Ah, college is really the bane of my existence right now (and not my Magnus Bane, TMI fans). I hate having to do stupid UCAS. But, that's enough of my moaning. I hope that you enjoy the chapter, and thank you for all of the faves and follows last chapter. Oh, and a late happy holidays/new year to all who celebrate, and a quick warning that there is a tiny reference of under aging drinking that is seriously small but I thought I'd warn you anyway. There is also some incredible stupidity and mildly offensive language. Not my opinions, but they are a part of a character. This will be another double chapter by the way. I seem to be doing a lot of them latley…
Skyfir3S4kur4 : *Best discovery channel voice* And that sound that you can hear in the distance is not in fact a dinosaur or the new Jurassic Park, it is in fact a wild fangirl. Much more deadly than a dinosaur. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter, I really enjoyed writing. And I don't think that I'm amazing, after all, I wouldn't be anywhere without awesome people like reading my headcannons. And don't never apologize for fangirling, faniction was made for extreme fangirling. Let it all out.
ObsessedwReading : I loved writing this chapter because I love the idea of Will and Nico being role models for any camper who is unsure of their sexuality, or who is having problems due to their for feelings for someone who they are unlikely to end dating for any reason.
Neon Wish Likes Pine Trees : I'll take it that you enjoyed it then? :)
Melancholy's Sunshine : Ah, I feel like this entire story is going to turn into a Jadon story with all the cute headcannons you give me! But Leo would totally be over protective of Jadon. I can imagine him sneaking into people's cabins at night and waking them up while covered in flames to warn them about breaking Jadon's heart.
Alvin 6299 : Thank you, I hope that you like this chapter as well.
LONG LIVE BOOKS : I will definitely be complying (even if it takes me a while to do so).
Zoethezany III : I don't have an exact character for him, but I was thinking maybe a Hermes kid would be a good match, someone cheeky and playful like Leo but much less stubborn and more willing to let him help them out. Jadon already has to deal with one brat constantly escaping from the infirmary, I think he's need someone willing to let him take care of them properly. Someone who wouldn't be completely scared away by Leo's protectiveness.
Sidda : I'm sorry that I'm late, college dragged me back kicking and screaming with its university applications and its coursework/mock exams. And purging of the feels is always necessary every once in a while, or even the most hardened of fangirls would fall to their power. And I would probably be caught kissing Leo, more than likely by Calypso who would try to murder me for kissing him. What about you? And I will be incredibly careful if I join the Hetalia fandom.
Connwaer Heap : Hopefully Jadon would be able to move on after a little while, especially with the seven, Nico and Will helping him.
Tonsoffandoms : Hehe, a wild OTP appeared. You used fangirl. It's supereffective.
Lady Aoi-chan : For being an anime fan? I just had to indulge myself and make people fans of anime, it's amazing and I feel like most of the seven could really get into it, though they'd all be watching different types.
MusicalGurl : Sure I can! But you may have to wait a little while as I have quite a few characters to work through. I hope that you don't mind waiting.
MakaylaCO : Here you go, another chapter. And I really liked writing the bonding last chapter, as soon as people asked for a chapter in Jadon's P.O.V I just had to get Will and Nico involved.
Disclaimer : If it was mine then I'd probably be able to stick to some sort of schedule. Probably. And I also don't own Ouran High or the delightful children.
If Piper wasn't Leo's unofficial big sister, he would seriously consider hating her.
For the first time in ages, Leo had been forced into a suit. His hair was slicked back and his shirt was freshly ironed. The only small acts of rebellion that he had managed were leaving the top two buttons of his shirt undone and not wearing a tie.
Piper and her dad had been invited to some big charity ball, and Piper had been given permission to drag two friends along to be tortured with her.
She had chosen to bring Leo and Jason, and hadn't taken Leo's emphatic "No!" for an answer. Thus, the monkey suit.
Piper had lovingly (read: threateningly) explained that she would be buying the two suits, and that both boys would be wearing them. No protesting permitted.
Leo's suit was the traditional black jacket and pants affair, paired with a red shirt. Jason was in a classic black and white Bond style outfit.
Piper looked absolutely stunning in a flowing white dress with a relatively modest slit up one leg and silver heels. She was even wearing make-up, and Leo had mocked her for it until she had turned round and replied that if he kept it up then katropis would be finding a new home in his side. And she threatened to take pictures of him to show her cabin, who would then use him as a dress up doll for at least two weeks.
Needless to say, Leo had shut up, but not after muttering that he was fully prepared for the apocalypse that was about to occur due to him being in a suit and Piper wearing make-up willingly.
At first it had been a bit intimidating to be in a limo with Piper's dad, it wasn't often that you got to enjoy a nice long limo ride with a celebrity, but Leo had dealt with being on a ship with the camp's equivalent of a celebrity couple and so they eventually all started talking.
And if he quietly asked if Mr McLean would send him some of Piper's baby pictures to use as blackmail to stop her from showing around the pictures of him in a suit, than that was simply insurance. The fact that Mr McLean had chuckled before taking Leo's email address and promising to find the best pictures to send over made him even more awesome and Leo would forever owe the man.
They pulled up to the grand house, and Leo suppressed his urge to laugh at the sheer terror on Jason's face.
Piper and her father got out elegantly, and Jason looked over at Leo in despair.
"Come on superman, you can handle a ball. Just stick close to Pipes and you'll be fine." But then he remembered one of the more... unpleasant parts of balls.
"And remember not to let what anyone says about you get you down." His tone was deadly serious, and Jason's eyes widened in confusion and surprise.
"What do you mean?" Leo was about to answer that you could find some real pieces of work at balls like these, when Piper's head popped back into the limo, fixing a glare on the two boys.
"You two best not be planning on just staying in this limo all evening?" Her tone was that special blend of sounding like a question but actually being an order that many girls seem to be proficient in.
"Oh no! You caught on to our devious plan." Leo winked and slid out of the limo. Jason followed him hesitantly.
As a group they walked up to the queue where a group of very famous, very rich people all stood waiting for their invitations to be accepted. Mr McLean didn't even have to wait in line; he simply swept past the crowd with the demigods following along like a trio of very fashionable ducklings.
The movie star produced an invitation from his jacket, but he didn't have to show it before they were being waved in by a very eager to please attendant. Though, Leo couldn't help but notice the strange glances that he and Jason were getting. Mentally sighing, his hands moved to his jacket pockets on instinct before he realised that Piper had confiscated all of his rubber bands, pipe cleaners, sheets of paper and basically anything that could be used to alleviate his boredom.
Leo was resigned to his fate; he knew what this evening would be like. But he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for Jason who had never been in a situation quite like this before.
Throw the boy a monster and he could (mostly) slay it with ease. But put him in a situation like this and he looked as if his worst nightmares were being realised.
They walked through the opulent hallway as staff flocked around them, offering to take their coats, telling them about how the event was in the main ballroom but there were also quiet sitting rooms set up for a more serious conversation and that they were - of course - allowed to look around the rest of the grounds.
Leo whispered to Jason that if they kissed their butts any more than they would have a permanent lip shaped mark there forever, causing Jason to splutter awkwardly and earning glares from most of the men and women around them.
Thankfully, they reached the ballroom before the staff could smother them with their pretences. And then Leo remembered that what came next was worse.
As they entered the humongous room, Leo felt a flush grace his cheeks as hundreds of hungry vulture eyes zoomed in on their little group. He was aware of Jason beside him shifting, and Piper slipping her hand into his confidently. She also sent Leo a reassuring smile as the whispering began.
He could imagine what the hushed conversations sounded like, and he was certain that most of them weren't nice.
Mr McLean turned to them with a slightly awkward expression, one hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. Piper rolled her eyes.
"We'll be fine, dad. Go socialise." Her dad gave her a grateful look as he moved away to greet a collection of people who all looked as if they had stepped out of a fashion magazine. Leo felt more out of place here than he had ever felt anywhere else in his life and, considering the amount of weird situation he had been in, that really said something.
It was easy for him to realise that he was getting the most strange looks, and he honestly couldn't blame the snooty celebrities for it.
Piper was incredibly famous, and stunning to boot. Jason, although not famous, was a very attractive boy and whilst holding hands with Piper he looked as if he could easily fit in with all of the snobbish posers in the room. Whereas Leo looked - in the words of Tamaki Suoh - like a commoner.
Piper led them over to the food table so that they could pick up some drinks, and hopefully (for Leo anyway) fade into the background.
It was as Leo deliberated over his choice of nibble, the black goop that more than likely cost more than everything that Leo owned or the sandwiches which seemed to only consist of lettuce and cucumber, when he heard her voice.
Ice filled his body. Clearly his face screamed his distress as Piper and Jason both eyed him worriedly.
"Dude, what's ..." Jason's question was cut off by an over dramatic wail that silenced all conversations throughout the entire room, which Leo would have given credit for if he wasn't so horrified to hear that voice screeching a name that he hadn't been labelled as in a long time.
"DELIGHT!" Leo span around and grabbed a glass of punch that he was near certain was alcoholic and downed it quickly, before spinning around in a manner reminiscent of a character in a horror film who was about to meet certain death.
Coming towards him, arms outstretched and tears welling up (but not spilling over as that would ruin her perfect make-up), was the rich witch in all her glittery glory.
Piper and Jason's eyes both widened.
"Is that the woman from your memory with Anwen?" Piper asked quietly. Leo nodded as he was engulfed in a cloud of overwhelming perfume and scratched as bracelet clad arms wrapped around him.
The rich witch's wailing had summoned a small crowd of people, including Mr McLean who was frowning at the shrieking socialite before him.
Leo also managed to glimpse the rich witch's brood behind her. Serenity, Hope, Liberty, Peace and another kid who seemed about nine and who Leo didn't know but he just assumed that this new girl had been adopted after Leo had fled.
After a moment or two of desperate flailing, Leo managed to pry the arms away from him. Dam, the woman had a strong grip.
Though, the moment that he had freed himself from the rich witch's grasp, Anwen flung herself at him.
"It's good to see you again, Lea dear." Her welsh accent was still just as strong as the last time that he had seen her. As if Anwen's actions had broken them out of a trance, Serenity, Liberty and Hope all joined in on a massive group hug.
"I didn't think we'd ever see you again." Hope, a small Japanese boy of twelve muttered as his arms laced around Leo's neck.
"I missed you so much Leo!" This was Serenity, a Spanish girl of fourteen who Leo had loved speaking with in Spanish.
As they all pulled away, the little girl that Leo had noticed before walked up awkwardly. She stuck her hand out calmly as the rich witch babbled on to her friends in the background about who Leo – sorry – Delight was.
"My name is Elizabeth-Jane. But my rich girl name is Dream." Leo shook the little English girl's hand with a slight smile at her obvious disapproval of the name that the rich witch had bestowed upon her.
In the background, Leo could still hear the rich witch and her friends babbling on.
"Oh Lucretia, I thought that you had lost the little Hispanic one?"
"Lucy, you didn't tell me that one of your lot is friends with Piper McLean."
"Lu-Lu! I thought that you had gotten Dream to replace Delight…"
Jason and Piper moved closer to him protectively, and Mr McLean also managed to make his way over.
"Leo, what's going on?" Before Leo had a chance to formulate any sort of reply, the rich witch pushed in front of him, batting her eyes at Piper's dad. Piper glanced at him and mimed gagging.
"Oh, Mr McLean! This child here is one of the children that I adopted a few years ago, but he somehow managed to run away from my mansion. I was so worried about him, and I had people searching for him night and day but they didn't find him for a very long time, I had started to believe that he might have been dead. I even started planning out a funeral for him; it was going to be such a stylish affair. But then the nice social worker called me up and told me that they had found him, but due to his unfortunate tendencies to run away from even my kind and welcoming home, they decided to relocate him. Oh, I have missed him every day since then, and I just know that my other darlings were worried sick about him." Leo was mildly impressed; she had said all of that without seeming to take a breath. Mr McLean, Jason, Piper and her other "darlings" were all staring at her as if she were crazy.
He couldn't help but lean in to his two best friends and whisper:
"I hope that the funeral you had for me was as stylish as the one that she was planning for me." They both turned their glares to him for a moment before going back to their attempts to fry the witch's face off with their eyes. He commended them, it took a lot for someone as stupid as Lucretia to realise that someone was disapproving of her.
"Well, the boy is now under care of the same camp that my daughter attends so he is perfectly safe. You don't have to worry anymore." Lucretia's blinked as her eyes grew in size in a decidedly fake way.
"But now that I have seen him again, I can just tell that the place he is staying at isn't good for someone with his… needs." I mean, just look at him! A boy with… problems like Leo's shouldn't not be allowed to be that scrawny and look that tired. Leo is a very special boy, and he clearly isn't being treated right wherever he is staying." Silence descended across the room as most people digested Lucretia's spiel. Leo was just stunned by the hypocrisy and the offensiveness of Lucretia's tirade.
"Now, now, Lucinda was it? The camp where Leo and my daughter stay is an excellent place ran by some amazing people. I truly believe that Leo is better of there than anywhere else." Point to Mr McLean for that false forgetting her name gag.
Leo spotted Lucretia's perfectly manicured nails digging into the soft skin of her palms.
"I assure you Tristan, we're friends now so I can call you Tristan now can't I? Anyway, I assure you that Delight will be better off with me." She reached out to grab Leo's arm, but he dodged sideways, almost knocking the snack table over and spilling drink on his shirt. Even though both his shirt and the drink were red, the stain was still clearly visible, and Leo assumed that his cheeks were much the same colour.
He could feel all eyes on him, judging him and laughing under their breath at the stupid orphan who had ran away from dear Lucretia.
Embarrassment flooded him, and then a cool hand slipped into his.
"Let's go." Anwen's unmistakeable accent filtered into Leo's ears as she bolted, pulling him along with her despite the white heels strapped onto her feet. He glanced behind to see Piper kicking off her heels to follow them, with Jason and the other delightful children also racing away from the astonished crowd.
Anwen's pale blue, knee-length dress flowed behind her as they tumbled out into the gardens and raced further and further away from the house with the others still tagging along behind.
Snippets of laughter reached his eras, and he realised with a start that they were his.
Eventually, they reached a circular area of plain grass surrounded by water with four bridges reaching out to keep it connected with the main garden.
They hurtled across the bridge and collapsed to the ground laughing. The others reached them one by one, with tiny Elizabeth-Jane straggling behind.
Finally they were all lying on the ground (even Piper who apparently didn't care about her dress), panting and giggling like a pile of puppies that had been playing madly.
That was when Anwen pushed him into the water. He surfaced, spluttering as the others laughed even harder at his bedraggled appearance, though Piper did roll her eyes, presumably at the complete wreckage that was his suit.
He hauled himself onto back onto the grass and yanked Anwen into a tight hug, making sure to drench her thoroughly.
They remained there, laughing and chatting for the rest of the evening, undisturbed by the adults.
However, when it was getting to be truly late, they made the unanimous decision to go back inside. By then, Leo's suit had dried off, and although he looked a little worse for wear, he was still mostly happy with how the day had gone.
He could have done without seeing the rich witch again, but seeing the others (and meeting Elizabeth-Jane) had been great.
They made their way back into the house, still chuckling and messing about. But when they got closer to the ballroom, Leo noticed that Mr McLean was standing outside of the room, pinching his nose as if he had a bad migraine, or a bad case of Lucretia babble pain.
As they approached Piper hesitantly called out to her father, who looked up and gave them a wan smile.
"What's wrong Mr McLean?" Jason wrapped an arm around Piper's shoulders as her father sighed deeply.
"She wants to try and get custody of you again, Leo."
And there is one of my famous cliffhangers ;) I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you next time for part two of the rich witch saga.
