Pain

Leo

Leo Valdez. When people thought of him they'd usually say one of four things:

"His so funny!"

"His really good at building."

"He needs to stop flirting"

But the last thing people said, perhaps the most common, was cold, harsh and horrible. To an outsider it may seem normal or expected but he had fought so hard to help save the day yet the last thing people would say was:

"Who?"

The rest of the seven would instantly get a whole load of praise, smiles and general respect. Heck, even Nico got more praise and smiles than him and that kid was cold. It made him feel low, so being him he tried to make himself known. He cracked more jokes and acted more annoying, seeking the attention he so desperately craved.

But it didn't work. If anything it made everything worse. It's not that he wasn't funny he knew he was, it was how people bigger and stronger than him (so nearly everyone) took offence to him. He had been hit for particularly stupid jokes a lot and his arms and face were soon covered in bruises from angry children of Aries (though never Clarisse or some girl called Ally).

One particularly rotten day even Piper snapped at him.

"Can't you actually do something use full for once. Quit the stupid jokes and get off your fat ugly arse and do something." She had screamed at him in annoyance after he had made a joke about Jason. "I don't even know why we put up with you anymore, no wonder Calypso left you."

And he took all of it to heart. She was right he was stupid ugly and useless. No wonder Calypso went off with some minor god after Leo had used Festus to get her back, he felt so bloody useless all the time. 'get off your fat ugly arse' the words repeated in his head over and over. He wasn't fat, was he? As he looked down at his stomach he could see a little bit of a bump and felt even worse.

From then on he sparsely ate, he barley talked and didn't sleep but opted to spend his time in bunker nine trying to make something worth while for once. He didn't even want it to look good he just wanted something to do besides feeling useless. As the weeks went by a people started to notice something was wrong as the camp realized that it was way to quiet but no one really pinned it on Leo. Actually a lot of people where glad that he was keeping out of their way. He had gotten paler, skinnier and quieter but no one really cared enough to notice.

The only person to notice was surprisingly Drew. She new the signs right from the beginning as she had been like him once so let him carry on. She could see the hurt in his haunted eyes and new that really it was all he had and no matter how cold-hearted she was she couldn't bring herself to ruin it for him like that so she just told one person about his 'problem'. She told the one person who she knew wouldn't spread it or try to tamper with Leo's life. She told Katy Elliot, daughter of Hermes and the most sarcastic brat ever. Katy didn't tell a soul but kept an eye on the boy to make sure that he didn't do anything he wouldn't live to regret.

One day, when he was working on a machine to help lose weight via exercise, he was cutting at an awkward piece of metal when the knife/saw slipped and he cut a small line on his thumb. He instantly dropped the knife and wrapped his cleanest cloth around it but in an odd way it felt relieving. For the past few days he had been feeling numb so it was a relief that he could feel at all. He took the cloth off and stared down at the wound in fascination, it felt good.

Soon the skin healed itself up and he looked down at the scab longing for the pain it had brought him yet at the same time trying to convince himself it had never felt good and it was sick and wrong. He put the saw down and sat on the workbench, running a hand over his face his thoughts wondered to camp. He wondered if anyone had even noticed that he hadn't really been there so he decided to check.