Work Text:
Hazel sat next to Frank on her bed. They were holding hands instinctively. When words failed, they could understand each other through touch.
They were silent. No sounds except each other’s breathing.
After minutes, Hazel finally broke the silence.
“You called me here, Frank, what did you want to talk about?
Her tone was very soft, very comforting.
Frank sighed before beginning to speak.
“We’re adults now, Hazel. I’m almost 20, you’re 18. What are we doing with our lives, you know? What are our- your plans for the future?”
Hazel looked at Frank, shocked. Not necessarily upset, just startled. She wondered what had brought up this conversation, because she had been meaning to have it for a while.
A new recruit named Amber, a child of Neptune, had come in. When they came in, Hazel greeted them. The two of them went out to lunch, where Hazel got to know all about their backstory and how they made it to camp.
They were thrown out of their house, and went to fend in the wild for a couple months. Water had always felt like their safe space, so they set up a tent near the water and swam every single day for hours. When they were approached by Lupa, they were scared, so they conjured a bunch of water and drenched the she-wolf, giving them ample time to run away. Lupa caught up to them, and took them into training before depositing them at camp. They liked it at Camp Jupiter, but their dream was to see the world. Go to school, learn, make friends, and discover everything that the world has to offer. As Hazel heard the story, she felt like the understood them- that was exactly how Hazel had been feeling over the last couple weeks.
Every Time she saw Frank she meant to sit him down and talk about it, but she was scared of how he was going to take it. Not that he would be mad at her dreams...but that he didn’t have the same ones. Now that they were sitting here, Hazel was scared, but secretly happy he brought it up first so she wouldn’t have to.
“To be honest, Frank...I don’t see Camp Jupiter as my forever home.”
She paused, waiting for any response on Frank’s face. So far, nothing except the usual kind, warm smile. The kind of smile she would miss if she left camp.
No. She swallowed that thought away and continued.
“I love Camp Jupiter, and I have found my place here. But there is more to the world out there than what’s here. I was dead for 70 years. There is so much I missed, so much I want to do.”
Frank was just listening attentively, nodding at her words.
“I’ve even been thinking about going to college. Finishing at UCB, then going to vet school and being a doctor. Which I know sounds crazy, because I don’t need to leave Camp Jupiter to do that. But I know what death feels like, and if I die without seeing the rest of the world, I don’t think I’ll have another chance this time.”
While Hazel was talking, Frank was thinking. He was thinking about how he had already known she felt this way, and how he was glad she was finally telling him.
He had noticed her being a little bit distant the past couple weeks. After that new camper Amber came, he saw a shift in Hazel. A longing, like she wanted something she couldn’t have. Seeing campers leave to go to college and make something of themselves in the real world was enticing, he would admit, but not the life for him. He had known, since the second she turned 18 five months ago, that it was the life for her. She just hadn’t known how to say it to him.
Frank reached a hand up and stroked her golden hair. Her soft tresses felt smooth and familiar against his hand, and something in the back of his mind told him that it might be the last time he got to do that.
“Frank? I need you to say something.”, Hazel said.
“Oh, sorry.”, he said sheepishly.
“Hazel, I love you. I’ve loved you since you were my first friend here at Camp Jupiter. There are so many times that I thought I would lose you, and my heart would wrench. I thought the worst pain in the world would be losing you.”
He swallowed.
“Now I know the worst pain is making you stay here when you have to go.”
He started choking up at his next words.
“I think we should break up.”
Hazel’s face fell. This is not what she imagined would happen.
But some part of her, deep deep down, was relieved he did it before her.
Not because she didn’t love him, because she had loved him since the very beginning. But because she knew staying her would cause her to resent him, and leaving him might be too much for her to bear.
“Hazel Levesque, I love you. I want you to go see the world, meet new people, get that vet degree and become everything you’ve always wanted. I want you to become so great you forget all about Frank, your awkward and clumsy high school boyfriend.”
Hazel laughed, before turning on Frank.
“I could never forget you, Frank Zhang.”
Hazel stroked his face. At this point they were both crying.
Frank was crying because he knew this was going to happen, but the reality was so, SO much worse than he imagined. Waking up day after day with his best friend miles away and not having any idea where she was was about to become his reality, and the thought that it was for the better wasn’t comforting to him. The thought of not being with Hazel hurt more than any pain he had ever experienced before. He knew it would be eventually, but at this moment, he wished it didn’t have to be that way.
Hazel was crying because she wanted the future and she wanted Frank and she was just so frustrated that she couldn’t have both. She was crying because he was kind and understanding and that this scenario was probably the only thing that could drive them apart. She was crying because not getting to see her best friend every day would hurt more than any pain she had ever experienced before.
They cried, not because of pain from each other, but pain for each other. They cried because they couldn’t have a future where it all worked out. They cried because they thought they were each other’s forever. They cried because the love they had for each other, no matter how much, wasn’t enough to keep them together.
They sat there, holding each other’s hands, sitting in the silence.
But eventually, Frank got up to leave.
“Goodbye, Hazel. Go be great.”
He walked out, and shut the door.