𝕱𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖑𝖞 𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖊 - a Leo Valdez slowburn

Chapter three

Chapter three.

[We go to HQ]

"Roses are red, 

violets aren't blue,

I think I'm pretty powerful,

and I guess you are too."

"Since when do you know how to drive a car?"

"Since I was ten and Cleo taught me at the Academy, Chrissie," Lin replied off-handedly. "Although I've gotten a lot better since then," they added hastily. Chris grinned. "Of course Cleo taught you and not me," he commented teasingly. His expression morphed from happy to concerned, looking back at the two demigods in the backseat. "You guys good?"

Leah raised a shaky thumbs up, using her other hand to pat Aiden on the back. Aiden looked sick, as if they were about to throw up. Lin raised an eyebrow, looking at them through the rear-view mirror. "Do you need us to open the window. "Yes please," Aiden managed to bring out. "Do you have any plastic bags by any chance?" Leah asked worriedly. She looked at Aiden skeptically. "Just to be safe..." 

Chris gave one to her once Lin had directed him to where they were, then spoke up. "So... Leo is quite a handful, isn't he?" 

Leah laughed nervously. "He can be, yeah, but he's cool." She raised an eyebrow, supporting Aiden with her shoulder. "Hey Lin, Chris is quite handful isn't he?" she mimicked, smirking. Lin decided to play along. "Yeah," they sighed heavily, letting one hand drop from the wheel, "Chrissie's like a dog. Loyal, stupid at times, but overall a nice person to be around." They glanced at the person in question, chuckling when they saw the pout on Chris's face. 

"Did you have to call me stupid?" he asked offended, holding a hand where his heart would be. Lin shrugged. "Well I mean..." they gestured with their free hand vaguely in Chris's direction. The two demigods in the backseat nodded, agreeing silently. Chris whipped his head around, gasping. "How dare you set the younglings up against me, Captain!" 

"I'm not a 'youngling', Stan," Aiden said crossly. He snickered, pointing at Leah. "She is though." Lin paid no heed to the fighting around them, silently talking to themselves. "Yup, that's me, the prettiest one in the car," they muttered. "I'm here with this Godzilla looking ass bitch -" directed at Chris -"and the rat from Ratatouille, the fuck?" 

Did they forget someone? 

"I'll kill you, poet boy!!" A lazy smile appeared on Lin's face. Ah yes, Leah. Not really someone who looked ugly, really. They narrowed their eyes, turning sharply when they noticed they had to take the exit. "Oh what the fU-" Leah hit the seat in front of her, cursing for everyone to hear. Aiden seemed like he'd gotten a bit better, she thought. That was good. 

"Anyways, you said there's a bunch of campers, but Leo was the only one there," Chris noticed. "Where were the others?" Leah chuckled. "Oh, yesterday was Friday, so everyone was getting ready for Capture the Flag," she replied. "Why? You wanted to meet the others too?" "I wanted to see Nico and Will," Aiden butted in. 

Leah frowned. "Piper said Nico's been gone since he was in Paris," she replied, disappointing Aiden. "But," she hastily added, "that's normal for him, pretty boy. He should be back in no time!" Hopefully, that'd calm Aiden down, she thought worriedly. They were a bit too much of an empathic person to be a child of a war goddess. Although then again, Leah couldn't talk. 

"And children of the big 3 are rare, right?" Lin asked, clenching their fists on the wheel. Leah nodded. "Yeah, the gods swore an oath not to have any more children because they caused so much chaos." Aiden hummed. "But then again, they broke the rules quite some times." "How many children of the big three are there?" Lin asked suspiciously. Chris caught on what they were doing. Gathering as much information as you can, he realized.