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At Camp Jupiter, Percy was treated with a certain - wariness. Well, it made sense, really. She was a mystery, even to herself, and most demigods of any gender, let alone omega ones, don't survive to be as old as she is on their own. She clearly has a Past with a capital P, and she's not around most of the Romans long enough for anyone to work past that initial wariness. (Hazel and Frank are the exceptions, of course; the first night on the quest, they'd slept all curled together for safety and comfort, and Percy felt the safest she can remember since waking up without her memories.)

Even with her memories returned, she almost stiffens when Annabeth breaks out of the Argo II welcome party and throws herself at Percy, because not even Hazel and Frank have gotten that enthusiastically affectionate with her yet. Her instincts might need to recalibrate after the hell that Hera has put her through. And then their desperate attempt at brokering peace between the Romans and Greeks quickly goes to hell, too, so there's not much time to get re-used to things or get to know the new demigods Annabeth's brought along with her.

On the ship, they put together an emergency plan to pick up Hazel and parts for the Argo II. Percy volunteers to be one of the teams going to ground, but Annabeth announces that actually, Percy and Coach Hedge are going to stay on the Argo II and keep an eye on Jason. When Percy starts to object, Annabeth gives her this Look that Percy now remembers enough to interpret as meaning I am the daughter of the goddess of strategy, so trust me. So. Percy stays behind on the Argo II. She stops briefly in the cabin designated for her (packed with a few of her things from Camp, and also a bag of nesting materials clearly scented for her by some of her family at Camp, and she absolutely does not get a little teary-eyed over that) before setting up camp in Jason's cabin, armed with nectar for when he wakes up. She rotates out the ice pack on his head every so often and otherwise curls into her chair while she monitors his condition and waits for him to wake up.

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Jason comes to slowly, to a throbbing skull and a nose full of something that pings in the back of his brain, right where his all his most protective instincts are curled up.

He inhales a slow breath, trying to get a better sense for who's with him even before he opens his eyes, nose scrunching as he finally blinks a few times, realizing it takes just a moment for the world to come into focus. His blue eyes are a little dazed, skittering around before landing on -

Percy Jackson. Who smells like someone Jason desperately wants to curl himself around and bare his teeth at anyone who approaches.

That's... great.

He makes a quiet noise, one hand coming up to the soothing source of cold - an ice pack, he realizes - resting against the tender spot on his head. "Did we get away?" he asks, dumbly, because his brain is both not quite fully with it yet, and also rattling around with that desire to protect, and it's taking a lot out of him right now to rein it in.

“Yeah.” Her voice is pitched low and soothing because she’s dealt with plenty of concussions before - her own and others’ - and she doesn’t want to set his off any more than necessary to talk. Leo’s done an amazing job with the Argo II and put in way more options than you’d expect from a warship for a bunch of kids, which is why she even had the option of a dimmer switch on the lights to keep them low. (He may not be one of Her Kids, exactly, but she makes a note to compliment him for it, anyway. He could use some positive reinforcement after being possessed.) “Everyone’s okay. We’ve just stopped for some supplies.”

She pulls herself out of her chair and grabs the nectar she’d set aside for this occasion. “Here - “ She gets a hand under his head, raising it slowly and then tucking a couple pillows under it to help him stay propped up and make it easier to drink when the nectar nudges at his lips. “Drink this. It’ll help.”

The tone of her voice similarly pings something in the back of Jason's brain, though it's at least a good something, this time. It makes him want to stay calm, even if he also feels utterly stupid, because he wasn't there to help. He got taken out by a damn rock to the head.

But hearing everyone is okay is a relief. And the soothing sound of Percy's voice is what makes him compliant enough to sit up a little when he's prompted, and to drink the nectar when she holds it to his lips. He takes a slow, careful sip, letting it linger on his tongue and soothe on the way down. He does that again, and then decides two sips is probably enough, struggling to sit up even more. Whatever's placated inside him, it's tenuous, at best.

Sitting up is not a great idea, frankly - his eyes unfocus again for a second as he's hit with a big, hard wave of vertigo. He staunchly ignores it. "Thanks," he says, but it's a little slurred.

Two sips isn't exactly what she'd hoped for, but getting him to drink anything is better than nothing. And Percy's spent more time than she ever expected honing her bedside manner since the majority of the camp started treating her like their collective mom. The two sips of nectar will do their work healing him and hopefully he'll feel up to a little more.

It's extremely obvious that he's not actually well enough to be upright, which is why Percy firmly but gently pushes him back down onto the mattress and pillows. His brain's still bruised; he doesn't need to be upright yet. (The fact that she learned her bedside manner mostly for soothing kids has a lot to do with why she absentmindedly drops a gentle kiss to his forehead while pushing him back down.) "Stay there, okay? No one's in danger, you can afford to rest for a while longer." Also, he needs to rest for a while longer, but she's familiar with the sense of waking up after a battle and feeling like there's no time to heal, people are in danger still, even after the danger's passed.

Jason sort of slides back down pretty easily when she gives him that push, though the kiss to his forehead definitely leaves him blinking, mouth opening for a moment but then closing again. After all, it's not like he can exactly complain. (About that, anyway.)

There's definitely still a ramped-up part of him that can't accept the fact that rest is okay. "Are you sure? Where are we? How long have they been gone?" Alphas don't tend to smell distressed the same way Omegas do, but he does definitely start to smell agitated.

Oh, good. Percy absolutely does not need a Distressed Alpha on her hands, though she doesn’t want to lie and say absolutely everything’s fine. “We stopped in Salt Lake City for supplies. The ship sustained a little damage, but it’s fixable with the stuff everyone else is gathering. Coach Hedge and I stayed on the Argo to keep an eye on you. It hasn’t been that long.”

Though Coach Hedge is… not the one in the room with Jason right now. “How do you feel?”

"Like I got hit in the head with a rock," he admits, eyes fluttering closed almost reluctantly as he takes a slow, deep breath. Percy... smells pretty good. Comforting. It's still hard to turn off the danger trigger in his brain, but between her scent and her words, he doesn't think she's being untruthful.

"So at least I wasn't out for that long," he hazards. "And no one else was hurt?"

“No one else. You got the worst of it.” Which sucks for him and she’s definitely sympathetic about it. “If you drink a little more nectar, that should help with your head.”

She’s just saying. She’s pretty familiar with nectar dosages and he’s not at the max yet.

Jason just huffs out a breath, but he knows she's right, and she definitely knows she's right.

He slowly gets himself up again, but this time just onto his elbows - and then tries to balance on one to reach for the nectar so he can do it himself.

He does want to be clear-headed, after all. "Glad we got away all right."

She respects that he wants to do it himself, which is why she just hands it to him and keeps a close eye out for signs of him being unable to manage it by himself. In the meantime, she retreats back to her chair (not far enough away to not be able to help if needed), which may have gained a blanket at some point. Which is absolutely not because of pseudo-nesting behavior or anything, just like her scent hasn't started to lose that smoothness of Calming Omega now that she's not actively trying to soothe him and made the more bitter scent of an omega that hasn't been cared for properly for some time more obvious.

Fortunately for all, Jason is able to handle taking another slow sip of nectar on his own.

The thing is, though, as he pulls it away from his lips, a different scent starts to hit his nose, one that sends unpleasant tingles down his spine to pool in the pit of his stomach. He cuts his eyes to Percy without even thinking, something about his body language changing - more electric (hah), tensed, agitated again.

"Are you okay?"

She raises her eyebrows at him, frankly baffled as to why the sudden change in his body language and the switch over to talking about her. “Yeah? I’m not the one who got hit in the head.”

She’s just the one who spent a little too long on the streets, stressed out beyond belief, not getting enough sleep or food, and then not nearly long enough recovering at Camp Jupiter. So, fine.

"I know," Jason points out, but he's still eyeing her. "You just - "

Well. It's kind of rude to tell her she smells kind of awful, right? Not in a bad way, but...

"I just want to make sure you're all right," he finishes, kind of lamely.

Edited 2024-05-20 02:27 (UTC)

"I what?" she asks, because clearly he meant to say something, and she's not going to let him just suddenly get all weird like that and not tell her why. They're on a major quest together, after all. They're going to have to learn to trust each other.

Jason winces a little, but he's not going to back down if she's going to call it out.

He sighs, though, and glances at the blanket before glancing at her face.

"You smell kind of like you aren't okay," is the most tactful way he can really think of to say it.

Well. She guesses she can't blame him for being blunt when she forced it out of him. Still, it's kind of... embarrassing to have him just say it outright like that, and she might've just instinctively hugged the blanket to her chest. Not. Not because she needs the comfort or anything.

"It's been... rough," is what she ends up saying. "I probably don't smell my best."

Jason just glances down again and nods. "I think I had an easier time than you. With the, uh. Exchange."

He'd ended up at the Wilderness School, after all. Not on the streets.

With that thought - and the guilt it elicits - comes a bit of protective Alpha scent. He wishes he could have done something. He wants to make it right now.

Despite his still-slightly throbbing head.

“I’m okay now,” she says, in defiance of her body apparently deciding to broadcast otherwise and the way she’s still kind of clinging to that blanket. “I mean, new world-ending crisis aside. I lived. I just have a new reason to want to punch Hera directly in the face.”

Yeah, she may say she's okay but she certainly doesn't smell it.

Not that Jason can really blame her for wanting to punch Hera in the face. He can't help the way his lips twitch a little at the idea. If anyone could do it, it's Percy.

Hera probably wouldn't like him thinking that way, but oh, well. Thought's already been had.

Besides, "There is a new world-ending crisis, though," he points out. "Pretty much always is."

"There's always a new world-ending crisis."

And it sucks. And she's been telling herself she's okay with all this, but abruptly, she can't help but think longingly of the nesting materials that were left for her in her cabin. Is that so wrong? To just want to curl up somewhere soft and safe and surrounded by familiar scents? (And if that longing is reflected in her scent, she definitely does not currently have the control to stop it.)

She's not wrong, although the scent that accompanies it is not encouraging, tugging at something deep in Jason that actually has his body shifting to wrap around hers for a second before his brain actually catches up and he stops himself.

Wow. He must be pretty out of it, if his instincts are trying to run the show - and succeeding. (Then again, Jason's pretty much all instinct, sometimes. Comes with the territory of being raised by wolves.)

"Yeah," he agrees, out loud. "There is. And we'll handle it." Because that's what they do. "But you can't take care of everybody and not yourself."

It’s not a bad point, particularly given that she already really wants to get in a nest for a bit, and just the one blanket she has with her is not doing it. If she keeps twisting it in her hands like she is right now then it’s going to tear sooner or later.

“ - Yeah. I’m gonna head to my room, actually.” He may not be fully healed, but he’s awake and coherent and has consumed a decent amount of nectar, so Percy’s pretty sure he doesn’t need constant monitoring now. “It’s not far if you need me. And Coach Hedge is here, too.”

"But - do you - " Jason starts, and again, the words are out of his mouth before he's even really thought about them.

Once he does, though, he nods (carefully, his head still doesn't feel great) and settles back, because of course she's sure and of course she doesn't need help. Certainly not his help. He's the lame-ass alpha that got hit in the head with a rock.

"Okay," he says, and doesn't protest again or try to stop her when she leaves.

He even falls asleep for a little while, although his dreams are fitful. like he's got the scent of distressed omega in his nose and he needs to do something about it, frantically searching for the source.

When he wakes up, it feels like that scent is still lingering on the air. It wriggles its way into his brain and his chest and he finally can't keep himself to himself any longer. Jason climbs off the bunk and grabs the blanket, making his way toward Percy's cabin simply by following that scent and knocking on the door where it seems most concentrated.

Normally, she wouldn’t let him get away with almost asking a question like that, but the last time she forced him to finish a thought, a cute alpha basically told her she smelled bad. For once in her entire life, she keeps her mouth shut and heads out.

It takes her some time to sort through the nesting materials provided in her room, and it’s… rougher than usual. Mostly because her mom and Paul and Tyson all sent something, and with her newly-recovered memories, she maybe just has to sit with their scents for a few minutes and cry. She also has supplies from Annabeth and Grover, a couple things casually stolen from Hazel and Frank, and some items that just smell like the camp. By the time she’s done, she has an extremely soft nest built in her bunk that smells like love and safety. It doesn’t fix everything, but it goes a long way towards soothing her, and when Jason comes to visit, her scent is improving. There’s still something sick and unpleasant about it, but at least it’s smoothed over by her current sense of contentment.

Percy opens the door and Jason gets a heady whiff of - a lot of things. A lot of people. And something that is much more like contented omega.

That's a relief, and yet it makes his stomach twist uncomfortably, makes his hackles want to rise and that is just stupid. He'd take a deep breath but he kind of doesn't want to smell so many people all over Percy, even if it means, he knows, she's got a lot of people looking out for her. A lot of people that care about her.

Which is good.

So he sort of ends up there standing dumbly and breathing shallowly in her doorway, the blanket from his bed clutched in one hand that he now wishes he could hide behind his back.

"I'm feeling better," is the utterly unhelpful thing that finally comes out of his mouth.

"Good," she says, eyeing him somewhat bemusedly. Because when he first entered the room, she thought that maybe she'd fucked up and left him too soon and he needed help. So even though it was kind of a non-sequitur to announce that, at least it's reassuring.

Her gaze drops to the blanket he's holding, and then back up to his face. She has a heavy suspicion about why he brought it with him, but she'll let him figure out how to bring it up.

Okay, yeah. It's not like he can pretend he's not standing here with a blanket in his hands when she's clearly looking at it.

So, Jason just sucks in a breath, and sucks it up: "I brought you this. In case, you, uh. Needed any more blankets."

Now his eyes go back to the nest she's already got going, and he tries to sound nonchalant when he adds, "It's okay if you don't. I should've realized you'd be all set up."

“Pretty presumptuous of you, huh?”

Even as she teases him about it, she holds out her hands for the blanket. She hadn’t expected to be adding his scent to her nest this early, but she’d be lying if she said something deep inside her does not feel very smug about a handsome alpha offering her something soft and covered in his scent.

Jason can feel himself flush despite trying not to - but he does his best not to let it faze him. He was just trying to help, even if it was admittedly his hindbrain and instincts trying to help, and not his actual brain.

It helps that she reaches out for the blanket, which he dutifully passes over. She hadn't had to take it, after all. Clearly she'd be okay if she didn't.

And, well. As long as he's here. "Sorry I said that thing earlier. About you not smelling okay. I know none of us have gotten any breaks." Percy least of all, really. "I guess that's just not how the gods work."

“It’s fine.” It’s not, really, but she doesn’t blame him for it. Add it onto the pile of things she wants to punch Hera right in the face over. “At least I know now.” Which means she can take precautions. Demigods don’t use scent-blocking patches all that often by habit unless in extreme circumstances, but they usually keep some around in case of emergency. She’ll just start wearing those until her body chills out and stops giving off distressed pheromones.

In the meantime, she’s taking his blanket and finding it a comfy place in her nest. It would be silly to waste a nice gift from a handsome alpha.

"Yeah," he says, though his voice sounds a bit distracted because Jason's just... sort of standing dumbly in the doorway watching. He doesn't realize he's doing it, but there's something about watching her fussing with the blanket he just gave her, looking for the right place to put it, that just holds his attention without his even noticing.

Eventually he blinks, and maybe doesn't realize he'd sort of spaced out there, but does feel like he should say something else. Like apologizing alone isn't quite enough. "It's not your fault."

“I know.” And yet. She maybe sounds a touch defensive as she finishes tucking the new addition into her nest. It’s not that she thinks it’s her fault that she smells… like she does. It’s just that she doesn’t like the idea of her body giving off signals that she doesn’t want it to, or smelling like she can’t take care of herself. She can. Sally Jackson did not raise a damsel in distress.

And yet. None of them can control so much about their lives, and every little additional thing just adds to the weight. He gets it.

Jason keeps watching her for a long moment, by now feeling like he's intruding but also feeling like it's just as rude to walk away again. "Thanks for sticking around. You know. To babysit me."

He hates that's what he'd needed, but clearly he had. And she can't have enjoyed staying behind to do it, but he kind of appreciates getting to wake up with her in the room, and not Coach Hedge.

“It’s fine. Someone had to make sure you didn’t go into a coma, and I don’t think Coach Hedge is the warm and friendly type.” She’s known that guy for all of a few hours, and she has heavy Doubts about his bedside manner abilities.

"He's - not," Jason admits, with a pause there like maybe he'd been about to try to say something else, and finally settles on the response he gives.

In truth, Coach is... well, Jason trusts him. But he is a little overly enthusiastic. If it's between Percy and the satyr, well - Jason is definitely glad with the option he got.

"Just maybe don't tell him that," Jason adds, with a bit of a lopsided smile to show Percy she's definitely in on the joke.

“Of course I won’t,” she says, sounding mildly insulted that he even thinks she’d be that stupid. Again, she’s only known Coach Hedge for a short time, but she thinks she’s gotten a decent idea of what he’s like. And what he’s like is someone who probably doesn’t take constructive criticism well. “He’s not my first shouty teacher type.”

Jason grimaces a little, both at the way he's clearly being reprimanded, but also at the idea that Coach isn't the first shouty type she's had to deal with. "That does seem to be the preferred method for dealing with half-bloods," he admits, because now that he can remember most of his life, he remembers that, too.

Not that it's surprising, really. It's about the only way to get listened to, among a bunch of headstrong kids.

"Still. Next time I won't leave you to deal with him alone, either way."

Well, if he doesn't get conked on the head again, Percy won't have to deal with Coach Hedge alone again. So, it's best for everyone, really.

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omg I swear I exist!

>3

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