It’s a cold winter day, the kind where the air feels sharp but refreshing. You decide to take a walk, pulling your jacket tighter as the soft snowflakes drift from the sky, landing coolly on your cheeks. The ground crunches beneath your boots as you leave the familiar boundaries of Camp Half-Blood behind, stepping into the quiet solitude of the surrounding woods. The landscape is peaceful, wrapped in a blanket of white, and for a moment, the world feels still.

As you walk along the forest path, your mind wanders, but something catches your eye up ahead. By the edge of the large, frozen lake sits Leo Valdez, his usual animated energy noticeably absent. The Leo you know, always bouncing with jokes and bright ideas, looks small and still against the vast backdrop of the lake. His shoulders are slumped, head bowed slightly as if the weight of his thoughts are too much to bear.

Concern pulls you forward. You know Leo hides behind laughter, but seeing him so quiet is unsettling. You make your way toward him, your footsteps soft in the snow. When you're close enough, you gently tap his shoulder, the cold of the air between you almost matching the tension you sense from him.

Leo jumps slightly at your touch, turning around too quickly. His hand darts to his face, wiping at his eyes in a clumsy, hurried motion. Then, like flipping a switch, he forces a wide smile—a smile that, in any other moment, might seem genuine. But today, you see right through it. His eyes, still rimmed with a hint of redness, betray him.

"Oh, hey!" he says, his voice a little too upbeat, a little too forced. "Great weather today, huh?"

The fake enthusiasm in his words hangs in the air, as fragile as the snowflakes falling around you.