Suicidal Seven

Leo~Humor

when the party's over by Billie Eilish

Leo was hiding. He hadn't yet decided if he was hiding from the rest of the crew or himself. He clutched the pill bottle in his hand tightly, almost as tightly as he was hugging himself. He'd curled himself into a ball in the corner of the stables, tears streaming down his face. Hopefully no one would look for him here.

Try as he might, he couldn't quite pinpoint what was making him feel so shitty lately. He couldn't blame the rest of the Seven, because it wasn't really them. He couldn't blame the monsters either, because they'd always been assholes. He wanted to blame Gaea. Maybe it was her fault.

But deep down, he knew it was his fault. It was his own damn fault for feeling this way. He let out a strangled sob and banged his head against the stable wall.

He could hear the others calling for him. Maybe it was his strange sense of humor that set them off. His jokes had taken a suicidal turn and he'd always catch Piper looking at him. If anything, it would be her to finally connect the dots.

He'd been 'missing' for sometime now. One hour, maybe two. He wasn't sure. He was positive they hadn't started looking for him until a little while ago when he skipped lunch.

A part of him thought that the only reason they were looking for him was that they needed something done. Needed him to fix something. He was just the Repair Boy. Funny, when he was the most broken of all of them.

But that other part of him, the smaller part that was desperately clinging to hope, could hear the way Piper's voice was going hoarse, the way it does when she's emotional.

He could hear how worried Jason sounded. He could hear the quiver in Percy's voice, the way Hazel's voice seemed to have dropped an octave. And he heard Frank, frantically calling his name.

And Coach, no doubt waving his bat around, yelling, "Valdez! Where the hell are you?" He didn't miss the way his voice cracked at the end.

He pulled his knees closer to himself, trying to stop the flow of tears from his eyes. He smiled to himself. "Well at least you won't even be their problem anymore," he whispered.

The smile slipped from his face and turned into an ugly scowl as he broke out into choked sobs again, leaning his head back and groaning at this pain in his heart.

His sobs had devolved into hiccuping gasps when he made his decision. He struggled to get the cap off, stupid child lock. He just heard the click and greedily went to pop it open when Frank ran into the stables.

"Leo?" He called. Leo tried to stifle his cries, but failed miserably. Frank didn't quite look uncomfortable, just like he didn't know what to do. 'No one really knows how to deal with me,' Leo thought.

Frank stepped around the stable door to see Leo curled in a ball. Their eyes met for a moment and Frank's gaze softened upon seeing the shorter boy in tears. He took a step towards Leo before noticing the bottle in his grip.

Frank's eyes widened and he lunged forward, just as Leo twisted the cap off in one last desperate attempt. Frank closed his fist around the bottle and threw it down the hall where it spilled pills everywhere. Leo leapt for them, but Frank was faster. He caught Leo around the waist and pulled him back.

Leo fought him to get out of his grip. "Leo, Leo. Hey, just calm down a second would you? Just breathe."

Eventually Leo calmed down enough to the point where he was again huddled in the corner, staring soundlessly at his hands while tears still poured from his eyes.

Frank, in all honestly, had no idea what he was supposed to do now. He couldn't very well go get someone and leave Leo alone. He couldn't turn his back on his friend at all, even to go clean up the pills.

He couldn't leave, wasn't going to leave, until he knew Leo was feeling better. He was actively preventing a suicide, he realized.

He set his jaw in determination. He was going to help Leo be okay. He wasn't going to settle for anything less.

He scooted closer to Leo. "What's...what's going on?" He tried. Leo buries his head in his arms. "I don't know," he mumbled miserably.

Frank saw Piper tear into the room, coming to a halt upon seeing the two boys. Piper's bottom lip trembled when she went to gather the pills. She put them all back in the bottle and retreated from the room, returning a moment later with Jason, who all but ran to Leo.

"Thank you, Frank," Piper whispered, joining the hug that Jason had initiated. Frank nodded numbly, recounting all that had just happened.

Soon enough Hazel, Percy, and Annabeth found their way down, leaving Hedge to man the ship. They all spent the rest of the night down there, enjoying everyone's presence and letting Leo know that he was loved.

He fell asleep against Jason not much longer after that.