madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-someBODY ONCE TOLD ME that Teqi's a great girlfriend-

three chapters left y'all- 

<3

Jason flinched as the oil bubbled too hot and spat at his hands. He wiped the burns on his shirt with a hiss himself, and reached for the spatula, pushing the sausages around the pan before they burnt on one side.

He flicked the tea towel over his shoulder and tipped the sausages out onto the plate by the stovetop, adding to the mountain of meat.

At some point the tomato sauce had run out, probably around the time Hazel discovered chicken nuggets, and now Piper was trying to convince her cornucopia to make an exception and just give them some condiments.

The Argo II wasn't even docked close enough to any towns for them to steal sachets from unsuspecting fast-food restaurants, which had happened quite a few times.

He opened the pantry, which was depleting dangerously, and sighed. Jason stuck his head around the wall that separated the kitchen and the mess hall, which was no longer aptly named. "Pipes, we need bread!"

Someone, probably Percy, had put away all of the dirty clothes and even dirtier weapons, so now there was just a few Nintendo switches and dog-eared books laying on the pile of broken in furniture.

Annabeth had maps spread out across the dinner table and notebooks with checklists piled up. She no longer had her ancient laptop [there would be a very happy harpy playing Minecraft in Tartarus somewhere], but apparently that wasn't stopping her from planning out where to stop by and pick up supplies. Hopefully that included a new laptop. Jason didn't know how many more death glares he could handle after putting down a mug of hot chocolate or red bull onto an important piece of paper, and it had only been two days of Serious Annabeth.

It probably had something to do with being terrified of under preparedness that could get someone hurt or thrown into Tartarus, and since she was the daughter of Athena, when plans went wrong, it was on her shoulders.

Jason didn't want to pry, though.

"We have bread!" Piper called. She was tying Hazel's hair back into braids on the couch while Hazel discovered the wonders of a coffee-stained Enid Blyton book.

Jason grimaced at the half loaf growing its own ecosystem. "Not anymore!"

He turned the kettle on and set the plate of about forty sausages down on the table while Annabeth began folding up the dusty maps. Piper came and pumped some sourdough loaves out of her cornucopia and started cutting them up for everyone. "Can someone tell Frank that dinners ready? He's still in the shower."

"Okay," Hazel said, feeling her braided hair. It was weird. Pretty, obviously, but Jason had never seen her with her hair pulled back before.

Piper frowned at the blunt bread knife and then pulled her jagged ivory sword out. She called out to Hazel's retreating figure, "Oh, and tell Leo-"

"Present and accounted for."

Jason whipped around, nearly dropping the collection of mugs he was holding. "Leo?"

The boy stood in the doorway, his hair squashed to one side like he'd either fallen asleep or held a pillow over his head for a while. The bags under his eyes had lessened, but it was hard to tell through the soot on his face.

He wrinkled his nose at Piper's inventive bread cutting ways. "That is amazingly unhygienic."

"You have a cheerio in your hair," Piper shot back, not looking affected by the fact it was the first time Leo had left the Infirmary since he bunkered down there three days ago.

"I'm saving it for later, Beauty Queen," Leo said, and peered at the stack of sausages. "What've we got?"

Jason tried to control his grin. He couldn't help being proud, his friends were just really awesome. "Uhm, Chilli, herb and garlic, and some mint lamb ones." He blinked as Leo reached for one, "Wait, don't, they're really hot-"

Leo began eating one with his bare hands, sausage juice dribbling down his chin when a shit eating grin spread across his face. "Just like me."

"I hate you," Jason muttered, and offered him one of the hot chocolates he'd been making.

"Sure you do," Leo said, sipping the boiling drink. Jason figured after he swallowed that piping hot sausage whole his insides must be heat proof too, so it wasn't going to do much damage. Hopefully.

Jason sat down at the table, moving Annabeth's pile of folded maps and papers to the side so Leo wouldn't spill his drink on something important. "Did you want me to bring dinner down to the Infirmary?"

"I'm not going back down there," Leo scoffed.

Piper and Jason exchanged a look. Annabeth choked on her herb and garlic flavoured dinner, "what?"

Leo's eyes widened and he stared into space. "I have been listening to Smash Mouth for about four hours. It loses its funniness pretty quickly."

"Right," Piper chuckled, and took a mug with one of those little finger-painted handprints that little kids do as craft projects. Jason was pretty sure it was Percy's. Or Piper's. He couldn't tell. Both loved glitter.

Leo shrugged and finished his dinner in about fifteen seconds. "Anyway, I'm gonna go have a shower, I smell like that corpse Nico summoned in the storage room yesterday."

Annabeth winced, "...that's what the body bag was about."

When Leo had left, Piper grinned widely, and turned around in her chair to Jason, her purple eyes crinkled, "she's still looking after 'im."

"Course she is."