Nico was broken. That much was beyond obvious. And with all he's been through, it's hard to imagine that he wouldn't be worse than how he is now. And Leo knows this better than anyone- understands this better than anyone. And as child of Hephaestus, Leo has two specialties- building and fixing. With his hands, Leo can build, create and mold just about anything. With his hands, any broken machine or toy or whatever is easily repaired. With his hands, Leo can do more than even he knows.
With his everything else though, he's practically hopeless.
Humans, animals, living creatures- Leo just can't get them and he honestly can't tell if he'll ever be able to. They're just not like machines or metal at all. The way they react and respond and feel…it's just too complicated. Not to mention what happens when they break. It's like, they can't be fixed. And Leo can't completely wrap his mind around it. He understands the grief and pain that never quite goes away no matter what and the agony you feel initially that's quickly followed by this overwhelming numbness but, he doesn't get how some of them just, rust, if you will.
They just give up and trap themselves in this never ending world of pain and sorrow and Leo just doesn't get it. Because, how can someone just do that? How can someone just give up and not even try a little? He understands the feeling of not wanting to go on and wanting to give up but he doesn't understand how someone can still do it. Then there are those who trap themselves in that world yet still don't completely leave themselves to rust.
Nico's kinda like that.
He bottles up every emotion and makes sure all anyone can ever see is this steel wall that is pretty self-explanatory of the fact that he won't let you in while all those thoughts and feelings bounce and slam themselves all around his head it kills and tears him up inside but he doesn't show it because everyone knows he's broken but he doesn't want them to know how broken he is. And, at first, it's the same with Leo. He's emotionless and cold and reclusive and just so apathetic to basically everything that Leo just can't understand why he's so reluctant. But time passes and steel eventually melts under the heat and force of fire and Leo eventually finds out just why Nico is how he is- sees just how broken he is. And he understands. He really does.
From Zeus killing his mom to his and sister's memories getting wiped and then his sister abandoning him only to die to his very much unrequited love for a certain son of Poseidon and not to mention finally crawling out of Tartarus after who knows how long only to be captured by crazy giants and trapped in a jar for a week where he was dead for over 90% of that time. Honestly, Leo is surprised to not see any self-indulgent scars littering any part of the son of Hades.
But Leo is a son of Hephaestus and fixing and building are his specialties. When it's just his hands. The rest of him, he's not so sure. But Leo wants to fix Nico and then build him a new world where he'll never break or rust ever again. But as he lays in bed at night, staring down at a finally peacefully sleeping Nico, he's never been more doubtful in his abilities to fix and build something (because it's someone not something) and he's never been more terrified that he can't fix and build everything…
Okay, so what do you think? I'm thinking of turning this into a series of Leo/Nico one-shots and drabbles, think I should? Send ideas and prompts if so please.