Well, this is definitely my favorite chapter yet, so enjoy!

Leo's pov:

I woke up feeling worse than I had in years, my hands and feet were tied together, and I was had thick ropes tied around my entire body, fixing me tightly to a pole. Chris was tied to the same pole, her back to mine. And I was really hot, really, really hot, and unfortunately, not in the sexy way (although I was that too). Normally, heat and fire wouldn't faze me, hell, I was immune, my partner *cough*future girlfriend*cough*, however was not.

I looked down in panic, and realised we were on a spit above a huge fire, and we were turning. Those fu-sorry-frigging Cyclops were cooking us. Badly. "Chris, Chris wake up." I hissed to my softly snoring partner. Come on, who snores while they're being roasted alive?

"Not yet, it's too warm." she murmured, before falling back to sleep.

I couldn't shout at her, as I didn't want to alert our capturers of our conscious state, so I contorted my body in such a way that I was able to pinch her calves with my booted heals. Cruel but necessary

"What?" she asked, obviously pissed off. "Ahh, I remember now."

"Oh good." I muttered "do something."

"What, me? You're the hero of Olympus, you should be able to figure out a way we could get out of here." she whisper-yelled.

"If we bounce up and down we could probably manage to ping the pole off of its holdings." A said after a few moments hesitation.

"Hmm, that's a good idea." She retorted, the sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Oh wait, if we do that we'll land in the fire, and then I'll die. Imbecile."

"Well then, it's a perfect plan." I snapped back before muttering under my breath "Asshole." Hey, its not my fault I get defensive when I'm scared.

"Dipshit." she whispered back.

"Cow."

"Retard."

"Bitch."

"If we weren't tied up you have no idea what I would do to you." she whispered threateningly.

"I always knew you wanted me." I replied, the smirk evident in my voice.

"Oh yeah Leo," she whispered back seductively. "you have no idea how badly I lust after you." she finished, the derision evident in her tone. She so wants me.

"Uh-hu, it's sad because it's true." I snickered back.

"Is not" she said, perhaps a little too hastily. "Now come on, think of a way to get us out of this."

"Why don't you." I hissed back, I was fresh out of ideas (to be honest battle plans were never my strong point.

"Because I'm a child of Ares, and we don't think; we do or we die. And I'm not planning on dying anytime soon, so get thinking." She hissed back

"Uuuum…" was my only reply.

Silence reined throughout the room for several minutes, broken only by the crackle of the fire and my partners desperate gasps for air.

Finally, Chris spoke; "Okay, you have no idea how difficult it's been, but I think I might have a plan." She said triumphantly.

"Hit me." I replied, then hastily added "But not literally, please, just tell me the plan."

"Right, you know how you can summon fire, right? Well, there's no reason why you can't put it out, just concentrate." She said happily.

"I don't think I can put it out." I said as inspiration hit me "But I could move it."

"Yeah, yeah, just direct it towards something inflammable, that should work." She sang happily.

I was so going to do this, and then Chris will realize what awesome skills (and ears) I have, and then she'll fall madly in love with me…hahahahah, it was the perfect plan. So, using all my concentration I focused on the fire below us, gathering it together. Gradually the yellow flamed formed morphed a white-hot sphere. Never losing my concentrated I slowly levitated it towards an empty corner in the stone room, where it fell to the ground and, lacking fuel slowly died.

"Great job!" hummed Chris euphorically "now we can do the hoppy thingy."

So, we both began to bounce up and down on the spit, going higher with each lunge. Finally the spit went high enough to release itself from two pronged poles it was resting on. I landed face down on the ashy ground, Chris on top of me. By the feel of it she needed to lay off the cake for a bit…although I probably shouldn't tell her that.

"Okay, we probably didn't think this through very well, what now?" said a voice from above me.

"Well, I could burn through the ties…" I said thoughtfully "But then I could burn you, so."

"Eh, I'll survive." She said reasonably "Just do it quickly before that idiot Cyclops gets back."

"Got it." I said as I concentrated on burning through the ropes that bound our hands and feet together. That was fairly easy, and I didn't even burn anyone (I felt pretty proud of that), the ropes attaching us to the pole were a whole different story. However, with a bit of concentration, a few minor burns and a lot of swearing on my partner's behalf, I managed it.

We jumped to our feet gratefully, stretching our limbs and taking in our surroundings.

"That was great Leo, even if you did burn me." Said Chris gratefully, throwing her arms around my neck.

I could have sworn my heart stopped beating. Sure it was just a hug, but a hug was only one step from a kiss, and after a kiss comes dating, and after that…well, you get the picture.

My euphoria was cut short however when a grunt of surprise mixed with rage sounded from behind us.

So, minor cliffy, sorry. But what do you think, good, bad, better, worse? Tell me (in a review.)