Chapter Text
LEO POV:
Leo Valdez sits in the almost complete darkness of the engine room abord the Argo II, faintly illuminated by the orange glow of the old metal oil lamps and midly scented ginger, cinnamon, and copal candles. It’s late, and it’s dark outside the windows. Stars could be seen twinkling in a dance in a similar fashion to christmas lights if Leo were to turn his head out to gaze. He furiously scribles words down on the paper inside his leatherbound diary with a charcol pencil. He's not even exactly sure what he's so upset about, but the emotions he's feeling are big and consuming.
It hurts, and it hurts severely. Sure, he's never really felt appreciated here. The son of Hephaestus couldn't detect any greatfulness from his crewmates for building an entire, and humongous ship all by himself. Food that would never run out, and countless other amenities. Never once did he get a semblance, or anything similar to: “Wow! Thank you so much, Leo! This is really awesome of you to do. I really appreciate it.”
Did they even see him as his friends? Maybe Piper did. Perhaps Jason. Jason would at the very last reassure him, and he didn't tease him either. He liked that about Jason a lot. Jason didn't think he was annoying, and he took Leo seriously. Nobody else had said things like that to him before.
As he was lost in his thoughts, his pencil snaps, startling him. It sent shards of charcoal everywhere, on his paper, hands, the floor. He didn't care about messes, but this particular one annoyed him more than it would when he was feeling less miserable. With a loud sigh, he unceremoniously tosses the pencil into the nearest trash; which missed. Again Leo didn't care. It was close enough. He tosses his diary this time, not really bothering to close it like he would usually.
Whatever. He needed to go use the restroom, or something. Maybe he just needed to walk around rather than tinker like he did to usually mask this annoying, swirling feeling of soupy emotions. [This is stupid.] Leo thinks to himself, feeling rather awful. What he didn’t expect, however, on his trip to the washroom- was to run face first into the broad chest of Jason Grace.