❝wild spirit, soft heart, sweet soul❞
⤷ butterflies rising
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"Leo Valdez, I know damn well you didn't just put 8 times 7 is 52."
"What is it?" Leo begged, blushing. "Just tell me!"
"We're in college, babe!" Kira exclaimed, laughing loudly.
"What is it?" Leo repeated, a desperate look on his face.
"56."
"I was close!" Leo defended, scribbling the number down.
"Not close enough."
Kira and Leo were laid out on a long couch in their apartment, finishing the never-ending college homework.
Yes, apartment. They were living together. In an apartment. Some things Kira never saw coming, such as settling down with a boy in New Rome, studying for SATs. And that boy being Leo Valdez, who was currently failing his math class.
"I'm just gonna be a mechanic anyway," Leo grumbled, scribbling out another answer. "I don't need this."
Kira laughed, writing down another answer. "Then why are you?"
"Am I what?" Leo mused, scrunching his nose at the next problem.
"Going to college?"
"'Cause you are," Leo said simply, shrugging. "You're lucky I love you, making me go through all this math."
Kira looked up from her math problem. "It's only one more year, if you can pass this class."
"Easy for you to say, Ms. I-Know-How-To-Do-Math! This wold be much easier if you'd just do it for me," Leo begged, pulling out his famous puppy dog eyes.
Kira held up her own math homework. "I've got enough to do myself babe, sorry,"
Leo grumbled a few ancient greek curses. Kira laughed. "I should never let Percy teach you those curses,"
Leo grinned, throwing his homework to the ground. "Too late,"
Kira just shook her head, scribbling in another answer. She managed to finish a few more before Leo spoke again.
"You know, why don't we do something fun?" Leo announced, kicking his homework across the room.
"Leo-"
"It'll still be there after two hours, amor," Leo pleaded, gently taking Kira's work out of her hands. "Just give me two hours. When's the last time we did something fun?"
Kira pondered. "Like last night."
"Not the point!" Leo said, waving his arms.
"So," Kira asked, an amused grin on her lips. "You want to, what? Go out to a bar?"
Leo laughed. "No. I'm tired."
Kira just rolled her eyes, laughing.
"Okay, okay, I've got it," Leo said, waving his arms around again. "I'll be back in fifteen, got it? You've got that much time to work on your homework. After that, you're all mine."
Kira smirked, glancing up at her boyfriend. "All yours, huh?"
"All mine."
△△△
Kira was on her last question when Leo burst in the door with a bag of groceries.
"The Bay Boy, Leo Valdez has returned!" He called, pushing the door shut and slamming the bag on the counter.
Kira dropped her work on the coffee table, eager to see what he had gotten.
Leo set out everything he had bought. Eggs, flour, sugar, baking soda...
"Leo," Kira said, laughing. "Are we baking a cake?"
"Nope!" Leo said excitedly, bouncing up and down. "Cupcakes!"
He looked as goofy and free as he did when he was fifteen. They were twenty-one now, and thing seemed, well, good. Leo was still the same goofball Kira had lent her homework to in Wilderness School and the same kid that had taken down Gaea two years later. He had the same crooked grin, the smear of soot on his cheek that seemed glued to his face unless Kira wiped it off.
One of the only differences was a tattoo he had gotten. They had gotten matching ones that said HOT STUFF with a skull and crossbones. Kira managed to get Leo to argue to get it smaller, so that they didn't look like some weird biker gang. All of their college friends thought it was dumb looking, but neither of them told them the story behind it. It was a story that remained between them, which was the best kind.
Kira kissed him.
When they broke apart, Leo was blushing. "What was that for?"
"What, I can't kiss my boyfriend?" Kira asked, smirking. Leo bit his lip, kissing her again, harder. He lifted her up onto the countertop, his hands wrapped up in her hair.
They had kissed before. Hell, they kissed all the time. But no matter how many times, butterflies still rose in her stomach. His frame leaned against hers, and Kira knew there was no one else she'd rather be with right now, in this moment.
"hey, nena," Leo purred against the kiss. "We should make some cake now."
"I would love that."
As Leo pulled out an old recipe, one that he told Kira he had learned from his mom, Kira gathered all the right ingredients.
"Uh, Leo?" Kira asked, holding up a bottle of Easy Cheese. "This isn't going on the cake, right?"
Leo took it, squirting a bunch in his mouth. "Nope!" He said happily. "I just like it."
Kira grimaced, taking it and putting it in the fridge.
"Hazel was right, you know," Kira said, shutting the fridge. "That stuff will kill you."
"It would be an honor to die by Easy Cheese," Leo said, trying to read the recipe.
Leo handed the recipe to Kira, and she squinted, trying to read it. "Okay, first we have to pretend-"
"Preheat," Leo corrected patiently.
Kira assumed he had forgotten she was dyslexic. She squinted harder. "To 530 degrees-"
"350."
Kira huffed. "Why are you letting the dyslexic girl read the directions?" She said, throwing her arms up.
Leo just smiled, taking the paper and kissing her nose. "I forgot about that, sorry babe,"
Kira turned the stove on to 350 degrees, and pulled out a cupcake tray and paper wrappers.
"Grease the pans," Leo read. Kira did as told taking a cooking spray out that she didn't know they had.
"Now we whisk!" Leo said, dropping the paper, grinning at Kira. She just laughed, opening the flour. They made the right measurements, and Leo insisted that he whisked. Kira grabbed a camera instead, and she managed to snag a picture at the exact moment that Leo whisked too fast, sending the flour into a cloud of dust above him.
Kira covered her mouth, barely trying to mask her laughs that escaped from her lips. Soon they were breathless together, laughing and snorting at Leo's powder white face.
"It...wasn't that...funny!" Leo protested in between breathless laughs.
"Yes it was!" Kira giggled. Leo took a handful of the four, flinging it on his unsuspecting girlfriend. Kira gasped as the flour flung at her, wiping it out of the eyes.
"Leo Valdez!" She exclaimed, laughing blissfuly, trying to catch him as he raced around their counter.
"You can't catch me!" He mocked, but then he slipped on a patch of flour that had fallen. He fell with a small "oof" which left Kira in even more of a breathless laughing fit.
"Okay, okay," Leo grumbled, trying to wipe off the flour from his shirt, which didn't budge. "What's next?"
Kira grabbed the recipe, but handed it to Leo after a moment trying to read it.
"Add the butter and eggs."
They managed to follow that step without any accidents, so they gave each other a high five, which sent off a cloud of flour.
"Aaaaand buttermilk," Leo read. Kira knit her eyebrows.
"We don't have buttermilk, Le,"
Leo took a carton of milk that he had bought. "I got milk!"
"No, baby, buttermilk," Kira patiently corrected. "It's different."
Leo shrugged. "It can't be that different. It's both milk!"
Kira decided not to argue, just nodding for him to add the milk.
They began pouring it into the molds, every once in a while having a scoop of the raw dough.
"Hey, Ki, look!" Leo exclaimed, and bopped her on the nose with the batter. Kira looked down at her batter-coved nose.
"We should have made the batter red, then I could've have been Rudolph!"
Leo laughed. Kira dripped her finger into the batter, giving him a matching drippy nose.
"Now we're twins," Kira whispered, pecking his flour-coated lips.
As they loaded the cupcakes into the oven, Kira turned to Leo. "Did you get stuff for icing?"
Leo froze. "That," He said, outstretching his pointer finger. "I did not."
"We're going to eat naked cupcakes!" Kira joked, shutting the oven door. Leo burst out laughing.
"Naked cupcakes?"
"Yes, naked cupcakes! 'Cause they don't have frosting," Kira said, wiping off the batter from his nose and eating it.
Leo blushed. "I'm sorry, I was rushing, I didn't even think of that,"
Kira smiled. "Thats okay babe, we're going to have the best naked cupcakes in the world,"
Leo smiled again. "That is what we shall be known for! Not defeating Gaea, but naked cupcakes!"
Kira laughed. "Which, of course, is the best thing ever!"
Leo paused, shaking his head. He tossed the oven mitts on the counter, next to the mess they had created. "It is not the best thing ever."
Kira arched an eyebrow. "Then what is, Lava Girl?"
"You."
Kira shook her head. "Us."
Leo's shone in the kitchen lighting. He embraced her. He lifted her off the ground, swirling her around the kitchen. "Kira Willows, I am so, so, so in love with you."
Kira just smiled. "That's relieving. 'Cause I'm in love with you too, Leo Valdez."
Leo's face grew nervous, though it was masked by a smile. "Do you mean that?"
Kira's eyebrow's furrowed. "Of course I do, and will always."
Leo brought her back down to the floor, his hand reaching into his back pocket. Kira froze, not moving from where she stood.
Leo bent down onto one knee.
Kira covered her mouth, tears immediately pooling in the corner of her eyes.
He produced a small, black box. He opened it painfully slow, but when it was finally in view, Kira let the tears fall down her cheeks.
"Kira, you and me have been through hell and back. Well, you literally did, but not the point." Leo's hands were sweating, his cheeks flushed. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. No matter gets through our way, I want to go through it with you."
Kira barely let him finish, nodding eagerly.
"Kira Willows, will you marry me?"
Kira launch herself into his familiar arms, past the glistening ring. The ring was beautiful, even if they didn't have the money for a big ring.
"And I know-" Leo got choked up. "I know it's not the best ring. When I get a job, I'll get you a better one-"
"Leo," Kira sobbed. Her head was buried in the crook of his neck. "I don't want a bigger ring. This one is perfect."
Leo's arm's tightened around her, and so they sat, crying together on the floor of their kitchen.
"Kira," He muttered into her shoulder. "Neno,"
"Yes?" She asked, muffled from being embraced in him.
"Let me put it on you."
Kira released him, pulling away to see the ring again. It was a simple golden band, with a single diamond. To Kira, it was better then all the rest of any other rings in the entire world. Because, this one was hers.
He slipped the ring on, a perfect fit. She liked to think of it as them as a couple, that they were a perfect fit.
"I love you," Leo whispered, kissing her forehead, tears in his eyes still.
Kira smiled as tears fell down her cheeks. "I adore you."
Leo laughed. "Kira Willows, always have to outdo me, huh?"
Her eyes brightened. "That's my job, Valdez."
They embraced once more, not wanting to let go.
On the counter, Leo's phone buzzed. He reluctantly got up, to see it was Piper. Kira smiled shyly.
"Did you tell her?" She asked as they both watched the phone ring.
"I had to, to make sure I was doing the right thing."
Kira smiled. "Piper told you to propose to me on the kitchen floor as I was covered in flour?"
"Nope. I kinda winged it." Leo said, blushing. "It kinda hit me, when you said you loved me."
Kira knit her eyebrows. "I've said that before, though,"
Leo smiled. "It was different." He shook his head. "I don't know, I just-I knew it was the rest moment."
Kira pecked his lips before pointing to the phone. "Are you going to answer?"
"Nah, she can wait."
Kira squealed as Leo lifted her again to the counter to kiss her.
Behind them, the oven beeped. Leo groaned.
"Baby, that's just the temperature," Kira told him, laughing into the kiss. "We've got all the time in the world."
Guys I think this is my favorite chapter. Like, oh my gods, I had so much fun writing this!