"I'm completely in love
with you and you haven't
even realised but I'm totally
fine with the crippling
knowledge that you don't like
me back. That's fine, I'm fine.
Totally fine."
[ LEO VALDEZ x FEMALE OC ]
[ HEROES OF OLYMPUS SERIES...
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0025. | HE JUST NEEDED HER TO TRUST HIM
Leo was showing off. In his defence, Nadia was watching him so he wasn't exactly going to slack off. Plus, he also knew she found intelligence attractive and Leo had bundles of intelligence to spare. The only issue was, it was great at getting him into all sorts of trouble.
Hazel had led them to this sort of church. It had a massive domed roof and Roman column detailing that he thought looked really cool. Leo wasn't too into architecture like Annabeth was, but even he could appreciate what the Romans had going on. He scanned the facade of the church and found an inscription above the entrance. M. AGRIPPA.
"Latin for Get a Grip?" Leo speculated, kind of seriously, kind of trying to make Di laugh.
Hazel stared up at the entrance. "This is our best bet." She certified. "There should be a secret passageway somewhere inside."
When they stepped into the cold building, they were immediately bombarded by tourists. They were everywhere, milling about, listening to tour guides who spoke in multitudes of languages, but for some reason, none of them were in English. Leo took the initiative to listen in on the Spanish tour guide.
"This is the Pantheon." He reported. "It was originally built by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to the gods. After it burned down, Emperor Hadrian rebuilt it, and it's been standing for two thousand years. It's one of the best preserved Roman buildings in the world."
His three companions stared at him in shock. Nadia had a light blush and Leo could tell she liked how clever he seemed. "How did you know all that?" She asked him.
Leo winked at her. "I'm naturally brilliant."
"Centaur poop." Frank called him out. "He eavesdropped on a tour group." Leo grinned, putting his hands up in surrender.
"Maybe." He wiggled his eyebrows at his girlfriend. "Come on. Let's go find that secret passage. I hope this place has air conditioning."
There was no air conditioning, but Nadia had manipulated a small breeze to follow them around, so it wasn't all bad. He was also 'nerding' out over the architecture. He knew Di probably didn't care at all, but she was still listening to him unlike Frank and Hazel whose eyes were glazing over.
"—you see those panels in the rotunda?" He pointed past Nadia's head to show her what he was admiring. She nodded. "They're made of stone to keep the building cooler, especially with that opening for light, but it would've been too heavy so those squares— they're not decoration, although they look super cool, they're to make the stone thinner and therefore lighter to carry the dome shape and allow heat to escape." He rambled, his eyes dancing over the ceiling until he caught onto Di staring at him. "What?" He asked. He worried that maybe he had a lemonade moustache like Frank had.
