In A Trance

~Four~

"I know that face," Percy said, startling Leo. He was standing in the doorway of bunker nine, leaning on the frame with a slight frown on his face. "What's wrong?"

Leo turned, face lighting up red. "Oh, um. Nothing. Anything wrong with you?"

"Hey, it's okay," Percy said, taking Leo's hand in his own. "You can trust me, Leo. It's been you and me from the beginning, and it will be you and me till the end,"

Leo drifted his gaze to the floor, not meeting Percys eyes. "What if. . .what if there was another reality? One where it wasn't the two of us, where it was all different?"

"There's a reason the head god is Aphrodite. She's the goddess of love, and that's the strongest thing. Leo, I love you. Remember that,"

"Sometimes that's the problem," Leo said softly, his gaze still trained on the spot on the ground, nor meeting Percys sea green eyes.

Percy softly lifted Leo's chin, bringing it to where their gaze locked on each other's. Percy leaned in, kissing for a long moment before he pulled away.

"How big of a problem could it be when that felt so right?"

It didn't feel right. That was the problem. It was almost like a cloud was being lifted, his mind fully clear. Aphrodite. She did this. She made him do this.

But almost as quickly as the realization came, care about what happened left. The looked at Percy and felt something impale his chest, obviously metaphorically.

So what if Aphrodite made him love Percy? So what if he didn't have control over his own feelings? He had Percy Jackson, he had everything he needed.

Nothing could ruin that, much less himself.

Leo pushed him against a wall, kissing Percy passionately much like he had when he first 'fell in love'.

"See?" Percy asked. "I told you this was right. Now, wanna head back into camp?"

"Um wait!" Leo said, stopping Percy. "I can't afford to lose you, so I have to change something. Then I'll be done with these powers,"

"What powers?" Percy asked slowly, starting to get confused.

"Percy, look at me," Leo said, causing Percy to fall under a trance. Leo continued, "Okay, Perce. You love me. And every day that passes, your love for me only seems to grow. You do whatever I say, but you always think it's your free will. You never question me because you think I am great, and you only ever think of me,"

He snapped after that, watching as Percys eyes flashed pink before turning back to the sea green Leo was used to.

"Now to test it out," Leo muttered. "Percy? Um, don't you hate Piper McLean? Don't you want her dead?"

"My gods I do! She is so freaking annoying, just like Drew. Always messing with her makeup and making her look good or whatever. She knows she's never gonna be 'popular' or whatever, right?"

"Right," Leo smirked. "Now come on. Let's go back to camp,"