Work Text:
Just to set the record straight, Frank Zhang was not afraid of the dark. He wasn’t. Anyone who said otherwise, especially anyone named Leo Valdez, was a liar and an asshole and not to be trusted. He was not afraid of the dark. It just… made him a little antsy, is all.
And that was perfectly reasonable! Animals whose primary way of interacting with the world was through sight, didn’t particularly care for being in places with lower visibility. Being uncomfortable in a darkness you can’t see through was just pure animal instinct, and ever since he’d mastered his shapeshifting, he’d had the instincts of just about every animal on the planet buzzing under his skin. Sure, he wasn’t fighting every animal, there were plenty of animals who even liked the dark, but prey animals always managed to sit up and yell the loudest because there was nothing that was better at staying alive than a prey animal. Sometimes, when it got really bad, Frank would focus on channeling the vision of a night-time predator, just to get that confirmation that nothing was wrong, but that always exhausted him, so it wasn’t always an option.
So, why, exactly, was he allowing himself to be led through a pitch-dark cave system? Well, quite simply because Hazel was the one leading him.
“We’re almost there,” Hazel promised, her hand held in Frank’s, warm and secure. She didn’t have a torch or a flashlight or anything like that with her. She didn’t need it. The underground was her home turf; she didn’t need to see things when she could just feel it.
Frank could not feel it, though, and he wound up tripping over a rock Hazel had probably danced around without even noticing. He almost drug Hazel down with him as he fell, but Pluto’s Daughter was too sturdy and solid to be knocked aside, even by demigods that had a foot and a half in every direction on her. “Sorry,” he muttered quietly.
Hazel paused, and Frank didn’t need a light to know that her face had puckered in that concerned, guilty way it so often did. “No, it’s my fault. It’s dark, I shoulda–”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Frank insisted. He squeezed her fingers in the most reassuring way he could. “I tripped over my own feet. Just another clutz moment.”
Hazel hummed softly, then pecked him on the cheek, which was a surprise as he literally didn’t see it coming. “You’re not a clutz.”
“Thanks,” Frank said a bit sheepishly, feeling his cheeks flush. He cleared his throat. “So, uh, where are we going anyway?”
“Somewhere special,” Hazel said unhelpfully. She and Nico both had a habit of doing that, of only giving vague or cryptic half-answers, and Frank sort of wondered if it was just an inherent Child of the Underworld thing or if they got together and practiced. Either one was a pretty valid assumption. As if sensing his thoughts Hazel added, “We’re almost there.”
Hazel led him in silence for only a minute more, and when she stopped, Frank could feel the difference. The tunnel they had been walking through was fairly large – big enough for him to stand at his full height and not feel claustrophobic, at any rate – but it was enclosed. Now they were in a much bigger, more open area. Sill pitch black, but the cold air moved freely, and he could hear the soft flow of water from nearby.
“I found this place last month,” Hazel explained. “I’ve been coming here when all the Praetor stuff gets to be a lot, you know?” Frank nodded, even if she couldn’t see him. Being named Praetor was an honor, and one he hoped to live up to, but it was also an equally massive responsibility. Frank had, on more than one occasion, shape shifted into a cat just so he could curl up in a sunbeam and take a nap without fear of being interrupted.
“I’ve been thinking, and I just–” Hazel cut herself off with a huff. “Lemme just show you what I mean.” Hazel grabbed both of his hands in her own and she took a deep, centering breath.
And then the world lit up.
It started small, just a few of the little pebbles around her feet brightening like old glow sticks, but with each heartbeat, the light spread and grew brighter and brighter. It climbed the walls in long, brilliant veins of gold, and the roof of the cavern was scattered with countless gemstones, each one of them glittering and shining like a rainbow of stars.
And there, in the center of it all was Hazel, more beautiful than anything. Frank had always loved her eyes, a deep, dark hazel that reflected light like a prism, but now they sparkled and glowed with the grace of her magic and the wonderland she’d made. She was smiling so wide Frank could have counted each one of her teeth, and her cheeks were pulled back into soft, round pillows. She was the heart, the light in the dark, and Frank forgot how to breathe.
“Beautiful,” he said because that was the only word he could think of.
Hazel looked very pleased with that review. “Thanks. I was just wandering around one day and I sensed all these gems so I–”
“That’s not what I mean,” Frank cut her off. He dropped her hands so he could cup her cheeks and her eyes went wide. “You, Hazel Levesque, are beautiful.”
There weren’t really any words that needed to be said after that. Frank just closed his eyes, leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, and she wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him back. He felt her magic surge and the world beyond his eyelids grew even brighter for a moment, blinding in its brilliance, before being plunged back into pure darkness.
And it was beautiful.