Love Thy Life:

Epilogue: Towards The Future.

Annabeth was unhappy and moody.

Though if it was up to Leo to describe, he'd say that she was enraged and bitter—though that didn't hamper her beauty. The son of Hephaestus stopped himself when he encountered that thought; he did not just call the daughter of Athena beautiful. Sure the blonde was hot, but Leo knew she would never look at him the way he wanted her to because she was too deeply in love with the son of Poseidon who was in love with the former Lieutenant of Artemis—the current being the daughter of Zeus that Leo had a slight crush on.

Leo shifted uneasily when the girl in his thoughts suddenly materialized in front of him.

Silence stretched between them with the exception of Coach Hedge's horrible singing from below deck, the lapping of the waves against the ship and sound of the sea creatures as they went about their nightly activities—though the only one who knew what they would be doing would be Percy.

When he couldn't take it anymore, Leo turned to look at Annabeth and nearly jerked back from shock. The blonde's eyes were rimmed red, an obvious sign that she'd been crying. Stormy grey eyes were clouded with wistfulness and the usual confidence that accompany her was gone replaced by shoulders slumped in defeat.

The daughter of Athena looked broken. Leo's mind unnecessarily supplied that she still looked ethereally beautiful. And he nearly kicked himself for that if his mind also hadn't added that the girl'd think he was crazy for kicking himself.

He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

Annabeth continued to stare at him before sighing heavily and wiping at her eyes.

"It's nothing." Annabeth's answer didn't satisfy Leo.

He frowned heavily. "You can take a break if you're tired you know?" when she didn't answer, he sighed and decided to continue or at least try to comfort her. "If you want... you can tell me what's wrong. I'll try my best to fix it for you."

The daughter of Athena cracked a bitter smile. It looked so wrong on her face that Leo was tempted to wipe it away with his lips. He internally chided himself for even thinking it; if Athena knew what he was thinking of her favorite daughter, he'd be blasted to bits—good thing the goddesss was in schizophrenic mode now though.

"Not everything can be fixed, Leo."

The son of Hephaestus shuddered slightly at how she said his name. He once again cleared his throat before speaking. "I know that—I just thought I...I can fix something you've broken, er, if you even broke anything at all."

That was so-o-o-o lame, Leo!—The boy mentally berated himself and grinned sheepishly on the outside.

"You're acting weird Leo," Annabeth said, frowning and showing some other expression which wasn't fake ior forced—it made the small ember in Leo's chest burst into a tiny flame that she might have something for him. "are you okay?"

"Are you okay?" Leo shot back. "Ever since Percy, Zoe and Frank came back from their scouting, you've been bitter and unhappy."

The blonde demigod sighed. "It's obvious that they're together now."

Leo knew that. And he also knew Annabeth loved Percy but he'd broken her heart. And a broken heart isn't something a child of Hephaestus can fix not matter how skilled they all were.

"You're jealous of Zoe; you also hate Percy for not choosing you," Leo suddenly blurted out; his thoughts exactly.

Annabeth's scathing glare was enough of an answer.

"There's always other guys out there you know,"—like me, he thought but Leo didn't voice it—"Percy couldn't possibly be the only guy out there—"

"I know," the demigoddess responded miserably. "He's not the first person that I fell in love with, the other one died."

"Who's that?" Leo asked.

"If you'd been at Camp longer, you'd know," Annabeth replied vaguely, tone evasive implying that she didn't want to talk about it—so Leo didn't push the subject any further, knowing that it'd hurt her. "I really just don't know why I always fall in love with troublemakers—both boys I love are."

The flame in his heart grew by a fraction; Leo was a troublemaker too.

That thought made him smile: "I'm a troublemaker too."

Annabeth looked up at him and for the first time in days, smiled.

LxA

Their journey to Rome was full of trouble. For example, an incident where Percy nearly haul an island under the ocean: Meeting Hercules.

When they'd found out about that, Zoe and Percy both had paled considerably. For different reasons: Zoe hated Hercules and didn't know how to deal with him; Percy loathed Hercules and didn't know how to not kill him for what he did to Zoe.

In the end. Percy was deemed too unpredictable—overly wild—and needed to stay on the Argo II. Jason, Io and Zoe volunteered to go. The former two was because they had the required skills to debate with a god. The latter however...

Percy did not agree.

"Zoe," the son of Poseidon said, nearly a whine. "you can't go!"

"Because you knew I couldn't face him?" Zoe retorted bitterly.

"No!" Percy protested. But no matter how much he plead, begged, whined, Zoe wouldn't budge. She won, as always.

The son of Poseidon stood at the edge of the deck, pouting at the daughter of Atlas during the send-off. No one acknowledged the fact that it was almost like a funeral—they also ignored Coach Hedge singing a dirge; they'll kill him later for doing that.

The crew had watched as three of their comrades approach the shore, Zoe taking the unexpected lead. From afar, they could vaguely see Hercules' tan skin pale when he saw the girl he once abandoned in his quest.

Behind them, the waves howled, as if warning Hercules to not do anything suspicious or he'll be taking an unpleasant swim in the ocean.

Sharp words were exchanged, Zoe didn't give the specifics but she might have—judging from their horrible skills in lip-reading—cursed him: "You bastard! How dare you abandon me!" but that was threw out and into the ocean when Hazel pointed out that the daughter of Atlas had long since gotten over Hercules once she had Percy.

Or maybe she'd even pitched a teeny tiny fit: "I so want my Anaklumos back!" that also couldn't be it since Anaklumos was in Percy's possession. Leo was cuffed at the back of his head when he suggested that this was said.

Annabeth thought it was like this: "I've gotten over you long ago, I already have another man." No one dared to comment at Annabeth's dry interpretation but they all silently agreed that it was wrong also.

Anyways, whatever Zoe said must have been something along those nebulous lines.

At least Zoe wasn't as shaken as they'd thought, Percy did make sure Hercules swallow a pond of water before letting him surface though. But by then, the Argo II had already left, a pity really, they weren't able to see the minor god's reactions.

PxZ

Their worst pain and challenge came in the form of Percy and Zoe falling right into Tatarus in their quest to save Annabeth from Athena's sworn enemy and greatest fear of her children, Arachne.

The web the spider monster had weaved were not capable of bearing everyone's weight plus the destruction the demigods had caused and the sheer raw power of the Athena Parthenon.

Those with bad luck fell, aka, Percy and Zoe.

"Damn it!" Leo swore, punching the ship's wall, hard enough to make his knuckles bleed. He ignored the horrified gasps and the protests and continue to beat up the wall, sincerely wishing it was himself because he just knew it was because of his selfish wish that his friends—family that you sent to hell—had fell into Tatarus. "Damn... it all... it's all my fault... I should," he broke into heartbroken sobs. "be the one that fell in!"

Annabeth walked up to him and slapped him on the face. Hard.

"Don't say that, you idiot!" she snapped. "I wouldn't know what to do if I lose you too—it's bad enough they fell in... if – if you did too... I—" Annnabeth trailed off and sobbed.

Leo instantly felt bad and that made him sob harder.

It was rather embarrassing when the children of Hades/Pluto had to guide them both crybabies back to their own cabin.

LxA

"We've won," the son of Hades murmured and just to emphasize that important fact, he repeated himself: "we've won."

"We did it!" the son of Hephaestus cried happily, tears of joy pooling in his mahogany eyes. From behind them, the Romans and Greeks cheered, surging forward towards their heroes.

Heroes Of Olympus.

Undoubtedly, celebrations were held—and to all the demigods' surprise, it was held on Olympus. Never before had Nico seen so many people welcoming him. And the son of Hades had to admit that he laughed more than he ever had in his life; and blushed more than he ever had when a daughter of Demeter—Miranda Gardiner—confessed to him.

Things were looking up, the son of Hades decided, for all of them.

Leo and Annabeth were dancing with one another, throwing one another tentative and unsure smiles. Percy and Zoe, Olympus' favorite couple were also dancing—whoever knew an ancient one knew how to dance to modern songs?—and so was Jason and Io, Frank and Hazel and many other couples. And, if his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, he saw Poseidon and Athena dancing, Hades and Zeus talking to one another for the first time without arguing.

Many lives were lost to bring Olympus to victory.

Blood has been shed and tears fallen but everyone here knew that they need to stop being trap by the past and move forward.

To where, you may ask.

And the son of Hades, holding hands with the daughter of Demeter, finally found the answer to his own question after many years of wandering and wondering.

Towards the future.

NxM

end

A/N: Is this too rushed? Leave a review on your thoughts.

or maybe you want me to write a one-shot - in diary or letter style - about the future generation?

p.s: and~ i've decided to write a Naruto&PJO crossover... do you agree?