Hope you like~

The way she was kicked out of the Hunters was kind of OOC for Artemis, but I couldn't think of another for her to be kicked out like that. Sorry. 3:

THALICO and hints of Thuke. I don't own Percy Jackson.

-Scythe Rabbit

From the age of 9, Thalia had lost all faith in promises.

Her mother had promised her happiness, a functional family. But after Jason had been kidnapped, her mother had spiraled down into an alcoholic depression, and gone was that pledge she'd made to Thalia so long ago. Forgotten, and written off as an insignificant detail. She ran away, breaking off all connections to her mother. Her heart was no longer pure and whole: a jagged crack ran through it.

Then Thalia met Luke, and her heart beat faster, and for the first time in three years, she could truly smile. His promise was one of safety, loyalty, that they would always stick together and protect one another. She believed him, and she thought her heart could now heal. Together with Annabeth, the three of them were a family, connected by what she thought were unbreakable bonds. Little did she know how fragile they were. The day before they reached Camp, Luke had taken her aside, seeing her nerves, and again, promised her, they would always stick together.

Even as a tree, Thalia remembered that promise, always looking for the day when, always hoping for that day when she would turn back into a human, and see Annabeth and giggle with her about the most trivial of things, and have a good spar with Luke. Then her wish came true.

But all her hope shattered like glass.

Luke was a traitor, and Annabeth didn't seem to need her anymore; she had Percy. In a few brief moments, she had lost all she had. And her heart had yet another scar carved on. She promised herself that she would never ever fall in love again.

By now, she had lost all faith, especially after sparring with Luke. How had he turned from her best friend, to her worst enemy? Her head was spinning, and when she kicked him off the cliff, her eyes watered with unshed tears. Tears of pain, and betrayal, and tears because her heart was broken.

Then Artemis came, and her promise was also of family, and of immortality and eternal happiness. So she accepted, and for years this seemed like her solution. Until the Hunters had a bonding night, where all of them had shared their bitter stories, and Thalia had realized that deep down, all of them were cowards, running away from their problems. She had stupidly blurted it out loud. The Hunters did not take it well, and so, they requested to Artemis that Thalia be removed from the Hunt.

Thalia did not protest, (she knew when she was unwanted,) and so she was kicked out. Yet another promise discarded.

By the time, she'd gone back to camp, Percy and Annabeth had gone to college and moved out, and she saw them only occasionally. All her old friends from her brief period at camp before, had also moved on with their lives, leaving only her behind.

Well, there was also Nico. He was the last of her friends that was still at camp, but he had changed so much too, growing from that scrawny 10 year old she'd help rescue from Dr. Thorn, to a strong, brooding 17 year old. Time was such a strange thing.

She felt lonely, and so he had isolated herself at camp: she ignored all other and they ignored her.

One day, he noticed her observing him, and asked her about it, with a slightly sarcastic tone to his voice and her heart jumped. It was nothing, she told herself. Just a jolt of shock of being spoken to. But then, she found herself answering his question with a hint of a smile on her face.

He was tearing down the stone wall she had put up, her thorny defense against the world that protected her bruised and fragile heart.

It scared her.

It took her so long to realize, that no matter what she did, Nico would not be leaving, and so she slowly, inch by inch began to open up.

That was how her last promise, her last unblemished promise to herself, was broken. Because she fell in love with Nico DiAngelo, and he with her.

And her heart had finally healed.

Welp. Tell me what you think of the story, kay?

PM or review please.

-Scythe