Of Toasters and Lightning
@bunkernine
Nico
Sometimes, just sometimes, Nico thinks waking up is a burden.
Not because he doesn’t want to wake up, life is... decent as of late, if you forget about saving the world, the doors of death, all that bullshit. And even with all of that, he quite likes waking up. No, the reason it’s a burden, especially this morning in particular, is because Leo Valdez is standing in the middle of their dinning room on the Argo 2, remote control in hand as an abomination of a toaster sits on the table. It’s sliver and extremely long, glossy like it’s just been polished. In eight different slots are pieces of un-toasted bread, each with their own sets of timers.
He’s grinning so wide it almost takes up the entirety of his face, hands proudly planted on his hips, dark brown eyes twinkling with excitement. And much to Nico’s surprise Annabeth is next to him, looking simultaneously defeated and curious, grime swiped across her cheek. Nico almost feels sick, she was probably helping him with this.
“Welcome,” Leo says, sweeping his arms over the monstrosity, “To the Leabeth toaster. Patent pending.”
Nico blinks. Percy is oooing and ahhhing at the thing like they’ve just presented the cure for cancer, messing with the knobs and running his hands across the metal.
Annabeth snorts, “We are not calling it that.” She says simply, and Nico wonders briefly if this is actually a dream.
Hazel just looks confused, gingerly reaching out to touch it, looking like she expects it to somehow transform and chase after her.
“Why do we have a toaster with eight slots?” She asks, sounding genuinely confused. And yeah, Nico feels the same way.
Leo grins and he’s basically bouncing in place. “I’m glad you asked! The new and improved octa-toaster-”
“We’re not calling it that either.” Annabeth interupts, looking like she’s fighting a smile.
Leo just blows past the interruption. “-was created to service all of our bread toasting needs! Now with new and improved technology we can all toast our bread at the same time, in the same toaster! No more waiting in line, just pick a slot and be on your way!”
Percy looks starry-eyed, “Genius.” He says. Now Nico knows it isn’t a dream, no one can beat Percy Jackson in the art of being ridiculous, not even dream Percy.
Jason and Frank stand at the edge of the table, and Jason’s pinching the bridge of his nose. Frank looks amused, but worried. Nico isn’t surprised, the guy’s always worried.
“Won’t it take like. A lot of power to run this?” He asks, eyeing the octa-toaster.
Annabeth shakes her head, “No, just a quick zap of lightning from our resident boy wonder here and it’ll run just fine for about a week. That’s how me and Leo designed it, at least.” They bump fist. Nico thinks he might go into cardiac arrest.
Piper looks endlessly amused, “I call this slot!” She says, standing at the fourth one down. “Also I demand a presentation, does it toast perfectly on all sides? Does it have the right amount of spring to make the toast pop out after it’s done?”
Percy nods, “Spring is important, that’s what makes a good toaster.”
Nico rubs his eyes, walking over to the table to get a better look at the thing. It doesn’t look as simple as a regular toaster, it’s got way too many buttons and settings to even be considered. And as much as he hates to admit it, it’s... cool. Dumb, but very cool. There’s even a button that adds butter while it’s cooking. And also, he’s curious. He wants to know if it can cook all of the bread at different temperatures all at once.
“You guys are ridiculous,” Jason says, but he’s fighting off a smile and Nico knows he thinks this whole thing is funny, “It would’ve been more efficient for all of us to wait to use the toaster one by one.”
“That’s no fun!” Leo chirps, waving his controller in the air, “Besides, this baby doesn’t just toast your bread, it’s more than a mere bread warmer! It has range!”
Nico snorts, “Oh yeah, it sure does, range that takes up the entire table.” He jokes, pressing down on the pre-buttered button, “Now come on, I want to see how this thing works.”
“Jason,” Frank says, “If you could please do the honors of zapping our giant toaster machine?”
Jason’s face contorts, “What? No way!”
Percy tsks, “Come on dude, don’t let us down, we all want to see the wonders of the octa-toaster!” Annabeth shoots him a dirty look, probably for addressing the toaster as ‘‘octa-taster”, but it’s too late now, the name has already stuck with everyone.
And Nico doesn’t know who starts it, but a chant of Jason’s name starts filling the room. (It was him, he started it).
After a few minutes Jason caves, “Alright alright, everyone stand clear.” And everyone cheers as he points his finger at the contraption, moving their hands and stepping back. Lighting shoots from his finger and dances across the metal, zapping and flickering until it eventually settles. Everyone holds their breath, and for a moment it’s silent in the room. When nothing continues to happen, Hazel’s voice is the first to break the silence.
“Uh,” she looks disappointed, Nico makes a mental note to talk to her more about technology, he doesn’t know much either but they could learn together, “Is this what’s supposed to happen?”
“No, definitely not.” Leo answers, and he’s tinkering with the remote, “Hold on let me just-” He presses a button and with a swirl of clicks and clacks the machine thrums to life, shaking the table as it warms up.
Everyone cheers and Leo’s got a big, shit eating grin on his face. “Everyone make your selections now! I’m gonna send these babies down in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!”
With preferences for time toasted, buttered, jellied, and all of the other bells and whistles, Leo presses a button, and all of the bread goes down with a whoosh.
Now, Nico thinks, is the waiting game. If the entire toaster doesn’t burst into flames he’ll call it a success. Which shouldn’t be too hard, Leo’s a pretty smart guy, and besides Annabeth helped him with this... creation, she would’ve factored in things like: mass fire started by overheating of a eight slotted toaster. It’s actually all a little crazy to think about, if Nico is honest. They’re supposed to be on this serious quest to save the world and whatnot, but somehow in between it all they’re still finding time to be dumb teenagers. And if the excitement in the room as everyone waits for the first pieces of toasts to pop up is anything to go by, then Nico knows sometimes they need breaks like this.
The first pieces of toast pop up, and everyone gasps. It’s Pipers, and she takes it out and slowly inspects it. It’s lightly toasted and jellied, grape jelly specifically. We all watch in anticipation as she brings it to her nose, sniffing before taking a bite out of it. We all hold our breath as she chews.
She swallows, and her brown eyes are blown wide, “Holy. Shit.”
As if on cue other pieces start popping up and everyone goes into a frenzy, Nico thinks he can hear Hazel yelling about how it’s been pre-cut in triangles for her, and somewhere in the distance he can hear Percy trying to convince Jason to carve a smiley face into his toast with lightning. Idiots.
He crosses his arms, his toast is the only one that hasn’t popped up yet and he’s starting to get impatient. Just when he thinks he’s going to have to complain a hand lands on his shoulder, squeezing lightly. Normally he would jump at the touch, whirl around and start something, but no one else on the ship is bold enough to touch him but his sister and a very persistent Leo Valdez. Nico doesn’t need to turn his head to know the boy has a smile on his face, and he knows it’s him because of the excessive amount of heat that rolls off his skin.
“Patience, young grasshopper. Perfect toast requires the utmost control.” Leo jokes, and Nico begrudgingly cracks a smile. He’ll never actually admit it out loud but. Leo is funny. Or he’s just an idiot, which means Nico probably has a thing for idiots.
“Yes of course, Sensei, I remember your lessons.” Nico jokes back, turning his head to look at him, and just like he suspected that smile is firmly in place. “To be in control of the toast is to be in control of oneself.”
Leo burst out laughing, and Nico is so caught up in it he doesn’t even notice when his toast pops up.
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PJOrarepairs2020 my Masterlist
So here are all my works posted during the pjorarepairs2020 week! I really wanted to do a masterlist of my own but if you want more go check out @them-awesome-rarepairs' blog where he made the masterlist of the whole event ^^
Repeating Mythology :
Rachabeth : Pygmalion and Galatea (Moodboard/Fanfiction)
Jeyniper : Arthurian Legend (Arthur/Guenievre/Lancelot) (Moodboard)
Kinzylla : Orpheus and Eurydice (Moodboard/Fanfiction)
Role Reversal :
Percalypso (Moodboard)
Rachico (Moodboard)
Octeyna (Moodboard)
Fake Dating :
Pipachel (Moodboard)
Hurt/Comfort :
Perzoe (Edit)
Roadtrip/Hich Hiker :
Rachelypso (Moodboard)
Sadieo (Moodboard)
First Kiss :
Lecho (Moodboard/Fanfiction)
Holidays :
Lercy : Summer Vacation (Moodboard)
Racheleo : Halloween (Moodboard)
Hazelypso : Christmas (Moodboard)
High School :
Clarypso : Jock/Nerd (Moodboard)
Willachico : Band (Moodboard)
Fluff :
Leabeth (Moodboard)
Soulmate :
Perachel : The world in black and white (Moodboard)
Zoeyna : Bounded Feelings (Fanfiction)
Lukalypso : Bounded Feelings (Moodboard)
Litpollo : Red String (Moodboard)
Theme Song :
Drewtavian : Make Me Happy (Moodboard)
Free :
Jercico : Royalty!AU (Moodboard)
Ethadieo : Star Wars!AU (Moodboard)
Perachel : Marvel!AU (Thorkyrie) (Moodboard)
Pipabeth : Marvel!AU (Carolmaria) (Moodboard)
Leyna : Marvel!AU (Starmora) (Moodboard)
Percethan : Marvel!AU (Clintasha) (Moodboard)
Preyna : Marvel!AU (Peggysous) (Moodboard)
Ethalypso : Marvel!AU (Buckynat) (Moodboard)
Perachel : Marvel!AU (Spideychelle) (Moodboard)
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