Another idea from my lovely reread, SoN again.
This was going to be sitting in my doc manager for a long time so I had to make a reminder to post it. I figured why not now since I'm in class and it's my birthday.
Story #35: Percy Interrupts This Sentry Shift With Juno and Some Gorgons
"Any … 7s?"
"Go fish."
Frank picks up another card and adds it to his hand, exhaling breath he could see as he scans the cards in front of him. His arm starts feeling stiff but that's his armour freezing from the lack of moving in the cold.
It's not like sentry duty at this post had anything worth moving for. Or any of their shifts. If they weren't playing cards, they would just watch commuter traffic on Highway 24 in the chilly fog. That in itself makes it so boring because one could only watch the same expensive cars and mini-vans go back and forth. Standing makes it so much worse.
"T'as froid?" Hazel asks, her golden eyes flickering up from her cards to look at him.
"La tortue porte une jupe verte," Frank responds.
Hazel purses her lips for a second before smiling. Her eyes return to her cards just in time for Frank to warm up. His face burns and he tries to hide his growing blush with his cards.
It was an ongoing joke for them to have a conversation in French, something to lighten the mood and pass the time. The running gag was that their conversation would never be coherent given their regional differences in the language. Nothing ever goes through. Maybe one of them would ask a serious question or make a remark, but the other would say something random in response.
Sometimes, Frank wonders if he could use that to tell Hazel how he feels. Just a simple je t'aime as practice. It's probably the same thing in her French, anyways. He's imagined telling her and looking right into her eyes but his daydreams always stopped because he can't guess how she would react.
Despite French being the language of love, Frank can't tell her that way in case she would understand. He'll just continue to keep it to himself.
"Frank?"
"Yeah?" He snaps out of his daze.
"Any 5's?"
"Oh…" He glances back at his hand. "Go fish."
Hazel picks up another card from the deck.
This shift was even more boring than the last, and they didn't even think that was possible since there was no traffic for them to watch.
Nothing ever happens on their shift. Nothing. Even with Camp Jupiter at its low point being weaker and basically has no outstanding morale. One of their praetors goes missing, the Twelfth Legion Eagle also goes missing, quests become more dangerous and more invulnerable monsters attack them at the border.
Nothing.
And to think Hazel and Frank just got here too.
It had to be some kind of punishment because he's the unclaimed geek on probatio while Hazel is a newbie to the legion and the disgraced daughter of Pluto. Both such cohort losers than even the monsters don't want to waste their time with them.
But at least that's their common ground.
"Frank?" Hazel asks, her voice more urgent this time.
"Yeah?"
For a moment, Frank thinks it's his turn for cards but sees Hazel on her feet and cards put face down on their makeshift table (which was a rock). Frank stands next to her and looks down the highway.
His hand grips on his bow as he sees a young and ragged boy stumbling down the highway with an equally dishevelled old lady in his arms. When the boy stoops down with exhaustion, Frank looks at Hazel. Her eyes are narrowed as she studies the scene, fingers lacing her spatha.
"Do you know what's going on?" Frank asks, looking at the boy and the old lady again. Could that be-? "Is that Jason?"
"No," Hazel responds. "I don't know who they are."
Immediately, Frank loads his bow and raises it, pointing it at the boy and the old woman. Before he fires, Hazel puts her hand on his forearm to stop him.
"Don't shoot," Hazel orders. "What if it's a test from the gods? Especially with all the extra monster attacks. It's the perfect testing opportunity."
Frank's brows furrow as he keeps his eyes and aim at them. Hazel has a point, but he believes the gods have better things to do, especially since his god parent still hasn't acknowledged his existence.
"What if it's a monster in disguise to get into Camp?" Frank challenges. "Loads of homeless people in California and an old lady is easy sympathy points."
Hazel tightens her grip on her sword. "Either way, it's a test. A good chance for us to prove ourselves."
Frank laughs a little. This would not help them in any way, shape, or form. He looks ahead and sees Gorgons entering their field of vision, chasing the boy and the old lady. If this was some kind of test, he doesn't know the answer.
Of course, this had to happen when they were on shift. Of course.
"Any Gorgons?" Frank lightly jokes.
Hazel grins a little. "Go fish."