The Secret Life of Leo

PROLOGUE - LEO

Take my word when I say that nothing is harder than living two, completely different, completely unrelated lives. It's especially hard to think you're a decently regular teenage boy of about, say, seventeen years old, and to then fail to die and find out you were an immortal - one to represent a nation, no less - and merely had your memories replaced by human ones. It came as such a shock to me, honestly, to explode in mid-air and realise all the fuss I made for the elixir Asclepius had given me had been unnecessary. When asked why I had been away for so long upon my return, I'd claimed I had travelled the world with my girlfriend in trying to find my friends and get my metal dragon under control, when in reality, I had spent most of my time in Europe, in my country, letting my boyfriend's brother show my girlfriend around as I explained my sticky situation to the one of the only two people who know now; my boyfriend, Lovino Vargas, or South Italy.

Long story short, I live two lives. One of them is as Leo Valdez, a teenager with a rough time behind him and six wonderful friends, and a slightly irritable girlfriend as moral support. A fireproof son of Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire and forges, a boy who made an attempt at hiding the influences his past had on him using puns and jokes.
The other is as Antonio Fernandez-Carriedo, an immortal nation with a long past and a lot of stories and secrets, equally as wonderful friends and an equally irritable boyfriend. An ex-pirate, conquistador and colonist that once had control over parts of North and South-America. An equally fireproof guy, someone who came off to others as always cheerful, despite the constant stream of insults his boyfriend could throw at him. It explains what Antonio has in common with his two best friends, Francis and Gilbert.

Being two people, I travel a lot, especially since Leo lives in New York City, the United States and Antonio lives in Madrid, Spain. When I'm not travelling the world with my girlfriend, I'm usually in Madrid, so I rarely come here at all. When I'm not present at Camp Half-Blood, my sister takes on the role of cabin counsellor of the Hephaestus cabin. Nyssa is a wonderful girl who seems to know exactly what she's supposed to do. She's one of the few girls in this cabin - I have mainly brothers. Yet she's one of the few people who can actually suppress the chaos that is our cabin.

However, right now, I am actually at Camp Half-Blood. I got punched by a few dozen campers (unfortunately, including Sherman Yang and his siblings, Percy Jackson, and my own siblings, who are not the weakest of people, to put it mildly), having no doubt my arm's going to bruise. I immediately found myself thinking of Lovino and how he'd be screaming and yelling and cursing in Italian. In a way, I felt like he'd get along with Chiara Bienvenuti, a newer, Italian camper. I'd picked up on her habits of cursing in all too familiar Italian. Nico seemed to chatter away with her constantly. I couldn't follow their conversations, but like any other language, I liked to try to recognise words. Nico seemed more comfortable than I'd seen him in a while. Once in a while, a blond boy I recognised as Will Solace passed by them. He'd stand by them and join the conversation. I hadn't seen Nico smile in a while, though he really tried to hide it, as if he didn't want others to see his affections. Though I knew he'd deny it if anyone asked, Will made him happy. Forget about his rocky past for a while.

On my left, Calypso was sitting in front of Hestia's hearth with Percy. I'm not sure about everything either of them do, sometimes, but it seemed like they had a few things to catch up to. I glanced towards Cabin 9, and exhaled. I didn't know what to do anymore. The initial excitement/frustration surrounding my return was gone, and everyone went back to their daily business. It just made me realise how insignificant I was here. Somewhere, I liked it. It felt good not to be among the top of the world, to just be in the middle of people who don't see me as some powerful, absolutely immortal being - even if I am still pretty powerful among demigods.

"Leo!" I turned around and found Annabeth approaching me. I blinked once, twice, then I found myself grinning at her. She was holding the trademark, bright orange camp t-shirt. Looking down on myself, I realised I wasn't wearing mine, before remembering it had burnt to a crisp in the explosion. Feliciano had made my current clothes, almost without question, but I could not ask him to make a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt.

Annabeth held the shirt out to me, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Welcome back. You might want to go by Camp Jupiter soon. I have no doubt you were missed by at least three people there."

I knew she was referring to Frank, Hazel, and Jason - my Roman demigod friends. Perhaps I should make up to Reyna, too, since she seemed pretty annoyed with me most of the time. I shook my head at myself, because someone would immediately notice something wrong. "I will when I have the time," I told Annabeth as I took the shirt out of her hands. "It seems I have more to do."

"Ah, yeah," Annabeth sighed. There was a concerned look in her eyes, suddenly. Her eyes seemed darker than usual. Something was happening in her life that was bothering her, even after everything that already happened. "I came here just for the night, anyway. I need a break, however short. It doesn't happen often, but my mind's all over the place."

"Well, so is mine," I admitted. I couldn't keep my eyes off Calypso but my mind refused to stray far from Lovino. I plopped onto the ground and played with a loose string on my sleeve. I saw Annabeth sitting down next to me. "I wish I could escape."

"You're here now." Annabeth looked at me. "You can stay here longer than I can."

"Well, apparently I leave for a quest tomorrow morning," I sighed. "With a god, no less."

I had cursed everything when I found out I had to escort Apollo on his coming quests. On the bright side, it seemed we were going to Camp Jupiter. I hadn't talked to Meg and him about the exact plan yet. I decided we could do that tomorrow.

"Good luck," Annabeth sighed. She glanced over at Percy and Calypso. It must've been as weird for her as for me, but I wasn't sure if she knew Percy had been on Ogygia, or if she knew they'd even met before. I'd never heard her about it.

"I'll need it," I muttered. This quest meant I couldn't return to Madrid or Rome for a while.

It meant I couldn't see my friends.