Leo painfully squinted as he woke up, his eyes were swollen and stung, he quickly closed them again and groaned as he shifted his stiff body. Sleeping on the ground was not the way to go, neither was crying so much. His eyes burned like something other and he dared not rub them in case of irritating them further.
The brunette's muscles cramped and joints popped as he sat up. He stretched and massaged the side of his body that was numb from sleeping on it.
gurgle
Leo jumped slightly at the sudden noise his stomach made. As if the noise awakened the pains of hunger, he felt his stomach cramp up and wondered when the last time he ate was.
Standing up slowly, Leo felt as if his entire body was just a big goop of molasses.
'Even a turtle could move faster than me right now'
For every step he took, he felt a stab of hunger as he pointlessly staggered around looking for a clock he didn't own. He gave up quickly and decided to just go out and get some food.
'Hopefully it's time for breakfast'
By the time Leo got out of bunker nine and was almost back to the houses he was walking normally and wasn't feeling as lethargic. The hunger in him seemed to increase tenfold when he saw the feast set before him that was called breakfast. Seeing that his Hephaestus cabin mates all had their food, Leo walked straight to the food and piled on a good selection of bacon, eggs, waffles, and toast with marmalade spread. He brought his heap of food to his cabin table and sat down, eager to dig in.
As he brought his fork full of eggs near his face a voice stopped him, "What happened to you?"
Leo looked at Nyssa and shrugged. He then proceeded to shove his face full of food, not bothering to be polite in hopes that his older cabinmate would be grossed out enough to ask more questions. Leo was not in the mood for more questions. He already has enough questions on his mind and he really didn't want to think about them right now. Or think in general.
Apparently he looked really bad because, although Nyssa was too disgusted by his eating to pay him attention, others could overlook that. Even though those others didn't even sit with his cabin. He noticed a lot of staring.
'So what if I look like shit? Can't they mind their own damn business?'
He lowered his head and stopped shoving his face with food. He slowly was losing his appetite. It felt as if every person was judging him. Like every person was wondering what stupid thing he did that wound up in him looking awful.
Leo stood up quickly and rushed to the nearest bathroom, where, upon reaching there, he proceeded to vomit everything he had just eaten.
"Great. Just great. Now I can't even handle a couple people looking at me?! What kind of pathetic loser can't even keep his food down because someone looked at him??"
Leo groaned and rested his forehead against the cool surface of the wall and shut his eyes.
"This sucks," he mumbled.
"Yeah, but it's not that surprising that you couldn't keep all that food down," a voice responded.
Leo whipped around faced possibly the most unlikely person, Percy Jackson. "What do you mean 'not surprising'? Why isn't it surprising?" Leo asked defensively.
"Well you haven't eaten in, what, 2 days? And then your'e suddenly shoving your face full of food? Anyone would puke after that."
"What are you talking about? It's only been a day."
Percy looked at him curiously. "You ran out of the infirmary and disappeared for a solid 36 hours." He suddenly looked furious, "Why'd you do that? Especially after... what you just did. You just leave us all worried sick for you! After a fucking suicide attempt?! You're gonna just ditch us?!" Percy's voice broke and tears threatened to spill from his eyes, but he didn't break his gaze at the fireuser.
Leo was shocked. Percy Jackson, badass, super strong and cool Percy Jackson, was crying. In front of him and.. because of him? He couldn't break eye contact. He was frozen. He felt ashamed.
"I....It... wasn't an attempt," He spoke without thinking. "It was an accident."
'What am I saying?'
"I was trying to make a mini chef robot!"
'Just shut up!!'
"But I guess it mistook my arm for a steak to be cooked. Hahaha"
'Oh gods. What the actual fuck'
Percy stared at him and Leo couldn't bear to look at him. Not after all the nonsense he just spouted. No sane person would believe a bullass lie like that.
"I know you're lying," Percy spoke softly and stared at the ground. He looked, for one of the very few times, human.
"I know you're lying." He continued, "but I won't force you to tell me. If you need me, I'll be there, but don't keep it to yourself too long. It doesn't make you stronger and it doesn't get easier."
Leo was completely immobile. He never thought that Percy Jackson, THE Percy Jackson, would ever offer himself as a source of comfort or give him advice. Advice that was almost as if he had gone through something similar.
'Has he gone through something similar?'
Percy patted his shoulder, "You should drink some water and then eat something. But not a whole buffet this time, yeah?" He smiled and Leo returned it.
"Yeah, I'll get right on that! The super sized mcshizzle needs his nutrients!"
'Maybe we're more alike than I thought..'
A/N: ALMOST 1,000 WORDS!! SHYEEAAAA!!!!
Wolf out!