One Shots (HoO)

The chill air seemed to be laced with electricity. It was electric with our excitement and with all the fireflies that clumsily flied around our heads.

It was the day after Christmas, and the eight of us were lying in the cold grass; facing the starry night sky.

We were drunk in joy: yesterday we opened our gifts and were pleasantly surprised at finding out that we all got presents for each other.

We were exhausted from laughing so much.

My muscles felt stiff from playing around.

We were finally able to spend the holidays together, rejoicing with each other’s presence.
The days of fearfully flying in the Argo II were over.

This should have been paradise, yet it wasn’t. Our paradise couldn’t be complete without him.

I felt as nostalgia radiated from Jason’s and everybody else’s bodies. As we lay facing the stars, we were all missing him.

“I miss him” were the words that lingered above us, unspoken.

I sat up and cleared my voice.

“Please, I need you all to sit up” I poured a little charmspeak into my words just to make sure that everyone obeyed me.

Jason was the first one to oblige, followed closely by Annabeth and Hazel. Percy was the last one to straighten up, and judging by his expression, he knew that I’d just used charmspeak.

“I…” My voice trembled. I had to be strong. Jason reached for my hand and squeezed it, trying to reassure me. I looked into his blue eyes and found myself lost in them… When I came back to reality I was sure I was strong enough to do this… I knew that I was strong enough to do anything as long as Jason was by my side.

“I wanted us to take a moment to talk about Leo.” I paused, letting that sink in. Hazel’s eyes filled with tears, and I saw Frank look down. Percy seemed sad and confused at the same time. Reyna and Nico held hands, feeding off each other’s inner strength.

“Go on” said Annabeth, encouraging me. Those stormy gray eyes never failed to bring me reassurance either.

“I just want to take a moment to remember some of the precious memories we’d shared with him… It feels like it’s the right thing to do, because I just feel so happy having you all right here. We’d sing Christmas carols, we’ve done a lot of wonderful things… The one thing that’s keeping this moment from being perfect is his absence. So… Let’s all take turns to remember some of our moments together.”

“Well, I deeply admire Leo.” said Annabeth, kicking things off. “We both build things. I’m an architect, he’s a mechanic. He just happens to be a lot more talented while using his hands than anyone I’ve ever met. Maybe the Argo II will always bring bittersweet memories to all of us… But it was home for quite a long while. It was his masterpiece, a testimony to his skillfulness.”

We all nodded at her words, remembering the majestic ship.

“After he went to Ogygia, he was mad at me.” started Percy “Then we cleaned the air and everything was cool between us. I actually miss him so much… I never thought I would be able to meet someone as silly as me, yet when I met him I found out that he was the real king of Silly.”

We all chuckled at his statement.

Hazel spoke up next. “When I first met him I was so shocked. He looked exactly like Sammy, yet it couldn’t be… Fantasizing that he was my Sammy actually soothed me, because I was longing for a normal life again. He made me feel like a normal girl, a girl that wasn’t a part of a deadly prophecy… He became my friend incredibly fast. I just treasured his friendship so much… I… I… I’ll never stop feeling guilty from what both Frank and I did.”

After that she crumbled, burying her face in Frank’s chest, crying in earnest.

Frank patted her back, attempting to comfort her. “Don’t say things like that, Haze. Neither of us is guilty. I’ve come to terms with that. He trusted us and he did what he wanted. We had to accept his decision of sacrificing himself for us. He gave us all another chance at life and we all should make his sacrifice worth it.” He said solemnly.

“He’s right, sister.” chimed Nico in. “That is the one thing I admire most about him. How selfless he was. He died for the world. He died for us. Not one of us knows what it is to give it all up. He’s our hero.”

“Well, what I’ll always admire about him is his sense of humor.” said Reyna’s voice, as controlled and supportive as ever. “Even in the darkest of times he always had a smile plastered on his face. He never failed to bring a smile to any of our faces. He was our comic relief.”

“You’re totally right, Reyna.” Jason said, smiling to himself, probably remembering something about our bad boy supreme. “He was just like a child. He always searched for the brightest way to see the situations. I also remember how his face lit up every time he entered Bunker 9! He looked like a seven year old on Christmas day!” He paused. “I’ll never ever forget him, he’s one of my two best friends!” He and Percy shared a glanced of complicity. Those two really loved each other!

Everyone was quiet for a moment and I could feel how moisty the grass was, see how bright the stars shone and hear the tickling of the flames of the bonfire. I soon realize that everyone was waiting for me to speak up.

I took a deep breath.

“Leo Valdez is my best friend and he means the world to me.” I started, deciding to let all my feelings towards him pour into my words. “After the incident at the Museum we were brought here… I felt so hopeless, so lost.” I braced myself. “Jason didn’t remember a thing… Only Leo and I remembered something, and even though our memories were fake… Those false memories and Leo’s existence were the only two things that kept me anchored to the world… The only two things that kept me from becoming completely and utterly insane.”

I was quiet for a moment and I could see how moved by my words my friends were. Some were sobbing, crying silently. Others wiped tiny tears from their eyes.

Crying is good, crying cleanses the soul; I told to myself.

“I miss him” said Hazel, staring at the night sky.

“Me too” we all said in unison.

“Let’s make a vow: Leo will be always alive in our memories.” I proposed. We all swore in the River Styx.

After that we all took each other’s hands and laid on the grass once more, our heads touching.

Describing that moment as peaceful would have fallen short; but of course our peaceful moment had to be interrupted, just like every other one we’d ever had in our hard lives as demigods.

A weird sound traveled through the crisp air. I sat up.

“Look! It’s the bonfire’s logs! Something’s moving them!” I screamed, horrified.

Jason jumped in front of me, shielding me from whatever was skulking from the flames. I held on to him for dear life.

I watched in terror as a zombie that looked like Leo crept from the fire.

My scream was so deafening that I saw Jason clasping at his ears. WHAT ON HADES WAS GOING ON?!

“Hungry!... Zombie Leo is hungry!... Brains… brains…” It demanded.

I watched in terror as the zombie doubled over, laughing.

I had to be hallucinating! I probably drank too much egg nog or something, because there was no way Leo could possibly be back from the dead and standing right in front of us.

The flames that extended all over Zombie Leo’s suddenly extinguished.

“LEO IS BACK FROM THE DEAD, BABY!”

I stood there, frozen.

“I’m going kill you, you stupid boy!” yelled Annabeth and ran after him. The others followed and soon I was left alone.

I couldn’t believe what was happening! He was back! The bad boy supreme was back!

As hot tears stroke my cheeks, all my instincts spiked up and I broke into a run.

I made it to the beach on time to see Percy tackling Leo onto the ground.

I made my way to them and started punching Leo.

“STUPID! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? WE’VE BEEN WORRIED SICK!” I scolded at him.

All of the others were screaming and punching at him as well.

“Hey, I’m sorry! OUCH! Annabeth please, stop hitting me!” he pleaded.

“STOP, ALL OF YOU! LET HIM TALK” I charmspeaked at my friends.

“I’m sorry I let you worry… After I died, Festus used the physician’s cure on me and brought me back to life. Then, we flied around some time until we made our way back to Ogyagia. There, I picked Calypso up and took her to see the world…. I was going to…”

I cut him up. “So… You’re telling me you let me die of grief because your girlfriend wanted to go see the world?” I queried, furious.

“Hey, bring it down a notch, Pipes! You’re not dead at all!” he replied, like the jerk he was.

I swat at his head, hard. “You know what I mean, Leo!”

“OUCH! Piper, please. Don’t hit me… Don’t blame Calypso… She was the one that encouraged me to come back. She made me realize how much I…” His voice broke. “How much I missed you all.”

After he let out those words, he started to cry.

I ran into his arms and embraced him. “Don’t ever leave us again, stupid boy. We were a wreck without you.”

The others also came to him and soon we were all embracing and crying; even Percy, who jokingly claimed that he wasn’t capable of crying.

We cuddle up in the sand, each one of us somehow touching Leo in order to make sure he was really here.

We listened patiently about the places he’d visited. We laughed at his silly jokes.

After we ran out of things to say, we still laid there, listening to the rhythmic sound of the waves. We talked so long that it was already dawn.

Now nothing was stopping this moment from being perfect.

This was paradise, our paradise.

We were in bliss.

Notes