Leo distinctly remembers not being on a table when he fell asleep.
Or in a boardroom.
Or with his dad.
He blinked his eyes open and stared at his dad with almost closed eyes. Hephaestus looked as awkward as usual when in the presence of other breathing organisms. But there was something in his shoulders that said "son, you're in trouble"
"I don't have the patience for this dream." He said dismissively, closing his eyes and turning on the table, expecting his boyfriend (he didn't just smile) to be curled beside him.
Nope.
Leo's hand searched the wooden platform and found a pair of cold hands. He sighed and relaxed, cracking his eyes open to see the...less than amused...slightly related to face of....
Hades, God of the Underworld.
He continued to look at Nico's father's face as he held his hand, and Hades got less and less patient.
"......your son is hot." Leo mentioned nonchalantly, squeezing Hades's hand, who suddenly left his human disguise and had the face of a rotting skeleton, red eyes and death breath, the whole package.
Leo let go of his hand quickly. Maybe even scooted away from him, just the tiniest bit. He sat up and looked around.
The place he was in was...shiny, to say the least. Silver anything and everything was all around him: large walls of dull gray metal, accentuated by designs of sterling silver around the corners. A huge table sat in the middle of the room, extending either directions, and Leo seemed to be laying in the middle of it, with his father and boyfriend's father on either sides of the longer parts of the table. There was a hole in the ceiling that revealed the sun, but it seemed to be moving faster than usual. Like...way faster. He wondered if that Apollo dude knew what was up.
Almost like his dad knew what he was thinking, Hephaestus looked at his son with warning. "Son," He said lowly. "Don't say it."
"Say what?"
"The word."
"There are a lot of words."
"....the name."
"What name?" Leo was grinning stupidly by now, and Hephaestus had this 'shut up' look on his face.
".....the A name...."
"....Apollo?"
The two gods tensed, eyes darting around the still room.
For a moment everything was silent and Leo's dad was giving him the dirtiest "you fucking shit" face he could muster. Leo snorted.
"Apo-"
Everything went dark. Leo whirled around and tried to find a source of light. He looked up at the open ceiling and saw there was no sun. Or stars. Or sky. He turned to the soft embers of still burning flame in his dad's beard and raised his hand, igniting it. He looked around again and saw Hades, even with the new light, still half engulfed in shadow, covering half of his face and body.
"This is supposed to be the Hero of my offspring?" He asked Hephaestus, who only sighed. Leo straightened, more alert as he realized his reason of being here. But before he could ask, a new light hit Leo and a voice echoed out.
"Who dares speak of that power-stealing-self-absorbed-imbecile in my palace?"
Leo turned and spoke at the same time is father did.
"Apollo?"
"Helios."
~
Leo didn't know what to expect.
But it wasn't a middle aged balding man in a silver track suit with a laurel crown and a beer belly.
