Pjo Agere oneshots

Grieving

Little: Leo
Big: Piper
Caregiver: Hazel

Plot: Leo has been on the verge of slipping all day.. his last straw is when Piper teases him for no reason.

(This chapter has spoilers for The Trials of Apollo in it, if you haven't read it yet maybe skip this one!)

Trigger warnings: Crying, teasing, small
injury (nothing bad), Mention of Jason's death, grieving.

•

Leo is not having a good day.

To be fair, he hasn't been having a very good week. He's felt bad for days and he doesn't even know why.

He's in the kitchen currently, chopping peppers for dinner. Piper is sitting on the counter, not helping at all, and Hazel is stirring the rice on the stove, humming softly to herself.

He sighs and rolls his eyes at Pipers random rambling then instantly feels bad. He shouldn't take his bad mood out on his friends.

Piper hasn't noticed though. She's recounting something that happened to her and her dad weeks ago. Something about the beach and a stray dog? Leo doesn't even know, he's not paying much attention to be honest...

He's felt spacey for days, zoning out randomly during conversations and annoying his friends by constantly asking them to repeat what they're saying.

"Leo? Are you listening?"

Leo is snapped out of his thoughts by Pipers question. "He's in his own little world." Hazel responds for him, smiling gently at him from the stove. Leo tries to smile back but it feels more like a grimace.

"Sorry." He mumbles. Piper shrugs, a small grin on her own face. She starts fiddling with her braid and Leo turns back to the peppers.

Leo looks up when Piper laughs and misses the pepper with the knife, accidentally nicking his thumb. "Ow." He mumbles. The pain is nothing compared to what he's been through before and he shrugs it off.

"Leo?" When he looks up, Hazel is holding out a bandaid to him. It's disney themed and Leo smiles. "Thanks." He says, wrapping it around the small cut.

Piper looks at Hazel with a questioning look and Hazel shakes her head.

"Hey Leo, what's up with you today?" Piper asks. She's smiling as she says it and Leo knows that she's just teasing him. Something about it grates on his nerves though.

"Nothing." He mumbles, rinsing the knife carefully and setting it in the drawer. The cutting board is full of diced peppers. "Thanks for the help, Leo." Hazel says, smiling gratefully.

Leo can't help but smile back, "It's no problem, anything else I can do?" He asks, genuinely happy to help. Hazel just has this warmth to her, it's a little strange for a daughter of Hades but it's inviting nonetheless and Leo enjoys being around her.

"Nope, that's pretty much everything. The rice is almost done and the stew is on the stove." Hazel talks with her hands, pointing to this and that, and Leo finds himself following her fingers with his eyes.

"Hm, Leo being helpful? That's a new one for sure." Piper laughs softly and Leo scoffs. Before he can respond, Hazel is speaking. "Quit it, Piper." She says, her voice stern. Piper nods, looking guilty.

"Sorry, thought he was going to joke back." She says, shrugging slightly. Leo rolls his eyes. "I can't be the funny one all the time." He says, his voice bitter. Piper looks surprised.

"I don't want to joke things off all the time, Piper. Sometimes I get upset too, okay?" He blinks tears away quickly, his voice breaking.

"Just forget it." Leo says, turning away and rushing down the hallway. He gets to his room and shuts his door quickly, blocking out the sounds of Hazel calling his name.