Work Text:
"Hey Leo."
"Aaaaaaah!"
The sound of a screwdriver hitting the concrete floor and Leo's, well, not very manly scream filled the otherwise quiet Bunker 9. Up until a few seconds ago, Leo had been calmly going over a new defence mechanism for the Argo II. He had been so busy with the Valdez 5000 - a device that could catapult banana peels and other organic waste to the enemy - that he hadn't heard the footsteps of someone entering his workplace.
"Can you NEVER do that again!? My Gods, woman! You almost gave me a heart attack!," he yelled at the green-haired girl before him, all the while breathing heavily and clutching his chest.
The girl, Merel, only chuckled at his display. "I'm sorry!," she told him, but with such an amused tone that he didn't believe her for a second. "Do you want me to go get a doctor? I can fetch Will if you want me to."
"Pff, I don't need a doctor! I got Spanish blood flowing through my veins; good for the vitals and the looks. Don't you think so, chica?," he said, adding a playful wink at the end.
"Oh, yes! Definitely," she answered laughing. Now, Leo had always liked it when people laughed. Laughing meant that people were at ease, that they were comfortable. It could solve the awkward tension, something that Leo experienced almost daily. Merel's laugh, however, was something else. He couldn't help but grin when he heard it. Maybe it was something about the way one of the corners of her mouth lifted just a tiny bit higher than the other. Or maybe the way her warm, earthy-brown eyes somehow got even warmer, giving them a certain sparkle. Whatever it was, making her laugh had become one of his favourite pastimes.
"What are you doing here anyways?," he asked, trying to distract himself from his thoughts, a blush slowly making it's way to his face.
"Well, all the flowerpots at my cabin are currently filled, the plants themselves already taken care of and Nico says he'll raise the skeletons from every mole in the neighbourhood if I plant anymore sunflowers near the Hades cabin. So I was bored and I decided to visit my favourite son of Hephaestus -that's you- and see what he was doing. So," she said, looking at him with one of her sweet smiles, "What are you doing?"
Leo turned around, back to his workbench, and motioned for her to stand next to him. "Before I was so rudely interrupted," he gave her a playful glare, "I was working on a new idea I had for the Argo II. You know, to give it a little more spunk."
"Oh cool," Merel commented, leaning her hand on the counter to get a better view at his blueprint. "What does- ew!" She looked at her hand, which was covered in a shiny, black liquid.
"Now, I'm usually not one to back away from dirty things, but what even is this?," she asked, her nose scrunched up and trying to get the substance off her hand.
"Ah, well that would be a mixture of grease, oil, dirt," and possibly a bit of mucus from when he sneezed earlier, but he wasn't going to tell her that. She looked grossed out as it was.
She looked at his workbench. Yes, there was grease everywhere, but that didn't matter to him at all. 'If your workbench isn't dirty, then you're not putting enough effort in what you're working on', his mother used to say. "It's all over your desk. I could draw in this," Merel said. As if to prove a point, she proceeded to draw something in the black substance with her index finger, apparently not so disgusted anymore now that she knew what it was.
"Look, it's you."
Leo looked over at her drawing. It was a face, that's for sure. Two eyes, a nose and a mop of curly hair. It even looked to have the same jaw structure as him. He would have complimented her on her drawing skills if it weren't for one tiny little detail. "Hey! My ears aren't that pointy!"
"Sure they are."
"No, they aren't! I have beautiful ears, that, yes, curve a little bit more upwards than the average ear, but I'm not one of Santa's elves!," he protested.
"They're on fire."
"Yes, thank you for noticing that. My ears are amazing."
"No, I mean they are actually on fire."
"What!?," he exclaimed scrambling to the nearest mirror, an old sooty one that hung on the wall. As she'd said, both of his ears were covered in bright orange flames. How embarrassing. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the flames going out. Eventually, he could feel his ears getting cooler, so he opened his eyes. Unfortunately, although the flames were out, his ears were now glowing red from embarrassment.
"Hey, you don't have to be embarrassed about that. I had a swarm of bees follow me around all day once. I had to stay in the canoe lake until they were gone and let me tell you, that water gets real cold when the sun goes down. Remember that day?"
He turned around at her words. Yes he remembered that day. She'd missed dinner, so he'd sat near the water and thrown pieces of bread at her head like she was a duck.
"A couple of burning ears don't even come close to that!"
Leo smiled at his friend. She always knew just what to say to make him feel better.
"But you know," Merel began, a teasing look in her eyes that he didn't fully trust. "If you want to feel embarrassment, I can help you." And with that she smeared her grease covered finger along his cheek.
He looked at her, baffled. "You- how dare you! How dare you blemish my handsome face with your dirty finger! I'll get you!" He went to grab her and wipe his own greasy fingers on her face, but she ducked away.
"You'll have to catch me first!," she yelled at him, grinning all the way. She stuck her tongue out and ran away.
Leo chased after her, his face lit up in a grin. Merel could sure run fast for a girl who said she hated workouts. But eventually she made the mistake to head somewhere he knew was a dead end. He had her now. It felt a bit like he was a dog, chasing after an escaped sheep. And she was a very cute sheep.
He smirked when she turned around to face him, after she found out she was trapped. She had that funny 'Uh-Oh'-look in her eyes. She opened her mouth, probably to try and convince him to let her go, but he ran at her before she could even bring out a syllable. He grabbed her around the waist and started tickling her.
"No! Haha! Let me go!," she squealed, her legs turning to jello, making her fall on the floor. Leo, who was still tickling her sides, had no choice but to go down with her.
Merel squirmed and thrashed around with her limbs, laughing her heart out along the way. "Leo, please! Hahaha! Let -haha- me.....go!"
"First say that I have the handsomest ears you have ever seen and that I am the ultimate and never defeated king!"
"N-No! Never!"
"Say it!"
"Hahaha! O-Okay! Okay! Leo Valdez has the handsomest ears I have ever seen and he's the ultimate and never defeated king!"
"Now that's more like it," Leo said grinning. He stopped poking her but kept his hands rested on her waist. They were both breathing heavily, their heaving chests almost touching each other. She was so close to him right now, closer than she'd ever been before. He could see aspects of her face he didn't know existed. Had she always had green flecks in her eyes? Had her eyelashes always been this long. Had her lips always looked this soft.
He felt his heart aching in his throat. His eyes quickly flicked from her mouth to her eyes, and he felt the blood rush to his face when he found out she was already looking at him. She also had a rosy glow on her cheeks and her eyes held a certain glint that he couldn't put his finger on.
Leo flirted a lot. That was his thing, he liked to make the ladies laugh, keep up his big act of confidence. But in truth, he was incredibly shy when it came to the real thing. And to have Merel now, so close to him...he didn't know what to do. Or, well, he did, but he didn't know if she would appreciate his actions.
But for the love of Gods, when was she ever this close to him. It scrambled his brain. He felt like picking the petals of daisy. Should he do it? Should he not do it? Should he do it?
Leo's eyes kept flicking between her eyes and her lips, trying to get some sort of sign. He decided to go for it. He had to; this was the right moment. When would he ever get such an opportunity again?
Very, very slowly he neared her face just the tiniest fraction with his, his caramel eyes searching her chocolate ones for a reaction. When she didn't move her head away, or yell at him in disgust, he continued moving until he slowly and gently let his lips touch hers.
Her lips were soft and cool against his, moulding almost perfectly to his mouth. When she started to kiss back, he could feel a volcano erupt in his stomach, a cosy warmth spreading through his entire body. Her breath, that ghosted over his lips when they eventually broke apart, gave him shivers.
"Leo?"
"Hmm?"
"Your ears are on fire again."
"Oh come-on!"