Soulmate AU: Tattoos

When you're born a mark shows up on yours wrist that signifies you. When a significant event happens in you or your soulmates life and you could really use their comfort, another mark appears on you. That one represents your soulmate. You compare the mark that appears on you to the one on your wrist to make sure it is them. (Parker came up with this and it's brilliant I love it don't hate me for the significant event okay.)

*Warning* *Major Character Death*

Percy Jackson thought he had a rather average life. He had a loving mother and step-father. A roof over his head. A trident on his wrist. Shoes on his feet.

Normal things.

He had never really thought about the dark trident shaped mark on his wrist. They were common. Everyone had one. Well, they weren't all tridents. Some were animals. He once saw a girl with a Starbucks cup on her wrist. His friend Grover had six cylindrical lines at various heights on his wrist. Percy joked that he always has great reception. He never thought much about them.

At least, until the car crash.

At five thirty on a Wednesday, Percy's life was flipped upside down when his phone rang, the person on the other side telling him his mother had been in an accident and was at Memorial Hospital, would he please come right away.

The phone slipped from his hand as his whole body went numb. The words, 'Mother' and 'Accident' were running through his head, and then he was running too. Running to the subway, very nearly hopping the turnstile, and pacing back and forth in front of the train doors till they reached his stop. He forced his way through the doors and up the stairs before they even finished opening. Percy ran as fast as his legs would take him, running into the hospital lobby.

"Sally- Sally Blofis. Where is she? Is she okay?" He panted at the receptionist.

A strange look crossed the man's face and he pointed down the hall where a tall man in a brown blazer was pacing.

Percy's heart plummeted and he quickly jogged towards the man. "Paul!"

The man turned around, sweeping his salt and pepper hair from his eyes. "Percy. Oh thank God."

"Where is she? Is she okay?" He repeated his words from before and would keep repeating them until they were answered.

His step-father looked over his shoulder and down at the ground before looking back at Percy.

"Paul. Where is she?" Percy's voice had a clear note of desperation. His mom was the only person he had for so long. If something happened to her...

"She's in here, but Percy-" He pushed passed his step-father before he could finish his sentence and yanked open the door.

And stopped in his tracks just inside of it.

Sally Blofis lay completely still on the hospital bed, her chest barely rising with breath. Her face was covered in stitched up gashes. One of her arms was in a splint, the other wrapped in bandages.

"Mom..." Percy choked out. Her head shifted slightly on her pillow and her eyes opened slowly.

"Percy," She whispered, and Percy was at her side in a second.

"Mom, Mom, it's okay, you'll be okay, just hang in there okay, you'll be fine." Percy gently slid his hand under his mother's and cradled it with the other. She winced and he hastily let go. "Oh, Mom." He brushed her hair away from her face, and gasped when he saw the detailed fountain pen mark that represented Paul split in half by a cut on her neck.

"No." Percy's voice was weak and desperate. "No, you can't Mom, you can't leave me."

"I love you, Percy. I'll always be with you. No matter what." Her voice was fading and her breathing was shallow. Tears started to slip down Percy's cheeks.

"Mom, please."

"Percy..." Her breath hitched and the heart monitors flat lined.

"Mom! Mom no MOM!"

Doctors and nurses rushed into the room, followed by Paul, who stood frozen in the doorway.

"Sir, you're going to have to leave," a nurse standing behind Percy put her hand on his arm.

"No, no, that's my mom, you have to help her, you have to." Percy was panicking, this couldn't be happening. Sally Blofis could not die. It was practically against the law for a person as good as she to be killed by something as mundane as a car accident.

The doctors stopped everything, and the nurse holding Percy back let go. He rushed to her side as one doctor looked at his watch and stated, "Time of death, six o' three, Wednesday the thirteenth, two thousand and fifteen."

Each word was like a blow to Percy's chest. Her hand was limp between the two of his and every sign of life had retreated from her body.

"No..." Percy whisper and tears slid from his eyes. Someone put their arm around his shoulders, and he knew it was Paul. He leaned into the touch while burying his face in his mothers hospital bed. Sobs wracked his body.

He pressed his face harder into the mattress, hoping this is all just a bad dream and when he lifts his head he will be in his mothers bedroom, with her hand stroking his hair, quietly soothing him after his goldfish died.

But Percy lifts his head, and Paul's arm is around his shoulders, and his mom's body is motionless before him. He takes aa shuddering deep breath as more sobs force their way from his mouth. Percy clasped her hand again, only to find it had gone cold.

Sally Blofis was gone.

Days passed as a blur to Percy. He didn't get out of bed. He never ate. He hadn't showered. He was probably fired from his job, for so many days missed.

But he couldn't bring himself to care.

Three days after she died, Percy was lying with his face buried in his pillow, arms wrapped around his head. He was shirtless, and his blanket lay scrunched up somewhere around his ankles. Occasional sobs could be heard, and tremors would shake his body.

His door opened and Percy dug his head farther into the pillow and tightened his arms.

It was Paul.

"Percy, come on you have to eat some..." Paul's voiced trailed off and some part of Percy's mind that could still be curious wondered why, but the rest of it was consumed with grief, so his head stayed buried.

"Percy," Paul moved across the room and sat at the edge of his bed. "When did you get that?"

Percy turned his head so that one eye, swollen and red from crying, could peer up at Paul staring in wonder at his back. "Get what?"

In response Paul gestured vaguely at Percy's shoulder. Percy grunted, and rolled off the bed slowly, falling to the floor. Picking himself up, he walks into his bathroom to gaze at his shoulder in the mirror.

"What the..."

On his shoulder was a detailed mark. Of... an owl? Percy had a tattoo of an owl on his shoulder.

His soulmate.

He glanced down at his wrist, where the small trident resided.

Soulmate.

Tragedy.

Great.

Just what he needed. Someone new in his life. Someone who has no idea what he is going through. Someone who probably doesn't even have his mark yet, because what are the odds of bad things happening to them at the same point in time? Who came up with this system? It is horrible really.

His mom thought it was wonderful.

Percy's eyes filled with tears, and he sank to the bathroom floor.

His mom saw the good in everything. Even when he was little, after his dad ran out on them and the wave mark on her calf faded, when everyone thought she was alone forever, she stayed positive. She believed there was still someone out there for her. And if there wasn't, hey. Who needs them? Who needs them when she had Percy?

Then, her uncle died. Then, a fountain pen appeared on her neck. Then, she met Paul.

His mom believed anything was possible. It was practically her catch phrase. Percy threw is pencil at his math homework, saying "I will never get this!" in frustration, and her putting the pencil back in his hand and saying, "Anything is possible."

Percy can't master a new trick on his skateboard.

"Anything is Possible."

Percy doesn't believe he's going to graduate.

"Anything is Possible."

Percy gets a letter from his top choice college. He's sure it is a rejection.

"Anything is Possible."

That was his mom. A firm believer in making the impossible, possible.

And now Percy would never hear her utter those words again.

Percy twisted his head to look at the owl on his shoulder.

His mom wouldn't have wanted him to mope around. She only ever wanted him to live life to its fullest.

Percy stood up and looked at himself in the mirror.

You can do this, Jackson. You can.

"Anything is Possible." Percy whispered at his reflection. "Anything."

Groaning, Percy banged his head on the small table in the corner of a small coffee shop. Why weren't the tattoos something useful, like a phone number? Or a picture of your soulmate? Why did it have to be something that represents them? Something you can only know represents them if you already know them.

Percy had been all over the city, search for this soulmate, this person who was represented by the owl on his shoulder.

He caught himself actually looking for an owl once or twice.

(Or ten.)

At least searching distracted him from thinking too much about his mom. She wasn't consuming his every waking thought anymore.

That was good.

Now though, Percy heard a disgusted groan across the coffee shop. He looked up to see a blonde girl with a laptop case looped over her shoulder staring at him with red, glaring, angry, beautiful gray eyes.

She started a little when they made eye contact, but she squared her shoulders and marched up to him. Percy got distracted as her hair caught the light and lit up like the sun. He was still staring entranced when she cleared her throat.

He looked back at her to see her shifting the bag on her shoulder.

"Hi. Listen. I've had a really bad week, and I was wondering if you could move tables? Its just, I always sit at this table when I come here. I would feel weird sitting at another table, and I already feel like crap. I don't really want to pile on to that. If you don't want to, that's fine. I'll just go be sucky somewhere else." She looked like she really regretted coming over here, and Percy smiled. The first real smile since his mom...

The smile fell, and his eyes started watering again.

"Um, yeah, sure, I guess. No problem." He rubbed his knuckles into his eyes and the girl gasped a little. He moved his hands away, and saw her eyes tracking his wrist. Her left hand suddenly came up to grasp her upper right arm. She looked up at him, shock written over every feature.

Suddenly wary, his eyes trailed their way down her right arm to her wrist, when a slightly blurry owl tattoo rested.

"Oh my god..." He whispered. "Its you... you're her." Percy gazed up at the blonde and her shoulders sank, the rest of her body following until she rested in the chair across from him.

"So." The girl set her bag down and rested her forearms on the table, wrists up, so the small owl was visible.

"Yeah." Oh man this was awkward. What do you say to your soulmate when you meet them? Wasn't he supposed to know what to say? He couldn't just blurt out, "Hey, we are destined to spend the rest of our lives together, lets go start that right now." No. Talk about awkward.

"Oh!" She sat up suddenly, one hand going to her forehead. "Oh. My name is Annabeth. Annabeth Chase."

Why did that name sound familiar to him? "My name is Percy. Percy Jackson. Nice to meet you, Annabeth."

"Likewise." She smiled before a curious expression came over her face. "You don't happen to know a Professor Blofis do you?"

His mind made the connection. This is the girl Paul always rambled on about when he got home from work. The most brilliant student he ever had the pleasure to teach.

"Oh, uh, yeah. He is actually my step-father. When you told me your name, I thought it sounded familiar. He talks about you all the time." Percy leaned back in his seat and started fiddling with the zipper on his coat. "He, uh, actually suggested that I come here today, once I was done, you know, searching."

Her smile was soft, her gray eyes warm. She leaned back on the table and laced her fingers. "Yeah. I told him the other day after it happened that if he ever needed a good place to wallow and drink crappy coffee, this was the place."

Any semblance of a smile slid from Percy's face. Ever needed a good place to wallow. Paul had evidently told his classes about his mom.

Annabeth was still looking at him when his eyes got distant and wet. She reached across the table to rest her hand atop of his, but he didn't notice. He was too caught up in memories.

Percy was five years old and his mom took him for ice cream after his dad left.

Seven, and they sat on the beach eating blueberry bagels and watching the sun rise.

Twelve, he had gotten into a fight at school, and the teacher called his mom. She came to the school to witness him sitting sullenly outside the principles door with an afraid look upon his face and a black eye.

She took him to the aquarium.

His first day of college. Tearful goodbyes.

The last day he saw her. A Monday. Forcing a box of goodies into his hands. To last him the week before he saw her again at Friday Night Dinners. A warm, loving smile on her face as she hugged him goodbye.

Percy wished that he had held her longer. That he had hugged her tighter. Stayed longer.

Then maybe this wouldn't hurt so much.

"Percy?"

He blinked and looked up into concerned, stormy gray eyes. She squeezed his hand, and he jumped. She smiled slightly, but didn't let go.

"I'm not going to say I'm sorry for your loss. That always feel fake to me. Even if they don't mean it that way. So, instead, I'm here for you. I know we just met, but apparently we were destined to be together. So why not start now?" Annabeth's eyes sparkled when she smiled, Percy realized as she did just that. And she understood.

The longer he looked at her, the more distant the pain felt. Like, if he could cement himself here, in this moment, then he wouldn't feel the loss of his mom. Wouldn't feel like his heart is being ripped in pieces at every mention of her name. If he could just stay in this moment forever, with Annabeth, maybe this loss wouldn't be so bad.

When he didn't answer right away, Annabeth's smile slid from his face slowly.

"If it helps you... helps you to know... My mom also just passed away recently. So I do actually know what you're going through. If maybe not on the same level. I wasn't that close to my mom growing up. She left me when I was a baby. But she contacted me last year, and has basically been the mother I never had for the past year. And then some idiot who should never have gotten a flying permit, crashed into her plane. I know. It is unheard of. A plane crashing into another plane. But it happened. Almost everyone survived. Except my mom. So, I understand. I understand if you don't want to talk about it. Don't want to think about it. If you just want distractions. I can help you with that." Her face scrunched up, as if there were a few things that she kind of wished she hadn't said, but were too late to take back. Her hand was still on Percy's and he had never wanted anything less, than her to take away her hand.

She must've seen him glance at it, because she started to draw it away. BUt he latched on to it, bringing his other hand to sandwich her hand between his own.

"I'm here for you too. I'm a great listener. I'd love to hear about your mom. It doesn't really help me, much, to keep things locked away. I just haven't had anyone to unlock it for me. I won't ask Paul, he hurts enough already." Percy mumbled this last part, but she caught it anyway. Her smile came back, and she placed her remaining hand on top of the two holding hers.

"I'd like that."

Hey dudes! I wrote this like,,,,,two and a half years ago so sorry if it's a little sketchy

love me some good pain i cried rereading this

hope you liked it!