orenda [leo valdez]

lxxxi. The War of Sunscreen

❝when i saw you standing there, i finally knew what happily ever after looked like.❞

⤷ christy ann martine

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"Hand me that sunscreen," Leo murmured, his voice muffled from being under a beach towel.

Kira handed him it, after plopping a tiny bit on his back where she knew he couldn't reach.

"Hey!" Leo complained, trying to reach it with no avail. Kira snickered from her own beach towel.

The two sat on the beach of the Bahamas.

How they got there? Long story.

They had dropped Piper and her dad off with the intention of going to Camp Half Blood, but they made a slight detour. The "slight detour" became a vacation because in the wise words of Leo Valdez, "We freaking deserve one."

More seriously, the boy knew Kira was shaky. Her entire mind was a dangerous place. She had lost two demigods in the course of a few days, and she was shaken up. So, he did what he did best. He distracted her. Tristian McLean had given him just enough money to spend a week at a resort in Bahamas. He had let Festus roam, telling him to come back in a week. Whether he actually did, was a problem for tomorrow.

So, that is how the two demigods found themselves at a luxury resort in the Bahamas instead of the strawberry fields of Camp Half Blood.

Kira and Leo were laying face down in their towels, letting the sun beat down on them. They were relaxed for the first time in, well, years. As soon as they had learned they were demigods, they had one impending doom after the next. Finally, they had time to be kids. They were only seventeen, and they had the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Kira rolled over, letting the sun hit her face. Leo still struggled to get the sunscreen on his back, and Kira pitied him. She laughed, spreading it for him.

"Thanks, idiota." Leo grumbled.

"Hey!" Kira complained. "I'll put more on your back if you call me names."

"I thought you didn't know Spanish."

Kira rolled her eyes. "I think that one was kind of self-explanatory."

Leo rolled over so he could glare at her. Then he leaned in to kiss her, which she happily complied with. He took the opportunity to squirt sunscreen in her hair.

"Leo!" Kira complained, picking up a scoop of it and splatting it in his face. He sputtered, trying to get in out of his mouth. Both of them were laughing now, throwing glops of sunscreen at each other. Lovingly, of course.

"Beat you to the water!" Leo said suddenly, jumping up. Kira jumped up as well, leaving behind their belongings to race to the ocean.

Leo, who had the head start, still lost. He would deny it later, but Kira totally won.