Hey guys, I saw a post on Tumblr about this, and I just needed to write it! Enjoy!

Leo sat in his cabin on the Argo ll, just thinking. Yes, that may be surprising, but it's true. He was laying on his bed, staring up at the bland ceiling. Just… thinking.

His mind was attached to one topic.

When he had come back to Camp Half-Blood, after the quest for Hera, Malcolm—Annabeth's half-brother—came up to him and told him about Annabeth's past. How she had run away from home when she was seven, and found Thalia and Luke, and come to camp. According to him, Annabeth was on the run for a few weeks before Thalia and Luke found her, and they just ran around for the months after that. She had gotten to camp right before she turned eight. Then, Thalia turned into a tree—which Leo found very disturbing—and Annabeth was without many friends. Malcolm said she hadn't really had any best friends until Percy came to camp, five years later.

Leo could relate. And while he felt very bad for Annabeth, he knew that his life had been worse, for a lot longer.

First, Annabeth had run away because she wanted to. Her dad and her stepmother had been mean to her, and she couldn't take it anymore. She had a goal in mind, she wasn't afraid to go for it, even though she was only seven.

Leo? He had been happy with his mom. He never even thought about leaving the warmth and happiness of his life at the shop. But then, Gaea butted in. She got him to kill his mom. His own mother. He was eight, he couldn't control his powers. He let all of his anger out on Gaea, and that lack of self-control killed the only person he had left.

His relatives hated him. Everyone thought that he had locked his mother inside, gotten a match, and killed her. On purpose. An act only a psychopath would attempt. They all blamed him, especially Aunt Rosa. She yelled at Leo, screamed and cursed at him for killing her sister.

She hit him.

Hard.

The child services put him in foster care, but he ran away days after.

Unlike Annabeth, Leo didn't have a choice. He didn't think that he would get anywhere productive, or find any friends. He ran because he needed to. Every time he ran, he needed to.

He wasn't running to anywhere, he was only running away.

Second, Annabeth had only been alone for a few weeks before she found friends. Her mother had helped her. Thalia and Luke protected her, gave her hope.

Even though he went into foster cares from time to time, he was alone for most. For every day he was with a semi-loving family, he was on the run for two months. He had no one. His dad never helped him. No one did.

All those parents in foster cares hated him. Most threw things at him, or threw him at things.

He still had scars.

So, every time, he ran.

He had no one to help him out in the monster world. He was confronted by many beasts, who hurt him a lot before he was able to get away.

He swore never to use his fire powers ever again, so he had no way to fight the monsters.

He still had scars from them, too.

When Leo was running, he had no hope. He knew that no one would think to help him, or give him food. He got a severe concussion once from an old lady whacking him while a metal bar. She had been cleaning out her garage, and Leo, who had only been nine at the time, asked her for some food. No luck.

He had camped out in a sewer after that, trying to find a bandage. His mistake was peeking out. A local doctor saw his blood covered face, and picked him up right away. He had tried to slide back into the sewer, but it was too late.

She took him to her clinic. She wrapped up his head, and put a cast on his broken leg. With pity in her eyes, she took him to child services, with him screaming at her the whole way.

He ran from there too.

He had no hope. Not even a hint. No one that found him wanted to help him. They only wanted to hand him off to someone who they thought was more capable.

No one ever was.

Third, Annabeth may have not had any good friends, but at least she had some. Even when his mom was alive, no one talked to him. They always thought of him as the incapable crazy kid with the stupid mom who could never get a job anywhere.

But Leo didn't care. He loved his mother. And when he went to his first foster house, he heard someone say something about her.

"Why do we have to take the crazy kid? What if he burns the house down? This is a child that killed his own mother! What kind of terrible person must she have been if her child could even think about murdering someone?"

He charged into the room. He yelled at the woman. He said some very nasty things about her and her mother. He punched her in the gut.

She gasped in pain, and glared at Leo with fire in her eyes. She kicked him in the ribs and sent him flying into the other room. She screamed at him, just like Aunt Rosa had. He crawled over to the door, pulled it open, and stumbled out, holding his stomach. He wasn't able to grab anything except one of the ratty pillows off the couch.

He had that same pillow until one of his foster caretakers shipped him off to Wilderness School when he was fifteen.

He would have run from there, too, if it hadn't been for Piper.

After a week, he was ready to bolt. He got all prepared. He was almost off the grounds when a familiar voice called out to him.

"Where are you going?"

Leo turned around. It was Piper. He had only seen her for the first time a couple days before, and he only knew who she was because of roll call.

"Oh, um, nowhere."

She had raised an eyebrow. "Well, it looks like you are going somewhere. Are you running away? Why?"

He glared at her. "Don't feel hurt about it. I've never stayed anywhere for more than a week, and I'm not going to start now."

She walked up to him "so, you always run away?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

She gazed at her. "Running is the only way to stay ahead of the sadness." He knew it sounded stupid, but it had been true.

She sat down on the curb of the street. "Tell me."

So, he sat down and told her. He couldn't hold it back. He told her about being with his mom, and her dying—but he didn't tell her how—and about being on the run for seven years. He told about everyone hating him, and adults hitting him, and kids beating him up in alleys, and no one caring.

Piper was in tears by the end. "So, you've never had any friends?"

"Never."

"How about I change that?"

Before Leo could reply, she grabbed his arm and led him back inside.

Leo and Piper had been great friends. And, according to his altered memories, they had been all until Jason came. She liked him right then and there. She just about forgot about Leo.

He had planned on running away again when they got back from the Grand Canyon trip. He would have, if they hadn't been taken to Camp Half-Blood.

The only good thing about Leo being on the run his whole life was that he knew how to hide his emotions. If he just joked around all time, and was never serious, nobody would be able to guess what terrible things he had gone through, and how broken he really was. Humor had always been a great way to hide the pain, and it still was. Leo bet that Frank didn't even know that he had gone through all that. But, he would be surprised if Piper had told him some time during the quest.

Leo had had it much worse than Annabeth. Compared to his child hood, Annabeth had the past of a rich city kid.

Leo didn't want sympathy, though. He actually hated it. If people felt bad for him, they would do something. They would at least act like they cared. But, nobody ever did. Being on his own had hardened Leo up. He didn't cry, he didn't feel self-pity, and he didn't want sympathy.

But, still. Everyone thought that Annabeth had it so bad, but did they even know what he had gone through?

He didn't hold it against Annabeth. They all probably felt bad for her because they knew her. No one knew Leo. He was always just the hyper kid in the back of the class, making helicopters out of pipe cleaner. He would always be there, but no one would pay him any attention.

He liked it that way.

Mostly.

Sometimes, though, he wanted to run up in front of everyone when they were thinking about how they had had bad lives. He sometimes wanted to scream out loud how bad Leo had it. He wanted to when Malcolm had told him about Annabeth.

But, no. Leo knew he couldn't do that. People would think he was a freak, more than they already thought. He never swam, because people would expect him to take his shirt off. He knew that they would be terrified when they saw what he hid underneath the cloth.

Only Piper knew. Leo was almost sure she had forgotten about that conversation, all those months ago. It didn't really matter to him. Sometimes, knowledge is strength, but sometimes, it's best to not have it.

As he lay there, on his bed, he wondered what he was wanting. Not pity, but something else. Recognition? Maybe he wanted someone to know that he had it worse, but not try to console him.

Or, maybe he wanted to be understood. Everyone at camp thought that he couldn't be trusted with serious stuff, and that he wasn't someone who could understand what they were going through. They all thought that Leo had a great life, and only came because Annabeth and Butch brought him. They thought that he didn't think of this as home, just as another summer camp top try his least in. How could anyone be so joking and easy-going if they actually had a hard life? They obviously had been in worse situations back home than he had. He must have had a great life.

But, that was wrong. Leo was easy-going and joking, but only as a cover. If someone told him something serious, he would make a joke at their expense. He would be able to relate with almost every kid at this camp, and more. Leo didn't have a great life. He had a life filled with sadness, and abuse, and pain, and hopelessness. Leo may only have come because he was brought, but he needed this place more than most of these kids. This wasn't his second home, this was his first one. His only one. Leo needed these people to help him keep going. If Piper, and Jason, and Hazel, and Percy, and Annabeth, and even frank weren't here, he would have left a long time ago. He would be in a sewer again, hoping that he could find a decent meal for the day. Hoping that he could forget his life.

Sometimes, Leo envied Percy and Jason. They had been able to forget their lives, even if it had been temporarily. Leo couldn't. When he wasn't dreaming about Gaea killing everyone, or the giants, he had nightmares of killing his mother. Of the adults hitting him. If he could forget, even for a little while, would it help?

Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't, but it was useless to think about it. Leo knew that.

Leo turned onto his side and tried to go to sleep. He could hear Annabeth crying across the hall, and Percy breathing rapidly. He must still be in a nightmare.

Leo knew that Tartarus had been worse than Leo had ever experienced. Annabeth may not have had it bad as a child, but Tartarus was worse than anything possible.

Leo also knew that Percy's life had been messed up. He knew that he used to have a really bad stepfather, and the seven had clues that led to them thinking that Gabe had hit him. A lot. And Leo knew that Percy's dyslexia was worse than his. Leo barely had any. Percy couldn't read a thing that wasn't in Ancient Greek.

Both Percy and Annabeth had nightmares. Leo could hear them sob and scream during and after every one of them, since he was right across the hall.

People aren't machines. When you break one, they can't be fixed.

Hephaestus had said that, and it was true. You couldn't just take a trusty screw driver and fix someone.

Machines break more easily than people, but people break harder.

Leo was broken.

Percy and Annabeth were, too.

They couldn't be fixed.

I needed to write this. Everyone is just like, oh, I feel so bad for Annabeth, she was on the run when she was only seven! Yeah, well Leo was on the run for seven years! I love Annabeth and all, but Leo did have it worse than she had.

Please review!