Yup, this is the Leo chapter, 'cause he's just that awesome. And… you can probably guess what's gonna happen.

Again, if I owned PJO, it would not be anywhere near as epic as it is now. Thank you, Rick!

This chappie is for Twilight Chick 01, again, because she's awesome, and swimcritter, because she's my swim sister and she puts up with my babbling about possible/horrible fanfics on a daily basis, and Nobody 426, my evil twin! I love you guys!

O-o-O

Leo woke up to the creaking of disturbed bedsprings. His eyes snapped open, and the first thing he focused on was the clock. It was 11:50 p.m. The second thing he saw was the figure moving around at the other end of the dorm room. At first, he stiffened, ready to grab the nearest heavy object—which happened to be his Literature textbook, never opened—and brain the intruder, before he realized that it was only Jason.

Wait a minute. What was Jason doing out of bed this late?

Leo watched silently through squinted eyes as his roommate strode to the door, glanced around, then slipped out and tiptoed out of Leo's line of sight. Leo counted to ten before getting up and following. He got the feeling Jason was up to something he didn't want to miss.

He followed the stairs up to the rooftop, and then waited for Jason to vanish through the doorway. Leo couldn't help but feel suspicious. Fresh air he could understand, but in the middle of the night? And what was with all the secrecy?

Leo slipped up the stairs and hovered inside the doorway, peeping around the edge to watch his best friend. Jason was sitting in a pile of fabric, staring at the sky next to some girl.

Whoa, wait. Jason. Alone. At night. With a girl. Where was this going?

Leo watched silently, trying to guess who the mystery girl might be. It might be Ashley, who was kind of cute, and he'd noticed that she tended to get a little flustered around Jason. Or it could be Christa, or Laan, that really smart dark-haired girl. Then the girl turned a little to look up at Jason, and he saw her face.

Piper?

Leo watched the two of them. They weren't speaking, just staring at the sky and occasionally each other. At one point, their glances happened to be at the same time, and they quickly looked away.

Okay, Leo thought, so they're hanging out on the roof. Without me. In the middle of the night. No biggie.

They did nothing but sit there for a long time, and Leo was just getting ready to retreat down the stairs when they gasped. Leo looked up at the sky, and his jaw dropped. Lines of multicolored fire were flying overhead—a meteor shower. When he looked back down, Jason and Piper were lying down, watching the show. Leo had to admit that this was pretty cool, and he felt just a little hurt that they hadn't offered for him to join them. He considered crashing their party, but then he'd have to explain why he was up there in the first place, which would lead to telling Jason that he'd followed him… no. Better to stay here undetected.

It went on like that for a while, Leo alternating between staring at the sky and his friends. Both were pretty interesting. The meteors were beautiful, but they couldn't hold his interest for long, with Leo being ADHD and all that. Jason and Piper were reclining, seemingly perfectly at ease, and they were really close together. Leo figured it must've been for temperature purposes—it was pretty dang cold—but when Jason took Piper's hand, Leo wasn't so sure. Jason pointed at something in the sky, and said, "Wow, I can't believe Leo didn't want to see this."

Hold up a second. Didn't want to see this? He had never been invited! They wouldn't…

His worst fears were confirmed as Piper smirked at Jason. "Actually, I didn't invite him."

"Oh, yeah?" It was hard to miss the note of pleasure in Jason's voice. He was glad Leo wasn't there.

Leo backed away a little. Did he really annoy them that much? He didn't have to wait long to find out, because just then Piper chimed in:

"Mm-hmm. You ever feel like three would be a crowd?"

Leo decided to risk peeking around the doorframe. His friends were no longer paying any attention to the flashing lights overhead. They were each propped up on one elbow, staring at each other. Piper had a small smile on her face; Jason's back was to Leo, but he had a feeling that his mirrored hers. Jason leaned closer to Piper.

"Yeah. Like right now."

So Leo was just crowding them now? Was he really unwanted?

"You know how much trouble we'd get in if we got caught up here?"

Leo relaxed, glad for the change of subject. Maybe Jason would inadvertently give him an excuse to leave.

"Oh, I'd make something up. I can be very persuasive." Leo snorted to himself, remembering how she'd come to the Wilderness School. "So do you want to dance, or what?"

Uh, dancing? Leo thought this was about the meteor shower. Besides, there was—

"With no music. At night. On a rooftop. Sounds dangerous." Leo's thoughts exactly.

"I'm a dangerous girl."

"That, I can believe."

Jason and Piper stood and started dancing—a simple back-and-forth swaying thing. Then Piper did some ridiculous little twirl, and Jason smiled at her.

And then they kissed.

Leo backed into the corner between the door and the wall, biting his knuckles to keep from screaming.

They kissed. Piper and Jason, his two best friends, kissed.

How could Leo have been so stupid?

He had thought that finally, finally, after years of running away, he had found two people who had actually cared about him. They were like his family.

And now they didn't need him anymore.

He ran.

He ran away, down the stairs, not caring who heard him, because the last image of his friends was the two of them on the rooftop, holding each other, seemingly perfectly content.

They didn't need him.

They didn't need him.

Leo had become his own worst nightmare—a third wheel.

He collapsed on the landing, sobbing, because above him on the roof his only family was leaving him behind.

"Leo?"

It was Ashley, curled up with her knees tucked up to her chest, wearing her pajamas and looking slightly alarmed. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Leo turned away, "I-its n-n-nothing."

Ashley crawled over and put a hand on his back, "You can tell me if you want to. It's okay."

He shoved her off, snapping, "No it's not. It never was."

"Look, you might as well tell me, because I'm not leaving until you do. Yelling at me doesn't help anything." Jeesh, she was stubborn. Leo kind of liked it.

He turned around, mimicking her posture, resting his chin on his knees. "Seriously, it's nothing. Just…"

"That doesn't sound like nothing."

Leo sighed. "Well, it's Jason and Piper."

Ashley nodded like she understood. "You really care about them, don't you?"

He smiled. "They're like the siblings I never had."

"So what's the problem with them?"

"It's just that they… they…"

"What?"

Leo started to get up, "Never mind."

She put a hand on his shoulder and forced him to sit again. "You better tell me, Leo Valdez, or so help me God I will break out the Spatula of Doom."

He looked at her like she'd just sprouted a third arm, "The what?"

"You don't want to know."

Leo decided to leave it. He sat. "Well, Jason and Piper… they kind of…"

"They like each other." It wasn't a question.

"Did you just read my mind?"

"Um, no offense, but you'd kind of have to be blind not to see it. What's the problem with them getting together?"

"You know about that?"

"I've been sitting here for a while now. There's a pretty good view of everything. So really, what's wrong?"

"Well, I'm kind of… nervous."

Ashley shifted so that she was sitting next to him, with her shoulder pressed to his. She nudged him and said, "Go on."

"Well, they're like my family, you know? And I'm scared that they won't need me anymore. I'll just kind of become an… annoyance."

She stared at him for a second before slapping his arm. Hard.

"Ow! Are you nuts? What the heck was that for?"

"For thinking so little of yourself! Do you realize how important you are to them? Every time I got partnered up with Jason in Biology, it was always 'Leo this' and 'Leo that', it nearly drove me insane!" Ashley paused for breath before continuing, "I don't think there was one day when Piper wasn't babbling away at breakfast about you two. She was always talking about you like you were family, one day she actually said 'my brother' and when we asked her who she was talking about she said 'Leo, duh!'. Besides, I thought you liked being annoying. But trust me when I say that Jason and Piper are always going to need you around. People actually refer to you guys as 'The Three Musketeers'. I don't think you need to worry about that."

Leo looked at her. She didn't look any different. How had she become so… philosophical? "Thanks, I guess. That was kind of… deep."

She snorted. "Don't get used to it, Valdez. That's the last time you'll ever see Professor Ashley."

"I'll take your word for it."

Then she stretched out her arms, and Leo gladly accepted the comforting hug. "Thanks a lot. For everything."

Leo got the feeling this could be the start of a great friendship…

O-o-O

… or something more? Tell me if you guys want more Leo/Ashley. (That means you too, Twilight Chick! I won't continue this if you're not okay with it.)

On other news, I've decided to turn this into a series of songfics for various pairings! Next up: Percabeth to "The Saltwater Room" by Owl City. I'll take requests :)

"The Spatula of Doom" is an inside joke, by the way, but I will tell you that it's a very deadly weapon!

This is random, but my English class started Limericks today. I was so tempted to write one that started with, 'There once was a goddess from Sparta…'. Only problem: what rhymes with Sparta? So I did this instead:

There once was a hero from Greece

Who slaughtered a horrible beast.

The hero was proud

Calling out to the crowd

'Til he tripped and fell at his feast.

Yeah, that sucked. Oh well. Hey, you guys, I'd appreciate some reviews! The little button down there is begging to be clicked!