You Give Liberty a Bad Name (a Percy Jackson AU)

Frankly, I Love You

Pennsylvania: July 26, 1776
    Frank could not believe that he was choosing to fight when war had killed both of his parents. He was leaving behind his grandmother who loved to tell of how they had emigrated to Pennsylvania.
       "Your father was a British soldier and he met your mother on a trade expedition," she would say. "It was just my luck that she decided to come over here and how could I not come with her?"
     But Frank knew his grandmother was lonely, no matter how strong she tried to act. She was a foreigner in a colony where no one else looked like them. It didn't matter that the East used to looked toward; now, it was the West that was being fought over.
"Fai, I am proud of you," Frank's grandmother told him as he gave her a hug, "Now, don't cry."
Frank started sobbing. He didn't care if that wasn't seen as manly. Had not Odysseus shed tears everyday on Calypso's island, saddened by the fact he was separated from his dear Penelope and forced to prostitute himself every night? Had not Achilles cried when Patroclus had died? No, crying was not a sign a weakness or a sign that a man lacked masculinity. If anything, crying was a sign that a man not only had manly courage, but was fortified with a heart to match that iron-clad courage.
"I'll miss you," Frank said, "and I don't want you to die alone."
"Dear gods," his grandmother said. "I am an old woman. You are a young man going off to war. Both of our lives will be in danger, but we both may make it. We could also both die, but either way, you have made me proud Fai."
Frank kissed his grandmother on the cheek. She had never complimented him like that before. Truthfully, he didn't want to go, but his grandmother had urged him. She reminded him of how his parents had died for the colonies and she would rather see him brought home on his shield than carrying his shield home while the armies fought on. She was sentimental in that way.
Frank's grandmother led him to the door and he gave her one last hug. He started trudging towards the recruitment station. When he looked back, he saw his grandmother with a small smile etched on her face. He turned his head and focused on the path before him. Somehow, he would have to make his ancestors — both dead and alive — proud of him.
When Frank arrived at the recruiting station, the recruiter looked at him and narrowed his eyes.
"I don't think you can join," he said.
"But I born in Pennsylvania," Frank said. "My father fought in the French and Indian War."
The man raised one eyebrow and said, "I've never seen your type here in the colonies."
Frank bit his lip. He hid his clenched fists beneath his coat. He was having a difficult time resisting the urge to badmouth this recruiter.
"You would turn down a good soldier?" he asked. "Both of my parents died for the colonies. I am as loyal as anyone else."
"Let him join, Jacob," someone interjected. "He's tall and strong. He'll make a good soldier. Do you want him fighting for the British?"
Jacob looked at Frank again and he finally nodded. He shoved a piece of paper in front of Frank's face. Frank took it and signed his name and his life away to the colonial cause.