Hello again! CHAPTER 10! Thanks to all you readers, and your reviews are just to adorable! Here it comes!

Chapter 10 – Flashbacks and dragons

LEO

What are you supposed to do when a big, Asian guy with angry expression is walking towards you? Oh, wait, almost forgot; he can change shape to whatever he wants too!

Leo did the only thing he could.

"Hey. What's up, Frank?" He grinned nervously.

"Valdez, what have you done?!" Frank brummed. "What's wrong with Hazel? What did you do?"

Leo felt how his blood transformed to ice in his veins.

"Wait, what? What's wrong with Hazel?!" He asked.

"Stop pretending you don't know what I'm talking about! You did something to her!"

Leo tried to swallow his panic. His mind raced. What had happened to Hazel? Why did Frank think Leo had done something?

"Okay, can you just calm down and tell me what's wrong?" He asked Frank and put up his hands like he was surrendering. "First, what's wrong with Hazel?"

Frank glared at him, but slowly started to explain.

"I was going to check on Hazel, and when I walk in to her cabin, she is lying in her bed, screaming something about a choice and memories. Then she said your name."

Leo's heart raced a little faster.

"What do you mean? Was she asleep?"

"No." Frank frowned. "I think she had a flashback. I thought she hadn't had any since we shared one…"

"She shared one with me too, not so long ago." Leo reminded him.

"But that was on purpose. The flashbacks she had before came accidently. And she said your name. So what did you do?!"

Leo wanted to bolt for the door. Frank's glare was really unsettling, and this flashback-thing was really worrying. Why had Hazel said his name?

"I didn't do anything." He said. "I have been steering since lunch. Seriously."

Frank still looked angry, but he sighed.

"Okay then. Do you have any idea what it could have been about?"

Leo shrugged and frowned. He was kind of angry at Frank who came with another problem, it felt like Leo's head soon would explode. It was full of problems. When did it all get so complicated?

"Dude, I don't know more than you do. What do you expect me to do, build a machine that can read Hazel's thoughts?"

Frank's cheeks got a little red.

"You can do that?"

Leo rolled his eyes.

"I was sarcastic."

He turned back to the helm and pressed some buttons really fast. He could feel Frank looking at him.

"Uh… And, er, I would be really grateful if you could speak a little with Hazel. She's been a little distant, so I thought maybe she would listen to you… or something."

Leo's hands froze. Frank really wanted him to speak with Hazel? What happened with all Valdez-is-flirting-with-my-girl-stuff?

"Sure." He said. "I'll go when this is done."

"Thanks."

Frank hurried away, and Leo felt how he got more and more nervous. Why did Frank suddenly trust him enough to let him speak with Hazel alone? Or did he think that Leo wasn't a treat anymore?

Anyway, Leo went to the corridor with all the cabins and knocked on Hazel's door. When she opened, he immediately saw that she had been crying. Still, she looked as cute as always.

"Are you okay?" Leo asked nervously.

Hazel sighed.

"Could everybody just stop asking me that?"

But she let him in.

Leo hadn't spent much time on building Frank's and Hazel's cabins. He knew two Roman demigods would be in the prophecy and would sail with him and the others, but he didn't know anything else. He had tried to do their cabins as nice as possible and fitting for a girl or a boy. Now, when he looked around, he regretted that he hadn't spent much time on Hazel's. He could have done it better, more cozy, lighter, anything for Hazel to like it more.

Hazel walked past him and sat down on the bed with her head in her hands.

"W-what's wrong?" Leo asked her. He stood uncomfortably in front of her and fiddled with some things from his toolbelt.

She didn't answer. Leo didn't know what to do, so he sat down on the bed next to her.

"Hey, you can tell me." He said and tried to sound upbeat and not desperate and nervous. "Just tell me what's wrong and we'll figure it out."

Hazel raised her head, and her golden eyes met his. Leo really believed his heart tried to jump out from his body.

She looked terrified, sad, angry and confused, but when she spoke, her voice was deadly calm.

"I can't tell you. Or Frank. Or anybody else."

Slowly Leo moved his hand toward her shoulder. He felt like when he was a kid, that time his mother showed him a new prototype she built and said that he had to be careful. He wanted to touch it, but he really didn't want to make his mother upset.

Leo waited for Hazel to shake his hand off or wince when he touched her, but she didn't. He felt pretty awkward, sitting with a hand on a girls shoulder, but he really didn't want Hazel to be sad.

To Leo's surprise she leaned toward him, resting her head on his shoulder. He felt electric.

Hazel wasn't covering her face now. She didn't cry, she had closed eyes and you could almost think she was asleep.

"Now, what happened?" Leo asked her.

She didn't respond. Leo didn't know if he wanted to run or just sit there forever.

"Frank thinks you had a flashback." He said. "Is it true?"

Hazel was still quiet, but she was biting her lip.

"Did you summon it on purpose?"

Of course, Hazel didn't answer. Leo started to feel kind of desperate.

"Hazel, listen to me."

He grabbed her arm and made her turn toward him. As soon as he did that he regretted it. How could he even concentrate with those beautiful golden eyes looking at him?

"Something is wrong. I know we don't really know each other and this whole Sammy-thing made it awkward between us, but you have to tell someone what's wrong. You didn't want to tell Frank but…" Leo gulped and wondered if he said too much, "You want to tell me?"

Hazel regarded him, but at last she said:

"If you just stop clenching my arm, I'll tell you. It kind of hurts…"

Leo felt how his cheeks were about to catch a fire and let go of her instantly.

"And, uh…" He said uneasily and tried to grin. "Don't sit too close to me, okay? There's always a risk that I catch fire."

Hazel laughed, and Leo thought he'd never heard something more beautiful.

"Sure, Repair Boy."

She moved from him a little.

"So, you can start whenever you want."

"Never?" Hazel asked.

"I'm pretty sure Festus can't be on autopilot that long." Leo grinned.

Hazel smiled again. Leo's heart flipped.

"Well, it started with-"

Then, suddenly, a loud CRASH! interrupted them.

"DIE!" Coach Hedge's voice yelled.

"RUN!" Piper's voice said.

"DUCK!" Nico screamed.

Leo and Hazel threw themselves at the door and ran to deck. A huge, blue dragon was standing on deck, growling and roaring. Their friends were attacking and screaming.

"No, this is NOT happening." Leo muttered.

"What?" Hazel asked him.

The dragon breathed fire. Leo felt flames dance on his own hands.

"It's going to kill them and burn down the whole freaking ship!" Leo screamed to no one particular.

He ran toward the dragon, ignoring the flames that couldn't hurt him. Suddenly he thought of that night when he met Festus. It made him sad.

Piper was hurt. The dragon tail had hit her head and she was lying down, groaning, while Jason desperately tried to attack the dragon and shield Piper.

Coach Hedge and Nico were still on their feet, attacking over and over again.

"DIE!" The coach screamed and hit the dragon with his bat.

"MOVE!" Nico yelled when the dragon tried to eat Coach Hedge.

Leo looked desperately at his ship. Again, it was in flames. His friends could die at any moment. He had to do something.

Hazel was standing next to him, her eyes desperately scanning the scene. She was holding her spatha and looked really dangerous and beautiful.

"Where's Frank?!" She yelled to Leo.

Leo hadn't noticed, but Frank was missing. He tried to think of where Frank could be, but it was kinda' hard when a huge fire-breathing dragon is trying to kill your friends. Luckily, the dragon hadn't noticed Leo and Hazel yet.

Then Leo spotted him.

Frank was flying over the dragon as a huge eagle (since Frank 'accidently' dropped Leo before in eagle form, he hated those things). Apparently he tried to confuse the dragon and give the others time to attack. It looked so terribly dangerous that Leo didn't want to show Hazel. Unfortunately, she followed his gaze and her face became as white as snow.

"No." She whispered. "He's going to kill himself! FRANK!"

Leo wanted to cover Hazel's mouth, but too late the dragon heard her and spotted them.

"Oh-oh." Hazel said. "I-I'm so-"

A big, deathly, dangerous dragon tail really can break up a conversation. Leo duck and yelled to Hazel to do the same. But Hazel didn't; faster than Leo ever seen someone do it before she cut off the dragons tail. The tail fell on the floor between them and exploded in yellow dust.

"Good job." Leo said. But Hazel didn't listen. She was staring in terror at the sky, and when Leo followed her gaze he gulped and said:

"We're screwed."

More later, mowhaha! XD See you!