*takes several puffs of inhaler because is sure I've let you all down with this sequel*
Jason and Piper sat across from each other, eyes flashed from color to color and eyes that shone as bright as the sky stared at each other, they were under deck, in the dining hall.
Finally, Piper took a deep breath and said,
"Jason we can't stay together." She said finally.
"Piper-"
"Jason…..do you think I could ever really stay with you after I saw all of that?"
"You mean…you didn't like me being with a guy-" Piper's glare silenced him, and he looked down at the table top, sighing.
"Jason, you and Nico were supposed to get married." Piper said, she reached out across the table and took his hand in hers.
"I'm the daughter of Aphrodite; I know true love when I see it. And that…that was nothing like I've ever seen before. You guys loved each other more than Annabeth and Percy do, gods, I never thought that was possible, but….I should have known, I could feel the heartbreak coming off of him like waves."
"Piper-"
"You and Nico belong together, Jason. I care about you, and you'll always one of my best friends, but nothing we could ever have could come anywhere near to what you and Nico had." She looked slightly sad, and so was he, Piper was one of his best friends, he had cared about her romantically too, but he was lying if he said he hadn't felt like something was missing, like it wasn't completely right. And now he knew why.
"Piper I'm so sor-"
"Don't you dare say you're sorry for loving someone, Jason Grace!" Her eyes blazed with passion, her finger nails dug into his palm. "I might not always agree with my mother, but what you and Nico had was a once in a million years type of thing."
"I thought Percy and Annabeth were the every million years couple."
Piper shrugged. "They're alright. But Jasico is totally my ship."
"Excuse me?"
"Jasico is your and Nico's names put together, shipping is when you like the idea of two people together, gods Jason go on the damn Internet every once and a while. Anyways," her face lite up. "I will fight for Jasico to the ends of the earth, you and Nico need to end up together, okay? You have too!"
Jason stared at her. "Piper McLean you are a goddess amongst women."
"Yes, I know."
"You're taking this…extremely well."
"It's not of my nature to get in the way of true love." Piper took his hand again. "Sure, it'll hurt…for a little while. But what I really want is for you to be happy." She smiled at him and leaned across the table to kiss his forehead like he was a three year old.
He closed his eyes, he didn't want to hurt her. But Piper was an amazing person, she would have dumped him flat on his ass like she was currently doing weather it was a girl or a guy, weather it was Nico or someone other guy, all she saw was the love in the relationship, love would always be important to her, she saw the power of it, the power of his and Nico's love, and she knew she couldn't get in the way of that.
"Maybe I might get a straight guy this time." She teased him.
"I don't even know if I'm gay." Jason admitted.
"I saw like a million scenes of you fucking Nico into a mattress, but then again, if you liked me, I guess your bi." Piper got up, walked around the table and kissed his forehead again.
"Goodbye Jason Grace. It was nice loving you while it lasted." She smiled, her eyes held no regret, sadness, but she didn't regret her decision, and that was how Jason knew it was okay for him to move on.
"Same to you Piper McLean." He whispered as she left the room, a skip in her step.
…..
Jason laid out on the deck of the Argo II….like he and Nico used to every night in their meadow. He watched the stars, going through the list of the constellations that Nico always liked to point out to him and tell him a history about, there was a trillion constellations it seemed, he could never remember them all. But he remembered his favorites, The Huntress, Hercules, Hydra, Draco , Musca , Lynx, a few more, but he couldn't remember their names. They were harder to find without Nico there.
"Hey man."
Jason's focus drifted to see Percy, Leo and Frank standing above him, sad smiles on their faces.
"Hey."
They all laid down next to him, Percy on his right, Leo on his left, and Frank next to Leo. They all put their hands behind their heads and stared up at the sky like Jason was.
"So the girls are locked away, eating ice cream and talking crap about us." Leo told him.
"Talking crap about me, most likely." Jason muttered.
"Huh?" Frank asked.
"Me and Piper broke up." He said, wincing slightly.
"I think everyone was expecting that to be honest." Percy muttered, his eyes half closed.
"So you and Nico, bro." Leo said, fighting a giggle and turning on his side to grin at Jason. "Looks like you were getting some serious action. You remember any of it?"
"Now I do."
"Was it good?"
"Valdez!"
"Calm your oversized tits Zhang I'm asking Jason, not you. So dude, was it good?" Leo repeated, a slow grin spreading across his face.
Jason chuckled. "Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah it was."
"How good?"
"Pretty damn good man."
"Hey! I've known that kid since he was ten years old, can you please not talk about sexing him up in front of me?" Percy asked, only half joking.
"Did he scream a lot?" Leo asked.
Jason considered. "Yes."
Leo chuckled. "He looks like a screamer."
"That's my fiancée." Jason chided him.
"Not anymore." Leo reasoned.
"It was never officially called off." Jason muttered leaning back into the hard wood of the ship and staring up at Virgo as it passed right over their heads. He enjoyed his friends company but he would have rather had Nico there with him, curled into his side and giving him the full history and meaning of the Cancer constellation.
"Him letting you date Piper was kind of a call off," Frank said, giving an apologetic shrug.
Jason sighed, they all laid there in silence for another ten minutes before the son of Jupiter began talking again.
"What do I do guys?"
Percy sat up on his elbows.
"Prove to him you still wanna be with him, duh." The sea prince said with his usual essence of obliviousness.
"You should know it won't be that easy." Jason said, rolling his eyes at his friends innocent stupidity, Percy might have known Nico the longest, but he knew Nico the best and he always would, they had told each other things he doubted Nico would ever even think about telling Hazel.
"Nico's a pretty complicated guy." Frank said, frowning. "The only person who would have any idea what he likes would be people who knew him, which is pretty much just you and Hazel. What does Nico like?"
"Yeah I mean, he is capable of liking things right?"
"Once again, Leo, that's my fucking fiancée, shut up."
The Hispanic pretended to zip up his lips and throw away the key and laid back down on the deck.
"What's up with the star watching, anyways?" Leo asked, breaking his no talking promise not three seconds later. "Thinking about asking your dad for help?"
Jason actually laughed. "No, gods no…..me and Nico would go to that meadow almost every night and go star watching together. It helps me think, that's what we used to do together."
"Think?"
"Out loud, yes. Help each other figure out our problems, talk about the future, dreams and all that." Jason tried to smile but his mouth just trembled at the enormous force he had to put into it and he just let his jaw go slack.
"What happened to your ring?" Frank asked suddenly.
"What?"
"Your engagement ring, you were wearing one. What happened to it? Nico still wears his."
"All he has is his skull ring."
"He wears it on a necklace, I saw it a few weeks ago when we were sword fighting. What happened to yours?"
Jason looked at his hands, even though he knew they were bare, he never wore jewelry.
"Hera must have taken it." Leo reasoned.
At once, white hot rage flared like him, anger like he had never experienced, Hera the goddess of marriage and family, THE FUCKING GODDESS OF MARRIAGE, had taken his engagement ring away, why? Jason didn't have to wonder why, because him being with a man, especially with a son of Hades, ruined her perfect family picture, just like Hephaestus had by being ugly.
Thunder lit up the sky so bright the other guys on the ship flung a hand or arm over their faces so they wouldn't be blinded by light. Storm clouds rolled in and it started pouring on deck, lightning flashing far too close to the ship, thunder booming so powerfully it rocked the Argo II back and forth.
"She. Stole. My. Ring." He bit out, he didn't know when he had gotten to his feet but now he stood in the center of the deck, right in the middle of the storm.
The girls came flying up on deck, weapons in hands. They all looked for an attack but found nothing, and then centered on Jason.
Hazel looked at them. "What in Hades is going on?"
"Hera stole Jason's engagement ring so he wouldn't remember Nico, that was the running force of his memories of their relationship. She knew if he saw it he would remember," Frank said.
Jason hadn't figured out all those details, but knowing the just made him angrier.
"Jason!" Hazel ran to him, gripping his shoulders. "Jason, Nico's gone back to Camp Half-Blood, this isn't going to help you and him get back together. I know your upset, trust me I would too, but you have to remember that we can't do anything about it after we've handled Gaea."
Jason stared into her fierce golden eyes, eyes that reminded him of Nico's even though they looked nothing alike, not in shape, or color, or depth, but somehow he relaxed under her grip.
Holding in the choked noises that were stuck in his throat he turned on his heel and marched off to his quarters, his friends looking sadly after him.
…..
The moment after Gaea's army was defeated, literally right after their were defeated, Jason was leading the way to Olympus where the gods were settling together to hand out rewards, but there was only one reward that he wanted, and that was the right to have his marriage back.
He drove the van that carried the seven in it, raising threw the streets like a lunatic, he slammed on the breaks right in front of the doors of the Empire State Building, please don't ask, because the seven don't even know how the hell he did that.
He waltzed in like he owned the damn place and slammed his hands down on the front desk.
"Six hundredth floor." He growled in the man's face.
"There is no such thing-"
"My father is the King of Olympus! I SUGGEST YOU BRING ME WHERE I FUCKING WANT TO GO!" He screamed not an inch away from the man's face.
The man glared at him but slid from his seat and crowded him and the rest of the seven inside of the elevator, Piper, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank, Leo and Percy all gripped the elevator handles as they shot up at the speed of light, but Jason just stood in the center of the elevator like it didn't affect him, seething with rage.
The ones who hadn't ever seen Olympus caught their breath at the sight of it, but Jason just marched through the city, Leo and Percy at his heels, ready to be the Son of Jupiter's back up.
Jason threw open the doors to thrown room with large, strong arms, not giving a single fuck at the loud bang that rippled its way through the throne room, drawing the Olympians attention. It had been moved the slightest bit ever since Hades had been made an Olympian, even though ninety nine percent of the time he held court in his Underworld. Now, Zeus or Jupiter sat in the middle, Hera to his right, Poseidon to his left, and Hades right next to Poseidon.
"WHERE IS IT?" Jason bellowed the moment he stepped forward into the throne room.
The thirteen Olympians looked scandalized as the son of the sky walked in, the sea prince and the groups fire bug walking confidently behind him.
"Jason my son-"Zeus began.
The rest of the seven all kneeled and bowed their heads in respect for a moment but Jason stood, his sky blue eyes colder than a glacier as he stared at his stepmother like he wanted her to burst into flames.
Hera batted her eyelashes almost innocently. "Where is what, my hero?"
"I'm not your hero, Hera! Where the Jupiter is it, dammit?!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Hera said, her lips twitching into a devious smile.
"Forgive Hera, my hero, she's always been rather dense I'm afraid." Aphrodite said, smiling. Jason looked at her, her form turning into cool white skin, deep brown eyes and black hair that curled at the ends; he shook his head and glared back at Hera.
"Son, what gives you the right to speak to your stepmother like this?" Zeus said, though he didn't look as if he cared all that much. "She is the queen of Olympus, I demand you to respect her in her presence."
"She's will gain my respect when she earns it father, and judging how she's ruined my life, it will be never." He said, his voice cool and respectful, he looked back to Hera once again, eye twitching.
"The goddess of marriage," Jason whispered. "The goddess of marriage and this is what you do."
"It needed to be done." Hera said, examining her perfect nails.
"ME AND NICO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MARRIED! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONLY ONE ON OLYMPUS TO HONOR THAT BOND!" Jason screamed, lightning lit up the throne room blinding white like he had on the deck of the ship, Percy had to dive out of the way so he wouldn't be struck.
The throne room echoed with cripplingly loud thunder, lightning lite up the entire room up every ten seconds, the demigods in the room had to scramble out of the way of it so they wouldn't be blasted right out of the sky.
"Did you really wish to marry that thing?" Hera asked quite calmly.
Hades got off of his throne, the anger in his eyes so powerful it made Jason shook for just a moment, even though he wasn't the one who was being glared at.
"Hades, sit down." Aphrodite instructed.
Hades took a step forward instead.
Poseidon grabbed his brother by the shoulder and pushed him back into his throne like a three year old who hadn't finished its vegetables who was trying to escape the dinner table.
"Jason can fight his own battles, brother." Poseidon told him, sounding surprisingly soothing. "He will defend your son very impressively."
That fact was shown when a lightning bolt blasted so close to Hera, Zeus had to push it out of the way so it wouldn't hit her.
"Don't you dare insult Nico." Jason hissed.
Zeus tipped his head, looking more curious then angry. "A son of Hades?"
"Who's wonderful and kind and endearing and funny and thoughtful and brave and smarter than Annabeth on more than one occasion." Jason bragged like Nico was his most prized possession. "And beautiful and powerful and breathtaking in battle." Jason's lip curled, glaring hatefully at Hera. "So what was wrong with him, stepmother?" he hissed.
"Because he's a son of Hades? Because I'm told my father has rightfully given Hades equal placement on Olympus. So you would be breaking one of your Kings rulings." Jason smiled, but it wasn't kind. It was cruel and dangerous and furious. "Or was it the fact that he's gay and I'm bi and a male on male relationship would destroy your picture perfect little family. You should have learned with Hephaestus that trying to get rid of something that doesn't suite your view of normal and perfection only makes it more powerful, and I love Nico more than I ever have before."
"Your love is nothing special; your marriage would have broken." Hera sniffed.
"On the contrary, Hera, I'm afraid that Nico and Jason's love is quite impressive, a bond I have never seen before between two demigods, even between the daughter of Athena and Poseidon's son." Aphrodite interrupted her brown eyes that looked like near perfect replicas of Nico's flashed mischievously. "My daughter was right, I don't think anything would ever be able to separate these two."
"The Son of Hades came between it himself." Hera pointed out.
"You used his love against us!" Jason snarled. "You knew he loved me enough to let me go with Piper if he thought I was happy, no matter how much it hurt him."
"It was his decision too-"
"ENOUGH!" Zeus booming voice echoed around the throne room, so loudly several gods winced; Hermes clasped his hands over his ears with a smirk like he was trying to lighten the mood.
"Hera," he said, loud, demanding, a voice not to be messed with. "Give my son his engagement ring back and end your foolish games."
Hera actually pouted. Her hand went to her neck and unclasped a gold necklace off of her neck, she threw it at Jason and it minimized in the air so that when it reached him it would fit perfectly on his finger.
He slipped it on, and lighting flashed through the entire throne room, though less aggressive, like it was happy.
He then kneeled right before his father. "Thank you, father." He got up and meant to leave.
"Wait."
Jason turned to look at his father. "Yes, father?"
"You are one of the seven, my son, you deserve a rew-"
"I would like Lord Hades to tell me where his son is hiding from me, and for Lady Hera to never meddle with me or my fiancée's lives ever again."
Zeus considered. "That is….very reasonable, my son. I can assure you Hera will be taken care of but Hades-"
"My son is in my cabin at your little demigod camp. So obvious he knew you would never think to look there first."
Well Hades was right, Jason was going to go back to camp and get some fresh armor and then go to California to begin his search, he was extremely thankful that he had asked.
"Thank you, Lord Hades."
"You know I'm not that thrilled of having a son of Jupiter as a son in law." Hades said, stopping Jason in his tracks. "My son has experienced my heartbreaks and pains, but I approve for the simple fact you make him my little Nico again, and not the angry defensive young man he has turned into."
Jason kneeled for the God of the Underworld for a whole minute before quietly getting to his feet, the god and demigod shared a look of understanding, and Jason left his friends who gave sarcastic slow claps for him as he left.
As he walked past, Piper slapped his butt, literally slapped his butt, and stuck her tongue out at him.
"I better be your best women." She told him, eyes narrowing.
"You and Leo will share the position." Jason promised.
"'I'll end up doing all the work." Piper said.
"Of course, I wouldn't expect anything else from you."
…
He found Nico in his cabin, just like Lord Hades had said, Nico had fought, he had taken down dozens and dozens of monsters all by himself during the battle, he had helped kill at least four of the giants with his father and Hazel and rest of the seven. But he stood in the corner of his cabin now, his black clothes still torn up, looking out of the window, the setting sun shining on him and looking so beautiful Jason had to catch his breath.
Nico turned in alarm and then his eyes widened at the sight of him, panicked.
"Jason-"
"I got my ring back from Hera." Jason interrupted, showing Nico his left hand.
Nico swallowed thickly, digging his hand under the collar of his shirt to clutch at the necklace he knew held his own engagement ring.
"I thought you had lost it, or thrown it away or something." Nico muttered, eyes avoiding him.
"Hera stole it when she took my memory; she knew it would make me remember you." Jason said, closing the door, the only light in the room now came from the window, the other parts casted in thick shadows.
Nico was trembling in the window light, his hand digging into the wall behind him like it was the only thing that was keeping him upright.
"Nico," he whispered. "I love you."
"Don't." Nico hissed.
"Piper and I broke up."
"That was a mistake," Nico said, voice ragged. "You should be with her, you need to be with her, she's norma-"
"Aphrodite said are love was more powerful than Annabeth's and Percy's." Jason interrupted. "And they fell into Tartarus together, just think of what we could do for each other." Jason knew he was being stupid, but he walked across the room so he could look at Nico's face, he felt like he was slowly suffocating without the sight of his face.
"That was a long time ago."
"That was what? Last year? Not so long ago. You still wear your ring, Nico." Jason pointed out.
"You spent a lot of money on it, I thought it would be rude to get rid of it."
"Why would it be rude if you don't remember it?"
Nico froze at that, wincing gently. "Fuck," he whispered.
"We did a lot of that." Jason said jokingly, ah, he never joked, at least he never did now, but Nico had apparently always brought out the best of him, the happiest side of him.
Nico blushed. "Yeah….yeah we did."
"You where what? Thirteen? Fourteen? When we first did it." Jason asked curiously, truly not remembering. Had it been thirteen? How old was Nico now? He didn't remember, he remembered their relationship, their love, their secrets, but important little facts like that seemed to have slipped his mind, it irritated him to no end.
"Yeah." Nico breathed.
"You still trusted me though."
"I always trusted you."
"Nothing has changed, Nico. I remember now, I love you." Jason cupped Nico's face like he always did when he was being insecure and doubtful and made him look into his eyes. Nico's eyes were tear filled, his lips trembling. Fuck, he was beautiful. Fuck, never wanted to see those awful tears again.
Nico looked away. "Jason it's not that simple." He pushed his hands off of him.
"Have you fallen in love with someone else?" Jason asked sadly.
Nico looked at him in shook, his instincts kicked in before he could help himself and his hands flew up to cradle Jason's handsome face delicately.
"No," Nico whispered. "No, Jason, I've never loved anyone besides you." The words flew out of his mouth, then his eyes widened and his hands fell, he looked to the floor and backed away.
"Only one you've ever loved." Jason mused. "What's not simple about that?"
"I…." Nico's lips trembled. "I'm scared."
"Scared of what?" Jason said, loving cupping his face again.
"You're supposed to be with a pretty girl, you're supposed to be the praetor and commanding officer and the prince of the demigod world and you're supposed to be admired and loved that's whats expected, that's what you deserve and and- how are people supposed to do that when they see me on your arm, a boy?"
"Nico, do I really look like I care what people think of me?" Jason demanded.
"No but-….you were so happy when you were with Piper."
"Only because I didn't remember you." Jason's lips softly brushed across Nico's cheek. "If I had remembered you I would have jumped out of the school bus window the moment I woke up and ran all the way to California just to beg at your feet for forgiveness."
Nico took a step back, head turned away, looking conflicted and confused and happy all at once, he had always been hard to read, but that was what made Jason love him so much.
"Nico." He whispered.
And Nico looked up, a tear slowly spilled over and raced down his cheek. Jason leaned in and kissed it away.
"I love you." He whispered. He kissed the tears forming at the corner of Nico's eyes away quickly, he ran a hand threw the silky black hair soothingly, he stroked his cheek. "I have to ask you a very important question."
Nico nodded shakily.
Jason got down on one knee once again and slipped another velvet box out of his pocket, this one held a very simple gold band, thin and elegant with words written in it that Nico couldn't see properly.
"Nico di Angelo….will you marry me?"
"Jason I-"
"My father has promised to make sure Juno doesn't interfere with our lives anymore. Your father has given me his blessing. Will you marry me, Nico?" he said the last part more sternly, his blue eyes flashing.
Tears slowly trickled down Nico's face.
"Yes."
….
Later, when they were dressed only in black sheets and Jason was curled into his back, the moonlight shining on his blonde hair, Nico took off the golden ring that now rested on his finger along with his engagement ring.
He tipped it so the moonlight and read it.
I Promise.
Smiling, their first date in the meadow flashing threw his mind, Nico turned and snuggled into Jason's chest.
"I love you." He whispered into Jason's collarbone.
"Love you too." Jason slurred sleepily.
It was a promise.
*runs and hides in the trenches* *covers eyes* so yeah, this was the sequel, im sorry if it was a disappointment.
Lots of Love,
Sarah