Misery Loves Company

Keep Moving to Escape the Pain

Some dialogue/quotes used from 'The Lost Hero' and 'The Last Olympian' all relevant rights go to Rick Riordan.

Chapter warnings (stay safe!):
- Canon character death
- Description of a character burning alive
- Description of characters drowning
- Themes of Grief
- Nightmares
- Vomiting (brief, blink and you miss it)
- Spiders (Arachnophobia)
- Suicidal thoughts (character very briefly considers doing something knowing it would cause harm/death)
- Suicide (occurs in canon, you know the one.)
- canon typical violence
I think that's all of them x

________________________

Leo felt like he was one wrong move from breaking down. It was not, in his humble opinion, a nice feeling. But it was a common one.

One look at Annabeth and Percy said as much. The two clung to each other, eyes red and haunted as the three of them stumbled through the Underworld.

Leo had heard their screams last night, horrific sounds that tore from their throats as they slept and echoed off the rocks of the outcrop they'd decided to rest amongst. Leo hadn't mentioned it; that he had thought they were dying, thought that a monster had found their hiding place and attacked, only to find the only monsters nearby were the ones in their minds. They had called out to each other, raw and desperate as their bodies contorted and curled inwards.

The two had taken the first watch and Leo had slept fitfully until Annabeth had shaken him awake. Whatever his own dreams had been was lost to him, but he could guess what theirs were about. It hadn't taken long for the two to drift off, and near instantly, the nightmares began.

Leo would live with the chilling sound of their pained gasps and fearful screams for the rest of his life.

But he didn't mention it; they didn't say anything. An unspoken alliance, to keep them teetering on this side of sane - or at least, functioning .

Percy had a close call the day before, slipping into the depths of his mind and even Annabeth didn't seem confident he'd return. The news of Nico's fate had scared the son of Poseidon and part of Leo was awed by that. Maybe Leo shouldn't hold Percy in such high regard that the demigod fearing something surprised him, but he did.

Leo was scared too, terrified, really. Nico and him were close, and he was worried enough for his friend as it was. But never had the possibility of the son of Hades dying crossed his mind.

Leo had seen Nico in a state of near death on the Argo II, but in the years since Leo had come to view Nico as something distinctly more .

Like Percy.

And in life, like Jason.

And there was his other fear. A selfish one, but it gripped his insides like a vice. Because if he lost Nico, his time with Jason came to an end too. Two friends gone in one fell swoop. Leo couldn't think about that for too long without his skin threatening to burst into flames.

So he didn't think about it, he just kept moving and so did the couple with him. One foot in front of the other, looking for the cave that the seer had directed them toward.

He entertained himself by watching the bitter landscape, making shapes out of the shadows that danced across the harsh terrain. One looked like a dog, another a flock of birds, and another a person walking amongst Asphodel's trees. He made up stories about them, anything to keep from thinking too deeply.

Too darkly.

Not unlike the cave that finally came into view, on the side of a sheer cliff face of mountainous obsidian. It was a gaping maw with sharp stalactites for teeth and Leo didn't doubt it would swallow them whole, not when the aura of fear hit him square in the chest.