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Of all the things Leo expected today, this was the last.
He’d planned his usual routine of waking up, working on the Argo II, maybe hanging out with his siblings, maybe eating, go to bed.
He’d considered throwing in a bit of hanging out with Jason or maybe catching up with Piper, but ever since the two of them got together, they’d been too focused on each other to care about him.
He froze when he thought that. He hadn’t considered how much he was starting to resent his friends and he wasn’t sure he liked that.
He wondered if Annabeth and Percy had done the same with their friends when they got together. One of the few things he’d managed to pick up in his time at camp about the time before he showed up was that those two only got together recently. If they did, he didn’t want anything to do with romance.
Either way, the last thing he expected was Drew Tanaka, former counselor of the Aphrodite cabin and Piper’s sworn nemesis (according to her anyway), walking into Bunker Nine and looking around with a curious gaze.
“Uh, can I help you?” Leo couldn’t help but ask.
Drew turned to him with a smile that shouldn’t have made him feel as warm as he did. “I just wanted to check up on you.”
Leo blinked. “Why? It’s not like we were ever close.”
Drew shrugged. “You’re working so hard, day in day out, trying to help camp out and no one’s checking up on you. I figured someone should, and since no one else did, I decided I’d do it.”
Leo looked at her for a moment, trying to figure out what her angle was. There was no way she was doing this out of the kindness of her own heart. He wasn’t sure whether Piper’s description of her was accurate anymore, not after she’d ignored him for so long, but even then, he and Drew weren’t that close.
Why would she be here?
He had a lot of things he could ask. Why did she not talk to him for two months now since he got to camp? What did she have to gain from this? What was her angle here?
But he was tired of being alone. He was tired of his friends leaving him. He was tired of having no one to talk to.
So, against his better judgment, he decided he had nothing to lose by letting her stick around. “Alright then.”
Drew’s eyes widened for a moment. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he wondered how long it would take for her to decide he wasn’t worth whatever her plan was, but he might as well make the most of it. “Knock yourself out.”
She nodded, her face morphing back into a smile. “Great!”
She walked in and sat on a bench near where he was working, giving him a look over. “So, what’re you doing?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You want to know?”
Drew nodded. “Yeah. It’s to help camp, isn’t it? I want to know what’s going on.”
Leo shrugged and figured he had nothing to lose. He started explaining how he was molding the Celestial Bronze to be shaped into the frame for the ship, how the ship’s controls were being wired, and how he needed to make sure the cooling system worked.
Surprisingly, she understood most of the things he said, nodding along and asking a few questions here and there. She sounded like she had experience with Hephaestus cabin’s forging.
When he asked, she nodded casually enough. “Back when Beckendorf was around, I used to hang out with him a lot. I saw him work in the forge a bunch and picked up a few things.”
Leo nodded slowly. “You’re more than meets the eye.”
“I pride myself in that, hun.”
She stayed longer than he thought she would, but she had to go around lunchtime.
At least, he thought she’d go, but she refused to leave without him. “I’ll be fine, Drew. I’ll grab a bite to eat later.”
She raised her perfect eyebrow and tilted her head. “See, I’d believe you if I didn’t know better. Come on, you can continue later.”
He opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off. “You’ll burn out if you keep doing this. If you do, you’ll make less progress than you would on a full stomach.”
He sighed and nodded, figuring it wasn’t worth arguing. She was right after all.
They went to the pavilion together, ignoring the looks of everyone else. Piper and Jason didn’t notice which made Leo wonder what they were so preoccupied with.
When he got to his table, Nyssa poked him in the side. “You good Leo?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m good.”
She looked over at Drew and back at him. “Just be careful, alright?”
He gave her a grin. “My dear sister, careful is my middle name!”
She gave him the most unimpressed look he’d ever seen off her but she couldn’t hide the twitch in her mouth. “Oh, whatever.”
He took that as a success and moved to his lunch, wondering just how long it would take for Drew to give up her plan, whatever it was.
The past month was less frustrating than the first two he’d been at camp for and that all came down to a certain daughter of Aphrodite.
Drew had been visiting him at least once a day ever since she first walked into Bunker Nine. She always made sure to check on him, sat with him, talked with him, and made sure he was taking care of himself. Whatever her plan was, he didn’t mind it as much as he thought he would.
It was nice having someone to talk to, even if he knew that she wasn’t fully honest with why she was hanging out with him. It was good to have someone around.
He’d grown to enjoy her company, appreciate it even. He’d go into the forge waiting for when she showed up. He hadn’t expected that when he first met her and she looked at him like he was a dead raccoon.
He wanted to ask her about that but he wasn’t sure how to bring it up. He didn’t want to ruin a good thing, and this was the only good thing he had going on in his life.
She was the one constant at this point, always there. He didn’t know what he wanted to do, but he knew he didn’t want to lose her.
And yet, when she walked into the forge, he knew he had to. If he wanted to get some peace of mind, if he wanted to be able to go forward with whatever it was they were doing, being friends or whatever, he needed to know.
“Leo!” She threw her arms around him and he held her back. It was something she’d started doing after about two weeks had passed and he wasn’t complaining. He knew she was probably just trying to get him attached to her, but he didn’t care.
He was attached and he couldn’t let go. He knew it’d hurt all the more when it all came to an end, but for now, he took what comfort he could.
He pulled back and she smiled at him, the smile somehow warmer than the one she’d given him the first day. He wasn’t sure what that meant, but he supposed it didn’t matter.
She caught the look in his eyes and poked him in the side. “Something on your mind, Leo?”
He sighed. “How do you always know what’s on my mind?”
She smiled and shrugged. “I’m just good with people, hun. Now spill.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I guess you are.”
A month ago, he’d have figured that was a lie, but now he knew better. She was good with people, good with her siblings, and good with her emotions, which made her actions when they first got to camp even weirder.
“I was just thinking about how we met,” he figured it would be best to cut to the chase. She didn’t like it when he hid things from her.
Her eyes widened a bit before she grimaced. “Not my best showing, I’ll admit.”
Leo nodded. “It’s what I wanted to know. This past month, the way you’ve been acting, well,” he scratched the back of his head as he thought of a way to put it. “It makes me wonder why you were like that.”
“Why I was a world-class bitch you mean?” She gave him a small smile when he started freaking out a bit. “I know what I was like, Leo. Don’t worry about it.”
She sighed and sat on a bench in the bunker, patting the seat next to her. He dropped into it, figuring they’d be here for a while.
Drew took a deep breath before she started. “Part of it was down to the fact I was still trying to make sense of the war we’d finished.”
“The one against the Titans?” He did remember hearing about that.
She nodded. “We’d only been out of it for four months. It was… it was rough, Leo. It was the worst thing you can imagine.”
He threw an arm around her shoulder and she leaned into him. He didn’t say anything as she continued. “It didn’t help when I learned Silena was the spy.”
“Piper told me a bit about her,” he had a feeling she’d be mad when he mentioned Piper and he wasn’t disappointed.
“Please, like that princess knows anything about Silena, about what we all went through,” she sounded properly angry now and it was like nothing he’d seen before. “She walked in, hearing about Silena from Mitchel and Lacy of all people, kids who didn’t even know Silena! She took their word for it and decided she knew more about my sister than I did!”
He rubbed her arm gently. “Wanna tell me about it?”
She looked up at him for a moment before she sighed. “Silena was my hero. She was amazing, Leo; it was like there was nothing she couldn’t do. If you wanted anything, she was there for you. Comfort, advice, help, you name it. We went to her for everything we could.”
Her face then scrunched up in pain and anger. “But we learned in the last war that she was spying on us for the Titans. And she did it because that Luke guy was cute,” she spat out the name Luke like it was a curse. “She’d been giving him information for years by that point and who knows what she told them.”
She suddenly slumped, her shoulders slouching, all the fight in her melting out. “And the worst part is no one’s allowed to say anything about her. Clarisse’ll beat you up if you dare say anything about the perfect princess, and with Percy gone, there’s no one to stop her.”
She looked up at him then with a silent apology in her eyes. “That’s also part of why I was like that when you showed up. Percy was the only one who’d listen to me when I had anything to say about Silena, and he was kidnapped. I was angry, tired, hurt, and I took it out on you. I’m sorry.”
Leo spoke up then. “Hey, it’s alright.”
She shook her head. “You can say you understand, but that doesn’t make it right. I shouldn't have taken it out on you.”
He was stunned, not having expected that. Hearing Drew now, he didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know how he’d act if he’d been in her place.
That was a lie; he knew how he’d act.
“I don’t blame you,” he finally said. She slid her arms around his waist as he said that. “I get why you were angry, and I get why you were lashing out. I don’t blame you, Drew.”
She looked up at him with a small smile. “Should’ve known you’d say that.”
He looked at her for what could have been anywhere between a minute and an hour, just lost in her eyes. She was looking at him with such affection, such compassion that he almost wanted to run.
He knew this was very likely going to end badly, he knew there was every chance he could end up regretting this. But as she leaned in, he found himself meeting her halfway.
He wondered if this would be considered the kiss of death, but whatever it was, it was too good to be true. Despite his hesitation, a part of him hoped that he’d be proven wrong.
Drew knew she’d let herself fall too deep when she kissed Leo.
Her original plan had been to get revenge on Piper through her best friend one way or another. The idea was to get him to fall for her and go from there, figuring he wouldn’t care about her otherwise, but he’d been nothing like she’d expected.
He was funny, he was kind, he was sweet, and he was smart. She’d thought he wouldn’t give her the time of day if she didn’t try to seduce him; very few people did. Something she’d learned about her stay at camp is that children of Aphrodite weren’t thought highly of.
Very few people actually spoke to her just to talk to her, Percy Jackson being the only one who’d actually become her friend. Annabeth Chase tried, but the two of them didn’t really mesh well, and ever since Percy disappeared, the two barely spoke.
Everyone else saw her as a ditzy bimbo at first and then a manipulative bitch as time went on, so she decided to use it as her armor. Who cared what they thought when she had the entire camp in the palm of her hand? What did it matter what they called her if she embodied it? She made sure not to let anyone in after Percy.
And yet, Leo Valdez had made his way past all her shields. He’d managed to wear her down in only a month and made her care about him. She knew this wouldn’t last; he’d learn why she started talking to him soon enough and it’d be over, her momentary joy gone forever, but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to enjoy it while she had it.
That was how she found herself on the bench in Bunker Nine with her lips planted firmly onto Leo’s. He wasn’t exactly the best kisser in the world, but he was a quick learner.
She pulled back and saw the dazed look in his eyes, feeling proud at having done that. “Having fun, Leo?”
“Uh,” he was so out of it that Drew couldn’t hold back her giggle.
“You’re cute, hon,” she kissed him one more time before pushing him ahead. “You should get back to work.”
“Tease,” he stole one more kiss before getting up, and she watched him get back to work with a mix of warmth and dread. She loved watching him at work; he moved so comfortably, so confidently, it was mesmerizing to watch.
And yet, she couldn’t shake the idea that this was temporary, that someday he’d learn why she started talking to him in the first place and he’d leave her too. Everyone leaves her one way or another, whether it’s Silena twice, Michael, or her dad.
No one stayed with her; that was just something she’d learned to live with. And yet, she knew that this one would be worse than all of the others. She’d made her peace with Silena, she’d only gone on a few dates with Michael, and the less said about her dad the better.
Leo was more than just her boyfriend, he was her closest confidante, her best friend. She couldn’t lose him, and yet she knew it was inevitable.
That made her time with him even harder than it already was. She was sure he’d hate her by the end of this, but there was nothing she could do about it.
She’d already fallen in too deep, and there was no coming out. She could only hope it didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would when he left her.
They’d kept their relationship a secret for a whole month. They hadn’t exactly planned that, but it just sort of happened.
Drew didn’t realize this until she kissed Leo at lunch and felt all eyes turn to her. She turned and saw Piper Mclean especially glaring at her. She seemed to think she had the right to have a say in Leo’s love life, and given what Leo had told her about her and Jason, she was the last person who could say anything on the matter.
She ignored everyone and made her way to her table. Piper turned to her immediately. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Kissing my boyfriend. You don’t see me asking you that when you and Pretty Boy are sucking face.”
Her eyes bulged as she started getting mad. Drew expected her to blow up on her but nothing happened; she just turned back to her lunch.
She turned and saw Leo giving her a concerned look. She shot him a quick smile but he didn’t look too reassured. She had a feeling they’d be talking later.
She was right, as she tended to be when it came to Leo. He took her to one side as soon as lunch was over and gave her a look. “What happened?”
She shrugged, seeing no reason to lie. “Piper went into protective mode when she saw us kiss.”
Leo frowned. “She has no right to do that. Not since we haven’t said a word to each other in over a week.”
Drew’s eyes widened when he said that. She knew they weren’t exactly as close now as they were when they got to camp, but a whole week without talking was too much.
“Why?”
“She and Jason got together and they’re spending most of their time together.”
“Even when Percy and Annabeth got together, they didn’t ignore their friends,” she shook her head. “She has no excuse; neither does Jason.”
Leo sighed and pulled her close. She threw her arms around his neck. They were at eye level with each other so she could see the thoughts racing. “They don’t matter right now. All that matters is you.”
He kissed her and she forgot everything that happened. He’d gotten a lot better at kissing over the past month and she could definitely appreciate it.
When she pulled back, she could see a glint in his eyes that she had a feeling she’d like. She was proven right when he spoke again. “Wanna head to the bunker and just relax?”
She kissed him again and smiled. “Lead the way, loverboy.”
They were happy for another week before it all went to shit. They’d been hanging out in Bunker Nine, Drew listening to Leo explain how he was planning on attaching the dragon’s head- Festus he called it- as the ship’s headpiece when Piper Mclean strode in with a purpose.
“What do you want, Piper?” Leo gave her a quick look. “I’m a bit busy.”
“You have to leave her!” She turned to glare at Drew. “She’s using you to get to me!”
Drew felt her blood run cold when she said that. Normally, she wouldn’t care what Mclean had to say, but there was only one way she could say that with the amount of confidence she had.
She would have read through her journal.
She’d kept that for her personal use, needing an outlet for everything she’d done, but she’d hidden it well. If Piper found it, she was in deep trouble.
Leo looked at her before he turned back to Piper. “How’d you know?”
“It’s in her journal! She talked to you from the beginning to try and get to me! She dropped a bunch of lies in it too, but that’s all you need to know.”
Leo looked at Piper for what felt like ages while Drew was waiting for him to tell her to leave. She’d had her moment of joy, and now it was time for it to disappear.
That was when Leo said something she could never have expected. “I know.”
“What?” Both Drew and Piper were shocked to hear that. Piper glared at him. “What do you mean you know?”
“I mean I knew she wouldn’t talk to me for no reason, and I figured it out pretty quick,” he shrugged. “I also know why she did it this way and I don’t really blame her.”
Piper went to speak but Leo cut her off. “Who I do blame for what they did is you, Mclean.”
Piper recoiled in shock. “What?”
“We haven’t spoken in two weeks and this is what you come to me for? You call yourself a friend but ever since you and Jason got together, you’ve given less than a shit about me. You don’t get to have a say in anything I do.”
Piper flinched. “But-”
“Get. Out,” he growled at last and Piper ran out of the bunker.
Drew stared at Leo in disbelief before she spoke. “You knew?”
Leo turned to her and his eyes softened. “Yeah, I did.”
“And you didn’t care?”
He shrugged. “At first, I was just glad someone was talking to me. After I got to know you, I got why you did it. You didn’t think I’d give you the time of day if you didn’t seduce me in some way or another, and considering what you said about how everyone treats you,” he shrugged again. “I get it.”
She couldn’t stop herself from throwing her arms around him if she tried. He held her close and she felt hope for the first time in a while.
He pulled back and kissed her hard. She melted into the kiss as she ran her fingers through his hair.
She pulled back and looked at him through hooded eyes. He pulled her back for another kiss and she felt like everything would work out for once.