Our Story: A Percy Jackson (Discontinued)

19. Winks

What has he done?

Percy's been distraught since last night when he decided to visit Piper in her room. Now, he knew he wouldn't be completely focused for the operation that the crew was going to do today to save Annabeth from her mom's little mission impossible situation.

Why did he even try to talk to Piper. Now that he thought about it, confronting Piper was probably the dumbest thing he's ever done, ever. He's never felt so dense. Why didn't he think about how Piper would feel about all of this? For years, she thought he was dead! He didn't even have the nerve to contact her. During his time in Camp Half-Blood, he hadn't forgot about her. He tried to dismiss her from his head to escape the torture of not being able to see his best friend. He only forgot about her during the time when he spent being switcharoo'ed with Jason.

"Hey, man," someone called out to Percy.

Percy spun around to see Leo leaning against the door frame of the corridor. He had a series of keys on a ring that he was spinning around his fingers. His usual grin was replaced with a serious look on his face. His eyes observantly searched Percy, probably detecting that there was something wrong with him. After several seconds had passed, Leo abandoned his spot leaning on the door frame to take a seat in the love seat across from Percy.

Gods, am I that easy to read? Percy asked himself.

"Hey," Percy greeted back, putting a small smile on his face.

"I hardly ever see you 'round here anymore. Dude, where have you been?" Leo teased, giving Percy a slight punch on the arm.

Percy shrugged, "Hmm, I don't know. I've just been busy."

"Busy? Busy doing what?"

"Well, nothing much, I guess. Just living, eating, breathing, fighting monsters, fighting giants, fighting dirt-faced primordials, and saving the world. You know, the usual stuff," Percy sarcastically said with a crooked smile playing on his lips.

Leo gave Percy a deadpanned expression and a brief silence before playfully rolling his eyes. "And they say that I am the obnoxious and sarcastic one."

"That's because you are."

"Shut up..."

Percy chuckled while Leo shrugged. It was the first time he laughed weeks. Before the gods, Percy was probably the most goofy, carefree kid out there. Yeah, he had his occasional struggles with school, his ADHD and dyslexia, and Gabe (his mom's ex husband who was a complete pig face), but he still managed to have a great life, especially compared to the one he was living now. He now truly understood the ins and outs of the saying "you never know what you have until it's gone".

Leo sighed quickly as he sobered from his playful appearance, "C'mon, dude. Let's cut the cheese here. Something's bothering you, and I can tell."

Percy watched Leo waggle his brows before letting out a halfhearted chuckle, "Well, yeah. I'm a little disturbed."

"Wanna tell me about it?"

He paused. Leo was, right now, being a great friend to Percy. The people that know Percy could have easily been able to tell that he was being and has been out of character for a while now . He's had a lower tolerance to jokes and he has been really quiet, only expressing his opinions when it was asked for.

He thought he should tell Leo what was going on with him, but he was wary about it. Leo is Piper's best friend, supposedly. Did Piper ever tell him about her past? Did she ever tell Leo about Percy. He didn't wanna spill anything that could ruin their friendship.

"Um, I don't think so," Percy said. "Sorry, man."

Leo paused before breaking out into a full out grin, probably to give Percy some kind of reassurance,"That's cool with me. Besides, the Savior of Olympus wants what the Savior of Olympus wants. If you wanna talk about it later, though, Little Ol' Leo will be right here."