Author's note: I received a really great fanart by the awesome artist Fimyuan, of the scene where Jason and Nico are having s'mores by the campfire in chapter 10. I've added a link to it in my profile, check it out! (Although the links in my profile don't seem to be working when I test them? So if you can't see the fanart there, look me up on AO3—username is 'skyrat' no space—I have a link to it directly in this chapter there.)

I also want to give this chapter a trigger warning for homophobia/bullying.

Jason was developing a very new appreciation for his disciplined Roman upbringing. Without it he surely would have lost his mind by now. Or, more likely, lost Nico.

Because knowing that his ever building feelings for his friend weren't one-sided made it very hard not to cross that now somewhat ambiguous friendship line. And while it remained unclear to him whether or not that line might be crossable in the future, it was pretty obvious to Jason that crossing it too soon would definitely ruin any chances he had of actually having a relationship with him. Nico was either unready or unwilling and if he had any chance at all he was going to have to take things very slowly. Jason was okay with that.

Being okay with something wasn't the same as it being easy though. Jason was pretty much 90% certain that if he hadn't had self-restraint militantly drilled into him since the age of four he probably would have screwed up by now and scared Nico off.

He was sort of a touchy feely person by default. Maybe it was a by-product of his distinct lack of familial affection he'd had growing up but Jason was drawn to physical contact. He liked hugging people. He liked the reassurance of friendly touches. He just liked the physical confirmation of having connections to people. In other words, pretty much the exact opposite of Nico's comfort zone.

As it was though, he'd been very careful.

But not perfect. And miracle of miracles Nico didn't bite his head off when he screwed up.

And that was a pretty big change right there. But Jason wasn't sure if the shift in reaction was due to him actually warming up to the idea of contact or just that Nico appreciated all the effort Jason had made in giving him space.

He was hopeful it was actually the former. He was catching Nico looking at him with increasing frequency as the days went by. And the look in Nico's eyes was a familiar one. It was one he'd seen plenty of times before…just directed at someone else. It was a look he hadn't even realized how badly he wanted to be aimed at himself instead.

And that look did seriously dangerous things to the state of Jason's insides.

Which was currently happening right now…although there was something kind of weird and strained in Nico's expression at the moment.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked.

Nico looked startled by the question. "Oh…" he said, eyes darting away. "I was just thinking…." He fell silent.

Jason waited, wanting to prompt Nico to continue but unsure of if that would actually encourage him to tell or just cause him to retreat entirely.

"What kind of movies do you actually like?" Nico finally said.

The question caught him off guard. "Oh…" Jason tried to think of an answer. It was kind of embarrassing how blank his mind went on the topic. "I don't know. Good ones, I guess?"

Nico smiled. "That's kind of vague. What type of good movies?"

"Well…" Jason tried really hard to think of a specific movie to give as an example. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd watched anything prior to the marathon he'd had with Nico. Things like movies just hadn't fit into his life at Camp Jupiter very well. It was incredibly rare that he had both the time and access to them. They weren't exactly a very common commodity at Camp Half-Blood, either. "I have no idea, actually," he admitted. "What type do you like?"

Nico shrugged. "Not horror," he said making a face.

"Yeah, me either," Jason agreed. "I've already seen enough horror in real life to last several lifetimes."

Nico nodded vigorously. "Yeah. Yeah, that exactly."

"So…why were you asking?" Jason asked. "Did you want me to try and get Leo to let us use his TV again?" He wasn't sure if Leo would actually go along with that if he tried, but the idea of having another movie marathon with Nico was very appealing. Especially if the movies were of a higher caliber than the last batch they'd watched.

"No," said Nico.

Jason felt his heart sink with more disappointment than was probably reasonable.

"I was thinking we could maybe…see something in theaters?"

Jason immediately perked up. He couldn't care less what movie they were talking about now, he would readily agree to see anything if it meant going out with Nico. Because going to a theater was a suspiciously date-like suggestion. And going on a date with Nico currently ranked at the very top of Jason's life ambitions.

"I would love that," he agreed, maybe just a tad too eagerly. "Did you have a specific movie in mind?"

Nico shook his head. "I don't even know what's playing. I just thought it might be fun. I probably haven't been in a movie theater since the forties, now that I think about it. I'm sure they've changed a lot."

"I've only been to one in New Rome," said Jason. "I don't think I've ever been to a regular mortal one at all."

"Well I guess that settles it, we have to go then." Nico nodded his head.

"When did you want to go?" Jason asked. "Like, right now?"

"Not quite." Nico ran his hand through his hair, momentarily pushing his bangs back. "I was thinking more like after dinner? Because—" he fished a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and smoothed it against his leg. There was an address Jason didn't recognize written on it. "I was asking around for recommendations for good places to get brownies around here and someone mentioned this restaurant in the Upper East Side that's supposed to have good ones. And I thought maybe we could go there first? I mean, if you wanted."

Jason felt the edges of his face stretch tight in an impossibly wide grin.

"Are you asking me on an actual date?"

"Um…maybe?" Nico looked down at the ground for a moment before bringing his eyes up to meet Jason's.

Jason saw something solidify in his expression as their gaze connected.

"Yes," Nico amended. "I guess I am. I mean, if you want it to be."

"You bet I want it to be," said Jason. "I'd like that more than anything."

"Good." Some of the strain to Nico's features softened and his lips ticked up into a faint smile. "Let's leave at six."

Nico had spent most of the rest of the day still hanging out with him but had disappeared briefly to 'get ready.' Jason had no idea what Nico had meant exactly by that. He probably should have asked. They were just going to the movies and getting something to eat, right? What would he need to get ready for? He probably should have asked Nico for more information about where they were going. If the place served brownies it probably wasn't too fancy…right?

He washed up and changed from his camp T-shirt into a polo shirt but that didn't take very long so Jason found himself with about a half hour of time to kill.

For lack of any better ideas he tried to take a nap.

He probably would have had better luck at singlehandedly dragging the Athena Parthenos across Europe. He couldn't even manage to keep his eyes shut; his mind was racing too fervently for hope at rest.

He had a date with Nico!

He had a date with Nico.

Did this mean he could expect…more dates with him? Were they together now? Or was this just a one-time thing? Was Nico testing him? Would the possibility of more dates hinge on whether or not he screwed things up tonight?

How do you even screw up getting dinner and watching a movie, anyway?

Those were things they'd done together before. Well, maybe not in a theater, but that couldn't be all that different from watching movies on TV. These were normal things friends did all the time. Except this time they'd be doing it in public and it would…mean more.

A lot more.

Jason fist pumped the air, deciding to let himself fall into excited optimism, in spite of the undercurrent of nervousness he felt at the possibility of somehow driving Nico away if the date went badly. He wouldn't let it go badly, he decided. This meant way too much to him.

Okay, so the date hasn't even started yet and I've already screwed up, Jason thought in dismay as he opened the door for Nico.

Nico was standing before him looking sharper than Jason had ever seen him. In fact, Jason hadn't even been aware that Nico owned any shirts that weren't plastered in skull motifs (with the exception of the tropical-atrocity-that-should-not-be-named…Nico had burned that particular exception to his wardrobe anyway,) or pants that weren't black jeans. Apparently Jason was completely misinformed on Nico's fashion repertoire. Nico was wearing black slacks and a crisp button down purple shirt. There was not a skull in sight (well, aside from his ever-present silver ring.) His hair even appeared to have some sort of product in it.

He looked good.

Like, really good.

Jason glanced down at his own outfit, which he'd felt perfectly fine about five minutes ago, and immediately felt like a slob.

"Uh…hang on, I should probably change," he said lamely.

Nico reached out and latched onto his arm as he tried to turn back into his cabin.

"No, you look great," said Nico with a smile. "Let's get going."

"You look amazing," Jason immediately countered.

"Thanks?" Nico sounded surprised, like he wasn't used to getting compliments.

Which, Jason realized with a stab of guilt, he probably wasn't. That is definitely going to change now, he promised himself.

"So, how are we getting there?" Jason asked. "Shadow travel?"

Nico nodded.

"And you're sure it's working properly again?" he asked.

Nico hesitated in answering. "Not really," he admitted. "But it's felt normal ever since the time it almost went wrong getting the movies. I've still been doing it sparingly, but there haven't been any indications of it malfunctioning so far. Hey…you said you might know why that is?"

"Oh…yeah, I have a pretty good guess." Jason shifted uncomfortably. He wasn't sure how Nico was going to take the explanation.

"And that is…?" Nico prodded, staring at Jason curiously.

"Well, I asked Hecate about it," Jason began.

Nico's grip tightened painfully around Jason's wrist. "You what?"

Jason gulped. "I summoned Hecate to ask her for help getting you home," he admitted.

"Jason!" he objected. "Do you know how dangerous that was?"

"Yeah…I had a pretty good idea."

"You shouldn't have done that! She sided with Kronos in the Titan war because she wanted to overthrow Zeus. And she lost a lot of kids because of that. She's unpredictable! She could have decided you'd make good revenge on him!"

"I know," Jason said easily. "But she seemed like your best chance for getting home."

"I…I wouldn't have wanted to come back if you weren't here!" Nico exclaimed.

Jason's heart surged a little at that revelation. "Really?" he asked. "Hecate actually said you didn't want to come back at all anyway."

Nico's eyes slid sideways. "I didn't."

"Can I ask how come?" said Jason. "You don't have to tell me if it's too personal. But I've really been wondering."

Nico's eyes widened in panic a little, before slipping closed as he took a deep breath. He looked steadier again as he opened them. "I felt like I actually had real friends there," he confessed. "I was part of something, instead of an outcast. It was nice. And you…."

His voice dropped so low that Jason had to strain to hear him.

"…You and I were really close. I've…never had anything like that before. It was…more than just nice. I didn't want to give it up."

"Wait, it was because of me that you didn't want to leave?" Jason asked in surprise.

Nico shrugged vaguely but then nodded.

Jason twisted his hand so that his fingers brushed against Nico's grip on his wrist. He half expected it to cause Nico to let go but instead he slid his hand lower so that their fingertips were properly touching.

"I assumed you wanted to stay because of Percy."

"Well, Percy was also being unusually nice to me there," Nico admitted. "But it was mostly because of you."

"Well, I already told you, I want us to be really close. So, you don't have to give that up. Unless…unless it's just that you liked the other Jason better than me?"

Nico shook his head. "No. That's not it. He was really great. I miss him a lot. But it's not that he was better. I just didn't think you'd feel the same way he did."

"I do though," Jason said earnestly.

"I'm working on believing you."

"So you don't still wish you were there instead of here?" Jason asked.

"No." Nico smiled weakly. "There was more here for me to come back to than I'd realized."

"That's why your shadow travel is working normally again, I think," said Jason. "Hecate said that you were trying to come back, but you couldn't and it was because you didn't really want to. If you're content to stay here then there's probably nothing pulling you off-course."

"Huh," said Nico. "How'd I end up back here then, though? I was trying to return, but my heart wasn't really in it."

"I um, think that was me," Jason admitted. "I wasn't trying to force you to leave if you didn't want to…but I couldn't really help it? Hecate said that if I wanted you back more than you wanted to stay you'd be able to break through. And…I did really want you back."

Nico's eyes widened and then narrowed. Jason watched as he intently scanned his face.

"You're not lying."

Jason shook his head. "I'm sorry?" He wondered if he should let go of Nico's hand. He'd finally admitted that he'd manipulated Nico's future against his will. Whether it had been intentional or not was probably irrelevant. "I'd thought you'd want to come back at first. And then I really didn't mean to force…"

"Don't be." Nico cut him off. "This is right. I…." He leaned forward and caught Jason in a hug. They were still standing in the doorway of his cabin. Anyone could see this.

"…Thank you," Nico finished.

Jason hugged him back tightly. "Thanks for being here," he replied. "I really did miss you like crazy."

Nico just nodded. Jason could feel his hair rubbing against his neck and it kind of tickled but also kind of made the bottom of his stomach drop out and wow did he ever have the urge to kiss Nico right now.

But no. It was definitely still too soon for that. He wasn't screwing this up.

Nico pulled away much faster than Jason wanted him to.

"Ready to go?" he asked with a smile.

"Lead the way."

Nico looped his arm around Jason and led him inside the cabin. The statue of Jason's dad cast a long shadow across the center of the room. They took a step towards it and suddenly they were falling.

Jason scanned the menu in horror.

"$14 for a brownie?" he couldn't help exclaiming. "How the schist can anyone justify charging that much for a brownie? That's probably more than all the ingredients for an entire batch would cost!"

"It's a brownie sundae," Nico corrected, utterly unfazed. "You get ice cream and fancy bourbon caramel sauce and stuff on it. You're not just paying for a brownie."

"But still," said Jason. "I could buy two whole meals for that much money. And this is just dessert! It's crazy."

Nico smirked. "You should have seen the restaurant my dad dragged us to in the other reality. It makes this place look downright reasonable."

"Maybe we should go someplace that is actually reasonable."

Nico's smirk flickered and briefly turned down. Jason immediately regretted opening his mouth. He hadn't meant to complain. He just really couldn't help his shock at the prices. Camp Half-Blood provided the campers with a small stipend, but it was really only enough to cover basic necessities: like making the occasional Iris-message, or acquiring supplies on quests. Since most of their basic needs were covered at camp there wasn't a real need for the Campers to worry about having an income. Going to over-priced upscale restaurants was not meant to be part of that equation though.

"Don't even look at the prices," Nico said calmly. "I'm covering this."

"I can't let you—" he began to object.

Nico cut him off with a glare. "My dad gave me a credit card for emergencies," he explained. "He locked you in a dungeon. I'd say he owes us an awful lot more than an expensive meal and a movie. You're ordering an appetizer and an entrée and a brownie sundae. Order every item on the menu if you want. He'd still be getting off light. He's going to be funding our entire New York City brownie tour. This is just the first stop."

Just the first stop. Despite feeling conflicted over Nico putting himself out over him, Jason couldn't help grinning at the promise of future dates.

"Are you going to get in trouble for doing this though?" he asked worriedly.

"I doubt he'll even notice," Nico promised. "He has access to all the wealth in the world. And it's not like the gods even need money. This is nothing to him."

"Okay…I just…really don't want you to get in trouble because of me."

"Oh believe me," Nico leveled Jason with a serious stare. "If anyone's in trouble, he's in trouble with me, not the other way around. Knock yourself out and don't worry about it. Unless this menu doesn't look very good to you?"

"No, it looks great!" Jason objected. "It looks amazing. Everything about this is amazing."

You're amazing, he almost added, but stopped because he was afraid it would sound too cheesy. He didn't really have a good feel yet for Nico's comfort level of verbal affection and flattery.

"Good, because I'm hungry," Nico said with a nod. "And I was kind of looking forward to the brownie sundae."

"Me too," Jason agreed. "That does look like the best brownie dish I've ever seen."

"Well, we'll have a lot more to test before we'll have a verdict on that," Nico promised.

"Yeah," Jason agreed with a wide smile. "Yeah, we will."

The brownie was good, as was every other part of the meal, but Jason was having a hard time paying attention to the food. They could have been eating straight off the shelf of a convenience store for all he would have noticed the difference. Every ounce of Jason's attention was honed on Nico.

He'd been a little trepidatious at first, afraid that in spite of his determination to make their date go smoothly, awkwardness would win out and ruin their dinner. But his fears had been unfounded. Once his initial misstep of complaining over the menu had slipped past, they'd actually managed to fall into comfortable conversation. In fact, talking to Nico came easier than he ever would have expected, like the discourse had been there all along and they were just stepping back into it instead of starting anew. Nico described in greater detail about his experience living his doppelganger's life, which was particularly fascinating to Jason, considering he'd never had a real taste of the mortal lifestyle.

"You were working in a store?" he asked incredulously. The mental image was bizarre. "Like, doing customer service and stuff?"

"I know, shocking, right?" Nico smiled dryly as he took a bite of his dessert. "It was a disaster."

"For you or for the store?"

"Take your pick. I broke a customer's nose."

"Well that's definitely bad for business." Jason couldn't help laughing though. "I bet they deserved it."

Nico broke into a genuine grin. "That's what the other you said."

"Really?" Jason laughed. "Well, am I right?"

"He definitely deserved it."

"See, what can I say? You have a fine tuned sense of justice." Jason meant the quip as a compliment, but Nico's face immediately fell. "What's wrong?"

"I don't though," Nico said unhappily. "I don't at all. I was all set to just strand the other Nico here. I was really considering not coming back, whether that would hurt other people or not."

"But you did come back," Jason reminded him.

"Yeah, but only because you stepped up and pulled me back. It wasn't because of me."

"Hecate told me you were trying to come back. So I know you weren't just deliberately screwing the other Nico over."

"I wasn't trying all that hard though," Nico admitted.

"Hey, Nico." Jason leaned across the table and brushed his hand across the side of Nico's face. He half expected to get shoved off, or for Nico to pull backwards from the encroachment. He didn't. "You're allowed to want to be happy, you know?"

Nico snorted and rolled his eyes. "You're unreal," he muttered, shaking his head.

Jason shrugged. "Hey, its true, okay? And not something I think half-bloods get told nearly often enough. Which is why for my own selfish reasons I'm really glad you're back."

Nico looked down at the table and poked at the melting lump of ice cream on his plate.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I'm glad too."

Jason felt something bump up against his leg under the table and realized it was Nico's foot. He smiled and nudged it back.

Nico was smirking when he looked back up.

Neither of them had heard of any of the movies playing, so they ended up randomly picking one based entirely off the movie posters. It was a rather uninspired action flick. The plot wasn't terrible but they both spent a lot of time whispering to each other about how inaccurate the fight scenes were.

About halfway through the movie Jason noticed the theater getting darker. He thought at first that the power was malfunctioning and looked around to see if people were getting up to complain. But the rest of the theater appeared unaffected and on closer inspection he realized that the darkness was only congregating around him and Nico. There wasn't a loss of power; there was an increase in shadows. A very controlled increase in shadows. The shadows weren't obscuring his view of the screen, but they were otherwise surrounding them.

He felt Nico's hand grab his, and braced himself for shadow travel, assuming something must have distressed him. Had someone in the movie said something that Nico would have found triggering? Nico only called forth shadows when he was upset, right?

Nothing happened.

Jason glanced at Nico to find him staring calmly straight ahead at the screen, apparently still absorbed in the movie. He glanced down at their hands, but couldn't actually see them. Which meant that the other people in the theater also couldn't see them, and ooooohh.

Nico had summoned the shadows so that he could hold Jason's hand without drawing attention.

Well then.

This was definitely a situation that he was going to take full advantage of. He leaned against Nico and felt Nico subtly lean back into him. He was tempted to throw an arm around him too, but didn't only because in order to do so he would have had to let go of Nico's hand, and that was definitely not something he wanted to do. This was the first time Nico had ever touched him like that with the obvious intention being because he wanted to, and not because it was necessary for shadow traveling or because he was trying to stop Jason from moving away, or some other similar excuse. Sure they'd hugged a couple of times, but hugs could be platonic. And most of their non-essential contact had been initiated by Jason. The way Nico's fingers were twisted between his own right now did not feel platonic in the least.

Jason felt his uncertainty about a possible relationship with Nico quickly transforming from an if into a when.

He spent the next half hour fighting the temptation to test Nico's newly expanded boundaries. It was a little too easy to let his mind slip into fantasies about pulling Nico down completely into the shadows and passionately making out. (That scenario probably wouldn't play out as smoothly as he was imagining if he dared to try it…which he didn't.) It was hard to resist pulling up the armrest between them and more thoroughly impinging on Nico's space as well. (He might actually be able to get away with that…but was it too soon to risk trying?)

In the end Jason wasn't brave enough to press his luck. He was pretty happy to simply be allowed to hold hands with Nico and didn't want to ruin that.

He kept waiting for Nico's personal space tolerance timer to go off and feel his hand get dropped. But Nico's grip stayed steady throughout the rest of the movie, occasionally tightening from time to time as something loud or startling happened on the screen. It was only as the lights came back on that the steady pressure slacked. Jason watched in mild disappointment as the shadows retreated and Nico's hand broke away.

"Well," he said as they slowly made their way out of the theater. "That was a lot of fun."

"Yeah." Nico shot him a genuine smile. "I enjoyed that more than I thought I would, actually."

"Me too," Jason agreed. "We should definitely do it again."

"Yeah, totally."

They stood there as the crowd cleared out around them.

"So," Jason said, stretching for something witty or charming to say and drawing a blank.

"Yeah…"

He stared at Nico, who was returning his gaze with comparable intensity.

If this were a movie, Jason thought, this would be the part where I'd kiss him.

He kept staring at Nico.

Or he'd kiss me.

Nico kept staring at him. He watched as he nervously bit his lip. The tightness in Jason's stomach clenched into something a bit stronger than just nervousness. He felt himself unconsciously start to lean forward a fraction and—

He stopped.

This isn't a movie, Jason reminded himself. This is just our first date. Nico has a lot of boundaries and he'd hate getting kissed in a public theater. Don't screw this up.

"We should probably head back," he said instead.

"Y—yeah." Nico nodded. "It's kind of late."

Nico's hand rejoined with his and the air turned cold around them.

And maybe it was just Jason's imagination but he thought Nico's voice had held a trace of disappointment in it.

Jason decided he was going to blame Leo for their second date.

Sure, it had been Jason's decision to ask Nico out before Nico could ask him again. Nico had taken the initiative to ask him for their first one, so he wanted Nico to know that he was just as serious about this. They were equals and he wanted their relationship to be balanced. Besides, if he'd waited for Nico to ask again it might have taken weeks. Now that his confidence in their future together had been bolstered, Jason was getting pretty anxious to seal the deal. He didn't want to just be casually-sort-of-ambiguously-dating. He wanted to be able to say with confidence that they had an actual relationship.

The problem was, Jason's experience in the courtship stage of dating was seriously messed up. He hadn't done this properly before. Piper had already considered him her boyfriend before he'd even learned her name. He hadn't had to win her over or even go through the awkward getting-to-know-each-other stages. It might have just been fake memories, but Piper already knew him. He hadn't had to plan any dates, he'd simply been single one moment and already deep in a serious relationship the next. All he'd had to do is make up his mind whether he wanted to break that off or go along with it.

That had all seemed more or less okay at the time, but it was not exactly a good model for building future relationships.

And so, as Jason had no past experience in planning beginning-of-the-relationship dates, he'd turned to Leo for advice. Not necessarily because Leo was actually the romance expert he claimed to be—more because Leo was the only member of camp who dared to mess around with the dangers of things such as accessing the Internet. Leo was his gateway to other people's ideas.

Apparently though, other people were idiots.

He shouldn't have tried to be creative. He should have just stuck with the fail-safe formula of dinner and a movie. He should have asked anyone but Leo.

Leo had suggested they go bowling. Jason had been slightly skeptical of the suggestion, but for lack of any better ideas himself he'd gone ahead and invited Nico.

Nico had looked slightly surprised at the suggestion but had still readily agreed.

The bowling itself wasn't bad. Neither of them had ever played before, but it was pretty easy to pick up on by watching the other people around them. And all their strength and aim training from fighting monsters gave them a huge skill advantage. They both performed drastically better than the average beginner. Their advantage only increased when it occurred to Jason that he could pretty much make the ball go wherever he wanted by manipulating the air in the lane. Okay, so maybe that was cheating. Did it really matter though? It's not like this was the Roman war games or anything. Besides, he didn't do that for his own turns. He might have just helped Nico's ball once or twice. Nico may or may not have noticed.

In all truth, the bowling itself wasn't too bad. Jason and Nico both liked playing competitive games. And the fact that the bowling alley provided an endless supply of French fries and soda didn't go unappreciated by Nico.

The French fries proved to be their downfall though.

Jason had volunteered to pick up a refill while Nico bowled his turn. He wasn't exactly paying a lot of attention as he placed the order. He was distractedly watching Nico out of the corner of his eye.

"One large curly fries with extra ketchup," a voice behind him announced.

Jason turned to claim his order. The lady behind the counter was grinning widely as she presented the greasy cardboard tray to him.

"Nice and fresh," she said, nodding enthusiastically.

"Thanks," said Jason, accepting the carton of fries.

"You should try one now while they're hot," she said, her grin creeping into clownish proportions. "They're very good. We use the perfect proportion of salt and seasonings."

"Uh, yeah, I know," said Jason. "I already had some. They're pretty decent."

"This batch is even better than the last one." She winked at him and ran a hand through her voluminous dreadlocks.

Jason frowned and glanced down at his fries. They looked just like the other fries he'd eaten barely 20 minutes ago. Why was the vendor being so insistent that he eat them immediately? It was kind of weird….

"I'm sure they are, thanks," he began to say, intending to walk away. He was rather anxious to get back to Nico. He wanted to tell him about his bizarre encounter with an overenthusiastic fast food server. They'd probably laugh about it together.

Before he'd taken a step, one of the woman's dreadlocks darted out and sank its teeth into Jason's arm. Pain shot up from the bite. Jason's head whipped around to see a reptilian head retreating from his hand.

"I'm sorry, I really must insist you have some immediately," said the server, who Jason was realizing in horror wasn't a real server.

Her dreadlocks began to writhe, the colorful snakes encircling her head now clearly agitated.

Snakes. Not hair. Her dreadlocks weren't dreadlocks at all, but snakes.

Gorgon.

Schist.

How had he missed that? He'd been too distracted by his date to pay attention to make sure he was seeing through the Mist. Jason tried to reach for his sword but was met with the following complications:

1) He didn't have his sword because they hadn't wanted to draw a lot of attention on their date and had left their weapons at camp. And—

2) Even if he had had his sword it wouldn't have done him any good. The muscles in his arm were uncooperative. His entire body was rapidly draining of energy; he felt weak and dizzy. He could see an angry red line shooting up his arm from the puncture wounds.

A line racing right towards his heart.

"Nico!"

He tried to call out but Jason barely managed a hoarse gasp. No part of his body seemed to be working properly. The snake venom was working too fast.

Was this really how he was going to go? Killed by a gorgon's snakebite while ordering junk food in a seedy bowling alley? He was almost too embarrassed to be upset.

The gorgon was swinging herself over the counter, a handful of French fries thrust out before her.

"The real secret is in the ketchup," she cackled. "Have you ever tried gorgon blood? It really adds a little extra special something to the recipe."

He tried to back away but all of his muscles had officially gone on strike. The ketchup dish was inching closer and closer to his face and he was helpless to pull away.

A blur of black knocked the container out of her gnarled hand. There was a loud shriek followed by the crunch of fracturing linoleum as a bowling ball plowed into the floor.

Nico quickly followed the path of the ball he'd just thrown and tackled the gorgon, pining her limbs as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She struggled to pry him off but Nico nimbly twisted in her grasp without slackening his hold on her. Jason watched the struggle helplessly.

A flailing hand reached out and grabbed a plastic spork off the counter and Nico drove it into the gorgon's right arm. Which confused Jason a bit. Wouldn't the bowling ball have been a better weapon to take her out? Why had he aimed it at the ketchup instead of directly at her? If he was going to stab her with a flimsy piece of tableware, why not go for the jugular? Or one of her eyes? Well, getting near her eyes meant getting near the snakes, he supposed, but….

In a flash Nico released her and was sprinting over to Jason.

He wanted to yell at him, tell him to finish killing the gorgon. What was he doing?

Nico's eyes were frantic as he dropped down next to Jason and all but thrust his hand in his mouth. Nico's hand was sticky and slightly metallic tasting. Jason started to gag.

Then he realized that gagging meant that his muscles were working again. Almost instantly his strength began to surge back. He regained control of his body just in time to see the gorgon grab Nico and drag him back towards the counter.

"How dare you steal my blood!" she screamed.

Jason sprung to his feet and launched himself at the abandoned bowling ball, sweeping it up off the ground. It took a little more effort for him to pick it up than it should have; his strength may be returning but he still felt a bit woozy from the venom.

Jason threw the ball at her with all his reclaimed strength. He called on the wind to ensure his aim stayed true and the ball didn't hit Nico by mistake. The bowling ball connected with its target. He'd hoped the mere impact of the projectile would be enough to dissolve her into dust, but the gorgon was sturdier than that. She merely got thrown backwards, her body catching on the metal counter.

Jason saw his opportunity. He sprinted forward and slammed his hands down on the counter, surging an electrical charge through the stainless steel surface. The gorgon began jerking and twitching unnaturally. He refocused and channeled an additional blast. The monster exploded in a glimmering shower.

He hadn't even had a chance to turn back and look to see if Nico was okay before he felt icy fingers connect with his skin and shadows reaching out to drag him in.

They were both breathing hard when they remerged in the Camp Half-Blood woods.

"That was stupid," Nico panted. "I can't believe we got caught off-guard like that."

"I was stupid," Jason corrected. "I'm the one who got caught off-guard. You were really smart. How did you counteract the poison like that?"

"Only the blood on the left side of a gorgon's body is poison," Nico explained. "Blood from the right side will cure anything."

"That was quick thinking," Jason said appreciatively. "Thanks. I would have just taken her out immediately without thinking to do that first."

"You probably would have been okay with some ambrosia or nectar," Nico said with a shrug. "I don't think the snake's venom is as deadly as her blood…or at least not as fast acting, anyway. But I didn't want to take any chances." His face hardened into a more serious expression. "How are you feeling?" he asked. His eyes tracked Jason's features, clearly scanning for any lingering damage.

"I feel a bit off, but my strength came back immediately. I think I'm fine."

Nico frowned. "You should have been completely cured by that. I wasn't able to get very much blood on my hand though. Maybe you didn't get enough for it to completely cure you? We should probably take you to the infirmary and have you checked out."

"I don't think that's necessary. I really think I'm fine."

Nico stared at him skeptically.

Jason stared back, trying to look as reassuring as possible.

Something in his gaze must have been effective. Nico's evaluating expression softened into a much more affectionate one. He tentatively reached up and ran his fingers along Jason's jaw, gradually dropping them to his shoulders.

"Styx, you really scared me for a minute there," he said in a low whisper.

"I wasn't feeling too good about the situation myself," Jason admitted. "I guess that was a pretty spectacularly terrible date."

"It wasn't that terrible."

"If you don't think that was terrible, I'd hate to know what you'd consider an actually terrible date," Jason tried to joke.

His quip fell flat as distress flashed across Nico's face. Jason immediately knew exactly what Nico was thinking: he was picturing a date where at least one of them didn't actually make it back alive.

"We'll do better next time," he quickly added. "This date needs a do-over."

Nico nodded and Jason felt the hands on his shoulders squeeze him reassuringly. He waited for Nico to let go and step back. He didn't.

Jason's heart thudded as he took in the way Nico was staring at him. He leaned forward, wondering if Nico would lean in too or take that as his cue to pull away.

Nico tilted his head up, sending Jason's chest into an overactive hyper drive.

This was it.

Finally.

They were finally going to….

He was just taking a breath, preparing himself to bridge the gap and kiss Nico when his stomach lurched and a wave of dizzying nausea hit him.

Wait. Maybe that thudding he felt hadn't actually been his heart so much as his….

Jason tried to push Nico away and turn his head before he could throw up all over Nico's shoes.

He almost made it.

They managed to get almost all the way through their third date before anything went wrong.

Or, more accurately, before they noticed that something had gone wrong.

Jason figured he probably shouldn't complain. After all, it was kind of an outright miracle that he had even managed to get a third date out of his boyfriend(?) after puking his guts out all over him. (Jason wasn't actually sure if Nico was his boyfriend yet or not. But incurable optimist that he was, he'd started thinking of him as such inside his own head.)

They'd simply stuck with the tried-and-true formula of going to the movies.

The movie had been okay. Or, Jason assumed it had been okay. He hadn't really paid a whole lot of attention to it. This time he'd been brave enough to raise the armrest between their seats and sling an arm around Nico's shoulders. And Nico had promptly slouched into him and right then and there Jason decided that he could probably die happy. Except that dying wasn't really such a great thing to think about while on a date. Not considering how close he'd come to doing just that on their last one. Anyway, the point was that their dates were definitely getting more date-y and Nico was obviously getting more comfortable with him and Jason was increasingly feeling like he'd won the lottery.

Nico hadn't even hesitated to take Jason's hand as they walked out of the theater.

He was pretty much on cloud nine as they casually strolled down the street.

"HA! I fuckin' knew it!"

The voice behind them was so full of malice that Jason swiveled around, expecting to see another monster. His hand dropped, poised to pull out the dagger he'd concealed in his cargo pocket: bringing his sword to a movie theater still hadn't seemed like a great idea, but they'd learned their lesson from the last date not to venture out defenseless, and packed more subtle weapons.

Jason blinked in confusion as his gaze was met by a completely ordinary looking college student.

He squinted, trying to look through any sort of magical glamour that might be shielding a monster's true form.

Nothing.

For some reason they were just being heckled (in a strangely familiar way) by a completely unremarkable dude bro.

Well, mostly unremarkable. His nose was sort of crooked.

Jason glanced at Nico and saw that his boyfriend(?) had gone white as a sheet. Clammy fingers quickly pulled away and left Jason's hand empty.

"I knew it! I knew you were gayer than a Ricky Martin concert, you fucking freak!" taunted the heckler. "I fuckin' called it."

Jason's stomach sank. Oh schist. He'd been prepared to face any number of issues: monsters, first and foremost. He'd been prepared to face gods or corrupted demigods. He had not been prepared to deal with this.

Which is stupid, really. He ought to have been expecting to encounter something like this. It's exactly what Nico had been worried about when Jason had first discovered his secret.

The thing was though, Jason had really been sincere when he'd assured Nico that everyone would accept him. The other demigods he knew were, for the most part, really decent. Even the unpleasant ones, like Drew Tanaka, he just couldn't really imagine attacking someone over a matter like this. Being mean about someone's appearance, or godly parentage, sure. He'd witnessed plenty of ruthless teasing over that. But considering the sexual track records of their godly parents, homophobia just didn't really make sense among the demigods. Vague discomfort was pretty much the worst he would have expected. It was more of an abstract concept that Jason had heard about happening out in the non-magical world but never really witnessed.

He hadn't grown up in the non-magical world though. But Nico had.

Nico's horrified expression wasn't surprise; it was resignation.

Jason waited for Nico to freak out. He expected him to vanish into the shadows at the very least (hopefully with Jason in tow.) Nico didn't move though. The expression of dismay on his face just stretched wider and wider.

"What are you doing here?" he finally stuttered out.

The question clearly surprised the heckler as much as it surprised Jason.

"What the hell do you mean, 'what am I doing here'?" the dude sneered. "What are you doing here? I shoulda put a restraining order on you! Stay the fuck away from me you psycho freak!" He reached into his pocket and whipped out a cell phone, pressing a button on it and pointing the device at Nico. "I'm filming you by the way," he added. "If you so much as come within three feet of me I'm going to sue your ass all the way to Fort Knox."

Nico put up his hands and took a step backwards. "Like I'd want to touch you," he muttered.

"Sure you do, you couldn't keep your slimy hands off'a me last time. You probably want to bang me," the unpleasant man sneered. "Fucking sick, man."

Nico jolted, and Jason watched his hands twitch, stretching for a weapon, but halting midair. The air around them dropped several degrees and the contents of a flowerpot on a nearby apartment stoop withered. The asshole didn't seem to notice.

"You should leave," Jason said tersely.

"You should leave," the dude snapped back. "And seriously?" He gave Jason a skeptical look. "You too? I mean, I knew psychoboy here was queerer than a two headed nickel, but I can't believe you're one of them too. You seemed cool, man. Did you like, catch his queer cooties or something? How long have you two been screwing?"

A vein of ice blossomed beneath Nico's feet and branched out through the cracks in the sidewalk. The street began to darken, even though the sky remained cloudless.

Jason's mouth dropped open in shock. Partially out of bafflement that the heckler was acting like he knew him (Jason had never so much as laid eyes on this guy before,) and partly because Jason was pretty certain that he was two seconds away from witnessing a first-degree murder. He wasn't sure he'd be able to hold Nico back from obliterating this guy after a malicious taunt like that.

"We're not—" Jason began to object in hopes of diffusing the situation.

"None. Of. Your. Business. Jerkwad."

Nico's voice cut through the noisy chatter of the avenue like icy bullets, effectively silencing not only Jason's denial but several nearby pedestrians' conversations. The air felt thick with an almost tangible sense of dread. Suddenly Jason was reliving the battle with Gaea; he was facing Beryl Grace's mania; he was witnessing Leo's vaporization; he was watching Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus and Nico breaking under Cupid's taunts and Piper being attacked by Cyclopes. It seemed like every bad experience he'd ever had was suddenly choosing this very moment to jar out of his memory and overwhelm him.

The heckler's complexion paled considerably. He opened his mouth like he was preparing a retort but the words failed to form and he ended up silently gaping, fishlike.

"We have to go," Nico bit out. He held his hand out to Jason expectantly.

Jason was slow to react, still feeling dazed by…whatever that had just been.

Nico didn't wait for him to recover. He grabbed Jason's hand possessively and proceeded to drag him aggressively down the street.

"What…" Jason was having difficulty getting his thoughts back in order. "Wait, what…?"

"Styx." Nico was muttering under his breath. "Styx, styx, styx!"

"I'm sorry!" The apology came automatically. "I didn't mean to give you away…I mean, you didn't have to let him think…wow, you actually let him think that—"

Nico stopped abruptly, causing Jason to accidently bump into him. The anger clouding his eyes quickly bled into worry.

"Well, we are, aren't we?" He asked anxiously, dropping Jason's hand again. "I mean, obviously we haven't—you know, what he said—" Nico's unnaturally pallid skin subtly flushed "—but—we're together, right?"

"YES!" Jason had never answered any question faster in his life. He nodded vigorously to drive the point home. "Yes, absolutely."

A little bit of tension eased out of Nico's frame. "Good," he stated simply. "Yeah, that's good." He resumed tugging Jason down the street, still muttering the occasional "Styx."

"Why'd that guy act like he knew me?" Jason asked as he let Nico drag him along.

"Because he does know you," Nico mumbled. "If my suspicion is right."

"How? I've never seen him before. Did I know him at Camp Jupiter before Juno stole my memories?"

Nico shook his head. "He probably knows you from you visiting me at the comic book store."

"What comic book stor—oh." The pieces fell into place and Jason suddenly knew why Nico was acting so agitated even though they'd already gotten well away from the heckler. "Wait, you mean he knows the other Jason?"

"That's the guy I hit in the face and got fired over," Nico confirmed with a nod.

"Well I can certainly see why you did that now," said Jason with a grimace. "Saying he deserved it was an understatement. So does this mean we're in the other place?"

"That's what I'm trying to confirm, but my gut says yes."

Jason followed as Nico veered them down a side street that was lined with brownstones and brick row houses. They stopped in front of a tall brick building and Nico jumped up and began to scale a drainpipe. Before he made it halfway up the side of the building, a middle-aged lady in a ratty Black Sabbath T-shirt stepped through the door and went wide-eyed at the sight of Nico's antics.

"Nico di Angelo!" she shrieked in horror. "Just what the heck do you think you're doing?"

Nico froze mid-climb and looked down in confusion. He didn't seem to recognize the lady any better than Jason did.

"I…locked myself out?" he said uncertainly.

"Is that how the window ended up broken before?" she asked disapprovingly.

"Errr…." Nico sheepishly slid back down the drainpipe.

"Why the blazes didn't you knock and just have me let you in?"

"I…didn't think you were home?"

The lady rolled her eyes and made a tsk-ing noise in Nico's general direction. "Get your scrawny butt over here and let me get my keys," she huffed.

Nico and Jason obediently followed her up three stories of stairs.

"Don't you even think about breaking and entering if this happens again!" she lectured, as she opened the door for them. "It wouldn't be hard for me to find a new tenant!"

"Yes ma'am." Nico nodded.

"Kids!" she muttered to herself as she left them alone in Nico's apartment.

"Well I think that confirms it," said Nico quietly as soon as they were alone. "She definitely knew me and I sure as heck don't know her, so we must be in the other place. This is certainly the apartment I was living in."

"Wow," said Jason, scanning their surroundings. "This is nice."

"It kind of beats Cabin Thirteen anyway," agreed Nico, rubbing his head awkwardly.

"The décor is more you," said Jason.

"Not really," objected Nico. "I've outgrown all this junk."

"I like it though," said Jason. "It has a lot of personality."

"Some of it is yours," said Nico, who was also carefully scanning the room. "It's a bit different than before. It looks to me like you've moved in."

"Yeah?" asked Jason. He felt kind of warm at the revelation. Him and Nico living together? He liked the idea. He liked it quite a lot. Not for the first time he found himself slightly jealous of the other him.

"Yeah," Nico confirmed. "A bunch of this stuff wasn't here before, but I saw it in Jason's apartment. It makes sense though, Jason was living in a really tiny place almost an hour away by subway. He had a roommate he didn't particularly like all that much. And Nico was living in this big place alone. It's pretty logical for them to move in together."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Jason agreed. His eyes fell on a photograph pinned up on the fridge with magnets. In it was the other Nico, looking infinitely happier than he had ever seen in person. An arm was comfortably slung around his shoulder, connected to a mirror image of himself. He got a weird sense of déjà vu as he looked at the photo of a him that wasn't actually him.

"This is so weird," he said, still staring at the photo.

"Yeah," agreed Nico, coming to join him in front of the fridge. "Isn't it?"

"Super weird."

"They look really happy," Nico commented, staring at the photo.

"Yeah, they really do," said Jason. "I'm glad."

"Me too," said Nico. "It looks like they're together now. I wasn't sure if they would be. Jason…he sort of confessed his feelings to me shortly before I left. I told him he had to tell the other Nico, but I really wasn't sure if he would follow through."

"I could tell that Nico was in love with him," commented Jason. "It was kind of obvious. It's good they worked things out."

"Ah." Nico kept staring at the photo and an awkward silence descended. Jason sort of wished he'd chosen his words a little more carefully. 'Love' had been kind of a heavy word to drop. Maybe he'd made Nico feel put on the spot by using it. It had felt appropriate though. That particular emotion had been vividly written all over the other Nico.

"You're not…" Nico turned to look at Jason as he finally broke the silence. "I mean, you're not…just…because of them?"

Jason shook his head and wrapped an arm around Nico, in an unintentional reflection of the photo. "No way," he objected. "They might have caused me to look a little harder at my feelings, but my feelings are one hundred percent my own."

"And those feelings are…?" Nico cautiously probed.

"I'd rather show you than tell you," said Jason. "Would that be okay?"

Nico nodded.

Jason was grinning as he finally managed to drag Nico in for a real kiss. He kept it light because he didn't want to overwhelm Nico, but Nico was definitely kissing him back. And when he pulled away Nico didn't let go of his grip on Jason's shirt.

"Okay?" he checked.

"Better than okay," said Nico. "What'd you stop for?"

"Just…just making sure."

"Well I'm sure I want you to show me some more of that."

Jason was more than happy to oblige.

"I guess it's my fault," Nico explained, as they got ready to leave. "I was sort of wondering about them as we were leaving for the movies. It seemed like the sort of thing that they'd be doing if they were together and I was wondering if they'd gotten to that point or not. I guess the stray thought redirected us as we were shadow traveling."

"But you think you can get us back?"

"Yeah." Nico nodded. "I think I'm getting a better feel for the whole thing now."

He held out his hand and Jason tightly grasped it as shadows enveloped them.

"Duuuuuude." Percy jumped them as soon as they stepped back into camp. "You are not going to believe this! Nico's doppelganger was totally here again and this time your doppelganger was with him!"

"Um, yeah, I sort of guessed that," said Jason abashedly. "We figured they must have been because we accidently ended up where they came from too."

"No, wait, that wasn't the part you weren't going to believe!" Percy was practically bouncing with barely contained restraint over whatever news he was dying to tell them. "Get this! They were dating!"

Nico and Jason exchanged an anxious look.

"Um, yeah. We know," said Jason.

"Isn't that weird?" prodded Percy, apparently disappointed by the lack of reaction his assumed shocking news garnered.

"Uh, Percy…." Jason began. He felt Nico tense substantially.

"We're dating too," Nico cut him off.

Percy's eyes widened and then dropped down to take in the fact that Nico and Jason's hands were still enmeshed from their shadow jump. "But…" he began, he brow scrunching up in confusion, but then he halted and shrugged. "Huh. Oh, okay then. Cool," he said instead. "Lucky you came back though, the party is tomorrow night. You guys almost missed it."

"…Party?" Nico asked dumbly.

"Yeah! The reunion one?" Percy prompted. "That we were planning at the campfire a few weeks ago? Remember? Don't tell me you forgot! Hazel and Reyna will both be there!"

"…I totally forgot," Nico admitted.

"Me too," confessed Jason. "I've sort of had a lot on my mind lately."

Percy snorted and raised an eyebrow. "I bet," he snickered.

"We'll be there," Jason said, not really appreciating Percy's insinuations. He glanced at Nico hoping that Nico didn't mind the commitment.

Nico nodded. There might even have been a hint of a smile on his face.

"Excellent." Percy rubbed his hands together conspiratorially. "I'll be sure to add a few extra slow dances to the playlist in honor of the happy couple."

"I don't dance!" Nico quickly objected.

Percy didn't hear him over his own laughter as he walked away.

"I can't believe everyone knows."

Nico stared into the fire while Jason sat with his arm draped around him. They'd been spending a lot of time together like that and Jason was never going to get tired of it.

"It's better though, right?" Jason asked. "It's a relief not having to keep secrets from people."

"I…don't know. I wasn't planning on telling anyone," Nico mumbled.

"I'm not very good at lying," Jason reminded him. "They would have figured us out eventually. It's better you outright told them."

"I…guess." Nico shook his head in disbelief. "But I can't believe I told everyone."

"And they were all cool about it," Jason reminded him.

Nico looked up from the fire and caught Hazel grinning radiantly at him from across the circle. He turned only to catch Reyna giving him a thumbs up. Even Percy and Annabeth were smiling at them.

He buried his face into Jason's shoulder in embarrassment. "Yeah," he conceded. "Yeah they were. Everything kind of turned out perfect."

Jason nodded as he tightened his hold on Nico and stuck another marshmallow into the campfire.

He couldn't agree more.

Author's note 2: Well, I can't believe that's the end of this story! Thanks so much to all the wonderful readers who left such great comments on this, I really appreciate you guys sticking through this and leaving so much feedback!