Light and Fire (Leo Valdez)

2. Leo hits on every female looking thing he meets

Sets of couches and low tables were carted into the forum until it resembled a furniture showroom.

Romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits-aurae-swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies. Drifting through the crowd were Lares in togas and legionnaire armor.

Around the edges of the feast, fauns trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with Mrs. O'Leary, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.

Reyna and a few of her officers (including Julia and Octavian, freshly back from burning a teddy bear for the gods) sat with the greek crew. Percy joined them with Frank and Hazel.

As a tornado of food platters settled onto the table, Reyna called a toast to friendship.

Julia finally got the crew's names. Scary blonde was Annabeth Chase, a daughter of Athena, who was the greek version of Minerva, but apparently she could have kids. Then there was Piper Mclean, daughter of Aphrodite (Venus for romans), which made her related to Julia in some way.

"Oh, I'm a legacy of Venus!" She said to Piper with a grin.

Piper smiled, maybe because she didn't really know what to say "uh.. sorry but what is a legacy?"

Julia chuckled "It means you have a godly heritage, like my grandpa is a son of Venus"

Piper's eyes widened "Your ... grandpa?"

"Yes, why?"

"Oh, it's stupid, it just surprises me a demigod could live that long." She said nonchalantly.

That got real dark real quick.

"Uh... oh." Julia said awkwardly.

"Hey Pipes, that's kind of edgy to say" The brunette boy snickered. "I'm Leo Valdez by the way, also known as the Supreme Commander of the Argo II" He grinned at Julia.

"Repair boy is more like it" Piper chuckled.

"Hey, shut up Beauty queen!" He groaned, then he smirked back at Julia "But you can call me anything you'd like" He winked, which made her furrow her eyebrows.

Piper rolled her eyes "Just ignore him, he hits on every female looking thing he meets", which made Julia snicker.

She was starting to like these new people.

Before Leo could say something back, the Romans and Annabeth's crew began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, and how he'd gone on a quest with Piper and Leo to rescue the goddess Juno (or Hera, take your pick- she was equally annoying in Greek or Roman) from imprisonment at the Wolf House in northern California.

"Impossible!" Octavian broke in. "That's our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there"

"They would've destroyed her," Piper said. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish."

Octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Julia chuckled, and he shot her an annoyed look.

She noticed Reyna looking back and forth between Jason and Piper, her brow creased, as if realizing the two of them were a couple. Julia felt really bad for her. Reyna had a crush on Jason for the longest time.

"So," Jason continued, completely oblivious, "that's how we found out about the earth goddess Gaea. She's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by...what did he call it? Pulling up their roots."