A/N: Wow, three chapters in three days, I'm on a roll here! I feel like this story has just been writing itself to be honest...but don't get used to this pace! Hah!
Anyways, in case anyone is interested, I came up with the final section of this chapter while listening to the song "Like Real People Do" by Hozier. In my brain, that's Leo and Calypso's song, hah! If you'd like to get the mood I was going for, feel free to give it a listen as you get to the section on stars :)
ALSO I have to admit I smiled a lot while writing this, most of the chapters so far have been a lot of internal dialogues, so I've been really looking forward to coming up with some witty banter between Calypso and Leo-because we all know they'd fight like all the time!
PS- prepare for some cutesy fluff 3
Happy reading!
'To give up my immortality…'
Hephaestus had been gone for some time now, he'd left soon after informing Calypso of Aphrodite's sacrifice. He had awkwardly patted Calypso's shoulder and given her a drawstring bag, "Please give this to my son…tell him…tell him I'm proud." And then he'd vanished in a bright light.
She didn't even acknowledge his parting.
It wasn't that she'd never considered being mortal. Often times, when she was bored she would fantasize about living a normal, human life. Of growing old in the same place where she was born, of living a simple life—perhaps farming, of marrying some man who was maybe not rich, but who loved her. Sometimes she would think that perhaps her heroes would love her if she were mortal like them, and she would wish join them in their mortality. But that's all these were: fantasies.
Never once had Calypso actually confronted the idea of her own mortality.
The sudden existential anxiety that flooded Calypso's thoughts was almost claustrophobic. What would it be like to live every day of your life knowing that tomorrow was not promised? What would it be like to live in constant fear of death?
Her breathing increased—anything could happen to a mortal, after all! They could trip over a root and bang their head and die just like that! Or worse, what if she got sick and died one of those slow, agonizing deaths? And what of those mortals who lost limbs and had to live the rest of their lives as cripples? Could she do that? Did she have that kind of strength?
And then there was Leo. While before his memory loss she would have been inclined to believe that he'd stay with her after leaving this island, there was truly nothing binding him to her. After all, weren't mortals famous for being fickle? What if she gave up her mortality for him and he left her the second he was safe? How could she possibly make a living by herself? She had no real experience in the mortal world, and she was sure it was so different by now that a toddler would have more practical knowledge than she!
'We could always just stay here. If he stays on the island, we'll both be immortal.'
The thought, stopped her. It was an option. If they never left, they wouldn't die…they could spend the rest of eternity together on this island. Calypso had done it for millennia and survived, and having Leo with her would surely make the time even more interesting, if not enjoyable. After all, he didn't remember his friends, and if he stayed on this island he never would…
"There you are, Sunshine!" she jumped, while she'd been lost in thought, Leo had crept in behind her.
"Di immortales, you scared me!" She clutched her chest to still her beating heart, "And I thought I told you to stop calling me that."
He grinned cheekily, "No can do, Sunshine. It's your name and it's here to stay! What were you thinking about that got you so distracted?"
"Oh-umm," she looked at her hands holding the drawstring bag and considered telling him about his father's visit, but she quickly decided she wasn't ready to answer the questions it would undoubtedly inspire. So instead she smirked at him, "Nothing your puny brain could handle, Hot Head."
He laughed heartily, "Hot head, huh? Very original!" he said sarcastically.
She grinned at him, "And it's here to stay!"
He chuckled at her, then his smile dropped, "Hey, listen Calypso in all honesty though…I'm really sorry about what happened earlier."
"Leo I already told you—"
"No, please let me finish," he held his hand up to stall her words, "I know that you said you're okay and you forgive me, but I need to say this anyways." He took a breath, "I'm sorry that I snapped at you like that, I was tired and frustrated and I took it out on you when I shouldn't have…
"And about that kiss," his cheeks reddened slightly and he rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't want you to think I'm taking advantage of you or anything. I know I probably shouldn't have kissed you, especially after you said everything about how you feel—or felt—for me."
She interrupted him once more, "Leo I would never think that you were taking advantage of me. I know you're not that kind of person."
He grimaced, "Thing is, I'm not really sure what kind of person I am. I just feel like…" he shifted his feet uncomfortably and started pulling out random things from his toolbelt absentmindedly, "I wish I could tell you that I feel the same way about you Calypso, but the fact is that I don't know what I feel yet. Sometimes I feel so close to you and you seem so familiar to me, and other times I feel like we've only just met…" He sighed, frustrated, "I wish my brain was just some machine so I could just fix the hard drive and be done with it."
Calypso laughed softly, thinking of Hephaestus's similar words.
"Anyways, I guess I just want you to know that even though I might not remember everything about you and everything I felt for you, I still care about you Calypso. There's still some part of me, deep down, that knows you're important for me. I…want to make you happy. And I don't know how much of what I feel is left over from the past or how much of it is new but…I just want to know if that can be enough for you…for now." He looked at her with wide eyes, his hands finally still, his mouth slightly parted.
She smiled slowly, "Thank you, Leo." She stepped forward and hugged him fiercely, burying her face in the groove of his neck and breathing in the smell of him. She murmured into his neck "For now, it's enough."
He sighed and (finally!) returned her hug tightly, "Thank you for understanding," he murmured into her hair as he pressed his lips the top of her head.
All too soon, they broke away.
As she looked at him, she noticed the slight blush still lingering on his cheeks. Knowing how hard being this serious must have been for him, she decided to do him a kindness and offer him an out, "I think I like this no-brain Leo, he's a lot nicer to me!"
He grinned, taking her bait eagerly, "Oh yeah? No-brain Leo, huh? Well my brain's still big enough to know the difference between a Slot and a Phillips screwdriver!"
"How am I supposed to know there are different kinds? All those tools are completely foreign to me!"
"Well sure Sunshine, but you'd think after trying to make a Phillips fit into a Slot screw for more than 15 minutes you'd figure out that something's wrong!" He laughed heartily.
"Oh yeah?" she smirked, "At least I'm not a 'mechanic' that can't make it through the whole day without half his machines spontaneously combusting."
"Hey! That's just part of the process, Sunshine."
"I said stop calling me Sunshine, Hot Head."
"Whateeeeever you say, Princess."
She raised an eyebrow at the new name, "Ah, well at least if I was a princess I could order you around."
He laughed, "Isn't that what you already do anyways?"
"Yes, but then if you whine you would be decapitated."
"Well good thing no one ever gave you power," he said lightly.
She laughed in agreement, "Yes, all the Greeks would have cowered at my throne. I would have demanded sacrifices in my name every hour!"
"All the poor maidens would cower at your presence!"
"Oh no," she chuckled, "I would just demand the lives of measly hot-headed mechanics."
"See that's just not smart, us mechanics are very important to the kingdom. We make tools and weapons and machines, we're invaluable!"
She finally nodded her assent, he had her there. "Hey, I have an idea…"
He looked to her attentively, "Oh yeah?"
"We've been working nonstop on Festus for two weeks now. How about we take a day off tomorrow? We could go to the shore and just relax for a day."
He smiled at her, "That sounds perfect, Sunshine."
The following day, both she and Leo woke up late, as they had continued their light-hearted banter deep into the night. Excited for a day off with Leo, she jumped out of bed swiftly and threw on a dress she'd been saving for a special occasion. It was a rare gift from Apollo that he'd brought her some time ago; he said it was a called a sun-dress and he liked it because it had the word sun in it. The dress was olive green and reached half-way down her thighs—she was sorely tempted to spin around in it like a young child. She then braided her hair swiftly and went outside to meet Leo.
"Well don't you clean up nice," he was standing right outside the cave when she exited.
She tried not to blush, "I like to think I'm always clean."
He laughed, "Not quite what I meant, Sunshine."
She gave him an odd smile, confused, but glad that he was in a good mood this morning. Calypso had learned very early on that Leo was not a morning person, "You got everything we need?"
"Yes ma'am!" He picked up a basked lying by his feet with their food for today, he had insisted that they skip breakfast and lunch and instead have 'brunch' which apparently was the modern term for 'that meal you eat when you wake up so late it's basically lunch.' Or, at least, that's what Leo had told her.
They soon arrived at the small beach and were digging into their 'brunch' when Calypso decided to broach the topic of Hephaestus's visit the previous day. She had resolved last night to tell Leo of all the relevant parts, but decided to keep the issue of her immortality a secret for the time being.
"So, there's something you should know…" she started, he glanced up and motioned for her to continue, "your father came and visited me yesterday, while you were still working. He gave me some information on what happened to you…"
He sat up eagerly, "My dad was here?! Aww man, couldn't he come say hi or something? Geez!"
She gave him a sympathetic smile, "Unfortunately I think your father has meddled enough, I think it'll be some time before he can come see you face to face."
"Makes sense, I guess," he nodded. "So what did he tell you? Does he know how we can fix me?"
She proceeded to tell him everything that Hephaestus had told her except for the bit about Leo's life being dependent on her. And the part about his sacrifice being for love…he wasn't ready for that quite yet.
"Aww man, that's awesome!" he punched his fist into the air, "So once we get out of here we can just fly on over to the Camp and I'll be fixed over-night. Finally, we caught a break!"
She smiled tightly at him, "Yes, it seems we were both past due for one."
"WAIT!" he yelled suddenly, "So if I died…and I came back to life…" he looked up at her with wide, unbelieving eyes, "DOES THAT MEAN I'M A FREAKING ZOMBIE?!"
"You—what?"
He continued yelling excitedly, completely unaware of her confusion, "AWW MAN, I ALWAYS WANTED THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE TO COME BUT TO THINK I'M THE FIRST ZOMBIE. THIS TOTALLY CHANGES EVERYTHING!" he waved his hands wildly in the air.
"Erm, what's a zombie?" she asked timidly, he continued on.
"SO HOW DO I INFECT PEOPLE? I MEAN YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE A ZOMBIE, SO MAYBE I HAVE TO ACTUALLY BITE YOU? OR MAYBE I HAVE TO BLEED ON PEOPLE—"
"You're bleeding on who?!"
"BUT I'M STILL INTELLIGENT AND THE LIGHT DOESN'T HURT ME SO I COULD TOTALLY CREATE WEAPONS OF MASS ZOMBIE CONTAMINATION AND I COULD TURN EVERYONE INTO A ZOMBIE WITHOUT THEM EVEN REALIZING IT!" he proceeded to laugh evilly.
He was starting to seriously freak her out, so Calypso did the only reasonable thing. She dunked the pitcher of water over his head, "Snap out of it, Hot Head!"
He spluttered, "Wha—why?!"
She huffed, "You were being weird and ranting about some weird thing I don't understand."
He laughed at her, "Aww I'm sorry I worried you, Sunshine."
"I wasn't worried," she crossed her arms, "I was just annoyed."
He grinned, "Uh-huh, I'm sure. Aww man now I'm all wet!" He pouted adorably.
"Yeah well, you deserved it," she turned her nose up at him.
"But didn't you know water is my mortal weakness?"
"Of course I did."
Suddenly, a weird spark lit up his eyes. "Well in that case…." He muttered softly, and proceeded to start rolling up his pants. He rolled both legs of his pants up to his knees and stood up, taking off his shirt in the process.
Calypso immediately flushed, she could see the hard lines of his muscles and his strange scattering of scars gleamed strangely in the sunlight, "What—What are you doing, Valdez?" She looked down, feeling the heat in her cheeks.
"Oh, nothing…" he said innocently.
Then, Calypso suddenly felt herself be scooped up by strong arms, she squealed, "LEO VALDEZ PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT WHAT IN HADES' NAME ARE YOU DOING?!"
She tried kicking and flailing about, but Leo's hold was stronger than she'd anticipated, "Oh you know, just getting some decent payback…" He started walking towards the water.
"OH NO, DON'T YOU DARE. DON'T YOU FREAKING DARE VALDEZ I WILL KILL YOU, I WILL LAY A TERRIBLE CURSE ON YOU AND MAKE ALL YOUR TEETH FALL OFF, I WILL—"
"Now, now, Sunshine," he said pleasantly, "you can't just make idle threats like that."
"LEO I SWEAR ON ALL THE GODS OF OLYMPUS IF YOU DARE TO—" she couldn't finish her sentence because at that moment, Leo had unceremoniously dropped her into the water. She came up for air, sputtering, "ARGHHHHHHH!"
He laughed loudly, "Oh my gods—" he gasped for air, "Ay dios mio, if you could see your face!" he laughed some more and clutched at his stomach, "You look like a drowned mouse!" Tears were starting to form in his eyes from laughter.
She stood, completely drenched from head to toe, "Oh yeah?" she lunged at him, and they both fell into the water this time, he came up for air, spitting out water, "How's that for payback?"
"Aww no fair, I wasn't ready!" but before he could finish wiping the water off his face, Calypso splashed him. "Hey! I call foul!"
She laughed at him, "My island, my rules!"
"Oh yeah? Challenge accepted!"
They continued playing in the water for most of the day, eventually making their way out of the water once the sun started setting. They sat on the beach and watched the sun set as they dried out, eventually falling back and collapsing into soft giggles from one of Leo's stupid jokes that were definitely not funny.
They laid there quietly for some time, simply enjoying each other's company, and soon the sky was covered in stars. Eventually Leo pointed up to a constellation, "There I am, that's Leo! My favorite constellation!"
Calypso smiled, easily picking it out in the sky, "Do you know the story behind it?"
He nodded and tucked his arm under his head, "It was put up there by Zeus to honor Hercules after he defeated the Nemean Lion."
"Well yes, that's the story they like to tell people…" she said.
He turned to her eagerly, "Oh yeah? So what really happened?"
"Well, it's a very close guarded secret; I'd get in lots of trouble if this ever got out…"
He mimed placing a lock on his lips and throwing away the key, "My lips are sealed!"
She giggled, "Well Zeus would love for everyone to think that Hercules bravely defeated the Lion…but what really happened is that he got scared and turned tail, but he tripped on his way out and when it pounced on him the Lion accidentally stabbed Hercules's sword into its own mouth."
"So you're telling me," Leo said eagerly, "that Hercules chickened out and the Lion killed itself?"
"Pretty much," she chuckled.
He laughed, "Aww man, that's hilarious! And Zeus bragging for all of eternity about his precious son! Do you know any other stories?!"
"See that one right there?" She pointed, "That's Crater, Apollo got drunk one night and put it up to honor himself without Zeus's permission. He was so mad at him! Apollo lost his Oracle at Delphi for a whole decade as punishment!"
"Wait—god's get drunk?!"
She laughed, "When Dionysus gets involved, even gods get drunk! Oh you should see them when they get on it, this one time…"
She proceeded to tell him a multitude of stories of the gods' drunken stupors, and Leo laughed heartily at every one. As he finished wiping his eyes after a particularly ridiculous story involving Dionysus, Apollo, and one of Hera's peacocks, he sighed deeply, "Man, I didn't think you'd know so much dirt on these crazy gods."
"Yes well, the gods just love to gossip about one another."
"So," he turned to her once more, "what's your favorite constellation?"
She sighed, and looked up at the sky for a while, "That one," she pointed it out, "it's a new one, it's called The Huntress."
Leo's voice mellowed out as he noticed her change in demeanor, "What's the story behind that one?"
"It was…my sister," she said slowly, "Her name was Zoe."
"What happened?" His voice was soft.
"She was a member of Artemis's Hunt, and she went on a quest with one of your friends, Percy to rescue Artemis and Annabeth. She had to…" she gulped at the sudden knot in her throat, "She had to fight my father. Atlas."
Leo put his hand over hers, "I'm sorry."
She squeezed his hand in return, he didn't retrieve it. "We weren't really close, Zoe and I. She was only my half-sister, and I had plenty of those…but still. It's nice to know that one of his daughters was able to stand up to him…I've never had the chance."
He breathed out, "You'll never have to, as long as I can help it."
She smiled softly at him, "I'm sure."
He stared back at the sky, "What's the story behind that one?"
"It was a rather tragic tale, actually…" She told him the stories of tragic loves and epic conquests, all laid out in the stars.
They had been quiet for some time, and Calypso was almost certain he was asleep when she heard his quiet whisper, "I can't wait to get out of here. We can go anywhere we want and have our own epic quests," he turned to her, "do you think that we could maybe get a constellation named after us?"
She turned to him and ran her spare hand (the one that wasn't still holding Leo's) down the side of his face, "Yes, Leo, I think we could."
His eyes lit up, "It'll be the brightest in the sky!"
"I don't doubt it with your Hot Head."
"Don't forget, Sunshine's pretty bright too."
They both smiled, and—because the moment seemed right—she leaned forward and gave Leo a soft kiss. He smiled shyly at her and turned his head back to the sky, she did the same. Eventually, Leo's deep, even breathing assured Calypso that this time Leo really had fallen asleep and she felt herself already drifting off.
She tightened her grip on his hand ever so slightly, "Don't worry Leo; I'll get you out of here." She spoke quietly into the night, "even if I have to give up my own life to do so."
:')
I've been really looking forward to this chapter, I've had it in mind for quite some time now.
For those of you that looked up the song, let me know if that helped you understand the chapter and their emotions better, I usually get inspired by music, so I can definitely start referring you to my inspirations if that helps set the story a bit better :)
Also, drop me a line and let me know what you think of the characterization of Leo and Calypso, I'm trying to get them more comfortable with each other and acting more like they originally did in the books
Thanks for reading!