He couldn't sleep. It wasn't entirely unusual for Percy to be tossing and turning in his bed, but this time he knew why he couldn't sleep. Based on the faint snores he heard from across the room, Jason was asleep and had been for a while.

Jason was nice, way too nice. Jason was the kind of nice that made Percy suspicious. Not that Percy thought Jason was mean, more like Jason was compensating for something else in his life. Maybe insecurity, maybe he just thrived on being a good friend. Either way, Percy wasn't going to try and figure it out; it wasn't his place to meddle in the lives of his peers.

Percy sat up in his bed as he stared into the dark abyss. At his old apartment, he used to listen to music to fall asleep when he couldn't seem to. His step-father was a heavy sleeper, so he wouldn't ever notice. His mom never minded either, in fact, she was glad he could find a way to help his sleep difficulties.

Being as quiet as possible, he stood up and put his shoes on, deciding to get out of the dorm and get some fresh air. If he was lucky, he'd get to hear the crickets chirp into the night. He quietly walked over to the door and placed a hand on the wall next to the door, slowly turning the knob, and slowly opening the door. That method always was most effective when it came to making sure the door would open as quietly as possible, though it wasn't quite as efficient with severely creaky doors.

As soon as he closed the door, he began walking. It was dark outside as well, he guessed it was probably around 1AM, though he couldn't be certain. He was glad to hear the crickets, though, and that was all that truly mattered to him. Ever since he'd arrived at the boarding school, his mind had been someplace else. He'd been caught in his own thoughts constantly, not truly paying attention to the world around him. Sure, he participated in conversations, but his mind was in a state of constant worry that made him feel like he was on auto-pilot, that he was merely observing everything from a distance.

Though when he was overly-emotional, he did tend to lash out. Jason had made it clear he'd fucked up, though he and Grover already spoke about the matter.

The sound of footsteps brought Percy away from his thoughts, making him look up and search for whoever could be there. He hoped it was just some random student he hadn't met, but the face of Leo Valdez was hard to forget.

"What're you doing up?" Leo asked, stopping in his tracks and squinting his eyes at Percy. They could just barely see one another, but their eyes had adjusted to the darkness well-enough to see close-distance. Leo was only a few inches away.

"Taking a walk, I guess." Percy said hesitantly, he felt as though he was just caught doing some horrendous thing, even if he wasn't. "Uh, How about you?"

"I have insomnia, can't sleep for shit," Leo laughed at his own words, though softly and quietly as not to wake any light sleepers. "I usually just waste time by walking around the campus, wanna join me?"

Percy nodded his head, deciding Leo was bearable at such a late time. When Percy saw Leo in the daytime, he was annoying and loud. He hadn't decided if he liked Leo yet, but this version of him was making Percy reconsider his opinions towards the small, elfish-boy. "Sure, why not."

  Leo grinned, "Do you ever think about the meaning of life?"

  Percy pursed his lips as he looked deeply at Leo's face, he looked calm. "I- what? I mean, yeah, everybody does at one point..."

  Leo looked away from Percy, facing the abyss in front of them, "We're both more similar than you think, Y'know?"

  "What makes you think that?"

  "When I said I could read people, I wasn't lying. It's practically a survival tool out on the streets," Leo sighed, "When I was a kid, my mom died. My dad was never around, social workers never could track him down, so I got put in the foster system. I went from family to family, but none of them worked out. I had undiagnosed ADHD, no one knew how to handle that. Eventually, I made it my goal to get sent away, I wanted to see how fast it would take. My record is two days, pretty impressive, right?"

  Percy furrowed his brows, "but I've never experienced that, how are we alike?"

  Leo shook his head, "Let me finish. I'd run away from houses and live on the streets, but the cops would end up finding me and bringing me back. I don't know if you know this, but everyone is here for a reason. Most families don't send their kids away unless they either think it's the best option, or if they want their kids to get out of their lives."

  Percy didn't really know what to say, he didn't even fully process what Leo said, so he just stared at him in silence.

  "Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Sorry."

  "You don't know anything about me, Leo," Percy frowned.

  Leo nodded, "Yeah, but you don't know anything about us, either. Let yourself open up a bit, and let yourself notice others as well."

"And why are you telling me this?"

"Because things aren't always as they seem." Leo's face turned from a dead-serious expression to a wide grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "That's enough serious talk for tonight, you ever had any pets?"

Percy blinked, staring at the crazed boy. Leo's antics weren't easy to get used to, Percy wished he'd been warned about that. "I had a fish when I was four. My apartment doesn't allow any other pets, so my mom thought a fish would get rid of my begging for a dog."

"Did it?"

"Obviously not, but I still loved having a pet. Named him Bob," Percy snickered, "How about you?"

"I had a bearded dragon named Festus, always used to pretend he was a real dragon. My mom always made fun of me for it, but I always tried to convince him to breathe fire." He looked down sadly, "He died in the fire that killed my mom."

  "That must've been hard..."

  Leo nodded, he stopped walking and looked over at Percy, "Life likes to fuck us over, but things got better, I guess."

  "That's good," Percy was tired, he decided it'd be wise to go back to his dorm and go to bed, but he wasn't sure how to put that thought into words. Leo seemed to like his company, and he didn't want to disappoint. "Do you think I'm mean?"

  Leo gave him a knowing look, though Percy wasn't sure what he knew. "No, I just think you're confused with things I wouldn't understand. Although I'm pretty sure Grover wasn't too fond of you at first, which makes sense. Even Nico didn't seem like he wanted anything to do with you, but that isn't rare."

  Percy nodded, Nico seemed introverted.

  "You should go to bed, we have class tomorrow and I don't wanna be the reason you get a detention."

  Percy frowned, "You sure?"

  "Yeah, I'm sure. I've always been like this, normally just sleep in class, and in detention." Leo snickered as he itched his nose, "I'll see you tomorrow."

  Percy nodded, "Yeah, yeah I'll see you tomorrow."

  And with that, he headed to his dorm, quietly opening and closing it. He looked at Jason's sleeping form, wondering how someone can sleep so peacefully, and then fell onto his bed and closed his eyes.

____________________________________
 
Alrighty my friends, we're about to delve into the many issues this group of teens is going through.

Also, Luke and Annabeth's relationship is definitely not gonna last. This fic is a percabeth fic, so yeah. But Luke's role is very important to this story and so yeah.

Anyways, I wanna keep the authors notes short, so I'll leave it at that and call it a night.

Hope you all enjoyed, see ya next chapter.