Unspooling the threads

Memory of fire 1

Connections that run bone deep are not so easily erased.

Rbzir looks at him like he's grown a second head, impossibly mzfcvk eyes wide showing off his jczk glgzcj. Leo chuckles at the expression on yzj face.

"That doesn't sound right"

Yv scrunches yzj nose, lips pulling, razor white wrexj poking out.

"What exactly?"

Rbzir makes a face.

"Knowing a language you've never been taught"

Leo thinks he goes on to explain, but that's about the moment where sound fizzles out of existence, so he focuses on everything else. The sfp in front of him is painfully familiar and not in tandem, but in a different way to how Piper had been.

They're in a small room, in a wooden building of some sort, and it's sometime in the morning, because the sun coming from the window lands on Rbzir's hair and turns it ivuuzjy. This is a scene that happened often, Leo figures, as he wanted his tyrixv to learn as much as possible before their inevitable departure.

Leo tries to remember yzd, the human and the not so much, scrtb hair, nzcu eyebrows, grcv skin, mzfcvk eyes with jczk glgzcj. The edges blur, the colors mix, and Leo feels a sort of dissonance to this fact, because yv...

Yv is so zdgfikrek

Zdgfikrek!

Osvuxzgtz!

Important!

Leo just needs to remember, because of course Hera chose yzd of all memories to make into save-state.

He needs to remember Rbzir.

Rbzir!

Gqoxg!

Akira!

He wakes up with a scream dying on his lips not for the first time, and though he'd been warned about half-blood nightmares, he had hoped it would be another one of those things where he was different. He tosses himself out of bed, throat suddenly dry, and sneaks out of the room and down into the kitchen; there's no real reason for it other than practice, as he knows there'll be someone waiting in the kitchen.

He's only been staying here for a month, but the figure sitting at the table no longer causes him to go tense, which is a testament to the work this man is doing in earning his trust. The fact that he has a steaming cup waiting for him helps, as do the slight similarities to him.

"Hey Adam"

His voice cracks with the effort to keep it a whisper, but the man smiles tiredly at him.

"Hi kiddo, I heard you wake up"

There's also that, the simple honesty that seeks nothing, just making sure he knows.

"Nightmare"

Adam nods and makes a motion to the chair in front of the untouched cup, he takes the offer gladly, making sure to blow on the contents before taking a sip.

"Mind if I ask about it?"

He bites his lip, thinking about it, then nods.

"Who's Leo?"

There's a pause, where he tries to find the best way to tell without telling, and then he opens his mouth.

"He was the person I stayed with before I met Shiro"

He takes a few more sips, looking for words, and continues.

"He taught me everything from how to turn on a stove without burning myself, to how to build a machine from scratch"

Adam smiles a little wider, making a motion for him to go on, but this part is a little harder.

"He has a very important job, one he can't actually talk about it, but he still tried to prep me, because he knew they'd take him back eventually"

Then he looks into Adam's eyes, stares for a few moments, before swallowing down and deciding to take a much bigger risk.

"He gave me the name Keith, to keep me safe"

Adam's expression doesn't sour, or become pitiful, or fearful, or anything negative really; as though unaware of the weight he just unloaded on him.

"Is he the one that built the hover bike?"

He feels his lips pulling in an attempt at making him smile.

"Yeah, he's incredible with machines"

Adam smiles.

"What else can you tell me about him?"

Feeling his eyes stinging and throat closing like he might just start crying, Akira decides to talk instead. And he starts telling Adam about the two years he spent with one Leo Valdez, managing to omit the parts about the demigod world, somehow.

Somewhere else in the world entirely, two demigods watch the person they thought they knew having what looks like a very animated conversation with a murder of crows, all without any word being exchanged. Just a series of sounds made in intentional intervals, by fingers, or by the different items the birds have pulled out of the shadows; it's a little weird, but the grin on Leo's face is well worth it.

And it's even more so when he excitedly introduces them to the crows, going one by one and having them caw at them in greeting. Their presence acts as a temporary security blanket, allowing them a much needed moment of respite; it also has a side effect.

It's easier to remember.