Extra long chapter! Sorry for the really short chaoter 10...
Enjoy!
Leo's POV
As I was rising to the surface in my little bubble, I thought of Lauren. She would slap me or be ready to! Also, I brought her favourite, chocolatey delight! As I broke through the surface of the coruscating water, I said, 'I've brought Lauren's favourite, brownies!' I waited for her to shout my name in frustration but I heard nothing. I scanned the deck. Their expressions were relieved but for some reason, their faces contorted in confusion. Percy's eyebrows were knitted together, perplexed.
'Where's Lauren?' we asked in unison.
'I thought she was with you,' I exclaimed.
'But she went to look for you,' Annabeth said. Suddenly, Percy's eyes widened in shock. Before Annabeth could pull him back, he jumped overboard and vanished into the water.
Percy's POV (surprise!)
I dived into the water without thinking. Lauren may be strong, but who knew what was down there? I looked about until I finally decided to use my echolocation. I resonated my voice through the water, and when the sound bounced back, I could feel things from far away. Suddenly, I felt Lauren. She wasn't far. I heaved a sigh (or whatever you do in water) of relief and headed her direction. I kept echolocating her, in case she moved but surprisingly, she was absolutely still. That was odd…
I swam about where I had approximated Laura's location. I abruptly stumbled on something, when I looked down, my eyes widened in horror. Lauren was floating there, just about dead. She still wasn't gone…
I picked Lauren up and willed the water to propel me to the top the fastest it could. That didn't take more than a second, literally. The water let me land on deck and I rushed to the sickbay with Annabeth, Piper and Leo following me. I gently lay Lauren on the bed. She was just about to die. Her breathing was just a miniscule wheeze.
Leo's POV
It was all my fault. Lauren went into the water save me. Everyone already knew she was already weak with her Achilles heel. Now, she was dying. Tears formed in my eyes and cascaded down my cheeks. Some hit her face. Suddenly, she glowed a bright golden colour. I took a few steps back to avoid being blinded. When the light died down, I saw myself encompassed by pure whiteness. A shadow appeared behind me. As I turned around, I gasped. She looked astonishing. Before me stood Lauren except with her hair a bit longer and braided down her shoulder, but still choppy. She wore a white Greek chiton which looked exceptional on her.
"Lauren?" I asked. She laughed lightly. What did I say wrong? Lauren looked at me sympathetically.
"I am not Lauren. I am Aphrodite dear. But of course, you see me as the most beautiful person you can imagine. Lauren is in your case, well she is pretty looking, but could definitely use some improvement," she said. I stared at her for a moment. I took a second to be embarrassed of what she meant and then I looked at her abruptly.
"Is pretty looking? You mean she is still alive?" I said hurriedly.
"Hmm, you are more observant than usual dear," she said studying me. "But yes, she is well and alive. You saved her you know."
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I saved her? "But how?" I asked.
"Looks like there is still a long mystery for you to unravel. For now, all I will stay that you have a strong friendship with the girl." She smiled mischievously. The sort of smile someone makes when lying... "But, resurrecting the dead with the force of sheer will power is not something Hades will accept. You will have two choices now. Forget Lauren forever or lose her forever. Choose wisely. You have until the end of the day to enjoy time with her. You will know what you have picked, you will feel it in your heart. And again, choose wisely dear..." Aphrodite slowly faded away. I stuttered "wait"s and "come back"s but I myself awoke from my trance. Piper was studying my face when I opened my eyes. I leaped back and unfortunately hit my head. I muttered "ow".
Just like Aphrodite had promised, Lauren was up and breathing. Annabeth and Percy were examining her but when she saw me wake up, she looked directly into my eyes. I nodded to assure her I was alright, but inside, my heart was near to breaking. I had just started liking Lauren, a girl who was still out of my league but close to me. Then Aphrodite needs to, just needs to, do her little hocus-pocus magic and ruin everything.
Lauren's POV
I looked Leo in the eye, he looked worried. He tried to assure me he was alright so I ignored it. As much as he is good at hiding all his worry, I know exactly what's going on with him. After Annabeth and I had a small conversation about how the merpeoples barrier against the children of Poseidon blocked my connection with Leo, everyone left the infirmary. I wanted to thank Leo, he was probably in the engine room.
I perambulated through the room while thinking of how much Leo did for me. I saw the river coursing. I could feel the pull of death, I was so close to entering the doors. And all of a sudden, I see Leo, a golden shine, pulling me back. But he still didn't know why I didn't have my Achilles heel, and I didn't intend for him to know anyway. When I reached the room, I noticed the note on the door. It read:
Leo doin' Laundry… :(
I laughed at it. After all that had happened, Leo still remembered laundry, but then something odd clicked in my mind. This was unlike Leo. He'd try to avoid laundry at all costs and would never even remember the compact mirror kiss incident after everything today. I then thought of the one reason he would be doing laundry: to be alone. Well, Leo, good luck on that 'cause you ain't gonna mourn on your own.
Leo's POV
I sat all alone in the laundry room. What did Aphrodite mean about a "strong friendship"? Why did she smile like that? Why would she possibly lie? Suddenly, the laundry door creaked open.
"Hey," whispered Lauren. I smiled at her. I had a feeling she would find out where I was eventually. I really wanted to talk to her but I would feel guilty telling her about my options. Both were not really good. She sat down next to me, folding a random shirt.
"Something's off. If you need to talk, I'm right here," she said. I appreciated her for that so I decided to tell her only about the bit about Aphrodite. I would have to lie and tell her that she only said we had a "strong friendship" and then faded away.
"Right after you glowed, everything went white and I saw someone-"
"And that is where you end. Now let me guess everything that happens afterwards. OK, so you are messing with Hades but he doesn't like coming in contact with mortals unless they are dead. It must've Aphrodite since she always like taking the opportunity to torture people by making "consequences". I'm just living evidence. She must've started off with introducing herself. Then she would explain a few things very vaguely. And since you resurrected me, I would be the person she would explain about. Wait… what did she say?!" Lauren looked at me scared to death. Aphrodite did very vaguely say "strong friendship" but with that smile.
"Strong friendship to be exact," I said. Lauren looked relieved. She looked up at the heavens as if to thank the gods. She regained her confidence and went on.
"OK then, she must've given you a choice, interfering with death is very severe. Choosing something is much harder than getting a weakness. Now, you can go on and tell me what you're options are!" Lauren ended. I stared at her in astonishment.
"How did you do that?" I exclaimed. Lauren scrunched up her face to imitate mock offendedness.
"First off all, I have the gift of prophecy. Second of all, I have the blood of the goddess of WISDOM running through my veins. And last but not least, I have a very long history with Aphrodite." Lauren pointed her chin up in. I laughed. She smiled. But then, she looked at me seriously and nodded.
"Well… the options were so hard. They were…" my voice broke. "They were picking between losing you forever, or forgetting you forever. I have until tonight" I expected Lauren to be shocked, but she just smiled sympathetically at me.
Lauren's POV
I knew Aphrodite would make him do this.
"In the state I am in right now, letting me die is better than forgetting me. Trust me Leo. It'll make all our lives easier." Leo just looked down at his palms. I slowly raised my hands while he wasn't looking. Slowly I reached for him and…
STARTED TICKLING HIM! Leo completely fell into a fit of giggles.
"OK, OK. What do you want?" he asked while giggling insanely.
"Promise me that you won't think about it until it's time, plus, we need to complete laundry" I said.
"Fine, whatever you want, just stop," he said. I released him from my reign of terrifying tickles. I pointed to the basket at the end of the room and he sluggishly went to it.
"Can you get the laundry machine started?" he asked. I edged towards the laundry machine and raised an eyebrow. How did you control these things? Leo looked at me with pure shock and surprise.
"Are you telling me that the most powerful demigod in history can't operate a simple laundry machine?" he asked. I put my hands on my hands on my hips. I mocked offendedness yet again.
"Was that an insult?" I asked. Leo just shrugged, a smug smile stretched across his face. I could feel the water in the laundry machine, waiting. My Achilles heel was well repaired when I was revived. Gradually, I felt the water slide out on my will. It did it so slowly that Leo didn't realise. When he was turned against me, I called, "Hey Leo!"
When he turned, I willed the water to completely soak him. When the water slid away, Leo was completely drenched. His surprised face became a smile.
"So that's how you want to play?" Leo completely went on fire, literally, but still made sure he burn away his clothes. He was dry once again. He conjured a ball of fire and threw it at me. But I caught it in my hand.
"Did you forget that I can control fire too," I said. I launched another gush of water, but this time, Leo made it evaporate against a wall of fire.
"You wanna play fire with fire, huh? Well get ready Lauren, you are ON!" He shouted. I willed my water to be encompassed by globes of fire which I also willed not to burn the water away. When they hit Leo's fire barrier, my fire protected the water. As soon as the water was through, the fire disappeared and Leo was drenched.
"Not fair! You can't use all your powers!" he complained.
"Fine, only fire and hand to hand combat it is," I lunged at him, my hands completely ablaze. He was quick enough to move. I caught myself before he could attack. I swiftly went up to him and grappled at his throat, giving just him enough space to breathe. Suddenly, I sipped on the floor. Leo and I collapsed but he was quick enough to take me by the throat just in time. We were both exhausted. I used all my strength to turn over and take him by the throat again. Leo still didn't let go but we were laughing madly. I loosened my grip on his throat. He was still laughing. I looked into his eyes. My smile became warmer, as did his. Suddenly, Leo's hands slid from my throat to my jawline. We leaned in closer and closer….
"Hey, how's laundry Leo-" she stopped abruptly when she lifted her head from the book. I leaped up immediately and Leo sat up. Both our faces were red. Annabeth just stared in horror.
Leo's POV
THIS WAS SO EMBArRASSING! I had no idea what I was doing. It just happened. And to make it even worse, just when we were about to kiss, Annabeth saw us. She must be thinking that Lauren and I were rolling around in the floor instead of having a full fledged battle. Lauren ran out of the room straight away. I ran after Lauren. She ran to the engine room. I followed after her.
"What were you doing Leo?!" she said.
"Sorry, it just happened," I said.
"Well, it can't, OK. I'm probably going to be gone by tomorrow. And even if Aphrodite wasn't so annoying, you can't OK. It'll only get worse!" she shouted.
"But- but-. Lauren, I'm so sorry, whatever I did." This must've been messing with her emotions. Her Achilles heel was based on emotions. From what I had calculated so far, Lauren's Achilles heel was based on how she felt. If she felt happy and confident, she was strong. If she felt depressed, angry or just messed up, it was REALLY weak. Aphrodite really made everything worse.
"I should fix the laundry room…" she whispered. She ran from me again, and I didn't follow. She needed alone time. I climbed into bed and thought over what happened. I had made up my mind.
