Chapter 5: A New Beginning

~Third Person P.O.V~

Apollo led Leo and Ashley up a flight of spiral stairs, caged wall lamps lighting the path.

"Huh.." Leo said, passing one of the lamps, his gaze eyeing the metal bars and glass panels.

"Something bothering you, Leo?" Apollo asked, taking slow steps up the spiral stairs, doing his best to hide the pain in his knees as he stopped to turn to the pair.

"Well, you'd think that with all the flying books and glowing runes and stuff you guys would use something you know.. more uh- 'magicky' as lighting." Leo said, doing a little gesture with his hands as he spoke the tail end of his sentence.

Apollo chuckled at the boy's question, his kind eyes resting on the boy's face. "We would if it wasn't so unnecessarily draining." He said, as he continued up the stairs.

"Draining?" Ashley spoke up "Do you mean you could... run out of magic? Or perhaps something not too dissimilar?" She continued.

"Good question, Ashley." Apollo hummed "No, not exactly run out per se... but yes, indeed something quite similar." He said as they reached the next floor, Apollo taking a moment to catch his breath before entering the cobblestone hallway, the same arches allowing them to overlook the lower levels.

"But we can discuss that later, for now, I'm sure you both dearly need a proper bath." Apollo said, smiling at the pair. "On the far right of the hallway, you'll find two large double doors. They're our communal baths, one is for men, and the other is for women." He looked down at the pair, lightly scratching his beard.

"You aren't coming with us?" Leo asked, looking up at the elderly man.

"Not into the showers, no." he winked, a laugh escaping his old chafed lips.

"Now hurry on, we'll have more time to talk later." Apollo said, smiling at the pair.

Leo and Ashley made their way down the stone hall, Leo eventually taking the doors to the right, his sister taking the doors to the left.

As Leo opened the ornate doors the warm mist immediately hit him, it fogged the stone room lit by torches that burned bright, bathing the room in a warm orange-yellow hue.

-Descriptive Bath scene warning just skip to the next bold lines-

"Huh.. this seems.. fancy." Leo said to himself as he entered the room, the room before him being far different from anything he's used to. His pale bare feet touching the moist stone floor. Leo made his way to a large stone depression filled with water, hot steam coming off the water's surface.

"Hm.." he hummed, his eyes darting off to the right, seeing a tall multi-leveled wooden table, candles lighting each level. Leo stepped closer, his eyes scanning each level. "Shampoo.. conditioner.. body wash?" Leo let out a laugh, a smile on his lips as he remembered what Apollo said 'Not everything here has to be magic'.

Leo picked up 3 bottles and a bar of soap "huh, ok.. so I think I just leave my clothes here." Leo said, grabbing the collar of his shirt and pulling it over his shoulders leaving his chest bare. The crimson liquid dripping off the shirt. "Ok, I have to remember to ask him what exactly that is." Leo said, dropping the shirt onto the stone floor. Leo's thumbs slipped under the waistband of his pants, gripping kt with his index fingers he pushed them down low, lifting his right knee then doing the same with the other, leaving himself bare.

"Okay, finally. Time for a bath." He said, leaving the bottles and the soap by the stone ledge, stepping down a short flight of steps down into the warm water, he knelt down so the water reached up to his neck.

Leo let out a relaxed sigh as the warm water soaked his slender figure, relaxing his tensed up muscles. Leo cupped the warm water his palms and splashed into onto his face. He watched as the red washed off his skin, Leo bent down and closed his eyes, submerging himself completely in the warm water. This was the first time he's ever had a bath that wasn't ice cold, and he'll be damned if he didn't enjoy it.

"This.. is great.." he said, catching his breath as he resurfaced, he made his way back to the edge of the bath, and grabbed the shampoo. Leo squeezed the light blue viscous liquid out of the bottle and massaged it into his scalp.

The bubbles began to drip down from his raven hair, the licks of red becoming soft, washing off. The bubbles made their way down his face and slender body, he eagerly washed it off.

Leo rubbed the body wash in his palms, before lathering up his slender arms and his chest. He rubbed the slippery liquid across his chest and down to his stomach. Standing up, the water was now down to his thigh. In his hand he stroked it slowly, ensuring to soap it properly, he pulled back the skin slightly to reveal his sensitive tip, a few hushed moans escaping his lips as he gently lathered it with soap. His slim fingers running down his thighs, up to where the water reaches him, kneeling back down he felt the warm water over him once more, he washed away the soap before laying down and lifting his legs. Soaping down from his leg to his ankle and feet.

-End of Bath scene-

Once Leo finished bathing, he stood up, and took one of the white towels, drying himself off and wrapping it around his hips. Leo made his way to the double doors, pushing them open the relatively cold air hitting his warm moist skin.

"Ahhh..~- gyah!" Leo immediately tried to cover up his bare chest with his arms as he saw someone was already outside waiting for him and his sister.

A girl wearing a black dress reaching just above her knees stood outside, her wavy charcoal hair reaching just below her shoulders. The girl wore a beautiful smile on her lips, her lightly tanner skin contrasting her dark clothing.

The girl giggled at Leo, a light blush on her cheeks expecting the boy to at least have come out using more than just one towel to cover his indecency.

"You must be Leo, Apollo sent me to assist you and your sister." She said, extending a hand for Leo to shake, the silver bangles along her wrist shaking slightly.

Leo cautiously took her hand but eased up at her warm aura. "And you would be..?" He asked her, holding the towel with the other hand.

"You can call me Hope." The girl said, her sparkling brown eyes meeting Leo's, as she shook his hand. The boy blushing but more of the whole him being naked beyond his white towel around a girl than anything else.

The double doors to the women's bath opened, as Ashley stepped out. A towel wrapped her hair, another around her shoulders, one from her chest to her thighs. Her warm brown eyes moved from Leo to Hope and back to Leo. Raising a brow at him.

"Ashley! There you are" He said, relieved at the sight of his sister. "This is Hope, Apollo sent her to assist us."

"Assist?" She asked, Hope.

"Yes, I'll be showing you to your rooms then each of your roommates will continue the tour of the Equilibrium." Hope began, her black heels making audible noise as she walked away.

"Roommates? You mean we won't be sharing a room?" Ashley asked the girl as she and her brother followed suit.

"Yes, sadly it is the policy here that people of the opposite gender cannot share rooms even if they are related." She said as she walked down the steps.

"So, Apollo sent you?" Leo asked her.

"Yes, though it was more of a favor than a direct order. He and my father are dear friends, he's like an uncle to me." She said, heading down the next floor.

"Apollo's quite fond of finding new people like you, I'm glad he got to you before-" Hope stopped herself in her tracks. "I'm sorry, I don't have the authority to tell you two that yet."

"Tell us what?" Ashley asked her, the lower they went the more people they encountered. Ashley didn't quite mind since she properly covered herself but her brother was blushing red by this point, she just rolled her eyes at his idiocy.

"Tell us what exactly?" Ashley pressed the matter when hope didn't reply.

"Come on Hope, you can trust us. We're friends" Leo said as they reached the next floor, hope stepping out of the staircase and onto the floor.

"Friends..?" She asked, turning to Leo. "You really mean that?" She asked him once more.

"I mean.. yeah, you seem nice. I don't see why not." Leo smiled at her, the girl smiled back, though this time.. it seemed warmer.

"I- well, alright. I'll tell you this" the girl spoke in a hushed tone "Let's just say.. the Equilibrium isn't the only group looking for people with magic."

Hope said once they reached the 3rd floor a part of the complex reserved for residence.

"Well, we're here." Hope said, to our right is the boy's wing, to our left is the girl's wing. "Leo, take these. Your room keys" Hope said, handing Leo two keys with hooked numbers showing a certain glyph. "The glyph is which room you are."

"Wait, why are you giving me two? Doesn't my roommate need one?" Leo asked Hope, a curious look on his face.

"Oh, he wouldn't like it if I spoiled the surprise.. but let's just say he doesn't need any keys to enter the room." Hope said with a wink.

Hope and Ashley entered the girl's wing, as they walked Ashley noticed the other girls seemed to skirt around Hope just to avoid her. Taking note, she decided not to ask her, though she did notice sadness behind Hope's pinkish eyes.

"Well, here we are." Hope said, smiling at Ashley.

"Where's my key?" Ashley asked hope.

"Oh, well about that I might have lost one of the keys. We can share mine till we get a new one made." Hope said, placing the key into the keyhole and turning the key to unlock the door.

"Wait you mean-" Hope cut Ashley off as she opened the door.

"Yup! That's right, I'm your roomie!" Hope said with a smile.

Meanwhile, Leo hurriedly tried to find his room, blushing red as a flame flicker over being nude around a bunch of boys. Seeing the matching glyph he thanked the gods and hurriedly rushed inside.

Dropping his towel he leaned against the shut door and clenched his eyes shut. His heart racing, his member rock hard and twitching. "Uugh... boys"

Leo said, sliding down and hugging his knees. Once his little embarrassment fueled panic attack passed he stood back up, his boyhood still fully erect as he wandered deeper into the room.

Noting that the lights were off as a good sign, he searched for a light switch. Guessing this floor was one of the ones illuminated by electricity, miraculously he found one. Flicking the switch, the lights flickered on to reveal a somewhat large room. Bookshelves on his left side, a door leading to a bathroom on the right, the bedroom itself was merged with a small study complete with two desks and tables. Near the beds was a small sofa, with a television across it. Two separate beds rested in the bedroom, both perfectly tidied up though one had some discarded pizza boxes by the foot of the bed.

"Huh, good thing he isn't here yet." Leo said, blushing he looked down at his member. Leo turned to the closet in the room near the beds and looked for a clean set of clothes.

He found a few plain white shirts, 2 dark blue jogging pants, and a gray bomber jacket. Beside them were two robes, the same dark robes he saw the people wearing at the atrium when he looked down from the balcony, though his were plain black, no glowing symbols or anything.

Leo slipped on the more casual clothes before a question struck him like a slap to the back of the head. "Wait! Where's Piper?"