So ya'alls problem is that you keep requesting things for Slash Week that I've already got planned out! So here's some Jake and Will for you guys. But please keep requesting for some ships because tomorrow there is absolutely no story or concept laid out yay yay yay.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters shown below.
Dedication: Maddi that bugger.
And Suddenly
And suddenly you know what all the love songs
That they write are all about
-Suddenly, Ina
Will tipped his hat to the guys who'd built Cabin 7, because it couldn't have been easy.
Apollo was all over the place with his powers, kind of like Hermes. He did art, the sun, archery, healing, poetry, prophecy, literature… And his kids' powers and interests covered that range too. The most illiterate pig that Will had ever known had been a fantastic archer. The healer who had taught Will everything he knew couldn't draw a straight line for the life of him. Will himself hated the sun, hated being too warm, but was a gifted healer, loved reading and music, and could shoot decently.
But the cabin was pretty good at keeping things in perspective. The wooden floor and high white walls gave the brightly lit cabin the illusion of being an art gallery. Every day the art pieces on one of the walls changed. Will could go to bed after spending a day starring at Van Gogh's auto portrait and wake up looking at The Scream. He still didn't know if they were authentic or not.
One wall of the cabin was entirely dedicated to Doctor's office posters- the skeleton, public health campaigns about the flu shot, graphs of various systems… Another wall looked like a music store- every day there were new instruments for Will and his siblings to pick off the wall, plug into the amps under their beds and try out.
The bunks were all in an adjoining room, separated by curtains that made music every time someone walked through. Those were all loft beds, with personal drawing or craft tables and music equipment under each. The floor was made of glass, and just under its surface books were lined up showing the spines of classic literature and children's books alike. By asking nicely, the floor would retract itself and you could pull these out. Swinging rope ladders led to trap doors, leading to attics in which you could practise your driving on stimulations (just in case Apollo decided to put you in charge of the sun chariot for the day), try out some of the sickest long-range weapons ever on the shooting range, or pray for a prophecy in a stuffy, perfumed room that doubled as a shrine. The ceiling had been autographed by famous children of Apollo, the names of Beatles, musicians, writers and singers acting as their own personal constellations.
Will's favourite part of his intricate cabin?
The fourth wall in the first room.
The one with quotes and song lyrics all over it. Sometimes he recognised them from his mother's favourite poems or Will's most loved books. Sometimes he didn't and then he read a new book or listened to a new song.
Either way, waking up in the morning or going to bed reading the new quotes on the wall –which he had a perfect view of from his bunk- was his favourite part of the day.
And it became even better once he and Jake Mason started dating.
A year without love is a year without summer.
-Swedish Proverb
"Will, I need the phone now," Mom called. "And I mean now even more than I did five minutes ago!"
"In a minute," he called back.
"Is that your mom?" Jake asked. His voice echoed through the receiver and it made Will's stomach flip a little. He hadn't been able to IM Jake since his reserve of drachmas had exhausted itself, and he'd missed him more than anything. Phone calls like these were rare since they required that Jake drive out to the nearest convenience store with a bucket full of quarters that he stole from camp's laundromat and his siblings.
"Yeah," he said. "Apparently we've been talking for too long."
"That's the kind of look that the cashier over here's giving me," Jake said. "Unless he's a really hungry Cyclops or something."
Will laughed.
"Hope not," Will said. "How would I be able to save your butt from this far away?"
"Same way you make me love you even more from so far away," Jake suggested.
Will smiled and laid down on his bed, looking at the ceiling. For a while the line was silent, but it was okay. Knowing that Jake was on the other side was good enough.
"I'm not going back to school next year," Will said.
"No?"
"No. Too many monsters, not enough going on in class, my English lit teacher's the most uncultured swine I've ever met, and I miss you too much," Will said. "Well, all of camp really, but a lot of that is you."
"If I weren't this selfish I'd tell you to pursue your education, but really who am I to-"
The line went dead.
Jake had run out of quarters. It always happened.
Will smile and leapt up to his desk and fished one of the Orlando postcards from his top drawer.
Hey jerk,
I'm assuming you were going to finish that phone conversation with 'I love you'? I was.
XOXO
Will
Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze.
-Amanda Cross
The sun was beating down on Camp as if they'd run over its dog.
The forges' temperature had become too warm for the children of Hephaestus to work in without mass collapses, nobody had seen cabins 4 and 12 all day on account of their trying to save the strawberry fields, and most of camp's population was at the beach or dying in their cabins.
Cabin Seven was at the archery range as per usual since very few of their people ever got heatstroke. Will wasn't one of those people, but he was still shooting at the targets.
Eventually they gathered a crowd since they were the only moving and ergo remotely interesting people at camp, including a chunk of Cabin 9. Will winked at Jake from the side line once he sat down on the yellowing grass, and all of a sudden his aim improved despite the heat. Eventually he started shooting two arrows at once, shooting his sister Kayla's target to piss her off…
"Will you shoot every day," Lee called out to him. "It's no big deal. Stop showing off because your boyfriend's here."
Will blushed and he heard Jake laugh.
I never saw light, never saw light
All I saw were faded mirrors
And dim reflections but
You shine, you shine so much brighter, oh
So honey let me sing you a song
And listen to my words
As they come out wrong, but don't
Run away, run away, this time
-Honey Let Me Sing You A Song, Matt Hires
Will was sitting around the central hearth, playing his guitar. The little girl who always hung out there had told him that he played beautifully before disappearing.
"Practising for tonight?" Jake asked, coming to sit next to him.
"Yeah," Will said. "It's going to be a pretty awesome camp fire."
"I don't doubt it," Jake nodded. His hands were studying Will's.
"What?" Will asked.
"Nothing," Jake said snapping out of some kind of reverie at the speed of sound.
"No, tell me," Will frowned. Jake wasn't a daydreamer. He was a visionary, sure, but he always either sat down and planned things out or stayed anchored in the real world.
"I've never… Well, I hear you play guitar all the time at campfires and stuff. But I've never heard you play on your own," Jake said. "I've never heard what you can make with your own two hands…"
"And I've seen you in the forge a thousand times," Will said.
Jake nodded.
He picked at his guitar, tuning it, as his stomach churned. He didn't doubt his talent- he was nearly as good of a guitarist as he was a healer, and he knew that his voice was good. It was just… he was going to mess up just because he was in front of Jake, just because singing love songs to somebody was always harder than singing them for yourself.
"Forgive me if I mess up," Will said, "But it's only fair that I sing you a love song, then."
Jake smiled shyly and Will strummed for real.
To love
is to offer someone
your heart
strapped to a stick of dynamite;
and trusting they
never light the fuse.
-Shakieb Orgunwall
Finally they got to leave camp and have some fun.
Notably, the Long Island Fair, which consisted of cheap food that would superglue your arteries together, traveling amusement park rides propped up one next to the other, cliché contests, pens of pigs and ponies and a whole lot of children with their painted faces distorted into screams.
"Let's go on that one!" Will said pointing to the Ferris wheel, which had always been his favourite.
"Let's... not?" Jake said softly.
"Why not?" Will asked.
Jake swallowed. "Can I tell you a secret?"
"Sure," Will said.
"I'm afraid of heights," Jake said.
"What?"
"I'm afraid of heights," Jake said. "Like, deadly afraid of them. Even the catwalks in the forge I can't handle."
"Seriously?" Will asked.
Jake nodded. "It all goes back to my dad. He got thrown off of Olympus as a kid, right? Most of my siblings hate heights and flying and..." he shuddered just talking about it. "Don't tell anyone, though. It would be disastrous for my cabin's collective fatal flaw to just come out like that."
"I won't," Will said. They walked past the Ferris wheel for a bit. "You know, I'm scared of snakes. Like, super afraid of them- even the little plastic ones that the Stoll brothers always throw into Cabin 10 scare the life out of me. I don't like alligators and stuff either. And I'd give a leg to avoid bright lights."
"The sun god's child?" Jake asked, arching an eyebrow.
"I had a phase when I was a kid where I'd get seizures," Will said. "I can't even go bowling on Disco days."
"Then we won't go bowling," Jake said taking Will's hand. "Those spinning strawberry things over there look cool."
And so they walked on to check out how many tickets a ride in the spinning strawberries cost and determine if they were too cheap to spend their tickets on it.
Your lipstick stains
On the front part of my
Left side brain
I knew I wouldn't forget you
And so I went and let you
Blow my mind
-Hey Soul Sister, Train
"Hey soul sister
Ain't that Mr. mister
On the radio, stereo
The way you move ain't fair, you know
Hey soul sister
I don't wanna miss
A single thing you do
Tonight…"
Jake couldn't sing for the life of him but he was putting all his strength and power into these words, bobbing around to the rhythm. Will's grin split his face until he broke into laughter.
The radio in the forge was on about twenty-four hours a day. When Will was in the forge, sitting on a stool and waiting for his boyfriend to wrap up a project and escort him to the campfire or watching him work or whatever, if they weren't talking, Will was singing along to the radio. Jake always looked at Will accusingly, telling him that he was being a distraction, or laughing at him.
"I knew it," he said. "I knew there was a song that you couldn't help but sing. Everybody has a song like that!"
Jake looked over his shoulder and grinned in defeat.
"Yeah," Jake said. "Although that one only started after you asked me out."
Will smiled.
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
-Lao Tseu
"Prep a room with good lighting and clean sheets," Will ordered his siblings. "Sanitize it. I'm going to need a surgical kit, gloves, a dose of Poppy seeds mixed with nectar and a whole bunch of bandages."
They sprung to work and the girl that he was supposed to be working on, a daughter of Aphrodite named Lacy, was whisked up the elevator. Her face had been smashed by a Hyperborean, basically destroyed. They'd just struggled to create an airway for her and now that she was breathing, Will was going to have to try to mend her broken bones, wire her teeth together, stop the blood flow, giver he antibiotics, and do whatever else he could to save her without being attacked by Mama-Bear-Silena.
The second that he gave his orders he felt drained.
What was he thinking?
Someone rubbed his shoulders, immediately calming Will.
"You can do it," Jake said calmly.
"Jake…" Will said shaking. He didn't want to admit it, but he was scared stiff. What if he failed on this poor kid? How old was she? Like, thirteen?
"You can do it," Jake said. "You can heal her. You've healed big things like this before. You're the most qualified person here."
Will was shaking. He'd just lost Michael, had been rushed here to save Annabeth Chase who he hoped was still stable, had diagnosed and delegated several other injuries to his siblings, didn't have the tools that he needed for this to be optimally successful or sanitary…
Jake kissed the back of his head.
"I believe in you."
Warmth spread through Will's body and his hands stopped shaking, becoming the safe, stable hands that could pick at a guitar or save a man's life.
"Okay," Will said.
Hold me close and tell me how you feel
Tell me love is real
Words of love you whisper soft and true
Darling, I love you
-Words of Love, the Beatles
Jake was, as a rule, the quiet one. He didn't say much. He didn't engage anything. He didn't come up with the grandiose, romantic ideas. He was the introvert, the gentle giant. Which was fine with Will because whatever Jake was, it worked for him.
But it felt good sometimes to get pulled on his boyfriend's lap and kissed on the cheek and for Jake to be the one saying things like "how are you looking better than ever" and "we're still sneaking out right?" to show Will that he wasn't just imagining a beautiful relationship like the ones in songs and books.
We were together.
I forget the rest.
-Walt Whitman
"I feel like a serious moocher," Jake said, yawning after waking up from a nap he'd taken on Will's lap while he read.
"No you're not," Will said.
"You're always so calm and so reassuring when I get those massive nightmares," Jake said rubbing his eyes. "Meanwhile, I don't feel like I'm helping you out with yours at all."
"I don't have nightmares about the war," Will said. "Don't need anything, don't worry about it."
"Seriously?" Jake asked. "No… no horrible alternative realities in which we don't hold our lines and Kronos takes over the world? No nightmares about your siblings' ghosts taking over the world? No flashbacks and memories?"
"I just remember you making those stupid jokes about the Stoll brothers in the Plaza's lobby and taking a nap on you after I'd done my rounds as healer," Will admitted.
Kiss me like you wanna be loved
You wanna be loved
You wanna be loved
-Ed Sheeran
He sneaked out in his pajamas to meet Jake on half-blood hill, even though it was past curfew and so if the harpies found him they'd haul his butt to Mr D and have him turned into a Chinese evergreen or whatever potted plant he was into right now. Argus only waved at Will when he saw him and went on his merry way, parking the car and making his millions of eyes blind to the whole thing. Argue was probably Will's favourite "adult" at camp.
But Jake didn't look nearly as excited as Will felt when he hugged him.
"I have to go tell Chiron I made it back," Jake said.
They walked towards the Big House, Will carrying Jake's bag for him. It felt lighter than it had when he'd left for his family's house in Alabama.
As soon as they were up the steps, Jake wrapped his arms around Will and pushed him against the wall and kissed him like there was no tomorrow.
Will dropped the bag.
He wasn't complaining or anything. He'd missed his boyfriend too, and he did like random make-out sessions as much as the next guy, if not more. But something felt… wrong. Like Jake was kissing him as a dare, trying too hard, demanding too much…
He put his hands on Jake's chest and pushed him back.
"Are you okay?" Will asked trying to get a good look at Jake's face.
Jake wouldn't meet his eyes and then Will realised that he was… he looked like he was about to burst into tears.
"Jake?"
"Grandparents kicked me out," he said. "My aunt nodded. Mom tried to tell them that I was too young to know what I was saying, but they didn't listen to her. I had to leave in a rush."
"Whoa, Jake," Will said. "What did you- what happened..? Oh."
Jake swallowed hard.
"You told them about me, didn't you?" Will asked.
Jake nodded. "I just felt like being honest. I thought they'd be happy to see me after all the trouble this summer. They quoted some stuff at me and told me that I was nothing but a sinner, that I didn't understand what I was feeling. I had to kiss you to remember that I do know. I do know I'm in love with you."
Will wrapped Jake in his arms and Jake buried his face in Will's hoody.
He couldn't hear Jake cry, but he kind of felt the shaking and the heaving. His mother had always been okay with Will being gay. He'd never even come out to her or whatever, he'd just introduced his first boyfriend and mom had nodded and asked him if he was staying for diner. He didn't know what to do other than the routine, go-to hug-and-hold. Part of him felt like saying 'well, screw them for not caring enough about you to let your heart do what it wants' but it didn't work like that, it wasn't easy to throw your family away.
"For what it's worth, I'm just as sure about you," Will said.
And then he kissed Jake, but nicely this time. Kissed Jake softly and gently like he loved him, which he did.
I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it.
-Audrey Hepburn
Every now and then the Big House's common room was open to demigods for movie watching- usually when a movie featuring an old camper came out on DVD, or when another movie about some Greek myth or battle was made.
Anyways, after the main movie usually campers sneaked out. Either because they wanted to take a warm shower before everyone drained it, take a power-nap while the cabins were empty, sneak out with their boyfriends or girlfriends and do disgusting things around the lake or go pull a prank. There was always a chain of movies that got put into the DVD player and usually there were still people in the Big House by midnight, at which point Chiron told the most responsible person in the room to close everything and put the disc back in its case before going to bed and hit the hay himself.
About ten campers were still sprawled across the room, watching Cassablanca. Will and Jake had lucked out today since they were currently the only two on the couch, and so Will got to snuggle up to his boyfriend and curl up against his chest and lay his head just under his chin.
"Gods, are you ever needy," Jake said after Will rubbed his cheek against Jake's chest. He couldn't help it. Jake was always warm and his clothes were always worn and soft, and he smelled like smoke and some kind of heavenly detergent…
Jake didn't mind despite his tone. He kissed the top of Will's curls and wrapped an arm around him.
I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
While you're far away and dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure
Don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
-I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, Aerosmith
"Will," Chiron said walking into the infirmary. "He's in stable condition. You said so yourself."
"I know," Will said, not taking his eyes off of Jake. Not that he could actually see Jake, of course. Most of his boyfriend's face was covered by ace bandages soaked in nectar and yellowed by some kind of acid aftershock of the bronze dragon's fire. A breathing mask was positioned over his nose and mouth. The rest of him was all casts and ace bandages and braces and sheets.
"He won't wake up tonight," Chiron said.
How do you know? Will wanted to say. But he didn't. No half-blood had ever in known history taken their anger and frustration and fear out on Chiron.
"You never know," Will said softly.
Chiron put a hand on his shoulder. "Will, you've been an extraordinary medic for him and you've done everything that you possibly could. I think it's time to get some sleep."
"I won't be able to sleep a wink."
"Go try," Chiron said. "Jake wouldn't want you to exhaust yourself."
"He's so hurt," Will said in a tiny voice, like a lost little boy.
"And you've done an amazing job at healing him," Chiron said. "Go. I'll stand vigil."
Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Will was having a blast and a half.
The Argo II had been declared, by the senate, to be property of the Greeks and so the ship was presently in their custody, parked in the lake and doing nothing but looking cool.
Which meant that it became an ideal party center.
The children of Hephaestus and Apollo would work together and make playlists and plus amps so that music blasted through the entire ship. The place was usually decked out in crazy insane lights. The doors to the cabins had been locked (for obvious reasons) and the engine room was guarded by children of Ares- but that still left plenty of room for dancing and mingling and darts and whatever else happened on any given night.
It was awesome. Will loved it, loved the karaoke machine, loved the noise and the jumble of people and the carefree attitude of people sipping soda and "apple juice". He was sitting on the edge of the railing and laughing at a joke that Travis told him, feeling really good with the night air against his skin, the stars in the sky, his hand in Jake's and a plastic cup of root beer in his hand.
He turned towards Jake, who loved knock-knock jokes, to give him a "that one's funny" look, but Jake wasn't even looking at him. Jake looked teeny tiny and overwhelmed by the action and the crowd and the music.
"I doubt we'll hear another knock-knock joke like that," Will said. "Let's call it a night?"
Jake nodded and they left the ship before it was even 9:00.
Son why you got to sing that tune
Catch a Dylan song or some eclipse of the moon
Let an angel swing and make you swoon
Then you will see... You will see
Then he said,
Here's a riddle for you
Find the Answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I...
-The Riddle, Five for Fighting
Will hated school. He wanted to get a degree in English literature and become a teacher, and he was thankful for all the help that Paul Blofis had given him to do so and the support he'd gotten and the fact that Apollo and Camp were helping him pay off his bills, but he couldn't handle sitting down and listening to people talk about Shakespeare as if they knew decisively what they meant.
Will hated his dorm. It was too small and grey and he couldn't put posters or pictures up or else the school would freak. He didn't like how he was paying tons of money to do this. His roommate left Cheetos everywhere, had girls over all the time, he always hid Will's stuff as a joke, and he hated everything- including Will.
Will hated the premise that people had to pay for knowledge in order to make money and accomplish their dreams.
Will didn't like how he couldn't go jogging all the time and couldn't exercise at all.
Will hated how he felt so naked and unarmed all the time because he couldn't bring his bow and arrow around, and had to carry a knife and hope for the best about monsters.
He hated it, mostly.
And people always asked him why are you doing it then? Nobody's making you become a teacher. Nobody's making you live in a dorm.
And Will always answered with, "Because it's the easiest way to get to my life with Jake as quickly as possible."
A good marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.
-Andre Maurois
They were squashed against the couch on their first night in their first apartment in New York City.
Yikes.
This would have been terrifying, if Will wasn't moving in with the calming kind of handyman that Jake Mason was. They could conquer any rent, any malfunction, any issue. Except for Will's first day as a teacher tomorrow. That was a terrifying perspective, and it was a sad little reminder that Will wasn't actually a kid anymore. Now he was an adult. With things like responsibilities and taxes. He'd have to start wearing suits and non-sandal shoes. It was all scary, and Will couldn't sleep at the thought of it all.
So Jake was staying up with him for the night since he wasn't working but going to a 12:30 lecture tomorrow about some form of engineering.
The TV got boring, the news was looping, all the soap operas were in Spanish, their conversations were dulling, and Jake was starting to fall asleep.
"Hey," Will said shaking him awake. "Wake up. You said I owed you five bucks if you fell asleep. We need to start another conversation."
That was the thing with them. They didn't have to talk or be doing something all the time, being with each other and chilling on a couch they'd picked up on a curb was enough. It didn't help with the all-nighters, though. Just as Will was about to go make coffee, Jake sat up.
"Alright. How's this."
He pulled something from his pocket- a tiny box that... no... no way he had not he was not...
Jake got down to one knee and smiled at Will.
"Will you're not an idiot and you know exactly what's going on and so you must also know how much I love you. In which case, will you marry me?"
Upcoming ship weeks
August
10 - 16 - Free slash week (author's pick of a same-sex story)
17 - 23 - Free friendship week
24 - 30 - Chris and Clarisse
31 - 06 - Jason and Reyna
September
07- 13 - Jason and Piper
14 -20 - Frank and Hazel
21 - 27 - Calypso and Leo
28 - October 4 - Percy and Annabeth