You guys are so amazing. You know just how to get me writing and updating again. And your words of encouragement and support and just general happiness are invaluable. They mean a lot to me. So, thanks, guys.
This is a Frazel chapter-finally, right? :) But I'm hoping this is okay, because Frazel is kind of hard to right with the age difference. But I like how this chapter turned out, so hopefully you guys will too!I know that I'm still not back to updating regularly, and I'm really sorry about that. Writing anything is still kind of difficult, and right now I'm so busy reading other books for other fandoms (Mortal Instruments, mostly) that PJO and HoO just seem kind of...distant. Which makes it harder to write. But I'm hoping that things'll be easier soon, for your sake. It only seems fair.
But, guys, don't worry-I'm going to finish this. I'm not going to abandon it or put it on hiatus or just stop writing, like so many other authors seem to do. And I'm planning on finishing it before the real version comes out, which is in October. Hopefully that'll be an easy enough goal.
Enjoy, guys, and I hope this chapter makes you happy!
Chapter XC
Hazel
Hazel leads Frank back to her room, and they both take a seat on her bed, leaning back against the headboard.
"What do you want to do?" Frank asks her, and she turns her head at the sound of his voice.
"Can we just stay here for a while?" She asks, looking imploringly up at him. For once, she just wants to have a few minutes of peace-no monsters, no fighting, no worrying. Just quiet. She wants to be happy.
"We can do whatever you want." Frank tells her, and she smiles gratefully up at him, glad to have him. He always understands...
I wonder what Nico's doing right now. She thinks abruptly, interrupting her thoughts about Frank. He must be at Camp Half-Blood by now, unless something went wrong...I hope he's okay. He seemed so angry when he left; so reckless. It wasn't like him-I hope he knows what he's doing. I don't want him to get hurt.
"Hazel." Frank says, startling her out of her thoughts.
"Huh?" She asks. "What is it?"
"You're thinking about Nico, aren't you?" He asks quietly.
Hazel looks away guiltily-she wanted quiet time so that she wouldn't worry, and now she's doing exactly that. "How could you tell?"
He smiles a little and lightly touches her forehead, just above and between her eyebrows. "Your forehead got all crinkled up like it does when you're worried, and you got that dark, sad look in your eyes that you always get. Before, it meant you were thinking about your past, but as far as I know, you haven't thought about it as much lately. So that meant you were thinking about Nico."
Hazel nods in confirmation-she doesn't need to, but she's a little put off by how much Frank knows about her. He notices so much-obviously he pays more attention to her than she ever realized. "I'm worried about him. I know he didn't volunteer to take Reyna back for the right reasons, and she and Coach Hedge aren't the best companions for someone who's gone through what he has."
"No." Frank agrees. "But he's stronger than he looks."
Hazel looks up at him questioningly, and he automatically knows what she's asking-yet another sign that he knows her way better than she gives him credit for.
"Annabeth and Percy have nightmares almost every night-I doubt I was the only one who heard Annabeth yelling at Percy to wake up last night. Whatever they faced in Tartarus changed them, and they had each other then. But Nico-he went through Tartarus too. And he went through it alone. But he still survived; he still made it out, and even though I don't think he'll ever be the same, he's still surviving. That's all anyone can ask of him right now." Frank explains.
Hazel looks up at him, surprised at his wisdom. She shouldn't be-she knows Frank has been through a lot himself. He's smarter than anyone gives him credit for. But she sometimes forgets just how amazing he is.
"Thank you." She tells him, and he glances at her, his brow wrinkled in confusion.
"For what?" He asks.
"For making me feel better. For always being there. For knowing me so well." She lists, finding his hand and letting him wrap his fingers around hers. His hand dwarfs her own and makes it look ridiculously small and fragile. "For everything, I guess."
He shifts uncomfortably, blushing. "Um. I'm not-that great. You're much better at that stuff than I am."
Hazel smiles at his discomfort, her lips stretching over her teeth-he really is the same person. "No, I'm not." He still looks unsure, and she can't help but want to laugh at how hard it is for him to accept compliments. "Take the compliment, Frank. Just say 'you're welcome' and be done with it."
Frank's discomfort vanishes, and he grins mischeviously. "You're welcome and be done with it."
Hazel lightly smacks his chest. "Smart aleck."
"Not really." He replies. "It's something I picked up from my mom-she always did the same thing."
Hazel sees a shadow cross his face, and his smile vanishes. Hers does too, and she twists her body to face him better, ending up with one knee in his lap and the other pressed against his hip. "What was she like?" She asks him quietly, curious.
He looks down, meeting her gold eyes with his warm, gentle brown eyes. Despite the topic, one that must undoubtedly hurt him to talk about, he doesn't hesitate to answer her. "Her name was Emily Zhang. She had dark hair and brown eyes, like me, and she was always smiling. She was nice to everyone, and she went out of her way to help others. Whenever I was upset, she would come up with some way to cheer me up until she could get me to laugh."
He smiles faintly, his eyes now far away. "One time, when I was ten, I locked myself in my room because I was mad I couldn't eat ice cream like all the other kids at my school. The next morning, she let me skip school and then we drove four hours to an ice cream place that had lactose-free ice cream I could eat. Grandma thought she was ridiculous for doing it, of course, and told her that I needed to go to school every day no matter what if I was ever going to live up to the family name. But my mom didn't care. She did it anyway."
He looks back at Hazel again, his smile fading a little. "She wasn't a really strict parent, but she had this way of talking when I did something wrong that made me come to the right conclusion. Instead of telling me something was right or wrong, she helped me figure it out myself. She always had an unwavering sense of duty, whether it was to me, or to her friends, or to the army. She was a great leader, and all the people under her command looked up to her."
His eyes come back into focus, and he smiles warmly at Hazel. "You would've loved her, Hazel."
"If she was anything like you, I know I would have." Hazel replies, squeezing his hand reassuringly.
He scans her face, tilting his head sideways a little, like a curious puppy. "What about your mom? What was she like?"
The question hits Hazel hard, and her chest tightens in pain, throat constricting from the memory. She supposes she should have expected him to ask-after all, that's usually what happens in a conversation-but she didn't, and that makes it a whole lot worse.
She notices his fretful look-she has no idea what her expression must look like, but it's probably making him worry that he shouldn't have asked.
Hazel takes a deep breath, swallowing the lump in her throat, and manages a weak smile. "You mean when she wasn't being possessed by Gaea?"
"Oh." He replies. "Yeah-sorry, I didn't think that through."
"No, it's okay. You told me about your mom; I can tell you about mine." Hazel reassures him. He relaxes a little, but the worry in his eyes doesn't go away.
"If you don't want to, you don't have to tell-" He starts to say, and she cuts him off, shaking her head.
"No, I do. I haven't really talked to anyone about how she was before. It'll be nice." She tells him.
"Okay." He says, still unsure. "If you're really okay with it."
Hazel blows out a breath and leans back against his arm, looking up at the ceiling. She thinks of her mom, cutting out the memories from the time when she was possessed by Gaea, and only letting herself remember the good times.
She smiles, and starts talking. "My mom was a psychic-she called herself Queen Marie, and gave things like palm readings to superstitious people, but she always told me that she never believed in any of that stuff herself. She did it to make a living, and she managed that, although we were never well off. She used to make the best shrimp gumbo for me whenever I needed comfort-she was the best cook. Whenever she could, she'd take me on picnics in the park, and those were some of my favorite times. We smiled and laughed, and sometimes she'd take me to see the horses at the stables afterwards."
She turns to look at Frank, cuddling against him, and continues. "When I was little, maybe nine or ten, she was making an apple pie, and I had helped with other foods before that and liked it, so I asked her if I could help. She let me, and when it was time to roll out the dough for the crust, she set me up on the counter so I could reach it easily and then handed me the rolling pin to let me do it. When she pulled away, she left floury handprints on my shirt, and they made me smile, so I put one on her too. She laughed at me and called me silly, but it just made me even happier.
"When we finally finished and got the pie in the oven, she turned to me and then started laughing out loud. When I asked her what it was, she held me up in front of one of her mirrors so I could see myself-I had flour everywhere, all over my face and clothes and in my hair. But I thought it was great, and when we went back into the kitchen to start cleaning up, we somehow ended up in a flour war where she got completely covered in flour and started chasing me around the house. When she finally caught up to me, she gave me a hug, covering me in even more flour, and then we both started laughing and couldn't stop."
"I can imagine that." Frank says softly, smiling at her.
"It's my favorite memory of her." Hazel replies. "But she really was the greatest person, Frank. She deserved better then the Fields of Asphodel-but that's the best I could do for her."
She looks down, tears welling in her eyes, and quickly scrunches her eyes shut to hold them back. She doesn't want to cry, not now.
"I think," Frank starts, his voice quiet, "that we need cheering up." And he stands, grabbing her hand and pulling her up from the bed.
"Where are we going?" She asks uncertaintly, hesitating in the doorway.
"Just out in the hall." He answers vaguely, grinning mischeviously.
"Why?" She says, even more confused.
"You'll see in a second, I promise." He tells her. Hazel, still confused, follows him out into the hallway, stopping just in front of the stairs that lead up to the deck.
"Wait here." Frank orders, letting go of her hand and putting his own hands up into a 'stay' gesture, as if afraid that she'll disappear. Then he runs to the oposite end of the hall and shuts the door to the stairs that lead down to the engine room and stables before running back to Hazel, where he sits down on the bottom step and starts taking off his shoes.
"Frank, what are you..." She trails off as he puts up a hand, cutting off her question. Then he stands up, an eager, excited grin on his face. Hazel notices that he left his socks on.
"Watch this." He says, before setting off down the hall at a sprint. Halfway down, he stops running, but because of the smooth floors and his socks, he slides the rest of the way down the hall as if he's wearing roller skates.
At the end, he puts out his hands to brace against the door so he doesn't slam into it, and then turns and does the same thing back to Hazel, except that he lets himself slow down before reaching her so that he doesn't fall up the stairs.
"Your turn." He says, slighlty out of breath.
Hazel opens her mouth, brow creased in puzzlement, to ask why on earth he's acting so strange. But then she shuts it, shakes her head, and bends down to take off her shoes.
She gets a running start, which really isn't as easy as Frank made it look in sock-clad feet, and slides across the floors. She can't help but laugh in delight. It hadn't seemed like something that would be fun at first, but it is, it really is.
On her way back, she almost goes sprawling on the stairs, but Frank quickly reaches out and grabs her forearms to steady her. She looks up into his face, grinning, and sees that he's grinning too
"It's fun, isn't it?" He asks eagerly, and she nods enthusiastically in reply.
"Let's do it again, but this time, we can do it at the same time-okay?" She glances up to see if that's all right with him.
He nods in agreement, and they both turn to face the empty hall, holding hands.
"Ready?" He asks.
"Always." She replies. "One..."
"Two..." Frank adds.
"Three!" She finishes, and they both sprint towards the engine room door.
When they're almost there, Hazel's foot accidentally catches Frank's leg, and they both wobble, in danger of falling. Without enough time to put out their hands, they slam into the door with a loud thud, and go sprawling on the floor in a tangled heap of limbs.
Frank lands on top of Hazel, crushing her to the floor, and he quickly scrambles to get off of her, blushing, but his leg is tangled around hers and he just ends up falling again. He mutters apologies, mortified, but Hazel just starts laughing, and he soon joins in.
A door a little ways down the hall opens, and Annabeth sticks her head out. The expression on her face is irritated, ready to yell at someone, but when she sees Frank and Hazel, it changes to one of surprise.
"What in Hades are you guys doing?" She asks, raising her eyebrows.
Hazel and Frank both just start laughing harder, tears streaming down their faces, their whole bodies shaking with the force of their laughter.
Annabeth patiently waits for them to stop, but it doesn't happen. Finally, she just shakes her head in exasperation and withdraws back into the room.
When they finally stop laughing, they lay there for a bit, trying to catch their breath, and Frank wipes her hair out of her face, smiling.
"My mom and I did that once, while Gran was in her room sewing. We ran right past her room every time we did it, and it was impossible to keep from laughing-in the end, we had to hide in the closet when she finally poked her head out the door to see what was going on. I don't remember how old I was, but I think I was about four or five, because she held me on her lap in the closet and had to hold her hand over my mouth to stifle the sound of my laughter." He grins. "Gran found us anyway, and gave us one of her lectures, but neither of us could stop smiling. It was nice."
He continues to talk about that day, how they went into the kitchen later and ate peanut butter out of the jar with spoons, and Hazel loves the way his eyes light up with happiness whenever he talks about memories of his mom. It makes her want to smile too, and helps banish any remaining sadness from her own memories.
Frank notices her watching him and smiling, and he stops talking in the middle of a sentence. "What?" He asks, smiling confusedly at her.
Hazel grins. "Nothing. You."
His forehead wrinkles in even more confusion. "What about me?"
"Everything. You make me happy, Frank Zhang." She tells him. He smiles, slightly embarassed, and the faintest beginning of a blush starts to appear on his cheeks.
"What do you-" He starts, and, on an impulse, Hazel leans forward and kisses him on the lips.
When she pulls back, the blush on his cheeks is a lot more pronounced, and his expression is distinctly flustered.
"I love you, Frank Zhang." She tells him, happier than she's been in a long time, and his face is absolutely priceless. He opens his mouth and then closes it, blushes even more furiously than before, and goes through all the phases of the endearingly clumsy, awkward Frank Zhang that she knows and loves. But when he finally responds, he doesn't stutter.
"I love you too, Hazel Levesque." He tells her, his voice gruff and a little hoarse, probably because of the nerves he's no doubt experiencing at the moment.
Hazel snuggles against him, tucking her head under his chin, and they just lay there, tangled together at the end of the hall. She closes her eyes and breathes him in, and she doesn't stop smiling, because Frank Zhang makes her happy.
They are so cute. *Contented sigh.* I think this turned out well.
I love you, let sleeping Chihuahuas lie, don't let the wait for BoO get to you, and BE HAPPY because life is too short to be anything else!