So, I've been meaning to publish something new for a while. I've been in a depressing place for a while, and I'm hoping that writing will help. I'm not sure how often I will be updating, but as always, I plan on finishing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus.

New York was big. Its size, in fact, was the very reason that Leo had chosen the city. Because it was a large city. So large that Leo felt that his powers were somehow less destructive. Because Leo felt like no matter how much fire he created, and how much it destroyed, he could never destroy a place as immense as New York. It almost made him feel normal.

Almost.

Leo had moved to New York just shy of a year ago. Even though the Second Giant War had ended three year ago (three guesses as to who won), Leo had remained at Camp Halfblood for another year. There he had a home and had friends, something that had been foreign to him since the loss of his mother. But after a particularly harsh betrayal, Leo found himself leaving, even if he had nowhere to go. The memories there were too painful, and Camp Jupiter was definitely not an option for the same reasons.

Leo wasn't necessarily bitter about it. He had long since learned that things were going to happen in life, and there wasn't a thing you could do about it. He also learned that people aren't always who they say they are, and that trust was far easier to break than it was to build or fix. And then there was his motto, his mantra: keep moving forward; it had held him together before, and as they say: old habits die hard.

At first, he had just traveled around the country, taking odd jobs and living in cheap motels. Once he realized how unsatisfying that was, Leo decided just to find a place and stay, settle down in a way. And that place just happened to be New York. Leo would never admit it, to himself or others, but part of the reason he chose New York was to be near Camp. It seems as if he couldn't quite let it go, no matter how much he wanted to. For better or worse, the place was a part of him, a part of who he was.

Once arriving at New York, Leo used what little money he had to rent an apartment on the upper east side of the city; it was a small, one bedroom apartment (along with a small living room and kitchen), but Leo never really was one for fancy things (though his designs for the Argo II, which originally included a game room and a hot tub, said otherwise). However so, the son of Hephaestus was comfortable.

The son of Hephaestus had briefly considered returning to school and had laughed quite loudly at himself when he registered what he was actually thinking. Leo had absolutely hated school before he discovered he was a demigod. Leo never could concentrate and he hated reading, not to mention he always ended up being labeled a troublemaker. Finding out that his math teacher was actually some monster that wanted to kill him (rather than just some human that didn't like him) wasn't going to make him suddenly fall in love with it.

When his limited funds started running low (which did not take long at all), Leo took it as his cue to find a job. After again working the occasional odd job and thoroughly hating it, he found himself working at a small repair company, modest with only one location. He was only 18, but mortal electronics and appliances were painfully easy to figure out and it paid well enough. Also it left room for him to tinker with said objects, something he still enjoyed doing.

Proof of this was the number of random inventions in his bottom nightstand drawer. Said inventions ranged anywhere from something that you could find on the late-night infomercial to a new device that rivaled the latest smart phone. He had hoped to one day get one of his inventions patented, maybe for his mom or maybe for himself, but it was still his dream.

He often found himself standing before the patent office, a random invention in his hand; he never had the courage to go inside though. Rejection was painful thing, and even though he knew his inventions were top notch, it was a fear that lodged itself in the back of his mind and whispered words of doubt to him when he most needed courage. He tried to not let it bother him, but he felt weak and useless when he couldn't even bring himself to walk into a completely mortal building.

And Leo ran into the occasional monster also, but he had a knife with him at all times (for even though he much preferred a hammer, the knife was much easier to conceal) and his fire powers always proved useful against the occasional hellhound.

So life for Leo was pretty simple, and he was okay with it. He never asked to be a demigod or to be mixed up in a prophecy. Although the powers were cool, Leo had soon learned they weren't nearly worth the consequences that came with them. And once Leo had seen the horrors of war, he hoped to never have to endure such a thing again. The 18 year old was perfectly content with just being a "regular" New Yorker. Perfectly content with forgetting his past, and hopefully moving on to a mostly peaceful life, leaving his complicated history behind him.

But things are never really that simple, now are they?

Okay, so this was written right after I read The Lost Hero, so if it contains any inaccuracies from the more recent books of the series, sorry. Anyway, this will be a Leo/Reyna fic, so I hope you like the pairing and the way I'm portraying it.

So, if you feel like giving me your thoughts, don't hesitate to press that "review" button.

Thanks for reading. (: