1. Before
Before this story begins, before the world of these two people begin, with all their hardships and all their love and pain and renewal and revenge and change and breaking, I would like to tell a little story, that fully begins this bit of life you've decided to read.
It was a late night, and Annabeth had been sleeping fitfully, continually throwing herbody around. She was twelve, young and forgotten (or as she assumed) by her family. She looked out the cabin window, the light darkness slipping under shades, curling to the edge of her bed where the night's light pulled at her. She was not afraid of the dark, but she did not like to stare into it, waiting for sleep to gain hold.
It would not take long, but for a moment, the restlessness held on, she let it hold on. It was Summer, it was cool some days, hot others, and she found a tired waiting even in the free months, when all her friends were at camp with her, when she did not have to hide during the winter, training and training until she could take care of herself. It was all so tiresome, but she could not fall asleep.
And then it was there, it was in her mind, all the sleep in the world, all those hypnotic dreams she had been waiting for to keep the pieces of reality out for a moment, just a little while longer.
She dreamt and dreamt. She could not remember most of it when she awoke the following morning, but when she closed her eyes she saw a pair of ocean green eyes, viridian forests of the sea shining brilliantly. She had never seen eyes like those before and every time she blinked a gasp filled her lungs, utter surprise in wondering who held these beautiful orbs.
Throughout that day her mind was scattered, very odd for an Athena girl who held her ground and kept her gaze on the same ideas for weeks. But she could not shake those eyes. It's said, when you dream of someone, you've met them before. It's also said, though rarely, that a person you dream of may appear in your life, may matter in your life. And that night, while she watched the rain clouds falling outside the borders, there was a loud shaking in the mortal world and, after she could not sleep, she ran to the big house. Her odd feelings of needing to go there worked out perfectly.
She was speaking to Chiron when they heard someone collapse on the porch. The door was open and outside laid a satyr and a boy. The boy's black hair fell in front of his face and, when she scanned his body, she found his eyes, his ocean green eyes. Her heart fluttered for a long moment before he fell unconscious, both of them unaware of how much they would mean to each other.
A/N: Be aware, this is a collection of moments. Yeah, I'll jump around. More often than not, I won't even have a relative time period. Most of them will be after The Last Olympian, or in a time period where they are still friends. This is from The very beginning.
~ExP
