1794 (A Frazel AU)

Family

"May I have the salt please", Neptune requested.

Pluto wordlessly handed it to him. He still looked depressed about his wife. Percy and Nico watched him carefully, looked at each other, then looked away.

"So Frank, what do you think of America?", asked Neptune.

Frank chewed on his porkchop. "It's okay."

"Oh come on! At this age you should be betrothed to a dashing young lady. Like my son", Neptune smiled and dropped his voice. "Any man who can find a scary woman found the right one."

Percy looked offended. "I'm not scared of Annabeth!"

"Oh please Percy. I'm scared of Annabeth."

Bianca giggled. "At least someday Frank will find someone."

"Sure", was his only response.

"Nicholas, how about you", Neptune asked. "Is there any special lady in your life?"

Nico said something under his breath, which Frank thought was something like that.

"Are you serious? Pluto, Mars", Neptune turned to the men. "In front of us is two marriageable bachelors, and you're not jumping at the opportunity to marry into a rich family?"

"May I have the salt please?", asked Frank, desperately trying to change the subject. Mars shot him a look, which caused the boy to shrink down.

"The last thing I need is to be married off somewhere", Nico complained.

"What are you talking about? Once you come of age, you'll inherit the plantation, so any woman that marries you will come here. Frank on the other hand, since Mars doesn't own any land, his best bet is to marry the eldest daughter of a family with no sons or the sons being younger than his wife. Then he'll get the plantation."

Pluto grunted. "Very few women are short enough to marry Nico-"

"Hey!"

"-and I don't think Nico would marry a woman he doesn't like. He would marry a man first."

Nico almost choked.

"Well I guess that's that", Neptune leaned back in his chair. "I'm fulfilled. Thank you so much for the food."

"Its no problem", Mars assured, although he looked like he had an awful thought.

Later, as Mars was showing Neptune and Percy to their rooms, Frank lagged behind at the dinner table. He watched Hazel remove some of the plates that were left.

"Are you sure you don't want my help?", asked Frank.

"Of course not. If you help, I'll be in trouble."

Sighing, Frank looked at a white spot on the table. Curious, he wiped his fingers in the powder.

Hazel noticed. "What's wrong?"

Frank sniffed the powder. "Warfarin. Rat poison."

"But", Hazel looked at the table where the stain was, as if it would miraculously give her the answers, "how did rat poison get on the dinner table?"

"The salt shaker." Frank recalled how Mars refused to hand him the shaker when he asked. "He's trying to poison the entire family."

"Why?"

Frank stayed silent for a moment. "Power, money, greed."

"That's crazy."

"Crazy, but not impossible."

Hazel glaced towards the stairs. "What now?"

"Now", Frank whispered, "now we fight."

"Hey Nico", the blond boy in the window said.

Nico turned around, flailed, and landed on his butt. "Will!", he hissed, "why the hell are you here?"

"I haven't seen you in a while, not since you snuck out into the forest", he pulled himself through the window. "I...um..."

"Aww, you missed me."

"Maybe. I will not tell you, so you won't know."

Nico smirked. "Maybe?"

"Maybe."

Still smirking, the shorter boy hugged William. "Whatever."

They stayed like that for a while, just enjoying each other's company. "Hey Neeks, maybe we could run away together", Will suggested.

"Run away?"

"Yeah, to Canada or something. Live in the countryside, and we could be free."

"Huh."

Will pulled away to look at Nico. "Was that a yes?"

"It wasn't a no", Nico shrugged.

Will was happy enough to kiss Nico, but a knock at the door prevented him from doing so. "Schist!"

"Hide idiot", Nico whispered, shoving him in the closet.

"Nico", asked the voice, "Can I come in?"

Being as chill as ever, Nico launched himself into the bed to make it look like he was there all along. "Sure", his voice squeaked. Smooth Di Angelo, real smooth.

The door opened, revealing Frank and Percy. "Hey Nico", the son of Neptune said.

"Oh, hey Percy", the short boy responded dismissively.

"Come on", Percy threw himself on top of Nico, almost killing the poor boy. "Don't you want to talk to cousin Percy?"

Nico growled. "Get off me you stupid Sasquatch!"

Chuckling, he responded "Gravity says no."

"Perseus!"

"Um...I think you should get off of him Perseus", Frank defended, "he looks like he's choking."

"First off, it's Percy", The younger (not youngest) teen said. "And secondly, Nico is completely fine with it."

"Am not!"

Frank laugh. "Okay...anyways Percy, I need to tell you both something. I don't want to tell Bianca because she might freak."

Percy shifted so he was now sitting on Nico, "What is it?"

Deep breath, Frank thought, You're just going to tell them that they might have been poisoned. No big deal.

"My father is going insane; he poisoned the entire family planning to kill you all and take all the plantations for himself while simultaneously using me for blackmail for poisoning Aunt Proserpina in the first place-"

Frank rattled all of that off in one sentence, so to his cousins it sounded like: Myfatherisgoinginsane;hepoisonedtheentirefamilyplanningtokillyouallandtakealltheplantationsfor himselfwhile *breath* simultaneouslyusingmeforblackmailforpoisoningAuntProserpinainthefirstplace-

"Back up, what", Nico questioned, successfully removing Percy off of him and dumping him to the floor. "Repeat all of that. Who got poisoned?"