Uncomfortable Truths - Jercy, Jasiper, Percabeth

Uncomfortable Truths - Laid Bare - Jason - Chapter Five

I'm so warm, so content, I could sleep forever, but even as I think it, my brain whirs to life and I open my eyes. I look down. Percy's sprawled across my chest and by the looks of things, pulled the blankets with him when he rolled on top of me. They're hanging off the bed and barely covering his butt.

I squint, looking at his sleeping face closer. There's a puddle of drool under his cheek, right where my sternum dips. "Dude," I groan. "Gross." My voice is gentle though, affectionate. I reach over the side of the bed, trying my damnedest not to displace Percy and his puddle, and snatch up a corner of the blanket. I pull it up and use it to mop up the mess.

Percy smacks his lips, blinking hazily. "Whassa goin'?" he mumbles, then closes his eyes again, shifting.

I shudder as his morning wood pokes my calf, and Percy, still sleeping, rubs himself against my leg. My parts are trapped, pointing down under his stomach and I know I have to get him to move before things get painful. I hold off a little while, running my fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp, and he hums contentedly, rutting my leg in earnest.

"Bro? You gonna do my leg like a dog?"

His eyes shoot open and he looks up at me. He grins as he flexes his abs against my growing and trapped arousal. "Sorry, man." He lifts himself and flops onto his side next to me, his eyes round, begging. He reminds me of some of Lupa's wolf cubs, trying so hard to stay still until she signals it's okay for them to move, but barely managing it.

I bend my knees and draw them up, relieved to be free. It feels so much more comfortable, and then I wince. My backside is sore.

Percy smirks at me. "It takes time to get used to the feeling. I wasn't bad though, was I?"

The memories come flooding back. Percy and I in the communal shower room, going at it up against the wall, trying to finish before anybody else came in. I was the one who begged him to just get on with it, not to worry so much about prepping me very long. I'm paying for it now.

"You were awesome, Jackson, but I think it will be a while before I'm ready to do that again."

He grins, shining at my praise. "What are you in the mood for, Grace? Want me to say good morning with my hands? My mouth?" he asks as he massages between my legs.

It doesn't matter how sore I am, my Jupiter-blessed bits are always ready to go. I reach for the Gun Oil and slick my palm with it, then drop the bottle on the floor and turn on my side, slotting our legs together, our groins rubbing. "How about this?" I ask, and slick us up, smearing the excess on our abs for added glide.

I kiss him gently, rocking my hips until he finds my rhythm and matches it, and then we're tangling tongues and frotting together, hearts beating fast and fierce. I grab his hand and we make a joined fist, then push up together through the ring we make with our fingers.

Percy pants and pulls away a couple of inches, staring hard into my eyes. The green seems darker, deeper, murkier. I can't stop watching him; his face makes the most amazing expressions when he's aroused. His eyes widen, narrow, squint; his lips go from flat, to a round O, and then more of an oval shape as shocks of pleasure crash over him. Our breathing speeds up, and we jerk our hips together, harder, faster, until Percy's eyes roll up and warmth spills over our joined hands.

It's beyond hot and I follow him almost immediately, spurting hot and thick up our chests. My nerves feel fully charged, my heart pumping positive endorphins through every inch of my body. I smile against Percy's lips, unable to let go just yet. It feels too good, just lying here, covered in come and sweat, skin to skin, and then Percy tries to tickle me. I fix an evil grin on my lips. I've never been ticklish in my life, but I have a feeling ... I go for his abs, reveling in the panic flashing across his face before really getting down to it. I reduce him to a giggling, tear-streaked mess before finally relenting.

"You're evil," he tells me, trying to regain control over his breaths.

I grab one of the discarded towels from the floor and mop myself up, then pass it to Percy. I turn onto my stomach and rest my head on my arms, watching him wipe his chest. He climbs over me when he finishes, using my butt as a stepping stone (though he's thankfully just scooting) and pushing me into the mattress with his full weight. Then he sits in his desk chair and turns on the computer.

"What time is it?"

"Uhh, almost eleven," he calls back. I watch him click a flashing message in the corner of the screen. He swivels his chair to look back at me. "The girls want us to message them when we're up, and then meet for breakfast, but it's gonna be more like lunch since it's so late."

My stomach sinks. It feels like the atmosphere just got heavier. "Yeah, tell them half an hour or so and ask where."

He turns back to the screen and starts typing.

I roll over and sit up on the edge of the bed. The room is a mess again. Our discarded towels, jeans, shirts, jackets, boxers, they remind me of the tension burning between us after we raced to the room. It's bittersweet.

"They want to meet at the food carts at the Coliseum."

"Sounds fine to me," I say. I stand and start to gather my stuff, then locate my backpack, take out my change of clothes and shove the dirty ones into it, my thoughts turning to Piper. This is going to be awkward. I wonder if she'll change her mind about giving this a try long-term and I find that a really hard possibility to bear. As I zip my fly, I look up. Percy's pulling his pants on, watching me.

"Spit it out, Grace. What's on your mind?"

Piper, I think, but I don't want to evoke her name right now. Instead, I answer: "Condoms."

Percy looks at me with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why would we need condoms? It's not like either of us is going to get pregnant."

I sigh. "You know what, Jackson? I think you might consider taking that human sexuality class next term."

"Why?" Percy draws out the word, like he's trying to figure out if I'm setting him up for a joke or if I'm being serious.

"Condoms protect against more than pregnancy, dude. If we're going to keep this up, assuming it doesn't get shut down when our girlfriends see us, we've gotta agree to use them every time. There's sexually transmitted diseases and stuff, I'm not sure how effective nectar and ambrosia are for dealing with them. I mean the big ones. Mortals have vaccines and antibiotics for the others, but still ..."

Percy frowns. "But it's just you and me. I mean, I'm not doing anybody else, and ... Oh ..."

"Yeah," I finish for him. "I'm not sure what Piper's planning to do with her 'poly' needs. I am going to insist that she and I use condoms too if we do go forward with it, but that's not been much of an issue lately."

He sits on the edge of the bed and pats the place beside him. I sit too, and then reach for my glasses and put them back on.

"Okay, before we meet them," Percy says, suddenly sounding a lot more even-keeled than usual, "tell me what's up with you and Piper. Before, you mentioned she was afraid of your dick ... That still happening?"

I can't help but flinch a little. "Yeah, but really, I think I might have figured out the real problem. It's like you said last night, when I get the wolf gleam in my eye, it makes you uneasy."

"Yeah, but ..." He blows out a breath, like he's gearing up to admit something embarrassing. "You know I really like it and I'm just pushing you to like, take me like an animal ..."

I look at him, grinning, his face going red. "I wasn't sure, but thanks for the heads up." He kicks my foot, scrunching up his face. "Before I go into the details about Piper, you want to tell me what's going on with you and Annabeth? I have to admit I'm confused about it because when you first came in yesterday, I didn't think there was any way this was going to happen. You guys are obviously mad about each other."

He nods, his voice unusually quiet when he answers. "That happens when you go to the depths of hell and back."

I stare at my shoes. Percy doesn't talk much about Tartarus, never has. We've all learned not to bring it up. He'd opened up to me the smallest amount after I saved him from Polybotes, and even hearing that much from him had sent shivers down my spine.

"Annabeth is asexual," Percy says. I look back at him. He shrugs. "She was actually about to join the hunters of Artemis before we met and started saving each other's lives. Then that bond sort of turned to attraction, puberty and all, more on my part, sexually speaking. To her it was more on an emotional level, I guess."

I'm a little blown away by this revelation. I'm not sure why. It's similar to how I reacted when Favonius had said he'd fallen in love with a dude. Like, it makes sense, but hadn't ever occurred to me before.

"So, you two don't have sex ... like, at all?"

He shakes his head.

"Not even ..."

He shuts me up with a look.

I hold up my hands to show I'm not trying to hurt him. "I don't mean to be intrusive. I should probably consider taking that human sexuality class too. It might help me figure out what Piper's talking about getting into."

"Mmm-hmm," Percy hums. "Your turn to tell me about that."

I nudge his foot, and knock our knees together, staring at our feet again. I can't help it, sometimes I've just gotta be touching before spilling my guts to someone. Luckily, Percy seems to get that. He does it back.

"She's going to Seattle later today to see Hylla."

I can feel him tense beside me and it makes me feel better to know I'm not the only one to react to Hylla's name like that.

"Umm ... Good luck? She's not going to go all amazon on you, right? Like put you in an orange jumpsuit and collar and order you to rearrange the furniture while she's sitting in it and stuff?"

I laugh through my nose. "I honestly don't know. I need to talk to her about it. She's got this thing ... like she and I are too similar in the bedroom, always needing to be in charge, and says she feels like I never let up enough to give her a fair shot at controlling things. I think she's probably got a point."

Percy rubs his foot against mine some more. "Yeah. With me, I think my real problem is that it's just gonna take me some time to come to terms with the fact I'm not going to have the relationship with Annabeth I always thought I would, you know? I'm not saying I would ever want to leave or change her or anything like that, just ... I sort of need some grieving time, I guess."

I nod. "Yeah ... I guess."

XxxX

We walk side by side, back the path we had taken yesterday evening. It feels weird, knowing that this time our girlfriends will be waiting for us. We seem to keep further apart than usual, like we're trying not to show how close we've become. From a logical standpoint, I think by doing that, we're falling right back into our old habits. The point of opening up our relationships was to get us all to admit our uncomfortable truths, to own them, learn from them, and be able to share honestly what our needs are. To be able to avoid the pitfalls that would inevitably break our primary relationships up in the end.

I move closer to Percy, brushing the backs of our hands together. He looks at me, fear flashing a moment across his eyes, but when I take his hand, he doesn't try to stop me or pull away. I slow our pace, bumping shoulders.

"We cool, bro?"

He gives my hand a squeeze. "Yeah, we're cool."

"We can't hide it from them, even if it feels like the safe option. Like in a quest where the most treacherous path is likely the right one."

Percy takes a deep breath and brushes our shoulders again, then he stops walking. I stop too.

"What is it?"

He looks at me, kind of making a 'I know I'm a dork, but go along with it and don't call me out' face. "I think I need a kiss for good luck."

I lean forward and press our lips together. The kiss is sweet, almost chaste, but for the tips of our tongues. Strangely, it feels more intimate than when we were wrapped up and fucking. I feel almost naked, standing in public, in broad daylight, kissing my boyfriend while on our way to meet our girlfriends. Like there's a giant sign over our heads, announcing it to the world.

"There they are," a voice calls out.

"Did you get a picture?" We break the kiss and turn to look as Annabeth and Piper head toward us, smug smiles on their faces.

Annabeth looks down at her cell phone, then shows the screen to Piper.

"Oh, that's a good one," Piper says. "Email it to me."

I can't stop the flush from rising in my face. I'd meant to be open with talking about Percy and me with them, not posing for photographic evidence, totally laid bare.

Percy smacks my butt and walks away. He gives Annabeth a huge hug and a quick kiss.

Piper approaches and slings her arm around my waist, smiling up at me. The sunlight plays over her eyes, making me lose myself trying to catch all the colors in them.

We walk as couples toward the food carts, Percy and I side by side in the middle, and strangest of all, it doesn't feel weird.