The first time had a real birthday since he was eight, Leo was turning sixteen.

The party he wasn't meant to know about was being set up in the woods near the Oracle Cave so from the moment he woke up, he had Calypso and Nyssa distracting him in the forge. He had to admit, it wasn't necessarily a bad way to spend the day. Since it was during school term, only the year-rounders and some of the Roman kids were present. Chiron had told him campers got their birthdays off from normal scheduling so the two girls had hustled him out of Cabin 9 after he'd done little more than change clothes and off to Bunker Nine.

Nyssa said she wanted help prototyping the designs for a mechanical eagle that could emit ear-piercing screeches though she didn't say why. Leo looked…well, Leo looked like it was his birthday and Calypso had a bad feeling that his knowing about their plans to distract him could only go poorly.

"Don't know why you need my help specifically though." Leo said while Nyssa went over the schematics.

"I just do." She replied, blankly.

"Usually you'd ask Shane." He pestered. Calypso shot him a piercing glare.

His sister shrugged. "Not this time."

"But what's so special about me?" Leo continued, sending a wide smirk to Calypso as if to say I'm having fun already.

"Consider yourself lucky." Nyssa snapped through gritted teeth.

"Do you ever say any more than three words at a time?" Leo sighed, mock-exasperated while Calypso smacked her forehead with her palm. If she'd just kept her mouth shut, Leo wouldn't be irritating the living daylights out of Nyssa who looked like she'd like to see a wrench buried in his eye socket.

"No, not really." This time, Calypso was sure Nyssa was taunting her boyfriend on purpose because the girls shared a glance. Nyssa's face clearly said If he keeps this up, I'm leaving.

"Leo." The former goddess broke in before he could add anything else. "Why don't you just take a look at the plans?"

"But I-" he began to complain.

"Leo. Plans. Now." She ordered in a forced light tone. The son of Hephaestus sighed dramatically but complied, working at an easy, unhurried pace alongside Nyssa. About an hour after they'd begun, Calypso judged that Leo's attention was pretty focused and pulled Nyssa aside.

"Look, I've gotta go help set up." She said in a hushed voice. "If he gets too irritating, toss him in the forge."

"But he doesn't burn." Nyssa deadpanned.

Calypso winked. "That's the point. Just keep him busy for a few more hours okay? It should be done by then, promise."

"If I get stuck here with him any longer than absolutely necessary, he'll come back burnt to a crisp." Nyssa promised, irritably.

"But you just said he doesn't-"

"That's the point."

The supplies for the party were being smuggled through the horseshoe of cabins, hence why Leo wasn't allowed to hang around near his own cabin or the Hephaestus Forges today. Calypso could see Jason and Percy each carrying a table for the food, Frank carrying two in by himself. Annabeth was coordinating with the Apollo kids (who liked Leo and Calypso for getting Aeothon back for their dad) around the sound system and music list. Castor, a son of Dionysus, was arguing with Piper that no party was complete without good alcohol (for all fifteen-year-olds and over, obviously. Fifteen was the age of maturity for Greeks, after all) and Hazel was working on putting up an enormous banner written in Ancient Greek that read Happy Birthday Leo with a few other campers.

At the centre of the busy mass of campers, food, decorations, bright red paper lanterns, a petite nymph with a clipboard, hair like spun cotton candy and a protruding belly was issuing orders and controlling the masses.

Piper caught her eye and threw her hands up at Castor, telling him to do whatever but if anyone started giving Festus Bacchante wine, there would be trouble. She made her way over to Calypso smiling. "How's he going?"

"Sufficiently distracted for now." Calypso assured, looking at the cloud nymph in the middle of the clearing. "Who is that?"

"Oh, that's Mellie, Coach Hedge's wife." Piper said, following her gaze. "She worked for my dad as an assistant for a while before she went on maternity leave so she's had some practise with the whole throwing parties thing. We decided to let her have her way because apparently cloud nymph pregnancy hormones are not-"

"What is this?" Mellie suddenly snarled, tearing a CD out of one Aphrodite girl's hands. "Are you trying to sneak Bieber in on my watch, missy?"

"N-no, I swear-!" the girl quaked as Mellie crushed the CD in her bare hands.

"I've got my eye on you, half blood!" she warned, menacingly and ticked something off on her clipboard.

"-pretty." Piper finished, grimly. "She's usually wonderful but she seems to have taken on more of the Coach's people skills since she reached her second trimester."

"She's…vocal." Calypso agreed, weakly. "That is good. It'll make the process faster. What can I do to help?"

"Can you help with the lanterns?" Piper asked, gesturing to where Michael, the young demigod Leo had helped find in Chicago, was attaching a string on lanterns to a tree. He balanced on a ladder precariously but he didn't seem to notice. "Kid's gonna give himself a broken arm if he keeps up with that."

Calypso nodded, rushing forward to steady the ladder as it began to rock. Michael grabbed hold of the tree and the leaves seemed to twist around his arm to keep him steady. She'd seen children of Demeter do such things before but the plantlife around Michael seemed to respond more sensitively to him. "Thanks for that!" he called down with a grin.

"Would you like help?" she asked, gesturing to the long cord of lanterns that he had wrapped over his arm.

Michael nodded, the rope finally attached and climbed back down. "Can you hold them?"

While they worked, Calypso asked Michael if how things were going since he'd arrived at camp, whether he'd made any friends. Simple questions that the nearly thirteen year old cheerfully answered. Calypso found herself wondering how on earth the hard faced Daisy Bones made friends with such a shy, small boy. "My dad and Daisy's mom used to be neighbours," he said when she asked. "And we used to play together when we were little. When Daisy's mom died, we took her in for a while but then my dad got at- I mean, had his accident." Michael corrected.

"Attacked?" Calypso pressed, quietly.

Michael sighed and finished the last of the lanterns. "I keep forgetting everyone knows. Yeah, a monster attacked him. Some kind of giant, I think. Afterwards, we ran away because they weren't gonna keep us together."

"You take care of each other." She noted, mildly.

Michael turned pink as he climb back down the ladder. "Daisy takes care of me. She's stronger than I am. And I- I have asthma." He said as though it were somehow embarrassing.

"What is that?" Calypso asked, confused.

The Demeter's son frowned. "You don't know what asthma is?" he checked and went on to explain how his lungs were weak and his airways were prone to contracting and filling with mucus. Calypso began to notice how Michael's scrawny chest was breathing harder just coming down the ladder, how Daisy always kept her eyes on him, how he bent over heaving air after running.

"Should you be working?" Calypso blurted out, horrified.

The twelve year old's face turned dark. "The doctors told me I have to work around it, that it might get better when I'm older. Besides I don't want to stop doing things because of it. Daisy hates it."

"I'm sorry, Michael." She murmured, feeling terrible as she now realised why no one sparred with him during lessons, why Daisy always hovered around him. She wouldn't mind guessing the daughter of Ares had threatened anyone from messing with her best friend. "I know you'd like to help but don't stress yourself too much with helping set up. We'd like to see you at the party tonight."

Michael's face lit up in a grin that belied the uneven breathing and flush of his face. "Sure."

"Say it again and we'll see how far I can shove my sword down your throat!" someone suddenly bellowed and Michael winced.

"I'd better go make sure Dais doesn't kill anyone." He excused and jogged toward the food being brought in by the nymphs where his best friend was glaring hatefully at a daughter of Hecate. Calypso watched as he successfully diverted his friend's attention and soothed over the harsh words with the magical demigod with a slight smile. Michael Lake, for all his problems, was quite a diplomat, she thought, pensively. Maybe…

"Calypso!" Jason called, looking frazzled with Mellie glaring at him. "Leo will want barbecue ribs right? Right?" his eyes screamed help!

"I think they're his favourite." She invented, casually.

"But this is a vegetarian buffet!" Mellie huffed. As a vegetarian like her husband, she despised the sight of meat but usually kept to herself about it. Pregnancy had done her personality no favours. "It'll ruin the flow if we have that- that monstrosity sitting there!" she pointed to the pile of gloriously marinated ribs sitting like a king in the middle of the table.

"We'll move the ribs to the main table and put the vegetarian food on the sides." Calypso soothed.

Jason scratched his forehead, wincing. "Where are we gonna put the junk food then?"

"JUNK FOOD?!" Mellie screeched.

By the time Calypso returned to bring Leo to the party, Nyssa looked about ready to murder him.

"I can work with him in a group but I swear to the gods if he wasn't family, he'd be skewered." She grumbled through gritted teeth when Calypso peeked inside Bunker Nine.

"I know, I'm sorry." She rolled her eyes. "He knows something's up and he's being a vlakas about it."

"I'll say." Nyssa muttered as she let the door open a little more for Calypso. Her eyes widened when she took in the eagle which this morning had been lines on a page. Now the eagle, strung up from the ceiling by chains, was a silver and gold masterpiece, not quite finished but impressive with a wingspan of eleven feet and butcher knives for talons.

She let out a low whistle. "That is quite a project."

Nyssa smiled, reluctantly. "She's a beauty alright. I think the Romans are gonna love her."

"You're giving her to Camp Jupiter?" Calypso sounded scandalised and the God of the Forge's daughter laughed uproariously.

"Hell no. But they're gonna love her all the same." Nyssa replied. "Voice isn't up to scratch yet but it should be done in the next eight weeks or so."

"Where is he?" Calypso asked, suddenly taking her eyes off the eagle.

Nyssa sighed. "Up there." She jerked her thumb upwards to where a fountain of sparks suddenly poured from the eagle's back and Calypso recognised the dark floppy head of hair that was half inside the mechanical bird.

"Wonder Boy?" Calypso called and his head poked up, covered by a pair of mechanic's goggles. His whole face was blackened with soot, turning his already tanned complexion to an ashy black and his clothes were covered as well.

"Hey Sunshine!" he called back with a grin. "Isn't Maggie great?"

"Maggie?" Calypso echoed to Nyssa who looked furious all of a sudden.

"He's calling my baby the Magnum Avem." She spat.

The former goddess' brow furrowed. "Latin? For…Big Bird?"

"Like that stupid Sesame Street puppet!" Nyssa roared up at Leo who waved his hand dismissively. "I thought Damocles was a stupid name but this? This is insulting."

"Maggie likes it!" he called back, cheerfully. The bird's eyes lit up slightly as he said it and he snickered. "See?"

"Wonder Boy, why are you covered in soot?" Calypso asked, sighing. He'd have to change before they arrived at the party. There was no other option. Mellie might give birth early if Leo showed up looking like that.

"You said to shove him in the forge." Nyssa shrugged, unconcerned.

As a joke, Calypso wanted to complain but Leo didn't look bothered by it. "Come on, hero, you better change before we go to dinner." She told him.

Leo looked like a child who'd just been told to go to bed before he was finished playing. "Ten more minutes?"

"Now, Leo."

"Fine."

"He's an infant." Nyssa grumbled with a small smile and nodded to her. "I'll see you there."

As Nyssa left, Leo grabbed hold of one of the chains and slid all the way to the ground, shaking his hand with a wince afterwards. "She moved the catwalks so I was stuck up there." He explained when Calypso grabbed one hand and studied the slight metal burn on the palm. "Only way up or down."

"You must've really annoyed her." Calypso pointed out, dryly.

Leo winked and tugged off his goggles. "It's a gift. Now, are we going to my party?"

"Not if you keep blabbing about it," she warned as she tossed him a pair of suspenders that Piper had insisted upon. She'd told Calypso to use any means necessary to get him to wear them but since he already knew about the party, the battle was easily won. "Please Leo, you promised you'd act surprised."

He shrugged, defensively. "I will, I will! Lemme go get changed and I'll practise my expression for you. How's this?" Leo's mouth widened into a wide O and his eyes looked about ready to pop from his skull.

"You look like that Edvard Munch painting."

"You know who Edvard Munch is?" Leo asked, surprised.

"Connor is thinking of going to art school in Boston." Calypso replied in answer.

"Really?" Leo paused, grabbing a spare change of clothes from a locker in the back of the bunker.

"What, did you think he was just going to hang around camp for the rest of his life?"

"Well…yeah." He admitted sheepishly as he tugged off his shirt.

Calypso rolled her eyes and hopped up onto a long wooden workbench, swinging her legs as Leo changed. She watched as he tried to clean the soot of his hands with his shirt, admiring the ropey muscles of his arms and the way the fire light of the nearby forges and bright overheads played off his skin. Leo was slightly taller now, less scrawny and more lean. Just watching him sent a tiny shot of sparks through her veins. He was hers, all hers.

Leo bent to pick up his fresh shirt and caught her gaze, peeking up with dark, twinkling eyes. "Are you checking me out Sunshine?" he asked in a low murmur.

"I am." She admitted, freely. Leo looked slightly surprised that she'd admitted it but pleased. He moved forward until he was standing in front of her, her knees parted slightly so he could stand between them.

"You know, we don't have to go to the party." He mumbled when she traced a single finger down his sternum, admiring how firm it felt beneath her touch. His hands found her knees as if to hold on while he leaned in to kiss her.

"After all the work that's gone into it?" she whispered between brushes of their lips, smiling slightly as her fingers began to trace further over his chest. "I don't think that's very fair."

"What's not fair," Leo told her, frankly. "Is that you made Nyssa babysit me when we could've been doing this. All. Day."

She sighed, slowly moving her hands to his back where the planes of his shoulders and slight but firm muscles down his spine received a similar treatment. Her fingers were light and soft, just enough to drive him crazy. He kissed her harder and her legs seemed to have a mind of their own as they wrapped loosely around his waist. By the time his warm hands found her hips, Calypso could barely breathe, her mind filled with a heated fog. Despite her starting their tussle, Leo had somehow managed to gain the upper hand between them.

"We," she breathed, shakily when his mouth moved to her collarbone. "Really should um…"

"Yes…?" Leo asked in a wicked tone.

"…um…go?" Calypso tried to finish, weakly but he was leaning so far into her that his bare chest was pressed against her, his hips against the inside of her thighs, so close and so very, very warm…

"Go where?"

"Um…the party?" her mouth was dry when he moved ever so slightly lower and her whole body went tense for a minute, pleasure racing through her veins, blazing like wildfire.

"Hmm…you know it's my birthday." Leo pointed out, wryly and planted an open mouth kiss on her throat until she tipped her head back in supplication.

"Y-yes…happy birthday..."

"Well, I think I should choose what I do on my birthday, don't you?" he continued, reasonably even as his teeth gently scraped against her skin, making her twitch reflexively.

"N-no, the party, everyone worked so hard-oh gods." She squeaked when he sucked hard on her neck as if he was trying to take the words out of her throat physically. She felt like she was vibrating against him, her nails digging ever so slightly into the skin of his shoulders.

"And I choose to stay here and make out with you some more." He added with a snicker when he finally released her.

Calypso used the brief respite to her advantage, pushing him away from her forcefully and glaring back at him. "That," she said through gritted teeth. "Was not fair."

"What was I meant to do? You were sitting there, looking all perfect and watching me take my clothes off." Leo shrugged, still wearing that horribly wicked smirk on his slightly swollen lips. "You don't even wanna know how many times I've pictured you there."

"Oh really?" She patted the bench coyly. "Right here?"

"Now look who's not playing fair." He muttered back, dusting off his jeans. "Fine. Come on, I'll have to practise my new surprised look on the walk."

"Give me a second," Calypso threw him a dirty look as she tried to smooth down her hair and cool her cheeks. She grabbed a piece of metal nearby and growled when she saw her lips were as swollen as Leo's. "You got me all worked up, Wonder Boy." She muttered under her breath.

Leo wore a proud grin as he did the final button up on his shirt. With a bit of a struggle, he tugged on the suspenders after Calypso helped clip them to his pants. "I did, didn't I?" In the fresh clothes, he looked…good.

"Of course you don't even look flustered." Calypso complained as her cheeks finally began to cool.

Leo grimaced. "Trust me, Sunshine, I'm flustered." She looked ready to make some kind of comment and he eyed her pointedly. "Not a word."

"Fine." She put the metal down and patted herself down for any soot marks she'd missed.

By the time they left, Leo was still grinning.