3-waking up with a few extra hours to sleep in

Hazel woke up at approximately five in the morning, gasping.

"I thought the blackouts were over." She muttered into her pillow, wiping the back of her hand over her forehead, which was soaked with sweat as if she had a fever. She rubbed her sheet over her wet cheeks.

"Hmm?" Someone else, she couldn't tell beneath the sleepy voice, called across the room.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep." Hazel called back. The person slumped back into their blankets with a relieved huff.

This one wasn't really a blackout. Oil was filling her lungs and her mouth; it tasted horrible. Sammy's face swam in front of her. Her mother stood with him, smiling. She tried to lift her arms, but they were like lead. Sammy and her mother faded away; she had missed her chance. Despair was crushing her like a big pile of schist was sitting on her chest.

And then she'd woken up, crying.

Now Hazel was fully awake; going back to sleep was pointless.

Instead, the Roman got out of bed, dressed silently, grabbed a pencil and paper, and went outside. She sat in the shadow of the cabin as the sun attempted to rise, trying to draw the camp, which was hard considering that it was roughly 5 in the morning.

She didn't let her thoughts stray to the airship. Because then she'd think of Leo and that would lead to him...it was hard with the Greek machine of death itself towering over her.

She had to admit, once she looked, the airship was faultless. The design was impeccable, built for war. Mars probably would've been impressed. She could see crossbows and cannons mounted on the outside. The details were amazing. The metal was almost vibrating with power.

A glint of bronze at the prow caught her attention; it was the head of a dragon, completely motionless with blank, staring eyes of rubies. They seemed to watch her. It looked almost…alive.

Hazel shivered, wondering who had thought of that for the masthead. It was creepy, the way the scarlet eyes followed you.

She glanced down at her notepad, which had a nearly perfect sketch of the masthead on it. She hadn't gotten the eyes quite right, but she doubted that any artist could depict them.

Damn it. She usually didn't get that distracted when she was drawing. Her hand must've moved as she examined the dragon head.

"That's amazing." An awed voice said from above her.

The Greek girl with chocolate hair sat down next to her, staring with brown eyes at the paper.

"It's nothing." Hazel felt herself go pink at the praise; no one but Frank or Percy complimented her.

The girl stared at her quizzically. Her eyes were jade-green now. "I'm Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite."

"McLean...like the actor?" Hazel had only heard about him; she hadn't actually seen any of his movies, but apparently he made millions of dollars with this one movie about Sparta or something.

Piper's mouth twisted into a smile that remained beautiful despite her resentful expression. "Yeah. He's my dad."

"Oh. Cool." Hazel couldn't think if anything else to say, since she didn't have the best father/daughter experience, so they sat in silence for a while.

"Why're you up so early?" Piper asked eventually. The sun was just starting to peek over the hills and burn away the mist.

"Nightmares. You?" Fear boiled in Hazel's belly as she remembered the oil in her lungs. She gulped in the crisp morning air, as if

"Same." Piper's face paled, her now-blue eyes glittering with terror.

"Oh." Hazel felt her face glow red again, except this time it was in shame. She shouldn't have asked.

"It's no problem." Piper added, seeing the look on the Roman's face. "Just something from a quest. Nothing big."

Hazel wasn't convinced, but she dropped the subject nonetheless.

"How old are you?" Piper asked curiously.

"Thirteen," Hazel answered. "but I'm turning fourteen soon." A bit of pride entered her voice.

"Oh, I thought you were fifteen." Piper looked shocked.

"I look older than I am." The daughter of Pluto responded happily.

The camp began to wake up, despite the fact that it was probably like six-thirty in the morning. A couple Latin curses drifted over to them from the people who fell out of their beds inside.

"Who gets up this early?" Piper asked in disgust.

"Just freaks like Reyna who think the camp needs to get up this early. Besides, it gives us time to get those damn togas on if we have meetings." Hazel said dismissively, but Piper laughed anyway.

Hazel finally recalled why she looked familiar. Hazel saw her outside the Senate House with Jason, and they were holding hands. No wonder Reyna had been in a bad mood lately.

"So...you and Jason?" Hazel asked, acting on her suspicion. Piper went red.

Ha. She knew it.

"I have fake memories from the Mist." Piper explained, a little too fast, as she got up hurriedly. "That's it."

"I wasn't accusing you." Hazel grinned as Piper turned redder, until she looked like a tomato. "Nice meeting you Piper."

"Likewise." Piper's teeth gleamed once as she smiled, all embarrassment forgotten, and she was gone.

Hazel stood and stretched. She folded the paper and put it in her pocket.

She could use some coffee.

I do not own PJO or HofO.

This was me after reading my reviews for the first 2 chapters:

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL *breathes* SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL

Next one is where the plot finally kicks off, so I'll post it Friday. Sorry, no Leo in this one, but there will be some fluff in the next one :) I wanted some bonding.

Good? Bad? Review?