Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Percy Jackson.
All Good Things End
Imprisoned for eternity,
On an island of phantoms,
Your heart is ours to break,
No hero shall ever mend it.
"Do you want to try it?"
Dark hazel eyes stared unseeingly at the stone basin of water, fingers tracing non-existent shapes at its sides; a trickle of magic flowed from her fingers, skimming the ends of her fingertips, fueling the images without sounds. It was painful to remember, painful to relieve every moment that has passed between them, but she did it anyway.
"Try what?"
"To leave."
Tangy with a mild bitter taste, are the words Calypso would use to describe their kiss. It made her heart flutter in her chest, her toes curl and her thoughts shudder to a halt. It had been incredibly enticing feeling his course lips moving against hers, the warmth of his body radiating underneath her palm whilst inhaling his tantalizing smokey scent she knew personally were from the hours he spent on his makeshift forge.
"I can't leave."
"Leo Valdez," she whispered his name fervently, and somehow her cave seemed much to large, much too empty for a single person to be imprisoned. Chips and pieces; the resounding echo of her heart slowly crushed tightly within a bruising fist.
"I'll come back."
Is that not what all her heroes before him had promised her?
Broken promises. Foolish hope. Forgotten memory.
Dipping a finger into the basin, she murmured wistfully, "Where are you now, Leo Valdez? Are you alive or dead my hero?"
"The boy is not dead."
Calypso instantly whipped around, her caramel hair fluttering behind her in a single movement. Thanatos eyed her speculatively, his wings tucked neatly behind his broad back. His expression was openly neutral; neither judgmental or calculative, only curious. She had wondered whether he would have flown into a fit of jealousy after knowing about her recent hero but she should have known better. Death did not discriminate, and neither would he.
It did not, however, alleviate the tension clouding the both of them; thick and oppressive, heavy in ways that she could not describe. There was no sense of danger - she has learn to trust that Thanatos would never attempt to bring harm to her - no ill foreboding to explain this anxiousness set deeply in her bones.
The questions about Leo Valdez rested precariously at the tip of her tongue, waiting to fall on willing lips to be spoken out aloud. And yet, that eerie way that his imperial gold eyes seemed to pierce through her carefully woven defenses left her with feeling of nakedness; vulnerable and exposed in ways that the centuries of interaction had never culminated to before now.
Calypso was in love. She had always been in love with her heroes.
"Thanatos." Her greeting was cordial and lacked any warmth. His visits never do end well for her. "What brings you here to my humble abode?" she said, spreading her arms wide to gesture at her homely cave. It was a sarcastic jab, they both knew.
Eyes flickering to the basin and back to her, Thanatos took a step closer. Calypso resisted the urge to step backwards. "Do I need a reason to come here, dear Calypso?" he murmured softly under his breath, though she heard them just fine. It made the fine hairs of her neck stand still. "Found another hero to pin after have you."
It was not a question, and Calypso bristled at his implication. "None of your business."
He paused. "Is it not?" Thanatos countered silkily, his tragically beautiful face angled towards the stone basin. He nodded to it. "You have suffered and are still suffering, Calypso. Let me ease you pain," he offered, hand outstretched for her to take.
"No." But her resolve was always quite weak after each time a hero abandoned her, the rational thinking that she prized closed off from her. It only left her with the desire to feel, even if it was with the wrong person.
Thanatos let a slow smile curled around his lips. "'No', I feel like that is not an answer you want to give me." He took her hand anyway, pulling her unresisting body flushed against his. "Let yourself feel for a moment, dear Calypso," he continued to murmur, the devil himself offering her sweet nectar in exchange for her compliance. "It's not that terribly hard."
He kissed her.
Cold.
His lips slanted her own, deepening his previously chaste kiss into one fueled by a warmer and frenzied passion that sent her mind reeling from the sensation. It was different and unexpected; while Calypso had knew about his phantom feelings it was a surprise to see him take action after spending a millennia pining after her.
It was also a surprise that she was allowing him this chance of intimacy; light fingers skimming along her sides to eventually rest comfortingly on her hips, the tentative prod of his tongue against hers, the coolness of his aura enveloping her; there was chance for a vicious fall out later on if she allowed this to continue - already she could feel herself becoming aroused by his ministrations - but there pulling away was better said than done.
Your heart is ours to break; No hero shall ever mend it.
Is that not what Thanatos has said to her, the Fates decree of her punishment for all eternity? A loveless existence filled with heartbreak and depression, soured by her bitter resentment of her heroes leaving her one by one. Leo Valdez was no different; she should have known but her yearn for freedom and to be loved have blindsided her against the consequences once again.
When Thanatos finally pulled away, Calypso felt herself collapse against him, her smaller hands gripped tightly on the formless black cloak that he always wore, terribly reluctant to let go.
"Why now?"
It was a statement that did not need a real answer; just an opening to a conversation that she was dreading to talk about. Thanatos has skirted and danced around her long enough, and she needed to stop whatever it is he wants from coming to fruition.
Thanatos pulled back completely, his cool hands leaving her body feeling violated in a way she could not really describe. His touch lingered on places he had touched, and she tried distance herself away the feeling. Without his arms keeping her upright, her legs buckled underneath her and she collapsed on the unforgiving stone floor; there was something horribly symbolic about that action, as if Death had outright rejected her and left her for the earth to swallow her whole.
"Why not?" he countered, his melodious deep voice causing the very air to still and listen attentively. There was a certain way his feet were positioned; the left foot always slightly in front of the other. She noticed how it was the other way around right now; he may be nervous or unsettled.
She didn't know. She didn't want to know.
"You knew." Two words backed by a strong tone of accusation, but her eyes refused to leave their downward gaze from the floor. She didn't want to look at him. "And yet you still took advantage of me."
Thanatos tilted his head, the sounds of his footsteps moving closer towards her accompanied by the slight rustle of his wings pressing against each other. "You did not oppose," he said it in a measured way, in a tone she knew he used to deal with difficult cases whenever he went hunting for escaped souls. Calypso mentally blocked off his charmspeak, dispelling the illusions that he would have her believe.
"You did not exactly give me a choice." Anger. It has been so long since she felt the heat coursing through her veins, the sudden clarity in her thoughts, the violent thumping of her heart against her chest. It was heady in a way; she wanted to teach him her pain. "You kissed me all the while knowing that I wasn't in the best mental state to prevent you from doing so. I was recently just abandoned by a hero for the fourth time, Thanatos," she spat his name out, putting as much hate she could muster into saying it. "And you betrayed my trust."
Her words rang clear and true; the sting of his betrayal and her heartbreak embedded deep within her words. Calypso angled her head upwards, Thanatos's handsome face emphasised by the dimly lit torches aligned on the walls. His expression was carefully blank. "Is this your final decision?" he finally asked, his golden eyes trained on her, expectant.
Calypso knew what he was doing, reiterating his offer as he did many times before; her chance for freedom from Ogygia if she choose to give him a chance and learn to love him, to give up on her dreams and fantasies of her heroes washed along the shores of her beach.
But she did not love him.
She would not love him.
"Leave me, Thanatos." There was a note of finality in her tone that he could not ignore, and she was more than relieved when he finally left her, spreading his beautiful obsidian wings and taking off to the starry night skies.
Folding her legs beneath her, she took the time to reexamine her life; it was a long lifetime for a Titan, and it was filled with no less tragedies and suffering than the rest of her kind. Odysseus. Francis Drake. Percy Jackson. And now, Leo Valdez.
The moon shone brightly, the stars gleaming gems stuck in a blanket of black.
Calypso had rejected Thanatos and her great-grandmother Gaea has yet to swallow her whole.
What the next morning may bring is a mystery. But as she wiped the twin streaks of tears from her cheeks, she resolved to not let this recent heartbreak from fully consuming her as it had did before. She was much wiser now.
All good things must come to an end.
As his raft skimmed over the water, taking him back to the mortal world, he understood a line from the Prophecy better-an oath to keep with a final breath.
He understood how dangerous oaths could be. But Leo didn't care.
"I'm coming back for you, Calypso," he said to the night wind.
"I swear it on the River Styx.
-The Mark of Athena, Heroes of Olympus
Like. Comment. Re-read.
A/N: Basically, Thanatos told her this 'prophecy' - the one at the top - that the Fates had decreed as Calypso's punishment for siding with her father, Atlas during the First Titan War. Which was a lie, obviously, since Leo is awesome and defies all prophecies, because he does whatever he wants and if he's going to bust Calypso out of Ogygia...than so be it.
I honestly had this idea in my head for quite sometime; you know, Calypso and Thanatos, the 'what if' they has a sort of chemistry in the past? I mean, Dionysus and Hermes had tried. Why not Thanatos? But Caleo is still my OTP. :)
I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
-The Last Deathly Guardian