Why Don't We date already? | oneshots

bunker nine

book series: heroes of olympus by rick riordan

*****

Frankee glared at the son of Apollo across from her work table in Bunker Nine.

"I think that's my staff you have."

A flash of guilt spread across Zach's face before he hid the Celestial bronze staff behind him. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Give it back, Zach." Frankee was just about done with this guy. She had been working on a part of the Argo II when Zach had walked in, messing around with her and her siblings' desks. It would have been fine if Zach lost himself in the endless shelves. But instead, he edged closer to her, eventually messing with her table. Which would've been fine if half of it wasn't covered in things that could potentially explode.

"I was planning on it," he muttered, still not relinquishing it.

Frankee rolled her eyes. "You were planning on, oh I don't know, using it for target practice? I put Greek fire in that and if it explodes—"

Zach immediately threw the bronze staff back at Frankee, who caught it with ease. The daughter of Hephaestus turned away from Zach and made her way back behind her work table, inspecting her staff as she did so.

"Wait a minute," Zach said slowly. "There wasn't any Greek fire in it."

"Why were you even in here anyways?" Frankee asked, avoiding his unspoken question.

"Just wanted to see what was in here," Zach shrugged.

"Nothing to see here, so shove off."

"Rude," Zach pretended to be offended. "What are you doing in here?"

"I don't really like capture the flag," Frankee wrinkled her nose, checking to see if anything malfunctioned in the staff. "Why are you here? I would have expected you to be wreaking havoc with your cabin."

"Mhm," Zach hummed, not really answering her. He picked up a grenade from Leo Valdez's worktable. "What does this do?"

Frankee touched the cold metal in the boy's hand. It took only one touch for her to glimpse the internal workings of the weapon. "Cotton candy."

"And this?"

"Practice sword."

"What about this?"

"Supposedly can hold a drakon egg."

"And this?"

"DON'T TOUCH—" Frankee shouted to no avail. Zach's fingertips grazed the volatile container.

Frankee ran to him, pinning him against the wall as a column of heat seared her back. Her face was mere millimeters from Zach's. She stared at a spot on her shoe as the column of fire slowly died down, not seeing the blush of red or dazed expression on Zach's face.

Once the heat had subsided, she peeled herself from Zach. She checked the canister, which, of course, was empty. She trashed it and moved back to her worktable.

"What was that?" Zach asked, not moving from his position as he watched Frankee standing by her worktable.

"That was a fire column," Frankee replied, eyes closed and fists clenched at the sudden pain from the burns on her arms and calves. She knew she should've worn jeans and a long sleeve. Instead, she had chosen jean shorts and a tank top due to the hot Long Island summer.

Zach finally tore his mind away from Frankee's body pressed against his and realized that "Frankee, you're hurt."

"Tartarus," Frankee muttered, seeing spots dance before her eyes. "There's nectar in the blue water bottle, I think. There's aloe in Leo's table."

Zach rummaged around, keeping himself calm (mostly). He was immediately by her side, holding the bottle of nectar to her mouth and supporting her, the instincts he inherited from his father coming in to play. She sipped, feeling the taste of an Oreo milkshake coat her mouth. She gasped as the burns faded to fresh pink skin, still stinging. Zach carefully smoothed the aloe over the former burns, adding some to his own.

"Thanks," she smiled at the boy, who was making sure that she was okay.

"Yeah," Zach said, his mind blank of anything else to say as he stared at the daughter of Hephaestus in front of him. "A-anything, uh, for..." You, he finished in his head.

A side effect of being the son of Apollo? The flashes of prophecy. Though Zach was more of a healer than a prophetic person, he occasionally had glimpses of the future.

When Frankee pressed against him, he saw himself. Today. Talking and laughing with her at dinner, resulting in them holding hands.

"So, see you at dinner?" Frankee asked as the horn blew, signaling the end of capture the flag.

"Yeah," Zach said breathlessly. "See you."

*****

God I'm terrible at uploading

Bear with me, though, I'm a bit discombobulated from traveling

I should be back to a normal uploading schedule once I figure out my plan for the rest of summer........

The next bxb oneshot is a bit of a oof so be careful.

Love ya the most, ERA