Chapter IV: When Jason's Grace-fully Curious

Right. Sooo, how does the Leonater end up making out with Will Solace in the infirmary? I don't know.

The morning started out crappy. The oddest dream came to mind – one that I still don't remember, but spooks the shit out of me. When my eyes landed to the sleeping potato on the other side of the room, it hit me hard. The dream was about Jason. I got dressed, painfully ignoring Leo Jr. before venturing off.

The entire time on the way to the Hephaestus building, I realized the possibility of Jason losing his virginity to Piper bothered me more than I even let on to myself. It's not that Jason's with Piper. It's the fact that he wants to have sex with Piper – take the chastity belt off to her. All this time, not making my move when I could have, and Jason falls for her.

Seriously falls for her. Some could shrug it off as me being overprotective and clingy (well, does she know what pair of boxers Jason's wearing today? Polka dots! Gotta be polka dots!), but I'm worried for him. My worry ends up being my downfall. Somewhere in my confusion, I mixed the wrong chemicals, and it ends up exploding in my face. Literally.

There isn't a burn like you'd expect, but he force of the explosion sweeps me off my feet and I hit a desk with my head. Hard. After that, Annabeth's screaming my name and half the students surround me.

Do I say anything? Do I notice them? Not likely.

I'm still buzzed when they carry me to the infirmary, and I realize my head hurts while Will and some nurse approaches me.

Getting injured from fighting was noble and pretty cool.

A Hephaestus kid having his own experiment explode on him was not.

I dunno what happened, man. One minute, she's feeding me ambrosia and I'm trying to comprehend what she's saying. The next, all I see are sparkling blue eyes and blond hair.

In a sense, they look nothing alike. Will has these little Goldilocks curls that are platinum blond, and sky blue eyes. Jason's cropped hair makes him look more authoritative, and his electric blue eyes snap me out of sleep. I don't see that.

"Thanks for taking me to the mall today," I say goofily. What happened, anyway? "It was a blast."

The cool blond guy chuckles lightly. I pretend it's Jason's laugh. "You could call it a 'blast', Valdez. How are you feeling?"

How am I feeling? I'm apparently imagining that blond hair being chopped off, and waiting for those blue eyes to storm with electricity. Hmm. I guess a little lightheaded with that gnawing pain eating up my leg. I think I'm a little horny, too. Yeah. I'm definitely horny. Common sense is lost. I prop myself up, hand brushing through Blondie's hair. "A little horny."

He doesn't know what to say. The This Old Man song is humming straight in my head, and I kiss him. It's not that chaste – some tongue on tongue action – but it isn't the best kiss in the world. Blondie's shocked, and I use this to my advantage to grip his shirt.

Then the ambrosia kicks in.

I pull away, eyes double three times in size while Solace gasps for air. "Um, my bad, dude. It won't happen again."

Fortunately Will isn't the type to hold grudges. He looks at me inquisitively, but the urge to rip off my head doesn't seem to be there. Instead he turns bright pink, and all thoughts about Apollo come to mind. Apollo is like, bi, isn't he? Will opens his mouth to say something, but I catch something else in the corner of my eye. A bad something.

Jason stands there, mouth agape, and I don't have to ask if he saw what I just did. Will closes his mouth, simply lowering his gaze, and presses a hand on top of mine. "Let me go get your stuff and Grace can take you back to the dorm."

"Okay," I say. It comes out like a broken string on a violin. Jason just saw me kiss a guy. Jason just saw me make out with another guy. Jason just saw me tongue-fuck someone! Will leaves, and the room becomes a white cell in an insane asylum.

"So…," Jason says to break the awkward silence. "Are you okay?"

Great. Perfect. Fine. It's not that I totally want to get in your pants or anything or have been hiding it for the past year or anything or that you just saw me kissing another guy that reminded me of you and probably makes you realize that I might be in love with you or anything! "Eh. I've been better."

Better is right. Better means yesterday you were annoying the shit out of me about Pipes and thought of me as your best friend. "So, um. That kiss…? Post trauma? You mistake Solace for Annabeth?"

Oh. Post trauma. That was…that was a good excuse. It's an ingenious excuse, actually. "No, dude. I'm gay."

Fuck you, Valdez. Jason stares at me, eyes three times their size as I grip the bed sheets. Somewhere on the other side of the room Will is grabbing my tool belt, and I refuse the urge to burst into flames. I can do it, you know. "O…Oh."

His voice is as high as Piper's. I pretend not to notice and wish Will would hurry up with my tool belt so I could do some nervous-building. I'm good at nervous-building.

"But in your case…aren't you bi?" Wait. What? Looking up, I see that Jason's face was still the same: nervous, overwhelmed and a little shocked (damn he's adorable), but also genuinely curious. "Weren't you chasing Marina Clearwater yesterday?"

Ooh, Marina Clearwater was a hottie. Unfortunately she failed in comparison to the Grace Siblings. Looking at his face again, I try to conjure up some nerve so we can have a civilized conversation. This could actually work. "Well…Y-Yeah. You're right. I guess I'm bi."

Jason looks like he's trying to process more than he can chew. I wait, ready for him to run out of the room, but he doesn't. "How so?"

Uh. "Well…guys like Solace, I guess. Call me crazy, but I just see the same qualities I look for in a chica." Only, you know, with something dangling between the their legs. "Cute ass, cute walk. Erm, nice hair, hot face, pretty eyes…gods, could this be any more awkward?"

Jason doesn't hear my little joke. He's locked in his own little world, and the way he stares at me makes my pants tighter. No, seriously. The pink of his face darkens to a nice shade of red and a look of uncertainty passes through his eyes. "Have you ever checked out any of our friends?"

Does Zeus know where babies come from?

"Sorta," I say admittedly. "You know I check out your sister whenever I get the chance. Sometimes I look at Piper – and Gods, we know she's a looker." I see a crackle in Jason's hands and decide not to touch that subject. "But I've also seen the Stoll brothers. Travis's got a sex smile and Percy's got the face of a movie star."

That weirds him out. He tries not to show it, but it's obvious he's still trying to process this bit of information. "Have you ever...felt anything…for me?"

Ever since I've known you. If I tell him that, I know he won't take it well. The scene runs through my head; me telling Jason that I'm in love with him. It wouldn't work out – I know it never will. If I told him that I'm in love with him, I would get rejected. He'd still want to be good friends, but from then on Jason would watch his every move. He would try not to lead me on, and eventually grow too uncomfortable around me. Jason is the closest friend I've ever had – not even Piper measures up to him.

Instead, I say, "You, Grace, are you. Corazoncito, you're my best friend and nothing will change that."

"Oh." Good. Hopefully because of my stupidity, it won't change anything. "So…does this mean I have to start treating you like a girl now?"

And drill me into bed? Oh, heck yes. "No. I'd rather you not. Can we uh, not mention this to the girls, by the way?"

"Yeah," he says. It apparently takes a load off all the thoughts in his mind. Jason still won't look me in the eye. Instead he turns his head and gestures toward the door. "Come on, I'll buy you a smoothie before my next class. Whatever you want."

Oh, cool. "Great."

He hesitates when touching my shoulder, and allows me to lean on him. The scent of ambrosia and lightning zing my nostrils, and I bury my nose in his shoulder. I wasn't given a lot of ambrosia, apparently. My coordination skills could be better.

Jason jumps and I almost fall over. He catches me, hand on my waist and I squeak. Those electric blue eyes never look my way. "Sorry, man! S…Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine." Good going, Valdez. You took one step forward – and a kajillion steps back.

Author's Note:

These are fun and easy excerpts to write. xD; I feel kinda bad that this isn't as serious of a story as it could be (since the fandom is severely lacking). In the future (far or near; who knows) I'm planning on writing a thorough, engaging action-y story for you guys for Jason/Leo. That sound good?