safe || leo valdez x oc

eighty-five: lonely witch? who's she? i only know monsters that look like fiends

JASON

~•♡•~

jason was above deck, nervously scanning every inch of the harbor at malta. he could hear piper's shaky breathing next to him, like she was terrified for what lay ahead.

jason grinned. a hundred yards out, tied to the longest dock, was a white sailboat with a broken electric blue sail. in the back, a junky, makeshift motor was smoking and crackling, and the boat was covered in soot and scrapes. even from this distance, jason could see the glint of celestial bronze. only one demigod could make something like that, and only he and his girlfriend could screw it up so bad. and only they would park it as far out in the harbor as possible so that it was impossible to miss.

"get the others." he smiled at piper. "they're here."

~•♡•~

they found leo and aruna at the top of the city fortifications. they were at an open-air cafe, overlooking the seam and drinking a cup of coffee (since when did leo like coffee?), and aruna had a large plate of pancakes in front of her. her hair looked clean, as did leo's, and they were dressed in... wow. time warp. their outfits were identical to what they wore when they first arrived at camp half-blood- leo wore jeans, a white shirt, and an old army jacket. except that jacket had burned up months ago. aruna was wearing a black jacket, black jeans, a black shirt (wow, she loves black) and clunky nike shoes, except jason specifically remembered her losing those shoes when she fell down the grand canyon.

piper nearly knocked leo and aruna out of their chairs with a hug. "leo! runa! gods, where have you been?!" she gave them both a sisterly peck on the cheek, which made aruna smile a bit.

"valdez! rodrigo!" hedge grinned. then, he seemed to remember he had a reputation to protect and he forced a scowl. "you disappear like that again, you little punks, i'll knock ya into next month!"

frank patted leo on the back so hard, it made him wince. nico shook aruna's hand, muttering something to her. it must not have been super rude, because aruna smiled and nodded.

hazel kissed aruna on the cheek, which was a bit of a shock to the older girl. "we thought you were dead!"

aruna snorted as hazel stood upright. "i don't die, except when i do, i don't."

leo was bouncing his knee nervously. "come on, guys! order some food!" he pulled a massive wad of cash from his coat pocket. "selene hooked us up!"

everyone took seats around the table, with jason next to leo. as he sat down, he finally seemed to notice several bandages all over aruna's body, and faint bruises littering her skin.

jason squeezed leo's shoulder as piper gave aruna another hug. "bro, what happened?"

leo's smile faded and he looked to aruna. aruna sighed and looked at the group.

"we had to fight lamia."

the greeks- and jason- went still, but the romans looked at each other, rather confused. jason saw nico scoot forward, genuinely shocked.

"wait- wait, the lamia?" he breathed out.

"who is lamia?" hazel asked.