#it's lukethan all over again

[sylkhi]

Oh yeah here’s a Lukethan for ya. It’s on AO3 if you’d like to read it there instead (also it’s 688 words long if that helps):

***

Twenty, soulmate not found yet, and about to die trying to change the course of a war he wants nothing to do with cause he still wants his father’s approval; Luke is living the life.

But… but he can forget about it all. In this moment. Him and Ethan on the nice couch Drew got them for their mostly okay apartment. The TV is mostly static cause heavens know what Zeus is putting Aeolus through.

It isn’t the first time he’s held hands with Ethan. Or rested his head on his shoulder. It feels a lot like the calm before the storm he likely won’t return from.

“You’re doing it,” Ethan says again. His tone is even, but Luke can sense his worry.

“Who’s gonna do this better than Grandpa Zeus’s golden grandson?” Luke asks, wry. Ethan’s shoulder tenses even more under his head. “Hey,” Luke lifts his head and gently Ethan to face him. “I’ll be fine. We always make it out, don’t we?”

Ethan studies his face and swallows. “I can’t be there to get your ass out of trouble.”

“You can’t,” Luke confirms. He’s not surprised when Ethan pulls him into a hug and buries his face into Luke’s shoulder.

It’s times like this when Luke wonders about his soulmate—wonders if he could dare to hope that it’s—well, ridiculous is what it is. Ethan would have know his soulmate’s eye colour before his mother took his eye, so it obviously isn’t Luke, but Luke can’t help but wonder—

And yeah, if he’s going to die for the ungrateful pricks on Olympus, this isn’t a regret he wants to die having.

So he does it. Does it when Ethan lets go. He telegraphs every movement as he goes in to kiss the man. Ethan meets him halfway.

It feels like—like the fireworks Silena and Beckendorf would constantly gush about. Like every night Luke stayed up wishing that his shitty luck would go on break for once in his life and let him have Ethan as a soulmate wasn’t a waste.

And maybe it wasn’t, cause there’s something about Ethan’s smile, something that—

Luke trips over his feet to get to the hall mirror and his eyes are—both his eyes are blue. No trace of the brown-with-traces-of-gold that he’d thought was black in his left eye.

“You…” he stops. Wets his lips. “You knew,” it isn’t a question.

Now that he’s gotten it out, he turns to Ethan. Ethan who still has that same odd smile on his face, almost like a child who’s been caught out. Ethan, who has an eyepatch over the eye socket his mother had emptied to prove some moot point. Ethan Nakamura, his soulmate.

“I suspected.”

And Luke could say a lot of things in that moment. Do a lot. Maybe laugh hysterically. Maybe cry with relief cause the wishes he still doesn’t want to admit he made are a reality. He doesn’t really expect to find himself plopping himself back down by Ethan and taking the man’s hand into his own. Judging by how Ethan eyes Luke, he didn’t expect it either.

“Luke?” Says Ethan softly.

He’s held Ethan’s hands multiple times before, but something feels different about it this time. His soulmate.

Luke doubts that any words could describe how it is that he feels, so he doesn’t use any. He just soaks it all in, enjoying the way Ethan pulls him into his arms, the kiss he places on his forehead.

Luke is crying, perhaps, cause the last few years have been difficult and his father is back in his life and ripping up wounds Luke thought had healed and Ethan is his soulmate but he might not be here to appreciate that in the next twenty-six—

“Luke,” Ethan’s voice, quiet and soft, pulls him out of his head, “don’t die.”

Luke takes a deep breath. ‘I won’t,’ he thinks to himself, the conviction of the thought surprising him. Maybe he’d said it out loud, cause Ethan smiles.

And then their lips meet again, and just for a moment, all of Luke's worries fade away.

***

[End note stuff:

This has been in my drafts for one year now.

Also it was inspired by GoldenEmpire, who just might be my favourite PjO fic writer of all time and also I miss them so much and I hope they’re thriving.

Yeah.

I rarely post fics here but this one’s here cause I mean… why not?]

#Lukethan #eke? #eke! #Luke Castellan #Ethan Nakamura #pjo #soulmates #ummm kinda miserable work though #also not canon compliant #this is me slowly cleaning out my drafts

[ashi-cookie]

me: goes to the how i died podcast tag to enjoy some fan contents

me: *sees that there’s barely anything*

me: ah shit here we go again

#how i died #how i died podcast #jon spacer #luhan #is that how i spell his name??? #when there are no content and you have to provide for yourself #it's lukethan all over again #anyway can't wait til season 2 ahhhh #ashi draws