Burning Passion: A Leo Valdez Love Story

Chapter 13

"Merry Christmas! All your presents belong to Leo!"


{NAIA}

After yet another day of walking and warding off monsters, Lou looked tired, and so did Leo. When I was awake last night I'd seen and heard him mumbling in his sleep, tossing and turning. I wonder what he'd been dreaming about.

It couldn't have been good. But that was all I could tell.

Maybe, he felt bad about breaking up with Lou. That might have been it...

Any idiot could tell he didn't like her that much. It was kind of annoying, because I knew it wouldn't last and Lou seemed so happy. At least I was expecting this.

The thing is, I had heard part of their conversation the night of the breakup. The part about Leo liking me.

I suppose I had realized it... but I don't know, I just never thought it would come to anything.

Of course, we were on a quest. We didn't have time for romance. God. I'd never have a boyfriend.

"I'm tired," I grumbled. "This is pointless. We have no idea what the heck we're looking for."

"Well, other than that we're looking for someone and that guy is smart," Leo reminded me.

"Humph, we don't even know if it's a guy or not!" I exclaimed. "See what I mean?"

"It's alright, Naia, we'll figure it out eventually." Lou patted my shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm sure," I replied sarcastically.

"Guys, why don't we rest?" Leo suggested. "We're all tired. Even if we're not doing much, we've been walking for a while..." he trailed off awkwardly.

"Sure. Let's rest. We won't get anywhere anyway."

I sat down. "What do we have to eat?"

"I could make tacos again..." Leo suggested.

"Uh, sure," I replied. "If you want. I don't care, as long as I don't have to make them, honestly."

"Yes! I love tacos!" Lou laughed, and Leo and I looked at her strangely. "What? I do!"

"Okay, then, tacos it is." Leo got to work.

***

Later that morning, when the sky was still pink, Leo was sitting up, looking at a glowing silvery flower.

"Hey," I said, sitting next to him. "What's that?"

"It's... uh..." he looked down. "It's nothing."

"Nothing? Doesn't look like "nothing"," I said. "What kind if flower is it?"

"It's a moonlace," he said. "It's from an island called Ogygia."

"Where's that?"

"It's where, um... Calypso lived." He looked pained when he said her name.

"Did you know her?" I asked.

"Yeah. We were... close. Until I realized that she wasn't who everyone thought she was."

"Rarely anyone is," I mused. "Just saying. What exactly do you mean, though?"

"Well... most people thought she was innocent. She was only banished to the island because her father was a Titan. Atlas, the guy who held up the world on his shoulders."

"Oh. So...?"

"So, she, well... I thought she, um..." he didn't end the sentence.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I said. "I understand if it like, emotionally pains you." The words came out less gentle than I'd intended. I'd never been good at comforting people. I never knew where to put my hands and all, or what to say. Some people were naturally good at it, but I sucked.

"No, I want to tell you, it's helping, getting it all out," Leo said.

"Okay," I said. And nothing more.

"Well, anyway, I thought she... that she loved me. I certainly felt that way about her," he admitted, looking at the ground.

"But she didn't. See, I was sent by Khione the ice goddess to her island last year during the war, and I stayed for a whole week. And we... kissed, right before I left her.

"So after the war I went back to find her, only to discover that she was working for Gaea and really was a bad guy all along, and faked it for a millennia. I'd stayed with her for a few weeks, and she changed me a lot. She made me charming, sensitive, able to read people more easily...and weakened me, too.

"I still had the jewel from her island, and when I got back from camp after banishing her to Tartarus, I buried it in the earth after trying to burn it-unsuccessfully. Then it grew into a flower. This one."

"Wow," I said when he finished. "Why do you still have the flower?"

"It follows me everywhere, like her spirit is haunting me. I can't get rid of it."

"That's... really creepy," I said, grimacing. "Like you're Josh Hutcherson and the flower is a psychotic fan..."

"Yeah," he said, grinning awkwardly. "And... I feel really guilty dumping Lou, because it reminds me of what Calypso did to me, in a way."

I nodded, understanding. "Of course, not as harsh as her. You didn't use her-well. Not as much. And you didn't turn out to be on the enemy's side."

He nodded.

We sat in silence for while, and then he sighed. "I feel like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders."

"Good," I said. "I'm glad I could help you a bit. Now I just wish I could do something about that horrid stalker-y flower."

"I doubt it, but thanks anyway, Naia," he said.

I smiled at him. "You're welcome, Leo. We're friends, right? We help each other. Like they said in kindergarten, which I'm apparently quoting..." I added, realizing how lame that sounded and laughing at myself.

"Right," he agreed, grinning.

I yawned. "I don't know why I woke up," I told him. "If this was fiction, I'd laugh at the writer for convenience of it all."

Leo chuckled. "Imagine if our lives were just a story? If we were just characters in a book or something?"

"I hope not," I admitted. "I don't want to be a story. I want to be real."

"You are. To me," he said, taking my hand and squeezing it comfortingly. "And to Lou."

I said nothing. I wasn't sure if there was anything to say, anyway.

"About what the maenad said about you being unimportant or whatever the hell... don't listen to her, okay? That's complete bullshit. Lots of people like you," Leo looked straight at me. "Okay?"

"I know, I know. It's just, my mom never cared about me, and I didn't have many friends."

"How? You're a flipping celebrity!"

"I don't know! Mom kept me hushed up. She didn't want me to "outshine" her, or whatever. So not many people cared..."

"That's weird, you'd think they'd know..." he said.

"Well yeah..."

"Well, I did have some friends, I guess. But they were all fake."

Leo nodded. I just stared ahead, feeling selfish that we were having this conversation again, and Leo, who'd not suffered well either, had only just decided to tell me. I guess it was a matter if trust, too, but still...

"I'm so tired," I said. "What time is it?"

He pulled a watch from his tool belt and glanced at it. "4:30," he replied. "So you might want to get some more sleep."

"Okay, then." I moved back to where I was sleeping next to my stuff, and tried to sleep. But with all the stuff Leo had told me, it was hard. Calypso was evil? Did anyone else know? I guess so, but you'd think someone would have told me already, then...

I looked at Lou's perfectly still body, the occasional snore escaping her. I lay that way for a while, just making sure she was okay. And then, a moment later, she rolled over once, turning her face to me.

"Naia," she whispered. "Are you awake too?"

"Yep," I replied.

"I just woke up from a dream," she said excitedly. "In it, Athena was telling me where to find the wise guy."

"Great. Where?"

"I don't know exactly... but I have this sense of knowing where to go. I have a feeling it won't stay, though. We should go ASAP."

"Okay, I can't sleep anyway." I looked over to Leo. "Did you hear us?"

"Yep," he said, already starting to put things away.

After less than five minutes we were packed up, and Lou was leading the way through the tunnels.

"I'm sure I'm right," she said. "I just have this feeling... I don't know what, exactly, though."

"Okay, then," I said, happy we might have finally gotten somewhere. "Whatever works."

She lead us through the maze. I was on the alert, holding one of the purple daggers from my necklace. Leo had managed to fix it; when he'd showed me it, I'd been really impressed, because it was a complicated thing to do, obviously. But he'd just claimed that it was nothing, he did that kind of thing all the time.

"This way," Lou said. "I feel a presence nearby."

I laughed at how mystical she sounded. Wasn't I supposed to be the weird dramatic one?

And yet I think she was serious... if we were texting, I'd type "LOL".

We waded through some knee-deep slime, passing a courtyard full of old paintings. It looked like a dilapidated, abandoned art museum. Maybe a way out of the Labyrinth...

I looked longingly at it, where I thought I saw a minuscule speck of daylight straining through a grimy, chipped window.

I sighed, and focused. We had a mission. I'd see the real world soon enough.

Then something slammed to the ground behind us with a THUNK.

"What was that?" Leo asked nervously.

"Uh..." I looked back. "It's a... something. I don't know..."

"It's a club," Lou said. "I don't like the look of this..."

Then something appeared. Something big. Something really big. Something really, REALLY big-well, you get the idea. I'll stop now.

"FOOD!" the giant yelled. "I SMELL GOODIES!"

"Oh, shit..." I muttered.

"Is that...?" Lou stared up at the giant creatures

"A Cyclopes," Leo said. "Not. Good."

I craned my head to look at the thing. He did indeed have one eye, big, shining, and blue, under a single, thin-almost delicate-reddish-brown brow. He had a thin (well... proportionately) nose, thick lips, and rotten mossy teeth.

The big guy looked down at me. "You look like a gingerbread man," he boomed. "Yummy!"

I stared up at him. "Uh... you don't want to eat me. I'm really chewy and stale and gross, and my hair is greasy, and deodorant tastes bad, let me tell you!" I tried to convince him with my acting talent. Maybe he was stupid enough to let it work.

"Perfect! I'll dip you in eggnog!"

Yay, we have a psychotic Christmas-food-obsessed monster after us. I can work with this, can't I?

Then he grabbed me in his enormous hand.

Or not.


❄❄❄❄❄❄❄


❄MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!❄

Allow me to apologize for their frequent rests and sleeps, often including heartfelt and emotional, blah blah, conversations between Leo and Naia. I'm sorry, it's writer's block...

Okay, is it just me, or did Leo remind you of Peeta in the Calypso Confession scene...? I really can't do his character. HALP!!!

When I write a HG fanfic, I will write Peeta's character perfectly and laugh in everyone's faces.

And my buddy @xxCopyCatxx came up with the Leo quotes as usual, and a large part of the plot for this chapter was my biffle @Directioner3671's idea. Thankee!!!

AND CALEO SHIPPERS SORRY FOR THAT ANTI-CALYPSO THING BUT I SHIP THEM SO HARD I HAD TO DO SOMETHING THAT INCLUDED THEIR RELATIONSHIP BUT NOT HAVE IT GET IN THE WAY OF LEIA SO YEAH...

Okay so here's the stoory behind this chapter. I started it Monday night (more or less), and I've finished it at like 10:00 PM on Tuesday. Yay me!! But it was REALLY, REALLY, "DAM" SHORT AND IT KINDA SUCKS BUT WHATEVZ, I HAVE THINGS TO DO. AND I FEEL SICK 'CAUSE I ATE TOO MUCH AT CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER.

Again: ❄MERRY CHRISTMAS❄!!!!! MY PRESENT FOR ALL OF YOU WAS A CLIFFHANGER, I'M SO NICE.


((Song to the side is Noizbait (sometime) by Ken Zazpi, my favourite band!!!))