hi i literally came up with ladizel back in early 2017 and started sending messages/anon asks to famous pjo blogs back in the day to start making it popular... i started it all
for @pjofemslashweek day 5: polyam day (ladizel) | read on ao3 | word count: 3.6k
s+l
the first week of november. it’s too cold to eat lunch outside so sadie and lacy spent it wholed up in the corner of the hallway on the arts floor. they sit on their coats, they have rested their backpacks neatly beside each other and their boots are dripping on the ground. they are sitting squished up against each other, even though there is no one else in their corner of the hallway. much farther down is the loud noise of other students, but neither seems to notice. sadie opens a bag and lacy pokes through it. she pulls out a pink silly band. she stretches it in one direction, then another. then she drops it on the ground.
it’s the barbie logo. lacy smiles at it, then she reaches for sadie’s wrist. sadie pulls it away and waves it above lacy’s head as she makes faces at lacy. lacy grabs onto sadie’s arm and lowers it. finally, she gets a hold of sadie’s wrist. she picks up the barbie logo silly band and slides it onto sadie’s face. sadie rolls her eyes and tosses the bag onto lacy’s lap. when lacy isn’t looking anymore, sadie runs a finger along the pink plastic on her wrist.
there’s a sound. lacy and sadie both look up at the ceiling. it’s the bell. both of their classes are in the hallway they are sitting in, so they stay where they are. sadie steals the packet back and empties all the bands on the floor. together, the two seperate the silly bands and see the shapes they make. lacy takes a pair of purple sunglasses and holds them up to her face, as if they are real. sadie smiles at her. her whole face smiles at lacy. then she takes the band and adds it to the one already on her wrist.
“it’s mine because i’m cool,” says sadie. lacy looks at her and an eyebrow raises. then she turns back to the bands. lacy sees one and grabs for it quickly, she shoves it into the pocket of her coat. sadie watches her, but cannot seem to get a glimpse of the shape of the silly band that has been hidden away. it was a heart. lacy gently shoves sadie back to where she was. sadie’s wrists slowly become more and more covered by silly bands. the only one lacy has is the heart hidden in her pocket.
the last silly band left is a grey poodle. “i’ve always wanted a poodle,” lacy says. then, she slides it onto sadie’s left wrist and pushes herself onto her feet. sadie watches her pick up her coat and bag. lacy seems to have timed it perfectly, as she hikes her bag onto her shoulders the door next to where they had been sitting opens and students crowd in. sadie stands up and waves goodbye to lacy, but lacy cannot see. the space between them is filled with other students and lacy has walked farther down the hallway.
h+l
it is the day after the war with gaea. all of hazel's older friends are busy reuniting with others. yesterday hazel had made sure she knew who was alive and who was not. today, piper has introduced her to her young half sister lacy.
lacy and hazel are standing at the beginning of the dock on the canoe lake. lacy cautiously takes hazel’s hand. hazel squeezes their join hands on instinct, she smiles slightly embarrassed. lacy smiles back at her, her braces catch the light of the sun and sparkle. lacy turns back to the dock ahead of them. hazel’s eyes are still on lacy’s face.
lacy is eyeing something in the distance. there are naiads far up. hazel has not noticed them, but there is a chance she does not know they are there. lacy takes a step forward and hazel follows. together, they walk slowly along the doc. the wind is blowing and the skirts of lacy’s sundress brushes against hazel’s legs. as they reach the end of the doc lacy steps out of her sandals. their hands fall apart as hazel giggles lightly. “i didn’t know we’d be going in the water,” hazel says. she has to bend down to unlace her sneakers and slip off her socks. then, she lines her shoes up next to lacy’s as if they have taken their shoes off at the front door.
“look,” lacy says. she tilts her head towards the naiads watching them, only a little distance away, there are three of them and they are watching lacy and hazel curiously. “they’re our age.”
hazel looks at them. she is roman and she has just finished a war. hazel has never seen nature spirits or monsters her own age. the naiads wave at lacy and hazel, and the half mortal girls on the doc wave back. then, the naiads drift away deeper into the lake where lacy and hazel can no longer see them. lacy sits down on the edge of the doc and lets her feet fall into the water. hazel sits next to her and traces patterns in the water with her toes. bubbles pop up as they disturb the lake and both girls watch the water ripple and change.
eventually, they grow tired of the water. hazel rests her head against lacy’s shoulder and they play i spy. neither wants or needs anything with thought. a war ended yesterday. “i see something brown,” lacy says. hazel guess trees and murky water and the wood of the doc, and the dirt on the ground and a bird in the sky. “none of those,” lacy tells her. hazel guesses a squirrel in the tree.
“no,” lacy says. “your eyes.” hazel lifts her head from lacy’s shoulder and looks into the water, where her reflection is. then, she looks back at lacy. hazel nods, once, and then she rests her head on lacy’s shoulder again. for a moment lacy and hazel sit there in silence.
“i spy something green,” hazel says. lacy looks around, careful not to dislodge hazel. she guesses the murky water, the leaves on the trees, the grass on the ground and one of the canoes. none of them are right. lacy shoves hazel off at that and frowns at her.
“what is it then?”
hazel’s smiling at her, soft. “your nail polish.” lacy looks down at her nails. they’re green and chipped. she had done them weeks ago in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep. she hadn’t had time to fix them up yet, until yesterday there had been a war going on.
lacy lifts her hands in the space between her and hazel and the two girls look at her nails. hazel reaches up and links her hands with lacy. their hands drop onto the desk and lacy and hazel look at them. lacy opens her mouth to say something, but then there is noise behind her. their hands fall apart and lacy and hazel turn to the beginning of the doc. lacy’s siblings are there.
“lacy,” one calls. “we’re giving our no fun roman siblings makeovers! come on!”
“that’s my sister drew,” lacy tells hazel.
“you should probably go with them, i can catch up with my no fun roman friends,” hazel says.
lacy laughs and stands up, “come on. if we don’t hurry up cam and julian will push us into the lake.” hazel and lacy shove on their shoes and they walk to the end of the doc together. hazel runs off waving after the step onto land. lacy waves back, even though hazel has turned away and can’t see it.
her sister val tugs on the silly band on her wrist, “really lacy?” she asks. lacy ignores her, and her siblings move on.
h+s
it is a year after a war, it’s a thursday afternoon in april. the bus is mostly empty. there is an elderly couple sitting at the front of the bus, two young children and an older teen in the very back row, and standing by the second set of doors are two girls. hazel is holding onto the rail and watching through the window. sadie is leaning against a glass partition with earbuds in as she scrolls on her phone. they have been standing there for a while. every so often hazel or lacy will look up from where their eyes are set to see when someone new comes onto the bus. they have both noticed the other in passing, but they never look around the bus at the same time.
hazel’s phone buzzes in her bag. hazel digs through her bag to pull it out. she is not used to it, but no one seems to notice. sadie looks up from her own phone when hazels’ starts to ring. she notices, but she doesn’t say anything. hazel answers the phone and presses it up to her ear.
“hello?” she says into the phone. “oh. hush! yes. i’m on a bus. school. you do too. yes, whatever, you're seventeen. i will call your grandmother. hush. yes. no. canada? why not here? that’s a bad reason. oh, go deal with that. no. haha, too bad. yes. no! reyna is much busier than you. too bad! good luck.” she pulls the phone away from her ear. hazel stares at it for a moment, and then she seems to realize something. she presses a red circle before putting it in the pocket of her raincoat.
sadie puts her earbuds back in. she had been listening in on the conversation. sadie looks back at her phone. a young man in his twenties steps onto the bus and walks all the way to the back of the bus, he ends up sitting down in the row in front of the small children and the older teen. sadie and hazel’s gazes drift away as he settles down and they catch each others eyes. sadie blinks, “hello.”
“oh,” hazel says, surprised. “i didn’t think people still talked to strangers on the bus.”
“they don't,” sadie says. sadie and hazel stare at each other in silence for a few moments. then, sadie seems to realize what she just says. “oh but - i’m not people.”
hazel giggles quietly, “you’re not? oh, i thought you were. sorry, that’s my bad.”
sadie tries to look affronted, but she joins in on hazel’s laughter. “hey,” she says. “do you want to listen with me? it’s really quiet in here.” it is quiet. both girls have been whispering the entire time. hazel seems to think about it for a moment, and then she nods. sadie pushes herself off the glass partition and stands next to hazel. she passes hazel one of the earbuds and holds onto the pole. hazel’s hand is in the middle, so sadie places hers higher so they don’t touch. sadie tries to scroll through her phone, but eventually she gives up. she watches through the window with hazel as the bus drives by. neither girl says anything else on the bus.
eventually, everyone else gets off the bus besides the two of them. on the second last stop sadie moves to press the red button on the pole, but hazel beats her to it. the two girls eye the other warily. there is nothing at the stop they are both getting off at. when the bus settles to a stop hazel passes sadie back her earbud and they step off together.
there is a horse waiting. “oh,” sadie says. “you’re a demigod.”
“ oh ,” hazel says. “you’re the magician. sadie kane.”
then, the two girls laugh. they start to talk, and as they talk they find it very very easy to be near each other. hazel helps sadie onto arion and pulls herself up right after. she tells sadie about arion, and sadie listens with only a few interruptions. then, arion takes off and the two girls are a long gone blur.
h+s+l
it is the beginning of the third week of october. the last bell of school has rung and most of the students of brooklyn academy for the gifted have left. sadie has just finished a drama class that ran a little late and she is walking out the front doors. lacy is sitting on the curb in front of the school. she is waiting for someone. sadie walks up to her, not knowing why lacy is still at school, and sits next to her. “what are you still doing here?” sadie asks her.
“oh,” lacy says. “i’m waiting for um. for a friend.” lacy blushes lightly on the last word and sadie notices. she doesn’t say anything. she doesn’t move from the curb, either.
“well, i can wait with you until your friend gets here,” sadie tells her. lacy nods and picks at something on her wrist. sadie doesn’t know what to say, so she pulls out her phone. she unlocks it and positions it so she and lacy can both see it. lacy easily flips through the pages of sadie’s homescreen, this is something they clearly do often. lacy clicks on an app. it loads slowly. sadie changes her wifi twice and then the app fully loads. the background music of the game starts to play and matching smiles grow on lacy and sadies faces. lacy clicks on a map at the bottom of the apps screen and then sadie clicks on a button that says marketplace . they order a new dress together and then they click on the map again and pick a different location.
“hi!” says a voice, and lacy taps onto the screen too early and a butterfly gets away. sadie and lacy look up. hazel is standing there. she waves awkwardly at the two of them.
lacy jumps up to her feet quickly, leaving sadie still sitting on the curb, “hazel hi!” lacy and hazel smile at each other, and sadie watches them. there is something on sadie’s face. it is a look of realization.
“so,” hazel says. “i was thinking-”
“shh, you said it would be a surprise,” lacy tells her. hazel smirks.
“it is, i was testing you,” hazel informs lacy. lacy beams at her and suddenly they are holding hands. sadie blinks at them from the ground. sadie pushes herself up of the ground and onto her feet. she is close to the two of them, almost awkwardly so, and she takes a step back. hazel turns to sadie with a smile just for her and sadie plays with the corner of her phone under hazel’s gace. “sadie i didn’t know you and lacy knew each other,” she says.
“wait what - you two know each other?” lacy asks.
“yeah, we met on a bus,” sadie tells lacy. then she turns to hazel, “i’m in drama here.”
hazel nods and ahhs, and sadie bits her lip. “so,” sadie says. “how do you two know each other?” they are all repeating each others words.
lacy answers, and spills a secret by accident. “oh,” lacy says breezily. “hazel and i got to sister summer camps. um, it was really nice figuring out we are all know each other but. hazel and i have uh. we have um.”
“a date,” hazel says. she has eyes only for lacy and her eyes are soft as she looks at her. sadie takes another step back.
“oh. have fun.” lacy and hazel say goodbye and then they walk away. sadie watches them. they have not planned it, but lacy’s pink fuzzy coat matches hazel’s tan peacoat perfectly. their joined hands swing back and forth in the space between them and their heads are turned to each other. sadie does not notice that they take up an awkward amount of space on the sidewalk. they are positioned as if there is someone missing. maybe, if sadie watched them for longer she would notice. instead, she turns around and goes the other way and pulls up someone's number.
“shut up carter,” sadie says as she walks, putting more distance between herself and lacy and hazel. “that’s nonsense right there - felix likes koalas now. i got him to say he likes koalas now. there is no penguin at the house.”
h+s+l
it is the last wednesday of june. lacy and hazel are sitting on a bench. lacy is holding a paper bowl with a scoop of ice cream and hazel is holding two cones. one is much taller than the other and both girls are eyeing it warily.
before the scoops fall onto the ground, a hand pulls it out of hazel’s grasp. lacy and hazel smile up at sadie. sadie is very quickly making a mess of her cone so lacy hands her a wad of napkins she had ready.
sadie cleans it up and walks over to a garbage can a bit away to throw it out. lacy looks nervous, and hazel sighs, “lacy it’ll be okay.”
“but what if-” lacy stops short. sadie is only a few feet away. she pokes at her ice cream and takes one tiny bite of it. hazel, despite her calm expression, has barely touched her own cone. sadie, in contrast, has completely finished her ice cream by the time she rejoins lacy and hazel. she moves to sit on hazel’s other side, but lacy and hazel both move over and make space for sadie. sadie takes it slowly, as if she is not used to sitting in the middle. lacy and hazel frequently leave space for sadie in between the two of them when they hang out with her.
“sadie,” lacy starts. and then she stops. her face is worried and she has set her ice creams aside to pick at something on her wrist. sadie looks at lacy concerned. lacy is sometimes anxious, but she has grown much less so over the years. now, she is only ever nervous before tests or big conversations.
“sadie,” hazel tries. sadie turns from lacy to hazel. hazel has hardly touched her ic cream and sadie’s eyebrows furrow. this is not making any sense to her. she waits for hazel to continue, and hazel seems to realize it is her cue and takes a breath.
“okay, well.” hazel turns away from sadie, it is more difficult to say this to her face. instead, she watches the pigeons on the ground and the children on the play structure. “lacy and i have been together since october.”
sadie nods, even though lacy is focused on her wrist and hazel is staring out and away from her. hazel continues, “we think we know each other okay.” hazel stops, suddenly. then she sighs and she turns back to sadie and nods to herself.
“i’m doing this wrong,” she tells sadie. sadie laughs, confused.
“i don’t know what ‘this’ is,” sadie tells her. “but i don’t think you’ve botched it. you’re just really nervous - and you don’t do nervous.”
“you’re right. and you know that because you know us,” lacy pipes up. then, she pulls something off of her wrist that she’s worn for a very long time. she stretches it one way, then the other. then she rests it on sadie’s thigh and it settles into its shape. “I’ve had this silly band for a while,” lacy tells sadie. “i kept it because of a lot of reasons. but, mostly because i’ve liked you for a while.”
“and i like you too,” hazel says neat and tidy. sadie stares down at the silly band. carefully, she outlines the pink heart with her index finger.
“oh,” sadie says. and then sadie stands up and turns towards the two of them. “why didn’t you tell me! i’ve liked you both for ages - do you know how jealous i’ve been? carter - fucking carter has been making fun of me!”
lacy and hazel look to each other, and then to sadie and they laugh. lacy pulls sadie back onto the bench and hazel kisses her cheek. lacy makes a face at hazel on the other side of sadie before leaning down to the ground. she picks up the pink silly band that had fallen onto the ground as sadie jumped up and she holds it out to sadie.
“sadie,” lacy says quietly. “will you go out with us?”
sadie blinks for a moment, and then she nods and her face lights up. “yeah,” sadie says. “fuck - yeah of course.”
hazel swats at sadie’s arm, “mind your fucking language.” sadie laughs at that and keeps laughing, even as lacy gets her to calm down enough to slide the heart shaped silly band onto her wrist.
h+s+l
hazel and sadie and lacy are lying down on grass. they are in a field in the middle of nowhere and they are looking up at the sky. a little ways off, arion is chewing on a chunk of green. sadie has her arm around hazel, and lacy is holding sadie’s hand and lacy has her head resting on hazel’s stomach. they are eating candy from lacy’s bag and trying to decide what shape the clouds are. lacy kisses sadie’s hand and hazel plays with lacy’s hair and sadie is singing softly to the music playing from her phone’s speaker.
it is two weeks and two months and two years after they have gotten together. they are together and they are made of quiet moments and loud arguments and endless laughter and shitty music and this moment, here. they are staring at the sky and they shift away and move together. the sun warms their faces. lacy, sadie and hazel hear the wind blow through the grass and the clouds move across the sky.
valdangelo — late night motorcycle drives, eating fast food in the backseat of your dad’s truck, tickle fights, banter in small yet meaningful whispers, sharing ear buds, making out in the bathroom of a party, retro video games, caressing your lover’s face as they sleep, laughter in wheezes and cackles, cigarettes after sex, silent promises.
ladizel — soft rock and r&b playing in the bedroom, strolling through gardens with hands intertwined, glitter under soft eyes, plucking the strings of your electric guitar, hollering at the clouds in an open car, aftercare, staring at the sunset blanketed by the sands of a beach, mailed bouquets, lipstick stains on cheeks and necks, quiet yet grand rebellion.
