What No One Sees

coping

"Agghhh!!" Jason shouted as he ripped his sword through another dummy. It has been several days since he had seen Leo and the scattered remains of the other dummies that he had torn through were a sign as to how well he was coping. He didn't bother moving with Roman techniques. With formality and thrusts. He swung his sword without order, any way he could to inflict the most damage onto the dummy.
"The dummy," Jason growled. He would never admit to having envisioned a certain blonde Apollo's boy as the dummy when he wrung his sword through it. He felt bad when he allowed his rage to think like that. Jason knew it wasn't really Will's fault.
"Dammit!" He screamed, tearing into the dummy again.
Others in the sword arena stole wary glances at the frustrated son of Zeus as if afraid he might run them through next. They all knew why was mad in the first place. Word had gotten around fast that the once inseparable duo of Jason and Leo were now separated until further notice. It was almost law that no one mention it, for fear of being on the recieving end of Jasons wrath.
Another shout and Jasons dummy flew to the ground to join the rest of the scattered entrails. Everyone looked from Jason to each other as if asking someone to be brave enough to try to talk to him.
The son of Zeus was breathing heavy and dropped his sword to get some water. He eyed the others as he drank, catching several silent exchanges and many eyes on him. This irritated him. A lot.
Once he finished drinking, he grabbed his sword again and flipped it. Catching the coin and sliding it into his pocket, Jason took off deciding to go for a run now.
'The woods are the perfect distraction. Monsters. Roots to trip over. No sense of direction. Perfect.'
Jason wasn't paying attention to where he was running, choosing to focus solely on pushing himself as hard as he could, but he froze, skidding to a stop, when he realized where he was.
'The hidden bunker. The same place where Leo-' Jason screamed and swung his first towards the nearest thing, a tall Cedar tree, to avoid thinking that sentence.
'I have to stop thinking. This is just too much.'
He took off into the woods again ignoring the stinging in his hand and frequently blinking away the tears that threatened to spill over.
'I can't cry. I have to be strong. I can't cry. I can't. I can't!'
Running as fast as he could to his cabin, he made it just in time to slam the door before the tears poured onto his cheeks and he collapsed into a sobbing heap on the floor.

-----meanwhile----

Leo was miserable as well. People frequently came by asking if he was okay, checking the machines, making him fall asleep. He was so tired of it. He missed Jason. Everyone only talked to him because they had to.
'At least Jason cared about me. How long has it been since I've seen him. It feels like an eternity.'
Leo curled into a ball as he waited for time to pass. Will would be coming in to check on him soon. Leo wasn't looking forward to it. He never did. With all the poking, and prodding, and talking about his cuts- Leo's face scrunched up and he hugged himself tighter. He hated when Will talked to him about his cuts. Saying cutting is bad, and it's a good things these are healing and didn't get infected. The worst thing Will recently was talking about was having Leo talk to a therapist or some shitty person to help him.
'Like talking to someone will help anything. That's the stupidest shit I've ever heard.'
Leo rubbed his wrist and bit his lips, already feeling overwhelmed and anxious at the thought of talking to someone about why he did it. Why he did anything. Why he is this way... What happened to him- 'NO! I'm not thinking about that! It didn't happen. I'm fine. I'm fine.'
Something dropped onto Leo's hand, pulling him out of his thoughts. When he looked, he saw a drop of blood. Suddenly, his lip was stinging and he brought his hand up to cover it. When he pulled it away again, his stomach turned at how much blood was there.
'Oh.'
He stared at the blood and then watched and more drops fell into his open palm.
'If Will finds me like this, he's gonna kill me.'
Oddly, Leo didn't feel any emotions as he thought that. There was no anxiety or fear. He didn't feel anything as he stared at the blood. Well, he did feel something. Leo felt a strange sense of... satisfaction, or happiness, or maybe smugness. That he can still be in a place that it supposed to prevent him from injury and yet he can still make himself bleed. Or maybe he really just felt happily numb.
Leo closed his hand and opened it again, feeling the blood begin to try and give a stickiness. He licked his lip and tasted the copperiness, yet he didn't really feel or taste anything. He felt no discomfort at the stickiness or disgust at the copper taste.
However, Leo froze with fear when he heard a voice call out his name.
Percy walked into the infirmity, but stopped when he saw the blood. Quickly assessing the situation, he grabbed a towel and slowly came up to Leo.
"Here, press this to your lip. I'll go get a wet clothe to clean your hand," as if it were an afterthought he added "And then we'll clean up your face."
Leo did what he was told, all the while wondering when Percy was gonna tell at him or tell Will about it. When Percy got back, Leo couldn't help his distrustful glare, but the son of Posiedon ignored it as he wiped the blood off of the mechanics nimble fingers.
"Will you tell me how this happened, if I ask? Or do you not want to talk about it?" Percy's question took Leo aback and he couldn't respond at first. Percy was patient and kept cleaning him up as he waited.
"I'm- OW!" Leo had started talking but quickly stopped as the pain from his lip flared. Concern painted over Percy's face as he moved the clothe to examine Leo's lip.
Tears threatened to fall from the Latinos dark, sorrowful eyes. Percy pulled away looking relieved.
"It's not that bad. It's pretty deep, but not deep enough to need stitches or anything. Gonna hurt like hell to eat or drink though so stay away from salty foods." Percy smiled crookedly
'I see why Annabeth fell for you.'
"Here let's clean your face up a bit." Percy continued" You've got blood all over your chin." Leo nodded and let the green eyed boy gently clean him up.
After throwing away the bloody rags, Percy came and sat down next to Leo.
"So what's been new with you?"
Leo stared at him. 'How can he be so nonchalant about this? He knows everything I've done and been through and he still treats me like this. Like I'm normal.'
Leo tried to speak again, but winced. Suddenly there was something in his hands. Looking down, he saw a pad of paper and a pen and when he looked at Percy, he was looking right back at him with a sheepish look.
"I figured this might not hurt as much, but we don't have to if you're uncomfortable with it."
Leo smiled as best as he could without moving his lip and began to write out what had happened. Meanwhile Percy kept talking just to fill the silence. "I heard from somewhere that writing what you're feeling can help you express your emotions better than talking about it. That's probably easier to do when you're not dyslexic. Rachel Dare said that writing doesnt help her either, and shes not dyslexic, but painting helps her. I tried that and it helped a bit. Though the best thing is Annabeth. She helped me through a lot."
Leo glanced up at this and saw Percy smiling softly as he rubbed his wrist. Quickly Leo jotted down a question and handed the paper over to Percy who took it and commented "You have really good handwriting."
He read over Leo's handwritten story of what Will has been impressing upon him and how he got anxious and bit his lip too hard and then the feeling of numb. Leo was a little surprised at himself that he would so willingly tell Percy everything, but, if the answer to his question was what Leo thought it was gonna be, then Leo could trust him.
Percy's eyes read over Leo's question. He pursed his lips and took a breath before taking the pen from the fire user and writing down his answer. Leo watched his face as he wrote, catching glimpses of the emotions he felt judging by the expression he made.
'I wonder if I make faces when I write too. I probably make faces when I work too.' Suddenly Leo remembered Jason's face and the time he had told Leo that he makes a serious face when he works and that it scares people. The memory stung his heart.
'I really miss Jason'
He was pulled out of his thoughts as Percy passed the paper back to him. Leo read.

Yes, I did cut myself. It was awhile ago and I'm doing better, but it's not exactly something you can forget. So, if you're wondering, yes, I know some of what you're going through and I hate to be that person, but this really is something you need to talk about. If you want to talk to me about it, I'd be happy to. But if you don't talk to someone, it's just a dark road down until you cant stand it anymore and that's not a road anyone should go down.

After reading, Leo turned to Percy and grabbed the pen.

I'll think about it. But now I have a really important question. Wheres Jason? And how is he doing? He probably is rejoicing that hes free of me, right?

Leo passed it to Percy and once Percy read it, he gave a face that Leo could barely comprehend yet filled him with a kind of hope that he wasnt sure what to do with.

Jason is not doing good. He's been avoiding people and constantly is working out or training. I've tried to talk to him, but he has the worst mood ever and tried to run me through with his sword instead.

Leo stared at the handwriting and felt like crying. 'Why can't Jason just come over here so I can see him?'
Leo wrote three words and gave it back to Percy, turning his face away.

I miss him

Percy looked at the paper, and then at the Latino before he stood up.
"Well that settles it," he spoke matter of factly. It reminded Leo of Annabeth when she had a plan. "I'll go get Jason and get him here as fast as I can."
Leo blinked.
"What?" He asked, then flinched.
Percy grinned mischievously, "I can guarantee that he'll be here before you can say 'hades underpants.'" With that said, he took off.