Of Gods and Goddesses (Leo Valdez x Reader)

XI

Leo

In other circumstances, Leo would have been happy to have crowds of girls chasing after him. The angry mob of lake nymphs coming after both him and Hazel, intent on killing both of them was not his idea of fun.

Arion, Hazel’s super speedy horse, zipped across the water like it was concrete. The nymphs didn't even stand a chance, but they were gaining... fast.

The horse ran up the side of the Argo II, depositing the two of them onto the deck. Hazel hopped off gracefully, and Leo would have landed on his face, were it not for her helpful hand grabbing the bronze sheet.

"I need this down in the engine room. Stat. I need to finish repairs if we want to get out of here before those crazy nymphs get to us."

Leo grabbed part of the bronze sheet, Hazel joining him as they ran for the engine room. The two of them stumbled to a stop, nearly running into Piper, who had just walked out of Jason’s room.

Piper was staring intently, taking note of his greased back hair, welding goggles, lipstick marks on his cheeks, the tattoos over his arms, and his T-shirt that read HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO.

"Gods of Olympus." She stated. "What happened to you?"

Leo wanted to pride himself on his handiwork, but he had no time. "Long story. Others are back?"

"Not yet."

Leo cursed. Just his luck. That meant he only had half the materials to complete repairs. He just seemed to notice Jason sitting up on the bed, looking just as shocked to see him as Piper. Leo couldn't help but grin. Maybe he had a little luck after all.

"Hey, man! I'm glad you’re better. I’ll be in the engine room."

He ran off with the sheet of bronze, leaving Hazel in the doorway. He hesitated slightly at Y/n's closed door, wishing that she was awake too. But he couldn't be that lucky.

Kinzie was watching him from the mess hall as he ran. Her eyebrow shot up at his appearance. Leo couldn't help but see how similar she was to the other nymphs.

"You're not going to try to kill me too, are you?"

She grinned. "No. Not yet, at least. Having some nymph trouble? Some of my cousins live in this lake. But you should be glad they aren't as dangerous as me." Her smile seemed a little too sharp for his tastes. OK, she was definitely harboring some bad feelings.

"Me? Nymphs trouble?"

Kinzie narrowed her eyes. Leo took that as his cue to leave, running for the engine room.

The motor looked like an absolute mess. Several parts were fried, and the whole backboard needed replacing. Hence, the bronze sheet he was holding. Leo sighed. At least, this was finally something he could fix.

Festus creaked through the speakers he had installed through the ship.

"Yep, I got bronze for the repairs. Just waiting on the tar to get this running smoothly."

The entire ship listed, and Leo tumbled forward. His hands landed on the burning exterior of the engine, only feeling like a warm tingle to his fire-power enhanced skin.

"That didn't sound good," Leo mumbled under his breath as he started to pull tools out of his magical tool belt. He got wrenches, hammers, drills, screws. He carefully unscrewed and took out the old engine plate, discarding it to the side as the boat listed again. Frank and Annabeth cane running in with a bucket of tar between them.

"Hey, Leo," Annabeth said. "Anything we can do to help?"

The two of them were covered in black bits of tar. Frank had a noticeable big smear of black sludge down his face, and Annabeth had several dark splatches in her hair.