"i fix what's broken - except in the heart." - bernard malamud
when they return to camp half-blood, the first thing leo does is revisit bunker 9. the place is intact and unchanged, every tool he had left dangling precariously off of a hook on the wall; every blueprint or drafting sheet stacked on worn wooden tables; every scrap sheet of celestial bronze piled into random corners - all of it remains still, and seemingly indifferent to the outside world.
but the outside world, of course, has changed drastically: a war has been ended; camps saved from destruction; demigods injured and many fatally so. bunker 9, however, even after everything, has stayed a utopian paradise far away from the chaos, a sliver of forever trapped between its walls.
returning to camp had taken some time. after finding calypso and repairing festus as best as he could with minimal supplies, they had found themselves making the trek to the nearest village in rural china.
calypso fell in love with it - the humid air, pressing down as if it weighed a thousand tons on her chest; the tall trees with monkeys and birds resting and fluttering through their canopies; and the occasional glimpses of the river, foamy rapids and crystal clear. it was so like her natural home of ogygia, but so different all the same: whereas in ogygia, every possible flaw - every hint of thunderstorm, every slight decay of fruit - was forbidden, here every flaw was a part of nature, a part of the lives these humans, mere mortals, had worked to build for themselves.
the pair of them stand out like aliens, but neither of then are too bothered - they're certainly able to defend themselves and most people assume them to be tourists.
it is the most apt description, funnily enough.
they enjoy themselves. leo knows, in the back of his mind, that once festus is fully repaired he has to return to jason and piper and the others, but this east asian forest with calypso by his side feels too paradisal to abandon so quickly. he settles for delaying repairs as much as possible, agonizing over every choice of metal scraps from the local markets they frequent regularly.
calypso, as eager to work and interested as she is, tires quickly of his procrastinating (leo also knows she senses the real reasons for his indecision).
your friends love you, she whispers to him one night. they lay together on the riverbank and listen to the crickets. they miss you, she says.
he gets a little angry then. he knows they miss him, he knows they love him, he knows he knows he knows.
she looks at him simply, unperturbed by the way his fingertips are sparking slightly and does not seem irritated by his fidgeting or his sarcasm or his anger, and says: then what are you so afraid of?
calypso realizes that of all the things she's seen of the outside world, the food is the most spectacular - how every dish can be prepared differently by every person. at home - and she still calls ogygia her home - her invisible spirits allowed for great variety, but she has tried every possible meal she could think of. now, in a new, foriegn place, calypso discovers flavors that truly are otherworldly.
she learns to cook the traditional dishes the villagers eat - as leo and she visit the market regularly, she watches the street vendors and commits their recipes to memory. one woman in particular runs the most flavorful rice noodle cart, and after seeing calypso there nightly she says in broken english: i'll show you how, young one.
the title amuses her. she looks young, certainly, and she's still not sure how she will age now away from ogygia - but her mind is old and weary, though sharp as ever. she likes playing pretend, though, and lets the cook order her around the little kitchenette and exasperatedly correct her mistakes.
so she visits the woman in the mornings before the market comes to life and follows her steps as best as she can, and learns and grows and changes and becomes.
calypso notices things that have changed in leo. he is quieter, and more reserved - though his jokes remain immature and loud and overly dramatic, there are fewer than before. and often, he gets a look in his eyes - where she's saying something and he's nodding along and then all of a sudden he's not there anymore, he's looking past her or through her and his shoulders stiffen and his eyes glaze over and his hands fidget with a thin wire or piece of metal until it breaks.
she supposes it has something to do with being dead, even if only temporarily. he won't tell her much about it, just that his plan worked and he came back and what's the use dwelling on it?
but calypso has seen many heroes in her time. she has seen them at their weakest when they come to her and at their strongest when they leave.
leo valdez, she knows, is not like the others. but after everything he is broken in some way and for all his talent, it is himself and himself alone that is the one thing he cannot fix.
it makes her sad, and then angry. that after everything, this boy, this hero, who saved her and gave her so much and loves her, even - that he is in pain and won't tell her and she can't heal him the way she's healed heroes before, in ogygia - because this is not ogygia and leo is not those heroes that came before him and perhaps their little paradise is not as perfect as they want it to be.
the repairs come to an end. festus whirs happily to life. calypso rolls up a handwritten recipe for rice noodles and places it in her bag.
they fly.
they take a break in the scottish countryside. the grass is green and damp when they land at dawn, and the wind whips fiercely through calypso's hair, stinging her face. she can't wipe a ridiculously goofy smile off her face.
leo grins at her. they locate a local inn and, after sending off festus and renting out a room for the night, head off in search of food.
the pub they find is packed with friendly drunks watching the television, groups of friends loudly singing incorrect lyrics, and quiet, morose loners. they drink scottish whiskey and eat fillet and mashed potatoes, and the pub owner inquires about their stay.
vacationing before the semester starts, leo says surprisingly smoothly, his fingers tapping rapidly on the wooden tabletop. friends in scotland.
calypso raises an eyebrow amusedly and asks teasingly: assuming we'd pass a semester of school? and there's no way anyone would buy that you have friends.
leo grins but his eyes look far away again, briefly. he leans back in the booth seat and looks at her.
not here, at least, he says. the grin looks awfully out of place.
it frustrates her that it's such a simple answer that he cannot see. but she doesn't want to fight, because the warm lights of the pub and the whiskey are making her sleepy even with the loud drunken chatter.
the two of them stumble back to the inn and leo collapses, fully clothed, on the bed, but calypso stays awake and watches the moon rise over rolling green hills.
she remembers ogygia and its palm trees and flat land and her invisible servants and thinks, neither are mine.
her heart aches, sometimes, for her old home. late at night, when leo is asleep or tinkering or repairing festus and she has time to look around her and just stare in pure disbelief. but then leo makes a bad joke or their banter kicks off or he presents her with a little invention - a crank-up elephant, once; and a celestial bronze rose with a smile and a for you, sunshine - and any homesickness (which she never thought she'd have) fades as suddenly and unpredictably as it arrived.
those nights, calypso and leo wander back to wherever they're staying the night and fall in love all over again.
when they leave scotland, it's a fairly quiet ride. they can't hear much over the wind, anyway.
the statue of liberty comes into view below them, a glistening green figure shrouded in fog.
new york looks cold and warm all at once to leo, if only because he knows his home is not far.
they land a half mile outside of camp half-blood's borders and leo sees a camper along the edge double take when they see him and calypso (although that may have something to do with the fact that they are accompanied by a metal dragon).
the camper shouts something, and after calypso's nudge he realizes its his name and the voice calling it is piper.
piper, his best friend.
he sees her figure grow larger and realizes she's running towards him and screaming his name and other campers have begun to follow, gathering at the edge of camp and six more eventually breaking out to run towards him, too.
calypso looks at him. go, she says.
leo starts. calypso, he says. i -
i know, she answers.
no, he says, and it's stronger. i couldn't have come back without you.
calypso's smile is as radiant as sunlight reflecting on celestial bronze even as she rolls her eyes slightly. she steps back from him and leo runs.
when he crashes into piper he lets her wrap her arms around his neck so tight he almost can't breathe and later, later she will punch him in the face for what he put her through, put all of them through, you big idiot - but for now she just cries and so does he, admittedly, and after a few seconds the rest of their friends join them.
and his heart, which had stopped for some time and then started again, whirring and creaking and stuttering along, feels fixed.