Season Challenge: Winter

For the challenge by MyLife4Yours

Dedicated to my first multiship, Leyna/Frazel/Lazel/Fralypso

Frank plodded through the snow, trying to get his mind off things. The second Giant War had ended five months ago, but yet it still haunted everyone who'd been a part of it. He knew it would never stop bearing down on him, but he could darn well try to stop it. Frank breathed in the crisp December air and focused on his surroundings–the trees covered with snow, the skittering of the few animals that braved the cold.

Eventually he closed his eyes and stopped walking and narrowed his thoughts to flight. In next to no time, Frank opened his eyes and found his vision clearer and the ground much closer. He crouched the slightest bit, then opened his wings and pushed off the ground, up into the air. For a while, he flew around aimlessly, gliding through the sky like a figure skater on ice. The wind ruffled his feathers and supported his now tiny body.

"Hazel, please."

"I'm so sorry Frank." Her hand brushed his face.

"Why Leo?" he asked. "Why him over me?" He instantly regretted saying that when he saw how broken Hazel looked.

"I don't know," she said quietly. "Why do we want anything? Why did Jason want Piper over Reyna? Why did Percy choose Annabeth over either Rachel or Calypso? I don't know. It just feels like the right thing to do." Hazel stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Frank's cheek. "I'm sorry, Frank."

"I am, too."

"You have nothing to be sorry about. Someday you'll find someone who makes you happier than I have. I've already seen it."

Frank watched her stand up and leave the room. For a while everything was quiet until he heard a burst of laughter from up on deck from several people. How they could laugh–what they could laugh about–was impossible to know. It felt to Frank as if the whole world was gray and sad. After a while of feeling sorry for himself, Frank hardened up. He shouldn't be acting so drab. He was doing nothing for himself other than being pitiful. So he followed Hazel's path up to the deck, where she and Leo stood next to each other, Piper and Jason held hands, and he was alone –the fifth wheel. Then he spotted Nico hiding out in the shadow and moved over to sit by him, thinking that maybe he wasn't the only lonely one.

Something in Frank's peripheral vision dragged him out of the past and back to the present. Someone down below was waving up at him and shouting his name by his house. He hadn't had any visitors in quite a while, since Annabeth last came to discuss the final stages of rebuilding his old home.

"Frank!" The person called again. It was hard to tell whom it was from as far up as Frank was, but he could guess.

Frank soared down and landed in the woods, morphing back into himself. He forced his way through the snow, back to his house again, where he found the exact person he'd been suspecting it was. Why she would bother coming to Frank's place, he couldn't guess. The last and only time he'd seen her was on the Argo II.

"Frank!" She wrapped her arms around him in a hug, being the amiable person she was.

"Calypso. What're you–"

"I came to talk to you." She pulled out of the hug. "Can we go inside?" She nodded to the half-finished house.

"Uh, sure. It's not all that nice inside, but…" Why was he worried about what it looked like? He hadn't felt like this in years. Not since–

"Great. Come on, then." Her eyes twinkled happily.

Frank led Calypso into the sparsely furnished living room and put some almond milk on the stove for hot chocolate before returning to the living room and sitting next to her.

"I like your house," Calypso commented. "The woods are beautiful; so much nature."

"Uh, thanks…" Frank wasn't sure how to respond to her compliment.

"You know, I couldn't even picture cities when Hephaestus Percy told me about them? I thought they must just be like villages, only bigger and more crowded and with taller buildings. But they also have paved roads and cars and streetlights and pollution. I didn't know about any of those things before the gods released me. But it's all so awful, so crowded and noisy." She was quiet for a while and then continued. "That's why I like it up here in…Canada, right?" Calypso looked up to Frank for confirmation. He nodded, wondering where she was going with it all. "I'm still trying to remember the new names. I'm so used to the old ones. Especially the ones I never knew existed before. Anyhow, I like this area especially. It's like the cross between a village and a city. There's the neighborhoods/houses, the roads/trails, the wilderness, the downtown/marketplace…the perfect mix. Not too big and not too small, but with lots of nature. It has the modern electronics–which I absolutely adore by the way–and the old fashioned town look at the same time."

Frank quickly excused himself and brought back the almond hot chocolate. Calypso thanked him and they sat together a while in silence.

Finally, Frank spoke up. "This was my favorite place in the whole world, as well. I loved the thought that animals were just outside the fence, that I could practice my archery whenever I wanted, and that I could have so much freedom."

Calypso slipped off her boots and curled her legs up underneath her. She was wearing jeans and a white blouse that looked like it was from Ancient Greece (and probably was). Frank couldn't help but think that the look suited her. It was kind of like her preferences–modern, pretty, and old. Her dark hair was braided over a shoulder, reminding him a bit of Katniss.

"Frank?" Calypso asked quietly.

"Yes?" he answered.

"Do you remember when we first met–on the Argo?"

Frank chuckled a little. "Yeah. Six years ago–can you believe that? Percy and Annabeth–they're already getting married in a few months."

"And do you remember how Hazel looked then?"

Frank immediately put his guard up. "Kind of. How do you mean?"

"She looked broken, but also happy. It was like she'd lost so much and yet in spite of that she was happy. She loved Leo. She still does... And she still loves you, as well. She misses you."

"How–How do you know?" Frank hadn't seen Hazel in years. He'd assumed she didn't care about him anymore after she chose Leo over him.

"I saw her a while ago. I've been looking for you, and that took a while."

"How is she?"

"She's good. She got a job at the college in New Rome, and Leo's one of the top engineers in California. Probably even the US."

Frank felt a little deflated. He had hoped that Calypso would just say that she was good and move on, but now that he knew where Hazel was, it was going to be even harder not to visit her. "Oh. That's good."

"Anyways, back on the Argo, and even now, she'd lost a lot but had found happiness. When I saw what she looked like, I immediately felt that I wanted to be like her. I wanted to find something that would make me really happy, no matter how sad my life has been."

"You're already so happy, though."

"A bit," she admitted, "but not enough to cover what I've lost. I was locked on an island for several thousand years of my life. And why? Only because I sided with the titans in the war."

"Only?" Frank raised his eyebrows.

Calypso scowled at him, which didn't really work with her pretty features. "Well, I wasn't about to turn on my father. If I could go back and remake my decision then I would, if only because it would have saved me three thousand years of being alone, with only a few visits from Hephaestus every decade or so and the rare visitor whom the fates would drop in and then take away almost immediately."

Frank nodded silently in apology.

"As I was saying, I wanted to be like Hazel. I've lost so much of my life, I've had my loves stolen away from me only just when I find my feelings for them, I've been ripped from my family, and so much more. But now I have a chance to make up for all that time, and I want to find love." She regarded Frank with a question in her eyes.

"I'm not sure you came to the right person. And why you still think I'm the best matchmaker after so long…" Frank rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, avoiding Calypso's eyes.

"No, no!" Calypso laughed. "You silly boy!"

Frank looked up at her in confusion. "What do you mean? Why else would you ask and tell me all this unless that's what you were looking for?"

"Because, Frank, I meant you." Traces of her laughter still lingered in her eyes and at the corners of her mouth.

An embarrassed blush crept up to Frank's ears. "Oh, uh, you mean…"

"Yes. On the Argo I saw…well, I felt this kind of connection, and... Oh! This is so difficult! You do know what I mean though. Don't you?"

Still blushing furiously, Frank nodded. "Kind of. I mean, yeah, but–"

Something suddenly beeped. Calypso jumped before realizing it was her phone. She pulled it out and quickly checked the text before putting it away again. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I have to go. Hazel found me a job interview around here. It's been nice talking to you. Thanks for the hot chocolate." She slipped on her boots and coat and was out the door before Frank could say goodbye.

For a moment Frank sat on the couch contemplating what he should do. In the end he got up and stepped into his slippers and went outside.

"Calypso, wait!" he called. Ahead of him, the woman turned around to face him.

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to tell you–I, uh, what you said before–well, I was wondering if you would, uh, like to go to the little restaurant on Thorn Street for dinner? About seven. Tonight, that is. Seven o'clock tonight."

Calypso laughed her wind chime laugh again. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his for a second. "That would be great." She walked away and down the street, out of view, leaving a bewildered Frank standing alone in his front yard.