Jackman2357

he/him

I was feeling lonely but then you walked in

Leo tries building Argo, fails, and gets comforted by Piper

Leo Valdez x Piper McLean

No content warnings apply!

Creak.

Zap.

Squeak.

Those were the sounds coming from the engine room of the Argo II. Sometimes they would be accompanied by grunts of pain, loud banging, and the sound of fire.

It had been three months since his quest with Piper and Jason and Leo had endlessly worked on the ship. Countless nights and meals were lost in the creation of it and Leo had almost been killed by the cleaning harpies multiple times to get to the woods but that wasn't his concern.

What was his concern was that he didn't think he was going to be able to finish the ship. Sure the skeleton of the ship had been completed, as well as decor and rooms for each of the demigods that would be on the ship, plus three more in case of emergency.

However all of the inside organs of the ship had yet to be fully completed. He had pipes and power in some parts of the ship but most of the rest was dead. So that's why Leo was working in the engine room one day. To complete the technical parts of the ship. And boy was there a lot. But Leo was close to a major milestone that day.

Leo finished working on the breakers for the ship and took a deep breath. He wiped his brow, in hopes to stop the sweat that was dripping into his eyes, but all that did was replace the sweat with oil. And Leo was covered in both. He put down his hammer and shut the frame over the breakers.

If all went according to plan then the engine would work perfectly and power up the ship. If things didn't go according to plan, then the engine would heat up, explode, and possibly cause a chain reaction explosion to other parts of the ship, like the oven. He'd lose all the progress he'd made for the past two weeks, and have a fire to put out. Just another demigod day.

Please let this work. Leo prayed to his dad as he pulled a lever off to the side and a coolant machine turned on. Leo could hear the water moving throughout the machine into the engine as well as splitting paths via the maze of bronze pipes in the engine room to throughout the ship. It was a secondary fail safe to keep the engine from overheating if the breakers failed.

Leo wooped for joy. The coolant had worked. Now for the breakers and then the engine. This part was the most delicate operation. He'd have to turn the engine on and make sure that the engine didnt overheat or emit too much power. He'd gone over the calculations five times over but he was still paranoid. He couldnt mess up.

Leo flicked the emergency breakers in case this went badly and put his hand on the lever, though hesitating for a moment before actually pulling it.

The bronze engine started rumbling, pipes and gears around it started clicking and shaking, the coolant ran down the pipes into the engine, and roar, it came to life. With the engine now powered, Leo pressed a button, and the engine started working for some of the other parts of the engine room. Lightbulbs flickered, fans whirred, propellers turned, metal creaked, duplex feed pumps spat out steam with a hiss, all making their own unique sound into a cacophony.

At least that's what others said. Leo said otherwise. All that sound combined together made its own symphony in Leo's ears. He could almost hear melodies and strings with the flutes of pipes, big loud drums accompanying the clicks and clacks. It was beautiful. He could have stayed there forever admiring his completed work. So he just relaxed and listened to the song he created.

But a loud snap interrupted the symphony of machines and Leo's eyes opened with it. Two more snaps. Leo's eyes went straight to the breakers as they snapped one by one, failing to turn the now steaming engine off. It was working too hard and too much power was going out.

The lightbulbs began shining brighter and brighter, hurting Leo's eyes, but they also glinted off the bronze contraptions and doodads in the room right back at Leo's eyes, so he couldnt see and turn off the engine.

He heard cracks of machines starting to break, a hiss of water that had gotten free from a pipe, the pops of some of the lightbulbs that couldnt hold the power. Loud rumbling sounds from vibration ran throughout the ship. Leo tried making it to the engine to turn it off so that nothing else would break.

He ran forward ignoring the destruction of his grand symphony, even as pieces of metal tore and bit at him. He pulled the lever down and everything came to a quiet stop. Everything was dark, everything was quiet. Everything was...dead. He lit his hand on fire and sobbed at the destruction that lay before him. Instruments, tools, and machines he had spent weeks making with his own hands lay broken at his feet. Smoke filled the whole room in an almost suffocating way.

Leo wanted to break down, to cry, to scream, to rage. But he couldnt risk it. He could risk damaging anything else. So Leo started the fixing process. He grabbed whatever wasnt salvageable and threw them off the deck into a pile to be turned into malleable metal for later. He took what was moderately damaged and started the repairs.

It was long going, and rough, but he managed to get through some of it. He had to go double time now. He couldnt let anyone find out about this. He couldnt let anyone down. He had to keep working. Maybe if he worked faster and harder he could prove to everyone that he was useful, that he could do a good job.

A few more hours passed of a lonely soloist's sound of his tools before the door to the engine room opened. Leo paused working on a small engine fan and turned around in fear of being ridiculed for failing.

There stood the most beautiful girl in the world who just so happened to be his girlfriend. No...

"Leo, there you are," She said, closing the door and stepping closer to him with a plate of eggs and toast on it, somehow still steaming.

Okay, be cool Leo. Be chill. "Heya songbird. How's my favorite girlfriend doing?" He responded, although not stopping his work to talk to her, instead doing both at once.

A little smile quirked up on the corner of her mouth. "Arent I your only girlfriend?"

"Exactly! That therefore makes you the best!" Leo energetically said, even though he felt as if he had no energy left in him.

Piper huffed out a laugh and stood next to where he was working. "Are you sure there aren't any other qualities that make me the best?"

Leo put a hand on his chin, as if he were really pondering that. "Nope. Nothing comes to mind." He shrugged.

"Oh screw you." Piper chuckled and kicked him. "Eat some breakfast. You need it."

Leo finally stopped working, but not to eat. "Breakfast? I had breakfast only a little bit ago." He pondered, tilting his head a bit to the side when Piper's eyebrows scrunched up, then her eyes widened in realization and concern.

"Leo. What day is it today?" She asked.

"Tuesday? Why? Crap, did I forget something I told you I was gonna do?"

"It's Friday." Piper managed to get out. "So you're telling me you haven't eaten or got outside in three days?!"

Leo instantly saw the warnings. Alarms blared around in his head. He needed to diffuse the situation. "Yes, but i've been doing good on repairing my stupid mess up of the Argo II and-"

Piper stopped him by grabbing his arms, breakfast long forgotten. Leo started into her beautiful kaleidoscopic eyes. Right now they were a dull grey-blue with specks of red. Crap. he messed up again. "You've been working non-stop for three days for us? For me? Just so that we can go on this adventure? What about you?"

Leo sighed. He was too far in now. "Yes. I have. But I messed up and destroyed part of the Argo II and lost so much progress and I need to work on it or else i'll have failed you and Jason and Annabeth and everyone else and I can't do that because i have to build, thats my job and if I don't do my jobthenimuselessandisuckandiwouldjustbea-"

"What?" Piper interrupted him, her mouth open, eyes wide in sadness. "You think you suck because you messed up and need to fix it?"

"Exactly! If I can't build the Argo II then I'm worthless and everyone would hate me. Ive already set us back by at least a week by failing at doing the one thing i'm good at."

A silence fell upon them, but Piper got rid of it by hugging him, which shocked Leo. Her voice was muffled by his shirt but still clear and as beautiful as day. "I don't care about the Argo II. I don't care if you messed up. What I do care about is that my boyfriend has sacrificed so much for me, even his own health, and still thinks of himself as lesser than me. I'd rather lose three months off of building just to keep you safe and happy. How could I leave you down here? Alone to work on this?"

"Because that's all I'm good for."

"NO ITS NOT!" Piper shouted. "No it's not," a pause. "Leo. You are the most special person in my life. You were always there for me. At the Wilderness School when it was us against the world, on the quest when we could've died at any moment, those nights when I felt so alone and scared after a nightmare of my dad, you were even there for both Jason and me when we broke up. That is not all you are good for. That will never be your defining trait."

"Then what is?"

"Your personality and actions you did to help others. That's what made me fall in love with you. Not the looks, the cool powers, or the gadgets, though the looks are a plus," that got a breath of laughter from Leo. "It's the fact that you always are trying to cheer us up with your jokes to lighten the mood when things go wrong. It's the fact that you would drop everything to help someone you care about, and even strangers. It's the fact that you would do anything for us, and not stop until it's done. It's the fact that you're willing to risk your life and your soul to save and do something for another person. I love that about you. Sure yeah, I wish you took some time to care for yourself, but you are incredible. You are amazing. You are my repair boy."

Finishing, Piper kissed Leo, and a peace washed over him, eliminating everything bad in the world. Worries about the ship were forgotten. The hunger in his stomach quieted, as if filled by love. The scrapes and bruises from the mini-explosions halted their throbs. Even the quiet sounds of the ship had faded to the background.

All that remained was Leo and Piper. Their scents of smoke and cinnamon danced in the air. A pair of sparkling greenish pink with a speck of deep blue eyes gazed into brown with specks and dashes of red and orange resembling a campfire eyes

After a while, though it seemed to end too quickly, they stopped hugging, but kept their hands on eachother's shoulders and waists. "You work way too hard. You can take a break for the rest of the day."

"But-" Leo tried protesting but Piper shushed him with a kiss.

"Hush, you deserve the break. In the meantime though," Piper said, pulling out an i-pod that Leo had given to her as a present not too long after they got together. It said engraved on the back My failed attempt to replicate the beauty of your voice, my songbird. "May I have this dance?" She asked, already putting one of the AirPods into her ear and the other into Leo's.

Leo seemed to have an argument in his head before he relented. He smiled mischievously but it also held some sweetness. "But of course madam, who am I to refuse the request of a beautiful round maiden?" He said in a bad British accent before he grabbed her hand and kissed it gently.

"How chivalrous. You sure you don't do that to every girl you meet?" Piper teased in a British accent as well. She knew that Leo would never stray from her but she loved to hang his past flirtatious manner to every girl over his head.

"I'm quite positive my dear," Leo then switched away from his accent as a song began to play and their arms snaked around to each other's back, waist, and shoulders. "After all, even though all the ladies love Leo, Leo loves only one lady. His songbird."

Piper breathed out a sigh of affection for Leo and kissed him as they danced. And danced. And danced. Even when the horn sounded for dinner they continued to dance in the night. They didn't need a campfire to go to, for the love between two people burns brighter than any flame.