Heroes of Olympus Series. Annabeth Chase X Male Reader Story

The Free Therapy Trial Runs Out

Hazel's POV

Even before she got on the boat, Hazel felt queasy. She kept thinking about Phineas with steam coming out of his eyes, his hands crumbling to dust. Percy had assured her that she wasn't like Phineas. But she was. She'd done something even worse than torment harpies.

You started this whole thing! Phineas had said. If it weren't for you, Alcyoneus wouldn't be alive! As the boat sped down the Columbia River, Hazel tried to forget. She helped Ella make a nest out of old books and magazines they'd liberated from the library's recycling bin.

They hadn't really planned on taking the harpy with them, but Ella acted like the matter was decided. "Friends," she muttered. "Ten seasons. 1994 to 2004.' Friends melt Phineas and give Ella jerky. Ella will go with her friends."

Now she was roosting comfortably in the stern, nibbling bits of jerky and reciting random lines from Charles Dickens and 50 Tricks to Teach Your Dog. (Y/N) was the only other person she let touch her.

When he asked her why, she would just babble on about some book, "All Together Now." She would say, and then in singsong, she would recite the same phrase every time. 'All together now! We're the little Honeys."

The first time she had done it, they thought nothing of it, but the third and fourth time, they knew she must have been trying to tell them something. They looked at (Y/N) for an answer, but he looked about as lost as we were with her comfort around him. "She should hate me...I didn't expect this." He said.

Hazel knew the feeling, every time she thought about her past, about the life she lived before all this and people like Sammy, and her mother, and then to Frank, Percy and (Y/N), she felt like it was just a matter of time before they hated her.

Even looking at them now she felt like they should have blamed her for something. She was especially wary of (Y/N) since he did something as stupid as swallowing one of her gems. The thought of it made her stomach twist.

She didn't understand why, why would someone willingly put themselves in such danger just to prove a point? (Y/N) may not have believed in the curse, but Hazel did, she had seen it in action, and the aftermath.

She kept glancing over at (Y/N) expecting him to keel over, or spontaneously combust, or a piano to fall on him, something, but every time he would just smile at her. It was unnerving in a way. Hazel guessed the only reason he had lived this long was because his father was chained up.

Not that it put her at ease, even now as they were on the water, she found herself getting chills every few minutes, each time, she'd instinctively look towards (Y/N), expecting him to have been hurt in some way.

But he just looked at her with (E/C) eyes and shrug as if to say 'Still here. Weird huh?' Part of her knew it was arrogance, hubris, but it did give her a sort of a rush each time, if (Y/N) could get over the curse, maybe so could she.

Percy knelt in the bow, steering them toward the ocean with his freaky mind-over-water powers. Hazel sat next to Frank on the centre bench, their shoulders touching, which made her feel as jittery as a harpy.

She remembered how Frank stood up for her in Portland, shouting, "She's a good person!" like he was ready to take on anybody who denied it.

She remembered the way he had looked on the hillside in Mendocino, alone in a clearing of poisoned grass with his spear in hand, fires burning all around him and the ashes of three basilisks at his feet.

A week ago, if someone had suggested that Frank was a child of Mars, Hazel would have laughed. Frank was much too sweet and gentle for that. She had always felt protective of him because of his clumsiness and his knack for getting into trouble.