Got a little fun one-shot today. Tried a different style of writing on some of it. Let me know how you like it. Hope everyone enjoys!
"You're wearing normal clothes," Frank stated bluntly. His gaze focused on his fellow praetor. There was only one time that he remembered seeing Reyna in something that was not Roman armor, her praetor's cape, or a toga. Now, Reyna wore blue jeans that were ripped at one of the knees (a gift from Nico most likely) and a purple hoodie from the college in New Rome.
"Yes, Frank. I am wearing 'normal clothes'," Reyna confirmed. She stared at him for a moment, clearly annoyed with his observation. "Very astute."
The two had been praetors together for six months now, which meant Frank was able to pick up on Reyna's nonverbal signals. Right now, she was thinking that on her list of idiots, Frank was right above Percy. It would be above Leo if he said another stupid thing, or just anything in general.
Oddly, the sarcasm meant she was in a good mood. Even if she had the frown etched into her face. Or was it a scowl? Frank looked Reyna up and down again. Why was she in casual clothes? When Frank voiced the question, Reyna's left eye twitched. Yup, Frank just moved right above Leo on Reyna's idiot list.
"Do you remember the conversation we had yesterday?" Reyna began. Frank nervously shook his head. Reyna visibly stifled a scoff and looked around. Frank did as well. The two of them were standing near the Field of Mars. Frank had been walking around and checking on the legionnaires finishing up their training before dinner. Wait… Dinner!
"Dinner!" Frank blurted out abruptly. Reyna raised an eyebrow. "You're going to dinner with your sister."
"Why?" Reyna asked. She studied Frank with those onyx eyes of hers. Was this part of her good mood? Was she seeing if he actually paid attention or had a lucky guess? "Why, Frank?"
"Because you love her...?"
"No."
"You don't love her?"
"Not really."
"I feel like you're messing with me."
"Am I?"
"...Are you?"
The smallest of smirks came to Reyna's face, but it disappeared so quickly that Frank thought he imagined it. See, Frank was nervous about being a praetor. He knew there was this whole drama over Jason just handing over the praetorship to Frank, and Percy pretty much did the same thing. Two former praetors that were raised on a shield by the legion stepped back and allowed a probatio turned centurion turned praetor in absolute record time to lead the legion. It didn't help that Frank had essentially been raised on an imaginary shield by a legion of ghosts.
So, great first impression.
Now, Reyna accepted Frank as a praetor. She worked with him, answered all of his questions clearly, and literally taught him everything that he knew. He also knew that she hated having to do all that. Reyna was so used to running the camp by herself that there were times when she jumped past the whole "letting Frank get a word in" part and just made a decision. She apologized after every time, and while Frank knew it wasn't intentional, it got to him sometimes.
The first, the second, the third, and even the fourth cohorts liked to talk about him behind his back. He was sure they made fun of him. At least his old cohort didn't make fun of him. It helped that his girlfriend was a centurion in that group, but he would take any victories that he could get.
While Reyna did work with Frank, she seemed very hesitant to actually leave him in charge by himself. He totally understood it, though. The last time Reyna left the camp in the hands of someone else, Octavian led the legion across the country, recruited tons of monsters, attacked Camp Half-Blood, and almost destroyed all of the demigods.
Frank could understand Reyna's paranoia.
But, Frank was thankfully not like Octavian. For one, he wasn't going to lead the legion on a conquest against the Greeks. He didn't even know if most of the Romans would listen to him. Secondly, he didn't mess up that badly. He just messed up the small things. A lot.
Frank did not think a day went by where Reyna didn't have to correct something that he did. He felt terrible every time, and he could feel Reyna's blood pressure rise with each mistake. That made him get flustered, which meant more mistakes. Which got him even more flustered. It was such a vicious cycle.
"I'll be back after dinner," Reyna informed as she glanced at her watch. Her sword hung lazily at her side, and when she crossed her arms, he could see padding underneath her hoodie. Not exactly padding; most likely armor because Reyna could not leave the camp in just casual clothing. "It shouldn't be too long. Two hours maybe. Unless we get into a fight. It will be three hours or more if that happens."
"You'll get into a screaming match for an hour?" Frank asked.
"Who said anything about screaming?" Reyna questioned with a raised eyebrow. Frank nodded slightly. "Can you handle this? It's just two hours."
"Do you not trust me?" Frank slowly asked, hurt lacing his tone.
"Fine. Hour and a half."
"Reyna!"
"I'm kidding," Reyna playfully waved off, the old smirk coming back. Reyna always scared Frank when he was a probatio. When he messed up, he always stood before Reyna, terrified of what the punishment would be. And she seemed to love giving him elephant duty. Frank swore she always had the little hint of a smirk while punishing Frank.
"Seriously. Will you be okay if I leave for two hours?" Reyna asked again. She lost the smirk, and something like concern sprouted on her features.
"Reyna, I can handle this for two hours," Frank promised. "Enjoy your dinner with Hylla. Nothing will go wrong."
One hour and twenty-two minutes. That was when it all went wrong. See, everything had been going well. Frank patrolled the camp a few more times, broke up a few fights, sent two of the fighting probatios to clean up after the elephant, and then stopped to check on their augur.
Nothing caught on fire. No monsters attacked the camp. No gods or goddesses appeared to kidnap him or give out a quest. No warship from the Greek camp appeared over New Rome to blow up their pavilion. Again. Everything was going fine. Until it wasn't.
Frank had just finished talking to their augur and was heading towards his office to finish up paperwork before dinner. Footsteps thudded against the grass, and he turned his head to see one of the probatios he had assigned a punishment earlier. Someone in the fifth cohort, although Frank could not remember the boy's name.
As a probatio, Frank didn't need to know anyone's name. As a centurion, he needed to know the name of everyone in his cohort. As a praetor, he needed to try and learn everyone's name. As that was quite hard for anyone to do, Reyna told him something that he wished he knew back then: remember the rank.
There were only ten centurions in the camp. Frank didn't even need to remember their names. Just their faces. That way he could just call them by their rank. When he saw someone with that clay tablet, he knew what their rank was. Anyone else that earned their tattoo but no rank was not important enough to be addressed by name, so when he couldn't remember their name, he didn't have to feel bad about it.
"Probatio, don't you have a punishment?" Frank questioned. What was this boy's name? Ted? Fred? Jed? No, nothing like that. James? Jimmy? Did he have a name?
"P...p...praetor," the boy stuttered. Ahh, his name was Jensen. Frank remembered his stutter when he first arrived at the camp. It wasn't a nervous habit or tic. Something he had been born with was his explanation when Frank told him not to be afraid. "We can't find the elephant, s...s...sir."
"What?" Frank asked, blinking once and wondering if he heard the boy correctly. They couldn't find the elephant? Hannibal the elephant. The elephant that anyone could see from any part of the camp. That elephant? Oh gods no.
"We went to the s...s...stables to find Hannibal, but he was...was...wasn't there. When we couldn't find him, we looked for a centurion. Centurion Leves...ves...sque told us to find you," Jensen explained.
"Is Centurion Levesque also looking?" Frank questioned. Jensen nodded. "Lead me to her."
The two of them walked in silence through the camp. Most of the legionnaires would be finishing up their activities and heading to dinner soon. A glance at his watch showed he had thirty-five minutes to find out if these probatios were playing the worst prank ever on him, or if he was going to be murdered by his fellow praetor.
It didn't matter if Frank was directly involved or not. Whatever happened at the camp while he was in charge was his fault. Something blows up? It was Frank's fault. Someone died? Frank's fault. Something good happened? Well, the Senate would take credit for that. Being a praetor was a thankless job after all.
Happiness flooded Frank's heart as he saw Hazel. His girlfriend was talking to the other probatio, but as she looked up and met Frank's eyes, she frowned at the sight of him. His heart sank deep in his chest at the look in her eyes. That was not good. Oh, that was not good. Frank looked down at his watch. Thirty-three minutes until Reyna came back.
"Centurion, what's the situation?" Frank started. On the outside, he knew that he looked calm and in control. A stoic face with a neutral frown.
On the inside? It was something like:
Hazel! Where is Hannibal!? How did two probatios manage to lose him? Did you know that Reyna is thirty-three -NO- Thirty-two minutes away? Hazel! HELP!
But, that was on the inside. Frank was cool and collected outside. He hoped.
"Probatio Vance says that Hannibal is missing. He's not in his enclosure, and I don't see him running around the camp," Hazel reported. Frank nodded, screaming internally at the news.
"Probatios, are you two pulling a prank?" Frank questioned, and he turned his wolf glare on the two of them. Both of them paled and shook their heads. "Get back to your cohorts."
The two probatios quickly gave him a Roman salute and hurried away. Frank looked at Hazel, still screaming on the inside. Thirty-one minutes until Frank was nothing more than a red stain on the grounds of Camp Jupiter.
It wasn't that Reyna would be mad. No, she would be furious. Frank could see it clearly in his head.
"Reyna, I lost Hannibal. I'm not sure how; he just disappeared without a trace."
"Zhang, how do you lose an elephant?! Do you think you're Houdini!? How the fu-"
"Frank?" Hazel asked, snapping Frank back to reality. The centurion grabbed her boyfriend's hands to comfort him. "It's going to be okay. We'll find Hannibal."
"It's an elephant, Hazel. If we can't find an elephant," Frank began.
"Did you try flying around?" Hazel suggested. A light bulb sparked to life in Frank's mind, and he could have kissed her at that moment. Instead, he gently pulled away and quickly turned himself into a bird. Frank took off into the sky, beginning his survey of the camp. His eyes shot around for the large creature with a dashing kevlar vest.
What did he find? Nothing.
Frank found nothing. No elephant. No vest. No hope. The only thing he found was the inevitable passing of time that inched him closer to his death.
How would Reyna kill him? Strangling maybe? That was her favorite. She always muttered under her breath about strangling people when they annoyed her. Especially Leo. It seemed like anytime she had a conversation with him, it ended in one of two ways. One: lively conversation in Spanish. Two: Leo scurrying away as Reyna brought her hands together in a strangling motion as she glared at his back.
After a thorough but fruitless search, Frank landed back on the ground and transformed back to a human. He looked at Hazel hopelessly and shook his head. Hazel frowned and seemed to lose herself in her thoughts.
"What are we-"
"Reyna!"
"Frank," Reyna said after a moment. Frank stared at the Iris message in front of him. He was grateful that Hazel didn't finish her question as the message appeared in front of them. The last thing he needed was for Reyna to learn the elephant was missing when she still had nineteen minutes before she got there.
"What happened?" Hazel asked, starting their conversation. An annoyed look crossed Reyna's face, and she winced as she moved her split lip. Blood trickled from her nose, and she placed the back of her hand to her red nostrils.
"Hylla happened," Reyna muttered.
"You got into an argument?" Frank asked worriedly. Now, Reyna would be in an even worse mood.
"No. I'm going to be delayed, though. We were attacked by monsters," Reyna grumbled as she tilted her head to try and stop the bleeding.
"Oh thank the gods," Frank said.
"What?" Reyna questioned, leveling him with a steady glare. Frank's eyes widened at what he said.
"That you weren't hurt," Frank said quickly. Reyna lowered her hand and then used her bloody finger to point to her bloodier face. "...That badly."
"Anyway, we were attacked. Hylla flipped a car, cops got involved, and she started arguing that no man could tell her what to do. I tried to pull her away, and this happened," Reyna explained, gesturing to the mess on her face. She pulled her hand back to her nose. "I have to deal with the police now. I'll be back an hour later than I thought."
An hour and seventeen minutes. Yeah. Frank could find an elephant in that time.
"That's good," Frank said quickly. "Everything is good here! No, it's great! Everything is great! Nothing is wrong! I didn't lose Hannibal."
"Wait. Wh-"
Frank hurriedly ran his hand through the Iris message in a panic. He looked at Hazel with panicked eyes. She looked back at him with the same expression. Before he could panic more, another Iris message appeared in front of him.
"Frank, what do you mean you-"
For the second time that day, Frank ended the Iris message with Reyna. He then waved his hand in front of him like a maniac to end any more messages before they could appear. Hazel stared at where the Iris message had been and then at Frank.
"What flowers would you like on your casket?" Hazel asked.
"Not helping," Frank intoned. He stopped waving his hands and brought them to his head. "Oh gods. Reyna is going to kill me. She's already in a bad mood, and she is going to murder me. What do I do?!"
"First," Hazel began as she stepped in front of Frank. She gently grabbed his hands and lowered them to his side, squeezing them. "Calm down. We need to think logically. If Hannibal is not here, that means he got out somehow. We just have to find a smashed wall or evidence of where he trampled through."
"I didn't see anything when I was flying. Everything looked fine," Frank said. He looked down, thinking carefully. "Terminus!"
"No!"
"What do you mean no!?"
"I'm busy!"
"You're a statue. How busy can you be?!"
"Have you tried protecting a camp full of demigods, praetor?"
"Yes! That's literally my job. Can you just appear and tell me where Hannibal is?"
"No."
"Terminus!"
"Buried in Carthage."
"The elephant! Not the person!"
"Oh. I have no clue."
Frank could have screamed. In fact, that was his favored internal monologue for today. He just stared off into space, but on the inside, he was screaming. Hazel massaged his hands once more. Frank closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he had a new plan.
"We message the smartest person we know," Frank decided. Hazel nodded her agreement, and they hurried towards a building near the Senate House. It was installed after they made peace with the Greeks, and it was the best way for them to send Iris messages.
The two of them walked at a brisk pace. Frank was still freaking out on the inside and it began to show on the outside. Hazel continued to rub small circles on his hand to calm him down. It started to work, until they stepped into the building.
Frank found a sight that chilled him to his core and shot his blood pressure up to dangerous levels. One of their legionnaires, a pink-haired girl by the name of Lavinia, was holding onto about five bottle rockets. That wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that she was talking to Leo.
"No," Frank interrupted. Lavinia jumped and turned towards him. She tried to hide the bottle rockets behind her, but half of them fell to the ground. "No. I do not have time for this. Just put those away. I don't want to see them."
"Frank, those are mine. My friend was just going to store them for me," Leo began. Frank raised one hand and rubbed his forehead with the other.
"I don't care, Leo. I need to talk to Annabeth," Frank said. He was vaguely aware of Lavinia carefully trying to pick up the bottle rockets and sneak away. One crisis at a time.
"Annabeth's not here. She's on a date with Percy. Took Mrs. O'Leary on a playdate," Leo explained, then frowned at his friend. "What's wrong, big guy? Let me help."
"Is Jason there?"
"No."
"Piper?"
"No."
"Any children of Athena anywhere nearby?"
"Frank, I am a literal genius. I can help you."
"Fine. We have a problem. I have an hour and ten minutes before Reyna gets back and kills me. Hannibal, the elephant here at camp, disappeared. There's no sign that he trampled anything or ran away. He just vanished," Frank explained.
Leo frowned and stroked his chin thoughtfully. He nodded to himself. "I have two thoughts. One: dragons."
"Dragons?" Hazel repeated.
"Yeah! Imagine this: You're Hannibal, grazing on grass and whatever elephants eat. Then BOOM! Dragon!" Leo practically yelled. Frank felt his blood pressure hit an all-time high, and his headache tripled. "I bet a dragon got hungry, saw a snack, swooped down, and took Hannibal away."
"Leo, there are so many things wrong with that statement. But, we have one hour and nine minutes now," Frank began. Leo held up his hand.
"Two ideas remember? Number two," Leo said, beaming an amused smile at Frank. "You guys only have one elephant, right? I bet he is lonely. You should try turning into an elephant and using a mating call."
Oh, Frank was going to kill Leo. He was going to take both of his hands and wrap them right around Leo's scrawny, breakable little neck. Frank would grab Leo's neck and thr-
"You're doing it," Hazel pointed out. Frank snapped back to reality and looked down at his hands. Both of his hands were brought together, and his fingers were curled.
Huh.
Look at that.
Reyna was rubbing off on him.
"Leo, did you only have five of those fireworks? Or did Lavinia maybe use one and scared Hannibal away?" Hazel asked.
"Only five. Cross my heart and hope to die. Again," Leo swore.
If only they could be so lucky.
No. Frank did not mean that. He was just very stressed, and Reyna was rubbing off on him. Frank started to pace back and forth. Hazel brought her hands together nervously.
"Is someone pulling a prank on you?" Leo asked. Frank stopped pacing and looked at him. "Think about it: You said that Reyna is away, right? Someone could be hiding Hannibal. Maybe with something like a cloaking device or inside a really large building. All so you freak out and run around camp like a madman looking for him. Right before Reyna gets back, they'll unveil Hannibal."
"I think that is the smartest thing you have said all day," Frank commented. Leo huffed.
"Everything I say is smart. What are you- Hey!"
Frank ran his hand through the Iris message and looked at Hazel. He spoke, "Who do you think would pull a prank? Not the fifth, right?"
"I don't think so," Hazel answered. "Leo said it could be a prank, but what if it's more malicious?"
"Like someone trying to make me look bad?" Frank wondered. Hazel nodded. "So, the first cohort could have done this?"
"Possibly. Give me thirty minutes, and I'll talk to all of the centurions," Hazel said. Frank shook his head.
"I'll handle this. I'm just going to need to borrow two dogs."
Borrowing the dogs was easier said than done. For one, Frank was lucky that Aurum and Argentum were not with their owner. He was not so lucky that they were hanging around her desk. The two dogs were very protective of Reyna's desk, as they snapped at anyone who approached. Frank wasn't going to steal Reyna's jellybeans or any important paperwork.
His saving grace was Aurum. The golden hound was laying on top of Reyna's desk, and Frank knew how much she hated that. It was one of the only things that she yelled at her dogs about. Personally, Frank thought it was cute the few times he walked into the office and saw both dogs laying on top of the desk on their backs asleep. It was even cuter the one time Reyna fell asleep at her desk, and the two dogs fell asleep next to her head.
Reyna did not find it so cute. She even yelled at Frank for letting her dogs get up on the desk in the first place. Even though he walked into the room right after her. He could hear that yelling in the back of his mind as he looked at Aurum.
"Hey boy, your owner is pretty pissed already. Help me out, and I won't say a word."
That was how Frank found himself the temporary owner of two metal greyhounds, and he swore that Aurum was sulking the whole time. Argentum practically pranced around Frank as if gloating in triumph. Before the two dogs could start biting each other, Frank led them to the centurions of the first cohort. Then the second. Then the third. Then the fourth. Even to Dakota of the fifth.
Every outcome was the same. He would ask if they saw Hannibal, and none of them had since the night before. Frank asked if they were hiding Hannibal, and he was told no. He asked if they were pulling a prank, and he was told no. The two dogs gave no indication that any of the centurions were lying, so unless they were trying to get Frank killed, no pranks were being pulled.
It took five minutes to interrogate each centurion and double that for Dakota, so when Frank had finished asking questions, he had fifteen minutes left until Reyna was supposed to get back. And, he had no clue where Hannibal went.
How did Frank lose an elephant? Which deity hated Frank so much that they wanted to ruin his life like this? What did Frank do to deserve this? He tried to live a good life. He tried to be the best person he could be.
"Cheer up, Frank. It will be okay," Hazel soothed as she leaned on the door of Frank's office. It was the place he went after giving up on any hope of finding the elephant. Frank slowly looked up at his girlfriend. Hazel gave him a gentle smile and walked towards his desk. She sat down. "Reyna can't be that mad."
"I lost an elephant. It's like a dog getting out. Yeah, you might not be able to stop it, but you would have definitely noticed it. How did I not notice Hannibal getting out?" Frank groaned. He laid his head back and stared at the ceiling. "I'm so screwed."
"You're not," Hazel began. Frank closed his eyes. "It could have happened last night. That's the last time anyone saw him. That means it's not just your fault. It's also Reyna's."
"What's my fault?"
It was just like Reyna to be early to a deadline.
Frank slowly opened his eyes and looked at Reyna. His eyes widened at Reyna's appearance. Her hoodie was covered in golden dust, regular dust, glass, something black, and lastly blood. It was torn in multiple places. Her blue jeans had a new hole in them on the opposite leg of the designed one.
"You're hurt. You need a hospital," Frank stated. His worry went from Reyna yelling at him about Hannibal to Reyna dying before she had the opportunity to curse him out. Frank started to stand. "I can get you nectar or ambrosia."
"Had worse," Reyna waved off. She gingerly walked towards the free chair, dragging her leg on the ground. Her right arm rested against her stomach, and her other hand pressed against her ribs. Reyna slowly sat down and winced in pain. "And, Hylla already shoved ambrosia down my throat as she apologized for nearly killing me."
"What happened?" Hazel asked. Reyna rubbed her forehead and laid her head back, closing her eyes.
"After keeping Hylla from getting arrested, she got into an argument with me. We started having a small screaming match, and we got attacked by another monster," Reyna explained. She didn't look at them.
"What kind of monster was it?" Frank questioned.
"I don't know," Reyna muttered. "In all of my sister's genius, she shoved me out of the way of the monster's attack. With her belt that enhances her strength. I had it handled by the way. She wasn't paying attention to where she shoved me, and I learned what it's like to get hit by a speeding car."
"Don't recommend," Reyna continued. She exhaled painfully. "I don't think I've ever heard Hylla apologize that much. Or ever."
Frank exchanged looks with Hazel and weighed the options in his mind. The first was to just keep quiet. Reyna would be able to go to sleep after visiting their infirmary, and she would learn in the morning that Hannibal was missing. It would ruin her day; or, he could just tell her now.
As Frank thought about it, he knew it was best to tell her now. Not to pull the band-aid off or anything like that. No, he just figured that after getting hit by a car, Reyna's day could not get any worse.
"Reyna, about Hannibal," Frank began. Reyna opened one eye.
"Is he back yet?" Reyna asked. Frank froze.
"Back?" Hazel slowly asked. Reyna nodded and closed her eye again. She shifted painfully. "What do you mean back?"
"Percy stopped by this morning. Asked if they could borrow Hannibal to take him to the park with Mrs. O'Leary. I would have told him to find his own elephant if Nico and Annabeth weren't there. They promised that nothing would happen to Hannibal, and he would be back by dinner," Reyna explained. She opened her eyes. "Did I tell you that this morning?"
"No," Frank answered as he felt his blood pressure simultaneously lower and raise at the same time.
"Hmm. I'm sure you didn't even notice," Reyna lightly hissed as she shifted. Frank felt his eye twitch. "Is it dinner time?"
"Two minutes past," Hazel replied. There was a huge grin on her face. Frank felt his hands coming together, and his fingers curled.
"If Hannibal isn't back, I'm going to yell at Percy," Reyna muttered. She tried to stand up and winced in pain. Hazel quickly stood to help her. "You okay, Frank? You look red in the face. Did something happen while I was gone?"
Frank took a deep breath and stood. He spent all this time worried that Hannibal had been taken, ran away, or was part of some prank. He was so worried that he was the one who lost the elephant.
But no.
Reyna just forgot to tell him that Percy was taking Hannibal out of the camp. Frank was going to strangle his fellow praetor this time, then move onto Percy. Frank was going to murder both of them.
Gods. Reyna really was rubbing off on him.
Frank took another deep breath and tried to go to his happy place. He was able to calm down slightly as he thought that what happened to Reyna was probably karma for her not telling him about Hannibal. Not that he wanted her to be hurt or anything, but she was the reason his blood pressure would probably never recover from today, and his poor heart wouldn't either. Reyna had already paid a price for that forgetfulness, though. But, Percy? Oh, Percy was another story.
Frank looked at Reyna and spoke, "Nothing happened. It was peaceful. I was just thinking about the fact that it is past when Percy said he would be back. Hazel, why don't you help Reyna to the infirmary? I'll wait for Percy to get back. I need someone to yell at."