#sorry i'm done being silly..... SIKE! i stay silly.

[damazcuz]

i forgor to post o7

[twoidiotwriters1]

The Curse of Oenone (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: And we're back to not having a break! -Danny Words: 1,945 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: 'Young Love' -by Phillip Vo

XL: Please Say Sike Right Now

Everyone knew about Leo's curse by the next morning. Jason told Piper, Nico told Hazel because Hazel already knew half of it, and then Hazel told Frank because Leo knew about his curse anyway, so it was fair. At least they all had the decency to pretend not to know and treated Leo and her like usual, though they'd started to look at Leo like he'd predicted. 

Ara's recovery is tough throughout the day. If she does things that take a lot of effort she feels something like a heart attack and has to sit down for a moment. Next time she runs into Eros, she'll snap his bow in half.

Things are changing, Nico isn't a sweetheart, but now they've been able to train together without any major fights. More so, they can sit and have a civil conversation without having to be half a mile from each other. Nico is polite when Ara asks what to expect from the House of Hades, and he makes a few suggestions for the best way to tackle the mission. Ara listens and together with Hazel, they make a solid plan.

Leo trains hard, but by the third day the weather gets too unpredictable to stay on the upper deck for long periods and he gets worried about Festus malfunctioning like he did during their first quest, so he takes the day to do a full check-up of the ship.

"So much for the big team meeting," he glares at the gray sky, they were supposed to be holding up a session to talk about their new plan, but there was much to be done. "Looks like it's just us again."

Ara can't help but stare while he works, removing the Archimedes sphere and turning off Festus. He gestures at her to get closer and she does, now he's ready to teach her how to use it, the problem is that she isn't paying attention at all.  She is so in love there might as well be little 3D hearts floating around over her head while Leo points at the symbols around the sphere and talks nonstop about their functions.

All her life she'd been stressing over being the nice, adjustable girl so people wouldn't leave her, all to find out she'd never been the problem, she just had to find her people. Percy, Annabeth, Lily, Leo—heck, even Nico has proved to her that she's valued. Hercules's words don't sting as much now. 

All these kids that are used to moving on and never staying in one place, keep coming back to her. Especially Leo Valdez, and man, she's crazy about him. She can now admit that with a smile on her face. "You're so cute," Ara blurts out, leaning against the control board with a smile on her face.

Leo looks back up at her, eyes slightly out of focus after being interrupted mid-sentence. To Ara's surprise, he frowns at her compliment. "You didn't hear a word of what I just said, did you?"

"I'm sorry," she grins and blushes, feeling like her old Aphrodite self for a moment. "I think I'm sick."

"Sick?" Leo touches her forehead. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm lovesick, Admiral," she continues with a silly smirk. "It has no cure."

The boy looks at her in amused defeat. "Who are you? My girlfriend doesn't flirt like this—she rolls her eyes and pretends to be annoyed at my bold moves until she gets tired and kisses me."

"I flirt!"

"No, you don't."

"I flirt all the time."

"This is genuinely the first time in seven months I hear you say something so wack," he laughs. "Sunshine, Eros did a number on you."

"I literally proposed to you like what, a week ago?"

"I proposed first! You can't flirt by reusing my moves!"

"Guys," Jason interrupts their banter. "Hate to interrupt your argument on who's the smoothest, but we want to know how long 'til we reach Epirus."

Leo has the answer at the ready, of course. "By tomorrow morning, we'll reach the western coast of Greece. Then another hour inland, and bang—House of Hades! I'ma get me the T-shirt!"

"Yay," Piper sighs. 

"Pipes, can you tell your sister I'm the one with the rizz in the relationship?"

"I'm not saying that."

"Of course not," Ara nods solemnly. "Because it's a lie."

"Come back when you get a fanclub of nymphs," Leo snorts.

"I have a satyr fanclub," Ara shrugs.

"Satyrs are easy to charm, though—!"

"Guys," Piper interrupts them again. "I've been thinking about the Prophecy of Seven."

They share a look and then Leo turns to Piper. "What about it? Like... good stuff, I hope?"

"In Katoptris," the girl starts explaining, adjusting the cornucopia over her shoulder. "I keep seeing that giant Clytius—the guy who's wrapped in shadows. I know his weakness is fire, but in my visions, he snuffs out flames wherever he goes. Any kind of light just gets sucked into his cloud of darkness."

"Sounds like Nico," Leo jokes. "You think they're related?"

"Hey, man, cut Nico some slack," Jason scowls.

"He's joking," Ara intervenes, giving Jason a look that means 'drop it'. The point is to not bring attention to Nico, and if they try to protect him from random and harmless teasing it's going to look suspicious.

"Piper, what about this giant?" Jason makes a fleeting face of discomfort before looking back at his girlfriend. "What are you thinking?"

Leo and Piper share a look of confusion, not knowing why Ara and Jason suddenly seem slightly upset with each other, they usually get along just great.

"I keep thinking about fire," Piper continues. "How we expect Leo to beat this giant because he's..."

"Hot?" Leo smirks.

"Um, let's go with flammable," Piper raises a brow. "Anyway, that line from the prophecy bothers me: To storm or fire the world must fall."

"Yeah, we know all about it," Leo glances at Ara, but he doesn't say anything. "You're gonna say I'm fire. And Jason here is storm."

"So you're worried one of us will endanger the quest, maybe accidentally destroy the world?"

"No. I think we've been reading that line the wrong way. The world... the Earth. In Greek, the word for that would be..."

"Gaea." Jason tilts his head. "You mean, to storm or fire Gaea must fall?"

Leo tries to look cheery when she mentions it, once again giving Ara a look that it's meant to say 'I told you so'. "You know, I like your version a lot better. 'Cause if Gaea falls to me, Mr. Fire, that is absolutely copacetic."

"Or to me... storm." Jason kisses the girl's cheek. "Piper, that's brilliant! If you're right, this is great news. We just have to figure out which of us destroys Gaea."

"Maybe. But, see, it's storm or fire..." She draws out Katoptris and places it on the console.

Leo hooks his fingers on the waist of Ara's jeans, pulling her away from the blade. He scowls at it the same way Ara does all the time, neither Piper nor Jason notices, but Ara feels a warmth spreading on her chest at the boy's gesture. It's nonsense because the dagger on itself can't hurt her, but still, Leo trying to keep her away from the things that make her uncomfortable is sweet.

"I'm worried about Leo and this fight with Clytius," Piper continues. "That line in the prophecy makes it sound like only one of you can succeed. And if the storm or fire part is connected to the third line, an oath to keep with a final breath..."

Ara feels a weight dropping on her stomach at those words. An oath. She hadn't thought about it nearly as much as she should've. 

"I think my prophecy overlaps with this," she confesses.

"Ara." Leo says warningly.

"No, listen—I'd forgotten that line," she tells him. "That doesn't sound good for us."

"Ara." The boy insists a little more sternly.

"Wait, what?" Jason frowns. "What do you mean? Your prophecy is about Leo's curse?"

"Yes."

"Guys, wait up," Leo stands between her and Jason to stop their exchange, still holding the Archimedes sphere in one hand. "Don't freak out yet."

"Yet? I've been freaking out a whole month!" She exclaims.

"Leo's right, Ara," Jason tries to reason. "We'll drive ourselves crazy overthinking it. You know how prophecies are. Heroes always get in trouble trying to thwart them."

"Yeah," Leo agrees ironically. "We'd hate to get in trouble. We've got it so good right now."

"You know what I mean," Jason insists. "The final breath line might not be connected to the storm and fire part or your prophecy. For all we know, the two of us aren't even storm and fire. Percy can raise hurricanes."

"And I could always set Coach Hedge on fire," Leo suggests. "Then he can be fire."

"I hope I'm wrong," Piper turns to her. "But the whole quest started with us finding Hera and waking that giant king Porphyrion. I have a feeling the war will end with us too. For better or worse."

"Hey," Jason comments, "personally, I like us."

"Agreed," Leo reaches for Ara's hand. "Us is my favorite people."

Ara squeezes Leo's hand and looks at Jason and Piper. She has a weird relationship with this trio, she's protective of them because they were their first quest as a guardian, like an older sister, even though she's the youngest of the group.

She remembers their time bonding inside a sewer, when they went to a cafe all dressed up for different parties, and their fight to free Hera. The first time Ara felt like a real hero, even if she was beaten, cold, and so scared and angry...

She wants to tell them about the prophecy but Leo is stopping her, knowing it's better to have a clear view of things before jumping to conclusions. She's spiraling and thinking Leo will die if he decides to take matters into his own hands, and he doesn't want her to push him out of this again.

The girl shivers just thinking about what would happen to her if Leo gets hurt again. Then she shivers again and realizes the temperature has drastically dropped. The smell of snow increases, the clouds are thickening above them, and the air... It doesn't matter how crazy the weather can be, there is no way a snowstorm is likely to happen in the middle of July, near the coast of Greece.

"Leo," Piper seems to have noticed something's up at the same time as Ara. "Sound the alarm."

Leo tenses and slams his fist on the button, then the charmspeak wears off and he frowns. "Uh, it's disconnected—Festus is shut down. Gimme a minute to get the system back online."

"We don't have a minute! Fires—we need vials of Greek fire. Jason, call the winds. Warm, southerly winds."

Ara looks for Almighty in her pocket and drags her Octopi bag from under the control board, looking for her flintlock. "Wait, what?" Jason watches them in confusion. "Girls, what's wrong?"

"It's her!" Piper seizes her dagger. "She's back! We have to—"

It happens too fast to understand it: The ship freezes in place and ice quickly covers every surface, Jason draws out his sword and he gets turned into an ice statue like Thalia all those months ago.

"Leo! Flames! Now!" Piper calls desperately.

Something tries to snatch the Archimedes sphere out of Leo's hand and he holds onto it tightly, getting lifted along with the object and he starts to struggle in the air. "Hey! Hey! Let me go!" Leo yells at the wind.

"No!" The moment Ara tries to move, her feet get frozen in place.

"Yes, Leo Valdez... I will let you go permanently."

The boy gets thrown out of the ship so violently that all Ara hears is a brief gasp before he's out of sight.

"Hi again, Arae Jackson. We didn't properly introduce last time, daughter of Olympus," Khione speaks to her. "And unfortunately, there is only enough time to kill you now."

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