Yeah, I am sorry for messing up last chapter, thank you to everyone who pointed out that I'd posted the wrong chapter. And in other words, OVER 500 REVIEWS. Thank you all so much for your continued support, every review makes me smile. Also, there will be two males kissing in this chapter, I apologise if this causes any discomfort. Thank you to all my faves and follows also.
Enhisbeautiful : I want to give Leo a bit more depth, especially in his back story.
Guest : Because I am a dope who clicked the wrong document.
RosileJackson : I'm glad that you liked it despite the fact that I goofed. And I'm sorry, but I want this fic to focus on the past more than the future so I can't put anything in which has Calypso clearly featured.
Our Mismatched Socks : You are not mistaken.
Kittehx1 : Yes, it was a mistake.
Neon Wish : Yes, sorry.
Guest : Yes we did.
Lila : Don't be sorry, it was my mistake. Thank you for pointing it out.
Sidda : I'll try to fit that idea in for you. And we'll always have the sequels. And I don't think that I can fit the knife thing in, but I can put in the Teen Titans one. I think that my Godly parent is either Hermes or Athena, who do you think yours is?
Ybbilicious : Don't worry, there are a few chapters left and the sequels.
Awesometacos : Yeah, I saw the six and instantly thought that it was 26.
Grey Fox Ninja : Sadly yes.
Epicawesomen00b : Thank you, but it's terrible how I make myself laugh with bad puns.
Awesomesauce90 : Yeah, I messed up.
Cupcake Gal : Thank you so much, and I try my best to make each memory worth some consideration, even the small ones. And don't be ashamed, you can read my story whenever you want so feel free to take your time.
FPSCanarussia : Yup, document 6 instead of document 26.
MarissaTodd : Yeah, I posted the wrong chapter.
ObsessedwReading : You're very welcome, and I'm happy that my story can help you out when you're feeling down.
Girlscoutcadettekayla : I'm the one that's going crazy, I re-uploaded chapter 6.
Abigaia the Wolf : Thank you J
Guest : Yeah.
Connwaer Heap : Because I am a doofus. And you are very welcome.
Eye Of Imagination : Thanks, I'm glad that you like my story despite me messing up.
Readingaddict24 : Thanks.
Melancholy's Sunshine : Thank you, and Leo and any Cyclops (excluding Tyson) really don't seem to mix. And I'm surprised that I never thought of that, thanks for the idea.
Killua minamoto : I'm sorry, it's difficult to get accents up on my computer, and that means I sometimes forget them. I'll try harder to remember them in the future. And thank you, for reading this fic and for attempting my other, it means a lot that you are willing to read both of my stories. And I'll put both ideas in somewhere.
MakaylaCO : Thank you so much, it's nice to hear that you think my story is the best. And I am definitely obsessed with Leo as well.
HoOisawesome : Annabeth is definitely the most comforting member of the team *note my sarcasm*. And thanks for pointing that out J
Great Faith : Thanks, and Leo is really awesome.
Guest : He really does have terrible luck.
Bdog123 : Thanks, and I'm glad that my attempt to build tension worked.
Mondmaedchen : For someone so wise, she can be awfully dumb.
The Steaming Cactus : Thank you, and I won't be abandoning this story, it will have a proper conclusion in chapter 30. And do you want one?
Bullkitty51 : And thank you for your lovely reviews.
Guest : Valdez.
FracturedSanity419 : I'm glad that your account is alright, and there will always be more angst to come ;)
IraTamashi99AmyliaZanpakuto : Thank you, I love writing so much so it's really nice when an awesome reviewer like you tells me that I'm good at it.
Attila Shadeslayer : I feel honoured that you consider my story worthy of your first review, and it is considerate of all of you guys to review so I would feel bad if I didn't reply. And I'll try my best.
Emmie : Thanks, and she's mostly sorted her feelings out, though Frank may still have jealous moments.
Lilac : I'm sorry that you have to miss it, I wish that I could update more often.
Kaylee ; I'll try my best.
Disclaimer : I think that you know the drill by now, PJ and HOH are not mine. Anything that is recognisable isn't mine.
Piper's P.O.V
Every time that Piper felt that she couldn't be more surprised by Leo's exploits, he went and did something stupidly brave like kicking a cyclops in the shin as a toddler. If she was being honest with herself, she had known for a while that Leo was more courageous then he let on to, but as he had seemed content with being treated as nothing more than a jester, Piper hadn't brought it up. she wondered now if that was a wise move. Maybe she should have confronted Leo about the issue a long time ago, it could have saved a lot of hassle and pain.
As the screen flickered on, Piper moved away from her self retrospection to watch another video of Leo's past.
Ten year old gang Leo was bouncing up and down excitedly as Jadon rolled his eyes beside him.
"You are going to terrify the poor kid." He said amusedly. Leo giggled.
"But I finally get to use it!"
"You aren't about to unleash an untested invention on some poor, unsuspecting kid are you?" Piper felt obliged to ask. Leo shook his head, a small grin creeping onto his face.
The two gang leaders walked around the wall that the boys were leaning against, ushering a dirty, shy looking kid in front of them.
Leo leapt up and jogged towards them.
"Here." Leo pushed something into the other kid's hand. The new boy looked down and the camera zoomed onto a pamphlet.
"My two gay adoptive fathers are gang leaders." It proclaimed in bold red writing. The boy looked at Leo quizzically as Leo and the gang leaders fell about laughing, and Jadon gazed on like a guardian angel.
Piper felt her Aphrodite senses tingle.
"Did Jadon have a crush on you?" Leo flushed, and everyone stared at him in amazement. Piper's inner child of Aphrodite shrieked.
"Maybe." Leo answered, clearly uncomfortable with this line of questioning, but Piper couldn't stop asking questions now even if she wanted to.
"That's so cute! When did he confess, how did you react?" Leo reddened and tinkered with his belt as he always did when feeling awkward. Thankfully, the screen was willing to fill in the blanks.
Jadon stood in front of Leo, hair in front of his eyes. Leo had a bag slung over his shoulders and was breathing heavily, clearly in the grips of a strong emotion.
"I have to leave." Leo attempted to brush past the elder boy, but Jadon didn't budge an inch.
"No." Jadon's voice was deadly quiet.
"I can't stay here Jadon! I just can't. Please let me go." Leo again tried to squirm past the older boy, but his hand was caught in a vice like grip.
"Leo, I need you." Jadon whimpered, and Leo hung his head.
"I've got to go."
"Then let me come with you." Jadon begged.
"NO! "Jadon, you just found your place in the gang. I can't tear you away from that." Jadon was crying now.
"I need you more Leo. I like you." Leo gave him a confused look through his tears.
"And I like you too Jadon, but I still have to leave." The older boy looked frustrated.
"I don't mean as a friend..." The implication was heavy, but Leo was clearly too young to understand. Jadon groaned and kissed Leo on the cheek.
"I've had a crush on you ever since you didn't rat me out to the leaders." Leo's eyes widened in understanding.
"I'm sorry..." Jadon cut Leo off before he could apologise.
"No, don't say sorry. It's not your fault. I'm sorry. I'm so stupid. I knew that you didn't like me this way, I just can't face you leaving." Leo's face twisted miserably.
"I didn't realise. But I still have to go Jadon." Jadon's composure finally shattered, and he buried his head in Leo's hair, sobbing.
"I know you do." He choked out.
"And you understand that you can't come with me." Jadon shook his head, arms tightening around Leo's smaller frame.
""Jadon, they need you more then you need me." Leo pulled back from the embrace, hoisting his bag onto his shoulders. Jadon observed sadly. they stared at each other for a few moments, a storm of emotions brewing. Leo stepped forward, and held something out to the slightly older boy.
"A few weeks after I joined, Cedric gave me this ring. You can look after it for now, a promise that I will come back and find you one day." Jadon's eyes welled up again as he wrapped his hand around the ring.
"Good luck." He whispered, and Leo hugged him one last time before sprinting away. Jadon collapsed to the floor as soon as Leo was out of sight, cradling the ring to his chest.
"Oh, Leo." Piper felt so sad for both boys. Jadon was too young to have his heartbroken, and Leo was far too young to have had to break his friend's heart. Leo had never been lucky in love and Piper felt even more resentment towards he mother for putting Leo into such difficult situations.
Annabeth had moved back to her original spot so that Leo was now sitting next to Jason and Percy again, and Piper fought the urge to climb past her boyfriend and to just wrap Leo up in a hug for the rest of he video.
"I still haven't retrieved that ring..." Leo looked guilty, and Piper's heart clenched at the sheer amount of grief in Leo's eyes.
"You haven't exactly had a chance." Percy told Leo softly. Le smiled faintly, but Piper could tell that he was silently renewing his promise, and that after the quest was finished, Leo would be searching for Jadon. Piper vowed privately to aid Leo in any way she could to help him move on from his past.
Leo was chilling in the Argo's game room, casually flicking through television channels. He finally settled on Teen Titans, just as the episode began.
"The Beast within." He mumbled.
"Hey, we have our very own Beast Boy in the form of Frank." Leo chirped happily, and Frank shot the Latino a death glare. Piper smiled, but she noticed a small flicker of worry in Leo's eyes, and she realised that something about this memory was going to reveal something that Leo didn't want them to know.
Leo smiled as the episode began.
"I guess I'm the Beast Boy of the group, even if Frank's the one with the powers."
Piper gave him and odd look, and Leo shrugged at her.
"Beast Boy is kind of the Joker of the group." Percy gasped.
"So he's the villain." His words were teasing, and Piper was pretty certain that Percy had watched the show and knew who Beast Boy was. Leo whacked Percy admonishingly.
"Hey, I'm the Beast Boy. Puns are my thing." Percy laughed.
Leo watched wit rapt attention as the first few scenes had the young superheroes fought against the villain of the week, his grin intensifying as Beast Boy defeated the rampaging villain.
"I just got sick of being pushed around." This line of dialogue flowed from the screen, and Leo's face twidted thoughtfully.
"I wonder what would happen if I went on a fire destruction spree during our next fight and used that as an excuse ." His eyes seemed riveted on the screen and he hummed quietly. "Well I am definitely the Beast Boy."
"What do you mean by that?" Piper didn't really understand the remark, she had never seen this TV show and she wondered if this episode held any specific relevance to Leo. The Latino in question stared at the screen.
"Just watch." He instructed.
The episode continued for a while with Beast Boy's behaviour changing. Leo was fascinated as the character who was usually so like him started getting angrier and angrier and his powers seemed to get more and more out of control.
A scene came on where Beast boy had to threaten Raven with his powers to command her respect, and Leo frowned.
"They don't really respect me either Beast Boy." He raised the volume.
"We do respect you." Piper blurted out, shocked that Leo thought they didn't respect him. Leo raised an eyebrow.
"Really, before this experience did any of you truly respect me as an equal power wise or intelligence wise." They all shifted slightly as they thought back on how they had treated Leo before this. They had seemed to view Leo as the weakest link, he appeared to have least control over his powers, seemed to be incapable of taking anything seriously and the Eidolon incident had all culminated in a collective view that Leo was the weakest link of the team.
Piper felt shame flow through her at her dismal treatment of Leo. She more then anyone should have believed in Leo, during the quest for Hera he did most of the work. The memory continued before anyone could make a formal apology to Leo.
The episode continued, and Robin and Beast Boy had a confrontation about Beast Boy's attitude in the hallway, and Robin basically said that Beast Boy better change his attitude or leave.
"Robin's Percy just after the Eidolon incident, hates me because he thinks I'm a screw up."
"I didn't hate you, I just lost my temper." Leo waved it off.
"I know Aqua man, I was just being grouchy."
The complicated plot unfolded on screen, with all of the Titans believing that Beast Boy was an enemy, especially Robin.
"I'm definitely Beast Boy and Percy's definitely Robin there." Leo's voice was sad.
Piper berated herself once again for not noticing the lingering guilt that Leo had felt for indirectly firing on Camp Jupiter.
Robin interrogated Beast Boy harshly, and Leo snorted. It wasn't a happy sound.
"Maybe a little bit of Annabeth as well."
Said demigod twirled her hands ashamedly. Piper was drawing may disturbing parallels between this cartoon and the Eidolon incident. She was almost sure that this was what had caused the worry in Leo's eyes before the memory began properly.
In the end of the episode it was revealed that Beast Boy hadn't been an enemy all along, he had been trying to save his friends.
Leo turned of the TV and stretched.
"So he was attacked by his friends for something that wasn't his fault. Why is Beast Boy so like me?" Leo's question was mournful.
Piper noticed Percy once again opening his mouth to apologise, but Leo prevented hi from doing so again.
"We've all moved on. It's fine. In fact, if you hadn't knocked me out then I probably would have screwed the situation up even more." Piper contemplated what she had seen of this Beast Boy character. A joker who had hidden depths and felt as if he was isolated/ pushed around by his friends. Leo's declarations of being similar to the shape shifting cartoon character now made a lot more sense.
Leo was in his bed on the Argo, clearly in the throes of a nightmare.
"I can't burn." He desperately moaned as the dream continued.
"I can't burn." He repeated, the sheets tangling around his legs as he flailed, as if to put out fires on his body.
He shot awake suddenly, eyes fearful.
"Was that the same nightmare as before." Piper felt cold dread creep along her spine. If Leo had dreamt it twice, could he really be prophesising his own death? Everyone but Leo looked incredibly freaked out.
"Guys, my powers used to scare the crap out of me. It isn't that strange to think that I would dream of them going out of control and hurting me." His gaze turned dark.
"I'd seen what they could do first hand." Piper knew that they were probably just being paranoid, but shrugging of a demigod dream was never a good decision. If it was true... if Leo was going to die due to his own flames then they had to find a way to stop it. She wouldn't allow Leo to die. Her pain in the butt brother couldn't leave her.
Thirteen year old Leo was lounging in a different bedroom.
"This came after Layla." Leo stated before anyone could ask.
Another boy of his age was pacing up and down, distraught.
"Calm down, Alvin. So they made fun of you for not having a girl friend, so what. it could be worse." Alvin flinched, and Leo's eyes narrowed.
"I kind of, sort of, said that I do have a girlfriend at that they just haven't met her because she's new to town."
"WHAT!" Leo sat up straighter as his friend groaned in humiliation.
"I told them that I had a girlfriend so that they'd all shut up, but now they want to meet her, and none of the girls will pretend for me. I'm going to be a laughing stock." Leo sighed as his friend buried his head in his palms.
"I'll do it." Alvin's head snapped towards Leo, who walked towards his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"To escape one of my old foster homes I had to dress up as a girl. And none of those bullies will recognise me, and they will never have to meet me as I'm being sent to a different school, so I'll do it." Alvin hugged him, professing gratitude over and over again.
"Just remember that you owe me."
The video skipped ahead to the "date".
Leo once again had curly extensions to lengthen his hair, though this time they reached mid-back (Piper assumed that he had lent them from a girl in the home and gotten her to do his hair and make-up).
His lips were again coated in red lipstick, with a warm orange eye shadow decorating his eyelids. The fire colours perfectly accentuated Leo's tanned skin. He was wearing another knee length dress, but it was pale orange this time and it had a pastel yellow belt and straps. It was more of a sun-dress. Tiny yellow kitten heels rested on his feet, and he was blushing exactly like a girl on her first date would.
Cue snickering.
Alvin stood next to him, their hands loosely entwined. Leo leaned over menacingly.
"You really owe me." Alvin gulped, and Leo's glare morphed into a shy smile as a group of tough looking boys made their way over to the duo.
One wolf whistled and Leo's blush deepened.
"How did someone like you land a girl like that, Alvin?" The wolf whistler stepped forwards, taking Leo's free hand and kissing it princess style, revealing that Leo's nails had been painted with little flame patterns.
"Okay,yuck to the hand kissing, but your nails are so cute." Piper couldn't help admiring the skilful paintwork.
"You have no idea how hard it was for me not to chip those things." Leo grumbled.
"And what's your name, beautiful?" The boy released Leo's hand, but he remained way too close for comfort. Alvin pulled Leo back slightly, frowning.
"My name is Lea." Leo altered his voice, making it a higher pitch. The group of boys grinned lecherously.
"I hate it when boys look at girls like that." Piper declared, and Annabeth and Hazel nodded. All of the boys looked furious at the lack of respect that some boys had shown their girlfriend (or in Leo's case, honorary siblings).
"Are you really Alvin's girlfriend, because a pretty little thing like you doesn't really belong with him. Are you sure that you aren't just pretending because you felt sorry for him." The leading boy leered.
"Of course not!" Leo proclaimed heatedly.
"Then prove it. Kiss him." The boy ordered smugly.
"We shouldn't have to kiss in front of you." Alvin piped up. The boy turned on him with a mocking grin.
"So she really isn't your girlfriend. Should've known that a loser like you wouldn't be able to bag a catch like her." Leo's grip on Alvin's hand reached bruising strength as rage flared in his eyes, obviously angry at the boys who were degrading her friend. He span round, letting go of Alvin's hand and gripping his taller friend's shirt. Their lips made contact for a fleeting instant, and then Leo whirled on the gang of boys as Alvin remained stunned beside him.
The boys all seemed to be in various degrees of shock.
"I would thank you to stop taunting my boyfriend." Leo then flounced away, dragging Alvin with him.
As soon as they were far enough away not to be seen or overheard by the bullies, Leo apologised profusely.
"YOU KISSED HIM!" Piper bellowed, as all of the demigods blinked to try and get to grips with what they had just seen.
"I was sick of seeing him depressed over those idiots, and if I didn't they would have called him a liar and made it ten times worse." He then looked at Jason.
"And besides, it was just a kiss." Piper knew that Leo was insinuating that the kiss that they had shared meant nothing when compared to Jason and Piper's relationship, and she was glad that her boyfriend and her best friend had made up.
The screen flickered on, and it had a message for the demigods.
"There is going to be a series of images now instead of a memory as they all link to the same subject".
Piper's curiosity was piqued a pictures started appearing on the screen.
Nine year old Leo wrapped around a wrench as he slept in what looked to be a garage.
Ten year old Leo sleeping on top of a blushing Jadon.
Eleven year old Leo snuggled into James' side.
Thirteen year old Leo balled around his back pack.
Fourteen year old Leo hugging a statue in a dark park.
Leo in Bunker nine napping on top of Festus' head, arms loosely draped around the dragon.
And finally, a modern Leo on the Argo, gripping his toolbelt.
Piper cackled.
"Do you always hug things in your sleep." Leo's ears lit up with tiny flames as he nodded sullenly.
The demigods all laughed heartily.
And then Piper had to spoil her own joy. Maybe Leo hugged things in his sleep because he was scared that they would be wrenched away when he woke up. That if he let go of the things he cared about, they'd be ripped away like everything else. Piper teared up at the thought, but she brushed away the tears.
Leo would be safe with them. They were all his older siblings (except for Hazel) and they would take responsibility for him. Leo would be allowed to sleep easily, because they would have his back. They would be there to watch over him.
I'm sorry this is so late, I'm really stressed over my exams. And if there are any ideas that you really want to see, you only have a short amount of time to get them to me. See you all next time.