Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Leo took a deep breath as he laid sprawled out on he floor of the Zeus cabin. He moved his head to the side, able to see under Jason’s bunk. It was clean, a stark contrast to his bed in the Hephaestus cabin or the bunker. Leo supposed it made sense, Jason was a clean freak. He swept everyday, he had things organised in draws, he had nothing under his bed (that surprised Leo most of all, how do you have NOTHING under your bed? Not even a crumpled up piece of paper you left there months ago??) At the moment, he was trying his best to merge with the floor, but he wasn't having much luck. Ugh. He thought the laws of physics hardly worked in the demigod world.

Jason had left his cabin to greet the others (minus piper) from new Rome. Hazel, Frank, Percy and Annabeth were coming for a meeting about the camp Jupiter and camp half-blood coalition, but Jason, the man he is, decided that having a lovely group catch up would be a great idea. Jason had said quote ‘Leo, you need to get out of that bunker sooner or later. Social interaction is important. Cmon, up you get’

If Leo was being honest, he’d stoped listening after the words ‘out of that bunker’ when Jason had said that to him he nearly cried because of the sheer frustration he felt. He knew crying over something like that was stupid, but like, the bunker is HIS space. Why would he ever need to leave?

Anyways, on the floor of cabin one could still feel the way his whole body ached with exhaustion. He was so incredibly tired lately. Burn out was what Chiron had said and Leo immediately shut him out. Leo doesn’t get tired, he has to be strong. Despite not being string, that’s more Percy and Jason’s gig. He’s never seen either of them cry.

Suddenly, a knock on the door was heard. Then, the door opened, letting through the sound of excited chatter from the outside. The voice of Jason, Hazel, and Percy, were among the others.

"Leo? You in here?" Jason asked.

Leo was startled, he immediately sat up and let out a yelp when he hit his head on Jason bedframe as he did so.

Jason winced, hearing the bang. "Are you okay in there, Leo? I'm coming in." He slowly opened the door, peeking his head inside the cabin.

He didn't see Leo at first, but then, he noticed him sitting up on the floor.

"What'r you doing down there, bud?" He asked, tilting his head.

“Mowing the lawn.” Leo snickered “what did you need, superman?”

He smiled, raising an eyebrow and chuckling. "Oh yeah? You doing a good job?" He teased. "Well, all of our friends are here. I thought it would be nice for everyone to catch up, especially since we haven't seen Hazel and Frank in a while." Jason nodded, leaning against the doorframe. "You need some help up?" He asked, offering him a hand.

Hazel, Percy, Annabeth, and Frank were visible outside the door, standing impatiently to visit.

“I’m not a big baby. I am a man. I can get up myself perfectly fine.” Leo did get up perfectly fine, apart from when he trooped on his own shoelaces and stop straight back up dusting himself of as if that never happened.

He raised an eyebrow, smirking a bit at his attempt to prove he was more mature than he was letting on. "Sure, Leo. You did totally do that on purpose." Jason teased, ruffling his hair with amusement. The planting a kiss on his boyfriends forehead "Get over there and give them a hug. I'm pretty sure Frank and Hazel might need to be reminded of what you look like. It's been a while." He motioned to the others waiting outside.

“Who wouldn’t want to see me, I freakin’ rock.”

"Oh yes, because who doesn't like looking at a greasy, messy hair, smelly, old shirt and pants, grease covered skin, tired, cranky, short, scrawny 16 year old?" Jason rolled his eyes, smirking as he said all that. He didn't think anything like that of Leo, but teasing him was fun.

“Not you, obviously.”

Jason rolled his eyes playfully. "You look perfect just the way you are, firecracker." He leaned down and kissed his cheek. "Now, are you going to join everyone else? Or are you just gonna sit here and stare at me all day?" He asked, a bit teasingly.

“Your ass is very stareable-“

Jason laughed a bit. "Oh, well, we can just ignore everyone outside. I wouldn't mind if you kept staring." He smirked, holding Leo's hips and pulling him close. "But, unfortunately, we can't do that, especially since Annabeth, Percy, Frank, and Hazel are waiting." He pressed his forehead against Leo's.

“Awh,” Leo pouted

"Just because I *want* to stare at your wonderful body and stay here forever doesn't mean I'm gonna listen to my feelings and actually do it. And neither are you." Jason booped his nose, smirking. "After the meeting and a catch up, you can have all of me. But for now, you have to share me." He said with a laugh, kissing his cheek.

Leo huffed in faux indignation, rolling his eyes. "I don't have to share you. You're just a big softie who is too polite and nice." He chuckled teasingly, sticking his tongue out. "But, fine. I'll suffer, and share you for a few hours."

"I hate to interrupt your makeout session..." Percy's voice spoke from the doorway, and all of their heads turned to look at him. He was smirking and rolling his eyes lightly. "But, we do have an actual reason we're here, lovebirds." Percy said, crossing his arms.

"Oh, shut up, seaweed brain." Annabeth was next to poke her head into the doorway, grinning.

"Yeah, we do have actual things to discuss." Frank piped up, poking his head in as well. "We love seeing you, Jason, but we didn't make the trip to have you two suck face in front of all of us."

Chapter Text

meetings around ping pong tables.

is that what their life has come to?

i mean, everyone else seems content with the table. so leo will be content with the ping pong table. really though? not even just a 'table- table' there wasn't even any ping pong balls near by!

although, there was a tennis ball. tennis, ping pong. tamato, tomato. eh, the head injuries may increase, but leo can deal with that.

only downside would be filing incident reports for will.

(it'll be okay, leo can forge percy's signature well enough. and no one will question it A) because percy's hand writing is.... something, really really, easy to recreate. and B) if percy causes more injuries no ones gonna bat an eye)

“So,” Annabeth said, a serious expression on her face, “Where should we start?”

Jason glanced at her, also giving his full attention to the conversation. Both Percy and Annabeth had a certain power that forced you to shut up and listen. It was only one of the reasons they were great counsellors.

leo however, was still pre-occupied, thinking about what he could do with that tennis ball. the bigger question though, what colour is it? yellow? green? he didn't know, some questions can unfortunately never be answered.

he figured if he couldn't get an answer it was better to just forget it- he did that with a lot of things he deemed unnecessary.

when *he* deemed unnecessary.

"-EO!'

"LEO! dude, answer the question!"

"huh?"

Annabeth looked down at her notes and looked up at Leo. "Did you hear a single word we said?" She asked, raising an eyebrow

"yeah, of course." he absolutely did not. not a single word.

Annabeth squinted her eyes at him, trying to figure out if he did indeed listen or was bluffing. After a few moments of silence, she shrugged and went along with it.

"Yeah, let's take a small recap." She said, looking around the table to see if anyone else had any objections. Percy and Jason just looked amused and shook their heads.

She cleared her throat. "We were talking about the security at both camps."

"yes!" leo continued. score for him, it was working, "we were talking about how we need more security"

"no. we we're talking about how we should spend less on security and more on individual combat training"

"pfft, same thing."

Frank chuckled lightly, leaning back in his chair before speaking up.

"It's really not. While individual combat skills are crucial, having good security is just as important. It's not as if they're mutually exclusive." He reasoned, his tone calm and level.

Annabeth gave Leo a stern look, but Jason stepped in to try and diffuse the tension. "Maybe we can focus on the specifics of what kind of training we would be providing, rather than just debating about what should be prioritized." He said, trying to steer the conversation towards something productive

Hazel, ever the peacmaker, (apart from, y'know, when she accidently kinda killed people with rocks) , nodded in agreement.

"i agree, we should discuss what systems and services we can offer, plus it will more than likely vary depending which camp a person resides. i say the training dummies need an upgrade, not only are they not mobile, they are unrealistic for battle standards, they are also a one time use strategy."

Jason chuckled a bit at Hazel’s comment, nodding his agreement. "Yeah, you're right. The training dummies definitely need an upgrade. They're not even that realistic."

Percy chuckled and piped up, "You know what else isn't realistic? The security systems."

Jason rolled his eyes, smirking. "Don't start, Percy."

"don't diss Argus like that," leo mocked, very, very helpfully.

Percy laughed loudly, and Jason groaned, running a hand through his hair. He shot a glare at Leo. “Leo, I swear, sometimes you are incredibly unhelpful.”

"yeah, leo." frank added

"so percy's allowed to be funny and make comments, but i'm not?" leo scowled, a sudden onset of frustration washed over him, it often did.

"Percy's funny," Jason said, shrugging, "You're just annoying."

Percy looked smug, raising an eyebrow, "Exactly. I'm funny, not irritating."

 "you irritate me," leo grumbled, pouting, his elbow resting the table and his chin resting on his hand

Percy laughed even louder, clearly amused. "Oh, I irritate you, do I, Valdez?" He said in a teasing tone.

Jason let out a long-suffering sigh. "Can you two please behave? We're supposed to discuss important matters, not banter like children."

"we ARE children. and maybe! just maybe, if percy was a little better at what he did, we'd have tons of other friends that STAYED children too!"

The whole group fell silent, stunned by Leo's blunt and unexpected response. Jason, Percy, and Hazel all exchanged glances, caught off guard. Even Annabeth looked taken aback.

Jason broke the awkward silence, but his voice had lost its usual cheerful tone. "Leo, that's out of line. Take it back."

"no."

Jason's expression darkened. "Yes. Now." He said firmly, his eyes narrowing.

Percy looked between Jason and Leo nervously, trying to figure out how to diffuse the situation. After a long, tense moment, Annabeth spoke up.

"Leo, that was uncalled for." She said, her voice stern. "Apologize."

"look, i'm sorry. i am. this is going to sound rude, and very pick me of me, i can only wonder what guild and regret feels like for you. but that doesn't change your actions percy, belive it or not you hurt people. you're not a saivour just becau'se you perseus fucking jackson! you have to admit that you aren't always making peoples lives better."

The silence that followed was deafening.

Percy's face darkened at Leo's words, anger and guilt swirling in his eyes. He knew that it was true. He's lost people, let people down, and failed. "You think I need you to tell me that?" He snapped back at Leo. "I'm well aware of my failings."

Annabeth's face held a mixture of sadness and disappointment. She placed a gentle hand on Percy's arm, trying to calming him down.

"i'm leaving! whatch you all side with him and not reflect." leo huffed, agressivly pushing in his chair, and slamming the rec room door on the way out.

Chapter Text

Look, Leo will admit it- that wasn’t his finest hour, but to say he’s had worse wouldn’t be a lie. Yes, his anger got the best of him and maybe he should apologise better and ‘think before he speaks’ (as his gods-awful old social workers used to say after he’d done something stupid, like pushing a kid down a slide or graffitting a cop car; in his defense, if you don’t want a dick spray painted on your car. Then don’t act like one.)

He felt stupid. That gnawing buzzing feeling of frustration was settled in is bones. At himself or at percy? He couldn’t differentiate. What he was certain of however, leo concluded, that life isn’t fair. He’d come to that conclusion when he was 12, in juvenile court, getting sent to a ‘wilderness camp’ (he’d say it held up on the wilderness part, maybe not the camp bit.)
There was a group of adults, rich, advantaged, white men, whose career relied on daddy’s dime, telling him he was a ‘bad kid’ before he even got a chance to know himself. To be honest? He still doesn’t.

Whatever, self-pity (or the pity of others for that fact), is only damaging. Panic inducing, realistic, why didn’t he think of these things sooner? Stupid- stupid- stupid. Bash your head into a wall leo, you ruin everything, always have and always will, you’re alone- you’re alone, you-

“Fucking taurtarus dude, your hair’s on fire.”

…

Oh gods, it’s travis Stoll. Bless the guy, he doesn’t know when to stop.

Leo sniffed the air. Huh. so it was. Leo spat on his hand and ruffled it in his hair, “thank’s for telling me man.”

“No problemo dude,” travis sniffed, and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. “I thought you were doin’ that meeting thing.”

“I was.” leo mumbled, raising his eyebrows and widening his eyes.

“Suck’s for you bro, ever since the romans joined with us, meetings are no fun. They’re fucking losers, seriously. What’s up their asses?”

Leo grinned "Jupiter's lightning bolt for sure.”

Travis clicked his tongue, picking up a rock and throwing it down the hill were leo was sitting and he was standing.

Absolutely clocking some poor camper right in the face.

“Ha!” leo chided “good aim,”

“That what she sai-”

The conversation was rudely interrupted by the sound of a horn. Dinner time.