Sad boy, you stare up at the sky
When no one's looking back at you.
You wear your every last disguise
You're flying, then you fall through.

(Erin McCarley, Love Save the Empty)

Love Save the Empty

A Heroes of Olympus Fanfiction

"Calypso!" Leo called, up to his knees in sea water as he stood on the shores of Ogygia.

"Calypso? It's me, Leo! I – I came back for you."

No reply.

Leo waded out of the surf and on to the shore, leaving the Argo II, where it was moored a hundred yards or so away, behind. "Calypso!"

Leo made his way through the gardens, which were empty. "Hello?"

And then he saw her, sitting stone-still on a bench underneath a tree with drooping white blossoms. Her head was bowed, and she was staring at her hands.

Leo's heart stopped. Was she dead?

But then Calypso lifted her head and looked at him with sad eyes, and Leo felt a rush of relief pass through him.

Until he stopped to contemplate why she was so sad.

"Calypso. It's me. Leo. I came back. You remember my promise?" Leo said as gently as he could, walking over to where she was seated.

Calypso's hands trembled. "Leo, you have to go." she said, her voice barely audible. "Please."

Leo dropped to his knees next to her. "What do you mean? Is everything okay?"

"Go, Leo. Leave." Calypso said, tears streaming down her face.

"Calypso. Explain." Leo commanded, looking into her eyes. His heart was thumping wildly in his chest. "You're scaring me. Are you hurt? Is something wrong?"

"Why don't you understand?" Calypso whispered. "I'm immortal. You're not. You'll grow old and die, and I'll remain young forever. How am I supposed to live with that?"

"Bu-but... I love you." Leo stuttered, clutching her arm. "You have to realize that. I'm perfectly happy to grow old without you, as long as we can be together."

"But I'm not!" Calypso shouted. "I'm not happy with that! You think I could bear to watch you grow older and older and then DIE? Leave, Leo Valdez. We can never be together. Just go."

Calypso turned her head away, tears glistening in her eyes. Leo drew in a sharp breath. "I came back for you, and this is how you repay me?" Leo asked in a broken voice, eyes stinging and throat aching.

Calypso said nothing.

"Fine." Leo said bitterly. "Okay, fine. I wish I could tell you I love you, but that sentiment was basically just ripped to pieces. Bye."

He turned and stormed away without looking back.

In those months after the war with Gaea, Leo had few visitors to Bunker 9.

Everyone knew Leo was in shock and denial over Calypso's rejection - he did lock himself in Bunker 9 for weeks, after all - so no one really wanted to approach him, in fear of hurting his feelings.

Except for the Seven.

Jason was the first one to visit after those first two weeks of solitude. He didn't say much, but he brought food, and it was nice for Leo to interact with someone after those lonely, miserable weeks.

Next came Piper. She didn't bring gifts, which was fine, but she gave Leo countless hugs and comforting words. For once, Leo didn't mind Piper putting a little charmspeak into her words to soothe him. It made everything so much easier.

Frank visited next, which came as a bit of a surprise. The big guy had never really liked Leo until now, but he was a lot of fun to talk to, and Leo found himself laughing for the first time in - well, in a long time.

Hazel and Annabeth visited together, both with hugs and soothing words and funny stories about Frank's clumsiness and Percy's thickheadedness.

Percy visited less frequently, but he was the most painful one to talk to. Not because Leo didn't like him - Percy and Leo had become really good friends - but because they had both known Calypso. They talked about her sometimes, with Percy asking questions about what she wore or what Ogygia was like, and Leo would reply with as much humor as possible, even though his heart ached.

Percy understood.

But his last and most frequent visitor was who really surprised him.

Leo was tinkering - again. He was trying to replicate an Archimedes sphere, but so far, he was failing with a capital F. Not failing, but Failing.

For some reason, this thought made Leo snicker, and pretty soon he was whistling to himself as he fiddled with a corroded wire. He was whistling so loud that he almost didn't hear the knock on Bunker 9's formiddable door.

Almost.

"Come in!" Leo called, still focused on the corroded wire. Holy Hephaestus, this was going to be tough to replace.

The door slid open - Leo fixed it ages ago so that other people could enter from the outside (but only if he was inside) - and Leo looked up.

At first Leo thought the girl was Annabeth - after all, she was blonde - but this girl was much too short to be Annabeth. She was probably even shorter than Leo.

And Leo had no idea who she was.

"Sorry - do I know you?" Leo asked, a little irritated. The girl lifted her head and Leo started - she was one of the Apollo campers. What was she doing here?

"Probably not," the girl said, apologetically. "I'm Willa Calder, Apollo Cabin. Sorry to bother you."

Leo raised an eyebrow, confused. "Okay. Well, I'm Leo Valdez, Hephaestus. What are you doing here?"

She was about twenty feet away, but Leo could still see the blush spreading across her face. "We had tacos for dinner tonight. And I couldn't help but notice how psyched you usually are when that's on the dinner menu. So... I thought I would bring you some."

Leo grinned. "You are officially my favorite person. Why hasn't anybody else brought me tacos?"

Willa laughed and pulled a takeaway box out from the duffel bag slung over her shoulder. "I don't think I can bring these up to you, so you should probably come down."

Leo suddenly realized he was sitting on one of the ceiling rafters and cursed, making Willa laugh again. He liked her laugh, Leo decided.

"I'll be down in a second." Leo said, scooting down the wooden beam and leaping down, clutching the sphere parts. To his utter surprise, he landed the ten-foot jump on his feet, and when he looked up, Willa's eyebrows were raised in admiration.

"Wow. That was pretty impressive, for a son of Hephaestus." she said, walking over and handing him the box of tacos.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Leo huffed, pretending to be angry as he snatched the box away from her and opened it greedily. "Ooh, carnitas."

Willa just shook her head, trying not to smile. "You're welcome."

Leo looked up at her in surprise. "Oh, you're still here?" he mumbled through a mouthful of corn shell and spicy pork. "Thanks for the food."

Willa smirked. "No problem. I'll be going, then."

She was opening the door when Leo called out, "Hey - Willa?"

Willa turned her head, looking at Leo with a hopeful expression. She was pretty, Leo realized with a jolt. But he certainly wasn't going to tell her that, not after Calypso stomped on his heart and left him empty.

"Bring more food tomorrow?" he half-begged half-demanded, and with a roll of her ice blue eyes, Willa was gone.

a/n: so? What do you think? I'm thinking this will be simply a friendship fic, but please review and tell me if you think there should be something more!

also - please don't hate me for getting rid of Caleo. I ship them just as much as you do, I promise, but I've never really understood how that relationship would work, especially since Calypso is immortal.

I feed off of reviews - don't let me go hungry!

xoxo Laurel