Beauty from Pain (Leico/Valdangelo)

Run baby Run

Hey again, so yeah here's another chapter. I just fixed up all the errors there might have been in the previous 2 chapters (I am so sorry omg). So yeah... I hope you like this...

Chapter 3: Run baby run

Over the course of the next two weeks, the amount of laps they had to run had increased and Nico's tolerance level had rapidly decreased. He was just about ready to stop after his 20-something lap of the stupid camp when he entered the forest. This was his favourite part.

He zig-zagged carelessly around the trees not caring what he looked like. He breathed in the fresh, forest air and listened to the sound of the animals. Coach Hedge wouldn't be able to see him here... He was already ahead the rest of his group anyway... He could just stop and wait here for them to catch up... He was so tired...

His train of though had been interrupted by a pair of rough hands grabbing him abruptly and pulling him behind a tree. He let out a surprised yelp and struggled against the hands.

"Woah there." He heard a familiar voice. He stopped struggling and hit the boy in the chest, "Calm down, princess."

"Don't call me that." Nico hissed as he let go of him. "I'm kinda busy at the moment, if you didn't notice."

"Come on..." He whined, "Let's just talk for a while..."

Nico sighed and sat down under the tree. "What do you want to talk about? Gossip and cute guys?"

Leo smirked and slumped down beside him, "Well if you wanted to talk about cute guys..."

Nico shook his head, "No that's not, I'm not, Leo!"

Leo just laughed, "It's okay, I'll keep your little secret." He winked. Nico just glared.

"I AM NOT GAY!"

"Good to know." One of the boys in his group commented as he ran passed.

Leo laughed and Nico pulled himself up from the ground, "Hey, hey! Where're you going?" He asked.

"I have to keep running, what are you supposed to be doing? Should you be... Somewhere?"

"Yeah well I was supposed to be fixing up an old car but I finished that ages ago and now I'm bored."

"I have to go, coach Hedge will rip my head off if I don't finish them." Nico said without looking at Leo, knowing he was doing the puppy dog eyes. "Bye." He muttered before running off.

"RUN BABY RUN!" Leo had shouted out to him, Nico just shook his head and refused to smile.

XxX

Leo didn't know what to do with himself the rest of the afternoon. He waited until the rest of his cabin got back from their afternoon "activities".

Percy was the first to arrive back. 'Not as good as Nico but better than Octavian' he thought to himself. "Yo Leo." He said before reaching for his phone, texting Annabeth, as per usual.

They stayed in a rehearsed silence until Leo broke it. He had a habit of doing so. He couldn't help himself.

"How did you know you loved Annabeth?" He asked for no particular reason, or so he thought.

"Well gee Leo, why?" He asked looking up from his phone. Leo shrugged, "Okay well when we first met there was just this, instant connection, ya know? It just always felt right. I didn't know at first, she had been disguised as my best friend for years but then when we kissed for the first time it just clicked. She inspires me to be a better person and I hope I do the same." They both sat quietly for a few seconds before Percy continued, "She's so frustrating sometimes but she's so smart and beautiful and, I wouldn't care if she didn't even love me back, even though for some strange but amazing feeling she does, I would still try and spend every waking moment I have with her trying to make her smile her beautiful smile. When you love someone, you just kind of know. It's simple except extremely complicated at the same time."

Leo stared at him. Then he realised Percy had been waiting for him to reply so he rolled his eyes and laughed, "That's so cheesey dude!" He clutched his stomach and Percy smiled at him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well don't come crawling back to me when you find the love of your life, who knows? Maybe they could be right under your nose."

"What are you idiots talking about?" Nico had come in with Frank and Jason. They were all sweating so they had obviously just finished running.

"Leo's non-existent love life." Leo pushed Percy and he just smiled. Leo felt his cheek darken, adverting his eyes away from the smiling eyes of his cabin mates.

"Shut up." He pushed Percy half-heartedly and walked over to his bed.

He would never admit to them but it kind of hurt. The others wouldn't understand. They all had girlfriends. Even Octavian "apparently" has a thing with a girl called Rachel - or was it Rhonda? He was just a lonely kid.

When Nico arrived this summer he thought maybe he would understand. Maybe Nico could make him feel less lonely? Not like... That, but as best friends or something. The closest person Leo has ever had to a best friend was Jason, but he always felt like the third wheel around him and Piper.

"I'm tired of staying in this stupid cabin, you guys wanna go for a swim in the lake?"

"Hell yes!" Leo cheered. Frank and Jason also agreed. Octavian didn't bother answering and Nico just shook his head, twiddling his thumbs, "Oh well, dude, if you're not going I won't." Leo tried to not sound disappointed.

"No, go. I just don't like swimming." He smiled weakly up at Leo.

Leo rolled his eyes, got up and sat at the edge of Nico's bed, "Maybe we can finish that three questions game we started a few weeks ago. Yeah?" Nico just nodded. Not even looking at Leo.

Soon they were alone (apart from Octavian, who was reading a magazine but Leo didn't really care ). "Okay. Question one. Why don't you want to go swimming?"

"I, uh. I don't like it."

"Just like you don't like volleyball?"

"Volleyball hurts-"

"Yeah yeah, hurts your arms, I got it." Leo rolled his eyes playfully.

"My turn. Why did you stay here with me instead of going with your friends?"

"Well you'd be alone, and we wouldn't want that."

"I have Octavian." The boys turned and looked at the blonde who just stuck his head up and glared at the two. Leo laughed and unconsciously scooted closer to Nico.

"Question 2, will you tell me what you did to get stuck in this camp?" Leo had asked this question before but it was worth a try.

"No." Nico dismissed the question by quickly changing the subject, "So you don't have a girlfriend?"

Something told Leo that Nico definitely already knew the answer to that question. Leo frowned, "I don't know man, girls aren't really my strong suit."

"What about a boyfriend?" Leo howled with laughter. Octavian sighed loudly and shushed him.

"Dude! You're calling me gay? Says the guy who wanted to talk about cute guys in the middle of the forest this morning." Nico blushed and looked away from Leo.

He didn't answer with a snarky reply. Leo was just teasing but it looked like Nico had been offended like he'd been earlier with Jason. Oh no

Oh no.

"Sorry, Nico. I didn't know... I didn't mean to be mean, it's fine. It's all good." Leo tried not to stutter but Nico didn't look at him.

Finally he got up and walked out of the cabin. When the door shut Octavian looked up from his magazine from his bunk and burst out laughing, "Did you just out the only guy in this whole camp who you might have had a chance with?" Leo blushed, he'd been doing that a lot today.

"Shut up."

I think I'm gonna start writing this in first person starting in the next chapter... Maybe.