No Strings Attached

3

Your POV:

I'm not going to lie, that night I thought about Leo. A lot. When Piper gave me that friends with benefits idea, I considered asking Leo at first, but he would definitely say no. He doesn't like me like that.

'And you don't like him like that.' I tried to tell myself, but it wasn't working.

Truth is, I've had a crush on the guy pretty much from the moment I met him. Not only was he physically exactly my type, but everything else about him is awesome too. He's funny, smart, considerate, ... Not to mention all the shit he's been through, but at the end of the day he still manages to keep everything together.

That morning I made up my mind, I wasn't going to ask Leo. I wasn't going to ask anyone. It's too much of an uncomfortable situation. And I'm not going to risk our friendship over me being horny.

I'm free on Saturday mornings so I went for a walk in the woods. With my sword at my side and my bow on my back I aimlessly wandered around while humming some of the songs that were stuck in my head, as always. Occasionally stopping to shoot a monster from afar. And like every Saturday morning for the past month, I eventually ended up at the entrance of bunker nine.

I opened to door quietly, not wanting to disturb Leo. I try to not alarm him while he's concentrating, last time I did that he accidentally burned my eyebrows off.

I spotted him fairly easily, which wasn't always the case because of the mess that tended to build up around the room. He was hunched over one of the worktables, attaching wires and plates of celestial bronze like there was no tomorrow. Which there might not be if he can't get the ship to work.

I walk over to him and sit down on the workbench, slightly startling him but he continues at the same furious pace. His brows furrowed, his dark brown curls falling into his face and his mouth slightly agape. He looked so sexy when he was this concentrated, fully submerged into his project. I would love nothing more than to just grab his face and plant a kiss on his rosy lips, but I can't. A few minutes later he's done with, well whatever it is, and looks up at me, finally giving me a "hey" and a smile.

"Hey," I smile back, "what are you working on?" I ask nodding to the weirdly shaped contraption he just built.

"Control panel for the ores, so they can switch between flying and rowing if I spin my Wii controller." If anyone else had said that, and with the same huge grin plastered on their face, it would have sounded insane. But not when Leo said it, he could do anything if he wanted to. One of the things I liked so much about him.

"But euum, hey princess, I kind of wanted to talk to you about something. I-"

"Ugh Leo, in Zeus's name stop calling me princess! It's embarrassing, why do you even call me that?" I laugh and whine while kicking his chair.

"I'll stop calling you that when you stop acting, and not to mention, looking like one!" I laugh and wave my hand in a 'go on' motion and he continued, "First off, you're basically a Disney princess. I mean, come on, you wander around in the woods, singing an-" "and shooting monsters?" I ask while cocking up my eyebrow.

"You're just a badass Disney princess! Plus, you always look flawless, even when sparing. I can't go five feet without ruining my clothes," he said while motioning to his already grease stained shirt.

I wipe a speck of grease from his cheek, which turns pink when I do. "Isn't that more of a you problem?"

"Might be, but that doesn't change the fact that you're basically a Disney princess. And as long as you are, I'm gonna keep calling you that, whether you like it or not."

"Okay, sure, Johnny Storm," I smirk.

"Hey now, that's just unoriginal!"

"Is not! You are literally a human torch. Or do I need to remind you of the eyebrow incident?"

He gulped, "Yeah nope, still fresh in my memory." I smile, talking to him is just so easy. I wish it could just always be the two of us, it would be so much simpler. No Gaea, no giants, no impending doom...

I don't know how long we sat there in silence just enjoying each other's company, but he eventually broke the silence by clearing his throat, "So, what I wanted to talk to you about before you so rudely interrupted me," I rolled my eyes and placed a hand on my chest in mock-hurt, "Me, rude? I would never!"

He laughed but it died at the back of his throat as he began talking again, "So, don't get mad, please. I-I didn't mean to, I mean, it was an accident. I was just coming to grab my jacket and, and well- " he began fiddling with random parts again, why was he so nervous? Last time he was this nervous he told me about what happened with his mom, except this time it seemed to be more of an embarrassed-nervous. Not a sad-nervous.

"Spit out Valdez, I promise I won't get mad. Whatever it is. And if you killed someone, I'll help you hide the body," I joked, which was what I always did in serious situations. Something we both often did.

"iheardyourconversationwithpiperlastnight," he blurted it out all at once, so I thought I must have heard him wrong. No, I prayed I heard him wrong. "Sorry what?"

"I heard your conversation with Piper last night," whatever little contraption he was building suddenly interested him very much as he refused to take his eyes away from it. But I could see the tips of his ears turn pink and I'm pretty sure my head was turning the same color.

"Oh," was all I could say. I kept a straight face but I was completely panicking on the inside. I've never been this embarrassed in my entire life.

"Are you mad?" he asked finally looking up at me and meeting my eyes.

"Of course not," I smiled, how could I not when he was looking at me like that, "mortified, yes. But I'm not angry."

"Good, because I'm pretty sure you're about to be," he managed a small chuckle and took a deep breath, "I'd like to offer myself up as candidate."

"Wha-Wait, what?"

"You don't have to say yes of course, but I've been feeling sort of the same way lately. And well, we're friends so I thought it might work out well for the both of us." His face seemed to get redder with every word he said, if he continued I'm sure his nose would've burst into flames again.

"Am I hearing you okay? You want to be friends with benefits, with me?"

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything! This was dumb, please just forget I ever sai-" "Okay"

"I'm sorry, what?" Now it was his turn to be confused, but I made up my mind. I can't be together with him, so this is the next best thing. I've been thinking about it and he wants to, so why the Hades not?

"As long as we'll stay friends first and foremost, no matter what happens. And whatever else happens, what more we do, it's secondary. No strings attached, deal?"

The grin on his face should have discouraged me, made me want to crawl back and tell me this was a terrible idea, but it just made me smile.

"Deal"