tw: death, cursing, just a general warning for unhappy times
jason sighed as he shoved a hand under his sweater and scratched at his stomach a few times. he snatched a cheese danish from off the dining table, stuffed it whole down his throat, and climbed the small set of stairs that led to the upper deck.
he smiled a little to himself as he saw his best friend already up there, sitting in the middle of the deck, fiddling with something in his lap. his mop of dark curls was the most eye catching thing about him as jason neared, as well as the frantic movements that jason could tell was his friend working on something particularly captivating. he knew he’d end up scaring his friend as soon as he came into his line of sight, since he was so distracted and sucked at sensing people when they were close, and jason could feel his automatic smile stretch into something a bit amused and mischievous.
he silenced his footsteps by lightening them as he decided that if he was to scare his friend, he’d do it properly, and then he prowled forward towards his friend with ease, as if he had done this same act a million times over (of which he had). he resisted the urge to growl low in his throat, and when he reached his friend’s back, his smile had transformed into a malicious grin that split his face in half. he attacked his friend’s sides with the tips of his fingers and exclaimed near his friend’s ear, and leo valdez screamed at a pitch that was so high jason swore all the glass in the world shattered into thousands of pieces.
jason winced at the sound, but he continued to grin as leo whirled around and threw his invention at jason’s face, who, (un)fortunately caught it before it could clock him straight in the eye. he lowered his hand, and leo’s shocked, irritated, and begrudgingly amused expression is what met his eyes when he refocused on his friend. at the sight, all jason could do was laugh, the giggly, wheezy sound music to leo’s ears even if leo kind of hated his best friend in that moment.
as jason doubled over, leo grumbled under his breath and snatched his invention back and shook his head, turning back around as he jokingly cursed jason out in several languages. he went back to fiddling with his machine as jason literally flopped over onto the deck, tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes and gasps rattling his heaving chest. leo could only snort at the sight and secretly grow fonder and fonder on the inside, the sight of his best friend so happy and full of joy at such a simple thing as catching leo off guard causing the latino’s semi-good mood considerably better.
it was just as jason was recovering from his fit, his right hand wiping at the tear tracks streaking down his cheeks and his left rubbing at his stomach because it hurt so much from his laughter, that the argo II suddenly jerked to the right, hard enough to send leo and jason tumbling. jason’s light and elated mood immediately evaporated and made way for a sense of battle readiness, his mouth now a thin line as he used the winds to keep himself and leo from rolling further and crashing into the side of the ship. he let out a sharp breath out his nose as he contorted the air around him and his friend so they were both standing and balanced as the ship rocked from the abrupt jerk.
leo’s expression was just as serious, his eyes sharp as he nodded over to jason and shouted his thanks over the howling wind, which jason instantly quieted. he then thanked jason again before running over to the opposite side of the deck, where he leaned over the rail to see what in the Hades just happened. jason ran over to the flying console and double checked that it was still in auto pilot, and he grunted to himself when it was confirmed. he turned and was about to make his way over to leo, his hand gripping his coin in his pocket, just as his friend let out a yell at something unseen over the side of the ship.
“leo!” jason shouted, having taken a single step…and no more. he sucked in a breath and his brain screamed at his legs and feet to move, but he…he couldn’t fucking move, godsdamnit, what in the gods is going on-
“jay! jay, freakin’, help me out here, man- OH SHIT-” jason looked up and he could feel his blood freeze at the sight of a gangly, skeletal, gray hand gripping at leo’s throat tight enough to make leo wheeze, his much darker hands gripping at the- the thing’s wrist, his cheeks puffing out and his eyes watering from the pressure. he gasped and kicked at the side of the ship, trying his hardest to pry himself out of the grip, but he just couldn’t get free. jason screamed and the wind came back with a vengeance, the world darkening as the clouds thickened and turned black, thunder rumbling and lighting flashing.
jason’s eyes were murderous and his nostrils flared as he willed with all of his godsdamn might to fucking move-!
“no. no, wait, i’m not ready, i want to live-!” leo’s choked out, hoarse words were whispered into the silent air, and all jason could do was scream and struggle and watch as his best friend was slowly lifted up from the ground and dragged over the lip of the ship until his stomach was resting on it. he tried to summon lightning, or keep leo in place with the winds, but besides the storm up above, his powers didn’t respond to his call, and jason could physically feel his heart breaking. tears were aggressively rolling down his face, burning his skin as they went, and he screamed and screamed and screamed, but he was powerless as his leo was raised higher into the air over the side of the ship by the long, long, dead arm, his last words, “i’m sorry, jj. i lo…love…you.”
and then, the only thing that could be heard in the suffocating, oppressive silence, was a crack as leo’s neck was snapped.
he exploded with a rage and grief so deep and intense, he knew that the entire Earth was shaking and being assaulted with bolts of lightning and downpours of harsh rain. his back arched, his mouth stretched wide open to make way for his agony, and his feet stayed where they were forced to be. the deck was soon flooded, and the spot right next to where leo’s body lay was hit with a brilliantly bright strike of light, ozone scenting the air. an intense pain separate from the all-consuming one that flooded him as a result of- of leo- raced throughout his body and punished him for no doubt breaking through some of the invisible hold on him so he could access his powers again, but he barely noticed it. it was but a drop in the endless bucket filled with his hurt.
jason’s vocal cords strained with how hard he screeched, but he didn’t care. nothing mattered anymore. nothing except leo. his whole body was trembling, his sobs were constant, but he didn’t fucking care his leo was dead dead dead dead dead dead-
jason silently screamed as he fell out of bed from how violently he woke up.
he scrambled to stand and tumbled out of his room, his body shaking and his face dry but not for long, his vision blurring with the tears that he knew were coming. he stumbled down the hall, past the dining table, and up the stairs to make it to the upper deck, and he didn’t even know what in the Tartarus he was doing, his body was on autopilot as his brain simply urged him to get to leo. he didn’t know why he wasn’t on the upper deck anymore or why he fell out of bed, all he knew was that he had to get back to leo’s body-
he stopped. stopped so hard in his tracks he swore he could hear a cartoon screeching sound effect. he blinked, blinked again, his vision clear again as the tears fell gently, as if they were apologizing for how painfully they fell not a minute before. he wiped at his eyes, blinked three more times, and then he could feel all the color drain from his body and the air punch out of him. the ship was fine, the sky was a pretty, bright blue, not a cloud in sight, and the deck was as dry as it always was.
most importantly, however, his leo was sitting there, perfectly fine, bent over and cross legged, working frantically at an invention much the same - exactly the same, a stray thought nagged at jason - as he had- as he had before-
“oh. hey jace. you okay? look like you’ve seen a ghost. O-M-G, wait, have you?? you saw a ghost and you didn’t immediately come and get me?? oh how you betray me this day, O best friend of mine,” leo said as he turned around, his impish grin lopsided and full of happy affection. he looked at jason as if he were the sun, bright and oh so warm, and he leaned over and set the back of his hand against his forehead as he dramatically emphasized the last couple of sentences he spoke.
jason could only stare. his blue eyes traced every line, every muscle, every piece of clothing, every detail, and he let himself drink in the sight of his best friend alive, and joyful, and exactly as he should be.
‘so it was just a dream? why did it feel so real? and why did it start out exactly like this?’
he shook off those thoughts and just forced himself to smile, forced the sound of his friend’s neck cracking and leo whispering, “i love you,” and a raging pain he had never felt before and stormy skies away and deep down inside him, where it couldn’t touch the leo in front of him, who didn’t deserve his grief. he walked towards his friend, and ignored the whisper of something, someone telling him that this wasn’t the end, and he knew it.
“you can’t escape it, jason grace. you can’t escape your destiny, or yourself.”
‘i can try, and oh would you like at that? i already have.’
he hadn’t. and the sight of leo’s dead eyes just a few minutes later proved it.
