Shirtless [Frankercy] ✳️

Nine: Shirtless

"Frank, don't get me wrong, I love you man but– um– why're you in my cabin right now?" Leo asked. His bunk was filled with scrap metal. His tool belt laid on a bedside table and bronze gleamed from the walls. Frank gnawed his lip, looking at his feet as he rocked on his heels.

"I.. I messed up." Frank hated the way he sounded. He sounded small, his voice coming out in a tone he had heard whenever he was caught with his hand in a cookie jar or with icing all over his face. It was weak and made him feel little again, like how an ashamed child would feel.

Frank bit down harder as he tried to fight a blush.

"Okay, let's problem solve then." Leo didn't sound happy, or even sad, his expression was unreadable. Then again, Frank was only looking at about half of his face since his gaze was stuck to the floor. His shoe was in a black puddle, and the hot breath of melted metal seemed to run down his neck. Everything either smelled of leather or iron. While it wasn't un-welcomed by Frank, it was very different from the smell of blood and sweat found in the Mars— Ares cabin. The scent of the cabin was almost intoxicating, finding its way into every corner of the room and making the atmosphere feel thick.

"Okay so I might have told Hazel I want to kiss Percy–"

"I'm sorry you what?!" Frank felt baffled at the genuine shock Leo answered with.

"You were the one that told me to tell her!" He replied. His hands shot up and his palms were held up in a surrender. He felt a bit panicked. Leo gave him a stare of disbelief.

"Yeah, with a thought out plan. Not whatever you came up with!"

Frank stopped. He had originally come here to make himself feel better, maybe even make sense of the mess he was making.

"Okay, first of all it was– okay you got me there."

Leo shook his head with an eye roll. His hand was on his tool belt and if Frank wasn't used to being on the opposite side of the treatment. Usually he was the one telling Leo to have a sense of impulse control. It was him who was the one to inform Leo that the small voice in his brain that he claimed "tries to make him go insane" was a conscious, and important for level-headed decisions.

It was weird getting a scolding from the short Latino.

"I think I broke her heart." Saying it out loud caused a cold feeling to run down his body. He shivered and swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat. It made everything real, but also like a punch to the gut.

"You realize that now? Frank, don't get me wrong, but what did you do? What the hades did you say to her?!"

"Well, I was upfront and honest with her." Frank told him. The lump in his throat had passed and Leo pressed his lips in a thin line. He let out a sigh, Frank watched as Leo glared at him.

"So you blurted it out, and then let her deal with the aftermath?"

Frank, once hearing how it sounded out loud, realized how careless the plan was.  He searched his mind for a reason, but every time he came to a conclusion as the right reason his plan was thought out and needed he was stopped. His brain would mount function and he'd blush. An image of Percy would appear in his mind and his interior melted. After a few minutes, in which Leo had taken to angrily tinkering with metal, Frank looked at his feet.

"You know... you know me surprisingly well."
Was all he could let out.

"I do, and I know Hazel well too. So go talk to her!" His heated gaze was torn between Frank and his newest project. Frank would have been more intimidated if not for his goggles falling down his forehead, sliding off his nose, and hitting him in the mouth. It was hard to be scared of Leo as he murmured a series of curse words as he held his front teeth. It made him sound like a seven year old. Frank mentally recollected himself, getting rid of the thoughts of Leo as a kid and getting back to the issue at hand.

"There's not much to say!"

"There is so much to say, now get out of my cabin!"