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He tried not to say anything.
He tried, because his best friends were in love, and he was okay with it. He had found fleeting moments of attraction with others that would one day stabilise into the form of true love his friends had. It hadn't mattered that his friends stopped interacting with him as often, or that he was alone in an ocean of love. It hadn't mattered that seeing the short nails on her fingers gently brush his blond hair made the blood in his veins flow faster and his eyebrows knit together.
"So... The demigod has arrived."
The voice echoed loudly in the dark cave, a voice that sounded distinctly human and non-human. However, one look around the cave showed no god, no human, no creature speaking to the pair.
Jason didn't look shaken, however, hand holding the hilt of his sword as he loudly proclaimed: "We come to claim Diocletian's sceptre."
Cupid chuckled. "I'm well aware."
Leo felt a force hit him in his chest, holding onto himself as the sharp pain made him seethe in pain. Jason held onto him worriedly as Leo managed to ask through gritted teeth, "Where are you?"
Cupid simply laughed, horrifyingly, maniacally. "Where you least expect me."
He cared about Piper. He really did.
Leo felt another hit, this time to his shoulder, forcing him backwards. He gripped onto his shoulder as he closed his eyes in pain. He could hear Jason shout out to him, and he slowly opened his eyes to a half blacked-out vision of Jason.
"I'm okay," Leo tried to reassure the blond standing next to him as he attempted to blink his vision back.
"You sure?" Jason asked, too distracted by Leo that he'd forgotten why they were there and gotten hit. The momentum made him move back, but he'd stabilised quicker than Leo ever could. He held onto his sword as he growled, somehow still looking godly as he prepared to stab an invisible being.
"Show yourself," Jason demanded.
Cupid's voice echoed, a smirk etched onto his voice. "Did you expect love to play fair?"
A spar, a jab, and multiple more hits towards the pair, and Jason angrily exclaimed, "Is this guy love or death?"
"Love and death, we're not so different. Perhaps death is kinder."
Which made his jealousy more difficult to bear. He had, at first, thought he was jealous because he wanted her, wanted to be the person whose hair she runs her fingers through. It would explain why he analysed every good thing about Jason, eyes narrowed as he stared at the other boy.
"Since when was love so fucking painful?" Leo exclaimed as he lit his hands on fire in an attempt to distract him from the seething pain his back was experiencing, another blow from a deity he couldn't even see, let alone fight back against.
"I believe you know the answer to that, Leo Valdez." Cupid replied nonchalantly. "Love continues to hurt you, from silenced unrequited feelings to ultimate sacrifices of blood and breath. You're willing to endure both, though, aren't you?"
Leo's eyes widened, horrified. He watched Jason's face fall and his eyebrows furrow as recognition fell on him, realising what Leo was planning to do. Storm or fire. Jason wasn't supposed to know.
Jason looked at Leo desperately, a silent beg in his eyes before he turned back to a god he couldn't see. "Stop this. We need the sceptre to stop Gaia. We need it to save the gods."
"Love doesn't discriminate! Love is on everyone's side and no one's side, all the same."
But he realised his glares were looks of admiration, and his claims of jealousy were misdirected, and he hurt. His soul had hurt more than he thought he was capable of.
"Just give us the sceptre! Show yourself." Leo shouted, anger and horror and pain overtaking his senses and his rationale. He threw a burst of fire into where he had thought he'd heard a voice only to light a piece of wood on fire instead.
"It is a costly thing, looking love in the face." Cupid's voice came from behind him, making him turn. "What have you done for me, Leo Valdez?"
Leo grimaced, heart beating through his skin. "I have no idea what you're talking about, okay?"
"You're scared of me. You deny my existence due to petty self negligence. You deny yourself your desires, deny my very being. Son of Hephaestus, love is uncontrollable. It snakes around you and leaves you broken. Your father learned his lesson, watching his wife betray him and his lovers die, one by one. You, however, refuse to accept the true effects of love. You shower in your sadness and guilt without admitting the true reason behind it."
He couldn't admit it to anyone, not even himself. He could not admit that he wanted more, and more, and more.
"Leo, what does he want from you?" Jason exclaimed as he tried to hit the invisible deity, and Leo almost wanted to let out a sigh of relief because Jason didn't understand, didn't know.
But Cupid was still attacking them as he commanded the mechanic. "Tell him, Leo Valdez. Tell him you are a coward, afraid of your own feelings. Tell him the reason you are so willing to sacrifice your life."
Leo's eyes watered, his heart moving a mile a minute. His mouth felt dry, but he'd managed to spit out a reply. "What do you want me to say? I would sacrifice myself for anyone, I would never let anyone die because of me again."
"Half truths are still half lies. Why do you run away from your feelings, lying to everyone including yourself?"
"Piper—Piper, I like Piper. She's—"
"Still no desire for honesty?" Cupid's voice rang. "Love is honest, love is true, yet you shamelessly lie in front of Love himself."
He couldn't admit that the hugs he had given Leo wasn't enough, and he couldn't admit that he noticed how they spoke less and less often, and he couldn't admit how that made his heart ache.
"Look, I—"
Jason looked around, as if trying to detect the god, but he addressed the other boy desperation. "Leo, whatever it is, I'll understand. I promise, I won't judge."
"Jason, I can't— Shit!" Another invisible arrow hit the son of Hephaestus in the chest, and he crouched, tears welling up in his eyes as he felt panic and pain tear his heart apart.
"And so you run away again, from your friends, from your feelings, from yourself."
"Leo..."
Loving him was as difficult as it was easy...
"I was never in love with Piper, or Khione, or Echo, or Thalia, or anyone else. It's you, Jason. I'm in love with you."
...because Jason Grace was never his to love.
"Is this what you wanted?" Leo muttered, wiping his teary eyes with his arm as he felt Jason's eyes look through him.
A figure materialized in front of him, a man he could only describe as too similar to the boy he loved, except his eyes were pure, bloody red. He smiled gently at Leo, a smile Leo had felt was only sadistic. "Love isn't always about what we want, but at least you have faced me now. That's the only way to conquer me."
And just as quickly as he had arrived, Cupid disappeared, leaving behind him what Jason and Leo had come to take.