So tonight I will be posting 16 stories because yesterday I turned 16 and why not. Some are romantic, some are more light and humorous and silly, some are weird, some are common pairings... Bear with me! This one starts off the rounds. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Festus or Leo.

Dedication: Isaac, my newt

Animal Behaviour

Festus couldn't talk, even after Leo had completely restored him after the War with Gaia and promotted him to a shiny-armoured, fully functional and smooth-working dragon. That was something that Leo just couldn't figure out how to plug into the dragon's mechanical brain, but there were other ways that Festus could communicate, of course.

Like a kangaroo

Leo was working in Bunker 9 while he should have been making nice with his nasty Roman siblings. Festus was lounging in the hangar's large door, sunning his bronze body. It ws quiet. It was nice. There was even a breeze- imagine that! When suddenly Festus jumped up. He smacked his hind legs together.

"Is there trouble, buddy?" Leo said turning around. People had been coming in and out of Bunker 9 all of last year, and making weird noises and swearing loudly while they were inside building the Argo II, but every now and then a monster would wander out of the woods and come at him -usually a rabid or lonely one, which didn't help their cause. Leo armed himself with the biggest hammer within his reach. Ten seconds later Piper walked in.

"Oh Styx!" Leo yelled.

"Leo, get back to camp and socialise!" She said.

Like a newt

"Okay Festus, time for a bath, boy," Leo said.

Festus turned around and froze, eyes on Leo like you're kidding me.

"I promise it'll be better than last time. As long as you promise not to move. Then I won't get water into your wiring. Maybe."

Festus' tail fanned, curling and uncurling itself like a hook.

"Oh, grow up and stop stressing," Leo said. "Get over here you big dope, I've got the big hose ready for ya."

Like a dog

Festus dropped an entire tree in front of Leo who had to scramble back to avoid eating a mouthful of leaves.

The dragon backed off and stretched his front paws out in front of him and lowered his body. His tail wagged. He wanted to play.

"Good idea boy," Leo said. "How about you go find something that I can actually throw for you though?"

Like a bull

Camp Half-Blood had been very (and surprisingly) gracious by being cool with the four ton mechanical dragon that Leo was keeping around, so Leo couldn't be difficult when they asked him to train Festus to attack other monsters.

Between two trees, Leo unfolded a tarp on which he'd painted -to the best of his artistic abilities- a dracanae. He sat in a branch and yelled out;

"Get 'er Festus! She's bad! Hear that? Bad snake lady! Come get her!"

Festus' back legs scratched against the ground before he charged the tarp, roaring.

Like a dolphin

"Sorry boy," Leo said screwing a new eye into Festus' socket. "I hadn't realised your eyes were burnt out… I didn't even notice that you weren't seeing well…"

"Yeah, why was that?" Annabeth asked. "That's strange… He uses the same eyes to see in the dark as in daylight, right? There's no backup system?"

"No," Leo said. He finished screwing the eye in and backed off, tucking the wrench back into his toolbelt. Festus moaned, relieved, and Leo climbed down from the ladder.

"When I go see my dad, some of the animals down there don't actually see, they echo locate. Like, dolphins and stuff. Does Festus have a melon?" Percy asked.

"A what now?"

"A melon. A thing for echo location..?"

"Actually, Seaweed Brain is right," Annabeth said. "If you got his skull X-rayed or showed us some plans, we could probably tell…"

Leo turned to look at Festus in shock. "Buddy, can you echo locate? Have you been holding out on me?"

Festus moaned like 'I dunno'.

Like a ferret

"Open 'em up, boy," Leo said.

Festus' ruby eyes shot open and he looked left and right eagerly.

"Where is it?" Leo asked. "Where did I hide it, boy?"

Festus bounced off, nearly crushing an entire cabin, and went in search of his missing toy. Leo followed him, running after the giant bronze automaton as he looked frantically. Finally he found the toy that Leo had quickly told Jason to hide on the Big House's roof- it was an entire table sheated with bronze that Nyssa had tied jingle bells to.

Festus dropped it on the ground and launched himself into a celebration dance involving a series of frenzy hops -forwards and backwards- an arched back and a flying tail.

Leo had no idea where this victory dance came from, but he killed himself every time. Immediately after Festus leaned down towards him, because he knew that Leo would scratch him behind the ears and say, "You silly boy… want to play another round?"

Like an elephant

A newbie walked into the arena, freaked out, and accidentally killed Mrs. O'Leary who'd been tied up in there for an afternoon of sunning and playing fetch with some of the Cabin 6 kids who were studying animal behaviour or whatnot.

Festus came to the honorary funeral- there was no body to burn since the hellhound had turned back to dust, but the camp had burned a blue shroud covered in ancient Greek deltas. He stood around and scratched at the ground, head lowered, eyes dimmed and making sad whizzing sounds periodically.

"I know you're sad, boy," Leo said petting his friend on the paw. "You lost a buddy to play with... but don't worry, Festus. I've got your back, okay?"

Festus made a sound like Chewbacca and Leo petted his head. One of the Athena kids who'd been with Mrs O'Leary when she'd gotten slain, Malcolm, smiled sadly at Leo.

"You know, it's quite remarkable," he said.

"What is?" Leo asked.

"That your dragon has developped animal behaviours similar to others," Malcolm said. "Hellhounds are -I mean, were- my prime focus, but I've been watching him too. I've seen him execute behaviours similar to paddletail newts, dogs, bulls, the weasel war dance, and here he is mourning like an elephant…"

"The weasel war dance?" Leo asked, grinning.

Malcolm shot him a look.

"My point is that Festus acts very natural for an automaton. Is he programmed that way?"

"I… No, he isn't," Leo said. "He's just very… well trained?"

"I think it's more than that," Malcolm said. "I think Festus has feelings- most automatons don't. Other than pure rage, of course."

"Of course he does," Leo said. "He's my friend."

And to back him up, Festus snuggled into the spot between Leo's shoulderblades.