Who:Hazel and Richie What:Chat backdated to around Christmas When:Said Christmas time Where:around the ranch Warnings:None Status:complete
At the Ranch Richie was mostly confined to the office these days rather than out in the world like he’d rather be, but he knew it was for the best until he was physically healed. He’d practically given Neal a heart attack the week before, having broken a few stitches doing activities with the kids-but it just wasn’t normal. He had a pencil tucked behind his ear as he entered numbers on the spreadsheets he’d made up for them to keep better track of the ranch’s income and numbers. Numbers were fine, but depressing at times. Yet still somehow less depressing than the Center in Detroit. This place was doing pretty well, it did give him just a little hope that maybe Virgil’s dad’s place could pull through too. If anything it gave him ideas for how to help it along, maybe he could tie the two places together if Neal let him. After all, the Center was the same idea, just for inner city kids.
Virgil and he had spent a lot of time there growing up, playing basketball or just hanging out with the other kids-it had practically raised them along with Mr. H. Richie had a lot of good memories there. The Ranch wasn’t so bad either, but it was taking some getting used to compare to living in Detroit. However he was settling finally, he’d quit Stark’s and put more of his time into the Ranch instead and he was starting to feel a lot more human. He could actually have legit days off to be with Virgil, or just play video games by himself if Virgil had to work. Both were okay things, but being with Virgil was always the first thing to pop into his mind since Christmas.
They’d kissed. He’d kissed his best friend and he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to say or do anything about it, so he’d kept it to himself for now but it did play on his mind a lot. He found himself spacing out at his spreadsheet even then, staring off at nothing in particular in the quiet of the office.
The ranch was a second home for Hazel, though it could be argued that it was her first home and the house she shared with her dad and brother Nico was her second home. Especially when you’d considered how many hours she’d spent there. It was more difficult now that school was back in session, but she happily scheduled a lot of time to be there. She gave herself as much time as she could when it came to homework, but she was a little less concerned about it now that she had the idea that she could just work at a place like Neal’s ranch forever. Maybe she could just find an Equestrian school to go to. Horses were basically the only thing she knew for a fact she wanted to do anything with.
Today she wasn’t there because of work, she was just there to check in on Richie. After getting shot, she’d been a little concerned about him. It was difficult not to have any sort of ability that would help him with an injury. She couldn’t even give him ambrosia or nectar because he was a mortal. It was, in short, frustrating.
Peeking her head through the door, she looked in to see Richie staring off into space. “The answer isn’t in the air in front of you. You might need to check somewhere else.” Her smile widened a little and she stepped the rest of the way in, smoothing down her hair a little. It didn’t actually do anything. It was still just as curly and messy as it always was.
Richie hadn’t been expecting anyone that day, so Hazel was a surprise. He even managed to tear his gaze away from the interesting blank space in front of him to give her an amused look. “Hey, you don’t know that. Space is infinite.” He slipped a pencil behind his ear and stood. Stretching as he looked over at the clock. “Jeeze, nearly 5pm. No wonder space is so interesting.” It was nearly time for him to go home. He pulled off his glasses to rub at his eyes as he stood.
“What’s up? Thought you had today off?” There were a handful of workers at the ranch, but honestly not that many where it was difficult to remember schedules. Besides, Richie helped make half those schedules now that he wasn’t doing things that could potentially hurt him more.
Hazel laughed. “Well, I’m pretty sure you can’t stare into the infinite space unless you forgot to tell me something.” She wasn’t even sure if the gods could see everything. Enough things, maybe. “It usually is. I want to say that I’ve met the goddess of space to prove this point, but so far, I haven’t. I did meet Iris, the goddess of rainbows, but that was a weird time.”
They’d been chased by Basilisks and they were not like the one in Harry Potter. They spit venom. “I wanted to see how you were doing. What with your dangerous adventures that end in bullet holes.” She took a couple steps forward. “How bored are you and how much longer till you can exit the room? I might try to get you to meet a friend of mine. I mean, he might be a little difficult to get here, but I don’t mind trying.”
“Nah, didn’t forget.” He couldn’t help but say a little more bitterly than he meant to. Sometimes it was just a little difficult knowing you weren’t going to get awesome power when all you ever wanted was to be a hero. Those feelings only got amplified by the fact that his best friend was sometimes. 98% of the time it was awesome, but there were little pieces of it that weren’t so much. Like the getting shot part. Not so awesome.
“Now actually. Why try? Is your friend afraid of offices?” He raised a blond eyebrow in amusement at the idea of someone not wanting to come in. Honestly though it happened, he had kids that didn’t really want to visit as much when he was there as opposed to out in said ranch interacting with them, but he couldn’t help but be a little curious.
“Too bad. I was hoping you could tell me something interesting about infinite space.” Hazel wasn’t sure she’d have asked for any of her abilities if she hadn’t just gotten them. Being a demigod wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. She had a feeling it was the same for most superheroes, too. Still, she knew that it was difficult for some people not to have those things.
That earned a laugh. “He’s...a little difficult to reign in is all.” There was a smile as she started toward the door. “But I think you’ll like him.” She had already talked to Arion about it. Well, at least she’d talked. Arion had probably responded, but she could only assume what he’d said. Usually he didn’t seem too bad about things. “Also how healed are you? That will probably decide a couple things.”
“Maybe one day.” He said wistfully, as apparently Virgil got to meet Batman so honestly anything was possible. That really would be an awesome super power, being able to stare into space for the answer to the universe. Richie would love that. Or super strength, or really anything. God how many times had he wished for super powers to end up with none. Some days he was a little jealous, but most of the time it was awesome. Virgil had let him live out a few super hero fantasies second hand at least when he gained his powers so his streak of envy had lightened up quite a bit these days. Now he just wanted to be able to defend himself in some way should the need arise like one could.
“Sounds interesting? Maybe ominous?” He moved to join her with a hint of curiosity and a shrug. “Good enough to walk a mile, but running might not be so hot.” Not that his running ever was a thing to marvel, but it would likely hurt just now.
Had Hazel had any idea of his wanting to defend himself, she probably would have offered to show him a few things. Romans were actually pretty good at fighting and she had the sword to prove it. It couldn’t hurt mortals, but that was probably the better part of it. She really didn’t want to hurt someone accidentally. But she knew some stuff outside of just how to wield a sword that rested at ankle length when she had it at her hip. She had a feeling most of the demigods could show people a thing or two.
“As you know, I am very ominous.” Hazel attempted to say that with a straight face, but she couldn’t help the amused smile that accompanied it. Her life wasn’t in danger, so she didn’t really have to manage that with a serious expression. She couldn’t say much for the dreams. When she got outside, she was surprised to find Arion standing a little ways from the door, casually eating grass. A moment after he looked up at with an expression that she read as are you happy now? She was. “Well, you probably won’t have to run, and even if you did, you’d never win that race, but then neither would any other horse I know. Not even a Pegasus horse.”
She walked over to Arion, reaching out to pet his muzzle. He reacted by attempting to bite at her jacket. She knew why he had, because he could tell she had something in there for him, but she still had to shake her head and laugh. “Wait a second,” she said to Arion before turning to Richie. “You’re one of the few people who have gotten to meet him. This is Arion. He’s the horse I stole from the Amazons. I mean, the leader sort of let me steal him, but I still stole him as far as the others are concerned.” She waved it off. It wasn’t really important how it happened and Arion was making impatient noises next to her. “Do you want to feed him? I got him his favorite, but it’s sort of like giving a peace offering or something.” She stepped back. As far as horses went, Arion didn’t look like a speedy horse. He was a chestnut color with a black mane and tail. Hazel only knew what he could do from seeing it first hand.
“Terrifying really.” He mused as he grimaced at the sunlight. “So this is what the outdoor world looks like, I nearly forgot.” Richie said with a roll of his eyes as he went to shut the door behind them to the office and turn the key. He didn’t notice the horse that had appeared until he turned around to pocket it, and the key fell into the gravel beside him in surprise. “Woah, what? Did we get a horse delivery service? ‘Cause that would be awesome.” He paused to reach down and collect the leash of keys as he watched her with the almost intimidating looking creature.
“Or y’know, your thing.” He snickered. So the Amazon story was better. Richie tucked the keys into his pocket letting the little black cord hang out a bit as he watched her with him curiously. “I’m guessing this is a dream thing?” He stepped a little closer. Richie hadn’t always had the best luck with horses, but getting a better look at him it wasn’t as scary as he might have initially thought. “Arion. You’re something else.” Unsure if he was talking about the girl or the horse at this point. She always seemed to have a story to tell, it was impressive. “I’ll give it a try.” He tried to make slow, small movements at first like he had with the other various ranch horses that seemed generally okay with him to join her a little closer.
Hazel laughed a little at the surprise. “Yeah. It’s called Amazon Ground Delivery.” She tried not to laugh too much at her own joke. “He’s a dream horse, yes.” There was a smile as Arion made some noise next to her. She glanced over at him for a moment, wondering what it was he’d said. It would be nice if she could get Percy to talk to him. He was apparently a very rude horse, but she still couldn’t talk horse.
She reached into her pocket and held out the gold nugget. “This will probably help you. It’s what he’s been trying to eat out of my pocket. He likes gold best.” She smiled a little, “And he can definitely understand humans. Percy is usually my horse to human translator, but he’s not here, so I guess I’ll have to guess at things.” The looks he gave her usually had some meaning attached to them. She just had to figure them out sometimes.
Richie had to give her an eyebrow raise at that pun. “Don’t even start.” He said in a teasing tone as he watched the creature make it’s sounds at his friend. “Your horse eats gold? Talk about a rich diet….see what you made me do?” He couldn’t help it. Puns were just a thing he did like breathing air. He blamed Virgil. Since the first day he’d met him in pre-K they were making what ridiculous puns they knew to make eachother laugh something out the other ones nose.
“Man...your life sometimes. Makes me wish I dreamt more of things that weren’t just school work and bullies.” He said with an exasperated amusement as he nudged her while he took the nugget with a hint of skepticism. It wasn’t every day he met a creature that could eat solid gold. He held it out in an awkward position with a flat hand like Neal had shown him with the other horses once long ago.
“I always start.” She laughed a little. “But the Amazons do own the Amazon shipping company.” She started laughing a little as Richie made his own pun. Her dad made puns all the time and then there was Sans with his puns. Basically, she was surrounded by puns and it was starting to rub off on her. “Yeah. But he can eat grass, too. He just likes the gold.” She shrugged. She didn’t mind. Before she was always worried about cursed gold and jewels, but Arion...somehow he made her less worried about it.
“It sounds a lot more fun than it is sometimes.” But most things were, weren’t they? Not even being a superhero could be fun all the time. She wasn’t sure if anything was. “It’s nice to have friends that stick with each other and aren’t Octavian.” She wrinkled her nose at the name. “He’s the worst.” Arion gave Hazel a look that looked like ‘why are you doing this to me?’ but he still stepped forward, excited to eat the gold from Richie’s hand.
‘Wanna trade? It’s not all that spectacular.” There were parts that were okay of course, watching Virgil was one of those. Sometimes he just found himself wishing he had a bit more of a purpose rather than the observer.
He shook his head at his own pun and watched the horse sort of nuzzle at his hand to get at the gold. Richie didn’t quite try to pet him yet, figured he wouldn’t enjoy someone trying to pet him while he was eating, so he let him finish his weird gold treat before holding out his hand in attempt to do so. “You can make gold can’t you? Or is it only jewels.’ Richie didn’t need the money, but it would explain the gold eating horse being so easily fed the hunks of the substance. Richie wasn’t able to so easily just feed something gold even if it liked it.
“I’d trade, but…” She frowned. She wasn’t sure she could give him her life. She liked Richie. Her life was complicated and she’d died. She’d come back, of course, but she’d died. Maybe they both had a difficult time, though. “Well, we’d hardly be us if we swapped lives, right?” But she’d have shared her powers with him if she could have. “Plus, if anyone has the burden of cursed abilities, it should probably be me.”
She watched him quietly for a moment and gave Arion a quick signal, which resulted in a lingering look that said You’ve got to be kidding me. But he still moved just a bit so that Richie could pet him. “Oh, no. I can’t make it. I just pull it from the ground. I can sense things and pull them up.” She cleared her throat. “But it’s...well, when I do that…” She trailed off. “My mother asked to have all the riches of the Underworld. So I got that. I can do that. I can pull precious metals and jewels from the ground, but by doing that, they’re cursed. People got hurt and died because of me.” She looked at him. And then she died. “So that’s me.” She shrugged. “I have good friends, though. So that makes it better.” Sort of.
Richie didn’t really trust many people yet, sure there were things outside of the bullies and school-but he was still getting his footing around Orange County. Well….sort of. That might have been true ages ago, but really he was just wary in general. He wanted to trust people, to be able to talk to others as openly as she did sometimes but he couldn’t find the words to. Most of his life centered around Virgi being Static, it wasn’t his secret to tell even if things were weird between them currently.
He watched the horse exchange what he thought almost looked like a look with Hazel and raised an eyebrow as he pet his neck. He remembered the things Neal had said about horses not liking being touched on the face at least. Those lesson had come in handy. “I’m sorry. I guess you’ve got a point. Things are just kind of..weird right now.” He admitted with a half hearted shrug and lowered his hand in case Arion wanted him to back off. Horses were different than cats and dogs like that, they each had their own personalities. Some liked being pet and some didn’t, he could respect that.
Hazel didn’t have trouble trusting others. It was herself she had trouble trusting. Others were different. So she just sort of told people things. Like maybe if she said it enough, she’d find something inside of the words that could reassure her. But there was something about the way Richie spoke that gave her a little pause.
“Dream weird, outside of the dreams weird, or both?” She knew that sometimes things in the dream could make things outside of them weird. She still hadn’t been able to really talk to Percy about knowing him and she hadn’t talked to Nico about what she knew about him either. She’d just...awkwardly read about what they were experiencing in the hopes that they’d come to know her soon. In the dreams. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I’m here if you want to talk about anything.”
Richie looked up at the horse again, he was impressive. He could see why Hazel was so anxious to show him off. His hands then disappeared into the pockets of his sport coat for a moment as he shrugged. “A mixture of both I guess?” He hadn’t really intended on talking, but she did seem to trust him enough to talk about all her demigod issues so just maybe words wouldn’t be so bad.
“If I told you I might be gay would that be weird?” He hadn’t initially been aware of it himself in spite of his lack of ever having any interest in women. Maybe the subject was bad after all. “I probably sound like a moron right now, heh sorry.”
Hazel nodded at the first part. She understood that. “I’d be a horrible sister if I thought that was weird.” She wanted to move closer, but she allowed him to have the space in case he needed it. He seemed a little unsure of it. “I don’t mind it. And I don’t think you sound like a moron. My brother’s gay, so it’s...well, I don’t want to say it’s not a big deal, because I think that for some people it is a big deal...until they realize it’s not the biggest deal.” She glanced at Arion for a moment before moving just a fraction closer.
“Are you just noticing it now or...is it just the first time you’ve really talked about it?” She kept herself from fidgeting too much because while she knew it was having nowhere to focus her energy, she wasn’t sure that other people would see it as that. She didn’t want Richie to feel self conscious.
“Is he, well then he’s lucky to have someone around like you.” Richie moved slightly to lean against the nearby wooden fence. One he’d actually helped to repair recently, they were everywhere and always seemed to break but they looked official or something so they kept replacing them anyway.
“I think I’ve always been, but I’ve never said it. I didn’t want to be.” Bigoted father didn’t make it much better. “..Something happened over Christmas though and I’m pretty sue neither one of us was drunk..”
“Yeah.” He was dating someone from his school, which she thought was pretty cute. He seemed really nice, too, from what she'd seen. Anyone who could make Nico smile was good in her books. It was easy enough to get on Hazel’s good side. “What are little sisters for?”
She nodded again. That probably wasn't the most unusual response. Not everyone was nice about people who were gay, but she hoped he would be more comfortable with it soon. “Did you kiss someone?” She wasn't sure if there was more, but even the consideration of it made her skin flush. She was glad it was not an easily noticed thing and that she was able to keep herself from fanning her face. Dream habits were the worst...especially when they weren't just dream habits.
“Heh point.” He smirked as he looked away from her for a moment at basically anything else. Even grass became super interesting all the sudden. “Someone kissed me and I reacted like the worlds biggest idiot.” He shook his head somewhat in a faint amusement at the situation now, at the time it’d been anything but funny. “Virgil kissed me He’s had a girlfriend before though, he’s never even looked at me that way before Christmas and that mistletoe.” He didn’t know what to say about it, he’d accepted long ago that he’d probably never end up with Virgil mentally but in reality nothing had ever happened to suggest it could even be a consideration.
“I couldn’t even say anything intelligent. I haven’t been able to since then.”
Hazel’s eyes widened just a touch when she heard who kissed him. Not that she had a problem with it, but she was a little surprised. Richie had mentioned him dating a lot of girls, but she guessed that didn’t mean anything. Maybe he liked girls and boys. “I think most people act like idiots when they’re kissed by someone they don’t expect to be kissed by.” She hadn’t heard anything about mistletoe or had to live through it. She guessed it was some sort of OC thing, though, which made it complicated. How could you know if it meant something?
She moved closer then, reaching out to touch his arm lightly. “So I’m guessing you haven’t talked about it, then?”
“Yeah, there was this mistletoe and..I don’t know.” Richie hadn’t exactly been against it but he was a little confused. “As far as I was aware he never even looked at me like that, I kind of thought it might have just been weird O.C stuff again?..but I didn’t really respond after.” Virgil almost seemed maybe disappointed? Richie couldn’t really tell. He had no idea where that kiss came from or what he was supposed to think about it.
Glancing up at her with a shrug he frowned some. “Nope. I haven’t known what to say. The whole thing has been confusing..I didn’t even think I was and then Virgil..I didn’t think he was, and now I’ve just got a headache.” This wasn’t exactly his favorite subject. “Virgil used to ask me in high school sometimes if I was, but I always said no.” He didn’t know what to make of any of this.
Hazel frowned. She couldn’t imagine what it was like to feel like this. She hadn’t been affected in the slightest. It was probably for the best, because she knew her dad and she did not need any super anger because a boy kissed her. No one needed that. “What if he might look at you like that? I mean, I don’t want to give you false hope or anything, but…” She frowned again. “I guess it would be super embarrassing if I asked him if he felt the same, wouldn’t it?” She wasn’t sure if telling him, he should do it would be the way to go about it.
She gave him a sympathetic look. “Well, it’s okay that you are and if you ever need someone to talk to about it, you can talk to me...or I could ask Nico to talk to you.” She wasn’t sure if he’d be better at understanding the whole...thing. “We’ll figure it out.”
Richie gave her a look that voiced his disbelief at her response wordlessly. His world was a confusing one and he waved a hand at the idea of her brother talking to him. “It’s fine, probably. I mean I probably shouldn’t have aid anything at all in the first place.” The idea of people knowing might freak Virgil out, or everyone. Who knew.
“Sorry. I just..it’s not typically a thing I’ve ever talked to. Well, ever.” Even to himself. He removed his glasses in tired annoyance at them for a moment to rub at his eyes. “I’ve known him since we were little. I shouldn’t even be thinking about it. I’m probably insane or something, sorry.”
“You don’t have to keep secrets all the time. I promise I won’t say anything to him about it, okay?” And she wouldn’t. Not if she thought it was going to stress Richie out even more. “I mean, who knows if he’ll talk to me about it anyway, right?” She gave his arm a light pat. She understood it could be a big deal to come out. “I’m sorry.”
She studied him quietly for a moment. “It’s okay. And I don’t think that you’re insane at all. You sound pretty normal to me. You’re coming to terms with the fact that you’re gay and possibly have feelings for your best friend. That’s a generally terrifying situation. I mean, I only really know a little about it. Mostly because of the dreams, but…” She looked at him. “I’ve only kissed one boy before. And then my mom moved us to Alaska and his family moved and I haven’t seen him or heard from him since.” She looked down at the ground. “But that’s not really the same thing. I get it.”
Secret...that was something he was getting used to. There were so many secrets in his life he hadn’t realized when he was keeping them intentionally sometimes and when he was not. When it came to Virgil being a shiny new super hero he’d basically kept his mouth shut in spite of wanting to tell everyone, he supposed he’d locked this away too without realizing it. He gave a faint smile and half shrug at that apology. “It’s fine. I just got used to it I guess. My dad isn’t exactly the most tolerant man. If it got back to him I’d probably be very dramatically removed from my family even further.” In spite of the thousands of miles he put between them. He knew there would be distance.
“Yeah?..Still pretty devastating. I remember just watching Virgil move here and hating it.” Virgil had shown up before him to this weird city. It felt like not being able to breathe some days.
“Well, if that happens, I can always ask my dad to adopt you. But I won’t tell him, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Unless you have secret enemies that don’t like you and intend to tell your dad all about your personal life.” Which sounded pretty far fetched to her...even with the dreams. She was pretty sure that wasn’t something people just did, but then she didn’t know either.
“It’s...well, I was 13, so it’s been a really long time now.” Seven years. Which would have been okay, but then she had to dream about him. Sammy. She wished she knew how to find him and where he ended up. Really, she probably could have asked Killian, but she was afraid of what she’d find out, so she hadn’t asked. She was also pretty sure that she couldn’t ask him about Frank either. “I’m glad you’re here, though. Both of you. Even if this place is a mess.”
That had caused Richie to smirk some. “I don’t think you can adopt a twenty year old, but thanks.” The offer was nice anyway. “Him moving here is honestly the longest time we’ve ever been apart.” Ever since they met as kids they’d basically been attached at the hip. That was how Richie prefered it. This distance? He wasn’t enjoying it even a little, but he didn’t know how to wrap his head around these feelings that refused to shut up anymore now that they’d been brought to the forefront of his life again.
“I don’t even think I knew what love was at thirteen unless you counted this limited edition run of Spider-Man I had signed by Stan Lee. “ He shrugged, but nodded a little. “Me too. Ironically I can breathe a little better out here than I could back home” Physically and mentally if he was honest.
“I’m sure we could find a way,” she said after a moment. Maybe it wasn’t going to work out the way that she said it would, but that was okay with her. Even just letting him hang out at her house was good enough for her. She just wanted Richie to know that she was there for him if things got difficult for him with his dad. “That sounds serious.”
“I don’t think I really meant to feel anything then. I don’t think it was love. I just know I really liked him and well...he was the only boy that had ever kissed me and it was only once.” She shrugged slightly. She didn’t know if that was love, but she’d missed him when she’d been forced to move. “Spiderman is the...uh...guy in the suit? He has the...web stuff?” She had no idea who Stan Lee was, but she decided not to say that because she had a feeling the stuff about Spiderman was enough. “Well, maybe it’s all the space and the horses. Definitely the horses.”
Richie shook his head at her with a smirk. If only it was that easy to leave his father, he probably would. Maybe. Their relationship was complicated. Richie actively hated the man through most of high school, it only happened about halfway in that he softened up a bit. Their relationship was still rocky as a result but Richie still cared about him even still.
“Nobody means to feel anything I think, like you said before we just sort of do.” Otherwise he’d probably have picked someone not Virgil to try to love, but there wasn’t anyone else. There likely never would be either..
“...You don’t know Stan Lee?...I’ve failed as your friend and need to fix this immediately.” Richie couldn’t let that slide. He was basically a walking encyclopedia of comic books. He had potentially the slightest bit more knowledge than Virgil did at them and that's only because Virgil’s super hero gig got in the way of comic reading sometimes. “C’mon, pizza and comics 101, my place.” He motioned toward where his car was parked off in the lot somewhere.
“No?” Hazel shrugged slightly. “But to be fair, I don’t know a lot of things.” She didn’t think it was really that big of a deal. Usually people would tell her about things when they thought it was necessary. “Okay. Pizza and comics. That sounds pretty good.”