Yes I'm publishing two days straight, and no, I do not regret it. Enjoy :)
"I remembered what she told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought- just maybe- we were off to a good start" -The Last Olympian
I fidgeted, twisting a small metal wire to a spiral. I warmed my hands enough so that the metal would melt, and then reshaped it, only to cool my hands down again.
The morning was young, only 3 in the morning, and I didn't feel like sleeping yet. I could probably catch another hour of work. The sandwich Piper brought 12 hours ago sat sadly on my workbench, collecting dust from mid air.
I grabbed the mug of cold coffee, and slowly heated it up with I hands, sipping at it as I calculated more specs. The engine room was dead silent, with only a candle to light up the place.
"You should be sleeping." The voice startled me, and a few drops of the coffee fell on my work.
I turned to see a mess of blonde, and gray eyes shining at the doorway. "I could say the same to you."
She walked in, grabbing a stool to sit, and pulled the coffee out of my hands, taking a long swig. "Let's work shall we?" She asked, grabbing a pencil and a calculator.
Nobody ever worked with me at night. Everyone would sleep, trying to get rest for the next day, and I preferred it that way. I got to spend valuable time alone listening to his thoughts, trying to create coherent plans out of my crazy ideas. Another person meant I had to listen to their input, try to joke around with them, make them exasperated enough so that they would leave.
But alone, I didn't have to keep joking around. I could finally drop the smile, and watch the hours pass somberly.
"Annabeth, you should be sleeping," I chided, trying to talk her out of it.
"So should you, but if you're working this hard to get my boyfriend back, a person you never met, then I should be working twice as hard," her dead eyes stared me down, daring me to argue. But who was I to choose the least dangerous path?
"You do work twice as hard. You should rest and recharge, get yourself prepped up for tomorrow. I think I heard Chiron talking about the Andes this morning," my voice was cool and collected, two things which it never was.
"I don't need to rest, Leo. I need Percy back!" her voice rose frustratedly and her hand smashed down on the desk in one swift motion, slamming down a pen which promptly cracked. She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. It's just, without him-" she shook her head, blinking away tears. "He needs to come back. So many people are counting on him."
A few moments passed in an awkward silence, filled with only the sound of our breathing.
"Annabeth, what if it doesn't work?" I asked nervously, lighting a few fingers on fire.
"It's going to work. It needs to. Percy's gotta be at the Roman Camp."
"Annabeth, you are a daughter of Athena. Look at it objectively. Just take a look outside of your shoes. You will get it why Clarisse keeps bursting into tears, why Thalia grabs Jason and hugs him like he's her lifeline. Why Chiron seems to age a hundred years every single day that passes. Why the Stolls have stopped playing pranks on everyone."
She stared at the ground. "You act like that's the worst of it. Have you met Sally? She doesn't pass a minute without trying to find out where he is. If I'm not doing this for myself or Percy, I need to do it for her, at the least. You can't even begin to comprehend, Leo."
I stared at the floor. Losing family? If there was a nobel prize for it, I think I would've won it.
Annabeth's gaze felt like a hawk was watching my and I did everything in my power to stay as impassive as possible.
"Oh. Ohhhhhh," she exclaimed realization dawning on her. "Your… Mom?" she guessed.
I decided it was no use hiding it from somebody as smart as Annabeth anymore. "How did you know?"
"You dropped your gaze and avoided eye contact, flinched to the left very slightly, and your hands and legs became completely still, and you normally move your hair if it's falling in your face, but you didn't," she listed effortlessly. "Plus, you don't have any siblings, so that only leaves your mom."
A groan escaped my mouth. "It's not like this situation. I knew where she was, and what happened. This is worse," I felt myself starting to ramble, words falling out meaninglessly.
Annabeth sighed loudly, interrupting me with a look. "Is this really? Much worse? He is just another teenager in your eyes who probably got eaten up by some monster in your opinion. That doesn't seem that bad to me," she said thoughtfully, taking in a stack of designs on the desk.
I watched the floor disdainfully. "I don't know," I finally settled for, closing my open palm into a tight fist and instantly exhausting the flames that were dancing on it.
Annabeth gave me a sad smile. "Sad story time?" she asked, twirling a pen between her fingers.
I managed to put on a smile. "Sure, why not."
Annabeth inhaled deeply, sitting on the edge of her seat."So, when I was six, my dad remarried this woman, Helen. And Helen seemed great. She would bake the best cookies and made amazing pasta. But I never got any cookies or pasta. Helen was," she paused, glancing at a small spider crawling up the wall. "Helen was a great mom, but never to me. In fact she hated me and my existence, and did everything to make me go away. She told my dad lies about me, saying that I stole her kids' toys or finished all the left over cake. And my dad believed her over me. And so a year later, I chose that I didn't want to live with her, not anymore. I ran away, and only contacted my dad a handful of times since." Annabeth smiled a little wistfully, as if remembering some fond memory with her dad.
"Well I don't get why you dislike her, Helen seems like a dream come true," I managed to comment sarcastically, smiling a little when Annabeth laughed.
"She threw me in a closet with spiders!" she added, still laughing.
I grinned. I never heard Annabeth laugh in all the time I knew her. Never once. It was quite refreshing to see her smile for once.
Annabeth grabbed more designs. "You're turn," she said abruptly, playfully smirking.
That threw me off. My sad stories weren't something you could laugh about years later. Mine were just sad. I was happy I was finally getting along with Annabeth, who always seemed so scary. I didn't want to ruin the mood. "No way. This is a voluntary thing. I can't," I responded, laughing nervously.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Hey, this agreement was mutual. I did my job, now it's your turn!" She was still smiling but her tone still made it impossible to disagree with her.
"Okay, fine," I could tell her something mildly sad. Like when my aunt took away the only tools I had salvaged from my mom's workshop.
"I had to live with my aunt. And she hated me. She literally thought I was-" I was interrupted by Annabeth shaking her head.
"No, no way. You led me on with your mom. You're finishing that story," she said forcefully.
My smile dropped. "Annabeth…"
She looked at me seriously. "Hey, stories are for sharing. You can't keep everything a secret all the time."
I took a shaky breath. Annabeth would understand. She knew abandonment first hand. Her step mom basically tortured her. And her dad left her for the streets. And Annabeth wouldn't tell anyone.
"My mom, she used to work in this workshop. I don't remember much, but I remember she loved me, a lot. And one day we were heading out of the workshop when she went back inside for her keys. And I was waiting outside when-" I stopped, remembering that surreal memory for the first time in years. I twisted my hands into tight fists.
"Well Gaea came. And she taunted me and said some things and then I got really upset and angry and I didn't know all my powers at the time and then," my hands started shaking and I pressed them to the table, trying to still them. I took another deep breath.
"I set the place on fire. Gaea locked the door and my mom was trapped inside and she-" my vision blurred as a tear fell onto a drawing.
"She died, okay? The end. That's how I ended up as such a nutcase," I said, my voice slowly raising in anger. Why did Annabeth have to make me say it? I didn't want to tell her. I didn't want to relive that memory. I didn't want to remember exactly how I killed my own mom.
Annabeth took my hand, and looked at me hard in the eye. "You know it wasn't your fault right?" she said softly.
I nodded, hot, meaningless tears still making their way down.
"I'm serious. It wasn't your fault." There was so much conviction and determination in her voice that I almost believed her.
"And I can guarantee that she doesn't blame you for it," she continued. I glanced at her. Her eyes didn't hold any pity, and her face was devoid of any reassuring smile. It was like she was trying to force me into memorizing an algebraic formula. It was a fact. And I needed to remember it.
I pulled my hands out of her clutch and stood up, all my intent to work through the night disappearing. "Look Annabeth, I've heard that a hundred times. That doesn't change the fact. I started the fire. I reacted to Gaia's words. I killed her," I whispered again, maintaining a hard steady gaze on the floor.
She didn't say anything for what seemed like hours. And then finally, "Why are you putting so much effort into this?"
I raised my eyebrows questioningly.
She explained further. "This. Finding Per- my boyfriend. You don't even know the guy, and your working day and night for what?"
I wondered how Percy Jackson ever put up with her never-ending questionnaire.
"Because I need something to stick okay? I need to build something permanent, something that will last for centuries ahead and people will look at it and say 'Oh wow Leo Valdez built that. I need something, anything, to bring meaning to my pathetic so-called life."
Annabeth's calculated gaze morphed into a soft, almost longing look, as if she was remembering something old.
"Yeah, I understand." She inhaled deeply, seemingly shaking something off of her. Her hard eyes finally settled upon mine and softened into liquid mercury.
"It's going to be okay. You're going to build the most magnificent ship this world will ever see, and it's gonna do wonders."
And somehow, that small reassurance meant everything.
Not too sure about the ending, it didn't seem really strong, but I really liked the whole Leo angst thing. Drop a review and let me know how it was!