They had changed.
They no longer had playful sparring matches that kept the atmosphere at camp light, and exciting.
Their witty bantering had ceased, morphing into heated arguments where weapons were on the verge of being drawn, and cuts were made in forms other than physical wounds. They halted their normal conversations during odd times throughout the day, and replaced their words with meaningful glances at one another every so often.
They just couldn't be together anymore; it didn't work. They didn't coincide like the old days where everything was as simple as a demigod's life could be. Whether it was the stress of the upcoming deadline or they just no longer meshed, neither he nor she knew.
For a while they tried completely avoiding each other, but they quickly found that this did not ease their unknown pain. So they settled for distance. It was some sort of unspoken bond that they had, or collaboration, as she'd come to identify it. The two were always at the same place at the same time, but were never with each other. This subtle relationship eased and comforted them. It was vital for their sanity to have the knowledge that the other one was there in ways that didn't involve frostbitten words.
After a few weeks, they became recognized as the distance couple, unbeknownst to them. Whenever you saw him, you knew she was near, or vise versa.
Once in a while she would steal glances at him when she thought he wasn't looking.
Watching him from a distance, she could tell that he was truly unhappy. She had never seen the dark gloom in his eyes that seed to creep up on him when he was alone. She never knew how much sadness weighed him down underneath the arrogant exterior he threw up ever so convincingly.
From a distance she could almost see the worry lines that now etched his face, giving him a mature, foreign look of manhood that she had never seen before.
From a distance, she could tell the pressure was getting to him. Some days he'd spend countless hours of useless practice slashing through dummies with riptide, sweat glistening off his tan skin. Others he'd just sit there, head in hands, on rock bottom. These were the days that usually led to his complete evaporation into thin air, leaving a cold feeling in the wake of in his absence.
She'd sit underneath a tree on these days, wondering what he was doing with her. She knew he was with that mortal, and it bothered her endlessly.
Despite that, she couldn't help but feel lost without his presence near her. He had surfaced right when she needed him the most, and now it was almost like the days before he came. She was alone again.
Just when she'd almost have enough of her lonely days, taking out her sadness as aggression on whoever had the misfortune of crossing her path, he'd return.
He would act like nothing was different. Like she wasn't about to die from worry, or jealousy while he was gone. But he never knew this because of the distance they had put in between them.
So he'd continue with his normal routine, slash, dodge, swivel, hit, tear, kick, turn, fake, slash. From a distance she'd noticed he had developed a pattern that he methodically slashed dummies with.
From a distance, She'd noticed that he was spending more time in the practice ring with a new concentration.
From a distance, she'd noticed how worried, and lonely he looked.
Slash. She couldn't take the look of devastation.
Dodge. She couldn't stand not hearing his voice anymore.
Swivel. She couldn't look at the darkness that now inhabited his eyes anymore.
Hit. She couldn't stand waiting for him to return from his little trips anymore.
Tear. She couldn't watch him interact with other campers that weren't her anymore.
Kick. She couldn't stand imagining him smiling her favorite lopsided smile at that mortal anymore.
Turn. She couldn't let him slip away especially now, in his possibly last days anymore.
Fake. She couldn't withhold watching him from a distance anymore.
Cling! His pattern was stopped as him sword met her dagger. His eyes met hers.
This was unusual.
He knew it.
She knew it.
She had broken their unspoken agreement, but he didn't seem bothered by her company. Instead, he narrowed his eyes, mouth twitching with amusement as he anticipated what was about to occur.
Then suddenly without any warning, the battle began.
They ferociously engaged in combat, the cacophony of metal against metal echoed throughout the entire camp.
They battled intensely, never uttering a single word or breaking eye contact. It was almost like they were sparring in a mind-out-of-body sort of way. Their instincts took over; annihilating whatever emotions the two had left, leaving only their reflexes to govern their every move.
As they sparred further, he'd seemed to gain confidence, letting a few taunts escape his mouth. She had ignored his taunts at first, only focusing on fighting, and fighting only.
After a while, she couldn't hold back her tongue any longer as she muttered her first biting comeback.
A fully-fledged fight soon broke out. Vocal and physical. However, this was different from their recent emotional arguments they'd been having. This was more like the spars they'd had before, fun and amusing.
Eventually, their witty comments, or burns, as they'd used to call it, turned into laughter. They'd begun to joke, like they'd been saving up their humor while they had been distanced. They'd banter back and forth, almost forgetting that they were supposed to be ignoring each other, that they weren't even supposed to be this close.
They had crossed an unspoken line, and there was no going back.
Unexpectedly, he had trapped her in an elaborate spin move taking her to the ground. However, he'd miscalculated and managed to send her tumbling to the ground in the wrong direction.
She landed forward, thus taking him down with her. Laughing, breathing hard, he laid on his back, and she on her stomach, forgetting all the animosity they'd had the past month, just soaking in how good it felt to be in the other's presence.
Suddenly, their distance seemed silly. They came to realize that they needed each other; no matter how hard it might seem sometimes. Even though he was annoying, over-confident, and sometimes a complete idiot, she realized something right then and there.
Being from a distance from Percy Jackson, was a place that Annabeth Chase never wanted to be ever again.