Piper offered a welcome distraction for Leo so he could avoid the waiting conversation with Nico, but she had some questions of her own.

"You know, I got so happy seeing you I forgot to yell at you properly." She slapped him in the face. Hard. He rubbed his cheek.

"Nice to see you too."

"And what the hell were you thinking? First, you pull this ridiculous stunt, and then, to top it off, you go off to some island and don't come back for two fucking weeks and you-" She swallowed, starting to sob. "You didn't think that maybe, before you go running off, you could fucking stop to tell your friends you're alive? Gods, Leo, I don't understand. I don't understand how you can go and do the most fucking selfless act ever, but then a minute later you just decide to forget about all the other people here who spent weeks thinking you were dead. That's honestly the most disgusting thing you've ever done. You know, all that time I spent hoping you'd somehow come back, I never realized how fucking angry i should be at you for pulling this shit, but now I'm just getting more pissed every second I think about it. You don't ever do this again, Valdez, you don't ever run away without telling us, you can talk to us Leo. You don't have to go sacrifice yourself and be the brave hero and dash off without telling us a bit of your plan. You- I'm so mad at you, I can barely even look at you." She was choking on her words and sobbing, but the campers were all silent as they listened to her yell.

Leo swallowed a lump in his throat. He was crying now too. Good job, Valdez, you managed to screw everything up. Again. "I- I'm sorry, Pipes, I didn't think you guys really cared that much." Really, it's a wonder how they care at all.

The camp was totally silent for a moment, and Piper's mouth opened as if to say something, then shut again. Her hands clenched at her sides and before anyone could figure out what she was going to do, she raised a fist and socked him in the face.

"How?" Her voice was barely above a whisper, but gradually grew louder. "How were we so absolutely terrible to you that you would think we wouldn't care to know if you lived or died? Are we that terrible of friends?"

"No, I-" Leo couldn't make the rest of the sentence come out. I thought it must have been that you only talked to me because you felt you had to. No one could actually want to be friends with an annoying little brat who manages to screw everything up. "I didn't think. I'm sorry. I didn't think I'd be gone that long"

"That's your explanation? You didn't think? I-"

"Stop it, Piper." Jason finally intervened. "I get that you're upset. I'm angry too, but come on, Leo's alive. He screwed up, and you don't have to forgive him yet, but you don't want to spend this time we got with him yelling at him. He knows he screwed up, so we don't have to get hung up on this anymore."

As he looked into her eyes, the anger slowly left as she saw his reasoning. "You're- you're right. Leo, I'm sorry for yelling so much it's just- you can't do that, okay? I- I'm going to give you some space. I'll talk to you at dinner."

With that Jason and Piper walked away, and the group started to disperse as the "welcome party" mood was destroyed because a lot of them agreed with Piper, and she hadn't even used charmspeak. They couldn't understand why Leo didn't spare five minutes of his time to check in before leaving.

Nico was distracted for most of the argument. He couldn't seem to figure out what Leo had said, or, more accurately, he didn't like the answers.

Could Leo believe that he doesn't deserve Elysium? No, that's not possible, he saved the world. He's a hero.

One thing nagged at him though. An oath to keep with a final breath. He had sworn to save Calypso, that much had spread throughout the entire camp. He didn't fulfill that oath before he died. Nico sucked in a breath. Breaking an oath was instant Fields of Punishment. How long was Leo dead before he left? Had he actually experienced- no. He must have been an exception. He saved the world, that would have still gotten to Elysium, right? He wasn't sure, though, that his dad would show so much mercy. He wouldn't dare give him Fields of Punishment, but he might have stuck him in Asphodel. He would have to talk to his dad sometime to make sure next time Leo dies he ends up where he really belongs.

Eventually his attention was brought to Piper shouting at Leo. He watched as the boy shrunk back and started to cry, clearly wanting to run from the situation. He frowned as he heard his voice saying how he didn't think they would care that much when he left without telling them. His voice sounded so broken. Something was definitely bothering him.

Something else was very wrong about him. His hands. They were almost still, shaking, but not building anything. He'd have to keep an eye on him, get him alone at some point to talk to him, find out what's wrong. Hopefully it had nothing to do with Hades, even as his child Nico had trouble reasoning with him.

The group dispersed, and Nico knew that now wasn't the time to confront Leo. After getting yelled at with everyone watching, anyone would want to be alone. He figured Leo would tell his basic story to his friends at dinner, and Nico would talk to him after to get the details he knew the boy would purposely leave out.

For now, though, Nico offered to show Calypso to an empty room at the Big House until they figured out where she could stay.

sorry this is a rlly crappy chapter but i thought that after the "yay leo's alive" fog cleared someone would start getting super pissed

also pls review an angel is born every time u leave a review on a story

and killua minamoto

yes it's going to be a few more chapters before that happens but that conversation definitely will take place i can't wait to write it