Chapter Text
Leo loved Friday-night Blockbuster runs.
It was the perfect way to wrap up a shitty week at school. He, Jason, and Piper would skate down to their local Blockbuster, move the pornos over to the ‘children’s film’ section, and annoy the shit out of the teenaged cashier until he’d relent and let them rent a movie despite their oodles of late fees.
Then, they’d throw the movie into the VCR, order a pizza, and smoke cigarettes in Jason’s musty basement. They’d lament over annoying teachers and bitchy classmates and make quips about dumb teen romcoms.
Leo grinned. He always looked forward to Fridays. Weeks dragged on and on due to his ADHD. Movie night was the light at the end of the tunnel, something he knew would be there for him even on the shittiest of weeks. He held the door open for Jason and Piper and bowed dramatically. “After you, I insist.” He did a little hat tip with his beanie to make it extra obnoxious.
Piper rolled her eyes. “You’re so lame,” she said affectionately. Piper entered the Blockbuster, her dirty skates still on her feet, lines of dirt pressing into the carpet. Jason snickered and followed Piper, his blue-and-yellow windbreaker making obnoxious swishy noises as he walked.
Leo walked in after them; his skateboard tucked firmly under his arm. He had the skater look down pat, with his big jeans, skater shirt, and beat-up vans. “What’re we renting this week, y’all?” As he turned down the aisle, the tail of his board knocked into a VHS display. A couple of VHS cases tumbled to the ground.
Jason hummed thoughtfully. “I dunno.” He ran a hand through aggressively middle-parted hair.
“Ooh, how about Clueless ?” Piper plucked a case off the shelf excitedly.
“We’ve watched that one three times now!” Leo complained. “I can’t believe you like that movie. It’s for preps.”
“Ugh, I know, I know. I hate that I like it. So not my style,” Piper sighed, forgetting to cover up her valley girl accent in the moment. “But we’re still getting it.”
Jason shrugged. “I guess that’s fine. There’s honestly no point in trying to argue about it.”
“Yeah,” Leo said. “Because Piper always wins our arguments. It’s unfair. She can like, twist her words into making anyone believe in them.”
Jason laughed. “That she can.”
“Remember when I convinced you guys hamsters were government spies?” Piper reminisced, thrusting the VHS case into Leo’s hands.
He accepted the case, tossing it up in the air lightly and catching it. “Good times. Let’s go check out now; I wanna see how fast I can piss him off.” The word him referred to the particular Blockbuster employee who was always on shift Friday nights. He had some generic name that started with an ‘N’- Nick? Nathan?
“It took you twenty-eight seconds last time, let’s see if we can go for three under?” Jason proposed, ready to start the stopwatch feature on his watch. He liked to watch from the sidelines- he was a bit more cautious when it came to causing mayhem. After all, he was the junior class president.
“You’re really testing me, Jace. But you know I’m a genius when it comes to messing with people.” Leo loved chaos. He especially loved causing it . There was a reason Leo had a reputation among his peers for it. He liked to banter with his teachers until they got so angry they forgot to teach. It was the only reason why jocks didn’t beat him up.
“Well, go. Do we need to buy any snacks?” Piper asked, lifting a ‘We’re hiring!’ sign to read the price of the sour candy on display.
Jason shook his head no. “I got Dunkaroos at home. Now shush, I wanna know when to start my stopwatch.” He knocked his hip into Piper playfully, who hit his hip right back.
“Good luck,” Piper said to Leo, patting his back.
Leo shot them a grin and a finger gun and strutted up to the counter. The cashier took a deep breath, preparing himself for the exchange. He, too, knew Leo’s reputation for mischief.
“Find everything alright?” The cashier asked dryly, knowing what was to come. His eyes were dark, and his under-eye bags prominent, complimenting his deadpan expression perfectly.
“No duh,” Leo said, slamming the case onto the counter and sliding his Blockbuster card towards the cashier slickly, along with the usual rental fee. His nails were painted blue, the same shade as the Blockbuster card- Piper’s handiwork. “I’m checking out, aren’t I?”
“Yeah. You certainly are,” Nico sighed, scanning the card methodically.
“Well,” Leo said suavely, leaning in closer. “S’not the only thing I’m checking out right now.” He winked, looking the cashier up and down and noticing his nametag. “ Nico di Angelo .”
Nico did not look too pleased that Leo knew his name now. “Oooookay. That can of worms aside; you have over one hundred dollars worth of late fees. Last Friday, you rented Beetlejuice , and you still haven’t returned it,” Nico explained, looking at Leo’s renting history.
“Oh, come on, Nico! Just let it slide. Please,” he begged, smiling sweetly. It was a good act, only ruined by the gleam of mischief that clouded his eyes. Still, his curly hair made him look almost innocent.
Jason tutted. “ He’s at one-minute now,” he whispered. Piper shook her head disapprovingly and continued watching the exchange play out.
“No. Sorry, but this is Clueless . Maybe if it were something shittier, like Air Bud, I’d consider it,” he said, firmly. Leo rested his forearm on the counter, an aura of overdone confidence surrounding him.
“I’m telling you, Nico, you look great . That blue polo is seriously doing it for-”
“Shut up.” He rubbed his temple.
Leo gasped dramatically. “What would your manager think if they heard you saying that?” He went back to his usual tone of voice. “I’m trying to blackmail you, by the way. Is it working?”
“I don’t think so.” Nico took a second to think. “Look, if you put some money towards your late fees, I’ll let you rent your movie. There’s our deal,” Nico decided, sick of hearing Leo’s monologue.
“You drive a hard bargain.” Leo rooted through his jeans, pulling out a yellow skittle and fifty-three cents. “Um, Piper? Jason? Do you have any cash?”
Jason provided a single dollar bill, and Piper produced a fiver from her pockets. “You owe me, Valdez,” she grumbled, forking over the cash reluctantly.
Leo grinned. “Thank you! Here you go, six fifty-three and your very own skittle. Have a good day!” He snatched the case and his membership card and sauntered out the door, leaving Nico to stare in disbelief.
“How did I do?” Leo asked, setting down his board. Jason shook his head as he climbed onto his bike.
“Horribly. Took you four minutes, and you needed help from Piper and me.” The trio began to ride off from the store on their respective modes of transportation.
“You’re losing your touch, man.”
“Am not!”
“You are, admit it,” Piper singsonged.
“Okay, I’m not, that dude’s just pissed all the time,” Leo reasoned, ollieing up a curb and sticking the landing.
“He’s emo or goth or whatever,” Piper said dismissively, speeding up on her skates. “That’s his whole deal.”
“Well, it was just a bad day, or whatever ,” Leo said, mocking Piper’s dialect.
“Okay, one, I do not sound like that,” Piper insisted, her voice sounding eerily similar to Leo’s ‘Piper Voice.’ “And no, you just suck now. Learn to cope, Leonidas.”
“Oh, I’m gonna get you for that one, Pipes!” Leo sped up, arms outstretched as Piper shrieked and moved her feet wildly to outpace him.
Jason watched them with a dorky smile on his face, shaking his head and laughing as he sped up to match their pace.
…
They made it to Jason’s dinky little one-story suburban, parking their modes of transport in the garage before walking in. “Sometimes, I wish we were like normal teens, and we just drove cars, you know?” Jason said, panting from the exertion. He remembered the pain of spending hours practicing to get his license, only for Leo and Piper to insist on skating everywhere.
Piper waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, but that’s what everyone else is doing. We’re more eco-friendly! I think that’s cooler than heavily-polluting cars.” She set her little backpack on the counter as though she lived in Jason’s house and went to the fridge to grab a Crystal Pepsi.
“I’m sure Drew, Dawn, and Dash agree. That’s why Dash punted me in the trash!” Leo complained, taking off his beanie and shoving it into his jeans pocket, rustling his curls so he wouldn’t have hat hair.
“The Verbs are all going to be gas station workers, anyway. What they say doesn’t matter,” Piper said. A bit hypocritical of her, considering she stopped wearing makeup just because Drew Tanaka said it looked ugly once.
“You actually call them that stupid name?” Leo scoffed. “I just call them ‘those assholes,’ it’s a lot more descriptive.”
Jason’s college-aged sister, Thalia, got up from her position on the couch and interrupted their exchange tactfully before Leo and Piper could start bickering. “Hey guys,” she greeted, covering the receiver of her cordless phone. “Sorry, I ate your Dunkaroos, Jason.” Her tone was unapologetic. Jason waved her off, and Thalia turned her attention to Jason’s friends.
“Hey, Leo. Learn any new tricks?” Leo shook his head.
“I’m still working on that thing you taught me.” Thalia nodded.
“I’m sure you’re still breaking the mold, ey Piper?” Piper’s eyes sparkled as she grinned.
“Yup!”
“Glad to hear. Yell if any of you guys need anything.” She slumped back onto the couch, putting the cordless phone back to her ear. “Sorry, Reyna, I was just talking to my brother’s friends.”
“Why are you talking to Reyna ?” Jason asked. She was the senior class president, and Thalia was a freshman in community college.
“Oh, we’re friends, ” Thalia said, coyly. “Now, go watch your movie.”
“Yeah! You two go put in the movie, I’ll call the pizza in,” Piper said, pulling out a flip phone. Leo stared at the thing jealously before shaking it off. He wanted a flip phone, but only daughters of movie stars had them.
“Okay, well...The last one down to the basement rewinds the tape!” Leo yelled, nudging Jason and sprinting down to the basement steps.
Jason yelped, clambering downstairs and beating Leo only barely. “Goddamnit,” Leo complained. As his consolation prize, he claimed the armchair, rewinding the VHS with a pencil before slipping the cartridge into the dusty VCR.
Soon enough, the pizza came, and then they were watching Clueless, eating pizza, and smoking cigarettes in Jason’s basement like they did every Friday night.
Leo took his eyes off the screen for a bit. He had seen Clueless enough times, as it was one of Piper’s favorites. Rewatches were hard with ADHD, so scenes he memorized would drag on and bore him.
Piper was sitting on the couch, sitting side-saddle. She dressed as she usually did- baggy men’s jeans, a crop top, and little butterfly clips. She laughed along to the movie, brown eyes glittering with amusement.
Then, there was Jason, who wasn’t watching the movie.
Instead, Jason was staring down at Piper’s hand. It was sort of close to his but not really. Her hands were dark and almost dainty looking, with chipping black nail polish. He seemed to be considering something intently before moving his eyes back to the TV, but not before giving Piper one last look.
Leo did the same, looking at the movie but not watching it. His mind became fixated on romance.
Leo was bad at romance, but he’d be the last to admit that to anybody . He always fell for people out of his league without realizing it and never landed any of his pickup lines.
But he was sort-of good at picking up on other people’s feelings. It was hard for him because he’d always overthink it, but when watching others, it was clear to see how they felt.
Leo wasn’t exactly great with humans, so his knowledge of them felt almost machine-like .
If he was reading the signs right, examining each component of metaphorical machinery correctly, and making inferences based on prior knowledge, something was building between Jason and Piper.
Jason and Piper. Jason and Piper. Where would that leave him in everything? Would he be an integral part of getting them together? Or would he be a loose bolt, abandoned by the wayside?
Leo had to find his place in a machine. Otherwise, he’d be alone again, a loose bolt unable to find somewhere he could slot in.
...
“I always forget how good this movie is,” Leo admitted, watching as the credits rolled and squinting to read some of the names.
“I told you, it’s good for a prep movie,” Piper said, opening the pizza box and groaning dramatically when she realized there were no slices left.
They shared their thoughts on the movie as they always did, making quips about the characters and laughing about some of the inaccuracies.
Soon, the conversation died down. The credits finished, and an awkward silence lingered in the air. Leo stared at the boxy TV, biting the inside of his cheek and pulling at the bottom of his shirt. Jason took notice of his anxiety immediately. Leo wasn’t one to show his emotions much.
“Something on your mind, Leo?” He asked, concern lacing his voice. Leo seemed to snap out of his trance, almost shocked that somebody had noticed him.
“Um, I was wondering...Do any of you have like, dates for homecoming this year?” He asked, his voice softer, less boisterous.
“Homecoming?” Jason said, the word foreign on his tongue like he hadn’t even considered the event. “It’s only mid-September. Hoco is at the end of October.”
“And,” Piper cut in before Leo could respond. “Homecoming is for losers! Homecoming is just a stupid, overrated, overpriced thing the school is feeding us. Only popular-”
“Yeah, yeah, look, I know Piper. I know. You hate being like the popular crowd. We know.” Leo sighed, his voice serious. “It’s just, like, an excuse, for me. An excuse.” He repeated the phrase like it made his perspective immediately evident to his friends.
“What do you mean ‘an excuse,’ I’m not following…” Piper said, her voice trailing off softly. She pulled her crop-top down self-consciously as she stared at Leo, waiting for a response.
Leo grumbled, scrunching and un-scrunching his nose. He hated not being able to put his thoughts into words correctly. “It’s an excuse. To. Ask someone out, or whatevs. It’s just a nice little… it’s a cliche. To ask someone to Hoco. Yeah, it’s a dumb high school tradition, but I love the idea of it, okay? I wanna ask somebody to Homecoming and go with them. Sue me.”
“Oh!” Piper brightened. Her emotions shifted quickly. Piper could either be very stubborn with her opinions or not at all. “That’s cool! Yeah, let’s reclaim Homecoming; it doesn’t belong to the in-crowd. It’s universal.”
Jason chuckled. “Leo, it’s okay to want to be with someone and ask them out. It’s not dumb to have a crush on someone.” His eyes flickered to Piper for a split second.
Leo exhaled, letting out a nervous laugh. “I guess you’re right. I just thought you two would make fun of me for some reason. But I just wanna go with someone romantically, have that experience.” Piper’s eyes widened.
“Do you like someone in particular ?” She asked, hopefully. “What’s the four one one?”
“Uhh…” Leo didn’t know how to voice his thoughts nicely . “No offense, Piper, but you’re a bad wingman.” Piper pouted.
“Rude.”
“It’s true! Remember Kiki?” Leo asked rhetorically, not giving her a chance to respond. “She rejected me- which was fair- and then you -”
“We all make mistakes,” Piper said dismissively.
Leo groaned. “You broke into her car and superglued her CD thingy, so it only played Can You Feel The Love Tonight from the Lion King.” Jason snorted, then covered it up with a cough after Piper glared at him.
“Well, now she knows not to keep her car unlocked. Hardly breaking in if she’s too stupid to lock her car,” Piper said disdainfully.
“...”
“You still haven’t answered my question, though,” Piper reminded him reluctantly.
Leo let out a puff of air. “Not anyone in particular.” He clicked his tongue, leaning back in his armchair. “I’ve just been hanging onto the thought of going on cute dates and having someone to cuddle up with,” he said, honestly.
“So, Leo has a soft spot, huh?” Jason teased, smiling at his friend.
“I’m still a bad boy! But like, a little soft, yeah,” he conceded after a beat. “I’m those crabs with the soft tummies, which is their weak point or something. Yeah. I’m a crab.” Leo realized a second later how dumb he sounded.
Piper giggled. “Don’t go telling everyone you’re a crab. That’s not very sexy.”
“Don’t tell people you have crabs or anything, either,” Jason tacked on. Leo shook his head, throwing a balled-up napkin at Jason and shaking his head.
“I suppose I just want experience in the dating field too,” Leo said wistfully. “You see everyone else with their lasting summer romances, and I’m just... left in the dust.” A loose bolt that couldn’t fit into any machine .
“I see where you’re coming from,” Jason mumbled.
“Sooooo,” Piper said, pulling the reins on their conversation again. “We’re doing this Homecoming thing after all, huh?”
“I mean, only if y’all wanna,” Leo was quick to respond, tossing his hands up expressively. “If you don’t want to, that’s okay; I can just-”
“Oh, we’ll go, Leo. Don’t worry,” Jason assured, waving a hand. “It might be entertaining.”
“We can go shopping and plan outfits and all that, too!” Piper frowned. “But it’s so far in the future. How dare you get me excited for something I have to wait for.”
Leo shook his head. “Piper, in the span of ten minutes, you got excited about something you hated a bit ago. Never change.”
“Oh, bite me.”
Jason cleared his throat. “Well, you have plenty of time to scope out the people at our school,” Jason supplied, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. “See who’s available and who you like.”
“That’s true!” Leo brightened, straightening his back.
“Do you have a type? You haven’t dated that much in the past few years…” Leo put a hand to his heart dramatically.
“Wow! Way to burn me. Kinda harsh, Pipes.”
“I didn’t even mean it like that!” Piper protested.
“...I don’t have a type. I just want someone I can vibe with, someone with a sense of humor,” he said. His cheeks tinged red slightly.
“Very specific,” Jason chimed in. “But let’s cut this short. I have to get to bed. Want me to drive you two?”
“Nah, save the Earth-destroying gas. I’ll skate-”
“It wasn’t a suggestion, Piper,” Jason said seriously. “It’s late out, you don’t know who is out there, and it’s a decent while away from here, and-”
“Okay, mom, cut the crap, let’s go!” Leo shoved his feet into his Vans. He was quick to run from the basement. He had felt vulnerable, his emotions on display. Leo was always ready to run from any situation that made him even a tinge uncomfortable. It was a reaction at this point: things don’t work out? Get away. Run.
He looked at the couch. Thalia was gone, probably working on homework or something. Leo went off into the garage to grab his skateboard and then get into Jason’s car.
Leo took methodic breaths, giving him a second to calm down. Talking about his feelings had always made him feel uncomfortable. Confrontation wasn’t something he liked. Leo blinked, and in an instant, he was smiling, just in time for Jason and Piper to enter the garage.