A/N- Trigger warning for mild mentions of depression and suicidal thoughts.
"It looks newly made." Reyna said, circling the statue. I'd met her after I met the others. She'd heard the fuss and kept out of the way. I kind of liked her more for that. It was embarrassing enough to have the others witnessing my meltdown.
"Yeah." Leo said. "We brushed off the cobwebs, used a little Windex, it wasn't hard."
"Windex?" I asked. I'd always had a natural curiosity, and the world had progressed so much. I wanted to know everything, wished I could soak in the information like a sponge. At the same time, all these new things made my head spin. There were televisions everywhere, and in colour instead of black and white. And everyone dressed differently. When I was little, men wore suits and women wore dresses and hats and gloves. Now, some women wore suits, and some men, Leo had told me they were often called drag queens, wore dresses and makeup.
"It's like this thing that you can, uh, spray onto glass and stuff, and it cleans it." Leo explained. I liked Leo. He'd been patient with me. I'd only been on the Argo II for a day, but the others didn't have time to answer questions. They were all focused on the prophecy. I'd been filled in on that too.
'Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.'
It all sounded pretty heavy to me. And it had reminded me of something. To storm or fire the world must fall. I was about to ask Leo if he could come with me quickly so we could have a chat, when Annabeth called us over.
"Hey guys! Have some food. Join us!" Reyna furrowed her brow, but then agreed. Leo started to head over, but I grabbed his arm.
"Leo, can you come with me quickly?" I asked. He looked at me with a confused expression. "Please?" I asked.
"OK." He said, sounding unsure. "We'll be over in a second guys!" He called to the others. Annabeth nodded, and I pulled Leo below deck.
"So what's up?" Leo asked.
"Um... well, er.. oh, per l'amor de Dio (A/N- means 'Oh, for God's sake in Italian), look are you planning on doing something stupid?" Leo's eyes widened, but he quickly covered it up. Not quick enough. I knew what he said next was a lie.
"No," he replied, "Why do you ask?" I narrowed my eyes.
"Leo, I get that I'm new and everything, but please don't lie to me." I said.
"I'm not lying." He said, a little too quickly. "I'm too scared to lie to you. Have you seen what your brother can do? Sheesh, Death- I mean, your brother there scares the pee outta me!" He joked.
"Leo, I saw you."
"What?"
"I had a dream. You know? Percy says that... demigod dreams," I pulled a face as I said that. It felt wrong to call myself a demigod, "are often prophetic. And I saw you. Flying towards this huge thing. And you were on fire. And there was this huge, what do you call it, esplosione, you know?" I clicked my fingers, annoyed that I couldn't remember the word.
"Explosion?" Leo filled in. I pointed at him, indicating that he'd got the right word. "Mierda." He muttered as his hair began to smoke.
"Uh, Leo, you're on fire." I glanced at his hair, and he put his hands on his head. We stood in silence for about five seconds before Leo let out a deep breath.
"Sorry," he said, giving me an embarrassed grin, "Happens sometimes when I get anxious."
"So...?" I said, steering the conversation topic back to him becoming a huge fireball and exploding.
"Well, it still might not happen, but..." I raised an eyebrow. Leo sighed. "Basically, I've got this theory that if I supernova Gaia, I can take her down."
"Leo, that would most likely take you down with her!" I chided. Leo smiled sadly.
"I know." He said. I frowned.
"What... what do you mean?"
"What's one life compared to the whole of humanity?" Leo asked. I went to interrupt him, but he held up a hand. "Besides, I'm not that important. Percy and Jason and Hazel and Nico and you, you're children of the Big Three. Camp Half-Blood needs you. And Piper, her charmspeak made sure you didn't get lost. Annabeth's been the brains behind this whole operation, and Percy couldn't live without her. And Frank, he's got two different God's blood running through his veins. Elysium knows that must be important. Me? I'm not. Camp's got plenty of Hephaestus kids. They can live without one. And..." he choked, "I killed my mom. I deserve everything that's coming to me." Tears were in his eyes. "Besides," he muttered under his breath, "It's not like I haven't thought about it. Might as well make it mean something." I stared at him. What did one say to that? I was close to tears myself. I'd been here all of two days and Leo had never once stopped grinning and cracking jokes. I didn't even know he could feel sad. I took a deep breath.
"Leo Valdez, you are the only person on this ship who has bothered to put up with me. With all my stupid questions that I know must irritate you, but you haven't once asked me to stop. You have a kind soul. Gods, I know for a fact that you do. I can feel it. And sure, maybe you're not a child of the so-called Big Three, but so what? You can make fire with your fingertips. That's pretty freaking cool. On top of that, I also know for a fact that you didn't kill your mom. I can sense death, and you haven't caused anyone's." I felt slightly awkward doing it, I barely knew the boy, but I pulled him into a hug. He accepted it, wrapping his arms round me tight and sobbing quietly into my hair.
"I don't even know why I told you that." he said as he pulled away. "Who'd have thunk it? Leo Valdez, the great big depressed mess." he said, laughing wetly. I could see him throwing the walls back up, trying to keep composure, put the happy mask back on. I smiled gently, so he didn't feel awkward. "Please..." he began, but trailed off. He took a shaky breath, then started again. "Please don't tell anyone. I have a plan, so it's a possibility that I'll survive. I mean, the chances of me staying alive are as high as thirty percent!" He smiled, relaxing comfortably back into his joking role. I rolled my eyes at him, grinning. His guard dropped once more, just for a second. "I started this war. I should finish it." We stood there in silence for a couple of minutes, before I took a deep breath and cleared my throat.
"Right, let's go face the others." I said. Leo chuckled, and I pushed the doors open, squinting slightly in the sunlight. Nico saw us and moved his head, indicating seats for us. I plastered a smile on my face, and noticed that Leo had done the same. We made our way down to the gaggle of teenagers, who looked to be in deep discussion about something. I sat down next to Nico, and Leo plonked himself down next to me.
"So," Leo said, stabbing a chocolate covered strawberry with a screwdriver he'd pulled from his belt, "What did we miss?"