A Tale of Spring
Summary: In a time of myth in the land of Greece, a tale passed down through the ages unfolded. But as usually happens, storytellers got some of the details wrong.
Pairing: Leo/Nico Leico
A.N: Well, this is certainly an interesting piece. As you can see, I took some liberties with the myths. I'm not sure that I'm completely satisfied with this piece, but, oh well. HAPPY LEICO WEEK!
Once, in the great kingdoms of ancient Greece, a story unlike any story before unfolded. This story has been told many times throughout the ages, but sometimes, the details have got all jumbled up and the storyteller has no idea what they're talking about. But at its heart, this story is always the same: a tale of myth and magic, love and adventure, the coming of spring, and bad jokes. The story awaits, and it's just getting started.
On a beautiful day in the month of May, Leo was exploring a newfound meadow with his friend, the woodland nymph, Piper. Leo was a young god, the only son of the great sun goddess, Esperanza. Leo himself was the god of fire, blacksmithery and bad jokes. That, of course, is one of the major details that history got wrong. Esperanza, not Helios, or even Apollo, was the deity of the sun. She was the daughter of Hera, eventually kicked out of Olympus after a quarrel with Athena, but she eventually built himself the sun chariot, pulled by automation horses, but that is a story for another day.
Today's story focuses on Leo. On this day, Leo had brought his newest invention, a small automated dragon named Festus, to show Piper. She took one look at the dragon, barely big enough to sit comfortably in his palm, and started laughing.
"That's your dragon, Leo," she said in between chuckles.
"Shut up," he said, cradling his dragon in his arms, "someday, Festus is going to be the fiercest dragon in all the world. You'll slay heroes, won't you little guy." He ran his fingers over the dragon's stomach, tickling it like a small child.
Piper rolled her kaleidoscopic eyes at him but she had a smile on her face. Leo looked away, and saw a curly blonde head.
"Annabeth," Piper cried, and she started to walk towards the girl. Leo didn't stop her, because he knew that she had a crush on the mortal and didn't want to get in her way. Festus nuzzled up against Leo's face, and Leo walked away from the meadow and into the forest. He walked a few minutes through the dark corners of the forest, wondering what strange creatures it might contain.
Suddenly, a piece of the ground near his feet concaved and a young man in a black toga appeared in front of him. He seemed disoriented.
"Not again," he muttered, looking around the forest, "can't I just end up where I want to go? Just once!"
The boy in front of Leo was quite a bit taller than Leo, though, that really wasn't saying much. Most people were taller than Leo. He also had startlingly white skin and shaggy pitch black hair, the same shade as his toga. Leo thought about making some sort of wise crack, but thought better of it.
Instead, he sensibly asked, "Who are you?"
"Nico," he grumbled, dusting the dirt off his toga. Leo took another look at the young man, and realized that he was actually very attractive. The faint light of Leo's fire glowed on his pale skin and dark hair in a delicious way, but he snapped himself out of it.
"I mean what are you," Leo said, "you're from Hades' realm, but you don't look like a demon or anything."
"I'm his son," Nico said, "God of shadow-travel, corpses and lonely souls."
"Shadow-travel," Leo asked, "is that what you did to get here? Hephaestus, how could you be the god of shadow-travel if you're so bad at it?" Nico sent him a glare that chilled him to the bones. Leo instinctively lit his hands on fire. Nico's eyes widened and he drew his sword.
"What sort of monster are you," he said, poking the blade at Leo's chest.
"Not a monster," he said, putting his no longer flaming hands up in surrender, "Friendly god of fire, son of Esperanza." The other god resheathed his sword and Leo let out a sigh of relief. Despite the fact that he couldn't die, he didn't particularly fancy the idea of having a sword through his chest.
"I didn't know Esperanza had children," Nico said slowly.
"Most don't," Leo said, shrugging, "I love my mom, but she's a bit protective of me. Won't let me go any further than the end of this forest."
"You're a god," Nico said, "Don't you want to go places, see the world?"
"Yeah," Leo said, "of course."
Nico smiled at him, the first genuine smile that Leo had seen from him, "Then come with me."
"Where," Leo asked, trying to sound skeptical, but actually jumping at the prospect.
Then with an excited look in his eyes he said, "Athens, Sparta, Circe's Island, Olympus, my dad's palace, we could go everywhere."
"Alright," Leo said, "Let's go everywhere."
And everywhere they went. They went to Athens and Sparta and the isle of the sirens before stopping in the Underworld. The palace of Hades was stunning. It was made of black marble, twisting and turning like a tangled ball of twine, and the sky was a frightening shade of blood red. It smelled faintly of sulfur and death, but the scent didn't lessen the mesmerizing effect. Leo supposed that even the depths of Hades could be gorgeous in a morbid sort of way. Nico hailed from here, so it couldn't be all bad.
Nico gave him the grand tour of the city, and then they spent the night in a room in the palace, doing everything one might think they did. Over the next couple of days, they visited various different parts of the Underworld and did other things that you'd expect couples to do, like holding hands and light teasing and the like. By the time they were sitting on the banks of the river Styx, a skeleton trailed behind them.
Nico turned to it and asked, "What is it that you want?"
"Nico," it said in a rasping voice, "your father has summoned you."
"Alright," he said, grabbing Leo's hand, and the two made the trek back to the palace.
Hades sat upon a black throne in a large empty room. He saw Leo, and then his look hardened. Beside his throne was a man with winged shoes and an impish look, the god Hermes.
"Hades," said Hermes, "your son will have to give him back. The world's ending up there. It's starting to freeze over, Hades. The sun hasn't shone for months."
"What do you mean," Leo asked, taking a step forward, "what do you mean that the sun hasn't shone in months? We were just on the surface a week ago."
"Time flows differently here," Nico explained, "a week here is more like three months there."
"Well that's comforting," said Leo, "I bet that my mom's freaking out."
"She is," Hermes said, "he hasn't driven the sun across the sky since you left. She's been looking for you, tearing the world apart. If you don't come back with me, I think that the world might die."
Leo had to wrap his mind around that. Because he had run off with Nico, the entire world was suffering. His mother was tearing the earth apart as it slowly froze over. He couldn't stay; he couldn't do that to his mom, and to the rest of the world. But he couldn't just leave either. He'd never see Nico again, and that in itself seemed like the end of the world.
"I want to stay," Leo murmured, "but I can't, my father, the dying world." Nico looked at him, a pained look, as if he were trying to piece together how to solve this problem. Leo saw him slink out of the room and glared.
"How helpful, Nico," he thought, "my hero." He bit his lip, but then Nico came back through the door with a single, bright red pomegranate.
"You can't mean-" Hades said, but Nico cut him off.
"Leo," he said, "if you eat some of them, you can stay here," the with me was implied, not said, "Not forever, just part of the year." Leo looked to the half a pomegranate, and he was tempted.
"Please," he said, with a pleading look that didn't look at home on his face. Leo couldn't bear the thought of leaving and never seeing this beautiful man again, the one that he'd fallen in love with. He took a deep breath and made his decision.
"Six," he said, "I'll eat six." Nico nodded his head and then handed the pomegranate to Leo. Leo looked to Nico and wondered for a moment if this was truly worth it. To abandon his sunny home for six months of the year to inhabit this sulfurous, infernal wasteland, but he remembered how amazing it had been, just he and Nico exploring the world, with puns and swords while he provided light and the feverish touches in the dead of the night. The decision had already been reached, and he counted out six seeds. He put them in his mouth one by one, their tangy flavor tickling his tongue. He took one last look around the dank palace that would be his half-year home. He wondered if his fires could bring warmth and joy when he returned.
He placed his hand on Leo's cheek and placed a chaste kiss to his lips.
"Don't forget me," Leo said, in a soft tone completely unlike his normal self.
"Leo," Nico laughed, though his eyes looked worried for the long wait ahead of him, "I don't think I could forget you if I swam around in the Lethe."
Leo laughed, "Don't try it."
"I won't," Nico replied, "now go save the world." Leo turned to Hermes, and prepared himself for the journey to the surface world, and the mountain of explanations he was going to have to give his father.
And thus is the story of spring. No kidnappings, no Hades and Persephone, just two boys falling in love, an overprotective parent and new beginnings. And in its essence, that's what spring is: new beginnings.