This is my first Percy Jackson fic, so I'd love some feedback! I wrote this just after reading House of Hades- I felt so sorry for Leo, who is one of my favourite characters.
Maybe Everything Will Be Alright
Leo thought a lot about Calypso.
It was as if the girl had followed him back- every way he turned, she was there. But then he reached out, and she was gone.
He had been on that island for what had felt to him like two weeks, and she had spent the first five or six days actively avoiding him. He had came home and found out that he had only been away for five or so days, real world time. And yet...
Leo knew a bit about love. He saw it in Jason's eyes when he talked about Piper. He saw it in Piper's eyes when she looked at Jason. He saw it when Hazel whispered in Frank's ear, her eyes dancing, and he saw it when Frank smiled back at her. He saw it in the air around Percy and Annabeth whenever they were together.
He was the seventh wheel, the odd one out. Maybe he'd never loved someone that way before (and his mom and his friends didn't count), but he was surrounded by it every day even in the hardest of times. He could recognise it.
Leo was confused about a lot of things. His team confused him. Prophecies confused him. Coach Hedge frequently confused him. But there was one thing that Leo felt no confusion over. One thing he knew, clearer than anything he'd ever known before.
He knew that he loved Calypso.
He loved that stupid, beautiful, infuriating girl. He knew that he loved her. And she wasn't here.
It seemed unfair to Leo that when he had finally found someone who was perfect for him, she was snatched away from him. But it must be worse for her. The gods would send her a hero she couldn't help but love, she had said, but it would be someone who couldn't stay, no matter how much she wanted him to.
It was difficult for Leo to accept that she could love him. She was beautiful and intelligent and witty and amazing, and he could... build things. And crack jokes.
But even if she had somehow fallen in love with him, was it true love? If she couldn't help it, maybe it wasn't real. Maybe it was engineered somehow. There were god involved after all. And they usually enjoyed toying with heroes...
And the more he thought about it, the more he doubted it. She couldn't love him. She just couldn't.
He couldn't wrap his head around it, but it must be true. After all, if she didn't love him why else would the raft have appeared? Why else would she have kissed him? These questions tormented him, and he did not know the answers.
He saw her everywhere he turned, and she was so very far away. But he would find her. He would go back for her. He'd made a promise.
Leo Valdez had broken many things throughout his fairly short life. But he never broke a promise.
So he got on with his life, put on a smile, hid away his pain and loss and uncertainty... And he thought of Calypso, and her laugh, and her smile, and he thought that maybe, just maybe, if he found her again, he would get his answers. And maybe, just maybe, if he was lucky... Maybe everything would be alright.