madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-imma little lad who likes berries and cream-

Teqi woke up for the third time in the last twelve hours, this time for the day. The light outside the blinds wasn't the soft silver glow of Artemis but the harsh brightness of Apollo that hurt her eyes. 

Teqi then registered that she was hugging Leo, and went to draw her arms away quickly. That would wake him up though, so she stayed put. If he was still asleep, it must be really early, otherwise he would be up fixing something already.

He was still holding her hands, only facing away from her so that he was the little spoon. His hair smelt like ash and grease, but it was soft and tickled part of Teqi's face. She couldn't feel textures on the side of her face that had been hit with the lasers anymore, that was how she knew the scar was permanent. Teqi turned red, a stupidly giddy smile on her face as she pressed her cheek to his pointed shoulder blades.

It had taken Teqi a moment to remember the night before, but then she couldn't not. The nightmare, or vision, or...whatever it had been was came flooding back. Memories of it as crystal clear as the ocean below the Argo II swam in her head and made her feel something like sea sickness. The terror coursing through her veins came back just thinking about it, so she slid off the mattress. She peeked back at the sleeping boy and chewed her lip. The cat looked up at her, and followed her out of the room slowly being bathed in sunlight.

Teqi opened the door to the bathroom desperately, latching onto the basin of the sink and staring into the mirror in front of her. Gods, she was a mess. Tear stains trailed down her cheeks, her eyes were red and puffy, and her hair was matted. She let out a broken sob, then cringed at the sound. 

She was pathetic.

With the door locked behind her, she washed her hair and tried to drown herself in the steaming hot water that feel against her pale skin and left it raw and red. She felt itchy all over, and kept her eyes on the bottom of the shower, just in case the hand sized spiders appeared, writhing in masses across the red dirt-

Teqi sunk to the floor, blinking out the shampoo that dripped into her eyes. She didn't pull the shower curtain across, someone could be standing behind it, the red hooded cult could be waiting meters away to throw her in their fire. 

But they wouldn't be there because they weren't real it was all in her goddam stupid head that wouldn't give her a fucking break and conjured these vile nightmares to torment her in her sleep and not let her have a moment of peace and maybe it would all be quite if she just turned her knives on herself and-

"Teqi, it's my turn! And Leo said we're landing soon." Annabeth's voice called to her over the sound of the shower. Teqi was knocked out of her thoughts, and she turned the shower off, standing up and reaching for her towel. She had left it in her room, why had she left it in her room? Because she was lazy and couldn't pull herself together. 

Everyone else on this ship was fine, but for some reason she couldn't handle one little nightmare. 

Teqi grabbed Jason's towel and got dressed, biting on her lip to stop herself from sobbing. it started to bleed. She found her bathroom bag in the cupboard and walked back to her room, not looking up to make eye contact with anyone. The cat had been scratching at the bathroom door while she was in the shower, and now happily followed her again.

Leo hadn't made his bed, but he was gone, probably landing the ship. Teqi shut the door behind her, kneeling in front of the mirror and pulling out her makeup.