safe || leo valdez x oc

eighty: fire appears thrice and that is not good

PIPER

~•♡•~

piper didn't know much about the mediterranean, but she was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to freeze in july.

two days out to sea from split, gray clouds swallowed the sky. the waves turned choppy, changing from cerulean to ash grey. a cold drizzle sprayed across the deck, forming ice on the rails and the ropes.

"it's the scepter." nico murmured, hefting the ancient staff. next to him, aruna had an angry face, holding a plate of spaghetti in her hand. she'd tried to feed it to nico because he hadn't been eating very well. her reasoning?

"he's italian. he got a-love-a da spaghet."

nico did not a-love-a da spaghet.

"it has to be." he went on.

pier wondered, ever since jason and nico had come back from croatia, they'd been acting nervous and cagey. something major had happened there- something jason wouldn't share with her. aruna knew it, too. she and piper had talked about it, both worried about the two boys.

it made sense that the scepter might have caused this weather change. the black orb on top seemed to leech the color right out of the air. the golden eagles at its base glinted coldly. the scepter could supposedly control the dead, and it definitely gave off bad vibes. coach hedge had taken one look at the thing, turned pale, and announced that he was going to his room to console himself with chuck norris videos. (although piper suspected that he was actually making calls to his cloud-nymph girlfriend, mellie. the coach had been acting very agitated about her lately, but he wouldn't tell piper what was going on.)

so, yes... maybe the scepter could cause a freak icea storm. but piper didn't think that was it. she feared something else was happening- something even worse.

"well, i ain't gonna talk about here." aruna grumbled as she pulled her fluffy silver coat over her. "it fuckin' windy."

they had all gathered on the quarterdeck to discuss strategy as they got closer to epirus, but now it was clearly not a good place to hang out. wind swept frost across the deck. the sea churned beneath them.

and aruna's complaining managed to make a bad situation about a million times worse.

piper didn't mind the waves so much. the rocking and pitching reminded her of surfing with her dad off the california coast. but she could tell hazel wasn't doing so well. the poor girl got seasick even in calm waters. she looked like she was trying to swallow a billard ball.

"need to-" she gagged and pointed below.

"yeah, go." nico kissed her cheek, which piper found surprising. she watched every muscle in aruna's face contort in shock. nico hardly ever made gestures of affection, even to his sister. he seemed to hate physical contact. kissing hazel... it was almost like he was saying goodbye.

"i'll walk you down." frank put his arm around hazel's waist and helped her to the stairs.

piper hoped hazel would be okay. the last few nights, since that fight with sciron, all three girls had shared some good talks together. being the only girls on board was kind of rough. they'd shared stories, gossiped about the boys (good things, but also about their gross habits [apparently leo sneezes in his sleep a lot?]), and shed some tears about annabeth.