madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-brownie moustaches and puns-

Teqi fell three metres, landing in the middle of the deck, and nearly on a very surprised Hazel. She winced, sprawled out on the wooden floorboards, bones aching from the impact. Why was it that she hurt herself doing everything? "Fuck...."

Jason helped her up, putting her arm over his shoulders so she could limp over to where Piper was now sitting down. The crew were gathered around, except for Coach Hedge, who grumbled that the atmosphere was getting too cuddly for his tastes and went below to hammer out some dents in the hull.

Leo came sprinting up the steps and burst out, panting. His jaw dropped when he saw Teqi sitting on the side of the ship next to Festus, Piper between her legs as she plaited the girl's choppy hair. Teqi flashed the peace sign, "I won."

"You can teleport! That's not fair!" Leo grumbled, and then he saw his precious control panel, smashed in the centre and sparking as wildly as his nose had been only moments before. While Leo fussed over his helm controls frantically, Hazel and Frank related a story of fish-centaurs and their underwater training camp. Teqi honestly wasn't even surprised, she just picked at the brownie in her hand. She hadn't eaten anything last night, too worried to even try, but her stomach was cramping up. Watermelon wasn't enough apparently.

"Incredible," Jason said in awe. "These are really good brownies."

"That's your only comment?" Piper demanded, turning her head to the side so Teqi could plait another lock of her brownie-coloured hair. Jason looked surprised, an innocently oblivious look. "What? I heard the story. Fish-centaurs. Mer people. Letter of intro to the Tiber River god. Got it. But these brownies —"

"I know," Frank said, his mouth full, crumbs on his chin. "Try them with Esther's peach preserves."

"That," Hazel said with a wince, "is incredibly disgusting."

Teqi put her brownie down, twisting her lips. "Pass me the jar, man," Jason said happily, cheeks puffed out with brownie like a chipmunk. Hazel and Annabeth exchanged a look of total exasperation. Boys.

Piper took the jar from Jason after he was done, taking a scoop of the tinned peaches. Teqi rolled her eyes, but she was smiling as Piper spilt peach juice on the floor with a muttered 'shit'. Teqi took a bite of her brownie, which was really good.

Percy, for his part, wanted to hear every detail about the aquatic camp. He kept coming back to one point: "They didn't want to meet me?"

"It wasn't that," Hazel said kindly. "Just...undersea politics, I guess. The Mer people are territorial. The good news is they're taking care of that aquarium in Atlanta, and the bridge explosion as well. And they'll help protect the Argo II as we cross the Atlantic."

Percy nodded absently, and when he spoke a slice of peach was in his mouth like an orange peel smile. "But they didn't want to meet me?"

Annabeth swatted his arm, not looking away from Hazel, who was frowning. "Come on, Seaweed Brain! We've got other things to worry about."

"She's right," Hazel said. "After today, Nico has less than two days. The fish-centaurs said we have to rescue him. He's essential to the quest somehow."

She looked around defensively, as if waiting for someone to argue. Teqi eyed Jason and Leo, who both were very interested in the control panel and the peaches suddenly. No one protested. Teqi was worried about Nico, of course she didn't want him to be hurt, trapped in a jar by himself with only pips to eat, but her feeling toward him were still conflicted.