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“Nat-? What are you doing here!?”
Leo whispered out, his tone of voice akin to a surprised hiss.
“I wanted to surprise you!”
Nat said in a giddy manner, she looked genuinely happy, jumping out and tackling Leo by the door to the Hephaestus cabin.
Internally, Leo is freaking out, he doesn’t know what to do, as on one hand he’s genuinely happy and excited to see his girlfriend since he’s been too busy getting called back to Camp Half-Blood for errands, and on the other, he’s panicking at the fact that his girlfriend is at his camp, his serial killer girlfriend, to add to that.
“Nobody saw anything! I’m telling you!” Nat told Leo in a reassuring manner.
“Are you sure…? How the-? How am I going to make sure everyone else doesn’t know my secret girlfriend snuck in to visit me!” Leo told her, his panic rising as he got up and closed the cabin door, just in case.
“Easy, they won’t, I’m not like Toby where if he’s anywhere near where you’re at, you can tell something’s off.” Nat said to Leo with a shrug.
Leo just blinked at Nat, mentally processing her logic towards the situation.
“How come you and Toby scare me shitless when you actually have to do your slasher dirty work, yet act like hyperactive wolf puppies when it comes to anything else…?” Leo asks Nat, giving her a puzzled look.
“Good question, must be because Mannequin Man isn’t giving us orders and shit, very specific analogy though.” Nat responds to Leo’s question, seeming to be amused by Leo’s comparison.
“That… makes sense…. Remember that one time Nico asked Toby to get him something? It was like a last-in-stock type of thing, and Toby acted like a madman, but then acted like a kicked puppy when Nico didn't want to cuddle during his horror movie binge…” Leo said, thinking back to that, nodding.
“Yeah, Toby’s scary when he wants to be, I mean, he is a cannibal y’know?” Nat said to Leo in response.
“Uhh.” Leo said in response to Nat’s words.
“Nevermind.” Nat said, taking in Leo’s response.
“O-Kay… changing the subject, have the Stoll’s seen you?” Leo asked, changing the subject so as to not make things awkward between them.
“Who?” Nat asked, genuinely confused.
“The Stoll brothers, Connor and Travis Stoll? Identical brothers?” Leo asked, worried a little.
“Eh, no.” Nat said, confused.
Leo let out a sigh of relief seeing as he was wrong.
“Phew… those two, they’re wild…” Leo said finally, relieved.
But Leo’s relief soon faded as he heard a voice from outside the cabin.
“Uh? Is Leo here…? Will told me to tell you to meet him at-?”
An unfamiliar, slightly awkward, voice asked from outside the Hephaestus cabin, it was definitely someone from the Apollo cabin.
“Quick! Hide!” Leo whispered to Nat, quickly dragging her off towards the back of the cabin, underneath one of the various messy bunk beds, moving a cardboard box and some spare blanket to hide themselves.
“Who’s Will…?” Nat asked, now hidden underneath the bunk bed alongside Leo, keeping her voice low.
“He’s the guy being weird about Nico…” Leo told Nat quickly, his voice equally low, suddenly shushing her as he heard the cabin door open slightly.
Some blonde Apollo kid poked his head through the door, looking confused, muttering a curse to himself as he then closes the door and leaves the Hephaestus cabin.
Once the kid is fully gone, Nat speaks to Leo again.
“Wait, since when…?” Nat asks Leo, the two of them are still underneath the bunk bed, not making an effort to leave the spot.
“Ever since Nico left, he went missing and all of us were scared shitless, not even Hazel knew of his whereabouts, and I guess that guy took offense at Nico's departure, I don’t know why though.” Leo explained to Nat, grabbing the spare blanket, bundling it up and giving it to Nat so she could rest her elbows.
“Has Toby been here yet?” Nat asks Leo.
“No? No, I doubt it, Nico doesn’t really feel at home here, with all the other demigods, they all treat him weird just for being a Hades kid, I’ll admit, I was at fault for that too, when we first met…” Leo said to Nat, feeling a bit ashamed of admitting the last part to his girlfriend.
“It’s okay, you dork, you’ve grown from that, you’ve taken responsibility for that, on your actions, that’s the good part, you should feel good about yourself, being able to grow and change.” Nat said to Leo, reassuring him, not wanting him to feel bad about things from the past that one isn’t able to change.
“Thanks, Nat, but why’d you ask about Toby?” Leo said in response to her words, feeling glad to have her.
“I want Toby to fuck that guy up, no, genuinely.” Nat said, fully meaning it.
Leo laughed, that would be funny, a serial killer working for an eldritch monster, at peak-human strength, with enhanced senses and reflexes, against a demigod, son of Apollo, a natural healer with photokinesis, that’s apparently good at throwing things.
“That would be interesting, if there’s foul play involved. Toby wins, automatically, but if it’s just spar? That would be amusing to see.” Leo says in response to Nat’s sentiment, letting out a chuckle.