Jason Grace was glad to go to college.
It wasn't that he didn't like his family, though with Thalia off in New York it could get a little lonely. It wasn't that he hadn't enjoyed high school, because he had – he had fond memories of playing basketball with Dakota and eating lunch with Reyna, things like that. But there was such a freedom in going away, in being in charge of himself, that he was really looking forward to.
He'd gotten into the honors dorm at the college, too, so he'd have three roommates instead of just one. He'd gone on a few tours of the campus, as well as coming out in June for summer orientation. He'd met two out of three of his roommates, and they seemed like pretty cool guys.
"I don't see why I need to be here," Nico di Angelo said, cutting into his thoughts. Jason jumped a little. Nico was his cousin: a smallish, slight boy with dark hair and huge bags under his eyes. "I'm not going to graduate for another two years, and who even says I want to go to this college?"
"C'mon, I'll buy you a coffee," Jason said. "And you can meet my roommates! And maybe if we ask, we can get a student ambassador to take you on a tour-"
"I don't want to meet your roommates, I don't want to take a tour, but if you're willing to buy overpriced coffee for me, be my guest," Nico said, and Jason sighed. Nico's chauffer swerved to avoid hitting a few upperclassman who looked like they were debating throwing themselves in front of the car, and with a grace that Jason had never managed, found a parking spot.
"Come on," Jason said. "Jules, lock the door when he gets out so he can't get back in."
Jules nodded, Jason pulled his cousin and bags out of the backseat of the car, and Nico scowled. Jason debated asking him to carry a few bags, and then Nico gave him a look that said, you try and I'll push you off of the top of the library.
"Come on," Jason said. He adjusted his grip on all of his bags and, hunched over a little from the weight, shuffled to the door. A girl with curly red hair and a grin opened it for him, and he nodded his thanks. Nico slouched in after him, and Jason sighed and looked at the stairs. He was on the second floor.
"Jason! Hey!"
Oh, thank God.
He turned to see one of his roommates, a tall, blond boy named Will Solace. Will took a few of Jason's bags and nodded to Nico. "Who's this?"
"My cousin," Jason said. "I said I'd buy him coffee once I dropped all of my stuff off, and then his chauffeur locked him out once he was out, so he's stuck with us for a little while."
"Cool," Will said. He moved all of Jason's bags to one hand and stuck out the other one. "Will Solace."
Nico scowled, and for a second Jason thought that he was just going ignore the hand, but eventually he reached up, touched Will's hand for about half a second, and muttered, "Nico di Angelo."
Will gave Jason a look.
"Nico di Angelo," Jason said, and Will nodded.
"And you have a chauffeur?"
Nico nodded. He was looking more uncomfortable every second, so Jason headed for the stairs. "Are the other two here yet?" he asked.
"Uh, Ethan's here. No sign of roommate number four, though. I'm starting to think he doesn't actually exist. All we've gotten so far is the name, and I got that months ago."
When the three of them had lugged Jason's bags up and into their room, though, there was a boy there that Jason had never seen before. He was lying spreadeagle on the floor, talking to Ethan Nakamura, who looked very much like he wanted to jump out the window.
"Roommate number four?" Jason guessed, and the boy jumped to his feet. He was kind of small, and kind of skinny, with a lot of curly black hair and a grin that made Jason want to jump out the window with Ethan.
"That's right!" Roommate Number Four said. He bounced from foot to foot, caught a glimpse of Nico, and frowned. "Who's that, then? If there are four of us? I'm Leo Valdez, by the way. And so that makes you two Will and Jason, because that's Ethan, he has an Xbox and I've been trying to convince him to let me modify it a little bit, but so far, no cigar."
Ethan made a noise in the back of his throat and disappeared into the room on the right. "I'm with Ethan," Will said, clapping Jason on the back and dropping all of the bags he was carrying. "So you and Valdez can get to know each other better. Take him with you when you buy your cute cousin coffee, alright?"
"Coffee!" Leo said. He looked absolutely ecstatic at the idea.
"No," Jason said. He turned to Nico, who was unsuccessfully trying to hide behind him. "Just let me throw my stuff down, and then we can go."
"If you give that weirdo coffee, he'll probably end up killing someone," Nico muttered, and Leo's grin widened.
"Yeah, I wasn't allowed to have coffee until really recently. Foster parents learned early on it was a bad idea. Once I got into contact with my dad, though – now, he's cool. Mostly because of the whole coffee thing. And the fact that he's like – but, anyway! Coffee! Let's get on that train before it leaves the station!"
Jason stared. Leo smiled. Nico shifted from foot-to-foot and looked like he wanted to join the 'jumping out the window' brigade.
"I can go by myself," Nico said finally, but before Jason could say anything, Leo jumped between them.
"Nonsense! It'll be a party! Not really, because I think that'd be weird and probably get us in trouble, and then you probably wouldn't be able to come to this college, and I'm actually on a scholarship so I don't even have the 'you need my money' thing going for me, so!"
Jason exchanged a look with Nico and shrugged. Nico's scowl deepened, and Will waved cheerfully to them as they exited.
So, this is kind of a rewrite/continuation/expanding of a oneshot I wrote a bit ago called 'Horrible Bodyguards' – basically, it's going to just be following Jason and Leo's first semester of college, and it'll be shippy, because, y'know, whatever. But yeah! I don't know how long it'll end up being overall, but my guess is ten to fifteen chapters? IDEK. This chapter's a little weird because it's basically just a rewrite of a part of that oneshot, so we'll hope it gets better with the next chapter.