Beloved (boyxboy/Leico)

Chapter 9. Traveling, Trouble, Topless

Leo hated running.

Running while being chased by a monster was even worse. Especially if the said monster had hunted him into an abandoned high school that was located in the middle of nowhere.

The school corridors were long, trees, bushes and flowers had started growing in it along side of old and rusty lockers. Doors stood ajar and reveled classrooms that the nature had taken back. A couple of times Leo even ran from animals such as angry birds and a fox.

Somewhere he had lost Nico, it had been a two way split and Leo had taken the left and didn't look back until it was to late to ever find Nico again.

The monster was still here, lurking, waiting to eat some tasty demigods. He was stupid, Leo not the monster, how hadn't he seen that walking around in the open would lead monsters to them? Sure Leo wasn't powerful or even special in the eyes of a monster but Nico was a son to the big three. He probably smelled like a tasty buffet while Leo smelled like a day old left over.

Picking up his compass to guide him he stumbled on a tree rot that lazily laid on the hard cold floor.

Leo hated schools, they were boring, usually had really long and identical corridors, the teachers were mean (mostly) and being a dyslexic and having ADHD didn't help him with homework. That's how he had ended up at the Wilderness school.

Leo wondered why everything had changed so much.

He was now eighteen, he hadn't finished school (not that he wanted to now that he could live at camp), didn't have a job (even though he was cabin leader and helped Chiron on different business), he didn't even have a proper love life for Aphrodites sake.

He also wondered what would have happened if Nico hadn't been kidnapped, would they have moved to New York with Jason and Piper, would they too finish up school now and maybe come to New Rome and go to collage. Would they be in love?

Leo almost stumbled again when he heard a scream.

It was to bright to belong to Nico, the only guy who had ever been on his mind this much. Leo had seen the changes in Nico directly. Nico was more handsome, he had grown into his nose that had been a little to long before. His dark eyes didn't had shadows under them anymore and his cheekbones were more defined, if it was because Nico finally was healthy or because of the stubble Leo hadn't figured out.

The scream came again, this time it was raspy and gruff, that was Nico. His voice were much darker now too, puberty had done him good.

Leo turned right at the next corner and doubled back towards the scream. He entered a classroom that had once been a chemistry lab but now broken bottles and chairs littered the floor along with moss and a wild rose bush. A tree had also started growing through the window. It was kind of cool what the nature could do when humanity left it alone.

"Nico?!"

"In here!" Nico screamed back.

Leo entered the small door beside the big white-board. It was a closet for different chemicals and potions that the old students had brewed together.

In the back was Nico, pinning a hydra to the wall. The hydra was still a baby and had only four heads. It was still a hand full for poor Nico to control. Each head tried to either snap or spit acid on him, he tried not to cut one of the heads of since it would only be more problem than good.

"Help would be good." Nico grunted and kicked the monster in the stomach, which didn't have any affect at all.

Since they couldn't cut of the heads they had to blow the monsters up. Grabbing a couple of bottles from the closet, Leo raced back to the classroom, he placed everything on the teachers desk. With quick hands he took his shirt of, pouring the chemicals on it, he grabbed a broken chair leg and tied the shirt on to it, it scorched his hands up a little but he would have to think about that later. Then he ran back into the closet.