Arsonist's Lullabye ──── Leo Valdez

25: The murderous gym coach

─────"Hey, you"

"You sound like a character from an early 2000s movie set in a highschool"

"If you want to call me a character from High School musical, you should just say so" Vincent flicked his forehead. 

Leo just shook his head and went back to work. Whatever he was doing seemed to be working, but it was taking long. 

"You should sleep, if you want to" Leo said, but his voice was soft, like he really would prefer it if Vincent stayed awake with him. 

"Nah" Vincent shrugged, "You were right, I want to spend time with you. It's been ages since it was just us"

"Remember the time we wore underwear on our heads and pretended we were superheroes?" Leo snorted. 

"And then we got bullied so I put hot sauce in the guy's underwear"

"You did what?" Leo dropped his tool, staring at Vincent like he'd never met him before he burst out laughing. 

"Shhh!" Vincent snickered, "You'll wake the others"

"You put— Why would you— Oh my gods!"

"What? He was being mean to you" Vincent shrugged, "I don't like it when people are mean to you"

Leo swallowed. For a moment, Vincent thought he might say something, but he turned back to the cage. 

This was familiar, this was calming. Vincent liked watching him work. He liked seeing Leo's tongue poke through his lips when he concentrated on a project. He liked seeing Leo focus on one thing for hours on end. He liked seeing Leo in his element.

"Wanna hear a joke?" Leo said out of nowhere. 

"Leo, I know what you're doing. You can't just push the Festus stuff inside. I'm here, okay? I cared about him too. You're not alone—" 

"How do narcissists save money on electricity?" Leo interrupted, "They use gaslighting"

Vincent blinked. Then he blinked again. Then he shoved Leo. "That was the worst fucking joke, I hate you, tell me more"

He understood that Leo wasn't ready to talk about Festus yet. But Leo knew whenever he was ready, Vincent would be there. 

"What do you call a thief that steals energy from museums?" Leo looked at him, "A joule thief"

"I hate you with a burning passion" 

"So you feel passion about me?" Leo attempted to raise an eyebrow. 

Vincent tackled him. 

Gods, he had missed this. 

They both flew onto the floor, landing awkwardly in a mass of limbs. But neither cared. Also, with the way Jason and Piper had fallen asleep, Vincent was sure they wouldn't be waking up any time soon. 

Leo's elbow hit his ribs, and Vincent knew he was a crafty little fucker. But he knew one thing about Leo that no one else did. 

"Vince—" Leo warned, "Vince, no—"

He thrashed under Vincent as the boy tickled him. Even if Leo hadn't talked about his feelings and had a few different things on his mind, Vincent was more than happy to distract him. Leo didn't deserve to feel like shit. Festus didn't deserve to get blown up. None of this was fair. 

But demigods rarely got what they deserved. 

So for the time being, Vincent tickled Leo's side, even at the expense of getting kicked a few times.