Leo Valdez was a pain in Persephone Rose's rear. You'd think after an entire quest together, him saving her life from a snow goddess with a grudge, and then the kiss (or multiple to be more precise) they shared a few days after their quest was completed (not to mention the amount of time the two had spent fixing up the Argo II), that the two would be dating by now.

Wrong.

He almost acted like nothing had happened between them. And Persephone was frustrated to say the least. So frustrated, in fact, that she had taken time away from helping Leo with his stupid ship and decided to go train with Clarisse.

She didn't like feeling so flustered around him. It was weird and totally not her style.

"Harder, Rose! Put your back into it!" Clarisse yelled at the girl in front of her. Persephone had bruises spotted up her arms and legs, one beginning to form at her side. Her arms felt weak and heavy, her sword drooping. She panted, heavily and glared at Clarisse. "Show me what you can do! Show me how angry you are at this Prophecy! Show me how angry you are at Hera. Show me how much you hate Khione! Show me how angry Leo Valdez has made you, lately!"

With a bone chilling yell, Persephone hit Clarisse's sword with her own, feeling the vibrations from the impact travel up her arms. Cracks had appeared at her feet, ghostly figures climbing out and charging at Clarisse.

"Hey, Rose! Call off your army."

Persephone snapped out of the blood-thirsty rage she was in and noticed Clarisse trying her hardest to push back the ghosts' weapons which, she realised, were very much solid, despite their owner's being see-through. With a wave of her hand, the ghosts evaporated into the air. Her breaths were heavy, eyes narrowed darkly. She stormed over to get a drink of water. Clarisse followed.

"He's really affected you that much, huh?" Persephone stayed silent. The answer was clear. "Why don't you just go talk to him about it? Then you'll get an answer."

"His answer seems pretty clear to me, flirting with any girl he sees." Clarisse rolled her eyes at the girl's solo pity party.

"Or... maybe you're reading it all wrong. Boys aren't exactly the brightest when it comes to things like this... especially Valdez." The older said. "You're the only person who doesn't see the way he looks at you. Now, enough of this sappy love stuff, Selena's rubbed off on me. Go and talk to him. Training's over."

And with that, Clarisse LaRue walked out of the training grounds.

"Hey! You're here!" Leo called to her from the Argo II. She stood on the floor of Bunker 9, looking up at the huge ship. The Latino clutched the side of the boat, peering over the edge, a manic grin spread across his features. "Come up, you gotta look at this!"

Persephone rolled her eyes, climbing the ladder, heaving herself onto the warship. She saw him leaning against the doorframe, leading to the rest of the ship, grinning at her. She stalked over to him, a brow raised.

"This way." He simply told her, leaving her to follow him through the ship. It still wasn't entirely finished; they had a few weeks left until they had to leave. He guided her to a large room.

"Holy Hades..." She trailed off, seeing the wall in front of her eyes. "Is that...?"

"Camp Half-Blood in real time on a wall? Yes, it is." Leo leaned against the wall. "Did you bring the things I asked for?" She nodded, pulling out empty plates and cups from her backpack, showing them to him. "Great!" He took them from her, placing them on the side.

"How's the engine room looking?" She asked him. He winced.

"Had a few setbacks, but I can fix 'em up pretty quick."

"I can help you. Maybe you need a pair of extra hands."

"Just be careful, the place gets hot sometimes."

"As long as you're there, repair boy. I'm sure I'll be fine."

Leo paled at the responsibility, but he shook it off. He'd saved her once, and he'd do it a thousand times over.

Persephone walked past him and out of the dining area. Leo breathed in her shampoo, sighing to himself.

He couldn't lie, when he and Persephone had kissed, he felt, to put it simply, on top of the world. She, Persephone Rose, Daughter of Hades, kissed him, Leo Valdez, Son of Hephaestus. A lowly mechanic, kissed by the princess of the underworld. A... well, you get the idea.

But, that bliss hadn't lasted. It seemed like she regretted kissing him, she avoided meeting his eyes after it happened, stumbled over her words, sometimes didn't say anything at all and just stared at him. So, Leo messed up, clearly. Did she kiss him in the heart of them moment? Was it all because of the ring? Just to shut him up? He was positive she'd felt the same way as him, but now he wasn't sure. He kissed her again, but, maybe she made a mistake and didn't want to kiss him again. Did he mistake her as kissing him back when she was actually trying to pull away?

He was hurt, but he couldn't blame her for not liking him. I mean, he was just Leo, while she was Persephone. She could have anyone she wanted, so why would she pick someone like him? The more he thought like that, the less confident he felt, of course she wouldn't like him, who was he kidding?

He groaned to himself.

Stupid feelings. He wished he could read people, like Annabeth could. But Persephone wasn't a machine, so he drew a blank when it came to her.

"Are you coming, Valdez?" Persephone called down the hall. He snapped out of it and replied to her, mustering up the most convincing grin he could. Which wasn't hard; he'd been doing that a lot recently. Acting like everything was fine, flirting (quite terribly) with the girls at camp, even a tree nymph, just to make it seem like nothing was wrong, but he seemed to be getting rusty. He didn't want to flirt with them... he just wanted to know how Persephone felt so he could move on and be back to his old self.

"Let's fix us some engines, Smokey." Persephone grinned at him, when he caught up to her. He spun a spanner around his fingers, winking at her.