The Gym, Friday Afternoon

[dontvotemeout]

Overall, Jason was having a pretty good day. He was done with classes, and with student council meetings, and since he'd gotten his cast off earlier in the week, he could finally start training again to strengthen his arm back up. At the moment, he was going through different weights, trying to see how much he could lift. Bruce had told him to take it slow, but when had slow ever been his style?

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[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Nico didn't just train in the salle. Getting strong enough to fight the likes of Luke and Percy meant he had to do a good deal of work in the gym. But usually he didn't end up in there the same time as Jason. Funny how that worked today.

"Aren't you supposed to be taking things slow?" Nico asked.

[dontvotemeout]

Jason was pleasantly surprised to see Nico, but that didn't stop him from rolling his eyes. "If I take things too slow, I'll never recover, you know," he said, turning back to the weights.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"You think so?" Nico said, going over to join Jason at the weights. "So why don't people just jump right to where they were before? Make recovery super fast."

[dontvotemeout]

Jason, of course, didn't have a good answer to that, except to scowl a little at Nico. "You sound like Bruce," he said. "I've been taking care of myself for a long time. I know how to do it."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I won't stop you," Nico promised, smirking at that scowl. "I'll just stand here and remind you how much it sucked that you had your arm in a cast for practically ever."

[dontvotemeout]

"I'm not going to rebreak my arm. I just...I don't like being weak. At all," Jason said, looking up at Nico. "What are you doing here?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Same as you," he said. "Working to get stronger. Want some help?" He knew he'd offered before, but making good on promises was difficult when certain people didn't like to appear weak or in need of help.

[dontvotemeout]

As much as Jason didn't want to seem weak in front of Nico, he also didn't want to turn down the opportunity to hang out with him. "Sure, unless you had other things to do," he said.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Nah," Nico leaned down and lowered his voice a little. "I always have time for buckethead." Was that mean? Maybe, but he still thought it was funny.

[dontvotemeout]

That earned Nico a real scowl as Jason glared at him. "You're not seriously going to bring that up, are you?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Nico laughed, reaching out to give his shoulder a friendly shove. "You're not seriously thinking I'm going to forget that?"

[dontvotemeout]

"What happened when I was a little kid should be forgotten. Especially since only one of us was a kid," Jason said, shoving Nico back. "I don't know how you got out of that."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I was a little kid almost a hundred years ago, I don't think the island wanted anyone to see that," he replied, still smiling at Jason's annoyance. "Besides, you were cute. But not in a creepy way."

[dontvotemeout]

"I was an idiot," Jason said, shaking his head as he grabbed one of the smaller weights. "I'm just glad you didn't take any pictures. Um, did you?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Nico shook his head, "I didn't think you'd like that very much. I mean little you, since you were so adamant about that bucket hiding your identity and all."

[dontvotemeout]

"Secret identities are kind of a big deal where I'm from," Jason said. "It's how you keep bad guys from going after your friends and family. That's what the mask is for, not a helmet though."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I'm not saying you shouldn't have one, trust me, Jay. I just thought you wanting one as a kid was cute." Nico didn't mean to seem judgmental. "Your family's important so you keep them safe, it makes sense."

[dontvotemeout]

"I guess family's always been important to me," Jason said, focusing on the weight in his hand, and not on Nico. It sounded so stupid when he said it like that.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

If it wasn't, Nico would probably not be hanging around. "Just not something you like to talk about."

[dontvotemeout]

Jason shrugged before carefully lifting the weight. As much as he'd made faces at Nico, he really didn't want to hurt himself all over again. "There's not much to talk about. It's just me and Bruce and Alfred." One little happy and possibly unbalanced family.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"And your parents and your brother."

Nico kind of wondered if he wasn't supposed to ask about the older brother or his real parents. Oh well, too late.

[dontvotemeout]

Now Jason really wasn't going to look at Nico, worried about what kind of an expression he might have. "I shouldn't have told you about Dick. You know more than it's safe to know already. And there's nothing to say about my parents." Nothing that wouldn't lead to emo, at least.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Nico walked around to the other side of Jason, selecting his own weights to work with. "You didn't seem to think that when you were a kid. What changed? I know you didn't grow up and forget about them."

[dontvotemeout]

"Of course I didn't forget about them," Jason said, feeling offended at the mere idea. "I just...hadn't learned to keep my mouth shut yet when I was little. Now I know better."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Nico frowned a little at Jason's insistence he not talk about the dead. "I guess that's a lesson I should learn a little better."