And now Nico has confessed what has been troubling him, and Leo is more determined than ever to make sure that none of his friends are lost for any reason during this quest. Though it will turn out harder then he thinks to keep all of his friends safe. Oh, and I'm trying to cut down on the amount of scenes that I take from the actual books, so I'll mention some events but I am still trying my best to alter them. A big thanks to anyone who faved or followed and to my beta Chromatophobe.
Neon Wish Loves Peach Trees : Thank you :)
Enhisbeautiful : Thanks, and they do have a beautiful bromance.
Guest : Thanks :)
Mondmaedchen : Oh, it's definitely not just you. I love me a little hurt Leo in the morning. And they are both sweet when they want to be.
WhiteWinterStar : Yep, Frank is so clumsy. And it's always great to have a friend with whom you can share your impending doom ;) Plus, Leo has become a top motivational speaker.
Disclaimer : If I owned Leo then I would be married. I am not married.
Leo's P.O.V
Leo smiled down at the sleeping son of Hades who was curled into his arms. Normally something like this would be highly awkward, but both boys had needed the physical contact.
He shifted and carefully placed Nico on the bed that he had set up for the younger demigod. He tucked him in before stretching and huddling under his own covers.
He did not sleep well though. No matter what he did, he just couldn't stay asleep.
Groaning, he sat up. Usually Leo would have gone and tinkered in the engine room for a little while, a desire that was heightened by the knowledge that a giant goddess statue was just waiting for Leo to discover it's secrets, but he couldn't just abandon Nico. Plus, the other demigod looked really content, and Leo didn't want to play the selfish friend who woke up other people at all hours. Especially as he knew of Nico's odd sleeping habits.
As Leo contemplated on whether or not he could start to build something without waking Nico, the other boy's eyes fluttered open.
When the other boy noticed that Leo was sitting up, he also moved so that he was upright.
"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly, voice sleepy yet still concerned.
"Fine, I just can't sleep." Nico rubbed his eyes blearily, and Leo shifted uncomfortably as the other boy silently appraised him.
"Do you want to go and work on something." Leo nodded gratefully, but then his thankfulness turned to confusion when Nico pulled his own covers off.
"You know that I'll probably be working on the Parthenos till breakfast, you can stay here and rest if you want." Nico laughed gently, surprising Leo with its light echo.
"I'm going to get changed, I'll meet you in the stables." Nico then disappeared into the shadows, leaving Leo to stare at the spot where he had previously been sitting in confusion.
Though it also made him happy that Nico was willing to forego precious hours of sleep to watch him try and figure out how to work a giant statue.
Leo got ready quickly, despite the fact that he was running on virtually no sleep. He'd done it before and would probably do it again.
He cautiously left his room and roamed the halls as silently as he could. He didn't want to wake anyone else up so he crept past each of their rooms silently. He even took precautions despite the fact that everyone but himself, Frank, Nico, Calypso and the Coach where on deck.
Leo reached the stable and slid in. He was startled when he turned around after closing teh door to come face to face with a smirking son of Hades.
"Waah." He gasped and Nico snickered quietly at his expression.
"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up death boy." Nico's snickers turned to angry spluttering, but Leo simply breezed past him and further into the stables.
Eyeing up the majestic statue, he instantly became excited at the prospect of learning about how the statue worked.
This excitement was squashed when, even after hours, Leo had not found anything new out about the Parthenos. The stupid thing radiated magical power, but this didn't help Leo at all.
For the first couple of hours, Nico had bantered back and forth with him, but the younger demigod had been gradually flagging and was now sleeping propped up against the statue.
Leo sighed. Annabeth had been certain that the statue would bring the two camps together, and Leo would be damned if he didn't rectify his mistakes from the Eidolon incident. He also owed it to Annabeth to play out her hunch.
His eyelids were starting to droop, but he still scrambled over to the figure of Nike. Hopefully the goddess would grant him victory on his own personal quest to find out what magical properties the Parthenos possesses.
Apparently the goddess of victory wasn't feeling generous as Leo found himself drifting off, exhausted and exasperated.
He woke up to both Nico and Jason's anxious faces, the echoes of the nightmare that he had just had lingering in his mind.
"Hey, man, why are you hugging Nike?" Leo muttered something about cuddling as he tried to fight off the bad feelings from his dream.
They all headed to the dining room for breakfast.
Over breakfast, the demigods (minus Piper who was on the deck trying to prevent Coach Hedge from destroying the Italian countryside) and Calypso discussed the House of Hades and Leo ended up having to describe his dream to the others. It wasn't a particularly fun dream to relive, especially when they discussed it further and decided that Leo would be taking on the big unfriendly giant.
Leo really wasn't enjoying the chat about the quest, in fact he was caught up thinking about his nightmare, when suddenly the images of Camp Half Blood began to flicker.
A feat that should have been impossible.
Nico's P.O.V
Nico was not a happy camper. Nico was never a happy camper, but that was beside the point. he could tell that Leo was still shaken up about his nightmare, especially when it was declared that Clytius would be Leo's problem to deal with.
And not only did Leo have an enemy to deal with, it looked like Hazel was also going to be facing a powerful foe. The two people onboard at the moment who were most important Nico and they were both going to be in deadly danger soon, deadlier danger than they normally faced.
This was all revealed before the ship was assaulted by hyper and annoying dwarves who's attack had led to Nico being knocked out.
He had woken up to a worried Hazel and the knowledge that both Leo and Jason had gone after the monkey dwarves.
After this announcement he had eaten some ambrosia and then proceeded to pace up and down on the deck, grumpy and worried about his friend.
Calypso didn't look very pleased either, she had been willing to go with the others but Leo had asked her to keep the boat flying.
Nico didn't understand why he was acting so over protective right now as the other two probably weren't in that much danger.
The dwarves hadn't looked seemed that intimidating from the brief glance of them that he had gotten from the screen before he had been knocked out, they just looked kind of mischievous.
Nico bitterly wondered if they were related to Leo as he continued his pacing.
Hazel was watching him with an increasingly amused expression. Finally he turned on her.
"What?" He meant for his tone to sound more in control, but it just sounded petulant instead. Hazel giggled.
"It's nice to see how close you and Leo are." She smiled at him warmly, and he felt a blush begin to creep onto his face.
"Yeah, well, he kind of grew on me." Calypso exchanged a glance with him that screamed "he really does tend to do that".
"Lets just hope that those two idiots don't get in too much trouble." Piper grumbled as she removed a piece of duct tape from her arm that she had missed earlier.
It was then that Nico spotted the two.
Jason was flying them over. Leo had a strange piece of equipment securely held between his legs, his tool belt hastily wrapped around his waist (though his pants were suspiciously low), a book clenched in one hand and the Archimedes sphere clutched under his other arm.
Nico couldn't help thinking that it was lucky that Leo was so light otherwise Jason probably wouldn't have been able to carry him and all of the assorted items that Leo was trying so hard not to drop. He definitely didn't admire Leo's chest. That would have been a step to far, even if Leo was okay with Nico's sexuality, it didn't give Nico a right to keep checking him out.
They came to a halt, hovering over the Argo.
"Could somebody take this please?" Leo wiggled his legs slightly, waving the equipment that he had clenched between his knees. Nico rolled his eyes before taking the unusual item and laying it gently on the deck.
Jason then put Leo down before landing next to him. Leo lay the other items next to the first.
"I'll take it that you sorted the Kerkopes out then?"
Leo smiled bashfully, and then his pants slid down leaving him in his boxers with just his belt around his waist. Leo slapped his hands into his face, and muttered some Spanish curses.
He untied his tool belt, hiked his pants back up and then tied t firmly around them.
Frank was busting a gut laughing whereas Nico could practically smell the smoke coming off of his sister her face, was so red.
Nico then realised that he could actually smell smoke, Leo's nose was burning as everyone laughed at him.
"Stupid twerps best delay the Romans well seeing as they stole my zip." Leo grabbed the Archimedes sphere and made his way over to the console. Everyone had stopped laughing when Leo mentioned Romans.
Nico noticed Calypso gazing sadly at the first weird piece of equipment, but shrugged it off as it was more important to find out what exactly Leo and Jason had done to defeat the Kerkopes and what exactly Leo was talking about when he mentioned distracting the Romans.
Leo was leaning over the console, securely attaching his precious Archimedes sphere back in its slot.
Tiny fire sprung to life all over his body which he ignored in favour of his work.
Jason told the story up until the fountain part, then he backed out to allow Leo to finish the tale of.
Nico marvelled at the thought of Leo making weapons out of such basic items, he really was a genius. Plus, Leo was acting as if it was no real big deal that he had taken down both Kerkopes before Jason even got there.
His modesty was amazing, especially when contrasted with the way he usually joked around and bigged up his successes.
Nico turned his attention to the odd collection on the floor. He wasn't really sure what the machine thing was, but the book was interesting.
Leo's P.O.V
Leo frowned as he made sure the Archimedes sphere wasn't too damaged from his tampering. He finished the story absentmindedly, filling them in on why he had mentioned the Romans.
All of the demigods had snickered at the thought of the dwarf like creatures harassing Octavian, and the Romans were laughing the loudest.
But then Nico's eyes drifted back to the machine.
"I understand you bringing back the sphere and your belt, and even the book is understandable, but why did you bring his thing here?" He nudged it gently with his foot, and Leo's expression turned panicked for a fraction of a second. Then he plastered on his familiar impish grin , making sure to wipe away any traces of panic that the others might have noticed.
He awkwardly laughed, running his hand through his hair in a practised manner.
"I suppose that I had a Hephaestus moment and just chose it because it looked exciting and mechanical." Calypso's eyes were judging him quietly, and Leo knew that the others were all at least a little bit suspicious of him, but they all let it go after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence.
"So!" he blurted out cheerfully. "Now we just have to get this book back to its owner." They all nodded, and Leo made sure to adjust their cause, triple checking the Archimedes sphere.
It was an important piece of tech and if something went wrong with it then Leo might actually cry.
And anyway, it was his turn on deck with Nico and Calypso. technically, Jason should have been on watch with them, but as he had taken over last night, Leo waved him off and told him to go and have fun with his girlfriend.
As soon as the others had left, and it was just himself, Nico and Calypso, his girlfriend let rip.
"Leo, is that for finding my island again?" Nico's eyebrows raised at this, and he also turned to face Leo.
Leo quietly cursed in Spanish.
"Yes it is. I made a promise on the river Styx to get you off that island and I'm going to fulfil that promise." Nico's eyes widened at the mention of an oath on the river Styx. Leo moaned. He was really going to get a grilling from those two.
Leo made some troublemaking friends, and now he's managed to get himself in trouble with Nico and Calypso. He really has no luck :)