safe || leo valdez x oc

sixty-nine: leo wanted to see pink bottom in a different way

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.