Chapter image done by the lovely marvicatl! You make me wheep!

Not like that, this is PG guys

Did you miss me? Cause I missed writing for this! New Year, new changes afoot...but of course Happy Valentine's Day! Everyone who reads this is loved by me!

As stated in the previous chapter, if you want context for the wildly different time/place/ and characters reading in between, do go check out the side quest adventure . Otherwise, enjoy as usual and I hope you have fun playing catch up if not!

Also also, the same disclaimers for new characters, ie no Hazel/Leo, I'm not a person of color from the 1930's or have ever been in the foster system, etc. I want this to feel real to the characters and their background, and any offered insight is always taken seriously.

Alsox3, I will be continuing to name the future HoO chapters, and if you have any suggestions Before or After I publish, feel free to offer them and I'll be happy to put them in the summary with accreditation!

HOOPJOHOOPJO

They all met up in the attic. There was a miniature glass jar of fire here that Annabeth promised wasn't going to burn down the house. No lid, it was recently cleaned of the holiday cookies and shaped like two bears hugging each other with star patterns in their coats. Percy had watched in vague concern as she'd scooped it out of the one in the amphitheater without even wearing protective gloves and then smiled as it burned a few different colors walking back to him. He just hoped he wouldn't set the Big House on fire in some cosmic retribution by borrowing some.

The tables of clutter from the hero's treasures were still scattered around and haunted them all as a constant reminder how much Alex had wanted one of each. Magnus may or may not have accidentally cursed himself within an hour, it was still being debated.

It was warm though, and spacious. The floor felt as if it were heating their rears, they each had their own beanbag or mat with plenty of blankets. Sun was pouring in through the window with only an occasional snowflake to remind them all they could be freezing their butts off if they wanted, but the coziness wouldn't allow it.

Annabeth was sitting in front of Thalia, who was absently braiding her hair for her. Percy was sitting next to Jason and still razzing him about their last sword fight, who was half-heartedly playing along as he kept watching Hazel like he expected her to do a flip.

She was sitting quietly by Nico though, watching Leo like he was the long lost Oracle Mummy, despite the fact he was being calm, for him. He had a pile of markers stacked as tall as he was and was drawing something immense over half a dozen sheafs of paper with an entire blank stack to go. He'd rummaged through the boxes like a snoop and found a blanket he probably shouldn't be touching and was sprawled out on it. Rustic, sun faded grey with little bolts and nuts and gears all over it. It was probably going to strangle him in his sleep or place some crazy curse on him to like spinach, but for now it was warm and he didn't care.

Will came up last, still shaking snow from his hair with a fuzzy yellow blanket that had orange bubbles tossed over his shoulder and the satchel of books from Chiron to see them all. He went over to Annabeth and Percy first, asking them kindly, "you guys ready?"

Annabeth nodded, her eyes out the window but her resolve as strong as ever to do this for Percy. Percy nodded much more reluctantly. Magnus and Alex had been here since the beginning, willingly or not, and it felt wrong to be starting this again with no expectation of them returning no matter what an elf and dwarf tried to pull.

Of course a long lost sister Nico had resurrected to make friends with Jason helped somehow set the dower mood off anything was possible. Not that Nico had announced her as such, though who he was trying to fool was anyone's guess. They didn't particularly look alike, gold flecks in her amber eyes instead and an odd tendency to keep tucking her hands in and out of her pockets when she got too close to the cursed jewelry table where nothing actually went missing, but otherwise she seemed strangely quiet sitting underneath Nico's blanket he'd brought up from his cabin for her. It was black with little ghosts patterned all over it, which seemed like either a friendly gesture or a warning label. Nobody was quite sure.

She hadn't spoken much yet, but the brief tour Nico had given her the night before of everything at the camp had been taken with a calmness as if the world of magic wasn't so strange and different from the one she'd left of the 1930's. She'd had a particular fondness of the stables and Nico had to all but drag her out of there to show the cabin she'd be sleeping in. His own.

He'd only been there for the erection of the outside, but was not the slightest bit impressed with the decor someone had picked on the inside. The vampire coffins were definitely someone's idea of a joke he did not find funny.

When he'd asked Will that morning and he'd confessed he thought it was cool and his own idea, Nico vowed not to kill him and wondered if this was their first fight.

"Rachel decided not to join us?" Thalia asked Percy with some disappointment, still pulling her own blanket from her magical backpack without looking up. She'd thought that's why Percy had taken breakfast with her up in the caves.

"She said she gets enough out of the future without getting kidnapped for extra credit, let alone bombarded with it," Percy shrugged. "She said she had some other ideas possessing her that she wanted to paint, she'd be in her cave if we needed her and might pop in on occasion just to remind us she could."

"Sounds about right," Annabeth chuckled, a bit faintly, but it was the first laugh of the day. Somehow a promising noise that it would be allowed going forward despite the changes.

"Did you ask if she got any hunches about going to see Hera?" Jason asked, looking out the window too in a restless way unlike his usual self. He umphed in surprise as a blanket landed on his head.

"I did," Percy agreed, "she said she hasn't felt anything like that since coming here. I think we might have just, passed over that part?" He sounded completely vexed at what he was saying.

Jason pulled the blanket off and studied it in surprise, looking over at his sister. She just grinned and shrugged like it was no big deal and went back to focusing. It was dark navy blue with a crackling white pattern all over it like shards of broken glass...or lightning forking across the sky he realized as he ran his finger over the soft material. He tucked it tight against his chest and hoped the Hunters hadn't given her to much grief as Thalia threw her own over her beanbag for now and went back to Annabeth's braid. It, like everything the hunters owned, was silver of course, but had little arrow patterns all over in a crisscross pattern.

Hazel and Leo only had a vague idea what they were talking about. Both had been offered to read Jason's book up to the point they were at, but both had declined. Leo had proclaimed he'd take his turn when necessary and not before or after. Hazel had just promised Nico she'd catch up in her quiet voice.

Will set the bag down in the middle by the fire and went to go sit in the windowsill, tipping his face back into the sun with a look of relief even for the faint light trickling in from the bitter cold clouds parting unwillingly.

There was a long, awkward silence as they all looked at each other to see who was going to read first. It was not lost on Annabeth that they were really waiting for her. The firelit flickered between blue and red so fast, it looked like purple strobe lights as she fought to concentrate.

Magnus had been the last one to hold this thing, making half hearted comments about not wanting to have left that place at all. Alex would have claimed his turn next with joy and probably stopped every sentence to try and convince them all what the best chapter title would have been. And/or tried to eat the rainbow fire by now.

But they weren't here. And someone had to start.

So Annabeth cradled the book for a moment and took a deep breath before opening it.

"It starts with, um, Leo," she looked around at him as if expecting him to do something.

Leo frowned, not exactly pleased, but what was he supposed to do? Tell Jason and Percy what to do? Ha! He liked his head attached, and he'd seen those two laughing as they nearly killed each other with swords.

"Typical," Percy said into the continued awkward silence. "The second we get used to something, it changes! How many people do you get sharing your story?" He demanded of Jason, envy still obvious in his tone.

"Get to?" Jason rolled his eyes, clearly nothing but good fun in him 'snapping' back at Percy to cover his honest disappointment. "I'd love it if it would just show Chiron torturing me for information about my home already!"

"You should be," Thalia agreed with a chuckle, still twining Annabeth's hair delicately through her fingers. "He only brings out the good banana flavored candy for people he's torturing, none of that artificial flavored stuff."

Typical, Leo agreed as he went back to his drawing among their halfhearted laughter, ignoring Hazel's eyes still staying on him at all times in her creepy, determined stare like she was waiting for a private show. Nobody wanted to be in his head more than he wanted to plaster his inner thoughts out loud.

Whatever, it wasn't like he had that much to hide, except for the skeletons in his closet he was sure the book on Jason's life would skip over. He was just here because they'd picked him up like a stray puppy. If they were expecting him to jump up and turn his thoughts into one of his good shows of entertainment for them without even expecting a tip, they had another thing coming.

LEO'S TOUR WAS GOING GREAT UNTIL he learned about the dragon.

Leo froze, his golden marker poised to draw the undercarriage of his ship. He hadn't even gotten to the dragon figurehead yet. They waited for him again, he could tell that's what that silence was and all the eyes on him again. He was used to that. So he just shrugged and went back to it.

There was a ghost ranting in the back of Annabeth's ear, her cousin demanding how many dragon's this place could hold and which one was going to eat them all next. It wasn't really funny, but she almost smiled for a moment at Percy mock assuring Magnus the surplus of dragons was under control. Mostly.

The archer dude, Will Solace, seemed pretty cool.

"Aw, thank you," Will grinned in surprise. "Nobody's ever called me the archer dude before."

That got some snickers for some private joke, but Leo was too distracted with the vague feeling of deja vu just behind his eyes. Okay, yeah, this was extremely weird having something that had happened to him days ago with Nyssa, his half sister, be told to them with a completely different person in place.

"Are you calling Will the dragon, or did you have a bad experience with Peleus?" Nico asked, a strange look on his face as he sized Leo up. He and Nico were about the same height, but Nico had the creepiest eyes Leo had ever seen and had no clue what he could have done to displease him and would be happy to never do it again.

"Neither," he said quickly, keeping his attention on his project.

Everything was amazing...practice fights with explosives? ... The woods were stocked with dangerous monsters? Nice!

Annabeth and Will laughed in appreciation, it was always nice to hear their home sounded that amazing to someone other than Clarisse from time to time.

...he hoped that didn't mean he was cousins with all these ladies.

"And you critiqued my touring skills!" Annabeth gave Will a huff. "At least I told Piper something more relevant than Arts And Crafts and Blowtorches!"

"You broke her poor heart and gave her a knife," Will shrugged. "I'm making sure he at least gets as much of the lay of the land as he can!"

"Both of you need to leave this to the professionals and give the satyrs more to do," Thalia cut in as she finished with her hair and gave it a little tug, making her swat her away with a grin.

"None of you guinnesses answered the question," Nico rolled his eyes, before telling Leo as much as his sister, "dating is normal, don't do it with someone you share a cabin with." Will was not so secretly interested in that answer as he pursed up his lips. They'd only kissed once...

"Not on my to do list," Hazel said quickly, her cheeks were clearly going to be stained red quite easily faster than even Leo could manage with one of those marker weapons.

"Good to know," Leo grinned and shot Thalia a look. She gave him a withering stare in return and made his heart skip a beat with love.

"Don't even think about it," Thalia sniffed, "the Hunters of Artemis-"

"Yes, yes, vows of chastity, come on guys," Percy finally sighed, clearly not happy being the voice of reason, but Jason was starting to get anxious and watching the book with the kind of growing concentration that would make lightning shoot out of his forehead eventually or something. He'd had to wait ten times longer than Percy had for even the vague reference of his life and still wasn't exactly close to an answer even with all their side quests from the gods themselves. "We offered to give Hazel and Leo a rundown at breakfast, they refused, we're not going to play catch up every five minutes are we?"

"Look at you, finish one lap of getting your memories back and having no patience for anyone else," Will frowned in disapproval.

"It's fine," Hazel said hastily.

Leo had turned back to his drawing by then, though his eyes kept going to Thalia from time to time all the same.

...wanted to check out those underwater girls. They were worth drowning for.

"They'll happily help you with that if you want," Percy rolled his eyes in a way that made Leo feel like he wasn't kidding and had to fish a few idiots besides him out. "They forget people have to hold their breath," he promised and reinforced at the end.

..."Do I get a sword?" Will glanced at him like he found the idea disturbing.

Nobody bothered to ask why. Leo wielded those markers around like deadly weapons enough without putting something bigger and pointer in his hands. He swapped between colors so fast, there was already a rainbow of smudges between the wild fingers.

"You'll probably make your own, seeing as how you're in Cabin Nine."

"Not even a tour through the gift shop?" Jason snorted, giving Will a stern shake of his head. "Sorry, I'm siding with Annabeth right now."

"This is not a competition for best tour guide," Percy was already sighing in defeat, knowing it was going to play out otherwise.

"You're right, it won't be a competition at all," Annabeth smirked.

Will laughed, and it sounded like a challenge anyways.

The others sighed, but somehow, it felt like a breath of tension leaving the room too. The more they kept talking, the more they kept hearing the ghosts in the back of their mind of who Alex and Magnus would have sided with, but constantly thinking that wasn't making the silence any better.

..."Festus? Sounds like the god of cowboys."

Will laughed way too hard at that. Leo grinned in surprise at someone actually getting the joke as the guy caught his breath and said, "sorry."

"For what?" Leo demanded. "Always nice to meet a fellow Gunsmoker." He didn't think Will would laugh quite as much if he met Festus, but it was still nice to see.

"A what?" Hazel asked, mystified, though her brother seemed just as baffled.

"An old cowboy show," Will told them all. "Oh, so am I," Will smiled, seeing Leo grin right back, the first friendly expression he'd had for the day, to Jason's relief. It was clear Leo had thought they were all nuts inviting him up to their secret book club, Jason had half expected him not to come with the way he'd looked at Jason as a complete stranger the other day when asked.

"Houston." Leo said.

"Austin, but I wasn't there very long," Will sounded apologetic like it was his fault he couldn't reminisce about NASA with him.

"Neither was I," Leo assured.

"Gunsmoke is this old cowboy show-" Will began to explain to Nico and Hazel while shooting excited looks at Leo to chime in if he missed anything important.

"And Percy's from New York, can't believe he's gone a whole five seconds without mentioning it," Nico interrupted in exasperation. Will gave him a little wink to assure he could hear the jealousy, and it was unfounded. He'd still happily take Nico to the range with a gun later whether Leo wanted to come or not.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm with him, still not looking to brag about all of our backgrounds," Percy agreed.

...The god of fire, seriously? Considering what had happened to his mom, that seemed like a sick joke.

Leo's marker flew across the room and beamed Thalia in the middle of her forehead giving her a brown freckle there she'd never wanted.

He barely noticed as his eyes settled on the book with a disturbing stillness.

Okay, he'd been wrong about this stupid magic book using him as a punching bag gag!? Hinting at that was no joke!

"Leo," Annabeth gave him the big gray eyes, and they all knew she was about to give him The Speech. The gods suck and did this to us, this is a gift not to be ignored, sorry for invading your personal headspace and life blahblahblah; but Leo already caved with one look at her before she could get started. He'd set Coach Hedges pants on fire and somehow was rewarded being at this cool place, and Nyssa had even assured him it would be neigh on impossible to burn this place down, he wouldn't be the first to try at any rate.

"Just-" he started, then stopped lamely. He got up to get his marker back, and Thalia gave it back to him with a surprising gentleness in her face that somehow only made her look more hot and more unattainable.

Jason caught his eye on the way back, and he couldn't imagine what it must feel like to not even know what happened to your mom, relying on a book, relying on someone else's permission to get yourself back.

He'd never done a single useful thing in his life. Here it didn't seem a bad place to start. "Just make sure you read my good side princess," he finally said with a delightful grin that was sure to melt Annabeth's heart.

She snorted and kept reading.

...Since Cabin Nine's last head counselor died—"

"Died? Like, painfully?"

"There aren't a lot of other ways to die around here," Nico told him way too casually.

"Fun," Leo managed while not choking on the word.

... where are my home dawgs? Shouldn't they be giving me the VIP tour?"

"Trust me, you'd regret the VIP treatment real quick," Percy scoffed. "You get told to leave within the week and go save the world."

"Says the guy who has his own cabin. I knew you had to earn that perk with more than just tossing water around," Leo chuckled. Nyssa hadn't given him a very extensive list of Percy's many long achievements, and half of them he hadn't understood anyways, but he got the idea. He was talking to the big dawg.

He didn't seem that impressive really. Just another guy, leaning back in a blue beanbag with wild hair and quick to smile.

... um, you'll see why." Will forged on before Leo could ask anything else.

Will winced, having always felt a tad guilty in the back of his mind with no way to check on Jake even though he knew Chiron or his own siblings were just as capable of keeping an eye on him. He'd still gone to see him first thing this morning and there had at least been some improvement over the past few days, he could smile without pain at least.

"Curses and death," Leo said to himself. "This just gets better and better."

"If you think that's better wait till you find out about the maiming and violent torture," Thalia smirked.

"That's only when you get involved Thals," Percy rolled his eyes.

She could not get any hotter than when she smirked like that and tapped her knife. Leo really was a goner and doomed, so right on theme anyways.

... spotted his old babysitter.... not the person he'd see at a demigod camp.

Annabeth stuttered herself into silence again, and if Leo only knew how rare a thing that was to do to her, let alone twice, he would have been preening like a bird.

He was too busy still back studying the details of his ship. He'd already decided to come to terms with the fact they were going to hear he was a murderer and Percy and Jason would argue how to kill him first and Thalia would just cut his head off first anyways; this was nothing in comparison.

... She looked ancient, but no different than Leo remembered.

"H-Hestia?" Percy asked hesitantly, but it felt stupid saying it. Despite her being the first maternal goddess to come to mind who might pop in to see a demigod child, this description was harsh, all wrong.

He got silence for an answer. Nobody to mess with him, nobody to anti-up a joke. Thalia was just as disturbed as he was to try as they looked at Leo like a freak show. Apparently having crazy old baby sitters wasn't as common as setting things on fire around here.

Good to know. "Nyssa said there were lots of ghosts hanging around this place, I suggested it was just the ghost of Christmas Past in drag, honestly guys, if you can't tell me, just let it go." Keep moving forward, just keep them going back to important things like Jason and they'd forget all about him.

"Right," Annabeth agreed, which at least was an end to that. For now. She kept to herself Percy's guess would have been sound in some ways, Callida was Greek or even Spanish for, 'most beautiful; heated, with warmth', but no more believed herself this was a manifestation of the gentle Hestia.

... How many old ladies do you see over there?"

"There's actually none running around here Will, how could you get her confused?" Percy agreed.

"We're going to have to deduct points from your tour guide score for this," Jason smirked.

Will gasped dramatically and tried to protest, but Annabeth was too invested in this strange mystery to let them keep playing around.

...when he looked back toward the big white cabin, Tía Callida was gone.

Percy licked his lips nervously, his next thought being Leo was stalked by the Furies, or something similar enough. Old hags who passed easily as people, clearly some minion of a god who already wanted the poor guy dead.

He kept it to himself though, watching Annabeth to see if she'd already worked it all out.

...and that wasn't good, because Tía Callida had tried to kill him.

"Which cabin did you see her under?" Annabeth asked shrewdly.

"The big white one, at the end," he repeated.

This answer didn't seem to please her, which Leo knew was a bad thing, and not because he was hoping she'd notice him. Annabeth was wicked scary.

...at least, not crazier than he really was.

"I don't think you're crazy," Will promised. "It's far from the craziest thing I've ever heard."

"You are among your people with that, here's your home dawgs," Percy chuckled and waved at himself.

"Nice," Leo grinned, "how many times have you set yourself on fire?"

"Pfft," Percy rolled his eyes. "Like, seven, but three of those didn't involve monsters." Then he winced and turned to glare at Jason, who was already opening his mouth with a smirk. "I'll toss you in those flames Jace, don't start with me!"

Jason just laughed, clearly thinking nothing of the threat, and Leo found himself smiling as he turned away. Okay, this could be fun.

"Let's go see Cabin Nine," Leo said. "I'm in the mood for a good curse."

"Well then, aren't you in the perfect place," Jason said, an odd sour note to his voice.

Leo's eyes again flickered to all the junk in here with interest-

"Don't encourage him," Annabeth groaned.

"Jason, whatever he accidentally kills himself with, I will be using you to fix him just for that," Will promised.

"I meant," he waved at the Camp beyond but let it go, apparently not in the mood for blood sacrifices and resurrections. Ah well, maybe some other time.

No more talk was said of Tia Callida, but Leo knew it wouldn't stay that way.

...It opened with brass gears turning and hydraulic pistons blowing smoke.

Hazel was blinking at that strange assortment of words like someone had switched books on her. Fancy bank vault, got it, but what?

She kept herself quiet and in Nico's shadow though. These guys seemed friendly enough, and nobody had batted an eye aside from Leo himself at all the strange hints to his past, but that was nothing compared to hers. She at least was grateful to be up here, as far away from the ground as possible. A part of her still expected the earth to open up and pull her back in the moment she wasn't paying attention, though Nico had assured her and Will last night he had it under control and that wasn't going to happen.

Leo whistled. "They got a steampunk theme going on, huh?"

"What?" She couldn't help herself that time though, Leo was still grinning that Sammy grin of excitement just hearing about his cabin again.

"It, it's," Nico stumbled and looked over at Will for help. Her brother had promised she wouldn't stick out too much here for not knowing what a cellphone was, but she suddenly didn't believe him as much with all the strange looks she got.

"A subgenre of science fantasy, focusing on technology that was steam powered," Annabeth began babbling in excitement, but her shrewd eyes were on Hazel like she was prying the secrets right out of her already. Nico straightened up and glared at her, stopping Annabeth from asking after any of it, for now.

"Right," Hazel agreed, quickly closing her mouth and wished she hadn't said anything. She knew maybe three of those words and none of it cleared up her confusion.

"Relax Hazel, I met Leo less than an hour ago and I'm already exhausted keeping up with him," Will said kindly, and Annabeth shrugged and moved on, clearly unconvinced. The only reason she was letting it go was so the girl could assimilate like Leo, have a chance to breathe and get a hint of normal camp life. Then she'd ask the girl from another time what it must have been like seeing radios and cars from one era to the next with just a quick nap.

Hazel still gave an apologetic look to Nico, but he smiled without concern and shrugged, so clearly she hadn't done anything too bad.

...A fire pole came down, though the cabin didn't appear to have a second floor.

Will suppressed his deep annoyance at that revelation. It was a poorly kept secret that Cabin 9 kept all their best projects hidden away outside of the forge, though nobody had quite weaseled out where. He'd once tried to help Connor and Travis figure it out, the two claiming it was just so they could hopefully have some kids sleep there instead of tripping over them all day, but it had never gone anywhere. It had never occurred to them to start digging underneath the Hephaestus cabin! Probably for the better, the labyrinth would be a joke compared to how that might have ended.

...he could almost imagine he was back in his mom's machine shop...She would've loved this place.

Percy had never been jealous of anybody else's immortal parent, he'd come to a good medium with his dad at any rate. He took a breath though and felt a little jealous of all that, but more because he could have some fun playing with it all rather than putting it together. Beckendorf had been more than happy to come to him with the latest weed whacker to test it out, knowing Percy probably wouldn't die if a wire exploded from not being sautered right or something to that effect.

Leo being here was a good thing though, he could feel it in his gut. He didn't know why, or how, but he hoped Leo's zany little attitude would be the key to help the cabin get back in the right swing of things so he could be their test dummy again at least.

...Don't dwell on things. It was the only way to stay ahead of the sadness.

Leo got a good mix of pity and understanding looks for that, but neither was to his taste because it didn't come with Thalia throwing her arms around him and promising to love him and only him forever, so he just flipped his drawing over and began listing out all the schematics. Thankfully his handwriting was small, if erratic, because there was going to be a lot.

...What's the god of fire want with a weed whacker?"

A voice in the shadows said, "You'd be surprised."

"That war on tomatoes is apparently on the rise, you and Piper should make a killer team," Will grinned, before remembering Leo hadn't read the last chapter to get the joke.

He seemed happy to play along all the same as he asked, "Piper the daughter of that plant god? Are we getting zombie celery for dinner?"

"No, and no," Annabeth cut in with exhaustion.

...He looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy after a beat-down.

Jason snorted with laughter, then tried to poorly cover it as a sneeze. Leo at least grinned in appreciation, though nobody else had found it particularly funny when they'd seen him in person.

"At least the dragon didn't manage to cook him, he would have gotten all out of shape and been the Pillsbury Doughnut," Leo couldn't resist.

Percy's laugh sounded like it was smacked out of him and he muttered something about Blackjack, but Annabeth kept reading loudly over the bleak humor to stop anything else.

...The guy cracked a smile, then winced like it hurt to move his face.

"At least somebody tried to make him smile, I do tend to forget that part," Will lied kindly.

"Nurse Leo, at your service with smiley stickers," Leo shook his head as he said it though to make it very clear he was not actually volunteering.

Leo wondered what had happened to him, but he was afraid to ask.

He wouldn't like the answer either, Will fought off a wince with practice of how to control the bad news off his face he'd need someday. Dragons were never a great answer to any question.

"Couldn't your ambrosia and nectar stuff just, fix that?" Hazel asked in concern.

"We can't give it to him in large doses," Will kindly reminded. "You're hearing about this three days after it happened, when we've been nursing him on the godly food enough he's conscious. We'll keep giving him a little every day. I came and checked on him this morning and he was walking around on his own with only two casts now."

...I'm the head counselor for now."

"For now?" Leo asked.

Will Solace cleared his throat. "So where is everybody, Jake?"

"Subtle as a brick to the face my friend," Jason rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I could use a lesson or two on changing the subject from you, master of directness," Will sniffed.

"Don't over think it Leo," Percy ignored them. "Jake's been through a lot, never wanted to lead the cabin to begin with." He'd blamed himself a lot for the curse, talking about how he hadn't done enough for Beckendorf during the battle like all that didn't rest on Percy's shoulders and he'd been useless to try helping them with all this.

..."They're working on, you know, that problem."

"Oh." Will changed the subject. "So, you got a spare bed for Leo?"

Jason laughed hard, and Will sighed with no comeback that time.

...Don't talk to me about ghosts, doughboy.

"There's a chapter title somewhere in there about ghosts and the Pillsbury guy Alex would enjoy," Percy said with a wistful grin.

"I think the fact that Leo's clearly used to sleeping with ghosts is good enough to be getting on with," Nico said with flat disinterest. He knew he was a hypocrite for it, having spent all that time looking for a ghost only to dismiss Percy continuing to bring the two up, but gods did it just keep causing a sick feeling in him every time.

...I'll give you the best bed in the cabin—Beckendorf's."

Annabeth's voice shook with memories and horrors, of Silena screaming and Percy coming over that hill with Connor still letting them all know another friend wasn't coming back. "That's a great honor Leo," she told him quietly.

"Yeah, I got that," Leo sighed, already close to running out of room and blindly reaching for another page, the previous three of which were scratched out with wrong parts or calculations. Jake hadn't been subtle about wanting to give up his position to whoever wanted it, and he and Nyssa had been going back and forth on what to do with the dragon so much he was sure his half-siblings thought him an upstart brat coming in telling them what to do.

But he caught the look on Percy's face, being studied, sized up like so many kids who decided he was easy pickings and tried to tip him upside down and take whatever fell out of his pockets.

Percy nodded to himself though and gave his very obvious girlfriend a friendly smile and nod to keep going. It was oddly accepting. He was positive he didn't have Percy Jackson's whole hearted approval, but it didn't feel like he was going to be threatened with pressure to live up to some hero over this choice made for him either.

...Leo jumped right in and lay with arms behind his head. "I can handle this."

"Well guys, I don't think he's afraid of ghosts," Nico said mildly.

"Can't touch this," Leo said in a sing-song voice as if this were a great brag. He gave Thalia a wink, but she wasn't even looking.

... Will Solace protested. "You guys have private underground rooms?"

"Thank you!" Percy gestured at Will as he looked at Leo in a way that would have been terrifying if Percy really wasn't trying to hold back a laugh. "First Piper, now this!?"

"I didn't know about them either," Annabeth seemed much more casual about the secrets still to be undiscovered about her home, and she'd been here longer than anyone.

It seemed to appease him enough Leo stopped getting the stank eye from the most powerful not-god in camp anyways.

..."We got lots of secrets, Will. You Apollo guys can't have all the fun.

"But we try so hard," Will heaved a tragic sigh.

"Think the Hermes kids still got you beat, they have the most minds to brainstorm, even more than them," Thalia gestured at Annabeth.

"I'm surprised you don't have a brother named Jack, considering your dad could be a contender for jack of all trades, master of none," Annabeth smirked at Will.

"This is slander upon my brethren," Will sighed. "Where's Conner when I need him to be my shield for all the bad rep around here."

"Probably replacing all the toilet paper with seran-wrap or something. Want me to go fetch him?" Nico offered.

"Nah, he'd just throw me under the bus next," Will sighed for the great tragedy all this clearly was, but the jokes did help to ease away the nightmare image of the last time he'd seen his dad.

...Leo imagined saw blades coming through the mattress, or maybe a grenade sewn inside the pillows. "He didn't, like, die in this bed, did he?"

"I mean, one does not discount the other in this case," Thaila offered in a completely unhelpful tone of voice.

"I've found a good socket wrench, but no grenade's yet," Leo assured her he wasn't going anywhere.

"Let me know if you found his famous roll of duct tape, he always promised he could fix anything with that," Annabeth sighed.

"What's duct tape?" They heard Hazel try to whisper to Nico.

He whispered something back about being sticky as Annabeth loudly kept reading while Leo studied the last strange girl. She was slim and beautiful, with the sweetest smile on her face most of the time, but he was half convinced the way she kept staring at him was closer to how he'd look at Tia Callida than as anything interesting.

..."The Titan War, which has nothing to do with this very fine bed?"

"The Titans," Will said, like Leo was an idiot.

"Sorry," Will winced, he tried to avoid doing that, but being surrounded with those memories always made him a little sharper than an arrow.

"I forgive alternate reality you, still working on you you," Leo rolled his eyes. Nyssa and Jake had caught him up on this well enough.

...Their armies almost destroyed us. A lot of demigods died to stop them."

"You know Will, I'll give you back some tour guide points though for actually answering that so well, unlike some people," Percy told him to break out of Annabeth's ragged breath at the end. They'd relived that more than enough for one lifetime, thank you.

Will smiled in delight and Annabeth mock gasped and called him a traitor as he knew they would.

...he'd been on the run from another foster home. A truancy officer caught him in New Mexico,

Will swallowed the question of where he'd been heading. He'd assume back to Texas, but with the not so subtle hint his mom was dead, it might have just been, away. Leo had clearly opted for focusing all of his limited attention on his project without offering more, and he could respect that.

the court sentenced him to the nearest correctional facility— Wilderness School. "I was busy."

Percy seemed mildly cheered by that depressing information dump. "It's nice to hear I wasn't the center of everyone's tragedy."

"Next time you want to make freak storms happen and get me out of the next place, I'll call you," Leo assured.

"Don't worry Leo, no volcano's erupting to chase you out of here, promise," Percy said. And Leo found it oddly comforting, and believed him.

...imagining a dead counselor sitting there —another ghost who wasn't going to leave Leo alone.

"Cheerful, you're clearly in great company Jason," Thalia sighed. She obviously did not approve of him as future husband material, a bummer.

Jason didn't seem to mind though, he'd spent the entire time sizing Leo up, and now as he took the book, he didn't skip right past the next section as if he were the useless tag-along he'd assumed he'd be here.

HOOPJOHOOPJOHOOPJO

Alsox4, just to establish a new thing going forward for you guys, if a chapter's less than ten pages in my docs while editing, you bet your butt we're doing double updates throughout the week! Some of these are so insanely short and there's a lot to get through! Maybe less than fifteen pages, on Thursday's, if I'm having a good week.

Alsox5, in order of it being Valentine's Day, I am here to ask because it's been pointed out to me I haven't yet, what pairings would you want to see in this? I adhere to the canon only pairings for these reading series so as not to alienate my readers, but have neglected to actually ask what pairings you'd want to see? I really would love to have Jason/ Leo in this; as technically it's only fudging canon because Leo hasn't met Calypso yet and it's not like they're officially together when he rescues her at the end of the series... (and I will not be doing ToA while also acknowledging Piper/ Jason are a broken-up thing and won't bother getting them together in this because of those events.)

But don't think I'm getting crazy ideas about Everybody in this. Tell me your thoughts? You have until the end of Lost Hero, because if you guys want to see Valgrace, it'll be quite fun and interesting to really start implementing around Son of Neptune for, certain reason's I'm sure you can guess...