Work Text:
ONE MORE DAY
Leo experienced the worst 18th birthday ever.
For the first time in a long while he was sleeping in his own bunk in Cabin Nine. Everyone had got up and started the day without waking him up, so he was alone. Without the bustle of machines whirling, chainsaws revving, or even hammer hitting steel, the cabin was eerily quiet. Some camp counselor he was, oversleeping until 1pm.
But that was okay because Piper was a pleasant surprise. He woke up to her soothing but playful voice. "Happy birthday," She beamed down on him. "I've got a big day for you, my Repair Boy."
They spent the rest of the afternoon together. Piper took him for long walks, regaling him tales of her first year in college, catching up on anything new. They did things Leo enjoyed that wasn't tinkering or building, which wasn't a lot. The first time, it didn't occur to him that it was Piper's job was to distract him away from Bunker Nine. He was just happy to spend time with her, especially after a year apart. Not to say they didn't see each other at all, they visited across states. They haven't been in a situation where they were around each other constantly, like the old times.
He enjoyed her company throughout the day, but his mind was somewhere else, he thought about his upcoming projects, his unsuccessful college applications, his failed first relationship and doomed prospects of his romantic life. He dreaded the end of summer, dreaded going back to the Waystation and confront his failures in the mirror.
Piper took a call in private when they walked down on the beach, collecting seashells, passing the time together. She smiled apologetically as she put her phone against her ear and walked frantically at a distance. Leo kicked sand and stared at the sea, a nagging sensation felt at the back of his mind.
But she didn't return. She ended the call, ran to the woods and disappeared without telling Leo where she was going. He noticed her absence too late, and searched for her at the shore line, and then into the forest after dusk.
And then an explosion set Bunker Nine ablaze at arrival of the night. Most of the campers inside evacuated just in time. All but one. Leo followed the trail of black of smoke and rushed inside, fear gripping his heart. Nymphs, dryads, and satyrs have carried water buckets and threw them inside. Percy himself had summoned the tide all the way from the beach to quell the dancing flames escaping from the bunker's entrance and into the forest proper.
The efforts didn't matter. Deep into the bowels of the bunker, Leo held his best friend in his arms, soot covered her face and hair, unmoving and unblinking. He rocked her, trying to wake her up, but her warm body was deceptive; she was limp and had stopped breathing.
Leo's entire world ended right then and there, but he woke up again, in that same early afternoon, with Piper hovering over him with a sweet, sweet smile, about to tell him the agenda of his birthday.
###
Leo did everything he could to stop the blaze.
In the first loop, he thought it was all a nightmare, but everything played out the same way as it did.
The second loop, he tried warning Piper, tried to tell her that there was gonna be an accident. He saw in Piper's eyes that she really wanted to believe him, but she wouldn't let him go, even used her Charmspeak on him to calm him down. "You're tense, stressed," she urged. "This isn't like you."
The third loop, he tried to run to Bunker Nine, and he needed to be there to prevent whatever it was they were planning. She charmed Leo to stop running, both his feet feeling like weighted cement blocks attached to his legs.
"What is happening in my bunker?" Leo demanded, in the fourth loop. He felt bad cornering her like this. "Why aren't you letting me go?"
"Okay, just--" she gulped, gathered her words together. Leo waited. "There's a surprise birthday in Bunker Nine. I really don't want you to go there, not yet. I've been planning this for weeks now."
He was moved, forgetting briefly the frustration of not being able to get into his Bunker because of her. Leo had been to many birthday parties, most not his own. In the last two years he had to share his birthday party with Jason, the more popular between the two of them. Except this July 7th it was just him.
"I don't really need a party, Pipes. You know how I feel about them for me."
"But you deserve a good one. When was the last time you had one for yourself?" She paused and studied his face. "Give us a chance. You're going to get a party you'll never forget." She touched his shoulder and squeezed it. She died that evening.
In the subsequent ones, he set out to understand the mechanics of this time loop. It meant ignoring Piper, deviating to their set agenda much to her annoyance, even abandoning her for a while. He was relieved that he had one more chance, relieved that he could try to save Piper and everyone else in the accident. This time loop thing was a blessing and a curse. A complex puzzle that didn't require his tools, only his wits. There was an answer to this, and he need to get it right.
He knew the exact time the explosion would occur, how many demigods would be inside the bunker, but he couldn't determine what was the cause of the explosion, even when he charged inside. Piper would always be the last one to leave, trying to get everyone out before the smoke filled her lungs. And every time Piper died, the loop would restart again, back to his bed that early afternoon and a Piper that was not soot-stained and dead.
He itemized what he could remember what was in the Bunker, all its unfinished projects across the ages. What was the cause of the fire? Was there something in there that triggered the explosion? Did they bring something in there that shouldn't be there? He set out to interrogate the Hephaestus kids, but all his siblings could not be found in any parts of the camp grounds. All most likely in the bunker rallied by Piper herself, preparing his surprise.
He tried to persuade her to do something from her set itinerary, to avoid the beach, to get her as far as possible from the forest. But no matter what they did, she ended up answering that phone call and she would head to Bunker Nine, and she would never let Leo any closer to her from that point on, she would head into the forest alone at dusk.
In every loop, all the demigods who planned the party would always get out on time. But not Piper. The flames and the fire would always get to Piper first before Leo could. With each loop he was not getting faster or stronger, because he had the body of yesterday, the body of a boy who stayed up too late at night and didn't eat enough and now he faced the consequence of lack of sleep and nutrition. He pushed himself to his limits but in the end he was never on time, even if he was tried so hard to be at the heels of his friend. His chest pounded until it told him to stop, tired muscles stretched and strained until they betrayed him, and now he was lying face down on the dirt, tripped by a tree root jutting from the ground. The bunker still exploded. He was back in his bed.
###
Leo did everything he could to stop Piper.
The obstacle between him and stopping the explosion was his own friend, who tried to take him far away from the very thing that would kill her. If persuasion was not going to work, then he used intimidation. Instead of pleading with her, they argued and fought at the smallest problems. He made her cry more times than he would like, said things he shouldn't have said to her, brought up things that didn't need to be brought up. If it meant that she would hate him forever, if it meant that would no longer be friends, if it meant that she was alive and safe in the very end, she could hate all his guts all she wanted.
But she always forgave him. She could never stay angry with Leo. Even when she stormed out angry, left him alone so many times, she still went inside Bunker Nine, because she still wanted to surprise him with a birthday party, he was still her best friend at the end of the night.
The efforts of trying to save her by any means possible were wearing him down. He couldn't take fighting her, because for god's sake, what did she do this deserve cruelty? Was this truly the answer to end this loop, to save her life? Antagonize one of the last few people who genuinely cared about him, take him for what he was, mistakes and all? It was too much.
When Piper woke him up once more, he was crying.
He didn't care anymore. From his bed, he reached out and hugged her tightly, pulling her halfway to his bunk, shaking in desperation. He took her warmth, her scent, everything he could to remember her. He buried his face on her shoulder, catching some of her long hair against his nose and eyelashes.
She returned his hug, rubbing his back. Her lips pressed against his curly hair. "Do you want to talk about it?"
They had talked about it so many times and he was tired of having to explain it all over again. "You wouldn't believe me if I did," he mumbled.
When the phone call came and she answered it, Leo was at her side right away. His eyes pleaded for her not to answer. "I know all about the party. Let me come with you."
She gave him a stunned side glance, still not taking her ear off the phone. "How did you--" She ended the call. She was already irritated as it was, with the way he was treating her that day. "Leo, it'll ruin the surprise I have for you. I've spent weeks organizing this."
It all came out of him, his frustration, his desperation. "Piper, I don't care about the party! I don't care about this surprise! I care about you!"
It all came out of her, her grief, her anger. "Leo, if you cared about me so much, then why did you lie to us? Lie to me? I thought you trusted me with that cure!" Tears threatened to fall down her cheeks. "I trusted you!"
She was not above making jabs at him, not above in bringing up the sore parts of their pasts. She was just like him, carrying all that unresolved baggage, the many things left unsaid between them. Why did they drift away in the first place? You could not have Leo without Piper, and Piper without Leo.
###
For a moment, he feared that the solution would not be found in this day, in this very loop. Perhaps he needed to go back in time, at the height of the battle against Gaea, when he lied to Jason and Piper about the physician's cure. Perhaps even earlier, when he was marooned on an island, when he wallowed in his own self-pity, when he first ran away from his first foster home. At the end of the day, he was a troubled child with troubled dreams.
They were many things he wished he could turn back the time to change. Too late now, the gods would say, and this was his punishment.
###
Wake up. See Piper. Be with her. Laugh with her.
Why couldn't he die with her?
###
In the 17th loop he took her hand, stopped her from taking the phone out of her pocket. "Please, stay with me," he begged. "Don't go. Don't answer that call."
She smiled, and placed a hand on his cheek. "I'll be back, okay? I really want you to have the best birthday ever."
She didn't return, and he didn't run to the bunker to chase her. When the explosion echoed and the smoke rose up from the forest, he collapsed on the sand and screamed.
###
In the 21th loop, he hated July 7th.
###
Leo did everything he could to love Piper.
He had lost count of the times he had woken up, being in this cycle. Was it the 25th time tenth time, or the 50th time? These days blurred together, one step forward and two steps back. The same routine, the same ending. Over and over. Driving him mad.
That nagging feeling at the back of his heart had grown so much since the beginning of this curse. He was always surrounded with people, always with Piper, but it didn't matter because for the first time he felt so alone. Not even the immortals living in the camps themselves could shed light on his predicament.
Leo let Piper walked ahead of him. She let her long brown hair loose, caressed by the sea breeze. She had her arms up to her sides, as if she tried to meet a friend on the other side with a hug. She wore a baggy cool-toned flannel over her orange camp shirt. He always considered her beautiful in a conventional way, but this time he found her so beautiful, but he couldn't place what was it that made her so.
What the hell. This loop was going to reset anyway. He might as well try.
While she was picking the seashells he called her name. When she turned around and faced him, he kissed her. Inexperienced as he was, he poured his feelings through that kiss, all the pain he felt, all the yearning and all the things left unsaid. Leo thought that was it. He needed to tell her how he felt, show her these feelings he harbored for a while now. He couldn't deny it anymore. This was the answer to the puzzle. Right?
But she wasn't kissing him back. She did not pull away but she did not reciprocate. Her lips were stiff, and finally she stepped back, laughing awkwardly.
"W-what was that for?" She held her cheek and hid her face with her hand.
"I.." The reaction was not what Leo was hoping for. The matter of fact, what was he hoping for? He should have been mentally prepared for a rejection but here he was, his heart slowly breaking.
Before Leo could explain himself the phone rang and she quickly picked it up.
"L-let's talk about this, okay?" Piper smiled after the call, and there seemed to be hope because she hesitated at each step she took towards the bunker. But she disappeared to the forest, and the bunker exploded with her inside.
Maybe the way Leo gave his confession was not it. Maybe he had to find the right way. He made sweeping declarations of love, begged on his hands and knees, tapped his confession on her skin word-for-word because he knew that she could understand him this way. He was not good with words the way she commanded it. But the effort counted, right?
He saw all sides of Piper, the good, the bad, and the ugly. But her silence and indecision was her way of rejecting him gently. She was still getting over her own heartbreak, even getting over Jason being gone, on having to organize Leo's birthday with just the two of them, not the three of them. Every rejection was never easy.
She still answered the phone. She still left to go to the bunker. Piper still died in his arms. After pouring his heart so many times, after kissing her a dozen times, it all ended up the same. Piper did not returned his feelings, she was just not ready.
###
"Happy birthday. I've got a big day for you, my Repair Boy."
###
Memories of his mother trapped in the workshop came flashing back as he ran for the god knows how many times through the forest. Flames he knew to wield, suddenly it was out of control. Everything, this fucking time loop, was out of control, out of his control.
Not again. Please, not again.
###
One time, he did manage to catch up to her. Manage to get inside Bunker Nine, just in time to see her by the machine.
He saw the flash of Piper's eyes as the explosion overtook her.
She did not die taking in the smoke. Her body was far hotter in her arms, almost smouldering.
###
Crazy was Leo's middle name, but now he understood the measure of madness. He doubted whether he was going to get out of this and he was ready to accept this form of hell. If his curse was that he was condemned to live out the rest of his days replaying the in-between friends and expressing his feelings for her, then he accepted this very bitter pill, until he understood the fragility of life, understood to weightiness of love and loss, understood rejection, understood that at the end of the day he was also mortal.
###
Piper brushed a strand of his hair out of his eyes. A gentle touch for a starving man. "I want you to have the best birthday ever."
###
"Don't go. Don't leave me. I love you."
###
How many dead Pipers did it have to take to change a light bulb?
How many loops did Leo need to take to get this ending right?
How many possibilities and infinities were there out there for Leo and Piper to have one good ending?
Even on the verge of despair, he didn't want to give up. He couldn't give up.
He already learned the hard lesson of losing someone he loved when he was a child. Why did he need to learn this again? Didn't they just lose their best friend? Why take away the last good thing in his life?
###
Did Piper ever asked him what he wanted for his birthday?
###
The bunker exploded.
His best friend dead.
What did he need to do? What did he need to do.
###
She hovered over him again. He placed his arm across his eyes, hiding from the sunlight peering through one of the smaller windows of Cabin Nine, hiding away from her.
"Happy birthday. I've got a big day for you, my Repair Boy."
He moved his arm a bit and studied her face so closely, committed it to memory all her glorious imperfection that made her so so beautiful. Beauty in the way she held herself, confident when she needed to be, vulnerable when she wanted to. She was beautiful in that for all the unresolved things between them, she chose to still wake him up, still planned to organize this surprise party and this surprise present responsible for her death.
He took a deep breath and threw his blanket to the side. "Actually," Leo said. "Let's make this our day together. What do you say? Leo and Piper, partners in crime?"
This time, Leo wouldn't be distracted by this time loop bullshit. He needed to be present with her, enjoy these precious seven hours with her. Show the world that with Leo and Piper together they were a menace, a force to be reckon with. They spoke a language no one else understood and would never understand. And yet there was so much of Piper he still didn't know, even though he had spend so much time with her, seen all versions of her. Oh how she radiated by his side.
When they arrived at the beach as usual, Leo took off his shoes and socks and ran towards the water, letting his jeans and the lower part of his shirt get soaked as he waded as far as he could still feel the bottom of the ocean.
"Leo, what are you doing?"
He beckoned her to the sea. "The water is great!" It was not. It was freezing. The gentle wind carried his voice to shore. Time seemed to slow down around him, slow as the waves lapping around his thighs. It cooled his nerves, tempering the anxious fire in him.
Piper followed his lead, leaving her phone on her pile of shoes and socks and waded into the sea. "Don't go too far!"
Leo bounced backwards deeper into the water, until his shoulders were submerged and his head remained above water. Piper paddled until she was near him. "What's going on with you?"
He splashed water towards her, getting the rest of her hair and face wet. Piper gasped and blew her nose. Leo let out a chuckle, some of the water entering his mouth. She submerged and dragged Leo with her. They wrestled underwater, tickling, kicking, only stopping to break for air. He thought, for once this loop, she would not be encased with fire and smoke. For once he could hold her like this in a place outside his natural element.
When they exhausted themselves, they dragged each other back to the beach, shoulder to shoulder with their arms linked. He could easily dry himself, but he didn't, he remained dripping in solidarity to Piper who had no such ability. Leo collapsed on the wet sand, not even reaching the dry part of the shore. The waves inched forward and lapped around them. Piper mumbled about having to change her clothes before dinner, but she grabbed her phone and laid beside him, all wet just like him.
"I know you have a surprise for me," Leo started, staring at the gray sky above them. The moon was out and so were the brightest stars.
Piper turned her head to look at him. Strands of her wet and sandy hair stuck on her cheek. Trickles of water rolled down her cheek.
"But I've been thinking." He continued, reaching to his left and held her hand which was balled into a fist. "There's something I really want, for my birthday."
"I'm listening."
"I want us to start over." He found the irony of this sentiment hilarious. "Things have not been the same since...since I came back."
Piper turned her head back to the sky. "No, it hasn't been."
"I haven't been a good friend in the last couple of years. But not a day goes by without thinking about you...and Jason, I swear to you."
"I don't doubt that." Leo detected a subtle sarcasm in her tone, a hurt that she couldn't contain. The way she spoke to him now was devoid of the warmth and glow a few moments ago. He was opening a door that was meant to remain closed, she wanted to keep close because she was not ready.
"No, no, Piper." He turned to his side, to face her. They needed to face this. "You know that feeling when you're driving and you have tunnel vision? Just looking straight and not really looking around you? I was driving so fast I didn't realize I was moving past the things that mattered. Now that I've slowed down, I find myself regretting all the missed stops. Turning eighteen? Shit's scary. All this baggage and hurt and yet..." A lump formed in his throat. "I'm right back here and starting over."
"Feeling sorry for ourselves won't solve this."
"I know it wouldn't. That's why we're both here in Camp, right?"
They were both silent. Waves continued lapping around them. Marooned at a distance was a starfish. So much to say, but so little time until the phone call.
Leo placed his cheek against the sand. "I'm sorry for lying to you about the physician's cure. I've been...pretty selfish. When I came back, so much has changed. You and I changed." It came to him as a revelation. "You're organizing this party because I know you want to hold on to what's left between us, the Leo and Piper of before. But I don't know how to go forward with all the shit we're carrying around. The party isn't the answer. Telling you how I feel isn't the answer. The guilt is going to eat us both alive. I don't want us to drift apart. I don't want to start all over alone. What do you say?"
Piper remained quiet. The stillness in the air made Leo restless, so he sat up and looked down at her. He was all muddy with the wet sand sticking on his skin. "Pipes?"
She sat up and stared intensely at the ground. Leo moved close, concerned to see her reaction. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him to a kiss. This time, it was so different from the dozens of times he kissed her. He was dizzy with the way she moved her lips against his, the gentle pressure and softness, a finesse he wouldn't be able to master. His heart pounded, and blood rushed to his cheeks.
She pulled away, still holding his shirt. "Okay. Let's start all over."
Leo wanted to sing so badly. "There's so much we need to talk about."
"I know. It wouldn't be easy." She croaked as she spoke. Tears welled her eyes.
The phone rang inside Piper's pocket. She saw the way Leo's eyes lit up with worry, the way his forehead creased, and his lips quivered.
She fished out the device and hung up. Placed it back to her pocket. Continued kissing him, all damp and sandy.
###
The second phone call came. This time, Piper answered it.
"Sorry I didn't answer your call. Leo's not feeling well," she lied while looking over the subject of discussion. "I'm with him right now. No, I think I got this."
She listened intently to the voice in the other side, listened for a good while. Worry lines formed around her forehead. Leo held his breath, watching the way her nostrils flared a little. Then she relaxed and smiled. "Yeah. That's probably for the best. Thanks for handling that, Lee."
She ended the call and returned to being with him.
###
The bunker didn't explode. The party organized for Leo's birthday was moved to the sea, with campfires and small fireworks set up by the senior campers. Many had smores and hotdogs cooked on sticks and skewers. Someone brought cheap bluetooth speakers and they played downloaded music from a cracked phone on airplane mode, because they could never be too careful about technology in the middle of dozens of demigod kids, not with the forest full of monsters right beside the beach.
But the birthday boy was nowhere to be found. No one went to look for him.
###
Leo was falling asleep on Piper's chest, somewhere in Camp Half-Blood.
###
He woke up far more groggy than he was used to, like a bad cold coming onto him. Sore throat, throbbing headache, aching muscles. The room around him was dark. Instead of sunlight, rain pattered outside the window.
He launched himself from bed. Not his bed. A bed. Everything around him was different, but he could not tell from the dark. He swiveled around and felt Piper just sleeping beside him, curled up peacefully under the blankets, lightly drooling, hair all over the place.
Leo almost dove at Piper, hugged her so tightly he was squeezing her ribs, waking her up. He cried in relief. She smelled of the sea, earth, and campfire smoke.
She groaned. She reached out lazily to comb his curly hair between her fingers, shifting around so he was not crushing her. "What's wrong?" she mumbled.
"Nothing," he teared up. "Nothing at all."
###
The summer would end. Leo counted down the days until the end of the camp season, and they would have to decide to split away to the other ends of the world, to pursue their own lives again. They took it one step at a time, one day at time. Unraveled things one at a time.
He dreaded the end of the summer, but she made it alright. They started over. He thanked every new tomorrow he woke up to, and reflected on his yesterdays. A brand new day always waited for them. A new challenge. A new blessing.