Disclaimer: I don't own PJO nor HoO, they are the beautiful children of Rick Riordan.
A/N: No, I'm not dead. I've just been giving into the Roman soldier spirit and working my ass off for the ferocious fight for attending the most badass studies there are AKA kicking the A-levels in the dirt and becoming a medicine student. But the exams are almost over and so here I am. :)
CHAPTER 12
It was hot and steamy in the bathroom on that particular morning. Nothing unusual in any other flat across the globe on a lazy Saturday morning. But at Leo's, where a quick shower was enough to get dirt off and not get deathly bored by the cleaning process? That was a phenomenon not to be observed often, if ever! He wondered just what crazy force had a hand in that villainous whim of his...
Well, he would have been sure to come up with any reasonable answer, if all that had become of his mind since yesterday hadn't actually been (surprise, surprise!) Reyna! Not that he even minded that turn of events...
He bounced across the few bottom tiles (also called floor, funny!) to the beat of calypso, swaying his hips and making it dangerously close to disposing of the towel wrapped round his sharp hips in the meantime. Water dribbled when he wiggled his head, mapping cambers of the small and bigger scars diffused all over the scrawny (but shapely!, he kept saying) chest and if the toothbrush hadn't made that impossible, he would have been singing his lungs out and not giving a care in toothpaste spat on the mirror and the walls of the tiny room. He could clean that... Sometime...
How could he have been able to act even some less energetic when his queen had basically asked him out?! He took in an inhale deep enough to be close to making his chest explode to try and cool the fire in his heart the remains of any common sense he had told him was still too early to keep fueling. Well... It was about a TV series... And it was him who came up with the idea in the first place... He shook his head and pursed his lips, watching his expression scowl in the mirror. No, he had to think positive! After all, it had been her to had agreed, hadn't it? This had to mean something!
A couple of minutes later, he was coming out of the bathroom, pulling on a pair of jeans, making the still-moist hair even more of a mess with one of the fluffy towels Piper loved to spoil him with and checking the time on the clock on the wall, all at the same time. Romance joy did wonders to his, already quite decent, ability to multitask! Well, at least that was what he had thought before he tripped over an obstacle of some kind and fell down painfully on his knees, giving out a high-pitched yelp. Finding himself on the ground with pants still hanging way below his boxers' level was not an especially graceful way of spending the morning!
"Piper!" he yelled grumpily, the fantastic mood giving into the momentary frustration "Would you please stop leaving your bag just about everywhere it can kill me?!" he grumbled, getting back up and finally being able to dress up properly, pulling a T-shirt over his head in one swift motion and fetching the towel from its newest placement under the sofa.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he heard her respond from the kitchen, rolling his eyes when he didn't fail to notice the note of amusement in her voice. "The amount of food you devour weighs some, you know?" Piper grinned at him when he entered the room, putting the last portion of green goods she adored into the fridge and instead getting out a couple of eggs. At least those were more related to actual healthy young male solid meal than all those plants she stubbornly called filling!
"I hope these are for an apology omelet?" Leo teased, falling down on a chair and watching his best friend bustle around, searching for every piece of equipment needed that Jason obviously failed to put in its right order. Sharing a flat with the two was one of the best things that had ever happened to Leo, but it didn't mean they didn't fight over smallest details from time to time, like with that one cake Piper had used salt for because her boyfriend didn't see anything inappropriate in leaving pepper next to sugar.
"It's your lucky day, repair boy," she turned her back on the frying pan to give him a stingy eye and her sharp features of Indian heritage twisted in confusion at the look on his face. "Had fun yesterday? You look like a maiden in love," she shook with laughter when he twitched, his mind having difficulties returning from the dreamy world of Reyna's office, filled with her unforgettable sugary scent, images of the small smiles she'd been trying to suppress and her closeness, the feeling that made his heart float under the ceiling of its cage of bones, swelling with longing for the sensation to last forever.
Sentimental? Leo was well aware of the fact. But was there anything to be done, if he'd already given himself whole up to the miracle that messed up his head only more every time they met? That one infatuation was a hopeless case, indeed!
"That I would, it was obvious from the start!" he couldn't help but flash his set of whites at her gleeful kaleidoscopic eyes when Piper glanced at him, waiting for butter to melt and whipping the eggs with bracelets budging all over the slim wrist of hers. Leo leaned back on the chair and put his hand behind his head, swinging some back and forth despite painful memories of more than a few falls. Nothing would have possibly been able to spoil his mood on that day! "You know what's way better? That Reyna did!" he announced, beaming with pride.
Piper mocked a surprised gasp at which Leo rolled his eyes and came hard back to the ground. He took an apple from the fruit bowl on the table and started carving unidentified patterns in it with his favorite Swiss pocketknife he'd once got from his father. "Details, Valdez, you know I'm dying to know!" the apple fell from his hands when she smacked him on the head with a wooden paddle, chuckling when he jumped up and started massaging the bruise, struggling to stick out his tongue at her through the grin.
Partially fearing another hit, but mostly barely being able to keep his glee in for any longer, Leo started babbling about his and Reyna's studying session. It wasn't of any surprise that he couldn't quite stick to any sensible pattern of the story, but Piper knew him well enough to pick up what was the most important, anyway.
When he was done, or rather when he finally stopped giving his full-detailed report on Reyna's awesomeness, Piper gave a particularly long, acknowledging whistle while her face split up in a grin he was more than ecstatic to return.
"I don't know her more than from a few small talks, but… I'd say this one's going almost unbelievably well, Latino lover," she laughed when he froze her with a mock glare upon hearing the word unbelievably. With one hand sliding his scrambled eggs onto the plate and the other throwing the pan into the sink, she managed not to take her eyes off him when he stood up to fetch a fork and give her a quick peck on the cheek.
"Thanks, Beauty Queen," were the words he said, grabbing onto the food like he hadn't eaten for a few months and not just through the night. Which was probably short, anyway, as the excitement had obviously disallowed him to go to sleep for good. Leo relished in the delicious smell of Piper's cooking, fabulous as always, and didn't even give her a glance when she sat in front of him, folding her arms on the table top and watching him being the picture of unlimited, simple pleasure of enjoying one's food. It was a ritual of theirs, she always ate hers earlier and transformed into proud grandmother boasting about her grandson's appetite.
"Just wait and see Jason's face when he finds out," she broke the silence, and that was the first time Leo looked at her from above his usual portion of ambrosia. "He knows Reyna better than we do, I wonder what he'll think of the situation," she shrugged. The Latino almost choked on a piece he was munching on. That was right! He had yet to share the news with the one who, whether that made Leo just a tiny little bit jealous or not, knew his queen better than anybody else he could think of!
"Is he still home or not-?" he almost made the chair crash into the ground when he shot up to his feet, forgetting all about the unfinished meal and not quite hearing Piper's calls of something like let him have his rest! when he rushed to her and Jason's room, stopping only in front of the door and the only reason for the inconvenient delay was that it was tight shut. He then did the first thing that came to his mind - started pummeling into the wood, complaining loudly about how he couldn't get necessary support from his best friend on behalf of something such inconsiderably prosaic as a few hours of undisturbed early Saturday morning sleep.
Pure evil proved to be worth the try when the lock clicked and Jason's sleepy, electric-blue eyes showed themselves in the slot. Even the frown wasn't able to dispose of the Captain America vibe he had. However, Leo knew well enough how much of a thick-headed dork the blond was. How else would he be able to continually tease Piper if he didn't kept full database on all the awkwardness that had gone on when their relationship had just been blooming?
"Superman-boy, there's no time to be napping!" Leo exclaimed, forcefully pushing the door open and trapping his best friend's shoulders in a cage of lean fingers, making the other wince "It's an emergency we're talking about, Grace, do I spell it for you or what?! E-M-" he went on, unaware of the fact that he'd started rocking Jason back and forth, or rather stimulating an earthquake with the sheer force of his hard-working arms.
"Ok, all right, I got it..!" the blond mumbled, easily freeing himself due to Leo's short span of focus that was even shorter than usual due to the excitement. Or at least that was how the Latino preferred to call the fitness difference between them, however considerably harder it was to ignore with the torso of pure athlete-muscle power right in front of his eyes.
"Whaa- What's it about..?" Jason yawned, rubbing his eyes of sleep while he lead the way for Piper clawing Leo's wrist in her small hand that, unfortunate cause of events, didn't lack any strength, dragging him behind her boyfriend to the kitchen. The superhero, still in his pajama pants, started rummaging lazily through the fridge before Piper shooed him away to sit in front of Leo who didn't feel like finishing his meal at all with his stomach clenched and all the levers pulled up to the max in his gut.
Doubting that Jason was already in perfect mental shape, but not giving up the hopes that he'd actually understand the explanation, Leo let his tongue go loose again and when he was finally finished, Piper was putting another plate of eggs in front of her boyfriend, now truly awake and in deep thought. Leo could feel his heart pounding in his throat and his knuckles were beginning to hurt from all the cracking but then an nervously awaited rescue came in the picture of Reyna's best friend smiling.
"Unless you've done something worse than bruising her head in the lab and she's plotting hurtful revenge, I'm pretty sure you're permitted to congratulate yourself, Valdez," he made the verdict and while he kissed Piper – both in gratitude and simply because he hadn't had the time to say hello earlier – Leo felt his lungs dance the Macarena and his heart accompany them on the banjo. Last time he'd had such a wide grin on his face had probably been when he'd visited the dentist's and had had an intimate encounter with a cheek retractor.
"Aww, just look at him," Piper muttered when Leo was too preoccupied with the overwhelming joy to hear, his dark eyes shining, back straight and chin high, so adorably full of hope and determination "I just hope you're not misleading him," she whispered dangerously, but the worried frown was quick to disappear with another one of Jason's sweet kisses under her jaw.
"Don't worry, I know Reyna. And I know how serious Leo is this time just by looking at him," he smiled and touched her nose with the tip of his, making her choke down a giggle. That was when Leo came back to the reality and bounced up like a toy clown from the box. He moved to throw himself in between their shoulders, laughing when Piper shot a bunch of Indian "curses" at him, sounding pretty severe but probably actually being a list of names of forest animals her father had taught her when she hadn't wanted to sleep at night and had begged for him to tell her more stories.
Leo surprised Piper and Jason, hugging the air out of the two of them before saying, "So, is there anything specific the best buddies I could dream of having want to do on this beautiful day?"
ZJeM, 08.01-17.05.15
From author:
An announcement! I was recently searching for any bigger portions of action in this story and found close to none... That said, I'm slowly getting impatient. I might as well screw it all up trying to speed the things up... But please keep you fingers crossed for me to succeed! :D
I know. This one's like half the word count of the last chapter. But I didn't want to keep you guys waiting for another half a year and, to be frank, I have a much better idea of what is going to happen in ItRoC later on, hence the feeling you probably got of me skipping anything. ;) Anyway…
THANKS FOR READING!
