A/N: A one shot of everyone's favorite couple. When I wrote this I wanted to convey that Annabeth might have more problems after Luke's betrayal than she was letting on. All characters belong to Riordan, genius, millionaire, troll, philanthropist. Reviews are great! Talk to me about character authenticity, style, content, quality, whatever! I welcome all critiques.

Percy and Annabeth were walking along the beach. 6,000 feet above Manhattan. The beach was part of the new Olympus that Annabeth was designing; silky white sand that stretched to a comfortable depth, before dissipating into Mist on the horizon.

I'll race you to the water, Percy said, with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Seaweed Brain, You're on!"

They both took off, kicking up the hot, smooth sand behind them. But something wasn't right. While, the water in front of Percy was coming towards him, the water in front of her was moving away. Rapidly. Then, with a slowly spreading smile, Annabeth stopped running and marched defiantly towards Percy.

"That's cheating!" Annabeth said and punched him on the shoulder.

Percy shrugged. "You'll just have to get faster if you want to beat me."

"Fine, I've got…" Annabeth looked at the sky, calculating her and Percy's potential lifespans in a world where just about everything thought that Demigod-kabobs should be on the menu every night.

"Ohhhh Annabeth," Percy laughed, picking her up and swinging her around, "You've got forever to beat me. Don't worry."

There was an uncomfortable pause and Annabeth thought of another, seemingly blissful couple.

"Yeah, it's just, I keep thinking, of you know, Charlie and Selena."

Percy plopped down on the sand, pulling Annabeth down with him. He looked serious, but true to character, it was only for a moment. "Oh, I'm pretty sure they're still together."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, I have a feeling that even when we…"

"Die."

"Yeah, even when we die, we'll be the, uh, party couple in Elysium."

"Oh really? What makes you think I'll still be putting up with you then?"

"Because I'm your friend. Any other stupid questions?" He looked at the sky: up at the sun, which reminded me of Apollo. I wondered what kind of Haikus the son god was thinking up. Maybe they were even about us: the unlikely couple that had lived. Percy tilted my chin toward him so I looked into his eyes…

They turned Golden.

I woke up sweating and screaming from my nightmare, I untangled myself from Percy's arms, leaped out of his lap, and scrambled across the glass floor of the stable to the opposite wall. Stupid Seaweed Brain was still sleeping. I hugged my knees to my chest, closed my eyes and rocked back and forth, trying to get rid of the image of Percy that I knew wasn't real. Because I knew Percy, and he wasn't like that. Still, there was a part of me that feared I would be abandoned. When Percy disappeared, no one doubted that he had been kidnapped, but there was a little girl inside of me who was frightened that, if we even got him back, he would never be the same. I remembered Luke leaving camp. He came back, but he was evil, so deeply scarred that it was irreparable. I hoped Percy wouldn't be like that, and I knew it wasn't in his nature. But Percy was like Luke in a lot of ways.

A/N: Please don't think that Annabeth necessarily doubts Percy, nor am I saying that Percy even has a chance of EVER being like Luke. I'm just pointing out that Percy and Luke are alike in many ways, except their choices. Which reminds me of one wizard's wise words: "It is not our abilities that show who we really are. It is our choices." Oh, and I guess that you probably noticed that I borrowed Riordan's stable scene from MOA. The last paragraph takes place after Annabeth and Percy fall asleep in the stables aboard the Argo II.