#is all romantic rn but lmao lemme tell you the intention gets worse :)

[happyk44]

Jason settled on the chair, looking relieved when he didn't sink through again. In his hand he held an obsidian chalice, the remains of the liquified burnt offering Nico used to summon him sloshing around inside. Jason was nothing if not proper to the rules.

Annoyingly so at times. Only came when formally summoned.

Nico had forcibly dragged him up by his hair once, just to hang out, and he just told him to call again the right way before disappearing back to the Underworld in ghostly smoke.

But luckily Jason didn't need much to be summoned. Leftovers of dinner, the dust at the bottom of a bag of chips, even just some water thrown into the little pit. These chats were a regular thing these days, typically once a week like clockwork.

A way to keep Jason involved in life.

Even if he wasn't alive anymore.

There was also a… selfish component. Sort of. For Nico.

The first time he called on Jason, he was in the Underworld. He’d been considering a… strange avenue to drown his sorrows over his breakup with Will. He chickened out of the thought shortly after but Jason was a good shoulder to cry on anyway.

It was tiresome, asking Will to please stop fucking flirting with guys in front of him. If it was behind his back, fine, whatever. He couldn’t see it, he wouldn’t have to deal with it. In front of him was just rude at that point. And Will always had his excuse.

After the millionth fucking time of dealing with Will openly ogling someone else, Nico snapped and called it quits there and then. He went home, sparred with Menoetes for an hour and then wandered into Elysium to cry on Macaria’s shoulder.

But she was out of the house at the time. Luckily Jason was there, bright faced as ever.

And always willing to listen.

He would never deny that Jason was attractive. And the thought had peeled into his head when he went home. Jason was a ghost. Nico controlled ghosts. And fucking ghosts wasn’t exactly… a weird thing for the Underworld crew to do.

As far as he knew, his dad didn’t really do it but Hades didn’t really fuck around anyway. But Thanatos, Hermes, Melinoe, even Persephone - ghostly sex wasn’t common but it wasn’t uncommon. Especially when it was a partner you loved.

That was Nico’s cut off point. The thing that led him to go fistfight his emotions with Menoetes.

Jason was not his boyfriend. Had never been his boyfriend. There were no romantic undertones between the two of them. Nico’s crush on him was relatively chill compared to his crush on other people - like Percy. Or Apollo. Or Anubis and Walt.

Controlling him to do something he would never do was… just morally and ethically fucked. Nico may not have been the best Catholic boy these days - fuck, he hadn’t been to church in nearly a century - but free will was still a valued concept of him.

Summoning ghosts for battle was different. Those souls wanted to fight or were indebted to fight.

Summoning Jason to fuck would be nothing like that.

It was nicer anyway. To cry on his shoulder about his shitty boyfriend who never respected his boundaries. Sure, it would’ve been comforting to kiss Jason and be held and caressed but being comforted with quiet words was good too.

After that, he summoned Jason regularly to catch-up. It wasn’t for that sexual intention anymore, but still selfish for Nico.

To have someone all to himself to talk to. Jason would ask about his friends and Nico would fill him in but he never really brought them in to talk and Jason seemed to get why because he never asked.

This was the first time he’d done it at camp, finally returning after picking up Thanatos’ kids, scrawny twins who threw rocks at Nico when he tried to break into their barricaded apartment.

He’d dropped them off a few days ago and promised to stick around, a big brother figure to their nervous natures. They got on well enough with their uncles and aunts in the Hypnos cabin but they were still wary of other people.

Nico had just gotten off the phone with Thanatos when he called Jason up. After a couple of slips through the chair, Jason was finally settled into it.

“So Macaria was talking about her baby brother and his adoption of some twins the other day,” he teased before inhaling the contents of his chalice. His form brightened with every sip until it was as solid as it could be and the chalice was empty on the floor by his chair.

Reclining on his side, the bed softened under Nico’s weight. “I didn’t adopt them. They just trust me more than other people. It’s just how it goes, you know? Their dad trusts my dad, they trust me, one big happy family.”

“Family sounds adopted.”

Nico threw a pillow at him. It sank right through. “Shut up.”

“It's a good thing!" Jason grinned, cheeky. “Everyone said you were a perpetual baby and now you’re finally growing up.” He threw another pillow at him. Jason squawked when it hit him square in the face this time. “I’m complimenting you!”

"You are not and you know it." Nico rolled onto his stomach to dig through his bag of chips on the floor.

"So. Back at camp." Jason got up, pillow in hand, and sat down by Nico's feet. "You talk to Will?"

Ah.

Nico shook his head. "I don't… really want to talk about Will. If that's okay."

Jason squeezed his ankle. "Of course." He laid the pillow against Nico's back. "You want to catch-up on what you've missed back home?"

It was funny how Jason called the Underworld home. Few people did that. Just the ones that lived there and some ghosts. Most of them had different names for it - heaven, hell, the Underworld, the final plane. Rarely home.

But Jason adapted easily. Home was wherever he felt comfortable. Or safe.

And that was nice. Someone else he knew who thought of home as home. Even Hazel didn’t call it that. At most it was “our father’s house”.

“Yeah.” Nico rolled onto his back and stretched. “Catch me up.”

What Jason caught him up on was standard stuff. Persephone snuck home for a couple days, his dad locked Hermes up for three days for being annoying, Thanatos visited his mom, Pasithea and Hypnos were on two week vacation to the wilderness. Their younger kids were being monitored by Zagreus, Melinoe and their grandmothers.

Typical.

“Oh!” Jason laid down beside him. “Did you know Melinoe fucks ghosts?”

“Yeah, I know. All of them have fucked a ghost at least once.” Nico snorted. "Mellie does it more often than everyone else but she’s the goddess of ghosts and she only likes very specific women so if they die, she’s not giving up on them for dying. Plus she takes people out for hauntings and getting in good with my sister is one way to guarantee nightly visits to the surface.” He locked one arm behind his head. “It’d be different if they were actively fucking corpses but a soul is a person.”

"Mmm, I dunno. I'd expect someone has fucked a corpse at least once."

Nico grimaced. "You're so gross."

Jason laughed and nuzzled his cheek. "I could be grosser, if I wanted."

Jason was cuddlier these days. He'd always been touchy but having died, he just seemed to lose his ability to restrain. Made sense in a way. Touch wasn't the same when you were dead.

He craved contact and didn't know when he'd be getting it again.

Nico ran his hand through Jason's hair. "Well, don't, weirdo."

He hummed loudly before rolling gently away. "You ever fuck a ghost?"

Nico nearly fell out of the bed in shock. His face burned. "What? No- oh my-" He socked Jason across his shoulder. "Jason!"

Sitting up, Jason laughed. "Relax, relax, it was just a question." He shrugged. "You go out on these long missions. Figured… you know, maybe you got lonely and… hooked up with someone."

Immediately Nico's mind raced to that day and his skin burned hotter. "I mean…" He swallowed thickly and squirmed. "I've thought about it."

"Yeah?" Jason laid back down as Nico sat above him, legs crossed. "With who?" He grinned cheeky again. "Achilles? He's pretty hot."

What?

Nico coughed. "You- you think-"

"Or maybe a godly boyfriend," Jason considered outloud. “Like Hyacinth. Well, maybe not Hyacinth. Apollo visits him. Did you know he was dating Thanatos?”

Pulling himself together, Nico nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I knew.”

They went on some kind of temporary split sometime in the late nineties after Apollo had gone on about “making a baby” for the tenth time and Thanatos got concerned about the seriousness in his voice about it. They’d gotten back together shortly after Apollo returned to godhood.

Nico stretched. “Yeah, um, they hooked up when my dad was trying to get some creature comforts for Persephone after they got married. These sunlit orbs for her room and garden. You’ve probably seen them. She put some of them in Elysium for the spirits there.”

“Oh, that’s what those are?” Jason tilted his head back. “I figured there was a reason they felt so familiar. Everyone likes to lay underneath them.”

He was quiet for a moment, Nico’s mind racing back to what he’d said about Achilles. Then his brain crashed when Jason asked, “Do you think they’ve fucked Hyacinth together?”

Extremely flustered, Nico pinched him. He squirmed under the touch but didn’t shy away from it. “What's up with you and ghost sex?”

Jason shrugged. He nipped at Nico’s fingers as they released him. “Melinoe was talking about a dead girlfriend of hers yesterday and it’s been on my mind. It’s not like I have much else going on. I’m dead. I spend all my time wandering the Underworld, talking to gods and spirits and waiting for you to call me.”

Oh.

Nico rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s fine, Nico. I knew the decision I was making when I refused rebirth.” Jason closed his eyes. There was a weariness about him now, settled deep along his shoulders. Tense and uncomfortable. “Elysium just…"

The silence was nearly deafening. His pause pointed.

Elysium was a lovely place. Macaria put a lot of work into making it pretty, into ensuring everything worked smoothly, that the spirits who lived there were afforded nearly every comfort they had when alive.

She let families visit, friends visit. They were awarded front row seats to the quarterly shows Zagreus put on to entertain the masses.

But Jason's face was lit across with a quiet stress.

Elysium was as close to heaven as anything.

And Jason seemed to think it wasn't.

He shook his head. "It’s great and I’m happy I’m there. It’s just not… comfortable the way I thought it would be. Macaria says it’s something about my life ending too early, I didn’t get to complete the goals I wanted, missing my friends, family. I wasn’t ready to die.”

His eyes opened. The electric blue of them was dull. “She says it's normal. I just have to take time to get into a groove. Apparently it’s fifty-fifty who settles in right away and who takes a couple years to calm.”

Nico pulled his knees up to chest. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"Maybe if I-" Nico sighed. "I can stop calling-"

Jason shot up sharply. "No." He took his hands. "I like when you call. And I asked Macaria. She said it had nothing to do with how I’m feeling and I was relieved. I don't get to see anyone else I love. I have to wait for them."

He tucked Nico's hair behind his ear. His hand slowly curved across Nico's jaw. A gentle smile slid across his face.

"I don't have to wait for you."

Nico swallowed thickly.

Jason was so close now, shifting so slow to get nearer that Nico wouldn't have noticed if he wasn't so hyper aware of Jason's presence.

"If you ever want to see anyone else-" He closed his eyes. "I mean, it's a grieving thing Dad implemented. You're not supposed to contact your deceased loved ones. Something about increased suicidal rates and intense bullying when we would stop assisting other people and-" He shook his head. "Whatever, I can summon you for the others. If you want."

"You know I'm a stickler for the rules," Jason said.

His voice was downturned, quietly distressed. As if he was disappointed in his choice. Stickler for the rules. Couldn't see his friends until they died. Or Nico summoned him in front of them.

Casual hauntings were allowed but Melinoe monitored that very strictly. You could hover over your loved one while they slept.

You couldn't have a long talk with them about their lives.

Nico was lucky. He lived in the Underworld. He'd see Jason regularly if he wanted anyway. And because of everything, he had mandatory sessions with Pasithea about his mental health. So his dad was okay with it. For the most part.

He pressed his hand against Jason's and leaned into the touch still pressed against his cheek. "If you ever change your mind, you know I'm happy to help."

"I know," Jason whispered. "It's what makes you so great."

Nico would've laughed if Jason hadn't kissed him.

#dated july 5th 2022 #from the twitter archives #happy talks pjo #jasico #jason grace #nico di angelo #is all romantic rn but lmao lemme tell you the intention gets worse :) #i really should get back to this at some point