Supercalifragilistic

Pyrra was awesome. The red-headed nymph could literally make metal do whatever she wanted. Leo thought, if she asked nicely and batted her eyelashes, that she could convince a sword to slice the heavens for her. It was like she could charmspeak and seduce it to her liking, all with a single glance. She was a walking forge, a welder, an extrusion press, a casting machine… the list could go on and on. It left Leo scared shitless, and he loved it.

However, he still didn't know what to think of her. She was very open and honest and had no problems talking with him, but that wasn't the issue. He still thought it was weird, like she wasn't really there. Like she was just a figment of Leo's crazy hyperactive imagination and was going to liquefy into a puddle of molten. No one ever gave the repair boy any attention. If this was a sick joke, the gods really fucking sucked.

Not that he was totally complaining. It's not every day a fiery hot half-naked nymph put up with his shit, so he made sure to enjoy it while it lasted.

Leo thrust his attention back to the project in front of him: designing the oars that would line the sides of the trireme. He had a pretty good idea of what he wanted, but now it was a matter of doing it. Which, as always, was easier said than done.

CLANG.

He almost jumped out of his skin when Pyrra slammed a shield on his workbench. She leaned on the table in front of her and propped her hand beneath her chin, a crooked smile spread across her face. Leo tried to ignore her almost-bare chest as it screamed for his attention, and he swore to himself for letting the nymph distract him.

Stupid hormones.

"Sup?" He tried to sound as cool as possible, but his voice squeaked a little. Damnit.

"All the starboard shields are re-worked. Inclusions are non-existent, of course, and I have eliminated any possible structural fatigue." Her voice was so professional and magical. Leo couldn't help but nod along.

"Structural issues? They won't be load-bearing or critical for support. Well, I think, anyway."

She teased, "Engineers and their mighty useless words."

"Hey now, us engineers have to use fancy schmancy words to make us sound more supercalifragilistic," he responded with a wink.

"Excuse me?"

"Exactly." He smirked and reached over to pick up the shield.

It was flawless. Like, holy hot damn it looks better than armor in the forges kind of gorgeous. The curvature of the bronze was perfect and held to an impossible tolerance. It was as smooth as silk under his calloused hands, and he shuddered at its touch.

"How in Hades do you do this?" He was practically drooling.

"My father was one of the Dactyls, you know of this already." She cocked her head to the side as her eyes shifted colors again. They were always changing, and Leo could never figure out which color they actually were. Bronze, silver, brass, gold, steel, copper – it was like a kaleidoscope of precious metals swirling in her irises.

"Yeah, but I meant how. Like, show me. I wanna watch."

"You want to watch."

"Yes?"

She purred, "Are you sure?"

At first Leo tried to answer, but garbled words stumbled off his tongue. He cleared his throat and puffed out his chest before responding. "Yes, show me."

Pyrra's face lit up like a welding arc. "Okay! Come here!" She grabbed his greasy hands and dragged him over to the misfit island of armor sitting along the back wall.

Although it was impossible, Leo felt like his hand was going to melt from the contact. The flaming son of Hephaestus was about to drip into a puddle of Leo, and that was just plain embarrassing.

She let go of his hand and picked up a badly misshapen shield. It had cracks and holes and burns all over it, and was so bent out of shape it looked like a freight train with teeth and PMS got to it first.

She looked at the chunk of bronze with a hint of affection and stoked its flaws lovingly. Then, her eyes glowed the color of celestial bronze and goose bumps pricked at his tan skin. Hands glided over the metal as if she was an ultrasonic inspection station. As she caressed the holes on the surface, they filled in with fresh molten and eliminated any previous blemish. The metal would mold and melt beneath her touch, fusing together to hide the imperfections and send any inclusions away. The shield reformed in her hands, bending back in all the correct places and restored its beautiful reflective and glowing surface. Finally, she did this weird thing (Leo wasn't sure how) that magically gave the celestial bronze amplified mechanical properties, and all Leo could do was stare with his mouth hanging open like a moron.

Everywhere her slender finger danced, she left a trail of beauty behind. So much control and power radiated from this girl. Could she do this with organic forms of matter, too?

She blinked a few times, and her eyes returned to the ever-flowing mix of colors. She triumphantly held the shield up for his inspection, like a little kid bringing home a good report card to stick on the fridge.

He stared at his reflection and shuddered. Even the guy staring back at him looked handsome, and Leo thought it was just a trick of her metallurgical magic.

"So that's it?"

"Yes, that's it. What were you expecting?"

In his case, expectations usually lead to disappointments, but he kept that to himself.

"Well I don't know. I guess I imagined actually seeing physical work, ya know? You magically cold-worked the bronze, how am I supposed to know the grain structure is sufficient for the strength I want?"

"It's celestial bronze, you fool. Of course it's going to be everything you've ever hoped and dreamed. And more."

"Hey, relax little fuego. I just want this ship as perfect as she can possibly be. She'll need to keep up with me, remember?" He raised an eyebrow as he licked his finger. When he pressed it against is chest, it sizzled dramatically.

Pyrra rolled her eyes. "Are all demigods as cocky as you, Leo Valdez?"

He turned around to head back to his work station. "I think the word you are looking for is adorable. Or charming, awesome, caliente," he called over his shoulder, "or crazy. Either way, I'm just cute and fun to watch."

By the time he got back to his bench in the corner of Bunker 9, he could hear metal sliding on metal as Pyrra continued to beautify the shields of the Argo II. A smile crawled across his face, and he dove back into work.

Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed and followed and favorited this story! This includes AsumeKona, Owlhearted, .go, kuro-madness, and lordofthenight97. Your support is fantastic and it really does make me all giggly inside when I get stuff from y'all :) Even the guest reviews are great! Thank you so much!

On a completely unrelated note, I made blue chocolate chip cookies today because I'm awesome. I also can't get the blue food dye off my fingers. Oops.

Let me know what you think! If there's any future scene you'd like to see with Leo, please let me know! I'd love to take prompts from you and see what other awesome ideas people can think of. I also think it would be an awesome challenge to write something that I didn't think of.

Also, I think I need a new title. I just threw that one on there because I couldn't think of anything else and it sounds really dumb and corny. Any suggestions?