me or leave something in my inbox.
@shut-uppercy thanks to this post I had to write this angst drabble. Hopes it breaks your heart.
It’s the silence that gets her. His villa is never this quiet. Always filled with something. Music from the radio. Laughter from their friends. Papers rustling from late night reading. But now it’s quiet like a tomb. Reyna’s fingers gripped the front doorknob like it was her lifeline. Aurum and Argentum linger at her feet, tails still. They can feel it too. The emptiness of the home where a boy with golden hair, bright blue eyes and easy laughter should be.
Gwen offered to come with her. “To help.” She said with honest blue eyes. Reyna knew it was a half-truth before Aurum started fidgeting beside them. Everyone in New Rome scrutinized the young praetor, worrying about her health, searching for chink in her armor. Reyna smiled politely, maintaining her mask of ease even to her closest friend.
“The Fifth needs you.” She replied as she sipped her coffee. Always black nowadays. She focused on the dark liquid, avoiding the clear response on Gwen’s face. You need me, Reyna.
“In.” She ordered her metal canines. Aurum hesitated, still hiding behind her legs. Argentum entered. Her head lowered as she stepped in, one paw at a time. Reyna set her bag down along with Jason’s spare key on the side table. A thin layer of dust covered everything. Soft afternoon light filtered through the curtains, casting tiny shadows. The fridge was empty, never full since they spent so much time in the principia. A bowl of stale colorful jellybeans sat on the table beside piles of papers. A hoodie sat on the couch, ruffled and untouched.
“You’re failing inspection, Grace.” Reyna murmured to the air as she crossed into the main room. Her hand straightened a picture frame, swallow as she stared at the image. A version of herself smiled back at her. Jason had his arm wrapped around her shoulder, pulling her into the picture. Red capes covered their shoulders, both newly elected praetors. They were laughing in the moment, unaware of the future ahead of them. Reyna caressed Jason’s cheek before turning away.
Aurum followed behind her closely. Argentum pattered into the kitchen, drinking from the water bowl Jason always left for them. He was closer to Jason than Argentum. His ruby eyes searched the room with worry, pawing the carpet. Reyna leaned down to run her hand over his head, trying to calm the dog. A stack of papers sat on the coffee table in front of the couch. She sat on the edge, pulling a stack into her lap.
It was various documents from the senate, old faded newspapers and magazines. Reyna smiled at the Daily New Rome, the local paper. A few things were underlined or highlighted with little notes. She blinked. In the margin Jason scribbled a list of to-dos.
1. Buy Gwen a birthday present.
2. Visit Julia.
3. Boys’ Night with Bobby and Dakota.
4. Take Reyna to San Francisco
The last item was circled and underlined like it was the most important thing on his list. That’s what broke her.
After three months of searching, tears pricked her eyes. She slid down to the floor, taking shaky breaths as she tries to hold it in. Argentum pawed her knee, whining. The hoodie on the couch fell beside her. Reyna stared at the deep purple hue before holding it in her trembling fingers. It smelt like him, of chocolate, of spearmint and fresh air. Reyna couldn’t hold back her tears now as she curled her knees up and hugged his sweatshirt. Sobs wrecked through the strong girl’s body as she left three months of tears out. She missed him. She missed him so much.
