LEO

~•♡•~

leo didn't really want aruna to come. she was clearly exhausted. he doubted she'd gotten a wink of sleep in the past three days. she looked like the dead nico had communed with the night before- her skin hollowed and yellow, like pictures leo had seen of war veterans. her hands were trembling with every step she took, her eyes shaking and unfocused. she was moving her body so much more slow, like she'd been on autopilot.

but, he didn't want to argue. and he didn't want to make aruna feel like she couldn't do something. she already felt like that.

jason, leo, and aruna touched down in a big piazza lined with white marble government buildings and outdoor cafes. bikes and vespas clogged the surrounding streets, but the square itself was empty except for pigeons and a few old men drinking espressos.

leo watched aruna nearly foam at the mouth at the sight of the coffee.

none of the locales seemed to notice the huge greek warship hovering over the piazza, or the fact that jason, leo, and aruna had just flown down, jason wielding a gold sword, and leo... well, leo was pretty much empty-handed.

but, it was okay! he had a super-hot girl next to him!

now he really hoped that hot italian dudes more situated for aruna weren't lurking around.

"where to?" jason asked.

leo stared at him. "well, i dunno. let me pull my dwarf-tracking GPS out of my tool belt... oh wait! i don't have a dwarf-tracking GPS- OR MY TOOL BELT!"

aruna kept rubbing her bare wrists. "i don't understand how they did that..."

"fine." jason grumbled. he glanced up at the ship as if to get his bearings, then pointed across the piazza. "the ballista fired the first dwarf in that direction, i think. come on."

they waded through a lake of pigeons. aruna was clinging close to leo the entire time, almost glancing sheepishly at the birds. leo stole a few side glances from her, and noticed her flinching every time one of the birds made a sound or some sort of movement.

holy shit, he thought. is my super-hot girlfriend afraid of birds?

they maneuvered down a side street of clothing stores and gelato shops. the sidewalks were lined with white columns covered in graffiti, which leo found almost as interesting as aruna did. a few panhandlers asked for change (leo didn't speak italian, but he got the message loud and clear).

he kept patting his waist, hoping his tool belt would magically reappear. it didn't. he tried not to freak, but he'd come to depend on that belt for almost everything. he felt like somebody had stolen one of his hands.

"we'll find it." jason said. he looked at aruna, who was gazing blankly as a wedding dress store while rubbing her wrist. "we'll find it all."

usually, leo would have felt reassured. jason had a talent for staying level-headed in a crisis, and he'd gotten leo out of plenty of bad scrapes. today, though, all leo could think about was the stupid fortune cookie he'd opened in rome. the goddess nemesis had promised him help, and he'd gotten it: the code to activate the archimedes sphere. at the time, leo had no choice but to use it if he wanted to save his friends, his girlfriend. if he'd waited even five more seconds, aruna may have been killed.

but nemesis had warned that her help came with a price.

it didn't help his feelings that aruna had asked for her cookie back the day after. leo had fought tooth and nail for her to ignore it, to never touch it.

what if i need to save you, and her help is my only option? she'd said. leo had given it to her, but through no choice of his own.

leo wondered if his price would ever be paid. percy and annabeth were gone. the ship was hundreds of miles off course, heading towards an impossible challenge. leo's friends were counting on him to beat a terrifying giant. and now he didn't even have his tool belt or his archimedes sphere.

at least you still have her. leo flickered his eyes to aruna. her hair had dried now, flowing freely behind her. her chest rose and fell shakily, her collarbones suddenly much more visible. her face was still bruised horribly. she'd been refusing all forms of treatment, like ambrosia, nectar, nature healing, even advil.

leo suspected it was a way of punishment, if that made any sense. aruna had felt like it was her fault more than anyone else's. she'd "let" percy and annabeth slip through her grasp. she didn't want to take into account the fact that their amassed body weights was probably over two hundred pounds. she didn't want to accept that she'd been beaten and bloodied, exhausted from the day in rome. she didn't want to accept the fact that the pit of tartarus literally tries to pull you down.

leo was so absorbed in his own feelings, he didn't notice where they were until jason grabbed his arm. "check it out."

leo looked up. they'd arrived in a smaller piazza. looming over them was a huge bronze statue of a buck-naked neptune.

"ah, jeez." leo averted his eyes. he really didn't need to see a godly groin this early in the morning.

aruna squinted her eyes and tilted her head, intensely studying the statue. to leo, it was quite basic- the sea god stood on a big marble column in a fountain that wasn't working (talk about irony) with little bronze dudes on either side of him that made leo think of cupid. neptune was throwing his hip to the side in an elvis presley move, and gripped his trident loosely in his right hand. his left outstretched to leo, maybe as a blessing, or maybe as an attempt to levitate him.

leo was disturbed that aruna was staring so closely.

"some kind of clue?" aruna finally said as she blinked slowly and separated her gaze. leo wondered if she'd been staring out of interest, appreciation, disgust, or if she was zoning out.

jason frowned. "maybe, maybe not. there are statues of gods all over the place in italy. i'd feel better if we ran across jupiter. or minerva. anybody but neptune, really."

"since when has your daddy ever helped you?" aruna shot back.

jason didn't have a reply to that.

leo climbed into the dry fountain. he put his hand on the statue's pedestal as aruna sat on the edge, her head turned over her shoulder as she watched leo. as leo rested his hand on the pedestal, a rush of impressions surged through his finegrtips. he sensed celestial bronze fears, magical levers, springs, and pistons.

"it's mechanical." he explained. "maybe a doorway to the dwarfs secret lair?"

"OOOOO!" shrieked a nearby voice. "secret lair?!"

jason stepped back, his sword ready. aruna slipped a knife from her shoe and held it in front of her, and leo forced his eyes to tear away. he almost got whip lash trying to look three places at once- the two dwarfs, and aruna. the red-furred dwarf in the cowboy hat was sitting about thirty feet away at the nearest cafe table, sipping an espresso with his monkey-like foot. the brown-furred dwarf in the green bowler hat was perched on the marble pedestal at neptune's feet, just above leo's head.

"if we had a secret lair," said red fur. "i would want a firehouse pole!"

"and a waterslide!" said brown fur, who was pulling random tools out of leo's belt, tossing aside wrenches, hammers, and staple guns.

"stop that!" leo cried. he tried to grab the dwarf's feet, but he couldn't reach the top of the pedestal.

"too short?" brown fur sympathized.

"you're calling me short?" leo growled. he looked around for something to throw, but there was nothing but pigeons, and leo doubted he could catch one. however, in an instant, aruna's knife whizzed past him. the dwarf screeched and jumped up to avoid then, then again as aruna called it back.

leo glared at the dwarf. "give me my belt, you stupid-"

"now, now!" said brown fur. "we haven't introduced ourselves. i'm akmon. and my brother over there-"

"is the handsome one!" the red-furred dwarf lifted his espresso. judging from his dilated eyes and his maniacal grin, he didn't need anymore caffeine. "passalos! singer of songs! drinker of coffee! stealer of shiny stuff!"

"please!" shrieked akmon. "i steal much better than you."

passalos snorted. "stealing naps, maybe!" he took out a knife- piper's knife- and started picking his teeth with it.

"hey!" jason yelled. "that's my girlfriend's knife!"

he lunged at passalos, but the red-furred dwarf was too quick. he sprang from his chair, bounced off jason's head, did a flip, and landed next to aruna, his hairy arms around her waist. he gleamed up at her, kind of like a cockroach begging for mercy.

"save me?" he pleaded.

"EW! FUCK OFF!" aruna tried to shove the dwarf away, but passalos did a backward somersault and landed out of reach.

aruna's pants quickly fell around her knees.

leo's eyes went wide as aruna shrieked and pulled her pants back up. man, this was not how he imagined seeing her in her underwear. leo forced himself to look away, his eyes landing on passalos. the dwarf was dancing and waving around a small, zigzaggy strip of metal. somehow, the dwarf had stolen aruna's zipper clean off.

"give- fucking- zipper!" aruna raised her knife over her head and marched to the dwarf, using her other hand to hold up her pants.

"eh, not shiny enough." passalos tossed it away.

jason lunged with his sword. passalos launched himself straight up and was suddenly sitting on the statue's pedestal next to his brother.

"tell me i don't have moves." passalos boasted.

"okay." akmon shrugged. "you don't have moves."

"bah!" passalos said. "give me the belt. i want to see."

"no! you got the knife and shiny ball! all i got was this and the pretty pictures!"

aruna eyes widened in horror. "no!"

"yes, the shiny ball is nice." passalos took off his cowboy hat. like a magician producing a rabbit, he pulled out the archimedes sphere and began tinkering with the ancient bronze dials. next to him, akmon started flipping through aruna's sketchbook with no care.

"stop!" leo yelled. "that's a delicate machine!"

"don't ruin it!" aruna called out.

jason came to leo's side and glared up at the dwarfs. "who are you two anyway?"

"the kerkopes!" akmon narrowed his eyes at jason. "i bet you're a son of jupiter, eh? i can always tell."

"just like black bottom." passalos agreed.

"black bottom?" leo resisted the urge to jump at the dwarfs feet. he was sure passalos was going to ruin the archimedes sphere at any second now.

"yes, you know." akmon grinned. "hercules. we called him black bottom because he used to go around without clothes. he got so tan that his backside, well-"

"i don't need to hear about the ass-cheeks of heracles." aruna gritted.

passalos glared at her. "at least he had a sense of humor! he was going to kill us when we stole from him, but he let us go because he liked our jokes. not like you three. grumpy, grumpy, grumpy!"

"hey, i've got a nice sense of humor." leo snarled with zero humor in his tone, his lips curled up. "give me back our shit, and i'll tell you a joke with a good punch line."

"nice try!" akmon flipped through the pictures and grinned before showing off one- an image of a boy, with dark curly hair and a mischievous grin. aruna covered her mouth and screamed in horror, and akmon finally turned the sketchbook back around.

"ooh, very pretty! i'm definitely keeping this! thanks, pink bottom!"

pink bottom?

leo glanced over. aruna's pants had slipped around her ankles, revealing her bright pink underwear. she screamed extremely angrily in korean as she pulled her pants back up, hiding her pale skin.

"that's it!" leo shouted as he turned to the dwarfs. "our shit! now. or i'll show you how funny a flaming dwarf is."

his hands caught fire.

"now we're talking." jason thrust his sword into the sky. dark storm clouds began to gather over the piazza. thunder boomed. aruna kept losing her pants, twirling in circles, and screaming extremely angrily in- leo wasn't even sure at this point. she was flowing from greek to korean to minoan to spanish to english, making all of her words blur together.

"oh, scary!" akmon shrieked. then, he screamed in delight and held up a drawing of a girl with an arrow piercing her throat.

"yes." passalos agreed. "if only we had a secret lair to hide in."

"alas, the statue isn't the doorway to a secret lair." akmon said. "it has a different purpose."

leo's gut twisted. the fires died in his hands, and aruna noticed the change. she hefted her pants up and ran just as leo shouted, "trap!" and dove out of the fountain, unfortunately, jason was a bit busy summoning his storm.

leo rolled on his back and aruna yelped as she fell on top of him just as five golden cords shot from the neptune statue's fingers. one barely missed leo's feet and he pulled aruna away before another could grab her. the rest honed in on jason, wrapping him like a rodeo calf and yanking him upside down.

a bolt of lightning blasted the tines of neptune's trident, sending arcs of electricity up and down the statue, but the kerkopes had already disappeared.

"bravo!" akmon applauded from a nearby cafe table. leo had his arms around aruna, and he picked his head up to look at the demon-spawn. "you make a wonderful piñata, son of jupiter!"

"yes!" passalos agreed. "hercules hung us upside down once, you know. oh, revenge is sweet!"

leo summoned a fireball. he lobbed it at passalos, who was trying to juggle two pigeons and an archimedes sphere.

"eek!" the dwarf jumped free of the explosion, dropping the sphere and letting the pigeons fly.

"time to leave!" akmon decided.

aruna rolled off leo as akmon tipped his bowley hat and sprang away, jumping from table to table. passalos glanced at the archimedes sphere, which had rolled between leo's feet. aruna picked it up as she and leo stood up.

leo summoned another fireball. "try me." he snarled.

"bye!" passalos did not feel like trying leo, so he did a backflip and ran after his brother.

aruna handed leo the archimedes sphere, her face flushed red. leo tried to make her feel better by simple not addressing the events of the hour. instead, he ran over to where jason was, who was still hanging upside down, thoroughly tied except for his sword arm. he was trying to cut he cords with his gold blade but having no luck.

"hold on." aruna said.

leo investigated. "if i can find a release switch-"

"just go!" jason growled. "i'll follow you when i get out of this."

"but-"

"don't lose them!"

"he's right." aruna decided.

leo cursed and looked away. the last thing he wanted to do was spend some alone time with the monkey dwarfs who'd just humiliated leo and aruna faster and more seriously than drew tanaka ever had, but the kerkopes were already disappearing around the far corner of the piazza. aruna took leo's hand, and together, they left jason hanging and ran after them.

~•♡•~

the dwarfs didn't try very hard to lose them, which made leo suspicious. they stayed on the edge of his vision, scampering over red-tiled rooftops, knocking over window bozes, whooping and hollering and leaving a trail of screws and nails from leo's tool belt- almost as if they wanted leo and aruna to follow.

they jogged after them, with aruna releasing a steady stream of curses every time her pants started to fall down. they turned a corner and saw two ancient stone towers jutting into the sky, much taller than anything else in the neighborhood- maybe medieval watchtowers? they leaned in different directions like gear shifts on a race car.

the kerkopes scaled the tower on the right. when they reached the top, they climbed around the backside and disappeared.

had they gone inside? leo could see some tiny windows at the top, covered with metal grates, but he doubted those would stop the dwarfs. he watched for a minute, aruna's hand still around his, but the kerkopes didn't reappear. which mean leo had to get up there and look for them.

"great." leo muttered.

"i can get us up there." aruna said. "with the gravity thing."

"you're already tired." leo huffed as he looked around, trying to think.

"tired doesn't mean i can't spend half a minute getting us up there." aruna retorted. "i'm a little more capable than you think."

i think you're more capable than anyone i've ever known, leo thought, but he didn't voice it. instead, he left the conversation at that, and his eyes landed on a building about half a block down. a set of double glass doors opened and an old lady hobbled out, carrying plastic shopping bags.

"a grocery store." aruna said. she turned to leo. "you got cash?"

leo patted his pockets. to his amazement, he still had some euro notes from his time in rome. those stupid dwarfs had taken everything except his money.

he ran for the store as fast as aruna's zipperless pants allowed.

as they entered, a fresh waft of AC blew in, an immediate reliever for the disgustingly humid heat of an italian summer. leo held onto aruna's hand tightly, pulling her further into the store to get her out of sight of the older people, who were now staring. her expression was uneasy. leo had begun to notice that when she was tired, she had a much harder time putting on a front.

leo didn't like how people were looking at her. he could hear hushed whispers in italian, a language he didn't speak. no doubt it was about the bruises all over her face, or the way her pants were falling every three seconds. leo cut them a single glare and they'd immediately shut up and look away.

leo stopped in the furthest aisle of the store, which also happened to be the most empty.

"okay." aruna breathed out. "what are we here for?"

"cover me." aruna didn't hesitate as she suddenly stood in front of leo, blocking his view from the entrance to the aisle. leo grabbed a laundry cord and ripped open the package, stealing the cord from inside. he hid the busted packaging behind the shelf and tapped aruna's shoulder.

she gratefully accepted it. she pulled her looser shirt up a little bit, exposing her stomach and the tip of her underwear band. leo felt his hands and cheeks flush red and he quickly looked back to the shelf, pretending he was interested in laundry detergent as aruna looped the cord around. she cinched it tighter than leo had expected her to, her waist smaller than leo remembered.

he had to get her to eat, now. if her waist had lost that much weight in the time on their quest, leo didn't want to think about what would happen if she went on starving herself.

aruna tied the cord in a little bow. she spread her legs and started randomly kicking around, prompting leo to raise an eyebrow.

"gots to make sure i can punt those fuckers to siberia, and my pants won't fall." aruna replied. leo smiled widely at her and went back to surveying the shelves.

"okay, so, do we have a plan?" aruna asked.

"um, i'm gonna build a bomb."

aruna didn't seem to find this surprising. "okay. chemical or electrical?"

"chemical." leo said. "it'll be easier to grab that stuff. less suspicious."

aruna raised an eyebrow and slung an arm over leo's shoulder. "bro, it'll be pretty suspicious if two foreigners start buying dangerous chemicals in italy, will it not?"

leo felt his chest tighten. her face was so close to his. he was sure she could feel the heat waves. leo felt his throat dry and eyes widen as he trained his eyes on the shelves, trying to ignore her presence.

he failed. her arm on his shoulder was impossible to ignore. her scent was intoxicating, her breaths tickling his cheek.

"i'll have to-" leo cleared his throat and took a deep breath. "i'll just buy a bunch of random shit with the chemicals i need in it. i can't ask, 'hello! where are you dangerous chemicals, please?'. they'll throw me in italian jail."

aruna nodded. "okay. what products have the chemicals you need?" then, she casually rested her chin on his shoulder, her eyes trained on him deeply.

leo forgot how to breathe. he didn't understand how she was acting so casual. she must have known the feelings it was inciting in him. she could read emotions, one, and two: even idiots could see leo's visible reaction.

"uh, charcoal." leo said. "sugar, baking soda, toothpaste containing potassium nitrate, matches, bug spray... aluminum foil."

"weird, but okay." aruna shrugged off. "baking soda will probably be here, on the laundry isle. everything else is... kind of scattered."

i'll have more time with you, then.

"perfect." leo nodded. aruna pulled away from him, cold air stinging leo's skin where aruna's body had once been. she bent down and grabbed a small box of baking soda, holding it up for leo.

"too big?" she asked.

"nah." leo said, starting to go back to normal. "we'll probably need it to clean all the blood out of our clothes, anyway."

"in that, you are correct." aruna admitted. she trotted back to leo, holding the baking soda in her hand. "how much money do you have?"

leo sighed as he held up a small wad of cash. "like... twenty euros or something."

aruna looked at the price on the baking soda and her eyes widened. "damn, why is american shit so expensive? no wonder theft rates are so low here."

leo gestured to the cord around aruna's waist. "congrats, we made it go up."

aruna looked down and snorted. "i should do this in every country."

aruna led leo to the next aisle, slightly in front of him. leo kept his eyes trained on her, knowing his cheeks were the color of beets. aruna peered down the isle and waved leo along. together, they ran to the very end, where toothpaste was at.

leo could tell from picking up a toothpaste tube whether it contained potassium nitrate. he handed it to aruna, who gladly pocketed it. leo stared at her a minute and aruna stared right back, her grin mischievous.

"i'm gonna get a few things while we're here. things we probably won't be able to afford if we buy that."

"what things?" leo asked as they walked to the next aisle.

"coffee, junk food." aruna listed off. "a razor. mine is a little dull."

"what happens if you use a dull razor? i always forget." leo said as he grabbed some matches.

"basically, it can cut you up." aruna said. "it can also make your skin really irritated. like, super fuckin' itchy."

"oh." leo shrugged. "i wouldn't know. i don't shave. i don't grow facial hair."

"it must be nice."

they moved to the next aisle. aruna grabbed a tube of aluminum foil, eyeing it curiously. she put it back and grabbed a different brand.

"what was that about?" leo asked as he grabbed a can of bug spray from the adjacent wall.

"i didn't like the name. it looked funny."

so, that was that.

leo grabbed sugar from the next aisle. the next aisle down was the junk food section. he followed aruna as she carefully surveyed the assorted foods. in the end, she picked up a package of something called fonzies ("like happy days!" she'd said), some little red candies that were supposed to be sour, and a comically large lolipop.

"why are you the way that you are?" leo asked as he and aruna made it to the grilling section.

"what?" she asked as she attempted to juggle the various items in her arms. "you mean the exceptionally funny, smart, athletic, perfect being i am?"

"you forgot cute."

aruna went red and shut up.

leo snickered and grabbed a bag of charcoal. he and aruna journeyed to the register, and dumped the items there. a wide-eyed checkout lady stared at them, asking questions leo couldn't understand. she kept pointing to aruna's face and the items at the check-out, but both leo and aruna kept saying they didn't understand until she scanned their items. she finished inputting some numbers and gave leo a dirty glare. aruna sneered at her, almost in a disgusted manner, and the lady looked away. leo handed her the money and grabbed his bags without bothering to get the change back. aruna jogged to walk next to him, bumping her hip into his.

"hey!"

aruna smiled, and leo thought it was genuine. he felt like she hadn't smiled like that for days.

"this kind of sucks." she admitted as she led leo into an alley. it was close enough they could keep an eye on the towers, but they were hidden from the view of society. "i'd much rather be buying suspicious shit for weird bomb-building sessions together, just for fun. not to rob the monkey demons that robbed us."

"i'd rather be doing a lot of different things than this." leo said as he started opening his ingredients. aruna peered over, her eyes wide an curious. she'd never been one for the sciences or building things, but she did seem interested in it. a few times, leo had offered to teach her a few tricks, but she always declined.

"you... you wanna learn?" leo offered as he lit a match.

"no." aruna shook her head and continued to watch. "this is your thing."

leo snorted. "this is not my thing."

"yeah it is." aruna shrugged. "your thing is concocting suspicious things, my thing is glaring at people who question the suspicious things you concoct. it's a done deal."

leo grinned as he began cooking his chemicals. "is it now? why wasn't i aware of this before?"

"you should have been. i have no excuse for your stupidity."

leo rolled his eyes. "yeah, yeah. i know. i'm stupid and you're the all-knowing genius of the relationship."

"yes, as this is the only way a relationship can work." aruna smiled. "i must be the all-knowing genius, and you get to be my plebian partner."

"aw, plebian? how endearing of you." leo said in an overly loving voice. aruna covered her mouth as she snickered and she looked away, glancing at the two towers. leo found himself glancing at her from time to time, soaking in her beauty. her face was turned to her bruised left side was showing, but leo didn't find it unattractive. in fact, everything about her was attractive. she was beautiful in every imaginable way.

leo wondered if other boys thought that about girls they liked. part of him didn't really think so. they never told anyone else how they felt. jason mentioned it sometimes, how he thought piper was the most beautiful girl in the world, but he never really analyzed it in depth- at least, not aloud.

leo knew he probably annoyed jason when he talked about aruna, but he felt like at least half of his thoughts should have been known. he wanted other people to appreciate her, too, but nobody was able to appreciate her in the way leo did. it was part of why he kept the other half of his thoughts hidden. thoughts that were just for him. thoughts and ideas that were meant to only be appreciated by one person.

he wondered if anyone else found aruna even half as gorgeous as he did. most of the time, out of their friend group, people looked to jason and piper. jason, the 6'2, muscular, blonde superhero, the son of king god, jupiter, the perfect warrior, the prime leader. piper, the daughter of aphrodite, with multicolored irises showing the shades of every eye color, so you had no choice but to find them beautiful. piper, with skin the color of the most dazzling bronze you'd ever see, with the perfect body shape, the most beautiful voice.

leo used to be jealous. he used to be jealous about everything pertaining to the two. their good looks, their social life, their relationship with each other. he used to be jealous everyone looked at jason and not him. he used to be jealous that everyone looked at piper, and not aruna. he used to be jealous people wanted to be friends with piper and jason, rather than aruna and leo. he used to be jealous that jason and piper were in love, were everywhere together, were the power couple.

used to.

somewhere along the road, it changed. maybe he learned that he shouldn't be jealous of some other dude and his girl. maybe he grew up, and realized popularity isn't important. maybe he realized aruna and him were simple different people, because they were.

leo would hate to be in the spotlight, he'd admit. he wouldn't want people constantly turning to him, asking for his opinion and his help. he wouldn't want to have this enormous group of friends he knew very little of. he preferred having a smaller, intimate circle. he knew aruna wouldn't want any of that, either. aruna liked to stick to herself, to an even smaller circle. she didn't like being looked at. leo wondered if it had to do with insecurity, or plain disgust at the prospect of being looked at.

he and aruna were different, he realized. that much was true. piper was the golden rays of morning light shining through your window in the morning; aruna was the silver of the moon in the night, the sight of a million and one stars peering down at you. piper was the sociable, friendly girl. piper was able to get along with most people; aruna didn't want to get along with most people. aruna wanted to stick to the sidelines, playing cards with the outcast.

aruna caught him staring. her face flushed red and her eyes widened as she tensed up slightly. "what? did you finish?"

leo stared at her. he liked the way her milky skin always shined under the stars. he liked the way her black hair had a single white stripe. he liked the way her lips pulled down at the corners.

really, he didn't like it.

he loved it.

"you're just..." leo faltered. "beautiful."

aruna's face turned a deep red and she quickly looked away, using her fist to hide her face. she let out an awkward, nervous laugh and looked down at her feet.

"let's just beat these demons. maybe they knocked your brain loose." she muttered. her laugh dissipated and her hand gingerly touched her cheek, tapping at the bruises marking her face. leo shook his head and stuffed the archimedes sphere with chemical powder, hoping it didn't get destroyed by doing that.

"they didn't touch me." leo said as he tossed his bag of trash into the dumpster. he stood up, and aruna followed, her face still red. "can't knock my brain loose if you don't touch me."

aruna stared at him, and leo kissed her. her eyes widened slightly and she stumbled, but leo grabbed her shoulders to steady her. slowly, aruna eased up, her lips moving against his gently, willingly.

leo pulled away and brushed her hair from her cheeks. aruna's lips had been moistened by leo's own, slightly apart as she breathed. leo stared into eyes that seemed to be pieced together again, and he kissed her one more time. her hand on his cheek was cold, as it always was, but refreshing. she tilted her head slightly and he felt her smile before pulling away.

"we can't get distracted." she said. she used her hand to gently push leo's chest, sending him about a foot away.

"i like being distracted, though!"

"we can be distracted later."

~•♡•~