Demigod Oneshots

Liper

To all the readers who were severely angry or terribly sad (or both) about the last oneshot I apologize wholeheartedly and offer you this one instead. Now I myself kind of ship this and I noticed I hadn't written one before. It is a bow of the head to those that do ship Liper (and to all shippers that ship non-canon ships). I do not consider this to be a crackship, hence the reason I wrote it. This oneshot occurs in the time between Mark of Athena and House of Hades, after Percy and Annabeth have fallen into Tarturas and before Hazel "almost ate a boulder. And I swear on the River Styx that this will (hopefully) be (sort of) sweet and fluffy, nothing at all like the last one.

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Leo's hands were flying across the board, flicking switches and maintaining the ship's balance. He tried to keep his mind off Percy and Annabeth, but it wasn't working, his brain a jumbled mix of "if onlys," gold statues and kaleidoscope eyes. Deep down he knew it wasn't his fault but that didn't stop him from blaming himself.

If only he had seen the spiderweb around Annabeth's leg, if only he had been quicker getting the Athena Parthenos on board, if only he was like Jason...

Leo bent over the workbench, crushing his last creation beneath his fist.

-

The engine room was sweltering, the billows of steam making it difficult to see. Leo hadn't been down for breakfast, lunch or dinner and she was worried. Peering through the dense mist, Piper could just make him out.

Leo's head was bent, the curls not plastered to his forehead hanging messily in front of his closed eyes. His knuckles were white, his long fingers clenched around the edge of the bench, making the corded muscles in his arms ripple. His bare back was bowed, sweat glistening along the planes of shoulder blades, the knobs of his spine protuding from tanned skin less visibly than they used to.

Piper abenst-mindedly placed the plate down and moved cautiously towards the Latino, until she was standing behind him and put her hand on his shoulder.

His reaction was instantaneous. Leo whirled round, pulling a wrench out of his toolbelt and raising it above his head in one smooth movement. A streak of oil ran down his cheek, another making a slow trail down his chest. Piper saw the flicker of recognization, but he didn't lower his hand. His eyes were dark and wild.

If Piper said she hadn't noticed his physical transformation since Wilderness School she'd be lying. Leo hadn't grown much height-wise, but the time spent in Bunker 9 had broadened his chest and the new muscles in his arms and stomach were very visible, especially at that point. In the past months his face had also transformed, from plain skinny to angular, the tapered point of his ears making him look ethereal instead of babyish. He was by no means beautiful but he held an unorthodox sort of attractiveness if you looked long enough.

Placing her hand on his taut bicep, Piper reached up and grabbed his hand, coaxing the wrench from his fingers. His whole body went rigid, the vein at the side of his neck prominent. She knew what was up, she knew his fatal flaw and she knew he was blaming himself for what had happened to Percy and Annabeth.

Her voice was low as she spoke. "It wasn't your fault, there was nothing you could do. There was nothing anyone of us could've done to stop it."

Piper moved cautiously again, placing the tool on the bench behind him. Being this close to him sent her nerves on fire, he smelt like perspiration and something spicy, which shouldn't smell good together but did. She had denied herself for so long.

"What are you doing Pipes?" Leo asked, speaking for the first time. The low, husky timbre of his voice affected her in a way it shouldn't. "Shouldn't you be with Jason?"

Jason had broken up with her before they had left for Camp Jupiter, saying he remembered a girl called Reyna and he loved her. Piper didn't blame Jason, she understood but that didn't mean her heart wasn't broken. Leo had been the one to comfort her, the two friends spending long nights in Bunker 9 together talking. They had gotten even more inseparable in the past months and Piper couldn't even pinpoint the exact moment she'd fallen for the son of Hepheastus.

She decided in this instant that she was tired of them dancing around each other.

"Jason isn't the one I want to be with."

There. It had been said.

Leo was still breathing heavily, his arms clenched at his sides. His breaths fanned across her face but she didn't move away, his dark,dark eyes pinning her in place. They stayed, staring at each other like that, until Leo moved.

He lunged forward, one arm going to the back of her head to clutch at her braids, the other pulling her closer until his lips roughly crashed into hers. Gasping into his mouth only gave him more control over the kiss and he spun her around, placing her back to the workbench and effectively caging her in his arms. The tension slowly drained out of his body, until he was pliant under her hands and the kiss slowed, until it was just a sweet, chaste brush of the lips.

-

Piper had left the room five mintues ago but Leo still felt the trails her cool fingertips had left on his bare, feverish skin.

He was still frozen in place, in fact, when Buford waddled up to him, clunking excitedly.

Leo blinked several times to focus on the picture in front of him, "Buford, why is there a plate of tacos on your head?"