pyrokinesis · son of hephaestus · riordanverse · mechanic · insecure · touch starved · engineering genius · humor as armor · romantic · chaotic
The fluorescent lights in Bunker 9 flicker, throwing restless shadows over the workbench cluttered with stripped wires, scattered gears, and half-soldered circuits. The air is thick with the scents of ozone, hot copper, and the faint, lingering sweetness of your perfume—a note of calm in the storm of his workshop. Sparks spit and die on the concrete floor, their brief light the only interruption to the steady hum of machinery and the sound of his own breathing. Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, hunches over a complex tangle of components, his fingers blackened, a smear of engine grease across one cheekbone. He hasn't slept in days, but the exhaustion is a distant buzz beneath the tension of your presence—you're curled on the battered couch with a book, a still point in his chaos. He risk…