Who: Leo Valdez and Jason Grace Where: Field near the Viking Settlement When: Saturday What: Testing out new swords/sparring Rating: Low
“Okay, so, I know I made some new swords and said we should test them to make sure they don’t suck, but uh… can you at least let me win once?” Leo was kidding, but Jason was definitely kicking his butt. He was never like Jason or Percy or Nico with their ability to wield a weapon like it was second nature. For him, it was all about building things that helped in battle. Sure, he took lessons in camp on sword fighting and sometimes he won back home, but Leo knew he had no real chance against his friend in a sparring match.
This was their third round and Jason was holding one of his newer inventions - a sword made out of mostly glass. Leo had a more standard one he made for people really into Dungeons and Dragons with dice carved into the hilt. “How’s that one feel so far?”
***
“You don’t really want me to let you win,” Jason smiled. “It’s not a real win unless you earn it.” That’s how Jason felt about it, anyway. He’d never want anyone to let him win. Jason turned his concentration to the sword, which was beautiful. He loved the way the light hit it and the prisms that it cast on the ground and on his opponent.
“It’s great,” he said. “The balance is perfect, and I love the look of it. My only worry is what will happen if I drop it, or if it gets hit the wrong way. Will it shatter?”
A shattered sword equalled a dead demigod, after all.
***
“Okay, so, I thought of that? At least, I think so.. But it’s why I wanted to test it.” He moved into a more defensive stance, sword up and ready for Jason’s attack. Or, hopefully ready. “I’ve laced it with like, really thin pieces of this new aluminium that the college scientists have been working on? So… yeah. I mean, we should see if I can make it shatter.” If he could even get a swing in on Jason, though that thought wasn’t said out loud.
“Then I have one last one for you to try, which, if it works, is sort of your early birthday present.”
**
Jason was glad to hear that he’d thought of that and hopefully guarded against it. It wouldn’t do any good for a sword to shatter while you were using it. Of course, to test it, he’d need to let Leo cross swords with him, which he did, just once, before wrenching the sword out of Leo’s grip. The sword hadn’t shattered.
“Well then,” he smiled. “Looks like it works.” At least for now. Battle, of course, would be a bit more vicious than that blow.
“Birthday present? My birthday’s still months away, Leo.”
***
Leo was demigod enough to only be a little embarrassed at how easily Jason had disarmed him. There were just some things Jason was better at and some things Leo knew he’d rock at more too.
“Yeah, but like.. You know when my hands just start making a thing? It seems kind of stupid to just sit on something so cool for that long.” He shrugged and then moved over to the long bag he kept the swords in. They were individually wrapped to protect each one. He picked one up that was still wrapped and held it out. “Okay, so like, I know it’s not celestial bronze or imperial gold, but… well, this sword will conduct lightning really well and there’s this little button you can press on the side that’ll wrap the hilt in rubber if you need it to hold the charge.” Or throw it at someone who wasn’t a walking lightning pole.
The sword itself was a mix of gold, silver, copper, and steel in a swirling pattern that kind of looked like a galaxy. If you looked closely you could see the constellation of Jupiter etched in the blade itself.
***
Jason’s eyes went wide as he took the sword from Leo. “This is...incredible,” he said, swishing it around and testing it for the balance which was, of course, perfect. “I probably shouldn’t call down lightning right here,” he grinned, even though the sword made him want to. He definitely wanted to test it out and see how it worked, because it was majorly cool.
But calling down lightning would definitely knock him out and he wasn’t really up for that right now. He needed to practice that so it didn’t make him so tired (it didn’t knock Thalia on her ass for hours), but he was still working on that.
“This is just...and the detail…” He looked up at his friend warmly, and closed the distance between them to give him a tight hug - which wasn’t something Jason did often and should show Leo how grateful he was.
***
Leo was beyond happy. Just seeing Jason’s reaction to it and then getting a hug - a hug he eagerly gave back with gusto, thank you because hugs were awesome and most of the people he knew didn’t give them enough. “You’re welcome. And I can like, 90% guarantee that it should like, help you be less tired. Probably.” He paused, then shrugged. “It’s hard to tell cause if I called down lightning I’d be fried to death, so I can’t exactly try.”
The demigod ran a hand through his hair as he looked at his friend. “How have you been, by the way? Getting way better grades than me, I’m sure. Do you think we could convince Nico to come out and train too?” Mostly train with Jason because again, Leo sucked.
***
“I’ll test it sometime soon,” he said. Not now, though, because it might knock him out and he wasn’t in the mood for that now. Plus, to be honest, he really trusted Leo and if Leo said it was going to do something, he had full faith that it would.
“Yeah, I’ve got straight A’s,” he said, blushing a little. “It’s something to do, you know? Studying.”
He paused and thought a moment about Nico.
“I...don’t know. It would be nice if we could, but I don’t know if he’d go along with it.”
***
Try as he might, Leo just couldn’t study. Not like Jason could, anyway. Something would happen and he’d fidget and like a dog with a squirrel find himself at some other place that was not the desk with his books. He often really tried, but Leo wasn’t made for sitting down. It was why the Argo II had steering controls the way it did.
“I think I can convince him… maybe. Probably.” Who really knew? Leo wanted them to spend time together though. “I feels weird the three of us not around each other like, all the time. Like it was back home for a while, you know?” Even though Nico arguably had less of that time.
***
“Yeah, well, Nico never really stayed in one place very long. He was off and back between the underworld and both camps. I knew him before I knew any of you, although I didn’t remember it at the time.”
Nico was a weird case, but Jason couldn’t help but like the kid. He might not have been as uniformly good as the others, but his heart was in the right place, and he’d been through a lot in his life.
“I mean, all we can do is ask him, I guess.”
***
“Yeah, we’ll just have to ask him and see what he says.” And maybe bribe him with some McDonald’s after, but that was something he could do behind the scenes. With them being the only demigods around, Leo felt the need to spend more time with his friends and he felt an even bigger need to make sure Nico was okay and not falling into some spiral of self-loathing or… something.
“Okay. How about we call you victorious for the day and go get something to eat?”
***
Jason nodded. He completely approved of trying to get Nico involved, but he knew they’d have to talk to the kid and probably go out of their way to entice him. But they would. And he hoped they’d win, for Nico’s sake.
“Sounds good to me,” he smiled. “Although you might as well call me victorious forever.” He grinned and sheathed the sword. “Hinkleburgers on me.”