Chapter Text
"He was the class clown, the court jester, because he'd learnt early that if you cracked jokes and pretended you weren't scared, you usually didn't get beaten up. Even the baddest gangster kids would tolerate you, keep you around for laughs. Plus, humour was a good way to hide the pain."
The Lost Hero, pg 80
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Leo was an upbeat, happy fellow. He could always be seen with a smile on his face, trying to make others around him smile with his crappy jokes and over buoyant personality. He never took anything seriously, and his main mission in life was to annoy the shit out of everyone in his general vicinity, maybe even further if he could manage it.
Or that's what everyone thought. As soon as people turned away, the smile would slide off his face and his shoulders would sag, leaving the shell of a teenager, devoid of his usual cheerfulness. Leo's overzealous characteristics were second nature to him now. He had no control over it; he simply couldn't stop himself being annoying. It was a defence mechanism- well, that's what that one therapist he'd had at that one foster home had told him before he'd run away. He'd always been a sunny and smiley kid, even before his mother died, but after the accident it had expanded. It was like a barrier between him and the outside world; if no one saw how sad he truly was, no one could attack him for it.
It was more than that, though. He'd realised recently, as he had made another shitty joke at dinner and a kid from the Ares cabin told him to grow the fuck up already, Valdez, that he had no idea who he was anymore. His entire personality seemed to be a coping mechanism. He had no clue where the mask ended and Leo began.
That wasn't to say he didn't have fun; many of his smiles were genuine, and his laughter honest. He often got lost in the moment, until he realised that no one was laughing, or that people were glaring at him. Then he always felt hollow.
He walked alone through the woods at Camp Half-Blood. That was the key point- he was alone. At that moment in time, he could have been surrounded by all of his friends, and he still would have felt like he was the only one on earth. The words of Nemesis echoed in his head. The outsider. The seventh wheel. You will not find a place among your brethren.
He let out a bitter laugh. He'd been so damn excited at the beginning of that quest. He was delighted at the chance to make new friends, and form closer bonds to the few he already had. Well, it hadn't taken long for that idea to crash and burn.
It was dark, and well after curfew. Most half-bloods didn't dare leave their cabins at this time, out of fear of being eaten by the harpies, but this was no problem for Leo. Harpies were afraid of fire, and so they avoided him as much as they could.
That was why it was a shock for him to hear the snapping of a twig ahead. He ducked behind a tree and realised he was at the edge of a clearing.
A few trees to his left, about a quarter way round the clearing away from him, sitting on the floor with his back against the trunk and his legs curled up into him, was Nico di Angelo.
Leo hadn't even known the son of Hades had been in Camp Half-Blood. It was July, so the camp was a lot more full than it was in the other seasons, but Leo hadn't seen the younger demigod around. He had the feeling that Nico hadn't been here long.
He was just about to step out from his hiding place when he realised that Nico was crying.
Pain-filled sobs wracked through his chest, making Leo's heart clench in sympathy. For some reason he'd never imagined Nico being upset, or in pain like this. Despite always being moody, the son of death had always seemed strong to Leo. Maybe it was the way he'd never shown weakness, not once, at the way people treated him for his parentage. Or maybe it was the way that the boy had crawled his way through Tartarus, seeing it in a much worse way than Percy or Annabeth had, and made it out alive.
Thinking of both of those things made Leo realise how totally understandable it was that the kid was crying.
He was just about to try and sneak away when a figure started to appear in the centre of the clearing. It was as though she was forming from the air itself, becoming more and more solid.
The lady standing there was wearing a gorgeous full-length purple dress. She was truly beautiful, but Leo couldn't work out what colour her hair or eyes were. The colours kept shifting, as she became more and more beautiful.
Leo realised that she seemed to be adapting herself to his ideals of beauty.
"Aphrodite," he breathed. Damn, Piper's mum was stunning.
Nico's head snapped up, and he scrambled to his feet, pulling out his pitch black sword.
"Who are you?" he demanded, his voice thick with tears. He sniffed and quickly wiped at his eyes.
"My dear Nico di Angelo, you know who I am. You summoned me, after all." Aphrodite's voice was powerful. It made the hairs on Leo's arms stand up. Nico, however, frowned.
"No, I didn't."
She smiled at him, albeit a little sadly.
"You did, I'm afraid, although it may not have been on purpose. You thought 'gods help me,’ among... other things. I'm here to help and give advice to you the best I can."
"You're Aphrodite, aren't you? Wait, but hundreds of people must want help with their problems. Why did you come to me? There are people out there more deserving of your help."
Leo frowned at that. He may not have been Nico's best friend, but he respected the kid. He'd been through a lot, and he was still standing, which was an amazing achievement for a demigod. Sure, he'd heard about that time the son of Hades tricked Percy into entering his father's lair, but that had only happened once, right? Besides, Leo didn't like to pass judgement without the story from both sides anyway. He hadn't even heard it from Percy directly; he'd heard it from Jason, who'd heard it from Piper, who'd been told by Annabeth. This had all been before he had met the dark haired demigod, and when all he'd heard of the boy they were headed to rescue were stories.
Aphrodite, however, nodded as if this were a good question.
"I took pity on you," she told him. "Also... certain gods have been pestering me to speak to you."
Nico visibly flinched at that, and Leo frowned, confusedly. She meant Hades, right?
"Well, can you help me? Can you make this go away?" Nico gestured outwards slightly, looking uncomfortable but determined.
That was when Leo remembered what Aphrodite was goddess of. Oh.
The goddess in question smiled sadly and shook her head.
"I cannot help in the way you want, I'm afraid," she told him. "I wish I could, really, but love is never that simple, and it causes much pain. You are aware of this."
Nico scowled. "That's putting it mildly."
"No matter how much pain it causes you though, son of Hades, you will come out the other side better for it. You will have learnt a lot."
Nico's scowl deepened. "Can you solve the other bit though? Make it go away? Fix it?"
Now it was Aphrodite's turn to frown.
"Fix it? My dear, there is nothing to fix! Love for a half-blood is never simple, especially-" she froze, and turned her head towards the spot where Leo stood, partially hidden. Her eyes met his. There was no anger in them, yet he still shivered.
He knew what had alerted her to his presence. She'd noticed him mere seconds after a single name had popped into his head, mere seconds after he felt his heart split in two.
Calypso.
Aphrodite turned back to Nico. "You have company. Do not fault him, he did not mean to eavesdrop." With that, she vanished, as suddenly as she'd appeared.
Nico turned to look at the place Aphrodite had seen Leo. The son of Hephaestus stepped forwards into the clearing.
It was the first time he could actually see the younger demigod, and he began to feel nauseous. Nico's naturally olive skin was deathly pale, with a slight green tint to it. The bags under his eyes looked like bruises, and he was so thin Leo wondered if he'd eaten anything at all since they'd last met. His hands were shaking, and he looked so brittle that Leo was worried he might snap in two if he fell over, or flake away like Voldemort did at the end of the last Harry Potter movie. His skin definitely looked see-through enough. His eyes were sunken, and his hair was even longer than Leo remembered it, hanging messily around the boy's shoulders. He looked sick. He looked dead.
Nico just stared at him. For once, his gaze was devoid of any anger. He just looked... resigned.
They stood there in silence for a good minute or so, before Leo realised that if he didn't break this silence, it would probably never end.
"Titanic," he said.
Nico frowned. "What?"
"Sorry, I thought that would be a good icebreaker. I was wrong."
Nico's lips twitched upwards in an almost smile. Leo was shocked, and he felt a small spark light at the end of his right index finger, which he quickly extinguished before it was noticed.
For Nico di Angelo an almost smile was rare, and Leo was delighted that he was he one to almost put it there. It wasn't that he fancied Nico or anything, just that he felt the other demigod deserved better, he deserved to be happy, and Leo loved making people happy. Also, he was used to much more negative reactions to his jokes, and to be honest he'd expected Nico to be exasperated or annoyed at the very least.
"I'm not going to tell you who it is," Nico told him bluntly.
Leo raised his hands. "I wasn't gonna ask," he said. Then he smiled at him.
Nico scowled. "If you dare make fun of me, I swear on the River Styx I'll impale you with my sword."
The smile slid from Leo's face. He would never make fun of anything like this, not when he saw how much pain it caused Nico. "I wasn't going to- I would never- okay," he said, resigned.
Nico slid back down the trunk of his tree, curling into a ball again. "Sorry," he said, in a quiet voice.
Leo walked over and sat cross-legged on the floor next to him. He was rummaging around in his tool belt.
"It's okay. You want some hot chocolate?" Out of his belt he pulled a warm flask and a couple of mugs. He offered one to Nico, and poured out some of the chocolatey liquid.
"I didn't know you could get hot chocolate from your belt."
"Neither did I."
Nico gave another almost smile at that, and took a large sip. The colour was already returning to his cheeks slightly, making him look a little less dead.
That was when Leo Valdez decided that he was going to make Nico di Angelo properly smile (or laugh, although that seemed considerably more difficult) if it was the last thing he did.