Chapter 18- Water and Fire

Percy was studying. Yes, he was legitimately studying by himself without the help from Jason. Don't be too surprised by it. Will he struggle without the help from his friends? Of course he will.

"This is too much," Percy groaned. He rubbed his eyes in pain as his dyslexia wasn't helping him out with his math homework. His ADHD was telling him that this was torture.

This is violating my individual right to enjoy life!

Shut up, Percy's higher reasoning tried to tell it.

Cheeseburgers!

Cheeseburgers, Percy agreed. Sometimes, the natural instinct can make valid points. But putting aside his inner voice conflicting against his higher reasoning, the math homework was not going to solve itself.

Percy was at the Athenian Library, trying to study away the pain. It was rather a homely library, that somehow captured the grand art of education (by being way to fancy in Percy's eyes) and yet made it feel cozy with warm sofas, fireplaces, and comfortable lighting for reading (Percy admits that this is also a prime place to fall asleep). The outside of the library was marked with an olive tree (Percy thinks that's lame. They should have gone for pizza or something else that's cool). It was a Friday night, and here Percy was, studying away. Avoiding emotional pain for some intellectual suffering instead.

How fun, Percy dully noted.

Percy thought about hanging out with his friends who went to go support for Frank's football game. Percy, as social as he is, wasn't feeling it however to do so. There are some moments when the best company is just yourself. This moment was one of those moments for Percy. The fire crackling and the steady light was enough to calm him down and ease into his homework. Of course, he's naturally going to have a tough time with math, but other than that, he was making some nice progress along. His friends would be proud.

He remembers when Nico asked if he was going to go watch the game. He hinted that Annabeth would be there. In the emotional turmoil that was Percy, he politely declined and wished for the best for Nico as Percy knew Nico would be there for Physical Therapist's assistant (cough, cough Will).

He stopped thinking as he went back to focus on homework. The difficulty of the homework and his determination to finish it combined to dissolve time. Before Percy knew, it was reaching eight o'clock already. His focus made him unaware of the figure approaching him.

"It's a surprise to see you here. Especially on a Friday night."

Percy could recognize the voice anywhere. "Same goes for you. I thought you were going to take everyone on Festus." He didn't bother to look up to see one of his close friends face.

Leo shrugged. "They all thought it was suicidal to do so. I find that offensive. He's not that rusty like Blackjack."

"Hey," Percy warned. "You take that back."

Leo gave a small laugh and plopped a seat across from Percy. He stopped smiling as he saw how serious Percy was in his homework.

"Hey…"

Percy scribbled some more numbers down. "Hold on, I'm almost done with this. Just give me a sec."

"… Sure"

"…"

Okay!" Percy yelled with some pride in his voice. He put his pencil down and smugly put his statistics homework back into his backpack. Afterwards, he turned towards Leo and asked, "you were saying?"

Leo seemed to be a little surprised by Percy but quickly regained his poise. "Why are you here?" Leo asked.

Percy raised his eyebrows in surprised, almost taking Leo's question as an accusation. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean," Leo explained. "Why are you in the library to study on a Friday night?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"Excuse me?"

"The burden of proof shouldn't be based on my presence but yours."

Leo rolled his eyes at this argument. Essentially, 'I was here before you so you explain yourself first' argument was made. "Sure, talk to Chiron and everyone's a philosopher now."

Percy smiled at Leo's joke. As crazy as Chiron sounded sometimes, the wheeled-chaired man was indeed amazing.

"Okay, I'll go first then." Leo sighed. "I came here because you were here."

Percy tilted his head in confusion, encouraging Leo to elaborate more.

"What I mean," Leo continued. "Is that I need to talk to you about stuff. Girl stuff."

Oh.

Percy sighed. "I suppose this had to come up someday." He put aside his pencil, journal, and other school supplies. "What is it that you want to ask?"

"How do you know Calypso?"

Right to the hard question, Percy thought. He stood silent for a while, trying to formulate the correct response.

"We were…friends," Percy said, knowing full well that 'friends' don't seem to cover it.

Leo seemed to catch the tone of his answer. "You mean… you guys were?.."

"Dating? No," Percy reassured Leo. "Still, friends is a poor choice of word. But still, we knew each other."

"How?"

"She used to take care of me."

Leo looked confused.

"Back when my Mom was dating someone else."

Leo tried to prompt Percy to explain further.

"During the times with Gabe." Percy dully stated.

"Oh," Leo felt dumb. "I'm sor-"

"It's fine." Percy said reassuringly. "I made peace with the past. But I'll continue on."

"Yeah, that'd be nice," Leo weakly stated, not wishing to further embarrass himself.

"We were close neighbors, but I used to not know because, well, her house arrest prevented anyone from knowing her."

"Wait, timeout," Leo interjected. "What's with her house arrest?"

Percy stopped and thought for a while, as if he was wondering if he was allowed to share the story. "There was a huge scandal with the Zeus corporation back then," Percy explained. "There was a department that tried to 'overthrow'- basically sabotage the entire company. They did super illegal stuff. The Titan Department."

But Zeus noticed ahead of time and basically destroyed the entire company with the help of my Dad. You know, before he died."

"Right," Leo nodded, interested in the history of business for the first time since forever.

"Basically, there was a legal suit that arrested the entire department and also made their family members responsible for their action as well."

"That's messed up," Leo said."

"Yeah," Percy sighed. "Unfortunately, Calypso was the daughter of Atlas, one of the bigger businessmen for the department, so she also got a pretty big sentence too."

"So that's how she got her house arrest," Leo finally said. "But then how does that relate to.. you know… Gabe?"

"We were neighbors," Percy stated. "We used to live in Ogygia, thanks to the rights from the corporation after the accommodation for my dad's death."

Point is, Gabe's drunken days usually left me pretty beaten, bruised, and bloodied. We had the right to stay in a rich property, but we weren't rich ourselves. One night went particularly bad. I ran outside, but I was on the verge of fainting because of blood loss."

Well, long story short, I ended up waking in Calypso's house and she helped me back to health. Neat, isn't it? She's interested in the medical field, thanks to my bloodiness and injuries. But that's the story of how we became 'friends'. I told her stories of what the outside world was like besides the internet, cause let's face it, that's hardly a reliable source of information. And she became my refuge against Gabe and the cruel, cruel world."

Leo stood there speechless. It was a lot to process. Obviously, Percy was trying to casually explained his abusive days as a child. But the overall history of Percy and Calypso made Leo's heart twist. Jealous wasn't the right word for it. But this new knowledge made Leo question his right to romance.

"Hey, man," Percy noticed Leo's troubled face. "You okay?"

"Okay?" Leo said. "Of course I'm not okay!"

Here I am, getting told the story of a wounded hero and an angle and you expect me to be the guy to ask her out? Are you insane!?"

Percy frowned. "Hey, what's in the past between Calypso and me is in the past. We're just good friends now and that's how it stays. So just relax and shoot your shot."

Leo shook his head. "You don't understand."

"Try me."

"I'm not meant for romance."

Percy laughed a bit.

Leo frowned at his gesture. "What? What's so funny?"

"So you're scared."

"I'm not scared! I'm being honest. I'm not meant for romance."

"You're totally scared," Percy laughed louder now.

"You don't understand. I'm a number."

"A what?"

"I'm a number! Look around you." Leo gestured across the library filled with books. "All of these, have poetry and stories about sappy love and romance. I wasn't meant for that. I'm a number. You're a word, Percy. In fact, you're an entire book about heroism, trauma, perseverance. You're everything that can be expressed through romance. Meanwhile, I'm just a number. A stinking number."

"Interesting," Percy noted.

"Yes, really interesting," Leo rolled his eyes. "Point is, I wasn't meant for this."

Percy sat there, trying to formulate what was on his mind. He knew something was wrong with Leo's logic, but he couldn't say what. Something was wr-bingo.

"Leo," Percy said.

"What?"

"Would you say that coding is like technological communication? A communication that's built on numbers, that is."

"That's barely covering the definition of it, but yeah, I would say so. Why would you- oh, I see where you're getting now."

"Checkmate."

"That's not how it works," Leo said with frustration. "That's not how romance works!"

"Since when did you let everything else dictate how you should love?" Percy asked with incredulity.

Leo stopped at his question.

"Sure, most loves are expressed in poetry and romance, but that by no means makes your number-love any less romantic or legitimate."

Leo didn't respond.

"You have the right to love, Leo. And that love is only possible if you can do it by being Leo. Not anyone else."

"I suppose so," Leo grumbled.

"Go for it, my friend. Shoot your shot."

"Fine," Leo sighed. He got up. It was getting pretty late. "I suppose you're right."

"Hey, Percy," Leo said as he got up. "Thanks."

Percy was packing his bag when he heard this. He gave Leo a bright, dashing smile. Leo and Calypso were going to cute together. "It was my pleasure."

Sup, guys. It ya boy, here again. Wassup? I'm finally in college, now. And boy, the work is too much sometimes. But I'm having so much fun, so yay for that. As I'm planning to find a way to conclude this story, I'm thinking about some other stories from other fandoms/book series to write about. Any suggestion? I'll try to finish this first, though. If you thought this was bearble to read, reivews would be awesome! Thanks.