AN: This story is from my wattpad account where I originally posted it! I hope you enjoy!
"What are you guys doing?" Leo asked as he strolled into the mess hall where the rest of the seven and Nico sat.
"Just talking about who's childhood is the worst,"Percy answered, "so far Annabeth's seems to be the winner." Leo's eyes narrowed whilst a smirk danced on his lips.
"What's so bad about your childhood?" Leo asked Annabeth while sitting across from Annabeth. So Annabeth explained her whole childhood to Leo with him listening intently.
Leo scoffed crossing his arms, still smiling once Annabeth was finished.
"Geez-" leo started.
"Horrible? I know." Annabeth said.
"No, you didn't let me finish," Leo said. "As I was saying... Geez, what I would give to have a childhood like yours."
"Why would you want my childhood? My life sucked!" Annabeth exclaimed.
"Compared to mine," Leo stated, "your childhood seems awesome! Mine was basically a living Tartarus!"
"Oh really?" Annabeth said smirking with her arms crossed.
"Really!" Leo challenged.
"Try me," Annabeth said.
"FINE!" Leo said.
"Leo... Are you sure you want to do this?" Piper asked nervously.
"Ya, now let's do this in Cabin 9..." Leo answered. So they walked to the Hephaestus Cabin and sat down on either a bed or the floor.
"Do you want the long or short story?" Leo asked.
"Let's do short then we can ask questions after," Annabeth said. Leo nodded and took a deep breathe.
"Okay where to start... So my mom died when I was 8. I ran away 7 times, from Foster Homes mostly. I slept in a couple sewers during that time, yuck... And finally after the 7th time I've ran away they just put me in the Wilderness school where my whole demigod life began!" Leo said happily. They all looked at Leo weird.
"Okay..." Percy said awkwardly. "How did your mom die?"
"A fire..."
"Oh."
"That I started because of me... Well Gaea made me but the fire was me..." Leo finished sadly.
"Well... That was a little... Uh...depressing." Jason said. Leo nodded sadly.
"Where did you live before your mom died?" Frank asked.
"Houston, Texas. My mom owned a repair shop." Leo responded happy to get away from the previous question.
"Cool!" Hazel exclaimed. "But sewers?" Leo shrugged.
"They didn't find me and that's all that mattered." Leo said. Hazel nodded.
They asked a couple more questions which Leo gladly answered.
"I guess your childhood was worse..." Annabeth said. Leo nodded, then reached under his pillow and grabbed a singed and badly burned picture. Leo just sat there for a while just staring at it.
"What picture is that, Leo?" Jason asked pointing at the one in Leo's hands. He quietly handed it to him not saying a word as he then looked down. They all crowded around Jason to look at the burnt picture. It was a young Latino boy and a women that seemed to be the boy's mother. They were both smiling and looked as if they didn't have a care in the world. It was then that they realized that the little boy was Leo.
"Leo..." Piper said softly.
"It's fine... I'm fine...it's just..." Leo choked on the last words. Piper pulled him into a hug.
"It's okay Leo..." Piper cooed.
"I-I miss her Piper!" Leo sobbed into Pipers shoulder. "I miss my mom!"
"Shhhh, it's alright." Piper said softly. Everyone looked sadly at their happy-go-lucky friends. Their friend, who always has a cheerful smile on their face. Their friend, who always looks on the bright side of things. Their friend, who's always laughing, smiling, telling a joke, or pulling pranks with the Stoll brothers. They have never seen him in the state he's in now. The remaining of the seven(besides Piper) pull Leo and Piper into a large group hug in which Leo's sobs quiet down. Soon just a few stray tears are shedding from his eyes... But these aren't from sadness, but of happiness. He doesn't need to feel alone anymore. Like he's an outcast. He has people who care about him. He'll always have people to go to when he's sad, or when he needs help. He has people who have his back just like he has theirs. He has friends, many of them, and they will help him through all of this. Through good times and bad. He knows he'll never be alone, and that he'll have friends always at his side.
One day at Bunker 9, Leo had just woken up, finding that he slept at a table while working late at night. Leo positions his googles on his forehead after previously being over his eyes. Leo looks into a mirror set up inside the Bunker and notice black soot caked on his face everywhere but where his eyes are. He laughs at himself and just decides to leave it not caring at how many weird looks he'll get. He only has one thing on his mind... FOOD. He figures it's about breakfast time and heads towards the Mess Hall. Once their he notices that no one is there. He just shakes his head thinking he's just late and everyone's already gone. He heads to his cabin to see if anyone's there. To his dismay no one is there. Leo looks around and finds a note on his bed. He picks up the note and reads:
"Come to the place you siblings play." Leo's mouth twitched into a frown.
"My siblings, well it must be the rest of cabin 9 because I don't have any other siblings... But where do they play?" Leo asked himself aloud. "My siblings don't usually play, but they are usually in the Forge... THE FORGE!" Leo said face palming himself because of his stupidity. He quickly ate and went to the Forge. Once again... Empty. But on a work table lays another note. He picks it up and reads:
"To where songs are sung in the depth of night, where flames dance and she'd it's light." Leo groans. "Why riddles?! Why not just a note that says: go here. This is WAY to complicated!" He sighs and thinks.
"There are many places songs are sung... The Apollo Cabin, the Campfire, and the amphitheater... But flames? The only place where there's flames out of those three is the Campfire!" And off to the next destination Leo goes. And it's already becoming dark. About 7:00 pm was Leo's guess.
Once at the campfire,Leo saw no note. He looked around a bit until he finally found one under a rock. It read:
"This is the place where fire takes flight, only of course at the depth of night, the best of the best for a date, so hurry up and don't be late!" Leo pondered for a bit. This one was a lot harder than the rest so he could only guess it was the last one.
"So where is a place where fire flies at night, and is also the best place for a date? And it's telling me to hurry so I've got to make this quick." Leo thought for a moment... "The only way fire can fly is if it's launched or something like that, and that only happens at Firework Beach!" It all made sense! Many people have dates on Firework Beach and it's where we launch fireworks into the sky at night!
Leo tucked the note with the rest of them in his tool belt and sprinted towards Firework Beach. Once the beach was within sight Leo slowed.
"Hello?!" Leo called. "Anyone there?!" He walked onto the beach. Suddenly multiple fires were lit on tiki torches and a lot of people jumped out from who knows where and all yelled "SURPRISE!" Leo jumped and screamed, it seemed like it was one pitch to high. Everyone started to laugh. Still Leo looked confused. The rest of the seven, Nico, Nyssa, Jake, and Harley all pushed there way through the crowd. Piper frowned when she saw my face.
"What's wrong Leo?" She asked.
"Wha- what is going on?!" I asked confused. Piper's face softens. She laughs.
"What?" Piper asks also laughing. "Repair boy forgot that today was his BIRTHDAY!?" Leo's was horrified. He forgot his OWN BIRTHDAY! "How do you forget your own birthday?" Percy asks laughing.
"Apparently..." Leo said rubbing the back of his neck. Everyone laughed.
At the end of the party everyone was either sleeping in their bed or on the beach. Leo was sitting at a table tapping single finger in a single pattern over and over again.
••-•/-•-/••/•/-•/-••/•••
"You okay?" Jason asked walking up to him and sitting across from Leo.
"Mmmhh," Leo responded not stopping from tapping the pattern.
"Okay, you get some rest... Oh and Leo?" Jason says walking away but stops and looks over his shoulder.
"Yeah, Jason?" Leo asks.
"We'll ALWAYS be your friend..." Jason said. Having noticed that Leo was tapping "friends" in morse code over and over. "No matter what." Leo smiled, because he knew he had friends he could count on. No matter what...