safe || leo valdez x oc

sixteen: i have hypothermia

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i awoke a shivering mess. in front of me, a fire was blazing. we were in a shallow cave, but the winter storm howled and snow infiltrated our cave, though it was melted quickly by the fire. next to me, jason and piper were sitting. piper had just woken up like i had, as told by her half-open left eye. like me, the bronze-skinned girl had blankets wrapped all around her.

leo wrapped an arm around me now that i was up. i pulled my knees to my chest and held my blankets around myself, and leaned into leo's embrace.

"l-l-leo?" piper managed. leo pulled my silver hood over my head for me.

"present and un-gold-ified." leo said. i looked over at him, and he, too, was wrapped in blankets. "i got the precious metal treatment too. but i came out of it faster. we had to dunk you two into the river to get you back completely. tried to dry you off, but... it's really, really cold."

"you've got hypothermia." jason said to piper. "we risked as much nectar as we could. coach hedge did a little nature medicine-"

"sports medecine." hedge said. "kind of a hobby of mine. your breath might smell like wild mushrooms and gatorade for a few days, but it'll pass. you probably won't die. probably."

"that's reassuring." i said as my teeth clacked. leo rubbed his own arm up and down the mound my own was under, which helped. "how did you beat midas?"

jason went into the story about his 'son of sky daddy' powers, but he claimed most of it was luck.

hedge snorted. "kid's being modest. you should've seen him. hi-yah! slice! boom with the lightning!"

"coach, you didn't even see it. you were outside eating the lawn." jason said.

average satyr moment, amirite?

"then i came in with my club, and we dominated that room. afterward, i told him, 'kid, i'm proud of you! if you could just work on your upper body strength-'"

"coach?" jason said.

"yeah?"

"shut up, please."

"sure." coach began chewing his cudgel.

leo brushed my white sliver of hair out of my face and checked my temperature. he frowned, and dunked a baseball-sized clump of flames into the fire.

"do i look that bad?" piper asked.

"nah." jason lied.

i looked at leo. "how do i look?"

"absolutely terrible." leo answered. leave it to him to tell the truth. i smiled. the moment made me feel better.

"where are we?" i asked.

"pikes peak, colorado." jason said.

"COLORADO?!" i shrieked. leo nodded.

"harnessed the wind spirits to take us this far." jason said. "went a little faster than i wanted, almost crashed us into the mountainside before i could get them back in the bag. i'm not going to be trying that again."