A/U: Next chapter, YAY! ^_^ Now I don't know if I want them to be together or not. I know you don't know who 'them' are, but you will after you read this. Enjoy!
~Melissa L.
Rose
I have been getting strange feelings lately. I can't explain it, though. I feel sick but not sick as in a cold or the flu. It only happens when I'm around Leo. Does that mean anything? I've hung out with him for the past few weeks, working on various machines and stuff. I think I like him, but then I think about Nico and how I felt with him. I guess I'm still not completely over him. I've seen Nico a few times and I always catch him looking at me. When I try to approach him, he gets this nervous look then walks away. I guess I liked Leo but I didn't realize it until yesterday when we were working on a machine. (Don't ask me what it is, I only handle tools.)
It was just like any other day, nothing different. Leo was asking for specific tools and I handed them to him whenever he needed them. We had finished early so we had time left over. I looked around the room. "You know, this place needs to get cleaned," I said as I examined tools and screw all over the place.
"Nah, it looks okay to me," Leo said.
"C'mon Leo, I'm not really a clean freak or whatever but this place is seriously in need of a little clean up."
"But I don't want to," Leo whined.
"We're getting this place organized, help me with the table first," I said as I headed for the table with the most things all over it. Leo groaned and reluctantly followed.
We had spent almost an hour getting tools in the appropriate places, papers and plans on stacks in one place, throwing away trash on the floor, and things like that.
I was finishing putting away the screwdrivers in a box when I heard a loud noise behind me that made me drop the screwdrivers. They went all over the place. I turned around and saw that Leo had dropped two pieces of bronze.
"Sorry," he said embarrassed. I sighed and bent down to pick up the screwdrivers. I thought I had picked them all up but one was lying about a foot next to me and I hadn't seen it. Apparently Leo hadn't either. As he was walking past me to get a water bottle, he tripped on the screwdriver. "Whoa!" he yelled. I grabbed his wrist to try to keep him from falling, but I guess I wasn't strong enough and I fell with him.
Now, sometime during the fall, Leo had turned himself so that he landed on his back and you can guess that I landed on top of him. I had opened my eyes to see his playful ones. Our lips had glided past each other just a bit. It was totally an accident, I swear. We didn't move for a few seconds. I probably turned red as I quickly got up.
"Sorry for, uh, landing on you," I said awkwardly. Leo looked like he might catch on fire any second.
"It's alright. I wasn't looking…"
I offered my hand to help him up. He took it, sending tingles up my arm. "Thanks," Leo said.
"No, problem," I said. We looked at each other awkwardly again, until we noticed we were still holding hands. I quickly let go of his and crossed my arms. "I think it's time for me to go," I said as I headed for the door to escape the awkwardness, "See ya tomorrow. Bye Leo."
"Bye Rose," I faintly heard Leo as I walked faster to get out of Bunker Nine and to my cabin. When I got out of the woods I inhaled deeply to try to calm down my stomach from the fifty million butterflies that were flying inside it. Not the most comfortable feeling. I ran straight into the door, which was stupid, but I wasn't paying attention, okay? I was distracted. After I rubbed my nose to clear the pain, (I was surprised that I wasn't bleeding) I went inside and threw myself on my bed. That's when I came to the conclusion that I liked Leo.
When I went to bed, I started thinking of how my heart skipped a beat when our lips touched, how warm his hand was, and the sparkle in his eyes. Then, thoughts of a certain son of Hades seeped into my mind and that zapped me back to reality that I still liked him, too.
I'm not even sure why I can't just get over Nico. I remember the way he smiled at me, the way his lips moved against mine, and how we had so much fun together. There are so many other things that I liked about both of them.
Confusion is my pet peeve. I hate the unknown, especially these kinds of things. I like to keep my feeling straight; it makes my life easier to deal with.
And now, we're here from where we started. I know that Nico doesn't feel anything for me, which I find depressing so I try to not think too much about that. Does Leo like me? Has he gotten over me already? Part of me hopes that he's still crushing on me. The other part of me hopes that he's found someone else so that I don't have to deal with this.
Today, I had canoeing, sword fighting, and archery. Canoeing was easy for me. If it involves water, I'm all for it. I was too busy thinking of my dilemma that I fell from my canoe. I didn't get wet, obviously, but it was a bit embarrassing.
When I was sword fighting with Clarisse, I couldn't stop thinking of what happened yesterday with Leo, and in two minutes, I was on the ground with a spear up my throat.
"What's wrong with you? I know you lose when you're up against me, but not this fast. What's gotten into you, Rose?" asked Clarisse.
"Sorry, stuff has been going on and I'm not as focused." I said.
"Get it together, punk."
"Punk? I thought that was Percy's nickname," I said as I got up.
"Well, then, get it together punk's sis. There, better?" Clarisse asked. We laughed and fought a few more times before moving on to archery.
It was getting closer to seeing Leo again and my heart started racing. I sighed as I let an arrow fly. It missed the center by a few inches. At least I'm getting better at this.
There I was, standing outside the door of Leo's work room. I stood there for a few moments until I finally got the nerve to open the door. Before my hand could touch the doorknob, the door opened and Nico came out. He stopped in his tracks.
"Um, hi Rose," he mumbled looking away. I felt my cheeks get warmer as I noticed we were standing pretty close to each other. I finally remembered to speak.
"Uh, hi," Great, when will the awkward moments end? "What are you doing here?"
"I just came to get these blueprints from Leo. Annabeth wanted me to get them for her." He held up the plans, "What are you doing here?" What was I here for again? Oh right.
"I help Leo build things," I said.
Nico swallowed, "So, I need to tell you some-" Just then Leo popped out from behind Nico.
"What's going on? Oh, hi Rose," he waved at me with red tinted across his face.
"Hi Leo," I said.
"Excuse me, I need to go," Nico muttered and walked away. What was he going to say?
"Sorry, was I interrupting anything?" Leo asked.
I smiled at him, "No, it's okay, Leo. We were just talking. Nothing important."
We went inside. I couldn't help but notice that Leo didn't get out much. "Hey Leo. Do you ever go outside and you know, have fun?" I asked him.
He shrugged, "Not really, this is mostly where I eat and sleep. Why?"
"Just asking." I had an idea.
Nico
What an awkward moment. I can't believe I was just about to… whatever. Good thing that scrawny Latino guy stopped me. I needed to get out of there. I've tried to talk to Rose, like Annabeth suggested, but every time, I chicken out. Laugh if you want, but if you were me, you'd be nervous too.
Rose might be a nice peaceful person, but everyone has their days. Anyway, if it comes to us ending up in a fight, I'll probably make a run for it. I'm not going to hurt her…I've done too much of that already. I wonder what was up with her and Leo.
Did she already move on? The very thought made me feel hatred for Leo so strong that if I hadn't been so confused by it, I would've marched straight up to him and run my sword through his body. Of course I remembered that's how I felt about Annabeth when I heard Percy was dating her. I really got to control these feelings. Well, although I'm very confused about everything that involves love, I do know one thing. My life sucks…yeah, that about sums it up.
Rose
"Okay so let's get started we're going to work on…" That's usually where I get lost so I just nod and pretend I understand everything Leo's saying, not that I mind. He always seems to enjoy talking about machinery. We went on as usual. He asked for something and I gave it to him.
Our hands always got dirty but I didn't care much about that either. I was too busy listening to Leo talk about the funny/silly things that happened while he was on his quest. Time went awfully fast for my liking. Leo yawned, "Well, bye Rose. I need to stay up late so that-"
"So that you and I can have a walk around the beach," I finished his sentence.
"What?" he asked confused.
"You have worked too hard these past weeks. I think you deserve a rest, at least for a while." I said cheerfully.
"I don't know, Rose…" Leo said doubtfully.
"Pwease, Leo?" I said in a little kid's voice.
Leo sighed, "I guess, but only for a little while."
"Yay! C'mon, let's wash our hands and go," I said as I dragged him to the sink.
After we had cleaned up as much as possible, we headed outside. We joked around the whole way about how I didn't even know what a wrench was and how Leo was bad at playing Loteria.
We got to the beach. The sun was starting to set, there was a soft cool breeze blowing and small waves coming to the shore. "It's nice isn't it?" I said as I looked at the scenery.
"Beats looking at metal all the time," Leo said. We started walking along the shore in comfortable silence, enjoying nature. I got bored so I took my shoes off and started walking in the shallow waters. The cool water made me feel so much more relaxed. I knelt down, scooped up some water in my hands, and flung it at Leo.
"Hey!" Leo protested as he took off his shoes and rolled up his jeans up to his knees to not get them wet. He ran towards me and I ran away from him.
"Come back here."
"You got to catch me first," I called back. We threw water at each other for a while. Leo ran towards me again. I waited for the right time and moved out of the way. This caused Leo to trip and fall face first into the cool water. I was laughing so hard my sides started to hurt.
"Poor clumsy Leo," I teased.
"Oh yeah," Leo looked at me with mischievous eyes. I realized too late what Leo was thinking and in that moment, he pulled me into the water.
We surfaced again. Leo noticed that I wasn't wet like he was. "No fair, you can't use your powers," he said.
"What, there are rules or something?" I asked.
"Yeah, I just made them up," he grinned.
"Whatever, Leo," I said and splashed water in his face. We got out of the water, with me perfectly dry and Leo completely soaked. He shook his head trying to dry himself like a dog.
"Leo, you're getting me wet!"
"Good," he said, "I got an idea on how to get dry, though."
"How?" I asked. Leo took a step away from me and lit himself up, and quickly extinguished himself.
"Ta-da!" he said as if he had made a magic trick and spread his arms out.
"Wow, okay that was cool," I said. I looked at the sun again. It was barely visible now. "Oh, it's almost curfew," I said, "Let's go," I grabbed Leo's hand and headed to the woods.
We were at the edge of the woods when Leo stopped me, "Whoa, Rose. Calm down, we got plenty of time." I breathed deeply.
"Okay, but if we get eaten by harpies, I blame you," I joked.
"Like they would get anywhere near you with me around," Leo said, then he seemed to have realized what he said. He blushed furiously, "I mean, not that you need protection, what I meant to say was that-" I put my finger to his lips to stop him.
"It's okay, I get it. Thanks Leo," I said.
"Yeah, don't worry about it." Leo scratched the back of his head, "Rose I was meaning to tell you something…" he trailed off.
"What is it Leo?" I asked innocently. Was he going to tell me that he likes me? My heart pounded on my chest that it was a miracle, Leo couldn't hear it. I got jittery and couldn't stop my hands from twitching.
"The thing is that I feel like you get me. You are fun to be around…the thing is that…man, I'm bad at this aren't I?" he said. I giggled.
"Are you trying to tell me you like me?" I suggested.
"Yeah, I mean, I do like you, but I also like like you, not just like you as a friend but I was hoping that we can be more than that. You know, if you want to and I'm sorry that I'm rambling now," Leo turned another shade of red. I chuckled at how silly he was being.
"Leo, I like you, too. In the same way," I said looking at the ground, feeling very weird, and I liked it.
"Seriously?" Leo looked totally surprised. I laughed, "Yeah, seriously," I playfully shoved him.
"So, you like me, I like you…" Leo closed his eyes and quickly said, "Doyouwanttobemygirlfriend?" Did he just ask me…? I cupped his face in my hands. He flinched slightly as if he was expecting me to smack him or something. He slowly opened his eyes.
I smiled, "Yes." He smiled at me and he leaned in. Should I kiss him? I decided that maybe I should. I might forget Nico. I leaned in too and just as our lips had barely touched, I heard rustling on my left. Leo and I jumped away from each other.
"Who's there?" Leo challenged. Nothing came out.
"It was probably nothing. Bye Leo, see you tomorrow." I said and quickly kissed his cheek and ran for my cabin.
Nico
Call me a stalker if you want, I don't care. I really didn't mean to, but I was walking from the forest after a long day in Bunker nine when I heard voices so, yeah, I eavesdropped. I don't usually do it, though. I just happened to recognized Rose's voice.
I listened to everything they said. I couldn't believe it, I was about to quietly make a run for it to think up a plan for Leo's funeral once I got done with him when I saw that they were about to kiss. Kiss! I wasn't going to just let that happen, not if I was here to stop it. I made the noise that they heard and I quickly hid behind a tree. After Rose said goodbye, I followed Leo into the woods ready to beat his sorry ass to Camp Jupiter when I stopped myself.
Rose looked really happy. Why should I ruin her happiness? She deserves it. But I didn't want anyone to kiss her, to hug her, comfort her, to make her laugh. I realized I was being selfish. Just because I was confused didn't mean that Rose was going to wait for me to up my mind. She had a life of her own. But I wanted her to be with me…or was this another excuse for the weird feelings I had for Percy?
"What are you going to do?" the voice in my head mocked me.
"You know, you could be helping me instead of making me feel like crap," I thought.
The voice stayed silent.
"Thanks a lot." I thought sarcastically.
A/U: So Leo and Rose are dating now, not sure how to feel about that, and I wrote it! Oh well, whatever. Review please :) I want to finish this story, hopefully by ch 40, what do you guys need?
~Melissa L.
