"I'm completely in love
with you and you haven't
even realised but I'm totally
fine with the crippling
knowledge that you don't like
me back. That's fine, I'm fine.
Totally fine."
[ LEO VALDEZ x FEMALE OC ]
[ HEROES OF OLYMPUS SERIES...
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0020. | THE AGREEMENT TO NEVER SPEAK OF IT
Nadia and Hazel went to the deck to talk. The air was chilling after the warmth of the engine room but Nadia couldn't tell if the chill she felt was from the cold or from the tension. Neither of them were speaking. It wasn't as if there wasn't stuff they needed to talk about, there obviously was, it was just that they didn't know how to start.
Hazel was shuffling on her feet and Nadia's hand kept itching to her neck like she would find Leo's necklace there but of course she had no luck. That was long gone.
Hazel watched her for a second before her face changed to that of someone who'd been looking for their glasses and just remembered they were on their head the whole time (Nadia did that a lot - Leo thought it was cute). "Oh, your necklace!" Hazel recalled making Nadia frown slightly. "Here." Nadia frowned harder when she saw the thing that Hazel had been holding in her hand was in fact Leo's necklace, broken chain and all.
The paperclip bird dangled from Hazel's outstretched hand waiting on Nadia to take it. She did. "How did you—?"
Hazel's shuffles relaxed a little after Nadia responded. "I heard Jason talking about you losing it. He told me that Leo made it for you..." she said.
Nadia ran the chain between her fingertips. It was damp with saltwater. "I thought it was in the ocean." She murmured, a light smile on her face to see the necklace returned to her even if it was a little broken. Leo would fix it for her, she knew he would.
Hazel avoided eye contact. "It was." She paused. "I pulled it out when Jason told me you lost it. I figured you'd want it back." Nadia realised then that this was way more than a necklace. It was an olive branch. One that she should've extended first, but once again it was Hazel who had.
Nadia knew then that she had to put aside her pettiness towards Hazel. It wasn't fair to resent her for something that hadn't even happened. They were more than acquaintances now, they were family; and if there was one thing Nadia had been taught growing up, it was that family comes first, no matter what. Sure, family wasn't always blood, sometimes it was goddesses who posed as her aunt and grandmother, or friends she considered siblings, or a boy she fell in love with. Maybe Hazel could be her family too.
"You did this with your powers?" Nadia asked, trying to keep the conversation going. Hazel's tense shoulders relaxed a little at Nadia's attempt. Clearly they were thinking the same attempts at friendship.
"Yeah," she nodded. "Hades' became more inclined towards his power over riches when he became Pluto for the Romans. My mother asked him for the power of all the riches he had control over and he said it would come with a price. The power was given to me; I have power over precious metals, but sometimes I can extend it to just simple metals like steel, so..."
