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When he could see again, Leo was standing on the Aphrodite table with Jason and Piper. It was the middle of dinner. Piper had one foot in someone’s pizza and Jason had knocked over someone else’s drink. Everyone in the dining pavilion was staring at them. After Leo had gotten over the initial shock of being thrown through darkness, he realized that he didn’t feel well. He jumped off the table, narrowly avoiding someone’s hand. Then he ran to the nearest bronze braiser. Out came the little food Leo had eaten that day. He almost smiled at the thought of how the Gods would react to the burnt offerings, especially Hera. 'Well it’s her fault,' Leo thought. He mentally directed the offering to her, hoping it would be unpleasant.
He turned around, expecting the worst, but luckily instead of everyone's attention on him, it was on Piper, who was trying to sum up their adventures quickly. It wasn’t working.
“How about we go to the amphitheater, and let Jason, Piper, and Leo tell us the full story?” Chiron suggested. There were murmurs of agreement throughout the campers. None of them seemed to realize that Leo had just thrown up. That was completely okay with him though, that wasn’t exactly something he wanted to be the center of attention for.
Everyone trudged down to the amphitheater. On the way Leo had to steady himself on Jason and Piper a few times. They probably thought that he was just tired. He wondered why they weren’t acting sick. Maybe it was because they weren’t. Jason, Piper, and Leo were instructed to stand on the stage, and tell the story of their quest. It was mainly Jason who told the story. Piper added in a few parts that Jason forgot. Leo stood off to the side posing heroically.
After what seemed like hours, Chiron finally decided to let the three of them go. Leo, Jason, and Piper walked to their cabins. Leo was tired, and so were Jason and Piper, but Leo thought that maybe being tired wasn’t the only thing wrong with him. By this time he knew should be fine, if he had motion sickness, but truthfully, he felt even worse. They first went to the Zeus cabin to drop off Jason.
“Leo, you okay?” Jason asked. Leo nodded and watched as Jason and Piper hugged.
'Ohh… my stomach,' Leo thought, internally groaning and turning away. Romance makes me feel worse.
Even though Leo should’ve walked Piper to her cabin, like a gentleman should, they went to Cabin 9 first. Piper probably noticed that something was off with him. Leo sucked it up, reminding himself that he was almost there. They finally got to the door, and Piper pulled Leo in for a quick hug, before wishing him goodnight.
After closing the door behind him, Leo gave way to his full exhaustion. “Bunk 1-A please,” he said. His voice sounded incredibly pathetic. He was glad everyone else was still at the campfire.
Bunk 1-A spiraled upwards and Leo stumbled over to his bed. He collapsed in it. He remembered Jake telling him that there was a room attached to it. He scanned the bed, and found a button on the right side of his head that said “down”. It was worth a shot.
Leo pressed the button and the bunk retracted into a room, it wasn’t a big room, but it was definitely not tiny. The first thing Leo noticed was the half finished projects strewn across the room. He was vaguely interested in them, but at this point he was too tired to really care. That was a project for later.
The second thing that he noticed was his lovely private bedroom did not include a bathroom. That was something he really needed right now. He wasn’t too keen on the idea of soiling his new bedroom the first night he got to enjoy it. He found the up button next to the down button and pressed that, reemerging into the cabin. He then fell out of the bed and focused on his goal: the bathroom.
As Leo stumbled through his cabin, he ran into Nyssa. “Leo, are you okay?” she asked.
Leo was surprised that Nyssa was here, but he figured she just skipped the campfire. Leo barely acknowledged Nyssa’s question, he was focused on getting to the bathroom. Once there, Leo locked himself in the stall farthest from the entrance and threw up. This time Leo wasn’t sure what he was letting out. Hopefully it wasn’t his guts. He had a feeling that if he were to go on another mission with Jason and Piper, he would need them.
Once Leo thought he was done he started to turn around but he just threw up again. By now he was annoyed. Will I ever stop? He decided that next time he felt like throwing up, he would just swallow it.
Yeah, easier said than done. As Leo attempted to crawl out of the stall (he no longer tried to walk, it just made him feel worse) he fell flat on his face and threw up all over the floor. Leo looked up to see all of his half brothers staring at him. Apparently they had come back from the campfire.
Suddenly, Nyssa ran in, and helped him up. “I talked to Piper,” she said, ignoring everyone else. “I guess you got the worst of Hera’s wrath. She must’ve done some godly-travel-something. It’s meant for gods, so most demigods can’t cope with it.” Looking at Leo, Nyssa must’ve decided that he was embarrassed. “Don’t worry, Piper and Jason both felt sick, too.”
Leo wasn’t actually embarrassed, he felt too sick at the moment to think about what anyone else thought of him, but he was glad he wasn’t the only one that felt bad. 'That still doesn't explain the severity of my reaction,' Leo thought, but he didn’t dwell on it.
“Come on Leo, let’s get you cleaned up.” Somehow Nyssa managed to get Leo showered, changed, and into bed. Leo was half asleep the whole time, and wasn’t paying much attention, but he hoped that Nyssa had some help from boys.
He didn’t bother trying to retract into the room this time, he just wanted sleep. Just as Leo was about to drift to sleep, he felt nauseous again. Luckily, at almost the same time, Nyssa came over to his bed with a bucket. 'Probably so she doesn't have to help me to the bathroom and back all night,' Leo thought. He threw up over the side of his bed, aiming for the bucket, but missed completely. Instead of going in the bucket, it went all over Nyssa. 'So much for swallowing,' Leo thought.
“Tomorrow, you're going to the infirmary,” she told Leo. As she was walking away, she handed him the bucket. “Try not to get it on anyone else.”
Leo dropped the bucket Nyssa had handed him. 'Apparently that’s what happens when you throw up all the food previously in your body,' Leo thought. Luckily there was a hook on the side of his bed that it fell on. He had no idea how it got there, but this was the Hephaestus cabin. Maybe these bunks are magical and anything appears when it needs to or when someone asks it to, like my tool belt. Or maybe someone put it there on purpose, and I just didn’t realize it. As he pondered this, Leo slowly lost consciousness, and fell fast asleep.
The next morning Leo awoke to his fellow campers quietly hustling through the door. For a second he wondered where he was. Then everything came rushing back to him, including the night before. Leo felt very self conscious and even blushed, though he knew no one could see him. Deciding to put this thought aside, he sat up quickly. Leo regretted it almost immediately, feeling a terrible headache. He wanted to just lie down and go back to sleep. Knowing that wouldn’t do anyone much good, Leo tried to shake the look of pain off his face, but it made his head hurt even more. At least the only pain he felt in his stomach was that of hunger. He decided that hunger was the cause of his headache too, and that he would ignore it. Unless it still hurt tomorrow.
“Hey guys! Where are you going without me?” Leo asked, mustering up the courage and fake optimism to face his siblings (at least Leo thought they were his siblings, the whole demigod thing was still confusing).
Nyssa spun around, surprised. It appeared she was the last one out of the cabin. Leo wondered if they would’ve just left him there alone, to wake up abandoned.
“Leo!” Nyssa cried. “Are you feeling alright?” Leo didn’t say anything. He just looked at Nyssa, silently demanding an explanation. She got the point. “I told them not to wake you up and to go to breakfast without you. I was going to stay behind and let you sleep as long as you wanted. Then if you still felt bad, I was going to take you to the infirmary. Actually I was going to take you there anyway. So how do you feel?” she asked.
Leo looked at Nyssa thoughtfully. Does she really care that much about me? Does she like me? Wait no she’s my sister, I think. Leo shook himself out of his daydream, which once again made his head pound. “Well, I have a terrible headache, but other than that the only pain I feel right now is hunger pain, so I guess compared to last night, pretty good.” Leo confessed.
“You had it real tough, Leo. I fed you some ambrosia last night, after you had gone to sleep. It should’ve woken you up, but it didn’t. Hera must’ve intentionally made it hard on you.” Nyssa explained.
“ I guess she just wants to reclaim her place as my evil babysitter,” Leo said sarcastically.
“Excuse me?” Nyssa asked.
“Long story. So I sorta um let go of all the food previously in my body,” Leo said awkwardly. Nyssa raised an eyebrow. “Yeah sorry about that, so back to food, I’m hungry!”
“Lucky for you, we were early. Now get ready quickly, that is if you can walk,” Nyssa said.
Leo climbed out of his bed slowly, and cautiously put his feet on the floor. It took more effort than usual to walk, because he had thrown up so much, but Leo didn’t let it bother him. As soon as I get some food, I’ll be back to normal, Leo assured himself. Leo got ready fairly quickly, occasionally wincing at the pain in his head. “I can’t believe I can ride a flying mechanical fire breathing dragon, fight giants and cyclops, and survive and conjure fire, but I can’t fly through space and time.” Leo mumbled.
“What were the last two ones, Leo?” Nyssa asked from across the cabin.
“Nothing,” Leo said. He decided that if he still felt ok (as in nothing got worse) in the afternoon, that he would show his siblings and Jason and Piper his discovery in the woods. After about a few more minutes, Leo emerged from the bathroom. He was crawling feebly and his face was pale.
“Holy Hephaestus! Leo!” she ran over to Leo and picked him up.
What Nyssa didn’t know is that Leo was faking. He had held his breath to make his face pale. And as for the crawling, anyone could do that. 'Huh, she’s as strong as she looks,' Leo thought leaning on her, as she brought him to his bed. Just as she was about to help him into it, Leo rolled out of her grasp and started laughing. “Hey, next time not so fast, my head still hurts.”
She started laughing too, but Leo could tell she didn’t think he was entirely acting. “Ok let’s go.” she said.
As they walked to breakfast, Leo could feel himself getting weaker. He didn’t think humans were meant to be very long without food, and come to think of it, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had water either. Nyssa occasionally stopped to let Leo catch up with her. Leo also realized that she had not been using her usual gruff manner. Leo had no idea why. When Nyssa and Leo reached the eating area, they found that even after all the time that had passed, they were still on time. Looking around, Leo saw Jason who looked a bit lonely, sitting all by himself, so he decided to sit with him, ignoring the rule about not sitting at another table. Leo figured that if he were caught, he could just say he didn’t know. Afterall, he was new here. “Hey,” Leo said “Where’s Piper?”
Jason didn’t answer his question. “Leo, are you ok? I didn’t think that you would be at breakfast, after last night…”
Leo cut him off. “Did I really look that bad?” he asked. He acted very concerned for his reputation. He was acting because he already knew it was ruined.
Jason studied Leo closely. “Yeah you're fine.” he said. They both laughed.