safe || leo valdez x oc

fifty-one: cheating-but-not, shrimpzilla, and concussions, oh my!

ARUNA

~•♡•~

aruna didn't know how to feel after that. she'd been called pretty a few times, though she didn't exactly believe it. even when the literal goddess of love and beauty said it to her, she didn't really process it until leo had said it, and her viewpoint changed.

it wasn't that she was reliant on a man to feel confident in herself. that wasn't it at all. but it was like when piper called her pretty; when it's someone close to you, someone who know your personality, your flaws, the bad things you've done, and they still find you pretty? it's different.

and with leo, it was especially different because he knew more than anyone else. for him to still find her pretty even after watching her (probably) kill that roman, or break that daughter of mars's jaw, or when she blew up at him the night prior, it was different. he knew that she was a terrible person. she felt like a monster. and still, he managed to find her pretty.

what was not pretty was the massive shrimp attacking the ship.

"SON OF A BITCH!" hedge yelled.

aruna sprouted to the top first, her eyes widening in shock at the sight of the monster.

it looked like a mix of lobster, catfish, and shrimp in one monster. it had a chitinous shell, pink like most shrimp, though it was kind of hard to tell in the moonlight. a flat crayfish tail ducked under the water and millipede type legs undulated hypnotically as the monster scraped the hull of the argo II.

its head surfaced, and massive, pure black eyes bore into aruna's soul. it was a slimy, pink face like a catfish, with a gaping toothless maw and a forest of tentacles sprouting from each nostril, making the bushiest noise aruna had ever heard.

leo whimpered next to hazel. he and the girl looked uneasy as they stared at the monster. aruna ran out, her eyes wide in horror.

"come on, valdez!" hedge yelled. "take the wheel so i can get my baseball bat!"

"a bat's not gonna help." leo frowned, but he ran for the helm anyway.

everyone else made it up the stairs as well, as gazing at the monster.

"what's going- gah!" percy yelled. "shrimpzilla!"

aruna spawned both of her swords, but she wasn't exactly sure what to do. 

"we can kill it." aruna assured herself confidently as frank ran to hazel's side. she was clutching the railing, clearly dazed, but she gave a signal that she was okay.

the monster rammed the ship again. annabeth, piper, and jason tumbled to starboard and almost rolled overboard until aruna reached out a hand, and set their gravity straight. she was standing normally, unaffected by any of the lurching of the ship.

leo's hands flew across the panel, and aruna could hear festus crackling and squeaking over the intercom. she stared at leo, and he finally looked up at her before giving her a simple nod.

aruna looked away, please with knowing leo was stable.

"how did it get so close?" annabeth yelled.