… but as the mist cleared we heard Annabeth's cry of alarm. Percy paled as he spun to locate her. But it wasn't his beloved in trouble. It was Leo's.
Nico was curled up on himself as spasms of pain racked his small frame. Lodged into his left calf had to be over a hundred thick splinters. A shudder ran through Leo's spine as he heard Percy's hoarse voice, "Holy Hades, Nico."
Leo stared in horror at his best friend. He thought he might have heard Annabeth calling to him, but he was in shock. Finally, she grabbed the fire-bender's shoulder and spun him around. "Leo. Do. You. Have. Ambrosia."
Leo gulped and reached inside his tool belt, praying he had some. His prayers went unanswered. "We have a seriously problem." he informed the group.
Thankfully Percy took charge. "Okay, Leo we need a pair of pliers, gauze and duct tape." The mechanic summoned the needed supplies and then knelt next to Nico to take his hand. The back of his mind was scolding him. Come on lame-brain, you've pulled hundreds of screws, nails, and crap out of things. Get it together! But Leo was shaken. He felt a breach in his emotional wiring and he didn't know how much longer he could hold. The son of Poseidon looked Leo in the eyes, reading them with ease.
"Leo, you keep his attention. You're the best distraction anyone could ask for." Leo couldn't help but grin at the compliment. Percy placed a firm grip on Nico's swelling ankle and held it still before glancing at Annabeth and nodding to the pliers. She gaped at him in horror before steeling herself and submitting to the task at hand.
Nico bit his lip as the first spike was pulled out, whimpered on the second, and let out a full blown scream on the third.
"Step it up Leo!" yelled Percy, "You're not helping out here."
The reprimand took effect. Leo grabbed the frail boys chin and forced their eyes to meet. "Okay, hey there Hell Boy. You're, you're gonna be fine. Too bad I don't have charm speak like Pipes eh? I could just convince you to feel great!" He was met with another whimper, but he forged ahead. (No pun intended).
"This kind of reminds me of when I fell into the bush and it had that huge bees nest. I had no clue I was allergic. My face was huge! Pretty funny huh? Remember that?" Nico growled. "Leo" he ground out, "You almost died that day… not. Funny." A blush crept up Leo's neck. He had taken that day as a joke. He didn't think anyone had cared. "Sorry, oh, yeah. Sorry. Ummm." Leo was getting frustrated. When life got stressful he had plan A, humor and when that failed he defaulted to his last resort: anger. Right now, he could feel his helplessness manifesting into aggravation. "What am I supposed to do?! Juggle?!" For the first time since the emergency began the faint traces of a smile graced the pale boys features. "Try harder repair boy," wheezed Nico, "fix me." The last part was immediately followed by a sharp cry of pain. Nico was shaking again. Leo looked towards Nico's leg and saw that Annabeth had only gotten about 15 of the splinters out. Leo cursed. Looking back at the son of Hades he noticed a single tear run down the pale cheek bringing tears to his own eyes.
How do I fix this?! How do I fix you? What do you need? Then it struck. If he'd given it a second thought he surely would have reconsidered. But since when did the ADHD mechanic ever consider his actions? Leo softly ran his thumb over Nico's cheeks and glanced from his lips to his eyes and back to his lips.
