Chapter Text
Jason frowned as the tension in the room suddenly sharpened. He eyed Percy warily, wondering where this sudden bad attitude had come from. “What’s that face for?”
“Because,” replied Percy, lip curling as he stared disdainfully down his nose at Jason. “You’re disappointing.”
Jason stared back silently. He didn’t know what had caused the sudden rift between them, but it had been starkly apparent that he’d been getting on Percy’s nerves all day. Even so, when Jason had come to Percy’s cabin to clear the air, the last thing he’d expected to hear was that he had somehow managed to disappoint Percy.
“What does that even mean?” He asked, keeping his expression and tone neutral.
Percy exhaled through his nose, shaking his head and turned his face to the side. He planted one hand idly on his hip. “The way the Legion talked about you when I first got to camp, everything I learned about you, all your impressive feats.” Percy’s face was still turned aside as his lips curved into a thin smirk. He closed his eyes and shrugged. “Heh. I’d been expecting a bit of a rivalry to be honest. Thought you and I would be butting heads over every little thing.”
Percy’s eyes opened and slid over to Jason’s coldly, his smirk fading to a thin line. “But you really haven’t lived up to the hype at all. You’re weak, Jason. And now I get why the Legion didn’t look for you.”
Jason froze, staring back stunned, like Percy had physically struck him. Jason clenched his jaw tightly. It was something that had been on Jason’s mind since the day the ship launched. It had been impossible not to compare how the Greeks had rallied in their relentless pursuit of Percy, but Jason had seen no evidence of anyone looking for him at all. He had been run out of the city when he had finally made it home on his own. He remembered very little about his life before meeting Piper and Leo, but he too had recalled some basic facts, things he had done in service to The Twelfth Legion. It had weighed heavily in a dark corner of his mind, wondering why they wouldn’t want him back if he had accomplished so much for them.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he muttered darkly, clenching his fists. “And I’m no weakling.”
He had seen Percy do incredible things over this quest, and heard impossible stories of things the son of Poseidon had accomplished in the Titan War. He respected his power levels and swordsmanship. But Jason had pulled his weight many times over this quest too – tangible memories he held, not just stories from somebody else. He didn’t view himself as weak.
Percy moved forward, silently stalking into Jason’s personal space. Jason was still physically taller, but it didn’t stop Percy from leaning his head back when they were face to face to look down his nose at the blond. Without a word, Percy’s palm connected with Jason’s face, snapping his head to the side with a grunt, blindsided, as the slap rang out in the silence.
Jason turned back to face him, frowning. Percy continued to stare at him, cold and indifferent but made no further move to speak. Jason’s cheek stung but he showed no sign of it. When Jason failed to react, Percy’s eyes narrowed, and he slapped him swiftly across the face again. Jason exhaled slowly through his nose and once again stared back at Percy, unsure what the point of this was.
Percy’s expression remained mostly flat and disinterested, with only faint undercurrents of that same annoyance he’d been directing at Jason all day. He lashed out a third time, this time closing his hand into a fist. The force of it distracted Jason as Percy grabbed his shoulders, dragging him forward as he brought a knee up swiftly, driving it into Jason’s gut. Jason grunted through his teeth, and toppled over after a final harsh shove from Percy. He landed heavily on the floor, against the wall.
Percy stood over him, arching an eyebrow derisively. “You were saying?”
Jason glared at him, jaw ticking defiantly. “Choosing not to knock you out doesn’t mean I’m weak, Percy.”
The truth was, none of this felt right. None of it felt like Percy. This wasn’t just a bad mood, or them not getting along. There was something off here and Jason was still trying to figure it out. Before today, he’d never picked up on any signs of Percy disliking him this strongly. And even if he did hate Jason for some reason, this wasn’t Percy’s style. If anything, it reminded Jason of the Eidolons taking them over back at the beginning of the quest. He had only fuzzy recollections of the incident, given his own possession, but Percy had been uncharacteristically aggressive toward him then as well.
Jason scanned Percy’s face, but he could still find no overt signs of anything amiss. Percy’s eyes were their usual sea-green and entirely his own. But Jason still couldn’t shake the feeling that something must be influencing the son of Poseidon, and if that were the case, Jason had no desire to fight him.
Percy shook his head, annoyed. “You don’t fight back because you know you’ll lose.” His eyes glinted smugly, and his lips pulled up into a nasty grin. “Or maybe you’re just being a good Roman and respecting the chain of command. I am a Praetor, after all.”
Jason growled lowly at the assertion. Maybe Percy’s rapid promotion through the Legion was still a bit of a sore spot for him. “So am I.”
Percy put his hands on his cocked hips, tilting his head as his grin widened. “Not anymore. They traded you in for a better model. I can’t blame them, of course.” His grin slid off his face, as his eyes narrowed, flashing darkly. He seized Jason by the hair, tugging his head up painfully. “Who’d want you? Not the Legion – Not Camp Half-Blood – Not Jupiter – Not Thalia – Not even your own mother.”
With every assertion, Percy knocked Jason’s head back sharply onto the wall, harder each time until Jason was dizzy with it and the back of his head stung all over. He gnashed his teeth, and gripped Percy’s wrist tightly, forcing his hand to release the grip on his hair.
He held onto Percy’s arm, cracking one eye open, despite the persistent ringing in his head. Percy was breathing heavily, glowering down at him just as viciously as he’d spoken. He certainly looked as though he hated Jason. But it didn’t make sense. Over the last week, Jason had felt like they’d become closer than ever. So why was Percy so angry with him now?
“Nobody wants you, because you’re useless,” seethed Percy. “Do you know why Juno put you on this quest? Have you worked it out yet, or are you too stupid?”
Jason swallowed, slowly blinking his other eye open. Why he was on this quest? What did that even mean? They’d all been chosen years ago, but not for any particular purpose as far as Jason was aware.
Sensing his uncertainty, Percy’s vitriol eased back into something closer to his earlier steely detachment. He hadn’t yet bothered to pry his arm back out of Jason’s grasp.
“Frank is here because we needed a child of Mars to use the sceptre. Hazel’s here because she’d already proved herself against the giants, and because we needed a child of Hades to lead us to the Doors Of Death. It was just fortuitous that Nico also showed up. Annabeth is here because she’s the smartest demigod of the generation, and we needed a child a child of Athena to recover the Parthenos.
“Piper is here because of her charmspeaking abilities. Leo is here because he was the only one that could ever build and operate this ship and get us this far. Not to mention he’s our backup plan to defeating Gaia, as per the prophecy. As for me, there had to be a powerful child of the Big Three - for leadership, for brute force, for the symbol. Hazel is good, but I have more experience.”
He regarded Jason coldly. “So what purpose does that leave for you? Well, to storm or fire. And Leo’s made himself useful with the ship. You’re only here to be discarded, just like everyone’s always discarded you.”
Jason saw red, and finally lashed out. His fist hit Percy squarely in the face, snapping his head back and knocking that stupid smug expression off his face. Jason released Percy’s arm and got back on his feet, baring his teeth at the son of Poseidon.
“You can shut your damn mouth,” he hissed roughly, eyes narrowing to slits. His muscles remained tightly coiled, but he flexed his fists, trying to restrain himself. He still didn’t believe that this was Percy talking, and he didn’t want to injure Percy unnecessarily, but his patience was wearing thin.
Percy wiped a hand over his mouth, laughing lowly like he’d found the strike funny. “You should never strike your Praetor. I could punish you for insubordination.”
“You’re not my Praetor,” Jason ground out through clenched teeth. “You’re not even Percy. He wouldn’t say any of that crap.”
Percy laughed louder that time, but it was no more pleasant a sound than it had been the first time. “Of course I am. Not everything is a conspiracy, Jason. Sometimes it’s just that people don’t like you.”
Losing his cool again at the provocation, Jason lunged toward him, levelling a fist at Percy’s gut. Maybe he could force Percy to vomit up whatever nasty thing had crawled up his ass. Percy shifted to the side to let his fist pass harmlessly, before darting out his own hand, and grasped his wrist tightly. He tugged roughly, pulling Jason briefly off balance, with his left arm stretched out past Percy’s waist, wrist trapped in Percy’s firm grip.
He looked up, catching Percy’s eyes as they turned cold and Percy bared his teeth at him in a malevolent grin. He flexed his hand and Jason heard the sharp crack before he felt pain explode in his arm. He bit down on his cry of pain, tugging his arm back as soon as Percy dropped it carelessly. He cradled his arm against his chest, breathing tightly through his nose. He staggered two steps back from Percy, as his wrist pulsed dully and his trembling fingers began to tingle unpleasantly.
Percy’s eyelids lowered and he chuckled in dark amusement as he idly examined the hand he had used to break Jason’s wrist. “Earthshaker. Stormbringer.” He closed his fist in a swift crushing motion, eyes flicking wickedly to Jason. “Bonebreaker.”
“Give it a rest,” breathed Jason heavily. “I’m not buying it okay? Say you hate me all you want. But you didn’t hate me yesterday. You didn’t hate me when I had your back against Kym and Polybotes. You didn’t hate me at all.”
Jason clenched his jaw hard. He remembered that underwater fight, and their talk afterwards. Since then everything had seemed to click into place for them. He’d thought they were friends. He’d thought Percy had his back too. He’d thought they understood each other better than any of the others ever could. Dammit. He’d even started thinking of Percy like a brother. There was no way Percy had been feeling this cold toward him that whole time.
Percy hummed quietly, weighing his thoughts before answering. “I suppose there was a moment when I thought I could finally see what the Legion had been prattling on about.” Hooded green eyes flicked up to meet Jason’s. “And, yes, after that fight…I did look at you differently.”
Jason listened with bated breath, brow creasing with the tentative hope of an explanation he could begin to make sense of.
“We had a…connection.” Percy’s voice was quiet and deep as his eyes drifted a little, parsing through his thoughts. “I felt more confident in battle when you were fighting alongside me.” His lips quirked up into a small smile, and Jason stared on helplessly, because Percy finally looked like himself again. “Like a cyclops that had suddenly woken up with two eyes.”
Jason couldn’t bring himself to speak. He swallowed dryly. He’d never heard Percy’s take on the situation before, but – Jason knew exactly what he meant. He had felt the same way too.
Darkness passed over Percy’s face again, and any brief hope Jason had had of settling things peacefully crashed down around his ears. Percy’s hand reached out and fisted tightly in the front of Jason’s shirt. He dragged Jason in closer, staring him in the eyes. Jason moved his injured arm behind himself and out of Percy’s reach, protectively.
“Then I got over it,” shrugged Percy blandly. “I watched you lose to ghosts, succumb to their curse. I watched you mope around for days on end. You looked pathetic. And after that, I couldn’t see you as anything else.”
Percy tossed Jason away from him, throwing him roughly against the wall. Jason staggered, twisting to protect his injured wrist, and took the brunt of the impact on his right shoulder. He glanced past Percy to the door of the cabin, weighing his options. With his hand out of commission, he’d be weaker in a fight – even if he’d had his weapon on him, it’d be a major disadvantage. If he made a run for it, he could get the others to back him up against Percy until they could determine what exactly had crawled up his butt.
He ground his jaw tersely. The trouble was that he didn’t want to go at Percy full force if he wasn’t really in control of himself right now. For all he knew, that was Gaia’s plan - to have them kill each other. She’d tried it once before, it felt foolish to believe she wouldn’t again. Percy, however, wasn’t pulling any punches. And even if he were being manipulated somehow, Jason wasn’t sure they’d be able to subdue him at all unless Jason threw everything he had at him. Lash out, or run. He didn’t know what to do.
Percy must’ve spotted his glance at the door. He made a sound of disgust. “You want to run away?” Percy’s eyes narrowed, and he spat out a derisive laugh. “No, you can’t even make up your mind, can you? You see, this is what I’ve been talking about. Indecision. Inaction.” He flicked Jason’s forehead as hard as he could with a sneer. “Can’t that thick skull of yours manage one simple decision? What do you ever really manage to actually do?”
Percy leaned in closer to his face, blocking the overhead lights like an eclipse. His hand fell heavily on Jason shoulder and Jason couldn’t shake it off. He swallowed, torn between fight or flight. Surely, at this point, Percy would understand any harm done when he came back to his senses.
“At that’s the sad, simple truth of it, Jason,” Percy murmured. His gaze turned as sharp as his words. “You bore me.”
Jason lunged for him before Percy had finished speaking, fight proving to be the stronger impulse. But at the same time he moved, Percy also struck. He drew his knee to his chest and slammed his heel down viciously on the side of Jason’s left knee, where his leg had been outstretched when he lost his balance against the wall.
Jason howled as pain exploded brightly in his knee, lancing up his thigh. The shockingly distinct pop on impact was sickening. Intense agony swallowed his knee and quickly enveloped the rest of his leg in aching waves. Jason’s momentum carried him forward towards Percy, but when he was upright, his left leg immediately buckled with a severe and nauseating shot of pain and a horrifying dual sensation of weightless instability and a locking, grinding stiffness of cartilage rubbing together.
He pitched forward, half-blinded by pain, feeling like he had no leg at all and no way to avoid hitting the ground face first. Percy, much to his surprise, did not dodge him this time. Percy’s hand splayed across his gut, his shoulder briefly supporting Jason’s chest, and he rolled with Jason’s momentum, twisting around and out of the way, pushing Jason over onto his more stable leg before withdrawing. Jason wobbled before falling backward onto Percy’s bed, knees hanging over the edge.
Jason bit down hard on his strangled grunts of pain. His head swam dizzily and the pain radiating up his leg left him feeling nauseous. He swallowed thickly, breathing thinly through his nose in short, shallow bursts. He blearily cracked open his eyes, and Percy’s detached expression slowly swam into focus, as he leaned down over Jason.
“You’re not on my level as an enemy, or a friend,” Percy told him frostily. One side of his mouth curled into a darkly amused smirk. “But you are fun to torture.”
“Percy, stop,” he groaned weakly, through his clenched teeth.
“I like you better broken,” murmured Percy. With the light in the room behind his head, his face was shadowed, and his green eyes gleamed. “Broken is better than boring.”
Percy grabbed his left thigh, just above his shattered knee, and hauled his leg and hips up with shocking strength. Jason bit down hard on the ragged scream trying to claw its way up his throat as Percy dragged his hips more fully onto the bed. His ruined knee hung limply, foot dragging across the mattress numbly. Even through his jeans, his knee looked swollen and misshapen. The broken cartilage made repulsive cracking and grinding sounds with each movement.
“Stop – Stop it!” Jason cried shrilly, with a broken gasp. He clutched at his thigh with his one good hand, as if it could hold back the agony spiking through him.
He grunted thickly, certain he was going to vomit from the pain. Percy tugged carelessly at his right leg which had snagged over the edge of the mattress. Jason kicked out jerkily, but once he was fully atop the bed, Percy blessedly stopped pulling at his injured leg.
Jason crumpled, exhausted and defeated, on the mattress. His face was pale and covered in sweat. His chest heaved with each ragged inhale. His body shook all over, pushed past its limits and Jason wondered blearily if he was about to go into shock. He wondered if Percy would think him boring if he passed out. He wondered what Percy would do about it if be did.
Percy sat back on his heels, kneeling between Jason’s legs, watching him with a vicious kind of interest. Jason stared at him distantly. He really had no idea where Percy would go from here, but there was absolutely nothing Jason could do about it at this point, now that he had been hobbled. His entire left side was useless. The most frightening thing by far was the hint of quiet curiosity in Percy’s intent gaze. Jason had the concerning suspicion that Percy himself didn’t know what he was going to do next either.
Jason swallowed thickly, and licked his lips anxiously. “Percy, I –”
“Shut up,” ordered Percy, in a rough bark. He slapped Jason swiftly across the face to silence him decisively. Jason’s voice died out as Percy’s lip curled, and a low growl rumbled out of his throat.
“You’re always so annoying,” hissed Percy, narrowing his eyes aggressively.
He grabbed hold of Jason’s swollen knee and squeezed. Jason bucked with his whole body, reaching urgently for Percy’s hand to throw him off.
“God – Don’t!” Gasped Jason, sharp and desperate, before choking off into a grunt.
“You’re always talking but never actually say anything,” Percy pressed on harshly, as if Jason had not spoken at all.
Percy continued to apply pressure to his swollen knee mercilessly. Jason arched his back, pressing his head back into the sheets deeply, his right leg kicking out helplessly. The intense agony shooting through him left him mute and blind. His muscles were at once seizing tightly, and loosely quivering. He oscillated rapidly between sucking in sharp breaths and not being able to breathe at all. He felt more than heard another sickening crack in his knee as something else gave in, and he finally found his voice again as he screamed.
Percy forced his free hand over Jason’s mouth, clamping down tightly, silencing him once more. He barely blinked, fingers of his other hand still digging in torturously further. Jason’s vision had completely blacked out, and his eyes rolled into his skull as he shuddered in Percy’s unrelenting grasp. He knew he would pass out if Percy didn’t let go very soon.
“I’m so tired of hearing you talk,” he muttered darkly.
Percy leaned over him, using the hand on Jason’s mouth to support him. He could feel Jason’s lips tremble around every weak, shaky breath dampening Percy’s palm. His grip on Jason’s knee eased gradually as he leaned forward to stare down at the son of Jupiter’s pale, strained face. He watched Jason’s craned neck jump weakly, and his clouded blue eyes roll back. If he didn’t let up, Jason would surely pass out. Reluctantly, he drew back his fingers at last from Jason’s ruined knee. The blond continued to spasm under him quietly for another moment as his tense muscles slowly unlocked. Eventually, blue eyes rolled down towards him, still unfocused, eyelids hanging heavy over them. Jason moaned weakly against his palm in pain, and Percy felt his eyes light up at the sound.
His lips twitched into a faint smile, and a quiet, exhilarated laugh left him on his next exhale. “That’s a much better sound.”
Steadily, Jason’s vision came back into focus. As the darkness retreated to the edges of his vision, he tried to blink the remaining blurriness away only to realise that tears had welled up in his eyes at some point in response to the pain. He made an unhappy sound against Percy’s hand and held his eyes open a little wider, intent on drying out his tears before they could fall. It was bad enough that he’d already screamed in front of Percy, he’d be damned if he cried.
Jason lay limply beneath Percy, blinking slowly up at him with heavy, exhausted eyes. Percy stared back at him, intense and hungry and not at all like the Percy Jason had considered a brother just yesterday. A breath caught in Jason’s throat that almost sounded like a whimper at the thought, and he was quietly glad that Percy’s hand was still covering his mouth to muffle it.
Percy’s eyes flickered to his covered mouth at the sound, glowing brightly. His tongue darted out to wet his lips.
“Let’s see if I can make you do it again.”
Jason swallowed, instantly on edge. He must’ve missed something while he’d been on point of passing out. He didn’t know what exactly Percy was talking about, but he had a strong suspicion it wouldn’t be anything good for him.
The pressure on Jason’s mouth disappeared as Percy sat back on his heels, suddenly dangerously calm. His hands slithered down from Jason’s face to the hem of his purple shirt and flipped the hem up and away from the waistband of Jason’s jeans. Jason’s brain stuttered to a stunned halt when Percy pulled at the button on his jeans, utterly confused for a few damning seconds.
All of a sudden, his brain flipped over and he jerked back into the situation with jarring clarity. By the time Jason had locked back in, Percy’s nimble fingers had already undone his button and zipper, and pulled his jeans open wide to expose his underwear. Percy grabbed hold of his jeans roughly and began to pull them down without preamble. Jason bristled and attempted to push his hands away with his one good hand. Percy brushed him off repeatedly as carelessly as he would a fly.
“What the fuck –” Jason flushed indignantly, with a scowl. He made a decisive grab for Percy’s wrist to stop him, but Percy smacked his hand away callously; the slap audible in the tense atmosphere.
“Don’t fight,” warned Percy, shooting him a sharp glare.
Jason got over his momentary shock when panic spiked in his chest as he felt the elasticated waistband of his underwear slip below his hipbones suddenly, caught in Percy’s tight grip on his jeans. He clawed at his jeans, fighting to pull them back out of Percy’s grasp. He clung to the denim desperately, but with only one hand, it was no surprise that he lost the tug of war. His grip was inconsequential in comparison to Percy’s, and he hissed at the sting under his nails when Percy gave a final harsh tug with a low growl and the denim ripped out from under his grasping fingers.
His underwear went down with his jeans, leaving him shockingly exposed. Jason cursed roughly and covered himself as best he could with one hand, feeling his face heat with sudden embarrassment. Uncaring of his humiliation, Percy continued to tug his jeans harshly down his legs. White hot pain burst in Jason’s knee and rocketed through the rest of his leg, leaving him seeing stars.
“Argh, st-stop!” Jason choked. He sucked in a sharp gasp, pleading as if Percy would care. “Percy – My knee.”
Miraculously, he felt Percy’s rough hands relent briefly. Jason cracked open an eye to peer at him warily. Percy’s green eyes appraised him silently for a tense moment. He gave Jason’s right thigh a surprisingly gentle pat.
“Just this one,” he murmured decisively.
He resumed his efforts, trying to pull the tight denim down his right thigh, while largely leaving the left leg alone. The waistband caught tightly around his left leg just above the knee, pulling and squeezing painfully at the tender swelling as Percy wrestled his right leg free one agonising inch at a time. Jason bit down on as many rough curses as he could catch, trying not to cry out too pathetically as his injuries were repeatedly jarred.
“Please –” Jason gasped on a jagged inhale, pale and sweating through the ragged pulling as Percy tried to force his jeans to stretch farther than the material could possibly allow.
He had no choice but to give into Percy’s prompting for assistance in pulling his right leg free of his jeans. It simply hurt too badly to keep resisting and it was clear by this point that Percy would not leave him be until his leg cleared the denim. Grimacing weakly, Jason reluctantly pulled his knee up toward his chest while Percy yanked at the bunched leg of his jeans fervently. Jason’s shoe popped off and bounced over the edge of the bed, dropping to the wooden floor with a heavy thunk. At long last, his foot pulled free and Jason nearly whimpered with relief.
Jason stared down at Percy as he tossed the discarded leg of his jeans carelessly aside over his left leg, and felt a sudden powerful swell of disdain and rebellion surging in his chest. He seized the opportunity their current position afforded him, and slammed his foot forward as brutally as possible into Percy’s gut.
Percy grunted at the muted impact, but had been quick enough to catch his foot clumsily in both hands, lessening the power of the blow. He tossed Jason’s foot aside viciously and shuffled his way swiftly back up between Jason’s thighs and out of kicking range. Jason swallowed anxiously at the furious twist of Percy’s scowl.
Percy slammed the side of his fist into Jason’s left shin hard – whether it was just poor aim, or a fleeting kindness that had him missing the worst of the swelling – it stole Jason’s breath nonetheless and left him flinching from the shockwaves of pain. Percy pressed Jason’s left thigh down against the mattress firmly, leaving his leg bent out to the side.
“It’ll be fine here, so leave it be,” he said, stiffly. “Unless you want to keep aggravating it more.”
Jason wilted, sagging weakly against the mattress. He was quickly losing any sense of fight left to him. Everything hurt and he was so tired. Seemingly satisfied with Jason’s presumed obedience, Percy settled back onto his heels with a quiet exhale through his nose. He stared down at Jason, surveying him impassively.
“Let’s see now,” he mused, darkly, not seeming to care that Jason was still crudely covering as much of himself as he could with one hand. It didn’t stop him looking. He smirked meanly at the last feeble bastion of defiance, apparently finding Jason’s fading efforts funny.
Percy gripped Jason’s right thigh just above his knee and lifted it up toward his chest, nearly folding Jason in half. The blond groaned through pursed lips, any shift in position radiating waves of pain through him still. Jason’s foot hung limply in the air over Percy’s shoulder as the son of Poseidon leaned over him for a better look.
Jason stared at the ceiling dully, feeling detached and defeated. The muscles in his thigh strained as his leg was lifted higher, leaving him lopsided, exposed, and utterly humiliated. Percy spat suddenly onto his hole and Jason jolted sharply at the foreign feeling. When he glanced down fiercely and realised what Percy had just done, a spark of anger and insult stabbed through him again.
He bared his teeth in another flash of angry defiance and slammed his heel down hard onto Percy’s back, right between his shoulder blades, with all his remaining strength.
“Knock it off, Percy!” He barked, loud and furious.
Percy’s eyes flashed dangerously as he threw Jason’s leg off of his shoulder angrily and pinned it easily by his side with one hand. He went for Jason’s injured wrist with the other, gripping his hand roughly by the fingers and pressed his hand back toward his wrist. He wasn’t even particularly aggressive about it, but the move had Jason choking on his own tongue all the same. He shoved hastily at Percy’s arm, desperate to get his hands away from him.
“Don’t do that again,” hissed Percy, his words clipped and teeth clicking maliciously on every word. He tossed Jason’s injured hand away like it disgusted him and leaned out of Jason’s face, sitting back on his heels.
Percy shoved three fingers into his mouth, looking rough and agitated. When he pulled them back out, they were wet with his own spit. Jason’s eyes widened, appalled, as he saw what was coming. He threw up his hand as if it would be enough to ward Percy off.
“No, no, no –” he rambled urgently, tripping over the syllables in his shock and panic, unable to understand how they had gotten to this point.
He grit his teeth harshly against the burn and strange feeling as Percy forced a digit inside him roughly. Jason clenched down on the intrusion with everything he had, trying to force it out of him any way he could. It was not easy going, and it showed on Percy’s face. His jaw was set tightly, as he pressed deeply into Jason with relentless force.
“Guh – Take it out. Take it out,” grunted Jason tightly, through bared teeth. He shook his head and clenched the bedsheets with his good hand.
Percy didn’t pay him any mind, and continued probing into him keenly. He forced a second finger in alongside the first, despite the resistance. Jason bit his lip tightly to stifle his unavoidable whimper. He squirmed under Percy’s hold, trying to pull his right leg out from under Percy’s hand and bring it up past Percy to close his legs protectively. Percy pressed down harder on his thigh, pinning him easily without letting up on his invasive exploration.
By the time Percy began forcing his fingers apart inside Jason’s tight hole, the blond could take no more. It burned, and it hurt, and it felt so strange and violating. He had never been in this kind of fight before, never been this helpless before. He didn’t know what to do with himself, or even how to just grin and bear this kind of humiliation. He didn’t even understand what Percy wanted from him.
When Percy tried to force a third finger inside of him when there was absolutely no room for more, Jason clawed out at him blindly on reflex. His nails scratched at Percy’s face, near his eye. Jason only realised he’d even managed to graze his cheek when Percy bit off a snarl and pinned Jason’s troublesome right hand up by his shoulder on the bed, with his hand clenched tightly around Jason’s wrist. Percy moved in closer between his legs to maintain a steady hold, and Jason was able to see the thin lines of pink temporarily raised on his cheek under his eye.
Jason moaned weakly at the sting of four of Percy’s fingers prodding into him as they steadily pried his hole apart. It was much too dry to be enjoyable for either one of them, but Percy’s solution was no more preferable; and every so often when the resistance stopped Percy’s digits in their tracks, he would lean forward and spit callously onto Jason again and stuff his spit into Jason’s tender hole with his busy fingers.
“That’s it,” Percy breathed, in response to Jason’s quiet moan of distress. His eyes gleamed brightly as he stated hungrily down at Jason pinned and spread beneath him. “Again.”
His fingers stabbed into Jason again roughly, grinding deeply and clawed at Jason’s insides. Jason twitched and bucked, trying to twist away from the invasive touch, but there was no way to escape it.
Eventually, Jason felt all four digits be removed from his ass. He’d scarcely breathed a sigh of relief before Percy’s shiny fingers were tugging down the zipper on his cargo shorts. Jason’s blood ran cold as he watched, stricken, as Percy pulled his cock out. The head was flushed a deep red, and the length was enough to send a shiver of horror down Jason’s spine, at last able to predict what Percy’s next move was going to be. Percy was shockingly hard compared to Jason’s completely flaccid dick laying limply against his balls.
Jason shook his head faintly with a barley audible miserable little groan. ‘Don’t want.’
He tried to squirm away from Percy and up toward the headboard. The awkward angle with only one arm to drag himself up the bed, and only one foot to push with – his sock slipping helplessly against the bedsheets – prevented him from getting very far. By the time Percy had finished stroking a paltry layer of his own spit onto his turgid erection and pinned Jason’s hip down with his spit-slick hand, Jason had barely made it a foot away from the son of Poseidon.
Percy leaned over him, using his weight to keep Jason from wriggling away as he brushed the blunt head of his heavy cock against Jason’s tense ass, blindly seeking out his hole once more. He reaffirmed his grip on Jason’s right wrist, while his other hand flitted between Jason’s hip and the base of Percy’s cock, angling himself against Jason eagerly.
Everything within Jason clenched tight with a little whine as he was slowly crushed under Percy’s weight. Fear left his mind fuzzy and far away when he felt the tip of Percy’s dick cover his tightly furled hole, pressing its hot, heavy weight against the tender muscle. He shivered with a fully body thought of ‘NO’.
“That’ll hurt more,” muttered Percy idly, in response to Jason’s tensing.
Jason knew that, but he still couldn’t help it. He stared up at Percy’s face, wide-eyed and frozen, almost afraid to breathe. His heart was fluttering anxiously in his chest, desperate for a way out, but finding none. Maybe he should accept the shame and scream for help. Maybe one of the others would hear him and come to stop this. He didn’t think he could get his voice out right then, however, and certainly not loud enough.
Percy stared back at him, green eyes fevered and intense, lips parted slightly in anticipation. It was disconcerting to see Percy getting off on this – whether it was the pain he was inflicting, or the power he was able to exert over Jason - either way, it made Jason’s stomach twist sickly.
“Don’t do it,” breathed Jason tightly, no louder than a whisper.
Percy pressed his lips into a thin, feline smile, and forced his way into Jason brutally. Jason bit down harshly, groaning roughly through his teeth and screwed his eyes shut. His foot thumped against the bed impulsively, as if he could shake out the pain.
There was a brief moment where, as much as it burned, there was simply too much resistance against Percy. Jason nearly laughed gratefully, certain that Percy was too big to fit and the slide was too dry to accommodate and that Percy’s dick had somehow managed to get stuck. For a second Jason thought Percy would be forced to retreat – that he physically would not be able to do this to Jason.
Then Percy’s hips popped forward suddenly as the thick head of his cock suddenly made it past his tight entrance all at once. And Percy was inside him, albeit only shallowly. It was still enough to knock all the air from Jason’s lungs. The shock of it snapped his blue eyes open.
Percy’s eyes were wide too, looking just as caught by surprise, before he shoved forward with the full force of his hips, and the first agonising inch seared into Jason deeply, tearing him apart from the inside out.
Jason screamed.
Percy’s hand shot up from around his cock to seize Jason roughly by the throat, and forcefully crushed his windpipe into silence. Jason bucked up against him, body spasming instinctively with the sudden restriction on his breathing, along with the intense burning pain carving into him from below.
Jason thought he was still trying to scream out the agony, but it only made it out of his throat in thick, choked grunts. His face was quickly beginning to feel startlingly numb, and his vision began fizzling away at the edges into dark spots. He stared down at Percy dizzily with some effort, now certain that the son of Poseidon intended to kill him.
He’d believed up until now that Percy had just been toying with him, albeit brutally, but this – this feeling – this pain – this had to be what dying felt like. Percy stabbing into him now felt as sharp and shattering as Michael Varus’ gladius through his chest had been. It felt worse. Michael’s sword had pierced his core in only one spot, straight through his chest. Percy was stabbing him repeatedly right up through his core. Everything inside him hurt and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was going to die from this, he knew it.
Jason felt his eyes begin to burn along with everything else. He thought numbly that he would have preferred if the Giants had gotten him. He would rather be the blood sacrifice Gaia wanted. He would rather the rest of the crew threw him away to seal Gaia to complete the quest just like Percy had suggested. He wished Enceladus had managed to finish him off when he’d had the chance back on Mount Diablo. He wished that Piper had never revived him when Juno had seared his eyes out of his head when he’d seen her true form.
Even so, he could not help but make every feeble attempt he could to survive. Percy’s blurry face swam into focus as Percy sank deeper into him. The son of Poseidon was leaning over him fully now, bracing his weight on where he held Jason’s wrist and throat down in each hand. He stared down into Jason’s face, wild eyed and hungry, enjoying every moment.
Jason pawed weakly at Percy’s wrist with his injured left hand. His fingers had gone numb a long time ago and were next to useless with no grip strength left at all. He pushed at Percy’s arm anyway, barely even feeling the dull pain throbbing up his arm from the pressure the movement put on his wrist.
It was no use, however, and Jason’s strength and coordination only continued to fade out of him more and more from the strangulation. He let his arm fall back onto the bed beside his shoulder limply, eyelids fluttering as he tried to suck in a little more air around Percy’s crushing grip. Maybe he was giving up. He was too dizzy to care anymore.
Percy had stilled at some point, with his cock half buried inside Jason, pulsing faintly as it ripped Jason open. His green eyes were hooded and dark, staring down at Jason’s face as it steadily changed from red to purple. The grip he had on Jason’s throat slowly relented until his fingers were only curled loosely against his throat. Jason coughed roughly, sucking air instinctively into his aching lungs.
“Deep breath, Jason,” coaxed Percy, silkily, one corner of his lips tugging into a vague smile as he watched Jason gasp.
Jason barely managed another full lungful before the pressure around his throat returned in full, vicious force. He grunted and seized up reflexively as his air was once again cut off.
“That’s a good boy,” teased Percy, smile taking on a nasty edge. “Surely a son of Jupiter can hold his breath for a while?”
Jason did have an above average lung capacity and was used to thinner air at higher altitudes, but that didn’t make the constriction around his throat any more comfortable to endure. Percy began fucking him in earnest then. Jason moaned lowly in pain as Percy drove into him hard and deep.
Percy leaned into his face as he thrust against him, staring intensely into Jason’s eyes. Jason flinched but couldn’t pull away from him.
“Come on, Jason,” Percy purred lowly. “Moan for me.”
Percy’s eyes flickered coldly over his face before he turned his face in to hiss directly into Jason’s ear, inching his cock further inside the blond as he leaned closer.
“Or I’ll make you scream.”
Jason couldn’t scream if he’d wanted to. Percy’s suffocating grip on his throat extinguished nearly all sound from him. He supposed that was intentional on Percy’s part. However cocky the son of Poseidon was feeling right now, any attention from the rest of the crew would surely still be an annoying inconvenience to contend with.
Jason’s eyes narrowed in his discomfort and he bared his teeth weakly, hissing in shallow breaths whenever he could, just to try and ride this out until Percy was finished with him. His foot jerked every so often whenever his swollen knee was aggravated by Percy’s rough movements. He kept his broken on the bed beside his shoulder out of further harm’s way. There was nothing more he could do. He’d just have to wait for Percy to be satisfied.
“That’s it,” huffed Percy raggedly, snapping his hips forward without missing a beat. “You don’t fight me anymore. Not on this, not on anything.” He licked his lips and smiled. “Doesn’t it feel better to just do as you’re told?”
Jason barely reacted. His head hurt from the oxygen deprivation, and his whole body felt like one big pulsing ache. He let his vision drift out of focus; Percy’s features above him blurring distantly. His body remained as limp as his dick. Not that it seemed to hamper Percy’s enjoyment any.
Percy released his hold on Jason’s right wrist and knocked his knuckles harshly against Jason’s skull. “That thick skull isn’t built for thinking, is it? Leave it to us Senior Officers.” He dipped down to press a curt kiss to the corner of Jason’s mouth teasingly. “You just lie back and enjoy yourself, like the dumb blond you are.”
Jason still didn’t bother to respond. Percy was relentless on top of him. Jason lost track of time and didn’t know how long he’d had to endure the violating motion of Percy’s hips before Percy was finally finished, and emptied grotesquely inside of him.
Percy slid out of him roughly, without a word. Even that hurt; just one more ache to add to the list. Percy tucked his now softened dick away and zipped up his shorts like nothing had happened. Jason didn’t try to move or speak. He lay still and continued to try very hard not to exist. He held his breath involuntarily when green eyes fell on him silently.
Percy stretched across Jason to rifle through a beside drawer. Jason’s vision was still fizzling darkly around the edges, heartbeat thudding noisily in his ears, but he could see Percy leaning over him. He was distracted and wide open. Jason had a chance to hit him. He could do it.
Jason’s eyes rolled dully to the side. He couldn’t quite bring himself to move. He was so tired. It wouldn’t do him any good to hit Percy now anyway, the damage had been done. He shuddered to think what Percy might do to him next if he took a shot and missed.
Percy sat back and callously tossed a packet down onto Jason’s chest, before he pushed himself up and off of the bed. Jason glanced down with as little movement as humanly possible to examine the ambrosia ration pack sitting in the centre of his chest.
Percy sauntered toward the door to his cabin, body loose and relaxed, with a satisfied gait. He opened the door casually, and glanced back toward Jason with a dark edge to his expression.
“Eat that and get out when you can walk again,” he ordered flatly.
He pulled the door open wider, and made a move toward it before he paused once more. He leaned back around the door, eyes glinting over a nasty smirk. He shrugged, almost playfully.
“Or stick around and I’ll fuck you again when I get back from patrol.”
He disappeared without another word, closing the door decisively behind him. Jason lay where he had been left, immobile, ruined, and humiliated, ears ringing with Percy’s parting words. He pressed his trembling lips together silently as he swallowed the sob building in his throat. He felt too numb to even attempt fumbling with the wrapper on the ambrosia yet.