Leo Valdez X Reader:Oceans of Fire

The Daughter of Poseidon

Leo's POV:

The girls head leans back, falling onto the ground. She's unconscious. I pick her up as gently as I can, my arms support her back and carrying her weight from behind her knees, bridal style. She's lighter than I was expecting, but I still have to walk incredibly slowly. I'm too afraid I'll accidentally hit her head against a tree, or I'll let her slip down and drop her.
I reach the river that runs through the middle of the forest. What do I do now? Oh gods. I shouldn't have taken her here. I should've taken her to camp. I'll never be able to get her there in time now. She's going to die. It's my fault she's going to die.
No, I think, stopping myself. She told me to bring her here. It'll work out. Something will happen. I'm not going to let her die I promise myself.
I look at her left forearm at the burn marks I left on her. They look relatively healed, considering they only happened about ten minutes ago. I trace them with my fingers, not too sure what else I should do. As my fingers travel along her skin I find thin cuts that run down her wrists. They are all in rows, as if done by a giant 'one hilt, many blades' sword. Accept for one that diagonally cuts across them all. It looks angry and deep. Fresh too.
I stumble back. Something's happening. Her skin, it's starting to heal. I realise one of her hands is in the water. Maybe that's where she draws her power from. Taking the last risk I plan on taking for a while, I pick her up again and place her in the river, so her entire body is submerged accept for her face.
Her skin starts to heal itself, growing tissue and flesh over her wounds. Almost all of them. All accept for the straight lines on her left arm. The water goes towards it but stops, almost as if there's an invisible barrier keeping the cuts from being healed. I'm about to lean in and try to get the water on the cuts when she jerks up,
She sees me and stumbles back one step. She's afraid of me.
I look down at the ground, too ashamed to look her in the eye.
"You're a fire user," she says, her voice stable, as if nothing had ever happened to her. I keep my gaze on the ground. She probably hates the fact that I exist. I'm a sign that there's a war coming. I might as well light up in neon colours and flash the words 'death is coming' repeatedly.
"Thank god," she says. My head jerks up.
"What?"
"Thank god. I thought there might be someone out there like you but I was starting to stop believing. Believe it or not, but we really need you. I seriously doubt we'll get through this war without all the help we can get. And your powers. They're incredible."
She looks at me waiting for me to respond I suppose, but of course I don't. I'm too busy taking in her words. She wasn't angry. She wasn't in denial. She didn't try to kill me. She... She was grateful.
"Sorry, I'm (Y/F/N), daughter of Poseidon. And you're a son of Hephaestus right?"
"Y-yeah," I say, somehow managing to speak. "I'm Leo. Leo Valdez."
She grins up at me for a moment before her eyes widen slightly, as if she's just remembered something incredibly important that she had forgotten.
"Nice to meet you, Leo Valdez. I'd love to stay and chat, but I need to get to camp. And well," she looks down at her still broken knee and swollen ankle. "I doubt I'll get there very easily.