10-listening to the rain on the roof

Leo stared out at the dark sky, yawning and blinking frequently. He could hardly see through the foggy purplish-black haze. Headlights shone through, but they didn't do much; they made shadows loom out of the darkness.

Rain pattered gently on the roof and against the windows, making streaks of water run down like the glass was crying softly.

"Hey." Jason said as he came up behind the son of Hephaestus, standing next to him at the giant bronze wheel.

"Hey Jason." Leo greeted, turning the wheel slightly. "Where's Piper?"

"Not here." The former praetor sighed unhappily. "I don't know where she is. She's mad about Reyna."

"You were almost dating her." Leo commented absently, more focused on not crashing the huge, bronze airship. "And you didn't tell Pipes. My guess is she's a bit pissed. Give her some time; she'll cool off eventually."

Jason was silent for a minute before, "Leo, did you just say something intelligent?"

Leo turned, taking his gaze off the soaked window to stick his tongue out childishly at the Roman.

Jason just laughed, and soon Leo was laughing too.

"We should be at Camp Half-Blood soon." Leo finally managed to get his laughter under control, anticipation starting to eat him from the inside. Home.

"Are they ready?" Jason asked somberly, and suddenly he was the Roman, the former praetor, a warrior instead of the joking friend.

"For war?" Leo asked, glancing to the side, not expecting an answer. "We're getting ready."

A silence invaded the control room, and Leo suddenly realized that Jason had said "they" and he had said "we". The reality was that they weren't the same.

It was a crushing reality, yes. After the time of friendship, the quest, and they were still different.

"Do you think that we'll be friends after this?" Jason asked in a very strange voice, slightly strangled as if he was about to cry.

"Don't cry." Leo said, attempting a pathetic little grin. "Or I'll have to hug you, and that isn't very manly."

"I'm not going to cry!" Jason exclaimed indignantly, but a smile curved his lips up.

"So what are you going to do?" Leo asked, spinning the wheel so they headed south and didn't crash into the Empire State Building.

He had a feeling that the gods wouldn't like that.

"I don't know." Jason said helplessly, gesturing wildly with his hands. "I mean, I like Piper, I really do, but Reyna..."

"You like her too." Leo finished absentmindedly, peering out into the gloom.

"Yes!" Jason sighed in defeat. "I don't know what to do."

"Well, figure out something." Leo hummed a tune aimlessly under his breath. "Before both of them kick your butt."

"Leo, you're different." Jason said after a moment of contemplation. "I mean, you aren't as immature - no offense - but it's something else too."

Leo leaned over to check the controls, biting his tongue so he didn't spill out his horrible secret. His eyes widened at the engines.

"Ugh!" He cursed violently. "The engines are failing!"

"What?" Jason hurried over, but he obviously had no clue what was happening. His hands fluttered uselessly over the complicated control panel until Leo pushed him away.

"We're going to crash!" The son of Hephaestus yelled as the airship shuddered violently and stopped dead. It began to shake, and then, all of a sudden, it fell.

Leo dashed back to the wheel, squinting into the rain. He pulled up on the wheel desperately.

"What are you doing?" Jason screamed, heading for the door.

"Trying to land the freaking thing so we aren't drowned." Leo called back, turning the wheel to the left harshly and twisting a knob that let out an alarm.

It was high-pitched and loud, and Leo could hear the Romans waking up and calling to each other in sleep-slurred and confused voices, probably wondering what was going on.

The airship crashed into the ground with the force of, well, of a thousand tons of metal falling from hundreds feet off the ground.

Leo yelled incoherently as he was thrown off his feet, turned upside-down and backwards, and completely soaked as the glass shattered, letting in the rain.

Screams echoed down the bronze corridors as Leo peeled his forehead from the floor, groaning.

"We're here!" He yelled into the intercom, rubbing his head. A bruise was forming.

He wondered vaguely if anyone had died. Then he winced, guilty. It would be his fault.

The Greek stumbled out of the broken window. Glass crushed under his foot, tinkling pleasantly.

The misty rain felt good against his sore body, gently covering his face in a dewy wash. It trickled down the sides of his face, along the scar on his jaw, into the corner of his mouth.

Leo could make out shapes, a blurry line of cabins and a faint siren.

He was home.

Home was an odd thing for Leo, always on the move, running away. But he decided that this could pass as his home.

He whirled as someone came up behind him.

"Hey." Hazel panted, brushing a curly lock out of her face. She grinned ruefully. "Not the way I wanted to make the grand entrance into camp."

Leo moved without thinking and enclosed her in a hug.

"Uh!" Hazel squeaked, but Leo couldn't stop thinking about if she died. It was worse than Sammy's - his - reaction when she moved to Alaska.

And he finally decided it. He was in love with Hazel Levesque, past, present, and future.

Yeah, guys, I'm not really making it a you-don't-know-who'd-ending-up-with-who story. I mean, it says Hazel/Leo right on the summary. It's more of a how-do-they-get-there story.

Anyways, this is one of my favorite chapters! I'd love to hear what you think!