"But Mom, I wanna do something special!" His mom sighed, reaching down to pick the young boy up. He looked up, hope in his eyes. She gave a small laugh, tucking some of his curly hair behind his pointed ear.

"I know you do mijo. Why don't you go and find some-" He started shaking his little head quickly, the tool he held in his hand starting to smoke. She put it down before it caught on fire.

"No, I wanna be with you! That's the only way my birthday will be really special! " The woman gave a sad smile, hugging her energetic son.

"One day that will change mijo." Once more he shook his little head.

"No, ill always be with you, even when I'm like…" the boy paused, trying to come up with an old age. "When I'm sixteen!" he looked proud of himself. She gave him a hug, then remembered she had to go back to grab her forgotten keys.

"Okay Leo. When your sixteen we will have that big party you always wanted. Together. I just need to grab my keys, I must have forgotten them. Ill be right back, okay?" She gave him a hug, and walked to the back of the shop, Leo bouncing in anticipating.

Then came the flames.

Leo shot up, gasping from the dream. He pulled of a wrench that had stuck itself to his forehead while slept. He groaned, unable to figure out why he had that dream. Calypso greeted him when he walked outside, pulling him into a kiss.

"What is it sunshine? Don't want any other girls hopping on the team Leo express? Cause ill have you know-" He was cut off by a playful slap.

"No you freaking idiot. First of all, I still hate you." He snorted, knowing she could never hat the pure awesomeness of Leo freaking Valdez. "And second… Happy Birthday, Leo." He groaned as she walked away, finally realizing why he had the dream. It was his sixteenth birthday, and he wasn't with his mom. For the first time in his life, the problem was actually unfixable.

"Dude, what in Hades name are you doing sulking around here." Leo looked up to face Jason. He must have been acting more down than He realized, enough to where Jason and probably the others had noticed. He put on a fake smirk.

"Oh nothing, just pretending to be the most gloomy person ever. Honestly, how does Nico do it? It is way to…" Leo felt his voice slip away, seeing Jason's face. He obviously knew Leo was lying. He had been creepily good at telling that ever since he had gotten back to camp. Every one had, plus they hadn't let him out of their sight.

"Let's try this again. What. Is. Wrong?" Jason got angry enough his glasses slipped, Leo picking them up, and automatically mending them. Without a word, he slipped out of the room, ignoring the others protests. While he knew he was just trying to help, Leo was not in the mood.

"I am not the gloomiest person ever." He spun around, promptly falling to the ground. He didn't need to look up to know it was Nico who had said that. Leo once more wished they could put a bell on that kid. He was way to quiet, even without his shadow travel.

"If you're here to ask me what my problem is, then we are gonna have a problem. Now that that's out of the way: what's your problem?" He heard Nico sigh, before suddenly being pulled to his feet, then into the shadows. "Hey, hello! What the Hades was that for? You're not even supposed to be doing that death juju of yours!"

He felt a punch in the shoulder, before Nico started dragging him further into wherever they were. "First off, I don't have death juju." He was growling at him. He continued pulling him, surprisingly strong for a pale skinny teenager. "Second, I don't have a problem for you to fix. Got it, repair boy." Leo grew angry at the nickname, but kept quiet. For some reason, disagreeing with a son moody of Hades, who was dragging him through the woods, in a place he didn't know, without any escape, didn't add up to well. And Leo did not want to die again.

"Third of all, you're getting a birthday present, so shut up. Leo, being the reasonable genius he was, continued to talk.

"Look, dude, I see you're on Team Leo, and I understand. I mean, who isn't? But I have Calypso and…" he stopped by being shoved into a room.

"I am not on any team here. Got it Valdez? Now you're getting your present, and you will enjoy it." Then he left. Before he could do anything though, he heard a voice.

"You weren't kidding, were you mijo?" Leo turned, tears in his eyes.

"I told you we would be together. Hi mom." Leo looked up, smiling at his mom's ghost.

Five hours latter

Leo lied on the ground, half asleep at his mom's feet. Apparently, he seemed to be completely asleep, for when the door opened, his mom called the other in.

"Thank you for letting me see him." Still acting like he was asleep, he listened in on the conversation.

"It was the least I could do. You remember the deal?" Leo recognized the other person as Nico. As he listened, he moved closer to the ghost of his mother.

"I do. I have used up my five hours. I would talk more about it, but were not the only ones in this room." I smiled, only half awake.

"How did you know?"

"I'm your mom. How do you think?" He gave a small laugh, feeling her move closer. "I have to go now. I am glad I got to see you. Goodnight." Leo whimpered, knowing there was nothing he could do. Before she left, she turned around. "See you next year." Then she was gone.

He sighed, lying down again. He heard the sound of Nico walking away.

"Hey, gloomy." Nico turned around slowly, as though to tell me to shut up. "Thank you." When I was welcomed to silence, I assumed he left. I was almost asleep when I heard it.

"Just helping a friend."

After that, every year Nico raised Leo's mother for his birthday. They grew close friends, and he once more enjoyed his birthdays. After all, it was another section of the epic balled of Leo Valdez in the making. In the end, He learned, nothing was unfixable.

Sometimes in order to fix something, you have to use the thing that made it all impossible in the first place.

AN: okay so this is my first piece of writing for Heroes of Olympus, so sorry if it sucked. I just had to write it so my friend wouldn't kill me for not writing HOO Fanfiction and because it is the one month anniversary of my writing Fanfiction! And no one cares! But anyway, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed, and please review.

Extra AN: I both am out of a copy of the Lost Hero and don't know about the date of Leos birthday, so don't scream at me for that.

Disclaimer: No, just no, no, no, no, no! Why would I own HOO! Honestly!