"Every time I come back here, it's like I can hear a hauntingly sunny voice whispering in my ear with the kind, caring words of: 'EAT MORE. YOU STILL LOOK LIKE A TWIG.'"
"Valdez! No yelling around unconscious patients. And you do still look like a twig, have you been eating enough?"
"See?!" Leo gestured vehemently in Will's direction, Cecil watching the interaction with a mildly bewildered expression. "At some point you have to accept that it's just unlucky genetics! I bet my grandfather was built like a twig too, and his grandfather, and his grandfather!"
"Well, then your grandfather should have eaten more," Will reprimanded sternly, but Leo could just make out the amused light in the medic's eyes.
"Oh my lucky rubber bands, Cecil, can you believe this guy?!" Leo exclaimed from his place near the door of the infirmary. The three demigods were in a waiting area that was really just a section of the room separated from the actual hospital beds by a curtain.
It was the morning after the bronze dragon's attack, and Leo had finally mustered up the courage to find Cecil and ask if he was okay. Well, he could admit to himself that he was kind of stalling. But he WOULD do it. Eventually.
"No way, do not involve me in this!" Cecil cried, waving his hands in the universal gesture for 'stop!' "Whatever the doctor says, goes!"
"Speaking of being a doctor, I have to go check in on Jake," Will said, opening a cupboard attached to the wall and gathering a clipboard and nectar into his arms. "You two have fun!"
Of course Will would say something like that.
In his week at camp, Leo had come to accept three things as undeniable facts of the universe; one, Greek Mythology was real. Two, Leo's fire powers were balancing on a pendulum with 'curse' on one side and 'blessing' on the other. And third, Will had more parental energy than all of the gods combined.
But the 'parent' had just left, leaving two demigods alone in a waiting room like lost children, both awkwardly expecting the other to speak. And, oh great, now Leo had to actually get to the reason he had rushed over to the infirmary first thing after breakfast; he had to talk to a friend about feelings .
Leo could fix any machine that was broken, especially in a life-or-death fight against a monster. Give him five minutes, a watch, and a couple wires! Leo'd have the trap up and running before the sharp teeth even grazed him! But figuring out how to fix a relationship that he had possibly unknowingly busted? Well, that was a little harder.
"So… how's Jake?" Leo began awkwardly. A shadow instantly fell over Cecil's eyes, and yup, this was going splendidly.
"Better now, but it was… bad . There was barely a patch of skin that wasn't burnt, and half his bones were shattered. Will said it took all of the Apollo camper's singing a healing song to their dad to keep him alive," Cecil said quietly, his voice trembling ever so slightly, and his hands tensing and un-tensing, like he was trying to keep them from shaking. "Will said he'll make a full recovery, but it's gonna be awhile. And he'll be in a medically-induced coma until he heals enough for the pain to be bearable."
"Man, I- I'm sorry," Leo exhaled, feeling generally awful. How had he been so oblivious to Jake and Cecil's pain? All his thoughts were consumed by the bronze dragon, and the feelings of the people he could actually call friends had gone ignored. "And I'm really sorry that I didn't stick around after dinner to see if you were okay."
Shockingly, instead of growing withdrawn or angry, Cecil's face gained a gooey look, like the sweet center of freshly-baked brownies.
"It's okay, really. LE stayed back with me," Cecil said, his eyes soft, and his whole body relaxing against the wall he was leaning upon.
"Ellie? I don't know any campers called that," Leo frowned in thought.
"O-oh, sorry, I meant Lou Ellen," Cecil stammered quickly, his face growing red and his body straightening again, as if surprised by his own slip.
Lou Ellen? The Hecate camper with the black clothes and green eyes to match her creepy green glowing potions? Leo could admit that she had seemed pretty cool in all of his interactions with her, and yet he was somewhat stupefied to think that Cecil and her got along so well.
Maybe Leo hadn't messed up that badly, if his absence had left room for Cecil and 'LE' to have their own little comfort session. He quickly smothered the smirk fighting its way to the surface, and went for a more easy-going smile instead.
"Well, I'm glad it all worked out," Leo responded, and then was promptly smacked in the back by the infirmary door opening, causing him to fall flat on his face.
"Leo! Ready for your first training session?!" Percy asked in excitement, striding through the door in his signature orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and jeans. "Leo? Where are- oh."
"Duuude," Leo groaned from his sprawled position on the floor. "Next time, can you please check that there's no one BEHIND the door before you rush in?!"
"Sorry," Percy replied sheepishly, offering Leo a hand and pulling him back to his feet with far too little effort. "Hi Cecil."
"Hello Percy, now if you don't mind me, I'm going to Ancient Greek before I get added to the pile of demigod on the floor," Cecil said good-naturedly, pushing off from his place on the wall and heading out the way Percy had come.
"Bye Cecil! See you at lunch!" Leo shouted after him, getting an acknowledging wave in return. The interaction had gone a lot better than he had been expecting, and he felt satisfied with the result—like a squeaky hinge that just took some grease to open smoothly again.
"Okay, to Will, and then to training!" Percy exclaimed, grabbing Leo's arm and dragging him to the opening of the curtain, before gently knocking on the wall beside the fabric with more restraint than Leo expected.
A head of shaggy blonde hair poked through the curtain, and then the rest of Will's body followed when he saw who it was.
"Has the twig come for my wise medical advice?" Will asked with a twinkle in his bright blue eyes.
"Pfft, all three of us know that I wouldn't be here if you didn't make me!" Leo complained, backing away from the curtain to give Will space to fill. "I have better things to do."
Like hunting for a certain bronze dragon.
Leo's concern for Cecil and Jake had been the only thing keeping him from running off last night in search of the automaton, and now that he knew they would both be okay, there was nothing else stopping him.
"Like training!" Percy said, smiling widely in his anticipation. "So Will, give him the all clear so we can get going!"
Will rolled his eyes fondly, but dutifully took Leo's arm in his hands, closed his eyes, and did his whole 'I can see your organs!' schtick.
It was only a few seconds before his eyelids fluttered open again and he released Leo's limb, the analytical doctor's look falling over his face as he reported his findings.
"Ribs are fully healed, and all lacerations are fully closed over, but-"
"ALRIGHT!" Leo shouted, slapping a hand over Will's mouth, and causing Percy to jump like a startled alley cat from where he had been absentmindedly listening. "I'll eat a BIG lunch after training, can we go now?!"
"Fine," Will said in exasperation, prying Leo's hand off his face. "BUT, I want you to come back in a week so I can see if using your powers regularly has a significant impact on your baseline vitals."
After the first word of acquiescence, Leo only heard about fifty percent of the rest, and from Percy's swift strides to the front door, Leo guessed that the son of Poseidon could relate.
"Bye Will, see you at lunch!" Percy shouted from his position outside, ten feet away from the front door. Leo had a feeling that if Percy was any less of a chill dude, he would be dragging Leo along behind him.
"Yep, see you in a bit, Doctor Sunbeam!" Leo waved exaggeratedly, hurrying out the door before more instructions could be tacked on.
"Are you ever going to just pick a nickname and stick with it?" Will asked in a fond sort of annoyance. Or at least, Leo chose to read the expression that way.
"I've got to try them all out first, see what sticks!" Leo shouted over his shoulder, now half a step behind Percy.
The son of Apollo sighed heavily, looking like he was fighting very hard to keep a grin off his face as he shut the infirmary door. However much Leo teased Will, Leo really did see the medic as one of his closest friends at camp. The Hermes campers were amazing, but Leo knew deep down that they weren't really his siblings, and it made growing closer to them just a touch bittersweet.
But Leo was one bronze dragon away from changing everything.
"Leo, have you been to the woods yet?" Percy asked, leading them left of the Big House, towards the ocean. "We need to go through there to get to the training area I set up."
"That entirely depends on if we're out of Will's hearing distance yet," Leo replied, nervously glancing over his shoulder and half expecting the medic to pop up out of thin air, like a golden retriever at the sound of a whistle. "Do Apollo kids have magically enhanced listening?"
"Um, I'm pretty sure they don't?' Percy said hesitantly, sounding not sure at all. "You're probably good."
"Then yes."
"Okay, well, we're heading to the beach that borders the forest, because no one usually goes there." Percy hopped over a fallen tree like it was nothing, and Leo did his best to scramble over in a dignified manner. Was being athletically inclined a demigod requirement? Because if so, Leo was on trajectory to crash out of the program.
"So what's the plan for today, aquaboy?" Leo asked once he made it over the log, not breathing heavily whatsoever. "I torch things Valdez style, and you stand there ready to be a human fire hose?"
"I was thinking something a little more structured than that," Percy snorted, striding through the shade of the canopy, and not looking even the tiniest put-off by the distant rustling of undergrowth, or the flash of white that Leo definitely saw in the shadows.
"Now you're sounding like Annabeth," Leo huffed, his eyes darting in the direction of every creepy forest sound. "What, you guys plan the training together or something?"
Leo had meant it as a joke, but Percy's sheepish silence answered his non-question perfectly.
"No way, you actually did!"
"She was very enthusiastic about her ideas, and they were good!" Percy defended, ducking to avoid a low-hanging branch that Leo walked right under. "She said we should start by seeing where your limits are at, and I had no better plans!"
"I bet you had no plans," Leo deadpanned, and then had to speed up as Percy caught sight of the ocean through the tree line.
"Well, it's not like I've ever had to create a lesson plan for a pyrokinetic demigod before," Percy snarked good-naturedly, nearing the end of the woods.
"Hey! Don't forget arson-inclined, unequivocally handsome, bad-boy extrordi-"
"And, we're here!" Percy interjected, stopping Leo with an outstretched arm and causing him to stumble.
Leo looked up where he had been counting on his fingers, only to be surprised by the amount of structures laid out in preparation on the sand before him.
To the left were scattered targets at varying distances, large and metal, with alternating rings of red and white. In the opposite direction was a long metal measuring stick, stretching about two hundred feet into the distance and lying on the morning sun-warmed sand. There was also a line of unlit torches following the measuring stick, one at each ten-foot mark.
"Duuude, how did you get all this stuff out here?!" Leo questioned, jogging down the sand dunes and stopping beside the closest target, his hands running along the metal. "These have got to weigh a ton!"
"The pegasi helped cart them over here, I just had to bribe them with infinite sugar cubes," Percy replied, his eyes suddenly widening in realization. "Oooh no, Butch better never find out about that, he's been trying to keep them on a healthier diet!"
Percy then broke off into muttering about "Iris' Rainbow Organic Foods and Lifestyles," and "macrobiotic beef jerky."
"I don't know what any of that means, but I'm ready to put all this stuff to good use!" Leo declared, trying to sound as if he was fully prepared to begin lighting things on fire. He still had little sparks of fear swirling in his stomach, but he did his best to smother them and focus on the present.
All the pain his fire had caused was in the past. What was done was done, and Leo could only focus on never messing up that badly ever again. And there was no way he could do any real harm to Percy, as the son of Poseidon could easily put out Leo's fires or heal himself in the ocean's waters if things got really out of hand.
"Alright, I think we start by getting an idea of your fire's limits," Percy began, leading Leo closer to the water, which did not go unnoticed. "What do you know you can do right now?"
"I know that I can light any part of my body on fire, or I can just raise the temperature of any part of me, fire doesn't have to be involved," Leo answered, remembering the freezing nights spent with only Firebug for company. He had needed to raise his own body heat to avoid shivering to death.
"Can you raise the temperature of objects not attached to or touching you?" Percy asked, his eyebrows furrowed in thought, and his hand stretched slightly towards the sea, as if he was picturing the limits of his own powers.
"I honestly haven't tried," Leo responded, crossing his arms in consideration, and tapping out a rapid pattern on his bicep as he thought. "On the way to camp, I only ever used the fire-aspect powers in a kind of fiery explosion when it became life-or-death."
"I know we joke about you being a human flamethrower, but have you ever actually used your flames as a projectile?" Percy questioned, now standing ankle-deep in the saltwater, and Leo was starting to feel like he was taking an entry exam as he had done for every new school. He just hoped he wouldn't fail this time around.
"Once," Leo said, shivering as he remembered the attack that had required him to get creative. "There were these metal pigeons flocking over me, and I scared them away with fireballs."
Leo had been on the edge of New York, hiking through an open meadow with no cover in sight. The birds with their glinting metal beaks and wickedly sharp feather-projectiles had descended upon him, and he had barely made it out with his life. Leo had been covered in cuts, all relatively shallow, and yet bleeding sluggishly.
All Leo could think of while bandaging the lacerations, was his mom.
As a child, he had hung around her forging materials, and she let him work on projects by her side. One time, he had sliced his palm open on a sheet of steel, and gone crying to her side. His mom had patched him up, her warm brown eyes enough to soothe the pain, no bandages needed.
"Don't cry, mijo. You can't become stronger without breaking a little first."
Leo's train of thought was fractured by Percy's voice, and Leo snapped out of the past and back into the moment.
"Can you throw a ball of fire out into the ocean? I want to see how much control you have before we test it on land," Percy explained, backing up just enough to be clear of the water, and Leo stepped forward to join him, all the while thinking:
Yeah, I can do that. I've never used my fire voluntarily in a non-life-or-death experience, but yep, this'll be easy.
"Okay, so just, lob some fire into the distance?" Leo asked nervously, eyeing his own hands like they would eat him. Or the beach. Or everyone he loved. Percy was watching him closely, his eyes darting from Leo's open palms to his face.
"It'll be fine," Percy assured him. "There's no one around, and I can put out anything we don't want to be one fire."
Leo nodded, swallowing uneasily, but he lifted his hands and focused on concentrating all the heat from his body into his outstretched palms. Sure enough, a little blossom of fire sparked to life, and Leo imagined the candle-sized flame growing, condensing into a sphere of blazing heat.
The fire grew with his will, and Leo carefully lifted the fireball in front of him, throwing it into the distance, and watching as it soared over the water. The flames reflected in the blues of the seas, shifting to oranges, and then yellows as the fire faded, maybe a hundred feet out into the sea.
Leo turned to Percy, and was surprised by the borderline wild grin on his face, like the restlessly restrained waves of the ocean before the storm.
"I knew training would be fun," said Percy.
Leo sat heavily at the Hermes table for lunch, his body sore in places that he didn't even know it could be sore. He had no clue how using fire powers could make his bending his elbow ache.
Training was fun, but training was also exhausting .
Percy had wanted to know every limit, every boundary, that Leo hadn't even known he had. The son of Poseidon had tested his fire's accuracy, its distance, its strength, and by the end of it, Leo learned about quite a few things he had never realized he could do.
For one, Leo could control any fire, not just flames that he generated. For some unknown reason, this had been unexpected to him. His whole life, there had been two forms of fire: the destructive fire Leo himself produced, or the warm, useful flames that blazed away in his mom's furnace. The idea that they could all be the same force, a force that he could control, was foreign to him. It felt wrong, like he was contaminating his memories of her, burning them up li-
Haha, no. Bad train of thought, back to contemplating training.
And not only could Leo control fire that he hadn't generated, but he could manipulate flames at a distance. He'd discovered this when Percy had him try and hit a few training targets, and Leo had focused on guiding the fireballs to the bullseye.
Percy had been ecstatic, and was positive that there was nothing Leo couldn't do with his fire if he had enough practice. Leo was positive that he would die of an achy elbow before he ever got to that point, but who was he to doubt Percy?
"Looks like training went well!" Said Travis, knocking into Leo as he sat down beside him, the Stoll's trademark grin plastered across his face.
"Ungh, never say that word again," Leo groaned, his head resting on his crossed arms.
"What? Percy seems happy with the session!" Travis smirked, gesturing to the side of the Dining Pavilion where Percy was talking animatedly with Annabeth, his arms waving around as Annabeth jotted down words on a notepad.
"Look at them, scheming up new ways to make me sore in the morning. What'll ache next, my knee?!" Leo complained, watching as more campers filed into the Mess Hall for lunch.
"C'mon, I would steal Katie's favorite sunhat for powers like yours or Percy's!"
"You would steal her sunhat for a cheap set of lock picks," Connor teased, sitting down across from Travis.
"Or one of Clarisse's dirty socks," said Cecil, claiming the spot beside Connor.
"Seriously dude, when are you go-"
"Attention all campers!" Chiron called from the front of the pavilion, interrupting Leo's attempt at wingmanning. "The Hephaestus campers have an update on the bronze dragon situation!"
That wrenched Leo's focus from his sore body. He had tried to avoid thinking about the dragon during training, but the thought was always there, flickering on the edges of his mind. But now, nothing was stopping Leo from giving over his entire brain to the bronze automaton.
But first, he had to hear what Cabin Nine's plans were—so that Leo could either avoid them, or steal them.
Nyssa stepped up beside Chiron, followed by her siblings. Harley was there of course, followed by two more half-bloods that Leo had never learned the names of. And every single one of them looked terrible .
Their expressions were a mixture of sorrow, frustration, and exhaustion. Their faces were smudged with soot and oil, and they all had at least one scrape or cut on their withdrawn faces.
"We have a plan," Nyssa began, sharing a painful look with her siblings. "It's a lethal attack. We have put all our effort into fixing the bronze dragon, and Jake paid the price. We won't make the same mistake again."
Leo's blood ran cold, the chilly fear working against his usually elevated body temperature. They were going to kill the automaton?! The most incredible creation Leo had seen at camp—albeit at a distance, but he could imagine how awesome it would be when he finally saw it up close—and the pet of their past Cabin Head, Beckendorf?!
But all of Leo's indignation died as Nyssa began laying out the plan. Her eyes were filled with sadness as she described the large metal traps laced with motor oil and tabasco sauce, and Leo could've sworn he saw unshed tears shimmering in her eyes as she outlined the plan to destroy the dragon using wire cutters and blow torches.
The Hephaestus campers didn't want to kill the bronze dragon anymore than Leo did, but they were out of options. In their mind, there was no other choice.
And that's where I come in.
Leo was the hidden option, the choice that no one—including himself—would ever pick. But if he wanted to prove to his fellow campers, to his father, that he was worth the trouble his fire caused, then he needed to do this.
The only things standing in between Leo and his goal were the daytime, and Annabeth's piercing gray stare. He could feel her silver eyes burrowing beneath his flesh, picking apart his every thought, from where she was sitting beside her brother.
Leo had known that she could tell what he was planning, but what he didn't know was if she would do anything about it. Annabeth seemed like the type to watch things unfold, unless she thought there was a very good reason to involve herself.
Leo only hoped that when she looked for that reason, she found nothing. Leo was the only fireproof demigod at camp, and if anyone else went looking for the dragon, it would mean certain death.
He remembered with a pang the earnest expressions on the Stoll's faces, when they promised to help him.
I'm sorry, Leo thought, but this is my way to prove myself. I know it.
The Hephaestus campers had finished their report, Chiron dismissing everyone to eat their lunch in peace, but as the other demigods stood up to fill their plates, Leo slipped out of the Dining Pavilion.
Food could wait, because right now, he had to make a plan.
Leo had a bronze dragon to catch.
AN-
New chapter every review yall give me.
New chapter every 50 powerstones.
Please.