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#praetor fai zhang
therealnuclearplatypus · 10 months
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hi hello @leovaldezdefender has given me reason to start writing vz fics again woot woot
theme: superhero
There's no such thing as fate. No such thing as a saving grace, or luck. There are no superheroes.
Or so Leo Valdez had taught himself to believe. Ever since his mother died and the rest of his family abandoned him to the mercies of social services, he had given up on any hope of being saved. He'd always have to save himself.
The innate knowledge that no one would help him never stopped him from hoping, though. And that hope was more dangerous than any predicament his family's abandonment put him through: it meant he was constantly disappointed when he had to realize, over and over again, that he'd hoped in vain, and that he'd been stupid to think otherwise.
So, when he laid eyes on Frank Zhang, he didn't let himself hope he'd like him back. He didn't.
And yet hope he did.
The passing of years did little to diminish his want, but if Zhang reciprocated the sentiment even slightly, he was a master at hiding it. Leo told himself to stop hoping. Hope never lead anywhere.
Superheroes don't exist.
***
Frank had always loved reading about superheroes. As a kid, he'd childishly aspired to be Spiderman when he'd grow up. Or Batman, even. They were all so cool. He wanted to be just like them.
He wanted to be a superhero like his mother, too. She was a soldier, and she saved lives. He wanted to be as brave as her.
In comics, the superheroes always won. They were always thanked for their courage. They always lived to see another adventure.
Not so Emily Zhang.
Her loss broke him, and suddenly superheroes didn't seem so appealing. What was the use of being so brave when all it brought was death?
Then he met another superhero. Leo Valdez. Frank told himself to stay away, that souls that bright burn fast and fade faster. It'd only hurt him to love him.
Superheroes are a lie.
***
They found their superhero in each other. In the depths of their despair and loss, they found each other, helped each other out of the dark, and thrived side-by-side.
The existence of superheroes was suddenly a lot more believable.
You're my superhero.
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if only i could break the chains of disappointment weighing me down (shake off the ghosts that whisper warnings)
It's the middle of the night. Frank Zhang can't sleep. Instead, he picks up his old kid's version of Journey to the West.
read on ao3
(sorry i forgot to do this one :/)
The stick burns, and Frank stares at it.
He does nothing.
It burns up. He collapses. There is nothing else.
And then he wakes up.
(The first time he had that nightmare, he tried to stop it, throw it into the snow. Frank learned quickly. Now, he thinks, he'll just be surprised to not wake up after it burns for real. Or maybe death is like sleep? He supposes he could ask Hazel.)
He wakes up in his bed in the praetors’ quarters.
It's two am, and Frank doesn't have to wake up for another four hours, but the world is quiet and Frank likes it that way. Reyna's sleeping in her room, so Frank walks out to their 'hang out room' - as they like to call it - and turns on the small lamp.
His copy of a kid's version of Journey to the West sits on the bookshelf. Reyna had raised an eyebrow at it, but to him it's a marker of when his childhood was a little easier, a little happier. His mother used to read it to him.
And then she went to war.
His mother was a wonderful woman; she loved more than Frank ever thought possible.
Emily Zhang also left.
Those two halves Frank has never quite been able to reconcile; Emily Zhang, the loving mother, and Emily Zhang, the absent parent. For so much of his childhood, it was his Lao Lao - maternal grandmother in Mandarin - and him.
Smashed pottery, pretty blue and white, and his grandmother’s disappointment.
“Zhang Fai,” she’d trill disappointingly. All of that disappointment could never hide the pain in her voice when she sent him away, could never hide the pain in her voice when she found her daughter to be dead, could never hide the pain in her voice when she spoke of her late husband’s death.
Frank had never been fully certain if his grandmother ever even had a husband. Zhang was her married name; Jade Zhang Yu has always been more Chinese-Canadian than Chinese, despite her pride.
Frank used to know his Tai Poh Poh - great-grandmother, Cantonese instead of Mandarin like the rest of them - or, he met her once in his memory. Her mind was failing her by then, her speech muddled with Cantonese words. Frank understood little - of course, his last Cantonese relative was his great-grandmother. She'd speak and through the curtain of language he could understand bit-by-bit, fragments painting a whole.
She had come from China, escaping Mao Zedong (who his grandmother always intermittedly pronounced as ze-dong or see-tong) and his communist regime with her family, moving to Hong Kong and later Canada.
But from what Frank understood, his great-grandmother was only saying a few Buddhist prayers, maybe intermixed with something else. Something for her final days, something about her late husband, Frank's grandfather.
He had never met Shen Lun, who moved up from San Francisco, to meet Frank's great-grandmother in Vancouver's Chinatown.
Frank likes Chinatown. It's sort of chaotic, but it smells strangely like a home. There's a bakery that makes amazing apple fritters and disappointing ma lai goh, a sort of spongy cake. There's Chinese herbal remedy shops whose aroma floats in the air, baskets upon baskets of herbs like star anise and ginger. There's slightly dirty shops with roast duck hanging in the window, rotating slowly. There's the gate, and the grand dragon dance on every New Years'.
Frank misses Chinatown, all the time. He misses the crowded shops. He knows that the Chinatown he knows is no longer present, he knows that Chinatown's been slowly gentrified over time. He also knows it is no longer the centre of Chinese Canadians in the Vancouver area - Richmond has taken that, but again, it was also where Frank grew up.
(But Chinatown still sounds like home to Frank. And even though he'd never met Shen Lun, he had to bear his mistakes anyway. Filial piety, loyalty to your parents. A never-ending cycle of shame and guilt given from parent to child. Frank is Chinese-Canadian. He finds other ways.)
(And that's not getting to Richmond. Because Frank knows it must've changed in the years he's been gone. Or two years. It was changing fast by the time he left.)
New Rome is too clean, clean to be unnatural. It's odd and strange and kind of weird, but Frank is praetor, and his obligations rest on his shoulders here.
Frank resurfaces back in the present, and takes the copy of Journey to the West off of the shelf. The characters and drawings are achingly familiar, a children's book that is still decently long, due to the nature of how long Journey to the West is.
Frank's grandmother's favourite goddess is Guanyin, or, as she pronounced it the Cantonese way, Ginyam, with a hard g. Goddess of mercy and compassion, a bodhisaatva in Buddhist tellings. Guanshiyin, in her long form. The children's book has a drawing of her; Guanyin sits on the blooming lotus flower, wise and compassionate.
Frank's mother liked her too.
("Mercy is restraint, Frank," Emily said. "It has just a place in war as violence does.")
Frank supposes it is fitting that he likes her too. Taoist gods are much more... well, Frank can't quite place it, but Taoist gods are different than Roman gods. They have different concepts of filial piety and duty attached to them. The Jade Emperor gained power via compassion. Jupiter’s came from force.
Guanyin is nothing but benevolent; she assists Sun Wukong in helping Xuanzang (Frank did not find the other characters as notable; his favourite was always the peaceful Xuanzang, and, well, Sun Wukong is hard to forget). Her one fault, his mother had always said, was that she was a deux-ex-machina for the protagonists. But, as Emily had always reminded Frank, deux-ex-machinas can be good things, too.
"Why are you up at this ungodly hour?" Reyna asks, stepping in place beside him, breaking Frank out of his reverie.
"Just… reminiscing. Had a nightmare.”
“Fair enough,” Reyna says, rolling out her shoulder. “Nothing important?”
“No. You can go back to sleep.”
Reyna smiles, but it’s ephemeral. “You know you can talk to me, right? We’re not super close but we are working together. And you can talk to Hazel.”
“I know. It’s nothing important.”
Reyna nods and leaves him alone to his thoughts and the kid’s version of Journey to the West.
She reminds him of the burden of duty. She’s bore it for all too long. Frank doesn’t know how she did it. He’ll be praetor for just under ten years, and the toll’s already been felt. And alone, too. If Frank’s honest, Reyna has always seemed frightening to him. She’s great at what she does, self-confident and assured in her every move. And duty is something Frank is familiar with - Shen Lun’s stain has long been felt. Frank’s grandmother’s pride had long been kept.
Reyna has a legacy. Of her family and of her own. She may have created it with her sister Hylla, but it is hers nonetheless.
Frank has one too. But his is conflicting. Shapeshifters, prisoners, immigrants, exiles, war heroes.
His mother would've told him he had his own path in life. His grandmother would've told him that children must follow their parents.
If there is one thing the Roman and Taoist gods are in agreement about, it is filial piety. It is loyalty to your parents, to the state. If there is one thing all of his ancestors would have probably agreed on, it would be that.
Obey your parents. Obey the state. Your parents gave you everything; you can never recompensate that.
He puts the kid's copy of Journey to the West back on the shelf.
He wants a good bowl of noodles - whatever it is. Crossing-the-bridge, udon (in Chinese dishes, yes, that was Chinese-Canadian). They don't have any decent Chinese food in New Rome (only terrible Chinese food allowed solely by , and he's not allowed to go to San Francisco, or, gods forbid, Vancouver. Even as praetor).
Maybe he should send one of his distant cousins a message - or his grandmother, if she's still alive. He thinks he could find her. Or perhaps it is more hope.
Plus, the praetors have their own kitchenette. He could probably make something. As long as it can be put in the microwave.
Frank smiles.
He thinks, if his grandmother is alive, she may be proud of him in this moment. For nothing else but where he's come and who he wants to be. For nothing else if that he has turned the Zhang family into what the Shen family could never be.
He thinks, if his mother were here to see him, she would be proud of him. Not for everything he's come to, but simply because she loves him. He thinks Emily Zhang would as well.
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Roman Holiday
Fandom: Riordan-Verse
Author: BobInTheComments
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Graphic Descriptions of Violence, Underage, Alcohol
Word Count: 53,388
Pairings: Percabeth, Percico, Solangelo, Jiper, Jeyna, Frazel, Caleo
Characters: Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Annabeth Chase, Piper McLean, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Jason Grace, Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo, Cú Chulainn, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne | Saber, Gawain, Dagda, Morgan le Fay, Titania, Madb
Tags: The girls go to the UK, Awesome Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, grumpy reyna, they tricked her, Comedy, Some Dark Humor, BBC references, Reyna likes the Food Network, She's been to Flavortown, Underage Drinking, Hangover, this is kind of like a cross between Eurotrip and The Hangover, but with mythology, lots of bad jokes, inappropriate use of powers, lots of screaming, PROFANITY GALORE, Hazel is annoying, Frank is not a good praetor, more tags to be added to avoid spoilers, Reyna centric, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Universe 072063, now with art!
Two weeks.
Two weeks off was all the praetor of New Rome was granted, and Reyna fully intended to make them count. She was going to stay in her apartment, eat nothing but Ben and Jerry's and takeout, and watch the Food Network until Guy Fieri took her pureed mind to Flavor Town. Just two weeks of peace and quiet with no Frank to hound, no Hazel telling her to be nicer to the baby-man, and best of all: no paperwork.
But an unexpected (and unwelcome) visit from the Daughters of Athena and Aphrodite forces her across the sea to a land that is steeped in magic, mystery, and Doctor Who merch.
And now she's waking up with world's worst hangover, as some ancient queen is kidnapping Annabeth while screaming about her hate-on for Romans.
Yay.
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naiad-princess · 4 years
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Zhang Fai Headcanons Because I Said So
would correct people about his name, but he's shy so he let's people pronounce it "Z-aang"
has campers come up to him and ask him if he listens to k-pop, to which he reminds them that he's Chinese and not Korean
definitely looks up to Jason, but wouldn't admit it
also looks up to Annabeth, but so does everyone else
easily flustered
kind of has body image issues? like same
is one of those people who has a lot of emotional problems, but solves everyone else's to procrastinate on solving his own
definitely has a love-hate relationship with Leo Valdez ("fuck you, valdez" "i love you too" / "shut up, frank" "how about no")
probably, at some point, was very intimated by reyna but in a good way
as praetor, tries to be like reyna
really good at cooking
has a Canadian accent and says "eh?" unironically
doesn't eat chocolate, but likes to make vegan brownies :)
eventually goes vegan after a long talk with himself about how fucking weird it is that he turns into animals, but can eat animals
can read Chinese better than he can speak it
the only person who really calls him fai is annabeth because she thinks its respectful
thinks percy is cool but in a "this bitch is insane" kind of way
definitely curses when he's alone
sometimes sits down and talks with jason and annabeth and they call themselves "the sane ones"
"there are four braincells on this ship; annabeth has three, i have half of one, and jason has the other half" -said on Argo II
very sweet to hazel, but very awkward too
frazel is that couple that everyone gets second hand embarrassment from
cannot do relationships for shit because everyone he's ever loved is dead
he and hazel break up at some point, but are still friends because they're kinda mature
literally has the best skincare routine because grandma zhang don't play around
kind of likes Meg, he thinks she's interesting
while talking one day it comes to meg's attention that people say frank's name wrong so whenever they say it, she quickly says, "IT'S NOT SAID LIKE THAT" and corrects them
his name isn't pronounced "z-aang" like the avatar, it's pronounced a little more like "j-ah-ng"
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Assassin AU Part one
One thing he remembers from his childhood is a large oak tree. It was always when he was sleeping that he saw the huge tree. It was dark and the wind was going like crazy.
He was having the same dream tonight. Him walking up to it and seeing a bloody corpse on the ground. He couldn’t tell who it was but he knew it was a female for sure.
But as he gets closer to seeing her face he always woke up before he even got the chance. Today was no different. He heard a muffled sound of his alarm clock going off in his room. His body was stiff as he sat up to look and find it. He pressed the button to stop it. The light blue morning sky was relaxed and tame to his eye. He stared at it for so long that he didn’t tear away from it till his phone started to buzz with a phone call. He looked to see what the name that showed up was there were only two peoples names he saved in the phone his cousin Reyna and Apollo. The latter of the two was calling him at the moment. As he tapped the button his voice was cold and monotone as he answered. “Hello?” “WELL GOOD MORNING FRANK! Whats my favorite teenage boy doing today” over the top as fucking usual. Frank sighed as he rubbed his hand over his face to get the tired feeling out of him. He got up and walked to his drawer to get some clothes out for the day. “What do you want I k ow you do t call unless you want something. So whats the deal” he got straight to the point. He could hear the pout in Apollo voice as he spoke. “Awww that be like that Frankie!! I just wanted to see how you were doing. Nothing wrong with that is there?” He responded. He was quiet for a moment as he thought about what he said. That would be true if thus wasnt Apollo he was talking too. “If you knew you that wouldn’t be to out of the question. Now what. Do. You. Want.” He asked once again. The older of the two sighed as he got to his point. “Ok whatever so you have a new assignment today from your dad my older brother" he could a faint noise from over the phone like he was rubbing two dice together. “I just had an assignment last week, why in a haste to give me a new one?” “Well you see there’s something different about this one. There will be 11 other assassins including yourself killing one target.” He explained in what he would say a bored tone. “…why so many for one person what are they super human. Whats the point of this?” “Well to see how much you guys want to get anything of your hearts desire. The big prize of this all good sir. Will im only going to tell you the big point of your assignment you’re going to find out the when you get too you new school” he gave a giggle. Rolling his eyes he was going to hang up till be was stopped by a question. “Hey whats the greatest you can put a person into?” The hell kind of question was that? Was he messing with him to get him off guard or to test his intelligence? He didnt at the moment. “Hatred” That made Apollo laugh as he said “My do you have a lot to learn Fai Zhang” The phone went dead. @sorryimshootposting, @alexfierrno, @zhangnet, @greek-praetor,
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don't mind me, just some Valzhang
don't like it? you do you don't attack me
The sun shone with early-morning luminescence. As Apollo, or Ra, or whoever it was, trailed his/her/their blazing glory across the sky, somewhere along the Via Praetoria, in the residence of the praetor of the Twelfth Legion, Frank Zhang awoke.
He blinked slowly, lazily, his vision bleary. He felt the familiar weight pressing along his own body and smiled.
Who'd have ever guessed? He couldn't stand Leo back on the Argo II, what with the whole Frazileo Love Triangle, as Piper and Percy had taken to calling it. Then, Leo died, and something broke inside of Frank—what about this tiny little Latino ensorcelled him so?
He couldn't understand.
Then, Leo came back, and Frank didn't know what to think. Hazel became praetor, and Frank wondered: yes, he loved her. With all his heart. But was it truly a romantic love? She was thirteen, for Olympus's sake. Was it really meant to last?
He'd always known he wasn't straight. Back in Vancouver, in that military school he used to attend, it was just boys. So, yeah, he knew he could be just easily attracted to the same sex as he was to girls.
Or any other gender, really. It just took him a while to get there—the falling-for-them part. He remembered wondering about this aloud back home one day, and Grandmother had said, "Well, then, Fai, go look it up, for Nirvana's sake. We never really thought you were heterosexual anyway."
Firstly, he had been shocked she'd actually unironically said "for Nirvana's sake" to him with a straight face. Then he'd been shocked that she was okay with him not being straight.
He was never really allowed to use the internet—for reasons he only now understood. Had he taken an 'Am I gay?' quiz, he would have been overrun by monsters and no matter how gay he was he'd be dead anyway.
So he asked around, somewhat awkwardly. Weeks after, Emily had asked her son, "So...?" When he looked at her in confusion, she clarified, "We never really thought you were heterosexual anyway," in a pretty good imitation of Grandmother's voice. Frank laughed, and came out as demisexual.
With Hazel as praetor, he began spending a lot of time with her, and they both came to realize: yeah, they'd loved each other like that, once.
Once.
They parted amicably, both knowing that they'd rather their first serious relationship was with each other than with anyone else. They remained the best of friends, so when Frank developed a crush on Valdez, he told her first.
"Oh, my gods, Frank," she'd laughed, "for real?"
"...yeah," he said grumpily. He was blushing something nasty.
"Please don't tell me this is a I-love-him-but-I-don't-want-to-be-in-love-with-him situation," said Hazel.
"No, that's not it," he sighed. "I didn't think I'd have a crush on him, if that makes any sense."
"Well, neither did I," she replied. "You two are such assholes to each other."
"Yeah, but ... ever since he came back, and we Iris-Message him from the Waystation, and seeing him so happy made me ... possessive, I guess? And then when Cal broke up with him and it was a mutual thing but he felt like shit anyway I felt like shit too, because he felt like shit, so I began Iris-Messaging him myself to see how he was getting on and we became really good friends ..."
"Oh, so that's why you two seem so close all of a sudden." Hazel nodded to herself. "Thought something was up."
"Yeah, but now I like him, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't, because he's as straight as one can be," Frank concluded.
Hazel snorted. "What?" Frank asked. She kept laughing. "What is it?!" he pressed.
"Oh, it's just," she answered, still kind of laughing, "it's just, it's really funny how you think Valdez is straight."
Frank's stomach performed a somersault. "He ... he isn't?"
"Never seemed to straight to me, and I'm from the '30s, so I automatically assume people are straight until I'm told they're not, no matter how much I hate that train of thought," Hazel told him. "Just tell him. What's the worst that could happen?"
"He could hear me," he replied darkly.
Hazel rolled her eyes. "Boys. I swear. Look, just ... give it time. You're amazing. Amazhang. Why wouldn't he like you?"
"Why would he?" Frank muttered.
She smacked him lightly. "Shut up, Zhang."
He chuckled softly at that. He didn't stop IM-ing Leo, every dam day, and he felt that he was kind of crossing some boundary with himself, allowing himself to fall for someone who most definitely did not like him back, but still being okay with that love being unrequited.
He knew how much Leo had gone through. Maybe he oughtn't tell him. Maybe it would only burden him.
Then came the week Leo decided to visit Camp Jupiter, without telling Frank, to surprise him. During that whole week, Frank found love letters seemingly written on a typewriter, all slipped under his door.
They were quite poetic, actually. He couldn't fathom who would write such wonderful things to him. He kept them, hoping he'd find the person who thought such nice things of him, and secretly hoping they were someone he could fall for.
On Leo's last day at camp, the two were in Frank's rooms, lounging on a sofa. Leo turned to him and said, "Thanks for helping get over the break-up."
"You've said that everyday this week," Frank responded. "You don't have to thank me, Leo."
"I can't believe it's been already so many months since we broke up," he continued. "But ... I'm glad it let me get to know you better."
Frank's heart skipped a beat. "Me too. Not, like, that I like that you've been broken up with, just—"
Leo laughed. "I know, I know."
Frank turned to look at him, this little shit who he had never really liked until said little shit revealed parts of himself previously hidden to Frank, and suddenly the little shit seemed infinitely appealing.
He still didn't know what to make of it.
But he thought, maybe Leo felt it, too. Maybe. Hazel was right. What was the worst that could happen?
"Leo," he began.
"Frank," Leo replied solemnly, then his face broke into a Leo-like smile, which gave Frank the courage to say what he had to say.
"You know, speaking of break-ups ..."
"Is this about Hazel?" Leo asked suddenly, concerned. "I know you've helped me a lot but I haven't really given any support in return ..."
Frank huffed a laugh. "No, idiot. Hazel and I are fine. You needed the support. Don't feel bad because you needed help. It's just ... how long after a break-up do you deem it fit to start another relationship?"
Leo looked a little taken aback, but smiled. "Well, when I find someone else I like, I guess. Why do you ask?" He eyed him cheekily. "Does Iguana Zhang have a wittle crush on somebody that he'd like to share?"
Frank reddened and elbowed him. "Shut up. But, actually, yes." He swallowed. "I ... I like you."
Leo stilled, and paled. "You ... you what?"
Frank felt queasy. He'd messed up. But he'd opened his big fat mouth now, so he might as well plough on. "Look, I—I know you might not be ... into boys like I am, but I just ... wanted you to know."
Leo went even paler. "I ..."
Frank wanted to die on the spot.
Leo took a breath. "I didn't know you weren't straight."
Frank stared. "I'm, uh, demi."
Leo looked at him. "I'm bi."
Frank couldn't stop staring. It wasn't exactly an answer, but it wasn't a rejection, either.
Leo's eyes glistened, and Frank realized that they were filled with unshed tears. "I like you too. But, but, why? Why do you like me?"
Frank felt elated. Then just as quickly felt confused. "Wh-what do you mean, why do I like you? Why wouldn't I?"
"Because!" Leo protested. "You deserve so much more than I can ever give you. You deserve more than a mess."
He couldn't help it; Frank hugged him. Leo melted into the embrace.
"Not really, I don't," he told him. "I like this mess. And I'm not exactly perfect, either. So get that out of your stubborn head. I know ... your fatal flaw is your inferiority complex, but, please, for once, just believe that I like you and want nothing more than to be with you and listen to you whine everyday and help you with your inventions even though I don't understand shit, it's still cool to see you do what you're best at, because it's true, Valdez, so just accept it."
Leo was silent. Frank felt him shaking. He hugged him tighter, and Leo let him.
"Fine," he said at last, his voice muffled against the praetor's shirt. "I—I believe you." (Heartstopper moment.)
"Y-you do?"
"I do. I really do like you. Let's give this a chance." They looked at each other, triumphant. Leo smiled a watery smile and said, "Can I tell you something?"
"Anything."
"You've been receiving letters, haven't you?"
Frank stared. He hadn't told anyone about the love letters.
"Written on a typewriter. Awfully sappy, kind of embarrassing to read."
"They're not embarrassing," Frank felt compelled to correct him, "they're just really painfully honest, and whoever wrote them seems like the most wonderful person, but also seems to be under the mistaken impression that I'm some Prince Charming, so ..."
"They are very honest," Leo agreed quietly, "and they are not under a false impression."
"How do you even know about them?" Frank asked dumbly, knowing the answer as soon as he asked the question.
"I wrote them, dumbass," Leo admitted. "Every single one."
"You did not. You did freaking not."
"Why not?"
"You can't possibly think all that of me ..."
"I do, Koi Fish, all that and more, so just accept it."
Frank smiled to hear him own words repeated back at him by the same person he'd said them to.
"I accept it, then," he said, and Leo kissed him.
Frank blushed so hard he almost turned into a border collie. Leo smiled, eyes still wet.
"Gonna have to work on the pet names, though," Frank said gruffly, and Leo laughed.
Leo stayed beyond the week he was supposed to be there. Hazel looked suspicious, but said nothing. Lavinia was also suspicious, and said a lot.
"He's been here for a month, Fai," she said. "Are you keeping him hostage?"
"Not against his will." He shrugged.
So he awoke that morning, blinking sleep from his eyes while Leo was still asleep, draped across his body like a lion. Frank kissed the curls at the top of his head, and heard him say, "Buenos días, cariño."
"Shoot, did I wake you?" Frank said.
"Nah, was already awake," Leo said sleepily, clearly lying.
"Sure you were," he said knowingly, kissing his hair again.
Leo smiled, and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend. Just as Frank was about to suggest getting up to have breakfast, Hazel knocked and entered, saying, "Good morning, Frank," looking at him and adding, "Hello, Leo," and was about to say something else when she paused. "Wait. Leo?"
"Hiya," he said sheepishly.
"Why are you in Frank's ..." She looked around Frank accusingly. "You asked him out and didn't tell me?!"
Frank shrugged and did his level best to look guilty.
"Oh my gods, finally," she said. "Valdez, you have no idea how long he's been crushing on you."
"Shut up!" Frank cried, but Leo only laughed.
"Same, honestly," he said and Frank fell back onto the pillows.
"Awwwwhh." Hazel smiled. "Well, that's why you've been here a whole month, huh."
"Mhm." Leo's hand cupped Frank' cheek. Seeing this, Hazel left them in peace, calling, "Don't forget the meeting at nine, Zhang!"
"I won't!" he yelled back, and let Leo caress his face before getting up to make some breakfast.
"Thank the gods we were wearing clothes when she came in," Leo mused.
Frank became flustered and fumbled with the waffle machine. "Why wouldn't we be wearing clothes?!"
Leo only shrugged, and laughed when Frank became visibly more flustered. "Also, what meeting?"
"It's a praetor thing," Frank explained. "Legion duties and stuff."
"I see," said the other, nodding, and sat up as Frank handed him his plate of waffles. He breathed in the heavenly aroma and said dreamily, "You know I love you, right?"
Then he froze when he realised what he'd just said.
They hadn't said those three little words yet. And here he was, saying them somewhat sarcastically in tone.
But wholly truthfully in meaning.
Frank only grinned, flushed. "And you know I love you, too."
And Leo relaxed. They ate their waffles in peace, Leo's head on Frank's shoulder, the way they did almost every morning for the past month.
"We gonna tell people now?" asked the shorter boy.
"If you like," replied the taller. "I mean, Hazel knows. I'll bet she won't tell anyone yet, though. That's Hazel. She'll let us say it ourselves."
"Thank the gods for that." Leo stole one of Frank's waffles. "And thank the gods for you."
"Lavinia won't stop teasing me about this," Frank pondered.
Leo worried. "Would you rather we didn't tell anyone, then?"
"No, no, that's not what I meant. I actually really want people to know. That way they know not to pine after someone already taken." He kissed Leo's forehead. The latter grinned.
"Do you ever think about how, technically, you are dating your ex's ex's great-grandson?" Leo asked.
"STOP GIVING ME EXISTENTIAL CRISIS, JEEZ," pleaded Frank, making Leo laugh.
"But it's true," he protested, giggling.
"I KNOW IT IS."
"Then—"
"WHY MUST YOU."
"I simply must."
"You're lucky I love you."
"I know I am."
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Vazhang hcs please!!
akshkekwndk YAY!
okay so like we agree that these two are, like, idiots in love
like fr these bitches istg. himbo energy to the mAX even tho neither of them actually are T_T it's just their vibe
anw leo loves tinkering and messing around with his toolbelt, right? it's a pretty popular headcanon atp that leo makes jewellery for whichever s/o he's being shipped with. and you know he does that for frank (frank had a complete breakdown one day—i hc my guy with severe anxiety don't mind me—and that anxiety attack was sort of the result of all the culminated stress of maintaining the image of the perfect praetor and leader and, in his head, grandson. i think grandma zhang, no matter how much good she did to him, still gave him a bit of a i-need-to-make-her-proud issue. so yeah, after that, he just let go and got a bunch ear piercings, a nose septum ring and tattoos. more on those later. its a minor rebellion, but its enough).
as i was saying, leo LOVES making earrings and rings for him, necklaces, bracelets, anklets and whatnot. frank loves every single one of em, but he's running out of space to put them all :/
frank lets leo try on his praetor's cape once. something about an enormous cape dwarfing his lil boyfie almost made him refuse to take it back, ever. leo now randomly steals it and sleeps on frank's bed with it. it makes frank melt.
frank calls leo "'nidas" and leo calls frank "fai"
frank's tattoos: he cuts himself sometimes when the anxiety gets too much, so hazel had drawn a butterfly on his left forearm, near his legion tattoo, and told him not to kill the butterfly. he knew the pen ink would fade and the butterfly would die anyways, so he got it tattooed, permanently, so that he can remember.
he also has a snake down his spine that moves whenever he does and leo just loves that.
leo ended up wanting tattoos too, so they got a matching one. for frank, it's the words "a love that moves the sun ..." across his collarbone and for leo it's the words "... and all the other stars" across his own collarbone.
leo also got a dragon on his hip and feathers on his heart ("hope is the things with feathers"—>hope is "esperanza"—>his mother).
their first date was at a mexican cuisine frank suggested, their second at a chinese restaurant leo came up with. they both think that's hilarious for some reason
frank has a skateboard leo can ride better than he can. frank complains about it often like "why can you ride that thing better than i can?!" "i can ride lotsa things pretty well you know 😏😉" cue frank smacking him
leo stealing frank's shirts >>>>>>>>
frank loves seeing him in his clothes so that works out fine
frank's favourite flower is the orchid so leo makes it a point to buy him some every valentine's day, birthday and christmas <3
leo's is roses because he's a sucker for clichés, so frank does the same to him <33
frank also loves jades, so when leo proposes to him (in a dramatic-ass way, you know it's true), frank's ring has a jade inset in the centre.
like i said, idiots in love <333
frank ends up quitting the legion at age 21 and they move in together in a flat in new rome. they have a dog (a king charles—oh, the irony...) leo insisted they name nacho. so they did.
they also have a parrot named deejay because the damn thing actually sings with the radio and leo finds that absolutely hilarious
frank just loves seeing him laugh, and it's so infectious that he just has to laugh, too
as i said, i hc frank with severe anxiety. it's clear that leo has depression, so they talk about their struggles and try to get through them together when therapy isn't enough
they're jus always there for each other, ya kno?
the first time they fight, frank sleeps on the couch that night, but neither of them actually get any sleep because they can't stand being apart and arguing. so the next morning, they just fall into each other's arms murmuring "sorry, sorry, i love you, i love you so much" and no matter how severe the arguments after that are, they never sleep apart
i think they adopt a son somewhere along the way. piper and shel have a daughter and don't want any more kids but her (they named her tara, which was what piper's grandpa tom would've suggested naming her had they not named her piper) so they suggest they name the lil guy jason, and after much deliberation, they do
because, did they want a daily reminder of who they'd lost? but eventually, they reasoned: we can name him jason, and he will live beyond sixteen. he will live a long, full life. we will let jason live a safe, happy life this time round, because he's ours
they also adopt a girl, whom they name emily hope
these are a complete mess with no particular order, they just came to me in a rush and a jumble. enjoy alsjskdjsmks
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