madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-cave people-

This time when Teqi woke up, her face didn't feel like it was on fire. She just wasn't sure when their quest had detoured to the north fucking pole though.                                                                                                                

She seemed to be wrapped in a warm blanket though, a very warm blanket. Teqi slowly opened her eyes, and saw that she was in a blanket, but she was also being hugged by her personal heater.

All her body wanted to do was go to sleep, but reluctantly, she lifted her head off Leo's shoulder and looked around. Gods were they in a cave? How low could they get, honestly. Leo and Jason seemed to be talking about something that Teqi didn't really care about, and Piper was still sleeping.

"Hey mi niña dorada, you woke up." Leo grinned down at her, she glared back and yawned. Then she shot up, startling all of them. Midas and Lit! Had Jason got rid of the Ward Cameron wanna be?

"The, the gold-" she stuttered, not realising how violently her teeth were chattering. Leo got warmer, and she sunk back into her blanket cocoon, trying not to go back to sleep. He was so cuddly, but she pretended not to care when he wrapped the blanket around the both of them. They were safe now, so she obviously didn't have to worry. But Teqi hadn't let her guard down since gods knows when, so she pulled out her now golden knives.

"Oh, gods. He turned me to gold!" Piper mumbled, sitting up as well.

"You're okay now, calm down." Jason said, passing her another blanket. Teqi dragged Leo closer to the fire, she was so cold, she wouldn't be surprised if icey bitch was lurking in the shadows. Wow, that didn't help her paranoia.

"L-L-Leo? Teq-" Piper managed, through her own chattering teeth.

"Present and un-gold-ified." Leo said, tracing his fingers softly along Teqi's goosebump covered arms. "We got the precious metal treatment too but I came out of it faster. Dunno why. We had to dunk you both in the river to get you back completely. Tried to dry you off, but ... it's really, really cold."

"You've got hypothermia," Jason said bluntly. "We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic—"

"Sports medicine." The coach's, who had been standing guard at the front of the cave turned around. "Kind of a hobby of mine. Your breath might smell like wild mushrooms and Gatorade for a few days, but it'll pass. You probably won't die. Probably."

"Thanks," Piper said weakly, Teqi didn't even bother. "How did you beat Midas?" 

Jason told her the story, putting most of it down to luck. He also gave Teqi more credit then she needed for pushing Midas, anyone would've done it.                                                                                                                              The coach snorted. "Kid's being modest. You should've seen him. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning!"

"Coach, you didn't even see it," Jason said, slightly annoyed. "You were outside eating the lawn."

But the satyr was just warming up for his retelling of the story. "Then I came in with my club, and we dominated that room. Afterward, I told him, 'Kid, I'm proud of you! If you could just work on your upper body strength—'"

"Coach," said Jason.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up, please."

"Sure." The coach sat down at the fire and started chewing his cudgel, obviously bored now that the attention wasn't on him anymore. 

Jason put his hand on Piper's forehead and checked her temperature. "Leo, can you stoke the fire?"