Title: 10 Things You May Or May Not Know About Annabeth Chase
Summary: /Oneshot/ Annabeth is logical, cynical, open person. You know, sometimes. Mostly.
Author: Akime the Sin Spirit
Beta: I, the glamourous Kahlan Aisling, am Akime's beta. Yay me. (Kidding. I love Rachabeth)
A/N: (rolls eyes) This is something I wrote a while back by flashlight in the late hours of the night to the wee hours of the morning. I'm… not expecting it to be too great. But I'm posting it anyway, as the world needs more Annabeth/Rachel.
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights toward Percy Jackson and the Olympians. All I own is my copy of the books.
oOo
1: Annabeth Chase reads romance novels.
The first one she read is one that Rachel gave her after the Battle of Manhattan. It was predictable, clichéd, sappy, unrealistic… and secretly, Annabeth loved it. It was nice to escape into the realm of dashing young heroes who save their beautiful princesses from having to marry the evil barons. So what if there is always a happy ending? Annabeth could use a few more of those in her life.
2. Annabeth's first kiss wasn't with Percy.
Actually, it was with Marcus Gucci from the Aphrodite cabin. The summer of the Battle of the Labyrinth is when it happened. The night before Percy blows up Goode High School (which nobody will let him forget), Marcus comes to Annabeth with a "hard" math problem. Aphrodite's kids aren't exactly known for their brains, so Annabeth agrees to help.
It happens as they're going over the quadratic equation. Marcus has been flirting with her all night, which Annabeth isn't thrilled with, but she plows on all the same. As Annabeth is repeating it for what feels like the millionth time (and who knows? It may well have been), Marcus kisses her. Annabeth slaps him and walks out, purposefully ignoring him for the rest of the summer.
He ends up dying a year later, fighting to defend Olympus. Before Annabeth can apologize. Before she can explain. He dies, possibly resenting her to the end.
3. Annabeth has cheated on Percy.
Honestly, she loves Percy. She did at the time and she probably always will. But when Annabeth needs comfort after Percy disappears, and Rachel offers it, Annabeth accepts without a second thought. She is actually grateful when Rachel kisses her. It provides a nice distraction. The two girls kiss for quite some time, and never think about the consequences.
4. Annabeth dumped Percy because she loved him.
It's screwed up and Annabeth knows it. But she and Percy have been on shaky ground for a while now. The two of them constantly break up and make up, and it gets to the point where they don't even really remember which part of the cycle they're in. The final straw came when Annabeth walked into the stables where the pegasi were to find Percy and Nico kissing, their limbs so tangled that she can't figure out whose hands are whose. Oddly enough, she isn't angry. After Annabeth announces her presence with a loud clearing of her throat, Percy freezes. Then tries to explain. It sounds like a lot like a lot of "it's not what you think" and "we're broken up right now anyway." Nico glares at him the entire time, but Annabeth just smiles sadly. As she turns to leave, she says, "I hope you're happy." And she's not being bitter.
5. Annabeth isn't over Luke.
She never will be.
6. Annabeth isn't always logical.
Annabeth is usually good at letting logic and experience rule over her emotions. Head over heart in most matters works out for the best, after all. She soon finds that Rachel messes this up. Especially when they fight. If she were to act and argue logically, Annabeth could probably win almost every argument they get into. But Rachel is so right-brained that sometimes Annabeth is surprised that the two of them get along so well. The redhead often argues in ways that begin to get so tangled up, it's impossible to untangle fact from fiction.
Especially when they have what should be intelligent conversations.
Well, it's really hard to put forth a convincing argument for why the Parthenon is the most magnificent piece of architecture in the world when Rachel just says, "The Sistine Chapel is the most awesome. So there."
7. Percy isn't Annabeth's only and final love.
How could he be? Annabeth was only sixteen when they started dating. According to surveys and statistics, people fall in love at least twice before getting married. As much as modern fiction hypes it up, the odds of Annabeth falling in love with Percy and the two of them staying together for ever and ever are extremely low.
(Then they both turned out to be kinda gay anyway. Didn't help matters.)
8. Annabeth and Nico are, for some reason, very good friends.
It's weird, sometimes. After all, she should hate Nico for being the person Percy cheated on her with (although, as Percy pointed out when she caught them, they were technically broken up at the time). Nico should hate her for keeping Percy away from him for so long (although, as she's pointed out, it would probably have been considered pedophilia). All the same, they soon became good friends, and have remained so. Even after he flaunts to the entire camp that Percy Jackson is his. Even after conversations that make them want to strangle each other.
For Nico, somehow, has proven to be even more illogical than Rachel.
9. Annabeth misses the old days. You know, mostly.
She doesn't miss the being-with-Percy old days, or the only-just-before-she-and-Percy-were-together old days. Annabeth misses the old days when it was just her and Percy and Grover, banded together to find Zeus' lightning bolt before the gods declared war on one another. She misses the old days when it was her and Thalia and Luke, before Thalia was a tree and Luke was evil. Sometimes, she misses those days to the point where it's an ache that consumes her heart.
Then Rachel hauls her in for another kiss, and Annabeth decides that really, it's okay now.
10. Annabeth is in love. Again.
Rachel is good to her, for her. Rachel is the one who stays around when Annabeth is sick, makes multi-colored chicken soup (the methods of which Annabeth has firmly decided not to ask) so she'll feel better. Rachel is the one who can combine her power with Annabeth's to make Nico actually listen to their advice (or at least make him stop kissing Percy for two seconds). Rachel is beautiful, strong, independent, and an awesome kisser.
Rachel is Annabeth's. And Annabeth is hers.
-Fin-