A/N: Happy Update Monday guys- isn't this a nice early surprise, gods, I don't think I've ever updated this story while it was still morning. Anyway hope you enjoy this chapter!
VERY BIG SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO READS, REVIEWS, FAVOURITES OR FOLLOWS THIS STORY BECAUSE YOU ARE ALL PERFECT AND WONDERFUL AND I HOPE YOUR WEEKS ARE FANTABULOUS!
*ahem* Enjoy Protective Leo and Mortal Calypso!
Shy
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The first time Leo wondered if he'd made a horrible mistake in coming back for Calypso, he was watching her twitch and tremble all over, with her glowing golden blood seeping out from her mouth.
As soon as she'd started choking, Leo had realised something was wrong but Ogygia was the only land in sight for several miles and it had disappeared as soon as they were out of its borders.
"Calypso?" he shouted over the wind but there was no response and when he tried to turn, Festus wavered uncertainly in the air, confused as to where Leo was directing. "Calypso, talk to me, what's going on?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see something glowing and every now and then, something falling into the ocean below. She wheezed and coughed and when Festus finally seemed steady enough on his own, Leo turned like a contortionist to see her, his mind racing with panic.
Calypso was trembling and heaving as if she was about to puke but nothing except trickling golden ichor fell from her lips, painting glowing streaks from the corners of her mouth to her chin. He caught a glimpse of her terrified eyes before they rolled back into her skull and she shook violently all over.
"Sunshine, come on," he said, trying to keep one eye on Festus who was unnerved by the choking noises. "Calypso, what's going on, tell me-"
Suddenly, she went still and her head rested on his back, her whole body slumped into his. No, no, no- His mind was on permanent replay, slashes of cold fear tearing through his chest but there was nothing he could do while Festus was in the air so he sped the dragon on further east, willing some kind of land to appear in the distance.
Oh gods, this can't be happening. This is not actually happening, he told himself, the words blurring together in his head as he glanced back at Calypso who was still leaking ichor. Leo wasn't a god expert but he was fairly certain gods weren't meant to lose so much blood in so little time and the single horrible thought he refused to acknowledge badgered him incessantly.
Finally- finally- he caught sight of the jagged, low land he'd passed over on the way to Ogygia and, one arm wrapped around Calypso's limp form to make sure she couldn't fall, he urged Festus on.
Crickity whiirr? The dragon's gears crackled but Leo didn't have an answer. Was Calypso okay?
Well she was dripping in golden blood, had essentially passed out on him and she felt cold and clammy in his arms so probably not.
"What the hell do you think Festus?" he snarled but apologised a second later. He tried to tap down the sarcasm by reminding himself that the dragon was just trying to help but his nerves were shot and the limp pressure of Calypso against his back was not helping.
The chilli beans from Ogygia certainly fired the mechanical dragon up because they sped through the sky as a flash of bronze and copper until Leo spotted a shaded, empty cove on what he guessed was the east coast of Sardinia to land on. "There, buddy. Land gentle, okay?" he asked over the air whistling past his face and obediently, the dragon carefully swooped towards the tiny strip of beach, blowing steam out his nostrils, nervously.
"Good dragon," Leo mumbled, trying to manoeuvre Calypso off Festus' back as gently as possible. Her head tilted back like a rag doll, like a toy, like a corpse-
Shut up, shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!
Snickity crack zeck? Festus gargled and Leo shook his head, trying to banish his own thoughts and failing miserably.
"Stay put for now," he ordered as he carefully lifted Calypso from her practically catatonic position and unrolled the hastily stuffed bedroll from his pack before setting her down. Festus rattled all over like a pocket of spare change as Leo rummaged around in her bags for something, anything that might help her. But it wasn't as though she'd labelled any of the jars she'd brought with her and even if she had, like he would have a clue what to do with it.
Instead, he tore driftwood from the shoreline like a man possessed, stacking it nearby and setting it ablaze with perhaps a bit more aggression than he was used to but every time he looked at her, Calypso looked paler and paler. He hadn't noticed the faint golden glow to her skin until it had leached from her veins. Now it seemed like all he could see was how sick and cold she looked, like she was on her deathbed.
"You can't die Sunshine," he growled. When he gently checked her forehead, it felt like touching an ice sculpture. She trembled slightly like she was freezing so he turned the fire into something he might use in the forge, something hot enough to melt steel and forge gold. But she didn't seem to absorb the heat like a regular person would, not even when he grabbed the stupid singed flaming chicken blanket and tucked the corners around her like his mom used to do for him. "Come on, wake up, you have to wake up." He breathed, noticing for the first time that his hands were shaking as well.
Leo was looking for the spare thermos of nectar Jason had given him before he'd left when she started coughing violently again, like she was trying to cough up a lung.
"Calypso?" he whispered, terror clutching his chest in an iron grip. She didn't respond but he thought maybe the gold ichor slowed a little. It dripped from her ears, from her nostrils and her mouth and Leo wondered if he was meant to try and collect it, if there was some way of injecting it back into her. Where it landed on the sand, the earth glowed and glimmered in golden puddles. "You gotta tell me what to do. I- I don't know how to fix you."
She said nothing but her fingers twitched and he decided he didn't care if he was covered in sand and she was coated in golden blood, he held her hand tightly and silently begged her to squeeze back. He hated not knowing how something worked. He hated not understanding how to correct problems, not being able to fiddle with something til it functioned again. He hated that whatever was wrong with Calypso would not be corrected with a screwdriver or a hammer.
"She's going through a process son." His father's gravelly voice said and Leo absently realised he'd seen more of his father in the last month than he had his entire life. The knowledge paled in comparison to the horror unfolding in front of him as Calypso made a horrible wheezing sound like she was suffocating. He pulled the blanket looser around her and then tighter and the looser again, trying to remember if you were meant to heat fevers or colds before deciding to tuck her in again. Just in case.
"What process?" Leo asked, hoarsely and the words just fell from his mouth. "She- she was screaming and crying…she's dripping in blood…and I can't- I mean I don't-I can't do anything. I-I-I can't fix her-"
"You can't help her, kiddo." Hephaestus sighed as he tried to find words that would make sense to Leo. "Turning a mortal immortal is easy. It's building on an existing structure, making it stronger, more durable. Hercules, Psyche, Ariadne. They all became immortal. But draining immortality is backwards. It's like taking out the foundations that hold it together."
"So, what?" Leo muttered, not taking his eyes off Calypso as she shuddered and trembled, her eyes flickering open and shut. When they did, he could see her dark, smiling eyes had been replaced. Now, the whole eye was a bright gold, the same as the ichor and it terrified him more than he could put into words. "She collapses? Machines don't survive without foundations Dad."
"She's adapting." Hephaestus replied. "Growing new foundations. Working out how to exist. It's a tough process, having the god ripped out of you. I've only known one to go through it."
"Who?"
"You wouldn't have heard of him. Theniles, minor god of scholarship or something. He fell in love with a mortal and decided to join her. Zeus was offended so he struck Theniles from the records. His name appears nowhere, people don't worship him and don't remember ever doing so. But he was happy." Hephaestus recalled, squinting in thought.
"So he survived?" Leo asked, weakly.
"Sure did. Married his mortal, led a good life, taught a lot of people, improved a lot of lives. He grew old with her. Died. He achieved Elysium though gods know how. Zeus still sulks about it. I think Hades might have done it to spite the Big Guy." His dad shook his head with a chuckle. "She'll live, Leo."
"But how do you know?" he muttered. When he turned, Hephaestus was gone.
It was hours later, well after nightfall by the time Calypso stirred. Leo had been dozing by the campfire he'd conjured but the sound of her groan made him snap out of his slumber.
"Leo?" she whispered in a small voice and he knelt down beside her, watching as her eyes fluttered open, pupils dilated but not glowing at least.
"Hey, Sunshine." He murmured with a weak smile.
"Am I still in one piece?" she whispered, wryly. "I feel like I've been torn apart by gorgons."
"I assure you, you are still in one very nice piece." He replied in a small quiet voice like anything louder might break her apart again. "Do you remember what happened?"
"I knew as soon as we breached the border." She breathed, wincing as she tried to sit up, her arms shaking slightly with strain. "I knew it wouldn't be pleasant."
"Wait a second would you?" he muttered, helping her sit up a little. "Did you know…before that?" he added, hesitantly.
Calypso's gaze softened. "Oh hero, of course not. I would've told you. You sounded so worried."
"You could hear me?" he cringed, thinking back to what he'd babbled on about while she slept. Stupid things like how he needed her to wake up so she could play fetch with Festus because he was rubbish at it. How business was going to suffer if he didn't have her there at Leo and Calypso's Auto Garage Repair.
How he thought she was the most beautiful, strongest girl he'd ever met. How he needed her to wake up and tell him he was an idiot or a hero or Wonder Boy.
How he loved her. How she hadn't left his mind once in all the time he'd been away. How he really didn't want to be alone without her, not again. Stupid stuff like that.
"Yes." She smiled a little, reaching out a hand to brush against the furrow of his brow. "It was a nice distraction."
"Feeling better?" he asked, sort of nervous like a single wrong word might make her shatter. What kind of a stupid question is that? Feeling better? Gods he was a moron sometimes.
But Calypso didn't seem to notice. She looked more confused than anything. "Yes, I think. Can you help me up?"
He wanted to say no. He wanted to tell her she was never getting up again, she was going to stay right there, in front of the fire where he could make sure she was never ever going to look like she had, ever again.
"Just- just be careful, alright?" he responded, looping his arm under hers and helping her stand. Her knees buckled almost right away and he had to be quick to hold her up, one arm around her waist and the other across her shoulders. He tugged her a little closer to him than necessary but neither of them noticed. Leo was just too relieved and endlessly grateful that she was talking again, looking at him with those pretty dark eyes and smiling, even if she did have faint golden streaks painted down her chin and neck.
"I never realised how strong I was, until I was strong no longer." She mumbled, shaking her head as if to clear it. "And I'm hungry. Gods, I feel like I could eat a feast."
Festus cocked his head from his resting place near the water and Leo chuckled. "Feast, not Festus."
"Do you feel like this?" she asked, curiously. She held her arms out and wiggled her fingers like she'd never seen them before and Leo wondered what it was like, waking up and feeling like your whole body was brand new.
"All the time." Leo replied. "But then again, I'm a teenager. We're supposed to eat our weight in food. Although I guess you are now too. How do you feel?"
"Strange." She frowned, confused. "I feel very small. I used to feel like a thousand year old goddess and now I feel…"
"Young?" Leo guessed.
"It's very strange." She repeated, taking a few shaky steps on her own.
"I'll go grab some food for us." He suggested when she finally released her iron grip on his shoulder. Her strength was still somewhat increased, he decided, judging by the bruise she left behind. "Any preference?"
"Anything," she grimaced as her stomach roared loudly. "I feel like I haven't eaten in years. This is not the same hunger I'm used to."
"Mortal metabolism. Sucks doesn't it?" Leo guessed, grabbing a thermos of leftover beef stew from the island out of their supplies and heating it with his hands.
"I suppose." She agreed, slowly getting the hang of walking. "I'll admit, gravity feels…heavier now."
Leo found himself shaking with laughter, his relief getting the better of him. "Poor Sunshine," he taunted. "You're used to floating from place to place."
"I don't float, I walked!" she argued. "It's just…heavier now. I feel sorry for mortals."
"You mean you feel sorry for yourself." Leo corrected as she stumbled into the sand a little ungracefully. He sat beside her cross-legged and handed her the meal, which she dug into with gusto. "You're mortal now too."
"I am." She mused, thoughtfully. "Do I look any different?"
Leo studied her face, the smudges dried ichor on the corner of her mouth, the way her hair was tussled from sleeping. She looked mostly the same only…she had a sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose now. Her skin didn't hold the same glow but it still had a slight sheen to it. She seemed more…real now. Like something he could touch rather than something he was supposed to just admire from a distance.
"You're beautiful." He admitted, honestly. Her smile was the same, he noted. And her eyes still glittered when she smiled. She still looked like a dream.
"I'm sorry for slowing us down. I did not realise it would take so long to become mortal. Some of you seem very hastily put together." She teased, weakly.
"Yeah well, what can I say? Gods are lazy." He joked back, feeling his body un-tense. Calypso was fine. She was mortal now. She was going to grow older, turn sixteen with him, then seventeen and then twenty, thirty. She could meet his friends at camp. They could open their garage. He could- would- take her anywhere she wanted to go.
She hadn't said anything about his confession while she was sleeping but when she leaned her head into his shoulder and yawned, Leo realised they were all problems for later. For the first time in a long while, both of them had time to spare.
In the morning, they left as the sun was just erupting from the ocean horizon. Leo glanced behind him to where Calypso sat on Festus' back, arms locked around his waist. "You're not going to start dripping again, are you?" he checked with a snicker but there was a hint of real fear in his tone.
She shoved him and showed him a small vial of glowing gold that she'd put on a cord around her neck. "Quiet, Wonder Boy. The rest is in here. Ichor is powerful stuff."
"How powerful?" Leo raised a brow, sceptically. "All it did was make the ground glow."
"The blood of Ouranos, when tossed into the ocean, gave birth to Aphrodite." Calypso replied, factually.
"Whoa! You mean there's a baby god inside that thing?" Leo asked, tapping the vial with his nail.
"Ouranos was the father of Titans, Wonder Boy." Calypso rolled her eyes. "I am a minor sea goddess. But it's still potent. I will have to hide it when we have reached your camp."
"As long as it's not coming out your ears like a Hollywood zombie extra, we're good." He replied and Festus took off, startling the crap out of some Italian fisherman who were just coming around the rocks.
"Non sono veduto mai un'aquila cosi grande come che!" one of them shouted in an awed voice.
"Sei brillo, stupido!" the other roared and Calypso chuckled.
"Can you understand them?" he called back to her and she nodded.
"They think Festus is an eagle and that they are drunk." She whispered in his ear and he hooted with laughter.
"Gotta love the Mist." He chuckled and paused as Calypso tightened her arms around his waist, feeling utterly invincible.
They were passing over Sardinia, headed towards Egypt when she leaned forward again. "Hero?" she murmured with a small kiss to the spot right behind his ear that made his stomach leap out of his abdomen.
"Yeah?" he turned his head slightly to look at her.
She was so close he could feel her hair tickling the back of his neck and the smell of cinnamon which had always filled his head when he thought of her was suddenly intoxicatingly near. "Thank you for coming back to me." She whispered with a tiny smile and bright eyes. "And I love you too."
"Yeah?" he asked, a slow smile of his own dawning on his face.
She brushed a sweet, tiny kiss against the edge of his mouth. "Yeah."
Leo wore a grin the size of Texas itself for the rest of the trip.
A/N: So they said it. The L Word. Kinda. Hope you liked it everyone and thanks for voting in the poll! If you haven't already, could you please do so? It's on my profile :)
Review time!
Ilovethisfanfic: I wasn't surprised at first cause it was like 4 in the afternoon when I received the memo and then I was like OH MY GODS, THAT IS SO FLATTERING AND AT THE SAME TIME I FEEL BAD PLEASE SLEEP and then I thought, hell I stay up to 2 am all the time, who am I to talk? Anyway, hope the wait wasn't too bad and you enjoyed the Caleo fix! Thanks for reading ;)
Winonabcd: HELLO! I AM INDEED HYPERVENTILATING AND APPARENTLY UNABLE TO TYPE IN LOWER CASE SORRY. I AM SORRY FOR THE CLIFFHANGER, I DO NOT KNOW WHERE IT CAME FROM IT WAS LIKE fine one moment and the next NOT FINE. And you have a writing crush? Seriously, I have internet crushes on everyone who reviews a word of this story and I LOVE YOU SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA GAAAH. I wish I was a sorceress but I am indeed lucky Monday is near because I am hoping everyone will like this chapter and I look forward to the response 8D THANKS FOR READING YOU GLORIOUS READER!
Blue234: She's fine, see? I typically update on Mondays and Fridays so I hope the suspense wasn't too bad for you! Thanks for reading!
Red: *fangirling intensifies* OH MY GOSH I AM SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT! Hope you like chapter twenty five too! Next chapter will be Camp Half Blood I'm pretty sure. Thanks for reading :D :D :D
Artemis Daughter: I think you are the best thing ever. No seriously, all my reviewers are awesome, I have the best readers in the whole damn fandom. YOU ARE AMAZING AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING A MINUTE (LET ALONE SEVERAL HOURS) TO READ MY LITTLE STORY :3 Hope you enjoy the new chapter!
Amber: Here is more, I hope you liked it :) Thankyou for reading!
Dani: Well I did say Ogygia would still be around once Calypso left…Don't know that it would move to New York but I'm sensing a return to Ogygia at some point in the distant future ;) It is her home (or it was at some point) after all. Thanks for reading!
Guest: OH MY GOSH I'M BLUSHING AGAIN GUYSSSs YOU CAN't SAY THESE THINGS THEY MAKE ME SHRIEK AND GIGGLE AND GO RED AND THEN MY SISTER ASKS IF I'M TALKING TO BOYS AND I TELL HER I'M TALKING TO MY LOVELY READERS AND THEN SHE WANTS TO SEE WHAT YOU GUYS ARE READING THEN ARRRRRGRH NO (SERIOUSLY THOUGH THANKYOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR ALL THOSE WONDERFUL COMPLIMENTS, YOU ARE LOVELY AND I HOPE YOU FIND TWENTY DOLLARS SOMEWHERE). *ahem* Anyway, I hope you're not in too much pain and Happy Monday! As for the cliffhanger, seriously I do not even know where that came from, one second all is fine, the next NOT FINE and I'm cackling. I should start taking breaks when I write this fic…ENJOY YOU DELIGHTFUL READER!
Tara Luna Apple: She's fine, see, I promise! She's just adjusting to being, you know, mortal and a bit more fragile than she's used to. Hope you like the new chapter and thanks for reading ;)
Guest: HERE YOU GO FRIEND I HOPE YOU LIKE THE NEW CHAPTER!
AquaDrop: Hi! I'm glad you liked it and thanks for reading ;)
Cloe: No, don't be scared, she's fine…kinda. Just adjusting :D Glad you like it so far and I hope you enjoy the new chapter!
Caro: I respectfully disagree, YOU and everyone who reviews this story are the best and thankyou for taking an interest in my little fic! Hope you like the new chapter ;)
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Guest: Oh my gosh, don't worry about it I'm just super glad you're even reading :3 I'm so so so happy you're enjoying it so far and I hope you like the new update!
RosieGirl52: I agree to those terms. 2 million virtual blue cookies for a finished fic sounds fair to me ;) Bummer that you had to leave your book behind, I have been known to stage a revolt if my books are not on me at all times. Anyway, I'm glad you like it and hope you like the new chapter too! Happy Update Monday!
That's all for this chapter, next update is on FRIDAY and will probably include CHB. Probably. ;)