madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-the adventures of grape girl and sushi boy-

Percy felt a bit bad when he realised that he'd dozed off.

He trusted Teqi to wake them up if they were in danger though, or if Bob turned against them in favour of his wiped memories. Well... he trusted her to make sure Annabeth wasn't gutted in her sleep, he still wasn't sure if she was mad at him for generally existing.

Bob shifted around a little, drumming his huge fingers on his legs like he still had songs stuck in his head. "Percy wake?"

Percy rubbed the sleep from his eyes and nodded, "yep, sorry guys. Didn't mean to-"

"Bob thinks it's okay," the Titan said simply. "Tartarus is not meant for mortals like you. Very draining. Very dangerous. Probably death."

"Thanks man."

"He's a real one," Teqi whispered with a small smile, wiping dried golden red blood off her cheek. Percy tried not to stare at the flecks of ichor, and instead averted his eyes to the altar in front of them. Then he realised there was actually something to look at.

He gaped, feeling his stomach twist painfully when the smell of roast beef wafted over in a cloud of smoke. "Holy shit. Food."

Once the dusty smoke was gone, Teqi was already next to the altar, grabbing the sacrificed food on the off chance it disappeared. Bob clapped his hands happily as Teqi grinned. "Look at this! There's sushi! And pizza!"

She plopped down next to them, dropping the pile of napkins and tit bits of meals on the dark rocky floor. Percy moved Annabeth out of the way as he reached for half a hot dog. Bob peered over as well. "Bob has Pizza?"

Teqi passed it over to him and slid the sushi to Percy, who grimaced, his nose wrinkling. "Uh, I don't eat sushi."

She looked up from where she was picking purple grapes off the slightly squashed bunch in her hands. "The fuck you mean you don't like sushi?"

"I'm...I'm pescatarian." Percy mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

Teqi snorted, but her face dropped when she bit down on one of the grapes. For one awful moment Percy thought that Tartarus had reached their snacks as well, filling them with poison or dirt. Then she ate another grape, eye wide. "These are from Camp!"

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I just said," Teqi repeated herself, smiling at the food around them. "These are the grapes grown back at camp."

Percy looked down at the hotdog in his hand and took a bite. It tasted like any normal hotdog to him, and he squinted at it suspiciously. Teqi rolled her eye, "wine and grapes are kinda my thing, trust me."

They ate in silence for a bit, everyone focused on the first meal in quite a while. Percy was just thankful he wasn't eating chunks of fire instead, which had become a very real option in the last few hours. Then a thought occurred to him. He knew Annabeth would think it was a stupid idea, and pretty dangerous, but when did she not?

"Hey Bob, so like, hypothetically, if we were trying to get to the Doors of Death... where would they be?" Percy asked casually, chewing on his hot dog. If only whoever sacrificed it liked tomato sauce...

Bob looked up from his pepperoni pizza and around a bit, and then pointed into the shadows. "Bob thinks over there."

Percy nodded, but then Annabeth twitched in her sleep, and made a weird noise. Teqi looked over his shoulder and squinted at the sleeping girl. "She's having a nightmare about...I'm not sure, it's dark, someone's dragging her up a hill. There's cyclops, and a satyr."