Who: Percy Jackson and Hazel Levesque What: Cousin bonding over pancakes When: Backdated: Mid May Where: IHop Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly Status: Complete!
Since finding out that Percy was indeed related to Nico and Hazel, he had seen Nico more so when Hazel had suggested they get pancakes, he’d thought that was a pretty good chance to get to spend some time with his other new cousin. He didn’t really know too much about Hazel, but he wanted to, so getting pancakes seemed like a good way to do a little cousin bonding.
She had suggested IHop and it just so happened that IHop was one of Percy’s favorites, so after deciding on a day and time, Percy had swung by her house to pick her up then they had continued on to the nearest IHop and were seated pretty quickly upon arriving.
The funny thing about Hazel was that she knew a lot about Percy. She’d spent so much time dreaming about him that she felt she knew almost everything they was to know about him. She’d kept everything in because she didn’t want him to feel weird about everything. It pained her a little to know so much and have to keep it to herself. She wasn’t sure he’d even know about her later. Would he dream about their time together? She’d had this problem before with Nico, but her dad said it might be best to let Nico figure out things on his own, so she’d let Percy figure things out on his own, too. Even if it made her sad.
She spent the car ride to Ihop trying not to stare at him awkwardly. So once they got there and were seated, she tried to focus on the pancakes and not the awkwardness. “I’m glad we decided to get pancakes. This is kind of my second time getting blueberry pancakes. Meg took me, too. But the thing about blueberry pancakes is that I really, really like them.”
Percy didn’t really blame Hazel for being quiet on the car ride over, because he too hadn’t really been sure what to say and usually when he wasn’t sure what to say, he ended up rambling on about something stupid and he hadn’t wanted to bore his new cousin, so he’d kept quiet as well.
Once they were seated across from each other though, he knew that they couldn’t just sit there and stare at each other, “Wait, like second time ever or second time recently?” If it was her second time ever then Hazel had been missing out her entire life. “I myself, have this thing for blue foods, so my mom would make blueberry pancakes every Sunday morning when I was a kid. Sometimes she’d even put blue food coloring in the batter.” If asked, Percy could never really explain his love of blue foods.
Hazel was probably the last person to mind rambling. Especially when she’d felt the distance in a strange way, a way Percy probably wouldn’t have guessed. Eventually, she was sure, he would know and he’d understand. But it was one of those things she’d have to wait for. Not that she thought she was all that great at waiting.
“Second time recently. Meg took me, too. Just girls.” She smiled a little. “She’s...dad’s dating her. She’s immortal now, too.” Because her dad had figured it out for her. Hazel wondered if immortality was as sad as it seemed to her. Forever was a very long time. She bit down on her lip to keep herself from telling him she already knew about his preference for blue food. It was difficult to keep from telling people things you already knew. “I’ll definitely have to remember that for later.” She tried to think of things to tell Percy. “I don’t have a blue food thing. I just really like blueberry pancakes. Dad makes pancakes for me sometimes. He did for my birthday. That’s also when Arion showed up.” She smiled a little at Percy. “I think you two would get along, but I’ve been told he has a dirty mouth. Only I can’t actually speak horse, so I couldn’t tell you.” She knew because Percy told her. Only she couldn’t really tell him that. At least it didn’t feel like she could. She didn’t want him to feel weird about the dreams.
Unbeknownst to Percy, he still had quite a ways to go before he got to the part, in his dreams, where he met Hazel and Frank and had she told him that they did eventually meet, he didn’t know how he’d react to something like that. “How is your dad’s girlfriend immortal? I mean, what does she dream about?” He knew that there were a few people on Valarnet who talked about immortality and he honestly couldn’t imagine what that would be like. He couldn’t imagine watching everyone he knew grow old and die over and over again.
“I honestly have no idea if I can talk to horses here,” He had thought about how cool it would be, but he had yet to actually encounter any horses, “I keep thinking about what I’d do if Blackjack showed up. He’s a Pegasus that I freed from Luke’s ship. I mean, where exactly would I keep a winged horse?” He certainly wouldn’t be able to keep him at his house. He couldn’t afford to have his mother asking questions.
“Um. He made her a potion sort of thing, so...immortal.” She shrugged. She didn’t follow the immortality potion news closely. She just knew that it had happened. “I mean, she wanted it, so it wasn’t like he forced her or anything.” She shrugged slightly. It was important to her to make sure her dad didn’t look like a bad person. Even if his dream selves did bad things sometimes. He wasn’t bad here. “But they shared dreams at some point. She kind of sold her soul to him, so...that happened.”
A smile slowly spread across her face. “I have a way you could test it out!” She hadn’t thought about it before somehow. “And I know a place.” Talking about horses kind of always made her feel better about things. It was also a really easy way to get her to talk. “I work at a ranch with the horses. You could keep them there. There’s also a guy that has a place to house horses. His name is Max. He’s pretty cool. I could introduce you to him and Neal if that ever happens.”
“Really? That’d be cool. I wouldn’t mind finding out whether or not I can talk to horses.” Percy had already manifested a couple of abilities that he had in the dreams, so why not this? “Wouldn’t be the first thing that I could do from the dreams.”
Hazel nodded. “I love introducing people to the horses. I make it a kind of unofficial life goal to introduce everyone to horses at some point.” She wondered if Percy would want to try riding the horses, too. “I can show you how to ride if you wanted to. Also.” Part of it was because she loved to show people how to ride and part of it was because she wanted an excuse to spend more time with Percy.
When the waitress came, Hazel ordered a hot chocolate and blueberry pancakes. That’s what they came here for anyway.
“I’d love to meet them.” The only horses Percy had really ever been around here the ones who pulled carriages around Central Park so the idea of possibly riding a horse was pretty exciting. “And I’d even be up for a riding lesson. I’ve never ridden a horse before other than Blackjack, in the dreams.” And he was sure that riding a regular horse was much different than a Pegasus.
He too ordered blueberry pancakes, when the waitress arrived, as well as a side of bacon and orange juice.
“Have you been riding horses for a long time?” He asked once the waitress had left them.
It took a little dose of self control to keep from showing exactly how excited she was when he agreed. It didn’t help her keep herself from smiling. She was going to get to teach Percy to ride horses. At least outside of the dreams. She had a feeling he’d be a natural, though. It would just mostly involve how to put on the saddle and everything. She had a feeling he wouldn’t need too much instruction, however. “Great. I’ll make sure to text you my schedule so you can come when I’m around.”
His question made her smile. “Well, I rode as a kid in the dreams and not exactly as much outside of them, but there were horses around. Dad’s really the one that got me into the ranch and everything. Things with my mom got...bad. And so I moved in with him, Nico’s mom, Nico, and Bianca. I had an interest in horses, so he took me to the ranch and I’ve been there ever since. That was...about three or four years ago?”
“Once classes are over, I’ll definitely take you up on horseback riding.” Until then Percy needed to put most of his focus on studying. Finals were coming up fast and Percy always got a little anxious around this time of year, because he was worried that no matter how much he studied, he’d still fail. “Did you always knows about Nico and Bianca?” Percy couldn’t help but wonder what it had been like when Hazel went to live with Nico’s family.
“I’ll definitely be ready to show you.” She guessed she had classes and finals and graduation to focus on in the coming months, but it was hard to think about. School mostly made her head hurt, but that’s what she had Virgil for. He helped make the school stuff hurt less. Eventually she might ask her dad if he could have all her books translated into Ancient Greek. She wasn’t sure if his magic did things like that, but it couldn’t hurt to ask, could it?
“No. I didn’t always know about them. I didn’t even really know about Dad until I was thirteen. I mean...Mom told me about him, but she never used his real name. If I’d known all this time about everything...I don’t know what I’d have done. But I didn’t really find out about them until he was ready to take me home with him.” She shrugged slightly. “It was a little awkward at first, I guess. I mean...I was living proof of an affair and I guess it was...you know. But they didn’t really treat me different. It just took time for us to get acquainted with each other and figure out how to live together.” But she didn’t regret any of it. She loved Nico, Bianca, and her dad. She even loved Nico and Bianca’s mom, but things felt so weird now. She wasn’t sure if she was still allowed to call or say hi. She wasn’t her mother, but for a couple of years she’d treated her no differently than she had her own children. Still, Meg was nice. Hazel couldn’t say anything bad about her. Maybe she didn’t feel motherly, but she wasn’t their mother and she didn’t really try to be. Hazel just wanted her own mother to be motherly. But things were complicated on that front. “Dad’s got the dad thing on lock, though. Terrible dad jokes and all other dad things.”
“I can’t say I know exactly what you mean, but I can get how it would be an adjustment to suddenly have a new parent. Or two, in your case.” In Percy’s case, luckily, he had gotten along with Paul more or less right away. Sure, he’d been a little skeptical at first, when his mom and Paul had started dating, but all he’d ever wanted for his mother was for her to be happy. She had spent her entire life making sure that he was happy, so when she finally started dating again and had fallen in love with Paul, he had been happy that she was happy. “It took some getting used to once Paul moved in, since it had been just me and my mom for so long, but it was only strange for a little while.”
Hazel nodded at Percy’s statement. It seemed to be a sort of common theme among demigods. One parent absent and another parent stepping in. It was good to have people that were there for you in the long run. Even if they weren’t necessarily the people you knew growing up. That’s what her family was now. “He sounds really nice. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to meet him and your mom one day.” She hadn’t met either in the dreams, so it would be nice.
A moment later, the pancakes showed up and she shot him a quick smile. “I say we definitely focus on our pancakes and we can talk more after that.”