When Percy arrived at his office beside the gym, a vase of flowers was on his desk. Purple sword lilies, cornflowers, and baby's breath were intermingling, and Percy checked the small card though he knew who they were from: "Happy last day before winter break! Love, Captain America."
Percy chuckled and smelled the flowers, a gorgeous gift his class was surely going to tease him for if they noticed.
"Jackson, do you know where--" Charlotte, Percy's coworker, cut herself off when she saw the flowers. "Looks like someone's got a secret admirer," she said, a smile playing at her lips.
Percy laughed. "I don't know, I think over five years of dating makes it far less of a secret."
"I didn't know you were taken," she said, leaning in the doorway. "You're breaking the hearts of half the people who work here, and making the other half envious with a clearly thoughtful partner. So, who's the lucky person?"
Percy smiled and took out his phone, showing Charlotte a picture of him and Jason standing in front of the Chicago bean. Jason's arm was around Percy's shoulders, Percy leaning into him.
"Damn it, you guys even look cute and happy together. I hope you don't mind me totally begrudging you your happiness."
"Not at all," Percy said, putting his phone away. "But don't worry, you'll find someone."
She sighed dramatically. "Maybe. Or I'll die alone and no one will find my body for weeks. Who's to say?"
"Calm down, Edgar Allan Poe," Percy said. He checked his watch. "Class is starting soon, so you'll have to keep your romantic angst on standby for now. Besides, I keep telling you I know some women I could introduce you to. I think you just enjoy complaining to me."
Charlotte gave him a toothy grin. "Maybe. Have a stellar day, Jackson," she said, throwing a wave over her shoulder as she retreated to her own classroom.
The underclassmen were filing past Percy's office, already in their uniforms and not looking excited. Percy couldn't blame them; most people didn't want to start the day with gym class, especially on the last day before winter break. He caught snippets of conversation relating to gift shopping and holiday plans.
Percy entered the gym and clapped his hands. "Okay, just one more day to get through before the holidays!"
"Does that mean we can skip the warmup run today?" someone piped up.
"No," Percy said, his response met with grumbling. "But," he added, "I'll let you pick what we do today."
Chatter broke out as the students threw in their two cents.
"But if you want that, you need to warm up first," Percy said, gesturing with his hand, and the students followed, starting their run. He smiled as he watched them. The initial warmup told him a lot about his students. The best friend duos would always run together, often with one having to visibility restrain themself from going faster. There were attention-seekers who sprinted for the first half of the two minutes to show off speed only to burn out and do a light jog for the rest. Some knew how to pace themselves, and others weren't going as fast as they could be, but as long as they kept moving, Percy didn't particularly care.
Percy had begun teaching at this school as his first teaching gig after taking the traditional path of combining his licensing with his schooling. He'd been here a couple years now, but even when he was new, he hadn't taken long to develop a distinct approach to teaching gym class based on his own high school experiences.
For one, he considered the purpose of gym class to be exercise first and foremost. He remembered the looks of torment on some classmates' faces when they were forced to have a turn with the ball in basketball or keep repeating a move until they got it right, often coupled with humiliation when they repeatedly failed and backlash from the more athletic students if they hindered their team. Percy didn't force that level of participation. If a couple of his students wanted to spend a soccer game running back and forth without touching the ball, that was fine by him. This was supposed to be about health.
Of course, if his students genuinely wanted help, he would provide it. That was his second thing. Every so often he'd come to school early to help a student with their technique. Some were kids who wanted to improve for improvement's sake, while others wanted to avoid making a fool of themselves in games like baseball where getting any exercise required taking a turn.
His third tenet of teaching was a zero tolerance policy for bullying in his class, though. His students had learned early on that if they were going to give another student a hard time for missing a basket, kicking the ball into the wrong goal, or getting a strike, they would be leaving. Sports and team activities were supposed to be fun, and he wanted them to be as comfortable as possible for everyone involved, not just the kids who treated gym class like the Olympics.
His fourth and final approach to teaching was using the observations he'd made about his students to his advantage. Whether or not someone had friends in a class was often easy to tell, but nowhere was that more true than in gym class, where teams and pairs were a fundamental part of activities. That was why he picked teams and pairs himself. After a few classes he had a fairly solid grasp on who was good at each sport and who wasn't and assigned accordingly for balanced teams without anyone having to be repeatedly picked last. When doing pairs, he sought not only balance between partners, but also to put the kids who seemed alone with those who were friendly. He was extremely happy to say he'd fostered at least a couple friendships in the class in lunch arrangements were any indication.
Percy genuinely enjoyed his work, although even teaching his gym classes didn't compare to coaching the swim team after school. Few things in his life had ever felt as fulfilling as watching someone he personally trained excel in their sport. Given that today was the last day of school before winter break, he didn't have a swim practice after school, but he didn't mind. On days without practice or therapy, he liked to visit Jason at work.
When Percy reached the end of his school day, he dropped the vase of flowers at home on the way to the flower shop. The outside of the store was a bright sky blue with large windows, one containing a cloudy white sign reading "Antheia's Arboretum" in bold blue script. Inside were grassy green tiles and more blue walls, combining with the plants to give the shop an outdoorsy feel, especially with the abundance of natural light streaming in.
Nico was at the counter, tapping away at his laptop.
"Hey, Neeks," Percy said.
Nico looked up. "You're lucky you're my best friend's boyfriend or I'd send you to the Underworld for calling me that."
"And here I thought it was because I'm too cute to damn," Percy said, flashing a grin.
Nico rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. He didn't genuinely mind the nickname as exemplified by years of accepting it, but it was necessary to keep up the light banter. "To Jason, sure. We've established you're not my type."
"You wound me," Percy said, a hand over his heart. "Anyway, I'm surprised you came in today. I would have thought you'd be home panicking over potential last-minute hiccups or just sitting there with Will making heart eyes at each other."
Nico tilted his head, giving Percy an unimpressed look. "We have the entire honeymoon to make heart eyes at each other, and Piper says everything for the wedding is going according to plan."
"I can't believe after her whole thing about not being like other children of Aphrodite she became an event planner specializing in weddings."
Nico chuckled. "Some of us need to not let ourselves be defined by our parents, but some of us just need to loosen up and accept if we are kind of like them." He shrugged. "Besides, you became a swim coach, so it's not like she's the only one fitting stereotypes."
"I never tried to distance myself from the swimming thing is my point, though." Percy walked around the counter and looked over Nico's shoulder. "What are you doing?"
"Designing new advertisements for the shop," Nico said. "Jason came up with some new promotions involving floral arrangements themed around Hannakuh and Christmas, plus some designed for a 'winter wedding' theme." He clicked off of a half-finished advertisement and pulled up photos he'd taken of each arrangement.
"Wow," Percy said. "He really went all out on some of these. Did you use one of the winter wedding designs for your wedding?"
"No," Nico said, returning to the advertisement and working on it as he talked. "The flowers we're having were planned months ago and way simpler. Obviously they were still designed by Jason, though. Like we were going to have flower centerpieces and not hire the friend with the flower shop to design and provide them. He even gave us a hefty discount as a wedding present."
Jason entered from the other room, chatting amicably with an older woman carrying an eye-catching bouquet. She was smiling and laughing, and Jason continued speaking to her as Nico checked out her order with a friendly demeanor. Both Jason and Percy wished her a nice day before Jason turned his attention to them.
Jason wrapped an arm around Percy's waist and pulled him in for a kiss. "Hey, cutie. What can I help you with today?"
Nico made a blech noise. "Get a room."
"If I own this place, doesn't that make it all my room?" Jason said, rubbing his chin with his free hand.
"Also, you and Will are way worse," Percy pointed out. "Even before the engagement you were way worse, and you're full on getting married, which is much sappier than anything we could do."
"There is no need to call me out like that," Nico said, but his grin was massive. He bit his lip. "Maybe I should double-check the flowers."
"No," Jason said. "At this point it's quadruple checking. I swear to the gods your flowers will be perfect for tomorrow."
Nico narrowed his eyes at him. "You better mean that, considering who my father is."
"Like literally anyone could ever forget," Percy said, unwinding from Jason's grasp.
Nico stuck his tongue out at him, a childish gesture he did more frequently the older he got. "I'm good to go until close and lock up here if you guys want to head home together."
"I don't know," Jason said.
Nico raised an eyebrow. "Was the whole point of training me to do everything in the shop, not just design and man the cashier like you hired me for, so that you could be around less?"
"Well, yes, but--"
"Go," Nico said. "If you don't your boyfriend's face is going to get stuck making those hopeful puppy dog eyes I don't think he knows he does."
Percy blushed, opening his mouth to defend himself, but Jason beat him to it.
"You do have a puppy dog look," Jason said. "I love it though." He kissed him again.
Nico groaned. "Scratch that, leave before my eyes start bleeding."
Percy laughed and kissed Jason again for the sole purpose of making Nico whine before the two left together.
Although they'd since moved into a bigger, better apartment, Percy and Jason still lived in New York City. They'd been fortunate to find a suitable place to live within walking distance from an available business location a couple years ago. Percy never missed an opportunity to walk Jason home from work, ambling with interlaced fingers and kissing while they waited for traffic to stop for them.
At home they put on their unofficial chore playlist, not to be confused with their unofficial dishes playlist, and rocked out while they cleaned the apartment together, starting dinner when they finished. Both of them put on their respective "Kiss the Cook" aprons, able to tell whose was whose by the number of stains. Surprisingly absolutely no one, Jason was much more neat with his cooking.
Completing his portion of the work before Jason, Percy wrapped his arms around his boyfriend from behind, peppering the side of his neck with kisses while he sliced the last of the vegetables.
"Are you trying to distract me and delay dinner?" Jason asked, one corner of his mouth quirked up.
"Of course not," Percy said, switching to nuzzling his neck. "Just making the work more enjoyable because I'm thoughtful like that."
Jason rolled his eyes. "Uh huh." After a couple minutes, he added, "Well hey, I wasn't telling you to stop."
Percy chuckled and went back to kissing Jason's neck until the ingredients were prepared and ready for the skillet.
"I can't believe our little Nico is getting married," Percy said. Had he, Nico, and their other friends been normal people living normal lives, he would have thought twenty-two was too young to be getting married. But in half-blood years, twenty-two was at least middle-aged, if not already living on borrowed time. Although they'd all settled into regular routines and careers, centuries would not be enough time to make them forget how fragile their lives had once been.
"Little?" Jason said with a raised eyebrow. "He's almost as tall as you."
"'Almost' being the keyword," Percy said.
"He could also kick your ass if he wanted to."
"He could not. And he can't prove otherwise, because if we went all out on each other we'd probably destroy New York."
"Convenient excuse, but I'll allow it," Jason said.
That was good enough for Percy, especially when they both knew Nico could definitely kick his ass.
Since adjusting to a teacher schedule, Percy became the earlier riser between himself and Jason, so he was in charge of getting them up in time to get ready for the wedding. Or at least that was most of the reasoning. The other part of the reasoning was that in loosening up Jason had become the type to sleep in on the rare days Nico opened the shop instead of him.
Percy woke up with Jason in his arms, entirely too comfortable for getting up to seem like a viable option. All of his self-control was required to peel himself off his boyfriend, saying his name and gently shaking him until he woke up.
"Five more minutes," Jason said, rolling over and placing his head on Percy's lap. Despite being broader and more muscular than Percy, emphasized by his ever-absent sleep shirt, when Jason was curled up like that, he looked small and adorable. All Percy wanted to do was play with his hair and watch him relax under his fingertips.
Percy resisted the urge to run his fingers through Jason's hair, knowing doing so would only make him more compelled to stay there, but tugged it instead. "You could sleep another half hour, or you could get up and try out one of those bath bombs we picked out with me."
Jason opened his eyes and gave Percy a lazy smile as he pulled himself to sit up. "You drive a hard bargain." Jason got out of bed, stretching as he walked to the bathroom.
Percy chuckled, but the laughter died in his throat when Jason took off his sweatpants and threw it at him with a wink. Percy wasn't sure if he loved or hated how much satisfaction Jason got out of turning Percy on, especially in the morning.
When they'd first started dating, he hadn't gotten why Jason would like getting Percy riled up if he didn't want it to escalate to sex, but he'd come to understand enjoying being desired for the sake of itself. There had been many moments like that throughout their relationship when Jason's behavior had challenged Percy's assumptions based on his sexuality. The whole thing had been a learning process, even sometimes still was, but they were both happy with their relationship.
Unable to resist, Percy grabbed the bath bombs and followed after his boyfriend.
"How do I look?" Percy said, spinning around in his suit in the room they were getting ready in. The suit was a traditional black and white tuxedo, but the tie matched his sea green eyes.
Jason finished straightening his own tie, also matching his eyes, before checking him out. "More gorgeous than ever," he said with a grin. Then he turned to show off to Percy as well. "What about me?"
Percy whistled. "I can't wait to get you out on the dance floor and show you off."
"I always knew I was just a trophy boyfriend to you," Jason said, fake wounded.
Hazel and Reyna entered in the same one-strap dress, although Hazel's was golden and Reyna's was dark purple.
"C'mon, the ceremony is about to start," Hazel said with a massive smile, full of energy.
They paired up by height with Will's half of the wedding party, consisting of Lou Ellen, Cecil, Piper, and Kayla. They were similarly dressed in colors either matching their eyes or whatever they chose if matching didn't work, making them an appropriately colored rainbow as they walked down the aisle together.
The ceremony was relatively small. Half of the attendants were Will's half siblings, plus Will's mom, Annabeth, Rachel, Frank, Leo, Calypso, and a few people Percy didn't recognize. The vows were as anticipated, with Will gushing over Nico and Nico being funny and a bit snarky but sincere and loving nonetheless. Both were touching, and there wasn't a single dry eye in the venue when they shared their first kiss as husbands.
Percy would never admit it, but while Nico and Will were giving their vows, he was thinking about what Jason would say to him in that position if they ever made it down the aisle. He'd been pondering that prospect more and more recently. After Annabeth broke up with him, he'd second-guessed the desire, and when he'd started dating Jason, it wasn't even an option. However, when same-sex marriage had been federally legalized and he had celebrated the occasion with his friends, getting married had begun to feel appropriate in a way he couldn't describe.
The toasts and meal went off without a hitch, Jason playfully embarrassing Nico during his speech. Soon they were taking advantage of the dance floor, taking turns with each of their friends before winding up with each other.
"I liked your speech," Percy said as he danced with Jason. "Very sentimental for someone who's used to rallying warriors. I was afraid you might encourage them to march forward and conquer marriage."
Jason gave him a look. "I'm definitely the more romantic out of the two of us."
Percy snorted. "Neither of us are very romantic. We still celebrate every Valentine's Day by eating discounted chocolate and watching romcoms the day after."
"That's just because we make every day special for each other," Jason said as he spun Percy under his arm. "I don't need a Hallmark holiday to show you how much I care about you."
Percy's heart squeezed. "Okay, fine, with lines like that you probably are the more romantic one between us."
Jason smirked in victory. "What can I say? I'm incredibly smooth."
Percy chuckled. "And you're a barista, so I can only imagine how often you get hit on."
Jason turned pink, then kissed him. "But there's only one person I want hitting on me."
"Tom Holland?"
Jason opened and closed his mouth, confidence disappearing. "So two people, okay? Two people."
Percy laughed. "Completely understandable. You and Tom Holland are the only people I'd want hitting on me either." They eased into a slow dance as a slow song came on, Percy hesitating before saying, "The flower centerpieces you made were gorgeous. I wonder what you'll design for our wedding."
Jason's eyes widened before he covered his shock, a smug smile appearing. "If you want to know, you'll have to propose first."
Percy pouted. "What if I want you to propose?"
"Does this mean we're in agreement about getting married?" Jason said with a twinkle in his eye.
"Only because I want that increased look of envy in people's eyes when I introduce you as my husband instead of my boyfriend," Percy said. "You definitely deserve to be upgraded from trophy boyfriend to trophy husband."
Jason rolled his eyes before kissing his nose, not caring who was watching their displays of affection. A warm, excited smile was playing at his lips as he said, "Tell you what, how about we both propose?"
Despite all his nonchalant teasing, Percy couldn't help lighting up. "Deal, Captain America."
They drew each other in for a short, intense kiss.
The future was never certain, but Percy was more certain than he used to be. His life was no longer defined by uncertainty, at the very least, nor was it still defined by tragedy and trauma. Once he had mourned that life, terrified of being anyone other than Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, then switched to trying to run from that identity. Now he accepted that Percy Jackson and 'Percy, some random guy in New Yorke' could coexist, or, more accurately, that neither of them existed on their own.
Both ways he had perceived himself were two sides of the same coin. He had found value in his past experiences without being defined by them; he had found purpose in his future outside of quests and the gods. Stepping out of the spotlight did not mean anonymity. Percy was still Percy Jackson, and Jason was still Jason Grace, but they had built something new on the foundation of the old. Maintaining happiness and fulfillment was ceaseless but always worth it, especially with the amazing people he had in his life.
The breakup had taught Percy many things about who he was and what he wanted. Since then he'd never stopped changing or finding new pieces of himself to love. And, perhaps most significant of all, he'd learned that no matter what happened, he would keep moving forward.