madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-am i the only one who's registered BUTCH is in the RAINBOW cabin or-

⋆˖⁺‧₊🧋🛠️🕯️🍂🥠₊‧⁺˖⋆

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Leo sat between Piper and Teqi, watching the clouds pass them in double time. He'd always wanted to fly. He just didn't have the tools for a jetpack yet. This was even better. 

Jason looked like he was having a lot less fun, sitting as far away from Annabeth the scary girl while still being on the same bench as her. Pony boy was driving the Pegasi.

"This is so cool," Leo said, a Pegasus feather catching in his hair. He pressed his hands to his pants to stop the bleeding. Hopefully there was washing machines where ever they were going. He frowned. "Wait, where are we going?"

"A safe place," Annabeth said, turning around and glancing to where they were going. All Leo could see was sky and paddocks whizzing below them. "The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood."

"Not that shithole." Teqi muttered. She was slumped on the bench.

"Half-Blood?" Piper snapped, crossing her arms. "Is that some kind of bad joke?"

"She means we're demigods," Jason said quietly. He was still fiddling with his giant coin he didn't have before the skywalk. Leo still didn't understand where it had come from. Jason didn't have much in his bag back at the wilderness school. Leo frowned. He couldn't remember what his friends stuff looked like. "Half god, half mortal."

Annabeth looked back, her eyes narrowed. "You seem to know a lot, Jason... But, yes, demigods. My mother is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess."

Leo blinked. "Your mom is a rainbow goddess?"

"Got a problem with that?" Butch asked.

"No, no," Leo said, shaking his head. The Pegasus feather fell out and landed on his hand. It got stuck in the blood. He tried to shake it out. "Rainbows. Ponies... You ever heard of rainbow dash?"

"Demigods," Piper said. She was beginning to hyperventilate. Leo looked around for a paper bag. "You mean you think you're ... you think we're—"

Teqi stood up in the chariot, thankfully wobbling a lot less than before. Leo still reached out and tried to yank her back down. He didn't want anyone else falling to their death today thank you very much. She waved him away and pulled a first aid bag from underneath their seats.

How she knew where it was or that there even was one was beyond him.

She unzipped it when she sat back down and pulled out a pack of baby wipes and a little tub of something clear. Leo frowned when she began to unscrew it. He recognised that bottle.

"Mornin," eleven year old Leo squeaked, keeping his hands in his pockets as he tried to walk casually past the checkout and into the little shop. "Ma'am."

The lady with the big glasses on the chain didn't look up from her newspaper, and he hurried down the aisle past the lollies to where racks of toothbrushes hung. He squinted at the labels on the bottles. Rubbing Alcohol. He grabbed one of those and a pack of bandages. A little girl was looking at nail polish next to him when he snuck everything into his pockets.

Leo grabbed a packet of gum on his way back to the counter. He turned around and checked his reflection in the glass doors of the deli.

The blood hadn't seeped through his jacket yet. Good.