Heroes of Olympus Series. Annabeth Chase X Male Reader Story

Mustering Up Our Courage

Piper's dad had called him a hero earlier. And Leo couldn't believe some of the things he'd done—smacking around Cyclopes, disarming exploding doorbells, battling six-armed ogres with construction equipment.

They seemed like they had happened to another person. He was just Leo Valdez, an orphaned kid from Houston. He'd spent his life running away, and part of him still wanted to run. What was he thinking, flying toward a cursed mansion to fight more evil monsters?

His mom's voice echoed in his head: Nothing is unfixable. Except the fact that you're gone forever, Leo thought. Seeing Piper and her dad back together had really driven that home. Even if Leo survived this quest and saved Hera, Leo wouldn't have any happy reunions.

He wouldn't be going back to a loving family. He wouldn't see his mom. The helicopter shuddered. Metal creaked, and Leo could almost imagine the tapping was Morse code: Not the end. Not the end.

Leo leveled out the chopper, and the creaking stopped. He was just hearing things. He couldn't dwell on his mom, or the idea that kept bugging him —that Gaea was bringing souls back from the Underworld—so why couldn't he make some good come out of it? Thinking like that would drive him crazy.

He had a job to do. He let his instincts take over—just like flying the helicopter. If he thought about the quest too much, or what might happen afterward, he'd panic. The trick was not to think—just get through it.

As Piper and Jason were busy talking about the wolf house, the man came up to talk to Leo. He wasn't sure if he welcomed the company. When the topic of conversation changed, Leo knew he didn't.

Up until now, the man had just been sat quietly, staring at the floor like he was in a trance, out of curiosity, Leo asked him what he had been doing the whole trip, for a moment the man paused, then said.

(Y/N)'s POV

"Figuring out how I'd kill myself. If I had to fight myself." "How's it going?" "I pride myself for being very hard to kill. But at the same time, I have a surprising talent when it comes to figuring out how to kill un-killable things...so...I've come up blank."

"That being said, I feel like in the moment, I might be struck with some inspiration, I'm usually better during fights than I am before them, so I guess we'll wait and see if anything comes to me."

Leo chuckled, though there was clearly a nervous edge to is voice. "Just give me a really big bathtub, I'd get it done." "I have absolutely no doubt about that Leo, I've seen you with a hammer. And felt how hard you throw a wrench."

That seemed to cheer the kid up a little. But as always, a part of (Y/N), decided it was time to ruin the mood, but he was getting to a point, he imagined. "Are you scared Leo?" He asked. The helicopter lurched just a little.

"Me. Nah, I just fought six armed ogre soldiers and a giant, this is gonna be a cakewalk-" "-Leo, it's okay to be scared, it's good to be scared. I spent my life telling people I wasn't scared of things I was horrified of, it's not good for you."

Leo scoffed, "I'm not scared! " He urged, "I'm just...not like you guys, I'm not courageous, I'm not a fighter." (Y/N) laughed, "Courageous? Leo, you're plenty courageous. Not that it matters." "What do you mean? It matters a lot." Leo asked, in truth, (Y/N) didn't know himself, he just kept speaking.

After a deep breath he said "People think you need courage to be a demigod, you don't, not really." Leo looked at him quizzically, "You need to understand." "What?" Leo asked gently, "Understand that most people don't run into burning buildings to save people because they're brave, or heroes"

Leo tensed as the words came falling out of (Y/N)'s mouth as if he had no control of his lips, "I mean they are, but they run into burning buildings because they know what will happen if they don't." (Y/N) stared at Leo, looking into his eyes and sighed.