LEO
They were back on the island.
It was a dark and stormy night.
They were back on the island.
It was a slightly darker and stormier night.
They were back on the island.
Leo was asleep before he could see it was a pitch black and broiling sky kind of night, but he figured it was probably, again, some kind of a dark and stormy night.
Leo was sick of being back on the island.
It was like someone was messing with the sun to make it seem later than it was, like when you wake up at three in the morning but read the time wrong on the clock and think it's seven. A scenario in which Leo would still go back to bed. But that kind of thing.
It was disorienting and Groundhog Day-ish and they were clearly all sick of it.
No one had any dreams.
No one had any plans.
"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds like we're a bunch of slacker teenagers who won't do what anyone says," Leo said.
"Are you suggesting that we're not a bunch of slacker teenagers and will do what anyone says?" Piper said, munching carefully at the edges of a granola bar.
The others smiled and Calypso actually giggled.
Although no one seemed to notice, she covered her mouth abruptly and took a sudden and keen interest in her water bottle.
Leo turned his attention back to the fire which was slowly beginning to sputter and prodded the logs unconsciously with his hand.
"Leo," Frank said softly from beside him.
"Mm-hm."
"Can you maybe, I dunno, not do that?"
Leo looked at him distractedly. "Do what?"
"You know, the whole 'Oh look, it's a flameless candle, watch me put my hand in it' thing…" Frank shifted uncomfortably, his ears and cheeks reddening noticeably, not just from the firelight.
"Get yours now for just two easy payments of 9.99! But wait, there's more!" Leo said, doing his best impression of the QVC hostess and removing his hand, much to Frank's obvious relief and much laughing.
"What is a 'flameless candle'?" Eugene grumbled directly between Leo and Franks' heads. Both jumped, Frank perhaps a little more spastically, and all Leo could think was, Gods, right when we've gotten used to Nico sneaking up on us like that, now there are two of them.
"Without the fire, when would simply the wax be required?"
The hippogriff was thoroughly confused.
"Well, you see, Eugene, there is a flame, but it's false, and as for the wax, I guess it's needed by default," Leo said.
"But then is it a candle, if the properties are off? I would think that beside a real one, at it anyone would scoff." Eugene was serious about this.
Unfortunately for everyone else, so was Leo. "Oh, no, certainly not, for the properties aren't wrong. When you put them all together, the light produced is very strong."
"You perplex me, demigod-boy, but I will accept your explanation. For now, I suppose your experience provides your words a certain justification." Eugene bowed his head respectfully and backed away from the fire once more, obviously done with the conversation.
"Did you just win a rap battle with a hippogriff?" Percy said.
"Is that surprise that I hear, Jackson? Oh please, I only gave him a fraction. My skills are never-ending, just like Star Wars and endothermic reactions!"
"Do you even know what an endothermic reaction is?" Annabeth said with a weary smile.
"'Course," Leo said, grinning widely. "It's some heat thing you learn about in science class that no one ever remembers about."
"He's not wrong," Piper said.
"Gods, well I am going to bed," Annabeth said, standing up and shuffling stiffly off to the tents.
"Good-morning," Percy called after her.
"Good-afternoon!" Leo added.
"Bonne nuit!" Piper said, earning some odd looks from Jason, Frank, and Nico. "What?" she smiled.
Leo began tapping a knuckle on the rock he was sitting on, a little pattern of morse, to which he got even stranger looks. He shrugged. "Hey what can I say, I just have to have the last word."
