madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-bromance-

y'all the pjo show.... ITS OUT!!! 

<3

Jason rubbed the pawpaw into his lips and then picked up the plate on the counter next to the pot of mint that had somehow survived the icy attack and now sat in a patch of sun that streamed through the window. He carried the honey buns and celery downstairs.

Frank had stopped making hot food, like his incredible fried cheese omelette things and the Mexican hot chocolate because the snacks tended to sit there for a while and ended up gross and cold. Jason ate a stick of celery and avoided looking at any of the other rooms. It was painful now, considering half were empty.

He ate another piece of celery, knowing Leo probably wouldn't even eat it, and slumped down at the engine room door, rubbing his face.

After a lovely night of everyone slathering themselves in buckets of aloe vera and taking cold showers, someone had found the sunscreen and now Jason's face smelt like coconuts. Piper hated normal sunscreen, so she'd found scented. It just made him sad. He put the plate down, wondering if it would be a bad idea to make a cat flap to slide it through.

He sighed, "hey."

Silence.

Jason hoped he wasn't responding because he was asleep, but he knew better than that. Leo probably hadn't had a full eight hours combined since Rome... happened.

He ran a hand through his hair, he'd discovered it actually sort of spiked up. "One of the wind spirits said they'd take me to Auster in the afternoon. He's the Greek god of the south wind. I doubt he'll help, but we're gonna try and leave today, so I might as well."

Silence.

"Found some honey buns," Jason said. "I remember Racheal brought some back when she visited for valentine's day and you ate them all in ten minutes."

He dropped his head back against the door, but he couldn't feel the pain in his skull anymore, impact didn't do anything. Must be all the concussions. "Nico said everyone's still okay, by the way. I tried to talk to him about staying at one of the camps after all this."

Silence.

"He was kind of an ass about it," Jason muttered quietly, fiddling with the safety pins he was using to keep his shoes intact now that his shoelaces were in the main sail. It was better than Hazel's bobby pins at least. "I was just tryna help, but... I can't be mad at him for isolating himself. I'm not... I'm not mad at you either. I just want to help you."

Silence.

"You don't have to say anything, it's okay," Jason said. "I guess it just sucks that I can't talk to anyone else about... it. Hazel and Frank miss Percy, but... I dunno, it's not the same. I miss Piper too. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish she was here this morning to yell at me about wasting hot water. I had a cold shower anyway, but still."

He ate another celery stick, "It's just really hard."

"...That's what she said."

Jason froze. He felt something like panic or fear but in a good way shoot through his body and he turned slowly to the celestial bronze door that was open just a crack. He saw Leo's brown eye peek though, rimmed with red and soot.

"I can't believe the first thing you said was a dick joke," Jason muttered, but he could.

The sliver of Leo's face crinkled a little. When he spoke again, Jason realised his voice was rough and gravelly, like the smoke he inhaled on a daily basis was finally affecting him. "I couldn't resist."