I do like this one more than Candles. It is longer than I wanted it to be (622 words without author's notes); my goal was for every drabble in this series to be under 500 words, but oh, well. I'm still happy with how this turned out, at least for my second drabble.

Diaclaimer: I own nothing.

He's small, scrawny even, with curly brown hair that hangs in his face, but it can't hide the impish features or the pointy, elf-life ears or the mischievous smile.

Percy thinks he sees Hazel pale out of the corner of his eye, but he's too busy scanning the line of demigods for Annabeth. His eyes pass over a girl with uneven brown hair and multi-colored eyes, over a blonde boy with electric blue eyes and a scar on his upper lip, over the boy with those bright eyes and the trademark smile of a troublemaker.

His eyes land on Annabeth, and he forgets about everything else, but he will later learn the boy's name:

Leo Valdez.

….

He's gone. He's gone, and Percy would give almost anything to have taken Leo's place.

….

"You fired on the camp! You nearly destroyed New Rome. You've started a war between the Romans and the Greeks, and all you can say is you didn't mean to?"

They've left the smoky remains of a battered and slightly panicked but still standing New Rome, promises of war between the Romans and Greeks reaching their ears both from the Romans they left behind and their own common sense.

Annabeth's hand is on his shoulder, pulling him away, and Percy glares at the boy one last time before disappearing below deck.

He doesn't notice the light in Leo's eyes dim… just a little, but noticeably so.

….

Why didn't Percy listen to him? Leo represented the eternal flame of their hope, and Percy had almost snuffed it out in a single moment of anger.

Why didn't he calm down enough to listen to Leo?

….

Percy and Annabeth barely escaped Tartarus with their lives, and only a week out of that hell hole, Percy finds himself waking up for the fifth night in a row screaming until his throat is raw as nightmares haunt him.

The other four nights (for Percy was too exhausted to dream the first two nights after his and Annabeth's ordeal), the other people on the Argo II left him alone, as per Percy's request, but tonight was different.

Leo knows what it's like to go through hell, although his experiences and Tartarus are very different. He pushed people away, too, when he was hurting, but no matter what Leo said, he didn't want to be alone… and he knew Percy didn't want to be alone either.

Leo crept into Percy's room and sat on the edge of the bed. Neither of them said a word, but Percy didn't yell at him to get out and Leo didn't leave.

Percy finally fell asleep and didn't have a single nightmare.

….

He never did thank Leo for that. He would never forgive himself for taking Leo for granted, and he'll always blame himself for Leo's death.

Percy's fatal flaw isn't loyalty for no reason.

….

Leo was gone, and Percy was surrounded by darkness, and he wondered why his nightmares of Tartarus returned now that Leo was no longer sitting at the edge of his bed, physically silent but speaking volumes at the same time.

Leo never said a word, but he somehow comforted Percy by his presence when even Annabeth couldn't do that a hundred percent of the time.

Percy didn't understand that for the longest time… until he finally did understand.

Leo Valdez was light. A flame in a cold night, a lantern in the darkness… and Percy finally figured out why Leo could push away with the darkness without saying a word.

….

"When it rains, look for rainbows. When it's dark, look for stars." -Oscar Wilde

Please tell me how my drabble-writing can improve.