LEO.
——- His friends would've died a million times on the way to the front door if not for Leo.
First, the pressure-activated trapdoor on the sidewalk, then the lasers in the steps, then the nerve gas dispenser on the porch railing, then the motion-sensitive poison spikes on the welcome mat, and, of course, the exploding doorbell which Y/n had made the unfortunate decision of almost pressing it; almost.
Leo deactivated them all with ease as if the boy could smell the traps. Then her pick the perfect tool to disable them from his belt instantly.
If it wasn't for his friend just dying, he'd feel pretty proud of himself.
"You're amazing, man," Jason praised.
As he examined the front door lock, he scowled. "Yeah, amazing," he said. "Can't fix a dragon right, but I'm amazing?"
"Hey, that wasn't your — "
"Front door's already unlocked," Leo announced.
"It is? All those traps, and the door's unlocked?" Piper stared at the door in disbelief.
The door swung open easily as Leo turned the knob. He stepped in without hesitation.
He had yet to let go of Y/n's hand, so he tugged the girl along with him as he grumbled something angsty to himself.
He noticed that both Piper and Jason had stayed behind for a second, but paid no mind to it. Leo carefully sensed for more traps as he walked inside the large mansion, keeping his friend at his side.
He had just lost Festus, he wasn't about to let another friend leave him so soon.
It was so dark in the house that he could barely see where he was walking, so he'd stopped.
"I know you're not in the mood to talk about it, but if you change your mind, I'll listen." Y/n offered.
"Nothing to talk about." He said simply.
Y/n sighed, "Okay. No pressure, just an option."
Leo's hand tightened around hers in frustration.
"Why are you so nice to me? We barely know eachother." Leo said harshly. He wasn't quite sure why he said it, but he knew partly why; he preferred to push people away whenever something terrible happened to him. What he didn't know, was why he did it to her.
Y/n stopped and stood next to him, pondering for a minute. She didn't bother to look at him. "You'd do the same for me, wouldn't you?"
The curly-haired boy remained silent. He tapped his fingers that weren't intertwined with hers against the hem of his jeans in thought.
I would, wouldn't I?
He let go of her hand and shoved both of his into the pockets of his zip-up hoodie.
"I would." He said, barely above a whisper. He began to walk away, but Y/n grabbed him by the arm, tearing it out of his pocket, and wrapped him in a tight hug.
"You know you aren't alone, right?" She asked, muffled against his sweater.
Heat rose into Leo's cheeks. He then felt the tips of his ears catch fire.
Leo tried to put them out and weakly hugged her back. Y/n didn't seem to notice, thank Gods.
"I know." He said simply.
The boy then saw the silhouettes of Jason and Piper emerging into the house after their apparent conversation, and he broke the grasp.
"I — sorry..." he turned and walked off.
Leo faintly heard Jason from behind him.
"Together," Jason said to himself. "Yeah, we're doing great with that."
Leo could tell that the entrance hall was enormous just from the echo of his footsteps. It seemed even bigger than Boreas's penthouse, but the only light had come from the yard lights outside peeking through the open door. Through thick velvet curtains in the house, a faint glow peered in.
The windows stood about ten feet tall. In between them, along the walls, were life-size metal statues. When Leo squinted he could see sofas arranged in a 'U' in the middle of the room, paired with a circular coffee table in the center of seating. Past it, way in front of them, was a large chair, and a huge glittering chandelier. Behind it was a row of closed doors.
Leo wasn't a home designer by any means, but the layout was admittedly weird.
"Where's the light switch?" Jason's voice alarmingly echoed throughout the room.
"Don't see one," Leo murmured.
"Fire?" Piper suggested.
Nothing happened when Leo held out his hand, "It's not working. Huh, it was working a second ago..." He mumbled the last part under his breath.
"Your fire is out? Why?" Piper asked.
"Well, if I knew that — "
"Okay, okay," she said. "What do we do explore?"
Leo shook his head. "After all those traps outside? Bad
idea."
He crossed his arms as he looked around the room for a place to rest, but the place made him uneasy.
"Leo's right," Jason agreed. "We're not separating again — not like in Detroit."
"Oh, thank you for reminding me of the Cyclopes," Piper's voice quavered. "I needed that."
Y/n groaned from behind him, seemingly annoyed. Leo assumed she was tired of the sarcastic responses from him and Piper. Leo pouted when he realized this.
"It's a few hours until dawn," Jason guessed. "Too cold to wait outside. Let's bring the cages in and make camp in this room. Wait for daylight, then we can decide what to do."
"That's a good idea," Y/n nodded.
They went back outside and rolled in the cages with Coach Hedge and the storm spirits, then settled in.
Thankfully, Leo didn't find any electric whoopee cushions or poison throw pillows on the sofas.
Leo wasn't in the mood to make more food. Besides, they had no fire, so the group settled for cold rations.
He looked down at the coffee table, and there sat a tea service and a stack of glossy brochures, but Leo didn't look long enough to read it. He thought the big chair at the other end of the table looked like a throne; none of them tried to sit in it.
The canary cages didn't help make the eerie atmosphere any more comforting. The storm spirits kept flying around their prison, spinning and hissing, and it made Leo dizzy just watching them.
Coach Hedge was still frozen mid-shout, with his club raised. Leo sat in front of the cage and worked at it with various tools, but the lock was beginning to frustrate him. Next to him was Y/n, who's picked a couple of twigs out from Coach Hedge's club through the bars of the cage, and was very focused on trying to start a fire the natural way; by rubbing sticks together.
Leo didn't have it in his heart to tell her it wouldn't work.
Besides, it was pretty cute.
Piper had already curled up on the other sofa, and Jason was starting to nod off. Leo noticed his friend trying to fight the tiredness.
"Get some sleep," Leo chirped, still working on the locked cage. "It's your turn."
Jason took a deep breath. "Leo, I'm sorry about that stuff I said in Chicago. That wasn't me. You're not annoying and you do take stuff seriously, especially your work. I wish I could do half the things you can do."
Leo felt that this conversation was not one to be held with other people here. It seemed Y/n felt the same way, as she had walked off towards Piper and turned her jacket into a pillow for the girl.
Leo lowered his screwdriver. He looked at the ceiling and shook his head, What am I gonna do with this guy?
"I try very hard to be annoying," Leo announced. "Don't insult my ability to annoy. And how am I supposed to resent you if you go apologizing: I'm a lowly mechanic. You're like the prince of the sky, son of the Lord of the Universe. I'm supposed to resent you."
"Lord of the Universe?"
"Sure, you're all — bam! Lightning, man. And 'Watch me fly. I am the eagle that soars' — "
"Shut up, Valdez."
Leo managed a little smile. "Yeah, see. I do annoy you."
"I apologize for apologizing."
"Thank you." Leo went back to work, and thankfully, the tension between the two had eased. Leo felt sad and exhausted, but not as angry as before.
"Go to sleep, Jason," he ordered. "It's gonna take a few hours to get this goat man free. Then I still got to figure out how to make the winds a smaller holding cell, 'cause I am not lugging that shit to California."
"You did fix Festus, you know," Jason added. "You gave him a purpose again. I think this quest was the high point of his life."
Jason was afraid he'd blown it and made Leo mad again, but Leo just sighed.
"I hope," he said. "Now, sleep, man. I want some time without you organic life forms."
Jason obeyed and let himself fall into a deep sleep.
Just when Leo had started working again, he heard something move from behind him.
"Would it bother you if I said I wasn't tired?"
Leo lightly chuckled.
He turned and saw Y/n sitting cross-cross in front of him, with her arm propped up against her knee and her head in her palm.
"You couldn't get that twig fire to work?"
Y/n groaned in frustration, "Unfortunately not. Humanity has come so far, huh."
Leo nodded, and they fell back into silence.
"I would just use the flashlight from my phone, but it's almost dead." She offered.
"Uh," Leo began, "You know those things attract monsters like crazy, right?"
Y/n started at him with a blank look.
"You're joking."
Leo broke out into a grin, "I'm so serious."
"You're joking!" She insisted, and when Leo shook his head no, her head fell to her hands.
"Oh my Gods why didn't anyone tell me!"
Leo laughed, which was a surprise; he'd thought it would take a long time for him to be normal again, but there Y/n went, making him... happy, again.
God, he had it bad for her.
"Well, I guess it's my fault we've run into so many monsters in this quest," she joked.
"I have a feeling nothing much would change if you'd left the phone back on the bus," Leo said, returning to his work.
"Maybe..." Y/n pondered.
"I can go lay down and try to sleep if you want to be left alone." She offered.
Leo bit the inside of his cheek. Did he want that? Or did he just say that to push people away like he always did?
Maybe it was time for a change.
"Nah, stay. Just don't distract me while I work on this and it's cool." He decided. Leo did work well back at camp when Y/n watched him fix Festus, so he really didn't mind her presence.
The girl happily nodded and laid down on the floor with her arms crossed behind her head, and she let Leo work. He really did enjoy this; him doing what he likes best, with the person he likes best —
Wait.
Did he just...?
Oh, god. Did I just admit to liking her?
Leo stopped his work. He couldn't, right? I mean sure, of course, I had a crush on her back at the Wilderness school, but that was fabricated, right?
They'd only actually known each other for a few days, so how could he have feelings for her already?
Leo remembered that cheesy trope from those rom-com movies: love at first sight.
But that wasn't real, it's just some romance shit middle-aged white moms like.
I can't possibly like her already. We barely know eachother.
...
Jack and Rose barely knew each other.
My life isn't the Titanic movie!
Great. Now he was arguing with himself in his head about the technicalities of love as if he knew anything about that.
He looked over his shoulder and saw Y/n laying, gazing at the black ceiling; he wondered what she thought about it. He wondered if she wondered what he thought about.
He wondered if she had felt the same he did.
No chance, he thought.
She then noticed him looking and tilted her head up so she could see him. Y/n smiled.
His face felt hot again. Leo turned back to his project.
He could hear Y/n humming a tune lightly behind him, and he listened. He didn't know the song, but it didn't matter, because Y/n liked it, and that was all the reasoning he needed.
The boy smiled as he worked, listening to Y/n hum her tune while he continued for a couple of hours, finally unlocking Coach Hedge when the sun rose.
Everything was normal until screaming was heard.
"Ahhhsgggggh!"
Jason was the first to his feet.
"Coach is awake," Leo chimed, which was kind of unnecessary.
Gleeson Hedge was capering around on his furry hindquarters, swinging his club and yelling, "Die!"
The satyr was jumping around, his hooves clopping as he did so, along with thrashing his club and screaming "Die!" He then destroyed the tea set, mangled the sofas, and charged at the throne.
"Coach!" Jason yelled.
Hedge turned, breathing hard. Leo noticed the satyr was still wearing his orange polo shirt and his coach's whistle, but the difference from the usual Coach Hedge was his horns which were visible through his curly hair, and his lower half was complete goat.
"You're the new kid," Hedge said, lowering his club.
"Jason." He looked at Leo, then Piper, who'd apparently also just woken up. Her hair looked like it had become a nest for a friendly hamster. Leo noticed him look down to the floor where Y/n was peacefully still humming her tune. In the the light, he could really see the small burn mark on her face. It looked like it hurt, and he wondered if he had anything in his tool belt to fix it.
"Valdez, McLean," the coach said. "What's going on? We were at the Grand Canyon. The Anemoi thuellai were attacking and — " He zeroed in on the storm spirit cage. "Die!"
"Whoa, Coach!" Leo stepped in his path, and, even though Hedge was six inches shorter, was pretty brave. "It's okay. They're locked up. We just sprang you from the other cage."
"Cage? Cage? What's going on? Just because I'm a satyr doesn't mean I can't have you doing plank push-ups, Valdez!" He then pointed to Y/n, "And the intruder! What is she still doing here?"
Y/n had finally stood and leaned against the table. She shrugged.
Jason cleared his throat.
"Coach — Gleeson um, whatever you want us to call you. You saved us at the Grand Canyon. You were totally brave."
"Of course I was!"
"The extraction team came and took us to Camp Half-Blood. We thought we'd lost you. Then we got word the storm spirits had taken you back to their um, operator, Medea." Jason explained.
"That witch! Wait that's impossible. She's mortal. She's dead."
"Yeah, well," Leo said, "somehow she got not dead anymore."
Hedge nodded, his eyes narrowing. "So! You were sent on a dangerous quest to rescue me. Excellent!"
"Um." Piper got to her feet, holding out her hands so Coach Hedge wouldn't attack her. "Actually, Glee — can I still call you Coach Hedge? Gleeson seems wrong. We're on a quest for something else. We kind of found you by accident."
"Oh." The coach's spirits seemed to deflate, but only for a second. Then his eyes lit up again. "But there are no accidents! Not on quests. This was meant to happen! So, this is the witch's lair, eh? Why is everything gold?"
"Gold?" Leo looked around. From the way Jason and Piper caught their breath, he guessed they hadn't noticed yet either. Y/n remained the same as usual; unamused.
Gold statues lined the walls, along with the now smashed tea set and the throne both being made of gold. Even the curtains that opened themselves at daybreak were, of course — woven with gold fiber.
"Nice," Leo stated. "No wonder they got so much security."
"This isn't — " Piper stammered. "This isn't Medea's place, Coach. It's some rich person's mansion in Omaha. We got away from Medea and crash-landed here."
"It's destiny, cupcakes!" Hedge insisted. "I'm meant to protect you. What's the quest?"
Leo watched as no one knew whether or not to explain the quest to him or just shove him back into the cage when suddenly a door opened at the very end of the room.
He first noticed the fluffy white bathrobe, and then the pale, pudgy old man. He had a long white beard and white hair covered by those old-timey sleeping caps that reminded the boy of Scrooge. The man was frozen in fear when he saw them and his pure gold toothbrush fell to the floor as his mouth gaped.
He nervously glanced around the room, taking in the group of teenagers, a violent satyr, and a cage full of storm spirits, and decided to call for backup. "Son? Lit, come out here, please."
The man looked back into a room behind him. "There are strange people in the throne room."
Coach did what he did best. He raised his club, charged, and shouted, "Die!"
(unedited.)
a/n: i finally added an explanation for y/n using the phone even tho they attract monsters bc i added her using it in chapter 13 and just totally forgot that they can't use phones. i'm so smart 🙄