LABYRINTH ↬ leo valdez x reader, book three

4. THE ALCHEMY

Frank folded his arms. "We go looking for this physician's cure ... whatever that is. Because, personally, I like cheating death."
"I can't say I've done it many times before." I admitted.
Leo grinned. "Poison in Pylos? A chained god's heartbeat in Sparta? A curse in Delos? Oh, yeah. This is gonna be fun!"

Leo sat me down in the lowest deck to hide from Buford. Firstly, how can you invent something that has a holographic Coach Hedge but the only loophole is to hide in the engine room and secondly, could we not have just sat in the sickbay? I doubted Buford could go down a flight of stairs with three legs.

I didn't like the serious Leo. Serious Leo makes you feel stupid because he's not matching your energy anymore, he's being.. Well, serious. Plus you can't take serious Leo seriously when the literal goddess of Nike is tied up not too far away.
"Y/N, why didn't you stab the Nikette?"
"I'm not having a formal conversation talking about Nikettes."
"Why can't you fight? I saw you defending with Hazel's spatha, you're a good swordsman— swordswomen."
"Nope. I'm done." I stood up from my crossed legs and brushed my hands off.
"Tell me."

I sighed and sat back down because the chocolate brown puppy eyes he flashed at me. "I hate when you're not being goofy."
He shot me a large grin. "Why can't you kill things?"
"It's not my expertise." It was true. My job description was literally a person or thing that mends or repairs something. I laughed at the irony of Leo and I having the exact same job terms.

"I fix things too, but sometimes you have to learn to break things."
"I fix human beings."
"We're only half human."
I groaned. "Stop being difficult."
He rolled his eyes and leaned forward, kissing me. I widened my eyes but didn't pull away. It lasted for a few moments longer than it ever has. His hand was on my cheek, and my hands are on his face and—

Jason cleared his throat, leaning casually in the doorframe looking away. He didn't even look impacted or unsure.
"Hey guys, we're meeting up top. Frank and Piper are back to talk about what they found."
"Alright dude, we'll be up in a sec."
Jason pursed his lips with a nod and disappeared. Leo started to chuckle awkwardly and I couldn't help it but burst into a fit of laughter too. We stay facing each other giggling until we can (relatively) breathe and meet up with everyone.

The crew gathered for a hurried meeting on the foredeck – mostly because Percy was keeping an eye on a giant red sea serpent swimming off the port side and was set on staying there.
"That thing is really red," Percy muttered. "I wonder if it's cherry-flavoured." My stomach grumbled at the thought.
"Why don't you swim over and find out?" Annabeth asked.
"How about no."

"Anyway," Frank said, "according to my Pylos cousins, the chained god we're looking for in Sparta is my dad ... uh, I mean Ares, not Mars. Apparently the Spartans kept a statue of him chained up in their city so the spirit of war would never leave them."
"Oo-kay," Leo said. It scared me how casual Leo was with Jason, beside the glance they shared that said 'We're talking about this later'. "The Spartans were freaks. Of course, we've got Victory tied up downstairs, so I guess we can't talk."

Jason leaned against the forward ballista. "On to Sparta, then. But how does a chained god's heartbeat help us find a cure for dying?"
"Can you tell us what you saw in the visions?" Hazel asked. Piper didn't reply, slightly zoned out. "Piper?" Hazel tried to get her attention again.
She stirred. "Sorry, what?"
"I was asking you about the visions," Hazel prompted. "You told me you'd seen some stuff in your dagger blade?"
"Uh ... right." Piper unsheathed Katoptris. "I, um... I don't see anything right now. But one vision kept popping up. Annabeth and I are exploring some ruins –"

"Ruins!" Leo rubbed his hands. "Now we're talking. How many ruins can there be in Greece?" I want to punch him and then kiss him to make him forgive me. Maybe he was charismatic.
"Quiet, Leo," Annabeth scolded. "Piper, do you think it was Sparta?"
"Maybe," Piper said. "Anyway ... suddenly we're in this dark place like a cave. We're staring at this bronze warrior statue. In the vision I touch the statue's face and flames start swirling around us. That's all I saw."

"Flames." Frank scowled. "I don't like that vision."
"Me neither." Percy kept one eye on the red sea serpent, which was still slithering through the waves about a hundred yards to port. "If the statue engulfs people in fire, we should send Leo."
"I love you too, man."

"You know what I mean. You're immune. Or, heck, give me some of those nice water grenades and I'll go. Ares and I have tangled before."
I shuddered. I had run into Ares on a quest with Gracie for Apollo and it was not a nice encounter. Actually, Ares was the anti-social one. I did pretty good with our interaction.

Annabeth stared at the coastline of Pylos, now retreating in the distance. "If Piper saw the two of us going after the statue, then that's who should go. We'll be alright. There's always a way to survive."
"Not always," Hazel warned.
Since she was the only one in the group who had actually died and come back to life, her observation sort of killed the mood. I just kept a small awkward smile and hoped someone would move on.

Frank held out some strange Ploynesian vile. Polynesian? "What about this stuff? After the House of Hades, I kind of hoped we were done drinking poison."
"Store it securely in the hold," Annabeth said. "For now, that's all we can do. Once we figure out this chained god situation, we'll head to the island of Delos."
"The curse of Delos," Hazel remembered. "That sounds fun."

"Hopefully Apollo will be there," Annabeth said. My ears perked up. "Delos was his home island. He's the god of medicine. He should be able to advise us."
"I did a quest with Apollo." I commented. "My healer's book— my book, Apollo gave it as a gift to me."
"It would be good to have someone on Apollo's good side." Annabeth remarked. "Would he recognise you?"

Off the port bow, the cherry-flavoured sea serpent spewed steam.
"Yeah, it's definitely checking us out," Percy decided. "Maybe we should take to the air for a while."
"Airborne it is!" Leo said. "Festus, do the honours!"
The bronze dragon figurehead creaked and clacked. The ship's engine hummed. The oars lifted, expanding into aerial blades with a sound like ninety umbrellas opening at once, and the Argo II rose into the sky. I hated this transition.

"We should reach Sparta by morning," Leo announced. "And remember to come by the mess hall tonight, folks, 'cause Chef Leo is making his famous three-alarm tofu tacos!"
As we dispersed, I whispered to Hazel a heed of warning. "Don't eat those tacos."