madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-crabs I guess [this is a working title]-

I've been so sick for a week nothing has been happening sorry guys and we have one draft left so there might be a baby hiatus while I recover I'll let yk :)

<3

"This has to work," Jason said. His tone was one of finality, sounding every bit the great praetor he once was. "You can't turn the ocean to wine. You aren't Moses."

Teqi frowned, she was still clad in her mickey mouse top and underwear. "I'm pretty sure that's not how it works." Her skin was gritty with sand and it was impossible to brush off, much like the scars that had been branded onto her by monsters that she couldn't shake, even after their sparkly demise. Layers of gritty earth clung to their bodies, and they hadn't even gotten in the water yet.

"Uh yeah," Jason scoffed. He looked like a dad taking his kids on a trip down to the beach with his tote bags, shampoos and conditioners overflowing. "Why else would the sea be red?"

Percy opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again.

He was sitting in the sand, knuckles bandaged. They'd run out of ambrosia and nectar when Frank fell over helping Leo reset the oars and split the stitches on his thigh. Teqi had fixed him up, and then redone everyone else's stitches too, but the godly food had run out. Another worry to add the seemingly never-ending list.

The wind made the water choppy and rough, and ruffled the dull green grass that covered all of the island, save for the strip of greyed sand and hulking boulders. The Argo II was moored on the less tourist ridden side of the island, so Jason deemed it safe to have a go at washing Teqi's hair. After they'd had an early breakfast, of course. No one had gone back to bed after Reyna arrived, just wandered around like ghosts for an hour or two until the sun rose.

"If I drown," Teqi said, looking completely serious. "You gotta blame Percy. Make him feel real bad and everything."

"You know I can hear you, right?"

"You won't drown, we're not gonna go past your knees, dumbass," Jason huffed, and waded his way into the water. Anxiety he'd tried to suppress plunged back though his chest when he thought of an alternative to the bath [which was now the equivalent to a rich woman's wine cellar].

This was probably a horrifically stupid idea, being a son of Jupiter and all, for him to go wading into the ocean with another demigod [God? monster? No one knew at that point what Teqi was classified as] who was most likely on Olympus's most wanted list. He pushed the daunting thoughts down and focused on pushing through mini waves that shoved him backward when he got distracted.

Teqi stared at the ocean jumping around her scarred legs, and then face planted, stiff as a board, into the water.

Jason frowned. He looked to where Percy was talking to an orange crab that kept trying to steal his shoelaces. "I thought they taught people how to swim at camp."

"I dunno," Percy said, squinting at Teqi, who was lying face down in the shallow water. He picked up the crab and threw it into the ocean with immense force. "I can't imagine I was put in that class, you know, son of Poseidon things."

Jason squatted down in the cold water, sand between his toes, and prodded at Teqi. She wriggled around a little bit and sat up, completely drenched. She pulled a piece of seaweed from her hair. "Am I clean now? Are the eyeballs gone?"

"...What?"

"They're gone!" Percy hollered over. Piper was walking down the little stepping stone path to the beach, hands stuffed into her pockets.