Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. Sorry!
Piper had caught up with Leo a little while later, with a few other Aphrodite girls, who were giggling.
He was in the forges, whipping out weapon after weapon, taking advantage of being
immune to fire, showing off to his siblings. In the middle of dipping a sword in cold water, Leo was interrupted by Argo, who's nose was centimetres away from being burned.
"Interesting!" She poked at the hot metal, which was now cooling rapidly, blissfully unaware of shouts of protest behind her.
"The style you have is great, but it would really be balanced better if.. What?" Argo looked up, and saw everyone staring at her.
"Nothing to see here folks! Continue on! Ignore painful-looking burn!" Leo ushered Argo to the door, blocking her hand from view. "But I'm not hurt!" Argo said, holding up her finger so he could see. "See?" Leo turned her hand over in his examining it. Why wasn't she burned? "Yes you are!" She brought her finger up close to her eye, then stuck it in her mouth.
"That sword was sharper than I thought." She said around her finger.
Piper cleared her throat.
Leo then had noticed he was still holding Argos other hand. He couldn't remember taking it in the first place. He didn't let go. "Hi there, Beauty Queen." Piper smiled, along with the rest of the girls with her.
"Sorry we had to take her from you, but she needed something to wear other than your jacket." Piper was holding the hoodie out in front of her like it was contaminated. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with Albert!" Leo took his hoodie back, and managed to stuff it down into his tool belt."You name your clothes?" Piper said, raising an eyebrow. "I name my shoes!" another girl spoke up.
"Yes, I do! And you have offended Albert!"
Leo felt Argo squeeze his hand. She had stopped looking at the blood on her finger and was holding her stomach, looking pained.
The was dancing on the spot, jumping from foot to foot. "My innards hurt. What's wrong with me?" Leo heard a loud growling noise and laughed. "Oh, man that's right! You've never eaten before!" The conch had sounded, signalling lunch. "You, my friend, are about to be amazed."
Piper watched Leo and Argo from her table. Leo was trying to convince her to eat a chicken nugget, while Argo was busy discovering the wonders of ice cream. As well as chocolate milk, chocolate cake, and chocolate sauce, in which she was dunking her French fries and burrito into.
Piper had smiled, they were perfect together.
Earlier, Piper had learned very quickly Argo could not be trusted to choose her own clothes. The result had been a disaster. Instead, she had managed to coax Argo into wearing a pair of turquoise shorts and a white blouse. She had said no to twenty-five other outfits, including a camp t-shirt. Argo had borrowed twenty-one articles of clothing, not including undergarments.
She had also blatantly refused to wear shoes, no matter how nice or beat up they were. Piper would of charmspoken, but it hadn't seemed fair at the time. She was just so innocent. Piper sighed. Leo either didn't care or had not noticed yet. Probably the latter. She watched as Leo tried to spin a doughnut around on his finger, which Argo had copied, failing miserably, just like Leo. Both of the pastries had landed in an Apollo campers soup.
The couple ducked down, as the soup-covered camper looked in their direction. Yup, absolutely perfect, Piper thought, as another doughnut sailed through the air.
Leo shifted in his spot on the bed, barely noting the small contraption he was making. He was definitely going to need a new pillowcase.
After lunch, Argo had led him on a tour of the camp, dragging Leo everywhere, asking him what everything was. All the sugar from lunch had not been a good idea, as she was more hyperactive than him, which was saying something.
"Whoa what's that? Do you think it will kill me? I guess lots of things can kill me, but it depends on whether- Hey! Is that lava? Why is it on a climbing wall? That won't kill me. Hi, Juniper!"
The entire sugar high had lasted way longer than normal, because word had got around about Argo, and everyone had wanted to meet her. Including Travis and Connor Stoll, who had decided it would be an excellent idea to introduce her to caffeine. It was in the following three hours that Leo had finally relaxed since the seven had began their quest, even in the insanity that had ensued.
After dinner, there was some debate on where Argo would sleep, and Chiron was adamant, despite many protests, that she would not stay in the Hephaestus cabin. Leo's cheeks had set on fire, looking like a very weird pikachu.
Argo had spoke up, now wearing shoes (due to Chiron's insistence), "I'll stay with The Aphrodite cabin, if its okay with them." She said and glanced at Piper, who agreed.
"Don't let them near you while you're sleeping," Leo warned, "Or tomorrow lipstick will be permanently stuck on your face." Argo had just laughed.
Now, unable to sleep, Leo got up and rose silently.
Throwing on Albert, he made his way outside towards the woods. He needed to get to Bunker Nine. Too much had happened, and Leo had not expected nightmares.
The cleaning harpies had learned to leave him alone a long time ago. One burst of flame and they were gone.
Leo placed his hand on the cold stone. Concentrating, he sent flames running down his arm into his hand. The door opened.
Walking in, The Argo II stood, majestically empty. Leo made a beeline for it. Climbing up the ladder, he thought he heard a small hiccup. His hands were immediately ablaze. If anyone was messing with his ship..
There was silence. Leo put it down as sleep deprivation. As soon as his feet were on the deck, there was something wrong. He gripped the rail. It was like all the life from the Argo II had been sucked out.
The vessel itself, what made it seem like home, it was all gone. Even Festus, who creaked out happily when Leo asked him for a damage report, seemed slightly empty. His eyes were dim, like someone had messed with his settings, scrambling them into gibberish. Leo wanted to scream.
Or kill. But he just started working. He made his way around the ship, remembering all of the memories he had made in each space. He talked with Festus the whole time, glad the dragon figurehead was keeping him company.
Leo went into a different state. Focusing on what he could fix, despite the fact that the Argo II would probably never be used again in his lifetime. Leo put all of his hurt into working. As he hammered a floorboard back in, he hid everything wrong underneath it. Each nail was a seal.
Wap. Nico was gone. Wap. How hollow Hazel looked nowadays. Wap. How lonely Piper was without Jason. Wap. How shattered Percy and Annabeth were. Wap. How they tried to hid it. Leo got up and walked to the engine room. Everything checked out, a little too well. Somebody had already been there. By the looks of the engine though, they didn't know the ship well enough to find the tools, so the repairs had been makeshift.
As he rounded the corner, Leo spotted a tangle of wires, and immediately started unknotting them. Leo saw why the stranger had not attempted it. They would need a certain pick that was rare and very specific to the problem. Leo smiled smugly.
He summoned the tool and began to disassemble the mess. "That's a number two pick. You need a triple three spike." A small voice sounded behind him, catching Leo by surprise. He turned around, about to argue, then came face to face with Argo. She was sitting on the floor, her hands cut and greasy. Her dark, red hair was pulled back, and her too-big camp shirt and shorts were stained and ripped. Her eyes had rims under them, like she had been there all night, working. She was beautiful. "Look."
Leo stared at her. She just sighed. "I tried using a toothpick, but it snapped." Leo nodded, reluctant. Sure enough, she was right. She watched, quietly. Leaning against the wall, Argo occasionally corrected Leo about small things, not enough to annoy him, but enough to help. When he was done, Leo put his weight on the wall, sinking to the floor, next to her. Argo just sat there, looking tired. Finally, she spoke. "I missed this." She looked up, staring across the room. "Just you and me."
"And Festus." Leo put in. Argo forced out a weak chuckle. "Look at this place, Leo. So empty." She fingered a necklace that Leo had not noticed before. On it was a small circle. In the circle was a number. Seven, he read. He wondered what that meant. Argo interrupted his thoughts. "No one will ever make this home again." She was silent for a long time and then Leo realized tears were rolling down her cheeks. She hugged her legs to chest. Leo had no idea what he should do.
What do you do when a girl is crying?
He scooted closer and put an arm around her, awkwardly. "Hey, it's okay. Don't cry. It's fine. Don't- it's fine."
She looked up, feeling her face. "Is that what I'm doing?" Her voiced rough. She looked at her wet hands. "Is it bad to cry?" Leo pulled her closer, unsure of what else he should do. She was almost on his lap now. "No, no. It's good to cry. It just means that you're.. Sad." Her eyes welled up again, and her arms flew around Leo.
Sobs racked her body, huge, heartbroken sobs. She let loose all the pain she felt in the only way she knew how.
Leo felt almost afraid to touch her, but slowly moved reached down and hugged her. They sat like that for a while. Holding each other, in the engine room, greasy, and tired, the only sound being Argo, crying into Leo's shirt.
When she finally stopped, she was curled up against him, facing the opposite direction. Argo put her head on his shoulder.
"Thank you." Argo said quietly, so Leo could barely hear. "No problem."
When she didn't say anything else, he looked over and realized she was asleep. Leo sighed, and sunk lower on the wall. His arms were still around her.
"Squeak!" It was Festus. "Creak, creak!"
Leo's finger lit up. So did his face, blushing.
"Shut up!"