Leo walked through back alleys, knocking down boxes as he went. He was tired and cold, he had walked these streets for far to many hours but he didn't dare go home again. After his fight with his father there were many places he didn't dare go to. 
   But he had one place in mind.
   If he could just find it, that is the only reason why he was still out here, he couldn't remember where it was. Ask anyone in the city for an abandon building and they know which one you mean but not the location.
   So Leo trudged on, knocking down boxes, trashcans, bumping into people on the more crowded streets. He just wanted to get there, sore feet and all.
   The thing though, was that as he walked he remembered all of these things. Nostalgia was burning inside his chest, burning right next to a memory he had hidden away. Not out of fear, but out of love. If only.
   As he walked past the little souvenir shop he thought about that time that he and his mom had gone in there. His mother, holding his hand, her long dark hair put up in a simple ponytail but Leo always thought she was beautiful. She had pulled him into the little shop only to get something for his Aunt Callida. Leo had roamed the shop, looking at the items on every shelf, playing with the little toys, squeezing the stuffed animals. His mother had laughed and tried on silly sunglasses, she had made funny faces and made Leo giggle his little five year old heart out. They had laughed so hard until they were kicked out, they hadn't even bought something for his aunt but Leo didn't care, he had just been happy to go shopping with his mother.
   And there, in that park, the time he, his mother, and father had gone there to play. They had a swing, a sandbox, and an open field where his father and mother played around with a ball while Leo watched them from a swing. He swung so high that he could touch the clouds, and just before he leaped off he screamed for his parents to watch.  She hadn't, she had been throwing a ball to his father that fell on his back trying to see where it went. The one who had seen it was a little boy, the same age as he. The boy had soft black hair, dark eyes that gleamed with joy over the fact that Leo had jumped off of his swing at such a high height. The boy had been sitting in the sandbox with a girl, a girl with nice chestnut colored hair and bored eyes.
   Or the time that Leo had gone there on his own at the age of thirteen only to find the same boy there, still sitting in the sandbox as if he had never left. His hair was a little longer, and his eyes held more sadness but otherwise he looked the same. Well the boy dressed more in black than before, if Leo remembered correctly the boy had had a green t-shirt and a pair of brown shorts. Now, taller and leaner, he was dressed in dark clothes with skulls on them, he even had black nail polish on.
   Leo had gone there because he was tired of hearing his parents arguing, he didn't care enough to hear what it was about, the only thing he knew was that they were arguing over something stupid. He had wondered why the boy had gone to the park at ten at night, all on his own. 
   Afraid of what the boy would do Leo sat down on the same swing as before, he didn't swing, he just sat there, drawing stuff in the sand with the tip of his shoe. His mother would scold him for making sand stains on his white shoes but he didn't have enough energy to even care about that.
   Slowly but surely they had drifted together. Halfway from the swing for Leo, halfway from the sandbox for the boy. The boy had cleared his voice as if he would say something but then he just looked away from Leo as if he was embarrassed.
   "I'm Leo." Leo had taken upon himself to start then, maybe because he took pity on the boy, or maybe it was because those dark eyes made his stomach swirl around in a dance he didn't know it could.
   "Nico."
   "Do you remember when I jumped off the swing, I thought I could fly for a moment, I could almost touch the clouds, they were just out of reach." Leo smiled at the memory.
   "You haven't changed much." Nico shrugged. "Bianca thought you were boring, she said anybody could do what you did."
   "That girl you sat with?"
   "She's my sister, or... at least she was until a few months ago." Nico looked away again, towards the sandbox, his voice was breaking and Leo wondered if he would cry or not.
   "I'm sorry."
   Nico had only shrugged before he struck up a conversation far to happy for those sad eyes, far to normal for those black painted nails and far to long hair.
   When the two of them became friends it was rather normal to see Leo with black painted nails. Nico loved painting his nails, he loved putting his make up on Leo too. Leo hated the eyeliner, a little too close for the eyes for his liking, but he did it because Nico would always laugh while Leo cringed under his hands. That warm bubbly laugh that was genuine, it was so hard to make Nico laugh like that.
   Leo continue walking, past the park that he hadn't visited for a long time. The last time he was there was probably when he turned fifteen and he and Nico celebrated it there. Nico was his only friend, had always been his only friend. The two of them had never been apart. And just like Leo could be seen in make up and nail polish, Nico could be seen with oil stained hands, colorful shirts, and a grin so wicked that people thought he was mental when in reality he was only happy.
   The city wasn't so big, they lived in a small town, it had a square, a couple of stores, a park, a fancy fountain, a small beach, and far to many people that remembered you. 
   Once Leo had passed the park he found himself in front of the school. The school where he had spent some agonizing years. He hated going to school, it sucked, he had troubled reading and being still. Every time he played with his hands, or feet he was sent to the principal office for disturbing the class. The only good thing was that Leo had to walk to the office, he had something to do, he could move. God he couldn't stand being still. He never had. Even when the doctors confirmed the ADHD  he didn't much think of it. His mother suggested pills, his father suggested some kind of hobby, Leo tried both but neither really worked.
   The only times he felt relaxed was when he helped his father in the garage. Demolishing cars and rebuilding them was so soothing that sometimes he even fell asleep doing it. He could be found curled up in front of a car, or in the backseat of one. His father never dared move him so Leo often woke up with a sore neck.
   It was there he wanted to go now. His hands itching, his heart thumping. Damn if it wasn't for his dad being there he would run there so fast that he would be even faster than that red dressed superhero.
   Nico loved the Flash, Leo didn't really knew which one he liked. He didn't believe in superheroes, sure the concept was good but they weren't real. He had never seen Batman pull up in his car, of seen Superman fly by. 
   Leo kept on walking, he was sure to be there soon. In all of his eighteen years he had never been more sure where to go than now. His restless body had always confused his brain, had made him go twice around the block, look through the fridge fifty times in the matter of three seconds, and building far to many car prototypes until his fingers bleed. One time he even took up knitting, drawing, and playing guitar and drums, not all at the same time of course but all of those hobbies... for nothing. His restless soul couldn't be at peace. His was left to roam. Until now.
   He wasn't roaming, he was just taking his time on the way, and trying to remember the exact location.

He walked by the Jackson house. Percy stood outside fixing his stepdads car, he had probably ran into another ditch, or a deer. Jason, a good friend of Percy, walked out holding two beers. He handed one to Percy. They laughed and talked. Percy had his shirt off, Jason raised his beer in a hello as Leo walked passed them.
   "Looking for your boyfriend again?" Percy hollered after him.

   "Nah, just taking a midnight stroll, but you should keep yours in check, he is looking real yummy tonight." Leo teased.
   "You have my number!" Jason yelled to Leo raising his beer once more.
   "Jason!" Percy complained.

   "Hush you, I'm just kidding you, you are way hotter than Valdez." Jason convinced his pouting boyfriend that was completely ignoring the car by now.
   "Have you guys seen-"
   "Annabeth is at the arena, trying to beat the shit out of her last victim." Percy answered before hearing who Leo was looking for.
   "Piper." Leo said in a thin voice.
   "At the movies with her latest boyfriend." Percy answered.
   "Reyna?"
   "Doesn't she hate you?" Jason asked sipping his drink and stealing Percy's when he had drunk his own.
   "Yeah... yeah she does."
   "Hazel and Frank on the other hand are in the forest. So if you're looking for your boyfriend they can't be far away from him." Percy said looking for his beer, scratching his head. "But you know I don't know where in the forest, or why."
   "Haven't you heard?" Jason scoffed, "Hazel has heard that there is a golden horse there, she wants him more than anything else. Frank just tags along because he thinks that Hazel will get hurt."
   "Doesn't she bring her fencing sword?" Percy asked.
   "Yeah, and Frank brings his bows and arrows, so I say tread lightly Leo Valdez, it is not fun having an arrow sticking out of your arm." Jason gave him a meaningful glare before ordering his boyfriend to get back to the car.
   "Last question." Leo said grinning, "why are you guys out here fixing the car at eleven pm?"
   "Nightmares," Percy shrugged.

Leo thought about that time when he and Nico went on a double date with Percy and Jason. They had been in Percy's living room watching Finding Nemo. They had been seventeen. Percy had gone through a kidnapping, a crazy lady who tried to kill him, and almost dying due to his old stepfather had pulled a gun at his head. Saying that Percy was messed up was an understatement. Jason still loved him, had loved him through it all, the two of them had been dating since they had been nine years old. People spoke of soulmates and Leo guessed that they were each others.
   Anyway, as they watched the movie Percy fell asleep. Nico and Jason stood in the kitchen fetching popcorn and drinks. They seemed to be getting on better than Leo and Jason were.
   So Leo sat silently, his fingers burning, he wondered whether or not he could get away looking through some drawers or something. He didn't get far before Percy woke up screaming in total panic.  
   There were nights since then that Leo too woke up like that, now a days a lot more, maybe losing his aunt was a part of it, maybe losing most of his family was a part of it too.

"Hazel?!" Leo screamed, the forest was thick and empty. He only heard his own footsteps that got slower and slower. Moss, weeds, and bushes slowed him down, his aching feet even more so.  "Frank?!"
   An animal ran past him, obviously spooked by something, Leo continued walking. There hadn't been any dangerous animals in this forest for at least two hundred years, neither had the small city had any killing sprees or lunatic with guns. There wasn't much to be afraid off, animals are easy to scare, Leo was not.
   That and the fact that he grew up in this forest. The times he went picking berries and flowers with his mother, the times he and his father took a walk and competed in who knew the most about hunting animals or tracking a squirrel. The times Leo, Piper, Jason, Percy, and Annabeth had played tag or hide and seek. The times the five of them had played truth or dare. Or the times when Reyna kicked the shit out of him for saying something wrong. Reyna and him had gotten off on the wrong foot from the first moment they laid eyes on each other. The hatred Reyna had for him had never really gone over, Leo still didn't know why she hated his guts, but he knew to keep away.
   He even remembered the times he and Nico ventured out here, their first kiss, their second, third, fourth...eleventh...hundred...
   The forest was vast and hid them enough from other eyes. Nico loved it out here, he thought he was free, that he could do anything. Leo believed himself invincible on a swing, soaring way up high, Nico was invincible out here. Among trees and animals, Nico could live forever. 
   "Come on Hazel, Frank! Come out, come out where ever you are!"
   An arrow was embedded right next to Leo's face. The tall tree didn't protest, he didn't have a voice to do so, but Leo could hear the torture that Nico felt whenever someone tormented his forest.
   "Frank you know how Nico feels about that!" Leo scolded the taller male.
   "Leo what are you doing here? In the middle of the night too!" Hazel put her hands at her sides, her fencing sword hung low at her hips.
   "The tree house." Leo stated far to confident about it.
   "Oh." Hazel breathed out, she took Franks hand and pulled him down so that she could whisper in his ear, something she didn't have too.
   "Look I know me and Nico had a fall out, that's why I need to talk to him but I just can't remember... where."

Nico sat on a low branch near the small tree house that his father had built him long ago. Nico who had stuck a yellow flower behind his ear was drawing in his notepad. Leo had asked once if he could see the drawings but Nico hadn't wanted him. Leo respected  that, he had already guessed that Nico drew his mother and sister, or something from his old house and neighborhood. Only, Nico drew it darker, more shadows, more nightmares looming around the corners as if he wanted their murder to be known.
   Still he sat there, peacefully, drawing, humming a happy tune that Leo had sung just the day before. Leo smiled, a wide grin that showed off his teeth, that stupid grin that only Nico was allowed to see. 
   Leo had walked up to the small tree house, climbed up on a branch next to Nico and laid down. The branches were thick enough to lay down on, something Leo loved. Something that Nico appreciated since he sat on them day in and day out.
   "Neeks?"
   "Mm," Nico muttered letting Leo knew that even though Nico was drawing he was still listening.
   "We're friends right?"
   "Of course we are!" Nico tossed his notepad and pencils to the ground underneath them, he turned so violently towards him that Leo thought he would fall off, he never did, "Why would you even ask that?"
   "Well... there is something I haven't told you... a secret... my mom knows... I was... am just so scared of what you might think of me."
   "Have you forgotten that we have each others backs? I would never laugh or taunt you for being yourself." Nico declared fiercely. "After all I told you about Bianca and mom, I even told you about what happened at that hotel!"
   Nico was talking about the Lotus Casino that he had been in for months. His father had left him there after Bianca died, just left him there believing that a casino was a good place for a young boy to grow up in. Nico had gotten up in some weird business but he had survived, and after his father got his senses back, he moved back to their small town. Mostly unharmed.
   "Well... this is something a doctor can't fix." Leo whispered, he stared up into the crown of the tree, leaves, branches, all of it showered in the golden light of the sun.
   "I won't care."
   "Promise?"
   "Promise." Nico assured him, "and what we're fourteen, it's not like wee aren't leaving this place soon, if it's about you murdering someone then we can just run away."
   "I'm gay." Leo blurted out before he lost his courage. All he had was twenty seconds of crazy stupid courage, it might as well start now.
   "You are?" Nico seemed surprised.
   "I like you, more than a friend." Leo kept his eyes locked on the leaves above him, the golden light seemed to calm him even though this was the scariest thing he has ever done before. "I wish we could be boyfriends because I really adore you. And I know I'm fourteen, my mom says that I shouldn't freak out, it could be a phase, but I know this isn't a phase. Deep down in my heart I know that I really like you, in a way that surpasses friendship."
   "Leo-"
   "I have liked you ever since we met up in that park, you with those sad eyes, can you believe that that was a year ago? I can't."
   "You're rambling." Nico laughed.
   "Sorry." his twenty seconds were up, his cheeks were blazing, he was dizzy.
   "Before we get to boyfriends, can we at least go on a date or two?" Nico asked.
   Leo turned to him so quickly that he fell out of the tree, completely stunned that Nico felt the same way about him. For how long? Have they danced around each other for weeks, months? Leo didn't care any way, for as he now laid on the ground he looked up at Nico, his hair falling down in a black waterfall, his dark eyes smiling. Gods.

"Nico told me to never tell you." Hazel said bringing Leo back to the present, all of these memories where haunting him.
   "Please," he pleaded.

   "They have a lot of history." Frank agreed. "Do you even know what happened?"

   "No, I respect his privacy." Hazel crossed her arms over her chest, "and aren't you supposed to be on my side?"
   "Please Hazel, he is all I have left."
   "What do you mean?"
   "Mother and father are separating, mother is moving away, back to Spain, without me. She thinks that it'll be better if I stay here. My father is just so silent all the time. Aunt Callida hasn't been seen for years. Please I have no one else but him to talk too."
   "Leo I'm so sorry, but I promised." Hazel was upset, Leo could tell from her quivering lip, from the tears that built up in her golden eyes, from the way that Frank put his arm around her shoulders making her seem even smaller than she was.
   "It's okay, I'll just wander around until I find it then." Leo shrugged and started walking again. "You two should go home, there isn't a golden horse in these woods, we haven't had beasts or anything interesting here for two hundred years."

Nico disappeared behind a tree, his laugh was echoing between the trees making it impossible for Leo to run after him. Sometimes Leo caught a glimpse of a hand, of Nico's dark hair, of his black sneakers. Leo never lost hope, he knew that in due time Nico would slow down and make it possible for Leo to catch up. Nico was clever enough to never get lost, or lose Leo in the forest. Nico had far more respect for the forest to leave it with a confused and lost Leo in it.
   "Catch me and you get a kiss!" Nico screamed.
    "Just you wait!" Leo screamed back.
   The sun was setting, Leo was enjoying the wind that tore at his clothes, he loved this part of the day. His mother always argued that Leo should come home and just talk to Nico over the phone. Leo couldn't do that, Nico on the phone was nothing like the Nico that he was now chasing. Nico that ran and laughed was completely different, he was another person when he was alone with Leo, he had even admitted it himself once. Nico felt free with him, he didn't feel like he had to grieve, or fight, or stand up, or do anything. He could just be himself. And that was how Leo loved him. Not on the phone were Nico's father could listen to them. Not that Hades had anything against them dating or talking. It was the laughing, the fact that Nico could move on from the deaths that plagued their family.

   "Nico?" Leo had lost him, so stupid of him to space out while he was chasing Nico. "Neeks?"

   A hand shot out from behind a tree, it grabbed his collar and brought him up close to the mysterious person. A wicked grin  and hungry eyes.
   "I caught you, what is my price?" Nico asked.

Leo could feel it in his bones that he was close. The downhill, the rocky ground, the bushes that grew too high. Everything so familiar but at the same time so foreign. The last time they had gone to the tree house together had been when they were sixteen, they had never went back after that. And the two years since had just built up into a big fight.
   Leo hated the fact that the two of them were becoming his parents. Their once so strong love was now shattered. Leo died when he thought about that that could be him and Nico soon.
   Nico had asked if they could run away, tired of having to put up with Percy, with a smothering Jason and Reyna. He felt more trapped by them than what he did in that dark house of his.
   Leo had told him that he wanted to stay, things were falling apart for his mother and father, and he thought that if they stayed, if they kept on pretending being the perfect family then everything would go back to normal. The only problem was that he hadn't told Nico that, he had just said no.
   So many dreams of theirs had died, the one about getting married, the one about them getting their own house, a house full of kids. That had died rather quickly, the people in their town wasn't pro gay marriage, or pro gay adoption. Jason and Percy were just really good friends out in public, most of Leo's friends who were gay down played it until they were old enough to move. Leo hadn't stopped showing Nico his love even though others frowned upon it. Leo didn't care, they could get married in another state, move somewhere else. Well at least that was the plan until Leo's family began falling apart.
   Their dream of getting stability in their lives, of living in the tree house until they were twenty-two, and then move to New York and become actors or writers, or artists.
   Leo stumbled over a tree rot and fell through two thick bushes, but there it was, the tree house. So small to what he remembered.
   But there was Nico, on the lowest branch, sleeping. Such a normal thing for Nico, Leo had suspected that Nico had continued going out here after they stopped. This was Nico's favorite place in the whole world.
   "Nico?" Leo asked.
   "What?" Nico sounded annoyed.
   Leo swallowed all of their memories, all of those stupid fights, all of that love that kept bubbling up, he had lost Nico but now he needed to fight for him again.
   "My parents are talking about divorce. My mother is moving to a whole other country, and she is saying that she wishes I stay with my father." Leo began. "I wish nothing more than go run away with you, to New York, to Hawaii, to Ausralia, to fucking Russia, I want to go with you, I really do." Leo was crying, he couldn't hold it down anymore. "I wish I could go with you, I wish we could stop fighting, I wish we weren't my mom and dad."
   Little. He sounded so little. He sounded like a five year old. Except when he was five he had swung on that stupid swing, imagining that he could fly among the clouds. The harsh reality of growing up is realizing that no one can fly, even Icarus fell to the sea below him.  So many things that you adored or believed in as a kid is simply impossible now. Leo had thought that moving away was easy, staying was easy, having Nico as a boyfriend was easy. But so many things were tearing his heart out, so much history of bad choices was going through his heart trying to create a clog. Trying to kill him.
   "I love you like crazy. I wish I could do more for you but I just want you to know that I am to fucked up to give anything right now. I know that this problem is nothing compared to yours. You are literally stuck here, I am not, I can maybe convince my mom to take me with her, but I can't, won't, leave you."
   "Leo-"

   "Twenty seconds of courage, are you ready?" Leo asked and took a deep breath. "I have loved growing up with you, I love you, I love your crazy laugh, your stupid grins, the way that you are two persons. I love when we are alone and you are free, I love you when you are cooped up with your grieving father. I love you when you feel down, I love you when you are happy. If you truly believe that you belong somewhere else then I won't stop you from moving."
   "Leo-"
   "I can't go with you. I want to but I can't. My father needs me, my mother is strong enough to live on her own, my father isn't. My father is fragile and I know that if I stay with him, if I keep dragging him to the garage then he can survive."
   "I understand." Nico nodded hopping down from the branch that he before struggled getting down from. "Why didn't you tell me?"

   "I didn't want to lose you, I was losing my mother, what would you think of me, a boy with a living mother who is running away. My mother is willingly leaving me, she is still alive, but I will grieve her as if she is dead, but I will be able to talk to her, you don't have that."

   "Who cares? You are allowed to hurt anyway. You are still losing her, yes you can talk to her, probably Skype, but you won't be able to touch her." Nico said, "that is what I miss most about my mom, I miss her hugs, the way she used to stroke my hair, comb it, the way her hands felt after she washed the dishes. There is just so many things I miss, and if you had just told me I wouldn't have thought that you were leaving me."
   "I would never leave you, I only said no to your proposal of moving away."
   "Yeah well you said no and then walked away." Nico said raising his eyebrows. "I thought you were done with me."

   "Never!" Leo exclaimed. "To be honest we share to much for me to be able to leave you."
   "Good, now let's talk." Nico smiled inviting him into the tree house.