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

There's a HORSE Loose in the HOSPITAL

"So what's Frank's color? Does it match Hazel's?" Leo follows her around while Ara secures the ballistae. "Is he bright pink?"

"They're lavender, not pink," she has a vague smile on while she explains, not minding his interrogatory. "Percy and Annabeth are scarlet."

"What's ours?" He stands in her way. "You never told me."

Ara moves him out of the way and continues her chore. "It's golden."

His body lights up instantly. "Golden looks great on you! Do I look good?"

Ara laughs. "You could see it for yourself, you know?" 

"What? For real?" He gets excited. "How?"

"Light yourself on fire, it won't be that different."

"Funny. Seriously, I bet we all look god-like in your eyes," Leo's smile dies. "Do gods have soul lights?"

Ara's never thought of that before. "I don't know, they glow all the time regardless of how they feel. I don't even know if gods have souls, they're entities, right? Their bodies aren't vessels, just a form they take."

Leo hums, tinkering with the object he's been making since the night prior. "What about Chiron? And the nymphs and—"

"Mythical creatures don't have soul lights. I don't know why," she frowns. "They experience life differently."

"Can't wait to tell Jason you can see when he's horny," he snickers.

"Ew!" Ara makes a face. "First of all, I don't see sexual attraction, if anything, I only see when he's fawning over Piper."

"Same thing," Leo rolls his eyes. "If you're in love you want the person in every way."

Ara tries not to think of what that implies about his relationship with her. "There are people that don't feel romantic attraction—Or aren't interested in sexual stuff. Soul lights tell you about a person's interests, and what they love most in the world. In other words—"

"Weaknesses. You called them that, I think that's not accurate, but whatever," Leo leans against the ballista smiling at her adoringly. "I still love you even when you're wrong."

Ara stares at him with amusement and annoyance. He treats their situation like it makes him the luckiest guy in the world, which is insane. Leo jokes about being crazy, and she jokes about it too, but there are limits to how delulu you can pretend to be before it gets dangerous.

She hasn't been able to forget the way he freaked out at first, and she wants to ask him if he also conveniently forgot that thing about being an ill match after knowing about their soul lights, or if he's pretending to be happy for her sake.

"Done," Ara sighs, patting the ballista.

"Why are you securing them?" The boy asks. "They don't need maintenance."

"So they don't go off if we crash against them."

Leo frowns. "Crash?"

Ara whistles and Nico jumps from the topmast, landing next to her quietly and swiftly. The girl turns Almighty into a sword. "It's normal to lose your footing while training."

Leo steps back in alarm, eyes widening and darting between Nico and her. "You're training here? Near my valuables?"

Nico snorts. "I can't fight Ara, we can't afford to lose any limbs at the moment."

The girl tosses the sword at Leo and he catches it on instinct. "You got this, Firecracker." 

Nico unsheathes his sword and Leo looks over his shoulder nervously, eyes on the stairs. Ara clicks her tongue.