The next day, Leo got at the unhealthy hour of three to do some repairs and maintenance. His body ached and his head throbbed, but he pushed it all aside. He couldn't deal with the nightmares, although he knew he couldn't deal with the lack of sleep any longer either, but that was different. At least, that's the way he saw it. His personal issues were not top priority right now.

He worked in the engine room for hours, doing routine checkups on all the machines. His hands slightly shook and he sometimes had to blink really hard and shake his head to ignore the headaches. It definitely didn't help when he heard someone's feet shuffle mere meters from where he was hard at work rolled under a machine, bumping his head hard on one of the pipes.

After taking a moment to rethink why the fuck would anyone want to bother him right now -it was probably eight in the morning- he wheeled out from under the machine. The throbbing in his head picked up excessively when he saw it was Nico di Angelo. Leo groaned and leaned his head back onto the ground, hair flopping back.

There was a pause, and the feet shuffled back a bit. "Uh, do you want me to leave?"

Leo sighed, sitting up. "That depends on what you want."

Nico was standing awkwardly across the row of machines, leaning against a machine that connected to the boiler. His face struggled to stay blank, but Leo could see the apprehension in his eyes. He watched as Nico relaxed his hands, ready to plant them on the surface of the machine. Stupid, Leo thought as he bolted faster than his sore limbs would've liked. Nico's hand was going to land on a distinctly hot pipe.

In the next moment, Nico's eyes widened marginally at Leo suddenly pouncing at him, probably thinking he was going to attack him. Not caring, he grabbed Nico's forearm and pulled him away quickly.

Nico looked at him like he was a madman as Leo planted him in the middle of the row of machinery, hands now on his shoulders. Leo's face said "what-the-hell-are-you-really-crazy" and Nico's wasn't far off. He was seriously considering leaving.

Leo quickly turned and gestured to the pipe wordlessly, like a magician would show off something before he made it disappear. Then, he reached into his tool belt and pulled out a bottle of water. Opening it, he poured some into his hand, and dumped it onto the pipe. The water hardly had time to sizzle and steam before no trace of it was left.

Leo turned back, saying, "Now do you understand?"

Nico gulped, eyes still on the pipe. His expression stayed blank, but his eyes no longer said he thought Leo was crazy.

Ready to get over the awkward moment, Leo walked a couple feet away and grabbed a stool, dragging it back with him. He set it roughly down by Nico, then returned to the creeper on the ground, sitting and facing him.

Nico wordlessly looked around, face betraying no emotion. Leo just watched, slightly perturbed that he had been interrupted for this.

"They have cinnamon rolls in the mess hall."

Leo laid on the creeper and rolled under the machine once again. "Really?"

"Yeah."

Leo frowned. "I have a bit more work to do, but I should be out soon."

There was a slight silence for acknowledgment. "So what are you working on?"

Leo grunted, reaching down to grab his rag to wipe the sweat and grime from his face, then returning it to his pocket. "This is the ventilator- it runs air conditioning, heat, or just air through the ship. I'm fixing the fan; it's too loud."

Nico was silent for a moment. "So do you spend a lot of time in here?"

Leo tilted his head acknowledging, though he couldn't see him. "Pretty much. Gotta keep up maintenance or the ship won't work. Thing's'll fall apart, get rusty. "

"Doesn't it ever get boring?"

Leo rolled out a little, enough to bring Nico into eyesight. He was no longer looking around, instead looking at Leo, despite the fact they couldn't see each other. Well, not by eyesight. Nico seemed surprised when he could suddenly see Leo's face, eyes trailing to his from wherever they were a moment before.

He patted the floor, a goofy grin coming onto his face. "How would I ever get tired of this old girl?"

Nico raised a speculative eyebrow. "'Old girl?'"

Leo gestured around him. "The ship!" he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "M'lady! Don't you know a ship is always a woman?"

Nico settled on look at a point past Leo's face, nodding in agreement. "I guess."

Leo chuckled and rolled back under the machine.

After a moment, he decided to speak his mind. "So what really brings you to my office?"

He could practically hear the smirk.

"Cinnamon rolls..?"

Leo furrowed his brows, screwing in an extra-stubborn bolt. "Well, some people would normally leave after informing someone of cinnamon rolls. You, I believe, are one of those people. Or I thought." Then he smirked. "Just couldn't resist my awesomeness, I see. It's okay. It happens to many people."

He could also practically feel the glare he was likely to have earned. "I could tell by the line of people waiting outside."

Leo hissed, still smiling. "Ouch."

With a final turn of the bolt, securing the panel to enclose the parts, Leo stuffed the wrench into his belt and rolled out. He stood up, knees slightly popping and head throbbing. Ignoring this again, he turned around, feeling Nico's curious gaze. Pressing a few buttons and flipping a switch, the ventilator whirred to life. He waited a few tense moments, hearing almost nothing but the air it began running through the ship.

Perfect.

With a gleeful sigh, he wiped the last of the sweat from his face, his work being done. It was working properly and soundlessly, and he was free to get some food. Thinking about it, he had almost nothing to do for the rest of the day. They just had to continue their flight to Epirus.

He didn't know whether he was happy about that or not.

Dismissing the thought, Leo turned around to face Nico, who returned a look of annoyance, and clapped his hands. "Wanna get some breakfast?"

A few minutes later, they arrived in the mess hall. Everyone was in there, which wasn't normal as of late. They all looked up when they walked in, waving and greeting them (Frank too, which surprised Leo.) He noticed a few faces at his current state.

"I had to get some cinnamon rolls before they were gone; I couldn't risk taking a shower."

He stopped behind Piper at reached his hand to muss her hair a bit, but she just slapped it away.

"No way, dude. Not when you look like that."

He laughed, and led the way to the bar where all the muffins and other breakfast foods were, Nico following him, almost reluctantly, though. Leo let out a whoop, goofy grin spreading on his face, when he spotted a half of a tray of fresh cinnamon rolls. Hearing a few laughs behind him, he grabbed a plate, filling it with three cinnamon rolls and an apple.

"So what took so long?" Jason asked as Leo sat. "Nico went to get you, like, fifteen minutes ago."

He just shrugged and began to devour the cinnamon roll, moaning obnoxiously at the warm, flaky pastry, and ignoring the creeped-out glare Nico shot him. "Who made these?!" He said over a mouthful. He needed some milk.

While he retrieved a glass, promptly thinking of milk and watching the cup fill, Piper and Hazel raised their hands, grinning at each other. "She's teaching me how to cook," Piper said proudly. Leo made sure to give them both kisses on the cheek on his way back, Piper making a "blech" sound and Hazel just giving him a look that dared him to try. He blew a kiss instead, and she smiled. Glancing at Frank, he could've sighed in relief. The guy was actually laughing. In fact, so was most everyone else. Even Nico, in his own Nico way of smirking and slightly blushing.

They quickly joined into a conversation, talking about random things that had no relevance to their mission. It was nice; it hadn't been this way in a long time. Things had been so tense since Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus, no one had gotten any healthy conversation. It all seemed to be either strictly business or arguing, and Leo had enough after day two of that. That's when he officially started his work-constantly-and-avoid-anything-else schedule.

But this was nothing like that. It was a relief, like running a burn under cold water. They connected and joked, and laughed and just enjoyed each other's company. Leo guessed this was the first time he'd hung out with anyone on the ship period, and he seemed to be enjoying himself. Leo would glance every so often, and often found him picking away at the cinnamon roll, and small smile on his lips but a larger one in his eyes. Once he was surprised when Leo made a comment and looked up at Nico, who looked back at him, and he actually laughed. An honest-to-gods smile, eyes crinkling and dimples showing. His laugh was simple, smooth as a breath, but sounded a little underused. Leo guessed he probably didn't laugh much. He made another mental note to change that.

After about an hour of friendly conversation, he stood up and put his tray in the dishwasher. He brushed his hands on his pants, then clapped.

"Well, I'm back off to the grind." He glanced once more at his friends, savoring a bit more of the moment, because even he knew that once you took the water away, the burn would still be there.

He began to leave, and hadn't noticed that Nico had also stood, hands in his pockets and face back to its neutral expression. He considered him as he walked along.

"Care to join?"

Nico shrugged, and followed him anyway. They were halfway down the hallway to the engine room when Nico began to talk. "So, what else do you have to do?"

Leo glanced behind him, and Nico actually met his eyes. His expression remained blank, and Leo began to wonder if that was normal for this guy.

He turned back around. "Just going to check the ventilator quick, make sure it's still running properly, and do a quick run-over of everything. Then nothing, I guess. I don't know what-"

Leo didn't have time to finish that sentence, because when they entered the engine room, the first thing he registered was I smell smoke. Nico must have smelled it also, because his expression turned into a confused panic. He jogged in, headed to turn down the aisle to the ventilator, and sure enough they saw smoke coming from the bottom of it. Leo dropped the wrench he had gotten from his tool belt and raced to it.

"No, no no no no no no!" After turning it off, he dropped to his knees and prepared to go under, when Nico grabbed his shoulder. He whipped to face him; he didn't have time for this!

"Back up," he said fiercely, shoving Nico back. Nico made a move for him again, which he swatted away.

"What are you doing?!" he heard Nico cry as he crawled under.

He quickly loosened the bolts, the panel coming undone. At this, more oxygen was fed to the fire, and it practically exploded in his face, which of course had no effect on him. He did hear Nico shriek, and felt him trying to pull at his legs. He knew Nico needed to back up or he could get seriously hurt… He grabbed the metal frame to keep from being dragged by Nico, who was a lot stronger than he might seem. With his free hand, he retrieved another bottle of water from the belt and unscrewed it with his mouth, taking a large mouthful and spraying it blindly at the machine. After a few more tries and a loud pop, which prompted Nico to start kicking him, the fire was almost gone. Leo then reached his hand up and willed the flame onto him, then properly extinguished it. Satisfied that the machine way no longer in danger, he crawled out, not even bothering to screw the panel shut.

When he sat up, he grinned and said, "Fire's out."

Apparently, that had been the wrong thing to say. Nico's face stared at him in utter disbelief, eyes watery and breathing heavy. Leo frowned, realizing Nico didn't know he was immune to being burned. He probably thought Leo was being burned to death under there.

"How are you okay?" Nico struggled to whisper, as his body didn't seem able to do much else. Leo should not be okay, he should be burnt, his face… should be gone. But there he was, elfish features and curly hair all the same as moments before. It was impossible.

Leo chuckled slightly at the misunderstanding, and lifted his hand to create a ball of flame. Nico didn't react, still kneeling in front of him in utter shock. His eyes watered even more, and Leo definitely didn't expect what came next. In almost a blur, he felt Nico's fist connect with his jaw, not too hard, but enough to get the point across, and to startle the crap out of him. Leo sat up, flexing it, moving his jaw up and down, side to side. There was definitely going to be a bruise.

Leo hardly had the time to shoot Nico an accusing glare before Nico jumped forward. Leo flinched, waiting for another blow to the face, but it never came. No, instead, he was enveloped in a pair of thin arms and a chin, which he could feel on his shoulder. He was too shocked to move for a moment, and then patted his back.

Nico breathed a deep, shaky breath, and then pulled away, a hint of incredulousness seeping through his usually blank mask.

"It seems like we're accident prone around each other."

Leo laughed, deep and hearty.

"I've been like that from the start. You're just gonna have to live with it."

Nico smirked, looking away.

Just then, the door to the room opened, and he could hear many voices at once. Everyone raced down to the aisle they were in, wondering why they smelled smoke and saw two very happy looking boys.

For those who don't know, a creeper is that thing people lay on when they have to slide under cars and whatnot.

Hope this makes up for the inattentiveness. I'm trying not to do a big plot here, just like one-shots of some firsts obvs, but thats hard for me to do because I always tend to write for plot, and before I know it have an entire story going.

Thanks for reading, please review!

-chilledcreme