Chapter Text
I thought that you looked peaceful when you washed up on my island, but then you opened your eyes and talked and I wanted to shove sand down your throat;
I’d cursed the gods, how could they send me heroes they knew would never choose me, and then send me you? Their cruelty was unchecked, and I’d felt nothing but immense frustration;
You worked day after day, your skin ever dirtier and your hair increasingly matted, I wondered where you found the motivation, as there was no escaping;
Hephaestus was the kindest of the gods to me, he would visit from time-to-time and, although his face was unsightly, his company was more than welcomed, there’s very little worse than being completely alone and unable to escape;
It’s funny, really, how someone so infuriating and, otherwise, annoying had the ability to convince me that there was any reason to hope, to want to live on, and that might be when I started seeing the you past your practiced exterior;
I'd long thought that happiness wasn’t possible for me, I’d been cursed after all. I’d thought that the gods had played a joke when they sent me you, and that any and all suffering they watched me endure was just another a game to them, but they didn’t realize that they’d sent a best friend and a means of escape all in one;
I loved you by the end, as more than a friend, and I when found that you would tell me, as the others had, that you were coming back for me - my heart shattered because I wanted to believe you, but it was a line that I’d heard rehearsed many times before;
It’s a strange phenomenon, to wait for something you know will never come, so the Sun seems to move slower then, and every day leaves you more breathless than the last, waiting for you endlessly, however, it seemed like a good way to spend my time, because, you see, most heroes sent to me are those of much larger prophecies who will always have another 'something' come up before they come back, but you convinced me that coming back was your number one priority;
So when I saw you returning, flying on the back of the mechanical dragon that you’d told me so much about (and that I had never believed), I started crying, relief? happiness? surprise? I’d never met another hero like you: honest and stubborn and pure, nor someone who cared deeply about everything but pretended so convincingly to care about nothing, or someone who so lacked focus but found time to complete projects with impressive punctuality, or someone who kept his word, and loved me the same.
As much as I despised the gods, and I had plenty of reason to, I had at least one thing to thank them for: Leo Valdez.