#caleo uni au

[winryofresembool]

DO NOT REPOST

My lovely, lovely friend @criis55 / @criis-art drew me this adorable picture of Caleo in a setting that was inspired by my fic Things We Lost in the Fire! Thank you so much again, Cris ♥

[cartoonfantic8]

Caleo Headcanons from @winryofresembool Uni AU!

Hey guys, so @winryofresembool made this story of a college AU, staring Caleo! Now I’m a real sucker for this ship as you can see, and it dosen’t get much love (it gets way to much hate). It’s honestly a really cute fic, I’m have a feeling there’s going to some angst later, but that’s my prediction. It’s written pretty well, and I personally like there writing style. There’s honestly not enough AU’s that are the other canon ships such as Frazel, Caleo, and Jiper, so it’s pretty refreshing to see an AU that isn’t Percbeth or Solangelo (which don’t get me wrong I love these two couples but there’s a lot of AU and fics about them and the other three are background relationships), so it’s refreshing. I’m American and not British so I use terms Americans normally use such as college or dorm, so I’m sorry if I say dorm or college. It’s a good fic so I’ll leave a link below, it’s on Ao3! This might not 100 % align with there headcanons or story on there page, this is how I imagine it. I recommend reading the fic before your read these!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25470196/chapters/61782343

Leo

Leo is a sucker for movies where a robot and human becomes friends. He watch them with his family and Jo will be like “why are you crying over a Disney movie?” And Leo will be like “because Baymax sacrificed himself for Hiro?!”

I feel like he sometimes like horror movies or thrillers. He likes murder mysteries, or movies with a mystery so he can solve them, which is fun for him. He also likes a few dystopian movies.

Don’t ask me how or why but he defiantly has or had a motorcycle and one of those leather jackets but in red.

He can make some really good taco, like that’s one thing Jason misses when he moved out because after a long day of school and work, Leo will make homemade tacos from a recipe he learned from Esperanza

I can imagine him wearing sweatpants mostly, or those baggy pants and like a sweater tucked in or sweater vest. Otherwise he’ll wear suspenders.

He lives off caffeine, when he works late on a big project, Starbucks is his home. At this point, he will go to a local Starbucks and they just know his order.

He listens to a lot of Hip Hop or upbeat music. Most of the time he’ll listen to what’s on the radio.

Dosen’t read much because of his dyslexia but he’ll read those old Marvel comics from the 90’s or something like that. He’s a sucker for Mavel and will watch all the movies, the day it comes out. Tony Stark is his favorite character, because he’s a genius and the most sarcastic piece of shit ever. When he was 7, he went as Ironman for Halloween. (Also I know the timelines won’t add up because Marvel didn’t come out till the late 2000, but screw it just pretend the movies came out in the early 2000’s)

He still flinches when an adult raises there voice or hand sometimes. When Leo first was fostered by Jo and Emmie, whenever they raised there voice or hand he’ll have a look of fear in his eyes, or even back away a few steps. Once they picked up on it, the three had a talk about it and they found about some of the more absuive homes such as Teresa. They also found out that Leo never told social services because out of fear of what those people would do to him. Jo and Emmie were in shock and instantly gave him a hug, Jo was literally planning murder plots which Emmie stopped. It’s gotten better over the last few year but sometimes he’ll still tense up. (Just your daily dose of angst because why not)

When Leo first was fostered by Jo and Emmie, sometimes he and Georgina would fall asleep on the couch after watching a long movie. Emmie dosen’t want to disturb them so she’ll carefully put a blanket without waking them up.

Calypso

Calypso is a sucker for all things 80’s or 90’s because that’s what she grew up with. She watches all the classics 80’s stuff like “The Breakfest Club”. She also listens to a bunch of 80’s or 90’s bands and music.

She listen to classical music when she’s sewing or gardening. After she moved out, she got into more pop like Pink or Taylor Swift. She also started watching some iconic movies like “Mean Girls”

Calypso hates horror movies like deeply hates them.

She’s very polite and has grown up to be prim and proper, she’ll be fancy at dinner sometimes and Leo will be like “why the fuck are you using manners”

She’s learned how to play piano and has got pretty good at it over the years. She also really good at cooking, more specially Greek style food.

She’s in to period dramas and really into classical books. Otherwise Calypso is into Greek mythology or even Fanstasy books.

She recently got into “Peter Johnson and the Olympians”, after she moved out. She ships Peterbell, the ship between the two main characters Peter Johnson and Annabell Cheese.

She will go in rants anout Greek mythology, like serious rants about how the Greek Gods are mostly jerks and there a lot of innocent people who got hurt or punished from them for no good reason. Sometimes she’ll rant to Leo and he has no idea what the fuck is going on.

She wears long, flowly white dresses. She wear jeans and nice shirts that are sort of fancy, and white sandals. She dosen’t wear makeup because she’s naturally just pretty.

She’s really chill when you get to know her. Like she’s pretty flowly and patient most of the time. She loves garderning and her favorite plant is moon lace.

Her dream is to grow a proper garden that’s full of Moonlace.

[olivierdemangeon]

  Synopsis : Fred Blake alias Giovanni Manzoni, repenti de la mafia new-yorkaise sous protection du FBI, s’installe avec sa famille dans un petit village de Normandie. Malgré d’incontestables efforts d’intégration, les bonnes vieilles habitudes sanglantes et violentes vont vite reprendre le dessus.

Origine du film : France, États-Unis Réalisateur : Luc Besson Scénaristes : Luc Besson, Michael Caleo Acteurs : Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, John D’Leo Musique : Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine Genre : Comédie, Policier, Thriller Durée : 1 heure et 51 minutes Date de sortie : 23 octobre 2013 (France) Année de production : 2013 Sociétés de production : TF1 Films Production, Grive Productions Distribué par : Relativity Media, EuropaCorp Titre original : The Family Notre note : ★★★☆☆

Notre commentaire : “The Family” ou “Malavita” pour la distribution française, est une comédie policière datant de 2013, co-écrite et réalisée par Luc Besson, à qui l’on doit également “Lucy” (2014). Les acteurs principaux sont Robert De Niro, qu’on a pu voir dans “Happiness Therapy” (2012), Michelle Pfeiffer, qu’on a pu voir dans “The Wizard of Lies” (2017), Tommy Lee Jones, qu’on a pu voir dans “U.S. Marshals” (1998), Dianna Agron, qu’on a pu voir dans “Numéro Quatre” (2011), et John D’Leo, qu’on a pu voir dans “Unbroken” (2014).

Les sociétés EuropaCorp et Relativity Media ont signé ensemble, en mars 2012, un contrat pour développer deux films, tout en assurant également la distribution. “Malavita” serait le premier métrage, et le second serait “Three Days to Kill” (2014). Le script, écrit par Luc Besson et Michael Caleo, est basé sur le roman “Malavita” de Tonino Benacquista, publié en 2004. L’auteur ne voulait pas être impliqué dans le développement du film. De son côté, le producteur du film, Virginie Besson-Silla, a déclaré que l’histoire du film était presque identique à celle du roman. À l’origine, Luc Besson voulait se contenter d’assurer la partie production. Mais après avoir découvert qu’il allait travailler avec Robert De Niro, il a décidé de diriger le film lui-même.

L’auteur du livre souhaitait que le casting soit axé sur des acteurs américains qui avaient leur propre légende. Lorsque Luc Besson lui a demandé à qui il pensait pour le rôle principal, Tonino Benacquista a proposé Robert De Niro. Ils lui ont envoyé une lettre, et plus tard, Robert De Niro a accepté de participer au projet.

En juin 2012, il a été confirmé que Michelle Pfeiffer rejoindrait le casting de “Malavita”, cette dernière voulait en effet retravailler avec Robert De Niro. Jusqu’alors ils n’avaient jamais pu jouer de scènes directement l’un avec l’autre. Luc Besson a toujours pensé à Dianna Agron en écrivant le personnage Belle Blake. La production de la série télévisée de Glee a soutenu le départ de Dianna Agron pour pouvoir jouer dans le film. Un chien appelé Emeron a été choisi pour incarner Malavita, l’animal de compagnie canin de la famille, qui suit le personnage de Robert De Niro partout où il va. Emeron a été entraîné par un spécialiste, et Robert De Niro était la seule personne, à côté de cet entraîneur canin, à passer du temps avec l’animal lors des séances d’entraînement. “Malavita” fut le 90ème long métrage de Robert De Niro.

Globalement, il faut avouer qu’on passe un bon moment devant “Malavita” bien que l’histoire soit quelque peu familière. L’intrigue est pourtant au rendez-vous. Elle est certes légère, mais on se laisse prendre au jeu du devenir de cette famille de mafieux. Le point culminant est certainement le clin d’œil direct à Robert De Niro lui-même, lorsque son personnage assiste à la projection du film “Les Affranchis” (1990) de Martin Scorsese, dans lequel l’acteur y tenait le rôle principal. 

Luc Besson dresse un tableau de personnages sympathiques, à l’instar d’une bande dessinée. Des personnages totalement amoraux, avec une bonne dose d’humour et de situations décalées. L’ensemble se termine dans une séquence d’action axée sur de multiples fusillades. La distribution semble s’amuser en offrant des personnages répondant aux clichés les plus répandus des films de gangsters. En fin de compte, on se moque des Français, mais on se moque aussi des Américains. 

Les principaux acteurs composants de la famille Blake / Manzoni offrent de solides prestations. Robert De Niro n’hésitant pas à construire un sous-genre dans lequel il joue de son propre héritage cinématographique. Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones semblent aussi se faire plaisir. Enfin, Dianna Agron, tout droit arrivée de la série télévisée Glee est pleinement dans le coup dans ce film, offrant un personnage d’adolescente, qui tombe amoureuse pour la première fois, tout en défendant sa famille de l’anéantissement total par la mafia. 

“Malavita” a fait l’objet d’une édition en DVD ainsi qu’en Blu-ray, paru le 12 mars 2014 chez Fox Pathé Europa. Pour de plus amples renseignements, n’hésitez pas à consulter la fiche du film sur le site DVD.Fr.

En conclusion, “Malavita” est une comédie sympathique disposant d’une histoire divertissante sans être originale. L’intrigue est basique aussi, mais permet tout de même de développer suffisamment d’empathie envers cette famille pour rester connecté à leur aventure. Les scènes d’action sont correctes et bien orchestrées. Les clins d’œil aux précédentes performances de Robert De Niro sont amusants. L’ensemble du casting se fait apparemment plaisir et c’est plaisant à regarder. Sans être la comédie du siècle, l’ensemble reste un film délassant et distrayant. 

  Bande-annonce :

MALAVITA (2013) ★★★☆☆ Synopsis : Fred Blake alias Giovanni Manzoni, repenti de la mafia new-yorkaise sous protection du FBI, s’installe avec sa famille dans un petit village de Normandie.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 47

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: Jason and Leo have a talk (and something else happens too)

A/N: Hi, hello! It's been a moment. But here we are again and that's the main thing, right?

Just to remind you of what happened earlier: Leo and Calypso are having some communication issues post a heavy make out session which Calypso stopped abruptly, and Leo is still kind of blaming himself for it.The beginning of this chapter shows the events at the end of ch 45 from Leo's pov.

Enjoy and let me know what you think! :)

Words: 3100+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

*start flashback*

Her silky hair tickled his face when she leaned down to kiss him with those unfairly soft lips. When they stopped to breathe, her calloused fingers swept a strand of his unruly hair to the side. Leo opened his eyes and felt something warm spread all the way to his core as he saw her watching him affectionately. Her eyes were such a dark shade of brown that they almost seemed black in the dim light. As they kept taking each other in, cheeks flushed, bodies pressed against each other, it suddenly occurred to him that this was the most heated their kissing had been since getting together. And he most certainly didn’t mind it.

He asked her to tell him if she wanted to stop, and she promised to do so. Jason – and Leo’s moms - had taught him a long while ago that it was important to listen to your partner’s wishes and Leo could tell that Calypso appreciated his concern because she only deepened the kiss once they were done with their little talk. Her breath felt hot against his skin when she moved to kiss his jaw and neck, her fingers starting to fumble on his shirt, trying to open the top buttons. Only in his wildest dreams – which, if he was honest, he had been seeing more frequently lately – had he dared to go this far with her, maybe because he knew they were both rather reserved when it came to intimacy with another person. But boy, the dreams hadn’t told him that it would be so much more thrilling when it was /actually/ happening.

Her hands and mouth kept exploring him and he supposed he was returning the favor although he really couldn’t be entirely sure of his actions because all of a sudden he felt like he was 15 again, not drunk on alcohol but the girl he had fallen for. The cinnamon scent of her hair reminded him of some happy moments they had shared at Waystation during the Christmas break and her mint flavored kisses implied that she had snuck some breath mints from his tool belt without him noticing, which seemed weirdly hot in his inappropriate mind. The next thing he knew was that she had managed to fully unbutton his white work shirt and was now pulling it off his arms. That made him weirdly conscious of the scars his torso was covered with, but he soon forgot all about them when her lips lightly graced one of them. Their eyes met again and all he could do was to melt into her touch.

Snapping out of his daze long enough to realize that she was still fully dressed, he reached for the hem of her shirt, just briefly stopping to get her approval before removing it. His hands found her sides and he relished the feeling of her warm, soft skin under his fingers as he ran them up and down her waist, getting an approving hum from her. He couldn’t help himself; he stopped to take a better look at her now almost bare upper body and confirmed what he had already known before: his girlfriend was beyond gorgeous. But he didn’t have a lot of time to ponder on that as her lips crashed on his again and her fingers started tapping against the skin on his back. At first he didn’t think it had any specific meaning but soon he realized that she was spelling out a Morse Code; one that he knew particularly well as it was the same one he had sent his mother countless times in the past. The same one he had sometimes tapped to Calypso. He felt like something had gotten stuck in his throat and his eyes were getting blurry but he responded in the way he knew the best: tapping the Morse Code back and kissing her even more fiercely.

He didn’t know how much time had passed since they had started their make out session, but he was vaguely aware of his fingers living a life of their own, testingly fiddling with the waistband of her knickers. That was when the bubble burst. She withdrew from him, crossing her arms to cover her torso a bit, her eyes suddenly horrified as she started to look for her shirt from the floor. “Was it something I did?” Leo blurted out before he could stop himself.

“No. it’s just that… My period started this morning. I’m sorry, I should have let you know way earlier. Guess I let myself get carried away…”

The explanation did have some holes in it, Leo wasn’t stupid, but he decided to not question it aloud for both of their sakes.

“Oh, damn. That sucks. I shouldn’t have encouraged you…” One of his hands was trying to smooth his messy hair a bit while the other one was holding a pillow in front of his lap to cover the rather obvious tent in his pants.

“No, it’s fine. Not your fault,” she claimed but Leo couldn’t help but notice she was still not looking in his direction.

“You OK?” he asked, trying his best to bite back the worry that was threatening to overtake him, but probably failing at it marvelously.

“Yeah,” she claimed. “I just need a moment. It was stupid of me to let this get this far knowing we couldn’t finish it.”

“Hey, don’t blame yourself. It takes two to get to this point,” he said, still quite convinced he had done something wrong even though she wouldn’t admit it. “Um, anyway… I should probably… go cool down a bit. I’ll be back soon.”

He knew she probably wouldn’t be in the room anymore when he would return, but with a heavy heart he rose from the bed and left her alone, mind utterly baffled about what had just happened.

*end flashback*

… “Leo? Earth’s calling Leo Valdez!”

With a startle, Leo returned to the present moment. He was sitting in a car with Jason, having apparently just spaced out big time, getting lost in the memories from a few weeks ago. They boys were on their way to the swimming arena where Percy did most of his training, planning to pick him up from there and finally properly spend time together since they hadn’t been able to do that for several weeks. Even though Leo hadn’t told anyone, not even Calypso, about it, he had been thinking about the incident at Waystation way too much the past few weeks. Specifically, why she had reacted the way she had. The day after the incident Calypso had explained that she had emotionally shut down because of some traumatic past event that she had remembered while with him, but she had refused to elaborate on it. That had left Leo with many questions.

After the stupid argument about Percy they had had the previous fall, Leo had slowly learned to accept that there was no way you could know everything about another person; sometimes you just had to trust. /But Calypso’s hint that the incident was somehow related to her sister’s death had Leo worried; losing your family member was devastating enough on its own but if there was something else, something more… He shuddered just from the thought and he felt worse for her than he had thought was even possible. No wonder Calypso had lost her willingness to keep going with him. He couldn’t blame her one bit.

But still, the two of them had been rather awkward and reserved around each other after that talk. They did talk about normal, everyday things, and there were occasional cheek kisses, small touches and sofa cuddles when they watched something together in their living room, but the effortlessness of those acts had vanished. Every time Leo said something that brought them closer to the topic that they were avoiding to discuss, Calypso seemed to build this invisible barrier between them that was impossible to break. And as much as Leo wanted to respect Calypso’s wishes, seeing her hurt because of her past made him wish there was something he could do to make things better.

Suddenly Leo realized that he still hadn’t reacted to Jason’s ‘Earth’s calling’ and he finally turned towards his friend.

“Uh, yeah. Am here. What’s up?”

“You were just completely spaced out,” Jason simply pointed out while keeping his eyes on the road.

“ADHD, remember? It happens sometimes,” Leo reminded him even though he knew his current reason for spacing out had nothing to do with him being neurodivergent.

“Yep but it’s still pretty unusual for you to remain quiet that long. Is everything OK?” Jason asked.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” he replied with badly hidden sarcasm. “Just dandy.”

“I don’t think even you believe that.” Jason rolled his eyes.

“Maybe not,” Leo admitted, cringing a bit. “But really, it’s nothing to worry about, it’s just…”

“Yeah?” Jason coaxed when Leo couldn’t decide how to finish the sentence.

“Girl problems, I suppose.” Leo wasn’t sure how Jason would react to that considering his own break up quite recently, but he gave him an understanding nod. “Oh, go on.”

Leo shook his head. “It’s…. I’m just overreacting, as usual.” Then he proceeded to do something he was particularly good at, namely changing the topic: “Anyway, how’s it going with you? Are your profs making you suffer just as much as ours? And how’s the training going?”

“Just got the results from our midterms; they went about how I expected. The training’s been fine but I’m looking forward to being able to do that outdoors again; the weather’s still too cool for that. But Leo,” Jason continued, giving him a pointed glance, “if you think you can distract me by changing the topic, you’re wrong.”

Leo knew that Jason could be just as stubborn as he was when he wanted to so there was no point in trying to argue with him. He stopped to consider the best way to approach the topic (since when had he considered anything, he wondered briefly) before finally answering.

“Well, you probably remember how Calypso and I had some… communication issues in the past. This is kind of related to that.”

“Yeah?” Jason urged him to continue.

“Yeah.” Leo nodded. “She’s not willing to open up about something that is obviously bothering her very much, and I know that I shouldn’t force her to talk about it if she doesn’t want to, but I just feel so helpless. I want to make her feel better but I can’t because she isn’t letting me.”

“That’s a tough one. You’re right that you shouldn’t force her to open up. But if there’s something I learned from my time with Piper, there are a couple of things you can do to make her feel at least a bit better.”

“What are those things, relationship expert Grace?” Leo asked, trying to hide the fact that he was actually rather eager to hear what Jason had in his mind.

“Well, this should be rather obvious but: be there for her. You know, show that you care.”

“And how do I do that?” Leo knew the question sounded kind of silly but he wasn’t known for his tact and he really didn’t want to do something that he’d later regret.

“It doesn’t require grand gestures. Small acts of affirmation are great. Do what you’d usually do with her, specifically things she likes. Show her that you still enjoy her company and want to hang out with her because she might be questioning it. Make her feel included.

“But what if she is trying to restrict the time we spend together?”

Jason thought for a moment. “Respect her wishes, but let her know you are available whenever she wants your company, that you are not going anywhere.”

“Gotcha.” Leo nodded, processing Jason’s words. “Woah, sounds like Piper has taught you a thing or two about girls.”

Jason winced a bit. “Clearly not enough, though, since we’re not together anymore.”

Leo realized that Jason was still blaming himself for the break up. “C’mon, dude. It wasn’t your fault. Sometimes the interests just change… and that’s OK. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t care about you. She asked about you the other day. Said that she’d been wanting to reach you out but she wasn’t sure how you’d feel about it.”

The information did seem to cheer Jason up a bit. “Yeah? I wouldn’t have minded.”

“I know you wouldn’t have. But she seemed to think that maybe it was still too early. Girls…” Leo sighed. “I say we forget about them for the rest of the day and have an excellent guys’ night out.” Jason seemed to approve of that plan, though he questioned: “And what is your idea of an excellent guys’ night out? I’m not sure I wanna find out.”

Leo just grinned. “Pffft, Jason. Have some faith in me. Leo Valdez is always full of /great/ ideas.”

“I’m sure you do,” Jason chuckled, shaking his head.

…

Around 10 minutes later the boys arrived at the swimming arena. Usually, if they picked Percy up from there they would wait outside but it was a press day for Percy meaning it would likely take him longer to be able to leave. That’s why they thought it’d be better to go in to see what was going on.

When Leo and Jason got to the stands, they saw that Percy was still in the pool, having probably been held by the sports reporters before the practice. They sat down to watch and even though they didn’t really understand that much about the sport, they thought that he was looking like he was in his top condition. The rivalry between him and Luke Castellan was going stronger than ever and Leo knew that Percy was doing his all to be able to win Castellan in the world championships.

When Percy noticed them, he gave them a quick wave and rose from the pool, starting to dry himself with a towel.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be here this late but the media took their time and you know how coach Hedge is.” Percy took a quick look around to check Hedge wasn’t in the hearing distance. “You don’t get a single free minute just because something extra happens. Not that I mind, really; I will never be able to kick Luke’s ass if I don’t work mine off.”

“Is OK; we really want to see you beat that guy next time.” Leo shrugged it off.

“I’ll try to deliver,” Percy replied with a small grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes, though.

“So, how many questions did you get about Annabeth this time?” Leo knew that the media was interested in Percy’s relationship with his girlfriend ever since she had kissed him very publicly after a big win.

“Just one.” Percy rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Although they tried – keyword: tried – to be discreet about it: “You must be happy to have the next competition in your hometown? With your family members – and girlfriend – watching?” I shut their mouths by saying: ‘sure, just like with any other competition where they're at – which is pretty much all of them – this season.’”,

Leo and Jason chuckled at his comment. “They must have loved that.”

“Yep.” Percy smirked. “Anyway, as much fun as it would be to chit chat with you guys here, I, unlike you guys, am only wearing these dam trunks so I’m going to freeze any minute now if I don’t go and change. So, I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Alright, we’ll be waiting in the lobby,” the other two promised.

As Percy disappeared from view, Leo and Jason started walking towards the lobby, getting back to their discussion about the ‘guys’ night out’. Leo was so focused on the conversation that he got confused when he suddenly noticed Jason frowning at a man who was approaching them. Leo thought he seemed vaguely familiar but he didn’t have time to connect the dots before the man spoke in an official tone.

“The arena is off limits for visitors during the training hours. I must ask you to leave.”

“Huh?” Leo glanced at Jason with confusion before addressing the man. “We’re friends of Percy Jackson, the swimmer who was just practicing. He doesn’t mind us being here, he never has…”

“That is the rule. Please leave voluntarily before I call more staff.”

Leo lifted his hands in the air in surrender. “Alright, alright. we’re leaving. Geez. No need to be a jerk about it.”

True to his word, Leo did start heading towards the exit with Jason, still throwing one last angry glance towards the guy who had thrown them out. It suddenly occurred to him that the man didn’t have any signs in his clothes that he indeed was a staff member. He was wearing a suit but the staff he had seen during his earlier visits at this said arena had, as far as he could recall, been wearing the arena’s colors, turquoise and light yellow. Suddenly, he was reminded of a couple of suit wearing men he had seen a few weeks earlier in another town…

Once he had that realization, he registered that he was already outside and the man in question had disappeared from his view. He exchanged confused looks with Jason but before they could talk about what they had just witnessed, they could hear a window opening and a voice coming from behind it: “Friends of Mr. Jackson?”

“Yeah,” the boys confirmed.

“What are you doing out there? It’s supposed to rain heavily any minute now.” Leo looked up and saw that the voice was right; the sky had gone dark while they had been inside.

“Well, someone just kicked us out of the arena,” Leo noted surly.

“Oh?” the voice said. “Sorry about that. We just recently added more security here due to some vandalism… Some of the new guys are, should I say, rather eager… But if your presence is fine for Mr. Jackson, it should be fine for us too.”

“So we’re allowed to come back in?” Jason asked, his eyebrows shooting up.

“Sure. But better use the side door. Don’t wanna get thrown out by the same guy again, right?” the voice joked.

Leo couldn’t help but think that something was weird about the way the ‘staff’ members contradicted each other but he decided that this latter one seemed nicer than the man in black and he also didn’t fancy getting wet. That’s why he didn’t hesitate going in from the side door. Afterwards, he thought he should have seen the red flags, but nothing could have prepared him for what was waiting inside. For mere moments after he and Jason stepped in, his world went blank.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 46

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: The aftermath of the "almost"

A/N: I hope you still remember this fic! I know it's been 2 whole months but first I got sick with c*vid (I'm fine now) and then I started working again, and it didn't help that I had to rewrite this ch many times because I didn't like how it ended up going. But now I finally managed to finish a version I'm somewhat content with. This chapter takes place a day after the previous one where things got heated between C&L but it didn't end quite like they probably hoped.

The usual: please do leave a comment if you like this fic, and enjoy this chapter!

Words: 2500+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

The next day, Calypso returned to the flat pretty soon after breakfast, leaving Leo with the Stoll brothers who were supposed to repaint Jo’s motorbike. Maybe she would have stuck around to see how that would go, but she still had a lot of studying to do, and she was also dreading the moment when Leo would address the events of the night before. There was no way he had believed her excuse; she had been so hasty.

Unfortunately, Calypso’s thoughts still kept going back to the previous day as she tried to study. She even set herself a timer that would allow her to take little breaks every 20 or so minutes but that wasn’t as effective as it usually was. She couldn’t help but wonder what had gone wrong; Leo had done and said all the right things and despite that she had frozen…

Finally, after several hours of attempting to study she decided she needed to get some exercise and called Annabeth to ask if she’d be willing to join her for a jog. She was, and as they were running across the streets of Indianapolis, Annabeth managed to help her out with the upcoming exams by info dumping her about things that she imagined were likely to be asked. Sometimes Calypso wondered why Annabeth was still taking the history classes when she knew more than most of their professors but when she brought that up, Annabeth just laughed and said it was good to revise even things she already knew.

“But I don’t think you actually asked me for a jog just so we could talk about exams,” she suddenly changed the subject. “Something’s troubling you, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Calypso admitted, her eyes glued to the street ahead of them.

“Is this about Leo?” Annabeth inquired when she wouldn’t elaborate.

“Yes. You could say that…” she shrugged.

“Oh. What did he do?”

“Nothing!” Calypso said fast, but she knew it was unnecessary to try to hide anything from Annabeth. “We, uh, almost… got intimate last night, but before we got that far, I told him I’m on my period. That was a lie. I only said that to get out of that situation.”

Annabeth processed her words for a moment. “So you didn’t want to have sex with him?” she asked bluntly.

“No, I did, but…. ugh. It’s complicated.”

“What is?” Annabeth asked.

Calypso hesitated a bit. “Everything, I guess.”

Annabeth waited for her to continue.

“I… I think there are many reasons why I acted that way… You probably remember how I once told you that I didn’t exactly have great relationship experiences in my past.” Annabeth nodded at her and she got more confident. “They didn’t last long and in hindsight most of those guys were interested in me for the wrong reasons. But there was one guy…for whom I fell pretty hard.”

She took a small break to collect her thoughts.

“He was a little bit older than me and seemed like one of those guys you see in the superhero movies… Tall, handsome, strong… but he was also witty and he had visited my home country many times so that was something we bonded over. Eventually I told him I liked him and he told me he liked me back. And I believed him… he could be very convincing. We dated for a couple of months and things were going fine until… until I found out that he had had a girlfriend the whole time I had known him.” Calypso had almost said something else but she managed to stop herself. “He was even planning to move in with her in another town when the semester would end. You may be thinking, ‘but you were only 16 back then! That was a long time ago.’ Yeah, but I was actually in love with this guy, and I thought that we… Uh, anyway… All the sweet words and promises he had given me were for nothing. And I let him… I let him charm me into his bed...”

At this point Calypso had to stop because she was afraid if she said anymore she’d start crying again, which, she thought, she had done too much lately. She hadn’t given Annabeth the full version of the story but hopefully enough to avoid any questions that she wouldn’t be able to answer. Not when she hadn’t been able to tell anyone except her old maid what really had happened…

“So that’s why you said ‘no’ to Leo? Because you thought he might hurt you like this other guy?”

“I know I can trust him. But the scars are still deep… And I’m worried that if we took that step, it would make things even harder… if something were to happen to me.”

Annabeth seemed to understand what she meant. “You mean, if your father forced you to return to his home…”

“Yeah…” Calypso admitted.

Annabeth gave her an understanding look. “Oh, I see now. You know, I may not be Piper but I’ve still been in a relationship long enough to be able to tell you this much: talk about this with Leo. He won’t understand why you’re acting weird unless you explain it to him.”

Calypso had naturally thought about that option but she was worried about how Leo would react if he knew the whole truth.

“You’re right… but why does it have to be so hard?”

“Love is,” Annabeth sighed. “Believe it or not, even Percy and I have our rough moments, and we need to work a lot for our relationship. But in the end, it’s worth it.”

Even though it was a simple statement, something about Annabeth’s words struck Calypso. “It’s… worth it,” she repeated.

“Yeah. Look, I can’t predict what’s gonna happen between Percy and me several years from now on. Hopefully we’ll still be happily together. But the reality is that people change. Things happen. But that doesn’t mean I should stop enjoying what I have in my life right now.”

“Funny, I believe that’s what Leo once told me,” Calypso remembered. “Maybe you two are right; maybe I’m focusing too much on something that could or could not happen.”

“Maybe?” Annabeth raised her eyebrows.

“I mean, of course you are right,” Calypso replied partially sarcastically. “You always are. So your message to me is that I should try to forget about the past and the future for a moment and live in the now?”

“Basically, yes. You deserve some happiness, Calypso. And believe me, you’ll be happier if you forget about the ‘what ifs’ every once in a while,” Annabeth reassured her.

“Alright… I think I’ll try that harder from now on…” Calypso sighed.

“Good,” Annabeth nodded approvingly. After that she started explaining something about an interesting documentary she had seen on TV the other day, and Calypso was kind of grateful for the change of topic. Some other day she would probably have been listening to her rambling more intently but her mind was still processing the previous discussion so she just kept nodding along and giving brief responses when Annabeth seemed to be expecting them. Apparently she still managed to say the right things because Annabeth wasn’t noticing anything, or if she did, at least she was quiet about it.

…

Once outside her flat, she waved goodbye to her friend and then braced herself mentally for facing Leo, who most likely had returned from Waystation while she was away. Turned out she was right; when she entered the flat, he was in the living room, trying to frantically draw blueprints for a pretty complex looking invention. In one of his hands he was holding a hastily made sandwich. The other hand, the one holding a pencil, had already turned partially gray from the graphite. On the floor there were several wrinkled papers, and as if to complete the small chaos he had created, Calypso could hear a popular early 2000s rock song coming from Leo’s computer.

“Are you planning to rebuild our entire flat or what is this about?” she asked as she took the view in.

“Oh, hola, Sunshine.” He finally noticed her and raised his gaze from the papers. Even in his state of rush, a smile rose to his face when he looked at her. “Nah, I just decided to draw here because the lighting is better than in my room and I like the change of scenery.” Calypso was a little surprised that he was acting that cheerful considering the events of the previous evening. “You were out jogging?”

“Yeah. Annabeth gave me some good tips for our upcoming test while we were running,” she responded as neutrally as possible.

“You think she could help me too? Somehow I’m supposed to write at least 6 pages about my final project for the basic mechanics course for tomorrow… and I haven’t even started yet.” He tapped on the table with the pencil frustratedly.

“Ouch, poor you,” Calypso replied sarcastically. “Procrastinating Leo Valdez might be too much to tackle even for her.” Leo stuck his tongue out at her, and she couldn’t help but find that kind of cute in a goofy way. The banter almost made her forget about their issues for a moment. “So, how was your meeting with those Stoll boys? Did they show up?”

“They did,” he answered. “Not gonna lie, I was a bit surprised to see them but guess they didn’t want to anger you.” He gave her a small smirk. “They did a pretty good job with the painting. Though I noticed they tried to leave some words I’m not gonna repeat on the motorcycle but those got covered in the end. Jo and Emmie met them too and I think after that meeting those boys were definitely less eager to ruin other people’s motorcycles.”

“It would have been interesting to see that, for sure,” Calypso chuckled. Then she remembered: “So… did Georgina tell Jo and Emmie the news? About us?”

That made Leo grin even wider. “I told them before Georgie did. She was so disappointed because she really wanted to be the first to break the news. Jo and Emmie weren’t exactly surprised, though; they were more like: “What, you think we are blind? We’ve seen how you look at her like she’s the most amazing thing you have ever laid your eyes on.” He blushed a bit, turning his face back towards his blueprints in an attempt to hide it from her. Then he added more quietly: “Well… they’re not wrong…”

“Aw, that’s what you think of me?” Calypso asked. She felt even worse about having lied to him the night before.

Leo turned off the stove before approaching her, stopping right in front of her. Then he put his hands on her shoulders. “I don’t know why you sound so surprised. I wouldn’t be dating you if I didn’t think you are amazing.”

“I… I really am not that amazing…” she mumbled.

Leo frowned. “Why would you say that?”

“I wasn’t being honest with you yesterday,” she finally confessed.

Leo’s frown deepened. “About what?”

“About my period. I’m not having it right now.” She shook her head sadly.

Calypso watched Leo’s expression go from confused to ‘oh’, and she felt even more guilty. She was expecting him to start accusing her, and to be fair, if he had, she wouldn’t have blamed him. However, he didn’t. Instead, he remained quiet for a while, staring at his papers blankly.

“I figured something was wrong, but.. why did you…”

“I just wasn’t ready.”

More silence.

“Cal…You know you can trust me, right?” Leo asked quietly, trying to keep his emotions in check even though she could tell he was struggling with it. His fingers were spinning the pencil fast, a sign he was nervous, and he couldn’t look directly at her. “I… I don’t mind it if we’re not having sex - I don’t! I’m at awe just because somehow you want to be my girlfriend even though I know I can be a lot to deal with at times. But if there’s something that bothers you, I wish you could tell me. You really think I would judge you after everything I’ve done? Nope, am afraid I can’t afford to do that.”

“Listen… Something, something very painful I had tried hard to forget came back to me and… I couldn’t… Maybe I thought I was already over it but turns out I was wrong. I know we promised each other to not keep secrets anymore but I realized I have not reached the point where I would be comfortable enough sharing it yet.”

“But… you told me about your sister… Is this something even worse?” Leo asked worriedly.

“All I can say is that it’s somehow related to it… But please, don’t ask me more questions. I will tell you when I’m ready. Okay?”

“Okay…” Leo responded to Calypso’s relief. He looked like he wanted to say more, but he managed to bite his tongue, a rare feat for him.

“Thank you. Know that I don’t want to keep this from you…”

“Yeah, I get it. You need time.”

Leo seemed to have learned some self control since the fall because back then he had had a much more difficult time accepting that Calypso wasn’t telling him everything. Sure, he didn’t seem entirely happy with the situation, but at least he wasn’t making a big number of it, for which Calypso was grateful.

“Yeah.”

“So… does this change anything? Between us?” he asked finally.

“I still feel the same way about you if that’s what you’re wondering, but…” Calypso stopped to consider her next words.

“Oh no. The but. That’s never good.”

“... but maybe we should spend time together a little less intensively. For a little while, at least. The midterms are coming, too, so I should really spend more time studying.”

Leo’s face fell.

“Yeah… I should do some studying too…”

“That’s a line I didn’t think I’d hear,” she tried to lighten the mood.

He seemed to have decided to follow her suit because he responded (a little too) lightly: “Sunshine, Sunshine. The world of science is enormous; even I still have a lot of things to learn. My ADHD may give me some super powers but unfortunately swallowing info from books without reading them isn’t one of them.”

“And here I thought it was,” she replied before getting more serious. “So… I should probably take a shower and continue reading after that… Too many pages left and one of my tests is already tomorrow…”

“I thought procrastination was only for my kind of people,” Leo noted. “Well… guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah.”

When Calypso made eye contact with him before leaving, she noticed that there was still sadness and maybe even worry in his eyes. She wished she could have said something to make the situation better but she couldn’t come up with anything, so she just gave him a small nod before disappearing into the bathroom.

[winryofresembool]

I’ve been wanting to play with uni AU Calypso’s design a lot and now I finally found the time to do that. I tested different styles and I’m not necessarily happy with all of them but I thought I’d share them either way so you can pick yourselves which ones you prefer. 

A couple of words about each outfit:

1) A pretty casual outfit for warmer weather, she most likely got the flower from her work (don’t count on Leo to get them for her)

2) One time Calypso saw dark academia moodboards and got inspired to wear that style to the university. Leo (who took the pic) added the glasses because why not? (Calypso totally did not pick the red turtleneck shirt because of Leo. Nope)

3) a pink dress for nicer events such as Piper’s summer party or a picnic date with Leo. In the pic she’s also wearing the little ‘C’ that Leo gave her for Christmas present in the fic.

4) an every day outfit for both home and other places. Calypso has discovered that she likes loose clothes, and if they have flower pattern in them, even better! She also likes accessorizing her hair with different kinds of flower pins etc, and she may have also put a little nut on her necklace because... well, it may have something to do with her machine geek boyfriend. 

As a general note, uni AU Calypso enjoys sewing her own clothes and going to thrift stores and sometimes tuning what she finds from there, so many of these clothes she made herself.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 45

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary:  Calypso and Leo spend an evening at Waystation and things start heating up (continuing from the previous chapter)

A/N: Wow, finally a chapter to post! I feel I say this every time but this chapter really was quite something else to edit. Anyway, as the summary suggests, in this chapter things /do/ get a bit heated but given that this is a T rated fic (at least at the moment), I am not going to details, so sorry about that.

Anyways, as usual, I hope you guys enjoy and please please please do let a comment because the previous chapter got none and I do worry that no one cares about this fic anymore... The fandom is so quiet. (Speaking of, I'm currently rereading The Lost Hero and actually loving it much more than the first time. Can't wait to get to House of Hades ;))

Words: 2800+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

…

Calypso insisted on making something better for Georgina to eat than the McDonald’s additions even though the little girl herself said she didn’t have to. Luckily the power was finally back at Waystation, making the task notably easier. Meanwhile Georgina was building a pillow fort from the sofa pillows and blankets in the living room, saying that she wanted to have a movie picnic there. When everyone was finally ready, the food was already pretty cold but they were so hungry that they didn’t care.

The movie Georgina had picked was Aristocats. Calypso thought it was rather fitting considering the girl really loved the foster cats at Waystation. Leo amused Calypso with his Disney knowledge (he even hummed ‘Everybody wants to be a cat’ even though he always claimed he hated singing) but when she asked how he knew so much about those movies, he sullenly stated that they had been one of the few things that had brought him comfort as a kid, besides tinkering. She didn’t tease him after that.

When the movie ended, it was already past 10 pm and Georgie could barely keep her eyes open. Despite that, she kept insisting that she wasn’t tired. When Leo put an episode of a TV show that the little girl liked on, it only took her about 5 minutes to fall asleep on her spot on the blanket. Leo carefully carried her into her own bed before returning back to Calypso who was still lying on the blankets and pillows on the floor.

“Did she wake up?” she asked.

“Nope. As sound asleep as only she can be,” Leo said quietly, smiling a bit. Then he joined Calypso in her pillow fort and laid down next to her.

“It’s been a day,” he yawned, pulling a blanket over his lower body. “I beat my fear… sort of at least?”

“You did,” Calypso said encouragingly. “I bet the next time will be easier for you.”

“Yeah! I want to believe that too. At least it should make participating in the lab classes easier. But aside from that, we also managed to treat a feral cat… I may have a couple of scratches in my arms but that’s okay. And Jo’s motorcycle got some extra paint on it…”

“Do you think she will be angry about it?” Calypso asked, partly worried, partly amused.

“Oh, I think she’ll curse me to Tartarus at first…” He used a term that he had heard from her. “But when she hears that I managed to make those guys repaint it, I think she’ll be really excited. I swear it’s in her blood to help problematic kids like me.”

“I’m glad she and Emmie found you, even if it took a while,” Calypso stated, turning on the blanket to face him.

“Yeah, me too,” Leo replied. “Their approach is so different from the other adults I’ve had in my life… except maybe my mom. They believe in the power of example. Like, they never yell or anything like that. If you do something wrong, don’t dwell on it; instead think if there’s something you can do to fix it. And if there’s nothing you can do about it… well, move on and do better next time. That’s the way they live.”

“That does sound like a good attitude,” Calypso agreed. “It seems to me that some of their lessons have already stuck with you. I could see that in the way you dealt with those boys earlier.”

“Thanks. I tried…” Leo rubbed the back of his neck. Calypso secretly found his reaction to the compliments adorable. He could act ‘bratty’ at times but under that goofy cover of his he was actually incredibly insecure.

“Who knows, maybe one day you’ll end up adopting homeless kids, just like Jo and Emmie did,” she said before thinking. But once her words sunk in, she felt a weird sting in her chest.

Some day, once he would have graduated and gotten some stability in his life, Leo would make a great dad. He really loved his younger sister and acted like a mentor to her in many situations despite their sibling-like bickering. And his way to solve problem situations felt refreshing to Calypso; she was so used to her father’s yelling and manipulating that she had to remind herself that there were people out there who didn’t resort to that. Someone would be very lucky to start a family with him, but it was highly likely that person wouldn’t be her.

Leo blushed fiercely. “I was… kind of hoping that would happen with you.” When he noticed Calypso’s expression, he quickly added: “I mean… not for a long while, of course! But… one day when we’re both ready…”

“Yeah… Maybe…” Calypso didn’t have the heart to say what she was really thinking but she was worried that he could sense it from her either way.

Silence fell into the pillow fort. Calypso had a hard time shaking her previous thoughts off and for once Leo didn’t seem to feel talkative either. Finally she decided that maybe music would help to give her some distraction so she asked Leo if he would mind her putting one of her playlists on. He didn’t, so she searched for a playlist in which she had put some of her favorite calming songs.

The first few songs she didn’t pay a lot of attention to; Leo’s warm hand found her back and she was simply enjoying the feel of it as he was drawing random patterns on her shirt with his fingers. They exchanged a few words here and there but mostly just listened to the music. At some point, her phone started playing Taylor Swift’s Peace. Calypso had used to consider it ‘just another love song’, and being tired of romance before meeting Leo, she had mainly ignored it earlier. But now that she was in a relationship, she realized that the lyrics hit a bit too close to home.

Wanting to make her significant other happy (‘I’d give you my sunshine’), but being aware that the problems would keep arising (‘the rain is always gonna come’) if they stuck together was something that Calypso understood too well. But what hit her even harder was the question ‘would it be enough if I could never give you peace?’ Technically speaking, things were fine between her and Leo, but she couldn’t guarantee she could give him what he deserved. Stability, normalcy, safety, a long term relationship, maybe one day even a family… Would Leo be fine with that? And more importantly, would she be willing to ask that much of him?

“Cal? Everything OK?” she heard his voice suddenly.

“Um, oh, yeah,” she stuttered. “Why do you ask?”

“You just seemed kinda out of it. What were you thinking?”

“Nothing much,” she tried to evade the question at first, but knew it was for nothing. Leo gave her a pointed look. “Um, just this song.”

“Oh? What about it?” he asked.

She braced herself for a moment before answering. “You know how it asks ‘would it be enough, if I can never give you peace’... I was wondering what you would answer if I asked you that. Would you be alright with this - what we have - even if it meant no normalcy for you?”

Leo made a weird sound that almost sounded like a snort.

“Leo, this is serious!” she exclaimed.

“I know it is! But Calypso, haven’t you already learned enough about me by now to know that my life has never exactly been ‘normal’? Burning my home, running away from countless foster homes, finally finding where I wanna be but still traumatized and having constant doubts about myself? I can guarantee you I am capable of making my life difficult on my own. A little more trouble won’t feel anywhere. So to answer your question: yes, it would be enough.”

“You seem very sure about this,” Calypso muttered, not sure how long she’d be able to keep herself together. Never before had anyone else - except maybe Zoë - been ready for so far for her sake. “Never been more sure about anything in my life.” Leo put his hand over his heart as if he was solemnly swearing something.

“Even if being with me meant you could be in danger?” she asked skeptically, referring to her dad.

“Even and especially then,” he said confidently, taking her hand into his.

Calypso’s voice finally broke. “I hate you.” What she actually meant with that: “I hate that I love you this much because that is only going to put you into a situation that you don’t deserve.” Yet she was also thinking: “I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have finally found a person who cares about me for who I am.”

Right after those three words had left her mouth, she pulled him for a kiss. A kiss that she hoped would convey all the feelings that she couldn’t put into words in that moment, the lingering and deep kind. There was something comforting about the taste of mint she got on her lips from his. Maybe it was because it had become so familiar to her; Leo ate a lot of breath mints to calm his nerves and she tasted it every time she kissed him. Her fingers started playing with his hair and he seemed to enjoy that because he made an approving “hmm” against her mouth.

“If that’s what I get for you hating me, then feel free to hate me all you want,” Leo said in a hoarse voice once they separated for some air.

“Stupid,” Calypso sighed. She buried her face into his shirt before murmuring: “Σε αγαπώ.”

“Yo también te quiero,” he answered.

A couple of tears had fallen on Calypso’s cheeks and Leo gently swept them off with his thumbs. She secretly liked how they felt against her skin; rough from all the work they had done and a lot more confident than they had been when he had first touched her.

“Hey! No crying, please.” He sounded a bit nervous.

“Don’t worry about it… These are just happy tears.”

“Happy? But…”

“Yeah.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “Because I’m lucky to have people like you in my life. It means… I can’t express in English what it means to me.”

“Oh… alright. Guess I managed to do something right then,” Leo mused.

“You did,” Calypso confirmed and closed the space between them again.

This time the kiss turned more heated fast. Her lips seemed to be craving for more even though the tiny, rational part of her was still trying to hold back. Warmth spread all the way to Calypso’s core when she during a breathing break opened her eyes to notice Leo watching her with eyes so intense they seemed almost black. Despite that there was also tenderness in them, and she couldn't help but find it charming. Her heart started beating faster as she wondered what was going through his mind right now.

“What? Do I look funny or something? Why do you keep looking at me like that?” she asked shyly.

“Funny?” he repeated as if he had a hard time even grasping that concept. “No… quite the opposite. You’re pretty damn stunning.”

“Oh… thanks.”

He gave her a lopsided smile. “You’re welcome, Sunshine.”

A brief silence fell into the room. Calypso didn’t want to interrupt that moment but she also realized they could find a place more comfortable and less visible than the living room floor. “We should probably go somewhere else,” she suggested. “I mean, Georgina could wake up and see us any moment…”

“Alright. My room?”

Calypso nodded, getting some butterflies in her stomach as she pictured what might happen there. Leo intertwined their fingers and helped her get up from the blanket.

…

As they were silently approaching Leo’s room, Calypso had time to think about where their physical relationship was heading to. She wasn’t a complete stranger to sex but thinking back to her previous experiences, she realized those times hadn’t been that great. The guys she had been with hadn’t really cared about her feelings but back then she had been too naïve to admit that to herself. Unfortunately, one of those times had been followed by a series of horrific events, which now resulted in hesitancy to now take the next step with Leo.

At the same time it was getting increasingly frustrating to live under the same roof with him, wanting to do more yet having the nagging voice in her head telling her she should really be more careful this time. His touches, even when he was touching simply her shoulders, seemed to set sparks of fire across her whole body. He seemed more attractive and lovable to her every day even though she had used to think that he was not her type. And sometimes, when they were alone at their home and he whispered to her what he really thought of her, she was wondering: ‘what am I waiting for?’ She knew she could trust Leo, and wasn’t that the main thing?

And so she decided she would let herself see where that evening would take them. Maybe her brain would eventually say ‘no’ and if that was the case, then she’d simply tell him she still wasn’t feeling comfortable enough for the next step. Hopefully he would understand. Or maybe her brain would remain quiet and for once allow her to enjoy something she had secretly wanted to do for a while. But she would never know if she didn’t give it a chance.

…

Once in Leo’s room, he sat down on his bed and patted the spot next to him.

“Look, I’m not sure where this is going, but if you want to stop, just let me know…”

A huge weight fell off Calypso’s chest when he said. It was a relief to hear they were on the same wavelength. “Yeah, I will,” she promised.

“Good.” Leo nodded. Their lips connected again and he pulled her down with him, letting her take the lead.

The next moments were like random still pictures in Calypso’s mind:

Kisses on jaw, lips, neck, collarbone...

Hands exploring with some new found confidence.

Leo’s eyes reminding her of flames when the light hit them from the right direction.

Foreheads touching when they had to stop for a break.

Quiet words of affirmation and short morse code messages tapped on her skin.

Clothes getting removed with fumbling fingers one by one until they were down to their underwear.

Leo asking her if she wanted to have a blanket on her so that she wouldn’t get cold even though she was feeling quite the opposite.

It was all going so well, until suddenly, when Leo’s fingers started playing with the waistband of her panties… something just snapped in Calypso’s head. The voice that had already been nagging earlier was back, even louder than usual.

“Leo… I think we should stop,” she said all of a sudden, letting go of him and exhaling deeply.

He looked at her with confusion for a moment before putting some distance between them.

“Was it something I did?”

“No. it’s just that… My period started this morning. I’m sorry, I should have let you know way earlier. Guess I let myself get carried away…”

That was a lie but in that moment she couldn’t deal with Leo’s heartbroken face if she told him what was really going through her head. He seemed understanding, though.

“Oh, damn. That sucks. I shouldn’t have encouraged you…”

“No, it’s fine. Not your fault.” She sat up on the bed and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down.

“You OK?” Leo asked worriedly.

“Yeah.” Another lie. “I just need a moment. It was stupid of me to let this get this far knowing we couldn’t finish it.”

“Hey, don’t blame yourself. It takes two to get to this point,” Leo tried to comfort her. “Um, anyway… I should probably… go cool down a bit. I’ll be back soon.”

Calypso felt genuinely bad for him because she had let him believe that something might happen.

“Alright.” She started collecting her clothes from the floor and hastily pulled her shirt on. “I guess it might be better if I go to sleep in the guest room... Good night.”

She gave him a quick good night’s peck on the cheek but it was a little awkward. She left the room soon after him and once in the guest room, she threw herself on the bed there. Wishing she could have just cried it out, she groaned against her pillow in frustration, but the tears didn’t come.

Why couldn’t she just let her past go?

[winryofresembool]

dear twlitf readers, know that I have not abandoned this fic (or Caleo) even though the updating is taking plenty of time once again. I’m just currently busy with other wips of mine. Once I have finished working on a jily fic that has a deadline at the end of this month I will try to prioritize twlitf again bc I sure want to return to that world just as much as you (hopefully) do. You just never know when the inspiration strikes...

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 44

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: A date night... of sorts

A/N: I know, it has once again taken me so long to update. This one was a struggle and half to edit because I was so unsure about the dialogue. But the main thing is that it's finished now, right?

This chapter continues right from the end of the previous chapter where Cal&Leo were dealing with a blackout and Leo finally managed to light up a match. Originally those two chapters+the next one were supposed to be 1 long chapter but that would have been way too long for me to edit. I know things are progressing a bit slowly but please bear with me!

I hope you guys enjoy, and please let me know what you think!

Words: 3200+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

…

The power was still out at Waystation even after the foster animals had been taken care of, so Leo and Calypso decided to go for a ride to find something to eat instead of cooking. Leo managed to convince Calypso to get onto Jo’s motorcycle (“I was the one who fixed this so I’m allowed to use it whenever,” he claimed) even though she wasn’t thrilled about it for various reasons. Not wanting to spend a whole lot of money on the dinner, they eventually stopped at a McDonald’s where Calypso ordered a veggie burger while Leo went for El Maco, large fries, some chili cheese tops and a large cup of soda.

“What? I got hungry while almost passing out from handling the fire and the other excitement we just had. I may not be a huge guy but I can eat,” he defended himself when Calypso wondered if he was going to eat it all on his own.

“I’ve seen you eat so I don’t doubt it. But feel free to share some of those fries and chili cheese tops with me in case you change your mind.” She smiled at him innocently.

“Oh, I see how it is. You just want free food,” Leo accused, but Calypso knew he didn’t mind sharing them. “You’re lucky that I’m not Joey from Friends; I do share food especially with pretty girls called Calypso.”

“You’re horrible.” Calypso rolled her eyes but couldn’t entirely hold her poker face.

“And you’re adorable when you get annoyed at me,” Leo said and gently pinched Calypso’s puffed cheek.

“You do it on purpose,” she claimed, making him laugh. “See? Point proven.”

“Well, you’re equally talented at making me flustered,” Leo confessed, his earlobes getting pretty red.

The couples’ smiles quickly disappeared when they exited the building and saw a couple of young boys, only teenagers, around Jo’s motorcycle. They had spray cans in their hands, having already managed to make a mess with them by the time Leo and Calypso made it close enough to yell at them.

“Hey! What the fuck do you think you are doing?” Leo shouted first. “That’s my mom’s motorcycle!”

“Oh nooo. Will mommy be mad now? What are you gonna do about it?” one of the boys barked, his voice full of sarcasm.

“Well, what would calling the cops sound like?” Leo asked in a calmer, firm voice. “Or, you could always pay for the repainting. I’ll have you know that that stuff isn’t cheap.”

“Mommy’s boy is threatening to call the cops. I’m so scared now,” the other boy sassed. Calypso was surprised they weren’t even trying to leave.

“You want me to punch them?” she mumbled to Leo quietly. “Because I would, you know.”

“I’ll admit that would sound good,” Leo whispered back, “but I don’t think that would work on them. I have another plan.” Then he raised his voice, addressing the boys:

“Seriously? You’re acting tough just because you sprayed paint on someone else’s motorcycle? Anyone could do that. You know what I think? I think you just desperately want some attention.”

That threw the boys slightly off guard.

“Huh? This guy is nuts,” the slightly taller, probably older one commented. Aside from the height difference the boys looked nearly identical.

Leo didn’t mind him. “Listen, dudes. I’ve been there. I’ve done idiotic things just because I wanted to be noticed. You may think that I’m some mommy’s boy because I ride my adoptive mother’s fancy motorcycle, but I ran away from like six foster homes before I got to this point. So I get you.”

“But we’re not you,” the younger of the boys stated.

“That’s true. I was just trying to start a conversation.” Leo shrugged.

“Well, that didn’t work very well,” the older boy sassed.

Leo ignored him. “Listen up. I don’t know you or your situation but - as lame as it may sound - messing up someone else’s motorcycle won’t solve anything. I should know.”

“You’re making a lot of assumptions about us right now. ‘Won’t solve anything…’ What is there to solve anyway?” the older boy questioned.

“You can probably answer that better yourself, but I’ve yet to meet a person who ruins someone else’s property ‘just because’,” Leo pointed out.

“Right.” The younger of the boys rolled his eyes. “So, assuming that there is some problem to begin with, what would you do in our position?” He still tried to sound snarky, but Calypso could tell there was some genuine curiosity behind it.

“First of all, I would try to find another outlet for your anger. And if someone offers to help you, accept it. I myself got really damn lucky because I did eventually meet the right kind of people. Don’t know where I would be without them.” Leo gave Calypso a quick, reassuring smile.

“What if we don’t want other people’s help?” the older boy asked.

“Then that’s your loss. But in the end, /you/ need to take the steps towards the right direction. No one else can do that for you.” There was a short break before Leo continued: “After I got adopted, were there still moments when I wanted to run away and screw the rest of the world? Yeah. But in the end… It was worth it.”

The boys briefly exchanged glances, apparently wordlessly deciding something.

“Let’s go, Travis,” the younger of the two said. “This guy thinks that he can stop us just by talking. Pretty lame if you ask me.”

“Yeah. He doesn’t even know us,” the other guy agreed.

“Not so fast.” While Leo was talking, Calypso had circled to the other side of the guys, ready to stop them if they tried to leave before Leo was done. She may not have been tall or particularly strong looking, but from the boys’ expressions she could guess that she did actually intimidate them a bit. How she did that, she had no idea. “You know, my father has a lot of connections,” She absolutely hated using her father as a way to get what she wanted, but that’s how much she cared about Leo. The boys wouldn’t need to know her dad had never even met Leo and hopefully never would. “And I think he would like to hear about some thugs who ruined his daughter’s boyfriend’s property. Am I right, Leo?”

Leo seemed confused for a moment, but finally he caught what she was trying to say.

“Oh, absolutely.” He nodded along. “He’s the kind of guy anyone would like to stay away from.”

“So what is it, you two? The payment or the police?” Calypso asked.

Finally the brothers gave in a bit. “You really think we have money? While we can barely keep ourselves fed?”

Leo wasn’t bedazzled by their response. “I thought you might say something like that. And I have a solution. Instead of paying with money, you can pay with work. I can teach you how to repaint vehicles like this one. Just one day, during which you’ll fix this mess and might actually learn something useful at the same time, and then we’re done.”

At this point the guys didn’t seem to know what to make of Leo’s words anymore. Clearly he had surprised them by offering them something like that, but they were probably still debating if they could just sneak away without having to do anything.

“They do have pretty good cameras up there.” Calypso nodded towards the roof of the McDonald's building, enjoying her bad cop role. “I think we’d be able to find out who you are if we wanted to. Travis, you said?”

“Fine. I’m Travis Stoll,” the older of the brothers very reluctantly gave in.

“And you?” She turned to the younger brother.

“Connor Stoll.”

“And are there any ways to contact you?” Calypso asked while writing the names down on her phone.

“We don’t have phones. But we hang out around here quite a lot; the place where we’re staying is only a couple of blocks away, around there.” He showed them the direction.

“Alright. Leo, what do you say?” Calypso wanted to hear his opinion. “Do we believe them?”

He eyed them judgingly for a moment. “I can’t say I trust them but maybe we need to give them the benefit of the doubt just this once. So here’s what we should do. Tomorrow we’ll meet up here, for example around noon. I’ll take you to our garage and we’ll repaint this thing then. Yeah, I realize it’s a bit crazy to show my parents’ place to some strangers who literally just sprayed this motorcycle, but I’m doing this to show you guys I’m on your side.”

“So tomorrow, at this park? And you’ll leave us alone after that?” Connor asked.

“Yeah, I will, unless you give me a reason to keep an eye on you guys. But my moms love taking guys like you under their wings so you might notice they’ll end up inviting you over for dinner or whatever more often than you’d probably like.” Leo grinned devilishly.

“And why are we doing this again?” Connor asked Travis. “He might just as well be bluffing us.”

“I dunno.” Travis shrugged. “I do know that I don’t care about dealing with the police, though, and they sounded pretty serious about that part.”

“I think you’re giving in too easily, big bro, but whatever,” Connor said. “Guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“You’re damn right about that,” Leo noted. “When my girlfriend here has decided to do something, she won’t give in until she gets it done.”

Calypso decided to take that as a compliment. She knew she could be pretty strong willed and determined at times.

“Gods, Leo, don’t you think you’re exaggerating a bit?” She put the act on.

“Me, exaggerating? Never,” he claimed. “Anyway, we should get going now, but I’m expecting to see you tomorrow. And take it easy with those spray cans.” He pointed at the said cans while spinning the motorcycle keys around his fingers. “If I hear you’ve been doing more damage with them, I may not be this nice the next time we meet.”

“Whatever,” the brothers said but Calypso could tell that they were getting unmotivated to continue that conversation.

“Well, see ya tomorrow, then,” Leo said, waving to Calypso to follow him. Since the boys had even managed to spray the glass on Leo’s helmet, he decided it would be much safer to just walk the motorcycle back to Waystation. Luckily they weren’t that far from there, so pushing a huge motorcycle next to them wasn’t too difficult.

“You know, I’m really surprised by how you handled yourself there,” Calypso said as they were getting closer to their destination. “While I admit that you’re pretty chill most of the time, I really thought you would be angrier at those guys for what they did. I know you love your machines and especially that motorcycle a lot.”

“I was angry,” Leo replied, “but I don’t know. Those guys were so young. Well, about the same age I was when Emmie and Jo decided to adopt me. I was an idiot at that age too. What I’m trying to say is that I don’t have the right to judge them too hard.”

“I see. So what kind of things did you do?” Calypso asked curiously.

Leo didn’t look at her, instead focusing on the motorcycle. “Eh, that’s too long a story… I don’t think you are gonna want to hear it.”

“I do, though,” Calypso objected.

“Fine,” Leo sighed. “I once mentioned that I shoplifted a bit of food a few times because I didn’t have other options… Well, I may have also resorted to scratching some not so nice words onto the paint of one of my ex foster parents’ cars before I left their home. But those people did have money to pay for a new paint job.”

“That’s not so surprising,” Calypso noted. “I don’t have a hard time imagining you doing that. Come on, what else is there?”

“Well, I’m not proud of this…” Then he changed his mind. “Actually, I’m a little proud of this. So, when I was a runaway, there was this one cop that I particularly hated because he seemed to always be stalking me. One day that guy stopped for lunch at some café and left his car near my hangout spot. When he was far enough, I may have put some gloves on and tweaked the wires in his car juuust a little bit so that he wouldn’t be able to start it. But not so much that a car mechanic wouldn’t be able to fix it easily. To be clear, it was his personal car so it didn’t have any cameras or anything on it and to the outsiders it probably just looked like I was trying to fix something so no one paid attention to me. The perfect crime.”

“So he didn’t find out that it was you who had ‘broken’ his car?” Calypso asked, not sure what to make of that story.

“No, he didn’t, as far as I know. Then again, I left that town only like a week later so who knows, he might have suspected me but he never got a chance to prove he was right. But I’m telling you, he was one of those guys who totally deserved it. The kind you see on the news for the wrong kind of reasons.” Leo’s face darkened.

“But you could have gotten into big trouble if he had caught you,” Calypso chastised him.

“Well…” Leo shrugged. “I guess that’s true, but I was already in trouble for being a runaway and messing with some of my old foster parents. And I didn’t exactly have a lot to lose back then so… it was just my way to take the anger out.”

“You know…” Calypso hadn’t even realized that she had started clenching her fists until she noticed Leo’s eyes on them. “There are moments when I wish I would have also done something like that when I left my father’s mansion. To show him that I’m not just a pawn in his games. I’m tired of always being the good girl, the one who doesn’t have her own free will but is always controlled by others.”

“I hope I’m not making you feel controlled,” Leo asked, sounding genuinely worried.

“No, no, you’re not. Don’t worry.” Calypso shook her head. “I just mean that even now that I’m here, far from New York, and I’ve been here for over half a year and haven’t heard of my father even once during that time, I still feel like I need to watch my every step.”

“Well, at least you don’t have to watch them alone. We can do that together. Not that you need my help, but still,” Leo tried to reassure her.

“Yeah. We can.” Calypso nodded.

Soon after that the flatmates were back at Waystation. Leo parked the motorcycle and turned to Calypso. Maybe he wanted to show her that he meant what he said, pulling her closer so that he could kiss her. Having grown a lot more comfortable with the public displays of affection lately, she was happy to let him. However, his lips had barely touched hers when a flashlight pointed right at their faces, and a high pitched: “ewwww!” could be heard near them.

“Georgie?” Leo pulled back from Calypso, who had to blink furiously so she could see something other than the white dots caused by the flashlight. “You’re home already?”

The little girl put her hands on her hips with some attitude. “What do you mean ‘already’? It’s already 8 pm and I’m hungry. My friends’ family had already eaten their dinner when I went there so I haven’t eaten anything this evening.”

“Then you should have called me and we would have brought you something.” He lifted the McDonald's bag in his hands to show her where they had been. “I didn’t realize it was already this late and I also didn’t know they didn’t offer you anything.”

“Don’t worry, Georgina,” Calypso stepped between the siblings, trying to calm the younger girl down. “Leo can surely give you some of his chili cheese tops and I have some French fries. And we’ll see what else we can find in the fridge, right?”

“Okay,” the girl mellowed down a bit. “But don’t think that I didn’t see what I just saw!”

“And what did you just see?” Leo asked innocently even though the answer was obvious.

“You guys being totally gross!” she announced, throwing her hands in the air dramatically.

“I thought you hoped that we would get together.” Leo smirked at her. Since Georgina had already seen them kissing, there was no reason to deny what was going on anymore.

His response made her quiet for a moment. “I… I do but… but that doesn’t mean I want to see you guys swapping spit right in front of me.” She rolled her eyes as if it should have been very obvious.

“Duly noted, sweet sister of mine,” Leo said sarcastically. “Although, we had no idea that you would be hanging out here in the yard so you can only blame yourself for not letting us know that.”

Calypso did her best to hold the snort inside her. She really enjoyed listening to the siblings’ goofy bickering (even though it sometimes made her remember her own, late sister, which again made her sad, but she did her best to not let her thoughts go there) because to her it just proved how close they actually were despite not being blood relatives. And seeing how much Leo cared about the little girl made her love him even more, if possible.

“Nah, you should have known that I’m here anyway.” Georgie stuck her tongue out at him. Then her face brightened. “But does this mean Calie is gonna be my sister? Yay!! I’ve always wanted one.”

“Wow, wow, slow down a bit, Georgie.” Leo lifted his hands in the air. “I do love her but we are not planning our wedding quite yet. Or any time in the very near future. Right, Cal?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Calypso agreed, feeling chills go down her spine and not in a good way when she simply imagined herself in a big white dress, with a ring on her left ring finger, committing herself for someone for life. Even if it was Leo, her trust issues were too deep for her to be ready for something that big yet. “However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t be sisters if that’s what you want. A true bond doesn’t look at your blood type or your marriage status.”

“Yeah!” Georgia exclaimed. “But if you do end up getting married someday, I’ll get to be your maid of honor, right?”

Calypso couldn’t help but laugh at the girl’s enthusiasm, even if the topic was mildly uncomfortable for her.

“Sure. I think I can promise that much.” She smiled at her. Then she attempted to focus her attention on other things: “But now we really should eat, right? I don’t like my fries cold.”

The little girl started hopping around her, throwing her arms in the air and chanting about food excitedly as they made their way inside the house.

[winryofresembool]

The next ch of twlitf is progressing pretty nicely so hopefully it won’t take more than a few more days to post now. Not saying any exact date tho just to be sure 😅

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 43

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: Small steps towards the right direction

A/N: After 3000 years I'm back. Sorry (yet again) that this has taken so long; life happened and after work I just don't always have enough energy (and time) to edit. But well, what counts is that this chapter is here now, right?

So, while I was absent, we have reached 10 000+ hits for this fic!! Huge thanks to all of you again for reading this fic, I really appreciate it 😊

Since it's been a while since the last chapter, as a reminder: in the previous chapters Calypso, Leo & co were on a roadtrip to Chicago to see Percy swim in the national championships. Calypso got very unsettled when she saw a couple of men who had close connections to her father in the audience. 

This chapter is still a pretty calm one but I swear that we /will/ be reaching more 'interesting' stuff soon. Some 'slife of life fluff' before the storm is always good, right? But now, please enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think!

Words: 4793

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

“Hey, Sunshine?” Leo knocked on Calypso’s door, trying to catch her attention. “I’m heading to Waystation to see Festus and the other animals. Jo and Emmie are out of town today so someone needs to check up on them.”

“Oh, okay. Good to know,” Calypso responded a bit absent mindedly. Her head was too full of different year numbers and names of politicians to be able to fully absorb what Leo had just told her. She was preparing for an important midterm exam, having even taken that day off from work to be able to spend it studying. She didn’t think she would have time to finish reading everything her professor had assigned otherwise.

“I also need to make sure that Georgie isn’t wrecking the whole house; she’s supposed to visit the neighbors in the evening but right now she’s alone. I asked Jo and Emmie why they wouldn't take her with them but apparently it had been her own wish to stay behind because she had some ‘project’ she wanted to work on.”

It still took her a moment to register his words. “Alright. Good luck with that.”

“Calypso? Are you even listening to me?” Leo furrowed his eyebrows as he stepped into her room. “Usually you’re a bit more involved in the conversation when I’m talking about Festus and Georgie.”

Calypso rubbed her forehead and blinked a couple of times, trying to get her focus back from the books.

“Ugh, sorry. I do love history but this book is impossible to read. That’s why I was a bit out of it,” she explained. “So… you’re going to see Georgina and the animals?”

“Yep, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me. Although, seeing you right now, I guess I should just let you stay here.”

She considered Leo’s suggestion for a moment before shaking her head. “No. I’m starting to think that I really could use a break. Not sure if any of this info will sink into my brain no matter how hard I’ll try. It feels like I’m just reading the same words over and over again.”

“I know the feeling.” Leo nodded. “It probably doesn’t help you that you’re not even reading in your first language, huh?”

“No, it doesn’t,” Calypso admitted. “Although when I did my home schooling, my books were written in English but the language in this one is far more complicated.”

“I can imagine. I’m lucky numbers are the same regardless of the language I study in. Makes things a bit simpler for me. Anyway, you coming?”

“Sure. Let me just… put something other than my pajamas on first.” Calypso looked down at her wrinkly, pink pants.

“Alright. Be ready in like 10 minutes. And don’t put on your best clothes!” He warned as she got up from her bed and opened her closet to decide what to wear. Picking a red striped flannel shirt and a pair of some of her more worn jeans, she shooed Leo away and started changing. She did wonder if she should be more comfortable with him seeing a bit more of her, but she couldn’t quite shake her variness yet due to her past experiences. When she would finally be ready, she’d let him know. She just wished that he knew he wasn’t the issue.

…

A bit later Leo and Calypso were in the car on their way to Waystation again. It was a rare bright early March day in Indianapolis, kind of crispy but sunny and Calypso enjoyed seeing some light after the gloomy beginning of the year. Not even the university buildings they drove past looked quite so uninviting in that weather. There was a thin snow cover on the ground, having just fallen a couple of days earlier, making the landscape even brighter. Back when she had been a kid she had only seen snow during her family’s trips to mountain areas so it was quite a rare treat for her.

“Hey, do you think we could stop to buy something warm to drink?” she asked. “I could use some caffeine to get the studying fog out of my brain.”

“Guess we’re not in that big a hurry,” Leo replied as he glanced at the car clock. “Although I’ll probably take something other than coffee. You know I’m not a huge fan of it.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m feeling like drinking caramel latte. And maybe I’ll have a nice chocolate-y brownie with it.”

“So that’s your way to cope with exams? A sugar crash?” Leo joked.

“I’m perfectly fine with that,” Calypso responded with a dreamy expression on her face as she pictured herself sitting cozily at the café with the drink in her hands.

“Hear that, random bypasser? My girlfriend is living dangerously,” Leo chuckled, pretending to be talking to an older woman who was walking on the sideway near them. Calypso wondered if the heater of the car had just started blowing in hotter air or if the idea of the hot drink was suddenly making her feel warmer. Or maybe it was just his laugh or the fact she secretly loved hearing him refer to her as his girlfriend. Since when had she been this kind of sap? Sometimes she couldn’t quite fathom what was going on in her brain when Leo was around.

“You better watch out, I might drag you down with me,” she joked back.

“Shit, sounds like I’m screwed,” Leo snorted. Quietly, he added: “but if you were with me, I wouldn’t care.”

While Calypso was still wondering how she should answer his comment, Leo opened his mouth again: “Hey, can I ask you something?”

His sudden serious tone got her a bit concerned. “Sure, of course.”

“How have you really been since that Chicago trip? I’m not blind; I can see it affected you pretty strongly,” he noted.

“Why do you think that?” Calypso asked, a bit mortified that Leo had noticed it so easily.

“When you live with someone for over half a year you do kinda learn certain things about them. Even I, who’s not the most socially skilled guy out there.” He shrugged.

“I suppose you have a point there…”

“Yep, but that doesn’t answer my question,” he pointed out.

“Honestly? I’ve been trying to not think about that trip,” Calypso confessed finally.

“Is that why you’ve been trying to drown yourself in work lately?” Leo frowned.

She hesitated for a moment. “I’ve honestly had a lot going on. The midterms are next week and spring is a busy time at the flower shop.”

“And that’s all?” He cocked his eyebrow.

“… Fine. It has been good to have something to distract myself. It’s just… really hard to brace myself for the inevitable, you know? I’m aware that some day the confrontation will happen, whether I want it or not. I can’t keep hiding forever… but on the other hand I don’t know if I’m emotionally prepared to face my father.”

“I think I get what you mean,” Leo said. “I would rather do almost literally anything than face my abusive aunt or my old foster families again.”

“Yeah. That’s how I feel about it. And I haven’t even told you half of the story yet.” She combed her hair with her fingers as she looked at something in the distance.

“You haven’t?” Leo questioned.

“Sadly, it’s true,” Calypso admitted. “Here’s one thing you don’t know about him yet: he took me and Zoë out of Greece without my mom’s permission. Mom and he had just made their divorce official a few weeks earlier and she had left us with him for the weekend while she was out of town organizing some things. When she came back… the only thing she found at our home was a piece of paper saying that we were on a whole another continent, the Atlantic Sea between us.”

“But couldn’t your mom have sued him for doing that?” Leo asked. “Shouldn’t that kind of thing be illegal?

Calypso shrugged. “I guess it is. I was too young to really understand everything that was going on back then – and it’s probably better that way - but I think my mom actually did try to sue him. But, surprise, my dad’s money won that fight. Mom didn’t have much left after the divorce so she couldn’t keep fighting for us. That’s why I’m still here and not in Greece.”

“Man, I wish I could just punch him in the face and…” He didn’t finish that sentence. “But here’s one but: as shitty as the way he treated you is – I know how it feels like to live in a family who doesn’t give a fuck – there’s definitely at least one person who is pretty selfishly happy that you didn’t go back to Greece.” He turned his gaze from the road to her for a second. “That would be me.”

Calypso couldn’t help but smile a bit at his comment. “Aww, thanks, babe. Maybe even the darkest cloud can have a silver lining…” Her hand briefly touched his on the gearstick before she withdrew it back to her side and sighed. “I’m just so ready to be done with this all.”

“I wouldn’t call myself the most optimistic person out there,” Leo started, “but I do know that you’re a pretty damn great person and you deserve good things from the universe. Tía Callida’s stories didn’t paint a very good picture of the Greek gods but if there’s any fairness left in them, things should end up going just fine for you. Let’s keep believing, right?”

“Alright,” Calypso said before quickly turning her face towards the side window so she could swipe a tear from the corner of her eye without Leo noticing. His nice words had overwhelmed her a bit; after being alone for so long she still wasn’t used to someone thinking so highly of her.

“Hey, look,” he pointed at something he saw by the street, which, she understood, was his way to try to distract her. “Isn’t that Percy in that bus stop ad? Advertising a blue sports drink?”

Calypso saw the ad and chuckled a little at the photo. “Oh my gods, it is. Annabeth must be happy. And Percy is looking so proud of himself there.”

“Yep, he totally is. I bet he picked that sponsorship simply because the drink is blue. That’s definitely something he’d do,” Leo noted.

“I think so too,” she agreed.

They kept chatting about random things they saw outside. A bit before they finally reached Waystation, Calypso noticed a yellow winged bird flying up from a tree. It wasn’t a Golden Oriole like the bird she had seen in her home country but the color reminded her of it. The bird flew higher and higher until she couldn’t see it anymore, but Calypso chose to take it as a good sign.

…

At Waystation Festus greeted the couple in his usual manner; jumping up and down and wagging his tail faster than Calypso thought was possible. After stopping to give him some treats, they went to check on Georgina who was cooking something in the kitchen on her own.

“Georgie!” Leo cried out, sounding pretty panicked. “What have you been told about using the stove when you’re alone? You’re not allowed to do that!”

Calypso had rarely seen Leo get really mad at his adoptive sister but this time she could tell that he was being serious. And she could understand why; Georgina was only a little older than Leo had been when the accident with his mom had happened. It wasn’t surprising to her that he would want to stop his little sister from causing any potential accidents, especially fire related. He rushed to move any potentially burnable objects from near the stove and turned the heat lower.

“Hey! I know what I’m doing! I cook all the time,” Georgina protested loudly.

“Yeah, but this time there was no one else home! What would you have done if something had started burning?” Leo asked, glaring at the girl.

“I… I would have called 911? It’s not that difficult, Leo.” The girl said after hesitating a bit, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Yeah, and the place might have burned down before they would have made it here. Listen, Georgie. I’m not saying this to be rude or annoying. I’m saying it because I once was in a situation that ended really, really badly because I was being careless, and I don’t want anyone, especially someone like you whom I care about very, very much, to go through anything like that. Do you understand?” From that Calypso realized that Leo may not have told Georgina about what exactly had happened with his mom yet. She glanced at Leo curiously but he was still focused on the young girl.

Georgina finally seemed a bit regretful. “Fine. I get it.”

“Good. Hermanita, believe me; the rules are there for a reason. It’s for your own good. And I’m saying this as someone who used to not care about the rules either.”

“Alright…” Georgina got suddenly interested in her shoe laces.

“Now then…” Leo seemed to relax a bit and a smile appeared on his face. “Now that you hopefully keep my advice in your mind… How about we finish what you started. What were you cooking, sis?” Georgina’s face brightened faster than Calypso could blink.

“I was hoping to make some crepes! Moms always say that I shouldn’t eat them too often because they are bad for my tummy but they can’t tell me what to do when they’re not home!” the girl announced rebelliously, making both Leo and Calypso burst into laughter.

“You tell them, hermanita,” Leo said between the chuckles. “There’s never a bad moment to eat some crepes no matter what our moms say.”

“I’m glad you’re taking my side here,” Georgina smiled at him, the earlier scene already forgotten. “Will you guys help me?”

“Of course we will!” Calypso ruffled the younger girl’s hair a bit and stepped closer to the kitchen counter to see what Georgina had already done. “Hey, did you remember the flour? Because this kind of looks like it’s missing something.”

Georgina went bright red as she realized Calypso was right. “Oops. I think I was gonna add it but then my friend called and I just forgot when she started explaining something to me.”

“Don’t worry about it. We can still fix this,” Calypso reassured her. She tied her hair on a high ponytail to avoid any from falling in the food and Leo went to get some aprons because he suspected that cooking with Georgina would get pretty messy. Ironically, he was the one who ended up spilling the most flour around and started drawing silly figures on the kitchen counter with his finger.

Once the batter was done, the girls had fun watching Leo flip the crepes on the flying pan (Calypso wondered how he had gotten so good at that) and after that they came up with a lot of creative fillings for them from ice cream and berries to jam and peanut butter. As the three were laying on some bean bags after eating way too much, Calypso was feeling relaxed for the first time since the swimming competition. It felt pretty good to be able to laugh again without a voice nagging in her head, telling her that she shouldn’t.

…

Once Georgina had gone to see her friend living in the same neighborhood, Calypso and Leo went to check the foster animals. Calypso had to admit that the bunny suits that were used to prevent spreading the germs around weren’t her favorite thing in existence; all the ones Leo’s parents had were really huge as Jo and Emmie were tall people and she had difficulties moving in them. Using a piece of fabric as her belt and rolling up the sleeves and the pant legs so that she wouldn’t fall, she gave Leo a pointed look because he was biting his lip trying to not show his amusement. Refraining herself from pointing out that he wasn’t that much taller than her, she followed him to the cat room where a couple of new, older cats were waiting for them.

According to Leo the new cats were more or less feral, not happy with human company and being stuck inside. Unfortunately for the felines, though, they had some medical conditions that needed to be taken care of, which was why they couldn’t be released into the wild yet even though they had already gotten their spays and neuters. Emmie had taught Leo how to use a towel to be able to give one of them the eye drops it needed due to an eye infection, but he was still slightly nervous about how it would work out. You never knew about cats, after all.

Emmie had purposefully left some hiding spots for the cats so that they would feel as safe as possible in their room, which was why Leo and Calypso didn’t see them at first when they entered. After looking around for a moment Calypso finally spotted a pair of gleaming eyes in a tiny tent in the corner of the room and pointed it to Leo. He found a towel in a cabinet and started quietly approaching the tent while Calypso stayed a bit farther, not wanting to freak the cat out any more than they already had.

“This actually makes this job a bit easier,” Leo whispered to Calypso. “Because she can’t escape from there as there’s only one small hole in that tent.”

“Don’t underestimate her escaping skills,” Calypso warned but continued following Leo’s progress. Slowly, he pushed the towel inside the tent so he could wrap it around the feline. Getting the cat out of the tent was a bit tricky but Leo managed to do that eventually. Carefully removing the towel from the feline’s face, he asked Calypso to pass the tiny eye drop bottle to him. Just when he got it into his hands and started unscrewing the lid, though, the lights in the room started flickering before turning entirely off.

“What happened?” Calypso asked. “Did the fuse get blown or…?”

“I dunno,” Leo replied, trying to stand up, which was surprisingly hard in almost a pitch black room with a feral cat on your lap. When he finally succeeded, he slowly walked towards the window and peeked out, as far as Calypso could tell from the darkness.

“It looks like the entire neighborhood is dark,” he muttered. “Guess the wind caused a blackout. And of course I left my phone… Ow! Damn cat!”

While he wasn’t paying attention, the cat managed to wriggle out of the towel and jump down from his arms with her claws out. Then she very frantically ran under a cabinet from where it would be notably harder for him to get her out.

“She got out of your grip?” she asked, trying to hide her amusement.

“Yeah,” Leo admitted. “And now I can’t catch her because it’s too dark. My phone is in the main building; I didn’t think I’d need it here.”

“I don’t have my phone with me either. This bunny suit doesn’t have pockets.” She pointed at her suit unnecessarily as he couldn’t see her anyway. “Do you know if there are any flashlights or such here?”

“I’m… I’m not sure. Maybe in the cabinet in the dressing room.”

“Anything else we could work with?” she inquired, knowing the said room was far back on another floor.

Calypso could hear some hesitation in Leo’s voice when he answered: “In the Christmas time whenever this room is empty, Emmie likes to put some candles on the windowsill. I think she may have left some in those drawers.” His bunny suit was rustling as he tried to show Calypso which drawers he meant. Opening them, she found out the first drawer only had some towels in it, but in the second one there was something that felt like tealight candles and a match box.

“Got it,” she announced.

“Oh, good. We need just enough light that we can go to find the flashlights without tripping on the stairs or something.”

The candles gave Calypso an idea.

“Hey… I get it if you’re not ready yet, but… this could be a good test situation. Want to give it a try?”

“You mean I would be lighting up the match?” Leo asked, not entirely able to hide the rising nervousness in his voice.

“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking.”

Leo remained quiet for a while. Calypso could almost hear the gears working in his head.

“Al-alright. Can’t win if you don’t try, huh?” He tried to sound brave, making her regret pushing him to do it.

Calypso attempted to find Leo’s hands in the dark and was happy to finally feel something warm and calloused under her fingers. Enjoying the warmth perhaps a moment longer than necessary, she dropped the match box into his hands and took the candle into hers.

“Alright. I’m gonna hold this candle while you light it. Remember, nothing bad is going to happen,” she tried to reassure him, running her free hand up and down his arm briefly.

“OK. I’m gonna try.” Leo took a deep breath. “Don’t judge me if this fails, though.”

“I might judge you for plenty of other things you’ve done but never that,” Calypso said playfully, trying to clear the air a bit, but she wasn’t sure if it worked.

Based on the clattering coming from Leo’s direction she could tell that his hands were shaking, but she pretended she didn’t notice.

A couple of snaps, most likely matches breaking, could be heard. Then some frustrated growling.

“This isn’t working out,” he muttered.

“Let’s not give up quite yet,” Calypso encouraged. “Try to think of this as something you have to do. The cats are depending on you and you can’t help them if you don’t have light.”

“I’ll give it a couple of more tries. If I don’t succeed by then, then clearly I’m not bound to succeed yet,” Leo decided.

“Fine,” Calypso agreed. “Remember, the cats. Also, I may reward you somehow if you do this.”

“Reward how?” Leo sounded a little curious, even with his nervousness.

“Well, won’t it be better if you don’t know it beforehand?”

“Okay, fine, keep it a secret,” Leo mumbled and focused on the matches again.

He kept scratching the next match against the box for a while until it split just like the ones before.

“Leo… breathe. You’re doing great.” Calypso’s eyes were starting to get adjusted to the darkness, allowing her to see the determination on his face, and something inside her melted. She kept whispering soothing words as he kept trying, hoping it would help.

A few more sticks split and Calypso knew there weren’t many left. He told her the next one would be the last one, taking a deep breath before going for it. Some more scratching, until finally…

“Woah!” he yelped, almost dropping the burning match in the process. Now that the flame was there, Calypso could see the surprise – and relief – on his face.

“Quickly, put it here,” Calypso handed the candle towards him and Leo didn’t waste any time, managing to make it burn, although shakily. Once that was done, he put out the flame in the match and dramatically laid down on the floor, weary from the stress reaction his fear had caused in him.

“I… Can’t believe I just did that,” he said, his hand covering his face.

“Soon you can set a fire in the big fireplace in the main building,” Calypso promised. She put the candle on a safe surface and laid down on the blanket meant for the cats, right next to Leo.

“Too soon,” he claimed wearily, giving her an unamused look.

Calypso wasn’t going to have a debate with him when he was in that state. “You’re right. Sorry. But believe it or not, I really am proud of you. I hope this will give you confidence that you can do it again.”

“Yeah. Hopefully it will.” He clearly started snapping out of his haze because a mischievous look returned to his face. “Hey, what about that reward?”

“What reward?” Calypso pretended to be oblivious for a second.

“The one you just promised.”

“Oh, right. That. I guess you deserve it.” Calypso rose to her knees and laid down on top of Leo. “I was kind of thinking of this kind of reward.”

She leaned down to kiss him on the mouth. It wasn’t one of those more passionate kisses that they had had more and more often recently, instead very light, almost teasing. With the hand that she didn’t use for support, she traced his jaw line, which he seemed to enjoy.

“I mean… I can picture better places for this than the cat hairy blanket…” Leo grinned. “But I am not gonna complain.”

“Yep, you’d better not,” Calypso grinned back at him.

“I might even consider using the matches more often,” Leo said before pulling her back for another kiss. While she wouldn’t have minded staying there a bit longer, she hadn’t forgotten that they were supposed to take care of the foster animals. Soon they got up from the blanket and Calypso took the candle from the dresser so that they could go and find the flashlights, still Leo’s preferred light source.

“Look. The flame you started.” She said proudly as she handed the tealight towards him. “Maybe you should carry it so you can show us the way.”

“Fine,” he sighed and took it from her slowly but actually didn’t seem too shaken by the flame anymore.

Within a few minutes they managed to find two flashlights from the shelter building’s dressing room. With their help Leo and Calypso found the feline somehow squished under a cabinet even though there wasn’t a whole lot of space there. After carefully blocking the potential escape routes, Leo finally managed to get the cat wrapped into the towel and pulled her back on his lap. He held her while Calypso gave her the eye drops, also daring to give her a couple of finger pets while she was still wrapped. The cat gave her a couple of half hearted hisses as a response but didn’t protest more.

“Look at that, you’re a real cat whisperer,” Leo smirked at her and threw her a high five now that he dared to loosen his grip on the cat. “That was some solid team effort, right?”

“You did most of the work, to be honest; I just put the drops in.

“Nah, without your encouragement I would probably still be sitting here in the dark wondering what I should do.”

“No, you would have found your way to the dressing room even without the candle. But fine; we do make a decent team.” She reached for his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

“Yep, we do.” Leo nodded.

As they kept chatting, one of the cats, the younger of the two, had sneakily come out of his hiding hole and started playing with a string in the corner of the room. Only when he started jumping after it and making noise, did they realize that, and a big smile spread on Calypso’s face.

“Hey, do you think this guy might be willing to give up his feral card some day?” she asked. “Clearly he is not too afraid of our presence.”

“I think Emmie might have mentioned that this Cookie here is more open for human interactions,” Leo recalled. “Most of the ferals I’ve seen keep hiding when I’m in the same room with them.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s the natural reaction for them. How about we try to see what he says when we try to play with him?” Calypso suggested.

Leo found a feather wand toy from one of the drawers and slowly approached the cat, waving the wand on the ground.

At first not much happened. Cookie did seem kind of curious about the feathers but he remained skeptical, just staring at it. But when Leo switched it to another wand toy with a long ‘worm’ hanging from it, the cat couldn’t resist anymore. He started eagerly chasing it and Calypso couldn’t help but smile at the sight. She remembered how back when she had been a teenager, her sister Zoë had advised her to pay attention to how a guy treated animals. According to her, if he was kind to them, he was worth Calypso’s time. And Leo clearly loved animals.

Maybe not all choices she had made were bad ones.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 42

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: A road trip to Chicago, pt 3/3

A/N: And we're back! This is a relatively fillery (and short) chapter but well, sometimes those are necessary too. We're heading towards the 'bigger' stuff soon, though! (Or that is at least what I hope xD)

Hope you guys enjoy, and remember that feedback is the only way for me to know that someone is still reading this! So please let me know what you think. (I hate saying this every time but it means a lot to me)

Words: 1629

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

“So, what you’re telling us is that you’ve been crushing on each other pretty much ever since you met and finally decided to do something about it during the holidays?” Piper repeated what she had gotten out of Leo and Calypso’s story while the friend group was waiting for Percy at the restaurant.

“I wouldn’t say it was love at first sight,” Calypso denied. “I was quite prejudiced towards Leo when we first met, but hey, he let his dog break my beloved desk! What would you do in that situation?”

“Probably the same thing you did,” Annabeth admitted.

“You could have cut me some slack there,” Leo objected. “Festus is a big, excited dog and he doesn’t know the limits of his strength.”

“Yeah, yeah. You know I love Festus these days. But if someone had obeyed the rules, there wouldn’t have been any incidents in the first place,” Calypso reminded him.

“But I very kindly fixed the desk, the nice person that I am,” Leo pointed out. That caused the others to burst into laughter.

Calypso cleared her throat. “Either way, at some point we realized that hey, maybe my flatmate isn’t quite so bad after all. We noticed we have more in common than what we had first thought, and somehow, I genuinely ended up enjoying spending time with him. Don’t ask me how he did it, but he did.” Then she lowered her voice slightly. “And here’s a secret: on special occasions, he is capable of telling decent jokes.”

“That’s a huge compliment from Cal of all people,” Leo told the others with a twinkle in his eye.

“Yeah, I’m a little worried that I’m making his ego grow too big.” She ruffled his hair fondly. “I’m trying to be careful, though.”

Leo snorted. “Just so you know, she doesn’t actually talk like this when we’re alone. She just wants you to think that she’s all cold but that ain’t the truth.”

“I’m still not nearly as sappy as he is, no matter what he claims,” Calypso teased

“Alright, I’m not taking part in that debate,” Piper intervened. “But one thing I want to know is who initiated your relationship? For some reason I just can’t picture Leo asking Cal out. Maybe the other way around, though.”

“Actually, I was the one who initiated it,” Leo noted.

Calypso cocked her eyebrow. “But I told you I liked you first! After the Halloween party, remember?”

“Yeah, but that same morning you told me you didn’t want a relationship.You had totally valid reasons for that, yes! But I made it clear I wouldn’t have minded more.”

“Alright, fair enough,” Calypso finally complied, continuing the story: “After that talk it was a bit of a cat and mouse game until the holidays, which was when it kind of just reached the point that we needed to do something about it. Otherwise we would have exploded. So, we had a few bigger arguments – not like our everyday bickering - and eventually Leo’s moms got so done with us that they told us to deal with it. I know, very romantic. It was a good thing they did that, though, because it finally forced us to talk through the things that we had been avoiding. I finally admitted to myself that I was fighting a losing battle and decided to go for it.”

“And then she kissed me. It was a pretty good kiss, even if I say so myself,” Leo grinned, getting amused reactions from his friends.

“Aww, Calypso, he looks like it was the best thing that has ever happened to him,” Piper chuckled.

“I told you, he is sappy like that,” she replied, playfully squishing his cheeks.

“Well, I’m just happy that you guys managed to sort it out. You’re happy now, right?” Piper wanted to know.

Calypso exchanged looks with Leo and nodded. “Yep. Happy.”

…

Maybe 15 minutes after the group of five had arrived at the Italian restaurant, Percy joined them.

“I know it wasn’t exactly what you wanted but the second place is a great achievement,” Calypso addressed him once he had greeted everyone and gotten seated next to Annabeth. “Sorry we left a bit early, we had a bit of a situation going on at the arena.”

“Yeah, that’s what they say but we found them smooching in the car when they thought we wouldn’t be seeing.” Piper rolled her eyes.

“Wait, what? You two?” Percy asked Leo and Calypso, looking more surprised than any of their other friends had looked so far that day after hearing the news.

“Yep,” Leo confirmed.

“Woah, way to go man!” Percy high fived Leo. “That’s great news.” The best part to Leo was that he really did seem happy for them.

“Thanks. I hardly believe it myself,” he admitted. “Uh, hope it isn’t too weird to you? You know, with your past?”

“Nah, it isn’t.” Percy shook his head, a smile on his face. “I’m with Annabeth now and wouldn’t want to have it any other way. I don’t mean any offense to you, Calypso, I just mean maybe things were meant to go this way.” He reached for Annabeth’s hand, giving her what Leo could only describe as a grossly sugary look. But then he realized that he could probably say the same about himself when he looked at Calypso.

“Don’t worry, I get what you mean,” Calypso replied, not having any bitterness in her voice.

“Jason, I hope we weren’t this full of syrup when we were together. It’s kind of gross, if you ask me,” Piper sighed at her ex boyfriend.

“You two were about the grossest couple I’ve ever seen,” Leo pointed out. “Sometimes I doubted you even noticed me leaving the room when you got a little enthusiastic.”

The others laughed at his comment while Piper glared at him.

“Ewww, Leo, that’s not true! We didn’t do that.”

“You did, though,” he claimed.

That debate might have lasted longer, but Leo’s focus went to Calypso who was showing something to Percy from her phone. Leo also glanced at it and saw a picture of the strange men from the swimming arena on some company’s website.

“This might be a weird question, but do these men say anything to you? I mean, do you know who they are?” she asked.

Percy looked at the screen for a moment, frowning a bit before answering. “Yeah. I think they are sponsoring Luke Castellan and Ethan Nakamura but I haven’t really paid that much attention to them. I just know that I’ve seen them at our competitions sometimes.”

“Is it normal for the sponsors to be watching your competitions?” Calypso asked.

Percy considered his answer for a moment. “I mean, it’s not that strange. They do want to know what kind of people are showing off their logos. But mine are not there as often as these guys are, I can say that.”

“I see,” Calypso said, putting her phone away.

Leo wasn’t sure if Percy’s answer was good news or not. Sure, it did prove that the men had an actual reason to be in the audience but Calypso still seemed a bit concerned. Ethan Nakamura had cheated in that day’s competition and if these people were happy to team up with someone like him, what else were they willing to do? Did they have something against Percy and if so, why?

Calypso seemed to have a similar track of thoughts: “I’m only asking because I happen to know these people. They are working with my dad so he knows them pretty well… They used to visit the mansion sometimes when I was still stuck there. I can’t help but wonder…”

“Wonder what?” Percy questioned.

“This is going to sound really paranoid,” Calypso started slowly, “but I wonder if my father has some connection to this whole situation. Could there be a possibility that these people are teaming up with your rivals because they know you had – and still have – a connection to me?”

“But… I never met your father? Did you ever mention me to him back when we used to chat a lot?”

“No, not even once,” Calypso said. “But somehow, even so… he’s a mastermind at getting the information he wants. Maybe he forced our maid to tell him about my trip with you, or something like that.”

“That’s really messed up. What kind of person would do that?” Percy narrowed his eyes.

Calypso sighed. “I thought we had already established that he is not exactly a normal person. But what I’m really trying to say is: be careful. If those people know who you are and if they know about your connection to me, who knows what they might be planning.”

“Alright. I will keep that in my mind.”

“Well, this just got cheerful,” Leo broke the silence that had fallen among the friends after Percy’s words. “Babe, remember that we are all on your side. If something was to happen, we’d be prepared. But now I need to confess something: all this worrying is making me pretty hungry. So how about we order?” He pushed the menus in front of everyone before turning to Percy. “Hey, world championships, man? That’s pretty awesome. It’s not exactly every day you get to do something like that.”

A grin returned on Percy’s face. “Oh, yeah. You’re absolutely right there. Do you think they have blue drinks to celebrate that?”

“Hope they do,” Annabeth said and started reading through the menu. Everyone followed her example and focused on their meals, leaving the topic of Calypso’s father behind. Leo could sense from her downcast eyes, though, that it was still bothering her even as they left the restaurant a couple of hours later.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 41

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: A road trip to Chicago, part 2

A/N: I knoow, I promised a faster update but the holidays and many other things happened so editing this chapter took longer than expected. I'm not even gonna say anything about the next chapter, other than that it's coming 😅

What else? We're continuing with the friends' road trip, finally getting to Percy's competition. That's pretty much all I can say about this chapter without spoiling the whole thing! (I guess I should note that I am not all that familiar with competitive swimming so there may be inaccuracies here, but remember, this is just fiction!)

I hope you guys enjoy this one, and if you still read this fic, please let me know because the Caleo fandom is so quiet these days that I worry no one cares about these updates anymore. (Ps. Yay, I just learned that the PJO series got officially greenlit! Looking forward to seeing it!)

Words: 2800+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

“There he is!” Annabeth exclaimed as she spotted a familiar figure by the swimming arena. “Hey, Seaweed Brain! Have you been waiting for us for a long while?”

Percy checked his heart rate monitor, which also functioned as a clock, and tapped its surface disapprovingly. “Yep, I’ve been here for at least 15 minutes. What took you guys so long?”

“Calypso got excited about something she saw on our way here and Leo insisted that we should stop there, because… yeah, that part remained a mystery to me.” Annabeth gave Leo a smug smile that told him ‘I’m not stupid, I do know what’s going on.’

“Calypso has never had a chance to explore this area - or any other areas here in the States aside from New York and Indianapolis for that matter - so we need to use all the opportunities we can get,” Leo noted. “We only stopped there for like 10 minutes while Cal took some photos so it wasn’t like we were gonna get late from this event.”

Percy sighed. “Well, whatever. The main thing is that you’re here now. I need to go and get ready for my warm-ups but here are your tickets.” He handed the pieces of paper to Annabeth who in turn shared them with everyone. After that he briefly instructed them on where their seats were before withdrawing into the arena where his coach was already waiting for him.

…

The women’s competition was first, and Leo noticed Calypso glancing at him with a slight frown as the swimmers were introduced. Sure, they were athletic, but Leo didn’t understand her concern given that he could barely even see them. And even if he did, he obviously only had eyes for her. Maybe she still remembered Piper’s story about him tending to get crushes easily, and he supposed he couldn’t blame her. He himself wasn’t exactly thrilled about Calypso seeing her very athletic ex boyfriend (or whatever their complex relationship had been) competing in only his jammers either but he knew better than to bring that up.

At some point before the men started competing Leo noticed a brown haired woman, presumably her husband, and their small daughter in the audience near them. Annabeth waved at them and asked them to join their friend group, introducing them as Percy’s mom Sally, step dad Paul and little sister Estelle. According to them they had traveled to Chicago all the way from New York because Estelle had insisted she needed to see Percy in his big competition. It was clear that the little girl adored Percy and some of her antics reminded Leo of Georgina, making him smile a bit.

Percy’s event was the 200 meter breaststroke, one of the last events that day. Based on the audience's reaction to his introduction, it became obvious that Percy was already well known among the swimming fans. Leo hadn’t seen him compete a lot, being busy with his own work, so it was hard to internalize that his friend was among the top competitive swimmers in his country. Percy never made a huge number of it.

The announcer told the audience that Percy’s current personal best time for 200 meters was 2:07:51, which, Leo supposed, was really good, but the other contestants weren’t bad either. Luke Castellan, whom Annabeth had mentioned during the car ride, had a 0,2 seconds better personal best and Leo knew that one of Percy’s biggest motivators was beating that record some day.

Once the last competitor, Ethan Nakamura, had been introduced, they all took their starting stances. Before Leo had fully braced himself, a loud noise sent Percy and the others into the water.

The start was even. Percy took the lead early on but Luke and Ethan weren’t far from him. Once they were about halfway through, the distance between the first three and the rest had grown significantly, but the order was still up in the air. Leo assumed Percy might have started a bit too fast for his limits as his speed was slowing down while his opponents still had some energy left and were catching up to him. Despite that, he still managed to keep the others behind him with only 50 meters left of the race. Leo guessed he might have heard Annabeth or Estelle’s cheers and decided he couldn’t disappoint them. They were yelling so loudly that his ears would probably need to be checked afterwards.

Just when Leo dared to wish that Percy really would win, something happened. Leo noticed that Ethan Nakamura’s, who was swimming in the track next to Percy's, kicks looked different than the others’. That caused some mumbling in the audience, and while Leo wasn't familiar with the breaststroke rules, he assumed using that kind of kicks was not allowed. Ethan managed to get closer to Percy, who glanced over his shoulder (a big mistake, Leo knew) and fell out of the good rhythm he was having.

The finish line was getting closer and Percy was pretty much tied with the two others. Leo could practically hear the little Estelle Blofis biting her fingernails a couple of seats from him even though the audience was cheering loudly. Annabeth was covering her mouth with his hands and everyone else in their group seemed to be holding their breath too. A soft, relatively small hand squeezed his wrist briefly but Leo tried to keep his focus on the pool.

20 meters left. Luke had found a good rhythm, getting about a foot ahead of Percy.

Only 10 meters left. It was still impossible to tell who would win. Percy was desperately trying to keep up with Luke, but Leo wasn’t sure if his final spurt would be enough.

Finally, the answer was given as Annabeth's loud 'no!' reached Leo's ears.

Luke Castellan finished 0,1 seconds before Percy. That’s what Leo learned when the announcer shouted the results aloud; things had happened so fast in the end that Leo's ADHD had caused him trouble keeping up with all the events.

Percy had still managed to keep Ethan behind him, which was good news for him because it sealed his ticket to the world championships. The time was close to his personal best as well, but Annabeth grumbled near Leo that if it hadn’t been for Ethan, Percy would have probably broken it and most importantly, won the competition.

A few minutes later the group saw Percy and his coach discussing eagerly with the referees of the competition. Leo assumed that they were protesting about Ethan’s wrong kind of kicks, but they weren’t close enough for him to be able to hear. The conversation lasted for quite a while but from Percy’s facial expressions Leo could tell that it wasn’t going the way he would have wanted. Eventually, Percy walked away, shaking his head and looking distracted, not even noticing his support group in the audience even though they were trying to get his attention.

With his left ear Leo could hear Percy’s closest people muttering about the competition, but he barely registered what was being said because on his other side Calypso had gotten weirdly stiff. At first he wondered if it was about Percy, but soon he realized that her eyes were fixated on a couple of well dressed, middle aged men in the audience not too far from them.

“Is something wrong?” Leo asked her quietly when the others were not paying attention to them.

Calypso bit her lip nervously. “I… I don’t know… It could be nothing, but…”

“But it could also be something, right?” Leo inquired.

“Yeah… It’s possible,” she finally admitted hesitantly.

“Care to elaborate a bit?”

“Those men…” She whispered as if afraid they could hear her. Leo thought that was rather unlikely given that the audience was currently making a lot of noise around them.

“What about them? Who are they, Cal?” he asked.

Calypso’s face fell even more. “That taller one… he is my great uncle. And the other one is probably some distant relative too. I don’t remember him so well, but the point is: they might recognize me because they work - or at least used to work - with my father. We should… probably leave.

Leo didn’t question her. “Sure. Where do you want to go?”

Calypso thought for a moment. “Maybe we can wait for the others in the car?”

“Fine. We can ask Annabeth to borrow the keys,” Leo agreed.

“Okay, let’s do that.”

Leo knew Calypso didn’t want to make a big deal out of her worries so he just told Annabeth Calypso needed to get something from the car and luckily she didn’t question it. After that Calypso almost pulled him from the wrist so that they would be far from her dad’s business partners’ sight as fast as possible. She put the hood of her jacket on (“because that will make you invisible and not suspicious at all,” Leo joked and got an angry glare as a result) and led him out of the stand.

…

“Ugh, who told me it would be a good idea to come here?” Calypso mumbled slightly out of breath when they were outside the arena. “And how are they here? Why?”

Leo wasn’t prone to optimism but for Calypso’s sake he had to try.

“You’re probably overthinking this. They might have some real reason why they’re here; maybe they’re for example sponsoring someone or know one of the swimmers personally.”

Calypso seemed to relax a little as they made it to the car and sat on the backseats. “Yeah. You must be right. I guess when my dad is somehow involved I’m always ready to assume the worst. There’s no way anyone could have known about us coming here unless one of our friends had told them. And I trust our friends.”

“That’s more like it,” Leo said approvingly and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “And if I remember correctly, I promised to kick your father’s ass if needed so… I’m ready.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing that,” Calypso joked before getting serious again. “Sorry. I really am paranoid. But I do hope that the others will join us soon because I don’t think I’ll feel safe until we’re…” Calypso didn’t finish the sentence because she went into her alert mode again.

“Wha… did you see them?” Leo muttered even though it was unlikely anyone outside would hear them.

“I think I did,” Calypso whispered back.

Leo dug his phone from his pocket and turned the camera on to check what was happening behind him. He saw the same two guys he had noticed inside the arena walking a few meters away from their car, but they were heading in the other direction. Deep in their conversation, they were not paying attention to their surroundings.

“They just went into their car and left,” Leo said a few moments later as he put his phone away and rested his hand on her knee. Calypso breathed a sigh of relief.

“They did? And they didn’t notice us?” she asked.

“I don’t think they did,” Leo replied, slowly inching his hand away because their friends would probably find them any minute now.

“Good. Ugh, this isn’t like me at all. I guess I just… really, really hate the idea of me having to go back to where I came from,” Calypso explained.

Leo twirled a strand of her hair between his fingers. “Hey, I get that. And if it’s up to me, you won’t ever have to do that.”

Calypso glanced at him from under her eyelashes, biting her lip as if considering something.

“What’s up, Sunshine? Is there something between my teeth?” He raised his eyebrow questioningly.

“Huh? No.” She shook her head.

“Then what is it?” Leo furrowed his brows.

“I… Really should thank you for all your support. You have never doubted me or waved my worries off or claimed that I was simply being paranoid. And when you say you’d kick my dad’s ass… I really believe you’d do that. Although…” Her eyes got a mischievous glint. “… I still want you to know that I’m not a damsel in distress. I’m not dating you so that you could protect me.”

“I wouldn’t even dare to think that way!” Leo exclaimed. “I know you’re badass enough to fight anyone if you feel like it. Including me.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Calypso nodded. “But I still appreciate your support regardless.”

She didn’t say anything else, instead out of blue pulling Leo for a kiss. It was quick (probably due to the fact that they were still at a public place as Leo had to remind himself in his slightly hazy mind), but firm, letting Leo know he didn’t have to question her previous words. He could still taste the cinnamon flavored lip balm on his lips when he realized that Calypso had gone all red, staring at something behind him.

He had an idea why she had reacted like that but he needed to hear it from her: “What? Don’t tell me…”

“Ahem.” Leo could hear a familiar female voice once one of the front doors was opened. He quickly sat pack, putting some distance between him and Calypso and probably looking just as embarrassed as Calypso was.

With an extremely happy and victorious grin on her face, Piper spoke: “I seem to recall that some people were very insistent that they were absolutely not dating – or even planning to date – anyone, only a few hours ago in the same car with me. That was the fastest change of heart that I’ve ever seen from you two. Unless you have been lying this whole time…”

“C’mon, Pipes.” Leo rolled his eyes. “Yeah, we may have lied to you but it was quite clear you knew anyway. I know about your people reading skills.”

“Fine, I definitely knew that something was going on between you two – I saw you at the Halloween party after all, and to be honest, on plenty of other occasions as well – but I hadn’t actually imagined that you would have made it official. You’re official, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Calypso admitted.

“That’s great, you guys! But don’t think I’m letting you go this easily! Tell me, how did it happen and when? And why didn’t you tell us?”

“Uh, that story is so long we should probably wait to tell it until everyone’s here,” Leo noted, glancing at his girlfriend’s reaction. “If Calypso is fine with sharing it with everyone, of course.”

“I guess we don’t really have options anymore,” Calypso sighed. “The cat is already out of the bag.”

“Alright, I’m holding onto your promise. If you don’t tell it voluntarily, I will dig it out of you somehow,” Piper threatened while smiling sweetly.

“Geez, Piper, you can really be scary sometimes,” Leo scoffed at her. “You don’t need to use your drastic measures; we will tell.”

“Good. Oh, there’s everyone,” she noted when Jason and Annabeth finally showed up. “Jason, for your information, you owe me 5 dollars.”

Jason frowned in confusion. “For what?”

“Remember what we betted on after that one game night?”

Jason’s eyes flashed in understanding. “Ah, right, that time. Yep, I remember. But are you saying I lost? How did that happen?”

“That’s a story I’m still waiting to hear.” Piper gave Leo and Calypso a pointed look. “But yeah, these two just confirmed to me that they are dating. Or rather, I just happened to catch them kissing.”

“Was about time,” Annabeth pointed out. “I can’t say I’m surprised but I am a bit disappointed that you never told me,” she addressed Calypso. “How long have you been keeping it a secret?”

Calypso rubbed her neck. “Um… since Christmas, basically. We just decided it would be better to keep it as low key as possible. For various reasons. But enough about that; how was Percy? Was he still upset about the referee’s decision?”

“I think he will be OK,” Annabeth stated. “Everyone could see that what that Nakamura guy did was wrong but we can’t really do much about that anymore. The main thing is that Percy was second so he should be allowed to participate in the world championships, which was his main goal.”

“I don’t get it,” Jason joined the conversation. “It was a pretty clear rule violation. He was definitely using more than one dolphin kick during the final lap. And the judges are just gonna ignore that?”

“It seems so,” Annabeth shrugged. “But it is what it is. We’ve seen plenty of weird things happening when Percy’s been competing in the past.”

“So it wasn’t the first time?” Calypso's hands twitched around her seatbelt.

“No, it wasn’t,” Annabeth shook her head. “Anyway, I promised him that we’d meet up with him at this Italian restaurant…” She showed the group an ad she had gotten from a local newspaper. “… In like 30 or so minutes so we should probably get going.”

The others agreed, and while everyone got their seats, Leo couldn’t help but wonder if there was some reason why weird things kept happening at Percy’s competitions.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 40

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: A roadtrip to Chicago starts

A/N: Finally! I hope someone still remembers this fic exists. The good news is that due to writing a lot in November I have currently probably closer to 20k words' worth things to share with you guys so I think I can promise faster updates in the near future.

About this chapter though: it's a part of a bigger 'unity' (which is why this chapter may end a bit abruptly) but to save myself from the pressure of having to edit /all/ those 20k words at once, I decided to split it into several parts. 

The usual: I hope you guys enjoy and please do let me know what you guys think because it's especially important now! I wanna know if there are still people here who want to see how this story ends!

Also a very important disclaimer that I obviously don't own these characters nor the Percy Jackson musical or any of the songs in it.

Words: 3700+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

Oh, things couldn’t be worse when your parents run the universe.”

Leo couldn’t believe his friends. They were singing the Campfire Song from the Peter Johnson musical, and the worst part was that he was stuck in the same car with them so he was also expected to participate. He didn’t actually mind the song; if he had had a guitar and enough space in front of him, he would have gladly participated that way, being a decent enough player. But singing right next to Calypso, in such a small space? That just wouldn’t do, no matter what she had told him in Greek only about a week ago. His voice would drive even a stronger willed person away easily. On the plus side, though, he got to listen to Calypso’s beautiful voice.

Along with Leo and Calypso, Annabeth, Jason and Piper were on their way to Chicago to see Percy swim in the US national championships. If Leo was being honest to himself, he would have known better ways to spend his little spare time than someone else’s swimming competition in another state but when even Jason and Piper told him they would go, he couldn’t exactly say no. It had been a long time since the whole group had done anything together and Leo was also curious to see how the two last mentioned were getting along now.

The weird thing was, Jason and Piper were really acting like nothing had happened between them. Sure, Piper was sitting in the front with Annabeth while Jason was sitting on the other side of Leo. But even so, they were not ignoring each other, glaring at each other or showing other signs of bitterness. They were talking just like they used to before their ‘break’, and Leo had a suspicion that something he wasn’t aware of had happened recently, but he knew better than to ask in a car full of people. If they wanted to open up, they’d do it on their own terms.

“C’mon, Leo, it’s your turn now. You know the lyrics.”

Calypso nudged him in the arm and the others (minus Annabeth) also looked at him expectantly.

“You know I can’t sing to save my life!” he exclaimed. “I’d much rather listen to your voice.”

Leo didn’t miss the others’ looks when he said that, realizing that he might have been a bit too obvious with his compliment. Back at the flat he had gotten a lot more comfortable telling Calypso what he really thought so he hadn’t really considered how his line sounded to the rest of the group. Even Calypso had raised her eyebrow a bit, but she remained quiet.

“I just mean I’m that bad!” he tried to defend himself.

“But since when have you actually cared about that?” Piper intervened from the front seat.

“Since… I don’t know?” Leo crossed his arms. “I may make a clown out of myself every once in a while but that doesn’t mean that I actually enjoy it.”

The others shook their heads in disbelief, but they didn’t question his statement aloud. Piper offered to sing the next lines, and the conversation died down as the song continued.

…

“So, how is it going with you two? I haven’t seen either of you since the holidays,” Piper asked Leo and Calypso once the group – to Leo’s relief – finally got bored of singing. She turned to look at him from the front seat and Leo guessed she was expecting some relationship gossip but that she wouldn’t get.

“You know, the same ol’ boring stuff,” he rushed to reply. “Uni, work, you don’t wanna hear about that.”

“But I do!” Piper said defensively. “What have you been working on lately?”

Leo leaned his head back on the seat and closed his eyes for a moment as he was thinking his answer. “I’ve been trying to develop a new project for one of my classes – one of the biggest ones so far – but I’m not allowed to talk about it in more detail yet. I’ve also been trying to fix someone’s broken phone but honestly, they should probably just get a new one because the damage is too damn big. Never seen anything like that before, to be honest.”

“I suppose people can be really talented at finding new ways to break their devices. Have you even had time to do anything outside work and university?”

Leo had a strong feeling he knew where Piper wanted to go with that question – not even she was that great an actress - but he decided he wouldn’t give her anything to work with. “Well, you can ask Jason and Percy if I’ve attended our weekly sparring sessions lately.”

“Yeah, he’s been there,” Jason confirmed.

“And? That’s all?” Piper kept pushing.

Leo shot her an annoyed glare. “I spent a whole day last weekend at Waystation; Festus’ dog house needed some fixing and I helped Georgie with some math assignments.”

Piper spread her arms dramatically. “Are you guys hearing this? Our Leo has grown up; he only does normal things these days. I almost miss those times when he was causing chaos at our freshman party – where he wasn’t even invited.”

“Did he actually do that?” Calypso got interested in the topic and Leo wished he could have just magically vanished from the car.

“Nope, Piper is highly exaggerating it,” Leo claimed.

“Then what exactly happened?” Calypso asked.

Piper shot him her best ‘you’d better explain it’ expression, so he did. “So, when Piper was at her freshman party, she sent me a message saying she had left her wallet back at her place in the rush. And since I lived much closer to the party venue than she did, she asked if I could just quickly drop by and borrow her some money; she’d give it back to me the next day. I didn’t have anything else to do that evening so I was like, sure, I’ll be there in a few mins. Well, outside the venue there were a few guys smoking, clearly a few drinks in, and talking shit about the people they saw. They started yelling some stuff that I’m not gonna repeat to this random girl who happened to walk past them and anyone who isn’t a complete idiot would have stopped to defend her. I may have told them to fuck off, and surprise, they didn’t like that so they started a fight with me.”

“But didn’t you get hurt?!” Calypso’s eyes widened. “You were alone against those guys, right?”

“Yeah, I was alone, but eh, it was nothing. I’ve learned a few tricks while living on the streets so I just got a few bruises and a broken tooth,” Leo waved his hand nonchalantly. “Been there, seen worse. Lucky for me there were some security guys nearby who kicked those guys out of that venue. Afterwards they told me to visit an ER but I’m not exactly a fan of doctors so… I just marched to Piper’s party with a bleeding nose and may have gained some looks, but who cares? I didn’t know any of those people so I didn’t care what they thought of me.”

“You’re acting way too casually about that whole situation,” Calypso scolded him. “It could have ended worse than it did; you could have gotten really badly hurt. What did Jo and Emmie say when they saw you after that?”

“When I told them why I had done what I did, they were really understanding. Emmie treated my wounds and I felt a whole lot better after that. Besides, I don’t regret it; I hate assholes who treat girls that way.”

“Hold it,” Piper frowned at him. “Is this really the same guy speaking who used to crush on and want the attention of pretty much every girl who happened to glance at his direction? And who used to use some really, really bad pick up lines, some of them crossing the boundaries of good taste? I don’t know what happened to you.”

Leo had never told Piper that his tacky jokes had been simply his way to deal with his anxieties and insecurities but he wasn't gonna do that now. “I don’t know why you are so shocked, Pipes. You have heard this story before and I told you why I called out the guys, so, yeah. Why that face?”

“Actually, you never did tell me the full story,” Piper corrected him. “You just told me that the guys were assholes and that was the end of the story. I always assumed that they had insulted you, not someone else.”

“I didn’t mention that?” Leo scratched his head. “Well, to me that doesn’t make a huge difference. They still deserved it.”

“That was very nice what you did,” Calypso said quietly, so quietly that Leo wasn’t sure if the girls in the front seats could even hear her. “I’m glad you supported that girl.” Her tone changed slightly when she added: “But is it true what Piper said? That you used to get crushes easily?

“I… uh…” Leo’s face suddenly felt warmer as he tried to think of an answer. How to make it sound convincing enough that Calypso wouldn’t get a bad picture of him, yet at the same time not too sappy so Piper wouldn’t get too suspicious? “Nah, it isn’t true. Or… you know… I may have thought that I liked those chicas but… later I realized I didn’t? It was just a brief infatuation. I later learned that there was something better than that.”

Oops. He knew he had definitely failed at his job at staying neutral, but if this was the way Piper found out about him and Calypso, then so be it. The first mentioned and Jason exchanged quick looks.

“Alright, mister Romantic. What, or who, has taught you that? Something is different about you and I’m getting suspicious.”

Leo wanted to roll his eyes and just tell Piper to spit her suspicions out because he knew that she was very good at sensing other people’s feelings, but somehow he managed to keep his mouth shut.

“Huh? People can’t just grow? I’ll turn 20 next summer, it was about time my brain started producing something smart for once.”

“People can but I’m not sure about you. But alright, be mysterious,” Piper huffed and turned her gaze back to the road ahead of them.

“Hey, was that girl you defended the same one with whom you later started dating?” Jason asked, probably innocently, but Piper found her enthusiasm again.

“Wait, she wasn’t Khione, right? That girl wouldn’t need any defending; she was as cold as ice. No offense, Leo.”

Jason shook his head. “No, she wasn’t Khione. What was her name again? Something like Ella?”

Leo was starting to suspect one could cook an egg on his face soon; it felt that hot. Why did his friends keep bringing up some of his past experiences that he’d rather not have his current girlfriend hear about? “She was called Echo, and yes, we did date for like, what, maybe 3 weeks?”

“I am curious now, how did that happen anyway? I mean, how did she and you decide to date? And why did I never hear about her or get to meet her?” Piper asked, and Leo knew she just wanted to embarrass him even more.

“If you really must know, a few days after that party incident I accidentally ran into her at the uni cafeteria and she recognized me so we started talking. She didn’t seem to mind my bad jokes so I asked her if she wanted to see a movie or something some time and somehow she said yes. We did go out a few times but it was pretty clear from pretty early on that it wasn’t gonna go anywhere. She told me she preferred to be single so we broke it off. It was never a huge deal to us so I didn’t tell many people about it.”

From the corner of his eye Leo tried to see Calypso’s reaction, but to his relief she seemed pretty calm. Maybe it was because she had also told him about her past, although she hadn’t really gone into details about it, but Leo was fine with that.

Piper seemed to finally have decided to stop torturing him so she let the topic go. Annabeth broke the silence and said: “Alright, we have now heard all about Leo’s past adventures, but you still haven’t told what’s going on with you, Piper. So, go ahead. Tell us.”

Piper sighed, as if bracing herself. Leo didn’t have time to wonder what that was about before she started her story: “I… I guess I should tell you. Sometime in the past fall I started questioning some things about myself. I met a couple of girls at my theater club who are dating each other. They were so open about their experiences, for example how they realized that they liked girls, and suddenly, some things just started making sense to me. The way I had crushed on certain female singers or actors already as a kid. The way my heart skipped a beat when a pretty girl from my class smiled at me when I was 12. Yeah, I still remember that moment.”

“So, you mean that…” Annabeth started but Piper seemed to know what she was asking before she had finished her question.

“I still like guys too. If I had to put a label on myself, I’d go with bi or pansexual. So if you’re wondering if my feelings for Jason were real…” Piper glanced at the person in question, “… Yes, I think they were. Still are. But after this realization… I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like the same person anymore. I felt a whole new world had opened up to me and I wanted to explore more of it; I wanted to learn more about myself. So, that’s why I called me and Jason off. Not because my feelings towards him had changed; but because something about me had changed. I want to be sure about what I really want before I make any final decisions about when or who I should date. I will say, though, that Jason has been really great through all of this.” She smiled at him. “I know it’s not easy for him either, but he has been understanding and supportive and told me that I shouldn’t rush it. So thanks for that, Jason.”

“No problem, Pipes,” he said without the bitterness that Leo had still heard in his voice back in December. He was relieved that his friends were able to handle their situation without making it a huge drama.

“It’s good you’re able to be more honest to yourself now,” Annabeth replied. “Know that we’ll always be supporting you no matter what.”

“I’m with her,” Calypso joined the conversation. “And if you ever need to just talk or anything, we're here for you.”

“Yep, I agree,” Leo added too.

“Thanks, you guys. It means a lot to me,” Piper said, looking quite relieved that everyone had taken her news so well.

“So, are you guys still planning to continue living in your house together?” Leo asked.

Jason and Piper shared a glance before Jason answered: “We have been thinking about it and while the place does have its pros, if I’m honest I don’t think either of us has ever really considered it a home. It was bought with the money of Piper’s dad and it would take us years and years to pay it all back. I – and Piper agrees – would rather live somewhere that I have earned with my own work. In other words, we are going to try to sell it and give the money back to where it came from.”

“And where are you going to live then?” Calypso asked.

“You might think that we are completely opposed to flat living in a house, but I think it’s gonna be just fine. Two people don’t really need that much space, if you ask me. Besides, I lived with Leo for a year and survived that so I think that says a lot.” Jason smirked at him.

“Oh yeah, tell me about it,” Calypso joked, her eyes twinkling playfully. “It can be an experience.”

“What? These two are teaming up against me?” Leo exclaimed. “At this rate I’m unfriending all of you by the time we’re in Chicago.”

“Such a drama king you are,” Calypso complained, but when Jason turned to watch the landscapes they were driving past, she winked at Leo. He couldn’t stay annoyed at her for long when she kept looking at him innocently with those dark brown eyes.

“One more thing about Jason and I: we are still friends, if that wasn’t clear yet,” Piper broke the little bubble Leo had created around him and Calypso. “Although we are not hanging out together all the time; I need some space to be able to think clearly.”

“It’s wonderful that you guys are able to handle your situation so maturely…” Calypso noted. “I will admit that if I would have had to face my exes after they dumped me, I would definitely have sent some pretty powerful curse words to their way.”

Leo glanced at his girlfriend with amusement, having a hard time refraining himself from saying something like ‘I guess I need to make a mental note to never leave you then’. “You had to face Percy, though,” Annabeth reminded her.

“Oh, yeah. That’s kind of true,” Calypso admitted. “But I didn’t ever actually consider him my boyfriend; he was someone I liked talking with and may have had some sort of feelings for… Sorry.” She looked at Annabeth apologetically. “But it could have never gotten anywhere because obviously he cared about someone else more. And well, I couldn’t exactly date when I couldn’t even leave my home,” she finished with a sigh.

Leo wished he could have comforted her more openly in that situation but he ended up shifting on his seat a bit so his arm nudged hers purposefully. A moment later he felt a nudge back so he presumed that Calypso had felt it and understood.

“What about now, though?” Annabeth asked. “Are you more open for dating these days?”

Leo thought that they really should have come up with some kind of story for these kinds of situations so they’d sound as believable as possible. Sitting next to her, he could see Calypso’s cheeks got some extra color when she chuckled at Annabeth’s question.

“I don’t know? Maybe? I guess everything is possible but I really am very busy these days so there’s not a whole lot of time for dating or even seeing friends, sometimes. So I’m not really seeing it happening any time soon,” she tried to reply as casually as possible.

“Alright, don’t mind me,” Annabeth said. “I was simply curious because I thought something’s been different about you too since the holidays… Maybe that was just me, though.”

“What do you mean by that? I mean, about the differences?” Calypso tilted her head slightly.

“Just that… I don’t know, you have seemed happier? You joke and laugh more when we talk at the university and you seem more determined and confident. You know, it shows in small things, like you’re more active during our classes and are surer about your answers. Although, once we’re done, you seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere and you have never explained to me why.”

Leo guessed that since he saw Calypso every single day, it was harder to notice the subtle changes but for someone who only saw Calypso at the classes a couple of times a week, it might have been more obvious. But he realized that Annabeth was right; Calypso had also been smiling and laughing more and she was less withdrawn. Could he really have been a (partial) reason for her improved mood? He must have done something right, in that case. That thought made his mouth twitch upwards even though he tried to remain as neutral as possible, with so many of his friends in the same car.

Meanwhile, Calypso had come up with an excuse for her hurrying:

“Yeah, I’ve been working at least 4 hours per day lately so I need to rush if I want to get anything done at home before that. You know, basic stuff like cleaning, cooking or showering. Leo can probably confirm that he sees me at our flat pretty seldom.”

Leo wanted to say: ‘yep, I definitely wouldn’t mind if we two were able to have some actual quality time instead of you making me handle candles the few times we actually get to sit down and hang out together’ but he knew that wasn’t suitable on a lot of levels so instead he replied: “She’s not wrong, the most I see her is in the mornings when we both get ready for our classes. She always takes her time with the preparations because she needs to water her plants and iron her clothes, et cetera. I’m quite amazed that she ever makes it in time to the uni.”

“Hey, I’m not ironing my clothes every day! Only during my laundry days. If you want to go down that road, I do have a lot of stories about your morning rituals too.”

Leo was going to reply with something snarky (he knew that Calypso enjoyed the bickering) but didn’t have the time to do so before Piper mumbled to the others: “They really think they can fool us…” The others nodded agreeably while Leo rolled his eyes.

“What was that?” he demanded to know.

“Nothing,” Piper muttered, but luckily the group soon moved on to other things. Annabeth started explaining about Percy’s worst rival, Luke Castellan, and the teasing was forgotten after that. Apparently, Luke was still leading Percy in the wins in their personal contest but if Percy won that day, they would be tied again. From that Leo understood that it would be mentally a very important competition for him.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 39

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: Just another evening at the flat.

A/N: /Finally/. But I guess better late than never! Writer's block has hit me big time recently but here's hoping that I've finally managed to get past it.

Between this and the previous chapter we've also reached over 8000 hits on ao3! I'm so thankful for each and every one of you who are still reading this fic even after a year since I started posting it!

Without a further ado, I hope you guys enjoy, and remember that comments are very, very important to keep me motivated because otherwise there's no way for me to know that there are still people who care about this fic!

Words: 2400+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

”Sunshine? Everything OK?”

Calypso woke up to a knock on her door. She had been studying for an upcoming quiz on her bed and had fallen asleep there without intending to do so. Perhaps the university, flower shop work and trying to have a social life (specifically, dating Leo) in addition to all that had finally started to take a toll on her, she thought sluggishly as she opened her eyes.

The previous evening the flatmates had decided to take an evening off from work and studying and spend some quality time together. That in reality had meant Calypso trying to get Leo more used to having fire near him. Since he was already doing fine with candles when they weren’t too close to him, she had decided to raise the bar a bit; moving a burning tealight slowly closer until it was right next to him. That had required quite a lot of persuading from Calypso in the form of kisses but since he had managed to stay relatively calm, Calypso had also made him hold some unlit matches. Leo had glared at her suspiciously, as if trying to ask her how that would ever help him, but she had explained that if he managed to make himself believe that matches were safe to hold, he would also be able to light them eventually. That had apparently made sense to Leo because he hadn’t protested more. In the end both had been quite satisfied with the ‘therapy session’, but it had been rather late when they had finally gotten some sleep that night.

From that her thoughts went back to the dream she had seen before waking up to the knock. She was thankful she didn’t remember the details, but she did know that in the dream she had been at her father’s place (she refused to use the word home as a part of her recovery process). That wasn’t the most horrifying part to her, though. She vaguely remembered overhearing her father talking to someone she didn’t know in another room and somehow Calypso just knew that Leo had been a part of that conversation. An almost unbearable worry had overtaken her as she had kept wondering where he was and if he was alright. Never had she been more relieved to wake up – and hear his voice – than after seeing that nightmare. Her heart was still beating a bit faster than usual and she felt a little shaky as she sat up on her bed.

Finally remembering to answer Leo’s question, she took a deep breath and said: “Yeah. It’s OK. You can come in.”

The door opened and Calypso was happy to see Leo’s curly, black hair peek from behind it.

“I wasn’t sure if you had already eaten dinner or not so I came to ask you if you’d like something… then I heard a thump from your room.” Leo’s eyes went from Calypso to the heavy history book that was now lying on the floor wide open. “Were you sleeping?”

Calypso figured she must have looked like a mess. Her hair was sticking to all directions, her clothes disheveled and her eyes were red and wet from the tears. Sitting a bit straighter on her bed, she tried to comb her hair with her fingers to look a little more presentable.

“What gives me away?” she tried to joke. Leo rolled his eyes.

“I don’t know, maybe the fact that you look like the Sandman hasn’t visited you for a week,” he remarked.

“Right,” Calypso sighed. “I was reading this book...” She lifted it from the floor and showed it to him. “… But it seems not even I can read it without getting bored.”

Trying to stifle a yawn, she put the book back on her bed.

Leo’s slight frown melted from his face. “Yeah, simply based on the cover of that book, that’s totally understandable. You should try some of our math problems and you wouldn’t be bored.”

Calypso crossed her arms. “Hey, Mr. Science Nerd, art history is actually quite interesting! The way you can determine the period when a particular piece of art has been made simply based on the style the artist has been using, or what the piece of art tells about the specific period in history… Besides, it’s pretty amazing that the people of the past have been able to create all that without the tools we have these days…”

Leo didn’t want to start an argument. “Yeah, yeah, you have a point there. I just… with my ADHD I can’t read books like that without getting distracted every five seconds. Physics? Maths? Chemistry? That's something I actually understand and am interested in so it’s easier for me to focus on it.

“Yeah… that makes sense,” Calypso admitted. Leo knew so much about the sciences that it was easy to forget that he was battling with learning disabilities.

“Um…” Leo hesitated. “Don’t know if it’s just me but you seem pretty upset. Were you having a nightmare or something?”

“I… yes, I was,” Calypso replied slowly. Gone were the times when she was still able to lie to him about something like that.

“Wanna talk about it?” Leo asked. Calypso realized that that was also development on his part; communication had never been Leo’s strong suit.

“It was… pretty bad,” she started. “I was back at my… my father’s mansion. You know, being observed by his staff the whole time just like I used to be. Not allowed to go anywhere. I think I was wandering in the hallway randomly, who knows, maybe trying to find an exit or something, when I heard my father’s voice. He was talking to some guy in his office. Then I heard… I heard him say your name. Apparently he had somehow found out about you. I’m not sure what exactly he said but I remember feeling panicked and wanting to find you as soon as possible. And that’s when I woke up.”

“Luckily, I’m right here. And so are you. And it was just a dream,” Leo attempted to cheer her up, giving her a lopsided smile and putting his hand over hers. With his other hand, he reached to brush a strand of her hair out of her face and for some reason that simple gesture made her feel the kind of warmth inside her she wasn’t sure she had felt before meeting Leo.

“I know,” Calypso sighed. “I know this is going to sound awful but sometimes… sometimes I wonder if one day I’m just going to wake up and realize this - all the good moments - was just a dream and in reality I’ve been at my father’s mansion this whole time. I’ve been trying to brush my worry away but honestly, it’s still there. My father’s been too quiet, for too long. I know him, and I have a very hard time believing that he would not care about my doings.”

“Maybe you’re right, maybe he is planning something,” Leo said, and Calypso raised her eyebrows because she had expected him to deny it all and tell her she was simply paranoid. “However, that doesn’t mean that you should face him alone if that happens. I’m not going anywhere.”

Calypso knew they had already had that debate before, and while she still didn’t think Leo knew what he really was up against, she also knew he was stubborn enough that he really was going to stick to his word. Instead of saying anything, she put her arms around his shoulders and pulled him down on her bed with her. His fingers felt warm against her waist and she could smell the breath mint he must have been holding in his mouth a moment before, like he always did when he was either feeling anxious or needing to focus on some task. This time Calypso believed it was the latter because she knew Leo had been working on a new project that he was hoping to introduce at the university soon.

She let her hands slowly roam up and down his back and he seemed to enjoy that given the quite content sigh that he made.

“I guess the thing about life is that we will never know for sure what happens next,” he said. “Everything keeps moving like a machine whether we like it or not and not even I can ever learn to stop that. What I’m trying to say is: maybe we both should learn to worry less about things we can’t control because that will make life easier.”

“Surprisingly smart words from your mouth, mister,” Calypso teased. “Maybe you should try that more often.”

“Ha ha. When did you become funny? I’m starting to think you shouldn’t hang out with me so much,” Leo retorted, lifting her chin so their eyes met.

They kept their eyes locked on each other until Leo’s goofy expression made Calypso chuckle.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh at any of this…” Calypso murmured against his shirt. “I feel so conflicted because of the whole situation. But you are right; I can’t predict the future so I shouldn’t just wait until something happens. That is why…” She stroked his jawline with her thumb. “… here and now I promise I will try to do things I enjoy instead.”

“I quite like that plan,” Leo grinned and reached to kiss her. It started slowly, like most of their kisses so far, but soon Calypso realized that it had a risk of developing into something more. First of all, they were on her bed out of all the places. Even though they had been dating for a while now, they had not yet reached this level of intimacy yet, as pretty much all of their kisses had happened either while standing somewhere in the common area or sitting on the small, uncomfortable couch. Those had always ended before getting too heated. But now, they were in her room, on her comfortable bed, lying on their sides while their lips were locked. Calypso had wrapped her arms even tighter around Leo’s back, her fingertips finding a bit of bare skin under the hem of his shirt. His hands had snuck over her ass, an act that Calypso enjoyed more than she wanted to admit. She shifted a bit and in the process her leg accidentally moved too close to his crotch, causing him to make a small strangled noise, something between pleasure and pain. Calypso blushed when she realized what had happened, putting a bit more distance between them and breaking the kiss.

“Sorry… I didn’t mean to…” she whispered, a little out of breath.

“No, it’s OK… I just… I think I need a moment.” Leo mumbled, looking just as flustered as she was. “Unless… you want to go on?”

Calypso took a deep breath and shook her head. “I’d… I’d like to… but I still think it’s a bit too early. I’m sorry.”

“Is this about those bad experiences you’ve had in the past?” Leo asked.

“Yeah. You could say that,” Calypso muttered. If only he knew...

Leo’s face turned serious, a worried frown appearing there, but he respected her wish and didn’t ask more.

“I get it. We don’t need to do anything you don’t want to.” Instead of going for another kiss, he moved his hands higher on her back, into a less intimate spot, and comfortingly stroked it. At some point, though, he stopped that and instead started tapping with his fingers. The longer it lasted, the clearer it became that he was doing some kind of rhythm that probably had a meaning. Morse code, Calypso finally realized. She had learned some as a kid when her family had spent a lot of time on a boat and her mother had wanted to make sure she had a way to communicate with her in case of emergency.

“Did you just Morse Code me something?” she questioned.

“I… uh… yeah.” For some reason Leo sounded a bit surprised, as if he hadn’t fully realized himself what he had been doing.

“Can you tell me what you said?”

“Nothing you don’t know.” Leo blushed a bit. Calypso couldn’t help but marvel for a moment at the fact that somehow he looked so different when he was grinning mischievously compared to this more serious, flustered version of him.

“Then do it again,” she whispered and to her surprise he obeyed.

Once he had repeated his message a couple of times, she finally figured it out. The message said:

I l o v e y o u

Even though he had said those three words before, Calypso did not get bored of the feeling she got when it sunk into her that someone really felt that strongly about her. And that someone happened to be someone she also loved back.

“κι εγω σε αγαπω*, you weirdo.”

“Wait, what?” Leo stared at her with wide eyes. “Did you just say something in Greek?”

“Maybe. Nothing you don’t know, though,” she stated calmly, repeating what he had said earlier.

“Oh. Alright.” He buried his head into the nape of her neck and gently pressed his lips against it. “So you understood it?”

“I did. I learned Morse Code at my childhood home.”

“Me too,” Leo replied. “My mom taught it because she said you never know when you might need it.”

“Maybe we have something in common. My mother thought the same way.”

“Really? This might sound random, but I’d like to know more about her, and you know, your time together. What was she like?” Leo asked curiously. Calypso hadn’t talked about her a lot but from the little she had, she hoped that she had managed to paint a picture that she didn’t hate her mother the way she did her father - she was simply distant. Although, there had been moments when she had wished that her mother would have tried to stop her father and come to get her back to Greece… but she never had.

Calypso started telling her story. At some parts Leo also gave glimpses of his home life before the tragic loss of his mom, and Calypso felt that with each sentence she learned something new about him. The physical connection between romantic partners might be nice, she thought, but the peace she felt when she could share something that important with her partner - and he understood - was even more satisfactory.

*ki ego se agapo = I love you too

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 38

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: A new semester is starting

A/N: We are finally done with the holiday chapters! When it comes to this chapter, I'd like to state that I only have some experience from a couple of Finnish universities so I really don't know a whole lot about how certain things work in practice in the States, so please ignore the possible inaccuracies for the sake of this fic. It feels weird after a couple of 'bigger' chapters to have a bit more 'fillery' one... but... but... there's Caleo in the beginning?? So I hope you'll enjoy nevertheless. I wish I could spread even more love towards this ship because they deserve it but sadly there are only so few hours in a day. The fandom seems so quiet these days...

Anyway, enough rambling! Now let's get to this chapter, and the usual reminder: I love to hear what you think! All comments are much appreciated :)

Words: 2500+ 

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

”Is something the matter? You look quite unhappy.”

Leo felt arms sneak around his shoulders from behind while he was sitting on the common area sofa, staring at his laptop with a frown. Some of the speaker’s reddish brown hair fell in front of his face, the smell of cinnamon drifting into his nose, and for some reason that alone was enough to relieve some of Leo’s uneasiness. The small, pale hands found their way down his biceps and stopped there, but he wasn’t going to complain. If he was honest, he was really happy about Calypso’s growing confidence when it came to the physical affection, because it told him she really trusted him. Sometimes he was still amazed that he out of all the people had managed to break the ice around her.

Before Leo let himself get too lovestruck, though, he reminded himself why he was staring at his laptop in the first place. The new semester was starting and that naturally meant new courses, new assignments, new texts to read and… new emails from his professors. One specific email had managed to twist his stomach quite badly. In it, the professor from his chemistry lab class had asked him for a meeting, and Leo assumed he wanted to discuss what had happened on the exam day. Wishing that he could just ignore that said message, he turned his attention back to his girlfriend.

“Just uni issues… nothing more severe this time,” Leo replied half jokingly. The holidays had given him some perspective on what really was important to him and failing a class didn’t feel quite as big an issue anymore. It was inconvenient, yes, on a few levels, but not entirely unfixable.

“Oh?” Calypso finally let her hands slide off of him and sat down next to him. She seemed a bit relieved that this was about the university and not something that was out of her reach, and if Leo was honest, he couldn’t blame her. “What kind of issues?”

“A professor wants to meet me face to face tomorrow. Probably to talk about my recent chemistry lab test or something like that.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

“Hmm… Isn’t it quite unusual for them to give special focus to a single student at this stage?” Calypso asked.

“Apparently they still do that in my department. Who knows, maybe they think I’ve caused them enough trouble by now and want me to quit.”

“But what happened in your lab test was not your fault. Do you think you are any closer to being able to finish it in case you get another chance?”

When Calypso was looking at him with those almost chocolate brown eyes, he felt that it wasn’t impossible.

“Some smart person once said that I need to believe in myself more, so that’s what I need to learn to do. After that… it might be possible.”

“I’m glad you’re listening to me at least sometimes.” Calypso gave him a lopsided smile. “The fact that you know what you should do means that you’re already on your way there.”

“Yeah. I guess so.” Wanting to talk about something else, Leo asked: “Well, what about you? How are you feeling about the upcoming semester?”

“I’m feeling… pretty good about it, you know? Sure, I’ve been reading our course plans and it sounds like our professors are planning to make us work like every day is an exam day and we have some group assignments and important presentations coming up, but… I really like learning? And I like listening to the conversations between our professors and my fellow students during our lectures because it’s something I never got to do when I was stuck at home… I feel like I get new points of views from them all the time. And Annabeth is a really big help; she knows everything about everything so if I ever feel like I can’t follow the lectures, she can always clarify them to me.”

“I have a hard time imagining you not being able to keep up with the professors… but yeah, it’s good you can ask for her help if needed.”

Calypso nodded.

“You know, I’m glad you two got your issues sorted out in the fall,” Leo added as an afterthought.

Calypso looked up at him with a slight frown as if she had completely forgotten about what exactly had happened in the fall. “Oh, right, that. I feel like it was just one big misunderstanding. Both of us realized that we can’t get stuck on something that happened so long ago.”

Leo couldn’t deny that he had also felt a bit jealous of Percy when he had first found out about his and Calypso’s past, but she had clearly moved on, so he wasn’t holding a grudge anymore either. Calypso had decided to date him, and that’s what mattered.

“Yeah, I know from my personal experiences that ain’t worth it,” he replied.

Calypso leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed.

“I have a… maybe a bit weird question. Do you believe in some kind of greater power? You know, like gods?”

Leo wondered why she would ask that. “I dunno. Maybe. I’m not really strongly for or against that. I think I’m the kind of person who needs to see it to believe it, but I don’t think it’s impossible. But why do you ask?”

“This will sound extremely cheesy but sometimes I wonder… if there was a reason why we two met. Like some greater power that pushed us together for some reason.”

“Wow. I don’t know if any greater powers had their fingers in that but I am glad that it happened.” Leo threw his arm around her shoulder and wondered briefly why it felt like such a natural thing to do. At one point he had been too intimidated to initiate any kind of physical contact but now that they were more open with each other and she had seen him in some of his worse moments – he didn’t mind anymore.

“Yeah. Me too.” Calypso whispered.

Only the buzzing of the fridge and some other kitchen machinery could be heard on the background while the flatmates were simply enjoying each other’s company, resting their heads against each other, but eventually Calypso suggested:

“Hey... I think I need something that will allow me to disconnect a bit, so… how about some Friends?”

Leo didn’t have anything against that suggestion. In fact, he always enjoyed the TV show or movie nights with Calypso, for various reasons. “Sure. That sounds great to me. You know I’m always ready to roast my homeboy Chandler.”

“I know you are.” Calypso nudged him and took the remote control to find the right episode. As they started watching and commenting on it (he always enjoyed how snarky Calypso’s comments could be), Leo almost forgot about the upcoming meeting with the professor.

…

The next day, Leo found himself in the building where the office of his lab professor was located. At the breakfast table he had practiced the meeting with Calypso, and Jason had also joined him a bit later to wish him luck. To Leo’s relief, he did seem a lot happier than when he had seen him before the holiday break, but he still didn’t talk a whole lot about his current situation. Leo himself decided that it was better if he didn’t guide his friends too much so instead he did a quick recap on the recent developments in his own life – without mentioning his new relationship status. Luckily Jason didn’t ask, as he seemed to be more worried about Leo’s upcoming meeting.

As he was waiting for the professor to arrive, Leo kept glancing at his clock nervously. The man was already a few minutes late. While Leo knew that wasn’t anything unusual in the university world, as the professors tended to be busy, he still kept wishing he could get the meeting over with as soon as possible. His leg started bouncing again on its own and his fingers were tapping against the wooden handle of the chair. Suddenly he didn’t feel quite as sure about what he was going to tell the professor as he had felt earlier.

Finally, he was pulled from his thoughts by a loud ‘ahem’.

“Mr. Valdez? Sorry I’m late, my meeting with a couple of coworkers got a bit long,” the professor said.

“That’s… that’s fine,” Leo stuttered. Some months ago he would probably have said something snarky as a response but right now he knew better than to take any risks.

“Go in, go in, so we can have a talk,” the professor encouraged. Unwillingly, Leo followed him into his office and had to be told to sit down before he even realized that there was a comfortable looking arm chair right next to him.

“So…” the professor started once he was seated behind his desk. “You probably know why I invited you here.”

“I… I do have an idea…” Leo said hesitantly, looking everywhere in the room except the professor. The man had a lot of engineering related books in his bookshelf, a big stack of papers - probably students’ assignments - and a fancy looking calculator on his desk. Behind him on the wall there was a single photograph of his family. Pretty much exactly how Leo had imagined the said professor’s room looking.

“I will be direct with you. Your achievements in the lab classes - or lack thereof - is a cause of confusion for us. In almost all of the theory related classes, you are on the top of the class – despite the occasional reports that your behavior towards the lecturers could use some improvement.” The man raised his eyebrow, but Leo thought he could see a glint of amusement in his eyes. That didn’t last long, though. “However, until now we have been willing to overlook that because of your talents. Maths, physics, chemistry… those things you clearly don’t have any issues with. But already for the second year you have been avoiding the lab classes for which you have been signed up and last fall you even left the chemistry lab test before you managed to get it completed. I’m sure you are aware that if you want to move onto the more advanced classes, you need to complete the mandatory ones before you are allowed to do that.”

“Yes, sir, I’m aware of that,” Leo replied stiffly, wondering briefly when was the last time he had called anyone sir, other than ironically.

“In that case…” His voice turned less formal, more fatherly as he continued, which surprised Leo. The professors he was used to dealing with were usually not all too nice to him, although he was willing to admit that some of it was probably deserved. “Can I ask you, is there a specific reason why you haven’t attended the lab classes?”

Leo wondered if he should come up with a quick lie. It wouldn’t be the first time in his life that he would have to do that in order to protect himself. However, the professor really seemed sincere and concerned about him and in a way his expression reminded him of Jo’s when she was expecting him to open up. Perhaps that’s why he ended up deciding to answer honestly:

“Yes. There is.”

“And? What is the reason?” The professor raised his eyebrow.

Leo inhaled deeply before forming his response. “I’m afraid of fire. Yeah, laugh ahead, but it’s true. I can’t deal with anything that requires heating because of some nasty as hell childhood trauma.”

To his surprise, the professor didn’t get angry at him for talking to him in such a manner. Instead, he furrowed his eyebrows.

“And you’re still planning to make mechanical engineering your career? Despite your fear?”

Leo nodded slowly. “Yeah. Building and fixing inanimate objects is the only thing I’ve ever known how to do. I was basically born with a hammer and a wrench in my hands and I was capable of building toys for myself when I was like four. After an accident…” He refrained from mentioning his mother because he couldn’t guarantee he would be able to stay calm if he brought that up. “… I haven’t been able to light up a match or anything like that. But almost five years ago, two awesome women adopted me and one of them is a mechanic. She reminded me what I really love about tinkering and it was then that I decided that I wanna keep trying. It’s a process but I am working on it.”

The professor smiled a little. “You know… a lot of our students were unable to take the chemistry lab course in the fall, so we decided to organize another course now in the spring. As it happens, there’s still some room for new people in it. So, if you’re interested, you’re welcome. But remember, you would need to attend all the mandatory classes and complete the tasks that you are assigned, no exceptions. That means we will not be going easy on you just because of your fear.”

Leo’s eyes widened with surprise. He hadn’t expected to get a chance like that.

“Woah, thanks sir! I won’t let you down!”

“That’s good to hear,” the professor nodded approvingly. “Can I ask you a question, though? Why do you want to become a mechanical engineer? I mean, what exactly is it that fascinates you about it, other than the influences you have gotten at your home?”

Leo imagined that the professor could probably see the bolts and nuts moving in his brain as he formed his answer. “I… I wanna learn to develop products that will help us make the world a safer, more sustainable place for us. We engineers, if anyone, can develop technology that will help us achieve that goal. But that’s not all. I also wanna learn more so I can help to share the information forward. I wanna show kids who come from similar backgrounds as I that they should keep on dreaming. There was a time when my mom ate porridge - only porridge - for her meals so she could pay the rent when her business was slow, but she still kept doing it. Because that’s how much she cared about her job. And I want to continue in her footsteps.”

The professor shifted on his seat. “That is an admirable goal, Mr. Valdez. I hope you will succeed. Remember, you do have the skill – you just need to know how to use it.”

“Yeah… Thanks professor.”

“No problem. Don’t forget the class enrollments end tonight so you need to be fast if you want to participate. That’s all for now. Good luck in your future endeavors.”

“Thanks. I’ll go enroll myself then. Bye for now.”

“See you, Mr. Valdez.”

Leo breathed a long sigh of relief the moment he stepped out of the professor’s office. The meeting had gone way better than he had dared to expect. He hadn’t thought he would get another chance so fast, but was grateful for the opportunity. Now, he would only need to kick his fears into the deepest pits of Tartarus, as Calypso would say.