A/N: Hello everyone! I'm actually falling asleep at my keyboard right now so I'll make this very quick but thanks to everyone who reviewed/read/followed/favourited this story and I hope your week is going better than mine :) Nice long chapter, hope you like it!
Shy
PS. Thanks to I really don't for pointing out: it's our one-year anniversary guys! I started this fic a year ago today! Thanks to everyone who's made it such a great experience for me!
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
The first time Calypso asked Leo to show her New York, he swore. Loudly.
In his defence, it had been a long day and an even longer evening. Leo had wolfed down his food at dinner, mainly because his stomach had three levels of intensity:
First, there was Just-eaten-but-I'm-a-growing-boy-so-I-could-always-go-for-dessert.
Following that: Super-hungry-my-stomach-is-making-whale-noises-and-everything-is-kind-of-blurry-but-we're-on-a-quest-so-I-can-probably-wait.
And lastly: Feed-me-everything-in-sight-and-I-mean-everything.
Since the pizza demon debacle in Chicago, Leo's gut had strangely been set to so hungry he'd probably have eaten Damocles if he could chase it down with hot sauce.
"Most people would be so revolted by a filth demon,they'd hurl at the sight of food." Annabeth told him frankly that night at dinner. The sun had set early, the days growing shorter as fall began to settle in. He and Calypso had made it to the Dining Pavilion in time for Chiron to traditionally welcome back the questing heroes and the new demigods to camp. Again, there had been a brief pause in which the entire camp's gaze seemed to gravitate to the space above Daisy and Michael's heads but no symbol appeared. This set the campers whispering again but a loud shout from Mr D and they were quickly silenced.
Leo didn't know exactly what to make of the lack of claiming but he figured they could probably give it another day before worrying. After all, maybe they were Roman demigods. It hadn't happened before but there had to be a first time for everything and Leo was seriously sick of the gods and their meddling so any reason that didn't include some kind of earth-shattering conspiracy was a-okay with him. For now, they sat in the old place of unclaimed demigods: Cabin 11. Leo kept an eye on them but they seemed fine. A little surprised, maybe a bit quieter than usual but not in any immediate discomfort.
Zoning back into the conversation, he shrugged in response to Annabeth's remark. "What can I say, nothing makes me hungrier than nearly being digested." He muttered, tearing into his enchiladas.
"I wonder if Rachel is feeling any better…" Calypso murmured, studying the absent spot beside Chiron at the head table. Although it was almost purely ceremonial (Rachel wouldn't be caught dead sitting with Mr D), the seat was a hole at the edge of her vision.
"Jason and I stopped in after we IM'd Camp Jupiter." Piper replied, twirling a long piece of spaghetti on her fork. "She hasn't had another attack but I think she's probably better off on bed rest for now."
"She won't like that." Calypso deduced, immediately.
"She doesn't but I'll shackle her there if I have to." Annabeth replied, firmly.
"Kinky." Leo snickered. Calypso elbowed his side as she probed her food, a plate of vegetarian pasta like Piper's.
Jason rubbed his eyes, tiredly. "Have I mentioned how much I hate prophecies lately? Especially ones without words." he muttered, scratching at the groove shorn along his right scalp, from their run in with Sciron in Croatia. It had never really faded entirely but his hair had grown since and it made him look kind of badass. Leo pondered whether he could pull it off but one glance at the mop of rabid curls flipping into his face told him otherwise. It'd probably make his skull look lopsided.
"Could be worse," Percy told the former praetor, digging in to his hamburger. "Could be another riddle."
"I think I prefer riddles to half-smudged pictures." Annabeth remarked in a frustrated tone. Leo knew not being able to piece the whole thing together had to be driving her crazy.
Percy rolled his eyes but with a certain exasperated fondness in his expression. After all, he'd known Annabeth's slightly scary single-mindedness since they were kids and he liked to think he'd developed some tolerance to it. "Of course you do, Wise Girl."
Dinner continued without a hitch; if tables could burst into flames from vicious glaring, Dionysus probably would've turned them into ash but Leo was fairly certain Calypso's suggestion to appease the cranky god for the time being had worked because none of them turned into monkeys. Yet.
He tried to put the wine god's petulant glare (and the potential threat of de-evolving back to an ape) out of his mind. Leo enjoyed catching up with his friends. He felt like he'd spent more time away from camp over the past few weeks than he had in the entirety of the Quest of Seven.
"…and then he tries to tell me I haven't got clearance to speak to the praetor!" Jason was complaining, irritably. "Not only am I Frank's friend, I used to be a praetor! I swear, if I could've, I would've zapped him from across the country."
"So the talk with Hazel and Frank went well then?" Percy interjected, casually.
Piper rolled her eyes. "They said they'd talk to Ella but to be frank,-"
"You're not Frank, you're Piper." Leo told her, mock-patiently.
She threw him a flat look and continued. "-mostly, they wanted to talk about the new temple."
"Which one are you up to?" Annabeth inquired, interestedly. Since the end of the war, Jason had been running himself ragged between the two camps, overlooking plans for the redevelopment of Temple Hill on the west coast. The project's general outline was to house temples for each and every single god and goddess who had formerly been overlooked in the Roman Camp, a promise that had elevated him from praetor to pontifex, the Roman high priest who managed affairs between mortals and gods. He was turning out to be a natural for the job: dedicated, composed with a knack for finding a compromise between conflicting parties.
Unfortunately, it made occasional contact with Octavian inevitable and since nearly destroying both camps in the war against Gaea, the skinny pale blonde had a permanently engraved place on Jason Grace's hit list…if Jason were the type to keep a hit list.
No matter. Leo was keeping one for him.
The son of Jupiter rubbed his eyes but the furrow between his brows dissipated at the mention of his works. "We start construction on the Temple of Dies next week."
"Dies…who is she in Greek?" Piper asked, unable to place the name.
"Hemera." Calypso chimed in with a small, absentminded smile. "She's the goddess of daylight. She will be pleased to have a temple again."
"You're BFFs with the goddess of daylight?" Leo echoed, sceptically. "Just how many of these gods do you know?"
"I don't know what a BFF is." Calypso said, sounding out the acronym with bewilderment. "But Hemera deserves a new place of worship. And I know many of the gods, Wonder Boy. You seem to forget I used to be one of them." She pointed out with an eye roll.
"I guess it's hard to think of you as a goddess when you have pasta sauce on your nose, Sunshine." Leo replied impishly, his grin lit with amusement. He couldn't help teasing her a little; she'd been mocking him all day about his little spat with the rypos daimonas and he liked the way her lips twitched when they were teasing each other, like she was trying to hold back her smile. It reminded him of beachside workshops and a bright red dress. Oh yeah, you're really warming up to me.
Back in reality, Calypso turned bright pink as she wiped off the offending stain with her finger, her mouth twisted into a slightly embarrassed grimace. Even Percy and Piper snickered at that one, although Piper at least had the courtesy to stifle it.
Suddenly, her expression became perfectly composed, eyes ever so slightly narrowed but she didn't wipe her hand off on his shirt like he might've suspected as pay back. She waved her hand over Leo's goblet instead.
Unable to resist his own damn curiosity, Leo took a whiff of the liquid, wincing at the smell. "What in all of Hades did you do to my orange soda?"
"Orange soda? And here I was thinking you'd asked for tomato juice. My mistake." She replied in a voice sweeter than the empanadas his mom used to make. "Perhaps if I were a goddess, I could make it go away. But alas, all I can do is eat my food in peace." She sighed, mock-regretfully, shooting him an innocent look from beneath her lashes.
"Aw, come on Sunshine…" Leo complained jokingly, emptying the goblet but the liquid seemed never ending.
"I hear tomatoes are good for intestinal absorption." Was all she replied, with a dainty shrug and a tiny grin.
"So you knew Dies- I mean Hemera." Jason cut in to the banter, obviously intrigued.
"I'm more familiar with her Greek counterpart." Calypso admitted while Leo tried to ask for more orange pop from the magic goblet, only to find it refilling with soupy red juice. "Dies was far more serious. When I knew her, Hemera tended to be rather…ostentatious."
"Ostentatious? The gods? Never." Annabeth deadpanned with a snort.
"Hemera always took things a step too far. She used to wear a golden veil embroidered with rubies and diamonds that could burn out the mortal eyes of those who looked upon her." Calypso replied, bluntly. "And she had a gilded flock of larks that she made announce her arrival in song."
"Man, I thought Zeus was a show pony." Percy snorted and the twilight skies rumbled distantly in reply. They ignored the sound; what could the gods possibly do to them, after all?
"Even worse, she wrote the tune herself." Calypso winced, her nose wrinkling as though a bad stench had crawled into her nostrils. "Goddess of music, she was not. But she was nice enough. Excellent plakoto player."
"Huh…would you mind writing down what else you remember?" the Roman demigod asked, eagerly. "I mean, I have a couple of Apollo and Vesta's kids helping design the temples but we're kind of guessing here."
Calypso frowned, nervously. "I can record what I remember but it is a little out dated." She admitted.
"What happened to 'gods don't change'?" Leo recalled, attempting to switch goblets with Piper who simply smirked and shifted hers out of reach.
"It has literally been millennia since I've spoken to other gods, Leo." His thousand-year-old girlfriend pointed out with a sigh.
"Any information would be great." Jason interjected. "The redevelopment is a huge project so every bit of info we get makes it easier."
"Who else are you designing for?" she continued, pasta wrapped but forgotten on her fork.
The rest of dinner was filled with news from Temple Hill and the range of deities represented there. Every now and then, Calypso would smile or grimace or add some little detail like He prefers seahorses to fish or It's better to face hers to the North or You can't put those two near each other, they had a feud which last six hundred years.
Throughout the evening, Leo kept an eye on his friends and his girlfriend but they all seemed friendly as ever. He wondered if she'd eaten with them much while he was gone, replaying the mention of how much of a struggle it was to adjust to CHB without him in his mind. For a moment, he privately speculated whether Calypso might have underestimated how well she fit in at camp. From what he heard, his girlfriend was a hit with his half-siblings, his friends, the Oracle, even Cabin 4.
She spoke more quietly than when it was just them, Leo began to realise. And she tended to wait until being spoken to before answering. It was totally unlike the bratty goddess he'd first met who had told him in no uncertain terms how pathetically unwelcome he was on her island.
Leo tried to focus on the conversation but little details became more apparent the longer he watched and they ate up his already limited attention span like a virus on a main frame. She talked to Piper most freely, answered Jason's questions without a hitch, even replied to Annabeth's follow up inquiries sometimes but cautiously avoided Percy's gaze. Maybe he'd misjudged them earlier: they hadn't seemed antagonistic but they hardly seemed ready to sit together by the campfire singing A Sailor Went to The Aegean Sea.
When dinner began to wind down, the group split off: Jason had some notes to finalise with new details for the Temple of Dies, Percy mentioned wanting to check in on Rachel again (something about making her sure she wasn't going to collapse of sheer boredom but there was a determination in his expression that made Leo sceptical) and Annabeth had been recruited to fix some kind of dispute in the Hecate Cabin.
"Sometimes I hate leading." Annabeth let out a sigh but her heart wasn't really in it. After everything she'd been through, fixing some silly conflict between cabins was little more than child's play for her, almost soothing in some strange way. "Piper, you wanna come too? Normally I wouldn't ask but Hecate kids have a nasty habit of turning people who don't agree with them into worms."
Piper's eyes immediately locked on to Calypso, positively glinting with amusement. "Better than frogs, I suppose." She replied, grinning. Calypso turned bright red at the obvious reference to some inside joke the rest of them weren't privy to. "But sure, I'll come along."
While the others began to drift off into the evening, Leo turned to his girlfriend, intrigued. "Frogs…?" he simply echoed.
If possible, Calypso's blush deepened. "There is a sight rumour circulating at camp." She said, stiffly. "Piper thinks it's hilarious."
Leo was itching to ask more but Calypso was now pointedly avoiding his eyes so he moved off the subject, instead letting his antsy hands slowly warp his cutlery instead. There was another question he had for her anyway.
"So you talked to Percy?" Leo broached the subject warily but since he'd realised what Percy coming home early actually meant, it had been on the back of his mind. The fork in his hands twirled between his fingers as he awaited a response.
Calypso smiled ever so slightly but it wasn't necessarily a happy smile. If anything, she looked sort of…awkward. "I did."
"And…?" Leo continued, prompting her while trying to handle his nerves. He couldn't explain why they were suddenly running rampant beneath his skin but they were making it really hard to hold a conversation without his ADHD turning his attention every which way. "You can't leave me hanging like that, Sunshine."
"After the first time we spoke, it was very friendly." She said after a (really, really long) pause. "Rachel tried to shield me from him at first but it turned out well. I think."
"So I don't have to go defend your honour or anything, right?" he asked, teasingly but the warm metal beneath his fingers began to cool. He hadn't even realised he'd been heating it up. "Because I don't know if you've noticed but Percy could kill me with his little finger probably." He added, thoughtfully.
She handed her plate to a passing nymph who spirited it away in seconds. "In that case," Calypso snickered. "Consider my honour well guarded."
Leo smiled at her but his gut was still twisting slightly. "So…anything you want to tell me?"
"Such as…?" she prodded.
"Oh, such as you've suddenly remembered why you liked him so much in the first place and you're planning on stealing him away from Annabeth and running off into the ocean, frolicking along the beach for the rest of your days." Leo babbled, half-jokingly, half-dreading her answer. When Calypso didn't respond right away, he felt his stomach drop further. "You're not actually-?"
"Of course not, you ridiculous vlakas. Honestly, the things you come up with in that head of yours." She sighed, long-sufferingly but her fingers found his tentatively. "To tell you the truth, we apologised to one another."
"What?" Leo said, frowning. "What the hell do you have to apologise for? It wasn't your fault-"
"I apologised for cursing him and Annabeth while I was on Ogygia." She cut in, her expression haunted. "You've…heard of it?"
Oh. Leo winced, wondering how in Hades he could have forgotten. When Annabeth had told him about it, Leo had spontaneously burst into flames and absolutely ruined Festus' right wing plates. When he thought about it, he could still remember Annabeth's paled, stiff face when she explained that the girl he was trying to save, the girl he'd fallen more than a little in love with had cursed his best friends. At the time, he'd done his best to put it out of his head. He put it in a little box at the back of his head and told himself that it was strictly off-limits because the amount of work he had to do was so unfathomable that any kind of distraction from his goal was unwelcome. The mantra came to his head without prompting: Calypso is waiting for me. Well, she was waiting for me.
Having to think about it now was hard because while Percy had really screwed Calypso over, Annabeth had born the brunt of Calypso's immortal curse and she hadn't done anything wrong. All three of them deserved better and he wanted to tell her that. But his tongue felt so heavy that all that came out was: "Well, kind of."
Calypso, surprisingly, didn't seem to notice the slightly terse response. She was tracing her fingers against the wood grain of the table as though it could tell her the secrets of the world. "It was cruel of me and I don't like the part of myself that did it." She finally said, quietly. "I should not have even considered it. Curses are powerful magic. They shouldn't be trifled with."
Leo scuffed his feet against a nearby rock, uncertain. "It's sort of…understandable…" he said, his tongue tied as he wracked his brain and conscience, trying to come up with some way of siding with his girlfriend but also not openly agreeing with her cursing one of his friends.
Calypso studied him intently, so carefully he started to fidget (again) in response. "You are so very loyal, Leo." She sighed. "I'm not sure I deserve it."
Leo frowned but before he could say something- anything- Calypso pushed back her seat and gently pulled him out of his. "Where are we going?" he asked, wondering if this was supposed to be the end of the conversation. Admittedly, Leo wasn't exactly an expert on girls or relationship conversations or discussions about ex-lovers but he liked to think he was pretty knowledgeable about stubborn ex-Titan children and letting Calypso think she was somehow undeserving of loyalty (undeserving, like she hadn't pissed off a primordial earth goddess to spare his life. Undeserving, like she hadn't called him a hero when really he never could've gotten off Ogygia without her. Undeserving, like she hadn't brewed some crazy super-illegal Titan magic on the off chance he'd needed it) was not something he wanted to encourage.
"Does it matter?" she tossed over her shoulder, tugging him out of the pavilion, towards the woods and the beach that lay beyond it. Very aware of his half-siblings snickering and catcalling from their table behind him, Leo rolled his eyes and followed her into the dark.
They slowed when he started to hear the ocean but even when they reached the shoreline, Calypso continued pacing, a nervous habit he wasn't sure where she'd picked up. The black water rolled in and out with a lazy kind of strength, like it was saying I could swallow you. I mean, I won't, I've had a really long day and I'm kind of chilling out right now but I totally could if I wanted to AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT.
Above him the stars glittered, familiar patterns strewn between dusty grey clouds and a single sliver of pale, glowing moon. When he glanced at Calypso, she was studying the patterns too.
"Do they look different to you?" he asked suddenly curious. He hadn't thought about it but the astrolabe had worked by tracking the magnetic field of the crystal to Ogygia and then using the unique starscape to plot a path. With just the astrolabe, the trip would've taken months, years even to first calculate and travel such a path but with Festus' charmspeak-enhanced programming, Leo had essentially hotwired the ancient seafaring instrument. Thank the gods he did because he really didn't like the idea of being a muttering old man like Odd-ball –okay fine,Odysseus (still a stupid name)- when he'd finally found her again. After all, it had been hard enough to get her to like him the first time and that was with his devilish good looks. Meeting her as a geriatric would've been downright painful: Hey Sunshine, wanna take a ride on my wheelchair? We'll leave Ogygia as soon as I take my afternoon nap.
Leo shivered, creeping himself out with the image and tried to refocus. His attention span was dwindling by the second as a response to his stress but he tried the focusing techniques Annabeth had taught him all those weeks ago and they helped. A little.
"A little yes." Calypso muttered back, utterly oblivious to his internal struggle for concentration. "There are more of them now. But some of them are the same."
"You know we don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to." He suddenly blurted out, uncertain of how to take her quiet, solemn tone. Part of him wanted to escape the conversation entirely, to put it off for another day and then another and then another. But the bigger part of his brain was telling him to put on his Big Boy Hat, man up and start talking to his girlfriend like a rational human being. Well, as rational as Leo Valdez could ever really achieve.
"Hmm?" she glanced up suddenly, startled out of her thoughts. "Oh, no, that's not- I'm just thinking of something you told me last time we were out here."
Leo wracked his brain. "…that you were really pretty?" he guessed, warily. It seemed like a safe answer but what the hell did he know? Man, I am so bad at this boyfriend stuff. I need notes. Maybe Percy took some…no, not Percy, he still tells Annabeth blue cheeseburgers are the food of love…Frank! Frank seems the type to make notes…I can copy his…
But Calypso didn't seem offended. Instead she giggled and stopped her pacing. He took it as a good sign. "You were telling me about the city." She corrected with a fond kind of exasperation. "You said there was just more in a city."
Leo distantly remembered the conversation but to be honest, all he really recalled was that halfway through kissing her, they'd had to deal with a cranky Olympian who was trying to evict her from the Oracle Cave.
"I'm trying to be a better mortal." She let out a long sigh, switching tracks suddenly. "It's been difficult."
"I think you're doing fine so far." He argued, feeling like they were having two very different conversations. He privately wondered if ADHD wasn't just for demigods but tried to keep things light. His first night back at camp shouldn't be such a downer. "You haven't killed anyone have you?"
"Define killed." She said, teasingly.
"I really hope you're joking." He complained but the joke made his chest feel ten times later. He took a seat on the closest rock, which was nearly the perfect height to meet her at eye level. "So…you want to tell me what this is all about, Sunshine? Cause I'm confused. You're not actually trying to dump me and run away with Percy are you? Because Annabeth might actuallymurder you in your sleep if you do."
"I'll have to adjust my plans then." she quipped, sarcastically but her expression began to droop, sheepishly. "Rachel and Piper have been trying to help me…integrate, you know? It was hard at first; I stayed with Cabin 9 a lot." Calypso admitted as if it were somehow shameful that she'd been hanging out with his half-siblings.
Leo was mystified. "So?"
"So…" she took a deep breath, biting her lip several times before she spoke. "I spent time in the forges because they were honour bound to like their brother's girlfriend."
His brow furrowed. "Calypso, Nyssa and the guys like you as a friend, not just as my girlfriend. You know that…right?" he interrupted slowly.
"I'm not sure about that." She admitted, quietly. Her voice was shy and sort of embarrassed like she didn't want to say the words in front of him. "Rachel had to force me out of the Oracle Cave initially. The others scare me. They make me nervous."
Leo frowned, still not understanding. "Did someone say something to you? Is it Mr D? Or a camper? Cause you can always talk to Chiron and he can help…kind of. I mean, he might just tell you to have it out in a sword fight but-"
"There are some who dislike my being here. Jake mentioned one earlier." Calypso confessed, taking a spot on the sand nearby.
It clicked in Leo's head. "Dylan?"
"We had a disagreement. He and some of the other campers may or may not be under the impression I can transform people into amphibians." She admitted, slowly, glancing up at him through her lashes.
"So that's what Piper meant about the frogs." Leo began to piece it together, insanely curious for more details. This wasn't the biting, snapping, stubborn sea goddess he knew and loved; Calypso looked too nervous and flustered to be the same girl he'd met on Ogygia. He worried maybe she regretted coming to camp at all, his long-time fear realised in the way she bit her lip or fiddled with the same stray curl of hair like a nervous twitch.
"This is your home," she replied, meeting his gaze with a hint of her usual bravery. "I want to fit in here. I- I care what your friends think of me."
"My friends think you're awesome." Leo corrected, quickly. "Even if they have no idea what you're doing with me."
She nudged him reprovingly. "I've gotten much better." She hastened to add. "I mean, talking with Piper and Rachel has helped so much. Piper is- I don't know how she always knows what to say but she just does. And I'm getting to know some of Demeter's children who seem very kind and Nyssa gave me a headscarf so I think she likes me and Annabeth is still terrifying but she says she's forgiven me even if Percy and I have agreed to avoid each other for now-"
His head felt kind of dizzy from the rambling. "Let's slow down there, hey Sunshine? You're slipping into supersonic speed."
She took a deep breath but when she looked back at him, gone were the nerves and anxiety. Her face was composed, determined, like all those weeks ago on Ogygia. They were even on a beach and if Leo squinted, he could envisage them both on the shore of that quiet bay, with nothing but the sound of wind and waves. He wondered if she could too. He wondered if it made her brave. "What I mean to say is- I can feel stares on me when I walk around. And it terrified me at first but I'm getting better- I've gotten better and I think I'm ready."
"Ready?" he replied, warily. "For what?"
Ready to leave? Ready to take a break? Ready to shave her head? Ready to go pro with Gladiatoys?
Judging from how the conversation had been going so far, he had no idea where this was going but he was definitely listening. Calypso bit her lip again and this time, Leo couldn't help himself. He tugged her bottom lip out from her pearly white teeth. "No damaging the goods, Sunshine." He chided her, teasingly.
She sent him a tiny smile, her voice a bit steadier when she spoke. "I want to get used to being around people again. I mean, I'm better than I was. But even now, I don't like going through the courtyard alone. And the Dining Pavilion, well-" she shivered violently.
"I don't see how this is relating back to Percy." He confessed, feeling like she was speaking an entirely different language. She could've been, for all he knew. She seemed to have retained that irritating godly abilities to understand multiple languages at once. C'mon man, focus Leo!
Calypso moved forward until she was seated beside him on the same rock. It was big enough for the pair, but only if she plastered herself to his side, knee to knee, shoulder to shoulder. The proximity was a little (scratch that: very) disorientating. "That curse- it came out of loneliness." She explained, slowly as if piecing it together herself. "And I thought that now that I was free, that loneliness would go away."
"I thought it had." Leo mumbled, disheartened though he quickly masked the feeling. As per usual, Calypso wasn't buying it.
"You have no idea how much you've done for me, hero." She leaned her head against him, hesitantly at first but Leo's warmer temperature and the way her head fit against his shoulder were too tempting. "But when you left- I felt alone again. I was scared of other demigods, Leo. And it's ridiculous."
"It's not ridiculous," Leo argued back, irritably. "It's normal. Hell, you haven't seen this many people in one place since the Earth was still the centre of the universe."
She blinked, distracted. "You mean to say it is not the centre?"
"Oh boy." he muttered but forced himself to keep going. "The point is, you gotta give yourself a break, Sunshine, you're not gonna adjust that quickly."
"But I want to." she told him, fiercely. "I don't want to always feel this way when you're not around. Leo, I want to be a partner, not an infant you have to mind!"
"Are you asking me to go steady with you?" Leo couldn't help but tease, but the joke went right over Calypso's head. Ah, the woes of having a girlfriend with no understanding of modern culture. He and Frank should definitely exchange notes some time.
"I don't want to be the kind of girl who curses someone she thought she loved or hurts someone she's never met, out of spite." Calypso explained, hesitantly. It kind of hurt to hear her talk about Percy like she loved him but with Calypso, it was impossible to ignore the guys who'd come before him and left her crying. "I want to be better than that. I don't want to feel alone anymore."
"Alright…what can I do to help?" he asked, unsure but willing. Leo wasn't good at being a knight; that was more Jason or Percy or hell, even Frank's thing. He was a fighter, no doubt about it. But a different kind. Leo was the mechanic, the fixer, the joker. Swords didn't fit into his grasp as easily as hammers. But he could try to be.
Maybe he needed to talk to Percy or Jason too sometime- surely they'd have notes on questions boyfriends are and are not meant to ask their conflicted girlfriends during times of personal crisis?
He thought of the idea and scrapped it after a second: Percy wouldn't know tact if it slapped him straight across the face and Jason didn't even remember the first half of his relationship with Piper. Man, he knew he was in trouble when he was seriously considering Frank I-get-flustered-when-Hazel's-bra-strap-slips-off-her-shoulder-during-training Zhang as the relationship expert.
Calypso straightened suddenly, lifting her head and placing her hands neatly on her lap. "I want you to take me to the city." She said, firmly, everything about her so determined and eager and anxious all at once.
Leo paused, rewound the words in his head and nodded, bewildered. "You want me to go with you to New York?" he clarified slowly.
"Yes." She said, forcibly. "So I can be around people. I think I'm ready to try handling 'more' as you put it."
"You know they say New Yorkers are crazy right?" he asked, rubbing his eyes but he was almost wilting with relief. In comparison to the theories his feverish mind had been coming up with, this was by far the least painful.
She nodded, firmly. "Yes but I have also heard there are many people living there, much more than camp. They know me here. They whisper and gossip and talk about me like I'm an enemy. I think that if I practise being around people who do not know me or care who I am, it will be easier to learn how to be around other demigods. And I think I'm ready, I mean, I've been considering it. So what I want to know is if you will take me to the city?"
Suddenly, the last detail clicked in his head. Her words, their conversation, what she was essentially asking for. And here is where Leo cursed. Colourfully. Loudly. Profusely.
"You did it again!" he complained with a special kind of frustration that made him want to laugh and yell. Possibly at the same time.
"What?" All of her vulnerability was gone in a split second, replaced by indignation. Her brow furrowed and her lips scowled. "I've done nothing!"
"No, no, no, you did it the first time and I let it slide but seriously, I had it all planned out in my head this time, Calypso!" he ranted, utterly exasperated. It was one thing on Ogygia but this was getting out of hand!
"Had what planned in your head?" she snapped, outraged by his reaction.
He wanted to tear his hair out. "You asked me out! Again!"
"Asked you out?" she echoed, dubiously. "What in all of Olympus does that mean?"
Leo let out a long-suffering sigh. "It means you asked me out on a date. Again. And I was going to ask you, I was rehearsing-" he coughed suddenly, eyes bulging at his own rogue tongue. "I mean, thinking about it. And you jumped the gun!" he accused.
"Leo, I don't understand those references. What is a gun and how does one jump on it?" Calypso sighed, tiredly before waving her hands. "Wait, no, it doesn't matter. Will you take me or not, Wonder Boy?" she demanded, looming above him with her hands on her hips. Even in her camp clothes, with her godly glow gone and the dim starlight above them, she suddenly looked exactly like she had when he had first exploded onto Ogygia and the comparison made him want to laugh more than rant.
"Like I'm gonna let someone else show my girlfriend around New York City." Leo grumbled, although he was beginning to see the humour in the situation. His millennia-old girlfriend had just asked him on a date twice while he'd barely gathered enough words to think about asking her. Figures.
You are one smooth operator Valdez.
"Is that a yes?" she pressed, frowning slightly.
"Sure Sunshine." He agreed, laughing at himself a little.
"Good." Calypso's back loosened as she took a deep breath, to steady her nerves. "Thank you."
"But next time, I'm gonna ask." He grunted but a second later, she leaned her head into the crook of his neck and he couldn't find it in him to care anymore.
A/N: Aaaand cut!
I told you there was a First Date Chapter in the not-to-distant future ;)
Not sure if it's next chapter but it is soon, I promise!
Also, if anyone's slightly confused, Calypso asked Leo out (accidentally) when he came back for on Ogygia in Chapter 23. He's not really mad- just kind of exasperated that she managed to tear the rug out from underneath him again but he'll get over it ;)
Alrighty, ANON TIME!
BubblesOfColours: Hi! I'm glad you find Calypso and Leo cute, I wanted to make sure they didn't get too angsty so some of their fluff is kind of tooth-achingly sweet. Glad you liked Cabin 9 too, I feel like they'd get on with Calypso pretty well and I like Nyssa way too much to ignore her in this fic :D Also, Solangelo feels are almost certainly on their way- I don't know how or when but they are just too damn cute and I need them in this story. Hope you're doing wonderfully and enjoyed the new chapter!
Guest#1: Solangelo is hands down the cutest OTP for one-shots, fanarts and spin-off stories at the moment. They are everywhere and I do not even mind, I can't handle how perfect those dorks are ;) I admit, I'm keen to see a slow-build fic for them so if you find one, definitely leave a link! I'm glad you like the story so far although I admit, I didn't much like the CaLeo reunion in Blood of Olympus much either. I feel like it had so much potential and Rick literally tied it up in a single chapter, like it didn't mean much at all which was kind of disappointing. I agree, I think Calypso's reaction could've been handled better. As for Festus, yay I was so unbelievably glad to see I guessed right about Festus' return to full-bodied dragon status! So glad he played a part in the Final Battle and the mental image of Leo going supernova in mid-air like that? WHOA. Anyway, hope you enjoy the new chapter and thanks for such a great review! I love talking about this kind of thing with fellow readers!
ManInTheLeather: Hi! Glad you enjoyed the new chapter. As for a plot twist, I have a few plot bunnies up my sleeve but I'm taking my time setting the pieces together first. All I can really say is that we haven't seen the last of Daisy and Michael and that the Oracle is acting nuts for a reason. That being said, this is a Caleo-centric fic and will remain so for pretty much ever so any plot twists will definitely include them :)
Snapcracklepop: Naw thanks! I'm really glad you're enjoying it so far. You're right, I try to give Calypso a less modern voice- I feel like it fits with her character pretty well. After all, Zoe Nightshade was her half-sister and she spoke like it was Elizabethan England ;) Anyway, enjoy the new chapter and get some sleep friend! PS. Thanks, I am definitely going to need all the luck I can get!
Omega: AW THANKS! I'm glad because romantic scenes are always hard for me to write but I'm trying to improve – glad to know it's working ;) Hope you enjoy the new chapter and thanks for reviewing!
QuenaSparquea: Yeah, I'm glad the ending fits reasonably well! I'd be gutted if there were anything I seriously screwed with but everything worked out! Enjoy the new chapter!
Meow: I LIKE YOUR REVIEWS A LOT THANKYOU FRIEND
Starry: Hello! Naw, glad you enjoyed the fluff ;) As for Solangelo, aren't they just the cutest dorks to ever dork? GAH. THANKS FOR LEAVING YET ANOTHER LOVELY REVIEW!
RavenclawGirl: Yes, yes he is. Well spotted :) Glad you liked the new update and as for Calypso sounding like a Cabin 9 kid…I think Calypso talking shot is more likely to be a turn on for Leo than a turn off but that's just personal preference ;) Enjoy the new chapter and thanks for reviewing!
Demonicchickin: I know right? That's the whole reason I started writing this fic, I couldn't live with the tiny scraps of Caleo in HoH. I'm glad you're enjoying it so far and thanks for leaving such a sweet review!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm sorry to say the next one won't be for a little while (last few weeks of university are slowly crushing me into tiny pieces) but hopefully before Halloween. I'm going to a party as a 1920s flapper vampire because I am a hopeless history nerd- anyone else dressing up this year?
Thanks for reading!
Shy