The Curse of Oenone (Daughter of Olympus II) - [Leo Valdez xF!Oc]

I Might Lay down and See if This Fixes Itself

"You know what pisses me off?"

"Many things nowadays," Leo replies from the crawlspace where he works.

"This project," Ara continues grumpily. "What the hell, dude? We're supposed to be honest with each other!"

"We're supposed to be boyfriend and girlfriend and you still call me dude," the boy responds, crawling out covered in grime and scowling. "What's your point?"

"Why didn't you tell me you wanted to rebuild Festus?"

Leo seizes the cloth hanging from his toolbelt and cleans his hands. "Festus was your baby first, I couldn't tell you and then fail—Didn't want to look stupid if it didn't work."

"Then why are you telling me now?"

"Because you think I don't know what I'm doing but I have a good plan here!"

"I don't like this thing you're doing to us."

"Ain't doing nothing, doll..." he walks past her. "It was done to me too, remember?"

Ara follows him downstairs to the cabins. "I don't think this is the best idea you can come up with, that's all. I think you're going easy on purpose."

He steps into his cabin and leaves the door open for Ara. "I thought Ithaca would help, and it didn't. We think wrong sometimes. You should bribe Janus so he tells us what to pick."

"Oh, don't get me started on that guy! He would make things more difficult for us on purpose, he thrives on indecision—all shades of gray and stuff." Ara looks around the room and gets distracted. "Gods, Leo, how do you sleep with all this mess?"

He snorts. "I don't. I just work here."

The girl gets confused. "You've only slept two nights in my cabin this week—where do you spend the night when I say no?"

Leo changes the subject. "I work better around clutter. If I don't figure out a way to make sure Festus won't crush me to death—"

"Have you been sleeping in the engine room?"

The boy raises his voice in frustration. "Listen to what I'm saying!"

Ara looks at the bulletin board: Leo's drawing of the Argo II is accompanied by a picture of the crew who built it and another of Ara hugging Festus's head. She doesn't want to listen, Ara wants to hide under the blankets with him until the war is over and wants to go back to New York, hand in hand with Leo. 

Ara longs for the little things, and at the same time, she hates them because they make the things she aims for look frivolous and selfish. When Leo met her, she was obsessed with being useful and giving meaning to her death since she'd already concluded her life would be short and dramatic, yet uneventful when it came to being normal. 

Who is she to tell Leo not to aim for the big flashy sacrifice? In short, she's going insane. "I can't listen to this. I'm sorry."

Leo doesn't look surprised, this conversation has happened twice since he returned from Ogygia. Ara isn't ready to face what's coming, and Leo doesn't know what to do to help. The boy sighs, then pinches the bridge of his nose, he looks ten years older. Ara's ashamed of her cowardice, she could talk if they had a clear path ahead, but there is only a pitch-black void.

"I need to know," Leo is extra careful with his words because Ara won't like what he's about to ask her. "If I die for good, are you going to erase me from your stories like you did with Mike?"

Ara's gaze fires up like gasoline, but she says nothing at first. Her feet backtrack, like they always do when an argument hits too close, and then she freezes. Ara counts to five, if she doesn't take a second to think, she'll say bad things like she always does.