Disclaimer: I am not Uncle Rick and I do not own the rights to these characters. I just ship them immensely.
A/N: As a treat for some of you, there are a few cameos in here ;) Don't worry, they're pretty obvious.
"...Now boarding flight seventeen. Attention passengers; flight seventeen is now boarding."
She looked up as several people began to shuffle slowly to the left, where the Olympic Airway plane was finally being prepared for a six hour flight to Manhattan. She stood and stretched, gathering her carry-on luggage before she would follow the large group of passengers in front of her.
Thalia Grace had been waiting at the airport for nearly two hours already, the flight having been delayed for potential bad weather. She hated flying as it was, and cursed whoever it was that may have been responsible for the ominous clouds to the north. Although, perhaps the delay wasn't that bad, considering she had been half an hour late anyway. And she couldn't even blame the overnight snow since the plow had already cleaned it up early that morning, which was apparently unusual for the small town she had stayed in, according to the locals at the coffee shop she had dashed into several hours ago.
Readjusting her studded belt, Thalia ran her black-polish-painted nails through her short, spiky hair, which was adorned with streaks of electric blue. Yeah, she was easy to spot in a crowd, but Thalia didn't mind. That was just her style. She tied her scarf around the handle of her carry-on bag, hefted her parka into her free arm, and followed a family of three to the hangar where their flight awaited. She smiled patiently at the group before her as a little girl with blonde hair skipped with glee, clutching the hands of her blonde haired mother and black haired father. Despite their young appearance, Thalia thought she could see streaks of grey threaded naturally into the couples' locks. They were also dressed in a tropical manner, at least the father was, that suggested they were on their way back home from a vacation to the beach.
"Last call for passengers boarding flight seventeen to Manhattan." A man's voice sounded the warning this time, and Thalia found the sound quite pleasing to the ear.
Once boarded, Thalia made quick work of storing her luggage, making sure that she had removed her iPod, headphones, and a book first. Shoving the overhead luggage compartment shut with a grunt, she muttered to herself, "I hate flying".
"Is this your first flight?" a man's voice asked as he waited for other passengers to move toward the rear of the plane so that he could reach his seat. The airplane wasn't completely crowded with passengers yet, so he had heard her grievances.
"No, sir. It's not. I've just never been a fan," Thalia replied with a polite smile. When she turned, she realized it was the father in the tropical outfit, the one with the tinge of grey hair. His wife and daughter were behind him.
"Ah. I see. Well try to enjoy your flight then," the man told her.
"I will, Mr. ..." Thalia's eyebrows scrunched in question.
"Jackson-Chase." With that, the man smiled at her one more time before he turned and walked up a few aisles to his seat.
Thalia sat down in her seat and immediately closed the window that was on her left. There would be nothing to see anyway except for grey clouds and white snow flurries the closer they got to Manhattan. Thalia pulled her jacket-leather exterior with a soft fabric interior-tighter around her, settled into her seat with headphones in, cranked up a song from her playlist labelled "metal", and started to people watch. She noticed the Jackson-Chase family from earlier scoot by to their seats several rows behind her. While she was tolerant of children, she still said a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that the little blonde girl behaved herself.
After about fifteen minutes, a young, professional looking man was standing before her row, hesitantly placing his luggage above his seat. Thalia hardly spared him a glance before she returned to her people watching. From that glance, though, she could see the judgement in his eyes as he looked back at her, and the way he disdainfully acknowledged her ripped jeans and overall "punk" look.
Although she wasn't a teenager anymore, Thalia hadn't really grown out of the habit of her current attire. Since she was a young girl, she had just felt comfortable in black clothes (leather jackets and ripped jeans included) and didn't seem to care what other people thought. She still didn't. Of course, she did have an extended wardrobe now that she had a career as a lighting and set director for productions in New York. She had to look professional sometimes, but if she were just running errands for herself, Thalia would indeed be found wearing black. It usually came in handy for avoiding undesired conversations.
The man sat down, but purposefully turned his body away from Thalia, as if afraid that she may attempt to initiate a conversation. Thalia rolled her eyes and opened her window to see how close to leaving the airport they would be. Most of the plane was filled by now, so she estimated they would be wrapping things up within fifteen minutes.
A short few moments later, as the songs on her iPod were changing, she heard low male voices and took another glance at the man sitting in the aisle seat of her row. She figured that he was speaking to the man who had reserved the middle seat, and was surprised when a man dressed in a flight attendant outfit was speaking with the young man instead. She turned down her music so she could hear them.
"...be more comfortable there?" It was the same voice she had heard earlier, Thalia was sure of it. Now she was able to put a face to the words. Ruffled, short blonde hair and blue eyes. Chiseled face with charming lips and a charming smile. She guessed he was at least five foot ten, but because he was crouching, it was entirely possible he was closer to six feet tall, maybe taller. Beneath the uniform was the hint of a lanky, slightly muscled body. Her eyes landed on the golden nameplate on his chest. Luke.
"Oh, I would hate to inconvenience you," the young man said. Yeah right, Thalia thought. Not your kind. You're all for inconveniencing people.
"Not at all. It's my pleasure, and of course, my job, to make sure all passengers are as comfortable as possible," the man named Luke replied with a polite smile. It was obvious to Thalia that he knew the man two seats from her was, to put it nicely, put off by her apparently colorful character. He stepped aside when the man obliged. He helped him settle in on the other side of the plane before he returned to Thalia's row and, to her surprise, took a seat and offered her his hand when he noticed that she had been watching.
"I'm Luke Castellan," he said with a polite smile. He almost seemed too polite. The other flight attendants Thalia had dealt with all seemed to dislike their jobs. Not this one.
"Thalia Grace," she replied, yanking her headphones out of her ears with haste to avoid seeming rude.
"Well, Thalia, how's the crew been treating you so far? You know, I'm obligated to punch someone if you haven't had the best service," Luke said, chuckling softly at his own joke. Goodness, there was just no end to the brightness behind his eyes.
Thalia smiled at the jest. "Aside from the delay, everything has been fine," she replied. When he stated where he was, even settling in more comfortably into the seat, Thalia asked him, "I don't mean to be rude, but aren't you supposed to be helping other passengers?"
Luke shook his head, and he leaned in when he spoke, lowering his voice and giving her a slight grin. In an ominous tone, he said, "I'm not the scheduled flight attendant for this plane." Thalia's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and, although she would swear against it, even panic.
[To be continued. I have several chapters in mind for this story, so we'll see where it goes!]
Please follow and review! This is my first published fic, so I'd love some feedback! Critiques are welcome, rudeness is not.
A/N: Hopefully you got those cameos, but if not, (shame!) they were Percy and Annabeth and their daughter. I picked Jackson-Chase for the last name because, come on, we all know Annabeth wouldn't have agreed to simply having her last name changed to Jackson.