Frank

Of course, he killed it in his heat. Did really well. He wasn't going to Nationals, but that wasn't his goal anyways.

When he found us out in the hall, his parents were with him along with a girl and a boy. The girl was really little, maybe 3, the boy was like 8. Same one we saw earlier.

Of course, it's November, his arms are covered and he has long sleeves on. But I was worried about them. About the red things I saw.

How recent were they? They had to be recent if I saw none on the ship.

We all took photos together. Celebrated his victory. And after that we went out to eat and most people had to go to camp, but I decided to stay with the Jackson family. They offered to me to stay over for a while and I agreed.

At first they started talking in a different language. That one he was using earlier. I couldn't figure it out.

"Oh, ja, tut mir Lied." Percy apologized and looked at his parents. "Frank kann Deutsch nichts sprechen. Wir sollen English zusprechen."

"What?" I asked and they laughed at me. Thanks.

"I forget that you guys don't speak German," Percy explained, which made me able to place the accent because it wasn't New York. Rachel has a new York accident, and it's not his. It was German. "when I am not at camp, we speak it all the time here and I do at school and ja. We speak English, though. Just for you."

"You... Know German?"

"Well yeah," he responded as if that was obvious. Which, now, it was. "English is my second language. That's why it's so bad."

"It's not that bad," I insisted, taking a bite of my meal.

"Yeah?"

We finished our meal, though, and went to his place. Sally, Paul, and his step siblings left us alone. Which to me was surprising, considering that I thought his siblings were more annoying than that.

Percy's room was... It was small. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I was shown.

Percy's room was on the right, against the wall like right when you walked in with a stand at the end of the that had a few photos on it along with a clock, a water bottle, and a few orange bottles that looked like meds.

His dresser was to the left and was organized by shirts, pants, PJs, and then everything else from top to bottom and also had a few small things on it. One, a little bowl. Two, his wallet and keys were put up there. Three, a lot of bottles. Not orange one. Like drinking bottles. There was another photo up there, looked like a family photo.

By his dresser there was a desk that had a lot of what looked like textbooks on it. That and like notebooks and stuff. Pencils. Of the like. A lot of school stuff. There was a mirror, too, though. With some stuff that I vaguely recognized. I couldn't tell where it was from, though. He also had a bunch of medals hanging on his wall. Swimming medals, I assume.

"It's not a lot," Percy tells me, setting his duffel bag down by his backpack, which was by his desk. "but I mean, it's just me in here. So uh... Yeah. Make yourself at home. Do you want anything to drink?"

"I'm good." I assured him and sat on his bed as he sat at his desk, grabbing the stuff that was by the little mirror and rolled up his sleeves, which gave me a clear view of the cuts.

Seeing them made my stomach feel really weird and kind of quesy.

"Wait, what..." I felt really rude asking about it, but it had my attention and I had no self control. "What's on your arm?

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing." Percy insisted, and I tilted my head, smart enough to know that was a lie.

"Are you sure?" I questioned and looked down at the cuts. My stomach knotted up, they looked really bad. "because that looks like uh... Are you doing okay, Percy?"

"I uh... Yeah, of course," Percy said, a little too slow for belief. Pulling his arm away and putting skin toned crap on it. "I just got scratched up a little. It's nothing, I swear."

"Okay, I just... Figured I'd ask." I said, still not completely convinced. But I figured that he wouldn't want to be pushed about this. Not by me. "I didn't think you'd be one to do that, maybe like Nico, but you never know. Better safe than sorry."

"Yeah," he agreed kind of in an awkward tone and did his other arm quick. "Nico's never done it, though. I wouldn't worry about him anymore. But being we're talking about Nico, uh... This is not about him, but what happened with Hazel? The break up?"

"Oh, yeah!" I recalled that he probably didn't hear that entire thing earlier. Leo asked a lot afterwards. "We just stopped feeling romantically for each other, I guess. Over the summer. We couldn't talk about things outside of that, really. And then I developed feelings for somebody else and we talked for it for a few hours one night and decided to break up. We're still great friends, though! She's like my wingman. Wing women. I was rejected, but that was fine. Just somebody from school. He already had a boyfriend, apparently."

"Well at least you guys get al— wait, he?"

I smiled at the son of Poseidon.

"Yeah, that's why the conversation took multiple hours." I clarified and he slowly nodded his head. "Because I was freaking out because I had realized I was bi like not long before that."

"That's a mood." Percy remarked and I chucked. "At least Hazel was okay with it, though. Annabeth uh... She said I could 'shove it up my ass, being I'd enjoy it, and that she didn't want to talk to me anymore. We were over.' So that is how that happened."

"That's brutal."

"Yeah." He agreed. "sorta. I haven't been rejected yet. But that's also because I haven't asked the guy out. I think I heard somewhere that he's bi or gay or something so there's uh... What's the word? Hope? Sorry, I am like tired and I can't think right now."

"You did good today," I remarked and he came over and sat next to me on his bed, done with his arms. He said thanks. "Really. I think it's cool that you're like involved in this sort of stuff. I don't do anything through my school."

"Yeah, well I mean I've always done swimming." Percy said as if it wasn't really cool. "I know that if I don't know swimming, my grades will not pass. If I swim, I have to pass classes. You know? Had I not swim when I was younger, I probably would not now. Mom forced me to, when I was little."

"It's still cool that you haven't quit." I insisted and he shrugged. I didn't realize how weird he was about compliments. "Percy, just take the compliment. You did really good today. It's Annabeth's loss for being a bitch so she couldn't come."

"Okay, now you're just being too nice."

I chucked. I mean, I'm Canadian, and that's a total stereotype, but it's true at times. And as true as that was, it was also genuine.

I like Percy a lot more than I probably should. I know that and have for a while now. But I mean, at least I can make him feel good and like be a good friend if anything. He doesn't seem to think too highly of himself.

Despite literally everything he's ever done.

"It's still true." I told Percy and he rolled his eyes. "You're like the coolest guy I know. You've gone through Tartarus, you fucking like defended Olympus twice and won both times. You can swim insanely good without your power and you're really nice and everything, despite like everything you've had to deal with this last like summer or two. You coped so well, too. You weren't..."

Actually looking at him, his posture had changed in the last two minutes.

Percy had tensed up, his arms crossed and his feet resting on his bed stand thing that the matress is on. He was looking straight ahead, but he looked like he wasn't really looking there. Percy's eyes were watery, and I'm not sure what I said, but I took it back immediately.

"Percy?" I asked and he didn't respond. Looking like he was putting every ounce of energy he could into not crying.

He was determined to not cry, I'll give him that. But it was kind of too lat for that.

"Percy," I repeated his name and turned to face him with my entire body and put my hand on his back, trying to soothe him and he looked utterly terrified and I couldn't really figure it out. "hey, Percy," I went on and he closed his eyes. "What's going on? What's wrong? Did I say something? Did I miss something? What's wrong?"

He squeezed his eyes even tighter, which let tears go and he tensed up even more. Maybe hoping that I'd leave him alone or something. Which to me, doesn't make sense.

Obviously, his arms weren't covered in just being scraped up. They were cutting marks and scars. And for whatever reason, he's so insecure that he can't be like praised without starting to break down.

He shook his head. Not wanting to talk about it.

"It's okay, Percy, it's just me." I tried to comfort him without touching him because that proved to make it worse and to make him tense up more. "Frank. I don't really know what I can do but like... Talking helps, I swear. It always helps. And it beats crying."

I'm not what part he shook his head at, but he did. He said no, just not vocally.

I recognized the look in his eyes. It was a mix of fear and sadness and loneliness and being lost. It's how he looked when we first met him. He just told me he felt kind of... Hollow when I asked him last time. We just assumed I was because he had amnesia and he seemed fine when he got his memory back. He said he was fine.

I never considered that he could, you know, lie about that sort of thing. He always seemed like a pretty open book.

But he's like having an emotional breakdown in front of me right now and I couldn't tell you the slightest clue as to why outside of him being insecure. But even then, I don't know why he's insecure. He's literally perfect.

"Percy, I uh..." I definitely started to freak out 30 seconds into this because I've never witnessed it before. "I don't know what to do if you're not like willing to talk. If you don't want me to like touch or like reassure you or like... I'm bad at this. I know I am. But is there anything that could help or like...?"

His eyes move over to Riptide but he doesn't have the energy to grab his pen formed sword.

"I am not letting you slit your wrists."

He looked back down and i realized I could hear some sort of scratching. After a minute or so I placed it.

His arms. He was scratching away at his arms.

My immediate reaction was to grab his hand like, you know, stop him from hurting himself and I mean, it worked with Leo. He had an anxiety attack once, was scratching himself, I grabbed his hand and be stopped doing it. Leo just was having a bad day, though. His nerves we're high.

"Hey," I said in a more firm tone. "You know better than that, Percy. I know you do."

For whatever reason, that put the fear of gods, titans, and every other fucking thing in him.

Percy resisted against my drag and I didn't even realize how right my grip was. His rate of tears went up. He looked petrified. Muttering I'm sorry over and over and over again. I could barely hear it. He was in tears, having an emotional breakdown.

And for some fucked up reason, I just made it worse.

He called me Gabe, whether or not he knew. it confused me enough to let go and get really worried because of something maybe this Gabe guy did to him.

I was feeling like a protective boyfriend and we're not even dating and I don't even think he likes me. I doubt he'll ever want to talk to me after that.

"Shit I uh..." I said, letting him go and realizing I just need him to let this get out and happen. Run its course. "I'm sorry, Percy I didn't mean to scare. I swear, I don't want to hurt you. I'm right here if you need help."

My heart was gone by this point in time. It was dead. Having to watch Percy like this as was so heartbreaking and I felt so shitty that I couldn't help him because this came out of nowhere. I didn't know what to do.

I gave him his blanket and that seemed to help a little. He hugged it and eventually smelled it and I think maybe the scent is what calmed him down. Probably not, though, because he dragged my sweater with the blanket so it probably also smelled like me.

Given time that I lost track of, he calmed down. He stopped crying. Moved a little. Looked fucking terrified that I saw it, though. Especially after he insisted he was fine.

"Sorry." Percy eventually apologized, still kind of hugging his blanket and my sweater. His face was stained with tears and now he was leaning against me. "I don't know... What uh... Yeah. That was really stupid."

"If was not stupid." I stopped that train of thought as soon as I heard it. "I don't even know what like triggered it, but it obviously needed to come out, Percy. What happened?"

"I just..  I don't.." he was struggling to explain it to me, which I get. "I don't take compliments well. I never have. My mom's ex husband was a piece of shit and he just... Made me feel like shit. All the time. The guys dead and I still feel like shit all the time. Usually I can ignore it. There's other things to think about. But when people talk about me and how great I am and bullshit I just... I don't get it. It's frustrating because like everyone at school hates me and they want me to kill myself but you guys think I'm like the best thing ever and I want to kill myself most of the time but then what? I go to the Underworld and get disappointed looks because half of my friends are dead anyways. Like..."

"I can't win." Percy told me, which just broke my heart. "no matter what I do, I can't win. It's at home where my parents stay out of my camp life as much as possible and my mom overdoes everything because she knows that I tried to kill myself when I younger. Or at camp, where my dad thinks I'm a disappointed and I feel like I can't be not okay for a day. Or at school, where I have no friends and if I do bad the teachers look disappointed because I'm a teachers stepson. I should be smarter. But if I kill myself, I see all of my friends that died for an actual fucking good reason and I just get pitied by then for an eternity. Even when I had amnesia I felt shitty and like I should just kill myself. It's... Sucks."

Hugging him, he cried into my shirt a bit. That was okay, though. He needed it more than anything right now.

He fell asleep like that. Cried himself to sleep. Into my shirt.

I didn't have much of a choice but to stay over. I fell asleep running my fingers through his hair as a moral support. When I woke up, he was gone. It was almost lunch time. He said he was getting groceries with his parents. Thanks for sticking around last night. He probably would've slit his throat had he been alone.

He was hurting. He is hurting. But he was glad that I listened, even though it didn't seem to do a damn thing.

Realizing I had a lot of missed calls and texts, I knew I had to go to camp and so I wrote a note back saying that I'm available anytime. Just call or send a text. IM. Whatever works best. I also put a heart by it, trying to seem genuine.

Leo

Well he looked well rested when he got back in the middle of lunch. Frank ate with us, of course, but looked a little distracted.

"Frank."
"Frank."
"Frank."
"Frank."
"Frank."

"Frank!" We all yelled, which finally got his attention.

"Hm?"

"Dude, what's wrong with you today?" Jason asked him, not meaning to sound rude or anything. "you're like zoned out."

"It was a long night." Frank explained, shrugging. "just kind of worried about Percy. He didn't have an ideal night last night. I was too nice to leave him in the middle of the night."

"What happened to him? He seemed happy and fine after the meet."

I shrugged.

"I don't really know, it's still confusing." I explained to them. "He doesn't take compliments well. Something triggered it, I don't know what. I don't think he does, either. But he had No emotional breakdown about how he's suicidal and he can't kill himself as much as he wants to because everywhere he goes he feels fucking useless. So that was my night. I didn't fucking know what to do because any form of touch and he tensed up even more and looked even more terrified and so I let him like go through it and yeah. He cried himself to sleep and I was already leaning against the wall so he leaned against me when he fell asleep and I couldn't leave. Yeah. It was weird and I don't understand of what happened. But yeah. He was gone when I woke up. With his parents. so I came here. I don't... It's weird."

My gaydar was saying that Frank definitely had feelings for Percy.