LEO VALDEZ WAS ALREADY FEELING PRETTY STUPID WHEN THE DOLPHIN PIRATES SHOWED UP. First, he'd gone all ballistic on the Roman Demigod Camp, which he was pretty sure made everyone hate him. Then, the whole Hazel thing where he thought he might have a chance with a cute girl who was exactly his type (his type was just cute girls), but it turned out the only reason he was getting any attention at all was because she knew his old bisabuelo Sammy back in the day. Who Leo happened to look freakishly similar to. Then Leo's ship had been damaged in the attack with Shrimpzilla - which was all his fault, he'd been the one stupid enough to not switch on their disguise mechanisms - , so he'd been running around frantically trying to fix it, and - because of course that wasn't enough for one day - Jason and Piper got to go see Hercules while Leo was stuck minding the war-crazed goat. Coach Hedge had just treated him to a re-enactment of Chuck Norris's best moves for three hours when Jason and Piper flew back onto board (Jason, of course, looking like some kind of blonde superman) and they had to fly away into the most dangerous part of the sea yet to escape a crazy god with a coconut on his head.

Leo was not lovin' it. Sailing through the Mediterranean had him on edge. It was foggy - meaning he could barely even see where Festus was directing them, and Percy (their resident boat guy) was talking to Annabeth, meaning it was just Leo manning the helm. Even though Leo wasn't the most in touch with his demigodishness, even he could feel the change in the water under them, like there were hundreds of evil monsters lurking, just waiting to take a big ole' bite out of his precious ship. And he was exhausted, too. The others had tried to convince him to get to sleep, but he'd shaken them off with a closed fist, which got a few half-hearted laughs.

"I don't want anymore Shrimpzilla surprises," he'd insisted. It was about four in the morning and Leo could barely see Festus next to him, the fog was that thick. It reminded him of early mornings back at camp, working on the Argo II in the middle of winter with the rest of his cabin. He sighed, barely able to see his breath in front of him.

Leo registered the ship about a second before it crashed into the hull. The impact very nearly sent him flying, and he heard Percy yelling something from down on the deck. A red-hot bolt of fury went through him at the sight of the giant warship crashing into his ship, at the warriors (weird dolphin guys? Had Leo hit his head) jumping over on the Argo II. This was his ship. And nobody messed with his ship.

It was a brave thought, at least, because as he was running for the nearest ballista, a whole crowd of dolphin-men practically jumped on him and he was completely swarmed. The force sent him down onto the deck - hard, and he must've hit his head because it ached like someone had been at it with a mallet. Santa mierda, that hurt. The dolphin-men must've got bored or found something more interesting to do, because he felt himself being dragged across the deck and dumped on a pile of ropes. He groaned, curling in to grab his pounding head with his hands.

Leo felt pretty useless, lying on the floor, head pounding like there was a mini-mechanic inside of it who had an issue with a sheet of bronze. He could hear voices vaguely and groggily looked around to see Percy standing on deck next to a man with a golden mask and about ten or twenty dolphin-men. Who were those dolphin-men guys anyway? Percy was rummaging in the ice-box now, holding up - was that a can of Diet Coke? Leo groaned. He was definitely concussed.

He blinked a few more times and saw the dolphin-men dive off the boat and swim away. Leo frowned. Either he was out for longer than he realised, or that fight ended strangely quickly. He'd just got himself sitting up when an 800 pound grizzly bear came out of nowhere and shoved golden-mask guy over the sides. The crew of the Argo II watched as their attackers disappeared into the water, and the grizzly bear turned back into regular, Roman, Frank.

Leo groaned and allowed himself to dramatically collapse back down to lie onto the ropes. Of course Frank would be the one to save the day. He floated in and out of consciousness for a couple minutes before he came to to the taste of his mothers homemade empanadas. Nectar, he thought. He sat up and cracked his neck, feeling the pounding in his head slowly subside. Jason was crouched next to him, gingerly taking a bite out of an ambrosia square and holding an empty bottle in his hand. Leo assumed it once held the nectar. Jason was looking at him, concerned, that paper cut scar on his lip standing white against the rest of his face. Leo smiled at him, jumping up to his feet and pulling Jason up with him.

"Well, nothing like a job well done, team." He grinned, surveying his boat. The rest of the crew was beginning to tidy the mess left by the attack, and Leo could just make out the other ship through the fog, deserted of all the weird dolphin guys and the golden-mask dude. The damage wasn't too bad, considering. Some ropes were thrown on the deck, and the dolphins had left dirty footprints (flipperprints?) everywhere, but nothing that couldn't be solved.

He wasn't even sure whether to ask about the odd fight, the whole Diet Coke thing. Leo surveyed the others.

Hazel and Piper were tidying up some ropes, Frank running over to help them, and Annabeth and Percy were still standing on the deck, talking quietly. He watched as Annabeth gave Percy a quick kiss on the cheek and Leo resisted the urge to make a (hilarious comment) about no PDA on the deck. Instead, he waved at Piper and jogged over to help her finish tidying.

"That might've been the weirdest fight yet." She twisted her hair as they went below deck to check the damage, her kaleidoscope eyes smiling. Leo grinned back.

"Would never have called this when we were just two young delinquents at Wilderness School," Leo said, and Piper laughed. "Ah, how the time flies."

The rest of the cleanup job was a fairly quick process. It was only superficial damage anyway, and all Leo really had to do was check in with Festus and see that everything was still working properly, but he made sure to bark orders at the rest of the crew like a madman in a bad impression of Coach Hedge, who was too busy over on the enemy ship smashing everything he could see with his baseball bat to hear. .

"McClean, you tidy like a girl! C'mon, mop those flipper-prints!" Leo yelled, and she kindly stuck the finger back at him. 

Once all was done, they all kind of gathered unanimously on the pirate ship. Leo had to admire the way the Argo II looked from here, the way Festus glinted in the moonlight through the fog. He didn't even notice the rest of the crew had left to go explore below deck until Piper stuck her head out of what must've been the staircase and called him.

"Are you too busy admiring your ship, or do you want to come down with the rest of us Valdez?"

Leo muttered under his breath about how his ship was worth admiring, but he made his way down to join the rest of the gang. By some twist of fate he ended up combing through the lowest deck with Percy. He looked stormy, and Leo had the good sense to stay enough out of his way that he wouldn't decide to go all Aquaman on him. That guy scared Leo. They ended up in front of a locked door, and Percy turned to Leo to raise his eyebrows. Leo looked at it. It looked pretty standard, dark metal like the rest of the ship, and they were about to leave it when Leo heard a noise that made him stop in his tracks. Percy must've heard it too, because he turned back around slowly, hand on the pocket that Leo knew held his sword-pen, brow furrowed, sea-green eyes looking deadly and man that guy was scary. Percy gestured to Leo to come closer as well, and he did, but not without an internal groan. Of course he was being bossed around by Percy.

Leo pulled a hammer out of his toolbelt, fully intending on smashing the lock straight away, but Percy put a hand on his arm to stop him and held up his fingers in a silent countdown from three. Leo rolled his eyes, but waited until Percy had one finger left to slam open the lock and burst his way inside the room, Percy close behind, both with their weapons raised (though greek-god Percy probably looked much more intimidating with his sword than 5'6 Leo with his tool belt and hammer, but whatever). Leo scanned the room, not quite sure what he was looking for but he definitely did not expect what he found. The room must've been a supply closet or something - all metal pipes and a mop tucked away in the corner - but the room itself wasn't what surprised him.

There was a girl sitting on the floor. Her arms and legs were tied, but they locked eyes and the girl grinned, a manic energy in her eyes that was startlingly familiar; it was the same kind of manic energy that greeted Leo every time he looked in the mirror. He didn't know whether to be concerned, or glad.

She was pretty, too. Dark hair cut at her shoulders, a spattering of freckles on her nose, those mischievous eyes. And she definitely wasn't fully white either, Leo thought. Maybe Asian? A smirk broke out on her face and he felt his heart flutter. A cute girl that was way out of his league - exactly his type. He smiled back too late to realise that this pretty stranger wasn't even looking at him anymore. Her eyes had locked onto Percy behind him and he stepped forward, looking like he was seeing a ghost.

"Oh, hi Uncle Percy!" The girl said nonchalantly, as if she wasn't currently tied up in an enemy ship. Percy rushed towards her, practically shoving Leo out of the way to embrace the girl, who laughed. Damnit, even her laugh was attractive. Percy immediately began cutting the ropes that bound her with Riptide, looking like a different person than the grouchy warrior Leo had been talking to five minutes ago. He actually looked happy, carefree. At camp people had always said that Percy had a stupid sense of humour, but Leo had never really correlated the Percy from the stories with the moody, scary Percy he'd met. Until now, that was. Leo frowned. Who was this girl?

"I'm Dawn." His question was answered pretty quickly the minute she jumped up. She stood, facing him, way too far into his personal space than people usually got. She was wearing a plain blue dress, short sleeves and low cut. She must've been cold, Leo thought distantly. He could practically feel her breath on his face. It smelt like chocolate.

"Uh." He said eloquently.

"Thanks for rescuing me!" She- Dawn wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace and then planted a firm kiss on his cheek. Leo felt himself getting hot.

"Uh." He repeated. As quickly as she came over to him, she was gone, linking arms with Percy and talking a mile a minute, something about an evil uncle and a face and a kidnapping, dragging Percy out of the small closet. He shot an apologetic look to Leo - though he didn't really look all that sorry - before letting himself be dragged out, leaving Leo standing in the supply closet on a dolphin-pirate ship by himself, wondering what the hell had just happened. 

a/n leo chapter leo chapter leo chapter! gonna be one of these every five or so chapters. i <3 writing leo