Hazel giggled. Frank's hands were still over her eyes. "Where are we going, Frank?"
"Hold on, we're almost there! You're gonna think they're really neat," he said, and Hazel could hear the happiness in his voice.
Frank removed his hands from her eyes. They were in a room somewhere deep in the aquarium, and if you looked up or all around you, there was water. Inside the water there was a kind of a tentacled fish that appeared to be changing colors. Hazel watched in fascination as a whole group joined the one.
"What are they?", she breathed in wonder.
Frank smiled."They're called flamboyant cuttlefish. I knew you would like them."
If Hazel would have turned around to look at him, she would see him watching her with a tender affection, the kind that the recipient never knows about. She would have seen him smile, and she could have watched his cheeks growing warm as he considered kissing her, all while she "oo"d and "ah"d over the adorable little cephalopods.
"Hazel?"
Without turning around, Hazel asked, "Yeah?"
Frank walked up and softly took her hand. "I'm glad I get to know you."
Hazel turned her smiling face to him. "I'm glad I get to know you too, Frank!"
Something in his eyes made Hazel's heart do a little flip flop. Frank reached up with his free hand and brushed a few unruly curls out of her face. Hazel realized that they were all alone, practically UNDER THE SEA. In fact, she thought she could hear the fish from that Disney movie Percy made her watch singing, "kiss the girl." She decided that she was going to take the initiative. SHE was going to kiss HIM. She leaned up, but became suddenly shy. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and leaned back.
Frank was looking at her with a cross between a blush and a smile, and he gave her a long, slow kiss on the forehead.
Annabeth smiled from the doorway. They couldn't see her under her invisibility cap, but oh boy could she see them. (And she was taking pictures to show Percy later!) She wanted to cry from the cuteness of the scene when Frank took Hazel in his arms and they began to slow dance with the cuttlefish blubbing around, ruffles floating in the currents, but she knew she would be discovered. As she was slipping away, she heard Hazel whisper, "Me too, Frank. Me too."
