Chapter Text
Hot. That's the first thing Leo noticed when he woke up. And no not like the pleasing warmth of the campfire or the fire that passes through his veins every day. No, he was internally burning. As in he was warm. Sweating. All that jazz.
Leo never got sick. And that was one of his greatest prides. In fact he was usually the caretaker when one of his friends or crew members fell ill on the Argo II. He distinctly remembered holding Piper's hair up while a stomach bug was going around in Wilderness School and cooking garlic soup from his mother's recipe.
Leo groaned as he sat up and coughed. A rattle went through his lungs and chest. His head pounded behind his eyes and Leo felt the irrational urge to throw his head against a table. He grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck in contemplation and immediately drew his hand back. His skin was cold. What in the actual- His skin was never cold. Never. The whole "ability to summon fire" thing and literally being a human heater took care of that. He blinked up at the ceiling of the engine room, his hands slightly trembling and his vision seemed to zoom in and out of focus.
But he was totally not sick. Right?
“Leo!”, Piper pounded on the door of the engine room, “c'mon get up! We won't get to Greece at this rate!”
“Coming!”, Leo's voice cracked embarrassingly and he cleared his throat, “I'll be there in a minute, Beauty Queen!”
Leo could hear footsteps heading back up deck when he rubbed his eyes and struggled to get up. As soon as his two feet were planted on the floor his vision went fuzzy and promptly collapsed back onto bed.
“You gotta be kidding me”, Leo sighed, “c'mon Valdez get a hold of yourself. There's no way I'm sick. I don't do sick.”
He sighed as he took cautious steps toward the door and put on his signature smile as he made his way up to the deck.
“Hey Leo”, Hazel took a double take, “Gods, you look terrible. Are you ok?”
Leo waved her off. “I'm fine. Just haven't had my morning dose of awesomeness. Really Hazel you should know Leo Valdez never looks bad”
Leo wiggled his eyebrows dramatically. Hazel laughed and rolled her eyes before disappearing below deck. Leo sighed as he watched the girl disappear.
“Ok Festus let's steer a ship”, he spoke, the dragon head creaking in reply, “what? I'm not sick. Really do I look that miserable?”
The dragon let out a creak that sounded more like a scoff but oh well. Leo had missed his companion. Thank the gods Piper managed to wake him up during whatever the hell Khione was doing. It still seemed a mystery about what she meant by "I curse eternal winter in you, Leo Valdez!" Talk about being dramatic.
His mind wandered. Percy an Annabeth falling into Tartarus. Nico, wherever in Hades he was, had promised them to meet at the other side of the Doors of Death. And it was all Leo's fault. He should have been faster. He should have seen Annabeth's ankle. He should have never opened that dam fortune cookie.
(AN: Yes, the dam was intentional.)
And no, he did not have a inferiority complex as much as a girl from one of his foster homes told him. He watched his mother die from his own hands for fucks sake. And then were the stupid foster homes along with hiding in sewers, which were definitely not a time he wanted to go back to. At least he learnt his resistance for cigarettes during that time- child of Hephaestus and all. Wilderness School wasn't even that bad, ignoring wind spirit Dylan and Coach Hedge shouting at them every chance he got. At least he had Piper and Jason.
Sike! They started dating and now he's doomed for eternal thirdwheeling.
Sike again! Jason was never there. And Queen Bitch-Face was just manipulating everyone's memories with The Mist.
And then Nemesis' voice telling him he will always be the seventh wheel-
Leo snapped out of his thoughts with the help of a couging fit.
Suddenly, Festus let out a high pitched whistle and promptly stopped responding. The ship faltered.
“Woah- Festus buddy you good?”
No reply.
“Just my luck.”, Leo grumbled.
“Leo?”, Jason's voice shouted, “what's wrong with the shop?”
“Everything's-”, Leo’s voice promptly gave out at screaming capacity, “Totally fine."
/ (slight time skip)
Everything was not fine. Usually, when Festus was out of service they could steer the ship just fine. Albeit not automatically but fine. This time the ship just refused to cooperate.
They were all gathered in the mess hall with varying faces from concern to frustration as they stared at the son of Hephaestus.
"You're telling me- Festus shut down immediately after I woke him up?", Piper asked, her eyebrows furrowing.
"Yep", Leo answered sheepishly, "I don't even know what happened. He just creaked and then silence."
"Can you fix him?", Frank looked at Leo sharply, "we're on a time limit."
"I think we need to fix Leo first."
Everybody flinched as the Son of Hades spoke up from the end of the table as if he'd been there the entire time. Actually- he probably was.
"Holy Hephaestus, Bats, since when are you back?", Leo sqeaked, recovering from the jump scare, "and what do you mean fix me?"
Nico and Leo had developed this weird "We're friends, Bats" Leo and "We are not but I tolerate you" Nico situation. Hey, they were world-class insomniacs riddled with trauma and Nico just happened to accidentally shadow travel to the engine room instead of the guest cabin one night with a box of Cornettos- the best ice cream.
"An hour.", the boy looked at Leo pointedly, "you're sick."
"What- I'm not sick!", Leo protested, a lot more defensive than necessary.
Nico sighed, standing up. "You are. You're cold, you're sweating, your eyes are bloodshot and Festus is linked to emotions, as we found that out after Piper woke him up, hence his malfunction because his maker is sick."
"I don't do sick.", Leo said stubbornly.
"Everybody gets sick once in a while-", Hazel began.
"No, he means that literally. His fire powers kill any sort of virus becase his baseline temperature would be considered a fever for normal people- well mortals and the average demigod.", Piper stepped in, "he physically shouldn't be able to get sick."
They had figured this out after a huge bug had been going around Camp Half-Blood and a astonished Will Solace found Leo's average temperature was 40 fricking degrees Celcius. It was a interesting week to say the least.
"Unless it's not a natural sickness", Jason contemplated, "Didn't you say Khione said something weird before Pipes defeated her?"
"Something about cursing me with eternal winter", Leo muttered.
"And you tell us this now, cupcake?", Hedge, who had been wonderfully silent before now, grumbled.
A chorus of voices began speaking at the same time.
"What do you mean enternal winter?"
"Why didn't you tell me, Jason?!"
"How are you gonna steer the ship?"
"We'l never get to Greece in time."
"Everybody shut up!", Nico shouted.
And then Leo passed out.