Leo Valdez- Learning to Live

Chapter 17

Sorry this chapter took a bit longer, it was tough to write. This was actually the first chapter that made me emotional, which I 100% should've expected, given the content of this chapter, but like I'm dumb so I didn't.

That being said, this chapter deals heavily with loss, so consider yourself warned.

I don't own PJO/HOO.

Hazel plucked another strawberry and placed it in her basket.

She was sitting in the strawberry fields, enjoying the summer sunshine and the soothing task with which she was occupying herself. Sure, she may have been the daughter of the god of the Underworld, but that didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy the light. She loved the bright colors of the green field dotted with the red of ripening berries, the entire field bursting with life. Though perhaps she would seem like a harbinger of death to the strawberries themselves...

"Hazel?"

She was cut off from her train of thought by a soft voice coming from beside her. She glanced over at Leo. He was laying down in the grass, one hand resting on his stomach, the other cuffed to an old, dull blade Hazel had pulled up from the ground. It stuck straight up out of the earth, the hilt preventing Leo from simply pulling his hand off of the thing. Leo stared at the sky, watching the clouds as they rolled lazily across his field of vision.

"Mhm?" she hummed softly in response. 

"Do you mind if I ask you some personal questions?"

Hazel bit her lip nervously. This probably wasn't going to be very enjoyable. But she thought back to the conversation she had had with Frank the night before.

"I'm a horrible friend!"

Hazel paced back and forth restlessly on the porch of her cabin. Frank sat on the bench passively, watching her movements.

"You're not a horrible friend."

"Yes I am! I've barely spoken a word to him since... everything. All I do is run away!"

Frank fiddled his thumbs nervously in his lap. "Okay. Maybe that's true, but it doesn't make you a horrible friend."

"Of course it does!"

"No. It doesn't," Frank said firmly. "You were shocked. And scared. You needed time to adjust. There's nothing wrong with that."

"But he doesn't know that!" Hazel hissed, and immediately felt bad at the hurt look on Frank's face. "At least, I'm assuming he doesn't. I'm sorry. I just... I've never had to deal with anything like this before. I don't know what to do."

Frank chuckled half-heartedly. "You're not the only one. We're all just doing our best here."

Hazel felt a wave of anguish wash over her. "Well everyone else's best seems to be better than mine! Even you talked to him today, and made things better, but I, I just... I feel awful. Frank, I feel awful." 

She couldn't help the tears (she still wasn't out of tears, she noted), rolling down her face. Frank, seeing her distress, held out his arms, and she fell into him, grabbing him in a tight hug as she sobbed.

"I'm sorry, Hazel. I don't want you to feel bad," Frank whispered hesitantly, gently stroking her hair. "You... you're supposed to be with him tomorrow morning, right?"

Hazel nodded wordlessly into his chest. Tomorrow morning was her first official turn watching over Leo, and truth be told, she was dreading it. How could she face him now, after running away so many times? Who knew how he felt about that?