And here is the next instalment for Learning about Leo. I hope you enjoy it. And thanks to everyone who faved or followed. I'm really sorry, I accidentally re-uploaded chapter 6 as chapter 26. Here is the actual chapter.
IraTamashi99AmyliaZanpakuto : , I try to put humour in. 2. Thank you 3. I hope that it's worth the wait.
Grapplinghookgrimm : Thank you :)
Catsrawesome : I enjoyed writing that pun way too much.
Sidda : Thank you so much for both of your lovely reviews (my fellow demigod). And if I'm going to be calling you Sidda from now on, then feel free to call me Mew or Mewsugar. And I quite like your idea, are you sure that you don't want me to use it? And it's a good format. I don't want it to end, but I know it has to and that's why I'm planning the sequels.
QueenofLothlorien : That's a weird coincidence! And I'll have Leo and the pamphlet next chapter. And yes, we do all know what that means ;) Good night/day to you as well.
Willowleaf : Thank you, both for your review and for wishing me luck :) And yes, hooray for sequels, I need something to keep me going when this is gone.
Neon Wish : Thank you.
Kittehx1 : The thought of Leo in a frilly dress makes me giggle.
Awesomesauce90 : I don't want it to end wither, but I'd rather it ends well instead of dragging out incessantly. I'm glad that you have decided to cherish the last chapters.
Cupcake Gal : Thank you, and the feelings you just described are what I go through when I get kind reviews like this one :)
Melancholy's Sunshine : I'm glad that you liked it, and oh yes, Piper and her sisters are going to have a field day when he gets back to camp. And I'll use two of your ideas next chapter, and the other in chapter 28. Feel free to ramble away, I do it all the time.
NinjaLordess : I'm happy that you survived (everyone should know about the reviving power of food) and I'll try my best to keep up the humour.
HoOisawesome : Very, very ironic ;) And you're very welcome (I love all of my reviewers).
TooObsessedWithBooks : Only a few more updates to go before I'm onto the sequel.
Guest : You're welcome, and I'm happy to provide a new perspective on Leo.
Raccoon1113 : I can't, I'm sorry but this story is set before Leo and Calypso meet. And I've got a few more posts to go.
Mondmaedchen : Thanks, and I have a lot of friends who are gay/bi so it really doesn't bother me what a person's sexuality is.
TeamLeo'sVeryOwnFlinxShipper : Thank you, and all of my friends know that I'm crazy. I hope that you also have a nice week.
Connwaer Heap : I think that he was eight. And I'm glad that you enjoyed my wordplay :)
Gigigirl1908 : I'll put both of those memories in for you, one next chapter and the other one in chapter 28. And yep, girl Leo.
69Philyra69 : I wish that I could, but I only have a few chapters left, and as my exam week is coming up, I may have to slow them down a little. Sorry.
ObsessedwReading : You're welcome, it makes me happy to know that my story cheers people up.
NinjaLordess : Thank you (for both the review and for you wishing me luck) and ramble away, I love to ramble. And here is your update *looks around nervously to check if I updated before you died again*.
Killua minamoto : Ah! Don't worry, this is a friendship fic, not a pairing fic. And I'm glad that you enjoyed it. And about my other story, it's not a yaoi, but it's sequel will be, and I needed the Calypso scenes to set the rest of the story up, it will go back to being about Leo and Nico now.
Bullkitty51 : I'll put that in this chapter for you. And I'm glad that you love it.
FracturedSanity419 : That's not good, I hope that it gets sorted out for you. And sure I'll put another reference in for you, I love the story behind the games and all of that.
MakaylaCO : I know, though their friendship does seem to improve later on. And here's more.
Disclaimer : I wish that I owned Leo Valdez, but that hasn't came true yet. I don't own FNAF or the Lord of the Rings either. You get the picture.
Annabeth's P.O.V
Annabeth wasn't certain on whether she should be amused at the previous memory or worried about how easily Leo had joined a gang.
The Latino demigod was making another Five Nights figure (from what Annabeth knew of the game, it was a creature called the marionette). Percy had retrieved his Freddy figure, and was watching as the younger boy created a new masterpiece. Annabeth was a little wary of the devious grin on Leo's face, but she decided to let it go. If Percy was going to fall into Leo's trap, maybe he deserved to get pranked.
The Leo who had broke his wrist by falling from the construction site wall with the boy who had pushed him and the two gang leaders in the room. His wrist was in a cast, but the three older boys all looked sad and guilty.
"I'm fine with aspirin guys." Leo smiled bravely, but it was obvious that he was in pain. The gang leader that was convinced to let Leo join, shook his head.
"Kid, we shouldn't have helped you break out of hospital, you need more than this crappy aspirin."
Leo shook his head resolutely.
"Leo, there's no way that you'll remember to take an aspirin every four hours." This was the gang leader that had wanted to bring Leo into the gang. The boy who had pushed him stepped forward.
"I'll make sure that he takes them." His voice was solemn. Leo gave him a small look of amusement.
"Dude, I don't need a babysitter." The other teens, however, seemed to think that he did.
"Thanks Jadon." They passed Jadon a bottle of aspirin, and left, ruffling Leo's hair as they walked away. Jadon turned to Leo who was pouting dramatically.
"Look, Leo. I owe you. And if the only way for me to repay you is by making sure that you remember to take your pain medication, then that's what I'll do. You can take your dose now, and then I'll collect you in four hours for your next one." Leo grumbled, but he swallowed the pills voluntarily.
Four hours later.
"LEO! Get your butt over here right now and take your medicine!" Leo nowhere to be seen, and Jadon stalked through the construction site, growling occasionally under his breath.
"I only want to help." He muttered, guilt lacing his words.
"Jeez, you don't give up easily." Jadon staggered a little as Leo dropped onto his shoulders lightly.
"Ack! What are you doing?" Leo sniggered as he perched on top of the older boy's shoulders.
"As penitence for breaking my arm, you must give me a piggy back." Jadon walked to the main shelter area, carrying Leo and complaining about him being heavy, though there was the smallest trace of a grin on his face.
"It was only right for him to take care of you after injuring you so badly." Annabeth stated. It was only fair, but Leo gave her an exasperated look.
"He didn't mean for me to get hurt like that, he just wanted me to mess up because he was sick of the older boys always giving me attention."
"That doesn't excuse what he did. Don't try to condone his actions." Annabeth wasn't a fan of bending the rules, thought the other members of the group tended to be a bit more lenient.
"Sometimes people do bad things for good reasons. Weren't you the one saying that everyone should let me of for stealing?" Leo seemed to be goading her, and Annabeth felt a blush creep onto her cheeks.
"Those were extenuating circumstances. You had to steal to feed/clothe yourself and... and he was just jealous!" Annabeth knew that her words had been pretty tactless, and she could have kicked herself for bringing up Diggory and Cassie. It was the sort of foot in mouth remark that she would have expected from Percy or even Leo himself. Leo stared at the screen, and a forlorn look rested on his features.
"He was scared that he was going to get kicked out of the gang." His voice was tired, and Annabeth wondered if Leo had played this fight out in his head when he was ten, to decide whether or not Jadon was worthy of forgiveness. Forgiveness. She found it ironic that the name Jadon meant forgiveness, while it was Leo who was almost an epitome of forgiveness. A frown creased her eyebrows at the thought that maybe Leo was always so forgiving because he didn't think that his life was worth it. It would tie in with the others signs he had shown... could his fatal flaw be inferiority?
"Why was he scared that he'd be kicked out of the gang? Those leaders seemed pretty tolerant." Annabeth's thirst for knowledge flared up, and she leaned in to absorb any new information that could be gleaned from Leo about his past.
"He was older than me, yet I was way more self sufficient than him. He felt as if he contributed nothing to the group, and that Cedric and Darien would realise this and kick him out." Annabeth started as she heard the names. Cedric meaning war leader and Darien meaning gift, they had lead a gang together and gifted street children with a make-shift home. She wondered just how many names in Leo's past held some significance.
She also didn't fail to make the link between Jadon's lack of self confidence, and the lack of self confidence that Leo often displayed. Maybe Leo had spared Jadon from being punished by the leaders because he recognised a kinship between them.
"He had a low opinion of himself, ever since he was a kid. I noticed that and I thought that maybe I could help him out. He thought that he had no place within the gang, but I thought that he played a pretty good nurse." Annabeth's felt realisation dawn on her.
"You allocated him a role..."
"And he felt like a true member of the gang." Jason finished her sentence for her, and Leo smiled gently. He then pushed a button on his marionette doll, causing Percy's Freddy toy to spring to life, and once again giving everyone else a heart attack. Both toys had glowing eyes and were singing creepy songs.
"Seriously Percy, how did you not expect me to use the marionette to pull the strings of his fellow animatronic?" Percy looked disapointed in himself. Annabeth felt her heart rate settling down. Another reason why Percy and Leo were pretty similar, they were always unpredictable, but Leo was by far worse then Percy.
Thirteen year old Leo was sitting astride a purring Harley Davidson. He was only wearing a black pair of sweat pants, and his torso and face were streaked with sweat and oil. The look of pure satisfaction was clear as he revved the bike.
He was in a pretty out of the way place, nothing around but the road that he was parked on and some trees.
"Okay Dave, we can do this." He patted his motorbike reassuringly.
"Must you name everything?" Piper groaned, and Leo winked at her.
"My creations are my friends."
"Dude, you sound like a mad scientist." Percy snickered as Leo assumed a Gollum pose.
"My precious." He hissed.
"You've watched Lord of the Rings?" Annabeth didn't think that Leo would be interested in a classic such as Lord of the Rings.
"And read them which was pretty hellish considering the fact that I'm dyslexic." He seemed to pick up on Annabeth's shocked look.
"Yeah, the repair boy has layers. I happen to like fantasy." Annabeth felt a little ashamed that she just assumed that Leo didn't read much, after all, he did seem to be into fantasy. He named his flying, metal dragon "Happy" for Hades sake.
"Why is nobody asking about why he's shirtless?" Poor Frank sounded really put out that nobody had asked about Leo's state of semi undress.
"I used my shirt to clean up some excess oil when I encountered a small problem and was too far away to go to the Home to fix it. It wasn't exactly salvageable." Annabeth was glad that Leo was pretty much incapable of catching a cold, because the amount of clothes that he ruined through flame or creating things left him half naked often.
Leo kicked up the little stand, and leant forwards, naturally adopting the best position to handle the machine in the way of a Hephaestus child.
The bike started forwards at a rapid pace, and Leo held the handles tighter, adapting his stance and clicking a small button on the bike. Wings snapped out of the sides underneath Leo's feet, and the bike hopped a little before steadily ascending.
Leo whooped, veering the bike upwards with a serene grin. The air whipped some of his curls into his face, and Leo simply shook it of, adjusting his position with every changing current.
The bike flew for a few minutes, but eventually Leo nudged it down towards the road on which he had started., narrowly avoiding a couple of birds.
Leo landed the bike safely, and started doing an impromptu victory dance. The camera zoomed in on a man sitting nearby, mouth agape. He looked at the sky, and then at the sandwich in his hands. He rubbed his eyes vigorously before declaring that he needed more sleep.
They all started laughing.
"That poor mortal, I wonder if the mist actually showed him what happened." Hazel giggled, while Percy cackled next to Annabeth.
"What happened to the bike?" Annabeth wondered if Leo had stashed it somewhere, but the look that encroached on Leo's cheerful face told a different story.
"It crashed." He simply asserted, though Annabeth could tell that he was holding something back from that story. Another video started beforre she could press the issue.
"Come on mijo, puedes hacerlo (you can do it)." Six year old Leo sat hesitantly on top of a Bob the Builder bike.
"Can we fix it?" Leo yelled, and Annabeth's boyfriend seemed incapable of not joining in with the stupidity.
"YES WE CAN!" He practically screamed back. Annabeth rubbed her abused ears.
"Are you sure?" Leo's lip quivered, and he gazed at the bike distrustfully.
"Of course I am." It seemed that this was the only encouragement that Leo needed to get started as he began pedalling furiously.
Too furiously.
"Slow down mijo." Esperanza yelled, alarm in her voice. But it was too late. Leo's bike skidded wildly for a moment, and then it careened into a lamppost, flinging Leo onto the sidewalk.
"LEO!" His mom dashed towards the immobile boy. Then he twitched and looked up, blood spurting out of his knees, arm and rolling down his forehead.
"Ouchie." He looked up at his mother, but he didn't cry.
"Why aren't you crying, at that age, an injury like that should have you breaking own." Leo's responding grin seemed a little bitter.
"Hera was moulding me to be her strong little soldier." Annabeth's fists clenched at the mention of her least favourite goddess and how she had played with child Leo's life. Everyone was quiet for a moment or two, but then Percy snorted.
"Only you could be shown riding a flying motorbike one minute and then face-planting of a regular bike the next." Annabeth elbowed him for his insensitivity, but Leo also cracked up. Wisdom's daughter was honestly lost. She had the feeling that she would never get used to Leo's unpredicatbility. But maybe that was a god skill for the younger demigod to have, life on the streets was hard and the situation changed endlessly. Someone who wasn't as flexible, as able to adapt as Leo would be chewed up and spat out if they attempted to live alone on the streets.
Four year old Leo was clutched in his mothers arms outside of a New York museum.
"Hey, I recognise that museum, my mom used to take me there when I was a kid." Percy blurted out. Annabeth stared at the screen a little more intently. Life couldn't be that coincidental, Leo couldn't have met both Percy and Nico when he was a kid. It was near improbable.
"Espero que pueda visitar Espana con tu (I hope that I can visit Spain with you). But for now, I will settle with La Manzana Grande (The Big Apple). Leo's clever eyes seemed to digest this information, and he revealed a pearly white grin.
They proceeded inside, and Esperanza paid the entrance fee. They wondered around, and Leo seemed to be in a daze of sheer delight, squealing joyfully at everything from bugs to dinosaurs to the old machinery. Esperanza also seemed to be overwhelmed at her baby boy's happiness.
Then a woman with brown her and frantic blue eyes bumped into them, almost knocking Esperanza over whilst shouting for Percy.
"Mom!" Percy exclaimed, and the air thrummed with tension. Had Leo met two of the big three kids without realising it. Annabeth's eyebrows almost became airborne. The odds were astronomical, but Leo did seem to be one for defying the odds.
"I'm so sorry!" Sally Jackson apologised, though her eyes remained darting around the museum.
"It's fine. Are you okay?" Esperanza shifted Leo's weight a little bit, and Miss Jackson's eyes drifted towards him, her eyes watering.
"My son, he has ADHD and he's ran off. I can't find him anywhere and he's only six." Esperanza looked at her sympathetically.
"What does he look like." Miss Jackson quickly filled her in on Percy's details.
"Okay, mijo. Where would you run of to if you had the chance." Miss Jackson gave her a confused glance, and Esperanza hastily explained that Leo was ADHD as well and that maybe they would think alike. Miss Jackson conceded that it was a good plan, and they Esperanza put Leo down, grasping his hand tightly and tugging his mom along, Sally following, distraught.
When they reached the area, Miss Jackson's eyes widened.
"Why didn't I think to look in the space section?" The space section was pretty secure, and Esperanza bent down so that she was eye level with Leo.
"Mijo, I trust you to be a big boy." She pulled his sleeve up and tapped the watch that was affixed to his arm.
"You remember how to tell the time?" Leo nodded affirmatively. "Then I want you to look in some of the least accesible hiding spots for adults and then meet us back here in five minutes, with or without Percy." Leo nodded again, and Sally looked stunned.
"Is it a good idea to have two children on their own?" Esperanza smiled proudly.
"My son can look after himself, and the space area was designed for children to play in. He is a very smart boy, and I believe in him." Sally nodded hesitantly, and the three split up.
"That's not very resbonsible." Annabeth remarked offhandedly. Leo whirled on her, tiny fires portraying his rage.
"My mother was incredibly responsible. She was the best mom in the world and she knew that I had a better chance of finding Percy alone then either of them did." His tone was hotter then the flames sprouting on his skin. Annabeth raised her hands in defence.
"I didn't mean to offend your mom, I just didn't think that it was wise..."
"And your wisdom is better then everyone else's." Leo's words were barbed, specifically chosen to wound Annabeth, and it worked. She recoiled, and Percy leapt to her defence.
"She wasn't dissing your mom." This seemed only to fuel Leo's ire.
"No, she was just questioning whether or not my mom was a suitable parent, like they all do. Everyone thought that they knew better then my mom because she was young and a mechanic and she wasn't married. Well my mother was the best mother in the world. She may not have been a traditional parent, but I didn't need a traditional parent! I needed someone who didn't mind that their child could do more complicated maths then they could. Who encouraged me to draw whatever I wanted. I needed my mom." Leo seemed to deflate, the anger rushing out of him as he uttered the last line. One of his defence mechanisms kicked in, and he curled up slightly, snivelling softly.
Even if Leo had got up, performed a complicated ballet and then started manipulating water, Annabeth wouldn't be more stunned then she was now.
She felt as if someone had slapped her, nails gouging marks in her soul.
"I'm sorry. Your mom was great, and you can tell that she truly loved you. " Annabeth rarely felt as if her words were inadequate, but at the moment they felt woefully so. Leo responeded though, and Annabeth felt guilty knowing that she had been banking on Leo's inferiority complex to forgive her.
"It's okay. I shouldn't have got so defensive. It's just, so many people used to judge my mom as being a bad parent, and she wasn't. She was awesome." Annabeth shoved Percy out of the way, and initiated a hug with the Latino.
"I'm sorry." Leo squeezed her a little.
"Don't apologise Wise Girl. You'll ruin the whole dynamic that we've got going on."
"What?"
"How am I meant to resent you, and hold a grudge if you go and apologise, bringing yourself to my level? You are the omniscient daughter of Athena, and I am simply a humble repair boy." Annabeth was about to argue, when she caught Jason's eyes. The blond shook his head slowly, and Annabeth accepted that this must be a quirk of Leo's.
"I rescind my apology then." She replied, mock haughtily. Leo laughed.
Little raced around the room like a hurricane, stopping in front of a planet themed play area. He sized it up for a few moments, and then he entered. He smirked as he noticed a dark mop of hair on one of the taller structures, but that quickly morphed into a frown as he noticed the tall man trying to grab the older by.
"There was a cyclops trying to attack you!" Percy frowned.
"It must have been rogue, my father only ever sent them to protect me.
Leo ran into the play area, and then booted the towering man in the shins.
"Leave him alone." His shrill voice caught the attention of the cyclops, who turned to him and grinned nastily. Leo continued taunting him, and then he checked his watch.
"Stay there Percy, I'll get your mom." The cyclops growled and sprinted after the tiny boy, but Leo was clearly faster.
He almost bowled his mother over. She caught him in her arms, and frowned when she saw the boy chasing her precious son.
"He was trying to get Percy from the planet play area." Leo glanced at Miss Jackson who had gone pale. A security guard saw the commotion and ran over to apprehend the monster who turned and fled, guard in hot pursuit. The women and Leo ran to the play area where Sally safely extracted her son. She turned to thank Esperanza and Leo, but the two had disappeared.
Esperanza also looked terrified as she ducked out of the museum. It seemed that she had realised that Leo was also at risk.
"You saved my life before I even met you." Percy appraised the Latino who looked uncomfortable with the scrutiny.
"Well you saved the entire world before I met you so consider us even." Percy looked mystified, and Annabeth didn't blame him. Leo was extraordinary. He had kicked a cyclops in the shins at the age of four. The child was unbelievable.
Yay, Annabeth's chapter is out the way (I've decided to do a final chapter in all of Leo's friend's P. , I've already done Hazel, Frank and now Annabeth).