Who'd Bet on It?

Headcanon #269: Percy liked to say that Leo and Jason were a cute couple just to see Jason blushing. He just never imagined they were a real couple until the day he saw them holding hands secretly. "Who'd bet on it?" He thought with a smile. Both were good together.

Percy's POV

It all started when Leo was working on upgrading the steering for the Argo II. He had called in his best friend, Jason, to come help him and they were chatting normally. Leo also had me come in to test out the gaming that he had installed with the steering to see if it worked, much to Jason's dismay.

Seriously, that dude either hates my guts or is way too overprotective of his best friend. The way that he looks at me when I start playing suggests both are the case.

Somehow Leo was able to set up our mutual favorite game, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and created a television set along with it. Five minutes into the game, the device (something that Leo made that could play both Wii and Microsoft games) starts sparking. The metal gears on the side start to smoke and several pops and wheezes are heard from it.

Leo swears in a combination of Spanish and Greek and immediately stars disassembling the gaming system, and in a matter of seconds it's calmed down.

"Jay, can you pass me the screwdriver?" Leo asks, keeping his eyes on the contraption as he holds his hand out for the said tool. Jason dutifully jogs over to his tool belt, which is surprisingly laying on the steering wheel, and pulls a tiny screwdriver out of it. He tosses it to Leo who catches it without even having to glance up.

"Thanks, Superman." Leo says, looking up at Jason and grinning.

Jason smiles back and it occurred to me that I'd never seen him smile like that. Not even with Piper.

"You two are such a cute couple." I snicker, just to see their reaction. The sad thing is, is that as soon as I got on the ship, I realized that my place as the joker had been replaced by Leo. I'm pretty sure I'm funnier, though.

Leo laughs nonchalantly. "Yeah, get over here, Jason, and give your favorite mechanic a little kiss." He puckers his lips and makes smacking sounds and we both laugh.

I glance at Jason and nearly fall off my chair at what I see. The all-powerful (not really) Jason Grace is blushing. And man, did he look ridiculous. His whole face is flushed a bright red pigment and his mouth hangs open.

"Relax, Jason, he's joking." Leo cackles, waving his screwdriver at me for emphasis.

He turns and shares a look with Jason that I can't quite read, but it manages to calm Jason down.

"Yeah. Right." Jason stammers out. "Well… I think I'm going to go train."

"Have fun." Leo says, looking up from his tinkering to send him a warm smile.

Jason grins back, a foreign look on his face, and promises he will.

Then, he walks out without even saying goodbye to me. The audacity of him.

I let out a low whistle and Leo laughs as he continues to fix his machine.

The second time I tease them about it was when it was Leo's turn to cook dinner for all of us. Since there are seven of us, each of us are assigned a day to make dinner for everyone. Today is Tuesday, which has been claimed 'Leo's Taco Tuesday'. You'd think eating tacos every Tuesday would get boring, but I swear it gets tastier every time. He even makes tofu tacos for Piper, who's a vegetarian.

I'm sitting in the kitchen eating blue gummy worms from a bag, one of my comfort foods. Nothing was wrong, but, you know, they're blue gummy worms. There doesn't need to be an explanation to binge on them.

Leo stands by the stove, occasionally tampering with the fire that cooks the meat and mumbling about how his fire is way better.

"Smells good." I say. "What're you cooking?"

"Greasy centaur liver." He replies, grinning wickedly.

I suddenly don't feel too keen on eating all my gummy worms. I close the bag and chuck it back in the cabinets, which are labeled for each of us. Mine is filled with blue food and Leo has tons of tortillas in his. Some of them are even refrigerated; Hazel has tons of shrimp for her gumbo in hers and Frank even stores his ice cream in there.

Leo had abandoned his place at the stove and is working on the chocolate chip cookies he had made for dessert. He slides them into the oven, looking satisfied.

"Leo, the meat!" A voice urgently yells from the doorway. Obviously, it's Jason. If anybody really needs to keep tabs on Leo at all times (and most of the time, people do) it's him. Jason knows his best friend inside and out. In some ways it's like he's Leo's other half.

Leo once again swears and runs to the stove, turning it off. The meat is smoking, but it's salvageable and not too burnt. Luckily, nothing else got scorched.

After Leo drags the hot pan off of the stove and makes sure that the food is edible, he turns to Jason and sappily says, "What would I do without you?"

Jason scoffs. "Probably burn the house down."

"You mean burn the boat down. Oh, the irony of it. I can see it now in the headlines, 'Boat Burns In The Middle Of the Ocean.'" He laughs at his own joke. Jason even laughs along.

"You two and your relationship… It never gets old." I say, shaking my head. "I guess you could say I… Ship it." I laugh, waiting for them to get the pun.

Neither of them get it.

Leo laughs awkwardly. "Nice try." He says.

I look over at Jason and to my surprise (I should really just get over this), he looks even more flustered than before.

I smirk malevolently back at him, who knew Jason could be embarrassed so easily?

Leo rolls his eyes and comfortingly places his hand on Jason's arm. "Chill out, Jay. He's joking. Again. Even though my jokes are just made to sweep people off their feet."

"It sure looks like you've managed to get one guys attention." I say, nodding my head in Jason's direction.

"I'll just go now." Jason says loudly, walking quickly and stiffly out of the room.

I burst into laughter again.

Leo rolls his eyes and chucks a spoon full of meat at me.

The third (and last) time I tease them about it is late at night.

We'd all been stuffed thanks to Frank's delicious dim sung, which he modestly claimed that it wasn't all that great. Spoiler alert: it actually was.

I flop onto my bed, drowsy and content. Frank's snores are heard loudly from the bunk above me. I close my eyes, ready to fall asleep, when I hear soft laughter and a pillow smacking into someone's body.

I open my eyes a crack to see what's going on.

"Shhh, you'll wake them!" Whispers Jason, but I can tell he's trying hard not to laugh.

"Who cares, just let them." Leo says, hopping down from their shared bunk bed. "Maybe I'll climb to the top of the mast and scream my undying love out for everyone to hear." He jokes.

"Not yet. Later. And then you can do it as tacky as you want." Jason says quietly.

Wait, what? I don't have time to dwell on it because Leo has muttered an "okay" and has leaned up and…

Now they're kissing?

I feel my cheeks pink a bit, and I feel like I'm invading their privacy. But hey, they're the ones who decided to make out in the middle of our room at eleven o'clock at night.

I lean over ever so slightly and keep watching. No, I'm not a creeper. I'm just really, really, really confused.

It's not a trick of the light (or dark, since the lights are off). Leo has his arms wrapped around Jason's neck and Jason has his around Leo's waist, pulling him up a couple extra inches so that their lips could meet. They're smooching like there's no tomorrow, and I hope I'm not that graphic with Annabeth.

Finally, they pull away and Jason sets Leo back on the ground. Their hands remain intertwined and in the dim light I can see Leo's Cheshire cat-like grin.

"C'mon, let's go." He says, tugging on Jason's hand.

"All right, fine."

They make their way towards the door, but I stop them, being the obnoxious friend I am.

"Hey, guys? Next time you decide to make out, please don't do it here. You're keeping me awake." I drawl out, trying not to laugh.

Their eyes remain wide, staring at my bottom bunk, then back to each other. Then, they turn and sprint out of the room, not even bothering to be quiet. The door slams behind them and Frank stirs in his sleep. Eventually, he rolls over and goes back to his loud snoring.

I let out a soft chuckle. "Who'd bet on it?" I muse to myself with a smile.

They're good for each other.