Author's Note: Welcome, dear readers! I received a request to bring a little closure to the Leo and Annabeth romance that was planned before John Spencer's untimely death, may he rest in peace. But since no one need ever die in fanfiction, I'm going to fix everything, like I do. Here's the first chapter of what will likely be a short chapter fic for this darling couple.

Resolving the Tension

CHAPTER ONE

Following the vice-presidential debate, Annabeth Schott had shut herself in her office away from the excited crowds outside. Leo had done brilliantly. Better than anyone had expected. And of course, she knew he had done all of it himself. All the expectation management, all the tricks and schemes, and the utterly unbelievable performance he had just given. He was amazing.

Annabeth put her head in her hands. He was amazing. That voice, that masterful command of everything politics, that wit. And that smirk. She had been absolutely correct that day she had told him to quit doing it so much because it conveyed the wrong attitude in a debate. But she also needed him to stop smirking so much at her. It did nothing to help the…tension. Thankfully they had both been too busy working to give it any attention. At least between them. Annabeth felt like she hadn't slept in a week. Well, really, she hadn't. Too busy worrying about prepping Leo. And just thinking about Leo.

A knock came on her door. Her boss opened before she could answer and entered.

"Hiding?"

She pursed her lips. "Changing my password."

He laughed. "You really sore at me?"

"No," she sighed. "It was effective. Though I would have liked to be consulted on the whole thing. I can keep a secret, you know."

Leo sat down in front of her desk. "Is that so?"

Annabeth pushed her glasses up her nose. That damn smirk of his! Her heart fluttered. "So what are you doing in here? There's about a dozen parties going on for you out there somewhere," she said, changing the subject.

"But you're not at any of those parties," Leo pointed out.

She tried not to read into that statement. "So you need me to straighten your tie before you enter every room now?" she teased.

He ignored her deflection, choosing instead to lean forward. "I wanted to talk to you about something, since we have a second to breathe now that the debate is over."

Annabeth's brow furrowed. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Well, a while ago you mentioned some tension between us."

"Oh. No. There's no…"

"I think it's time we resolved it," he interrupted.

Her eyes went wide.

Leo stood up and moved around to her side. He leaned against the desk. "Unless you feel differently. It has been a few weeks."

"No…but…what do you intend on doing?"

He bent down, putting his hands on the arms of her chair and swiveling her to face him. "I was planning on kissing you, unless you'd be opposed to it."

She just shook her head, too surprised to utter any words. Her eyes were fixed on his mouth. Which was coming closer and closer. His lips brushed against hers softly at first, then with a little more fervor. Annabeth stood up and put her arms around his neck as she kissed him back. Leo put one hand around her tiny waist, the other cradling her face.

Eventually they pulled apart. Annabeth blinked rapidly, trying to catch the breath that was eluding her. Leo watched her with a small smile.

"So? Tension resolved?" he asked, trying to seem casual to distract his pounding heart. His whole body was buzzing.

Annabeth's face broke into a sunny smile. "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that just had the opposite effect."

"Really? Why?"

"Because now every time I look about you and think about kissing you, I'll know what I'm missing," she admitted, blushing slightly.

Leo clicked his tongue and said melodramatically, "I guess either you'll just have to stop looking at me, or we're going to have to use our time together more effectively." He pulled her back to him and began kissing her again.

When they broke apart again, Leo commented breathlessly, "Just so I'm thinking this through clearly, it would be a bad idea to invite you to my place for a drink, right?"

"Very bad," she confirmed, swallowing hard. "For a few reasons. First, I don't like drinking alone. Second, there are parties that we should be at. And third, I don't think that would do anything to help our tension problem. At least, not in the long run."

"Just more distraction?"

She agreed resignedly. "Yeah. The election is in just a couple weeks. We can wait until then, right?"

Leo paused for a moment. "Yeah. Election night. Our night."

Annabeth smiled. "Our night," she repeated. This time she pulled him back into their romantic embrace. They would go out to the party eventually, but for now, they still had some tension to resolve.