•”I was tame, I was gentle.”•

When you first met Frank, during the dinner back at New Rome, he seemed incredibly sweet.

Besides the stink eye he gave Leo, in general, he looked like a sweetheart. Yeah, an amazing archer and strategist, but he also looked like he’d apologize for you knocking him over.

You had talked to him a couple times, at the aquarium, on deck, just at dinner. He is a nice person.

But something felt off now.

You, Frank, Hazel, and Nico, had gone on a quest for advice about poison. You found a city filled with cows that spit poison. Hazel got poisoned and was dying. An agriculture god took the four of you in, planning to help, until he found out two of you were underworld children. He turned Nico into a corn plant. He didn’t attack you or Frank though. Instead, he promised he’d help both of them as long as Frank fixed his chariot.

So Frank left, and you waited with a dying Hazel, and a corn plant.

What came back was not the same Frank.

He was 3 inches taller, so now 6’5. He was buffer, and his baby fat was gone. His clothes were tight on him. He looked angry. Hurt, tired, but mainly angry.

He had fixed the chariot and found the snake, so the god fixed Hazel and Nico.

Apparently Frank had killed all of the poisonous cows. There were hundreds in the city.

Jesus.

Nico and Hazel just seemed impressed, and just took the info, leading the way back through the city. You two walked behind.

You couldn’t not stare. It was strange.

The world does make people scary for survival, you knew that. But still.

After awhile of awkward silence between you two, Frank cleared his throat, keeping his gaze in the path ahead of us. He didn’t laugh nervously, or smile at all.

“You don’t have to… look at me like that.”

Oops.

It’s just…

This didn’t feel like him.