Hi please don't kill me for the really late update :| I'm still in school and since there's only a week left of it it's homework/test/quiz/finals madness… Anyways. I tried to write a teeny tiny bit of Solangelo, but I'm not too experienced with writing it so idk how it turned out; let me know if you liked it or if there's something I can do to improve writing that aspect of the story… Also this chapter switches POV like four times, so let me know if that's too many (it probably won't become a regular thing) or if it was fine. Also I feel like this chapter is slightly different from my other ones. So to sum that all up: Let me know how everything was!
Disclaimer:
PJO is Rick's
This piece is just a fanfic
Sadly, I own zip.
A disclaimer haïku by me worthy of Apollo (which isn't saying a lot, no offence Apollo…)
Frank's POV
The van lurched to a halt and Frank sighed with relief. Percy had fallen asleep about four hours ago on Frank's shoulder, and he hadn't had the heart (or strength—because Mars almighty, Percy turned into a rock while he slept) to shove him off.
Hazel was asleep with her head resting against Frank's other shoulder, but he didn't mind Hazel doing it (mostly because she was his girlfriend, she didn't weigh a tonne, she didn't snore like an elephant and she looked cute when she was asleep).
He gently prodded Hazel's shoulder, coaxing her awake, and Annabeth did the same to Percy. The two took their heads off Frank's shoulders and with all that extra weight removed Frank almost felt like he was flying.
He looked down at his left shoulder, the one Percy'd been leaning on, and wiped a bit of drool off his arm. Ew. It was one thing for Percy to lean on him, but it was a completely different thing for him to drool on Frank's arm, too.
Annabeth, who was sitting closest to the doors, opened them up and everyone starting piling out of the van, backpacks and duffel bags and—in the Stolls' case—oddly large suitcases in tow.
Frank looked around the clearing. It was a pretty decent size, enough to fit about ten tents and still have some extra room. The trees around the oval-shaped dirt area loomed tall overhead, dark green in colour and branches swaying slightly in the breeze. Closer to the ground there were ferns, ivy plants, small shrubs and berry bushes along with various other little plants Frank couldn't identify. A raven cawed, a nearby woodpecker started hammering its beak into a tree, and a bee zoomed past Frank's left ear, making him jump. Frank had always hated bees and wasps and hornets and those types of insects—so it probably wasn't the best idea for him to come camping, but he figured he'd get over it if he was going to have to spend three weeks among the bugs.
The last people out of the back of the van were Grover and Juniper (a green-skinned dryad with long, wavy mahogany hair who Frank had determined to be Grover's girlfriend) and Leo and Calypso hopped out of the front.
Leo had returned with Calypso a week and a half after the final battle at Camp Half-Blood had marked the end of the giant war, and it had been a joyous surprise for everyone (well, almost everyone—Frank still wasn't extremely fond of Leo, but he was still happy the poor guy hadn't up and died after all). Frank thought Percy had looked the most shocked to see Leo with Calypso, and Calypso had given him a look of—well, Frank couldn't identify exactly what emotion that look had conveyed, but it'd seemed like maybe concordance, recognition, or longing, possibly even regret. But then Leo had kissed Calypso on the cheek and introduced her as his girlfriend, and all traces of that look had been replaced with one of pure content. Clearly Percy and Calypso knew each other already, but Frank hadn't pried into it—it wasn't his business and because they weren't saying anything to each other, it was either a random moment that had no significance or something they didn't want to talk about.
Now, Calypso gave Leo a quick kiss on the lips and then pulled back with a smirk as she watched Leo's face contort into a pout. Frank watched as she leaned over and whispered something in Leo's ear. Leo's eyes widened and he scrambled into the back of the van where he started unpacking all the tents. Whatever Calypso had said to him, it'd certainly been motivational.
Hazel skipped up to him and looped her arm through his happily. "Hey," she chirped.
"Hey," Frank replied equally as happy, his mood finally brightening now that Hazel was content and he was free of shoulder heads.
The two of them walked over to a nearby picnic bench, arms intertwined and hands grasped together, and just sat there for a while. It was nice for Frank to just get some time to sit with Hazel in a care-free zone. It was nice not having to worry for once. And it was definitely nice watching Leo set up his tent for him.
• • •
Leo's POV
Leo was in a mad rush to set up all the tents. There were nine of them and he only had sixty minutes, which meant he had less than ten minutes to set up each tent. But why was Leo so anxious to set up all those tents by himself? Calypso had bribed him, whispering, "If you can get every single one of those nine tents you brought set up within the next hour, I'll play a private game of Seven Minutes In Heaven with you in our tent." It'd probably been a farce to get Leo to do all the work himself, but hey, if there was even the possibility of getting to kiss Calypso for seven minutes straight, Leo was going to set up all those tents as fast as his child of Hephaestus skills would let him.
"Time me!" yelled Leo to Calypso as he started dragging tents out of the van. He pulled them all to the edges of the clearing and positioned them around the oval at equal intervals, then pulled supplies out of the first tent bag and started assembling a tent.
Nine minutes later (according to Calypso), Leo was finished with Tent Number One. He had never assembled a tent before, but now he knew what to do so he was sure things would go much faster from that point on.
He finished the next three tents in twenty minutes, the next two in fourteen, and the two after that in thirteen. Leo was now down to the last tent, and he only had four minutes on the clock to set it up. He whipped all the supplies out of the bag in lightning speed and started shoving all the parts together the right way. He fought back the feeling he was getting that soon he'd spontaneously combust, jammed and tied more parts together, hammered the last pegs into the ground and stepped back, wiping the sweat from his brow. Leo was exhausted. To think, Calypso had made him do all that work just by offering to kiss him. Never again, thought Leo to himself. After all, Calypso was his girlfriend—they kissed all the time. He felt pretty naïve.
"How many minutes left?" called Leo, walking over to Calypso.
She smiled at him, eyes twinkling. "That was amazing. You still have forty-seven seconds."
Leo beamed. "Sweet! Supreme Commander Valdez does it again." Calypso slapped him playfully on the arm. She still looked really happy, which made Leo happy, too.
"So," grinned Calypso. "Which tent's ours?"
Leo's eyes widened a teeny bit but he quickly returned them to normal. So Calypso hadn't tricked him (yay!).
"This one," replied Leo, leading her towards the tent in the oval farthest away from where the rest of their friends were talking. Halfway there, he asked Calypso to wait a sec and ran to the van to grab a couple sleeping bags. He jogged back to her and they continued towards the tent. Leo unzipped the entrance, took off his shoes and stepped inside the little space, pulling the sleeping bags out of their casings and laying them down on the ground.
"There," he said triumphantly, flopping down on his sleeping bag. Just another working day in the life of Leo Valdez.
• • •
Calypso's POV
Calypso followed Leo into the little tent he'd picked out for them. She had to admit, she was a bit surprised Leo had actually managed to set up all the tents in an hour—Calypso had planned this out with a bit of research, and it took most mortals an hour to set up a single tent. Her crazy-but-loveable boyfriend had set up nine in an hour. She decided it'd be extremely rude not to play Seven Minutes In Heaven with Leo… Plus, she maybe sort of kind of wanted to kiss him too.
Calypso grinned as Leo flopped down onto a sleeping bag, and she herself dropped onto the one next to him.
"So…" said Leo. Calypso knew what was coming next. "How about that Seven Minutes In—mph!" Calypso rolled on top of Leo and kissed him, effectively shutting him up in the middle of his sentence. How long had it been since they'd kissed like this, alone? They hadn't, not really.
Calypso stuck her tongue into Leo's mouth, and when she took it back out he stuck his tongue into her mouth. She pulled away from his lips and kissed his angular jawline, down his neck, along his collarbone…
Leo groaned and Calypso kissed his lips again for a few more minutes before pulling away. They looked at each other for a moment and then Calypso blurted out, "I love you, Leo Valdez."
Leo looked shocked but he pulled her into a giant hug and whispered, "I love you, too, Calypso."
She was glad she'd spoken, because Calypso truly thought Leo was the lover she'd been waiting for all those years on Ogygia.
• • •
Nico's POV
Nico hopped out of the van, groaning and trying to rub the sunlight out of his eyes. He wasn't enthused about camping, but at least Will—wait. Nico didn't care that Will was here. He didn't even like him… Or did he? Back at camp, he'd been hanging out with Will in the infirmary almost every day, and Nico's slight crush on him was slowly blossoming into something more than just a crush. Now, he thought he loved Will more than he used to like Percy (however, he'd never admit that to another living soul). But Will probably didn't love him back…
Nico dragged himself and his black backpack over to where Will was talking with the Stoll brothers, Rachel Elizabeth Dare and Katie Gardener. Will smiled at Nico when he saw him.
"Hey, there you are," he greeted. "What took you so long to get out of the van?"
Nico groaned and closed his eyes, shivering. "Too much sunlight. I'm dying."
Will smirked. "You do realize I'm practically the son of sunlight, right, Neeks?"
Nico glared at him. "Of course I realize that. And don't call me Neeks."
"Sure thing, Neeks." Nico stared at him murderously and Will put his hands up. "I know, I know, no Neeks. But you still need a nickname. What about 'The Grim Reaper'?"
"No."
"Death Breath?"
"No."
"Corpse Breath."
"No."
"Fine then. How about the ever-popular—and certainly true—'Ghost King'?"
"For the love of Hades, Will, just call me Nico like a normal person," vented Nico exasperatedly.
"Ghost King it is!" cried Will gleefully, winking at Nico and running off. "I'll be back soon, just gonna go for a swim and see if there's anything actually fun to do around here!"
Nico rolled his eyes and turned back to Travis, Connor, Katie and Rachel. "So."
Nico watched as Travis nudged Connor and whispered in his ear, "Twenty drachmas on it." Connor whispered back, "You're on," and the two started sniggering but stopped when they noticed Nico staring at them questioningly. Connor coughed into his arm and Travis stood up a little straighter. "Um, we're betting on who'll be the first to complain about the trip," said Travis quickly, keeping a poker face. Nico studied him suspiciously but kept quiet. He'd probably find out the true means of their bet soon enough.
Katie smacked Travis's arm and muttered, "No more bets on it," but Travis shook his head and muttered back, "I just know it's gonna happen. I can't loose a good drachma-earning opportunity like this," and Katie crossed her arms with a sigh.
"Fine. Just don't hurt anyone." Katie stalked off to go talk to… Someone. Nico assumed she'd go to Annabeth, but he didn't see her or Percy anywhere, so he had no clue where she'd go.
Just then, Will came back sopping wet and shirtless. Nico tried hard not to stare at his abs. Gods, who knew a doctor could be that toned?
"Guys, the lake is awesome!" exclaimed Will.
"You've only been gone for two minutes," replied Nico impertinently.
"Which gave me exactly enough time to run to the lake, cannonball into the water, climb back out and run back to tell you the water's awesome."
"The water's awesome?" called a hopeful voice. Nico turned around to see Percy's head poking out of a tent.
"Super awesome!" affirmed Will.
"Sweet!" called Percy, unzipping the tent.
"Percy!" shrieked Annabeth from behind him. Percy's eyes widened. "Oh, right, hold on Will!" he called with a grimace, popping back inside the tent and zipping it up behind him.
"Perseus Jackson!" Nico heard Annabeth hiss from inside. "I'm wearing a bra. You can't just open the tent door wide enough for everyone to see when I don't even have a shirt on!"
"Sorry," mumbled Percy. "Wanna get changed into your swimsuit and come swimming with me?"
"Fine," muttered Annabeth. "Just give me a sec."
A few minutes later, Percy and Annabeth emerged, Percy wearing dark turquoise board shorts and Annabeth wearing a white bikini top and jean shorts.
Will pumped his fist in the air. "Great! Let's go!"
Nico grimaced as Will pulled him along. "I'm not even wearing a bathing suit," muttered Nico. "I didn't even bring a bathing suit. Heck, I don't even own a bathing suit."
"What?" gasped Percy with a scandalized expression on his face. "Stay right there." He jogged back to his tent and came back out a few minutes later with a pair of plain black swim trunks in hand. He threw them at Nico. "Here. You can put them on when we get to the lake."
"Thanks," sighed Nico, not really wanting to go swimming but really just wanting to hang out with Will. He followed Annabeth and an over-excited Will and Percy down to the lake's shore. Once they got there, Annabeth pulled off her jean shorts, Will set down the picnic basket he'd brought with them and all three jumped in. Nico headed off into the trees where he looked around to make sure no one was nearby before stripping down out of his clothes and slipping on the black swim trunks. They were a bit too big (they were Percy's, and he was a few years older than Nico) but Nico just tied the string at the waist extra tight, triple-knotted it, and hoped for the best.
Nico wandered down to the lake, and as soon as Will saw him, he whistled. "Nice abs, Nico! You'd never know you even have them, because you look so scrawny and pale and deathly all the time—" Nico glared at him for that one, "—but you definitely do!"
"I could say the same about you," noted Nico, thinking about Will's surprise doctor abs.
"Yeah, yeah yeah, enough muscle talk for now…" said Will.
"Yeah," agreed Percy, "Because we all know I win this battle."
Nico and Will glared at Percy. Nico prepared to raise an angry skeleton to send clattering into the water after Percy, but before he could do so, Percy raised his arms with a smirk, sending a wave towards Nico. It blasted him in the back and swept him up. Nico flailed around helplessly as the water deposited him in the water between Percy and Will.
"'Sup," nodded Will. He was wearing black aviator sunglasses and to Nico, he looked a lot like Apollo. (Or in other words… Hot.)
"Whatever," grumbled Nico. The water was cool and clear. As much as he hated to admit it, Nico actually felt at ease for once.
Well, he had been at ease until another huge, unexpected wave smacked into his body. When Nico surfaced, sputtering water, he glared at the culprit: Percy.
He scanned his surroundings and noticed Will (who was now sunglasses-less) also glaring, and Annabeth giving her boyfriend an enormous glare. Percy grinned sheepishly.
"Perseus Jackson," said Annabeth for the second time that day in a dangerously calm tone of voice. "Please tell me why you just did that."
Percy blushed awkwardly. He looked freaked out. Nico still found it weird that the guy had been to Tartarus and back, yet Annabeth was the only thing that really scared him.
"Um… Because it seemed like fun?" squeaked Percy. Then he found his confidence and manned up. "Why… You got a problem with it, Wise Girl?"
Annabeth narrowed her eyes at Percy but then smirked. "Nope. I say we have a water fight—but no powers. Because that would mean a huge, unfair advantage for you, Seaweed Brain."
"Sure. You're on," replied Percy. The two proceeded to splash each other, getting closer and closer until they were nearly smacking one another in the face. Suddenly Percy stopped splashing and Annabeth stopped, too, confused.
"What is it?" she questioned. Percy smiled. "I love you," he said like he meant it, and kissed Annabeth on the lips. She immediately kissed him back.
Nico felt a twinge of jealousy. It wasn't that he still liked Percy—he was well past Percy—but it was because he wanted a relationship like that. Where he was best friends with his significant other, but they loved each other to death. Where they could trust each other so much that they'd put their lives and the fate of the world in the other's hands. Where he was happy to be in the relationship, always. He needed a sun to revolve around, someone he could live for like Percy lived for Annabeth.
Nico prayed to the gods that Will would be his sun.
Good? Bad? I sort of had writer's block, so not sure how good it turned out... Hopefully not bad... Anyways, summer's soon and updates should come more frequently then :)
–ImpulsesOfLife