The first time Leo realised he was taller than Calypso, he crowed about it for hours.
It was sort of a running joke between them after Leo had coerced her into telling him what her first impressions of him were. He'd gotten curious after Piper asked what Leo was like on the deserted island and Calypso had replied that it was probably best she didn't say. Of course he couldn't leave that just hanging. He pestered her for her initial thoughts although he knew deep down that they probably weren't exactly complimentary. His first impressions of her definitely weren't.
"I thought you were childish and rude and short." She finally told him, exasperated by his picking. "Are you satisfied?"
"What do you mean short?" Leo had complained, tossing an arm around her as Jason drew Piper's attention to a catfight between her half-sisters. They were sitting around the campfire tended to by Hestia herself, having spent most of the day and then evening building strategies for Capture the Flag. "I'm the same height as you!"
At the time, Calypso distracted him with a well-placed question about the inner functioning of a microwave oven but a few weeks later, he found her in the Big House exploring and attempting to reorder the attic with a frustrated expression. Chiron had been happy to have someone else take a shot at cleaning the mess and Calypso had been looking for a place to channel her energy so she'd been tackling it with fervour.
"Calypso?" he called out, climbing up the steps warily. The Big House always gave him the creeps.
"You demigods," he heard her sigh when he poked his head through the ceiling door of the dusty attic. "These tags are a mess. It's like you learned to write your own names and called it a day."
"To be fair," Leo commented, looking at a rather large collection of glass jars filled with embalming fluid that seemed have been gathered from all over the space. "I think demigods have a bit more pressing things to worry about than cataloguing old body parts." He finally spotted her beside an enormous cabinet, its doors swung open and bottom shelves sparkling clean while the rest were filled with all manner of junk.
He took a second to watch her, smiling at the way she wore the red bandana Nyssa had given her like a forties headscarf and her slightly torn, dust covered jeans without a single qualm. No one would guess she was a former goddess, daughter of powerful titans. She was barefoot and her face was smudged with plaster from where the attic ceiling was flaking. She had never looked prettier, in Leo's opinion.
She turned slightly from trying to reach the top shelf of the cabinet with a small frown. "Help?"
"Getting those down?" Leo snickered, pointing to the jar she was aiming for which seemed to be filled with bright green and purple spotted pig hooves doused in some kind of embalming fluid.
"Are you loco? I'm not touching anything in here that looks like it might give me a questionable rash."
"Please, hero?" she whined slightly. "It's the last of the pickled jars and then I can move on to the knives and spearhead section."
Chuckling, Leo pulled the pickled pig hooves down without a problem and handed them to her. Calypso's face suddenly bore a peculiar expression and she gave him a thoughtful look. "Huh."
"What? See another jar up there?" he teased. "What's in this one? Empousa fangs? Griffin eyes?"
"You're taller than me." She observed, brow furrowing at the height difference. It wasn't much, only two inches or so but it was definitely new.
A slow, smug smile began to spread across Leo's face and she immediately wished she hadn't drawn attention to it. "What was that?" he asked, innocently craning his ear towards her.
"I am not saying it again, Wonder Boy." She muttered, disgruntled as she snatched the pig hooves and made her way to the pile she'd been adding to. "Now help me order these on that shelf."
"No, I think I need to hear it again. Just to be sure." Leo pressed with a mischievous snicker.
Calypso rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Leo, just help me."
"Not until you say it again."
"I said it once already!"
"Then it shouldn't be a problem to say it again."
Calypso sighed. "I'll just do it myself." But when she moved toward the pile of glass jars again, Leo snuck the pig hooves away from her and held them away with one hand. "Give them back."
"Not until you tell me I'm taller than you." Leo bargained.
"You clearly know it already, why would I bother relaying information you already comprehend?" she snapped, irritably but there was humour in her eyes.
"Same reason you tell me you love me all the time." Leo pouted. "Because I'm a seething mass of uncertainty and need to be reaffirmed of my awesomeness."
"You're a seething mass of annoyance."
"Hey!"
"Why does it matter, Wonder Boy?" she sniffed, primly. "Height determines nothing. Odysseus was five foot five and he was still a hero of Greece."
Leo's smile dropped a little into a tiny scowl. "You know I don't like hearing about oddball."
"Od-ysseus." She corrected snickering.
"Whatever. Just tell me I'm taller than you." Leo pressed.
Calypso sighed, stepping towards Leo with a coy smile. "You want me to tell you how much taller you are than me, hero?" she cooed. He knew a trap when he saw one but he couldn't honestly care. He nodded. "You're approximately five centimetres taller than me now, hero. Does that please you?" she asked sweetly.
Unable to find his tongue, he nodded, a little distracted by her dark eyes and the smell of cinnamon that followed her everywhere.
"Hmm…there are advantages to having such a tall, strong lover, I must admit." She added, coquettishly. His mouth dried at the word lover and all the absolutely brilliant images the word conjured.
"You can tuck me into you when you hold me. Like this."
She stepped far inside Leo's personal space bubble but he couldn't find it in him to care. Her legs and chest were pressed against his and he wondered if she could feel his heart pounding or his knees twitching slightly.
"But you know there were some benefits to being the same height as me too." She added, thoughtfully.
"O-oh?" Leo's voice cracked embarrassingly. He sometimes forgot that Calypso was a ten thousand year old goddess who, even before being trapped on her island, had been talking to men much smoother than Leo for a long time.
Danger, DANGER, his rational mind warned. ABORT MISSION.
"It was far easier to do this…" she whispered, her hands suddenly fisting in his orange t-shirt and pulling his face down to hers, trapping his bottom lip in her mouth. So distracted was he, Leo almost didn't notice when her hand gently traced down his arm to his outstretched grip. Almost.
"Nice try." Leo muttered right as Calypso made a grab for the pig hooves.
He held his arm away and her fingers snatched the air violently.
She narrowed her eyes impatiently.
Leo, on the other hand, grinned crazily like he'd just scored a free pizza, fixed the unsolvable glitch in Cabin 9's latest automaton project and won the lottery. While on his birthday.
His hair also stuck up like he'd been playing with a fork and an electric socket but Calypso tried not to focus on how adorable he looked.
"I said it, Wonder Boy, now give it back." She huffed, eyebrow raised.
"Well now I'm wondering what else you'll give me for these…" he commented, wickedly.
Calypso blushed despite herself. "I'll give you a mouthful of pickled water if you're not careful." She threatened though it was ruined by her tiny smile.
"Aw, c'mon Sunshine, I was just kidding." He laughed, handing her the jar.
At the last moment, he tried to pull it back tauntingly, but Calypso was quicker. She grabbed hold, resulting in a tussle than ended with the jar crashing to the ground with a piercing shatter.
"Look what you've done Wonder Boy!" she shrieked, cringing at the cold, sticky liquid seeping over her bare feet.
Leo looked unrepentant. "Me? You were the one being all sexy!"
"I was trying to get you give me the jar not break it!" she pointed out, snippily.
"I'm sorry, it was hard to tell from this height. Everything looks like ants from up here." He snickered as he dodged her attempt to smack him in the arm.
"Ugh, you ridiculous vlakas! I'm covered in hoof juice!"
"Yeah…" he hooted with laughter, "But I'm still taller!"
He wasn't quite so successful at dodging the second time.