There's just so much I feel that's left unsaid between these two. So here's my attempt to put some of those things into words. This pairing always makes me want to cry. Thalia's my favorite character. Hm, that's all I have to say.

On with the one-shot!

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.

"And I'm stronger than I've ever been, I'm lost in the wind, gone on the road again."

~Thalia~

Thalia sighed. She stood in a forest clearing in the middle of nowhere US. The east coast, maybe? She didn't know. The snow fell softly to the ground, and a few flakes got in her eyes. leather jacket was covered with flecks of snow, as was her black hair, the white standing out brilliantly Her against the black.

Thalia looked up at the stars. She couldn't see them. The clouds and the snow that was falling covered them. Yet she could almost feel the Huntress constellation shining brightly down on her. She stared a little more up at the sky, despite the snow now sticking to her eye lashes.

She always did like staring up at the night sky while it was snowing. Luke used to make fun of the punk girl for it, saying that while she looked tough on the outside she was a big softie on the inside. Thalia usually punched him after that.

Luke. Gods.

That boy spun her head around, and hurt her. So badly. For some reason deep, deep down she still cared for him. She shouldn't care for him. Not after everything. And she hated that she couldn't hate him. She hated that she missed him, too. He was her best friend.

Thalia squeezed her eyes shut, and looked down at the ground. She clenched her fists, and grit her teeth.

Luke. To fight him on Mount Tam had been painful. To see what he had become had been painful. To see what he had done to Annabeth was excruciating. Hadn't he made a promise? Thalia shook her head. That had been when they were on the run.

When it was just Luke and Thalia, and then just Luke, Thalia, & Annabeth against the monsters and the world. Before the stupid prophecy. Before Camp Half-Blood. Before she died. When Luke had been had been her best friend. Before he had grown up bitter and angry and betrayed everyone.

And Thalia hadn't been there to stop it. She had been a tree during the time where Luke probably needed her the most.

Gods, she hated him. She hated that he made her feel this way. She was a hunter of Artemis. She wasn't supposed to care about boys.

Except Thalia had different experiences with boys. She saw the kindness in them, however stupid and annoying they could be (ahem, Percy). And Luke had been good before he had gone bad. Yes, she had been hurt, but she had simply decided that not all boys are evil like the other Hunters.

Or, at least, her cousins weren't evil. Though Nico gave her the creeps sometimes.

Thalia shook her head. It was far too late for her and Luke. Whatever path Luke had gone down; it wasn't the same one. She was a hunter now; Thalia swore off boys forever. She couldn't bring herself to regret that decision.

A very small part of her whispered into her mind that no boy could be Luke, as girly-girlish and lovesick as that sounded to Thalia. She told it to shut up.

Joining the Hunters was one of the best things that had ever happened to her. She traveled around the world and the US fighting monsters. In some ways, it felt like she was on the run again. Except this time, she knew what she was doing. More so than before.

At least, she was pretty sure she knew what she was doing. Sometimes she felt like those tumbleweeds seen on corny old western movies. Blown by the wind with no real sense of direction or purpose, the only purpose being to go somewhere. To move.

Being with the Hunters was like that. Freeing. She felt whole, almost. It was funny that running, traveling, moving made her feel this way. Maybe it was in part because she never had a home due to her drunken mother. That had never been home.

On the run, everywhere had become home.

Sometimes, she felt ashamed being in the Hunt, because she was fleeing the prophecy. She knew she couldn't handle it. She knew she'd take one look at Luke's face and remember the boy she knew; her best friend. She wouldn't be able to do it, whatever choice there was to make.

Artemis had let her stay, though. Zoe had managed to approve of her before she . . . died. The other Hunters accepted her. Thalia was grateful for it. All of it. And somehow, in the middle of nowhere she felt more grounded than she had ever been. She didn't feel lost anymore.

Thalia walked back to the Hunters camp, her boots leaving impressions in the soft snow.

"No matter how much I lie; I'm dying on the inside."

~Luke~

Luke loved her. Loves, maybe? He wasn't quite sure. He thought he loved Annabeth, but when he caught a glimpse of Thalia, his heart beat way too fast. When he looked at the photo of the three of them – himself, Thalia, and Annabeth – at the phone booth his eyes always seemed to find Thalia's smiling face.

He shook his head. Maybe he was lying to himself. He did have the unfortunate luck to be the son of the god of liars. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was the truth anymore, even if he was the one telling the lie; if that makes any sense.

He didn't seem to make much sense these days, these past few years. Even to himself.

Luke rested his head on the railing of the Princess Andromeda. He sat on the lower of the two railings, his legs dangling over the side. The sea churned below him, its waters murky and dark and mysterious. Above him the stars shined brightly, and the salty breeze hit his face, cooling him.

He shivered. He was a little cold, dressed in only a white dress shirt and tan shorts along with a pair of flip flops. If Thalia saw him, she'd probably laugh and say he looked like something out a fashion magazine. That was, if she didn't punch him at first for everything.

Besides - laughing and making fun of him - that was what the old Thalia would do. The old Luke would've been laughing right alongside her, probably making a crack about her punk makeup.

The Old Luke. Gods, was there such a thing? Was he really once someone else?

It felt like a lifetime ago that they were on the run, just him and her, and eventually Annabeth. It was incredible, in a way, how far all three of them had come from those three scared, battle scarred kids. And yet, none of them had gone all that far.

Thalia was once more on the run, and like before she had chosen to run. Except, this time she was running away from him. Luke. Her once best friend. She was running with a purpose. To get away from him. To guide the merry band of murderous, male-hating girl scouts – the Hunters of Artemis.

Which meant she swore off guys forever. In some ways he understood her choice. Thalia got a chance to hunt the monsters that had hunted them when they had been on the run. But she basically removed herself as far away from possible as she could without dying.

Thalia had sworn off boys, men, whatever.

Luke had flown into a tiny rage when he had been told that, scattering all the maps on his table in the cabin onto the floor. Her choice got under her skin. He was sure how to react to it. Should he be please that he'll be the only one for her?

Was that what she was trying to say by her choice? Or was it that she didn't trust herself around him, to not side with him? In that case, had there ever really been another chance for them after she got out of the tree? Or was there no chance, since Thalia didn't agree with his revolution.

Luke wasn't sure what the answer was. Thalia probably didn't know the answer either, but it wasn't like he could talk to her.

Dam. He really screwed up, hadn't he? Not only were they on opposite sides of a war, but Luke couldn't bring himself to care anymore. He couldn't bring himself to feel. He was just too dam tired.

Kelly helped him forget. She was a blood-sucking demon, but she helped him forget. To feel again, as pathetic as that sounded. He couldn't help but imagine that disappointed scowl Thalia would give him if she found out about him and Kelly.

Luke had felt something without her. Used to, anyways before she came along. It was after Thalia had been brought back by the Golden Fleece, and suddenly nothing else mattered. Suddenly he didn't care about the Titans, Kronos, any of it. He just had to see her.

Joy. Pure, unfiltered joy. That was what he had last felt.

So much of him seemed to be connected to Thalia. She always stirred something within him. Maybe . . . maybe a part of him was holding onto the girl he once knew.

At the same time, he hated her. He felt so much anger when he looked at her. His mind flashed back to that night, the one she died up on that hill only to end up a pine tree. The tree had been worse, almost. At least if Luke died he would see her in the Underworld.

With her soul in a tree, he couldn't see her. And it was a constant reminder of her.

Every. Dam. Day.

He felt so much more when he looked at Thalia, too. When he saw her in person those brief times. When he took out an old photo of him and her, one he kept. He felt so much more. And he found it impossible to stay mad at her. He wanted to, but his anger just made him feel drained until he couldn't feel anger anymore.

Luke hated that he couldn't hate Thalia.

He tried to.

He wanted to.

Maybe a part of him needed to.

But no matter how much he curled up on the floor of his cabin with a bottle of booze he couldn't hate her. Instead, he only ended up hating himself. The words he told to the Campers, the words he tells to his recruits twisting and replaying over and over again.

The image of himself he presented to the others, to Kelly playing over and over again in his mind. Luke had been almost grateful for how crappy holding up the sky made him look. It felt like his appearance reflected how he felt.

Broken. Haggard. Tired. Battered. Worn. Scarred. Tainted. Scared.

Yet somehow still standing.

Kronos was there in his mind, too, not helping matters at all. It had almost been too easy to start letting him take control, but then Luke had realized that he wanted something more than this.

He didn't know what. He only knew it wasn't this.

Let me know what you think, please review.