Chapter Text
Biweekly counseling sessions with Abby over Iris-Message seemed to be working for Jason, but Leo found, after trying out a few different New Roman therapists, that his jam was more working shit out on his own with the occasional sounding board. He ended up independently going through a few therapy workbooks and talking to Mr. D whenever he got stuck somewhere.
Somehow, separately and simultaneously, they became convinced they shouldn’t get married the moment they were both eighteen. Jason had always lived life at a hundred miles an hour because he expected to die young; Leo had the Mormon tendency to make commitments before he could possibly comprehend the consequences (baptized at eight years old and given the Aaronic priesthood at twelve, anyone?), and by the spring equinox that first year, they were in agreement that it was probably wisest to wait a few years to make a decision.
A few years only made them more certain. Leo proposed on the fourth anniversary of the Trial of Orpheus. They set the date for the following February — according to Jason, the date was pleasing to Juno because modern February coincided with the ancient Greek month Gamelion, which, in Athens, commemorated Hera’s marriage to Zeus.
The Jackson-Chases rented a domus with the Pace-Stolls near NRU, where all of them were pursuing post-grad studies. Connor and Malcolm made themselves scarce that morning so that Annabeth, Percy, Will, Hazel, Piper, and her girlfriend Shel could take over the place to get Leo ready. Reyna, Thalia, Frank, and Nico were with Jason at Nico’s apartment.
“Fuck off, I’m wearing my toolbelt,” Leo said.
Will sighed heavily. “Over your wedding suit.”
“You literally never know when you’ll need a six-setting screwdriver.”
“Oh my gods,” groaned Will.
“Don’t be a dick just because your autism is different than mine.” Their diagnoses were relatively recent developments (although Leo personally thought that anyone could’ve clocked Nico). “The toolbelt stays.”
The vest and pants were gold with a rainbow sheen, with hearts embroidered in glossy white floss — the color representing lightning — along all the edges. A boutonniere with pansies and buttercups with a green carnation as a centerpiece was pinned to his lapel. Jason would be in a matching toga and boutonniere, except that his hearts would be embroidered in orange floss for flame. Storm and fire: they both fell.
The dress code was a mix of ancient and modern formal, which basically meant that all their Roman friends were in togas and their Greek friends looked like they were attending a normal wedding, except that the men’s clothes weren’t all in grayscale. The event itself would also be a mix of modern and ancient traditions.
“Still can’t believe I wasn’t Jason’s best man,” Percy complained, and Leo knew him well enough by now to know that he was only starting shit to distract Leo from his nervousness.
“The tradition of the best man,” said Annabeth, “originally started as best swordsman. The idea was that the best man would fight off anyone who tried to steal the bride. Nico is a better swordsman than you, these days. Also, you’re the one he’s prepared to fight off.”
“The implication here is that I’d steal Leo.”
Leo gasped in mock outrage. “You don’t think I’m hot enough to steal?”
“Sure. My type is a bit taller and blonder, though.” He said this with a smitten glance at his five-foot-eleven wife.
Leo’s height hadn’t budged from five-foot-seven, which really wasn’t fair considering that Jason had shot up to six-foot-four a couple years back. Even Nico had sprouted like a weed as soon as he’d started eating enough, though he was still a couple inches behind Will.
“So you might try to steal Jason,” Will joked as he deftly twisted Leo’s grown-out curls into a bun at the nape of his neck. “And in that case, Nico is more than prepared to handle you.”
“As am I,” added Piper, Leo’s best man.
Percy mock-pouted. It had been quite awhile since he’d accepted and gotten over his crush on Jason, but the topic was evergreen for their friend group.
Will stepped away to study his handiwork. He frowned. “I think it looks better loose. Piper?”
Piper walked around him, surveying him critically. “I mean, it’s really up to Leo what he’s most comfortable with, but I agree, I don’t like the bun. It’s like you’re in the workshop.”
“I think the bun looks nice,” said Hazel, “but there is the minor problem of Jason not being able to run his hands through it.”
“Yeah, take it out,” Leo agreed instantly. Jason not being able to tangle his fingers into Leo’s hair was absolutely a dealbreaker; he was, somehow, even hornier for Jason now at age twenty-one than he’d been at seventeen, and could not bear to sacrifice a single affectionate touch. “Sorry, Will.”
“No worries, it’s just a bun,” said Will, undoing the hairstyle as quickly as he’d done it up.
Hazel faced him toward a mirror and helped him put gold earrings in all of his piercings — the guilt of having more than one set of ear piercings was another weird Mormon thing he’d overcome recently, and he really liked how it looked, now that he was used to it — and then she wiped a tear from her eye.
“No!” Leo admonished. “You’ve already done your makeup.”
“Hands off your face,” Shel instructed Hazel. “Head back. Look up at the ceiling. Deep breaths.”
While Shel walked Hazel through the ordeal of crying without ruining makeup, Annabeth put her hands on Leo’s shoulders and looked at him in the mirror. “Deep breaths, Valdez. In three, out three.”
Had he been breathing? Oh, shit, he hadn’t. He was so freaked out that his body felt like TV static. He breathed.
After a minute, he confessed, “I’m nervous.”
“Yeah.” Annabeth smiled. “I know.”
“It’s stupid.”
“I think you’ll find that it’s actually very normal to be nervous on the day you promise your life to someone.”
“I’ve given him my life before. I wasn’t afraid to die for him.”
Behind him in the mirror, Leo watched Nico materialize and step out of a shadow. He responded, like he’d always been a part of this conversation, “I’ve met Cupid, Hera, and Thanatos. Take your guess which of those was the kindest. This should scare you more.”
“Darlin’,” said Will, “that’s not helpful.”
“I think the truth is always helpful, actually. Anyway. How close are we to being ready here?” Nico strode over to Leo and spun the chair around to look at him directly. He took Leo’s chin in his hand and tilted his head this way and that, examining him with a clinical eye.
Leo pulled back from his grip. “Dude.”
“You’re tense,” Nico announced, like it was some revelation. “Take some CBD oil.”
Will huffed in annoyance. “You freak him out and then you tell him to take CBD oil?”
Nico about-faced in both position and attitude and wrapped his arms around Will’s neck. “Maybe you better shut me up.”
“If you two start making out right now, I’m dumping glitter in Nico’s hair,” Annabeth warned.
Leo dug a small brown bottle out of his toolbelt — no THC, just CBD — took a dropperful of berry-flavored oil under his tongue, and held it there for thirty seconds before swallowing it.
“If it makes you feel better,” said Nico, facing Leo again, “Jason’s also kinda freaked. He’s pacing like the fuckin’ FitnessGram.”
“We’re ready to go,” Piper stated.
“Everyone’s eaten this morning?” Nico checked. “Shadow-travel is worse on an empty stomach.”
Everyone nodded, except Leo. Nico raised an eyebrow.
“Not hungry,” he muttered.
“We’ve been trying all morning,” Piper told Nico.
“Paradoxically, not eating is making your nerves worse,” Nico informed Leo, digging in a leather pouch hung from his hip — a Mary Poppins-type, “everything fits” bag, Leo had made it for his birthday a couple years back — and pulling out a slightly crinkled brown paper McDonalds bag, which he handed to him. “Chew and swallow at least two bites before giving up. I’m gonna pop back to Jason and update him before he starts pulling out his hair.”
Nico stepped back into a shadow and was gone.
Leo didn’t realize how hungry he was until after forcing down the first swallow and suddenly gaining an appetite. He had eaten a double cheeseburger and was halfway through a second when Nico reappeared three minutes later.
Nico glanced over the scene and nodded briskly. “Good. We’ll go after you finish that and brush your teeth.”
Nico shadow-travelled them to the shade beside a temple and pointed unnecessarily in the direction of the Temple of Juno, saying, “That way. I’ll go get Jason’s party now. We should be there in ten to fifteen,” and set off briskly walking down the hill.
The Temple of Juno was right beside the Temple of Jupiter, but they looked nothing alike. Juno’s priesthood and Jason himself officiated a lot of weddings here, and the place was set up for it, with a foyer and a large chapel with a raised platform at the front and the attendee seating split down the middle. At the back of the room, behind all the seating, was a much smaller raised platform upon which sat several musicians tuning their instruments. The place was full of a mix of the Greek and Roman friends they’d made over the years, sitting in the pews and chatting in the foyer. Leo got a lot of hugs and handshakes.
Given that the ceremony was to be personally performed by Hera, Leo probably shouldn’t’ve been surprised by the number of incognito gods who showed up, but his jaw still dropped when he caught sight of his dad and stepmom arm-in-arm in the foyer. He made his way over to them.
“Hello!” he managed when he reached them. He was honestly proud that he got that single word out without tripping over it.
“Son.” Hephaestus grinned and reached out to ruffle his hair. “Big day.”
“I— yeah,” he stammered. “I didn’t… I didn’t realize—”
“You didn’t think your father and I would show up for the world’s new greatest mythical love story?” Aphrodite chided. Just like the one other time he’d seen her, years ago in Athens, she looked a lot like Jason — muscled arms and shoulders, fluffy blonde hair, piercing blue eyes. “You are a successful Orpheus and Eurydice!”
“Quite,” agreed Hephaestus. “And—” he looked around, leaned closer, and lowered his voice “— your husband-to-be paid a great price for that success. One which you have been attempting to pay back ever since.”
Leo itched with frustration, recalling the latest failure of the project he’d been secretly working on for over four years now. He’d read through that ophthalmology textbook so many times he’d damn near memorized it. He’d photocopied and studied every one of Jason’s electrical diagrams that included the eyes at all. He’d taken apart the heads of automatons and copied the internal sight mechanisms. Still, his prototypes of functional prosthetic eyes failed every computer simulation. He couldn’t get the design to be compatible with a human brain.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, “I’ll get it. Eventually. I have to.”
“Do you?” Aphrodite asked with a quirked eyebrow.
“Surely you’ve heard that the world is not kind, accommodating, or safe for disabled people,” Leo said drily. “I love him blind or seeing, but I don’t love knowing that there are about a million more ways he could die on a daily basis now.”
“Ah,” the goddess sighed dramatically. “Such pure love. Utterly charming.”
His father had a sparkle in his eyes as he clapped his arm and said, “We do have a wedding gift for you two. We’ll talk after the reception, okay?”
“Oh! Um, okay! Thanks,” he replied, slightly confused by the abrupt topic shifts.
Hephaestus winked and said, “Go mingle. Accept congratulations. Enjoy the day, my son.” Aphrodite waved delicately, and they disappeared into the crowd.
Charon found him then. Leo had only seen him twice, at his death and resurrection, but he was sure he’d never forget.
Charon was jovial now, even a bit misty-eyed. “Leo Valdez! Eurydice two-point-oh!” he exclaimed. “What a wonderful day that has finally arrived. I was beginning to think I’d simply missed the invitation.”
Leo laughed harder than he’d meant to. “Nah, man, we’d’ve made sure. We’d never forget our Day One supporters. Who’s covering your shift?”
Charon made a dismissive hand gesture. “Some spirit from Punishment. I think his name was Edward Smith? He captained some big ship that sank, not important… actually, you’ll appreciate this story as a ship captain yourself. He took it to sea knowing that there was interior hull damage from a fire in a coal bunker. An iceberg hit the damaged part of the hull, sliced it open, got a bunch of people drowned. He was sentenced to sail on the Acheron for the rest of eternity on a raft that capsizes and dumps him in every year.”
Leo blinked. “Do you mean the f— the Titanic?”
Charon snapped his fingers. “Yes! That was the one.”
Leo shook his head, clicking his tongue in disapproval. “This is why you gotta build your ships with double-skinned hulls and don’t power them with coal.”
“Yes, exactly,” Charon huffed. “I knew you’d get it.”
Piper appeared and tugged on Leo’s arm. “Jason’s party is getting here. We better go sit down.”
“Catch ya later, kid,” Leo said to Harley, and followed Piper.
The front two pews were reserved for the wedding party. The raised platform across the front of the room had a set of steps at both ends and, against the back wall, a low semi-circular altar before a sacrificial flame, burning low and red-orange below an ornate mosaic of Juno on a throne. Several very cute plushies of highland cows were lined up on the altar.
From his seat, Leo watched Jason move through the crowd toward the front pew, shaking hands with a teary Chiron, grinning at a congratulatory slug from Clarisse, laughing off some mischievous comment by Connor. When the party was seated, Nico glanced over at Leo, elbowed Jason, and said something to him. Jason turned his face in Leo’s direction, grinned, and blew a kiss.
Leo giggled and blew one back. Nico spoke again briefly. Jason blushed lightly and turned back toward the front of the room.
When the piano and lyre music began, conversation slowed and everyone moved to sit. Leo felt a jolt of nerves and began mindlessly chewing on his fingertips. Piper grabbed his wrists and set his hands on his lap, murmuring, “Chill.”
He tried to chill.
When everyone was seated, the music stopped, and Juno’s two head priests stood from their seats beside the altar, and the room fell silent.
The priests were a married couple named Darius and Melissa — that was how Juno’s priesthood worked; only married couples served, and always together — who both wore fringed togas of deep purple.
“Usually,” Melissa said to the room, “weddings in this temple are officiated by us, or by the Pontifex Maximus. However, today, the Pontifex Maximus is one half of the couple being united, which means that, in accordance with New Roman tradition, the Queen of Heaven herself has been petitioned to conduct this ceremony.”
“We received the sign of her favor and agreement six months ago,” added Darius. “So now, we call her.”
Melissa and Darius moved toward the altar and picked up a cow plushie and a handful of dried plants each. Standing before the sacrificial flame, they said in unison, “We invoke Juno Regina, the Queen of Heaven and guardian of Rome.” They tossed the dried plants into the fire, and the chapel filled with a sweet floral scent. “Juno Iugalis, binder of marriages, condescend to us.” They threw in the cow plushies.
The flames grew, licking higher and brighter towards the domed ceiling of the chapel, until they were too bright even for Leo to look at. The attendees turned their heads and shielded their eyes.
When the room returned to normal brightness and Leo looked up again, Hera — Juno — stood on the platform, seven feet tall, in a shimmering white chiton adorned with gold chains and peacock feathers. The priests knelt, and the audience followed suit.
Holy shit, Leo thought dazedly as he looked at his own knees on the marble floor. We’re really doing this.
“Be seated,” commanded Juno. Her voice was not loud, but it carried. Leo and everyone returned to their pews. The priests bowed deeply and took their seats on either side of the altar.
Juno stood regal and impassive for a couple seconds before she began to speak. “Long ago, it is said, human beings had twice as much physical substance as they do today. Each one had two faces, four arms, and four legs. To humble them, the gods cut them in two, and gave each one the lifelong quest of finding and reuniting with its missing half.”
She took one step forward and spread her arms. “Today, we gather to bear solemn witness that two halves have found each other. Would the best men escort the grooms to center stage?”
Leo was so giddy with nerves and excitement that he barely remembered how walking worked. He was positive that he wouldn’t have made it to his feet, let alone up the steps and onto the platform, without his hand in Piper’s arm.
On the opposite end of the stage, Nico walked Jason up the other set of steps. His cane was left leaning against the wall by the pew.
About halfway to center stage, Piper stopped and gently took Leo’s hand off her elbow as Nico did the same with Jason. Leo felt panicked, suddenly. He wasn’t sure he could walk the rest on his own.
Piper grinned at him, nodded, and gave him a little push.
Breathe, he told himself. In three, out three. Somehow he moved forward until he and Jason stood, a couple feet apart, in front of Juno.
Jason smiled and whispered, “Hi.”
An embarrassing, high-pitched giggle erupted from Leo’s chest. He got control of it quickly and whispered back, “Hi.” He heard a few sympathetic giggles from the assembled.
He didn’t look out at them, though. He was too busy grinning as he stared up at the guy who was about to become his husband. Jason couldn’t stare, but he was grinning just as hard with a pink flush across his cheeks.
Juno said, “I myself first brought these men together years ago, as the Storm and Fire of the Prophecy of Seven. Their unity in the covenant of marriage is also done by my will and with my approval.” She paused before saying, “Leo Valdez.”
Leo snapped his gaze up to Juno’s face. Her expressionless gaze was fixed on him.
She said, “Do you consent to be husband to Jason Grace, to protect and to cherish him, in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, for worse and for better, from this day forward?”
His voice came out as a whisper. “I do.”
Juno turned toward Jason. “Jason Grace.”
He lifted his face as though meeting her eyes.
“Do you consent to be husband to Leo Valdez, to protect and to cherish him, in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, for worse and for better, from this day forward?”
Jason cleared his throat nervously. “I do.”
“Then I invite you to exchange rings and vows.”
Leo pulled the gold wedding band from the breast pocket of his vest and grasped Jason’s left hand. He slid the ring onto Jason’s ring finger. “For time and all eternity.”
Jason pulled Leo’s wedding band out of the pockets tied beneath his toga and took Leo’s hand. Leo noticed that Jason’s hands were shaking as he slid the ring onto Leo’s finger and repeated back, “For time and all eternity.”
They kept hold of each other’s hands loosely.
“Now,” Juno intoned, “by the power vested in me by the Council of the Gods, by the Senate of New Rome, and by the State of California—” What? “—I declare you wedded. You may seal your union with a kiss.”
Leo’s ADHD brain was still stuck on by the State of California — did Juno deadass have an actual officiant’s license issued by the State of California? — but Jason’s hands in his hair and tongue in his mouth wiped it away.
The wedding party escorted them to the door of the Pontifex house, the doorframe of which was entirely draped with garlands of flowers.
The moment the door was shut and locked behind them, Leo pressed Jason against it, hooking an ankle around his and pulling it out to send him falling into a sitting position. He straddled his lap and nipped at the junction of his jaw and throat.
Jason whined, hands coming up to grip his waist. Leo kissed him, swallowing the sound.
“So,” Leo murmured in Jason’s ear after a few minutes of making out, “party’s in forty-five minutes.” The reception would be held in the Plaza of Juno in the city proper. “Twenty minute walk. We got a solid twenty-five minutes alone. Got any ideas how we should spend it?”
Jason leaned his head back against the door, panting, skin flushed with arousal. “Not enough time,” he muttered.
Leo shifted, grinding their hips together, and was rewarded by hearing his name in a breathy moan.
He was damn near delirious with need, but he pulled himself together enough to tease Jason. “Mmm, maybe you’re right. Better just get our dancing shoes on—”
Jason dragged him into another kiss, cutting him off. Then he attached his lips to the sensitive skin behind his ear, and Leo decided that, actually, they could do a lot in twenty minutes.
Roman weddings were always a huge community thing. Everyone even vaguely acquainted with the couple — coworkers, past college roommates, elementary school classmates, friends’ cats’ previous owners’ cousins — showed up to the reception, most bringing food or some other gift. All of this meant that, although almost everyone alive that Leo knew in the demigod world was there, they were a small percentage of the partygoers. Maybe the whole city was there; he wouldn’t know.
The afternoon went by in a blur. They danced and laughed and ate and accepted congratulations. There was a brazier in the center of the plaza where people sacrificed portions of food to the gods.
At one point, Leo caught sight of Mr. D. He raised a can of Diet Coke in salute.
Leaf confetti and biodegradable glitter covered the floor after the party. Jason made quick work of cleanup with a whirlwind that raced around the space, picked up all the trash, and deposited it in the brazier still burning in the center of the Plaza of Juno with a shower of orange sparks.
The cleanup crew watched in amazement. After four years rubbing elbows with Roman aristocracy, Leo didn’t know whether to assume they were impressed by Jason’s fine-tuned skills sensing and manipulating the air, or by the fact that he’d bothered to help with cleanup — most people with similar status didn’t care as long as they knew that the cleaners were paid a living wage and spoken to politely.
He jumped when a hand suddenly rested on his shoulder and glanced up to see that Hera had materialized silently beside him, still seven feet tall.
Her eyes glittered coldly down at him. “I hope, Emilio, that you are sensible of the gift you have received. Jason’s life was given to me by my husband as an appeasement, and I have given it away to you today.”
He opened his mouth to say something like Thanks! ‘Preciate it! He’s super cool, but she cut him off. “Waste not your breath. I know your intentions. The next sixty years will prove their strength.”
She turned and looked toward Jason, who was now using the wind to float down the decorations hung about the plaza while the people who’d been setting up ladders for that very purpose watched in resignation.
Hera said, “I entrust you with my stepson and champion. Do not disappoint me,” and disappeared in a shimmer of light.
“Alright, good talk,” Leo muttered to the air where she’d stood.
“Cut it out, Jason!” Percy yelled.
“I’m making their job easier!” Jason protested.
“Showing off is what you’re doing.”
Jason grinned and blew a pile of streamers straight into Percy’s face.
Percy spat out a piece of streamer that’d gotten into his mouth. “Really, Grace?”
“Not Grace anymooooooore,” Jason sang, beaming.
Leo walked up behind him, wrapped his arms around his waist, and stood on tiptoe to put his chin on his shoulder. “Nope. You’re Jason Valdez, now.”
Jason Valdez made a happy little humming sound and twisted back to kiss his hairline. Leo decided against pulling him in for a proper kiss; once he started, he wouldn’t be able to stop. He just stared up at Jason’s profile and relished how full his heart was.
When everyone else left the plaza, the Argo II Extended Family ended up sitting around the brazier like it was the campfire, passing around water bottles and stories, drawing out the afterglow of the reception.
“Gods,” Will snorted, a little teary-eyed. “I remember y’all’s first day at camp. I gave Leo the grand tour. Jason blew up the campfire with a lightning bolt.”
Jason groaned. “Do we really need to bring up my embarrassing fifteen-year-old stories right now?”
“Yes,” Nico said in a serious voice with a shit-eating grin.
“Okay,” said Jason, “then let’s also bring up how Annabeth called Piper a knockout in front of the entire camp when she got claimed by Aphrodite.”
Annabeth yelled and threw an empty water bottle at Jason, which nailed him between the eyes. He didn’t even flinch. Shel shot Annabeth a playful glare as she wrapped an arm around Piper’s shoulders.
“Nope,” Hazel broke in, grinning. “We embarrassed Percy and Annabeth on their wedding day. It’s you and Leo’s turn now.”
“Sure,” Leo said. “So when is it gonna be you and Frank’s turn?”
Frank blushed deeply.
“That’s right,” said Nico, turning to his sister. “Because I believe I was promised the role of flower boy at your wedding.”
“We made you no such promise,” Hazel laughed, swatting Nico’s shoulder.
Jason wrapped his arm around Leo’s shoulders and kissed the top of his head. Leo leaned into his shoulder and closed his eyes, trying to experience the world for a minute the way Jason did — the smell of woodsmoke, their friends’ voices, the night air that was chill on their backs and warm on their chests.
It was still beautiful, but not as much as it could be. As it would be again, at some point, when he figured out those damn prosthetics.
Their friends suddenly fell silent. Leo opened his eyes to see what was wrong, and was greeted by the sight of his father and Aphrodite standing just outside of the circle, all eyes on them.
Jason rose to his feet.
“Hephaestus and Aphrodite,” Leo told him, standing up as well with the rest of their friends.
Jason kissed his cheek. “I know. They’re, like, beaming their images into my brain. But thank you.” He called to the two gods, “Hail! To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“At ease, Jason,” Aphrodite urged, “we’re here as your parents-in-law tonight, not as your employers.”
“I always forget that our parents are married,” Piper muttered to Leo.
“Ah.” Was Jason blushing slightly, or were his cheeks pink from the laughter that had only stopped moments before? “Well, thank you. It’s been a good day.”
“And the days to come better also be good,” said Hephaestus. “Treat my boy Leo right.”
Jason’s face grew serious. He said, with the gravity of a vow, “Always.”
“Dad,” Leo objected, “did you really come over here to give him the shovel talk?”
“No,” replied Leo’s father, a twinkle returning to his eye. “Like I said earlier, we come bearing one final wedding gift.”
“Mom,” Piper said cautiously, “are you about to be embarrassing?”
Aphrodite waved one graceful hand. “Of course not, Piper dear. No, I expect this gift will be very well-received.”
Piper stared skeptically.
Hephaestus cleared his throat. “As you may know, work done in a god’s honor is a pleasing offering to that god. A great amount of work done in the honor of a god is a sacrifice that may be rewarded.”
“May be,” Percy muttered, wearing the face of someone who had done a lot of work for the gods in exchange for very little reward.
The two gods ignored him. Aphrodite took up speaking. “So, extensive work of a mechanical nature, done in the name of love… well, that’s an offering to both of us. One which, on an auspicious occasion, we may reward with a blessing we feel is deserved.”
“Leo,” Jason asked, “what are they talking about?”
Leo found himself unable to open his mouth to answer. He couldn’t even breathe.
“We’re talking about the functional prosthetic eyes he’s been trying to build ever since you took out your originals,” Hephaestus said. “Unfortunately, I’m the only one who has ever accomplished such a technological feat.”
“Orion,” Nico whispered. His expression was completely blank.
Black was creeping around the edges of Leo’s vision. He couldn’t remember how to breathe.
“Indeed,” replied Hephaestus. “This task was beyond even Leo’s brilliance. But his effort has made a miracle possible.”
Jason reached over and tapped Leo’s sternum, giving him a small electric jolt that jumpstarted his diaphragm. He spluttered and gasped, and his vision cleared.
“There you go, love. Breathe,” Jason muttered. Then he raised his voice back to normal speaking volume and addressed the two gods: “What exactly do you mean?”
“We mean,” Aphrodite said brightly, “that our wedding gift to you is the return of your vision.”
“You… what?” Jason’s voice was faint and unsteady.
Aphrodite snapped her fingers. Jason gasped sharply and crumpled to the ground, throwing a hand over his face.
“Jace!” Leo dropped to his knees beside him.
Their friends crowded around, voices rising in a babble of confusion and concern.
“Worry not!” Aphrodite raised her voice above the commotion, her charmspeak silencing the group instantly. “His brain has rewired itself away from visual input, but all the necessary pieces are there, and he will readjust. It will just be a bit painful at first.”
“A bit?” Annabeth demanded. “He’s on the ground.”
“Not as bad a headache as I got from all those bricks,” Jason joked raggedly. He began to straighten up, still clasping a hand tight over the top half of his face. “Still. Ow. Fuck.”
Then he dropped his hand and blinked his eyes open.
He shut them again immediately, wincing. But they were there. Leo had the absurd urge to look around at the rest of their friends, make sure they saw it too, that he wasn’t hallucinating.
The chorus of gasps confirmed it.
“Could you see?” Frank whispered.
“Yeah,” Jason said in a gravelly voice. “It’s a lot, though.”
“Will,” said Hazel urgently, “can’t you—”
“Shit!” Will scrambled forward. “I’m so sorry. Here—” he pressed his hand to the side of Jason’s face and started singing under his breath. Leo recognized the song — it was one Will and Jason had written together a couple years back, a spell not for general healing but for pain relief specifically.
It was working. The furrows of pain on Jason’s face slowly smoothed out. Will finished the song but kept his hand pressed to Jason’s face. “Try again?”
Jason opened his eyes and blinked a few times. He seemed stunned.
Nico studied Jason’s eyes intently and was apparently unsatisfied by the results. “Jason,” he said doubtfully, “Can you actually see?”
“It’s, um. Not in focus yet,” Jason mumbled. “Not making sense. Like it’s moving too fast.”
“Wait,” said Leo. “Do you still need glasses?”
“No,” Aphrodite said, making Leo jump — he had honestly forgotten she was there as soon as she moved from his line of sight. “We fixed that. It’s just a matter of his brain remembering how to interpret light.”
“How long will that take?” asked Annabeth.
Jason turned his face toward Leo, and his breath caught in his throat.
His eyes were exactly the same: the brilliant crystal blue of clear desert skies when the sun was high. The size, the shape, the placing, the slant — they were perfect. They were Jason’s.
They flitted over Leo’s face in a blank and unfocused way, as though his features were a puzzle he couldn’t put together yet.
Then the pieces seemed to fall into place. His eyes widened and focused. His face broke into a grin. “Leo!”
Jason tackled him in a hug, then pulled away just as quickly and cupped his face in his hands.
“Holy shit,” he breathed. “Let me look at you.”