• "Who?" • A Leo Valdez X Reader story (Completed)

Chapter 5

Why can't they just hurry up? About ten minutes later I would totally regret asking.

A minute after wondering where everyone went I saw Clarisse and her little group attempting to ambush us and take our flag. Percy said that that exact thing had happened to him his first game and that we should be careful.

"Clarisse coming in through the lake. I got it." I spoke through my earpiece and immediately heard Leo's voice back. "Alright I trust ya. But if anything goes wrong I'm helping and you can't refuse my assistance this time." I nodded before realizing he couldn't see me.

"Sure. Help if I need it. But I won't." "Whatever." I smirked and flew over to Clarisse. "Hey Clarisse how ya doin?" I asked as I flew upside down. She growled and said

"Worse now that you're here." Her little group laughed and she brought out her electric spear. Lightning. Can I do something with that? I looked at her spread and tried to move it. She had a steel grip so I couldn't tell if I was doing anything until it flew out of her hands and up. I flipped over so I was actually head over heels (for Leo soon 😏) and willed it to chase Clarisse and her group of goons around.

It was hilarious.

A bunch of guys trying to avoid the flying spear that would appear out of nowhere and shock them sometimes. I was still messing with them but I saw Annabeth running through the woods towards us, a little sphere of water around her for protection.

"Percy." I smiled and thought it was adorable. Then all of the Ares children I had been playing tag with ran over to her, trying to take their flag back. I decided to try something and took the lightning from the spear and put it into her water barrier.

When they touched it, they immediately got a huge electrical shock through their body. I was laughing, Leo was dying, and I even saw a smile on Annabeth's face. She made it to our side and everyone heard Chiron's voice boom. "The blue team has won!"

I yelled "YES!" excitedly and flew to the ground. Leo picked me up and spun me in a circle as I felt my face grow redder and redder. He sent me down and once he saw me, even he began to blush. But the awkward encounter was cut short when everyone came over and was cheering us on for guarding our flag, even if we didn't do much.

But neither me nor Leo were going to tell them we just did nothing majority of the time. Everyone gathered up armor and began to hear back to the main field. As we walked over, suddenly the air was filled with a sense of dread. Everyone looked around but then, again, in a bolt of lightning, my dad appeared.

"Zeus. You're back." Chiron said, bowing. "Indeed. I need Dionysus to come up to Olympus with me. I also need... ah. My daughter." He said once his gaze landed on me. I was Zeus's only daughter, at least in camp at that moment, so I knew he was talking about me.

I looked at Leo, and he sent me a reassuring gaze. I gulped and walked over to my father. In another bolt of lightning, me, Zeus, and Dionysus disappeared. I shut my eyes but opened them a second later. We were in Olympus, Zeus and Dionysus were already in their respected thrones, and the other ten Olympians we're looking at me.

I awkwardly smiled and gave a little bow. "Uh... hi?" I looked up to see Aphrodite looking at me, probably trying to find out my love life, Hephaestus looking at me, probably wondering if I was the one Leo has been hanging out with, and Artemis giving me a reassuring look.

Not to mention Hera, who looked at me with loathing. Zeus began to talk, his booming voice filling the whole room. "The maniae are loose." Everyone gasped I heard a few little whispers. "Didn't we... we locked them up in Tartarus... how did they get out... was someone helping or was it just a matter of time?" "SILENCE!" I totally flinched.

Also it felt like my ears were going to explode.

Bleh.

Everyone went dead silent and I said "Excuse me, but what are the man-things and what do they have to do with me anyway?" Athena already knew. "My dear, they're the maniae. And they are a group of spirits personifying madness and insanity. What they have to do with you, I think that's for Zeus to tell." I thanked her and turned to him.

I raised my eyebrows and Zeus said "Well, we gods and goddesses have our own matters to take care of, so we need you to capture these spirits and put them back where they belong. Tartarus." I didn't say anything but I was thinking 'Geez. Another thing the gods are too lazy to do, so they make us do it instead because we're 'half them'. Makes sense.'

I saw Hera's scowl deepen and Apollo was trying not to laugh. He's a god I'm sure he saw my thoughts or something. "Of course father. A quest?" He smiled. "You're smart. A quest. You may bring one other person along with you." ONLY ONE?? I haven't even been at came for a month, how am I supposed to... "Oh and you'll need something to trap them with... uh... Hephaestus! Can you make something for my daughter?" Zeus continued as the blacksmith nodded.

"Of course. It will be done within a week." I smiled. I was scared out of my mind, but I was also excited. "I can also make a tracker, if the lady would like." Hephaestus said, turning to me. "Oh yes please. Thank you so much!" He smiled and nodded. Something told me that he didn't get thanked for his work often.

"Alright, meeting finished! I have to do important sky stuff and you all have jobs too. Off to it!" Zeus shouted. The Olympians started to disappear, except for Aphrodite. She walked up to me and shrunk to my size.

"You totally have a crush on my husband's kid. That Leo boy." I shook my head as I protested. "No! He's my friend I haven't seen in years! That's all there is between us! And he's your... nevermind."

She smiled as she pulled out a tube of lipstick from who knows where. "You can deny it dear, but it doesn't change your feelings. If it helps, he likes you too. And if it gets to be the worst scenario, I can always ask Eros to shoot you guys with his love arrows." "Yeah no thank you. I'd rather not get shot." She laughed as a mirror appeared so she could touch up her makeup even more.

I didn't think she needed to. Not because she was just 'so pretty' but because if she did that every five seconds she probably had so many layers of makeup on her face it kinda made me sick. "Have it your way dear." She waved her hand and I was back in camp, not Olympus anymore.

Everyone had left to go back into their cabins except for my favorite people. Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, and my favorite favorite, Leo.

They all jumped up when they saw me but immediately stopped. "What? What did Aphrodite do?" Piper made a face at my worse, which concerned me. "You met my mom?" I nodded. "Oh I am so sorry."

Jason pulled out a little mirror from his pocket and gave it to me. I looked at myself to see makeup.

Oh. Tartarus. No.

I never wear makeup. It makes me look stupid. But not this time. I looked pretty, but I still hated the feeling of stuff on my skin. "That's going to take a while to disappear." Piper said. I groaned but as I looked in her direction, I spotted Leo still sitting on a log.

His nose was bleeding so I rushed over to him. "Leo what did you do?" I didn't have anything to give him. I pulled off a white glove I had on, one from some sort of princess movie, and handed it to him.

Ugh she changed my outfit too. My sweatpants were fine lady!

I was wearing some sort of dress. (Imagine it however you want) Leo put the cloth under his nose to stop the blood flow and I tilted his head up.

'If it helps, he likes you too.' If I learned anything that night, it's that now the sanity of everyone in the world is on my shoulders, and that Aphrodite sucks.

(A/N - it's a long chapter but I needed to get the conflict in there somewhere. And yes, I did look up the definition of a maniae simply for this. And congrats you now have the curse of the goddess of beauty.)