And here is the next chapter :) And just a quick warning, this chapter will have death through a car accident, so if that is a difficult topic for you then please heed the warning in front of the memory. Thank you to everyone who faved or followed.
Iluvbooks : Thank you, and more is coming.
Melancholy's Sunshine : I never thought of that before! And I hope that this is soon enough.
ObsessedwReading : Thank you :)
Septimus : You're very welcome, and all will be revealed next chapter.
TeamLeo'sVeryOwnFlinxShipper : I'm glad that my story can connect with you emotionally (even if that mostly ends up with people crying). I'll put your idea in next chapter, though I'm not doing anymore song memories so I can't use that, sorry.
QueenofLothlorien : Yes it was! Thank you for all your lovely review, and you're welcome.
Catsrawesome : You are welcome, and it is always difficult having too many songs to listen to.
Kittehx1 : Thanks :)
Hartemis : Ah, anti-feels force fields will never be strong enough to defend against the feels.
Neon Wish : Thank you :)
Our Mismatched Socks : I don't know if he is in the books, but he is in this fic.
Bris38 : Is that a good "whoa" or a bad one?
Bdog123 : Thank you, and I could never go that far, I flinched when I wrote those memories and they weren't even that bad.
FracturedSanity419 : I'm happy that you like it, and I'll try to work that in for you next chapter though it will be difficult to pull off...
Guest : I'm going to do up to thirty chapters, and I'm sorry for taking so much time.
Killua minamoto : I'm sorry but it is too late to suggest a song, but thank you anyway.
DamnYouPeopleWithCoolUserNames : Do you mean the ones from Wreck It Ralph? And if so, do you mind if I put them in a game of the film instead of having the actual film?
Cupcake Gal : Thank you! I wanted each song to symbolise an important memory, and as I listened to Sleeping at last, the thought just came to me to change it to Gaia. And you are welcome, it is nice to have songs that fit my characters suggested to me.
Siddalee M : Thanks, and I love that idea, I'll be using it this chapter.
Willowleaf : Very long... Thank you for saying that it was beautiful. And I would definitely have broken if I had suffered even half as much as Leo.
Guest : I'm sorry for the wait :(
Mondmaedchen : Thanks, I appreciate it.
Bullkitty51 : Thank you so much! I'm honoured that this is your favourite story.
LadybugGirl7068 : Thanks, and there's no way in Hades that I could leave this story without ending it. I have said that I will end at thirty and I will. Goodnight/Good morning to you as well.
MakaylaCO : Thank you, but it isn't one of the best. There are so many brilliant fics out there.
Disclaimer : *Muffled sobbing* Not mine.
Jason's P.O.V
They all gathered back on the couch in their original positions, refreshed and prepared (mostly) to watch more of Leo's memories. Jason hoped that maybe Hera would ease them back into the process with some good memories.
Piper and Leo were sitting opposite each other in Piper's room at the Wilderness school. They were looking at each other in a nervous way.
"This is before Jason..." Leo looked incredibly pale, and so did Jason's girlfriend.
The two leaned in closer, before they both halted awkwardly.
"Are you sure?" Leo was practically glowing with embarrassment.
"I want my first kiss to go to someone I care about. And you're my best friend so..." Leo seemed to feel a bit more confidence with this statement. He leaned forward, and his lips collided gently with the Cherokee girl's.
Jason felt an icy torrent of rage and betrayal sting deep in his chest. His friend hadn't told him about this, and neither had his girlfriend. He turned to the scrawny Latino who was cowering next to him. His restraint broke.
"Look Jason it was..." Leo was cut off when Jason sucker punched him in the face. Leo's head snapped back in a way that would have been alarming if Jason hadn't been so out of it. He was usually a pretty calm guy, but he could only take so many lies and so much deception.
"I trusted you both." He ground out, and Piper flinched while Leo held his hand up to his already swelling eye in pained disbelief.
"I trusted you Leo, and you never told me even half of your past. You never told me that you and Piper kissed." With those words, Jason turned and swept from the room, through the door that Hera had forgotten to dispel.
Jason mooched around the building for a few minutes, before he realised what an idiot he was being. They had to get this over with to continue the quest, and he knew that Leo hadn't been comfortable with telling him all of his past for many reasons, and a lack of trust wasn't one of them. Jason felt nauseous as the guilt him full force. He had hurt his friend, and he had been to filled with rage of this perceived betrayal that he hadn't even bothered to check on what damage he had done.
The distraught son of Jupiter span on his heel and sprinted back to the viewing room. He silently prayed that the damage done to his and Leo's relationship wasn't irreversible.
Jason practically toppled through the door in his haste to apologise. The sight that greeted him wasn't exactly positive. Leo was nibbling a small piece of ambrosia, though his posture had adjusted so that he was virtually drawn into himself. Jason's heart clenched, and he felt like punching himself for doing this to the bubbly Latino who had suffered enough.
The rest of his friends turned in sync to glower at Jason, and he winced at the death glares that he was receiving. Now that he was thinking clearly, it was obvious that Piper and Leo's kiss had been purely platonic, and that he as a possessive idiot had read into it wrong.
"Leo kissed me because I wanted my first kiss to go to someone I trusted. Not because we felt that way about each other. And we didn't tell you because I was scared that you would see Leo as a threat and turn against him. I love you both, but Leo is my brother and you're my boyfriend." Piper was also seething at him, he could tell, and his regret increased exponentially. Leo's eyes drifted to his, and where Jason expected to see anger, only guilt was visible.
"I'm sorry Jason." Leo's voice was unsteady, and it felt as if someone had shoved a knife into Jason. Leo was apologising to HIM, when he had been the one to resort to violence over something so stupid. Jason had cried a lot during this incident, but now he cried for what he had done to his friend, and that life had beaten Leo down so much that he blamed himself for virtually everything. Everyone else looked a little uncomfortable, sure they had all witnessed Jason crying over other memories, but this time Jason felt as if he had been left raw and open.
"No. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Leo." Jason came round to kneel in front of his friend, and placed his hand underneath the eye he had punched which had been healed by ambrosia.
"I overreacted. And that's no excuse. I should never, never have hit you. And you shouldn't be the one to say sorry for my wrongdoing." Leo looked as if he was going to contradict Jason, so Jason put his hand against Leo's mouth gently, not enough to stifle air flow but enough to shock Leo into not replying.
"Don't blame yourself for everything, Leo. I'm sorry." Leo rolled his eyes, and licked Jason's hand, and he released Leo's face in surprise.
"It's fine, Superman. Not the first time someone's belted me for something stupid." Jason hoped that Leo was joking, but considering what they had seen so far, Jason doubted it. He sat back down on the couch, wrapping one arm around Leo and apologetically kissing Piper's neck. He knew that they had all forgiven him when they all sat back and relaxed to watch the television.
Leo was huddled in the dark closet, his breathing ragged and his eyes filled with fear.
Leo's breath hitched, and Jason's arm tightened.
"Please me ayuda mami (help me)." Although Leo was clearly terrified, he wasn't crying.
Leo's breath was becoming laboured again, and all of the demigods watched both the screen and Leo with fear.
"It's okay Leo. It's okay." Jason repeated the phrase over and over again, hoping to ground the panicking boy.
Suddenly, light filtered in to the claustrophobic closet, and two policeman were revealed. Their eyes were filled with horror as they observed the trembling, clearly injured child.
"She really did lock the kid up for three days!" One breathed out in disbelief. The other appeared too stunned for words, he just lifted Leo out gently, wincing at the animalistic keening noise made by Leo as his ribs were jostled.
"Three days..." Hazel was holding Frank's arm as Jason tried to help Leo steady his breathing. Eventually, Leo calmed down again, though his breathing still skipped a beat every now and again.
"Sor..."
"So help me, if you are about to apologise to us again then I'll scream." Percy warned, and Leo promptly shut his mouth.
"Good." Percy said, and Leo scowled at him.
"I'm not a pet, that's Frank's job and I'm not cruel enough to take that away from him."
"Hey!" Frank spluttered, as the others laughed.
"You okay?" Jason quietly questioned. Leo gave him a dark look.
"I'm fine." Jason knew that that was another lie, but he quelled the irritation that reared it's head like a stubborn monster. He wouldn't snap again. He would find out what was wrong with Leo, but he wouldn't coerce his friend. The next memory began.
Ten year old Leo was practising free running techniques with a group of street kids in an abandoned construction site.
"Construction sites are not for playing on!" Annabeth was given a very droll glance from Leo.
"And a climbing wall with lava is?" That seemed to put Annabeth in her place.
He showed clear skill/talent even if he needed more practise. One boy, about two years Leo's senior, was watching enviously from the side.
As Leo pulled off more and more daring stunts, and the older boys looked on in admiration and pride, the jealous boy crept closer and closer. He slipped around to the other side of the wall that Leo was currently scaling, and waited, hanging on to the ridge at the top, and placing his foot on a particularly weak brick.
When Leo put his hand on this brick, the older teen shoved his leg into it, dislodging the brick, and as a consequence, causing Leo to tumble. As Leo scrambled for a hold, he got a clear look at the teen who had kicked the brick.
Jason noticed that Leo was adding this boy and some of the other gang members to his ever growing picture.
"Why are you drawing him?" He growled lowly, and Leo gave him an amused look.
"We became friends later on." Jason simply shook his head at his friends capacity to forgive and forget past transgressions.
The inevitable came to pass as more bricks crumbled from Leo's frantic wiggling. Some of the other teens were racing towards him, but they wouldn't make it in time. The member who had kicked the brick was standing to one side, abject horror clearly displayed on his face as Leo tumbled, and half of the wall came down on top of him.
A large piece of rubble landed on Leo's wrist, and it broke with a loud crunch. Leo bit through his lip in an effort to not scream out, and a small trickle of blood made it's way down his chin.
The teen who was responsible for the accident seemed to come out of his daze as he ran over and began un-burying the smaller boy.
"I didn't think, I didn't think the entire wall would come down." Leo grinned up at him as the rest of his (relatively unscathed) body was revealed.
"What happened?" One of the elders yelled out as they drew close enough. The teen leaning over Leo looked as if he was awaiting a death sentence.
"I think I put my weight on a rotten brick, brought the whole wall down." The quilt ridden teen looked in pathetic gratitude at Leo.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay."
Jason felt uncomfortable as he witnessed Leo easily forgive another undeserving person. Jason's respect for Leo soared to new heights as he witnessed a boy who had been beaten, betrayed and broken, forgive with a child like kindness.. A child like innocence still radiated from Leo, and Jason vowed to protect that till his dying breath.
Meanwhile, Piper was giving Leo the evil eye.
"You said that you just broke your wrist doing some parkour."
"Not technically a lie." Leo wheedled. Piper remained stony faced.
"A lie by omission is still a lie."
"All right, I'm so..." Multiple shouts of "Leo" prevented the son of Hephaestus from giving them another apology.
"Just don't do it again." Leo nodded, and snuggled ever so slightly closer to Jason who responded by squeezing his friend tenderly. The next memory started up.
Warning : Car accident.
Leo was waiting impatiently on one side of the sidewalk, with Cassie and Diggory on the other. He was tapping his foot, his arms were folded and his eyes were anxiously trained on the small children who were holding hands.
The light changed, and the two skipped towards Leo. hey didn't notice the speeding car until it was too late.
For one moment, everything was suspended, as Leo stared at the middle of the street. Then he was racing out as screams rang out from passers by and the screech of tires as the car continued speeding away.
"No." Leo fell beside the two, who were still clutching hands. Diggory's eyes were empty as blood leaked from his body.
Cassie's eyes were sparkling slightly, a crystalline tear rolling from one eye as her blood joined Diggory's. She was staring up at Leo, but she could also see some of the screaming adults.
"They're all looking at us, Leo. We finally exist to them." She choked slightly, and blood burbled over her lips.
"Shush little Cassie. Just listen to me okay? It's going to be okay." Leo's cheeks were wet with tears, and Cassie's blood covered hand reached up to cup his cheek.
"Why are you crying, Leo? We're all here together an they've finally noticed us. We are real." More blood dripped down the child's lips, and her eyes started closing, the light in them dimming as her life force dimmed.
"Please don't got to sleep, Cassie." Leo begged.
"But you've made us all warm like you always do." Even though Leo tried to prevent the child from moving, she still managed to turn around and hug Diggory to her so that they were lying in a heart shape with their bloody hands clasped between them.
"You always keep us warm and safe. Night, night brother." The girl's eyes slipped close, and Leo wailed. The blood that was pooling around them made a shape that was almost like angel's wings. Leo knelt between the two, holding the hand that wasn't clasped by the other body.
A few days later
"And you say that you know what type of car it was?" A policeman gave Leo a speculative glance.
"It was a blue For Focus, license plate 7092 8TP." Leo's voice was steely, and the officer shivered.
"You are going to get that pathetic waste of space, and when you do he will go behind bars." Leo's voice was deadly.
"Oh Gods." Jason's voice rang across the silent room. Leo's already waning breathing seemed to give out.
Sorry for the cliff hanger and if I got any car/license plate number info wrong, I can't drive :( Anyway, I'll see you next time.