Because of issues with the ship, the heroes were delayed. They had to spend an extra day on the ship while Leo fixed everything while everyone else whined and asked "are we there yet?". They eventually went to bed after spending all day lounging around and telling stories, and the next day, early on a promising morning, they were going home.

Annabeth

Annabeth stood at the front of the Argo II looking into the trees in front of her. She could see where the valley was a few miles ahead. Camp Halfblood was waiting for them.

Percy walked up from behind her and lifted her arms, so that they were looking out of the ship Titanic style. Annabeth laughed and turned and gave him a big, warm hug.

"Percy, we're going home!" She said, snuggling her head into his chest. She was so happy to be going back to the place that was a part of her, to the place where she had grown up, to the place where she was safest. He hugged her back tightly, and they rocked back and forth, both of them grinning.

Piper

Piper walked above deck, where she found Annabeth and Percy in a large bear hug. She was about to turn around, when someone grabbed her from behind and wrapped their arms around her, too. She wiggled around and faced her boyfriend, then smiled and slid her arms behind him.

"Jason, we're almost there!" She marveled.

He laughed and played with the eagle's feather in her hair with one hand, the other hand holding her tightly.

Percy

Frank burst above deck with Hazel bouncing along on his back piggyback-style. The two laughed and ran to Percy, Annabeth, Piper, and Jason, and he put her down and they joined the group.

"Camp Half Blood!" Said Percy.

"I know!" Said Hazel.

"Karate chop!" Said Coach Hedge. Everyone turned to look at him, and he chuckled and chewed on his baseball bat. Everyone smiled, despite the fact that Coach Hedge was hopelessly obnoxious. They still loved him. They loved their camp. They were going home.

"Where's Nico?" Hazel wondered.

"Right here!" Nico called from the crows nest, then promptly vanished. He returned in a shadow a few feet away from Frank, making him jump. Everyone else giggled. Wow, Percy thought. Nico could be so optimistic when he wanted to be.

"Great," said Annabeth, "now we're just missing Leo and Calypso."

Leo

Leo woke up next to Calypso. Instantly, he knew something was wrong. For one thing, he was shirtless. For another, there was nectar on the bedside table, and he felt warm inside like he had been drinking a lot of it.

Oh, Gods, he thought. Too much nectar can kill you.

Maybe the nectar was the reason he couldn't remember the details of last night. He rolled over and put a hand on Calypso's shoulder and shook her.

"Wake up," he said, worried. Calypso groggily sat up. She was wearing his army jacket, and her hair was sticking out in all directions. Leo realized that his was, too.

"Good morning," he said to her. He felt sick. He realized that his chest was smooth with sweat, and he felt cold. He pulled a blanket around himself.

"Did you sleep well?" Asked Calypso. Leo stared at her until realization hit her, and her eyes widened. She frantically shot out of bed and put a hand on her forehead.

"No, no, no no..." she murmered. "We didn't. We couldn't. That's impossible."

But it was clear.

Leo stared at his blanket-covered form, and Calypso paced back and forth across the room.

"Calypso." Leo felt awful.

"Calypso," he said again.

She whirled around. "Leo, did we really?"

Leo nodded.

"Agh!" She growled. "Consent! We didn't practice consent!"

Leo felt like he was going to throw up. "Did you not want to?" He asked.

"I didn't not want to," she replied.

"I didn't not want to either," Leo said. "Since neither of us didn't want to, but neither of us gave consent, what does that make it?"

Calypso sighed. "That makes us really irresponsible, but it's okay. Well, it's not okay. But I'm okay. If I didn't want to, I would have objected. Then again, I don't remember anything. Well, I remember a little, but not a lot." Her thoughts were all over the place.
Leo shook his head. "Same."

"Leo, you were the first."
Leo gaped at her. She was immortal, and Leo had been the first. After years upon years, Leo had been the first.

"You were the first for me, too."

Calypso covered her mouth with her hand like she was thinking. "How do we deal with this?" She asked. "What do we do now?"

Leo had no idea. "We pray that neither of us got hurt in any way, and hope the others don't find out."

Calypso

Calypso and Leo decided to reemerge from the bedrooms five minutes apart so they didn't look suspicous. Calypso went first.

"Hey, guys!" She said, waving to the group of happy heroes. The words "happy" and "heroes" didn't generally go together, seeing as the life of a hero is incredibly difficult and, well, terrible. But today was an exception. They were definitely happy, and their camp seemed to be about one mile away.

"I can't wait for you to see Camp Half Blood!" Cried Annabeth. Calypso smiled. She loved how Annabeth tried to make her feel welcome. Annabeth was cool.

Leo appeared. "Hola!" He said, grinning. "Today's the day we get back!"

"Actually, we get back right now," said Coach Hedge. The ship began to dip down from the sky, to which Hazel responded with a little squeal.

"Will the Romans be there?" Jason asked.

Coach Hedge nodded. "Yeah, they've been there for about a week. Both camps are almost done being rebuilt."
"How do you know?" Asked Annabeth.

"Because I've been iris messaging my wife," said Coach Hedge, grinning. "I've kept this a secret, but today's a happy day, and for demigods, you don't suck that much, so I guess I can tell you." They rolled their eyes, and the coach continued. "I've been iris messaging my wife because she is going to have a baby."

Everyone cried out in joy and surprise, except for Leo, who looked like he was going to throw up, and Calypso, who touched her fingers to her stomach without thinking.

The Argo II landed on Half Blood Hill. Without saying a word, Leo whooped and swung a rope ladder over the edge, then scrambled down and went sprinting down the hill. The others followed, and Coach Hedge helped Calypso, who was new to all of this. The eight heroes, the satyr, and the goddess started in a sprint and then broke into a huge charge, screaming and whooping and hollering as they raced through the trees, pulled by gravity and love and the pull of their home. They darted in and out of trees, and from above they would have looked like minnows darting through a stream, except minnows couldn't shout, and if they could, they wouldn't have ever sounded nearly as blissful or happy.

When the demigods, satyr, and goddess got to the end of the hill, they all fell down in a mass and laughed, covered in grass stains and shrouded in greatness and joy.

A crowd of other demigods surrounded them, some wearing orange shirts and others wearing purple. A girl, Reyna (Calypso had heard a lot about her), was at the front of the crowd, and for once she wasn't wearing a cape. She wore a purple shirt with jeans and Converse hightops, and her hair fell over her shoulders. And her serious expression was completely gone. She dropped to her knees and took Jason's head in her lap, and held onto Frank and Hazels hands.

"My brave little Romans!" She cried. The others looked at her, and she cleared her throat and laughed a little. "And Greeks," she added.

A satyr and a red headed girl pushed through the crowd.

"Grover!" Percy shouted, and the satyr ran towards him and swallowed him in the biggest hug Calypso had ever witnessed. Percy hugged the satyr so tightly that he lifted him off of the ground.

"I missed you, bro!" Said Percy, still squeezing him.

The satyr, Grover, murmered something back, but he was so deep into the hug that he couldn't speak. The friends let go of eachother, both red faced and happy.

The red headed girl waved excitedly, and soon became the next victim of one of Percy's bear hugs.

"Rachel!" He cried. "It's so good to see you!"

Rachel laughed. "You too!"

Grover hugged Annabeth only a little less forcefully than he and Percy had hugged, and this went on for about an hour, with heroes being reuinted with old friends and embracing them like they had been dreaming about doing for the entire journey.

The eight heroes eventually dispersed into their cabins (the Romans going to the cabin of the Greek equivilant to their parents) where they were provided with fresh clothes, nectar, and ambrosia.

Calypso didn't have a cabin to go to, so Leo led her to the Hephaestus cabin. Both of them turned down the nectar and ambrosia they were offered. They had had enough of that last night.

After brief showers and a change of clothes (and nectar and ambrosia for the others) the heroes began to feel healthier. They rejoined the other campers, and were given a hero's welcome.

They spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the lake with Naiads slipping through the cool green water beneath them like catfish at the bottom of the water.

Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, Leo, and Calypso all swam away from Nico as he frantically held his arms in front of him and screamed "Marco!"

Percy liked to make small currents around Nico and confuse him, and Frank kept turning into a fish and swimming past his leg, making him flinch.

"You are all cruel!" Nico shouted, laughing and crazily swinging his arms, trying to catch someone. Calypso let her guard down and Nico tagged her, and immediately everyone swam away from her. She huffed and closed her eyes, and shouted "Marco!"

"Polo!" She heard Leo shout. Oh, she was definitely going to tag Leo. She shrieked with laughter and swam to where she thought he was, and reached out her arms, smiling and trying to catch him. She heard laughter from behind her and she whirled around, and her mouth felt something. She opened her eyes, and Leo had kissed her.
"You touched me! You're it!" She shouted, splashing water on him. He splashed her back, closed his eyes, and yelled "Marco!"

"Polo!" Laughed everyone else.

Except for Nico, of course.

Nico

After a wonderful day of hugs, a hero's return, and some intense Marco Polo-ing, Nico lay in the grass with his six best friends.

Not to be mistaken with eight best friends. Leo and Calypso were not his friends.

Suddenly, Nico was aware of Leo and Calypso holding hands to the left of him. He groaned inwardly, and focused on the sky. It was brilliant.

"Wow," said Hazel, who was lying in the grass to his right. Nico smiled and took his half-sister's hand. She squeezed his.

Annabeth sighed. "It's... it's like Zeus spilled water colors all over the sky."

"Look at the trees," said Frank. "They look like drawings against the sunset."

And they did.

Nico had never seen an evening so beautiful, or taken part in such a beautiful day. The nine of them lay in the soft, gentle grass, listened to eachother's breathing, and were in harmony with the sun, the sky, and eachother.

"I love all of you," said Jason. Nico really appreciated Jason. Jason had been the first to know Nico's secret, and Nico trusted him with all of his heart. Nico loved Jason, too. And Piper. And Frank. And Hazel. And Percy. And Annabeth. Maybe Leo and Calypso, but probably not. Still, he felt close to everyone that had been aboard the Argo II.

"I love all of you too," said Nico. Except for the two people to my left, he added silently.

A conch shell blew in the distance signaling dinner. The demigods lay in the grass for a few more moments anyways before deciding to rejoin real life.

Leo

Leo stood and helped Calypso up, and she put her head on his shoulder as they walked. He felt like after this morning, they had been disconnected. They weren't close. They didn't have a bond anymore. Calypso felt distant. After something so big had happened, Leo had expected the opposite. Then again, in a world where you had to fight Titans and badly dressed dwarves daily, you leaned to quit expecting things. But now was not the time to think about those things. Now was the time to walk with his friends back to the pavilion, where they would eat dinner at Camp Half Blood for the first time in a long time.

Their boots made soft sweeping sounds in the grass as they walked under the artwork sky. Despite everything that had happened, Leo was happy.

Leo sat on a couch near the fire at the pavilion with Nico to his left and Percy to his right. Annabeth, Piper, and Hazel sat in the grass just outside of the pavilion and ate and giggled, Jason was speaking with Reyna, and Frank was talking to some Ares kids and looking uncomfortable. Calypso sat with a few satyrs, including Grover, who had his arm around her, and Coach Hedge had elected to spend the evening with his girlfriend, Millie. Everyone had settled in, and everyone was content (except for maybe Frank, who looked like he couldn't believe these people were his half-siblings). Leo jabbed his fork into his spaghetti and took a bite. Mmm.

Next to him, Percy was eating some sort of weird, blue cereal, and Nico munched on pomegranates.

Leo twirled more spaghetti, and accidentally dropped some onto the ground, coincidentially where Nico's foot happened to be. Nico turned and looked at him. After a few moments, Nico dug into a pomegranate with his spoon and plopped it onto Leo's foot.

"Even," said Nico solidly, although a smile peeked through his eyes.

"Nuh-uh," said Leo. "Mine was on accident. We aren't even at all."

"Yes we are. You got food on me, I got food on you."

Leo stared at Nico. Then he grinned and took a big forkful of spaghetti and flung it onto Nico's shoulder.

"Hey!" Nico exclaimed, picking up a pomegranate and throwing a few seeds at Leo. Leo squished noodles into Nico's hair, and Nico started throwing pomegranate guts at Leo. Leo put a meatball on his fork and pulled back, catapulting it right into Nico's nose. Nico grabbed two fistfulls of seeds and threw them at Leo, and they landed all over his shirt. The two boys laughed and flung food at eachother. If they hadn't just returned from a traumatizing quest, people might've said something. But instead, they joined in.

Percy dumped blue cereal all over Leo's head, and Nico was attacked by a pizza from behind.

Soon, every demigod at the pavilion was throwing some sort of food, and Nico and Leo were concealed by the chaos enough to almost love eachother. Almost.

A muffin hit Leo in the side of the face.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, turning to see Hazel standing there. He picked up a piece of chocolate cake and chucked it at her ear, and the gooey brown dessert was instantly stuck in her hair.

"Hey, that wasn't me, that was Frank!" She said, pelting him with grapes and laughing, because Frank was all the way across the pavilion and it definitely had not been Frank. Leo caught a few grapes and aimed as if he were going to hit her, but at the last second turned to Nico and shot him right in the forehead with a fat, purple concord. Mr. D cheered for him from across the pavilion.

The Ares kids were great at rapid-firing tomatoes, and the Aphrodite kids were excellent at chucking low-carb granola bars. Even Chiron, the camp leader and centaur, dunked a few people in chicken noodle soup. It was beautiful chaos, and the most fun Leo had had in a while. He really owed it to Nico. He turned around to say thank you, but as he did, an entire meatloaf sailed through the air and smacked his face. Once Leo wiped his face and got the meatloaf bits out, he found Nico standing across the room, smiling sheepishly. Thanks for the meatloaf, buddy, thought Leo, and he grinned as he threw food at the person he cared about most in the world.

Nico

Nico and Leo walked across a big field in front of the lake in silence with bits of food staining their clothes. They walked somewhat close to one another, and occasionally the swings of their arms would intersect and their hands would brush each other. Nico would always shove his hand in his pocket and look away, but eventually he would forget and take his hand out again, letting it swing and eventually touch Leo's hand again. Leo seemed so happy, and Nico resented it. He wanted Leo to feel sorry for leaving him, but he also didn't want to be the source of Leo's guilt. He really cared about Leo. Still, he wished that Leo wasn't so in love with Calypso.

Just as he was thinking about how much he would love to strangle the goddess and nymph of Ogygia, three people emerged from a nearby strawberry field and headed over to them. Nico stepped away from Leo a little, just in case he had looked suspicous before. As the three people came into view, Nico recognized them. Grover, some girl who was obviously an Aphrodite kid, and Calypso. Great.

"Hey!" Called Calypso cheerfully from across the field. They came closer and closer, until the group was a few feet away. Nico and Leo kept their distance, and both sides stood still.

"We need to talk to Leo!" Said the Aphrodite girl.

Nico slumped a little. Of course they only wanted to talk to Leo. Nico wasn't important.

He reminded himself that this was his last night at Camp Half Blood, and after tonight he was going to go to the Underworld where he didn't feel like a freak.

"No," said Leo, to Nico's surprise. "If you can't say it in front of Nico, you can't say it in front of me."

Nico hoped that nobody noticed him blushing.

Calypso shifted her weight.

"Um, Leo," she said, quieter than she had been before. "Its personal."

"Come over here, then," Leo responded. "That way we won't have to talk so loudly."

Calypso, Aphrodite girl, and Grover whipsered to eachother before looking back at Nico and Leo. Then Calypso sighed and motioned for her friends to follow her, and they closed the awkward space between the two groups so that they were now face-to-face.

And Calypso and Leo were literally face-to-face. Their noses were touching. But they weren't kissing or anything. Calypso was staring Leo down (which must have been difficult, seeing as they were so close together).

"I'm going to have a baby," she said in a voice quieter than a conversation but louder than a whisper. Her friends looked at their feet awkwardly, and Nico could see Leo tensing up. But Nico himself felt nothing. In that moment, he felt completely empty.

"How did this happen?" Leo breathed.

"You know how," Calypso whispered back.

Leo shook his head and stepped away from her a little. "Already? It is literally the day after. That's impossible. Even if you were, there's no way you would know."

Her Aphrodite friend stepped forward.

"Actually, my mom, goddess of love, has some great magic pregnancy tests."

Leo looked like he might pass out. "How did you even get those?" He paused. "Nevermind, I really don't think I want to know."

Calypso was crying but she wasn't sobbing. Tears were silently falling from her eyes, but her face was even and her words were steady.

"Leo. Will you help me raise our kid?"

Leo was shaking. "I will try."

"No. I need an actual answer. Yes or no. Will you help me raise our kid?"

Nico was a pretty good reader of people, and when he looked at Leo, all he saw was a sinking ship. Leo was seventeen, but he had told Nico multiple times that he just felt like a kid. How on earth was he going to take care of one himself?

Nico put a hand on Calypso's shoulder. "Calypso, I don't know you that well, but I do know Leo. And I know you can trust him. Whatever answer he gives you is the answer he means. He's honest and loyal, so whatever he says he means. Trust me." He meant it.

"And my answer is yes," said Leo, smiling gratefully at Nico. "Besides, how could I not love our kid? I love our kid already, and I love you." He kissed Calypso's cheek, who closed her eyes and flinched.

"Another thing," she said, her eyes still pinched shut.

Leo looked at her quizzically. "What is it?"

Calypso fidgeted with the edge of her dress. "I don't love you."

Nico wanted to punch her in the face. She had a wonderful boy who was completely devoted to her, no matter what, and she blatantly said to his face "I don't love you." How dare she. Nico studied Leo's face, expecting to find hurt or rage, but instead finding calm. How?

"Okay. Why?" Leo asked smoothly.

"I like you. A lot. But we fell to fast and we made mistakes. There's someone else, and even though I'm not as close with him as I am with you, I feel like we should move on. But we will always have Aggie Phae Valdez. She will keep us together, even though we won't be together romantically."

"Who is Aggie Phae Valdez?" Asked Leo.

"Our baby girl," Calypso smiled. "Aggie for the Argo II, the ship that took me away from my island and prison. Phae for Hephaestus, you're dad and the god that set me free. And Valdez because... well, you know. That's going to be her name. Aggie Phae Valdez."

Leo looked dumbfounded. "How do you know it's going to be a girl?"

The Aphrodite girl looked like she was about to explain, and Leo waved her off, as if to say "nevermind."

"One last thing," said Calypso.

Leo nodded.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?"

"The baby."

Leo's eyes widened. "Oh. No. No, no, no. That is not something you can blame entirely on yourself. It was both of us. It's my fault, too. Besides, who said you had to be sorry? We can raise her here at camp. I can't wait to meet Aggie Phae Valdez." He took her hand and squeezed it. She smiled with tears in her eyes, but she still wasn't sobbing and her voice was still steady.

"Thank you."

Grover put his arm around her, the Aphrodite girl linked arms with her, and the three of them walked back into the strawberry field, taking the long way back to the cabins.

Nico stared at Leo, so proud of him for being so loyal, but so empty inside because it wasn't him that Leo was being loyal to. He didn't want to think about it. Calypso. The baby. Leo. He just wanted to leave. He was glad that Leo was responsible and kind, but he just wished that Leo was his. He started to speed ahead of Leo, trying to get away, but Leo grabbed him by the arm and held him back.

"Hey."

Nico wouldn't look at him.

"Hey," Leo repeated himself.

Nico shook his head. Leo put both hands on either side of Nico and turned him so that they were face to face.

"Hey, look at me."

Nico did, but he didn't like it. Leo did a little half smile, the way he always did before they kissed. But this time they weren't about to kiss.

"Nico. Calypso and I aren't a thing."

Nico understood, but that didn't change the fact that they had a kid. He was so happy, yet so empty.

Leo shook him. "Nico. Say something."

Nico smiled, then frowned, then panicked. He ran to the dock by the lake, and Leo ran after him.