A/N: Hello everyone! I am officially back from my trip and without going into too much detail, let's just say OH MY GODS, I swam with TURTLES and MANTA RAYS and WHALE SHARKS and fish the size of my head and I learned so much and it was so much fun and *sigh* it would've been a perfect week HAD I NOT BEEN CUT OFF FROM WI-FI FOR SEVEN DAYS GAH.
Anyway, sorry about the wait guys but thankyou for sticking with it! I'll be answering reviews and PMs from Chapter 31 to 32 today (I hope) because I think I missed a few last week. Sorry about that :( Anywho, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWS, READS, FOLLOWS OR FAVOURITES THIS STORY, YOU ARE AMAZING AND WONDERFUL!
Shy
PS. Happy Birthday to Sturmvoraus and enjoy the chapter!
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The first progress Leo made with the demigod kids came on his second night at Bearmont Shelter. He'd spent most of the second day casing Bearmont like he was trying to break in. It wasn't intentional- what with being viciously threatened by a twelve year old with a knife the night before, Leo had decided to give the kids time to settle down. Instead he explored the building.
He scoured every inch of the inside, every one of the four floors, from dormitory to general space to administration to kitchens. He found every hiding hole and crevice, every odd door, the fire escape, the basement, the roof. He wasn't sure what he was looking for but he wanted to be prepared. The sooner he got the kids and killed whatever monsters were lurking around, the sooner he got back to camp where he could relax with his girlfriend. The exploration took him a couple of hours, although when he'd gotten particularly bored, he caved to the temptation and IM'd Calypso who had looked okay but slightly tense, through the mist.
Seeing her face was enough to make him hate Mr D all over again as he explained the situation, including Coach Hedge's strict ban on meat products and the stew served in the kitchens. When she asked about Michael and Daisy, he couldn't help but frown a little.
"Chiron said they'd be older but they're not teenagers. I mean, they act like they're older but the way they talk?" Leo thought to how bold and aggressive Daisy was, how they bristled at any perceived threat. "They're kids."
When she asked who their parents might be, he had to think for a second. He hadn't really thought about it but he supposed Michael could've been an Aphrodite kid, being so pretty and gentle. But he didn't have the same intangible appeal draw that Piper and her siblings had, though Leo suspected Michael would grow into his own charisma.
"Not really." He said instead. "The boy could be a Hermes kid, he's skinny and fast but they don't like talking to others if they can help it. The girl can get pretty intimidating." He added, unthinkingly.
Calypso's pretty mouth split into a smirk. "Are you scared of a little girl, hero?"
"She made a knife out of corrugated scrap steel!" Leo groaned in protest. "If she's not an Ares kid, I'm not fireproof."
While she laughed, he took a sneaky second to just shamelessly ogle her through the rainbow tinted mist, at how her shoulders shook, curls tumbling down her back and her eyes bright with humour. "We should be back soon. Maybe." Leo found himself saying, feeling a tad bitter that she felt so close but not close enough yet again. "I love you." The words were hesitant but clear. He hadn't used the words very often but he found he liked the way the letters felt in his mouth and the way her face lit up when he said them.
Her smile turned gentle and he wondered if it was the mist or if her cheeks really did turn a little pink. "I love you too, hero. Come back soon." She said, her hand twitching forward as if reaching out to him. He wondered if she was even conscious of the movement but the action made him feel warm even as the mist dissipated around him.
He tried to put missing home to the back of his mind, telling himself it had only been a day. To be honest, Leo knew he was still angry about Mr D's success in sending him away which was only fuelling his desire to be back at camp.
The kids avoided him as much as possible- at dinner, during the day, any time in between, Leo rarely caught a glimpse of them but they were among the youngest at the shelter and by far the smallest. It made them harder to catch but also harder to protect.
Calypso's ambrosia sat in the pocket of his jacket, always nearby and the gentle weight of it reminded him of home so bad he toyed with the idea of just hog-tying both demigods and hurling them into a plane back to New York with him and Hedge.
Coach Hedge was integrating with the other volunteers (although Leo doubted the quiet guy who always wore the Salt Lake City Bees baseball cap and twitched a lot was really the monster-type) and so hadn't had much time to talk to Leo but he could tell he was watching out for the demigods too. It was hard to explain but there the feeling of eyes whenever Leo was near the two kids- like something unfriendly was paying close attention too.
Having made absolutely no headway whatsoever, Leo had been prepared to collapse into one of the cots and start up again the next morning.
He'd fixed the squeaky leg on his bed and adjusted the springs the night before so it was more comfortable- he was about ready to fall asleep to the sound of three dozen other guys snoring and wheezing around him. The boys' dormitory was less like a dorm than a hall and the room was just big enough to house all the kids who slept there. There were a trio of big windows on one side of the room, a short squat ceiling and one entry in and out- nothing special to be sure, but it was dry and warm and secure, at least for the night.
Leo had just rolled over and buried his head into his pillow when he heard it.
"You heard me. Move it, pretty boy."
"Gian, you did this last night. Go away." Michael's voice was quiet but certain and stubborn.
"I don't care, my bed's got dirt in it. Switch with me. Now." The other kid sounded like every other bully Leo had ever listened to in his life: rude, entitled and aggressive. It set his teeth one edge.
"Let's not do this, just go to bed like everyone else." Michael tried again but he sounded a little more nervous.
"I'm not kiddin' around here Lake, switch." The other kid snarled and Leo wasn't going to get involved, no, no, that's how people ended up getting hurt, it was just a spat, the kids were never going to believe he wasn't stalking them if he interfered and-
Suddenly, all Leo could hear was the dull thwack! of flesh on flesh, a quiet, pained gasp and a low chuckle. He'd swung his legs over the side of the bed before the laughter had stopped.
"Leave him alone, I need my beauty sleep." He snapped, angrily as he made his way between the beds to the edge of the room, where Michael lay prostrate on the ground, clutching his jaw, in front of a big, lumbering boy about a year or two older and fifty pounds heavier. He had the same shape as a small gorilla and an indignant, angry stare for eyes. He was the kind of kid Leo had met before on the streets- equal to any of them, just as lost, just as wary but determined to make others fear him, preferring to lash out at others smaller and weaker than him.
"Stay out of this, newbie." The kid, Gian, warned, glaring at Michael. The boy clambered to his feet, his jaw blossoming with red. In nothing but a pair of dark, once-blue track pants, Leo could see how terribly skinny he really was and it reminded him of himself- a darker skinned but just as scrawny kid being knocked in the mouth for some insult or another.
But he was older now, stronger, braver, smarter. He wasn't a little orphan boy thrown from place to place, always caught and never free for long. No, screw it, Leo wasn't letting this one go.
"No I don't think I will." Leo said, casually but with a hint of warning in his own tone. It was the kind of voice he'd honed during his quests, one that all his friends had all developed as the battles grew harder and more dangerous- the kind of tone that made monsters and Gaea's minions alike take a second thought.
"O-oh yeah?" Gian said, sneering to cover the slight nerves in his gaze.
"Yeah." He replied, rolling his eyes. "What are you, Goldilocks?"
"Shut up!" the kid grunted. His dark grimy hair obscured his gaze and his thick brows furrowed angrily. "Don't call me that!"
"You sure? Cause for all your whining about your bed, I could've sworn you were a little blonde girl with pigtails and a squeaky voice." Leo threw him a slightly maniacal smile. "Now shut up and go to sleep."
"You ain't the boss of me," Gian protested, hotly.
"Do you want me to grab someone who is?" Leo countered.
"Snitch!" he yelled, drawing the attention of a few nearby boys. No one liked a snitch after all.
Leo rolled his eyes again, wondering if the boys that used to push him around were as stupid as this one. They hadn't seemed so useless at the time but now he could see, the kid was aggressive but harmless. "Anyone I grab would be for your benefit, buddy, not mine."
"Yeah?" He sneered, enjoying the audience as eyes drew towards them.
"Yeah." Leo was un-budging, well aware of Michael, who looked nervous and uncomfortable with the gazes, standing beside him. "Now one more time, Goldilocks. Go to bed or I'll nail your cot to the ceiling and then no one will switch with you. Got me?"
"You can't do that." Gian said, as if calling his bluff.
Leo toyed with the idea of really screwing with the kids' mind and showing him his favourite 'Human Candle' party trick but decided it wasn't really the low profile Coach Hedge had stressed to him.
"You don't wanna know what I can do Goldie." He said instead, inserting enough threat into the words so they sounded appropriately bad-ass. It was the kind of thing a comic superhero or secret agent would say, men far smoother than Leo Valdez. But the gorilla-kid seemed to take it seriously enough and backed down with an unpleased, irritable whatever.
As soon as Gian had moved off to his own cot, Michael turned to Leo with a scrutinizing stare. "You didn't have to do that, you know." He told the demigod, bluntly. His chest was heaving a little and Leo had to wonder how badly gorilla-kid's punch had winded him.
"Sure I did. You and Daisy are cool kids, you don't deserve getting messed with." Leo shrugged, purposefully vague. He wanted to add it's harder for demigod kids, what with the whole ADHD, dyslexia and a gazillion monsters trying to kill you all the time but wisely refrained.
"Daisy's probably going to kill you tomorrow." Michael told him, as if sympathetic. "She said to leave us alone."
"I don't really do what I'm told." Leo replied with a grin which Michael tentatively returned.
"Thanks though." The kid added in an undertone as he sat on his cot again.
Leo nodded, wondering how the hell someone as combative as Daisy and as shy as Michael came to be friends. "Go to sleep, munchkin two." He told the kid, making his way back to his spot. Around him, the lights were dimming on a timer and everyone was nearly asleep anyway. "I'm gonna need to use you as a human shield tomorrow."
"What part of leave us alone did you not-?" Predictably, Daisy was unhappy about seeing Michael and Leo eating breakfast the next morning at the same section of table.
But to his credit, Michael stepped in. "Dais, I think he's okay." He suggested, lightly.
Leo was prepared for Daisy to ignore the words entirely but to his surprise, the girl paused, studying Michael from head to toe and scowling, sceptically. "You sure?" she demanded. "'Cause that one behind the tea shop was pretty okay too…"
"I'm sure." Michael replied and Daisy gritted her teeth but sat down, silently.
Leo snickered. "I didn't know you had an off switch, munchkin."
"I said not to call me that." She growled once, eating the crumbly cereal flakes that everyone was given.
"Sure thing midget." Leo replied, easily. He got a kick out of the fact that they were actually shorter than him and Daisy's explosive temper made the little game hilariously fun to play while he waited around.
Across the table, Daisy just crunched her cereal between her molars like she was imagining it was Leo's head and Michael hid a smirk. "You shouldn't call her that." He told Leo in an undertone.
"Well I don't know what else to call you." Leo pointed out, innocently. They hadn't really introduced themselves the other night in between her nearly slitting his throat.
Daisy eyed him, still scowling. Leo wondered if she ever got tired of looking mean. "I'm Daisy Bronston. And this is Michael Lake."
"Nice to meet you guys. I'm Leo." Leo addressed, cheerfully. He knew he should probably keep using the fake name he gave Sophina but he got the sense that Daisy would see through any kind of deception and wouldn't be very forgiving a second time.
Internally, Leo could barely believe his luck that not only was he now talking to the new demigod kids, but one of them even seemed okay with him. There was the small fact that the other was trying to rip his spine out with the power of her mind but it was only the second day. I'll be back at camp tomorrow if this keeps up, he thought, optimistically. He'd see Calypso and his friends and Festus and brightly tell Mr D to go juice himself into a bottle of Sauvignon because he was still alive and hadn't even seen a monster-
Then of course he heard the pssst!
Leo sighed. "I'll be back in a sec. Don't eat my breakfast." He told them and while Michael was vehemently denying that they'd do such a thing (definitely not a Hermes kid that one), he slipped in to the alley through the doors behind them, one of which was cracked open with a familiar hissing coming from it.
He slipped through the door as casually as he was able (people rarely questioned people who looked like they were doing what they were meant to) and suddenly grimaced at Coach Hedge who was waiting for him in the alley.
"Coach, I didn't take you for a plaid man." He said, wincing at the sight of the satyr's new apron- a kelly green and orange tartan print in acrylic, which dragged along the ground a little on account of the man being so short. It clashed fabulously with the suspicious glare on the Coach's face.
"The monster's got your scent, Valdez." Hedge wasted no time in saying.
"How can you possibly know that?" Leo asked, beginning to wonder if Hedge was just imagining awesome foes to destroy.
"Three demigods in the one place, all talking with each other," Hedge grunted. "You three stink."
"Thanks." Leo replied, flatly. "Can I go?"
"I'm serious cupcake, keep your eyes open." he insisted, poking Leo's eyebrows with a jab.
"Hey!" he batted the satyr's hand away, irritably. "Fine. I'll keep an eye out. Any idea who it is?" Leo assumed the monster was someone inside Bearmont since anything prowling outside would've raised some kind of alarm in the shelter by now.
Hedge's nose twitched. "One of the volunteers. They all smell…monstery."
"One of the volunteers," Leo echoed, dryly but suddenly paused. "What about that Newman guy?" He was pretty monstery in Leo's opinion.
Coach considered it. "Maybe. It was there the first day. Could be."
"What do we do with the kids?" Leo asked, suddenly realising how much trouble they were in if there was a monster clever enough to hide in plain sight like that.
Hedge shrugged, uncomfortable. "Nothing we can do. It's not like we can just kidnap them and they're not ready to hear the truth."
Leo had never thought of it that way but he supposed protectors must have their work cut out for them, persuading kids to trust absolute strangers with their safety. He wondered if that storm spirit had never attacked them on the Grand Canyon last year, would Hedge have persuaded he, Piper and Jason to just leave? Somehow he doubted it.
"Just keep your eyes open." Hedge repeated, beginning to retreat.
"Hey Coach, before you go, I have a question," Leo called, solemnly to the satyr who paused. "What do I have to do to grab a side of bacon at breakfast?"
The Coach scowled. "Meat is murder, you little punk. This is a vegetarian trip, got me?"
"That's not fair!" he whined. "This is, like, pizza-central! I have to eat something with bones!"
"I don't care- you're on a no meat diet for this mission. Eat broccoli or something." Coach Hedge retorted, unfazed.
"Why, does it taste like pork chops?" Leo mumbled.
"No but it might make me want to kick your ass a little less." Hedge snapped before slipping back inside the shelter.
Leo couldn't help but frown, watching him go as he thought over the Coach's strategy. Doing Nothing may be the only logical path until Daisy and Michael were prepared to learn more but it sounded a lot like Waiting For A Monster To Attack And Kill Them All. Leo admitted he was fidgety, eager for something to do. Sitting still and waiting wasn't in his nature.
Like most of the kids, Leo carried his bag on his back at all times, not leaving it in the dorms where prying fingers could get to it. Now he reached to the bottom, his hand brushing the coarse fabric of his tool belt, worriedly.
Waiting might have been the only path available but how was Leo supposed to gain these kids' trust enough for them to follow him when it came time for the monster to strike?
A/N: Hope you liked it :) The next chapter will be up shortly, I'm still fine tuning but the good news is, I got quite a bit of writing done on my trip!
Anyway, thanks for everyone's patience and I hope you have had a delightful week :D
Reviews!
ManInTheLeatherJ: Great! I'm actually really enjoying writing Leo's side (originally, I wasn't going to go into any depth with it at all) so I'm glad you're excited for it :) Thankyou for reading!
Paws the Party: Thanks for pointing those out :)
Red: Hi again! Glad you enjoyed it and as for the Caleo reunion, soon, I think. There's still a little more Chicago!Leo and a bit more CHB!Calypso before they meet again. But then, I promise some unadulterated Caleo fluff ;)
Starry: Daisy has been fun to write because she reminds me a lot of my little sister when she was twelve- she's incredibly loyal and would make a really good friend but damn she needs to chill out! Anyway, enjoy the new chapter!
Tara Luna Apple: No socks needed my friend, Daisy is almost certainly a child of War ;)
Hannah: I can see Leo giving Calypso a nickname like that and her telling him to quit it and then it gets all fluffy and AW I made myself fangirl again.
Just a Stranger: Hi! I know I'm a little late but you're technically right, it is a Monday! As for Daisy and Michael being the same age, yes they are but as for shipping…well… I won't ruin it, but I'm not feeling too much in the way of Daisy-Michael romance to be honest. I have plans for Michael (although it's interesting how many of you think he's a son of Apollo ;) but to be perfectly honest, I think Daisy would eat him alive if they got together. But hey, I haven't even written that part yet, anything could happen *shrugs* I always like reviews like this because they give me ideas that might not have occurred to me otherwise so thankyou! I am curious though: what is it about Michael that says Apollo?
Valerie: I couldn't help it- Daisy is just such a perfect name for my little hostile OC ^^ Anyway Hi and welcome :) I'm really glad you're enjoying it so far and I'm SUPER glad it's not OOC (that is the last thing I want to do) I will gladly accept the title of Caleo Master THANKYOU and as for Frying Pans, Baseball Bats (excellent weapon of choice BTW) and Insane Evil, I must ask…in what way is it familiar? I'm curious ;)
Sturmvoraus: Hello and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Daisy is super hostile but she'll chill out eventually I think. I hope. Anyway, enjoy the new chapter!