My Atlantis (Leo Valdez)

Chapter Two

As the slightly older male dragged his platonic soulmate towards the arena, Elena takes a moment to think back on her situation, and wonder if she's truly ready for the possibility of friends.

Running through the forest, the young girl jumps over logs and anything that will slow her movements, in fear that He will catch up to her.

She never wanted this to happen, she shouldn't have told him, if she didn't, she wouldn't be being chased from the one place from the only place she called home.

Eventually, she ran out of forest, and was forced to stop before a cliff, overlooking the sea.

The girl looks over at the old man behind her, shaking as she watches the odd glowing crossbow that he had.

Tears in her eyes, she whimpers, looking up to the monster that was the person who once protected her. "Yeye...please...I want to go home..."

"I apologize, little Keiko, but a guàiwù like you doesn't deserve to live." The frail man answers as he fires the crossbow at the 10 year old girl.

In fear, the little girl falls backwards, plummeting into the seafoam.

Elena pulls her arm away from Eren, now shaking as badly as she was that night. "I-...I can't, gēge..." She mumbles, trying to calm herself down.

Eren looks over at the shaking girl, his eyebrows furrowing before he pulled her into a hug. "It's alright, Len. I won't force you to make friends, but I at least want you to come. I won't leave you, I promise." He places a kiss on her dark brown hair, his muscles releasing when he can feel Elena's shaking become sparse, her aura becoming less stormy.

"Are you okay?" A voice could be heard from behind them, making both of them jump.

The older boy looks behind his best friend at the new faces, which he recognizes as the campers who had just came back from the quest. He doesn't recall their names, though. He thinks it may be Pepper, Lion and Jackson? Maybe? He has terrible memory.

Elena lets go of Eren to see the campers as well, her expression quickly changing from distressed to stoic, as if nothing had happened a few moments ago.

The boy coughs, stepping in front of the girl, being able to sense her nerves increasing. "Yea, she's okay. You're uh...Pepper? Right? Or was it-..."

The brown haired Aphrodite girl just waves off the mistake, laughing slightly. "Its Piper. This is Jason and-"

The short elf-like boy shoves past Jason and Piper, holding his hand out.

"Im Leo Valdez, Supreme Bad Boy, the funniest and best guy in this trio, what's yo-your-..." He stops his introduction when the girl standing behind the winged dude stares at him, as if she could see through his very soul. "Uhm-"

"He's asking for your names." Jason had said to the two, saving the Hephaestus boy from pure embarrassment, despite Leo just insulting them moments before.

"Im Eren Paramore, and this is Elena. I heard that you're the daughter of Aphrodite, is that right?" He asked Piper, his feathers ruffling as he got more and more excited.

"Yep. Why?" She answered, pushing her hair from her face as she waits for the usual questions she got about being an Aphrodite kid.

"I'm the son of Eros! I can't believe an Aphrodite kid got on a quest, I'm glad us love children are getting our due." He says, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Can I be your friend? You seem awesome and-"

Piper had watched the boy in shock. An Eros kid? She thought that Eros doesn't have any children because of his loyal marriage to Psyche? Not to mention she wasn't expecting the praise to have no backhanded comments about the weakness of children of the goddess of Beauty.

"Sure, I guess, but-"

He somehow beat her to it. "It's a long story, but I can shorten it to that my dads couldn't have children, so my dad gave my dads a son, so they could have a family. Yes, I have 3 dads, and no, nobody slept with anyone to have me, that would be very painful."

"Oh...what about Elena?"

"Daughter of Tyche." The girl in question answered.

"Most children of Tyche are like, super chill, aren't they? they're like those lucky cats in chinese restaurants." Leo asked, popping out from his spot next to Jason. He wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying, more paying attention with the watch he was playing with.

"well, most children of Tyche haven't gone through what I have." She answered him bluntly, slightly offended. "And the maneki-neko is Japanese."

The elf-like boy's eyes widen. "Oh- I'm sorry-"

"Don't make that mistake again." She spoke a final time before going back behind Eren.

"Len, be nice." He whispered at her, awkwardly smiling at the trio.

"I'm being nice, he's lucky I didn't punch him for that comment." She spoke, her eyes narrowing at Leo.

Leo looked away, fearing for his wellbeing much more now, hiding behind the taller blond.

Eren clears his throat, elbowing Elena slightly. "Its going to be dinner soon, right? Why don't we hang out until then?"

Piper looks over at the boys, raising an eyebrow, in which Jason just shrugs and Leo doesn't answer. "Uhm- sure."

"Great!" The winged boy smiles. "How about the lake?"

The trio nods.

Eren nods again, grabbing Elena by the arm towards the lake. She sighs, but follows anyway, used to it.

Leo looks over at Piper as they get further. "She's scary."

Piper just rolls her eyes. "She'll probably get used to us soon. Plus, she has a right to be offended."

Leo pouts slightly, running a hand through his hair before reluctantly follows after Eren and Elena.

The rest follow after the pair, wondering how the Tyche girl lets the Eros boy pull her everywhere.

----------------------------

I know that nobody has read these yet, but I'm very happy with this chapter. It took me forever to research the words, since I had to figure out what part of China Shanghai is in.

There are different words for different parts of China ;-; like, I had to look through 3 articles to find out the informal title for a paternal grandfather in the South side of China. And I have terrible wifi, so that's even worse.

Once again, have a good day/night and try not to confuse Japanese and Chinese, its easy to do.

Translations

Yeye- informal term for Grandfather on the father's side.

Guàiwù- according to Google Translate (only thing that would load for me) means monster

Gēge- a title for a best friend that you consider a brother.

maneki-neko- translates literally to "Beckoning cat", it popular in Japan, is used in businesses to beckon customers and, in turn, money. A sort of charm.