A/N: I have no idea where this came from, but I kind of like where it went. I was trying to think of something to write for Jenifer Cullen, because she posted such an uplifting review to my story Arachnophobia :D, and it suddenly hit me. Why not write something about all the ships on the Argo II?
(See what I did there? No? Never mind.)
So Jenifer Cullen, it's not exactly what you wanted (I think) but here you go :)
"Pipes?"
"Jason? What are you doing out at night? It isn't your watch." Piper's face came into view as the minimal light glinted off Katoptris. Colours swam across the kaleidoscope of her eyes.
Jason shrugged. "I thought I'd keep you company. Percy's room is right next to mine and Annabeth feels a lot more comfortable sneaking into his room without me less than fifteen feet away. They think they're so good at evading capture, when Percy is just as agile and quiet as a wild boar. Hedge has just been turning a blind eye to whatever's been going on."
Piper's eyes bugged out. "Percy and Annabeth haven't..."
He chuckled. "Not that I've heard. I think they just need to sleep next to each other to get over Tarturus." His arms encircled her waist and she nodded, sighing in contentment as she leaned back against him.
"Do you think people actually get over seeing...what they have? Jason, they went to Tarturus."
He rested his cheek against her the top of her head. "I don't know, Pipes. They...I don't know. They're demigods. It happens."
"I know, but Tarturus?! The Gods must really hate them."
"Piper, you're getting worked up. Calm down." He started rubbing circles with his thumbs against her waist, and Piper leaned into the contact. She felt like they didn't get a moment alone at all these days, and she relished whatever little of Jason she got.
"Do you think they've said that they love each other yet?"
He snorted. "Pipes, you're starting to sound like your mom. And no, I don't think so. I've heard Percy muttering things to Annabeth since they came back, and it's mostly things like 'We're okay,' or 'We're safe,' or 'We're alive,'. Everyone knows the two of them are in love with each other - heck, even Coach Hedge's admitted it - but I don't think they're read to take that step just yet."
"Hm." She smiled, and nestled herself further into Jason's embrace.
"Let's not talk about other couples now, yeah?" Jason told her. "Most of my time is taken up with making sure Leo doesn't blow himself up or that Percy and Annabeth are still sane or keeping watch throughout the night or sleeping. I haven't seen you in a while."
She hummed in response. Jason frowned and tickled her. She squirmed.
"Pipes, you know I hate it when you do that. I can never tell what you're trying to say."
She laughed. "That's the point, Sparky."
He rolled his eyes. "Beauty Queen." He replied pointedly.
"You're such a child, you know that?" Piper told him, unwinding one of his arms to rest more comfortably on his waist.
"You started it."
She stuck her tongue out and settled down against him, watching the inky black darkness dotted with stars. Jason dropped a light kiss to her forehead.
Annabeth tiptoed quietly across the hallway to where the boys' rooms where. She'd seen Jason leave about fifteen minutes ago, and once again thanked him in her head for leaving his dorm. Without having to use any light, she eased open the third door from the left and glided in noiselessly. Percy was having violent spasms and crying out, reaching upwards with his hands. She quickly crossed the room and took them, massaging his palms. He awoke with a start and looked around blearily.
"Another one?" She asked him. He nodded, and fell back on the pillow, shifting over to make space for her. She crawled into the slight depression his body had made in the mattress and snuggled into his side. His arm curled around her waist. She felt safe. Loved.
"Does it ever get easier, Wise Girl?" He asked her, breaking down and turning over on his side to nuzzle against her neck. She pulled him against her, even thought he weighed a decidedly heavier amount than she did.
Her heart broke. She was a daughter of Athena. She was supposed to know all the answers. She was supposed to have a plan for everything, a well-thought out decision and logical reasoning to the right answer. Except this time, for this one teensy little question, she didn't.
"I don't know, Seaweed Brain." She mumbled softly, stroking strands of his hair away from his forehead.
"Hera really hates us." He laughed bitterly, without any real amusement. "Here we are on a flying ship, sailing to certain death with only five other demigod accomplices and one crazy, bloodthirsty satyr."
Percy did have a flair for outlining things in the most pessimistic way possible.
"Actually, scratch that." He added a minute later. "Coach Hedge left with Nico and Reyna already. So it's just five demigod accomplices. Two of whom have been possessed."
"You know, it wasn't just Leo and Jason, Percy. You were possessed too." She reprimanded him softly. He buried his nose deeper into her neck and tangled his legs with hers.
"That knowledge is the bit that hurts me the most. Me, the son of one of the supposedly most powerful gods possessed by a simple spirit?"
"It sounds ridiculous when you put it like that." Annabeth admitted. "But Jason is the son of Zeu-Jupiter, and he was possessed too. I still owe Piper for saving you both. Even if I'm not happy she charmspoke Blackjack to bonk you on your head."
He raised his head to look at her. His eyes glinted with a sudden mirth.
"Did you just use the word 'bonk'?" He asked, teasing her.
"So what if I did?" She defended herself hotly.
He chuckled, then laid his head back down on her chest. "Nothing. I just never thought I'd see the day when an intelligently superior daughter of Athena used the word 'bonk' in one of her sentences."
She blushed, then slapped his arm lightly.
"Don't be a moron."
"I love you, Wise Girl. You know that, right?" He asked her suddenly.
She blushed. "I know, Percy. I love you too. Go to sleep."
And he did.
Hazel tossed and turned in her bed.
She tried sleeping on her stomach.
Nothing.
She huffed in annoyance and pulled the pillow over her head, dangling her legs off the bed.
Nothing.
She felt the slight tremors in her bedroom floor as Annabeth moved across the hallway of the bedrooms on the Argo II, and she knew Jason and Piper were probably together too. She sighed.
She wished she could go into Frank's room the way Annabeth easily glided into Percy's. She wished she had the courage to approach him and keep him company during his long watches. She wished that he unashamedly kissed her in the middle of meetings just to prove he loved her.
Her face inflamed. Okay, not the kissing part. But definitely the other parts.
She lay in the bed for a few more minutes before rolling over with a resigned sigh, knowing that she wouldn't get any sleep.
Unless...
She blushed again in the darkness at the just the thought.
She knew she wanted to go, she just didn't know what he would think.
Squashing her desire, she curled into a ball under the blankets and hoped to fall asleep.
It didn't happen.
Resigning herself to the inevitable, she slipped on a more modest pair of trackpants and a t-shirt before quietly sneaking off to Frank's room. The door creaked as it opened, causing Hazel to stiffen for a minute.
_
Frank knew she was coming before she opened the door. She was the only one who made noise, who didn't know where the creaky floorboards of the Argo II were. She always made a little noise walking around during the night. He smiled and turned around, glad he didn't change into Bulldog Frank to sleep tonight. He'd had a feeling she would come. Bulldog Frank made too much drool and mess on the bed and floor.
A coffee bean colored foot appeared cautiously and gently applied pressure to the floorboard right across the threshold of his room. Hearing no sound, it relaxed, putting it's entire weight before another foot joined it, accompanied by black trackpants, a yellow t-shirt and dark frizzy hair.
Hazel closed his door softly and warily navigated the obstacle course the others called Frank's room. He bit the inside of his cheek. He didn't think to clean up before he slept.
"Frank?" She asked, the whisper carrying across the room. "Are you awake?"
He rolled over on the bed form where he was lying facing the wall. "Yeah, Haze. I'm up. What are you doing in here?"
He could see her blush even in the darkness. She shifted uncomfortably on her feet before opening her mouth to answer.
"Wait, never mind." He cut her off. "Did you want something?"
She nodded with the most scarlet face he'd ever seen on her.
"Lemme guess." He shifted slightly, and patted the part of the bed he wasn't using. "Am I right?"
She blushed even more. "I couldn't sleep." She admitted, sitting on the edge of the bed.
He snorted. "Hazel, I meant to ask you if you wanted to sleep next to me."
"Oh." Her voice was an octave higher. Rolling his eyes, he hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her down. She shrieked softly, but not loud enough to hear.
"Frank!"
He rolled his eyes again. "Hazel, go to sleep. I'll put you in your room before the others wake up, if you're afraid of the others finding us." Frank wheedled. He really, really wanted her to stay. It would make his nightmares go away too. "Plus I'll sleep better."
"Such a manipulative iguana." She teased, the catch still in her voice. She cleared her throat before bravely snuggling into his side.
"Hey!" He protested softly, wrapping both arms around her. She giggled lightly.
"You deserved it." She admonished, stiffening when she felt his lips on her hair.
"Sleep." He told her. "You need it. It's your watch tomorrow."
She nodded. Already, he could see her eyelids beginning to droop. Hazel yawned in the most unladylike manner (she would've been mortified if she knew) and closed her eyes, soon drifting off to sleep.
Down in the engine room of the Argo II, Leo sat hunched over a sheaf of papers and a map, a crystal lolling at his side and grease covering his face. He chewed on his pen as his eyes moved down the paper. Suddenly, he emitted an exasperated sigh and crumpled the papers up, tossing them away to join the other wrinkled balls of paper rolling across the floor.
He was tired.
This had been his routine since Ogygia. Calculate, research, get it right, find out some more information that made a part of his calculations and research wrong, crumple up it up, and go back to the drawing board. Night after night after night he sat and worked to figure out a way to get back to Ogygia, to add more gadgets to Festus, although those projects had taken a backseat now. Night after night after night he snuck out to get some more coffee, which helped him stay on his feet.
Seven days, six hours and twenty-three minutes. A robotic voice issued softly from around him. He's programmed Festus to recite the time in minutes after he was found by the crew. But he still didn't know how long he was on Ogygia.
His eyelids drooped.
Berating himself, he scrambled upright and began to redo his calculations. He checked his map, trying to see if his answer matched up with the probable locations of Ogygia he'd circled in red, and groaned when he saw it way off mark.
He yawned.
Leo doubled his efforts to find the island and his crazy sunshine girl. The letters and numbers and symbols on his paper began to jumble together until they made no sense to him.
He rubbed his eyes.
Maybe forty winks wouldn't hurt. Even though he hated himself for taking a break.
"Festus." He called sleepily, admitting that all he wanted to do right now was curl up in a ball and sleep.
A whirring sound answered him.
Yawning widely, he almost didn't get the words out. "Wake me up at ten tomorrow, 'kay?"
A whirring sound confirmed it again.
Leo collapsed on the littered floor, pulling the crystal to his thin chest.
"I promise I'm doing my best to find you, Calypso." He muttered to the air. "I'm just taking a short break."
He would find her. He promised. Soon enough he'd have her next to him sarcastically insulting the grease spots on his face and his total lack of personal hygiene.
But for now, he would dream.
He would dream of the smells of the spices form her island.
He would dream of the wet dirt beneath his bare toes.
He would dream of her red dress and mud-flecked white blouse and jeans.
But most of all, he would dream of her.
A/N: *charmspeaks* I command you to read, review, favourite the story and me and follow me too.
Gah. Too bad I'm more of a daughter of Zeus XD.
MIMI OUT!