LEO

~•♡•~

aruna, leo, echo, and hazel all sat in the grass, hiding themselves from the nymphs and narcissus, which didn't much matter, as everyone was busy staring at narcissus.

aruna sat across from him, her legs crossed on the rock she sat on. her black hair had a orange glow from behind as the evening sun glazed over her, and while leo found her gorgeous, he always thought she looked so much better in the moonlight.

her cheeks were rosy, but so were leo's. she held his arm gently, using a black marker to make a faux tattoo on the boy. for such quick, sloppy work, it actually looked really good. leo knew that aruna liked to draw, but she never showed any of the stuff in her sketchbooks. he wondered if she ever would.

"this is a horrible, horrible plan." hazel blushed as she hugged her knees.

"well, we gotta get the bronze somehow." aruna said through the marker cap she held between her teeth. her lips were bright pink with a few red patches.

leo really wanted to kiss her.

she finished the tattoo. it read: HOT STUFF with a skull and crossbones beneath it. aruna specifically pushed up the sleeves of leo's shirt to reveal the muscles he was lacking, which only made leo feel a little worse. her hand stopped gripping his arm, leaving leo feel somewhat cold.

aruna dipped her hands in the pond. she reached over to leo amid his confusion, and suddenly ran her hands through his hair. leo felt things stirring inside him, and he began rapidly counting sheep in his head.

one sheep, hands in my hair, three sheep, gods she's soft, six sheep, i want to hold her waist again, thirteen sheep, she's so hot.

it went well, he would say.

"hazel, you got lipstick?" aruna asked as she looked over at the girl. hazel shook her head, and aruna muttered something foul in korean.

"okay... uhhhh..." aruna handed the marker to leo and stood up.

"what are you doing?" leo asked. aruna magically transformed her silver hoodie into a slim fitting, cropped tank-top, and the promptly sat down.

"selling the point." she huffed as leo dangerously tried to keep his eyes above aruna's shoulders, which was the second hardest thing he'd ever done next to fighting a literal goddess. "okay, write something."

"uh, what?" leo stuttered. hazel seemed almost as flustered as he did.

"write something on me. sign your name or something." aruna said.

"uh.... o-okay..." leo tried to calm the trembling in his hands as he grabbed aruna's arm gently, and started to write.

"i kinda meant on my chest, but whatever."

"HUH?!" leo choked. hazel hid her face.

"leo, have you ever seen my show this much skin? i did it for a fucking reason. don't be a little bitch."

"i... i don't want to invade-"

"DO IT!"

leo shrieked like a little girl and pressed the marker tip just below aruna's collarbone. she didn't seem to be breathing, and looked strangely calm as leo's hand trembled. he began an attempt at writing, but it was kind of sloppy and scraggly.

"i- i can't write very well..."

"if you need a grip, say so."

"HUH?!"

hazel squealed loudly as spun away, still hiding her face.

"i- i don't-"

"DO IT!"

leo shrieked like a girl again and did it. he had to make a harder effort to not burst into flames than ever before as his hand rested right on... it. he felt so flustered in doing this, he seriously thought he was having a heart attack. he could feel aruna breathing, feel her heartbeat which was dangerously fast.

leo finished and quickly capped the marker. right under aruna's collarbone read: MRS. VALDEZ.

"what does it say? i can't see it." aruna said as she started pulling her hair up.

"m-m-mrs. valdez..."

"perfect. great selling point."

she was making this out to be a very normal business interaction, when in fact, it was not. leo had hoped that the first time he felt a boob, it would have been hot and awesome and eventually progressed the the other thing. he had hoped it'd be magical and wonderful and everything he'd ever dreamed of.

instead, he touched her boob, and now they were about to steal some sheat metal.

maybe next time, he hoped. next time, it would be exactly as he dreamed.

aruna grabbed the tin of breath mints. she put one in her own mouth, then held up one for leo. he opened his mouth, and she gently popped it in. leo grabbed the safety goggles- his settlement for sunglasses- and rose to his feet. he stuck a wrench in his back pocket for no inherent reason, and aruna stood up as well.

"hazel, you good?"

hazel turned back. her eyes went wide as she stared at aruna's chest and the marker smudge of her breast and leo's hand. the son of hephaestus looked down and awkwardly kicked at a rock.

"what in the world are you two thinking?" hazel gulped, sounding pretty flustered.

"i try not to think. it interferes with being nuts." leo replied with a smirk.

"ooh, that's a great catchphrase." aruna nodded. "hazel, all you have to do is concentrate on the celestial bronze. echo, leo, you ready?"

"ready." echo nodded.

leo took a deep breath. aruna had her hair pinned back with a silver chopstick, and smudged some marker around her jawline a bit before she and leo went into the open. leo prayed he looked awesome and not like some sort of nervous affliction.

"leo is the coolest!" he shouted. aruna somehow managed not to laugh as she swooned.

"leo is the coolest!" echo shouted back.

"he is so hot!" aruna smiled as she walked.

"yeah, baby!" leo cheered as aruna held her face in her hands the way one nymph had earlier. "check me out!"

"check me out!" echo cheered.

"make way for the king!" aruna called out.

"the king!"

"narcissus is weak!" leo offered as aruna pressed closer to him. oh gods, he could smell her hair; cheap shampoo that smelled like mint leaves.

"weak!" echo and aruna cheered.

the crowd of nymphs scattered in surprise. leo shooed hem away as if they were bothering him. he stomached down the awkwardness and smirked.

"no more autographs today girls." he said, and pointed to aruna as he slung an arm over her shoulder. "i'm all sold out. i know you want leo time, but i'm way too cool."

"yeah, go waste your time on that looser narcissus! he is so lame." aruna grinned. leo knew it must be killing her to speak in such a airhead-bimbo voice.

"lame!" echo cheered.

the nymphs muttered angrily.

"what are you talking about?" one demanded.

"you're lame." another said.

leo adjusted his goggles as aruna giggled like a girl in some sort of rom-com. deep down, he knew she was probably trying not to just kill everyone here, take the metal, and run.

"narcissus is the lame one!" aruna said as she snuggled closer to leo. he maintained a confident smirk, but it was more like a massive mess of never-ending poolball in his chest. he flexed his biceps and hesitated for a minute afterwards, as there wasn't very much to flex. he had the nymph's attention, but cursed himself because narcissus was still gazing at the water.

"you know how ugly narcissus is?" he asked. "he's so ugly, when he was born his mama thought he was a backward centaur- with a horse's ass for a face."

several nymphs gasped and aruna actually snorted, and it seemed genuine. seriously, she found horse-ass funny?

"you know why his bow has cobwebs?" aruna asked the crowd as she stood rigidily straight, pushing out her chest which leo kept sneaking peaks of until he was dizzy. "he uses it to hunt for dates, but can't find one!"

one of the nymphs laughed, and the others elbowed her into silence. narcissus, however, finally turned and scowled at leo. "who are you?"

"he's leo valdez." aruna grinned like is was obvious. she twirled a loose strand of hair around her finger and smiled as she looked at leo. she brought a hand up, and began playing with his hair, which made leo suddenly distracted from the mission at hand. "only the hottest guy in the world!"

"hottest guy in the world!" echo nodded.

"i'm the bad boy supreme!" leo offered, knowing damn well he was the wrong kind of bad boy. girls wanted a hot, 6'2 guy with a mortocycle and a real tattoo. leo had a pretty bad rap sheet consisting of felonies and what were probably war crimes, and he looked more like a latino goblin. he envisioned himself in a cave squealing MY PRECIOUS and subsequently triggering a bomb while bouncing up and down. "and the ladies love a bad boy!"

"love a bad boy!" echo cheered with a convincing squeal. leo prayed aruna wouldn't go so far as to squealing, and she would stick to the grinning seductress.

leo took out a pen, and turned to aruna. trying not to be weird again, he grabbed her arm, and autographed BAD BOY'S PROPERTY on it.

"narcissus is a looser!" aruna yelled. "he's so weak, he can't bench press a kleenex! he's so ugly when you search up the definition of it, his picture pops up!"

narcissus's face turned from bronze to salmon pink. for now, he'd totally forgotten about the metal, and leo saw aruna concentrating on it more now. at a decent pace, it began to sink away.

"what are you talking about?" narcissus demanded. "i am amazing. everyone knows this."

"amazing at pure suck." leo retorted.

"yeah!" aruna offered.

"if i was as suck as you, i'd drown myself. oh wait, you already did that."

two nymphs giggled along with aruna. she covered her mouth the way preppy southern women do, and her hard eyes gleamed at narcissus as she clung to leo. narcissus growled, making him less handsome. leo beamed and wiggled his eyebrows.

"that's right!" aruna gleamed. "team leo!"

"team leo!" echo shouted.

"oh my god, i am so awesome!" leo bellowed. out of the corner of his eye, aruna's mouth twitched like she was trying not to laugh.

"so awesome!" echo yelled back.

"he is funny." one nymph agreed.

"and cute, in a scrawny way." another said.

"scrawny?" leo smirked. "baby, i invented scrawny." he hated himself for using the word baby. usually, he called aruna space girl, or mamacita, or dumbfuck if he was feeling extra loving that day.

"scrawny is the new sizzling hot." aruna said as she put a hand on leo's chest. he prayed she didn't feel how close his heart was to just popping right out of his chest. "and he GOT scrawny. narcissus is so lame, even the girls in the underworld wouldn't date him! and they're all dead!"

"eww." said a nymph.

"eww!" echo agreed.

"stop!" narcissus got to his feet. "this is not right! this person is not awesome, so he must be..." he faltered. he must have been staring at himself for so long, he forgot how to talk about anything else.

"jealousy is a disease, bitch!" aruna snapped as flicked her wrist, careful not to spawn her weapon. "get well soon!"

leo's neck ticked as he fought the urge to cackle wildly, however, he faltered as narcissus seemed to realize what was going on. he turned back to the pond, where the sheat of metal had been long gone.

"the bronze mirror is gone! my reflection! give it back to me!"

aruna got away from leo suddenly, and her usual, warlike expression was back.

"team leo!" one nymph squeaked.

"i'm the beautiful one!" narcissus wailed.

"if beauty is a moldy piece of cheese." aruna snapped back. one girl gasped, and seemed to notice hazel. leo turned, and watched as the daughter of pluto ran as fast as she could while lugging the large sheet of metal.

"get it back!" one nymph cried.

"yes!" narcissus unslung his bow. "the first one who gets that bronze, i will like you almost as much as i like me. i might even kiss you, right after i kiss my reflection!"

all hope was lost. leo felt his stomach fall as he turned to aruna, who only yanked his hand, and said one word.

"run."

~•♡•~

leo could run pretty fast when someone was trying to kill him. unfortunately, that was becoming a common occurence.

leo and aruna caught up with hazel quickly, which wasn't hard because aruna's concentration had broken, and hazel was stuck lugging fifty pounds of bronze. in a swoop. aruna outstretched her hand, and the bronze began levitating over her head.

"you have telekinesis?!" hazel shouted over the several angry nymphs behind them.

"in a sense! i basically change the gravity!" aruna said as they ran. leo watched as beads of sweat formed on her forehead. he knew she'd only recently started out this particular power, and she was already drained from the whole day. he wondered how much longer they had before she dropped out.

"call arion!" leo gasped.

"already did!" hazel shouted back.

they ran for the beach. in the distance, leo could see the argo II across the water, but there was no way to get there. it was much too far to swim, and aruna had to let the bronze metal sit back down.

hazel and leo each took one side as aruna spawned her blades. she was out of breath, but still stood firmly in front of hazel and leo like she would gladly take on a mob of nymphs for them. her back muscles showed through her shirt, and leo's hair once again began smoking.

"oh, man." leo said as he summoned fire in his hand. "straight up fighting isn't my thing."

"it's mine." aruna offered as she wiped the sweat off her brow. she held her sword out to the side, and with a flick, she magically sent a few rocks towards one of the nymphs.

"get behind me!" aruna warned as the nymphs continued gaining.

"behind me!" echo stepped next to aruna with her arms out as if to personally shield the demigods.

leo faltered. a lump formed in his throat. "echo? you're one brave nymph."

"brave nymph?"

"i'm proud to have you on team leo." he said. "if we survive this, you should forget narcissus."

"forget narcissus?" echo said uncertainly.

"you're way too good for him." aruna assured. she thrusted a swrd forward, and an invisible wave knocked a nymph down.

the nymphs began forming a semicircle. aruna's gaze lowered and aruna watched as she breathed in heavily. leo's spine chilled dangerously, the same way it did when jason spawned lightning storms.

"KILL THE-"

narcissus didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. a wave of water erupted and swallowed the shore, knocking narcissus and several nymphs down. the water carefully evaded the demigods except for their shoes as it sunk into the sand. he heard narcissus coughing while hazel looked around nervously.

"i- i don't see percy!"

"because it wasn't percy." leo gaped.

aruna's eyes were sunken in. her skin was pale and her arms shook. even still. she stayed standing and looked dangerously at the nymphs.

"water is harder." she said through gritted teeth. "solids are a lot easier."

leo rushed to her just as she swooned. in a flash, sand kicked up all around them, and arion ran around the nymphs, kicking sand into their eyes and mingling it with their soaked bodies.

"i love this horse!" leo cried out as aruna got to her own feet. the nymphs all coughed some more, and narcissus looked like he'd taken the worst of it. as the narcissus mob regained their footing, hazel lobbed onto arion with the sheet of metal. she helped leo get aruna up, who sat in between them again, leaning back onto leo.

"we can't leave echo!" leo pleaded.

"leave echo."

he stared at her, and for once, he could truly see her face. she had a beautiful smile, and eyes bluer than leo had ever seen. how had he not seen that before?

"why?" leo asked. "you don't think you can still save narcissus..."

"save narcissus." echo said confidently. and even though she was only an echo, leo could tell she meant it. she'd been given a second chance, right along with narcissus, and this time, she was determined to save him.

she leaned forward, and kissed leo on the cheek, then gently pushed him away. leo didn't feel any sort of romance in it; it almost reminded him of his mother sending him off for school in the morning. he could remember the muggy air of houston as he stood outside his elementary school. he remembered her warm hands on his shoulders, her smile that glowed like the family hearth.

"do a good job today, mijo."

his throat felt dry. "yeah... yeah, o-okay."

arion took off across the water. leo held aruna close. she was still conscious, her eyes open and wandering around aimlessly. but her cheeks were hollow and her body was shaking despite it being summertime.

leo remembered what nemesis had said; maybe they'll teach you a lesson.

leo had thought she meant narcissus, but now he wondered if she meant echo. an impossible love. echo truly had that. she loved a man who was cursed to love nobody but himself. leo knew it would be impossible for echo to save him, but he prayed and prayed there was a chance.

he was determined to remember echo's face. she deserved at least one person who saw her and knew how good she was. leo closed his eyes, desperate to block out the tears, but they fell anyway as the memory of her smile already began fading.

~•♡•~