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One moment Jason doesn’t exist, and the next, he does. His eyes snap open, but the world is too bright to register anything. Okay, he thinks, sight is out. Hearing, then. He shuts his eyes and focuses on listening. It’s easier to hear, though his blood rushes in his ears. Still, he can pick up the sounds of birds twittering not far from him and leaves rustling above him.
Outside. In a forest? Why is he–
Oh. He’s here. Well, that makes more sense.
He opens his eyes again, and this time it’s less jarring. He opens them slowly, letting his eyes adjust to the bright white of the cloudy sky above him. He sits up tentatively, then more confidently when he doesn’t feel the tell-tale twinge of burned skin. After three months of supervised turning, he’s gotten used to waking up with leftover injuries from when his wolf-self ran into the fire barrier. But as he stands up and checks his body, he falters.
He’s completely uninjured.
There’s a rustling behind him and Jason’s ears prick. He whips around to find Leo tripping out from the underbrush.
As soon as he spots Jason, a wide grin breaks out on his face. “Jason! There you are. Oh, ew–”
Something soft hits him in the stomach, and he looks down to see a pile of clothes at his feet. He looks back at Leo, who is now turned away.
“Leo,” Jason says, but it comes out as a croak. He tries again. “Leo, hey. Are you alright?”
Leo flaps his hands over his shoulder, still turned around. “Put your clothes on first!”
Jason eyes the clothes suspiciously. A minute later he’s wearing one of Leo’s high school shirts that barely fit him, and extremely baggy sweatpants of unknown origin.
“Is it safe to look?”
Jason snorts, aware of how his ribs don’t twinge. “You’ve seen me before.”
Leo spins around with a scoff. “It’s the principle of it, Jason.”
Jason scans Leo for injuries as he comes closer, but can’t find any visible injuries. His shoulders loosen at the realization.
“You’re okay,” Jason says on an exhale. He takes the last steps towards Leo to wrap him in a hug.
“No duh,” Leo mumbles against his shoulder, but his arms wrap around Jason’s waist. Jason relaxes even more, aware that Leo is probably supported by most of his body weight, but also not caring. He’s so warm.
He lets himself stay for several more seconds before he pulls away, already mourning the loss of contact. It’s the longest he’s let himself near Leo since… Well.
Leo drops his arms, his face cascading through expressions. Jason catches something like sadness in his eyes before he smiles brightly. “Oh, I didn’t actually say! The barrier worked!”
Jason blinks down at him. “Really?”
Leo nods excitedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “You tried to cross it a few times but then you heard the clicks and you turned away!”
Jason looks at him, cataloging the brown of his eyes under the morning sun, the way the swaying shadows from the trees fall over his skin. He’s safe , Jason thinks. I’m safe.
“You did it,” Leo says, his eyes shining. “You did it, Jason.”
They go out drinking to celebrate. Jason typically avoids drinks, especially so close to the full moon. Leo knows this and confessed he really just wanted to see Nico get drunk. Jason didn’t have any plans, anyway.
That’s how Jason finds himself squished between a sober Frank and a very drunk Leo at a booth at the vampire-run Bat’s Orbit bar.
Leo presses against Jason, reaching past him for his still-full shot glass. Jason bats the arm away and Leo hisses a breath in. Jason freezes. Wrong arm.
Leo lets his chin drop against Jason’s shoulder. He looks up with a pout, no sign of pain on his face, but Jason replays the hiss in his head.
“I’m sorry,” Jason whispers.
Leo continues looking at him, his neck extended awkwardly to hold Jason’s gaze. Nico shrieks across the table, but Jason can’t look away from Leo. Leo licks his lips, which are chapped from alcohol. Jason’s gaze drops momentarily, before hastily looking back up.
“You don’t kiss me,” Leo slurs.
Jason becomes aware of his surroundings again, but everyone else seems to be either 1.) too intoxicated to care or 2.) too involved in their own conversations.
Their conversation secure, Jason responds aptly: “What?”
Leo tilts his head further up, his chin digging in near Jason’s collarbone. “Other than the first time you didn’t– you don’t–” He seems to give up, head lolling forward and obscuring his eyes. “Do you not want me?”
Jason’s heart falls to his stomach. He feels like he’s missed something as he scrambles to answer. “No– what? Of course, I do!”
Leo sways closer. “Then kiss me again. Like you did the first time.”
Jason takes a shaky inhale, breathing in the scent of alcohol on Leo’s breath. It burns his nostrils, the sharpness of the alcohol mixing with the metallic taste in his mouth. Leo is so warm.
He closes his eyes. He imagines leaning in and kissing his boyfriend. It's enough to send a spark of heat up his spine, but then the image changes and he’s staring down at Leo, inches from his face, his brown eyes blown wide with fear and his mouth filled with blood–
He gently pushes Leo away, towards the entrance to the booth. “I should drop you back.”
“Jason nn ,” Leo whines, pitching his weight onto him and stopping him from moving. “You’re not going to hurt me.”
Jason’s heart crumples. Softly, to himself, he says, “I already have.”
Jason manages to get them out of the bar within the next half hour, their exit heralded by catcalls from Piper and a warning from Hazel to not break any house rules. Jason couldn’t help his blush at that. Leo didn’t make it better, as he decided to wink at her and press a kiss to Jason’s cheek. He’d seemingly forgotten their conversation in his inebriated state, but Jason couldn’t forget. His mouth tasted of blood.
He drives them back in relative silence, punctuated by Leo occasionally trying to throw himself into the driver’s seat and Jason fending him off with one arm, careful to avoid Leo’s own injured one. He eventually gives up and nods off, his cheek pressed against the center console.
Jason pulls in front of Leo’s apartment building ten minutes later. The car is quiet, and if Jason didn’t have better hearing, he might not have heard Leo’s breathing.
Jason closes his eyes and taps against the steering wheel.
Another ten minutes later and Jason is depositing Leo on his bed in his apartment after carrying him inside.
He’s just about to leave when something grabs his hand. He turns back to Leo’s eyes barely slit open.
“Don’t leave.”
Jason shakes Leo’s hand off. “I gotta go, you’re drunk–”
Leo stretches out on the bed, pulling his shirt up and revealing a sliver of stomach. “Don’t leave.”
Jason rips his gaze away. “Leo. I can’t–”
“ Don’t leave .”
Jason stays standing, studying the ceiling.
“I always want you to stay,” Leo says, quieter. He stretches his arms out, splaying himself on the bed. “Why won’t you stay with me, Jason?”
Minutes pass. Jason is sure that Leo has fallen asleep, but then there is rustling. Jason looks back to see Leo pulling himself up to sit. When he accidentally puts too much weight on his bad arm, he makes a face. Shame pools in Jason’s stomach.
“Jason, please.” His voice is broken, and it tears through Jason’s thoughts. He crawls forward on the bed until he’s able to reach for Jason again, and then he tugs him towards the bed. Jason has no choice but to brace himself with a knee as he falls onto the mattress.
Their faces are inches apart. Leo lifts a hand, lets it rest on Jason’s face. “You’re not going to hurt me.”
Jason remains still as Leo shuffles forward. He slides his other hand into Jason’s hair, curling his fingers into the tufts. Using that as leverage, he pulls Jason forward. Jason watches his eyelids flutter as their noses touch, but they don’t close.
“You’re not going to hurt me.” Blood rushes in Jason’s ears, and he can faintly hear Leo’s pulse quickening. “I promise to torch you if you do.”
Jason hates that that makes him feel better.
Leo draws him closer still until they are sharing breaths. His other hand comes up and presses into the hollow of his throat. Jason shivers.
“Kiss me,” Leo demands softly. Jason feels the words against his lips.
And finally, finally, Jason does.