He's staring at her like he's never seen her before; like the light has hit her face just the right way and she's been suddenly illuminated.
Annabeth is doing it, too. Percy has matured so much in the past few days (so has she), has seen that not all friendships last forever, has felt true grief for the first time, has held the world on his shoulders. He has saved her.
He looks tired. Tired and old for his age.
She reaches out and touches the gray streak in his hair that mirrors hers.
Her fingers are scalded by the contact but she leaves them there for a second longer than necessary and hopes he gets the message, always hidden, because she isn't going to make this easy for him.
He held up the sky for her.
Crossed the country for her.
If she asked, he would stop the tides for her. Throw himself off Olympus for her. But it isn't that simple.
And so they dance.
a/n: right after athena talks to percy and he dances with annabeth. TC was pretty intense, honestly, and i think it changed percy a lot, with the gray just being a symbol of that. and remember, he said all he really wanted to do was save annabeth, and she knows him so well... here you are.
i know what most are gonna guess for BotL, but i'm telling you now, it's not obvious at ALL. so good luck with that one. ;D
shameless self plug: i put up a harry potter freeverse today (go take a look, will you?) and i have a TLO-throne-room one-shot going up tomorrow.
please, please make my day and review. :)
~whispered touches
disclaimer: i don't own percy or annabeth. they belong to rick.