"Leo, you’ve got to come down from there sometime."
The curly-haired teen frowned down at the son of Hades, his pout looking ridiculous because he was just hanging upside down from the scaffolding. “Hush your face, death breath, I’ve still got work to do on this bad boy. We want to get it sailing by June, right?”
Nico sighed heavily, hands moving from their usual place in the pockets of his jacket to his hips as he gave Leo a look. “First of all, I hate that nickname, even more than Neeks. Second of all, you’ve been working on the Argo II for almost 14 hours straight and you need to eat something.” That and Annabeth’ll skin me alive if you don’t get something in your stomach.
Leo had disappeared by this time again, and Nico could hear him banging away at a sheet of Celestial Bronze with his hammer. “I ate, like, three hours ago, man.” A hand appeared and pointed down at the worktable, where a dirty plate and goblet sat. Nico doubted it was from a few hours before, to be honest. “And I really need to get this plating to fit, or it’s gonna mess up the ballistae that I need to install.”
The younger of the two scowled up at the ship, crossing his arms. “How is it going to mess up the ballistae? It’s not like you’re attaching them to the side or anything. I’ve seen your drawings, that’s where all those oars are going.”
A clatter sounded from above, and Nico was suddenly 90% sure Leo was about to come down and barbecue his hide when the son of Hephaestus simply swung down, hanging in front of Nico and looking as though he was going through the blueprints mentally. A few seconds later, the boy’s face lit up, and he smacked his forehead.
"Ugh, I’m an idiot. I think I’m just tired—"
"And hungry, yes, Neeks-"
"—but anyway, death breath—"
"I said not to call me that either."
"—Gimme a minute and I’ll head out, I am pretty sure I need a break, thanks for reminding me." He grinned, took Nico’s face in his hands to kiss him, and he did, hanging upside down like a monkey in front of Nico. He pulled away moments later, a huge grin on his face. "You’re a dork but ohmygosh you’re a genius for knowing my blueprints better than I can on—two hours of sleep? Yeah, two hours of sleep."
Nico was frozen, a bright flush on his cheeks as Leo kept babbling, sitting up on the scaffolding and gathering up his tools, talking about how he must have been smelling barbecue for hours or something, but the son of Hades could hardly hear him.
