safe || leo valdez x oc

fifty-two: hedge does not like a hostile environment

LEO

~•♡•~

everyone had changed into dry clothes. aruna had put on another pair of athletic shorts- this time lime green with the adidas logo (she was literally boycotting all things nike now)- and her silver cloak formed into a loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirt that nearly covered the short-shorts, which leo was trying not to look at. her hair was put in two braids, both resting on her shoulders, revealing the massive stitch leo was so concerned about.

still, he was a little pissed at her. first, she'd kissed his neck, which was shocking, then immediately did a 180, and slapped and yelled at him. on top of that, she gave some of her stolen pants to frank, and the big friendly-but-not-to-leo giant was literally over the moon that he had new pants that fit him. aruna had found that funny, then immediately walked off when leo tried to talk to her again.

everybody ended up gathering on the quarterdeck for a celebratory breakfast- except coach hedge, who said the atmosphere was both too cuddly and (looking right at aruna and leo) too hostile for his liking, and went to go hammer out some dents in the hull. leo busied himself with his helm controls, too pissed off to bother eating.

aruna seemed perfectly fine, which only made leo angrier. she just sat casually with her friends, eating up the brownies from the fish people, which hazel and frank then talked about.

"incredible." jason marveled. "these are really good brownies."

"that's your only comment?" piper demanded.

"he ain't wrong." aruna nodded, chocolate all over her lips.

jason looked surprised as he stared at piper. "what? i heard the story. fish centaurs. mer-people. letter of intro to the tiber river god. got it. but these brownies-"

"i know." frank moaned, his mouth full. aruna grabbed another brownie, happily munching on it. "try them with esther's peach preserves."

"that," hazel groaned. "is incredible disgusting."

"pass us the jar, man." jason said as aruna outstretched her arm. hazel and piper exchanged an exasperated look as frank obliged, and aruna and jason began eating the brownies with the peach preserves.

percy, for his part, wanted to hear every detail about the aquatic camp, but he kept coming back to one point: "they didn't wanna meet me?"

"it wasn't that." hazel said. "just... undersea politics, i guess."

leo turned his eyes to aruna. she muttered something to jason, who managed to laugh as he handed her another brownie.

he tore his eyes away and buried himself in the controls.

"the merpeople are territorial." hazel went on. "the good news is they've taken care of that aquarium in atlanta. and they'll help protect the argo II as we cross the atlantic."

"but they didn't want to meet me?"

leo heard a small smack. "come on, seaweed brain! we've got other things to worry about."

"she's right." hazel said. "after today, nico has less than two days. the fish-centaurs said we have to rescue him. he's essential to the quest somehow."