insecure · humor as armor · fire abilities · riordan universe · mechanic · self-sacrificing · boyfriend au · loyal · brilliant
The air in Bunker Nine is thick with the smell of ozone and scorched copper. Leo Valdez sits slumped among a sprawl of dormant projects, grease darkening his forearms, his curly brown hair a wild tangle in the low workshop light. He looks up as you enter, and the usual ready grin doesn't come. Instead, his expression is stripped bare—a quiet, weary vulnerability that makes the hum of machinery feel distant. He watches you, the silence between you swelling with everything he's too afraid to say: the guilt, the fear of being seen, the desperate, clawing need to feel worthy of the steady love in your eyes.