Chapter 20
It was rare that Leo was actually assigned coal duty. Usually that went to the newer apprentices. He had done his time when he first started working at the castle, and worked his way out of having to do it. Every once and awhile though, it still fell on him. That had been the deal for today. Do coal when it comes in for the morning and he got the rest of the day off. Not great, but worth it.
So, Leo started the day in the back room of the forge, shoveling coal from a cart parked near a door that lead from the outside of the castle, through the wall, directly into a back room of the forge. He had gotten there early so he was there when the cart was pulled up and could start working right away. Meaning he was pulling the door back into the frame and locking it behind him not to long after the others had started to appear to start the work day.
Walking over to his work bench he started to sort through some things, carefully placing one of his creations in his bag, before just killing time by organizing the rest. There wasn't much to do, since it was mostly organized already, and he was just finishing up when he saw Jason walking towards the forge.
"You know you don't have to come, right?" Leo glanced over at Jason when he reached him. "I'm sure you would rather spend your day off doing pretty much anything but this."
"This is exactly where I want to be," Jason assured, and without looking up Leo knew he was smiling at him. "I asked for someone to cover me today specifically so that I could go with you, as long as you still want me to."
"Alright," Leo still felt slightly bad that this was how Jason was spending his time. He didn't protest anymore though, knowing that Jason was dead set on insisting he didn't mind. So instead he just grabbed his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and moved around the bench to join Jason on the other side.
"Ready?" Jason raised an eyebrow, and Leo simply nodded in agreement, starting to lead the way to the front of the forge.
Without a word Leo turned to head towards the nearest exit from the castle grounds. His normal energetic charisma was gone as he walked, not really feeling up to it. Normally no matter how he felt he could pretend like he fine and act like normal. Put on a smile and play the part, but not today. Especially not right now.
Still, he was desperate to take his mind off of everything, so as they approached the gate, he glanced over at Jason "So, has the prince dragged you into any trouble yet?"
Jason laughed slightly at that, before shaking his head "No, not yet. Though he's tried a few times."
"That's a shame," Leo replied, smiling slightly and doing his best to sound like his normal enthusiastic self "Some trouble would probably do you some good."
"Maybe," Jason conceded, before shrugging "With the princess as well I'm sure it will happen sooner or later."
"Really?" Leo asked raising an eyebrow a bit as he looked over at him.
"I mean, it's different from the way the prince is," Jason shrugged as he thought about it "She doesn't just disregard rules the way Percy does, but there is a way she talks that makes it clear she wants to break them. She is just waiting for the right moment. I'm not really sure if I'm explaining it right, but it's different. With Percy, it's that he doesn't know all the rules- or he doesn't care about some of them because of how he grew up, but it's not breaking the rule itself he cares about. The way Piper talked it seemed like breaking the rule was the reason for doing it for her, rather than doing whatever it is she's not supposed to be doing."
"And I take it she's pretty as well?" Leo asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked over at Jason. A small smirk settled on his face as he did so. He could hear the clear admiration in Jason's voice, even if the other boy had no idea that it was there.
"Well yes, but it's not like that," Jason rolled his eyes as he noticed the smirk on Leo's face "I just think she's nice to spend time with. I think her and the prince will be happy with each other."
"Whatever you say Jace," Leo said, shrugging a bit though the smirk remained for a moment as he slipped his hands into his pockets.
"What about you? Whatever happened with Hazel?" Jason asked, and Leo knew that it was at least partly to get off of the subject of Piper, partly just to keep the conversation going in general so that they could keep their minds off where they were going.
"It got a bit more complicated than I had anticipated," Leo admitted, shrugging a bit. Jason was the one person that knew the truth about him, and he knew he wouldn't care or say anything about Hazel, but it wasn't his place to say. It was Hazel's secret, not his. "I think she's more interested in Zhang."
"I'm sorry," Jason sighed a bit, but Leo just shrugged it off as if it didn't really matter. He was disappointed, but he had seen it coming.
"It's fine, no big deal." He had only know Hazel for about two weeks anyway, and besides, things like that never seemed to work out for him "I'm going to keep trying, but prospects don't look good."
"Still, sorry to hear it," Jason replied, before falling into silence for a moment.
The rest of the walk was a short one, filled with random bits of conversation. All to soon Leo saw the church come into view, and even sooner after that they had reached the grounds. Taking a deep breath, Leo pushed open the creaky gate, Jason close behind him but letting Leo lead the way. Once he reached a place near the edge of the graveyard, Leo knelt down, looking at the stone in front of him.
Esperanzo Valdez
Carefully Leo took off the bag he was wearing and pulled out an intricate metal flower. He had spent weeks making it, using almost every scrap of material he had left and almost all of his free time, but it was worth it. The flower was perfect. Slowly he reached forward to lay the flower in front of the simple marker.
Then his hand fell to his side. He didn't say anything as he looked at the marker in front of him, the flower leaning against it. Despite his earlier insistence that he didn't have to come, Leo did find some reassurance from the slight pressure of Jason's hand on his shoulder.
