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1.
The Iris Message from Piper sounded frantic, or maybe it was just nervous. Something in between. Leo had rolled over in his bed to find Piper’s watery face staining his Princess Leia poster.
This was the first time Piper had called in a couple of months. Leo was swamped with work. Georgia asked him to go to her dance recital weeks ago, pinned it up on the big calendar, even managed to get Calypso to halt her classes for a day. Leo stared at the clock. Piper called at 11 PM.
He went anyway.
Touching down in Oklahoma, Piper was waiting outside her apartment complex, with a cardigan wrapped around her body. She looked different. Older. Of course, she did- despite what Leo’s time perception was, they haven’t been face-to-face in nearly two years.
“So,” Leo started. “What’s up?”
Piper hugged him, smelling of fresh coffee despite the late time. “God, Leo. It shouldn’t have been as long as it has.”
“We’re both busy,” Leo shrugged. He let out a low whistle. “Pretty swanky house, you got. This came from that actor money your dad got?”
“Something like that,” Piper led him onto the driveway. Festus moaned, and flew away, and Leo pulled his hood over his head. Piper explained how her dad was away at a conference with Mellie. Hedge was at some satyr council meeting, and Chuck was at the equivalent of whatever was Camp Half-Blood kindergarten.
“Before I forget,” Piper stopped at the front door. “Try not to stare.”
“What-” She pushed him to the living room, and excused herself to the kitchen.
Shel was dropping blankets on the living room couch. From the side, they looked the same as Leo last remembered. The two have only met a few times over the years, but Leo didn’t really have much in common with them outside of Piper and piercings.
“Hey,” Shel waved, patting the blankets. Their upper lip was adorned with a new piercing, but the corners of their lips were pulled down with a sorry look. “How was the trip?” They pulled up their sweater sleeves, and Leo could not help but stare.
Across Shel’s right arm was a very bloody bandage. It extended from their wrist and upward into their sleeve.
“....Good,” Leo told them, remembering the question. No need to mention the flock of birds Festus flew through. “Um. You live here too?” He wanted to ask about the arm.
“Nah,” Shel shrugged. “Still down the road.”
“Oh… cool.” He wanted to ask so badly.
Leo mentally winced. Small talk with Shel was not in his comfort zone. He didn’t even remember what mortals liked to talk about. Which was stupid, right? Up until a few years ago, he thought he was mortal… or maybe just a weirdo with the fire powers, but still some regular old fire-capable dude. Except Leo’s been spending all his time around all types of creatures at Waystation or camp. Mortal just didn’t seem to be what Leo surrounded himself with.
But the one thing he could ask about would be rude. When did Leo care about that? Jo and Emmie were starting to rub off on him.
Piper came back with cups of coffee and hot chocolate. She offered Leo a mug, and he took a heaping pile of marshmallows with it. Shel excused themself to rewrap their bandages. Leo’s spoon hit his mug a total of three times before he opened his mouth.
“What the hell, dude?”
“Shel’s been really cool about it,” Piper mumbled. She cradled her mug like it was going to break if she let go. “It’s my fault.”
2.
“I’m not a hunter,” Leo reminded her. He hooked his hands into his pockets, fiddling with a loose string. “You do realize that, right?”
Piper bent to lace up her boots. “Yeah. But if something like this happens again…” She stopped herself, and shook her head. “I was supposed to keep Shel out of this.”
Leo didn’t know what to say. Talking to Piper used to be easy- easier. She was his best friend at some time, and now, embarrassingly enough, his best friend might as well be Festus, who very much was not the normal companion. Calypso was good at this. She normally snapped him out of a funk with a few sharp words and a hearty slap on the back.
Ultimately, he was too busy thinking about Calypso that such a large amount of time passed that it would be too awkward to bring up the topic again. Great, Valdez. You blew it again.
He was about to try to bring up Jason again, because he was a sucker, when Piper halted. She pointed across the trees, where a bush rustled.
“Look,” Piper whispered. She crouched, and Leo followed too, demigod instincts rushing. “Wolves.”
She wasn’t wrong. As the words fell off her tongue, silver furred wolves stalked through the trees in a huddled mass. The two demigods watched them move, quiet as the animals passed by. A pup bounded along to end the pack, and Piper slumped to the ground.
“Was it that?” Leo asked. “That did… that to Shel.” Leo peeked through the bushes again, but the animals were gone.
“I don’t know,” Piper murmured. “I’m not- I’m not going to hunt animals if I don’t need to.” She moved to her feet. “There hasn’t been a wolf population over here in years. But these appeared all of a sudden, so I don’t know.”
She looked conflicted, so Leo elbowed her. “There’s probably some monster out there. A real one.”
“That’s not much better.”
Leo preferred that his problems could be blamed on mythological nonsense, but Piper didn’t seem too enthused so he dropped it. Didn’t make sense though. He didn’t know when Piper stopped making sense.
3.
“PIPER!” Leo’s yell was almost unheard by Piper’s scream. The girl rolled to the ground in a flurry, and the beast howled. Blood dribbled onto the trampled leaves below.
It staggered back, shrieking at the two. Leo could’ve sworn it looked confused. But before he could do anything, the creature turned and sprinted away. In it's place, Katroptis sunk into the mud, red edge glinting in the moonlight.
4.
“Leo,” Piper warned from behind him.
The beast’s eyes were so piercing that Leo couldn’t help but feel sad. That was weird, wasn’t it?
But then he thought of Shel. Thought of Jason, next. Leo was so so so stupid.
He took the shot.
The rock sped through the air like a bullet. It soared past the creature’s ear, hitting the tree behind it. The snout sneered at Leo from afar, but there were tears in those eyes. Leo quickly mouthed, GO, and the beast took off. Piper grabbed Leo’s arm and sprinted, but the creature was too fast for either of their tired bodies to catch up.
“I don’t get it,” Piper huffed, catching her breath. “You- You never miss. You never miss!”
Leo’s hands were shaking. “I don’t know, I don’t know.”
“You never miss, Leo.” Piper’s head swung to him. She angrily kicked at a boulder, and let out a garbled yell. “Fuck!” Piper rubbed at her eyes with fists. “We were so close.” She kicked the rock again. “Fuck.”
Leo instantly felt a wave of guilt rush over him. He didn’t understand it himself, but something felt wrong.
“I’ll get him next time,” Leo promised her. He scanned the afternoon sky and wrapped an arm around Piper’s shoulder.
5.
He couldn’t fall asleep for the next few days after that. Leo would go through a restless cycle of staring at Piper’s cluttered coffee table, and sitting up to work on some little project. The few moments he did go to sleep, he kept picturing icy blue eyes and a widening jaw a few seconds from devouring him.
Leo really hoped that wasn’t a premonition. Knowing his shit luck, it probably was.
Groaning, Leo rubbed his eyes and flipped over on the couch again. His gaze kept dropping on a picture of Piper with her dad and Jason. They looked happy, if not, tired. If Leo had to guess, this was before the break-up. He didn’t know how long after his death though. Nor how long before Jason’s.
Leo’s not 16 anymore. He’s older, has better coping habits, and can take better care of himself for the most part. He was really stupid back then. But thinking about Jason still made him feel 16. There was this ball of hurt that Leo didn’t know what to do with- didn’t know where to put, how to deal.
Calypso’s asked about Jason a few times, but Leo’s always brushed her off. There wasn’t anything to say that the girl didn’t already know: Jason Grace was Leo’s best friend. And sure, Leo knew that Piper would get it. But he also knew that Piper, like everyone else, had moved on. Demigods died. That’s not new. But it seemed like everyone but Leo knew this, and Leo was stuck being 16 and at that stupid airport.
He couldn’t get over Jason no matter what he tried. He’d gone to Cabin 13 and the praetor’s house so many times that Nico and Hazel had to gently tell him to stop. Leo’s been through plan through plan, to figure something out, but it never worked. He visited Jason’s dorm at Edgarton to pick up some stuff, only to find it had been cleared out weeks before. The times he went to Cabin 1, Piper had beat him to it, and was crying on Jason’s bunk.
Even now, years later, Leo had dreams of the guy. The few times his mind was clear and Leo had time to think, he’d think about Jason. Something about it pissed him off. Another- much bigger- part felt guilty. He was so stupid for Jason.
Something on the porch glinted. Leo’s eyes slid past the picture, focusing through the glass door that was slightly askew, thin curtains blowing. He shivered. Was that door always open?
A wolf howled, the sound close and sudden. Leo stumbled out the couch to close the door. He stopped at the patio, and instead, stepped out, cold wood pressing under his feet.
Crouched, a couple of meters away, was the beast. It swayed, watching Leo. Its tongue licked its lip, where a new pink scar from Piper’s knife glistened. Leo wondered how much it hurt.
“Hey,” Leo said into the night. He dug his hand into his toolbelt. What did wolves like outside of meat? Dogbones? Chewtoys?
The creature leaned forward on its front claw. Its back rippled with muscles, as the creature grew taller, bigger. Tendons pulled in every direction, hairy chest puffing, and a low howl erupted from the beast’s jagged teeth. Even from the distance, Leo could tell it towered a good foot or two over him.
His hand squeezed on something, and he threw it on instinct. A purple shirt flew from his hand into the grass a couple of feet away. Leo couldn’t help but think You’re so fucking dead. His mind was still too wrapped around Jason to be of use.
The creature hissed at the shirt. It walked on its back feet and one of its front arms, slowly and shakily. Like a baby trying to walk for the first time. The creature crept at the shirt, sniffed at it, the growled angrily. One of its claws tore at the fabric, and the other held down the sleeves to get a better tear.
Leo wondered, briefly, where the rest of the pack was. Wolves, even as fucked up like this one, are usually stuck in groups. But no one else came for this one. Leo understood the feeling.
… He was not seriously feeling pity for this thing, is he. Leo Valdez was not an animal person unless the animal came with a USB outlet and liking for oil. But he, for whatever reason, his mind didn’t want to explain, felt this Eldritch terror to be different.
It wasn’t just his mind too, it was a gut feeling. He just knew there was something about this wolf.
Finished with ravishing the shirt, the wolf stood to its full height again. It seemed to want to come to Leo. Maybe to tear into Leo too, or maybe to… Leo didn’t really know.
A light turned on upstairs, causing both Leo and the beast’s heads to turn. When Leo glanced back, the creature was already sprinting away.
6.
Almost a month later, and there’s no sign of the animal, so Leo told Piper he’s going to head back to Waystation. She seemed to know this was coming eventually, and asked that they took a final hike like they used to at Wilderness. Leo reminded her that they used to skip out on those hikes. Piper flicked his ears, and came back twenty minutes later in sneakers and comfortable pants.
“Truth,” Piper said. Her hand shielded the sun from her eyes as she gazed out at the side of the hill they were climbing.
“Pussy,” Leo lazily tossed at her. “You still talk to any of the campers?”
Piper shook her head. “Not since J- Apollo. Well- I see Hazel sometimes. Maybe Frank if he passes by, but we weren’t that close in the first place. You?”
“They’re all I talk to.”
“And Festus.”
“Obviously.”
She tucked a hair behind her ear, and leaned up into the sunlight. “I used to think I would miss it. For the first couple of months, I used to think that some monster was going to drag me back and I’d have to go through it all over again.” Piper closed her eyes. “It feels like a dream, doesn’t it? That couldn’t have been real.”
Leo wasn’t so sure. He thought that being a demigod was simultaneously one of the best and worst things of his life. He found somewhere he fits, sort of. But Piper also had a life before the Prophecy. Leo’s life was the prophecy.
“It feels like now I’m being punished,” Piper confessed. “For leaving everyone.”
Leo’s hands fell into their familiar nervous pattern, fiddling inside his pocket. “I don’t think it’s that. Feels more like someone’s trying to reach out.”
“Maybe.” Piper turned to him. “Your turn. Truth or Dare.”
“Truth.”
“Pussy,” Piper snorted. “What happened to Calypso?”
Leo shrugged. “Dare.” He headed back down the hill.
“I can’t believe it,” Piper laughed, “Leo Valdez being shy about a girl?”
“She’s not just a girl,” Leo said. “She’s different.”
Piper gave Leo a long hard look out the corner of her eye and then shook her head with another laugh. “I can definitely feel the love, but not what I was expecting. You’ve changed, dude.”
“You couldn’t tell from the sweet ‘stache I got?”
“That’s what that was? I thought it was marker.”
“Hey!”
A few steps forward, and Piper sighed. “You know, I thought we would be friends forever.”
Leo nearly stumbled. “We're still friends.”
"Yeah, but," Piper sighed again, deeper, and shook her head. "It's not the same. Nevermind. I'm just being silly."
But she wasn't, and Leo knew that, however, he didn't know how to fix it. It wasn't that easy to fix this.
7.
The beast wasn’t human, at least not yet. Gnarled fur, twisting limbs. Wolf-like. Not like Lupa though. Just twisted, fucked-up, but still trying. It was trying, and Leo could appreciate that.
Piper stumbled back, tripping over a rock. Her ankle made a loud snap noise, but it didn’t stop her from pushing back.
“Leo!” she screamed. “RUN!”
But he couldn’t. Leo’s stupid feet refused to move even as the beast grew near.
Its hot breath blasted his face, spittle flying. Smells dead. Rotten.
He could die right now, sure. He was well aware. He wanted to. …He didn’t want to. Leo’s body refused to move despite him urging it. The beast drew close, panting at his face.
Leo stared back into unblinking ice-blue eyes. Thin slit pupils dilated.
Leo felt oddly okay with this. He hesitantly reached out. Paused for a moment. The monster snarled at first, then slowly bent. Not submissive. Just… waiting.
His fingers brushed the scar from earlier, pink flesh curling on along the side of the beast’s jaw. Leo could feel it’s heartbeat throbbing through the raw park, and he hooked his hand under the jaw of the creature.
Dropping his head, his temple brushing fur, Leo frowned. It felt too right. Too comfortable. Too familiar. Leo’s thumb pushed into the scar, and the beast whined.
Fine, Leo decided. Alright. Piper’s whines quieted to a question.
The wolf’s eyes closed, and Leo almost burst. It feels too right, as ridiculous as it sounded. He was going to be embarrassed if what his gut was telling him was wrong, and he would be gobbled up. Those fucking demigod dreams. Leo could picture it in his head, feel those teeth tearing at his fleshing, ripping him up like he was that cotton shirt.
He was supposed to believe he would be fine. That was the whole point, wasn’t it? Leo had trust. Leo always had trust when it came to this guy.
At some level, Leo knew all this. But in his head he couldn’t stop pleading, You’re not going to hurt me, you won’t hurt me, you don’t want to hurt me, and he didn’t know if any of that was true. Fucking dangerous, Leo was fucking stupid too. He could make the wrong move, and the animal would kill him on instinct. It was too eerily like his fire, Leo thought. Leo wasn’t sure he had the trust he was supposed to have.
“Hello, Jason,” he murmured. He hesitated, bracing himself for impact. But the beast, Leo’s friend, the demigod, the animal, the man, the whatever it was, instead let out a low noise, a rumbling sad howl. Leo’s shoulders relaxed. Exhaled.
“Leo…” Piper trailed.
“It's fine, Piper,” Leo said. “It's just-” Before Leo could finish, Jason tore away, and rushed into the trees.