Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns PJO. I own nothing.

If you find any mistakes please tell me. I am not to good of a writer and this is mediocre at best. Not AnnabethxLeo. Just friendship. I feel like i wrote it as if they were together.

Summary: Leo has never seen anything like this in his life. Annabeth was a stickler for rules. She was nearly as bad as Jason when it came to them and the thought of Annabeth smoking was absolutely crazy. But she was there, lighting a cigarette in front of his own eyes. Maybe he was seeing things.

Cigarettes

Leo liked Annabeth.

She was bossy and scary and the fact she was very, very beautiful didn't help matters. Especially for a guy who fell in love with every hot chick he came across. Of course that wasn't much of a problem because she was so in love with Percy Jackson that Leo didn't even bother falling for her.

But despite the fact she was a trainwreck, he liked her. She was a good friend and handy when one was building a warship.

They spent day after day together, building the warship. He soon knew everything about her. From the fact her favorite day of the week was Monday (though he never understand how anyone liked that accursed day), to the fact she loved Percy more than anything (this one was a bit obvious).

So when he found her lighting a cigarette, he was very, very surprised.

The day had been normal. He hadn't slept, working on the warship all night. She had went into the makeshift room they had made in the bunker and hadn't come out. Eventually he realized that he was thirsty, so he walked in to the the room.

The room was small with a huge desk in the middle of it and two beds pressed up against opposite walls. The room was dark and it was fairly easy to spot her lighting the cigarette.

She hadn't noticed him and from the rumpled clothes and hair, he guessed she had been sleeping.

Annabeth was a stickler for rules. She was nearly as bad as Jason when it came to them and the thought of Annabeth breaking the law in her own free will was way too crazy. The law that underaged people were not supposed to smoke. She obviously was not the only one who did so but this situation was absolutely bizzare.

He wondered if he was finally cracking up and had the sudden urge to grab Annabeth and check if she was a hallucination or not. But he figured she would break many, many bones that he needed if he creeped up on her.

"I didn't realize you smoked." He said sounding much less bewildered than he thought he would. He walked over to the mini fridge, grabbed a random drink, and popped it open.

She flinched, surprised by his appearance and dropped the cigarette. She cursed loudly and sent him a glare.

" I don't."

He looked over at her and gave her a deadpan look. "I just caught you with a smoke, so don't lie to me. And I thought you were smart enough to realize when you're bea.t"

She glared and said "I am not lying. I don't smoke unless I'm stressed."

"So, you smoke."

"No, I don't"

"Yeah, you do."

"NO, I DON'T!"

He raised his hands in a surrendering position. "Alright, alright. I get it. You don't smoke." Then he mumbled something under his breath that suspiciously sounded like Yeah, right.

They stood there glaring at each other for a moment before his face softened and he got a wistful kind of look on his face.

"Can I have one?" he asked softly.

Now it was Annabeth's turn to be surprised. "What?!"

"You heard me."

"Why?"

There was no way Leo, who was the most innocent demigod she had ever met, wanted to smoke. He wasn't innocent in a an obvious manner (obviously, have you ever heard one of his lewd jokes?), but in a way that seemed to portray the fact he didn't know the hardships of the world. Like he had always been happy.

(Later, after she heard his story she wondered how she could have been so naive. Demigods were never innocent to the world and he was more messed up than most. He was an amazing actor.)

He took a seat on the floor and took a swing out of his drink. She caught sight of the word Red Bull on the can and He doesn't need anymore caffeine fluttered through her head for a split second.

"No reason." was his oh so amazing answer. But she didn't let her mind rest on it. She was stressed enough already.

So she shrugged and handed him one. The last one she had.

He lit it with his finger, the light brightening up the dark room. He brought it to his lips slowly as if it was hard for him to move and he took a drag. She figured he would start coughing like most people when they first try one.

But to her surprise he breathed it in as if it were natural. Then she figured most people was what would not be used to described Leo Valdez.

She sat down next to him, placing her head on his shoulder and taking the cigarette, placing it between her own lips. The smoke filling her lungs in an almost addictive manner.

" Have you smoked before?" she asked, looking up at him through her lashes. He looked away as if he was recalling something he had forgotten.

"Yeah, I have. I started smoking as s and became bit of a chain-smoker. Stopped when I met Piper. Smoking can't harm me since I'm fireproof and I liked it because it was slightly comforting. But Beauty Queen made me stop"

How smoking was comforting, Annabeth didn't understand. Stress relieving, yes, but comforting, no.

"My mum was a smoker too and I remember that when I was little I kept telling her to stop and that the smoke would kill her. And it did, just not in the way I expected"

"Oh."Annabeth didn't say anything else.

He took the cigarette back and took a long drag.

The cigar finally finished and he burnt the remaining piece.

"You should stop smoking" he said breaking the not-so-silent silence. "It'll kill you." He left the words hanging in the air and walked back out of their makeshift room.

She never touched another cigarette in her life, no matter how much she was tempted to.