TRIGGER WARNINGS- THIS FIC WILL INCLUDE ABUSE, DEPRESSION, MURDER, DRUGS, ALCOHOL, AND SIMILAR THEMES. PLEASE BE WARY WHEN READING

Hi.

I have no excuse.

Leo was in a dark room, clutching a tull backpack to his chest. He seemed to be tiptoeing towards the window, glancing around him occasionally.

"Oh, was this when you ran away from the foster home you met Alexis in?" Hazel realised.

"Yep," Leo said, popping the "p". He seemed oddly upbeat compared to the conversation they had just had. Percy marked it down to him seeing a successful escape from an abusive foster home. He knew firsthand how amazing it felt to get away from abuse.

Carefully, he slid the window open, wincing whenever it made a slightly loud noise.

Once it was open wide enough for him to slip through, he climbed up onto the windowsill and sat down on it, moving silently and with the agility of a cat.

Percy recalled him saying this was his fourth time running away. No wonder he was so good at it.

He closed the window behind him, making no sound as he balanced precariously on the slanted roof. Carefully, he made his way down the roof, placing his feet only on certain tiles, keeping a hand out ready to catch him if he fell. He crouched close to the roof beneath his feet, presumably so that he wouldn't fall far if he did lose his footing.

Eventually, he reached the edge of the roof. He looked down, gripping the edge so tightly his knuckles went white, a stark contrast to the stony expression on his face.

Slowly, carefully, he twisted his body around so that he was sitting on the edge of the roof. He sat there for a second, shifting into a position where his feet were just about touching the wall of the house. He stayed there for one more second, calculating, calculating- and then he jumped from the roof.

There were mixed reactions from the people in the room.

Hazel gasped, and her hands darted to her mouth. Piper had a similar reaction, her eyes widening.

Jason, caught by surprise, let out an exclamation of shock, his voice mingling with Percy's and Frank's.

Leo, on the other hand, was sitting completely at ease, draped across his armchair like he hadn't just watched his younger self jump off a roof.

"Dude, what the hell?" Percy asked, once the noise had died down a little.

Leo shrugged. "It was the only way to get down."

"So you jumped off a roof?" Hazel cried in distress. "You could have died!"

Leo mumbled something under his breath. Percy strained his ears, but he couldn't quite catch it.

He sighed, and spoke a little louder. "I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, before my foster dad woke up. That was the first way I saw, and the quickest. I wasn't about to slow myself down and risk getting caught just for a little extra safety."

Piper opened her mouth to speak, but Percy surprised everyone by cutting her off. "Look, what's done is done, and we won't change it by debating about it now. Let's just keep watching."

"Thank you," Leo muttered.

He landed on his feet, but he clearly wasn't practiced at this manoeuvre, because he then proceeded to fall on his side, startling a cat in the bushes.

This was where it all went wrong.

The cat yowled loudly and sprinted off, knocking over a garden gnome in the process. It made a loud crashing noise as it broke on the bricked floor.

If his foster dad hadn't woken up to the cat's noise, he definitely woke up to the shattering of the garden gnome.

A light turned on inside the house, and Leo's eyes widened in terror. He scrambled to stand up and grab his bag.

Just as he did so, the light switched on in rhe room he has just escaped from. A man's voice bellowed from above him, muffled by the window, "Valdez!"

Leo ran for it.

With his bag on his shoulder, he sprinted across the garden. He climbed through a previously unnoticed hole in the fence, and found himself in the woods. He risked a glance over his shoulder, and saw a large, burly man sprinting after him at a surprisingly high speed.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats. Percy found himself silently cheering Leo on, throwing pointless encouragements at him in his mind.

Leo kept sprinting for a few more seconds, before coming to an abrupt halt. The reason for this became obvious when he bent down and dropped a small red flower. The ones he and Alexis were using to communicate.

He set off running again, having lost precious time. He ran through the trees, dodging them as he went. Every time he glanced over his shoulder, the man got closer.

A name popped into Percy's mind.

Alexander.

It was far less startling this time, but he still glanced over at Annabeth to confirm that he had heard it too. Her slight nod soothed his mild concerns that he was going crazy, and he continued watching the memory.

He needed to lose Alexander before he got to the clearing, that was for sure. But how would he do that?

Leo's mind seemed to be working quickly. He swerved, now heading in entirely the wrong direction. He weaved his way through the trees, deeper and deeper into the forest.

This time, when he glanced over his shoulder, Alexander was nowhere to be seen. Leo took a sharp turn, and started heading in the correct direction.

But after a few feet, when he had gone further into the dark woods, he paused and leaned against a tree, panting. He slid to the ground, ignoring the crunch of leaves beneath him.

It was clear to Percy that Leo was not in good shape in this memory. His skin had a sheen of sweat, and it was clear that his legs were shaking. His breaths were shallow and uneven, and when he looked closely, Percy could see a small gash peeking out from under his trouser leg which was starting to bleed again. It seemed to be a couple days old, but the physical exertion had probably split it open again. Percy winced. That could not be easy to run on.

Leo sat there for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath. But before he could fully regain his strength, he heard the distant sound of leaves crunching under heavy footsteps. So he wiped away his sweat, took a couple deep breaths, and did what he did best.

He ran.

He ran as fast as he could, practically flying through the forest. It wasn't long before he arrived at the clearing, bursting in and startling Alexis, who seemed to have just arrived.

She was also carrying a bag, and she was wearing a pair of leggings and a hoodie. She seemed tense, which was fair considering Leo had basically just crashed into the clearing like he was being chased by s murderer.

That description wasn't too far off, actually.

"Leo? What's wrong?" Alexis asked, but her tone made it clear she already knew.

"Alexander's coming. We need to go," he managed.

Alexis snapped into action, pulling a thin wire out of her backpack. "He's coming from here, right?" She gestures at the area which Leo had burst through.

"Yeah, why?"

She ignored him, and started tying the wire around the trees. It didn't take long for Leo to understand what she was doing.

He stared at her, impressed. It seemed he wouldn't regret running away with her.

"That is so smart," Annabeth murmured.

When she noticed the others looking at her in confusion, she quickly elaborated. "She's making a tripwire. Setting a trap for him."

She finished, and walked up to Leo. "Now let's go."

So they ran. They sprinted together through the forest, jumping over the roots like an action movie.

They didn't stop until they were out of the woods, quite literally in their case. They made it to what looked like the town centre, slowing to a casual walk so as not to look suspicious.

At the first opportunity, they ducked into an alley, leaning against the wall to catch their breath.

They looked up at each other, and all of a sudden, they started laughing. They laughed and laughed, until they were gasping for breath with tears running down their faces.

"We did it," Alexis gasped.

"We really did," Leo confirmed. "We escaped."

They locked eyes once again, before breaking out into giggles once more.

They were going to be good friends, and Leo knew that for a fact.

The screen cut to black, and everyone relaxed in their seats.

"Wow," Frank said, still processing the action-packed memory. "That… actually happened. To you."

"Well, duh, we are watching my memories, aren't we?" Leo grinned. He shook his head. "Me and Lexi got so close after that. We were best friends for ages."

"Lexi?" Piper asked.

"Oh, yeah, it's a nickname I gave her," Leo explained. "But don't call her that, because she once broke someone's nose because he tried to call her Lexi. I don't think she'd appreciate it very much."

Percy raised his eyebrows. He was liking this Alexis girl more every time she was mentioned.

Leo clapped his hands. "Anyways, next memory! Preferably something without Lexi this time!"

The screen turned on again.

Leo is shown sitting on a couch with a boy his age, a video game controller clutched in his hands and an intense look on his face.

The boy had straight blonde hair and pale skin dotted with freckles, and baby blue eyes. They held a determined look, never once leaving the screen.

The name Elliot materialised in Percy's mind. At this point, he wasn't even surprised.

The boys both clicked frantically on their controllers, trying desperately to beat the other. Eventually, the blue character on screen fell to the ground, and the orange character started celebrating.

Elliot groaned and threw his controller to the ground at the same time as Leo standing up and whooping, celebrating his victory like his little on-screen character.

"I almost won that one," Elliot defended.

"Sure," Leo said sarcastically, fighting a grin. "I totally didn't win 4 out of 5 rounds."

Elliot huffed, and Leo grinned. It didn't take long for a smile to split Elliot's face too, and both the boys started laughing again.

It took them a while to stop laughing, but seconds after they did, the door was pushed open, and a middle-aged woman with platinum blonde hair and brown eyes poked her head in.

"Boys, time for dinner," she said.

The name Eliza appeared in Percy's head.

"What's for dinner?" Elliot asked excitedly.

"Salad," Eliza said, drawing groans from Leo and Elliot.

"With a pizza when you're done," she added, a small smirk slipping into her face.

The boys jumped onto the sofa in joy, and started sprinting down the stairs.

"Wash your hands!" Eliza yelled after them, but it had no effect. She smiled and shook her head, laughing fondly.

But then she frowned, and brought a hand to her head. She placed a hand on the wall to brace herself, and stayed like that for a second, before standing up straight again and walking down the stairs, seemingly brushing it off.

"What happened?" Piper asked. "Why did she do that?"

"I don't know," Leo said quietly. "They never told us."

The scene cut to Leo and Elliot finishing off their pizzas, engaging in excited conversation about their game earlier.

But they stopped when Eliza dropped a plate and collapsed to the floor, hitting her head on a cabinet as she fell.

"Eliza!" Leo yelled, at the same time as Elliot cried "Mom?"

Hazel gasped. "Was she okay?"

"You'll see," Leo said. But Percy already knew. Leo's tone was flat, his eyes wistful. Eliza had died. And he had been moved to a different foster home.

Sure enough, the next scene cut to a funeral. Leo was standing in full black next to Elliot. Tears were pouring down Elliot's face as he sniffed, not even trying to wipe them away. Leo, on the other hand, had dry cheeks, not allowing a single tear to slip out.

When the funeral was over, Leo was taken to a car with his social worker in the driver's seat. Elliot was taken to a different car.

They drove in opposite directions, and the scene faded to black.

"You said they didn't tell you what happened?" Piper asked.

"Yeah," Leo said with a small sniff. "They just said she had complications with her health."

"That's awful," Frank murmured.

The screen turned on again.