Chapter Text
Leo and his husband had happily agreed to watch after their goddaughter while her fathers were busy doing whatever it is that they do. Will was apparently put on double duty at the hospital because of understaffing and Nico had been called to handle a strange “monster-demigod” situation out near New Mexico. Leo didn’t know any details, which was only slightly less than Nico’s knowledge of the problem.
Truly, Leo didn’t care much about the specifics of Nico’s current mission. All he knew is that Nico had handled worse and would be safe, and that he got to look after his goddaughter for almost a whole week. He was astatic, and so was Jason (just with my actual static and less jumping with joy).
When Katie had finally walked into the Waystation, bag full of clothes and other necessities she may need over the week, Leo sprung to the door in sync with the silvery spring he had been fidgeting with just a moment before. The Moms had already welcomed her in, taking her bag off to the room Katie stayed in whenever she had to stay for nights. Leo rushed behind and hugged her tightly as she paced around the kitchen.
She squeaked before huffing a laugh at the realization that it was just Uncle Leo. She rolled her eyes in makeshift annoyance, something she had probably seen from Nico, and quickly tackled him in return with a smile, something she had picked up from Leo.
Something a few rooms over fell and Jason quickly appeared from the room opposite of the sound, looking around like a dog after hearing something you couldn’t. It was almost cartoonish, only his head could be seen pop out from behind the wall, eyes wide as he glanced in every direction.
He only paused and stepped out from behind the wall fully when his eyes rested on Katie and Leo, the two had gone back to playfully throwing each other around the room. Jason sighed and smiled, walking over and pulling the two apart like two stray cats in a street fight.
“Leave her alone Love. C’mere Katie.” Jason jokingly scolded at Leo, staring down at his lover with his arms opened for Katie to hug him back. Katie did just that, not as intense and violent as she had with Leo but still full of love.
Leo sighed and smiled, patting the top of Katie’s head and looking to the room from early. It was empty, maybe the Waystation had knocked something? He made a mental note to figure it out later. First, to get Katie situated for her weeklong stay.
—— •• ! •• ——
Katie was drawing in a separate room, Leo and Calypso working on a shared project they had been procrastinating on for weeks, they being Leo. Jason was off in his office doing some godly paperwork, Katie having to physically push him out of the room at his procrastination, claiming that she could survive on her own in the living of the Waystation. These procrastinating, overprotective dads, gods.
So there Katie was, drawing away at whatever came to mind. Every other drawing turned quickly into the swamp where had seen her father.. she quickly shoved those drawing behind her and scribbled something onto the next page to replace it. Strangely enough, she found herself drawing a lot of mushrooms today.
Fairly good mushrooms, a few accompanied by an olive-skinned, shaggy haired, figure who appeared to be a repetitive feature in her drawings as of late. Looking at the drawings, she noticed the figure more and more in the other scribbles, even the memories of.. her bio-father. The figure soon appeared everywhere.
What the fuck? Katie was accustomed to the strange, but this felt different. It’s not everyday that you accidentally draw the same guy over and over again without even realizing it. And she had never seen him before. He looked ancient.
Not in an age way, he physically looked.. 28? Where did she get that number from? This was too weird. Nope, nuh uh. She doesn’t have the time for this shit. This is Papa Nico and Uncle Jase type stuff.
So she got up, all of those drawings in hand, and ventured through the Waystation to go find Jason. Luckily, the Waystation had it easy for her to find. She walked up to the room, opening the door silently and peeked in.
The room was large, or at least tall. Uncle Jase was turned away from the door, zoned into the papers in front of him. Not for long, she closed the door behind her and purposefully knocked on it as it closed. The blond’s head swiveled, calming almost instantly as his eyes rested on his goddaughter. (Hehe. God daughter-)
“Hey Kate, c’mere. You alright?” He gestured for her, smiling gently. She walked closer to him, placing the drawing on his desk and turning to him. He started down at them concerned for a moment. He slowly looked at her, a clear confusion in his expression.
“You- What do you..” He paused for a moment before turning back to the drawings and, after Katie had nodded at him, began to sift through the drawings. He didn’t know exactly how to gather his thoughts or what she needed, so he stayed quiet and inspected the art. He stared at it closely, as if it were just as important (if not more so) as every official godly document that comes to his desk.
After a few moments Katie put her hand on the drawing Jason was holding. Pointing to the shadow behind a tree. She was staring between Jason and the figure, a stern and confused look on her silent face. Jason looked at the drawing again, trying to make out what in the shadows was so important.
“Who is that?” Jason looked over immediately at the quiet voice to his side, Katie had a tight face, eyebrows pinched and jaw tense. She pointed at the shadow again.
“What do you mean, Katie?” Jason looked at the drawing again, pushing his glasses up on his face and squinting his eyes at the paper. The black scribble was just that, a black scribble. Hints of red and brown in an arrow shape? No, not arrow. Mushroom?
Jason tilted his head and opened his eyes wider, staring at it with a curious blank face. A mushroom the size of in-drawing Katie hiding in the shadow. And Katie was asking him about it? Why would he know anything about a shadow mushroom?
She pointed again, more violently. The paper made a small crinkling sound as she stared at it intensely. “That. He.” She poked at the blacked out mushroom again. He?
“Katie.. I don’t see any person.” Jason mumbled, looking over the other drawings underneath it to see if the other ones had something similar. And they did. All kinds of mushrooms, hiding in the corner or in a shadow or next to Katie. Or Leo.
Leo? Jason put down the drawing he had been holding, picking up a new one. It was a moment Jason never thought he would see again. A moment Katie had never heard of. A memory before.
It was Leo, during their time on the Argo II. It was one of the days he had cooked breakfast for them on the ship, it had Nico and Piper and all of the others. And another mushroom, multiple mushrooms. And a brown scribble next to Leo. It seemed faded, as if the color was made thousands of years ago and not just a few minutes.
The spot seemed to get older the longer he looked at it, not the paper but the color itself. It seemed to disappear the longer he looked. Who is that?
Nope. This is a “everything or nothing” situation. This had god written all over it and Jason would not let the gods do anything to his goddaughter. Nuh uh, no way.
Katie seemed to realize that Jason had finally saw something. She pointed at the entire paper and nodded. “That. Who?”
Jason didn’t have an answer.