Leon Orcot (under_arrest) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-08-19 18:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, hazel levesque, leon orcot |
Who: Hazel, Leon, and NPC!Chris
What: Leon meets Hazel and drops of Chris
Where The Ranch
When: Last week sometime
Warning/Rating: Some talk about fatal car accidents and deceased parents. Otherwise low
Status: Complete
Leon didn’t expect to be quite so uncomfortable relinquishing his brother to a complete stranger, especially since he had already signed up Chris for a boarding school just outside of LA that specialized in helping kids with psychological problems. But he’d done a very thorough background check of Hazel, and he’d found nothing criminal or even suspicious. Well, apart from the fact that the daughter of some bigshot Hollywood director would even want the job of babysitting a six-year-old, or the job of working in an Outreach Centre.
He shook his head. He had to stop being so suspicious of everything, especially of people who had volunteered to help him out. He’d come to take a tour of the place earlier, so he didn’t have much of a problem leading Chris towards the stables, where he saw a young girl there. “Hey, are you Hazel?” he called to her.
Hazel was a lot of things, what you expected of the daughter of a famous director was not one of those things. She couldn’t have said what made her the way she was or how she managed to stay as grounded as she had, but it was entirely possible that her experience with her mom had humbled her enough to counteract any of the usual teenage rebellion and insanity. Horses were just about the only thing that made sense to her (outside of Cerberus, but she wasn’t going to introduce a six year old to a giant three-headed dog without his dad okaying it. She wondered if he’d even notice how huge Ceberus was).
Arion was actually in his stable today, which was practically unheard of, but the look he’d given her was one of casual boredom mixed with a general exhaustion. She had a feeling he’d been all over the country, so she didn’t ask many questions and gave him some food and let him snooze a little.
The sound of someone calling her name made her look up quickly. “Hi. Yes. I’m Hazel.” She put down the things she was carrying (mostly brushes for the horse and a couple buckets) and held out a hand. “You are...Leon?” She glanced down at the boy with him before giving him a small smile. “Which must make you Chris.”
“Yeah,” Leon said. Chris stared up at her, not smiling back, but he did give a slight nod when she asked if he was Chris. “So, Hazel,” Leon asked, not letting the silence last for long. “Have you watched a lot of kids before? I mean, aside from your lessons?”
“Most of my kid experience is from the lessons, but I have done some babysitting for Killian and Regina. They have a baby, but she’s almost one now. So it’s a different skill set. But we get a lot of troubled kids around here and this is kind of what I want to do with my life. Probably because...well, I guess I wasn’t a troubled kid, but I was in a troubling situation before. My mom…” She trailed off. “Some people aren’t meant to be parents...is the easy way of explaining my mom.” She worried her lower lip slightly. “So when my dad brought me here, he also brought me here. It helped with the whole new place, new family situation. So working here is sort of like...a chance to do the same thing for some of the kids here.”
Leon glanced at Chris when Hazel mentioned her parents, but the child didn’t seem to react. Still, Leon felt himself warming to the girl. It sure explained whatever questions he had left of her, and the fact that she wanted to do good in the world said good things about her in general. Besides, he usually trusted his instincts, and his instincts were telling him that he could probably entrust his little brother to her care. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to fill her in on Chris’ situation. “Hey, Chris, why don’t you go say hello to the horses? I bet their coats are nice and soft.” And hey, if kids were getting lessons on them, it didn’t seem likely that they’d bite his fingers off or something. Chris glanced between the two of them, and then slowly and cautiously made his way over to the horses.
Hazel watched Chris and Leon quietly before focusing her attention for a moment on Arion, who seemed to have woken up. She motioned to Chris as he started toward the horses, which earned her a long stare in which Arion seemed to be saying, Are you serious right now? She returned the look with one of her own before turning her attention back to Leon once she saw Arion walk out of his stall and closer to Chris. She gave Leon a quick smile and tucked some hair behind her ear. “Arion’s pretty good company. I’m sure he’ll warm up to him in time. It’s kind of hard not to.”
Leon didn’t miss the look that passed between Hazel and the horse, but he wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it, so for now he decided to file it away in his brain to think about later. Or not. It was kind of weird. There was no way a horse could respond to a human’s expression, so that must not have been what he’d seen.
“Yeah, Chris is pretty easy to get along with,” Leon said, watching his brother, who was reaching up to cautiously touch Arion’s shoulder. Once Leon was sure his brother wasn’t about to get trampled to death, he turned his attention back to Hazel. “He’s been through a lot though. I think I mentioned on the net that he doesn’t speak, right?”
Arion didn’t move quickly. It was probably a good thing he was really a god...even as a horse. He couldn’t talk like some Narnian horse or anything, but she knew that Percy could always translate. She also knew Arion had a dirty mouth, but she didn’t really mind that. It wasn’t like she knew what he was saying. She could guess at things here and there, however. It was like when they first met. Just knowing he’d been wondering when she was going to show up.
“You did mention that, yes.” She glanced over to Chris and then back to Leon. “I’m guessing this is the part where you give me some information about what happened? I mean, I’m assuming that’s what this is. I can’t figure out what else it would be.”
“Yeah, that’s what this is,” Leon said grimly. He gave Chris another glance to make sure he was out of earshot, and then began. “When I was eighteen, our mother found out she was pregnant again. Our father had just passed away, so it was just me and her. She’d always had health problems, and at this point she was over fifty. The doctors didn’t think she should carry the pregnancy, but I guess she wanted something more to remember Dad by. So she went through with the birth, but didn’t survive it. My aunt and uncle adopted Chris, and raised him along with their two daughters like he was their own. Josie’s quite a bit older than him, but Sam is closer to his age. A few weeks ago, my aunt and uncle were driving he and Sam around, and I guess the kids got into a fight. Sam told Chris he was adopted, and that he’d killed his real mother. I guess Aunt Sandy tried to break up the fight, but she lost control of the car and both of them were killed.”
Leon sighed, and rubbed the side of his head. “Chris hasn’t said anything since, but I’m guessing he blames himself for killing three of his parents. It’s a lot for anyone to take in, but way more than any six-year-old should have to deal with.”
The more that Leon said, the more serious Hazel’s expression got. She looked over at Chris for a moment. No six year old should have to deal with so much. They’d all dealt with a lot in the dreams, not that she could express this. At thirteen, she’d had to make a very serious decision. She’d saved the world by bringing an entire island down on herself and her mother, killing both of them. She still woke up even on nights that weren’t dream nights remembering the taste of oil and dirt in her mouth. She shuddered involuntarily at the thought.
Even after that, however, she’d given up Elysium, something she’d earned, to spare her mother. She didn’t think her mother deserved the Fields of Punishment. Not even with everything that had happened. The Fields of Asphodel were punishment enough. Not that she remembered why she was there. She didn’t remember Hazel, didn’t remember anything from her life...unlike Hazel who could remember everything.
Then Nico had shown up and suddenly she was escaping from the Underworld. Yes, she was his second choice, but he’d still taken her, saved her in a way. When she got out, she’d trained with Lupa, a giant wolf that would eat anyone that showed weakness. All of this while she was having blackouts anytime she tried to remember her past.
“I think I understand a little better. I don’t know what any of that is like. Not exactly. I know being new to a family I didn’t even know existed and trying to figure out how to fit in, but…” She looked down at the ground. “It’s a lot for a kid. I’m sure we’ll make friends in time...and Arion’s already pretty okay with him.” Which was fairly obvious to her because he was no longer acting like he was putting up with it for her sake...even if he did give her a look as if to say are you happy now?
There was a part of Leon that was now extra curious about Hazel’s background, but he wasn’t going to press the issue. He wasn’t prone to share more of himself than necessarily, and he tended to think that everyone else felt the same way about themselves.
“I’m sure you will too,” Leon said warmly. “He was always quick to charm people before the accident. I’m sure given time that he’ll be the same.” At least, Leon hoped so. It would be a shame of that happy kid was gone forever. “You seem like a nice girl though. I’m sure he’ll warm up to you soon.” After all, Leon was pretty slow to warm up to anyone, but he already kind of liked her.
The thing about Hazel is that she tended to be a little more open about her past now than she had been in the dreams. In the dreams, she was worried that people wouldn’t accept her because she’d been from the past, but here? Here wasn’t the same. There had been some concerns when she first arrived, but it wasn’t the same. Just being worried that people didn’t want her. But she knew that wasn’t true now.
“I’ll give him as much time as he needs to be charming, but I think I might be a little charmed already.” Her gaze shifted to Chris again. “I like to think I’m pretty nice. No one’s complained yet.” She smoothed her shirt down a little. “Do you have any questions for me outside of the ones that you’ve already asked? I’m pretty easy to get answers from. For the most part.”
Leon frowned. He’d never really done this whole parenting thing. He didn’t really know what he should be asking, or what he should be telling her other than what he already had. But then he glanced at his watch and realized he didn’t really have much time to keep asking questions anyway. “No, not right now,” Leon said. “If I think of anything, I’ll let you know. Here’s my card,” he said, handing it to her and realizing belatedly just how backwards that was. This was normally where he told the people to let him know if they thought of anything. “If you have any questions or emergencies or something, call me right away.”
Hazel took the card from him, offering him a smile. “All right. I will call if I have any questions or emergencies.” She didn’t think there would be any emergencies or questions though. “Oh. Before you leave. Um. Just in case. Does he have any food allergies?” Because that was probably the thing that was most important. She didn’t want to feed him something he couldn’t eat and cause an emergency.
Leon froze. Did Chris have any allergies? Leon tried very hard to think back. Surely if he did have an allergy, someone would have told him that. Right? Josie definitely would have. For sure. There was no way that losing both her parents and suddenly becoming the guardian of her little sister would make her forget something that important. And if not her than… that was information lawyers or something would have given him, right?
“Uh…” Leon said, trying to not look too panicked. “I don’t know,” he said briskly, using his cop voice to mask his doubt. Sounding like you knew what you were doing was half the job. “If it turns out he is, call 911 and then call me.” And maybe he’d call Josie later to find out for sure.
“That’s okay.” Hades hadn’t known any of that about Hazel when he first got her either. It was just that she could tell him. “We’ll figure it out.” She glanced at Chris and Arion. “You should probably get to work. I’ll take care of Chris. You just take care of the people of the OC.”
Leon gave Hazel half a smile, grateful that she didn’t seem to judgey about the lack of basic knowledge he had about his younger brother. “Thanks,” Leon said. “I definitely owe you one. Chris!” He waited until Chris turned his attention to him. “I’m taking off now. Listen to Hazel and be good, okay?” He didn’t wait for Chris’s nod before he turned and headed back toward his car.