Kerosine Dreams (Leo Valdez x Reader)

Bird Watching?

Y/N, to her very own surprise, woke up. She'd been out for who knew how long and had at one point been certain she was dead. The last fragment in her memory was of laying in the grass, watching the minotaur dissolve midair before blacking out completely. Now, she was on a medical bed, her body overburdened with a mountain of blankets. The air was warm and she was dry. If she never had to move, she wouldn't.

However, as soon as she heard frantic, hushed voices, she knew her peace wouldn't last long. Ever so begrudgingly, she forced herself upright. Yet again, to her surprise, her body hardly even ached. Laying there, nearly dead, in the grass she knew her ribs were broken and other parts of her body in the very least heavily bruised. But, she felt fine. Gently, the girl traced her fingertips over her ribcage just to do a double take. Still, no pain radiated through her frame.

"She's up!" A voice called out, one Y/N wasn't yet familiar with. It came from a girl, a very beautiful one at that. Her eyes shone like kaleidoscopes and her hair framed her face perfectly, braids peeking out here and there. Something unspoken about this girl made Y/N instantly take a liking. "Are you okay?"

"Uhm—" Y/N croaked, her throat dry and voice hoarse. "Yeah."

The girl smiled softly, the heavy weight of sympathy apparent in her eyes. "Well, I'm Piper. Leo's friend! And, this is Jason. Chiron sent us to bring you back to the big house."

A tall, blonde boy appeared behind Piper and smiled welcomingly. Y/N nodded back. "Why? Am I in trouble?"

"No," Piper stifled a laugh. "The complete opposite, actually." Ever so carefully, Piper began to help Y/N up off of the bed. "There are some other things that need to be discussed."

"Like what?" Y/N winced.

"Well, for starters, how you're the last member of our quest that we've been looking for." Piper explained. "And, seriously, what's going on between you—"

"Wait, what?" Y/N stopped Piper dead in her tracks as they stumbled toward the big house. Y/N could walk, but the ambrosia and nectar were still taking effect, and it would be a couple of hours before she was back to normal. "Quest?"

"Yeah," Jason piped up, Y/N having totally forgotten he was there. "Did you not realize? You were claimed when we found you up on the hill."

"Well, I was minutes from death so I wasn't exactly paying attention." Y/N muttered. "Who's kid am I?" The question felt strange leaving her lips, but she didn't know of any other way to ask it.

Jason and Piper exchanged a quick glance. "Y/G/P."

"Y/G/P?" Y/N questioned. "Huh."

"Good news is, you're not Leo's sister or anything." Jason snickered, Piper immediately smacking his arm in reproach to the comment.

"Why would that matter?" Y/N furrowed her brows.

Jason could hardly control his laughter. "Well...Whatever. Let's just go find the others. We've got a quest to discuss!"

Y/N watched as Jason bounded off towards the big house. Piper rolled her eyes.

"He's weird." Y/N admitted.

"Tell me about it." Piper agreed.

After Y/N and Piper managed to survive the awkward, dangerous trip up the porch stairs and down the hall of the big house, they entered a room full of people. Never before had Y/N felt more self-conscious. Right now, she was standing before a room full of people who probably expected the world of her.

Luckily, her eyes locked onto Leo's straight away, tucked away in the corner of the room tinkering with some strange contraption in his hands. His gaze lifted to meet hers, a smile immediately lighting up his features. However, it wasn't his normal kind of smile. It was anxious and half-hearted. He seemed to be just as nervous as she was.