Outcasts of Olympus: Book 2

Chapter Four

When we got back to the hotel, Leo was shirtless and had bandages wrapped around his chest, and one covering his left eye. Alexa was putting the first aid kit away, while Stella sat on the couch next to him.

"I feel like I'm getting ready to trick-or-treat..." Leo grumbled, glaring at his bandages. I shrugged. "I mean, I don't think you'd mind the candy portion of it," I said. "The only candy I'm getting is eye-candy of myself, I mean, damn I'm keeping myself in shape!" Leo grinned before wincing and hissing.

"Totally," Castor said with an eye roll before walking away. "Maybe you should just stop screaming, Leo," Stella said softly, putting a hand on his back. "Sounds like a great idea," he said before looking at me. "So, how was the one-on-one with Lady Love?" he asked.

I blushed and looked down at the ground. "Let's not, please," I said. "Ah, I get it, too embarrassing. What happened? You also get hit in the head with a heavy metal object from behind while she distracted you?" he asked. "That's oddly specific, Leo." Alexa said before walking out.

"Sure, we'll go with that," I replied tersely. "At least you aren't discount Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid," Leo said pointing to his "eye patch" with his left arm. I didn't even know what that was, so I didn't say anything.

"Get some rest, Leo." Stella whispered. Leo groaned. "But I feel fine!" he complained. Evadne came over and draped a blanket over him. "You'll heal faster if you sleep," she said. "Trust me. You'll feel even better when you wake up. Now sleep, alright?"

Leo looked up at her. He stared for a few seconds before sighing and relaxing. "Whatever, fine. I still won't be able to use my arm for a few weeks according to Alexa, though," he said, his voice low. "We can work with that," said Evadne. She started shooing the rest of us out of the room and into the hallway. I hung back a bit. I wanted to talk to Leo a bit about what he said to the girl back at Notre Dame.

Stella gave Leo one last worried look before turning and walking out.

Evadne tried to push me out, but I shook my head. Then she shrugged and walked past me, shutting the door.

Leo looked up at me. "Gonna yell at me for being reckless? Possibly slap me for it?" I shook my head and sat down on the opposite end of the couch. "Then... what are you here for?" he asked, shifting his weight to face me and wincing. "Don't move around so much," I said. "I wanted to ask you why you did that for the little girl back in the square. You very obviously didn't tell her to 'fuck off'."

Leo's eye went into defensive mode. "How would you know? You don't speak French."

"You gave her your dagger and she hugged you, Leo. I don't think you said anything mean to her."

Leo stared at me in silence. His eye was reading my facial expression and my own eyes. He sighed and looked down. "I couldn't just stand by and watch that little girl get mauled alive--that'd be the literal personification of a lion ripping a puppy to pieces in front of a bunch of preschoolers."

I knew that wasn't the whole story, but pushing for stuff didn't work with Leo. He was too stubborn for it. Instead, I said something else. "I'm sorry for abandoning you when we were first cast off... I shouldn't have done that, even if I was still really upset with you for messing up the plan. I suppose holding a grudge with regards to that is useless. So... I'm really sorry that I did that, Leo."

Leo looked at me, reading me, as if he was trying to see if I was telling the truth or just what he wanted to hear.

I saw something shine in his eye, true happiness. But that faded almost as quickly as it came. "Yeah, it's cool," he said, looking at his bandages. "No, it's really not," I replied. "And you can go on pretending like it is, and you don't have to forgive me, but I just wanted you to know that if I could go back in time, I would stay with you."