No matter where you were on board the Argo II, you could faintly hear Leo running up and down the ship "HAZZEEEELLLLLLL". You could also hear it quite loudly. Leo pounded his feet on the floorboards of the decks, racing up and down to find Hazel. "Hazel!" He burst into her room.

"Leo, what!?" Hazel asked exasperatedly. She jumped apart from Frank, who was sitting right beside her. Leo covered his eyes quickly, proclaiming something about 'can not unsee.' Hazel rolled her eyes affectionately at Leo, and said "Relax Leo. We weren't kissing or anything."

Leo peeked from behind his hand, replying "Sure you weren't..." Remembering why he was there, he spoke up again. "Hazel! I need your help with the astrolabe, please-"

"Leo I won't help you with your project. I've tried helping, and it hasn't helped." Hazel sighed.

"Yes but I've had an amazing idea! If you'd just-"

"Leo."

"Hear me out!" Leo shouted.

Hazel appeared to consider it. Finally, she rolled her eyes and followed Leo out of the room, Frank tailing the pair before splitting off in search of Jason. Once back inside the engine room, Leo turned to face Hazel.

"Okay. Here's the Great Valdez Plan." Leo said, a familiar excitement settling in. "Do you remember how the crystal wasn't magnetic and wasn't going to be part of a compass?"

"...yes?"

"Sweet. How good at you with controlling the mist?"

"...good?"

"Great. Can you make images of places appear?"

"...yes? Leo how is this a plan?" Hazel asked.

"Just listen!" Leo said. "Well, hopefully, if you can work the mist so that we can view Ogygia...well, then we just might be able set the Sphere's compass to Ogygia... of course... I'd have to configure the astrolabe and crystal with just the right combination to the Sphere so the location could continuously be tracked..." Leo rambled on in deep concentration, the cogs in his mind running smoothly and freely.

Hazel laughed, "So should we get started?" She asked.


It was the day after The Great Valdez Prank, and Leo was enjoying a rare sleep in. Calypso was tending to the garden, as it was their primary source of food. Collecting a few vegetables in her basket, Calypso brushed off her jeans and shut the gate into the garden patch.

She'd enjoyed expanding her range of clothing in the modern world. It was full of strange things, like women wearing pants, and men wearing necklaces. She'd seen long-haired men and short-haired women. She'd even seen upper thighs displayed for the public to see!

It was a culture shock, to say the least. Clothing was a much more personal decision and Calypso felt that she could wear almost anything she wanted and it would be accepted. Most of the time, she wore jeans though.

Calypso had slowly learnt more about the modern world. Movies were like plays, and cinemas were like auditoriums. Pictures were like paintings, and phones were like messengers. Leo had been eager to show her everything, but it had taken Calypso some time to learn that a voice on the telephone did not come from someone trapped inside.

So he stopped trying to show her everything at once, seeing that it was too much for her. When she had a question, she asked him. Calypso often felt embarrassed, but Leo never made fun of her.

As Calypso put the vegetables in the 'refrigerator', she thought about how much Leo had helped her transition. He'd been kind, and patient; something she never expected from him.

Calypso noticed a lack in supply for a few items in the refrigerator. Then she checked the pantry. They were running low. Even though the garden supplied most of their diet, they still bought certain things like tea, coffee, sugar, milk, cheese, flour... You get the idea.

Just as Calypso was jotting down a list, Leo groggily made his way into the kitchen, reaching for the coffee capsules. Leo had built a coffee machine (after explaining to Calypso what coffee actually was) that could handle any type of coffee capsule, or beans, or instant coffee.

Because Leo obviously didn't have enough energy as it was.

"Hey, there's not much coffee left." He said.

"Yes there's not much of anything left." Calypso replied.

"Oh...wait, that means a shopping trip!" Leo perked up, grinning suspiciously at Calypso.

Calypso paled, "Oh no, I'm not going..."

"Yes you are Cally! Come on, you've never been to the supermarket! Just come, it'll be an adventure." Leo tried to persuade her.

"Ugh, fine... But you owe me Valdez." Calypso rolled her eyes (still smiling though) as Leo grabbed her arms and swung her around.

"Thanks Sunshine!" Leo raced out of the room in fear of Calypso's wrath.

Calypso snarled, "Don't...call me...that."

Calypso expected that they would be taking Festus to get there, so she was surprised when Leo handed her a small piece of paper.

"Bus ticket." Leo answered with a grin on his face. Calypso frowned; confused. "Just wait. You're really in for an adventure."

Twenty minutes later and they had walked to the nearest 'bus stop'. Calypso sat down on the bench, shielding her eyes from the August sun.

"Yes! Don't have to wait for ages. Hey Cally, the bus should be here in one minute!" Leo looked at the bus schedule, bouncing with excitement. He knew Calypso had yet to see much of the city life, so rather than just taking her to some local convenience store, he'd chosen to take her to a shopping center. Not that she knew this yet, but Leo was sure today was going to be important.

"So what are we doing, Leo?" Calypso asked. She did not like being left in the dark.

"We have some very important bus-iness." Leo joked lamely. "Get it? Get it? Because we're catching a bus-"

"I get it." Calypso was used to Leo's antics by now.

Leo's shoulders drooped, "It's hilarious, Cally. And you know it!" He perked up, a huge grin spilling across his face.

Calypso found the corners of her lips tilting upwards, smiling (reluctantly) at Leo. His jokes were always horrible, but they still seemed to make her smile. It was almost a standard procedure. He would joke. She would shut him down. He would retaliate. She would laugh when he wasn't looking.

The bus rolled in, and Leo jumped on, signalling for Calypso to do the same. She frowned at the unfamiliar vehicle; she'd seen something like it in her movies, but the experience was still a strange one. She hopped on, copying Leo as she showed the driver her metrocard. She followed Leo down the bus, gripping onto the seats as they took a seat on the left. Calypso was sitting in the window seat, and as the bus started driving Calypso felt herself grip the seat in front of her very tightly.

"Relax, Sunshine. Team Leo's got you covered." Leo made a fist pump in the air put his arm around Calypso. The contact burned Calypso's shoulders, and she struggled to focus on making a comeback.

"Yeah, that's why I'm worried," She managed to shoot back, a blush threatening to spill over her face.

"Oh please" Leo teased, getting dangerously close to her face, "You love me."

Leo suddenly realised how close he had gotten. He often fell into moments like this, when he was joking around her and suddenly became...aware of everything. His senses were set on fire, as he could feel her breath and realise the exact area of the skin he was touching and how she smelt and he could see every little detail in her eyes and...

Leo blinked, bringing himself back to reality. He hastily removed his arm from her shoulders, and tried to still them in his lap. He ended up just bouncing up and down, as he was unable to ever be still.

"Gods, can you stop that?" Calypso rubbed her temples, "You're so annoying."

"Sorry. You just need to give some good ol' lovin' to the Leo master." Leo grinned. Calypso looked out the window, mesmerised as the scenery flew past. More houses were appearing, and a good forty-five minutes later they were well and truly in the city.

Calypso hadn't properly been in a modern city, but she still recognised a city when she saw one. Much was the same: the hustle, the traffic, the shops, the dirty smells, the food smells, the number of people, the tall and crowded buildings.

Leo breathed in deeply as the two of them jumped off the bus. There was a hot dog stand right next to them. "Ah, good old NYC." He said.

Calypso frowned, "Wait a second, where are we? What city is this?" She asked, looking around the busy streets.

Leo wrapped one arm around her, and with the other hand gestured wildly into the air, "We're in NYC. The Big Apple. The Center Of The Universe. New York. NY. The Big City. The City That Never Sleeps-"

"Shut up Leo. Did we really have to come all this way for a bit of shopping?" Calypso interrupted.

"Nope! Come on!" Leo dragged Calypso along the footpath, weaving in and out of people as if he was wading through waves. Calypso had somehow lost her usual graceful demeanor, and was crowded by the...well...crowds. She bumped into people left and right, mumbling apologies and rushing to keep up with Leo.

"Leo! Wait." She panted, her hand grabbing his arm. Leo glanced down at her hand, trying to subtly tense his muscles so they could seem bigger...what? Leo felt he was still scrawny. And there was a girl to impress.

"It's all good, Cally. We're here." Leo said, gesturing to the tall building in front of them.

"What is it? It's about as big as a palace." Calypso asked.

"It's called a department store. Come on! We've got work to do!" Leo bounded inside, Calypso hot on his heels.

It was huge. They were on the fourth level, where there was stacks of food. As in, HUGE amounts on SHELVES piled high and DISPLAYS and AISLES (what were they?) and THERE WAS SO MUCH. Calypso's jaw dropped open, and she marveled at what was in front of her.

Leo tapped under her chin, forcing her to close it, "You'll catch flies in your mouth if it stays open aaaaany longer. Okay here's how it works. You see the sign above each aisle? That's a column by the way. Yeah well they say the main things that are in each aisle. We need some milk, so we'll go to aisle 3..." Leo started to steer a stunned Calypso, with a trolley in front of him.

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Leo had fled off riding the trolley, leaving Calypso with a huge bag of sugar. He was so full of energy, he could've eaten the big bag of sugar.

"Leo!" She shouted, then quietened down when she saw the people around her.

"Cally hop on! This is so much fun!" Leo shot past her again, swiftly dodging an elderly woman with her grandchildren.

"I'm not 'hopping on' to your death cart!" Calypso retorted, ignoring the hated name.

Leo whizzed past, grabbing onto Calypso and swinging her onto the side. Leo was riding in the trolley, but Calypso was left hanging on the outside, her knuckles turning white with tension.

"Leo!" She scolded good-naturedly. People split to the sides of the aisle as the two rushed down it. Calypso let out a laugh, enjoying being a rowdy teenager. She was also enjoying the way that Leo was clutching onto her waist to make sure she didn't fall off.

"You two! Dismount at once!" A booming voice interrupted Calypso's thoughts. Leo heard it too, and quickly turned around to see who had said it. In doing so, his grasp on Calypso loosened, and Calypso found herself falling into shelves full of canned tomatoes.

"Sorry Cally!" Leo yelled out, trying to turn around to Calypso. He smashed into the opposite side of the aisle, a bag of pasta spilling on his head.

"Listen, hooligans! You-" in the time that a scary security lady had been stomping over, Leo and Calypso only needed to take one look at each other to start speeding off. They ran, Leo grabbing their shopping trolley, to the checkout. Calypso just sat back as Leo loaded everything onto the conveyor belt. They had no time to explain to Calypso how it worked. Calypso spotted a red faced women stomping towards them.

"Leo! Hurry!" She prodded his arm. "She's coming!"

Leo glanced back, "Duck!" He whispered, and dragged Calypso down to the ground.

"You idiot!" Calypso turned to Leo, whispering. "She will still see us!"

"Well, have you got better idea?" Leo asked.

"Hey do you guys have a frequent flyer card?" The cashier asked.

"Not now!" The two teenagers said together.

"And what's a frequent flyer card?" Calypso asked.

"She's coming! Do something!" Leo pointed.

"Like what?"

"Anything!" Leo answered exasperatedly.

Calypso quickly looked at the approaching woman, and then at the aisle at the opposite end of the store. Then she had an idea. Calypso hoped to the Gods that it would work, and not attract all manner of monsters. She worked her magic, sending a display of salsa into a pile of mess.

The security woman's attention snapped to the scene of the crime, muttering something about "those damn teenagers again" and stormed off. Right past them. Without even looking at the pair.

"Thank Gods Calypso!" Leo hugged Calypso. She blushed, and stood up, trying to hide it.

"Hi," Leo casually greeted the cashier. He was an acne-scarred teenager wearing the company uniform. He was chewing gum and wore a gold necklace.

The cashier's eyes bulged. "Leo?" He asked.

Leo's expression mirrored the cashier. "David? No way!"

"It's been ages! I couldn't believe it when you guys disappeared at the Grand Canyon."

"Yeah, well, that hole was pretty similar to the good old Wilderness school. How have you been?" Leo asked.

"Eh. Got expelled. It's all cool though. I live here with my boy West. What about you?" David still processed their shopping as he chatted with Leo.

"Same old. Was being pushed through practically every single foster home in the country. Ended up with a surprisingly good one. Anyway, sorry, David this is my...housemate Calypso. Cally, this is an old friend of mine from the school that Piper, Jason and I all went to." Leo introduced the two.

Calypso had been fascinated the way that Leo had been able to twist the truth so easily. "Nice to meet you" She shyly smiled.

"Same here. You a foster kid too?" David asked. "That's $128, by the way. I'm impressed man if you two have that kinda money. West and I are living off mcdonalds. Doing wonders for my flawless skin." He joked.

"Something like that." Calypso decided she might as well twist the story too. "Leo was kinda running through my home when we met. And then we ran away."

"Wait, so you two are like... a thing?" David asked, handing Leo the change.

The pair instantly froze up. Then they started babbling.

"Do you mean like a...couple?" That was Calypso.

"No. Not us." That was Leo.

"Because we're not a couple."

"That's kinda weird that you would think that."

"We just live together. And work together."

"We're just good friends."

"But we're not... together."

David watched in amusement at the two increasingly reddening faces. "Whatever," He smirked, "See you around, Leo."

"Yup. See ya." Leo mumbled, grabbing the bags before Calypso had a chance. They stepped into the elevator silently.

"That was weird." Calypso said.

"Yep." Leo awkardly agreed.

"Does all this always happen when you go shopping?"


The two of them were now standing at the entrance of the subway. Leo had stuffed all the bags in his tool belt, which he had kept in his backpack. Calypso peered down the stairs.

"Leo where are we going?" Calypso asked.

"Home. Don't worry." Leo gave Calypso's hand a squeeze, causing Calypso's heart to skip a beat. The two descended down underground, and Calypso could feel the hairs on her arm to stand up. Soon they were on the 'platform', after dealing with tickets. Calypso hadn't been paying much attention to it, Leo did most of the work.

"Why aren't we taking the bus?" Calypso asked Leo, sitting close to him on the seat. Leo felt a lump rise in his throat, remembering David's remark.

"Because I wanted to show you the subway." Leo shrugged nonchalantly, trying to forget the fact that one side of his arm was pressed against the most beautiful girl in the world. And that he had no chance. Also there was the fact that she was nearly the same age as his old babysitter Tia. Also that his arm felt like he was on fire. Huh, Leo wondered, this is what it must feel like to other people when you're on fire.

"Okay." Calypso answered, not moving from her position. She was cold. Leo wasn't.

"Do you want my jacket again?" He asked quietly, leaning close to her. "You know I don't feel the cold."

"No, it's okay." Calypso gritted her teeth. She didn't want to rely on Leo. "You sure? We still have a while until the train arrives."

"2 minutes is not 'a while', Leo."

"How did you know we only have 2 minutes?" Leo asked.

"You told me." Calypso deadpanned. "And what's a train?"

Leo smiled, "You'll see. But first put my jacket on."

Calypso groaned as he put his jacket around her shoulders. Leo heard this, but continued anyway. The pair fell into a comfortable silence, the noise around them compensating for that. Leo thought more about what David had said. the two already did 'couple-ly' things already: lived together, ate together, had dinner and a movie regularly (okay, it was always at their house), spent most of their time together, she wore his clothes a lot, they looked out for each other.

Leo, not for the first time, wondered what it would be like to actually date Calypso.


I AM SO SORRY FOR BEING AWAY IT HAS BEEN SO BUSY I JUST FINISHED MY PERFORMANCE SHOW SEASON AND THIS IS A SHIT CHAPTER BUT ALSO I AM SO EXCITED FOR BLOOD OF OLYMPUS WHOSE WITH ME?

xxx

*two weeks later*: okay i thought my new beta would get back to me on this but ITS BEEN TWO WEEKS SO IM FEELING REBELLIOUS IMMA POST IT RIGHT NOW