Him or her? (A Pipabeth story)

Chapter Fourteen

Percy's POV  

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 "Percy."

"Percy..."

"Percy!"

Percy lifted his head suddenly, turning his gaze to Leo standing beside him.

"Yeah, Valdez?"

Leo rolled his eyes, striding into Percy's cabin and sitting down on a spare bed. Percy watched as Leo reached under the bed and grabbed a packet of chips to eat, pushing aside the realisation that there wasn't as much of his stored food there.

"What're you doing in here all by your lonesome?" Leo asked, stuffing some chips in his mouth.

"Thinking," Percy replied, causing Leo to snort, and look at him in amusement.

"Isn't that what Annabeth does? Sits in her cabin thinking?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "She's not the only one that does. Just because she's a daughter of Athena doesn't mean other Demigods can't sit alone and think."

"True, but—" Leo stopped to throw the now-empty packet on the floor and lie back on the bed, "I'm bored and have nothing I can be bothered doing right now since Calypso is out helping the Demeter kids with their gardens, and the others all told me to go away. Since you haven't told me to leave yet, please enlighten me on all your problems and thoughts."

"And what do you care, Leo?" Percy questioned. Leo just laughed.

"I don't care. But when you're bored, you'll listen to anything interesting to stop dying of boredom."

Percy couldn't argue with that. "Fine," he spoke. Sitting up against the wall on his bed, he started talking.

"First, I keep getting this feeling every time I talk to you and the others, that suggests you all know something I don't."

"We always know things you don't. You'll be surprised."

"Yeah, but the glances you keep giving each other makes it seem like one thing you all know."

"True," Leo agreed, shrugging nonchalantly, "but whatever it is, it's something that we don't have the right to tell you. You'll have to wait till someone else tells you what we know."

"Whatever Valdez. Anyways— stop eating my food!" Leo pulled his hand back from where he had reached under the bed again, smiling in a way that seemed the complete opposite of apologetic.

"Anyways, I also feel like something's up with Annabeth that I don't know about. We've talked about certain things, but I get this vibe that something else is bothering her that she won't tell me."

"You sound like you're pleading to me to help you." Leo observed. "But," he included before Percy could argue, "I can say that it could be related to what we all know. And if you want to know what we all know, you should ask Annabeth."

Percy frowned. Okay....

"Well," he voiced, "you have been a great listener, Valdez, but unfortunately that's all I wish to say right now. So, you can leave now."

"That's not something to say to a guest," Leo responded, acting hurt. "And, we didn't even talk for long! C'mon! We can talk about other things. I'm so bored... How about we talk about boredom?..."

Sighing, Percy stood up from his bed and walked over to the door.

"Leo, I'm leaving now too. Stuff to do. So you can get out of my cabin while I'm not in there."

Leo stopped rambling and skipped out the door and down the steps in an overly happy way.

"Okay, Jackson. But I want to know how your talk with Annabeth goes!"

Percy chuckled, rolling his eyes. Sometimes Leo can be much smarter than everyone gives him credit for, Percy thought as he was, indeed, going to talk to Annabeth. Though why Leo wanted to know how their talk went was beyond Percy.

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