AN: Calea: You just have to be patient! Later on in this story, as Frank and Hazel's relationship becomes more established, and Hazel becomes closer to the others, and hence Nico does too, you'll see more of their relationships (both romantic and platonic) and you'll definitely see the other canon pairings from HOO…

Kayleeadams123: Nope, I'm definitely not an English/Creative Writing major, though I'm flattered you guessed that!

We're starting to get to the darker part of the story now, but I promise there will be a happy and sickeningly-fluffy ending!

Frank sighed as he read over the emails about Hazel, and his life in general, that he'd been sending his mom. He'd only had one, very brief, reply, but he knew that was to be expected.

Ever since his talk with Nico, the younger boy's words have been swirling around his mind.

'She deserves nothing short of what she is; good. I think she deserves amazing.'

And that was so true.

But Frank wasn't amazing.

He was just an accident-prone, clumsy, teddy-bear/wrestler cross who was awkward and a little shy.

(And, he was clever enough to realize, lacking in self-confidence.)

He wondered what in the world the gods, or whoever determined soulmates, were thinking.

He didn't deserve her. He wasn't worthy.

(A little voice, the most confident bit of Frank, which sounded an awful lot like his mother, spoke up. But is anyone you know worthy? )

He wasn't even that sure if he was really a good person.

(And that was the minimum, the bare minimum requirement, for Hazel's soulmate.)

Frank was, by nature, a non-violent, non-confrontational person.

But, he was certainly capable of doing incredible harm to someone if he so wished.

(That was extremely obvious. One just had to look at his body to know that.)

And, he also knew, he had the potential to wish to do that harm. He had the potential to be violent and dangerous.

He didn't have much of a temper, but he knew he had it in him.

Sometimes, he swore, red flickered across his vision. Red seeped in through the corner of his eyes. Sometimes, he saw red.

The more violent, primal aspect of his personality (perhaps he should call it Neanderthal Frank) was very, very rarely seen.

The protective side of his persona was perhaps the positive side of Neanderthal Frank. His immense desire to protect Hazel, even the protectiveness he felt towards his friends, reflected that.

(If Dylan and his cronies dared to try and attack her, they would have to get through him first. The same went for his friends. He would protect them.)

But there was an awful, terrible, almost frightening downside to Neanderthal Frank.

Violence. Terror. Harm. Damage. Carnage.

The potential for it was all there.

He knew.

If Dylan (or anyone, really) hurt Hazel, if he tried to hurt Hazel, Frank knew he'd do more than just defend her. If he threw a few punches in her defence, he didn't think he'd be able to stop.

(He'd had a horrible nightmare about that after Hazel's scolding of Drew Tanaka.)

Last year, when one of Dylan's cronies had said some truly horrible words (which he was not even going to repeat in his mind) about Leo's mother (Esperanza Valdez was a strong, kind, wonderful woman), and Leo flew at him, leading to him beginning to beat up Leo, he'd been about to wade into the fray and punch him senseless when Coach Hedge walked past and broke it up.

Or sometimes, when he was on the hockey field or the football field (but never the archery one, his favourite by far), he felt it. He saw it. Sometimes, when he was really caught up in the game, he used a little more force than was necessary. Not enough for a foul, most of the time, but more than was really needed. Oh, he'd never actually gotten into a fight on the field, or committed a really serious foul (in fact, he actually had a reputation as a clean player), but sometimes, he felt himself getting close. Once, he got really, really close. There was a player on the opposing team who kept making disparaging comments about him due to his ethnicity. He'd taken it when it was about him, but the moment the boy made one about his mother (his brave, courageous, duty-driven, kind, heroic mother, back from Afghanistan on leave) he nearly punched him then and there. Only the knowledge that his mother would not approve and that she had taught him better stopped him.

Frank hated that part of himself.

Every time he felt that terrible, violent rage, he pushed it down as best he could. It always filled him with guilt, guilt that he could do such terrible things. That he might do such terrible things.

He knew that he'd never turn on Hazel, his friends, his family.

But with the right trigger (and that trigger would definitely be something to do with them), he could be a monster.

And he really, really didn't want to be.

He didn't want Hazel to see that side of him.

As selfish as he was, as guilty as that made him feel (keeping a secret from her, trying to deceive her), he didn't want her to see that monster.

He didn't want there to even be a chance that she'd see it, see him as a monster.

He didn't want to see the hurt and the fear and the repulsion in her eyes.

Hence, he'd never invited Hazel to watch him play football or hockey. And he never would, regardless of his friends' and teammates' poking and prodding and inquiries and teasing and encouragement.

(So far, the excuses that she was still a middle schooler and that he'd be more nervous if she watched, and hence play worse, worked for them.)

(Hazel, bless her, had never pushed. She seemed to sense that he wasn't quite comfortable with the notion, and had reassured him that she wasn't really interested in watching hockey or football or being in a crowd of loud high schoolers she didn't know anyway.)

(Besides, she seemed to be more interested in watching him at archery competitions anyway.)

(He had no idea why.)

'Come on, Nico! It'll be fun!'

Her brother crossed his arms stubbornly.

'I'm not interested, Hazel.'

She sighed.

'All our friends are going to be there to support Frank and the team! Piper and Jason and Leo and Reyna and Percy and Annabeth...'

She might have been imagining it, but a look of pain flashed across his face.

'It's still no, Hazel. I'm not coming with you to watch your boyfriend do archery. Besides, they're your friends, not mine.'

She reached out and took his hand, looking him in the eye.

'They want to be your friends too, Nico.'

He snorted.

'No, they don't.'

Hazel shook her head sadly.

Why can't he see?

'Frank and Percy have told me as much. And I'm positive the others want to be your friend too. They're good people. You're a good person. They'll like you, and you'll like them, if you get to know each other better. Give them a chance.'

She looked at him, eyes slightly sad and pleading.

Nico sighed and kissed her gently on the forehead.

'Okay, Hazel. Okay.'

She beamed and jammed an Olympus High baseball cap on his head.

(She'd borrowed the Olympus High shirt she was wearing and the cap from Piper and Percy respectively for the occasion.)

'Well, come on, or we'll be late!'

Hazel and Nico arrived just in the nick of time.

Olympus High's archery team was warming up, getting focused, and getting ready when they arrived.

Or, at least, they should have been.

Hazel smiled and waved at Frank, who was standing on the field looking worried and glum. His face brightened when he saw her, and he waved back and called out a greeting, but his face fell again when one of his teammates, Kayla, tapped him on the shoulder and they exchanged a few words.

Hazel turned to Piper and Jason, who were standing next to her and Nico, and had arrived earlier.

'What happened?'

Piper sighed.

'Michael Yew, the Archery Team Captain, has apparently fallen suddenly and violently ill.'

Hazel frowned.

A good leader was essential to any team, even in a sport like archery where competition was essentially individual.

The Swim Team's performance at the last meet was testament to that.

'Oh, no!'

Piper nodded.

'Yeah, I don't think it's looking that good for Frank and his team today...But fingers crossed!'

Jason, who had been watching the Archery Team with interest, shook his head.

'I wouldn't be so sure about that, Pipes.'

Piper turned to him, confused.

'What?'

Jason smiled and nodded towards the huddled archers.

'Just keep watching.'

Hazel focused on Frank and the archers. They'd been standing and gesturing rapidly for the last few minutes, faces reflecting their demoralized spirits.

Suddenly, Frank took a deep breath and stood taller. His expression became determined and he gestured to his teammates, gathering them into a huddle.

Hazel watched as he addressed the team. She couldn't hear him, but what he was doing was clear. He was giving them a pep talk.

She kept watching, fascinated, as he finished his address and newly-resolute, the team scattered and began their individual pre-competition rituals.

She stood transfixed, not really paying any attention to her friends, as she watched him give each team member a few words of encouragement as they stepped up to shoot, and patted them on the back when they finished their turn.

This, she thought as he stepped up to shoot, was a side of Frank she'd never really seen before.

He was confident. He was a leader, a natural leader. He seemed even more solid, stronger, than usual. She could see it, in the way he stood, and the muscles in his back and shoulders and arms as he drew...

Hazel realized she'd been staring. She reddened, turned away, and began to fan her face.

Later, she beamed proudly up at him as Olympus High was announced as the winner. He beamed back, his grin growing even wider when she kissed him on the cheek.

She was definitely going to attend more of his archery competitions.