Chapter 8: Worst Dudebro Ever

It's okay, Jason.

Leo's in front of him, smiling. But his dark brown eyes are sad. The Latino stretched out his arms, welcoming Jason into them.

It's gonna be okay.

Leo's voice resounded in Jason's head as Leo opened his mouth to speak.

Jason felt an undeniable rush of euphoria when he hugged Leo back. No longer was his best friend walking away from him. No more judging looks. No more venomous words. Just Leo, telling him that things will be fine.

Jason felt something squeeze his hand.

He opened his eyes.

This time, Nico woke up first. Jason's face, considerably more peaceful and less puffy than last night, was a few inches away from his. He felt his hand still in Jason's grip in between them as they lay facing each other. But before he could tug his hand free, Jason groaned and slowly opened his eyes.

"Nico," he croaked.

"Hey," Nico said. Jason smiled sleepily at him with half-lidded eyes.

"You feeling better?" Nico asked.

Jason nodded. "Thanks. You know, for last night."

"Anytime, Jason." Nico returned his smile with a small one of his own and felt Jason squeeze his hand.

"I think… I think I should tell Leo about it," Jason said after a brief pause, his smile fading.

"You're sure about this?" Nico asked.

Jason scrunched his eyes shut. "I'd have to tell him eventually," he replied, taking a deep breath. "I'd have to do it before I change my mind or chicken out."

Nico's smile grew a little wider. "I think you're doing the right thing," he said. Nico hoped that this decision would do Jason some good. "Don't be afraid to tell Leo. He's your friend, remember?"

He hummed in acknowledgement as he opened his eyes. "Best friend," Jason muttered, looking into Nico's eyes.

Jason's gaze seemed to grow softer the longer Nico stared. The son of Hades broke eye contact, cleared his throat and tried to sit up on the bed. "Want me to go with you?" he asked Jason.

"I think I can handle it on my own," Jason replied.

"When exactly will you talk to Leo?" Nico looked beside him, observing Jason as he sat up with their shoulders and arms touching.

Jason yawned. "After wall-climbing," he said. Fair enough.

Nico looked down at his forearms and, as expected, there were bruises. They stood out, purple and blotchy against his pale skin. Five ugly marks no bigger than an inch on each arm where Jason's fingers had painfully dug into his skin.

At least they didn't bleed. Nico frowned. He'd have to remember not to remove his jacket for the rest of the day just to hide them.

Jason must have followed Nico's gaze because he heard a soft oh gods escape those lips.

"Nico…" Jason started. Nico could practically hear the stream of apologies about to come out of Jason's mouth.

"Jason, it's okay. I'm fine," Nico said, not wanting Jason to make a big deal out of it. He clenched his hands, and then remembered that he was still holding one of Jason's.

"But-"

"You weren't even fully aware of what you were doing last night," Nico interrupted.

"I hurt you." Jason's hand, which was still in Nico's hand, trembled.

"I know you didn't mean it. Just stop worrying about it." Nico heard a small whine that made Jason sound like a kicked puppy. Did Jason pick that up from the wolves he said he had grown up with?

Nico bumped his shoulder against Jason's. "We got a wall to climb, remember?"

Nico won.

Jason rolled his eyes at Nico's smirking face as he reached the top of the wall only a few seconds behind. He hoisted himself up and dusted his hands as Nico walked up to him, practically sneering as he had his hands shoved inside the pockets of his aviator jacket.

"You're really fast," Jason commented, wiping the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. Nico only chuckled.

"I should, uh, probably get going. You know. Leo," Jason said.

Nico nodded. "Take as long as you need. I'll wait for you at your cabin with a surprise." He grinned at Jason.

"Is it brownies?" Jason asked eagerly.

Nico didn't answer, but his smile widened a fraction. He disappeared after stepping into Jason's shadow.

Nico had appeared from the shadow of one of Terminus' statues after dropping by Hades' Cabin to grab some spare denarii. He was welcomed back by the god of boundaries like before, and Nico made his way to one of New Rome's bakeries to buy a dozen brownies for Jason. He sensed that Hazel wasn't in New Rome, so he shadow-travelled with the bag of baked goods to the mess hall.

The legionnaires were filing out of the mess hall when Nico had arrived. He spotted Hazel walking near the back of the group. Nico approached her swiftly and placed a hand on Hazel's shoulder. She whipped her head to the side, shock replaced by worry on her face. Nico took her hand and led her to a deserted corridor.

"Did anything bad happen to you? Or Jason?" Hazel lowered her voice, speaking to Nico.

"Jason decided to open up to Leo. He's making progress," Nico whispered back.

Hazel beamed at him. "That's great!"

"Yeah." He returned her smile with one of his own small smiles. "I just bought him brownies too," he said, referring to the paper bag in his other hand.

Hazel squeezed his hand. "Do you think he'll want to open up to the rest of us now?"

"It's possible. It depends on how it goes with Valdez, but I think they'll be fine. If not, then Jason would have you guys to comfort him," Nico replied. "I was hoping you could tell the others about it so we can all see Jason together."

Nico realized that, as Hazel resolutely told Percy and Annabeth about Jason's situation, he had wanted to confide in Hazel about the secret he had been keeping from her. If Jason could do it with Leo, why couldn't he open up to his own sister, right?

But Nico bit his tongue. He thought he needed more time. He wasn't prepared. And now wasn't a good time either. Now, it was going to be about Jason opening up to these people as these people needed to reassure Jason that he was going to be fine.

Frank had slipped away from his praetor duties just so he could come with Hazel, Annabeth, Percy and Nico after Hazel told him about it. They joined hands in a circle, with Nico in between Hazel and Percy. Nico and Hazel held on to the bag of brownies.

But before they could shadow-travel to Camp Half-Blood, Frank froze like a deer caught in the headlights. Nico followed his gaze to Reyna making their way towards them.

"Hello, praetor." Reyna told Frank as she moved towards him with Aurum and Argentum at her heels.

"Hi Reyna." Percy beamed.

"Hello, ex-praetor," Reyna told Percy. She gave him a ghost of a smile very briefly before directing a serious piercing stare to Frank.

"Frank," she started. "I know I had given you a few days after Piper's funeral to finish your affairs at Camp Half-Blood a few weeks ago, but I believe you can't be excused this time. It's your turn to meet with Octavian. You and I also have to meet with the Senators afterwards."

Reyna's eyes screamed 'Don't even think about it' as her dogs snarled at the other praetor as he opened his mouth to say something. They might have sensed a lie disguised as an excuse starting to form in Frank's throat. Frank quickly shut his mouth and bowed his head as he let out a disappointed sigh. "I understand, Reyna."

The son of Mars exchanged a meaningful glance with Hazel before he let her hand and Annabeth's hand go. He headed for Temple Hill, clearly upset that he wouldn't get to go with them to see Jason.

Reyna trained her eyes on the four others, but lingered on Nico and the bag of brownies he and Hazel held between them.

Nico let Percy's hand go and stretched out his hand to Reyna, telling her, "You can come with us to see Jason if you want."

Reyna smiled at this and shook her head. "It must be important for all of you to go to the Greek camp to see Jason. I can't go, but I'm sure he'll be fine if he's surrounded by people like you." Reyna looked at Nico upon mentioning that last word. Her gaze was soft as she met Nico's dark eyes. After a split-second, she turned around and followed the path to Temple Hill with her dogs following closely behind her. Nico's eyes followed Reyna's form as she walked away.

"So. Let's go?" the son of Poseidon said. Percy's bright eyes scanned everyone's faces in the circle.

Leo really wanted to bring up his idea for a Slap-Leo-in-the-Face machine again. Only that he felt this was way worse than the time he blew up the Senate House.

Jason had visited him at Bunker 9. Jason had approached him for the first time in weeks, looking like he had something important to say, so Leo had patted the spot on the bench beside him for Jason to sit down and talk to him. And Jason had told him a lot of worrying things. Very worrying things. Nightmares about Piper's death? Drinking? Smoking? Wanting to kill himself? Really bad news. Leo felt like he had let Jason down with how he hasn't been around for the dude. He was now feeling like the worst dudebro ever.

And then Jason had brought up how Nico had come back to Camp Half-Blood with news of Piper's ghost telling him to move on.

"Nico summoned her ghost. It's what he's been trying to do since he disappeared," Jason said.

"Why didn't he tell us he was trying to find her?" Leo asked. "We could have had the chance to talk to her one last time."

"It doesn't matter, Leo. She's gone. Piper chose rebirth. We can't do anything about it."

Leo cursed under his breath. He sighed tiredly and ran a hand down his face, feeling mad at himself. "I'm really sorry, Jason. I should have been around for you more. I thought giving you space would help but I guess I was wrong."

"It's okay, man. Really. I've… felt a whole lot better when Nico came back."

Leo snorted in derision. "When did you two become so buddy-buddy?"

"You jealous?" Jason teased.

Leo frowned. "I'm not. It's just, I dunno, weird. You guys suddenly became friends out of the blue."

"Guess you can say we're fast friends." Jason shrugged.

"Probably. But man, I'm just glad he was there for you when I wasn't. I really should have been with you for this."

"Stop beating yourself up about it, Leo. I told you it's fine." Jason smiled at him but Leo was still uneasy.

Jason continued to talk. "I've been dreaming about you the past few weeks. You were walking away from me, and I couldn't catch up with you no matter how far I ran or how fast I flew. You just kept getting farther and farther away."

"I really haven't been around for you." Leo averted his gaze, his expression bitter.

"But last night, I dreamed about you again," Jason said. "You were telling me that things were okay, that things were gonna be okay, while you were hugging me. And I needed that."

Leo pursed his lips, scrunching up his face like he was about to cry and pulled Jason into his arms, saying "I'm so sorry. It's gonna be okay, man. You're gonna be okay."

Jason let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding in and curled an arm around Leo's waist to pull him closer. He rested his chin on Leo's shoulder, taking a deep breath and feeling tears well up in his eyes. He missed Leo this much. He had told Leo what he wanted to say, and felt a lot lighter afterwards. They stayed like that for a while, locked in a warm embrace in the noisy environment of Bunker 9.

Jason pulled back and blinked back the tears successfully. With a gentle smile on his face, he asked, "So how's the cornucopia?"

"The cornucopia?" Leo looked up at Jason's face. "Heh, it's fine, I guess. Sometimes I like to imagine Piper cheering me on with food so I'd be more motivated to finish my current project." Leo lightened up a little.

"Current project?"

Leo winked at him. "It's a secret between me and Pipes." Leo patted the horn on the table as he said so.

"Must be pretty big." Jason continued to smile.

"It's pretty important, yeah," Leo suddenly had a faraway look on his face as he smiled sadly. But as soon as he saw Jason's face, the faraway look was replaced with mischievous glee. "You'll be the first to know when I'm done with it," Leo said.

"I'm looking forward to it," Jason gave Leo a nod. "Wanna get out of Bunker 9 for a while? I mean, if it's not too much trouble-"

"Are you kidding me? I haven't taken a break in weeks! Weeks, Jason."

Jason laughed as he stood from his seat, standing back to give Leo room to get up from the bench.

"Where's Nico?" Leo asked.

"He said he was gonna wait for me back at Cabin 1," Jason replied.

"Have you guys had breakfast yet?"

"No."

"No reason not to have a picnic at your cabin, right?" Leo grabbed the cornucopia and stashed it in his toolbelt. Jason grinned.

"So, do you wanna walk all the way to my cabin or do you want me to fly us there?"

"Nah, I need to walk," Leo replied. "My legs feel cramped." Leo stood up from his workbench and stretched his back, hearing audible popping as he did so. He rotated his left foot, then his right, and then clapped Jason on his back.

"Let's go," Leo said.