Frank and Hazel's apartment in New Rome overlooks the rose gardens and the sidewalk cafes. The most glamourous view though is the sunrise sparkling off the Little Tiber. In the gentle flowing current he imagines a million of his beautiful Hazel's cursed jeweles sparkling dangerously under the surface.
Deadly and beautiful, Frank thinks. Just like his girlfriend.
"Zhang, we need to talk, now!"
"Sure. How about over a cup of coffee, dear. It's a beautiful morning. I was thinking we should- uh Hazel, why is Leo struggling for breath in your grasp?"
"Help me," Leo wheezes out.
"Don't you think- and this is just a suggestion- you ought to release your grip from Leo's windpipe?"
"Fine," Hazel growls. She lets go of Leo's throat, but quickly restrains Leo's arms behind him. "You better not try to escape again, Valdez. I'll just keep hunting you down over and over, until I get my point across to my big ox of a boyfriend."
Leo gulps nervously, "Yes ma'am."
"Good, now go sit down and don't move." Hazel shoves him toward the couch. Leo erraticaly scrambles onto the couch and sits with too perfect posture.
"Now as for you Zhang," Hazel begins, but Frank is slowly backing into their bedroom and locks the door, unfortunately leaving Leo at the mercy of Hazel's ire.
Nico picked that moment to appear in the apartment behind Hazel. "Hey, sis. I was wondering if you wanted to visit our dad's shrine with-"
Hazel turns to face her brother with that nasty glare only a child of the Big Three can muster.
"You know what, you're very clearly not in the mood, I'll just go-"
"Stay," Hazel demands. "Sit."
Leo pats the spot next to him in a defeated sort of way like, come join me in the hot seat pal.
Hazel redirects that nasty glare to Leo like she can sense his thoughts, and he meekly retracts his hand as Nico dejectedly sits down next to him.
Inside the relative safety of their bedroom, he can sense his girlfriend is trying to break down the door with her daughter-of-Pluto glare alone. Which likely means he doesn't have much time.
He very quickly and quietly shuts the adjoining bathroom door as he slips away from the danger zone of being directly on the opposite side of the flimsy barrier that is their bedroom door. His hands are shaking as he turns on the tap and flips a silver denarii in the running water. He repeats the blessing he learned from his Greek friends years ago. "Please goddess, show me Annabeth."
An image appears in the mist of Annabeth in the library of the New Rome University studying some architecture book. Percy is attempting to write an essay probably, or he's just filling up his notebook with erraticaly sketched images of Blackjack and Tyson with his girlfriend Ella the Harpy.
Hazel bellows outside his bedroom door like an angry minotaur and then there's an obnoxious thud, followed by the sound of splintering wood. Sounds like she just used poor Leo's head as a battering ram.
Annabeth quickly looks up from her work, alarmed. Frank doesn't really have time to wonder if her reaction is because of his sudden appearance in front of her face, or the sound of the door about to implode behind him due to the continuous smacking of Valdez's skull against the wood, because he has to make this fast if he wants to survive until his next birthday. Oh yeah, and save Leo from becoming severely concussed, although it may already be too late for that.
"Hey Annabeth, how are things? You and Hazel are both girl besties, right? Of course you two are. Can you please explain to me why exactly my girlfriend is trying to kill me?! Or Leo?! Or possibly use Leo to kill me?!" Now he really did try to keep the panic out of his voice, but that was clearly a lost cause.
Annabeth tries to say something. Any words of wisdom from the daughter of Athena would be helpful right now, even if those words are just about how stupid Frank is being. Hiding out in a bathroom from his angry minotaur girlfriend and all that.
Before she can even start to say anything, critical or otherwise, Percy comes into view looking completely bewildered. "Dude, isn't it obvious?"
"What's so obvious, genius? That my girlfriend is a complete lunatic, who is Hades-bent on killing Leo and me? And possibly her brother?"
"I don't really believe she would kill Nico. Maybe you and Leo, but never Nico."
"Thanks."
"Frank Zhang, if you don't open this door right now I will shadow travel you to New Mexico and you can sleep with a cactus tonight."
"A cactus might be less prickly than you," Frank mutters under his breath.
"What was that!?" Hazel demands sharply.
"Nothing at all dear." Frank says with a pleasantness he doesn't really feel.
"Don't you remember last week, in front of the Senate House?"
"Bro, could you be even more vague? I can't even remember what I had for dinner last night."
"Really? But dessert was so good."
"Percy, let me handle this crisis. Go back to your sketching." Her tone is pleasant enough but her face says, 'we'll talk about this later.' Percy very sheepishly backs away to his end of the table, and very quietly shrinks down into his seat.
"Now then, remember that little box that washed in on the shore of the Little Tiber?"
"Way to not be vague Annie." Percy sings in the background.
"Put a sock in it, seaweed brain."
But Frank remembers, and an understanding began to grow in his mind. Hazel had been there that day.
"Oh." Is all Frank says.
"Oh, c'mon. I can't believe he got it." Percy shouted in the background.
Frank takes a deep breath. "Okay, I have to go rescue Leo and Nico from my girlfriend."
"Good luck. And I have to finish drawing Blackjack fighting a gorgon."
Annabeth levels Percy with a deathstare that could rival Hazel's.
"What? You already caught me. I'm just owning it. Don't be a hater Annie. Oh, and Frank. In case we don't see you alive again, I'm sorry I laughed at you for the koi fish incident. Wait, no I'm not. That's still funny. Anyway, R.I.P. my man."
"Butt out seaweed brain," Annabeth says. She turns back to Frank and contemplates him for a long moment. He feels under scrutiny beneath her grey gaze. Not unlike the way he would feel if he were face to face with her mother. The only thimg she says when her scrutiny ends; "Good luck, Frank. Good luck. You were a good friend." And the Iris message dissolves, just like that.
Frank takes a deep breath. Then another one. He steels himself before slowly edging the bathroom door open.
Hazel is immediately on the other side of the door, nostrils flaring, still imitating an angry minotaur.
Frank reaches behind him for a roll of toiket paper and unravels it a little in front of him, out of the slit in the door.
"Truce. Please, fiance. Truce. No, no, no. Put Valdez down. I surrender." Frank pleads.
"Wait, did you say fiance?" Hazel instantly stops violently shaking Leo by the throat, and pleasantly smiles at poor, sobbing Valdez. "You can go sit with my brother now, darling."
"Sweet air. I will never take breathing for granted again. Thank you mamacita." Leo streaks out of the room with his pants on fire.
Hazel turns that suddenly, sickeningly sweet smile on Frank and lunges at him. Instead of ripping out his vocal chords, she hugs him tightly and covers every inch of his astounded face with kisses. For a brief second Frank is reminded why he loves this woman, because the next second he finds himself awkwardly sprawled in the bathtub, with his new fiancé laughing like a crazy person on his chest.
Nico makes an appearance, looming over the suspicious looking couple in the bathtub, typical child of Hades style. "Heard a lot of banging, and I mean a lot of banging. Just wanted to make sure Zhang is still alive. And as he is clearly not dismembered, I must now help Valdez extinguish his pants." Then muttering under his breath, "I'll never understand women."
"So, where's the ring?" Hazel asks enthusiastically.
"If I may go to my sock drawer, my lady-"
"Gross, it's in your sock drawer?"
"That attitude is precisely why it's in my sock drawer."
"Oh, nevermind. Just bring me my shiny."
Frank carefully lifts his minotaur imitating fiancé off his chest and hobbles out the bathroom door, pins and needles pricking up and down his legs. He fishes around in his sock drawer until he pulks out a small box. Which now feels significantly lighter than the day he pulled it from the river.
He cautiously opens the box and begins to hypervetilate. "She's going to kill me, her shiny's gone."