And here is a new update, only a few days after the others! This chapter will have major angst it will show a suicide attempt (I will put warnings in front of the memory as usual). I also know that it is no where near Christmas, but AmaebLeo suggested this and this story will probably be over by Christmas. Thanks to everyone who has faved or followed.
RoseAmy13LunaGinny : I'm glad to be of service ;)
Enhisbeautiful : I'm glad that you love it.
Neon Wish : I hope that it turns out well.
Pacenya347 : Sorry (but I'm glad that you think it's amazing).
Kittehx1 : Yep, she is a horrible character. and thanks for continuing to read this.
Our Mismatched Socks : You're very welcome, thank you for reading it.
Catsrawesome : Doesn't everyone :( And he deserves it. Percy was a sweetie that chap.
TeamLeo'sVeryOwnFlinxShipper : I always smile at inappropriate times. And yep, poor Leo. My dad is always shouting down my ears about sports :( And I hate Rosa as well.
Septimus : He's adorable and smart (smartdorable).
Guest : Thank you :)
Awesomtacos : I hope that the excitement is worth it.
ObsessedwReading : I'm glad that you think it's awesome. And it's set sometime in Mark of Athena before they find Nico.
Killua minamoto : I will have Leo tease a teacher this chapter, so thanks for suggesting it. And Leo is very smart! And you're welcome for the clip, I like adding Rosa in for angst.
Ybbilicious : Is this for soon enough? And I'm glad that you love it.
QueenofLothlorien : Don't apologise, you are being kind enough just by reviewing so it's never to late! I hope that you enjoyed your time in France. And I am sorry about the hearing thing. And he is a cute, sweet genius.
AmaebLEO : It will have to be a small memory as I've already done a lot of singing ones.
Disclaimer : I think that we all know by now that I don't own Percy Jackson. Lilo and Stitch is also not mine. The first and last science jokes are mine, the rest are not.
Jason's P.O.V
Jason was staring at Leo, wondering how he had missed so much about the Latino elf boy. He had always known that his friend was intelligent (it was kind of hard to miss) but he hadn't known that Leo was genius level smart.
Even as the screen began playing a new memory, Jason was still contemplating his friend in his head. He did turn to watch the screen as well.
Leo was scribbling on a piece of paper glumly. He looked to be eight going on nine, and his lip was quivering ominously. A few opened presents were scattered around him, but he seemed completely focused on his pad.
"Leo, don't you want to play with one of your new toys?" A nervous looking woman asked. She had a kindly air around her, though the homely image was ruined by her jittery disposition. In the kitchen which was visible for just a minute, a man was attempting to cook a turkey.
"I'm drawing." Leo said off-handedly, but he did send the woman a reassuring (though shaky) smile.
"What are you drawing?" She sat down next to Leo, and peered over his shoulder curiously.
Leo tilted his picture, giving both his foster mom and the camera a better view of his mechanical reindeer. Some had been drawn in a way that exposed the ticking gears and circuitry inside. The most prominent was obviously Rudolph, with plausible ways for his nose to be a bright, shining red.
"Leo, dear, you do know that Santa's reindeers are alive?" Her voice was politely confused.
"So she doesn't comment on your amazing drawing skills or the fact that you had made a realistic way to make mechanical reindeers." Annabeth said in a dissaproving manner.
"I had been labelled as a troubled child, she probably didn't want to set me off." Leo lifted his hands in a "what can you do way?". Then his pad re-emerged, and Jason watched as he began roughly sketching the couple on screen. Jason's eyebrow raised, and Leo shot his friend an impish grin.
"They tried." Jason inclined his head to show that he understood the statement.
"Well Papa Noel (Father Christmas) doesn't exist so it doesn't matter."
"You stopped believing in Santa when you were nine?" Percy looked horrified.
"I didn't have much reason to believe." Leo muttered, pencilling in some more details.
"If Papa Noel was real, then my mami would be here." The lady's face plummeted, and Leo seemed to recognise her crestfallen look. Alarm crept over his features.
"It's not that I don't appreciate what you have done for me, without you then I wouldn't have a proper home for Navidad (Christmas), but I... I have never had a Christmas without her. And if Papa Noel was real, then he would have brought my mami back." The lady's eyes filled with tears, and she kissed Leo on the head.
"We can't replace your mother, and we certainly wouldn't think of doing so, but we do want you to have a good Christmas." Leo hugged her.
"I miss her."
"I know."
"If it's any consolation, I never believed in Father Christmas." Jason's admission didn't seem to comfort his friend in any way.
"What! That's a vital part of Christmas, dude you missed out big time." Leo seemed outraged that Jason hadn't experienced the true joys of Christmas.
"When we get back to the my Spanking hot war machine, we are so having a Christmas celebration." Leo spoke firmly.
"But it isn't Christmas." Hazel pointed out timidly.
"Who needs it to be Christmas to celebrate Christmas?" Leo replied cheerfully.
"Are you okay?" Jason asked quietly. Leo looked at him, serious for a second. Jason couldn't help feeling grateful that he had caught on to his friend trying to use humour to hide his pain.
"Look, it still hurts but I'm trying to focus on the good things we shared. I'm trying to heal." The last part was so low that Jason had to lean in to hear it. He decided to accept this, Leo had at least admitted to his pain. Hopefully the next few memories could help him with that. Jason didn't know ironic that this request was.
Warning : Attempted suicide.
Leo was once again sitting in the bedroom that he shared with Jason in the Wilderness School. His head hung low, hair dishevelled and unkempt. Tears dripped into his lap, and his thin shoulders trembled. Next to him lay a folded piece of paper.
"Damn it!" He whimpered. One hand twisted in his hair, and the other rooted for something in his chest of drawers.
"You've done it this time Valdez, no where to run and no one to even care." His hand grasped something and he retracted it into his lap. The object was not yet visible, but the way Leo scrutinised it with pained eyes was probably not a good sign.
With a sudden swift movement, Leo tilted his head back and put the object to his lips.
"NO!" Jason yelled out as he realised that Leo had been holding the medicine bottle seen in the earlier memory. Beside him, Leo was adding some more shading to his picture, though his hand was soft tremors ran through his hand.
Literally a few seconds after Leo apparently downed the pills, a loud knock shook the door to it's hinges.
Leo coughed the pills back into the bottle, a terrified look on his face as he slammed the lid back onto the bottle and launched it back into the drawer from which it had came.
"Are you in there Leo?" Jason's voice rang out, a concerned element filtering into his voice. Leo was a pasty colour, mouth gaping open in shock at his previous actions.
"Leo, please, Jason could let us in at any moment with his key, but I want to talk to you if you are willing to listen." Piper's voice seemed to snap Leo out of his daze. He scrambled to the door, plastering a fake smile over the grimace haunting his features. The paper had fallen to the floor and Leo kicked it under his bed.
"I thought that the lovebirds had a date to attend to." His tone was light, which caused Piper to look at him suspiciously.
"After the argument we just had, do you really think that I would go of on a date without coming here to apologise and offer my help with your English essay?" Piper's expression was genuine, and Leo looked away.
"And you, Blondie?" He somewhat directed at Jason.
"Maybe I could help out with your essay as well." Jason was also scrutinising Leo.
"Well if you both would rather watch and ADHD kid try to get work done instead of going on a date, then you're crazier than me." Piper and Jason both entered the room.
"Well actually, we'd rather share pizza with said ADHD boy and help him out rather than just watch him." Piper held out a previously concealed slice of pizza that had been wrapped in a napkin.
"Apology forgiven." Leo murmured, the pills long forgotten.
Memory over
Jason had the feeling that he had cried more while watching Leo's past than he had ever cried before in his life. But as he watched his best friend almost commit suicide, he couldn't stop the tears from trickling down his face. And not only had his friend actually came seriously close to swallowing those damned pills, neither he nor Piper had caught on to just how depressed Leo was.
Next to him, Leo was completely absorbed in his picture as if he was trying to block out reality itself. And Jason wouldn't stand for it. He leapt to his feet and grabbed Leo's tanned arm, pulling his shorter friend up with him. Leo's pad fell to the floor, as Jason squared off against his friend who had his eyes stubbornly pinned to the floor.
"Tell me." His voice broached no argument. Leo didn't even look up, even as their other friends flinched at the cold tone.
"Did you ever, ever, think about what your suicide would do to us?" Leo looked up in complete shock as Jason felt his usually pretty stoic face crumple.
He dropped to the floor, which accidentally tugged Leo into his lap. His knees locked around the shorter boy as the tears poured from his eyes, blurring his vision.
"Did you ever think that we would have never forgiven ourselves if you died? That losing you would be a fate worse than death? You are my little brother and... Gods Leo! I need you!" Jason's breath hitched, and at this point he couldn't care less that he was weeping on the floor with his friend imprisoned in his arms. Because he had been so close to losing Leo, that he just had to hold the boy to make sure that the fatal mistake hadn't ended with one less friend to help fulfil the prophecy. One less friend to stand at his side.
Piper joined them, wailing more than Jason.
"You were going to... because of me!"
"Not just... look... it wasn't. I had been thought of trying since the minute I was thrown in that stupid school with no where to run. You and Superman here stopped me. If you two hadn't arrived, then I definitely would have ended it." That only eased a tiny bit of Jason's burden, he still could have lost his friend.
Despite the fact that nothing from the last memory had been resolved, the next memory still started up. Jason shifted so that he and Leo could both see the screen, but he didn't release the Latino boy, and Piper also held onto their friend.
The image shown was of the outside of the Wilderness School before it panned into a counselor's office.
"Look, Hera learnt how to use Powerpoint." Leo bravely made a joke. Jason simply held him closer.
"So, how do you feel today, Leo?" The way to chirpy counsellor asked. Leo was sitting semi-upright in his chair.
"I feel great." He answered, distractedly.
"And why is that?" The same cheery tone was used. Leo was busy staring out of the window. As the office was on the ground floor, you could see Piper and Jason through the window, clearly waiting right outside the office for Leo.
"I made another friend." Leo didn't notice the look of glee on the counsellor's face.
"Well that is good progress!" He exclaimed.
"Can I go now?" The counsellor looked a little taken aback by Leo's directness.
"I suppose if you have nothing to discuss..." He was cut off by Leo grabbing his back, darting to the window and flinging it open.
"Thanks Counsellor." Leo then chucked himself through the window, rolling to a stop behind his friends and then leaping up to place an arm around both of their shoulders.
The counsellor stared out of the window.
"God he's a strange one."
"I remember that." Jason stated.
"Why did you jump out of the window?" Frank inquired.
"Doors are overrated, windows are unexpected." Leo managed to squirm around to look at Jason.
"I'm sorry. I didn't think of what would happen to you guys, I didn't really think at all. It was just one of those moments were everything gets to be too much for you. And I did stop myself."
"We're here to help you in those moments." Percy's eyes were burrowing into Leo's.
"I know."
"And that means we're here for any problem you have." Annabeth chimed in, sounding like a mother hen.
"I know."
"And you better not try anything like that again."
"I know, I know. Gods guys, I get it. Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."
"Did you really just quote Lilo and Stitch?" Piper ruffled Leo's hair in a sisterly way. Another memory started before they could descend into a quote war.
Leo was once again sitting in a Wilderness school classroom, flanked either side by Piper and Jason.
The teacher was droning on at the front, and Leo was looking more and more agitated.
"Sir, Sir." He called out. Piper groaned and Jason sighed in exasperation as other members of the class perked up in anticipation of a Leo style distraction. The teacher turned slowly, clearly used to Leo's unorthodox behaviour.
"Yes, Mr Valdez." The tone was long suffering.
"Why has Oxygen not been arrested yet?"
"I beg your pardon?" The teacher already looked defeated, and Leo was just getting into this.
"It's committing adultery isn't it? It bonds to one hydrogen atom and then goes and bonds to another to make water!" Leo looked genuinely puzzled, but anyone who knew him would see the twinkle in his eye that suggested mischief.
"Can I get back to the lesson at hand please, Mr Valdez?" The teacher was about to turn towards the board when Leo continued his harassment.
"Is H2O4 drinking?"
"What?"
"If the Silver Surfer and Iron Man team up, are they alloys?"
"Valdez!"
"Is the element of surprise on the periodic table, and is its element AH?"
"One more joke Valdez, and you are gone."
"I'd rather be Neon."
"OUT!"
Annabeth laughed and explained the jokes to the people who hadn't understood them. Soon they were all laughing, but Jason kept his best friend and his girlfriend close to him. He refused to lose them.
Sorry about all the angst lately! Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed it and feel free to leave me a review.