LEO

~•♡•~

leo was glad he did not go into venice with frank, hazel, and nico. the end result was that they needed to eat barley cakes before they drank from the poison chalice in the house of hades, nico was grumpy due to being turned into a plant, and frank was suddenly taller and instead of being soft-big with a baby face, he seriously looked like he could stomp every dallas cowboy to ever play.

at dinner, it was quiet, calm, like nothing much had really happened.

"so, we're back on route for epirus?" jason questioned as he ate spaghetti.

"yeah." leo said. "pretty soon, we'll be in open water."

hazel looked sick. "water? we're done with the air?"

leo looked at her. "oh yeah. you get seasick."

"it's better this way." aruna said. "the ship needs to spend some time out of aerial-form, so leo can do some repairs on that stuff. besides, flying over open water is dangerous in the case of a malfunction."

leo stared at aruna. "damn, okay. since when do you know things?"

aruna shrugged and happily shoveled a bite of elote into her mouth. "that's basic sense, i feel."

leo snorted as he prodded his steak with a fork. "next thing i know, you'll be doing math."

"now you're asking for too much." aruna grinned. she ate another bite of elote, spreading a yellow mixture of sour cream, cheese, and mayo all over her lips.

"i'm bored." piper said suddenly as she tossed her spoon down.

"same." jason remarked, his mouth stretching open wider than leo had ever seen as he shoveled practically the entire bowl of spaghetti into his mouth. frank stared, absolutely horrified at the sight.

"then, what do we do?" hazel asked curiously.

"what did kids in your time do for fun?" aruna asked.

"boys got jobs... we got married... we prayed..."

aruna just stared sadly. "holy shit. how depressing."

"i had a job, once." frank suddenly said. "at an animal shelter."

"cute." aruna said blankly. "how did that go?"

"fine, really." frank admitted. "but, i ended up quitting because my boss was... a not-so-nice word."

"cunt." aruna offered.

"dickhead." leo grinned.

"shitface?" piper tilted her head.

"asshat." jason said, his voice muffled through the spaghetti he was still trying to chew.

frank snorted and shrugged. "you... you can say that."

"did anybody else have a job?" leo asked as he took a bite of aruna's food.

"i commanded a roman legion." jason shrugged.

leo blinked as he chewed. "no, dude. i meant, like, at a taco bell or something."

"oh. then, no."

"i used to have to clean houses." aruna said. "like, bathrooms and kitchens. i would sweep, mop, scrub."

"really?" leo smirked. "you were a maid?"

"no. it was just one house- my grandma's, and it was entirely unpaid." aruna shrugged.

"oh. that's not very sexy at all."

hazel's eyes widened. "leo!"

leo held his hands up in defeat. "i'm just sayin-"

"so, who was y'all's childhood crushes?" aruna suddenly asked. "like, actors or cartoon characters or something. mine was tifa lockhart, from final fantasy VII."

"oh my gods, she was so hot." piper agreed.

"really, piper?" jason snorted. he turned to leo. "leo?"

leo shrugged. "i can't be mad, tifa was hot."

frank snorted and leo turned to him. "what about you?"

frank blushed and looked to his lap. "whitney houston..."

aruna whooped loudly.

"who is that?" hazel asked. "and who is... tifa?"

aruna snapped her fingers and leo went to the TV. quickly, he found pictures of both tifa and whitney.

"who is that?" hazel asked, pointing to whitney. "is she an actress?"

"well, yeah." frank explained. "but she also had some of the best music."

"jason?" leo asked curiously. he decided to stick by the TV to pull up more pictures if needed. "what about you?"

jason suddenly began sweating. everyone froze as they looked at him, their eyes wide and curious. piper didn't stop leaning in until her nose was pressed into his cheekbone, her eyes wide and almost malicious.

jason gulped. "okay. okay, you have to hear me out."

leo felt uneasy. "dude..." he grimaced.

"l-lola bunny."

the air went still. piper pulled away from jason, her eyes still wide and unwavering. leo stifled a laugh and turned to aruna, who was waving her hand around and clamping the other one over her mouth. her eyes met his, and leo and aruna burst into laughter.

"dude!" leo cackled wildly and braced his hands on his knees, tears falling from his eyes.

"always the out-of-pocket one!" aruna chortled.

"we're not talking about childhood crushes anymore." frank mumbled. hazel looked confused, so, even through tears, leo brought up a picture of lola bunny.

hazel shot out of her seat. "JASON GRACE!"

aruna fell out of her chair, landing on her knees on the floor. she hid her face in her arms as her torso vibrated from laughter. leo felt his ribs hurting, sure they were bruised now at how hard he was laughing.

"i'm done playing this game." jason grunted.

~•♡•~

leo was scribbling blueprints on some grid paper. he didn't even really know what it was a blueprint of, but that it was some sort of robotic dog. however, he didn't quite have a purpose for it yet. he considered deploying it during capture the flag, but automatons weren't allowed. he considered just setting it loose in the aphrodite cabin, but he'd have to make sure piper wasn't there when he did it, and he didn't want to devote that amount of research and planning (even though he was doing a lot of planning and mathematics to make the blueprints). he then considered just having it to have it.

the door opened behind him and he jumped. aruna held her hands up in surrender and leo let his body relax. he smiled at aruna as she closed the door behind her, a small red bag in her hands. he saw scraps of what looked like sketchbook paper poking out the top, serving as tissue paper.

"hey." he said as aruna walked over to him. she pulled a small stool out of the corner and sat across from leo.

she handed the bag to him, and leo stared at it.

"what is this?" he raised an eyebrow as he took it. he noticed aruna's hand had some sort of black smudging, like she'd drawn on it with marker, but it'd gotten wet and smeared.

"a present." aruna said as she leaned her elbow on the desk. "happy sixteenth birthday."

leo shot up and looked at the clock. it read 12:07A.M., july 7th.

"i-i forgot about my birthday." leo gulped as he took the bag. aruna's face was unchanging as leo opened the bag, gently placing the faux tissue paper on the desk.

he peered inside. he saw some sort of clump of bronze on a wooden plank, which rendered him entirely confused. gently, he pulled the device out of the bag.

on a small wooden plank, maybe an inch thick, twice as wide, and four times as long, a little bronze dragon was curled up, leather wings spreading out. he saw a ruby eye, and the other one was out. as he stared at it, aruna reached forward, and twisted a minor wind up key on the side. the dragon's wings and mouth moved, like it was in flight, roaring.

"festus." leo breathed. the key stopped moving, and the dragon followed suit. he looked up, wiping a stray tear from his eye.

"okay, what kind of magic did you do?"

aruna chuckled softly as leo continued to look over the dragon. with his powers, he could feel that the gears inside had not been enchanted at all. he could feel every single wire, every single little bronze plate that interlinked with each other. he could feel coils and wires all inside, powering the bronze creation.

he knew aruna had built this herself. it carried the sort of love that only a hand-made machine can. but he also knew it'd taken time to plan out, to build. it'd been through trials and errors.

"seriously." he said softly as he looked into her silver eyes. "how... how did you make this?"

"i've been working on it for a few months now." aruna admitted. "i think... i think i started it the day after my birthday, when we got back to camp and chiron grounded us. i know it's not as good as one of your machines would be, but-"

"don't." leo shook his head. "don't finish that sentence."

aruna frowned. "i'm not like, self-hating or anything. but, i mean, it could definitely be better."

"tell me how." leo frowned. aruna moved her head back and leo nodded. "exactly. it's perfect. but, how did you... how did you manage to figure out how? you always- no offense- look panicked and freaked out when me and my cabin mates build things."

"i'm not really sure." aruna admitted. "it took a lot of trial and error. it also took a lot of math i had no idea how to do. i mean, i had to force myself to do a shit ton of algebra, and everyone knows how bad i am at that. it also took a lot of geometry, which was even worse, but... well, i didn't want to just dump it. i kinda forced myself to finish it."

leo grinned as he continued looking over the dragon. "you even got his eyes right."

"of course." aruna shrugged. "who could forget that?"

leo stared at her. her bruises were just about fully healed now. her hair had been brushed, laying smoothly on her shoulders and back. her smile glinted like a thousand diamonds. she sat casually, her breathing completely even. she seemed so laid-back in her black sweats and pink t-shirt.

leo placed festus on the desk as he leaned forward. aruna kissed him softly, her lips gentle against his own. she pulled away and leo smiled at her as she ruffled his curly hair.

"so." aruna huffed. "what's the first thing you'll be doing as a sixteen year old?"

"i dunno." leo shrugged as he grabbed the mini-festus. he placed it on the shelf above the desk with all his other creations. "what's the first thing you did as a sixteen year old?"

"ate breakfast- no." aruna corrected. "i think i called you a shitface first, then ate breakfast."

"ah, such a cute love story." leo snorted. "no, i mean the first big thing."

"you were there." aruna said. leo turned to her, his brown eyes glinting happily. "we snuck out of camp, ate some good food, got arrested."

leo felt himself flush as he looked back to all his creations on the shelf. "well, now you're here for my sixteenth birthday."

"so, what do you wanna do?" aruna asked as she crossed her legs. "we can go eat some cake. we can blow smoke into frank's cabin again. we can... we can go spy on coach hedge."

leo shook his head. "i just want to stay here. for now, at least. for the night."

aruna looked surprised but she nodded. she looked around the room, surveying her surroundings. leo's eyes drifted to linger on her, absorbing her presence as though he'd never seen her before. he remembered when he first saw her, at the wilderness school.

"what?" aruna asked calmly. leo zoned into the present as he looked at her.

"i just..." leo felt his face heat up. "i had a huge crush on you, y'know. for three or four months before our quest."

aruna laughed awkwardly. "shut up, you did not."

"no, seriously." leo snickered. "i-i always tried to tell piper, y'know, to laugh when you walked by so i'd seem funny, or to start talking about my academic achievements."

"you didn't have any-"

"believe me, she mentioned that." leo huffed. "i just... i really wanted you to notice me. piper always told me 'go talk to her. she's not gonna kill you.'" he reminisced. "but, well, i was kind of intimidated by you to be honest."

aruna flushed and looked away. "the shitty thing is i used to think you were kind of annoying."

"i don't think it's shitty. i'm an annoying guy. do not insult my ability to annoy." leo said, thinking back to the night in midas's lair. aruna chuckled softly.

"why didn't you talk to me, though?"

leo bit his lip in a poor effort to hide his smile. "i thought you were out of my league..."

~•♡•~

leo's eyes widened as he watched aruna walk into the cafeteria. her hair was shorter, black all around. she glared at the boy who'd tried to cut in front of her, her eyes sharp enough to cut stone. she wore a dark black jacket, and a grey shirt with blue jeans. leo watched as she drifted to the bar, ungratefully taking a plate of the slop the wilderness school fed the students.

"i guess since 'we are the animals'," piper sighed as she poked a wad of some sort of brown sludge. "they feed us like them, too."

leo's eyes were still on aruna as he absently nodded. he wore his army jacket, his hands tightly clasping a cheeseburger that was neither cheesy nor actual burger meat. aruna sat along at the circular table on the far end of the room, her head low as she pulled out a thin book.

piper shoved leo suddenly and he dropped his not-burger. he glared at her as she poked her hand to his cheek, her eyes swirling with infinite colors.

"are you listening to me?" she complained as she dug her index finger into his fleshy cheek. leo smacked her hand away and sighed as he looked to where aruna was sitting. she had shoved the entire plate to the other side of the table, instead focusing on her book.

"hey!" piper grumbled. she followed leo's gaze, and tilted her head.

"she's new." leo said. "who is she?"

"oh. she's my new bunkie." piper shrugged off. "her name is aruna."

leo gulped as his mouth went dry. aruna's entire body stiffened, and she looked up barely, no longer focusing on her book. leo felt a shiver run down his spine as aruna's silver eyes turned to him, her gaze hard. leo quickly turned to piper.

"pretend i said something funny."

"huh?"

"do it!"

piper started laughing loudly, but her face was entirely blank. her eyebrows were still furrowed, her mouth still curved downwards, but she laughed like there was no end in sight. leo's eyes widened with panic as several kids stopped and stared, and he clamped a hand over piper's mouth to stop her.

"bro!"

she licked his hand and leo retracted, wiping it angrily on his shirt. he glared at piper as she calmly took a sip of water from a styrofoam cup.

"what is the matter with you?" leo complained. he stole a glance to aruna, but she'd gone back to her book.

"i should be asking you that." piper snorted. "geez, you see a pretty girl one time, and you go bananas."

leo blushed and picked up his not-cheese not-burger. "i'm not... going bananas. she's just... pretty."

"aw, is leo in loooove?" piper giggled as she started to obnoxiously hug leo. "awww, you're growing up!"

"piperrrr!" leo whined as he tried to push her away. "you're making me look bad!"

"just try talking to her." piper said as she pulled away. leo muttered spanish curses as he straightened out his shirt and jacket. "she won't kill you. she's actually pretty chill."

"you talk to her?" leo said excitedly.

"duh, i live with her." piper rolled her eyes. "i don't know much about her yet, but she seems pretty cool. she likes the talking heads-"

"i like the talking heads!"

"-and david bowie-"

"i like david bowie!"

"and robert frost."

"i like robert frost!"

piper deadpanned. "leo, who is robert frost?"

"he's the snow guy, right? from that one book... guardians something?"

piper rested a hand on leo's shoulder sympathetically. "leo, that's jack frost. robert frost is a poet."

"oh." leo flushed red and looked down. piper just clapped his shoulder twice and moved back to her food.

"just try talking to her one day. it'll be okay."

"nah." leo frowned as he shook his head. he forced himself to eat the mystery-meat burger. "she's way out of my league. i'm more on par with like, a dead possum."

~•♡•~

aruna just chuckled softly as she shook her head. "then, what made you finally decide to talk to me that day on the bus?"

leo smiled. "i finally decided to stop being creepy. i convinced myself to at least become a friend, because i thought a friend was better than nothing."

aruna frowned. "thought...?"

leo's nose burst into flames and he swatted it out. "um... yeah, i was kinda super into you for like... another six months."

aruna's eyes widened and she looked away. leo was afraid he'd said the wrong thing, and he looked back to his blueprint of the dog automaton. as he stared at it, he started to hate it more and more.

"well, damn." aruna cleared her throat. "i was into you, too."

leo squeaked as he turned back to aruna. her cheeks were the color of cherries, her lips freshly wet.

"why didn't you say anything?" he said softly.

aruna shifted uncomfortably. "i didn't think you liked me back. and... and i thought you were too good for me."

leo scoffed. "too good? baby, have you seen my lack of physical greatness?"

"not- not like that." aruna corrected. "i always... you were a really kind person, y'know? you always made situations a little lighter, and you were nice to everyone around you. you were funny... i always thought that- that i was a bad person. i always have. i don't have that moral high ground the way you do, and i felt like an even worse person when i was around you, and pretty much everyone else, really."

leo's smile faded away. aruna adjusted the collar of her shirt slightly as she looked over at leo.

"it's because... i think you're so good, and i'm nothing like you." she said softly.

she got up and moved to sit on the bed. leo stared at the empty spot on the stool as aruna shifted slightly, placing a pillow in her lap and holding it slightly. leo felt his hands quiver, and he stared at them. they shook slightly in his lap, his heart racing as his eyes struggled to focus.

she thinks that about herself?

she thinks that about me?

leo was having a hard time wrapping his mind around it. it was ironic, really, because he'd been thinking that aruna was better than him- in every regard. when he'd been distrusting of nico, suspicious of him, aruna hadn't hesitated to call him on it. he'd regretted it ever since.

he turned to look at her. she was picking at her nails, the tip of her nose red, her lips quivering slightly. leo stood up, quietly walking over to the light switch. he flipped it off, barely able to see in the darkness now, but this time, it wasn't uncomfortable. aruna looked up slightly as leo sat down right next to her, the heat of his legs reflecting on her skin. he softly wrapped his arms around her, laying his head on her shoulder. aruna froze.

for the first time, leo could hear her heart beating rapidly against his chest.

she was silent as she snaked her arms around his waist, her head laying against his. she breathed deeply, but she quivered slightly. leo felt himself stroking her soft hair, feeling her body against his own.

he pulled away. aruna's tears were silent, barely falling. he remembered a time when she rarely cried in front of him, if at all. he remembered how deadset she always used to be on not showing any sign of weakness. now, it seemed like she was a lot more comfortable with showing that side of her.

leo wiped her tears with his thumb and kissed her cheek. aruna's breath hitched slightly. her skin was salty and slightly wet, her tears hot against leo's lips. he pulled away and rested his forehead to hers, closing his eyes.

aruna took his cheeks and kissed him gently, like she was afraid to. her fingers were slender and dainty, like stars barely flickering against the pool of water in the ground. as her lips brushed against his, leo felt like there were new stars within him, fluttering and twinkling like fairies in the dark.

"leo?" she whispered as she pulled away. leo placed a hand on her cheek and looked into her eyes, which almost seemed to glow slightly in the dark.

"yes?" he whispered back. he could feel her gently breaths tickling his upper lip, her hands on his cheeks, he heart against his.

"i'm sorry for crying." she said, with a small huff of laughter.

leo shook his head as he wiped more tears away. "i think it's good to cry."

"why?" aruna whimpered. "it- it makes me feel weak."

"you aren't made of stone, mi corazón." leo said with a gentle smile. "stone can't cry. crying makes you alive. it means you're here, with me."

aruna gasped softly at the wet feeling of leo's own tears as they fell. he could only smile more as aruna brushed the tears away, her fingertips like a feather.

"did i make you cry?" she asked softly.

"you make me do a lot of things." leo admitted. "laugh, cry, yell."

aruna uttered a small laugh, her head tilted down.

"i apologize for making you laugh, cry, and yell."

"i like it." leo said softly. aruna looked back up to him. she tilted her head up slightly, leaning forward. she pressed a kiss to the corner of his eye, where the tears were falling from. she pulled away after a few seconds, leaving leo to look at her.

he did the same to her. his hot lips lingered just a second too long and he pulled away. he stared at her for a minute. their tears had simultaneously ceased to fall, their eyes locked together. as aruna leaned in one more time, and leo took her waist in his arms, he tried to ignore everything else. he forgot about the quest, and his friend onboard. he forgot about the past and the tears.

he only focused on her.

~•♡•~