I have way too many spare ideas for COTT that I can't quite plunk down anywhere, so I have decided to start off this fic. Yeah, they're just random little bits that suddenly like to spring into my head in the dead of the night. Drabbles, oneshots, the works - anything I think of that doesn't fit anywhere else, I'll just write it here. I guess. Though you would be pleased to know that the following oneshot here is an AA friendship (and a bit more than that) one.

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own an ounce of COTT, or there would be a Season 3.

Overrated

A scream.

The woman let out a high-pitched shriek, and although he never heard it, he might as well have - her mouth, opened in a silent scream; attacker raising cocked gun...

A shudder involuntarily hit him, as he finally pulled the book away from his face. The purple-haired warrior sighed. He despised war, and held a certain disgust in regard to it, but it somewhat intrigued him of sorts. Maybe that was due to a wonky gene from Archilles. Or maybe he had started to begin a somewhat twisted interest in fighting ever since his orphanage days.

Anyway, he had long given up on war books ever since he was fourteen. The images that continued to stay in his head were disturbing, disgusting and he had no wish to view of them again. It had been an assignment for history, and being the lucky person he was, he had gotten one of the worse topics to embark a project on - war. Of course, it didn't help that his partner, who was the most likely to start a 'war' with him, was none other than his dormmate with fiery hair and an equally fiery temper to boot.

Atlanta.

Okay, so she wasn't the worse person in the world to do a project with, and at least they hadn't gotten 'Romance' as their topic, which would have been plain awkward. And as much as he said that he hated working with her, it was quite the contrary, really. He of course wouldn't dwell on, uh, said opinion.

Out of the blue, the door swung open with a crash and the person he had just been thinking about barged in as though it were her own room. As she was bounding in, he glimpsed the report she had been working on clutched firmly in her hand.

Archie groaned. "What is it, Atlanta?" he questioned, feigning irritation. "Do you know the meaning of the word 'knock'?"

The good friend that she was, she just ignored him. "We have to find out the motivation of the war. We picked the Titanomachy to focus on, so what were they fighting about?"

Archie's face darkened considerably. "Oh, the usual," he said bitterly. "Vying for power, greed, hungry for the position of top dog, revenge, that sort of thing. People say life is so valuable, yet just for such a relatively insignificant thing, wars can erupt."

Atlanta gazed at her report. "I suppose what you've just said is a better conclusion than what I tried," she said slowly. Archie wasn't listening to her, though.

"Life is so overrated," Archie muttered out loud in continuation to what he had said just now. Still, he hadn't been counting on Atlanta hearing it.

Well, apparently she did, because she immediately fixed on him a weird stare. "What do you mean?"

Archie's grey eyes widened a little, flushed from the fact that she actually did hear him. Then again, she was a huntress, so sharp hearing would have been a given. "I don't know, people think too highly of life," he grumbled, crossing his arms.

He witnessed his best friend's eyebrows come together in a sort-of frown. She, too, crossed her arms. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with life. Life is good!"

Archie rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "Oh, so you call a daily life tackling evil gods and ferocious monsters good? Or the fact that the evil god has a portal that he keeps escaping into because he's such a chicken, and that we have to fight his pathetic schemes on a at least weekly basis? Or how about that we might actually lose each other?"

Wow, he thought, dismayed, that last line sure came out sounding wrong.

He watched as her expression turned from a raised brow to one that didn't quite fully mask her confusion. Yeah, he thought to himself sarcastically, it's all about the wording.

Fighting to keep out the slight, nervous tremor from his voice, he voiced a tad too quickly, "No, wait, that wasn't what you thought it was."

Oh, so that's much better? 'That wasn't what you thought it was'? How would you know what she was thinking? The annoying tiny voice in his head taunted, and Archie suddenly felt inclined to knock his head into a wall. Not that it wouldn't be a cause for more questioning.

Atlanta blinked, the blank look unmistakable on her face.

Archie grinned nervously and took a deep, 'barely unnoticeable' breath and continued. "Alright, what I meant was - I meant that any of the team is at risk of being killed every time we fight off Cronus."

Ah, so he'd said it properly this time.

"Oh." was all Atlanta said for a while. Nodding slowly, she finally asked, "Anyway, it isn't that bad. Life isn't bad, much. It's fun fighting off monsters, brings a whole new thrill into things." She grinned wickedly, leaning on his desk with a casual note that few people would with him. "It's awesome that I get to trumph you all the time," - of which Archie responded with a violent and indignant "Hey!" - "and well, there's a lot of cool things that life has."

Archie couldn't help but smile at Atlanta's definition of 'good'. "But life throws you troubles," he pointed out.

Atlanta cocked her head to one side, as if thinking. "Well, but then it's up to us what to make of it. You know, there's always a choice of sorts."

Archie felt an unsuppressed snort rise from within him and escape before he could do anything. "What, have you been spending too much time with Odie or something? Calculating all the rational reasons behind life?"

His best friend responded with a glare. "Well, no! But it makes sense, doesn't it?" She smiled triumphantly, as though she had won the lottery. "See, who actually believes in destiny? I believe in myself, that I can do something about it."

Trust Atlanta to trust in Atlanta, Archie thought inwardly. It was one of the qualities that endeared her to him, and so much more. But he had to disagree. "That's not true," he fought back, sounding a little more snappish than he wanted. "There isn't always a choice!"

"There is!"

"There isn't!"

"There is!"

Archie glowered at her, annoyed, and she faced him with a similar look. "There isn't always a choice! I never chose to have my parents killed in a blizzard! I never chose to become an orphan! Life decided it all for me; there were no choices, Atlanta!"

He halted. Bowing his head, he refused to look her in the eye. Needless to say, why he thought life was so overrated had now been exposed to his best friend. People spoke of life as it was precious, but in actuality, it was so fragile. It had given him nearly nothing, and whatever it had given him, it had taken back. Why did people find life to be so strangely revitalising and beautiful?

Still, she was so innocent, a trait that he had grown to be fond of. He didn't like to shatter any bit of that innocence, and maybe he had.

She probably hadn't seen as many deaths as he had, or as many tears. He never wanted to spread his broken self to her.

He swallowed. "Sorry," he whispered, his voice small all of a sudden. "Didn't mean that."

Atlanta sat herself down beside him. The thickness of the air hindered any form of speech, and neither knew what to say.

"Well, life did lead me to meet you," Atlanta spoke, piercing the awkwardness that had lasped between them. She hadn't really realised the full meaning of what she had said, and perhaps only Archie did, for he looked up, blushing a beetroot red.

"Life let us become good friends, you know." Atlanta pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Life... Life let us know each other, fight with each other, love each other, right?" She paused, and with a hint of embarrassment, she added, "You know what I mean, as friends."

She's right, his mind reminded him. It was because of life that you know her, you love her, isn't it?

Archie sighed. "You're right," he admitted with a wry smile. "You're right."

Atlanta nodded, apparently satisfied. She got up, tossing the report she had been holding all along onto his bed. "Well, now enough of all this war issues, do you want to go for a jog now?" She smirked, an air of her usual confidence evident as she spoke. "I'll race you there, and I'll win."

Archie put his hands on his hips. "Like real you will." He grabbed Atlanta's part of the project and placed it on his desk, then headed to his closet to grab a change of clothes. "Fine, we'll go for a jog. Let me change and I'll meet you downstairs."

Atlanta beamed at him. "Sure."

Just as she was leaving, he murmured under his breath with a slight smile, "Maybe life isn't so overrated after all."

She stopped in the hallway, turning around. "What did you say?"

He smiled, his back still to her.

"Hmm? Absolutely nothing."