Leo can't help but replay the memory in his head over and over again as he walks with Frank towards the arena. According to him 'he has to practice with the bow while they were visiting' (Frank, Hazel and some other Romans are passing through Camp Half-Blood for a week or two), so now the Latino is involved.
"It's not like Frank has a better thing to do, being trapped here being my nanny." Leo thinks.
Leo may look like an idiot (and maybe he is for some things) but that doesn't imply that he doesn't know Frank's behavior well. The son of Mars avoids looking him in the eye and occasionally tugs at his shirt collar.
"Same thing he did last time." Says something inside him, but he quickly shakes off his thought. It's the perfect time to do what Leo pre-suicide would normally do; tease Frank a little, make some jokes and be mischievous. Maybe with that he could convince Will that he no longer needs a (in this case, several) babysitters.
Will.
"Come back to have me check them in two or three days."
Will is supposed to check his injuries today!
Wait... Frank is supposed to see him while he's doing it? Or can he stay outside? Is it supposed to be rude if he asks?
As those questions invade his mind, the two are already in the arena. Unconsciously, Leo had leaned against a pillar staring into the void while Frank shot some arrows. And man, does he do well.
The Canadian has very good aim, and he concentrates to the maximum when shooting, which allows him to hit the target very well. If Leo hadn't known about his parentage, he would think he was a son of Apollo.
At the beginning, everything goes well. Leo goes on as normal; he annoys Frank a bit, makes a couple of heavy jokes, thinking that Frank wouldn't get angry so easily.
Leo walks over to see how Frank is training. "Dang, you're good." He compliments. "Can i try?"
Frank nods, but seems kinda insecure about the idea. "Sure, Leo." He passes the bow and an arrow to Leo.
The son of Hephaestus tries to hit the target, but misses miserably.
"Dang, this is hard." He complains.
"No offense, but your, um... kinda scrawny." Frank says, making a little grimace.
Leo frowns. "Hey, scrawny is hot."
Frank flutters his eyes, getting back his bow. "Okay, okay. But you gotta have good arm muscle to pull back a bow like this, y'know?" He says, emphasizing Leo's obvious thinness and lack of muscule.
Leo can't help but to make a joke. "Are you sure that's muscle? Or are you just fat?"
This is not funny to Frank. He gets very, very mad at him. And it's very hard to make Frank mad.
"I can't believe you said that!" The son of Mars explodes. He starts saying not very nice things about Leo. "How can you say something like that?! Didn't your mother teach you manners?! Did she teach you how to be a pain in the ass?!" (A/N: I read MoA a long time ago, and I don't remember if Frank and Leo talked about Leo's mom's death in the book or not. So, just in case, in this AU they didn't!)
Leo is paralyzed by this. Okay, Frank went a little overboard, but Leo understands his anger. Still, he can't help but feel that Frank is right. His mother spent a long time raising him to be this way. So why is he like this?
Maybe because it's his way of coping with the trauma of her death that he himself caused. Maybe because it's his way of not being forgotten. To try to make people laugh, even if it's not funny. Fuck, even to get attention.
But it doesn't matter anymore. It's too late. Leo is already running away from the arena and straight to bunker 9. And he's not exactly going to work on something.
What he's going to do is better. He's been working on something in his spare time; a firearm. Leo wasn't planning to do anything with it, really. It was just to test the endurance of some machines he's been working on, but at this point, it could have more than one use.
And you might be thinking 'isn't this extreme?' Maybe it is, but Leo has been through too much. He killed his mother, was abused in foster care and sacrificed his life in a war against the fraking Gaea. That's... a lot.
So Leo doesn't feel sorry when he pulls the trigger and the bullet goes straight through his chest.
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A/N: In this chapter you see a lot more of the inspiration I got from 'Learning to live'. Because, which better heavy chapter than with a bit of gunshot angst?
EDIT: Gotta thank my man Jackman for the dialogue between Frank and Leo. You're a freaking legend.
