CHAPTER FOUR:
ONLY ON WEDNESDAYS

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

KIT DIDN'T STICK around after Piper was claimed. He slipped through the crowd unnoticed, head hung low beneath his hood. Whatever Annabeth had to say about his role in Jason's quest, and Kit just knew she'd have something to say, could wait for the morning. One look at the wretched blonde and he'd lose it. No, he needed the lake again, the silence between just him and the moon. Alas, he didn't get very far before he noticed something strange.

Leo was just ahead of him, glancing over his shoulders warily as he paused by the edge of the woods. Kit frowned at his back. He wasn't thinking of going in there, was he? Surely he knew how unbelievably stupid that would be after what Nyssa had said about the unpredictable nature of the dragon. But with a determined nod, he stepped past the first line of trees. Kit let out a sigh. Once again, Leo Valdez had proven to Kit Dempsey that he was, indeed, unbelievably dumb.

Kit didn't owe him anything, and yet he found himself hesitating too. If Leo died before their quest even began, the other campers would undoubtedly find a way to pin it on him. Leo, Jason and Piper were his companions now, regardless of whether he liked it or not. He had to follow him, he'd have to care about all of them soon. And so with a heavy sigh, he changed paths, ducking into the shadows of the forest just as the other demigods arrived over the crest to head back to their cabins.

The woods were truly eerie. Kit didn't get scared often, but in the pit of the lion's den, even he could admit that a certain chill ran up his spine, like eyes were peering through every crevice waiting to strike. Kit swallowed thickly as several branches crackled beneath his shoes. For a moment, he wasn't the seventeen-year-old boy wearing regret like a second skin, but a boy who had just lost his mother, a boy being promised sanctuary by a god-like, golden-haired teenager as he lost one piece of his family and hoped to gain another.

Kit quickly shook the thought away, goose bumps rising along his skin. He'd lost sight of Leo, forcing him to quicken his pace in the hopes of finding him before the dragon did. Fortunately for him, Leo didn't know how to use the shadows to his advantage. He was just up ahead, feet abrasive as they stomped through the mud. Kit could hear him muttering to himself, causing him to sigh and shake his head. If Kit was a monster (well, a demigod eating one) Leo Valdez would be done for.

He snuck up behind him, smirking as Leo still failed to notice him. And with a grin rather unlike Kit Dempsey, he clamped his hands down on the shorter boy's shoulders, bursting into laughter as Leo shrieked and attempted to kick him off.

"You should've seen your face, Valdez," he murmured before pulling an over-exaggerated expression of fear that Leo did not find amusing.

"Very funny, Christopher," he muttered as he dusted himself off. His cheeks were rosy beneath the pale light of the moon, something Kit immediately picked up on but chose not to point out. He'd reached his quota of amusement for the night. "What are you doing out here? Did you follow me?"

"Someone has to keep you alive," he shrugged.

Now, it was Leo's turn to smirk. "Oh, so you care about me?"

"I care about this quest," Kit corrected with a scowl. "Not you."

"Hmm, sure," he chuckled. It was evident he didn't believe Kit, but Kit didn't care what he believed. "Well, now that you're here, you want to help me find us a ride? I may have looked confident back there, but I wasn't thinking this far ahead."

"Clearly," Kit drawled. "Tell me, Valdez, do you have a death wish?"

"I could ask you the same thing. You didn't hesitate to volunteer yourself."

"I didn't volunteer. This is my punishment to bear."

Leo watched him for an instant, that same curious look returning to his eyes. The brown hue shimmered like melting chocolate, Kit noticed, before he averted his gaze to the trees behind him. He didn't need to be psycho-analysed by a boy he barely knew.

"So, what were you thinking you'd find out here, huh?" he asked, the sound of his voice seemingly snapping the younger boy out of a daze. "I hate to tell you this, Leo, but you won't find a chariot out here."

"Oh, I don't need a chariot," he grinned and bounded off ahead of him. Kit stayed rooted in place, frowning at his back. Just what was his plan then? When Leo noticed he wasn't beside him, he wheeled back around. "Well? Are you coming or not?"

They searched in silence for a while. Kit was surprised Leo knew what it meant to be quiet, but he was too busy searching the forest floor for clues -- what he considered to be clues, Kit really wasn't sure, but he was about to find out. At the bottom of a clearing was the first trap Nyssa had laid. A hundred-foot-wide crater ringed with boulders, quite clearly set up by the Hephaestus children. Kit froze at the edge, looking towards Leo with wide eyes. He couldn't mean... but it was the only thing that made sense.

"Valdez, you're crazy," he insisted as the boy leaned down to get a closer look at the mechanics of the trap. From the looks of it, it was a simple metal vat the size of a hot tub filled with bubbly dark liquid, tabasco sauce and motor oil from what Kit could smell. He didn't pick up on much else, but Leo seemed to. He nodded to himself, slowly edging closer to put his foot on the nearest trigger strip. Kit caught his arm in a panic. "Whoa, what do you think you're doing?"

Leo just smiled at him. "Relax. I've got a plan."

"That's not reassuring at all," he growled. "Leo, the dragon hasn't been caught for a reason. Just let this go and come back to the cabins. We'll find your little friends and think of something else."

Leo shook his head. "I've got this, Christopher. You can go back if you want to, but I'm going to catch me a dragon."

Kit sighed in annoyance but let him go as he tugged on his arm. He stood back with folded arms, and watched warily as Leo treated the crater like a mine-field. Each footstep was careful and precise, and nothing outwardly seemed to occur as he finally reached the vat. Minutes passed. Nothing happened. Kit's arms slowly dropped to his sides as he lowered himself into the crater, following Leo's footsteps indented in the mud to stand beside him. He was leaning over the tub with a confused frown, fire crackling beneath his fingertips. Wait, fire--

"Leo, what the fuck--"

"There's no off button, no nothing," he interrupted him as he moved his flame-engulfed hands through the darkness, the light cutting the shadows to pieces. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Leo, your hands," he hissed. Now, that caught his attention. He stood like a deer in the headlights, the fire flickering with terror. He'd completely forgotten about Kit standing behind him, swallowed by the silence.

"You can't tell anyone."

"And why not?" he raised a brow at him. "Why should I keep your secrets, Valdez?"

Leo didn't have an answer. He just sank to the ground with a pale face, hands trembling as the fire went out completely. Kit let out a sigh. There was a haunted glint in his eyes, all traces of joking amusement, of what made Leo Valdez who he was, long gone. Kit recognised that stare every time he met his reflection in the mirror, every time he dreamt of Luke Castellan. Everyone had their secrets, dark ones, even boys made to be heroes like Leo. In truth, Kit couldn't care less what he could do, what a fire user meant for Camp Half-Blood. It wasn't his hands on fire.

"Get up, would you?" he grumbled and shook the boy's shoulders. "Relax. I'm not going to say anything."

"Why not?" Leo frowned. He hesitantly stood up, a small flame forming in his palm so he could see better.

Kit smirked at him. "I thought you didn't want me to?"

"I don't."

"Well, there's your answer," he shrugged. "It's none of my business." Kit's response had surprised Leo. He stared at him wide-eyed, like he was looking at a stranger instead of the boy he'd taken to annoying the entire day. Kit didn't like how the look made him feel, like his insides were being squeezed apart. "Get to work, Valdez. I'd like to actually sleep tonight."

"I don't know where to begin. If I could just find the off-switch..."

"I don't think Nyssa and them were planning to keep the thing alive," he said. "So why would they create an off-button?"

"Damn it," Leo cursed to himself. He ran a dirty hand along the side of his face, smearing the disgusting liquid from the tub across his jaw. Just as Kit scrunched up his nose and went to point it out, a low grumble echoed through the trees. Both boys froze.

"What is--" Leo quickly raised a finger to his lips to hush him. Kit scowled and batted his hand away, ready to give the boy a piece of his mind, when he saw it.

At the edge of the pit where Kit had been just minutes before, he caught sight of two pin-prick red eyes. The creature gleamed bronze in the darkness, towering hundreds of feet above them like a skyscraper piercing through the sky. It was unnatural, freakish in the way that it moved like a living, breathing being. Kit didn't trust it one bit. He subconsciously reached for his boot where he kept a dagger hidden when Leo gently grabbed his wrist. His eyes were alight with awe as he took in the anomaly. It was beautiful to him, in some twisted way, but there was one tiny problem.

"You don't have wings," he murmured.

"You thought it would?" Kit scoffed. "If it had wings, Camp Half-Blood would've been burned down the first day it got out. The one thing keeping this thing in the woods is its feet."

Leo swatted at his arm. "Don't call it a thing."

"That's what you took from what I just said?"

The dragon huffed at them, tilting his head to the side like he was analysing them. Kit hung back as Leo stepped forward with his arms raised in surrender. "Hey, no offence, dude. You're amazing. Good god, who made you? Are you hydraulic or nuclear-powered or what?"

"Not to burst your bubble or anything, but dragons can't talk."

"Are you always so pessimistic?"

"Only on Wednesdays."

Leo huffed out a laugh before the dragon growled and caught his attention again. "Look, if it was me, I would've put wings on you. What kind of dragon doesn't have wings? I guess maybe you're too heavy to fly? I should've thought of that." Something about how easily Leo spoke to him made the dragon uneasy. He stepped forward, ignoring the boy's horrified shouts of protest. "It's a trap, bronze brain. They're trying to catch you."

Suddenly, the dragon's mouth opened and blew fire. Kit fell backwards as the heat beared down on him, tearing off his hoodie as embers caught on the sleeves. It felt like sitting inside a fireplace or being cooked on a hot stove, or like when Jason had summoned the lightning and the smoke settled in his lungs with every intent of suffocating him. Finally, after what felt like hours but was only mere seconds, the dragon relented and the air went cool again. Kit panted as he stood back up, searching the clearing fearfully for Leo. But Leo stood unphased, right in the firing line. He hadn't even been touched by the flames. Kit let out an amazed breath. He was like Leo with his dragon, but instead of a creaky metal creature that defied the laws of nature, it was a fire-proof boy.

"You can't burn me," he said sternly. "Stay, boy. Don't come any closer. I don't want you to get caught. See, they think you're broken and have to be scrapped. But I don't believe that. I can fix you if you let me--"

The word 'fix' triggered something in the creature. It creaked, roared and charged right for them. Leo simply stepped aside, but in doing so the trap was caught. Both Leo and Kit were knocked back as the dirt beneath them snapped up like a mouse trap. A flashing metal net wrapped around the dragon's body as he struggled, consequently sending the tub flying right at the boys. Kit wretched as tabasco sauce and oil splattered everywhere; in his hair, on his face, his clothes. It smelled disgusting, far worse than the dorms of the Princess Andromeda had ever been. He scrubbed at his skin in the hopes of removing some of the gunk but it was no use. It clung to him like perfectly made armour.

"Valdez, I'm going to kill you," he snarled as the other boy stumbled to his feet.

"Me? I didn't do anything," he scoffed. He didn't even seem surprised as he dripped oil everywhere; no, he seemed rather pleased with himself as he offered Kit a hand up.

"Get away from me," Kit grumbled and pushed him away. Leo just rolled his eyes, yanking at the boy's wrists anyway, eventually managing to heave the both of them up again. "You're annoying, you know that?"

"A thank you would be lovely," he huffed but Kit just ignored him.

Instead, he glared at the dragon with pure contempt, finding great joy in watching it struggle around in the net. "Sucks, doesn't it? You big brute."

"Stop taunting him," Leo hissed, though he barely got the words out over the sudden tower of flames that the dragon sent flying up into the sky. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Will you stop that?"

But the dragon just continued to wriggle around. Leo stormed right up to his head, ignoring the teeth that snapped at his arms defensively.

"Listen, man. You're just going to show them where you are. Then they'll come and break out the acid and the metal cutters. Is that what you want?" The dragon just made a creaking sound like he was replying to him in, well, whatever language that mechanical dragons communicated with. "Okay, then. You'll have to trust me."

Kit gaped at his back as he set to work. "What the fuck did I just witness?"

The next few hours were beyond painful. Kit couldn't bring himself to move from the spot he'd taken up on the edge of the crater, even as Leo focused solely on the control panel in the back of the dragon's neck. He'd mutter to himself about the different issues he found. It didn't make sense to Kit but it was almost fascinating to watch. Leo's hands were nimble as they pulled at the different wires. He worked like he was made for this, for creating things and pulling it apart. In a way, it reminded Kit of a fight, of looking for the opponents weaknesses and picking them to pieces before putting the soldier back together for the final fight. He felt like he understood Leo just a tiny bit more than he had earlier that morning.

Don't get him wrong, though, this did not mean he liked Leo Valdez. He was still annoying, too happy and sarcastic, but Kit could admit he was smart.

Finally, he slipped something back into the dragon's neck and clicked the panel door shut. The creature shuddered, his eyes lighting up like two pieces of burning coals in a furnace.

"Better?" Leo smiled with a hint of victory on his lips. The dragon opened its mouth and all its teeth rotated. "I guess that's a yes. Hold on, I'll free you."

"Wait, you'll what?" Kit exclaimed. He was up on his feet in an instant, tearing the dagger from his boot.

"Put that down, Christopher," Leo narrowed his eyes at him as he lowered his body down from the edge of the net. "He won't hurt you."

"Oh, he said that, did he?"

"He did," Leo nodded insistently. "Told me he likes you."

Kit just rolled his eyes. "Wish I could say the same."

It took another thirty minutes and Kit's help (which, honestly, wasn't much) to find the release clamps for the net and to untangle it from the dragon's belly. But alas, it stood and shook the last bit of netting off its back. Then, it roared in triumph and shot another round of flames into the sky that had Kit scrambling behind Leo like he was a shield.

"Seriously," the younger boy sighed as he patted a scowling Kit on the arm. "Could you not show off? Our friend here isn't fireproof."

"You're not my friend," Kit huffed and shook him off, trying to maintain some of his dignity as Leo just snickered in disbelief.

"Keep telling yourself that." He turned back to the dragon, ignoring the other boy's eyes glaring daggers into the side of his oil-stained jaw. "You need a name. I'm calling you Festus."

"Happy the Dragon?" Kit echoed in disbelief. This night was getting too much for him. "You've gotta be kidding."

"I think it suits him."

"It's a machine."

Leo just glared before approaching Festus proudly. Kit heaved a reluctant sigh before following him. He'd stay for a few more minutes then leave. He'd spent far too much time with Leo Valdez and this bloody dragon to be healthy. And the tabasco and motor oil, don't even get him started on the stench. Kit swore he'd accidentally swallowed some of it. He could taste it on his tongue like poison.

"So we still have a problem," he declared. "Happy the Dragon doesn't have wings."

"Oh. I forgot about that."

"Can I trust you not to die if I leave?"

Leo scoffed at him. "What are you? My protector?"

"No," he snapped. "But we have a quest to complete together and we can't do that if you're in the Underworld."

"I don't know what that is but it sounds cool." It really wasn't, but Kit wasn't about to start a history lesson in the early hours of the morning. He needed sleep -- no, he needed a shower, three of them, to erase the odour, and then his bed. "You can trust me, Christopher. Festus and I have got this."

"You do know my name isn't Christopher, right? I wasn't kidding about that."

Leo just smiled and waved at him. "Goodnight, Christopher. Don't let the bed bugs bite."

"I'll bite you in a minute," Kit grumbled to himself.

"I heard that," Leo called out after him, though he was grinning to himself in accomplishment. He wanted Kit to like him, even though he scowled too much, walked around like a living and breathing corpse, and had the word traitor attached to his name like it was a nickname. That night was progress to him, even if Kit was just there because he felt like he had to be.

Kit noticed the smile but didn't acknowledge it as Leo slipped onto the dragon's back and bounded off into the woods. Only then did he allow his own lips to bear into the tiniest of grins. But only the trees and the moon were there to witness it, a secret to take to the grave.