Backpacking (Jercy Style)

Survival Training

"Dude!"

"Bro?" 

"It's t-too freaking c-cold, man. H-How we g-gonna m-make it th-through th-the night?"

Jason, his hands in his armpits, stomps his boots to get the snow off them, then scoots back into the tent where Percy has already pulled out their sleeping bags and every clothing item in their packs and layered them on top of himself. 

"Survival training, dumbass," he says, taking his boots off and setting them by Percy's by the tent flap. "Throw me the towel. You've left a puddle under your boots. Trust me that you don't want to wake up tomorrow and have them stuck to the tent."

Percy rummages in his pile, finds their only towel and flings it at Jason before disappearing under the clothing pile again. 

After mopping up Percy's mess, Jason drapes the towel over their boots. 

"Okay, Jackson. That's not how we stay warm in these conditions." He digs Percy out of the pile and locates the sleeping bags.

"D-dude!" 

Jason levels his eyes at Percy's glare, waiting it out. Finally Percy backs down, shivering. 

He finds the zippers on the sleeping bags and unzips them all the way, then matches them up inside to inside and zips them together to the tune of Percy's chattering teeth. 

"W-what th-the ffff-fuck, man?" 

Jason would totally laugh if he wasn't trying to conserve his breath. For being located in New York, Camp Half-Blood does a piss-poor job of training campers for cold weather, though he suspects the camp director's love of his strawberry plants has a lot to do with its enchanted weather. He ignores Percy's shivering the best he can in favor of setting things up to get them warm as soon as possible. They'll argue about it afterwards. 

He lays the sleeping bag out flat and climbs in, holding it open for Percy. 

Percy doesn't hesitate before slipping inside, and then curling into a shivering ball. 

Jason finds the feather pillows he'd carefully flattened and rolled up to conserve space in their packs. He fluffs them up and hunkers down inside the bag, then starts taking off his clothes. 

Percy stretches out when he realizes what Jason's doing, rolling away as far as he can. "W-what are y-you doing, G-Grace?" 

"Come on, man. It's gonna take body heat to keep us alive and the best way to get it is stripping down. Take off your clothes. You can leave your boxers on, but socks off."

"N-no w-way."

"Jackson. This isn't you being freaked out about gay stuff, is it? I'm serious that this is how we survive."

"Noooo," Percy hisses. "J-just d-doesn't make sense t-to t-take off clothes to b-be w-warm."

Jason reaches out and pulls Percy back toward him by his armpits. He's so stiff, he slides right over. Jason's hands are already thawing out and he covers Percy's red and wind-chapped cheeks with them, smirking to himself when Percy closes his eyes at the warmth. 

"Trust me, man. I got your back."

Percy opens his eyes, glinting in the blue light from the moon upon the tent. "O-k-kay," he says and slowly peels off his many layers, growing less stiff with each one. 

"Put the clothes along your side, so they'll be warm when we wake up." 

Percy does as he's told and then lies on his back, shivering less than before, but not finished. "It's not gonna work, Grace. I mean. It's better, but I'm still freezing."

Jason nods, silently cursing the storm. He opens his arms and Percy stares at him. 

"What?"

"We gotta cuddle, bro. I'm serious about the body heat." 

The way Percy winces kinda hurts more than Jason wants to admit, but now isn't the time for stupid feelings. He needs to get them through tonight. 

"Alright, but I get to be the big spoon. And no funny business."

Jason shakes his head,and rolls over with his back to Percy, offering up the position. "No worries. I'm so cold, my balls have crawled back into my body."

Percy chuckles as he spoons up, and Jason sighs as he's finally able to feel his toes again, ankles twined with Percy's and feet pressed together. He doesn't even remember falling asleep.