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Piper and Jason had gone upstairs with Goddess Khione and the others, Leo was left down there with Thèrèse. Now that he had a chance to speak, Leo finally found the voice he needed to use. He had a lot of curious questions, but he wanted to ask them all gradually.
"So..." Leo started with a small and soft chuckle. "You are staying with me?"
Thèrèse took a moment to answer that. "Yes, definitely." She said with a smile.
The boy's smile was definitely getting bigger as he heard that she was gonna stay with him.
"That's great," Leo replied with his soft chuckle following it. "I'm glad that you're gonna stay with me. I feel like it would've been kind of lonely if I was just here on my own."
"I figured. That's why I'm staying." Thèrèse said simply with a small smile.
Leo's smile only continued to get more genuine as he heard her reason for staying. "But, um... why did you volunteer so quickly like that?" he asked. "You didn't even hesitate to volunteer yourself. So what made you so quick to offer yourself up to stay with me?"
"Because you're my friend." Thèrèse said.
His heart was melting from the words that came out of Thèrèse' lips.
"Friend.." Leo repeated back, his voice filled with such delight and joy. "You consider me your friend?"
The daughter of Poseidon scoffed. "Yeah? After going into that woods with you? I figured someone needs to protect your little dumbass." She said, smiling.
"Little dumbass?" Leo let out a small laugh. He knew that Thèrèse must have been joking with him for her to have said something like that. He was so happy that their friendship was getting more solid and comfortable with each exchange they had with each other.
"Okay, so you're gonna protect me with that dagger of yours?" Leo asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"Mhm, I am." Thèrèse hums softly, nodding.
"Then I'm happy to be under such a capable protector." Leo replied with a small laugh.
He definitely noticed just how skilled Thèrèse was with her weapons. If she said that she was staying to protect him, then he had no doubt in his mind that she wouldn't do anything to let some harm get to him.
"Hopefully it won't come to having to use that dagger against anyone, though." He added.
She smiled faintly. Then, she breathed softly and pulled him down with her against the wall to sit next to eachother. "I never thought I'm gonna say this but it's nice to have a friend here.. in this world." She said.
