Six year old Annabeth Chase sat in the corner of the family's living room, face void of emotion as she watched her father gush over his sons.
"Come on, Bobby. Say it again." He lifted the one year old in his arms making the toddler giggle in excitement.
"Dada!" He squealed. Fredrick Chase cooed. He actually cooed! Before throwing the child up in the air before catching him again.
"This is the best day of my life." He said smiling at his wife who was watching the scene with an amused smile, holding the other twin in her arms who looked equally adorable with two teeth in the bottom gum.
The six year scowled at this rubbing her arm. The monster attacks were becoming more and more recent now and this morning, a dracaena had decided to grace her with its presence leaving her with a deep gash on the arm.
It was eight in the night; an hour to bedtime. It was high time that he took out her present for her and start with the birthday song. However, it was more than obvious at this point of time that he had forgotten her sixth birthday, just the way he had forgotten the fifth and the fourth.
Another round of giggles came from the centre of the room where the happy, content and perfectly normal family was sitting celebrating their baby's first word. She could've gone there and sat there. Pretend to be a part of the happy, little bubble they had created around themselves but deep down she knew she couldn't. She was anything but normal, her father made sure to let her know. She didn't fit in with them, so she stayed away rubbing the injured arm and waiting for the moment when her father suddenly remembered that it was her birthday and everything turned perfect in the blink of an eye.
The moment didn't come.
The giggling and coos of adoration continued making Annabeth feel even more frustrated. Fredrick said that her mother was a goddess. A goddess is supposed to know things; didn't she know it was her birthday today?
She wasn't the one for huge parties and over the top celebrations but a little 'Happy Birthday' wouldn't really hurt.
Annabeth could've told him that it was her birthday like any other child would have done in her situation but she was way too prideful for that even at six. She didn't want him to think that she wanted something from him, even though she did and it hurt knowing that he didn't realize that.
She climbed off the chair to make her way up the stairs but Lady Luck hated her more than usual as she stumbled dropping the glass frame kept on the side table with the couple's wedding photo in it.
The sudden crash attracted everyone's attention as her father looked at her the first time that evening wearing a tired expression.
"Helen, take the twins upstairs. I'll clean up the mess." He told his wife standing up kissing her cheek and both the kids' foreheads before she made her way upstairs to the nursery.
He came up to her, gave her an exasperated look and bent down to clean to pick up the glass.
"She should have taken you back." He muttered under his breath ignoring the fact that she was standing Right There.
She wanted to yell at him but her emotions betrayed her as hot tears pooled in her eyes and blood dripped down her thumb which she had cut when the frame dropped. He looked up and his eyes softened just a fraction of a degree as he asked her, "What happened?"
"Nothing." She said hiding her thumb hiding her thumb and making her way towards her room.
He couldn't read her mind after all.
"Annabeth, please!" Luke said his blonde hair reflecting the sunlight making them seem almost white. His voice had a pleading tone to it which made her heart clench painfully. "We can run away. Me and you. Maybe we can even convince Thalia to join us. Please Beth. It would just be like the old days."
He had tears in his eyes at this point.
"Can't you see how wrong it is?" She told him her voice barely above a whisper. "Why can't you join us? Everything would be fine."
"Do you really think I would be accepted back there? Do you think Kronos would just let me leave like that?" His chest rose and fell rapidly.
"It was your choice Luke. It's not too late to make amends." She said looking down at her knife which was in her hand and at Luke who was standing in front of her defenceless, begging for forgiveness.
"You know I cannot. I'm bound to him. Please come with me. He will use me like a stepping stone." He seemed to notice the knife in her hands.
"You might as well fight me now." He said putting her hands up in surrender. "Please." He whispered again placing his hand on her arm.
"No." she said firmly. She couldn't afford to be weak right now. He had made his choice; she was making hers.
He looked taken aback by this.
This was possibly the last time they would see each other before the battle, he leaned in to hug her but she stepped back and looked him in the eye. "You should go now." She said, voice heavy with unshed tears.
He nodded, looking defeated before turning and leaving. He did not look back.
A small part of her wanted him to look back, to come with her and join the right side while they still had the time. But that was the naïve part; the one that the Athenian side of her had learned to conceal long ago.
There were many things that she had hoped had gotten across in the six minutes and twenty one seconds they had talked for. But in the end, he couldn't read her mind. Not now.
The major difference between simple squamous epithelium and stratified epithelium is the laye-….
Annabeth should probably have been paying attention in class. She might be a daughter of Athena but that didn't mean she would breeze through all her courses. Her mid-term exams were starting the next week and her marks would be deciding whether she got to go to Harvard or not. Junior year was an important one.
But Percy was missing and she was wasting time sitting in a class room with a worksheet in front of her when she could've been outside searching all the possible places that Seaweed Brain could've been.
It was a stupid idea, she decided. She shouldn't have come to California. Stupid Chiron for deciding that she needed a break from all the search trips she had been undertaking all over America over the past month when Jason had told them about Percy's whereabouts.
No matter how vague the information had been they had a lead and they couldn't afford to slacken right now. Every single second counted. Olympus know, what those Romans might be doing to Percy…
He could've been sick, injured or even worse dea-
She forced herself to cut her train of thought there. Negativity was certainly not going to help her situation, not right now.
But that didn't stop her from thinking about how she could've been in front of Zeus' fist where the construction of the Argo II was taking place, helping Leo and his siblings back in New York, where she belonged instead of sitting in her biology class not even listening to what her teacher was saying, on the other side of the country.
Once the idiot comes back, she would kill him for making her miss all those notes she could've been taking right now.
Tomorrow, she decides, I'll leave for New York Tomorrow. Her eyes flickered to the date sheet that was pinned on the board besides the door, she already was a year ahead of her studies and maybe Harvard could wait a year more.
She had her priorities straight and right now finding Percy occupied the top spot. After all the people that had walked out on her, she couldn't lose Percy. It wasn't just a whim that was forcing her to find him; it was a necessity.
She had to give it her best. It wasn't just her who was affected by his disappearance. It had taken toll on all of his family and the entire camp.
She didn't realise how deep in thought she was until Lilianne, her partner shook her shoulder.
"Hey! You alright?"
"Yeah. Perfectly fine." She nodded.
She couldn't read her mind after all.
Annabeth was having a bad day. As far as bad days go.
Her geography exam wasn't as good as she had wanted it to be and her principal had told her that her low attendance might be a hindrance to her graduating in time (It wasn't her fault that Gaia had chosen her junior year to take it upon herself to destroy all civilisation.)
She had gotten into a fight with her chemistry teacher who just wouldn't get the fact that mixing NaSO4 and BaCl2 was not a combination reaction resulting in a thirty minute long detention which wasn't much but her perfect record had been tainted. (Apparently the headmistress was as intelligent as a dracaena and had refused to accept the different between different chemical reactions.)
Also, that Ryan guy wouldn't stop pestering her. (She wasn't sure what part of 'I have a boyfriend' he didn't get.)
And to top it off, when she was walking back to Percy's apartment, a couple of hellhounds had decided to grace her with their presence and then Zeus had reached the conclusion that she wasn't having a bad enough day and had conjured up a friggin' thunderstorm.
So here she was, standing at the door to the Jackson-Blofis residence, drenched and completely pissed waiting for Percy to open the damn door.
He appeared a minute later, opening the door standing in the doorway smiling at him until he saw her expression and led her inside the apartment, silently offering her a towel and a fresh shirt knowing well enough that she wouldn't be able to talk until and unless she was comfortable in dry clothes.
Once she had changed into pajamas and shirt that she kept at his place and both of them had settled on the couch, he asked "Bad day?"
"You can't even guess." She said with an exasperated sigh.
"Let me guess." He said with a slight smirk. She raised her hand in a o on gesture.
"An A minus test?"
She nodded.
"Monsters?"
She nodded again.
"That Ryan guy bothering you?"
She nodded yet again mildly surprised. Apparently it was obvious on her face as he smirked.
"Maybe a fight with some teacher? And Zeus being a bitch." He completed gesturing to the window where it was still pouring.
"How did you know?" She said in a whiny voice, her nose scrunching up.
"I know you, Wise Girl." He said tapping her nose and cuddling up with her on the couch with a blanket on top with Mission Impossible playing in the background.
They had been together for a year now but Annabeth still couldn't get used to the fact that Percy could read her mind that easily. It was obvious that he could now, given what they had been through but it never really seized to surprise her.
Percy meant more to her than she could probably phantom and she liked that. She had learned not to base her happiness off of someone but when it came to him, all these thoughts were thrown out of the window.
"I love you." She blurted out of the blue. Instead of being surprised though, he just smiled at him and leaned down and kissed her forehead before pulling her even closer.
He might be able to read her mind, but some things were better out loud.
Fin.
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