DAYLIGHT ↬ leo valdez x reader

2. i dont wanna look at anything else

The Fates really had it in for me. I'd definitely turned some heads recently, and I had a feeling that today wouldn't be the last time Leo Valdez embarrasses me.

My head hurt. Everything was spinning, the sun was way too bright for my eyes - screw you Helios! - and we were being trained way too hard. I was against the violence-is-the-answer stuff anyways, since the easier solution is to just be friends. In most cases.

All my brothers were still going though, slashing and stabbing with their various weapons of choice. Seriously, they might as well have made me an on-call doctor instead of a participator. I had a dagger that's handle was engraved with my G/P's symbol, to represent my lineage. If it was supposed to be lucky (which it wasn't), someone else could have made good use of it. I mean, every creation had a purpose it needed to fulfill, and if it was sitting in my sheath under my bunk all day, I was certain it was not doing that. 

As I wiped my forehead, laced with sweat from the work and rubbed my arms from the chilly breeze, I observed the world around me. The arena was full of my cabin, cheering each other on in our imaginative gladiator fights. I rolled my eyes and stood up, picking the dagger up from beside me and heading out to 'get a bottle of water'. Not.

I almost had peace, too. My name was called, and I had to squint with narrowed eyes in order to find the face of the voice. To my unsurprise and slight annoyance, Leo Valdez trudged energetically toward me with a lit-up beam. I stopped my pacing and waited for him to approach. He was covered in a layer of grease and muck and I was secretly hoping it was machinery involved, not some other cause.

"L/N! What about '12pm at the North Forest' didn't you get?" He shook his head in mock-disappointment, like the class clown making fun of an angry teacher. "Not cool."
I fumbled out an excuse, intertwined with 'Oh!'s and 'Um's. "Sorry, training went a bit overtime. Plus I don't have a watch, so.. that too." I nodded, and he shoved me playfully.

"We can do something about that, if you'd care to follow me." He gestured to the side, and I shook my head. Wrong way. I would rather wait for him to notice, so I just followed him gingerly on the wild goose chase that is finding the Argo II. At one point I could swear I saw the strawberry fields, and that was way off the forest. The journey was a horror movie of ice breakers and car games. This boy just never stopped, did he?

"So, Y/N - can I call you that? Are we on a first name basis?" Woah, he was seriously hyper. "What's your favorite food- no wait, what's your favorite bedding material?" I was kind of stuck with talking, one; what was I meant to answer? And two; if I bothered trying, I'd be interrupted by some other epiphany. "Are you normally very quiet, Y/N?"

I was so deep in thought that it slipped my mind he stopped his tangent. I shrugged meekly. "Not necessarily. Some overly talkative people are kind of intimidating, though." I shot him a pointed look and he rubbed his neck nervously.

"Sorry about that. I just get really hyper when I'm talking about my inventions. I wanted to give you a tour for when we leave..." He quickly counted on his fingers. "In one day, four hours and almost fifty-six seconds. So, you can get the first preview, as our special guest and all."

It was kind of cute - the loser, the nerdy ADHD class clown vibe. If there were any curiously crush-related feelings forming (which there weren't!) they would definitely die down after a week on this ship. We approached the Bunker 9 that the Hephaestus kids bragged constantly about. It was mossy and slightly crusty looking (not that I would say that out loud, Leo was like some little kid you don't want to upset), along with the stench of hot sauce. Leo opened the door and held it open for me with his chin high, a proud smirk on his face. As soon as our feet crossed the threshold of the workshop, the door slammed shut and sent a shudder through the room. 

My breath was snatched away in an instant when my eyes landed on- well, everything. The worktables scattered with screws and tools of every kind; the scattered blueprints demolished in graffitied plans, diagrams, labels; supplies that if combined could create quite possibly anything; the entire place was astonishing. Even though I wasn't one for engineering or any of that technical stuff, this was enough to make me overwhelmed. At least there was an explanation for Leo's overreactive behavior.

"Welcome to Casa De Valdez! Take a look around, don't touch anything mildly constructed." I raised an eyebrow and he replied quietly. "We had an incident."
"This place is sweet! You've impressed me already Valdez, and I haven't even seen the ship." It was insane that I missed it - the giant arc with golden masthead of a dragon with ruby red glowing eyes. I gasped. Leo leaned coolly against the side of the ship, shooting finger guns towards me. "Oh my gods, this is incredible!" I leered forward, extending my hands out to touch the hull, it's rough surface abrading gently against my soft hands. "Can I see inside?"

The inside was decorated in a comfortable, homely fashion. The hallway started with a mess hall and storage room. As we walked along the bedrooms, I peered in. It seemed Leo had mentally dedicated a room to each person, and I took note that everyone's bedsheets were orange or purple. An interesting color scheme. We went along and Leo points to the rooms, naming a person for each of them.

"So, this is Coach Hedge's. Apparently, we need a chaperone to help us, but I'm pretty sure we'll be watching over Hedge more than the other way round. And that's Annabeth's, Piper's, and unnamed demigod number one." He chuckled. We walked down a short flight of stairs, and directly there was a room with glass walls and shelves of herbs and little jars of liquids. "Then the sickbay, your domain!" 

It was actually really lovely. From the eyebags under Leo's eyes, to the sickbay's clean floors, organized shelves and plants on the counters, it was a very easy guess that when he heard of another crew member, he took it upon himself to nicen things up, and in short time. "I hope you like it." He muttered a little less confidently. 

I nodded eagerly, opening the shelves and inspecting the bottles of medication. There was quite good stock here, with more than enough nectar and ambrosia for the Seven demigods of the prophecy and the satyr/chaperone Coach Hedge to share between. I didn't count myself, as I doubted I'd be sustaining many injuries spending my time below deck tending to splinters and seasickness.

"Oh no, you didn't. Stupid Leo." he said, catching my attention. I turned and held my tongue, waiting for an explanation. One never came, just a demigod anxiously pacing around the halls outside the sickbay. I exhaled and walked out.
"Leo, are you okay? What's wrong?" I dared to ask. He met my eyes like a deer caught in headlights. 
"I-only-made-eight-rooms-because-you-didn't-come-into-the-picture-until-literally-sixteen-hours-ago."

"Oh?" I said, still separating the conjoined sentence on my head. Once I figured out the blurt-out, I creased my eyebrows. "Oh." the realization washed over me. The Argo II was made to be accustomed for seven demigods and a satyr. At the point of major construction there was no nurse, no ship healer to tag along. "It's ok! There's a bed in the sickbay, right? How uncomfortable can that be?" I joked, trying to stop Leo from feeling bad.

"Take my bedroom instead." He said, more so to himself. "I'll be up most nights anyways, watching the controls. And when I do sleep, I can just sit on an armchair in the mess hall."
"We can share?" I considered. "Do you have time to get a new bed somehow?"
Something appeared on his face. A wave of joy, ecstatic almost, however it was so hardly noticeable and hard to describe that I brushed it away. 

He aggressively nodded, repeating 'yes' and 'that'll work' under his breath. "I can always take it apart and reconstruct it with the proportions of single beds. And we can have different sides of the room. I'll take the left. We'll share the desk." It seemed when the thoughts form in his mind he had to ramble and recite them audibly for the idea to properly come across to his brain, or he was informing me out of respect?
"Great." I exasperatedly exhaled, spinning on my heel and turning to the stairs. 
"Awesome. How about I let you play with the masts?"