[ closed ] I knew you were trouble when you walked in

[commandertoolbelt]

The best part about the war being over, in Leo's opinion, was the freedom to do whatever the heck they wanted to do. Well, sort of. It obviously wasn't complete freedom, being a summer camp and all, but at least now the Seven didn't have to worry about New Rome coming to destroy the Greeks, or the earth rebelling beneath their feet, or nutjob gods and goddesses...

...Maybe not that last one. The gods were nutjobs even before the whole Greek/Roman dichotomy happened, just less so.

The point was that now Leo could work on his own pet projects, not the least of which was installing a proper GPS system into Festus and the rest of the Argo II - that, of course, came before his plans to rebuild Festus himself. There were some plans in his head for a way to transfer all of the dragon's data from the airship to the actual body Leo planned to rebuild for him, so he wouldn't be confined to one or the other. It was obviously going to take time before he got anywhere on it, but with the world out of danger for now, he had plenty of that to waste.

A lot of that time, however, had to be spent in the forges, working the Celestial bronze into shape. He had drawings and schematics to work off of, all drawn by hand on the way back home from Greece, and he was hardly a quarter of the way through it yet. There was still a lot of forging to do, and some days, Leo completely lost himself in it, forgetting to eat or drink or even to think about the fire he was working in. Which was why, when dinnertime rolled around, he was walking around the forges shirtless without even realizing that anything had changed. Oddly, none of his siblings bothered to inform him of it as they cleaned up for the meal; apparently, they'd gotten too used to it to care. None of them bothered him as he continued to work, still failing to notice the time or how long he'd been at it. He'd figure it out eventually.

Comments

[awol_praetor]

Jason's intentions had been to fetch Leo for lunch. They were noble honest intentions and that's what he would stand by the instant one of the Hephaestus kids looked up and asked him what he was doing in the forges. Neither he nor Piper were sure of the last time Leo ate a full meal, and he doubted any of Leo's half-siblings knew either, so he definitely had a valid purpose for being in the forges. A purpose whose goal he would accomplish in just a few seconds, as soon as he could make his mouth stop hanging open a bit and get his brain reconnected to the rest of his body.

He'd seen Leo without a shirt before. He definitely had. Leo'd burnt his clothes off quite a few times in their quests until he'd gotten the fire-proof clothing from Calypso, but--it'd been a while. A year or more since returning Gaea to sleep, and months before that in which Leo had worn his fire proof clothing. Everyone had told them they looked older now, they were almost all legal adults now barring Nico and Hazel, the youngest of them, and well, Jason couldn't help but notice exactly how adult Leo had become.

None of the Hephaestus's kids' bodies were anything to snort at, but most of them you could regularly see the way their hard work made their shirts tight at the sleeves and forearms. Leon, on the other hand, it was like he'd been--burnt or melted down, streamlined into someone built for optimal efficiency. Jason's eyes automatically started at Leo's hands, because they'd been drawn there time and time again recently, the activity of his fingers was eye-catching to ADHD, but the length and skill of them, but attention holding.

His hands led to his forearms and how they corded slightly as Leo fit two pieces of bronze together and muttered to himself. The pocketed jackets and slightly too big clothing Leo wore most of the time had somehow hidden entirely how solid his shorter best friend had become. He wasn't bulky like Jake or Nyssa, just every bit of his shoulders, not as high up as Jason's, but probably grown to nearly match in breadth, were covered in compact muscles that did exactly what Leo wanted them to without thought.

It makes Jason wonder a bit about the rest of Leo. He'd never considered his best friend unattractive, not once, but now he was curious if Leo's whole body had somehow become as machine-like and beautiful as possible when he wasn't paying attention. He'd make sure Leo got something to eat, just a minute or two more, honestly.

[commandertoolbelt]

If he was aware of the attention, it didn't show. Truth be told, the son of Hephaestus hadn't paid much attention to his own physique since leaving Ogygia; he'd been a little too busy then, and after Gaea was put back to sleep, he just hadn't thought about it much. He still doubted his own looks were anything even remotely attractive, especially next to someone like Jason, but frankly, none of that mattered as long as he could move the bronze he needed to work without anyone's help, and somewhere down the line, doing so had become easier. Like today, for instance. Leo's hands and all of his concentration was focused on making this work, making sure the cut was exact before he moved on the to the next piece. If it wasn't, he'd have to melt it down and start again - no big deal, he supposed, but it would be a delay, and he was anything but patient. His flicked between the metal and the blueprints he'd drawn, feeling it out with sight and touch, and finally, when he was satisfied, he gave a little nod and muttered something under his breath, looking for the next piece to fit against it.

Impatient as he could be, ADHD and all, building a dragon was an agonizingly long process. But one that would be worth it, he kept reminding himself, and Festus would definitely appreciate the freedom of being his own dragon again (wings and all). He was getting lose to finishing the main body now, and next on the list would be the legs, right after... yep, there it goes. Perfect.