AN: Contains Mark of Athena, House of Hades and Son of Neptune spoilers, though I imagine there are few people who would be looking at this archive who have not read these three takes place sometime after Leo, Frank and Hazel get rescued/captured by the fish-centaurs, and before their adventure in Rome.

Basically my take on what I think happened "off-screen" between these two events.

Feedback on characterization would be great, I'm currently working on a Frazel AU story, set in a universe where people have soulmate-identifying marks (though, I'm trying to be original and moderately realistic with it). I'm about 13,000 words in and almost half-way plot-wise.

He's upset. She never told him about Sammy.

But he can't be angry at her, he can't be.

He could never be angry at Hazel. Angry about what she thinks about herself, sometimes, sure- but never angry at her. She's Hazel, she's amazing and strong and...He doesn't deserve her.

He knows, somewhere, that that's fuelled a lot of his behaviour towards Leo. He's scared, really, really scared, of losing her, because he can't quite believe she's his in the first place.

(It doesn't help that his father's two personalities can't stop yelling at him to just kill the Son of Hephaestus. Mars doesn't like Greeks, Ares is just possessive and angry.)

But he is upset, because she never told him.

They trust each other, don't they? She told him the other big secret in her life. She simply didn't have the time or the chance to tell him this one, or maybe she just hadn't worked up the courage yet. It doesn't mean she doesn't trust him.

A voice whispers to him, saying poisonous words. Like Octavian. Or, more likely, Gaea.

But she might never have told you that secret, if those blackouts hadn't endangered the quest- she never told you during that time at Camp...

And, he reminds himself (and the voice), she had reasons to hide her past, so, so many reasons. She was unaccepted enough at camp, would any sane person want to make it worse?

She should have trusted you...

She feared what he would think because he matters to her, just like he feared what she would think about Grey, and all his powers.

Besides, would he have told her about his firewood, if she hadn't been the one to share first? If Phineas hadn't mentioned it? Would he? Could he ever be that brave? Brave enough to risk her finding out that he's not even close to being her hero?

Besides, did she even have to tell him?

Sammy was dead. She'd moved on. She never expected to run into him again.

Furthermore, he knows Hazel, she couldn't keep it a secret forever, she would have told him. She would have.

And she should have a free pass after all- she died and came back to life. She's 13 years old and completely out of time.

Oh, but that opens a whole other can of worms...Are you sure you really care for her? Are you really just using her, making her like you because it is oh so easy to do so?

And does she really care about you? Or was she just waiting for Sammy to show up again? After all, she didn't tell you...

He clenches his fists.

No, he will not listen to Gaea. He will not be the weak link.

He really, really likes Hazel. She's his best friend, and he's pretty sure he's in love with her.

He's pretty sure that she really, really likes him too. He knows they're still best friends. And he's pretty sure that she might be in love with him (at least a little bit) too.

They just need to talk.

Sharing problems makes them easier, after all.

Hazel feels terrible.

She feels so, so greedy, and greed has brought her every problem in her life. She despises greed.

She's got Frank. Wonderful, sweet, kind and considerate, but also brave and strong and solid and dependable and handsome and amazing Frank. Who protects her.

(She does need protecting. Not because she can't look after herself, she's no damsel in distress or proper lady like the nuns always tried to make her, but because she's a demigod and that's just their life. You always, she's realized, need someone to protect you and watch your back.)

And something about that makes her feel warm inside. Because, it seems, to him, she's more precious than any gold and jewels and riches, and that feeling of being cherished, of being loved, drives so many of her fears and bitterness and resentment away. She doesn't deserve him, she really, really doesn't.

(And that's why she was so, so scared of telling him about Sammy...because she doesn't want to bring him up, bring up those complicated feelings she's got. She's got one amazing boyfriend already, why does she have feelings for another one, still? And...and she knows how irrational this is...but what if...what if Frank doesn't want her because of her past with Sammy? Because she loved/loves another?)

She's got Frank, but she...she finds herself reaching for Sammy (Leo) anyway, because he used to do that. She knows, deep, deep down that she'll always love him, even if it's just a little bit. He was the love of her life. She would have married him if not for...well, her death.

But she knows, equally as deep down, that she's falling for Frank too, and that what they have (despite the fact that she's 13 and he's 16 and they're naive and supposedly know nothing about love) is equal to anything she could've had with Sammy. He's the love of her life too.

And that's the truth of it. Sammy's the love of her first life, and Frank the love of her second. (Leo...Leo is Sammy, really. Or his stand-in. Stunt-double.) She just needs time to let go of Sammy, her last remnant of the past. To wash away the very last part of her curse.

Now all she has to do is explain this to Frank.

He walks to the stables, because he's almost certain that's where she'll be.

He's right.

'Hi, Hazel.'

She smiles wanly up at him.

'Hi, Frank. You've got good timing; I was just about to go find you...'

'Oh.'

The silence between them stretches on awkwardly.

'Leo...Leo figured out about your firewood.'

'Yeah, well, it was kind of obvious from my behaviour...'

'You two seem to be getting along better.'

Frank scoffs.

'Relatively speaking.'

'I'm glad.'

They lapse into awkward silence again.

He takes a deep breath.

'I need to know; Hazel...I need to know where we stand. What's happening with-'

'I...I think I still love him, Frank.'

His heart feels heavier.

He can feel the cracks starting to form.

'Sammy...I...I see him, Frank, every time I look at Leo. And I know, Leo's not Sammy, but it's like seeing his ghost, and I still remember...and I'm so confused, Frank, and it's...I don't know, and I feel terrible, because you're you and you're amazing and sweet and..' She breaks down into tears and cries into his chest.

She cries for a while, and they sit there, him with his half-broken heart.

Then, she sniffles, and wipes her eyes, and looks up at him, and there's honesty and earnestness and gratefulness there. Nothing else.

'But I'm not in love with Leo, Frank. I'm still in love with Sammy, yes, but I'm also falling in love with you. Just...please...give me time. I need to let go of the past.'

Part of him wants to scream at her, because time is the one thing they don't have and his life depends on a tiny piece of wood, but he's always, always had to give Hazel what she wants and he can't bring himself to say no, and then he's overwhelmed with guilt at even thinking this way in the first place, because this is so dang hard for her. And he doesn't want something false. If he did scream, he thinks, she would push herself because he matters to her (even if she doesn't quite love him, they're still best friends). And he doesn't want that.

But most of him is delighted, because she's falling in love with him. Not Leo, not Sammy, not anyone else-him.

He smiles at her, wanly at first, but the smile grows.

'I...I can't promise that we'll actually have the time, but I swear I'll do everything I can to give it to you.'

(And he means it; he really, really means it.)

She smiles up at him and sighs in relief and curls back into him, clinging to his bulk, for warmth, for comfort. (She hopes that Frank never becomes lean and skinny, because then she couldn't do this, couldn't cling on to him to be her anchor in this strange new world.)

Somehow, he gets that message (neither of them will remember later; perhaps she said it out loud). His heart feels completely whole again, and for a moment, he swears that his father has stopped arguing with himself in his head.

'Thank you, Frank. Thank you so much...I'm sorry for not telling you about Sammy earlier.'

'It's okay, I understand.' And he really does. Now that he's calm and knows that it's him she's falling in love with and not Leo, his rationalizations don't seem like rationalizations but more the truth. 'When did you ever have the time, between fighting on glaciers and having your home attacked and us sharing all our deep dark secrets and getting captured by fish people and Amazons?'

She laughs lightly, before growing serious again.

'I could have found the time, Frank. I just...I just wasn't brave enough to. I was so scared of losing you, and well, I have one amazing boyfriend already and I still have feelings for another, and that's just-'

He looks at her with such understanding (and joy because she thinks he's amazing and is scared of losing him) in his eyes, that she knows he doesn't feel hurt anymore.

Frank looks down at the girl asleep curled into him.

He doesn't deserve her. Not someone so kind and sweet and strong, who's willing to love him despite him being him (and, he dares to think, because of it) when she could have others, who's willing to stand by him, who, he knows, will give her life for his. (Even if he would do the same. For her, for any of their friends. For his family.)

Yet, for some reason, she's chosen him, and he knows that as certainly as he knows his life depends on a stick.

And strangely enough, that makes him feel quite a lot more confident in himself.

She wakes up the next morning, in her own bed, in her own cabin. Coach Hedge doesn't yell at her for breaking rules or curfew. He must have carried her back to her own bed last night.

She doesn't deserve him. Not someone so considerate and kind and gentle, who's willing to forgive her for everything, who's willing to stand by her, who, she knows, will give his life for hers. (Even if she would do the same. For him, for any of her friends. For her family.)

Yet, for some reason, he's chosen her, and she knows that as certainly as she knows she once died.

It does take time.

Of course it takes time.

It's not simple, definitely.

It gets easier and easier the closer and closer Frank and Leo become. It is even easier when Leo meets Calypso.

And it gets easier and easier as time passes and she gets to know Leo better.

As that happens, he becomes more Leo and less Sammy in her eyes.

That moment just before the Doors, when he reassures her- he's Leo. Just Leo. Only Leo in her eyes.

And that's when she knows it's over. This whole saga between her and Frank and Leo, it's all over, and they're all okay.

They're more than okay.

Neither of them will ever think that they deserve the other.

(But they know beyond all doubt that somehow, for some reason, they chose each other anyway.)

(And that's more than enough.)

AN: Go ahead and ignore this if you want, it's pretty much me ranting about my interpretation of events/trying to justify what happens in this story.

Okay, rant time:

I know some people may disagree with me, but the following is my general interpretation of the whole Frank/Hazel/Leo incident.

I interpret it all as a massive misunderstanding and mess born of circumstance, in which all three characters (as awesome as they all are, and as great people as they are normally) make mistakes, because they are (well, half) human.

Leo should probably have been a bit nicer to Frank. In his defence, Frank was not necessarily all that nice to him either, and it is sort of in his nature- as Annabeth says, he doesn't mean to be mean. He is also infatuated with Hazel, and being a teenage boy, you can expect the typical posturing and trying to impress a girl etc.

Frank should probably not have been quite as mean to Leo and not so quick to jump to conclusions and get all jealous. However, in his defence, Leo was not very nice to him either, he is a teenage boy who is very much in love, and he is also rather insecure. Hazel also didn't tell him about Sammy, so he's kind of flying blind, which makes conclusion-jumping a rather legitimate and normal response. Also, his fear of Leo is completely legitimate and makes an awful lot of sense.

Hazel should probably have explained the whole scenario to Frank, or at the very least, told him about Sammy. However, in her defence she didn't really have time, and while she did make an error in judgement in not informing him about Sammy, her reasons (or at least what I interpret as her reasons- her continuing feelings for Sammy, which she is letting go of/which are fading, and her growing feelings for Frank, which are understandably confusing and difficult to deal with, and an irrational sort of fear that Frank might reject her if he knew that she loved/loves Sammy) are very valid and normal.

All in all, it is a very human confusion. I imagine if the events occurred at a different time, or there wasn't a war going on at the same time, it would probably have not escalated so much; I imagine if there weren't any pressing matters after Percy, Hazel and Frank see Leo on the scroll, and Hazel and Frank could have a private moment, Hazel would have gone and explained who Sammy was to him, and she would have explained to Leo too. (She does explain to Leo first chance she gets.) Also, Frank was dealing with having his father's two personalities screaming in his head constantly, they were all under immense, immense stress, and are, at the end of the day, teenagers.

It probably also wouldn't happen if Hazel hadn't come back from the dead/hadn't previously been dead- it's mostly an outgrowth of the fact that she is human, has feelings, and has lived twice.

Oh, and my interpretation of what Frank and Hazel are actually arguing about on the deck of the Argo II: They are arguing about Leo. It probably starts with Hazel asking if he dropped Leo on purpose, which Frank would deny (I don't think he did, but I don't think he made too much of an effort to catch him either- like with the eidolons.). I think she believes him, but obviously starts telling him off about how he treats Leo, probably telling that it isn't acceptable, despite the whole fire-thing, Frank probably goes on about how he doesn't quite trust him or like him because of the way he looks at her, and it probably doesn't get to escalate much further before they get interrupted.