What No One Sees

Confidence To Open Up

A/N: I had a great title one night but then I went to sleep without saving it so now it's this. Big ole trigger warning in this chap. Good luck. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

please enjoy... 

A few days passed and Leo and Jason spoke once. Not that Leo wasn't trying, but it seemed that Jason had suddenly become 'the world's hardest person to find.' Somehow missing meals, training, and never even at his own cabin! It didn't make sense that he would ghost the Latino after they had spent so long in each other's company every day.

'Maybe he got sick of me.'

'He probably just needed a break.'

'Yeah, a break is good. Space is good. It's healthy!'

'Do Percy and Annabeth ever need to take breaks from each other?'

Leo shook the last thought away and tried to refocus. He was at Percy's for another "therapy session" and the sea prince had been talking about some special trip he was planning as a surprise for Annabeth, all the while snacking on candies from a small jar. Each candy was some sort of blue. Blue jolly rancher, blue sweet tarts, just a whole lot of blue.

"I've been trying to drop hints too," Percy continued his story, " Last week I said that the cabin didn't have enough pastiche. I think she was impressed," Percy smiled. It was clear that he was proud of himself -though Leo had a feeling Annabeth hadn't been very impressed- but what was clearer was Percy's happiness and the love that he had for his 'wise girl.' It seemed to radiate off his face and Leo wondered he could ever feel that much happiness. What does it feel like?

There were a few seconds of silence before Leo realized that he was supposed to give a response and he quickly nodded, giving a soft, "I bet."

Immediately he knew that he should have put more effort into his reply because, for all of Percy's hair-brained moments, he was surprisingly good at picking up when something or someone was off.

"Is something up?

'No.'

"-You've been spacing out all day."

"Uhhhh-"

"Do you want to tell me?"

More silence passed between the boys before Percy asked, "Is it about Jason?"

Leo spluttered for a moment before stuttering out, "N-no! It's just-uh- well I wanted... umm..."

He trailed off trying to think of some excuse. Unfortunately, it was only now that his mind decided to shut up and Percy seemed to know because he opened his mouth to say something. That was when Leo blurted out something that he had wanted to keep in the back of his mind.

"I wanted to tell you something a-about my past! A-about my... what.. what happened in-... in my past."

The son of Poseidon stared at Leo and Leo stared at the ground. Whatever part of his mind that decided that THIS was a better topic than Jason was silently disowned by the fire user as he waited for the other's response. 

"Okay," Percy said and Leo really regretted opening his mouth.

'Shit, am I really gonna do this? How do you even start talking about something like this?'

Silence dragged on between the two, Percy waiting as patiently as he could for Leo to start and Leo having no clue if he could even go through with talking about it.

"I'll trade you," Percy suggested finally, "You can tell me what you wanted to and in exchange, I'll tell you anything you'd like to know about my past."