Heroes of Olympus: After Gaea

Frank

Blue static sparks emitted from the demigod.

"Gods." Frank muttered, gripping Hazel's hand tightly. He knew he'd never want to get on this Hunter's bad side.

"Look... I-I can explain!" The boy stammered, walking backwards. Thalia walked closer to him until he broke into a sprint. Thalia chased him, but he was slightly faster than her, getting out of sight before she could catch him.

"Curse that prick! I'll stuff my dagger up his-"

"Hey, Thalia, it's alright. You've got your moonwater back." Percy told her, his hand on her shoulder.

"But it's flipping nearly empty." She snarled, opening the bag and taking out a beautiful half-filled bottle.

"You mean it's dam half-empty."

"You think you're dam funny, don't you?"

"Well dam me if I think I am."

"Stop trying to be dam funny before your life flashes before your dam eyes."

"I hope that dam pun was intentional."

"Wow, Percy, you're pretty dam smart."

Frank caught contact with Piper, who was with the crowd, and looked at her as if to ask, 'what the Hades are they on about?'

She just rolled her eyes at them and turned back to the guy she was talking to.

"Hey. Shut up." Nico told the two. They laughed a little bit more before being quiet. Where the heck did Nico come from? Frank needed to ask Nico how he did that.

A group of demigods, consisting of the seven plus Thalia gradually attracted to the middle of camp, after Chiron gave the Romans a warm welcome. Will went of with a daughter of Hecate and son of Mercury (he presumed, anyways, because the girl caused the boy's nose to dissappear and he took all her weapons in return), Reyna and Nico caught up and Frank hadn't seen Calypso.

"I like Hermes, but not that guy." The Thalia girl grumbled.

"It's alright, sis," Jason told her, "the important thing is now you know who you can't trust in this camp and to keep your things safe."

"And he might've been eaten up by Furies." Annabeth added.

"You see, Jason? This is why Annabeth's the best friend." Thalia grinned, shoving Annabeth playfully. Jason frowned.

"Guys, you forgot. This is Chris Rodriguez. He's so nice. Maybe he has a good reason for this?" Percy asked. Thalia shot him a look but he just ignored it.

"For what? To drink moonwater for his own personal gain?" Thalia scoffed.

"Does Chris really look like he's consumed any of your b-tec nectar? The guy looks like a tanned zombie." Leo piped in, receiving a swift backhand from the Hunter. "Ow-we! Jeez, woman, have you been drinking protein shakes?"

As usual, Thalia ignored him.

"Whatever. I'm just going to wait for him to return. Then shoot an arrow at his balls." She told the group.

"Hey." Frank said, shyly. "It's um... nice to meet you, Thalia. I could go and look for him."

"And how will you gather ground like that? He's the fastest in this camp." Thalia questioned, crossing her arms.

"I can turn into an eagle and fly around camp. It'll cover a lot of distance." Frank reassured her.

"You're the buff one who can shape-shift and shoot a couple arrows, huh?" Thalia asked, seeming to examine Frank.

"Uh- I guess." He stumbled.

"Tell me, have you ever used a crossbow before?" The girl asked, a mischevious gleam in her eye appearing.

"No." Frank responded, getting a little bit excited. He'd always wanted to try a crossbow, but he was always so busy.

"Get Charles back and I'll show you how to use one. Deal?" She asked, handing out her hand for Frank to shake.

"Why the hell not?" He replied, gripping the Hunter's hand and shaking it firmly.

*

Frank flew for a good ten minutes around the forest that stretched out from the camp before he saw a tuff of brown hair down below. Believing it was Charles, he flew straight down. There, in fact, he was, picking flowers from the ground. Frank thought of losing his wings and being him, and he felt himself grow and not be as warm as he was before. He looked at the demigod, who was stressfully collecting flowers.

"Hey, man." Frank greeted from behind Chris.

Chris turned around and nearly went into a sprint before Frank quickly grabbed his arm. Big mistake. The demigod went into overdrive, begging to not be disintegrated.

"No, no, I'm not mad. Just wanna check if you're good." Frank reassured him, letting him go slowly. Chris looked at Frank, then at his arm, and sighed defeatedly. He sat down on the field, and Frank went to join him.

"Hey, you know, I'm not judging for you taking moonwater. It all depends on what you took it for."

"It wasn't for a greedy gain." Chris responded, twirling the flower stems with his red fingers.

"Unless you tell someone, that's what they'll think of it as."

Chris sighed and placed his face on his hands.

"Look, you can't tell anyone this, okay?"

"Pinky swear." Frank smiled and pulled out his pinky. Chris raised an eyebrow, causing Frank to put it back down.

"Okay, well, do you know Clarisse?"

"Percy told me about her. Daughter of Mars- Ares, super scary, frenemy of Percy?"

"That's the one." Chris slightly laughed but returned back to his frowning state. "She's my girlfriend, and... um... she's unwell."

Frank felt a pang of sadness for Clarisse's state. Even though he wasn't her friend, that was still his half-sister.

"Her cabin and Chiron are the only ones that know, and, of course, me." Chris continued. "Chiron told her to go to the infirmary, but she said she didn't want anyone to know she was unwell. One day I sat down with Percy and he mentioned how Hunters never got ill, and I overheard Annabeth talking about how great moonwater was. So, when the Hunters were training for Capture the flag, I stole the moonwater and gave it to Clarisse, telling her I gave her water, as she refused to take medicine. She looked 100 times better. So, I thought it would heal her to give her a glass of moonwater a day."

"You never drunk it?"

"Not a drop." Chris promised him. "I had to do it for her, you know?"

Frank understood massively. He fought a whole city of monsters just so his girlfriend and her brother could be saved. He would find any alternative to save Hazel. Anything.

"You have to tell everyone what happened."

"I can't. Clarisse doesn't want anyone to know she's ill."

"What about this? Frank suggested. "I'll get the best healer in your camp to tend to Clarisse and you tell Thalia privately what happened, and I can ask Thalia to make up an excuse for you."

"That sounds good..."

"Frank." Frank smiled, handing out his hand. Chris' eyes lit up.

"Oh my gods, Frank Zhang?"

"Um... yeah?"

"You're awesome! You're that roman demigod who's the son of Ares and the legacy of Poseidon! You're super powerful, isn't it?"

"Apparently." He chuckled at the demigod who was being a fanboy.

"Sorry, man, it's just that you're Hermes' favourite, and they can't not bang on about you."

He and Chris walked back to camp, and Frank thought: Not Percy or Jason? Me? I can get used to that.