So, it was kind of Leo's fault that Nico and Leo got caught. They had been running and then Leo's slippers had lived up to their name. They had slipped. Leo had ended up of the ground, dragging Nico down with him. The words Nico had muttered as they watched Coach Hedge catching up with them had been far from polite and friendly. Leo had shared the sentiment.

They had luckily escaped Coach's baseball bat but Chiron had reprimanded them and put them both in solitary confinement for a day. So instead of going to the usual lessons with the Greek team Leo was stuck in a tiny, side cabin/potential torture dungeon with Nico McGrumpypants and Mellie. It was pure, unadulterated fun. One of the windows was cracked open, which could have been refreshing apart from the

Usually Leo sat with Piper in lessons, messing around and having laugh. Percy and Annabeth sat just in front of them, so Piper and Leo were either chatting with them or making fun of the overly-loving couple. The seating arrangement was also good cause Piper was really good at the things Leo sucked at, like English, Geography and History while he was better at her weaker subjects like Maths and Science. It meant that they could copy off eachothers work if they didn't get it. The only subject they were both awful at was Latin but they didn't really care about that. Jason helped them out with homework and stuff as he was almost fluent. It was a dead language but Jason spoke it like he had grown up regularly conversing in it. It was annoying.

There was no chance of having any fun with Sulky Di'angelo though, even without Mellie's watchful eye on them both. The younger boy had an aura of annoyance and cold radiating out from him, which Leo chose to stubbornly ignore. Whenever Mellie left the room, even for a moment, Leo would chat to Nico, despite the fact he never got a reply. Leo didn't know why he kept talking but he did. For some reason he liked Nico, despite the dark depressing atmosphere around him.

Eventually the brooding silence had stared to bug Leo. At one point after lunch he had finally caved in and done something he rarely did. Apologise. One of Leo's greatest faults was that he rarely admitted he did something wrong. But there he was, apologising to an annoying, moody boy who he barely knew. But he liked Nico. For some strange reason Leo really did like Nico. The guy had more to him than met the eye. And he was nice, in a weird introverted way. Most people got pissed off at Leo a lot sooner than Nico had.

Maybe it was Leo's strange urge to fix anything that seemed broken (apart from himself) but he wanted to help Nico. The sight of him cutting himself had struck a chord with Leo. He couldn't help but be reminded of her. Leo hadn't been able to help her. He hadn't even properly tried and so he had lost her. Nico was only a friend but there was no way that Leo could let the same thing happen if there was anything he could do to stop it. Anyway, he was Hazel's friend and she was constantly worrying about Nico.

So, when Mellie went to 'have a talk with the other staff' (everyone knew she was flirting with Coach Hedge), Leo swung round on his chair to face Nico. The boy was obviously ignoring him, head to desk, headphones in, shaggy black hair swing down to cover his face. "Oi, Nico!" Hissed Leo. Nico studiously ignored him. "Niiicoo," Leo softly droned. Still Nico payed no attention Leo. Reaching over Leo pulled out one earbud making Nico jump. He looked sharply at Leo and hissed, "What do you want Valdez?" Leo made a sad, puppy-like face at Nico's harsh tone but quickly reverted to half serious under the pale boys harsh glare. "Okay, okay. No need to look like you're going to kill me. I just wanted to say sorry for getting us caught. It was kind of my fault. Also, I loved those slippers and now I don't know where the other one is. But yeah, sorry."

Leo thought he saw Nicos mouth twitch up into a tiny smile but knowing di'Angelo it could have been the light. But at least the guy was talking again. "Finally. You're an idiot Valdez. You know that?" He said, grudgingly. Leo settled back into his chair, grinning widely like a mad man. "I've bed told that a few times," he admitted. There was a warm feeling blossoming in Leo's chest. He felt happy, like he was going to laugh.

Wait.

Shit.

Leo recognised the feeling. He'd had it, in varying degrees, over hundreds of girls. Most of the time it was short lived, and shot down but he recognised it. Last time he had felt it over a guy was with Narcissus. He was a bastard but a gorgeous bastard. He had been pretty much the polar opposite to Nico though. Narcissus had fit in with all the unreachable, attractive, people Leo had crushed on, apart from Calypso of course.

In a way, Nico reminded him of her. They were similar in strange ways, both angry and hiding pain. Leo couldn't help but remember walking in on Nico and the blade and immediatly a feeling of guilt and worry rose in him. Glancing at Nico he watched the boy, still working and listening to his music but somehow he seemed more relaxed than before, less tense and irratible. He was kind of attractive, thought Leo, in a sort of dark, emo way. He had nice hair, shiny and soft-looking which fell nicely over his deep, intense eyes. Yeah, he was attractive. If you were into that kind of thing. Which Leo totally wasn't.

Okay, maybe he was. A bit.

Leo had figured out a long time ago that he had issues when it came to who he liked. They were always way, way out of his league or horrible in the end. And it never changed at all. Apart from Calypso. But maybe there was another catagory; sad and almost self-destructive. Leo still had issues when it came to people he liked.

But still, it was like when you slip on the stairs. First of all you stumble. You barely have time to realise you're losing your balance when suddenly you're tumbling head-first down the staircase, taking out a small boy and foreign exchange student before crashing into the wall at the bottom. Then all you have is pain, embarrassment and apologies to the people you took out. That had happened to Leo in both the metaphorical-crush sense and the literal sense.

It wasn't a great experience. And Leo did not want to go through it, especially not with Nico. But at the same time he couldn't help but be attracted to the skinny boy with the bad attitude. Leo wanted to help him, to help fix what was broken. He was mechanic, that was what Leo did.

Leo never really worried about being gay, well bisexual. But he had never actually told anyone. His Aunt Rosa, the only person who was stopping him being handed to social services, was super religious and homophobic. He'd always gone to church but he'd never actually believed in God or anything. Especially once he realised he found boys as attractive as girls (even though he fell for more girls). If he told someone and his Aunt rosa found out he'd be out on the streets in minutes. She already hated him and she'd jump at any excuse to get rid of him. So Leo hid his sexuality behind all his other problems.

Speaking of problems Leo's ADHD had set in once he had realise it was lunch time. He leant over to talk to Nico just as Mellie walked back in, a blush crawling up her cheeks from something Coach Hedge had probably said. Sighing and glancing at the clock she told the two to go to lunch and go to normal lessons after break had ended. The two rushed out, Leo grinning stupidly at Nico as the boy brushed dark hair away from his face.

Shit, he was in too deep to go back now.