safe || leo valdez x oc

eighty-seven: frankie and runie do some sneaky listening

FRANK

~•♡•~

Frank was hoping for fireworks. Or at least a big sign that read: WELCOME HOME!!

More than three thousand years ago, his Freek ancestor- good old Periclymenus the shape-shifter- had sailed east with the Argonauts. Centuries later, Periclymenus's descendants had served in the eastern Roman legions. Then, through a series of misadventures, the family had ended up in China, finally emigrating to Canada in the twentieth century. Now, Frank was back in Greece, which meant that the Zhang family had completely circled the globe.

That seemed like cause for celebration, but the only welcoming committee was a flock of wild, hungry harpies who attacked the ship. Frank felt kind of bad as he shot them down with his bow. He kept thinking of Ella, their freakishly smart harpy friend from Portland. But these harpies weren't Ella. They gladly would have chewed Frank's face off. So he blasted them into clouds of dust and feathers.

Aruna, however, had no such guilt.

"Runa!" Frank yelped as she tackled a harpie with her bare hands. "No! You're supposed to just chop them up! This isn't WWE!"

"RAAAAAAAHHH!"

Frank shook his head and turned away as Aruna killed the harpy. In the time he'd gotten to know Aruna, he'd realized she wasn't as bad as he thought. When he first met her, he genuinely thought she was going to kill all the Romans. After about three days, he genuinely thought she was going to kill Frank with a chainsaw that Leo handcrafted. After a week, when he watched her wail in terror as Percy and Annabeth literally slipped just out of her grasp, he realized she was a good person. (And he might've genuinely thought she was going to kill herself.)

Over the time that Annabeth andPpercy had been missing, he'd seen a little more of who Aruna was. Did she still terrify the shit out of him? Yes. She was half his size and ate like she was thrice his size. She could fit entire pancakes in her mouth as if it was the size of a raisin. She could get whacked by a Skolopendra so hard, her bones showed, but she would still slap her not-yet-boyfriend in the face.

But, Aruna was also a little nicer than he thought, even if her words weren't nice. He'd never forget how excited Hazel had been when she taught him how to play the clapping game, and how happy she looked when she explained that it was Aruna that taught her that. He remembered how warm Leo's face looked when he'd said he was in love with her, and over time, Frank was able to understand why. He remembered how Aruna had caught Jason grace- a six-foot-two son of Jupiter with a killer body- with her bare hands.

She was a little weird, a little mean, and a little (VERY) emotional, but Frank considered her a friend. She was someone worth protecting.

The Greek landscape below was just as inhospitable as the ship. The hills were strewn with boulders and stunted cedars, all shimmering in the hazy air. The sun beat down as if trying to hammer the countryside into a celestial bronze shield. Even from a hundred feet up, Frank could hear the drone of cicadas buzzing in the trees- a sleepy, otherworldly sound that made his eyes heavy. Even the dueling voices of the war god inside his head seemed to have dozed off. They had hardly bothered Frank at all since the crew had crossed into Greece.

Sweat trickled down his neck. After being frozen below deck by that snow goddess, Frank had thought he would never feel warm again; but now, the back of his shirt was soaked.