Aro/Ace Calypso and Aro/Ace Leo. What more do you need from life? Enjoy this drabble of a story of me projecting onto my favorite characters and Leo and Calypso's moments of self-discovery. Takes place post-TOA.

Calypso had envisioned this moment so many times.

His hands intertwined in her hair, his body pressed against hers, their lips moving in time until they were forced apart for a second to breathe. On Ogygia, it was these thoughts that kept her sane; the thought of him breaking the curse and finding her a second time, the thought of the two of them growing old together, kissing behind olive trees and cuddling on the grass as they watched the clouds and stars.

But, now that it was really happening, she couldn't help but dread it a little.

It wasn't Leo, gods know that it wasn't him. He was a saint amongst demigods, he had a heart of gold and a personality that pushed her every button in the best way possible. She adored spending time with him, helping him build whatever's on his mind, watching Georgina with him, planting with Jo and Emmie, whenever they were together, it was the best time on Earth. Problem was, when they got too coupley.

The kisses felt like an obligation, the terms girlfriend and boyfriend oddly repetitive. While in school, she'd see the couples on top of each other in the hallways, hair unruly and lips slightly bruised, and she'd want to vomit. It was so vulgar, the displays people put on in the hallways of public schools.

Luckily, Leo wasn't like that. He'd laugh at the people they passed making out, blocking her view and guiding her away until they were out of sight. He chalked it off to her being from a time where such displays of affection could end nearly catastrophically, and he'd tell her that this time period was different, that making out in the dark corners of schools was the norm for some people. She believed him, of course she did, but part of her thought that he was oversimplifying the whole thing. Part of her felt like there was something a little off-putting about the whole situation, and not just because she was born four thousand years before.

She tried to imagine her and Leo doing that, but it always fell short. Lately, she'd barely even been able to imagine kissing him. Not since they hopped on Festus and left Ogygia behind. Sure, she did kiss him, but in her imagination, the two of them just sat together and basked in each other's presence. No more. No less.

So, she threw herself into her studies. If she ignored the obligation to make out with her boyfriend, then maybe the thrill of it would return. She'd want to hide in the crevices of the school building with his hands in her hair and his lips on her own. But, until then, she'd just bask in the fiery glory that was Leonidas Valdez.

Leo never complained when they stopped kissing near the end of the school year, if anything, he looked a bit relieved. She wondered what was churning in his mind, what wires connected to what battery, what screw screwed what nut into place. He never said he hated kissing, but he never had the same passion the teenagers in the stairwells had. He'd always pull back a bit too early, breathe a bit too unevenly, smile a bit too widely. Leo kissed like he had something to prove, like he could build something out of nothing.

When Calypso told Leo she got a job at a band camp, that she'd be gone all summer, he looked almost afraid. Not in the I'll miss you, way. It wasn't the same hurt that she saw in the mirror when someone left Ogygia, the yearning for their return. It was almost as if Leo was afraid if she left, he'd stop loving her.

It hurt to think that Calypso almost thought the same.

She kissed him one last time in the back of Jo's pick-up truck. She tried to enjoy it, the feel of his chapped lips that tasted a bit like motor oil, but, just like always, she came up short. "Love you," she said as she climbed out of the car, her suitcase trailing behind. At least that much was true, she did love Leo with all her heart. She just wasn't sure she loved him with the right part of it.

"Love you too, sunshine," said Leo to her retreating figure, a trace of something laced into his every word.

It was at band camp where Calypso realized that her love for Leo wasn't society's standard love.

Her fellow counselor, a person by the name of Everest, was her first introduction to queer identities. She knew what it meant to be gay, she lived in Ancient Greece for Hera's sake. But then, men didn't marry other men, they just had them as consorts, and women didn't marry other women, they just loved each other. Being gay then was very different than being gay now. Leo also gave her the run-down on identities after they met Will and Nico. How the issue wasn't black and white, and there were terms to label your feelings.

Everest would tell Calypso about a different queer identity every Thursday after the campers went to sleep on the porch outside Calypso's cabin. The tradition started on the first day of staff week, when Everest introduced themself to Calypso and a trainwreck of a conversation ensued:

"I'm Everest, they/them pronouns please."

"You can do that?"

"Well, I'm non-binary."

"What's that?"

"Live under a rock or something?"

"A secluded island. Sorry, my — well, Leo's been trying to catch me up on stuff."

"You're boyfriend?"

"Something like that."

Everest quickly became Calypso's rock to lean on. On the fifth week of camp, they brought up asexual and aromantic identities. They were aro, but not ace, and explained their view on the topic and even pulled up some articles from aces and aro/aces. Their stories resonated with her and that night she stayed up late, staring at the fake glowing stars plastered on the ceiling.

She definitely felt romantic and sexual attraction on the island, but was that really her? Or did that all tie back to her curse? What was she like before the Titan War? Before Ogygia? Had she fallen for men then too? It wasn't like she could consult Everest, how would they be able to comprehend the fact that she's four thousand some-odd years old? How could she explain that she thought her romantic and sexual attraction was brought about by magic when most people doubted magic's existence at all.

She ended up bringing it up to Everest the next week, minus the whole Ancient Greek curse thing. "I think I might be aromantic and asexual. I might've bluffed all my attraction to people. Including Leo." She cringed at the last part. She loved Leo, for sure, just not romantically or sexually. "I love him, just not like that."

That night, she sobbed. She knew deep down that she was aro/ace, and Everest all but confirmed her suspicions that her feelings were akin to many other aro and ace stories, their own included. But, part of her didn't want to be. She felt like she was ditching Leo for a word. He sacrificed everything for her, and she repaid him by being aromantic and asexual? Some girlfriend she was.

Little did Calypso know, Leo was going on his own journey of self discovery.

He learned the terms aro and ace at Waystation, when the hunters took their break in their hunt for the Teumessian Fox. When Leo commented on their abstinence, a girl about fifteen had laughed and commented, "It's rather easy to be abstinent when you're aro and ace," which had been the catalyst to their conversation about queer identities.

Leo was observant about these terms. He'd never heard them before, and told himself over and over in his head that he just wanted to learn more so he could teach Calypso. His girlfriend. But, after the hunters had left, he found himself pondering on the terms, on how he felt for Calypso, and how he felt for every girl he flirted with, and realized one night by the fire sipping hot chocolate with his foster moms and sister that romantic and sexual attraction had never been in the picture for Leo. That he flirted to make up for what wasn't there. The thought hit him so fast, he had to excuse himself from the room.

He ended up spending that night sobbing, trying to deny what he knew was true. He never enjoyed kissing Calypso; he enjoyed spending time with her and being there for her when she needed it. He loved her with all her heart, just not the way society wanted him to love her. He sacrificed his life to save her, to give her the perfect life, and repaid her by being unable to love her the way that society, and she, expected him to love her. He spent his whole life yearning for a girlfriend, and now he got one, only to realize he never had the capacity to love someone like that. Some fraud he was.

When the summer ended and Calypso returned to Waystation and they began their junior year of high school, things were awkward between them. Neither brought up their revelation, afraid the other would hate them, so they continued to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend, started to kiss again even though it felt like kissing a cactus, and continued to call each other outrageous pet names. Anything to deny their true self.

Leo slipped first. They were kissing in the corner of Waystation, an obligation, when he broke. He pushed her away and started to sob, unable to hold in his feelings anyway. "I'm sorry." he cried.

"What is it?"

"I've been lying to you."

Silence.

"Calypso, I think I'm aro/ace, I know you don't know what—"

She cut him off with a combination of sobbing and laughter. A sob of relief. "I know what it is," she sobbed out, "Because I am too."

Leo started laughing and soon the two were hugging, tears intermingling on the floor, tears of relief, of acceptance, of understanding. They didn't talk about the implications that day, not wanting to face them, but to have the secret out in the open was calming. The break-up was mutual, wordless, relieving.

They joined the GSA in school and learned about QPRs and decided that was for them, the closeness of a partner without the expectations of a romantic partner. They sealed it with a pinky promise and a friendship bracelet that was the aro/ace flag colors (an orange and blue gradient). "Partners till the end of time."

It wasn't what Calypso expected when she flew off that island on the back of a metal dragon, but somehow, it was even better.