All the Right Reasons Were Wrong All Along

Pairings: Leo/Calypso, past Percy/Calypso, mentioned Percy/Annabeth

Warnings: House of Hades spoilers, direct dialogue from House of Hades

Note: This was meant to be angsty, and somehow ended up humourous thanks to Leo. Still has hints of angst. Was meant to be a one-shot. But ended up as a two-shot for being ridiculously long. Part 2/chapter 2 of this was written after I finished the infamous ending to the Divergent trilogy; Allegiant. So I may or may not have been drowning in my own dead feelings, pain, and tears while writing it, which means it'll be a little oddly written. And the angst at the end might be over exaggerated.

Disclaimer: PJO and HoO series belong to Rick Riordan. Including the current cover. Ugh, I'm too lazy to start designing covers again...or even search for them.

When Percy Jackson told Calypso that he couldn't stay with her forever, it broke her heart. Again.

It had been years since the gods had so pleasantly dropped off another hero in Ogygia to breath Calypso's heart without intention. After Odysseus with Penelope came Drake. And after Drake with Elizabeth came Percy. After Percy with Annabeth? Well she'd say she would probably have to wait another century or so before a hero was dropped onto her island. She was sure she had plenty of time to bottle that resentment down. She was sure that she would be able to let all that anger and venom slip into a ghost of her past, just like her old flames.

Calypso knew that Percy wouldn't stay. She had promised herself not to offer. After all, asking him that was just setting herself up for heartbreak. But when she finally admitted her resolve to Percy, illusions of hope came fluttering in.

"But...my friends."

It was then that a part of her started to grasp on to that false hope. She thought that she might be able to change his mind. This war that was going on—what difference would one less demigod make? They could stay on Ogygia forever, and Calypso would never be brokenhearted ever again. It was a perfect fantasy that could be lived out on this peaceful island forever. She would never have to fear falling in love with the next hero that washed up ashore. Instead, she and Percy would live happily ever after. Calypso could see it playing all out in her mind.

For one moment, Calypso could see him considering it, weighing all possibilities and choices. She hoped desperately that he would stay, but in the end she had already expected his answer.

"I can't."

And so he left, never to return again.

If Calypso could put blame on anyone for this, it would be Hephaestus. He had interrupted them right before she could tell him about her offer. He was bound to leave after such grave news about the Titan War. Of course, he also had to return to his beloved Annabeth. All the heroes that she met already found their missing half. Calypso became nothing more than just a Titan imprisoned on an island set to detain heroes from their ultimate goal.

The year after Percy's departure, these thoughts finally began to sink it. Calypso was always bitter during the first few years after someone left the island. To keep herself from drowning in her sorrow, she buried herself in little tasks, never resurfacing long enough to let the full blunt of the pain overtake her.

Except when she began to allow herself to think about him, she felt a tiny sprout of hatred and bitterness. The gods had forgotten to release her from Ogygia after the Titan War. It was out of that venom which she wished that Annabeth would know what it felt like to be abandoned by her love. A certain kind of satisfaction came out of it, but it left as soon as it came. Eventually, she forced herself to keep on going. She had survived three heartbreaks. It would be another century or so before the gods sent her another castaway demigod. She was going to be fine.

Of course, nothing ever went right with the Olympian gods.

Calypso had been setting up her dining table from the beach when she heard an odd whirling noise from above. She glanced up in the direction of the noise just in time to see something burst—no, explode into flames above her island and shoot straight towards her dining table before it split into a smaller bolt of fire that diverted another way. Calypso moved away from the fire immediately, letting it crash into her dining table with a loud KA BOOM!

Thankfully, Calypso had moved far enough away so that she wouldn't be crushed by some glowing flaming sphere that seemed to click indignantly at Calypso. She took a few deep breath, trying to process exactly what had just happened. By that time, someone—a boy perhaps, was struggling towards the eight feet deep crater where the sphere had landed.

She blinked a few times in surprise. It was a demigod. Of course it was a demigod, and of all the demigods to land on her island, this had to take the prize for the most ostentatious entrance. Even Percy, who had apparently blown up a volcano before he landed, wasn't even this extravagant. The smoke cleared, and she took in the ragged appearance of the hero before her.

At first, she didn't really know what to make out of the hero—he was a demigod, right? Calypso's first thought was He looks nothing like what a hero is supposed to look like.

All heroes that had landed on Ogygia had been well filled out with nicely defined muscles. Though Percy may have been modest about it, Calypso could definitely seen the strong build on him.

It was not the case for this newcomer. His clothes smoking and covered in dust and sand, he looked nothing more than a scrawny little imp with slightly darker complexion than the heroes she was familiar with. Calypso wondered briefly what had happened those few years (was it years? She couldn't remember anymore) since Percy left Ogygia. Certainly things were different outside now. Maybe even more different than how Percy described it (apartments and Manhatten?). Except she was sure that it wasn't as different as the last time she had checked. She was still imprisoned on Ogygia after all.

The demigod (Calypso refused to call him 'hero'. It would mean acknowledging that he was the next Percy in her life, which would definitely not happen) spotted the sphere in the crater almost immediately after scanning the area quickly (managing to completely miss Calypso). "Sphere!" the demigod cried out gleefully. "Come to Papa!"

Calypso figured that he was probably going to be the strangest demigod that ever landed on her island, and Drake the pirate was plenty strange. She also figured that she didn't want him on the island any more than he wanted to stay. Heroes that washed up (or exploded) on her island always left. This would be the first time Calypso would be glad to call the magical raft to take him far, far away from her.

He skidded down the crater and scooped the sphere up in his hands before cradling it like it was his child. Running his hands on the surface of the sphere, he seemed to be deep in thought. It was then that Calypso became aware of herself just staring at him as if he had, pun intended, come from another world.

The words found their way to Calypso. When a hero landed on Ogygia, she would usually offer them kind words and a home. But that was when she fell in love with them at first sight. With this demigod? The first words that came out were, "What are you doing? You blew up my dining table!"

He turned around to shoot her a narrowed look. It was dismissive and irritated, and that made Calypso feel angry. Demigods these days! "Oh, I'm sorry!" he said, sarcasm so clear in his voice that even a goddess trapped on an island for the better part of humanity could hear it. "I just fell out of the sky. I constructed a helicopter in midair, burst into flames halfway down, crash-landed, and barely survived. But by all means—let's talk about your dining table!" He grabbed something melted that faintly resembled a goblet. "Who puts a dining table on the beach where innocent demigods can crash into it? Who does that?"

Calypso clenched her fist, barely able to control the anger that had been eating away at her for months since Percy left. She had thought she pushed all those emotions away, but now it was coming back. What was worse was this insolent child of a demigod spouting sarcastic insults about her dining table right after said demigod destroyed the dining table. And what was worse?

She was supposed to fall in love with him. He was a demigod who landed on her island after all. Demigod equals hero. Hero on Ogygia equals destined to break Calypso's heart. Hidden premise? Calypso had to fall in love in order for him to break her heart.

This was giving her an anger-induced headache.

"REALLY?" she screamed at the sky, unable to control it anymore. All the bottled up resentment and anger burst through the glass walls she had tried to hold them back in. Now she was destined to fall in love with this demigod? Did the gods think it was funny? Well if Calypso ever got off this island, she'd consider showing them how funny and hilarious it would be when she exacted her raging emotions' vengeance on them. "You want to make my curse even worse? Zeus! Hephaestus! Hermes! Have you no shame?"

"Uh...," the demigod began somewhat hesitantly. He looked a little worried for her sanity which was no surprise. "I doubt they're listening. You know, the whole split personality thing—" Calypso wasn't even listening anymore.

"Show yourself!" Calypso yelled at the sky. "It's not bad enough you take away the few good heroes I'm allowed to meet? You think it's funny to send me this—," she barely even knew how to describe him, "—this charbroiled runt of a boy to ruin my tranquility? This is NOT FUNNY! Take him back!" She was never a blunt person, but the gods were driving her crazy nowadays.

"Hey, Sunshine," the demigod said. Great, now they were talking nicknames? Calypso would fry him on the spot if she actually could. "I'm right here, you know."

Calypso growled at him. "Do not call me Sunshine! Get out of that hole and come with me now so I can get you off my island!" Calypso could barely remember being so hostile to others before, especially demigods that appeared on Ogygia, but this was just taking it too far. If the gods were having fun laughing at her in Olympus, so be it. All Calypso wanted was to be left alone for another century or so and wait for a real hero to show up again to break her heart.

Once the demigod climbed out of that awful hole he had created, Calypso marched down to the shoreline where the hero must have landed. She gestured to it. "This was a pristine beach! Look at it now." No hero had ever caused such havoc when they landed. This was surely a sign that this demigod was an accident. Yes, that was it. An accident. Then she could send him off and be alone in peace again. That was a wonderful, if fleeting, thought.

"Yeah, my bad," the demigod muttered. "I should've crashed on one of the other islands. Oh, wait—there aren't any!"

Sarcasm again. Calypso snarled at him before continuing her way along the edge of the water. He was making it sound like it was all her fault for him landing here. Well, she didn't even want him on her island in the first place! Maybe he should have thought about where he landed before he started complaining about it!

Calypso stopped walking and the demigod bumped into her. "Gah!" She steadied him before he could fall into the surf. She glared into his brown eyes. He blinked once, seeming surprised at something. Pushing him away from her, she said, "All right. This spot is good. Now tell me you want to leave." Her temper had started to leave her. She would be rid of this nuisance in a minute. And the best part? She could watch the raft sail away while feeling nothing more than satisfaction and relief instead of crippling heartbreak.

He blinked again. "What?" She fought the urge to let out a huff of annoyance. Did he not hear her the first time?

"Do you want to leave? Surely you've got somewhere to go!" Calypso felt bitterness resonate within her when she said that last bit. They always had some place to go to. To save the world. To return to their true love (that wasn't Calypso). To return to a raging war. Whatever the case, they always had to leave.

At least she wouldn't care about this one. Instead of being 'the fourth hero who broke my heart', he would be known as 'the hero who crash landed, made annoyingly sarcastic remarks, and got on my nerves'.

"Uh...yeah," the demigod began, purpose beginning to flood his mind again. "My friends are in trouble." Girlfriend too, probably. "I need to get back to my ship and—"

Calypso cut him off. Even though she didn't really care, she didn't want to hear about the girl that he loved being in danger unless he dashed in to save her just in time. "Fine. Just say, I want to leave Ogygia."

"Uh, okay," the demigod said, his tone seeming slightly hurt. "I want to leave—whatever you said."

Calypso tried not to get impatient with him, but she really couldn't help it. "Oh-gee-gee-ah," Calypso said slowly while emphasizing each syllable. She didn't want to repeat it again. What was so hard about pronouncing it?

"I want to leave," he began, then flashing her a quick hesitant look, "Oh-gee-gee-ah," he said slowly, making sure to pronounce it correctly.

Calypso let out the breath she didn't realize she had been holding. Thank the gods. She was free again. She could finally breathe again with feeling like destroying something. "Good. In a moment, a magical raft will appear. It will take you wherever you want to go."

The demigod squinted at her. "Who are you?"

Her name was on the tip of her tongue until she realized that this was a story going to be passed around. She didn't want anyone knowing that she had lost her grip on her own emotions and yelled at a demigod. "It doesn't matter. You'll be gone soon. You're obviously a mistake." Because Calypso did not fall for scrawny boy-demigods with a bad attitude.

The demigod's expression betrayed him for a split second. His eyebrows scrunched up in something that looked like hurt and dejection all mixed together with familiarity. Then it was gone, and he scanned the ocean while seeming deep in thought.

Calypso looked away. That expression reminded her of Percy. She stared out into the water, waiting for the raft to appear and take the burden away from her.

It still wasn't here.

"Any moment now...," Calypso said, but there was hesitation. The raft only appeared for the heroes that she liked... No. She didn't know if that was true. She just never had a hero she didn't like land on Ogygia. The raft would appear. It always did. He'd have to get off somehow. He had to get off. Calypso didn't want to be stuck with some runt of a demigod forever. Oh gods.

"Maybe it got stuck in traffic," the demigod said after a while of silence between them.

"This is wrong." No, no, no. He could not be stuck here forever. Calypso glared at the sky. "This is completely wrong!" What, now they wanted to laugh some more? Newsflash: Calypso's life was not one of their stupid reality shows they held in Olympus that Hermes talked about. She could already imagine it now. Tune in every day to watch new hit series Calypso and the Demigod! Only on Channel Olympus!

"So...plan B? You got a phone, or—"

"Agh!" Calypso couldn't take it anymore. So she ran straight back home in hopes that he wouldn't follow her.

But of course he would follow her. Because that's what all the heroes did. Follow the Titan in distress. Like that was ever a good idea. But what could Calypso do? Avoidance was great at preventing the inevitable. Like she would ever fall in love with a demigod like him. They'd be stuck on Ogygia together forever.

That was a horrible thought.

"Holy Hephaetus," the demigod said.

When he finally reached her, she had her back to him in her vegetable garden. She was cursing the gods, the Fates, the whoever else was horrible enough to watch this reality show, in Ancient Greek the entire time. Soil had made its way to her arms, legs, and her dress, but she couldn't care less. The one demigod that she wanted to leave happened to be the one demigod who couldn't! What jokes were the Fates playing on her this time? It wasn't even funny anymore. Did they hear her or should she shout at the sky again? It's not funny anymore!

"I think you've punished that dirt enough," the demigod said when he finally reached her.

She scowled. "Just go away." It wasn't funny. It was far from funny. That was when she realized that tears were streaking down her cheeks. That was further proof that it wasn't funny.

"You're crying," the demigod stated not unkindly, but more in a surprised 'I didn't know immortals cried' kind of way. Well with Calypso's life, tears were usually a daily thing.

"None of your business," Calypso muttered, finding that all the anger had left her emotionally drained. The walls that she had broken down were still blown open, and the tears were just a consequence of that. These were the tears of frustration, hurt, and abandonment. She didn't want to think about it any further. "It's a big island," she offered. "Just...find your own place. Leave me alone." She motioned in a random direction away from her (because that was all that mattered). "Go that way, maybe."

He hesitated, shifting his weight from feet to feet. "So, no magic raft. No other way off the island?"

Did he not understand the first time? Were demigods getting dimmer and duller as time passed? "Apparently not!" Why was he even sticking around anyway?

"What am I supposed to do, then? Sit in the sand dunes until I die?"

Calypso considered it for a while. "That would be fine..." It sounded wonderful, actually. Wait a second. When the realization hit her, she threw the trowel she was holding onto the ground. "Except I suppose he can't die here. can he? Zeus! This is not funny!" No matter how many times she said that, she knew that they weren't going to pop up to bring the mistake away. Nope, Calypso was pretty sure she was stuck with him. For a long time.

Gears were turning in the demigod's head. "Hold up. I'm going to need some more information here. You don't want me in your face, that's cool." Not wanting him in her face? Talk about the understatement of the century. "I don't want to be here either. But I'm not going to go die in a corner." Pity, that would have been a lot easier for Calypso if that were the case. "I have to get off this island. There's got to be a way. Every problem has a fix."

Calypso laughed at that. If every problem had a fix, then why was she still on Ogygia pining after hopeless loves? From the way he spoke of this, Calypso figured that he was definitely one of Hephaestus's sons which she found kind of ironic. The last time she had seen him, he had taken Percy away. Well, he hadn't actually taken Percy away, but he might as well have.

Whoever set this reality show up had a seriously twisted mind.

"You haven't lived very long, if you still believe that."

The demigod looked slightly perturbed by her words but didn't seem very deterred by it. "You said something about a curse," he mentioned.

Calypso flexed her fingers, trying not to strangle the demigod on the spot. Did he have to be so curious? Well, it was better to answer him now before he started snooping around in search for answers to sate his own curiosity. "Yes. I cannot leave Ogygia. My father, Atlas, fought against the gods, and I supported him."

"Atlas," the demigod echoed distantly. "As in the Titan Atlas?"

Calypso rolled her eyes; who else would it be? "Yes, you impossible little..." She managed to bite back an insult. "I was imprisoned here, where I could cause the Olympians no trouble. About a year ago, after the Second Titan War, the gods vowed to forgive their enemies and offer amnesty. Supposedly Percy made them promise—" She was getting too lost in memories but luckily, before she could ramble any further, the demigod cut her off.

"Percy. Percy Jackson?"

Of all the demigods who had to land on her island, it had to be one who knew her most recent flame. She squeezed her eyes shut, and a tear trickled down her cheek. She hadn't realized how much hearing his full name hurt. The fact that it came from someone else's lips made it that much worse. Some part of her had kept Percy's memory as hers and hers only. The fact that he didn't really belong to her stung in her heart.

"Percy came here," the demigod concluded more softly than before. She could hear the pity in his voice.

"I—I thought I would be released. I dared to hope...but I am still here." Because the gods were just so caught up in their own problems that they didn't even give reprieve to a poor girl in love.

"You're that lady," the demigod said suddenly after a moment of silence. Calypso's heart gave a jolt at this. Did Percy talk about her? And here she had thought he'd gone and forgotten her! Then the demigod went on to ruin the mood by saying, "The one who was named after Carribbean music."

Was he serious? She glared at him. "Caribbean music." Did he honestly have nothing decent to say?

"Yeah. Reggae?" She was about two seconds from strangling him now. "Merengue? Hold on, I'll get it." Scratch that, she was going to strangle him right now. "Calypso!" he finally said. Her heart gave a sudden jolt when he said her name, but she wasn't quite sure why. "But Percy said you were awesome. He said you were all sweet and helpful, not, um...," the demigod trailed off awkwardly.

So Percy had talked about her! She shot to her feet, wondering what this demigod's impression of her was. "Yes?"

"Uh, nothing," he mumbled.

"Would you be sweet if the gods forgot their promise to let you go? Would you be sweet if they laughed at you by sending another hero, but a hero who looked like—" she couldn't find a good way to phrase his un-hero-like looks, "—like you?"

The demigod didn't look surprised by her analysis of him. Instead, he frowned slightly. "Is that supposed to be a trick question?"

Obviously this demigod was not the smartest of the bunch. "Di Immortales!" She couldn't take this anymore and marched away.

"Hey!" he called after her. Gods, couldn't he leave her alone? It wasn't that hard!

She was at the washbasin, cleaning the dirt from her skin when he appeared in her sight. She scowled at him but didn't have the energy to yell at him anymore. The demigod cleared his throat. "So...I get why you're angry. You probably never want to see another demigod again. I guess that didn't sit right when, uh, Percy left you—"

The way he said 'left you' made Calypso feel impossibly small and vulnerable, which she was definitely not. "He was only the latest. Before him, it was that pirate Drake. And before him, Odysseus. They were all the same! The gods send me the greatest heroes, the ones I cannot help but..."

"You fall in love with them. And then they leave you." His tone was oddly detached with only scientific curiosity.

"That is my curse," she admitted. "I had hoped to be free of it by now, but here I am, still stuck on Ogygia after three thousand years."

"Three thousand," the demigod echoed softly. "Uh, you look good for three thousand," he said almost shyly. It was then that she remembered he was also a hero stuck on her island. And according to her curse, she was supposed to fall in love with him. With him.

"And now...the worse insult of all." Because the gods obviously didn't think they tortured Calypso enough. "The gods mock me by sending you." She knew she was being harsh, but it was honest. He was not the typical handsome hero that Calypso usually fell in love with at first sight. He was just a boy on the cusp of adulthood. And he had too much sarcasm for her to take.

She could see the anger and hurt on his expression. "Fine," he snapped. "I'll leave you alone. I'll build something myself and get off this stupid island without your help."

Oh, if things were so simple. She shook her head sadly at his confidence. "You don't understand, do you? The gods are laughing at both of us. If the raft will not appear, that means they've closed Ogygia. You're stuck here the same as me. You can never leave."

By the look on his face, he didn't believe it.

TBC