A/N I know, I know. I'm totally aware that I've been gone forever. But honestly, I haven't written since the Wrong Date, so bear with me. Leo is totally OOC unintentionally, but whatever.
Note: Contains references from The Wrong Date and Pieces. You don't have to read them to understand what's going on here though.
Hopefully, you won't murder me for the awfulness.
Leo frowned into the fire, not noticing the brightness and heat that was fanned into his face by a sudden gust through the Camp forges. A few of his siblings looked up, the breeze rustling their sweaty hair and cooling their faces as they worked. But Leo kept his eyes on the flames, deep in thought.
Ever since Festus II had destroyed the personality changer (he hadn't taken too kindly to being tested), Camp had been kind of boring, and Leo was filled with longing to do something fun for once; he just couldn't think of anything.
Finally one of his siblings, he wasn't quite sure who, tapped his shoulder. Leo hummed in response, keeping his gaze on the dancing red and orange before him.
"Hey." Leo finally looked up. It was Matt, the newest member of their cabin. Leo laughed to himself, and shook his head when Matt gave him a questioning look. He remembered when Matt had been claimed: bronze hair flaming red in the light of the hammer, the hologram reflected in his dark eyes. Leo's thoughts shifted as he thought of the mechanics of the "hologram". It was sort of like an Iris message, but different. Ever since he'd been claimed, Leo had been puzzling over how the whole "glowing image above your head" thing worked.
"Hi," Leo replied, running a hand through his hair, the sweat making it stick up. "Wassup?"
"So I've been thinking," Matt said quietly, which seemed to Leo the only way he was capable of speaking. "And I heard of all the cool things you did before I came to Camp."
Leo nodded vaguely, his eyes back on the furnace. Absently, he reached out and grabbed a coal, rolling it between his fingers. Maybe he could make Jason some kind of fireproof skin? He was sure Jason wouldn't mind being burned once or twice. And he could make it up to Festus II, for testing the personality changer on him, by letting Festus II shoot flames at Jason. Maybe then he'd be Happy the Dragon again.
"I've had an idea," Matt continued. "That would make Camp a little bit more interesting."
Leo's head snapped up, his eyes gleaming with interest. "Go on," Leo prompted after a moment. Was this kid the answer to all the problems?
"It includes the gods," he said uncertainly after a few seconds of silence.
Leo suppressed a groan, but he did sigh. "Kid, I appreciate the effort, but the gods don't take us seriously. Except for when we're useful, our lives are pretty much one big old reality show. No offense," Leo added quickly, seeing the barely concealed rejection on Matt's face.
"But I did talk with Mr. D, and he said to talk to you. He thinks the gods will be up for it." Leo raised an eyebrow, and Matt rushed on. "You said our lives are like some reality show, right? So like, it's this idea where we get to pick one lucky god to be with us for a day, and they've got to do whatever we want. If it's practical. The only restriction would be that, and your parent is off-limits."
"Like renting a god for a day?" Leo summarized, and Matt nodded, his floppy hair bouncing with the vigorous motion.
Leo's eyebrows knit together and a thoughtful expression crossed his face. "Not bad, Matt," he said softly, looking into the flames again. But instead of seeing flames, Leo was envisioning Matt's plan. Rent-a-God. Didn't sound too bad. "But why would Mr. D want you to talk to me?"
Matt shrugged. "I don't know."
Leo pursed his lips, thinking. "Thanks anyways. I'll be sure to ask you for help if this project is a go. Sounds fun," he said, grinning.
Matt nodded. "Yeah. See you later."
"Bye."
Matt left the forges, and Leo tossed the coal, which was now cold, back into the flames. The whole leader of the cabin thing was sometimes stressful; Leo had changed because of it. He'd been forced to mature so that he could almost see Piper, the Beauty Queen, wishing for the jester to be back.
But he wasn't entirely gone. He just wasn't up front and center. Losing Festus's head, the very last piece of him, had been a big blow. It was like ripping off his right arm. Festus II was alright, but he had a few flaws; a taste for curry being one of them.
Rent-a-God. If he used Matt's rules, he wouldn't be able to use Hephaestus to rebuild Festus II the way he used to be. And he didn't really want to use any other god, so...
Leo was so tempted to call Matt back and discuss every detail of the idea with him, and hopefully eliminate the "parent-god is off-limits" rule. But first he had to figure out why Mr. D would want Matt to talk to him.
Leo reluctantly left the forges and went to the Big House, where Mr. D was sitting on the porch, drinking a coke. "Matt mentioned something about an idea he had," he said as he walked up. He'd learned that with Mr. D, small talk could only do you harm.
Mr. D stared into his soda for a long moment before he answered, "The one where you borrow a god for a day?"
Leo was tempted to say, "No, the idea where I grab your soda can, empty it on your strawberries, crush it, and turn it into a fucking metal bird", but he settled for, "Yeah, that one. Why didn't you reject it right away?"
The god before me unleaded a tiny bit of his power on me, and staring into the purple flames of his eyes, my head started to spin. "I'd love to see how they feel, sitting around, serving a bunch of useless humans all day!"
"We aren't human," Leo reminded him, and he shot him a glare.
"Whatever you are, you're worthless," he told him.
"Thanks. I'll just ignore all the times we saved this Camp."
"If only it were destroyed so severely that nobody would have a whisper of hope putting it back together!" he sighed, putting his coke on the side table. "Listen. You're going to have to make some sort of contraption that will call a specific god with a specific call. Signal, numbers, whatever. Just do it."
"Nike," Leo muttered under his breath before answering, "On it."
Leo turned to leave when Mr. D called me. "Oh Leo?"
Leo turned around. "Yes?"
"Remember, children cannot call their parents."
Leo nodded and walked away from the Big House. But he wasn't going to go to his Cabin, and he wasn't going back to the forges.
He was going to Cabin 1, to find the person who could call his dad with the new Rent-a-God.