#festus

You weren’t sure what to expect when Leo insisted on introducing you to “the real MVP” of his life—but you definitely weren’t expecting a twenty-foot bronze dragon to land two feet in front of you, snort steam at your face, and then nuzzle into your hand like a giant, purring metallic puppy.

“Festus,” Leo said with a proud grin, hopping off the dragon’s back. “Meet my favorite person.” You raised an eyebrow. “You mean me or him?”

Before Leo could answer, Festus let out a warm mechanical chirr, coils of steam twisting into the air as he gently nudged your side again—tail curling protectively around your legs like you were some fragile thing that needed guarding. His eyes flashed bright amber, glowing with a weird kind of fondness you didn’t know was possible from something made of gears and fire.

You blinked. “…I think he likes me.”

You gave the dragon a gentle scratch on what might’ve been his cheekplate, and he leaned into it with a low, happy rumble. You glanced at Leo with a teasing smirk. “Festus loves me more than he loves you, huh.”

Leo’s jaw dropped slightly. “Excuse me? I made him. From scrap. In a cave. During a war.” Festus beeped again, even louder this time—like he was confirming your claim. Leo threw his hands in the air. “Unbelievable. Absolute traitor.”

Leo paused. His grin faltered, just for a second. “Likes you?” he echoed, brows furrowing. “He’s cuddling you. Dude—Festus doesn’t even do that to me unless I’ve updated his core processor or fed him celestial bronze scraps by hand.” Festus let out what sounded suspiciously like a smug beep.

You were still crouched next to Festus, giving him cheekplate scratches and telling him what a very good metal boy he was, when Leo plopped down beside you with a theatrical sigh.

“I can’t believe this,” he muttered, flinging a blade of grass into the wind. “You’ve known him for like, ten minutes. I built him. I coded his loyalty circuits. I literally gave him a heart—and now he’s wagging his tail for you.”

Festus beeped smugly and nudged your side again, almost like he was agreeing.

You laughed, brushing hair out of your face. “What can I say? I’m charming.”

Leo gave you a sidelong look, trying to hold back a smile. “Yeah. You are.”

Your hand paused on Festus’s bronze scales. You looked up at Leo, surprised by the softness in his tone—and the fact that, for once, he wasn’t teasing.

The two of you just looked at each other for a moment. The wind played with his curls, and Festus let out a gentle mechanical rumble like he was holding his breath.

Then, Leo leaned in, his voice dropping just a little. “You know, if I had known all it took to impress you was a giant fire-breathing dragon, I would’ve introduced you to Festus sooner.”

You tilted your head, grinning. “Oh, I was already impressed. The dragon’s just a bonus.”

Leo’s breath hitched—just a tiny, barely-there sound—and before either of you could overthink it, he kissed you.

It was soft. Warm. Tasted a little like the cinnamon gum he always carried and smelled faintly like engine grease and ozone—like Leo.

When he pulled back, there was a dazed little smile on his lips.

Then Festus whacked Leo’s shoulder with his tail.

“OW—hey!” Leo swatted at him. “Traitor and cockblocker? Unbelievable!”

You burst out laughing, clutching your side as Festus chirped smugly and curled tighter around you.

Leo rubbed his arm, grumbling under his breath, “I build you with love and celestial bronze and this is how you thank me?”

You wiped tears of laughter from your eyes and leaned your head against Leo’s shoulder. “Jealous of your own dragon, Valdez?”

He sniffed. “Only because he gets more cuddles.”

You smiled. “You could’ve just asked.”

Leo turned bright red. Festus beeped like he was gloating.

He had assumed that was the way things still were, despite his change in scenery. Building the Argo II had earned him a bit of cred amongst the other crew members, but it was still an unspoken agreement that everyone had their thing going on, and Leo had his. With all of the couples and lifelong friends, Leo just didn’t fit into any of that, and he had accepted it. 

Which was why he didn’t think twice before nearly sacrificing himself during a monster attack. After a straight week of flying, Festus needed a break, otherwise the ship might just stop moving and pummel into the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, they made a pit stop on some Mediterranean island that Leo didn’t know the name of. 

He didn’t remember exactly how it happened, just that he ended up being the one to try and lure the monster away, before ultimately introducing it to its fire-y doom. There was the large chance that the monster would pummel him or slice him open with its poisonous claws (he still wasn’t exactly sure what kind of monster it was, but he learned the hard way that a scratch from the claws made his head spin sideways and his vision go blurry), but he didn’t mind. Either he came back alive, or… well, it wasn’t something he thought about too much. 

He wasn’t surprised to see the looks of relief that came over everyone’s face at the sight of his very much alive body. Yeah, they cared. But not too much. 

He let Piper drag him down to a sitting position and began to apply some sort of ointment on to the slash across his shoulder that sat dangerously close to his neck. The ointment had a cooling sensation, like when you put toothpaste on your lips. He had to blink a couple times in order to focus his eyes. He suddenly realized he felt hot. Very hot. And his arms felt very heavy.

“…definitely out of it,” Piper said, and he turned his attention back to her, flinching at the sight of her face far too close to him, “-must have some sort of toxin…bet he doesn’t even know what’s going on.”

“Yes I do,” he muttered. His voice sounded loud in his ears, as if it were competing with the drum beat of his heart.

Piper turned her head back to him, “Whadja say?”

He knew she had heard him, so he didn’t bother repeating himself. His eyes scanned the group that hovered just out of reach. Their eyes held concern, not for him, but for how they would’ve felt had he not survived. He looked across the crowd again, and again, and again, and his face fell. Where was (y/n)?

“Does it hurt? Sorry,” Piper muttered, her eyes picking up on his frown as she pressed something against his wound. He didn’t know what on earth she was doing. He had lost sense of any feeling in that side of the body after she had put the ointment on him.

“No, it’s fine,” he said, offhandedly. If there was one person on the Argo II that he thought would care more, it was (y/n). Leo had connected with her because they were the only two who weren’t romantically involved with anyone on the ship, so they had a lot of movie nights and late night discussions on a variety of topics. While he knew they weren’t super close, he liked to think that they were still friends. So where the hell was she?

He looked over the faces again, as if somehow hoping that (y/n) would appear next to them. Hazel, Frank, Jason, Annabeth, Nico. Nico, Annabeth, Jason, Frank, Hazel. Hazel, Frank-

Wait, where was Percy?

“Oh my Gods!” The sound of (y/n)’s cry made him turn his head so quickly it startled Piper and made the side of his body with the cut tingle. Maybe it should hurt? He knew it definitely shouldn’t feel this way. But he didn’t care. Not right now. 

Piper moved out of the way, and before he knew it, (y/n)’s face was buried in his unharmed shoulder, her arms were thrown around his torso, and she was practically sitting on top of him.

Looking over her head, he watched as the other crew members all awkwardly found something else to do. Annabeth walked over to Percy, who had made his appearance by jogging out of the woods, not far behind (y/n).

“She was so frantic, I had to tell her we found him like, three times before she understood,” he said to Annabeth, his eyes meeting Leo’s from around ten feet away, and Leo realized that he was the “he” Percy was referring to, “As soon as I said he was alive, she started running. That girl is fast.”

“Well, whatever that thing injected into him was some sort of venom,” Annabeth said, “We don’t think it’s life-threatening, but he's as high as Olympus and doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Speaking of (y/n), it wasn’t until he noticed the growing wet spot on his shirt that he realized she was crying. A lot.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” he wrapped his arms around her. Her arms tightened their hold around his torso, and he winced. He might have a bruised rib. He brought his hand up to pet her hair, like he had done on several previous occasions. Her hair was so soft. It reminded him of a patch of sweet-smelling moss, so comforting and-

Without any notice, (y/n) was on the ground next to him, and she used her hands to shove him. Then she began to hit him, but not hard. At least, he didn’t think so. He couldn’t really feel it.

“The fuck?” he asked, surprised to see the angry look on her face.

“You- stupid- fucking- idiot!” (y/n) yelled, each word coming with another punch, “I thought you died! Why the fuck would you do that to me?”

The hitting had stopped, and she was looking at him as if she wanted a real answer. That made him think. Why did he do that to her?

“I dunno,” he said truthfully, and his lips felt heavy, “I wasn’t thinking.. ‘m sorry, (y/n).”

Watching the way he could barely sit up by himself, the anger slowly drained from (y/n)’s face, until all that was left was a sort of softness that Leo couldn’t place.

“Don’t do that shit ever again,” and suddenly she looked sad. Really sad, like she was about to start crying. She was that distraught over losing him?

“I won’t,” he said, and he meant it. If she cared that much about him… well, he cared too much about her to make her go through that again, “I promise.”

Her lips pressed together in an unstable line, and he opened his arms. Without hesitation, she accepted the invitation and hugged him again, this time her face pressed against his chest, her head tucked under his chin.

“‘m really sorry,” he muttered into her hair, his hand rubbing soft circles into her back. He still felt surprised. He didn’t know he meant this much to her. (y/n) was the type of person who didn’t let a lot of people in, so he knew it was a big deal for her to be holding onto him like he would disappear if she let go.

Percy and Annabeth watched from a good distance away, close enough to see the dazed but sensitive look on Leo’s face as he held (y/n), but far enough that the two demigods couldn’t hear them.

“I remember when we were like that,” Annabeth sighed, a sort of maternal look on her face.

“The one thing that kept me from dying was knowing that if I did, you would find me in the Underworld and make me regret it,” Percy grinned at the unamused stare that he received from his girlfriend.

The couple fell silent as they not-creepily continued to watch (y/n) and Leo.

“How long do you think it’ll take?” Percy asked.

“For them to realize they like each other, or for them to do something about it?” Annabeth asked.

“Both.”

“A long time.”