Nuts and Bolts [Nico Di Angelo X Avengers]

| Chapter 5 |

I have no hope that anyone is reading this anymore, but... I actually worked up the energy to update. I'm so sorry for the long wait.

Also, if you squint, there's some insecure!Leo in this chapter.

-

"Here," Nico growled, slamming the door to the Hephaestus cabin open, "is your stupid duct tape." He threw the duct tape at Leo, who squawked and ducked as the duct tape sailed harmlessly over his head. "You owe me, Valdez, and you owe me big time."

"What?" Leo exclaimed. "I owe you? What for? And why? You're the one who just tried to murder me with duct tape!"

"I didn't succeed though, did I?"

"Yeah, and you sound so very happy about it," Leo scoffed, picking up the duct tape. "Tell me, why in the name of Poseidon's dolphin boxer shorts—"

"—I did not need that image in my head, thank you very much—"

"—are you so angry with me that you feel the need to decapitate me as soon as you step foot into the cabin? I know I possess the unique talent of irritating everyone in a five mile radius by simply existing, but surely it can't be that bad."

Nico's stone-cold expression softened. He sighed and shook his head, shoulders sagging. "Sorry, man. I didn't mean to throw it at you. I just... had a little run in with someone at the hardware store. Literally."

"Oh?" Leo sat up on his haunches. "Who with?"

"Stark."

"I'm gonna assume that's not his first name, because if it was I'd kinda feel bad for the guy."

"Wha—no!" Nico shook his head in exasperation. "I mean Tony Stark, not—who the Hades would have 'Stark' as a first name?"

Leo shrugged. "I dunno, man. People name their kids weird things nowadays. You hear about that kid North West?"

"Yeah, I saw it on the—" Nico shook his head, frustrated. "Why are we even having this conversation? Point is, I ran into Stark and we had a little disagreement."

"I don't know what your idea of 'little' is, but if it includes blowing up the store in rage, I think you'll have to tell me what happened so I can play damage control," Leo said, wiping a grease stain off his face with a dirty rag.

Nico plopped himself down in a chair. "I didn't blow Stark up, don't worry."

Leo frowned. "It's not Stark I'm worried about. Is the hardware store okay?"

"You care more about the store than you do about Stark?" At Leo's 'duh' look, Nico conceded. "Alright, I can't entirely blame you. But yes, the store and Stark are intact—the latter, unfortunately. There was a bit of yelling and some creative cursing on my part, but otherwise nothing happened."

"No SWAT team hunting you down this time? I'm impressed."

Nico smacked Leo as he snickered at his own joke. "Shut up."

"Okay, okay, sorry. Go on."

"That was pretty much it. I stopped cursing at him long enough to get the duct tape and leave."

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me." Leo reached into his tool belt and pulled out his wallet, opening it. "How much did the tape cost? I can pay you back."

Nico blinked. "Cost?"

"Yeah. You know, how much money you paid for it. I'm paying you back. How much was it?"

"Uh... free...?"

Leo looked confused. "What? But the price tag said—" he trailed off, looking at Nico as realization dawned on him. "Oh. Oh my gods," he laughed. "Nico, did you take this... without paying?"

Nico's face went bright red. "Maybe. I-I don't know, okay! Stop laughing at me," he grumbled, pulling the hood of his sweater up as if it could hide him from Leo's hysterical laughter. "It's not like you'd have done any better."

"Oh, no, you're wrong," Leo snickered, wiping tears away from his eyes. "It's cool, I get it. I guess you were busy whipping a billionaire's ass to realize you were doing something illegal, huh, Mister Cool Guy?"

"Hey, it wasn't that bad!" Nico protested. "No alarms went off or anything. It went..." he hesitated, searching for the word. "... smoothly."

"Smooth?" Leo snorted. "Nico, that was about as smooth as chunky peanut butter. You ever tried chunky peanut butter? It's not smooth. Not at all. That's why it's called chunky."

Nico sniffed indignantly. "So what? I got your stupid duct tape, and you didn't even need to pay for it. You're so ungrateful, you know that?"

"Okay, okay, you're right, I'm sorry." Leo clasped his hands together over exaggeratedly. "Thank you, o lordly one, for bestowing upon me such a great gift, even though you basically committed a crime doing it and even though it's literally just duct tape. I am forever in your debt."

"Oh, shut up before I duct tape your mouth."

-

Okay um.

For the few people who read that (because everyone probably left since I haven't updated in like, ten bajillion years), I hope you liked it. It's a little different from my other chapters, in the sense that the writing style is slightly different because I've been working on improving my work.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!

_Rach