Unspooling the threads

Twice claimed

No memories to use as filter. No memories to use as guide.

Grey eyes are staring straight at him, a combination of hope, and anger, and weariness; Leo's unsure what to do with it. He does know, however, that this is not his first time seeing those eyes.

"Where is Percy?"

Leo's mind fizzles, and it's a wonder that he doesn't start smoking at the sensation, it's like someone tried to re-set his brain but left a scrambled mess instead. Jason, blonde superman that he's turned out to be, tries to break the rising tension.

"Who?"

The girl still refuses to look at anything other than Leo, like he's personally offended her; and he's not sure he hasn't, somehow.

"Percy Jackson"

Piper, who's been quiet since they saw the Pegasus-pulled carriage land in front of them, also attempts to save Leo.

"The guy who blew up the Gateway Arch? The one who was part of a kidnapping conspiracy?"

This manages to startle grey eyes, and makes the butch guy with the rainbow tattoo look away in what's probably a repressed laugh. But that's when Leo loses control of his mouth.

"The child of the sea, I returned his mother"

Everyone turns to him at once, which is fair because that was a wild thing to say, and Leo has no idea what it even means. But he does know something,

"Someone's fucked with my mind"

Grey eyes return to him, but they've lost the hostility, looking instead almost defeated, and Leo wants to fix it. He gets a flash of something, blurry, and dizzying, and painful; it's not supposed to be any of those things, this Leo feels in his soul, but pushes aside for now.

"I saw a wolf, but I can't see anything else with my head like this"

That brings the spark back, and she looks at the butch guy, who is now giving Leo an appraising look. Piper and Jason look appropriately confused though, so Leo feels a little bit better.

Nico is called back to camp by Anabeth, who thinks she finally has a proper lead to Percy, so because he's hopeless, and he does actually like Anabeth despite everything, he goes. He does not expect what transpires.

He gets to camp just in time to see three new demis being claimed, one being a child of Zeus which is just wonderful, and Nico does mean that as sarcastically as possible, another as a child of Aphrodite, but the third goes a little different. First there's the picture of a hammer common amongst Hephaestus' children, but then, around the hammer forms an upside-down triangle; Nico's feet are moving before he can really think it, and then he's seeing him clearly.

He's wearing normal clothes, which, granted, should not be what Nico focuses on, but still; he's also disheveled, and exhausted if the eye bags are indication. Koráki's eyes find him after a few beats, and Nico watches as his face transforms, and then he's kneeling, like that first time; only he says something different.

"My king"

Nico would like to say that anyone would've blushed if put in his position, though he also finds it a little amusing that Koráki managed to give him a clue about the future right in front of Hades and got away with it. And maybe Nico should stop using the title now, considering all the people who saw him get claimed, and know him as human; it'd be too much to explain otherwise.

"I thought I told you to drop that?"

Koráki, Leo, lifts his head and gives Nico a tilted smile.