Work Text:
Leo wished he never had to wake up. But alas, he was disturbed from his sleep by his halfsister Nyssa.
“Ughhhh, do I have to go to breakfast?” Leo groaned, pulling his blanket over his head.
“Yes, you’ve been missing a lot of camp meals lately,” She replied.
“But I eat in the bunker so it takes less time off of my work,”
“Leo, as much as I admire your dedication to your work, you’ve been spending too much time in the bunker,” Nyssa tore away Leo’s blanket, leaving him shivering.
“Hey!”
“You will get up and you will go to breakfast,” She said before walking off.
He was annoyed with how calmly she spoke as she took away the comfort of his blanket, but he reluctantly got up and got himself ready for breakfast.
***
Leo sat at the Hephestus table, playing with his food. He was barely participating in what his siblings were chatting about—Leo thought it was about capture the flag? He usually doesn’t listen to those types of conversations anyways.
Instead, he was to replaying what had happened last night in his head. Did he really get that emotional in front of Annabeth, of all people? How pathetic.
He also was remembering what Jason had said to him.‘ We can talk about this later’…
While Leo did have an idea on what the boy wanted to talk about, he definitely did not want to chat with him about it.
I mean, what was supposed to say? ‘Hey! Sorry for worrying you about my eating habits, it’s just that I ran away when I was eight and had to live off a never full stomach so now I feel like I don’t deserve to eat’. See how ridiculous that sounds?
He just hopes Jason doesn’t mention it, but knowing the son of Jupiter he probably will. How would he react if Leo told him? Would he be disgusted? Would he be concerned? Would he treat him like he’s some mental patient? Would he—
“Hey,” Nyssa said to him, snapping him back into reality. “You okay? You seem really out of it, and you haven’t even took a bite out of your food.”
“Oh, I’m fine!” He said, plastering his best fake smile. To make sure she didn’t question him, he took a bite out his food and forced it down.
Nyssa gave him a suspicious look, but ultimately left him alone.
Gods, he wanted to puke so bad.
***
Leo was making his way to the bunker when he was stopped by the one person he didn’t wanna see right now.
“Hey,” Jason said. “Can we… talk right now?”
“Well, I’m on my way to the bunker right now, so maybe later?” He said, hoping to stall the conversation he did not want to have with the boy.
“You can take a break from working in the bunker for a few minutes, we can talk in my cabin if you want,”
Dang, his stalling didn’t work. “But I can’t! I have a deadline to meet, and if I don’t complete the Argo in time the whole mission is doomed.”
“I don’t think the mission is doomed if you take one break, Leo,”
“Well, it’s better than slacking off,” He huffed, starting up his walk again.
“Well if you wanna be stubborn, I’ll just hang out in the bunker so we can talk,” Jason said.
“Fine,” Leo said sighing. He accepted defeat as he made his way into the bunker.
Jason sat down as Leo began to gather all his tools, observing quietly. If Leo was being delusional (more than he already is), he would’ve thought there was adoration in his eyes.
“Are you gonna start talking or just watch?” Leo said, picking up a wrench.
“Oh, right…” Jason said, cheeks flushing a bit. “So… yesterday, when I came into the bunker to tell you and Annabeth how late it was, you said something… concerning.”
Leo held his breath for a second. So his suspicions were right about what they were going to discuss . He wanted to bolt out of the bunker, but he let Jason talk.
“And at breakfast, you seemed really out of it and you barely even ate your food, so I just… want to know what’s going on.”
Leo started tinkering with some bolts and nuts, “It’s nothing, really. I just get caught up in my work y’know?”
“Leo, I know there’s more to it than that,”
“There’s not okay? Just drop it,”
“No, I won’t,”
Leo looked up from his tinkering to stare at the boy. He saw Jason’s furrowed brows, but he had a determined look on his face.
“ Please, just tell me what’s wrong. Let me know so I can help,”
His heart sank a little at the desperation in Jason’s voice. So he gave in to telling him.
“Fine, you wanna know what’s wrong? It’s just… I don’t like food,” he said, muttering the last part.
There was a pause before Jason spoke, “You don’t like… food?”
“Yeah,” he breathed out. There was a sort of
alleviation admitting it, but he didn’t like the way Jason was looking at him so worried.
“Why?”
“I don’t know—I think it started when my mom died. When I was hopping from foster home to foster home, you never really get a full meal, or any meal at all. And even when I was at the wilderness school and got proper food, I never really enjoyed it. So, I usually don’t eat,”
“Oh, Leo,” Jason got up from where he was sitting and hugged him. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. I don’t know what I can say or do to help, but I know that you’ve got to take care of yourself better. And that also means you have to eat. You can start off with a little food if you feel that uncomfortable with it. You think you can do that?”
“Uh huh,” he said, muffled into Jason’s shoulder.
“Good. You’re my favorite person, so it pains me to see you treat yourself like this,”
Leo tried to ignore the giddy feeling in his chest when he said that. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.
“Don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault. I just care about you, I hope you know that,”
Leo retreated from the hug to look at Jason. He smiled, “I do now.”
Jason grinned back, “Do you want me to stay and watch you work? I can help out if you need me too.”
“Yeah, I’d like that,”
And for the rest of the day, Jason and Leo hung out in the bunker. Leo worked on the Argo ll—while of course taking breaks that were forced on him by Jason and Piper—and he had fun while doing it. He was glad to be surrounded by people who he could call his family, and for once in a long time, he felt loved.