Hi guys. I'm new to writing fanfiction, so don't expect this to be amazing, okay? Thanks. Anyway, please read and review. Thank you.

The shop had been doing well. Leo's mechanical prowess and Calypso's cooking skills had paid off. Leo was always relaxed in his workshop, but as he worked alone his thoughts wandered to Calypso. It was hard to convince his customers that their relationship was nothing more than being roommates. When the Stoll brothers came to pick up a device to help with one of their pranks, they would always ask how things were going with Calypso, did you ask her out yet, on a scale of 1 to 10 how sexy is she, the usual.

Leo would answer every question the same every time. Fine, no, and I'm not going to answer that. The Stolls would promptly thank him and mutter some very disrespectful things about Leo under their breath.

Other than that, the encounters with his clients were nothing out of the ordinary. And then his day would finish off, the shop would be closed, and he'd retire to the apartment above the shop, where Calypso was cooking dinner. He always felt bad because she always cooked. He didn't want to seem sexist, but she insisted that she didn't need any help.

Calypso would say, "Go back to your tinkering, Leo Valdez. You would only set the stew on fire."

Leo accepted this argument. But he still thought of something.

So the next night, as Calypso was putting the finishing touches on her salad, a flying platter zoomed into the room. She shrieked, a very undignified sound, and would have cracked her skull open on the floor if not for that miserable wretch, Leonardo Valdez, who caught her at the last second with a surprisingly firm grip.

"Whoa there, Sunshine. Scared me for a moment."

"How ironic," Calypso said mirthlessly.

Leo rolled his eyes. "You have to admit, though, it was pretty funny."

The former goddess turned and smacked him in the face. Hard.

"Is it funny that your USELESS CONTRAPTION scared the living daylights out of me? Is it funny that you would have had no dinner if you had not caught me?!"

Leo was still rubbing his rapidly bruising cheek, when he said, "Oy. You sure do pack a punch." He offered his free hand to Calypso, but she refused it, deciding not to give him an inch, no matter how enticing he looked with his toned arms and infuriating grin- Now, thinking these thoughts were certainly undignified. Yes, they had kissed. Once. But it was only a "goodbye" kiss and not really an "I love you" kiss. Even though Leo couldn't have left unless Calypso had fallen in love with him. So it did sort of negate the platonicness of it. But at least it didn't really happen, according to Calypso. And those feelings had just about 99.99% subsided. And yet there was still a soft spot in her heart for his humor and dedication to his work.

She pushed these thoughts out of her mind.

"Well," Calypso said, smirking, "Do you want your dinner or not?"

The New York City air was growing colder. Winter was approaching. Naturally, Leo didn't need a jacket. But Calypso had never really experienced cold weather. So Leo took her shopping. Their conversation that morning went like this:

"'Morning, Sunshine."

"Good morning."

"Wow, somebody's feeling really talkative today-"

"Leo?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how it has been getting rather cold lately?"

"Well, not really, considering that I'm about 20% fire."

"You know what I mean, you little-"

"Oh."

"Oh, what?"

"You haven't been in cold weather before. You know what that means."

"Well, actually, no, I do not."

"Time to go SHOPPING!"

So Leo practically had to drag her out the door. Since Calypso didn't have a means of keeping herself warm, Leo gave her his army jacket, to her dismay.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Leo insisted.

"You're making a scene." Calypso retorted.

"Pssh, and I'm the one that has to be dragged down to the subway station wearing their roommate's jacket."

Calypso huffed and submitted.

When they came to the turnstile, Leo swiped his MetroCard and pushed open the service gate for her. Calypso eyed the mechanism in awe.

"What are you gaping at, Sunshine?"

"What is this magic?"

"It's called a door. With electricity."

She disregarded this wisecrack. "How does this 'electricity' work?"

Leo sighed, a grin showing on his face. "A talk for another time, Sunshine." And he took her by the hand and led her to a seat.

However, Calypso was overwhelmed. Her eyes darted around, her nerves showing themselves. Her feet tapped the ground rapidly in an unfamiliar rhythm, while her hands fidgeted in her lap.

Leo watched this and noted how much she looked like him when he had been running on Red Bull and nothing else on a late night.

"Had too much caffeine last night?" Leo asked playfully.

Calypso frowned. "You are confusing me. What is caffeine?"

"Never mind. You just look a little jittery, that's all."

The girl sighed. "Yes, it is quite nervewracking to be around so many people."

Leo smacked himself inwardly. He should have considered this. "Well, the train's about to come in, and there'll be even more people! You excited?"

"No," Calypso grumbled.

And the train came in, screeching louder than a toddler in a tantrum. Leo did not react to this, but Calypso was unprepared. She covered her hands with her ears and closed her eyes.

"You okay, Sunshine?"

Calypso was bewildered. "What is that infernal noise?!"

"Shh!" Leo whispered. He indicated that they needed to get on the train, and Calypso followed.

Leo was right. The train car was packed. Eventually, the doors closed and the train started moving. Calypso had no time to react, so she awkwardly stumbled backwards.

Into the arms of Leo.

Again.

It was getting ridiculous.

Leo was doubled over laughing. "Come on, Calypso, you have got to be kidding me. Hold. On. To. The. Bar."

Calypso punched his shoulder, blushing furiously. "Not. Helping," she said, in a good imitation of his voice.

"Come on, Sunshine. Just hold on. I think you've humiliated the both of us enough."

Calypso rolled her eyes and looked down the car. At least she was relaxing. As Leo studied her (totally innocently and only because he noticed a small difference in her composure), he noticed that she seemed to be enveloped in calm. Her face was expressionless and she was breathing evenly. That was good.

Eventually, they reached their stop and they got off the train. Calypso exhaled a breath she must have been holding in for a while.

"I do not want to set foot on one of those things ever again."

Leo smirked. "You'll get used to it, Calypso. Let's go. The mall is this way." He started walking towards an exit.

Reluctantly, Calypso followed.

After walking for a few blocks, Leo stopped.

"Why have you stopped, Leo?" Calypso asked.

"We've reached our destination." Leo pointed to the sign that read, Macy's. "Behold."

Leo pulled on Calypso's arm with his other hand and started toward the door.

Calypso curiously watched Leo walk towards the entrance and he showed no indication of putting his hand out to open the door.

And out of nowhere, the door slid open. Calypso started. Leo looked at her with an expression of concern playing on his face.

"Too modern for you, Sunshine?"

"Yes. Is that also 'electricity?'"

"Yup," Leo confirmed. There was a small pause. "Well, what are you waiting for? Your shopping trip awaits!"

"Well, it was technically your idea, but you just had to drag me along, didn't you?"

Leo was grinning. "Indeed."

And they stepped in.

Calypso was awed. It was a gigantic area full of articles of clothing that she had never seen before. It was a rainbow of colors, and endless rows of hangers and mannequins.

"Okay. You know what clothes are your size... Calypso?"

"This is all so much."

Leo looked down at the ground. He knew he had probably been shoving this down her throat without considering how she felt about it.

"I'm sorry."

"For what? Leo, I love it!" She brought Leo's chin up so that he was looking straight at her.

Oh, gods. Fiery butterflies began to bounce around in Leo's stomach. He felt this often when he was around Calypso, and he was not proud of it. He had to fight the emotions rising in his chest and try not to burst into flames himself.

"I just thought that- that I had sprung this on you and that I wasn't being fair about it."

Calypso chuckled. "Well, at first, yes. I was not appreciating this change of scenery. But there is a beauty to this 'city that never sleeps' that I have not noticed before."

Leo smiled nervously. "Okay, that's good. Now, uh..."

Calypso's face was beet red. "Yes. Um, okay. Right. Let's look over there."

And Calypso sped towards a corner of the store.

Leo whistled and started after the former Queen of Ogygia.

When he reached her, she was assessing a collection of shirts that had floral patterns running the length of them all.

"Calypso."

The girl jumped. "Gods, Leo Valdez! Why must you scare me like that?"

"Never mind that. Sunshine, those are not jackets. They're T-shirts."

"Yes." She affirmed. "I am aware," she added.

"Well, yeah. The jackets are here." And he walked over to another set of clothing that had hoods and were made of thicker material than the T-shirts she had been admiring.

"This, Sunshine, is a jacket. Marvel at its beautiful material, the smooth nylon exterior! The wearer is guaranteed to become instantly warmer!"

Calypso giggled despite herself. "You are ridiculous."

"It's a thing. Anyway, Sunshine, just pick one out. I'll be needing my own jacket, if you're gonna be trying some on."

Calypso had completely forgotten about the jacket. She had felt its warmth without realizing it. Wearing it made her feel closer to Leo, as she inhaled the smell of oil and grease, and she didn't want to take it off. But of course, she couldn't act weird about it so she shrugged off the jacket and handed it to him.

"Gracias, señorita." Leo said in his other language.

"Someday, Leo Valdez, you will have to teach me that Spinach language you speak."

This was too much for Leo. His laugh was unnaturally loud. He kept laughing for a few minutes, until he finally caught his breath and calmed down.

"What was so funny, Valdez?" Calypso honestly had no idea.

"Not... 'Spinach,'" Leo wheezed. "Spanish." He began to spell it out letter for letter for her like she was a preschooler. "S. P. A. N. I. S. H."

"Ah. My mistake." Calypso apologized.

"You'll learn someday, Sunshine." Leo smirked that annoying smirk that Calypso had grown so fond of.

"Well," Calypso started. She picked up a simple black coat with a lot of pockets. "I think I like this one."

Not very fashionable, not like that was necessary, but Calypso certainly had good taste.

"Alrighty then. Let's go pay for it."

Calypso carried the jacket to the "cashier" (there was a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary in the 21st century, such as "laptop" and "selfie" and "cell phone," whatever those meant) and put it on the counter. This method seemed impractical, since the coat was placed at the end of the counter and the "cashier" could not reach it from where they were standing. There was a teenage boy at the counter who was blatantly ogling at Calypso. She seemed to have that effect on people. She thought it was rather odd and annoying.

Leo noticed this and snapped his fingers once. The boy snapped out of his trance. "Hey. The coat. Your job," he prompted.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." The boy's skin was tinted an odd shade of red and he looked down at the coat awkwardly when he scanned and bagged it. He handed the bag to Leo, who accepted it with a wary look on his face.

"Um, have a nice day and I hope you come back to-"

"Yeah, thank you. You too." Leo walked off, Calypso running after him.

The pair was back home at their apartment after another tense trip on the train, but at least Calypso didn't embarrass herself. Leo was lounging on the couch, shoes off, head laid back. He was looking at his phone, reading a review for a restaurant that he was planning on taking Calypso to. As friends. Nothing more.

Calypso came in with two bowls of beef stew in her hands. "What are you doing on that 'phone,' Leo Valdez?"

Leo's reply was calm. "Checking my messages."

Calypso accepted this answer. "Well, the stew is here."

Leo put his phone down and leaned over the bowl. "Damn, that looks good. You'll have to show me the recipe some day."

Calypso rolled her eyes. "Yes, like you could ever learn to cook."

Leo shrugged. "It's never too late, is it?"

Calypso shrugged too. "Perhaps." Leo promptly inhaled the stew, and in doing so, covered the area surrounding his mouth with remnants of carrots and Worcestershire sauce.

The former goddess grumbled. "You are the messiest eater I have ever seen.

Leo retorted, "Well, that isn't saying a lot, since you don't know many other people."

Calypso harrumphed. "Silence, Leo." She grabbed a paper towel, held his jaw with her other hand, and wiped his mouth.

Leo could not move. The flaming butterflies sputtered to life again and began flopping around in his stomach. If body temperature could kill (which it could), Leo would have committed a mass genocide with his body heat. He was savoring every touch he felt from Calypso's covered hand and an intense blush was forming in his cheeks. As he looked at Calypso's own face, he saw that she was also slightly blushing. Second time she's done that today. It's only because of the awkward touching, he reminded himself.

Finally, Calypso finished and showed him the soiled paper towel. It was covered in the delicious food Leo had just consumed. "Next time," Calypso said, "Eat with your mouth closed."

Leo promptly got up with bowl in hand, and gestured for Calypso's own. "Hey, let me wash the dishes tonight. It's the least I could do."

Calypso began, "Leo, are you sure-" but the boy cut her off.

"Don't worry, Sunshine. I can handle myself. Go to bed early for once, yeah?"

Calypso sighed. "I know this will likely burn down the whole apartment, but nevertheless, thank you." She placed her hand on his shoulder and after a moment, let go and strutted off towards her bedroom.

Leo walked into the kitchen. "Okay," he said, rolling up his sleeves. "Try not to burn the whole apartment down."