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'Nothing lasts forever.' Percy thinks, gripping onto Jason's glasses, his hands threatening to break the thing. They both knew that they were fleeting, that they couldn't last forever. Not even the two of them together could battle the odds. Eventually, one of them would die, and the promise would be broken.
Inevitability didn't make the reality hurt any less. Percy made bargains, prayers to anyone that might listen, but it was all for nought. Nothing could stop the hands of time. It was cruel, marching on forever as he tried not to drown in the depths of yesterday. A cold hand was placed on his shoulder, and she had said something, but nothing was registering in his ears. It was filled with water, and everything around him was garbled.
Forever was a concept he could never understand. It meant nothing to him. Not when his forever with Jason had lasted almost a year, not when his forever with Annabeth had lasted a few years. He envied mortals, for having that. A happy ending they can call theirs, a story that doesn't end in needless bloodshed and blades being drawn. One that turns a family against one another, and one where they don't have to find out that someone was killed, and they couldn't find the body.
He sits down on the seat, trying his best to pay respects to him, to look on in reverence as they bade farewell, but he just couldn't accept it. Tears were blurring his vision, and he could barely see the portrait they'd chosen or the few items placed amongst them. They couldn't even find the body. The casket was empty, and yet it felt as though he was sitting in there, devoid of life and love. Percy just couldn't handle the thought. Jason. Full of warmth, full of dreams Jason. Was out there somewhere, mauled or sliced or stabbed. He was out there, alone in a ditch, with nobody, and now alone in the underworld. It made him sick. 'I'm afraid of being abandoned.' His voice rang in his head, his heart drowning in the echoes of him. Jason confided in him that family meant everything to him, and…
Nobody came to find him.
He would have, in a heartbeat, but nobody would let him. It was far too dangerous, but he'd rather die than not have Jason come home.
The door opens and reveals a rather miserable looking Lester. Apollo. His mind thought back, and he found a scowl forming on his face. If Jason were here, he'd tell him to let it go, that it wasn't his fault. But he wasn't, and that was why he was angry.
Lester walks to him with a hollow empty look in his eyes. "I'm sorry," He mutters, and Percy can feel every nerve in his body snap, like a small ribbon holding a wolf back.
" Don't say that to me. I'm still here. He isn't! " Percy stands up, ignoring Annabeth's warnings, and unleashes a hellbent fury pent up ever since Luke had died.
"Jason was a man of honor. He trained, to fight, to protect, and he had someone to love. He didn't deserve to die for someone like you. A god coming down to earth because his dad was a little too pissed at him causing nonsense."
Lester, no, Apollo's eyes widens, but otherwise doesn't move to open his mouth.
"So no, don't you fucking dare say sorry to me. Not when his body's out there, not even recovered, and there's an empty casket in here for somebody who deserved to still be here."
Apollo was going to say something, but he beat him to it.
"Make sure you remember him, and every single fucking person that has died for you, or I will make you." The little kid next to him, Meg apparently, looked pissed, glaring at him with eyes sharp as thorns.
"You're right," Lester says dismally, his voice cracking and stumbling.
Maybe he said something else, but he didn't hear it, pushing past him and out of that room. He just really needed some air.
A few minutes later, and Percy finds himself walking along the lake, walking the path they once walked, nearly a year ago.
"Gods, you didn't go easy on me, did you?" He heard his own voice echo back to him.
"Well, someone has to knock down your ego a few pegs," Jason said casually.
"Right. And that's why you pinned me to the wall that one time. Oh, let's not forget that time I had you, but then you flipped us over and…"
"And you were blushing." He pointed out thoughtfully, and Percy struggled to contain the static burning and singing, his skin.
"And I was blushing. Y-yeah." His heart was beating the same way it did then, and everything fell away like he was returning to this moment in time.
"Did that mean anything?" Everything washed away, and Jason was the only thing he could see. His eyes pierced his own, challenging, testing the waters.
"It doesn't have to if you don't want it to." Percy stares at the lake, watching the still surface, so easily disturbed. Sitting down, he threw a small rock, which skipped a few times before sinking.
With every rush came the sudden stop. and it came in the form of a question.
"What if I do?" Jason sits down next to him, inches from touching, and throws his own rock, infuriatingly skipping one more than his.
"Then…" His words sunk back down, and he stared at Jason desperately. A second passed, and Jason moved away stray hairs sticking to the side of his face
"Then what?" Jason whispers, and Percy sucks in a deep breath.
"Kiss me…" He blurts out. His eyes widen, and Percy feels flames burning him. Nothing would matter, as long as Jason would cross the distance, and they'd be intertwined. Percy would tug on the other side of that string now, and find no reply.
"Right now?" Jason asks, and it takes Percy a moment before he realises the voice is real.
"You're here?" He whispers, afraid that any louder would make this daydream vanish into the sunset skyline.
"Why wouldn't I be? I promised we were forever." Percy turns and faces him, and for a moment, fears that his mind had been tricking him, that he was nothing but a voice in the wind, calling out one last time.
His entire body sags, and tears flushed from his eyes.
"You… asshole!" He screamed out and Jason frowned slightly.
"I'm sorry it took so long." He took a tentative step forward, eyes searching his, "But I had to lay low. There were so many monsters…"
"Don't ever do that to me again. Please. " His hands trembled, and his legs were seconds from toppling. He stumbled a step before Jason had caught him in his grasp. When was he so close?
"I promise I won't-and you know I keep my promises." Percy laughs lightly. He shrugged off the eyes peering at them and leaned into him. It didn't matter what they thought. All that mattered was him and Jason.
"You know, I never did find out what you were going to say…"
"You already did, Jase."
He leaned up a little, and closed the distance between them, placing a hand on his jaw, tracing it, in fear that if he ever let go, he would fade into mist. He pushed into it, pulling on his tattered Camp Jupiter shirt, some of it balled in his fist. They could have sat there forever if not for the audience. The kiss had lasted nearly ten seconds, before he pulled away, lazily gazing back at Jason.
"I think everyone wants a piece.," He laughs, making out the curious gazes of people in the crowd.
"They can wait." Jason leans down and engulfs him in another kiss, and everything had washed away again.
Forever was overrated.
All that mattered was now.