I do not own the Heroes of Olympus. Obviously.
Yeah. I'm writing for this category again. This is a prompt fic for my friend who is basically in love with Nico - had to end with Nico laughing with teeth. I offered to write it for her birthday so yeah. Thought I'd upload it. Enjoy. (Titles bad, I know)
I sighed, staring out into the blue of the lake at Camp Half-blood. I'm brooding, I know that, but it seems that there is nothing better that I can do. And what the blue reminded me of, it breaks my heart. Not that I have much of a heart left to be broken.
I laugh a cold, bitter laugh. What a joke.
It isn't my fault that everyone I loved had left me for one reason or another, but then again it is my fault that I can find no one else to replace them. It doesn't matter who I meet, I always seem to push them away.
Thanks for the great people skills, dad. I get that from your side of the family.
The first to have left me was my father, not that Hades is much of a father. Seriously, who would want to walk around saying that their dad was the god of the underworld and pretty much everything in it? No one, or if they did, something is seriously wrong with them. It's not like people want to be friends with the son of the god of death, even though that role really belonged to Thanatos. But in any case, Nico had never had the father-son relationship that most kids had. I hadn't even known he was my father until I was told literally decades after I was born. Needless to say him and I aren't all that close.
Point for the heartbreak god, if there even is one (though Cupid would fit that description well, the little…).
The next to go was my mother. Died. That's all there is to say. Bianca and I then got moved to the Lotus Hotel and then time really did fly by. Almost seventy years later and we emerged, only to be found by Percy Jackson and his crew.
Point two and counting.
Then, of course, there was Bianca. Killed on some stupid quest to save Annabeth, not that I have anything against the demi-god. I really don't, it's just that, well, Bianca was my sister and the only real family I had left, and if she hadn't gone on it, she wouldn't have died. I didn't even have the chance to tell her goodbye.
Three, nil.
And the latest heartache of my life; Percy Jackson, son of the sea god. Ditched again for Annabeth (though I really do hold no grudge, seriously). Not that I blame him. Who would want a messed up kid like myself? Yeah, that's right. No one.
I could give you a speech about being gay, and you could do the same for me. But in truth, the way I feel about Percy is pretty much the same way Percy feels about Annabeth, or Jason, Piper. Means I feel the same heartbreak too. Gods, sometimes it's like I'm drowning in it. Even if someone so much as mentions the sea, or water in general, I see his sea-green eyes, sparkling with excitement. I see his black hair, messing, but in a good looking way. I see him with the same aura of power around his body that a minor god could have. And I see him with Annabeth kissing, holding hands, down on one knee and preposing. It hasn't happened yet, but it's coming; I know that. Just like I know the way the waves are ripping across the surface of the lake remind me of the way Percy rips through a tide of monsters. So why am I still sitting here? Because I am an idiot. A big one at that.
So, back to the topic at hand; me brooding over everyone that has abandoned me in life, everyone I want (with the exception of Hades, possibly), but can't have. Great topic, very enthralling.
Who am I kidding?
"Hey, you look dark and gloomy," the voice behind pauses to reconsider, "Or at least more dark and gloomy than usual, you know, with you being the son of Hades and all."
Ah, Leo, the one person who might actually understand me. His dad is non-too great with people either, and that whole Calypso episode; he's obviously pinning for her. The only difference is that he doesn't let it show. Much.
The son of Hephaestus drops down into the sand next to me, pushing his hands through the tiny grains of sand beneath them. I just sat there, unsure of how to respond.
"You know," he said after a while, the light tone in his voice gone, "The last time I really took the time to sit down and watch the water from a beach was back on the island."
Great. A heart to heart. As if the situation were not already awkward enough. I held my breath, willing him to go away.
"You know what your problem is?" Leo asked suddenly, turning towards me, "You not a people person." I looked down at the sand between my feet.
"Yeah, I know that," I mutter softly, the sound barely loud enough to be heard over the roar of the waves crashing on the rocks. Leo frowned at me and shook his head.
"That's not what I meant," he said, waving his arms around before letting them fall as he contemplated his next words. "You," he finally said, adding the obvious hand gestures, "Need. To. Make. New. Friends."
"I'm not stupid you know," I snapped at him. The demi-god's face lit up in a wide grin.
"Ah, he speaks," Leo cried, as if something amazing had happened, "And what is more is that he has attitude! I like that about a person."
He gave me a fake seedy wink. I glared at him. He looks back at me and smiles sheepishly.
"Too far? Yeah, it happens." Sighing, Leo played with a small scrap of wire he had in his hands, manipulating it and then straightening it again multiple times. "Sometimes I don't know when to stop. But then again, if I did, I wouldn't be as fun as I am now."
"I wouldn't describe you as fun," I mutter under my breath. He hears, unfortunately.
"And he also has a streak of sarcasm. Loving it!" Leo practically bellows, startling me and almost shocking me into tomorrow.
"Will you stop it!" I practically shout, trying to calm my scrambled nerves and be heard over his yelling. Surprisingly he shuts up and stares at me for a moment, in shock himself, and then he gives me a sad look, a pitying look, yet he does so as if he's mocking me. The expression makes me hate every inch of his face.
"You know, sometimes you just need to let loose and cut yourself some slack. It's fine to joke around. Not like the gods are going to curse you for it," Leo says, his voice losing that joking tone it almost always had, "I mean, at least when you can take half a joke you could find yourself some half decent people to be around, not those deader-than-dead skeleton buddies you hang out with. You need to meet some people with life in them."
He has absolutely no idea how much I want to throttle him at the moment.
"Yeah, well being the son of the god of the underworld doesn't help," I say tightly. He just smirks at me.
"Yeah. Having a dad who has a reputation of hating people must be a real bummer."
"Like you can talk," I say in a snarky voice. I really shouldn't reply because he's enjoying this, but I can't help myself.
"Hey, my dad doesn't hate people. He just prefers robots," he ends his argument, knowing how lame it sounds. Then Leo smiles at me. It's disturbing really. "I should cut you some slack," he says after a while, "You and me are in the same boat, metaphorically speaking."
I raise my eyebrows.
"And how is that?" I ask in disbelief.
"Well," the demi-god says, "For one, you and me both know for a fact that your three different levels of creepy."
With the bug-eyed look he's giving me at the moment, I have to work hard to stop myself from smiling. What he said wasn't funny, it's just that he looks so stupid at the moment, like he's thinking too hard and his brains are exploding.
"But in all seriousness," and by the tone of his voice, I can tell he means it, "You and me are both longing after someone we can't have. Thing is, I'm going to change that factor in my case."
I had heard that Leo was obsessed with finding the island Calypso was on, obsessed with returning and getting her off the said island. In a way, it made his problems with Percy seem a little insignificant. At least he saw him from time to time. Leo didn't even have a picture, just the ones in his own head.
"Setting your sights on a far horizon," I said, not wanting to discourage him, but not seeing the point either. He looked thoughtfully at the lake.
"It is a far way to go."
Nothing could turn this guy off the crazy idea.
"Have you ever though-"
"Look," Leo said, anger suddenly rising, "I swore on the river Styx okay. And I don't know what that means in your world of gloom and doom, but in my world it means you're going to keep the freakin promise no matter what. No matter if you have to die keeping it. So I might as well stay positive about the whole thing."
A promise to keep with a final breath.
The words ran round in circles inside of my head. Who was I to deny Leo of true love, if that was what it was he believed he had.
"Alright then," I said finally, "Sorry, I said anything."
We sat in silence, neither of us speaking as we watched the surf of the lake below. It was choppy today, more than usual. Just like my mood in recent times.
"You know, for a kid of the god of fires and forges, you sure aren't awkward around people," I observed, feeling obliged to break the ice. Leo grinned at me, though his eyes still seemed far away.
"What can I say?" he replied, "I'm a natural. Unless, of course, it comes down to hot girls that smell really, really nice."
"Speaking of coming down, why did you come down here?" I asked, "Because it definitely wasn't to talk to me."
Leo thought about this and then smirked.
"I actually came down here to get away from it all; be on my own for a while. Guess that didn't work out," he added as an afterthought.
I could get where he was coming from. I liked to be alone myself sometimes. Most of the time actually.
"Oh," Leo said, speaking up again, "I was also running from Travis and Conner. They're trying to drown people down in the lake. Or at least that's what it looks like they are doing."
"I take it that is why you are sopping wet?"
I watched as Leo shook his head.
"No. They threw me in because, and I quote, they wanted to see if I could wield my ass kicking flames underwater." He gave a smug smirk. "They found I cannot flame on in water, but when I'm out of it, I am a fire ninja and can really burn butts Needless to say I probably won't be getting any sleep for the next couple of days."
As he says this, I unconsciously conjure up and image of the somewhat scrawny kid in a black ninja suit seen so often in movies running through an enemy warehouse in the dead of night, setting things on fire. It's too much and I crack up laughing, tilting my head back as I flash my teeth to the world as Leo, catching on, began to perform a whole 'ninja' routine for my benefit.
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