Leo had never thought it possible to feel a color until he felt black. Black, an alone, empty, pained, traumatized, dying black.
But his black held neither anger nor regret, no, not as she took his hand, squeezing it as tightly as she dared and hovering over him, her thin frame tense with worry.
"Don't worry Leo; you'll be alright. It's not even that bad; you're barely bleeding."
"Pipes," Leo groaned, forcing his eyes open and gazing up to meet the rainbow colors of hers. His head throbbed, somehow managing to be breathtakingly painful even though he also felt numb, so numb, mind-numbingly numb, so much so that while he knew he must have been bleeding a lot, Piper's words comforted him. She sounded so sure, so calm considering everything that had just happened, and she couldn't possibly have been speaking the truth but Leo believed her, because the meaning was there. Everyone else seemed preoccupied; Hazel and Nico were tending to Frank- who'd also been injured- and Jason was alright, but he couldn't be there at the moment, he had to focus on regrouping everyone, gathering supplies and figuring out what to do next. Piper was the only one there, and that was okay. She was enough; he wasn't alone anymore. Her warm, slick palm was his anchor; and he sure as Hades didn't want to float out to sea again. He struggled to say more: to ask her a question, to distract himself from the situation at hand, to wonder whether he was already dead, to thank her, but he could only moan and breathe raggedly; his mouth tasted horrifyingly of blood.
"Shh, Leo, you don't have to talk right now; just stay awake with me, okay?" she pleaded, probing him, but her voice was less sure now. He could see it in her gaze; she was worried beyond belief, and her words had a weaker effect on him. His situation was grave, and she knew it. They stared at each other for a few seconds before the gears shifted into place and Piper was up; his anchor was gone, and he was floating on his own as soon as she told him that she'd be back in a minute, and thank the gods that she was, because the black spots at the edges of his vision were beginning to claim him, and he wasn't sure how long he could have held out without her there. He watched as shhe fumbled with a first-aid kit she'd grabbed from the ship's cabin, pulling out vials of ambrosia and nectar. During this time he cleared his throat and managed to speak.
"I love you," he whispered softly as she worked. He'd longed to use those words for ages since his mother had passed, but this time was different than he'd imagined, not in the least bit romantic but filled with meaning. He did love Piper; she had stood by him when no one else had. From the beginning they'd been thrown together, best friends at the Wilderness Academy before Jason Grace was ever thrown into their worlds; if he was sure of anything in his crazy life, he was sure of that. And maybe they'd been something more and Hera had erased that, but if she had she must have done a damn good job, because he didn't feel that way now, not as he looked at her and he could see a soft blush forming against her cheeks. She'd misunderstood him, but he didn't really mind; he could die and she could think whatever she wanted, so long as she knew that he meant what he said. He shut his eyes for a moment, but Piper grabbed his hand again, willing him to look at her.
"You're not dying on my watch, Valdez," she said softly, a small smile forming on her lips. "You're not going to like this, but you're going to deal with it and you're going to live," she said willfully, upping the ante on her charmspeak. She all but forced a vial of nectar down his throat and it was all he could do not to scream in pain as he dug his nails into her palm, but she still held onto him and continued to dress his wounds as he faded, letting the warmth of the godly fluid overtake him. He was fading fast, but not in a bad way this time; he could feel his wounds splicing together slowly. He wasn't about to recover, but he sure as Hades wasn't about to die, not under Piper's watch. Instead, he would remain softly anchored to her, his slackening palm in hers as his shuddering breaths began to slow. Through the pain he was numb, mind-numbingly numb, blissfully numb, silently numb.
"I love you too, Leo Valdez. Now go to sleep," Piper said softly, squeezing his hand in hers. Leo shut his eyes, and through the relentless pain he could feel relief on the horizon in the form of nectar and Piper McLean, and he also felt a new shade of black, an engulfing, comforting, fading, numbing black. But the best part about it was that this time, he wasn't alone. This time, he had her.
(A/N: Thanks so much for reading! I appreciate it. And thanks so much for the traffic on my other stories, it warms my heart to know that people are enjoying my old stories even when I haven't been writing fic! I had planned to write a lot over the summer, but things got a little crazy and that never happened. Things are about to get crazier now that school is starting, but I'm going to try hard to make up for lost time and get some more oneshots like this done, they're actually very therapeutic! Anyhow, if you enjoyed or if you didn't feel free to leave a review with some feedback, CC is always welcome since I could always use improvement! Thanks to you all for reading, ad have a great day! :D)