I don't own PJO and this is completely AU because I don't think Uncle Rick the Troll would kill amy of the Seven. Please read the A/N at the end.
"So often I call and I plead with you: "Give me a chance!" It's not often that I understand he ins and the outs of what's wrong and what's right"
He's not the same anymore, since the Giant War.
Murderer. Traitor. Killer. He winces as he remembers their fould words, but, of course, he's Leo Valdez- he always gets what he deserves.
The seventh wheel.
He wants to blame Nemesis- so bad- for what he did. She's the Goddess of Revenge (balance, really, but it feels more like revenge) after all. That's all he wanted- needed, still does want- to have.
But he shakes his head, igniting a flame from his left hand to keep him warm. He still wears the toolbelt- even though people laugh at him- because it's all he has.
He hasn't been to Camp Half-Blood in weeks, and hasn't visited Camp Jupiter in months, because he's alone.
And a traitor. And a killer. And a murderer.
"Congratulations," he remembers the campers snarl. "You only have one friend." But, that isn't quite true either. He has nobody anymore.
He slumps up against the brick wall, trying to keep himself stable, and can't help what comes next. The tears.
Every night is the same: he goes to the alley, thinks about what he did, and cries. Of course, if he went to Percy's and Annabeth's, they'd let him in.
He doesn't need them- at least, that's what he tells himself.
He burries his hands into his toolbelt, looking for something, anything, to keep him busy, and finds some wire and sheet metal and a washer.
He stares furiously at his hands, the out-of-style fingerless gloves not even smoking when he ignites his finger and works with the parts.
He reaches back into the belt to find what he needs, and pulls out the notepad and pen he used to doodle on. It's just a collection of empty promises and memories now.
He flips through the frayed, white pages, and sees the sketches Hazel made. She always loved art.
The first one is a drawing of Percy and Annabeth, staring at the water from the Argo's deck. Their backs are turned, but he can tell it's them because of the way they carry themselves- Percy's back slightly hunched, and Annabeth pressing into him, her head held high.
The tear rolls down his soot-stained cheek and smudges the charcoal drawing. Stupid stupid stupid tears.
He rubs away at his eyes, desperate to make the feeling go away, and reaches into his toolbelt again.
He pulls out a drachma and finds a lonely hose next to an old, greasy resturaunt. Leo sprays a fine mist and throws the coin in, asking (more like pleading, really) to see the person he needs to see.
She turns, her wild, chocolate curls flying everywhere, her golden eyes bloodshot and teary.
"L-Leo?" Hazel asks, and tries to remove any traces of her crying before straightening and trying to look angry. "What do you want?"
"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry before you forgive me?!" He exclaims. She narrows her eyes and scoffs, shaking her head.
"You killed Frank!" She whisper-yells. "I'll forgive you when he comes back to life." Then she waves away the message.
"Fuck," Leo mumbles. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" He rumages through his pockets until he finds a few quarters and decides to contact her the mortal way.
He puts the coins into the payphone and dials Reyna's number. He has to talk to her. He has to.
She answers on the second ring. "Hello?" She asks. "Reyna!" Leo exclaims. "I know I'm not supposed to call, with the signal attracting monsters and everything, but I need to know something...
"Do you think I killed Frank?" He asks, exasperated. He literally feels her rolling her eyes. "No." She mutters.
"No?" Leo smiles sheepishly. "No." She agrees.
"I think that fire you set killed him, not you," She mutters. "I, uh, I gotta go, okay? I'll talk later or something."
Then she hangs up. He officially has one friend.
Leo stares into his gloved hands and at what he's made. A ring.
It's not much; just some wires holding a piece of melted and molded titanium, but he keeps it, unlike everything else he's made.
He slumps down next to the payphone, and decides that he needs to leave if he doesn't want to be a monster's dinner. On his way back he kicks an old can.
He has no idea how far he's gone until he looks down at the can. It's not one of his, and it's rim is stained blue.
His head snaps up, the brown, now too-long curls getting into his eyes as he stares up at their porch.
Of course, it's not a porch, more of an entrance really, to Percy and Annabeth's apartment complex. They'd let him in if he asked them to; maybe even give him some food and clothes and a haircut.
He's one of their friends, but then again, three demigods is a pretty powerful smell.
He decides against it, not wanting to get them killed because he's dangerous and so are they.
They're all different now, maybe for the better. And he's different too.
Not the same thing.
No, never the same thing, because he's Leo Valdez and he always gets what he deserves.
So I know this is a completely crappy one-shotish thing I made because I felt really angsty and depressed and here's why: So I'm at school, working on a group project and I'm in a group with a bunch of my enemies (all guys) and one of them is like bawling his fucking eyes out because he feels left out.
And me being the "bitch" I am, gets blamed by my best friend even though it's not anyone's fault, plus this guy who's crying doesn't want to do anything. And basically I'm being interrogated in front of my crush and best friends because one of my arch nemesis and me are "responsible" for the guy being over-fucking-dramatic.
So that quote from the campers is actually from the arch nemesis I got in trouble with (that fucking mellow dramatic diva!) before the school play and when I came home, I bawled my eyes out and almost cut myself because I felt like an asshole. If I'm going to directly quote him it would go like this,"Congratulations! You have one friend." Now I'm probably going to get called an attention-whore because I said I almost cut myself.