Hazel looked at the elfish latino. Maybe in lush, maybe in admiration, maybe the fact that he was the one keeping this bronze death trap in the air. But she could not deny the fact that he looked exactly his grandfather. Maybe not as elfish, but the facial features were the same and his personality was close except the sarcasm and jokes are much higher.
She watched as he was fixing something, like always. Gods if it wasn't for him they would have be backpacking all through Europe through Mother Earth's territory. But now they were going on a trip to Greece and Rome for fun. Everyone was on the trip to do some bonding and learning about their ancestors.
"Hey, can you pass me some water?" He sat up and wiped sweat off his brow. He's been working on the main controls for about three hours now without a break.
She passed his bottle of water that he left there for him to drink. But for three hours, she watched him. Work and tinker with wires to make sure that they would stay in the sky. Three whole hours of debating if he was her Sammy reincarnated.
"Thanks Hazel. I thought I fixed all of the kinks, but I guess not." Leo sighed after downing half of his bottle.
"At least you can figure out how to fix it. That's a good thing." Hazel told him.
"For now, yeah." He replied, wiping his hands off on his pants. "I think next time I'm just going to rebuild his main controls again. It's getting old."
"Well, it's working for now and that is all that matters." Hazel sat down next to him.
Leo looked at her. His brown eyes were soft and warm like Sammy's. But she had to stop comparing him to Sammy. He wasn't Sammy. He was Leo, her friend.
"How's Frank doing? You two still strong?" Leo asked before taking another sip of water. "Or has power went to his head?"
"Frank's good. We're just friends though. He's so busy with his praetor duties that we barely had any time to spend. And being friends would be better than trying to force a relationship." She told him.
"Are you okay, though?" Leo asked. Concern was filling his eyes and voice. She could have sworn that was coming from Sammy.
Stop thinking that. He isn't Sammy. He's Leo Valdez. She thought to herself.
"I'm fine. It felt more natural that way anyways." She told him. "And the age gap, it was a bit weird. But then again I'm older and younger than everyone on here."
"Oh right! I forgot about the whole dying and coming back to life thing. Have you been adapting well to modern technology?"
She smiled a bit thinking about what she had learned in the past few months: cellphones, iPads, laptops, tablets, and other electronics. Everything was so different than what she remembered. And the months it took for her to learn everything.
"It's a struggle. I recently learned how to use an iPad that Annabeth built. How does the screen know where I'm touching? Is it magic?"
Leo chuckled, a familiar sound to her ears. "Motion sensors. Kind of like a mouse on a computer or laptop. But it might be more complicated for me to explain than just accepting the fact that you can use your fingers to click on stuff."
"Thanks for saving me the trouble then." She smiled.
Leo smiled back and looked up at the ceiling. "I wish cellphones and laptops weren't monster magnets. I can probably learn how to fix things a lot faster than trial and error."
"Kids of Hephaestus are like walking 'Fix It' manuals." Hazel told him. "You can literally fix anything with no problem. You rebuilt and fixed a dragon for Jupiter's sake! You can't tell me that this would be on the World Wide Web."
Leo slightly chuckled. "It's called the Internet or Web. No one calls it by it's full name, old lady."
"I am not old!" She retorted. "I'm only thirteen."
"And also eighty something." Leo pointed out. "So, you're old, technically."
"I know how old I am. I'm not counting the years I missed when I died. There's so many things I missed. Did you know Disney made a black princess? Her name is Tiana, I think, and that movie is amazing!"
"Never heard of it. I never had time to watch movies." Leo told her before taking another sip of his water.
"We should have a movie night and watch it. It's great!" She smiled.
"Sounds like a plan." He finished off his water. "Well I better get back to work. You should go do something fun with the others. Watching me fix things isn't that fun."
She reluctantly got up and slightly smiled at him. "See ya around." She left him alone before she walked to the deck where the others were chatting.
Hazel could see Percy and Annabeth chatting away about something which made Annabeth smile. Piper and Jason were whispering to each other, Jason was making Piper giggle. Then there was Frank. He was sipping a coke as he stared into the open sky.
She took a deep breath and went over to Frank. They haven't talked much but she didn't feel like third wheeling on anyone's conversation.
"Hey." Hazel greeted as she held on to the railing to the right of him. "How are you doing?"
Frank looked at her and smiled a tiny bit. "Hey. I'm doing well. I'm glad to go on this vacation. But I also feel bad that I left everything up to Reyna."
"I wouldn't worry about it. She can make the entire legion do the chicken dance if she wanted to." Hazel told him. "She'll make it through the week."
He nodded and looked out to the open the sky. Hazel followed his gaze to look at the white clouds and blue skies. She thought she was on a plane, but if she reached out too far, she would plummet to her death. She took a step back.
"I miss hanging out with you." Frank whispered so quietly she had to strain to hear it.
She looked at him. His head was down, his eyes were looking at the railing. He looked sad.
"I do too. But I think it's better if we hang out as friends." Hazel told him. "Like having dinner together with Reyna or train."
Frank nodded. "Okay."
They got to Greece, Athens to be more exact. They were going to spend three days there before heading to Italy to go to Rome. Annabeth has planned out every place that they were going to go to.
Hazel hung back a bit and saw Leo going to the control room. He was going to work on Festus again. She followed him, knowing that he was going to work himself to death and miss on this opportunity.
"Leo, let's go explore." Hazel said, scaring him a bit. "You need to see the world and not the inside of Festus."
He looked at her with a slight smile. "I'll be there. I just need to fix one minor thing…" He went back to working on his dragon.
Hazel sat down. She wasn't planning to leave. If she did, she knew he wouldn't come along with them. He would miss out on seeing the amazing greek culture.
"You can go. You don't have to wait for me. I'll be there in a few minutes." Leo told her. "I promise I won't miss out on this trip."
"Then work on Festus tonight. We have the whole day to explore and you're spending most of it working on a dragon. Let's go have some fun." Hazel got up and walked over to him. "Come on Leo."
He got up and looked at her. His smile reminded her of Sammy. Her nice Sammy.
Stop it. He is not Sammy! He is only related to Sammy. They aren't the same person! She reminded herself.
"Lead the way." Leo told her.
Hazel started walking towards the ramp that was leading to the ground. Every step she took, she could hear Leo's echo hers. They were alone before, but their friends were usually around to come in and distract them. But their friends were gone when they finally got off of the boat.
"Oh...I didn't know they would disappear so fast." Leo's eyes brows scrunched up together. "Did they say where they were going?"
Hazel tried to rack her brain to think where Annabeth would go. Or say where they were planning to go. But her mind was blank.
"I don't remember. But if we start walking around, maybe we'll bump into them or something." She replied.
Leo nodded in agreement and they started walking. The town was busy with people, tourist, people selling food on the street, residents walking through the crowds like they were headed off in a hurry, and the two of them, lost in Greek city.
Hazel looked around, trying to see a familiar face but she saw nothing. Their friends weren't around unless they went inside a building. They looked through the windows of shops and restaurants to see if they were inside. But nothing.
"So, what do you want to see?" Leo asked her.
"Huh?"
"Well, we lost them and we will probably end up meeting up with them later on the boat. So, what do you want to do since we don't have to follow Annabeth's crazy planned out schedule." Leo told her.
"Annabeth said something about there being a Temple of Hephaestus." Hazel told him. "We can go check it out if you like."
"You mean go visit my dad? I don't know if he wants to see me." Leo replied.
"I bet he does. All of our parents like to check in on us. Maybe your dad will be happy to see that you're okay."
"Alright." He sighed.
The walk to the temple was pretty quiet, besides Leo pointing out which way to go. He could read the street signs better than she could. She guessed that the greek in him was able to read the language.
But she wanted to talk. She wanted to know more about Leo. They didn't really click the last time they were on the Argo. She spent most of her time with the girls or Frank. The other guys...well, she knew Percy alright. Her whole quest with him and Frank was a great learning experience. Jason, she knew him from camp. He use to hang out with her and Frank a bit before he disappeared. But she wanted to know Leo. This guy that was in her life that was related to Sammy.
Sammy...she missed him. She missed the possible future that they could have had. Leo could have been her grandson.
Stop thinking like that! That future couldn't happen. If I did marry Sammy, Leo wouldn't have been born. I wouldn't be in Greece.
As they got closer, they saw small shops for blacksmiths and potters. They were all there to probably honor the god. People were walking up to the temple and around to the different shops.
"Wow, I didn't think people still honored my dad." Leo told her, amazed by the different shops. "This is amazing!"
Hazel watched as the spark in his eyes came to life as he went to look at a blacksmith shop. He went to look at a blacksmith work on their most recent project. She smiled at his excitement. She followed him and watched the blacksmith work.
"I can't believe people still do this as a living." Leo smiled. "Working over a fire, bending metal into a new shape to make something new. It's amazing."
"You never tried being a blacksmith before?" Hazel asked. "With your fire, you should be able to bend metal into anything."
Leo looked at her with a slight smile. His eyes sparkling, like he has tried it before. "I've tried. Keys are hard to make, but I can make good weaponry like my other siblings. But it takes years to master something like this."
She nodded, looking as the craftsman worked. She wasn't particularly into this like he was but it was something interesting to learn.
They took a walk around to the different shops. Leo was tempted to buy some of the tools he didn't have in his magic belt, but Hazel reminded him that they had no money and they couldn't waste their drachmas.
When they finally took their walk to the temple, Leo could feel the presence of his father. He felt stronger just being in the temple and around the shops that were yards away from it.
"I can't believe people came here to worship my dad. To get a blessing to make weapons and tools and fire for warmth."
"They did that?"
"I don't know. I'm not a history guy. But he's the god of that stuff, so that's what I'm guessing they came here for." Leo replied.
She nodded and looked at him with a smile. "That would make a lot of sense. And this temple is huge."
Leo nodded and started walking around the inside. He was silently praying to his dad for help on everything; fixing Festus, Calypso, and Hazel. Ever since Calypso left, Hazel has been around and making him feel, better about himself. She's supportive, a good listener, and a friend he wanted but didn't have. Which made Calypso uneasy when she found them hanging out all the time and left him.
But Hazel made him happy. A bit happier than Calypso did. And that scared him. Normally he wouldn't mind flirting with girls and making a fool of himself, but he didn't want to do that around her. He wanted to be the exact opposite, be a gentleman.
That night, Leo found himself tinkering. Nothing in particular. Maybe when he was done, it would be something to help Festus. That was the thought as his hands moved. Leo could swear that his hands have a mind of their own when his mind wanders to something else.
His mind was thinking about his day with Hazel. How his first day in Greece couldn't be more amazing. He didn't have to hear about the history about old temples or monuments. They spent as much or as little time as they wanted. Taking silly pictures was his favorite part. He never knew how much fun Hazel could be.
He looked down at his hands when they stopped moving. In his hands was a bronze flower bud. Looking at it, he had no idea why he made it or what it will do. He tried to open it but it wouldn't budge.
Looking at it, maybe it was the first piece of junk he created. He wasn't going to give Hazel a piece of junk. Putting it in his pocket, his hands started to focus on making something else for her. Something she would actually like. Maybe a horse that could run on it's own would be better, since it would remind her or Arion.
His hands got to work. It was a much bigger project that he imagined. He was up all night to make sure it worked properly. He didn't even notice that the sun was already up. Only when he walked out to the deck for fresh air is when he realized that the sun was blinding him.
"Hey." Leo heard from behind him. When he turned around, he smiled. Hazel was walking over. Her skin seemed to sparkle in the dawn light, like there were miniature gems in her skin.
"Morning." Leo yawned.
"Let me guess, you didn't sleep again. What were you working on this time?" She asked, standing next to him on the handrail.
"Just a tinkering project." He replied. "Nothing big."
"Then why stay up all night?"
He shrugged. "I got really into it and forgot to sleep."
She just smiled and didn't say anything as the sun started to rise higher into the sky. Leo could feel his pocket getting heavier. His hand snaked in there to find the bronze piece of junk he made earlier.
He took it out and looked at it, shining in the sunlight. The metal pieces inside started to turn and the bud slowly opened up into a beautiful bronze lily. Leo was amazed that the piece of junk was actually something beautiful and he didn't even have to think about it.
Hazel's eye caught the shiny object and looked at him. Her mouth slightly opened at the beauty of the flower in Leo's hand. The way that the light shone on it, made it seem like it was real.
"Leo, is that-?"
"It's for you." He told her. "A...A thank you for spending a great day with me."
Hazel took the flower and looked it over. "It's so beautiful."
An idea popped into Leo's head. He gently took the flower back from her and pushed her curly hair back so he could place it behind her ear. When her hair fell back around it, Leo couldn't help but smile at the beautiful girl before him.
"Perfect." Leo smiled.
Hazel's cheeks turned lighter as she smiled at him. This reminded her of Sammy. The time they were hanging out by the river and he found a flower. He gently pushed her hair out of the way and put it behind her ear before giving her cheek a kiss. The first kiss she received from him.
Leo stared at her for a moment, realizing what he did. He was in shock from his own actions along with her. Hazel's face was mirroring his.
"I'm sorry." He told her. "It just happened and I wasn't thinking."
"It's okay." Hazel blushed, secretly liking the kiss and this side of Leo. "I liked it."
Leo smiled a tiny bit. Maybe this would be the start of something better than a friendship.
Hazel could feel her cheek rushing with blood as she thought about and touched where Leo kissed her cheek. His lips were so soft against her skin. It left a warm tingling sensation where his lips made contact with her skin.
She didn't even notice Annabeth walking over and sitting next to her in the make shift dining room.
"Hey. Sneaking out for midnight snack too?" Annabeth asked her as she sat down with some chocolate chip cookies. No doubt she pulled those out from Piper's cornucopia.
"Oh, no. Just thinking." Hazel replied.
"Sorry to interrupt then." Annabeth said as she started to get up.
"No, stay. I just want to talk to someone about this." Hazel told her. Being the youngest, she was always asking the others for advice.
"What's going on?" Annabeth sat back down and dunked one of her cookies into the cup of milk she had.
"I have feelings for Leo." She told her, telling the secret was like ripping off a band aid. "And I'm pretty sure he has feelings for me too. He kissed my cheek. But, he reminds me of his grandfather and I don't want to confuse the two of them."
Annabeth was silent for a bit. Hazel looked at her and noticed that Annabeth was thinking of
possible things to say. Something to help and not hurt her.
"I can see how you can mix the two of them up." Annabeth started. "But you need to organize your feelings to make sure that you're not falling for Leo just because he's related to your old crush."
"I know." Hazel sighed. "But also, Frank is here. I know we talked things through and restarting our friendship, but it seems awkward that all of this is happening when he's here."
Annabeth looked at her friend with an encouraging smile. "Figure out your feelings for Leo of this trip. Then when we get back, tell Frank so he's not surprised."
Hazel nodded as she tried to think. Annabeth handed her a cookie to help her out.
A couple of days have passed and Hazel has been spending a lot of time with Leo. It was the best couple of days of her life as they traveled, alone, to explore Greece. Annabeth had the idea of traveling in smaller groups so they wouldn't attract monsters.
Hazel took the end of each day to decide whether or not she was developing feelings for Leo. And so far, she was. The feeling she had for Frank and Sammy were much stronger with Leo. And that terrified her a bit.
Falling in love was a strange thing. First you could fall in love with your best friend. Then with the person who helped you out the most when you needed it. And finally, the person who you think you should spend forever with. Why go through so much pain? But then again, that pain helped Hazel possibly find the right one.
Leo was in the maintenance room, as usual, making sure Festus could get them to their second destination, Rome. Hazel decided to keep him company. She was always worried that the Latino would tire himself out to exhaustion.
"How long until we get to Rome?" Hazel asked.
"It shouldn't be that long. Definitely less than twenty minutes." Leo replied as he worked. He was always working on something.
Hazel watched him. His hands were going anywhere near Festus' controls. Instead, they were playing with something else. She couldn't tell what he was working on except that there was scrap metal, a rubber band, and something she couldn't determine.
"What are you making?" Hazel asked.
Leo looked down at his hands and shrugged. He was never sure what he was making subconsciously. The surprise was always the best part of his tinkering.
"I never know." He replied.
Hazel nodded and looked at him. She wanted to tell him about her feelings for him. Just come out at say them once and for all. She could do. She would do it. Right now.
"Leo, about that kiss the other day, I really liked it. And I really want to spend more time with you."
Leo stopped tinkering and looked at her. His heart pounding a bit faster as he heard the news. He has thought about it a lot too, and he did want to be with her. But he wasn't sure how she felt towards him. Of course the past few days were great, but he wanted more out of this relationship. He didn't even have to put on his goofball persona to get her to like him.
"I do too." He replied with a slight smile.
There was a slight pink tint on Hazel's cheeks along with a smile.
Once they landed in Rome, everyone started to split up into groups and headed off to see different parts of the city. Hazel and Leo were on their own as everyone else split up to boys and girls.
Hazel was rubbing her arm a bit as they headed in a random direction. She didn't know what to say to Leo. It wasn't helpful that she wasn't a history buff like Annabeth, otherwise she would know some of the spots that tourists were taking pictures of. She was curious herself, but mostly ruined temples didn't seem like much history to her.
"Whoa, look at this." Leo pointed to a statue of a man, lifting up a woman who was struggling to get out of his grip.
They got closer to the statue and Hazel was able to recognize what the statue was depicting.
"That's my dad and him kidnapping Kore, or Persephone." Hazel told him. "Same story as in Greece, I think."
"So Romans just stole a lot of the Greek's history and made it their own." Leo noted. "Seems like Romans are lazy."
"They are not lazy." Hazel replied. "And we have more important gods than you do. Greeks value Poseidon, while we do not."
"Alright, alright." Leo backed off.
Hazel looked at the statue of her father. She wished that he got to know him better as a person and not through stories. But she smiled a tiny bit, glad that people kept the statue around and that they still remember him.
As the day went on, Hazel was itching to hold Leo's hand. She could tell that he was constantly brushing his hand against her. So did he want to hold her hand as much as she wanted him to?
They were sitting on a hill, near one of the statues, and looking across the valley. The sun was starting to set and the air was starting to get cooler. Leo looked at Hazel as she looked across the valley. Sunset made her skin glow a nice color.
He wanted to hold her hand, but was too afraid to do so. He didn't want rush anything. But he was dying to.
"I think we should head back to Festus." Leo told her. He got up and offered her his hand.
She took it and got up, holding his hand longer than normal. Leo didn't protest, so they walked together, hand in hand.
They walked for a while, soaking in that they were holding hands. Untalked feelings were finally being shown.
As they walked, getting closer to the town, they felt the ground shake. Their heads shot to the right and saw a statue, that came to life, destroying parts of the town.
"That's Vulcan." Hazel whispered. "Well a statue of him."
"So my dad is destroying a town. Great." He dropped her hand.
They rushed over to the statue, Leo with his hammer ready to go and Hazel with her sword. The two of them fighting side by side together for the first time in a while. And they were out of practice. Leo tried to cover Hazel as much as he could without getting himself hurt.
Leo was starting to get annoyed with this statue. It wasn't tall, his body proportion was all out of whack. His legs were short, as tall as Leo, but his upper chest area was about three feet longer and wider than his legs. How it stayed balanced, Leo had no clue.
He blasted fire at the statue, hoping that it would stop or at least slow it down. But it did little effect on it. He wished that his statue was made of metal, then at least he could melt the joints.
With slight frustration he let out another fireball, not knowing that Hazel was close to it until he heard her scream.
He stood there in shock before he noticed that Vulcan was about to step on her. With a shout, he ran towards the statue, not thinking just rage. He didn't want Vulcan to hurt Hazel, he just wanted him destroyed.
When Leo came to, he was surrounded by pebbles and dust. He looked around and saw Hazel lying on the ground, unconscious. He ran over to her, almost tripping multiple times in the process.
He knelt over Hazel's body, making sure that she was breathing and not badly injured. There were burn marks on her arm that were second degree, almost third degree burns. Her face was cut up, probably from the rubble that fell as Leo destroyed the statue.
"Hazel...Hazel can you hear me?" Leo asked, as she fiddled through his tool belt to find nectar or ambrosia to help her wounds.
She didn't move and that worried him. He found nectar and carefully dripped a few drops into her mouth. Cuts on her face were starting to heal. But the burns were still there and pretty bad. She still wasn't up but she was still breathing.
Carefully, he picked her up and walked her back to Festus, hoping someone could help him. Walking there wasn't the problem, it was his arms. They were getting tired from the fighting and carrying her. But he was able to make it there, with the hope that she was going to be okay.
No one seemed to be back yet, so he carefully placed her on her bed. She looked a bit better, minor cuts were healed and there was color in her cheeks.
He went through this tool belt and pulled out an ace bandage with burn cream. Ever so carefully, he spread some burn cream on her arm and wrapped the ace bandage around it. He hoped that this would suffice.
She let out a small groan and Leo's heart lept. Hazel was okay.
"Hazel, it's me. Can you hear me?" He asked, wanting to make sure that he didn't damage anything else.
"Leo?" She groaned. "What happened?"
He took her good hand. "I shot fire and accidentally burned you. The Vulcan was destroyed and the rocks might have fell on you."
"And I'm not dead." She stated.
"No. You're okay." Leo slightly smiled. "You're alive and safe. I've given you nectar to help you heal better."
"Thanks Leo." She smiled weakly at him.
Leo smiled and kissed her cheek. As he backed away, something inside of him made him want to go back for more. It was a feeling of "now or never". So he leaned in and gently placed a kiss on her lips.
He thought he was flying. Her lips were so soft and tasted like cherry, probably from her lip gloss. But he really enjoyed the two seconds that his lips were on hers. He wanted to keep them there forever.
Hazel was blushing furiously as she looked at him. Her hero, her friend, her Leo, kissed her. All those feelings that were thick in the air were finally addressed.
Leo was smiling as he saw her blush. He was happy that she liked the kiss as much as he did.
"Um, so, how are you feeling?" Leo asked.
"Better." Hazel replied as he took her hand. She squeezed it, filled with hope as her feelings settled in. Hazel Levesque loved Leo Valdez, not Sammy Valdez. She loved Leo the elfish latino who can burst into flames and stole her heart Valdez.