Shake it off

Chapter 23

Leo being mad was not a pretty thing to see or hear, no matter how beautiful he was. Percy's heart wrenched when Leo screamed in his outrage, unable to control his volume or his emotions. Percy desperately wanted to grab his boyfriend and kiss the anger out off him. Leo was a small person, but he had never seemed that way to Percy. His personality was too large. Leo's anger had been loud and violent. Percy thought that when Leo was really angry he would start crying, and be kind of quiet. In this instance he had done neither of the sort. It was venomous yelling and grit teeth. Percy still loved him with him like that.

Surprisingly his hand wasn't broken.  His middle knuckles were as well as his left index, and he had to get stitches on his right hand, and the doctor suggested bandages to keep bleeding down on both hands. He had to disinfect it and put bandages on for two weeks.

"I'm sorry about all of this." Leo said to Ari as they all sat in the living room. They sat next to each other. Percy watched his boyfriend as the two became more and more intrigued with each other. Percy sat in the passenger seat, watching them through the mirror.

Ari laughed a little. "Its fine. You should have seen me when I first met him."

Hephaestus sighed. "I'm sorry. To both of you." he apologized. Percy listened to the honestly apologetic things he said. "To Esperanza and Candace as well. I didn't think that either of them would pass. I was too young to support either of you when I had you."

Leo spoke, and surprisingly not angrily. "So you ditched both of your kids, huh? That's kind of shitty." Leo voiced it so calmly and nonchalantly that it was almost difficult to hear the sniping venom in his lips.

Ari started talking. It seemed as though she were good at that. "Hey, lets play a game. Let's tell our life stories. The summaries of 'em. Leo, you first."

Percy was glad the situation wasn't sticking to the same thing. It was getting a bit tenuous. "Well," Leo started. "Before I was born my dad left. Then I grew up working with my mama in her crappy shop that she rented for way too much. We barely scraped by, but it happened. One day," Leo's voice wavered. "One day a guy came into our house. He didn't steal anything, he just..." Leo seemed to not know how to phrase it. "He killed her. No one in my family wanted me, so I got put in foster care. I hopped from foster home to foster home until I got tired of running away and stayed at the cone I'm currently at. I've made a lot of really good friends, Nico here being one of the best." his eyes locked with Percy, who felt himself melt under that firey, determined gaze. "And there's this one friend, who means the entire world to me."

Ari smiled. "Good job! Nico, your turn."

The boy wrinkled his nose and sneered. "No way."

"Please, Nic?" Leo pleaded, puppy dog eyes out.

Nico sighed and took a deep breath. "My mom had a lot of depression. She was a good mom and his it well enough, but my dad had a very hard time dealing with it. So he left. My mom's depression only seemed to get worse and worse. Eventually she stopped taking care of us, and my sister, Bianca took care of me." He said his sibling's name like it was an angel. "My mom killed herself. And Bianca gained custody of me when I turned twelve. She went out to hang out with friends one time, and never came back. I went looking for her, and I found her dead." his mouth lingered on the word before he straightened and continued. "I was adopted by the same people who adopted my half sister, Hazel, who I love more than anything."he glared at the lot of them, daring them to say anything.

Ari just nodded at him. "Shit happens." Leo looked so proud of his frined, that Percy physically held himself back from grabbing the other's face and kissing him.

Instead he and his lover locked eyes from across the room and Leo seemed to get the gist. It was pretty obvious since Leo had that cute blush on his cheeks that made Percy laugh.

His eyes lingered towards Leo's father, in which was obviously looking at Leo and Ari. Hephaestus looked apologetic and it seemed as though every time he said something, Leo or Ari would give a sassy, hotheaded reply. He supposed that Leo would get his answers later. 

"Your turn, Percy." Nico said.

"Not anything interesting." Percy admitted, charitably remembering that he was going to leave out anything about Gabe. "My dad split before in was born too, like you." he gave a violent flick of his wrist towards Leo's father. He could tell apologies were building up inside the man. "I have a stepdad now, and we don't exactly get along. I've always stayed in the same place. I've been to eight different schools since I was twelve. I cause trouble."

Percy gestured towards Ari. "Your turn."

She hesitated. Leo put a hand on her arm and smiled at her. "Dad left when I was eight, and living with mom was not good. She only cared about drugs. I would make money and she didn't care if I went hungry. She blew it on 'er own shit. When she wasn't high, everything was right. I loved her more than anything. She was my whole world, ya know? Then mama died, and I had nothing. Dad took me in and I've been living here for about a year."

Leo shook his head and they locked eyes again. Percy's heart beat a little faster. "Hephaestus. Now your turn." Leo's mouth was etched with venom.

The man swallowed hard. "I grew up in New York. I went to school there, which is where I met your mother." he gestured towards Percy. "We were friends. Then I moved to Texas to go to college. Which is where I met Esperanza Valdez. An amazing woman. She was young and ambitious unlike myself. I always did whatever anyone told me to. My mother said she was too young for me, and needed to live her own life. So I left her. I hadn't known she was pregnant at the time. I found out a year later. I thought that I had caused her enough pain." he sighed and looked at the ground. "I always kept up with her over facebook or phones. I met Candace a year after your mother. I found out she was on drugs, and after a while I couldn't take seeing her like that. But I stayed for you, Ari, until you turned eight and your mother kicked me out. I fought for you in court. But in Chicago the mother usually gets to keep the child. This was the case. When you turned 13, as you know she overdosed and I offered you a home here. When I found out Esperanza had passed I assumed Leo would go to one of his family members. Instead he went into foster care. I figured he would find a good family there."

Leo bit his lip. "Never did."

Hephaestus took Leo's hand, who immediately flinched back. "You will always have a place here."

"No." Leo said immediately. "I'm getting emancipated next month, since I'll be sixteen."

Ari grinned. "I wanna live with you when that happens." she told him. Then she looked at her father. "No offense to ya, but I wanna get to know my brother."

"That would be nice. I'll see what I can do." Leo stated.

Nico spoke up for the first time in the last few hours. "Its starting to get dark out." Completely unrelated to the subject at hand, and hearing nico say something cooperative was completely new.

Ari pinched Nico's nose. "There's a guest room, and a sofa. Two of you will have to sleep together. Is that alright?"

"I'll take the sofa." Nico said, as Leo and he communicated something trough which was only with eyes.

Leo stood up. "Okay, cool. Nic, come help me get stiff from the van."

"Okay."

Hephaestus went to his own room. Ari and Percy were left alone.

"You're dating Leo." she blurted.

Percy's eyes went wide. "How do you know?!"

Ari shrugged and stood up, walking across the room. "With all the eye contact and touching you guys do. I saw that kiss you sneaked when we were in the car, heading back home." she sat next to Percy and grinned. Her own matching Leo's. She pulled out cloth headband and put her hair up. "Its pretty obvious. I wanna get to know Leo. What's he like?"

Percy breathed, and let his hands drop. A smile ghosted over his lips and he sighed. "Where do I start?"