❝when i saw you standing there, i finally knew what happily ever after looked like.❞
⤷ christy ann martine
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"Hand me that sunscreen," Leo murmured, his voice muffled from being under a beach towel.
Kira handed him it, after plopping a tiny bit on his back where she knew he couldn't reach.
"Hey!" Leo complained, trying to reach it with no avail. Kira snickered from her own beach towel.
The two sat on the beach of the Bahamas.
How they got there? Long story.
They had dropped Piper and her dad off with the intention of going to Camp Half Blood, but they made a slight detour. The "slight detour" became a vacation because in the wise words of Leo Valdez, "We freaking deserve one."
More seriously, the boy knew Kira was shaky. Her entire mind was a dangerous place. She had lost two demigods in the course of a few days, and she was shaken up. So, he did what he did best. He distracted her. Tristian McLean had given him just enough money to spend a week at a resort in Bahamas. He had let Festus roam, telling him to come back in a week. Whether he actually did, was a problem for tomorrow.
So, that is how the two demigods found themselves at a luxury resort in the Bahamas instead of the strawberry fields of Camp Half Blood.
Kira and Leo were laying face down in their towels, letting the sun beat down on them. They were relaxed for the first time in, well, years. As soon as they had learned they were demigods, they had one impending doom after the next. Finally, they had time to be kids. They were only seventeen, and they had the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Kira rolled over, letting the sun hit her face. Leo still struggled to get the sunscreen on his back, and Kira pitied him. She laughed, spreading it for him.
"Thanks, idiota." Leo grumbled.
"Hey!" Kira complained. "I'll put more on your back if you call me names."
"I thought you didn't know Spanish."
Kira rolled her eyes. "I think that one was kind of self-explanatory."
Leo rolled over so he could glare at her. Then he leaned in to kiss her, which she happily complied with. He took the opportunity to squirt sunscreen in her hair.
"Leo!" Kira complained, picking up a scoop of it and splatting it in his face. He sputtered, trying to get in out of his mouth. Both of them were laughing now, throwing glops of sunscreen at each other. Lovingly, of course.
"Beat you to the water!" Leo said suddenly, jumping up. Kira jumped up as well, leaving behind their belongings to race to the ocean.
Leo, who had the head start, still lost. He would deny it later, but Kira totally won.
They laughed and splashed, trying to get the sunscreen out of places where sunscreen should not be.
It was easily one of Kira's favorite memories. She could imagine it up on Aphrodite's Museum of Love, the two of them just blisfully messing around in the ocean, not having a care in the world.
Kira Willows' mind may have been a dark place, but Leo Valdez always knew how to bring her back.
Kira took a breath, going beneath the surf to try to scrub the oily sunscreen out of her scalp. She grabbed his leg to scare him, and when she came above water, he was shrieking.
Kira laughed blissfully, shoving him into the next wave.
Bahamas: The place for demigods when they wanted their biggest problem to be sunscreen on their scalp.
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Leo had called dibs on first shower.
If anyone was wondering, he took ages.
Kira groaned as she tried to find a television show that wasn't a soap opera or a home improvement show as she waited.
"Are you almost done?" She called, just as she did a half an hour ago. And the half an hour before that.
"Almost!" Leo called back. "You're so impatient!"
Kira rolled her eyes, grumbling a few Ancient Greek curses under her breath.
"Hey babe," Kira asked loudly enough for Leo to hear her. "Wanna get Mexican or chinese food tonight?"
"Mexican!"
Kira called room service with their usual Mexican order. Finally, Leo emerged with nothing but a low hanging towel.
Kira jumped up. She kissed him, which he returned. "Don't start eating without me!" She warned, shutting the door to the bathroom.
Instantly, she realized why Leo had been in there so long. The water was steaming hot, just as she liked it. She cleaned herself down quickly.
She ran her fingers over her old scars. There was so many she had lost count of where they were from.
She cleaned herself leisurely, scrubbing the sand and sunscreen from her tanned skin. The hot water refreshed her, yet a little much after spending so much time in the sun, where there was undoubtedly sunburn.
There was a knock at the door. "Mind if I join you?" A nervous voice said from the other side.
Her heart leapt under her skin. Leo had never seen all of her. What if he decided it wasn't good enough? She grew self conscious. But at the same time, it excited her. They were seventeen, in a hotel room alone. They had been together for over a year.
"I don't have to!" He squeaked. "Oh, gods! I'm so stupid. Forget I asked, I'm sorry!"
"Come in!" Kira called.
There was a beat of silence. "You mean that?"
"Get in here, Valdez."
There was no way to explain it. She loved the way he looked at her. As if she was the greatest thing to ever happen. She felt like a statue of Aphrodite under his gaze.
He joined her, kissing her shoulder. "Eres perfecta,"
Kira didn't need to know Spanish to know what he said. She smiled shyly with red cheeks, turning to face him.
She gazed down at her scars. Leo followed her eyes until she saw what she was looking at. He gently held one of them, a thin white scar going across her arm from Clarisse, and brought it to his lips and kissed it.
"Don't be ashamed of them." Leo spoke softly. "They make you even more perfect then you already are."
All of her was out for show, but his gaze was locked on her eyes, looking passionately in her soul.
"Oh gods, maravillosa," Leo murmured, pressing his lips onto hers.
His fingers were tangled in her hair, his other hand holding her waist. Her hands were on the side of his face and the other stroking his curly hair. He pressed further, pushing her against the wall of the shower. Leo kept his eyes half open, sneaking a guilty peek at her every time he came back for air, just to make sure she wasn't a product of his imagination.
Her whole body tingled, the feeling of his frame leaning against hers and his arms wrapped around her felt forbidden. Heat rose from Kira's stomach to her chest. Her heart skipped a beat.
Leo's lips disconnected from hers, trailing down her neck. For what felt like the first time in their relationship, they were alone and unbothered. Kira could feel Leo's warmth against her skin, and it made her weak in the knees.
They were lost in the moment. Kira felt Leo's skin continue to get warmer and warmer until-
"SHOOT!" Leo yelled loudly, leaping away from Kira. He barely got away from her before he erupted in flames, and he shook his himself out frantically, trying to douse the burning flames. Kira stared at him with shock and amusement. The shower helped, the water cooling the flames off.
When the last of the dying flames were out, Leo gave a sheepish look to Kira. "Uh, I-"
Kira smiled amusedly. "You what? Didn't mean to set me on fire?"
Leo blushed a deep red. "I got excited."
Kira just laughed. Leo looked relieved when she did, probably relishing the fact that he was lucky to have a girlfriend that didn't get too mad when he almost set her on fire.
The doorbell rang.
Leo groaned, and Kira laughed again. She pressed another loving kiss to his lips. "Go get the door, I'll be right out."
Leo didn't argue, wrapping a towel back around him.
"Try not to set the room on fire, babe!" She called before the door shut on her.
When the bathroom door shut, Kira couldn't help the giddish smile that plastered its way to her face.
What a man Leo Valdez was.
holy crap guys. just six chapters left. from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for 30k. you all meant the world to me <3