madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-Sewer Sweet Sewer-

Teqi was cleaning her ears [the piercing parts] with disinfectant, with Jason slumped against her back. They had pushed him up onto Festus, after Leo had finished fixing him, and got out of the re-spawning cyclops warehouse quick smart.                                                                                                                                         

Piper was doing little plaits in Jason's hair, and Leo was constructing something in front of Teqi. Teqi herself was incredibly bored again, she couldn't play noughts and crosses with Jase, or look at the stars anymore as it was bright. She really needed to find some sunglasses if they were gonna keep this up.

She let out a yelp as Jason squeezed her middle tightly, squeezing the air out of her, and then he yelled in her still sore ears. "Cyclops!" 

"Whoa, sleepyhead." Piper chuckled, tying a loom-band around a tiny blonde plait.                                      

"D-Detroit," Jason stammered looking around wildly, annoying Piper, who straightened his head like an angry hairdresser. Teqi had only ever had Katie Gardner as a hair dresser, because her dad was one, and the only person at camp that had a vague idea about how to cut hair. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought—"

"It's okay," Leo said over Teqi's shoulder. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?" He shoved the little thing he was building in one of the many pockets on the toolbelt. Teqi twisted the little black hoops through the fresh hole in her ear, clicking them together. 

"How did you—the Cyclops—"

"Leo ripped them apart," Piper said, grinning. "He was amazing. He can summon fire—"

"It was nothing," Leo said quickly, since when did Leo Valdez not want the spotlight. Oh yeah, fire. Piper laughed, starting a new plait. "Shut up, Leo. I'm going to tell him. Get over it."

Piper recounted the events in the warehouse, and Leo turned back to the front blushing. It sounded pretty cool when Piper said it like that, Teqi grinned proudly and squeezed Leo's shoulder. Piper explained that Teqi's ears where better too, and Jase apologized for yelling in her ears. Then Piper mentioned a roman guy in purple.

What?

"I'm not alone, then," Jason said softly. She would ask Leo about the purple guy later. "There are others like me."

"Jason," Piper said comfortingly, "you were never alone. You've got us."

"I—I know ... but something Hera said. I was having a dream..."
He told them all about a dream he had, with goddesses in cages, and evil sleeping things. Teqi shivered, she had a bad feeling in her gut, and it wasn't food poisoning from Leo's sandwiches. She decided not to think about it to much. 

Like that would help.

"An exchange?" Piper questioned. "What does that mean?"

Jason shook his head. "But Hera's gamble is me. Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way—"

"So, Hera has a gambling addiction, let's just get her a bloody therapist and go home." Teqi grumbled again, she slumped back onto Jason's chest. She hadn't slept since bunker nine, and she knew she would have bags under her eyes by now. Gross. She would look like a racoon. And not in a cute way.

"Or save us," Piper said hopefully. Well, someone would have to be the optimist. "That bit about the sleeping enemy—that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."