Disclaimer: I don't own Camp Jupiter,or Octavian,or Reyna. And I definitely (no matter how much I wish I did) do not own Frazel.

oooOOOooo

The first time Hazel saw Frank she thought, along with everybody else, that he was a klutz.

Cute in an awkward kind of way, funny, nice, and definitely clumsy. They had been put on armor cleaning duty together and he had managed to knock down an entire row of breastplates, making them have to clean them all over again. He had blushed and stammered out an apology but Hazel hadn't been annoyed. She had smiled at him warmly, thought him sort of cute, and just shook her head and helped him pick them all up.

But they hadn't really become friends until one week later.

Camp Jupiter had been pretty deserted that day. Reyna had organized yet another search party for Jason and since Hazel had gone on the last three she had decided to take a day to just relax and get her thoughts in order.

The weather was perfect. Blue sky with some clouds, barely any wind, warm sun that could tan her already dark skin and a quietness from the lack of people which only added to the serenity of it all.

Hazel had eaten lunch in New Rome in one of the many cafes there, drinking a hot chocolate with whipped cream and eating a sandwich.

Strange combination? Maybe. But ever since she had come back from the Underworld Hazel had developed a strong love for chocolate, especially hot chocolate. She had never had anything so sweet and delicious back when she had been born and it was a rare treat she allowed herself to have.

On the way home she had run into some trouble; trouble that came in the form of Octavian and two of his 'friends.'

"Here she is," Octavian had sneered as soon as he had caught sight of her. Hazel had grit her teeth, hoping to just move past the three of them and get away but it seemed with nobody else at camp Octavian had run short of people to bully. "The daughter of Pluto."

He sneered her father's name and Hazel's anger flared, but still she tried to stay calm as Octavian's two friends- she thought their names were Ben and Hayden- snickered stupidly.

Really, Hazel though with distaste, that wasn't even funny.

"Octavian-," she tried to say.

"What were you out here doing?" He asked her, eyes narrowing. "Doing some of your magic?"

Hazel froze before swallowing dryly. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said quietly; but even as she said it a diamond popped up several feet behind the three of them.

Oh Styx. If any of them turned around...

Octavian's friends had suddenly gone quiet, allowing him to speak. "You know exactly-."

"Hey, Hazel!"

She closed her eyes and cursed in her head. Was it actually possible for this to get any worse?

Apparently.

She turned to see Frank loping towards her, and he had a bright smile on his face that made her insides squirm. Since he had come she had taken a liking to him- in a friendly way, of course!- and he had seemed to always be around. She saw him wherever she went.

She just didn't want to see him now.

It was bad enough Octavian insulting her in front of his two friends. Worse that Hazel suspected he might actually know her secret, or at least acted like he did. She didn't want Frank to hear his words.

Right now Frank was the only person who didn't care that she was a daughter of Pluto. He wasn't scared of her and he didn't make fun of her. In fact, when she had told him, all he had said was, "So you can like, raise the dead?"

He had been interested, not disgusted. Excited to know more, not scared. And he hadn't looked down at her for it. Frank considered Pluto to be somebody of power, not the farce they made out of him here.

But if Octavian told him about her curse...

Frank made it to where they were standing and when he saw Octavian his face turned more grim. Even after only being here a week he seemed to hate the augur.

Just one more reason Hazel was inclined to like him.

"Wait." Octavian faked a look of thought, his eyes going back and forth between the two of them. "Oh, wow, I don't know how I didn't notice before."

"Notice what, Octavian," Hazel ground out.

He grinned at her. "Why, that you two are a couple of course!" He exclaimed. Hazel felt her insides twist but she didn't know if it was from anger, hatred or wish fullness.

Wait. Not the last one. Definitely not. Of course not.

"Wh- what?" Frank sputtered out, looking confusedly back and forth between Hazel and Octavian.

Hazel shook her head at him, trying to convey that it was just Octavian being Octavian, but the look of confusion and the blush on his face stayed where they were.

"It makes perfect sense, doesn't it, Hayden?" Octavian went on without waiting to see his lackey nod his head enthusiastically, probably not knowing what was going on anyway. "Both from the fifth cohort," once again he sneered the name. "The unclaimed, clumsy baby and the cursed enchantress daughter of Pluto." Octavian's face was filled with disgust. "I really can't believe I didn't see it before."

Hazel clenched her fists, hands shaking, and was about to snap a reply back when Frank spoke up. "We're not a couple."

His voice was strong and after getting over his confusion he seemed completely unaffected by Octavian's words. As if they didn't bother him at all.

Octavian raised an eyebrow, looking at Hazel. "What's this? Is he ashamed of you Hazel? Ashamed he can't get anyone better?"

"No," Frank said, stepping forward. "I would never be ashamed to be with Hazel. But what you're saying is a lie."

Hazel looked at him with surprise.

I would never be ashamed to be with Hazel.

Were those words supposed to make her stomach feel like it was full of butterflies?

"Frank," she reached out and touched his hand lightly, with sudden confidence. "Let's go, okay?"

His touch sent tingles through her. Were friends supposed to feel that? Or was it some sort of side effect from coming back from the dead? The only person she had come into contact with since being alive again was Nico and maybe since he was her brother, or a son of Pluto, it was different.

Did human touch send shivers through her? Or was it something else?

"Look at this," Octavian sneered, caught off guard by Frank and trying to regain composure. "Running away together. And you say you two aren't a couple?"

"What we are," Hazel said, "is leaving. Get out of our way."

Octavian wrinkled his nose at them. "Fine. Whatever. Go on, Baby Boy, follow your girlfriend. She probably wants time alone, like a bitch in heat-"

"Frank!" Hazel screamed as Octavian stumbled backwards, falling into the arms of his two friends.

The boy in front of her was clutching his hand, stretching out his fingers.

"Ow," he muttered with a furrow between his eyebrows.

Hazel reached out to look at it, concerned, and when she let go, satisfied nothing was broken, he was looking down at her, eyes dark.

Ben and Hayden, who had caught Octavian before the augur could fall back on his butt, were staring at Frank with wide eyes. Octavian, however, was glaring with dislike.

Already a purple bruise was forming around his eye, Hazel saw, and she had to hold back a smile.

"Oh you'll pay for that.." Octavian threatened as he regained his footing. "Do you know who I am here? What I can do?"

"You're a bully here," Frank said, unimpressed, "and all I've seen that you can do is cut up teddy bears. So far I'm not all that frightened."

Octavian's face turned purple, a colour that matched his newly forming bruise. "One day you'll regret this," Octavian said menacingly, and Hazel felt chills go up her spine. "I have power here, more than you. I can make life here miserable for you. And when one, when you're least expecting it, I'll make sure that even the fifth cohort won't want you," he spat. "And you," he turned to Hazel, eyes narrowing. "Something's wrong about you, I know it. One day the auguries are going to show me what it is and when they do, I'll make sure this entire camp knows. You'll be an outcast even here." He sneered. "Or at least more of one than you already are."

And with that he walked away with his friends trailing behind like faithful lapdogs.

She turned to look at Frank, outstretching her hand once more as she did so. She held his hand in hers gently, inspecting it. "Does it still hurt?"

"A little," he murmured.

She thinned her lips, Octavian's face flashing to the front of her mind. "Come on," she said. "Let's go get some ice for it."

They walked to the eating area and Hazel stopped outside. "Keep watch." She said, and after looking to see nobody was around, snuck back to where the food was stored.

"Hazel!" Frank whispered. "What are you doing?"

She came back a minute or two later with a bag in her hands. When she got close Frank saw it was a bag of frozen peas.

"There was no bags of ice," she told him, as if that was why he was staring at her with wide eyes.

She had just broken the rules. You didn't do that at Camp Jupiter. People weren't supposed to go back to where the food was kept. It was rule.

And Hazel had broken it for him.

It was a small rule, not very important, but still. It was the first toe she had stepped out of line since getting here.

And she had done it for Frank.

Why?

She shook her head. "Let's go," she said and when he agreed, still watching her, she went and headed to the Field of Mars.

They sat down in the middle of the field and Hazel carefully placed the frozen peas on the back of his hand. He used his left hand to hold it there and she lay on her back, staring up at the sky.

"You don't have anything you need to do today, right?" She asked him.

She saw him shake his head. "No I have today free." He replied. "You?"

"No," she said. "I went on the last three searches. Today I'm... taking a break."

"Or trying to," Frank said, laying down beside her. "With jerks like Octavian getting in your way?"

She turned her head now to look at him. "Actually it's just him." Hazel said. "He seems to really hate me. But I never did anything to him."

Frank shrugged. "Bullies are mean to people for no reason other than to feel superior. Believe me, you probably didn't do anything."

Hazel searched his face, trying to find something, anything, to understand. "The way you stood up to him," she said shyly. "How? I mean he was picking on you too, but it seemed like it didn't bother you at all."

Frank shrugged. "Well his insults weren't anything I hadn't heard before. And when he tried to insult me by saying... you know, that we were..." He blushed and Hazel thought it was very cute. "Well that's not really an insult at all, is it?" He continued speaking before she could say anything to that. "I've had to deal with bullies my whole life," he told her. "When I was younger I was always the odd guy out. People didn't like me because of my looks, my background. They picked on me because of my clumsiness and I was always the shy nervous guy." He turned to look at her. "Eventually I learned that if you act like you don't care, eventually they won't either."

Hazel thought about his words, thinking about how similar they were. She knew about bullies. She had been an outcast her entire life. She knew that all you really needed to get through it was a friend.

Before she had died she had had Sammy.

She stared at Frank as he watched the sky, at the kindness of his face and his eyes which were brown and warm. Maybe he could be her new Sammy.

"It was really brave, what you did." She said, turning to look up at the sky when he turned his face to her. "You didn't seem shy or nervous. Or at all clumsy. Especially when you punched him."

She had seen something in Frank today, a bravery and strength, that she hadn't known he had before. She had to admit, she kind of liked it.

He frowned and Hazel once again noticed how adorable the expression was on him. "He deserved it," Frank said. "But my hand really hurts." He grinned at her sheepishly. "I probably won't be doing that again anytime soon."

Hazel smiled at him. "Seeing it once was enough," she said. "That was amazing."

"Thanks," he mumbled, still bright red. "I... am not usually violent. Not like that."

"I know."

"But he shouldn't have said those things to you," Frank said. "You don't deserve that."

Hazel suddenly felt like she was going to cry. Her eyes stung as she stared up at the blueness of the sky, and she blinked once, twice and then three times to try to get rid of the feeling.

Here she was, the girl who had been picked on countless times and called countless names. Kids had used to throw rocks at her. Had cursed her to her face. She was the girl who had caused the deaths of so many people, who had basically killed her own mother, and Frank was saying she didn't deserve Octavian's childish words?

That hit her hard, and she took a deep breath, closing her eyes. If Frank only knew the truth about her... then he wouldn't be saying that.

But for now, for as long as she could, she would keep her secret just that. A secret. Especially from Frank. Suddenly she really didn't want to lose him. She was going to try to be better, for him. To keep him as a friend just like she had failed to keep Sammy.

She wouldn't fail with Frank. She didn't think she'd be able to bear it.

"I'm lactose intolerant," he said suddenly.

Hazel opened her eyes and giggled at the sudden change in topic and the innocent yet serious way he said it. A strange choice, but one that had her interested nonetheless.

"Really?" She asked him. "So you can't drink milk?"

"Or have anything dairy," he said sadly. "No ice cream or anything..."

And from then on they were best friends.

Hazel was determined to make this one last. She liked Frank, liked him a lot actually. She liked his honesty and his bravery and his sense of right and wrong. She had a feeling that as their friendship grew he would become very, very important to her.

Maybe that should have scared her, or at the very least intimidated her, but all she felt was excitement and anticipation.

It would be nice, she thought, to love somebody again. And to be loved in return.

Even if it was only a love of friendship. For Hazel, if Frank was involved, she was sure that would be enough.

oooOOOooo

They are such an adorable couple and I love them. They MUST, MUST, MUST survive in Blood of Olympus.

But I have a bad feeling...

*take deep breath and pushes fangirl feelings away* Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you all liked it! I can't believe it's only 16 days until BOO! :o

Love you all!

Percyjacksonfan3