Sea Green Eyes

Trials of Apollo - Part Seven

The demigods had taken numbers.

Nico commandeered a dispenser from the snack bar and carried it around, yelling, "The line starts to the left! Orderly queue, guys!"

"Is this really necessary?" Leo asked.

"Yes," said Miranda Gardiner, who had drawn the first number. She punched Leo in the arm.

"Ow," said Leo.

"You're a jerk, and we all hate you," said Miranda. Then she hugged him and kissed his cheek. "If you ever disappear like that again, we'll line up to kill you."

"Okay, okay!"

That had been nothing compared to the people who actually greeted him first when Festus had landed.

Percy had pulled him into a bro-hug as he said how happy he was that he was back and that he had really done it and that everyone was ok.

And then he'd wisely moved out of the way as a crying Cressida had faced her friend.

"Hola, Hermana," Leo had greeted with a grin and Cressida's eyes had just narrowed at him before she slugged him in the face. "OW!" he cried out as he spat blood out of his mouth from where he'd bitten his cheek and staggered backward. "Ok, that was uncalled for and did you get stronger or something, Hollywood? Because that hurt more than I remember."

"What is the deal with all the men in my life only saying hi after I thought they were dead for an extended period of time?!" she exclaimed with an angry look at Percy who gave her a guilty smile before she crashed into Leo in a hug. "It's good to have you home, Houston," she said in Spanish as she trembled in his arms and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"It's good to be home," he replied.

"I promise you though, if you ever pull shit like this again, I will kill you. And you know I keep my promises."

Leo chuckled at the threat that no one else could understand but that they were pretty sure was a threat because that was what Cressida did to the people she cared about. "I don't doubt that."

Their reunion was cut a little short as the rest of the camp tried to mob the hero that defeated Gaia.

Percy placed a hand on Cressida's back as he escorted her over to the picnic tables, handing her a tissue to wipe her face with before Apollo joined them and they watched the camp embrace one of their own.

Percy and Calypso had hugged awkwardly when they first saw each other and the sorceress didn't seem particularly interested in meeting Cressida, the girl who had taken the heart of one of her supposed saviours. And Cressida doubted that Calypso was a fan of the way she'd kissed Leo's cheek.

Cressida understood though. She didn't resent Calypso for that. She also didn't blame her for the curse Cressida suffered in Tartarus because if there was one thing that she understood, it was being abandoned.

And she didn't feel insecure about the gorgeous girl's arrival. She was secure in her relationship and she was happy for Leo to have found his happiness as well.

It did take a long time for her to get here though. Calypso had been the topic of one of their many discussions when they had started dating and went to work through everything they needed to before Castor died. And for this moment it had been worth it.

And when Leo was still getting loved and abused by the camp, Percy hugged Leo again and still, he didn't punch him, but he still looked a little disgruntled.

"I can't believe it," he said. "Six months—"

"I told you," Leo said. "We tried sending more holographic scrolls. We tried Iris messages, dream visions, phone calls. Nothing worked.—Ow! Hey, Alice, how you doing?—Anyway, we ran into one crisis after another."