You found him sitting on top of Zeus’ Fist, feet dangling off the edge as he looked out over the forest surrounding Camp Half-Blood. Earlier that day, Leo had accidentally started a fire in the Hephaestus cabin, nearly injuring dozens of campers and destroying a lot of personal property. While the other demigods were used to his antics, this had gone too far, and he had been scolded and insulted by many of what he used to consider family. Accusations of “psycho”, “freak”, “pyromaniac”, and others of that sort had been tossed around, and though he played it off well you could tell he was genuinely affected by these words. Your suspicions only raised when he didn’t show up to dinner, and when the Hephaestus cabin (newly cleaned and repaired) was found empty, you went to the next place you knew he’d go; the forest.

When he saw you, he quickly wiped at his eyes and tried giving you a confident smirk to hide the clear puffiness of his eyes. “What’re you doing here? Aren’t scared I’ll give you an early cremation?” His tone was sarcastic but there was a hint of truth in those words—he truly believed he was a danger.