No Strings Attached

7

TW: there's a homophobic slur at one point (f-word)

Your POV:

Leo's nimble fingers moved at a furious pace, almost unstoppable even, you could really tell he was used to working with his hands. I screamed out his name, which only encouraged him to go harder, until eventually I couldn't keep up anymore and just gave in with another loud scream.

Playing super smash bros with Leo sucks.

I can never win! Which is especially frustrating to me being a child of Apollo and all. I know I'm way to competitive for my own good, but I just can't help it. Things like basketball, archery, or even singing all come easy to me because of my dad, but it comes with the price of being a competitive or cocky shit. Which in my case is unfortunately both most of the time.

"Take that, Y/L/N!" Leo called out triumphantly while jumping up on the couch.

"But it's not fair! Your freaky mechanical genius powers give you such an advantage!" I said as I dropped my controller to the ground, Leo stopped jumping on the couch and sat back down laughing.

"That's not how it works princess," I rolled my eyes at the nickname, but ever since last week I couldn't help but blush a little every time he said it, "besides, have you ever considered the possibility that you maybe just... suck?"

He continued laughing as I let out a shout of mock hurt, "Valdez! How dare you even insinuate something as utterly-" My sentence got cut of by a shout coming from outside, which was then followed by a blood curdling scream followed by the sound of glass shattering.

My first thought was defense, I'd left my bow in my cabin but I did have my sword with me, I might not be that much help with it but it's something. I could potentially make it to my cabin and get my bow. Depending on the monster, I could try and make a run for it. But the distance from the big house to cabin seven might be too large.

Before I could even move Piper burst into the room, "Y/N! Leo! Thank the gods I found you guys! I need help! The entire cabin is going crazy, they won't listen! I really don't know what to do!" She exclaimed in a frenzy while pulling me up from the couch.

"Wait, some campers are making all this noise, what the Hades is going on Piper?" Leo jumped up from the couch and followed us outside, as soon as we stepped out onto the porch I could see the fighting going on. Even from this far away the shouting and sounds of things breaking were unmistakable. "Oh Styx," was all I said before we broke into a run.

"Someone left a golden mango in our cabin and put a note next to it that said 'for the hottest', no one knows who it was meant for so they just started fighting!" she said in between pants, "They won't even listen to my charmspeak! I really don't know what to do!"

To me, this just reeked of the Stoll brothers, though I didn't say anything. Once we got to the cabins I grabbed Leo's hand and pulled him past the mess of fighting campers, towards cabin nine.

Piper started to run after us but I yelled to her over my shoulder, "I have a plan! Just keep them from killing or mutilating each other until we get back!" Piper yelled back something about 'no funny business' between Leo and me but I was too focused to mind her teasing.

"You do have a plan, right?" Leo asked me as soon as we were in front of his cabin.

"Remember the gift my dad gave me?" his eyes widened, realizing what I was planning on doing, "I hate to waste it on this but it's the best shot we have right now, how long do you need to weaponize it?"

"Five minutes, tops. But Y/N, are you sure you want to do this?" he looked at me with his beautiful brown eyes, his stare made my knees feel weak and- wait, stop. Y/N, focus. I nodded and we both ran into our own cabins, I grabbed the vial and rushed back into my neighboring cabin.

Leo set to work at one of the workbenches, hands flying, pulling things out of his toolbelt, summoning fire every now and then when something needed to be soldered together, and in no time he was holding a perfectly good grenade. My vial was still 2/3 of the way full which was fine with me.

He handed it to me and we made our way outside again where the fight was still in full motion. I pulled the pin and threw the grenade into the center of the commotion, covering my ears as Leo did the same. The grenade exploded and the sound made me dizzy even though I was already covering my ears.

My dad had given me the vial after me and an Ares camper had gotten into a fight because he insulted him. I know, not very mature of me, but I didn't jump him because of who he insulted. In all honesty, I couldn't care less about what others think of the gods, let alone my dad. But it was the insult he used, he called him a 'little fag bitch boy' after someone mentioned the story about Hyacinth and him.

If you ask me, he deserved that broken nose. And if Jason hadn't pulled me of him, I'm sure it wouldn't have been the only broken bone he got. That night when I went back to my bunk, the vial was there.

When I opened my eyes again everyone was on the ground except for Leo and me. I saw piper and immediately felt guilty, I should have given her a heads up. I make my way over to her, making sure not to trip over any dazed campers, and helped her up.

As soon as she stood up, she toppled forwards again, luckily I was just in time to catch her. She murmured a little 'thanks' before I brought her to the infirmary.

-

Judging by their appearance at dinner that night, I had been right about the Stoll's involvement in all of this. Connor's clothes seemed to be way too small for his body, a curse no doubt, and Travis looked like a clown. No, like a literal clown, and if I had to make another guess, I'd say that make-up was permanent.

Chiron seemed to find this punishment enough for the both of them, and since Mr. D was back on Olympus, they got away with it.

Most of the kids that were hit with the pure essence of Apollo's music when the flash grenade exploded were out of the infirmary by now. It's not lethal, of course not, but it can really fuck your day up.

"So, your plan worked," Leo said as he plopped himself down next to me at the dinner table. Normally this would be against the rules, but everyone seemed to be too tired from today's events to care.

Well I was too tired to care anyways, so I just laid my head down on Leo's shoulder and let out a sigh. "Yeah, it did. A little too well maybe even," more and more campers started to leave, normally there would have been a capture the flag game today but after the whole mango-incident Chiron cancelled it, no one seemed to really mind though.

"Are you okay?" Leo asked.

"I'm a demigod, we're never okay Leo," I joked and he chuckled, making me smile, "but I'm doing a lot better now." I said as I wrapped my arms around his waist as I buried my head in his neck.

"Gods Y/N, you're such a sap," he laughed again, though he did still return my hug. Hugs with him always made me feel better, even before we started our whole 'friends with benefits' thing. I felt safe in his arms. His smell was comforting, even though he smells like smoke mixed with oil and a hint of something metallic most of the time, I wouldn't have it any other way. To me he smelled nice.

I've always been a very touchy person, so it's not unusual for me to hug my friends. Because that's unfortunately what Leo still is to me, just a friend. But it's not like that with him, for me at least. Even the simplest act, like hugging him, makes me feel like I'm home.

"I know," I mumbled against his shirt while I tightened my hug, "but you love me for it."

"Now that, I do."

-

I just read the demigod files so, if you've read it too, you'll probably already know what inspired this chapter. I was supposed to be studying but I ended up writing two chapters (and starting a third), before it was 2 AM and I literally almost fell asleep behind my computer. 

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry if there wasn't that much Leo and Y/N romance going on. But! I think I kind off made up for it wit the next chapter (and the one after that), if you know what I mean *wiggles eyebrows*

~M