"Um... sorry," she said quietly. "I just... dreams."
Leo smiled back. "Gaea hates you too, huh?"
Hazel smiled wider. "She has good reason. Not that I justify it."
"Yeah," Leo sighed. He rubbed his eyes. "You okay, though? I mean... you look pretty whipped."
"So do you," she said, her eyes scanning over his face. Her eyes were kind of pretty, the back of Leo's brain noted.
"Let's just say dreams aren't doing me justice either," he said quietly. She nodded, and they resolved back to silence. As Leo pretended to study the ocean, he couldn't help but notice that Hazel was studying him out of the corner of his eye. He looked over at her, and was surprised—pleasantly so—when she didn't look away.
"You have an interesting bed-head," she murmured. "Looks almost like we've both stuck our fingers in an electrical socket." She idly reached out and plucked one of Leo's unruly, oil black curls.
"You still look pretty," he murmured back, and they both blushed when he'd realized what he said. "You know, as a friend," he added dumbly. Hazel smiled a little.
"And you still look kind of adorable," she said, and then playfully added, "You know, as a friend."
Leo's thoughts got a little fuzzy. Whoa. A girl was... flirting with him? Not pushing him away, and looking at him like he'd crawled out of a dumpster? Did she just call him adorable? Was she still smiling at him? Gods, her smile was pretty...
He realized he'd been kind of staring at her, and blushed, swinging his gaze back out to the ocean. He muttered something stupid like, "Uh... duh..."
There was a beat of silence before Hazel asked, "Gaea has a past to torture you about, too, huh?"
Leo nodded. "Yeah. My mom... um, died when I was eight. Gaea's fault. Something about breaking my spirit..."
"I died in 1942," she said casually, like it was no big deal. Leo choked a little.
"You mean... you're like, a zombie?" She stared at him a little, and he realized he'd probably insulted her. He mentally cursed. "I... I didn't mean it like that."
She snorted. "In a sense, I guess. More like 'escapee.' When the Doors of Death opened... I kind of got a ride out, you know. Seventy years in field gets pretty boring after a while."
"How'd you... you know, die?" She bit her lip. "Unless it, like, makes you uncomfortable..."
"No," she said. "I just don't want you to think I'm, uh... evil, I guess."
Leo scrunched his eyebrows. "Evil? I won't judge. Trust me... I've done some less then satisfactory things in my lifetime. How 'bout a little exchange? Your terrible past for my terrible past."
She chuckled. "Deal."
Leo grinned a little. "Explain away, Hazy." She smiled at the nickname, and Leo made a mental note to call her that again sometime.
"Well... my mother, Marie Levesque or Queen Marie, was a fortune teller. Basically a stage performer putting on a show for clients. But one day she tried the whole 'summoning spirits' crap on a god, and she actually summoned Pluto. When I was born, Pluto said he'd grant any wish my mother asked for. She'd always been poor, so she wished for all the precious things under the Earth. Pluto warned her that the greediest wishes brought the most sorrow, but she didn't care. So, I was born with a curse."
"Your mom gave you a curse?" Leo asked. "That... sucks. What's the curse?"
"I can find precious metals, and they kind of... come to me," Hazel said. "But they are all cursed to bring only sorrow. My mother didn't know at first—the curse doesn't affect either of us—so she sold them. Then, people started getting hurt, dying, and my mother turned bitter towards Pluto and I since everyone thought she was a witch. Gaea started talking to her, and convinced her to go to Alaska where she was beyond Pluto's protection."
"Never trust dirt woman..." Leo muttered.
"Yeah, really," she said. "When we got there, Gaea possessed my mother at night, and forced me to use the curse to raise one of the giants, Aclyoneus. When he was about to rise, I sacrificed myself and my mother to destroy him so he wouldn't rise as quickly. So, now Gaea hates me, and plagues me with nightmares about that."
"Wow," Leo muttered. "You gave up your life for that?"
"Yeah," she said a little uncomfortably.
"That's amazing, Hazel. You're a lot more heroic then me," Leo said.
She blushed. "Thanks, Leo." They looked at each awkwardly for a moment, before she finally said, "What's your story?"
"I was the son of an engineer named Esperanza Valdez," he said, even her name hurting a little. "She worked in a machine shop her entire life because nobody took her college degree seriously. Even though we were always kinda poor and she had a crap job, she was always happy. She always said... that... that if she had me, she'd be happy."
His voice choked a little. "And here's the strange part. When I was little, I had a babysitter named Tia Callida. She put me to sleep in active fireplaces, let me play with knives, and tried to make me poke rattlesnakes with sticks. Ironically, Tia Callida turns out to be the crazy goddess known as Hera."
Hazel snorted. "Go figure. How did you survive... a fireplace?"
"You're not the only one with a curse," he said. "Just, uh... promise not to scream, okay?"
She nodded, and Leo held out his palm. He let a tiny flame wink into existence in his palm. Hazel gasped, but she didn't look afraid. She looked... interested.
"Pyrokinesis," Leo said, crushing the flame in his palm. "So, anyways, Hera was my evil, insane babysitter. One day she prompted me to use my pyrokinesis, and I ended up burning my hand prints in a picnic table. So, a seer in the Underworld named Medea—you know, the crazy chick from Jason and the Argonauts—tipped off dirt lady that I was going on this quest someday. So, when I was eight, she decided to pay me a little visit. She said... she said that the Fates didn't allowed her to do anything to me, but she was going to break my spirit by hurting my mother. So... I tried to protect her with my pyrokinesis, but she didn't live anyways. I got put into the foster care system because my only relative—my Aunt Rosa—thought I was the devil and wanted nothing to do with me. I ran away six times, and then finally got carted off to a boarding school in Nevada where I met Piper, and eventually Jason and all this jazz started."
There was silence for a little while. Hazel leaned over and put her head on Leo's shoulder without warning. Hey, not that he was complaining.
"Dirt Lady better watch out," he said. "She's got a bunch of angry demigods with sharp knives and grudges coming after her."
Hazel laughed, and there was a couple beats of silence. "Thanks, Leo."
"For what?" he asked, looking down at her.
"For making this night not seem so bad," she said. "And... you know, listening."
"Thanks for laughing at my terrible jokes," Leo said, smiling.
Hazel snorted. "I've heard worse."
"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment, or an insult," he said.
She nudged his shoulder. "It's a compliment."
"If you say so, Hazy."
She smiled, and then did something that almost made Leo topple over the railing. She kissed him on the cheek. "Goodnight, Repair Boy."
"Uh... um..." he said, kind of staring at her as she slipped off the railing and went back below deck. Leo sat there, staring at the ocean, wearing a big, goofy grin.
Suddenly, he pumped his fist into the air. "Yes! Flaming Valdez strikes again!"
Thank you, too, Hazel. I needed that.
Hazy
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