Chapter VI

L

E

O

Having Calypso at camp was pretty much the best thing Leo could've asked for. He'd never had a girlfriend before, despite his charming physique, but he was sure he wouldn't have to look for another one.

Calypso had been spending a lot of time hanging out with Piper and Annabeth, who accepted her immediately. At first it was a little awkward, but once we got passed the whole, "I'm so, so, so, so so, (times that by about one thousand) sorry." stage, where Calypso apologized to Percy every time she saw him and Percy said that it was totally fine and that he was sorry for not getting her off of Ogygia, while Annabeth and he watched closely from the sidelines, everything was fine.

After a long day in the forges, Leo wanted to go see his Sunshine, they were currently working on an Atlas cabin for her, with help from the Athena kids, and Leo knew she would love it, at least he hoped she would. It would royally suck for both of them if she didn't.

Leo threw open the door to his cabin, "Hey Sunsh-" the words got stuck in his throat.

Standing in the middle of the floor was Calypso, her back was facing him, but he could clearly see the gash in her wrist. Blood ran down her arm, a dagger was in her hand, she was staring at it, watching the blood trail down her arm and drip onto the carpet.

"C-Callie?" his voice broke.

Calypso turned around, tears were streaming down her face, but she was smiling. Leo's gut twisted.

Calypso tittered, a sound so relieved that made him think the weight of the world had been lifted off her shoulders.

"Leo, look." she held out her wrist like she was showing off a new bracelet. He had to brace himself against the wall.

He took her hand, tears forming in his eyes, "Calypso. . . why. . .?"

All he could think was that she hated it here, that she didn't love him. . . That he was doing something wrong. But of course he was doing something wrong, the only thing Leo was good at was fixing things. And he couldn't even fix the most important things, like people. He squoze his eyes shut, trying to block out the images of his mother, but opened them back up when it did nothing to help.

Her eyes widened. "Oh, Leo! No!" she put her other hand over his, "It's not like that, don't you see? It's red, Leo I'm not immortal anymore."

Leo looked down at her wrist, she was right. It wasn't Ichor running from the wound, but regular, mortal blood.

He looked up into her eyes, "Oh my gods!" He threw his arms around her, pulling her close. "Callie, you had me worried sick!" He buried his face in her hair as she wrapped hers around him, letting out relieved laughter.

"You don't have to grow old without me."

Leo ran his fingers through her silky hair, "We can do it together." he whispered.

He could sense her smiling, "I love you, Valdez."

"I know, Sunshine, now we should get you bandaged up before you do any more damage to the carpet."

Calypso laughed and shoved him away playfully. Leo grinned at her and took her hand, leading her out of the cabin to the infirmary. He opened the door, Will Solace and Nico di Angelo were standing in the middle of the room, their foreheads touching, and Nico was smiling for the first time since Leo had met him. Luckily, they didn't notice Leo enter.

He immediately turned back around, pushing Calypso back through the door.

"You know, I think I have bandages back in the cabin."

"Leo, what--"

"Never mind that, Calypso, we need to get you cleaned up."

"Why are you--"

"HEY! You know, I have some ice cream in the freezer, you want some?"

"What was in there?"

"Nothing worth noting."

"Seriously, Valdez--"

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "I love me too."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't get you."

"Most people don't." he told her, grateful she'd seemed to have forgotten about the infirmary.

"Now, why in the world--"

Leo face-palmed inwardly, "Calypso, it's really rather boring."

"Just give me a straight answer, Valdez!"

"That might be a little challenging. . ."

A/N: Hehe, get it?

"What?!"

"I thought it would be fun to. . . er. . . play doctor. . ."

She gave him a weird look, he couldn't blame her, he'd be looking at himself weird too.

He decided to ignore it and pulled her back into the cabin. He sat her on a bunk and went to get bandages from the closet.

He cleaned the wound and took her hand, wrapping bandages around it.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Of course I am!" He wasn't. "I can fix machines, and people are practically the same thing." They weren't.,But, hey, if it meant keeping Will and Nico a secret. . . Well, Leo hoped it wouldn't get infected.

"There you go." He said, securing the bandage. Calypso eyed it skeptically. "Good as new. . . Now, ice cream!"

He walked over to the wall and pulled on one of the light fixtures. The wall flipped and there was now a kitchen in front of Leo.

Calypso shook her head, "Hephaestus kids."

Leo grinned and preceded to scoop enormous amounts of cookies 'n' cream ice cream into two bowls.

"Toppings?" He inquired.

"Naw, I'll eat it plain." Leo handed her her bowl and squirted a small ocean of chocolate sauce, followed by caramel sauce, and a mountain of whipped cream, topped by a ruby red cherry.

Calypso stared, "Why don't you have some ice cream with those toppings?"

"Okay!" He scooped another spoonful of ice cream and plopped it into his bowl, flattening the whipped cream mountain. Calypso rolled her eyes, laughing and dug into hers.

"How can you eat that?" She asked.

"If you can't taste the diabetes, you're not doing it right." He said, sitting down next to her.

Calypso rose a brow, "It looks disgusting." She told him as he stirred it all together.

"It's good! Here, taste it." He scooped some up and held it out for her.

She eyed it skeptically and Leo waved it under her nose. "You know you want to." He told her.

She leaned forward and ate the ice cream concoction off the spoon. Her eyes widened. "That is good."

Leo grinned proudly. "It's my own personal recipe." He told her, "I call it the Bad Boy Special."

Calypso rolled her eyes at him, "That's literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Leo flicked some chocolate sauce at her, it landed with a splat! over her eye.

She gaped at him, "Oh, you wanna go?"

"Maybe I do." Calypso scooped up some ice cream and plopped it onto his head, then ran away with Leo chasing after her, clutching his bowl and aimlessly flinging the sloppy mess at her. He backed her into the corner next to the counter.

She squeeled and grabbed the whipped cream, turned around and sprayed it all over Leo's shirt and face. He laughed and pulled her into a kiss, getting it all over her as well.

Calypso pushed him away, giggling and rested her forehead against his.

"You're adorable." He told her, wiping whipped cream off her face.

They heard the cabin door open and Leo turned around to see a skinny twelve year-old named Thomas, gawking in the doorway.

He took in the ice cream splattered over the walls, and his gaze fell on them. He blinked and slowly shut the door.

Leo burst into laughter, followed by Calypso.

"We should probably start cleaning this up. . ." She said, looking around.

Leo sighed, "Yeah. . ."

Okay, sorry about the part earlier, it was super hard for me to write because self-harm is definitely not a light subject, even though she really wasn't. Ily all and if you cut, purge or self-harm in any way I hope you can get through whatever it is! You're all so strong and amazing and deserve so much more! ILY ILY ILY!

TY all for your awesome comments, and votes, they really make my day!