Jason was inside Bunker Nine, attempting to confront Leo about his newfound discovery of Leo's feelings—romantic feelings—for him.
Jason, of course, did not feel the same. He couldn't. He was with Piper. Piper was great, she was pretty, and smart, and she was who he was supposed to be with.
Leo was...his best friend. The idea of being with a guy wasn't something he'd ever considered.
And he definitely wasn't considering it now.
Anyways, here he was, in the Bunker, attempting to get Leo to stop ignoring him.
"Leo."
"..."
"Leo...?"
The Latino continued tinkering with whatever project he was working on, albeit a bit rigidly.
"Leo, c'mon, man. We gotta talk about it."
"Talk about what? How I was stupid enough to believe my clearly straight best friend liked me back? Even after everything that's happened?" Leo drawled bitterly.
Jason felt his mouth go a bit dry. "What are you...?"
Leo locked eyes with Jason, the tension in the room growing thick. "House of Hades? 'Personally, I like us?' All the times you- You-" Leo's voice died off, his gaze falling back to his fists clenched on his worktable. Jason felt rooted in place.
"Look, Leo, I'm...sorry, if I gave you mixed signals, I swear that wasn't my intention."
"Wasn't your intention..." Leo muttered before speaking up sarcastically. "'Course it wasn't. Because it's never your fault. It's never anyone, but mine."
Jason had a feeling this went deeper than him not returning Leo's feelings, but be didn't think now would be a good time to pry.
"Leo-"
"Let me speak."
Jason shut up.
"My whole life, I didn't really have...friends. You probably already know all of that, after the Wilderness School and all that. But then, I got Piper, and she's...great." Leo sighed as ran a hand through his curls, his frustration showing through his creased brows. "She's like a sister to me, she was my only friend. And then you happened.
"You came along, all blond hair and broad shoulders, like you'd never experienced the touch or affection of another person in your whole life."
If Jason hadn't been blanking at that moment, he might've laughed, or at least found it in him to be somewhat offended.
"And I thought, for sure you were meant to be mine. That maybe, for once..." The shorter boy stared at his hands.
"...But I was with Piper."
Leo looked up, his gap-toothed smile lackluster in his usual energy. "But you were with Piper. So, yeah."
He dropped into a chair, turning his back to the son of Zeus and continuing his work, seemingly done with the conversation. Jason could see his walls going back up in real time.
"So, you're upset because I don't feel the same?" Leo froze, slowly turning around. Despite the Bunker being built for and by a child of Hephaestus, the temperature seemed to drop a couple degrees.
"What?"
The blond sputtered. "I mean, I was just-"
"Jason, I'm upset because you acted like you liked me!" The hotter boy seemed to have finally had enough. "I thought you and Piper would break up after the whole Hera thing was debunked, but no! You- you led me on! And honestly-!" As he spoke, the shorter had slowly made his way closer to the stunned blond. He poked his finger into Jason's chest, the dam of his emotions finally cracking open.
"As much as I want to feel bad, as terrible as I feel for having a crush on my best friend's boyfriend, I'm not sorry! I'm not sorry for loving you! And I think that's the worst part!"
Jason stared, watching Leo, his best friend, whom was wracked with guilt and tearing up, laying out out how he felt for the first time in...who knows how long.
Said Latino gritted his teeth, now staring at the ground as he balled his hands into fists and hit them against the blond's chest as he ranted.
"I'm angry, and tired, and restless, and sad! I'm stuck in the moments I swore that we had!
"I wish you would chase me,
"Or try to embrace me!
"For once, I wish you would lie and say-!"
"I love you."
Leo looked up in surprise as Jason caught his hands, stop the smaller boy from hitting him again. He was reeling from a sentence he'd never thought he'd hear from the other.
He was speechless for a moment.
"...you do?"
Jason smiled sadly as he lowered the other's hands. "But...not in the way that you want me to."
Leo stared at Jason, his longterm best friend who he thought reciprocated his feelings, who acted like he did, yet somehow didn't. He frustration boiled down to something more bitter as he spoke, stepping away from the other. "I hate that I fell in love with you!"
As he turned away, he could only imagine briefly if this was what Nico had gone through with Percy. Surely that had to be worse, yet...Why were the gods so cruel? To give a person something, someone, just within their grasp, only to give it to another? I wasn't fair.
Why did I fall in love with you?
As he stewed, he heard footsteps approaching him. Just as he was about to snap for Jason to leave, the taller wrapped him in a tight hug, turning him around and effectively removing the fight from Leo. The Latino siezed up before slumping into the blond's hold, tired and sad.
How am I supposed to get over you?
In Jason's attempts to comfort the shorter boy, he seemed to also lull said boy into a groggy state. Who knows when the last time he slept was? Jason knew how Leo got when he had stuff like this on his mind.
Just before Leo succumbed to his sleep-induced state, he stared up into Jason's blue orbs and asked him one last question, vulnerability seeping into his drowsy voice.
"Why in the world won't you love me too?"
Jason, once again, blanked. But he had no time to formulate a response, as Leo had slipped into a restless, albeit well-needed, sleep.
As he left the Bunker after laying the shorter boy on a couch, he felt as if he gained more questions than answers, about the situation and himself.
