A/N: Happy New Year, everyone!!

Frank's Flashback

MONDAY, 2nd January

"Hi, there!"

Frank looked from Reyna to her friend Sierra, both walking beside him while he moved to his next class.

"Huh... hi."

He awkwardly cleared his throat when his voice broke at 'hi'. Thankfully, neither of the girls said anything about it, but Sierra's next words confused him.

"So, are you joining us at Krav Maga today?"

"Huh, what?"

He looked at Reyna for guidance and she sighed.

"Sierra doesn't go to every class, just when she feels like; she's a..."

"Free spirit! I'm not even sure if I am going today. Still, I would love to watch you get all hot with Mr. Hunk. I meant Reggie, not you, Felix."

Well, this makes me feel a little bit better.

"Sierra, for the last time..."

She covered her ears and looked forward, ignoring them both.

"LA LA LA LA LA..."

Reyna took a deep breath, squeezing her hands together like she imagined Sierra's neck in the middle.

"And she had the nerve to call me childish less than 20 minutes ago."

How well do you know Reyna?

We work together, why?

I always thought that Regina and Sierra were a weird combination, but now that I have too much free time, I've been thinking about their reasons to be best friends. It looks like Sierra never listens to Regina and Regina is always ready to kill Sierra. It's just weird.

There is more than one kind of family, friendship or relationship. Just look at Jordan and Jodi or Niel and Lucy. Would you say they are less friends than Jordan and Jay or Lucy and Hazel?

Not really. I mean, I don't know how Jodi and Jordan came to be friends, and it's clear he enjoys pissing her off and she enjoys trying to maim him, but they're friends. Niel and Lucy have Nanni, I mean Nico, as common ground... but I don't know, they still seem comfortable between them.

They have their own dynamics and it works.

Do you have a love-hate friendship like that in your world?

Not really a friendship, but I have my Greek half-siblings. They're violent, competitive, obsessed with petty arguments and full of pride. They have a love-hate relationship between themselves and treat the Mars kids pretty much the same.

It doesn't sound like they could be your half-siblings.

I never saw myself as a true son of Mars, but I can see myself having more in common with my father than with Ares.

What is the difference, anyway?

Well, how can I explain it?

***

Frank finished changing before Reyna and went to the mat where Adam was waving from.

"I'm really glad I got to see you again. It's... Felix, right? Like Felix the cat?"

"Yes, and you're..."

"Adam."

"You took Rey-Regina to the Peter Pan play, right?"

"Well, yeah, I tried to... wait, you were there, right? In that confusion, I mean."

"I... huh... my... friends got pulled in and I..."

"Went to help. You sound like a good guy. So, Krav Maga. What do you know about it?"

Frank scratched his head in embarrassment.

"To be honest, only that Rey-Regina recently started doing it."

"Ok, let me explain some things to you before we start."

Before Adam could say anything else, Frank saw Reyna entering the mat and Adam tensing up. When she waved, he sighed in relief.

Now, what's up between them?

You seem to have taken an awful amount of interest on other's relationship lately.

Like I said, too much free time.

TUESDAY, 3rd January

As soon as he finished showering at the gym, where he had gone to try a kickboxing lesson – by Adam's insistence, who had asked Reyna for his number – he texted Hazel to let her know he was going to pick her up.

I'm nervous. What if Hannah doesn't like it?

I think she will. Besides, it's the thought that counts, right?

People say that, but no one really believes that.

I do.

Felix didn't answer, and Frank imagined he was thinking 'but you aren't really a person, just a parasite'. Deciding to change subjects, he asked Felix about his opinion of kickboxing.

I don't know, it's easier, I think, but pretty much the same.

Maybe because we have just started. You cannot run before you can stand.

Babies can crawl really fast.

Can you crawl really fast?

... Ok, I don't think I have the coordination for it. Point taken. What I meant is that it's not like Krav Maga, but I'm still not sure if either is my style.

***

"Oh, guys, we loved it!"

Because in theory there two girls they were gifting, they decided to choose two separate gifts, even if Hannah would keep both once they left. However, since that was still a mystery no one was ready to address, they treated them like two separate girls. For Hazel, Frank had rummaged at music shops until finding a double CD with "The Best Songs from 1930 to 1990". Since Felix had followed Hannah's profile for art almost from the start, he was aware that some her first drawings were based on Chronicles of Narnia. That being said, he and Frank searched the internet for a necklace with the perfect excerpt of the book as a pendant. Hazel was smiling and squinting her eyes to read it.

"'They turned and saw the Lion himself, so bright and real and strong that everything else began at once to look pale and shadowy compared with him.' That's beautiful. Felix, how did you know this was Hannah's favorite part?"

So, how did you know?

Hm, I didn't for sure... but there was one time she posted a drawing of Aslam with this part, so I guessed it had some meaning to her.

Before Frank could relay the words, he saw his girlfriend with her head behind her hands.

"Hazel? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Rubbing her forehead with a hand and reaching for him with the other, she tried to set him at ease.

"I woke up not feeling so good, that's all."

"Are you getting sick? Do you want to go home?"

She gave him a tired smile.

"I don't know if I'm getting sick, but home sounds nice. Even if that's about to change pretty soon."

"What do you mean?"

She pulled a letter from her purse and handed it to him.

"Read this first and I'll explain it to you on our way home."

Flashback over, back to present

FRIDAY, 6th January

At school, Niel had noticed Frank moving weird, asked if someone was giving him a hard time and if he needed help.

Would he... would he really help if someone was bullying me?

Niel seems to be a nice guy, that helps his friends

Yeah, I know he helped Nico, but what am I? A friend of his friend's sister?

I think he would say you're his friend as well.

But am I really?

While Frank was explaining he was doing one-week trial offered by the friend of a friend, Lucy came running so fast she wasn't able to stop and barreled against Frank, who did what he could hold her so she wouldn't fall over. Niel raised his eyebrows in praise.

"Nice one. You weren't even expecting that and acted like a reef, prepared for any ship to come crashing and facing doom."

"Huh, thanks."

Lucy is small, it's not like she could do any damage.

After smiling at him and patting his shoulder in thanks, she turned her eyes to Niel all-business like.

"Barnacle, I need your help, and that silver tongue of yours-"

"So you have been thinking about my tongue."

"I don't have time for your antics. How do you speak with someone you don't really know, but really wants to?"

He seemed to consider her question before answering.

"Depends on your ability with words. For you, I would advise 'ih hai din kup bena toitoi', it should be within your range of communication."

For a moment I thought he would answer her seriously.

And ruin their weird friendship?

"I hate you, why did I come to you? Hannah, I need your help!"

Frank smiled to an arriving Hazel. After smiling back and grabbing his hand, which made both blush, she turned to Lucy.

"Sure, what do you need?"

"Have you ever had a crush?"

Hazel blushed deep and squeezed his hand, and his heart grew warm from knowing she had crushed on him.

"Some scallywag stole the Wench's heart? I thought y-"

Lucy silenced Niel with a glare and a hand over his mouth, which was quickly removed after Niel most likely licked it since Lucy made a disgusted face and cleaned her hand against her pants.

"Shut up, you had your chance to help. Hannah, I need help with a friend crush."

What's a friend crush?

I'm as clueless as you are.

"A what?"

"A crush on a possible friendship. I want to befriend someone, I have been trying to get close all the week but she's just too slippery!"

"Who?"

"I don't know her name, I just passed behind her on Monday while she had her locker open and it was filled with all my dreams."

"I don't remember being inside a locker on Monday. Wednesday, sure, but Monday?"

"Oh, just shut up. Go chase Claire or something. Hannah, she had EVERYTHING anime related that I could think of and some I don't even recognize, I need to befriend her, you need to help me. Pleeeeease? I really wanted to do something with her this weekend."

Hazel smiled and promised to help before the bell ringed and they split up.

SATURDAY, 7th January

Hazel slowly opened her door, with a gentle smile to him.

"Hi, you came early, we weren't expecting you for another hour."

Frank felt his cheeks flush.

"Huh... sorry. I- we- can come back and let you do what you were doing, it's not a problem really, it's our fault."

"Don't be silly, Frank, come on in. Felix, how are you?"

After pleasantries were exchanged, she gestured to the chair in front of her desk.

"You said you needed the computer?"

"Hm, yeah. It's something Felix and I talked about and it was actually his idea. And I think you never watched it."

Nervously pulling a pen drive from his pocket and connecting it, he could feel her close enough to make him nervous. Once he found the file, he stood up too fast, almost hitting her.

"Hm, sorry, I... here, sit."

Once she did, looking at him curiously, he pressed play and took half a step back to give her some space when Martin Luther King started talking.

"I am happy to join with you today..."

Like he imagined, in just a couple of sentences, Hazel was already enthralled, her eyes darting around the screen, taking in the scenario.

I really think Hazel will like this.

Thanks for the idea.

Hey, for us it's easy, we have internet on our hands at almost every hour, it would be unlikely that Hannah never saw it. But when you said that Hazel... left...in the forties-

Died. She would be the first one to correct you. It's not really my story to tell you the details, but she chose how and when to go, saving millions in the process.

Ok, when you told me she... died in the forties, and came back decades later and went straight to a camp with no internet... I thought she could experience something here. Something...

She couldn't experience in our world.

Well... yeah.

Thanks for that. Really.

Anytime.

"One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an shameful condition."

Decades later and this still happens.

I don't know if will ever go away.

Why do you say so?

Because people are becoming... worse. More selfish, more envious. They think the only way to succeed is if the other fails. Ok, if you're in a competition it makes sense, but competing for human rights? That the other must be scorned so you can walk around freely? It doesn't make any sense, but it seems people are also becoming even more stupid because they don't even want to think anymore.

Human rights are considered a privilege.

They are sure making an excellent work in trying to convert it to a privilege.

"Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

A sniffle coming from Hazel made him step forward and lend a hand on her left shoulder before thinking. Without removing her eyes from the screen, she reached with her right hand and squeezed his.

"We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force."

How long can someone wait patiently for something they should've been given from the start?

Felix's question made Frank think about something Percy told him about the titan war, where several demigods who were never claimed sided with the Titans, despising their parents who never cared to recognize them. He also remembered how several unclaimed demigods stayed by the gods' side, with a feeble hope that things still might change for the best.

I think that varies. The important thing is to keep trying to make the world a better place.

That's the worst cliché.

It's the truth.

"We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating 'for whites only'."

Hazel reached for his hand on her shoulders with both hands now, squeezing it tightly, while he could feel her body rock from silent hiccups.

Right, she must have seen a ton of places with these signs.

I guess, but we didn't really talk about her life in Louisiana.

Why?

I don't know, it just... it never came up in a conversation. She makes some comments, like something she liked to eat while she was there, or a something she remembered seeing, but not how was her life in a daily basis.

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

Frank thought about Camp Jupiter, about how he was considered slightly weird for being an Asian boy with Roman roots. But he also remembered his friends, from both camps, of all shapes and colors, sitting at the dining pavilion and laughing together.

"We will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics-"

Greek and Romans?

Yeah.

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Hazel just got up and reached for him, tears streaming down her face, hiccups racking her body and hands shaking. With moistened eyes, he hugged her, offering support, physical and emotional.

I... didn't want to make her upset, I'm sorry.

You don't need to apologize, to me or to her.

Feeling she had more tears to cry that either had thought, he slowly picked her up in his arms, sat on the floor and put her in his lap, gently rocking her like a child.

"I've got you, don't worry."

***

It took Hazel twenty minutes to calm down, and once she did and saw she was in Frank's lap, even if in a platonic and comforting way, he could almost feel the heat radiating from her face before she quickly scrambled out of his arms. Seeing her so embarrassed made him embarrassed in return, looking anywhere apart from her, awkwardly clearing his throat and rubbing his neck.

"Hm... I didn't mean – I just don't –"

"It's okay, I get it."

Hazel put a clammy hand over his to calm him down but still wouldn't look at him.

You managed to make it more awkward than I would've done it.

Your point being?

There's also someone worse than you.

Hazel removed her hand and dried it against her legs, standing up and sending him a quick smile.

"Let me get your Christmas gift."

She moved next to her bed and came back with a small packet, shifting her weight nervously before sitting on the floor facing him.

"It's just a simple gift, nothing too fancy or too expensive or-"

Frank put a hand over hers to calm her down and slowly pried her fingers from the gift.

"I'm sure it'll be amazing."

Open it, I'm curious.

It was an embroidered bracelet, red with paw prints in golden. Frank looked over Hazel, waiting for her to explain her choice. Her hugged her knees, giving him a shy smile.

"It's just a hobby for Hannah, and I don't have her ability, even with her coaching me. It's a paw because that's your Chinese sign, right?"

Oooohhh, yes, that makes so much sense!

Did you like it?

Of course. A simple and impersonal bought gift would've already been awesome, but a hand-made one with something personal? Even better. I can't remember the last time someone besides my grandma ever gave me a personal gift.

Offering his wrist to Hazel, Frank grinned.

"Felix loved it. Would you mind helping us?"

While she tied it to his wrist, he could tell from her face something was amiss.

"What is it?"

Sighing, she pushed her hair back after finishing the know, his skin tingling where she had touched him.

"Hannah is worried it didn't please you, just Felix."

"Don't worry, Hannah. I was born in the year of the Dog as well. And even if I hadn't, I like dogs. I even sleep better as one. Actually, I sometimes do it on daytime."

He grinned at her, barely holding his laugh.

"I just need to fulfill my promise and always warn Hazel when I do it, after that... incident."

What incident?

It seemed Hannah had asked the same thing and distracted Hazel was answering out loud.

"It was so embarrassing! Frank had left for a couple of hours and I was expecting to return, so when this cute dog came close asking to be petted, I assumed it was him. I even asked 'Frank?' and the dog rubbed his snout against my leg. I took it as a yes and called him to accompany me wherever I went.

And he did! I didn't know it wasn't Frank, it didn't even cross my mind!"

Where were you?

Thinking it was only fair to include Hannah, he answered out loud as well.

"Because of a couple of proud and stubborn centurions, we took longer than necessary to finish the meeting, so when I finally left and found Hazel petting a dog, I asked her if she was thinking of adopting it. She looked almost embarrassed."

Hazel almost glared at him, outraged.

"Of course I was embarrassed! I thought the dog was you and then you came out as a human. It was very puzzling for the first seconds. Thank the gods, I think none of the centurions noticed anything."

"Reyna did, though. She was the one to suggest we create a code to avoid... incidents like this one."

Hazel stayed quiet for a moment, biting her lower lip, before giving him a bright smile.

"What do you think about ice cream?"

He laughed, standing up and offering a hand to help her up.

"In winter? Why not?"

A/N: Anyone noticed only Hazel and Frank actually think and care for the others hosts? And I'm not manipulating it (if you write, you know the characters do what they want to). It's not just politeness, they are genuinely good people.