[In hindsight, she should have known. Maybe part of her did, but she had spent so much of her time worrying. Speculating. The realization of actually being right was startling enough to still catch her off-guard.]
Then it wasn't just the Event.
[Her voice was gentle. Far more resolved than accusing or disgusted. Her eyes showed nothing but sadness...but not for the reason that Nico might have suspected.]
[Just as she had talked with Frank, the era she and her brother grew up in...times had been different. So different. Prejudice had risen within the last decade, and where as the 1920s had been an era were gay men were not only tolerated, but even openly accepted, the 1930s were far less kind. Homosexuality...interracial couples...in the South, in particular, they were downright illegal. And would remain so until 1967, a date neither of them would be around to see.]
[None of that had ever mattered to Hazel, of course. She had been far too busy being bullied for other things. Her mother. Her curse. And by the time she had met Frank...she simply never learned to care. People fell for who they fell for, regardless of race or gender.]
[No, it wasn't the thought of Nico being gay that saddened her; it was the thought of the very act of caring for someone so much causing him pain. And the thought of what Percy must have done to him in return to cause even more pain.]
no subject
Then it wasn't just the Event.
[Her voice was gentle. Far more resolved than accusing or disgusted. Her eyes showed nothing but sadness...but not for the reason that Nico might have suspected.]
[Just as she had talked with Frank, the era she and her brother grew up in...times had been different. So different. Prejudice had risen within the last decade, and where as the 1920s had been an era were gay men were not only tolerated, but even openly accepted, the 1930s were far less kind. Homosexuality...interracial couples...in the South, in particular, they were downright illegal. And would remain so until 1967, a date neither of them would be around to see.]
[None of that had ever mattered to Hazel, of course. She had been far too busy being bullied for other things. Her mother. Her curse. And by the time she had met Frank...she simply never learned to care. People fell for who they fell for, regardless of race or gender.]
[No, it wasn't the thought of Nico being gay that saddened her; it was the thought of the very act of caring for someone so much causing him pain. And the thought of what Percy must have done to him in return to cause even more pain.]
What did he say? When you told him.