superposition
I
She's bringing flowers to her stepmother's grave like she does every Tuesday after school when her gaze lands on a freshly dug grave.
Perseus Jackson
1999-2015
Beloved son and friend
Her breath hitches in her throat even though she doesn't recognize the name. He was her age when he died, and she had a feeling she would have liked him. Fingers trembling slightly, she places a single flower on the dirt by the headstone.
II
He's going around Disneyland dressed as Prince Charming with his partner as Cinderella. He loves his job – loves the smiles on the children's faces every time he waves at them. A young girl with bright blue eyes and a toothy grin comes up to him and pleads with him to kiss Cinderella.
When he tries to avoid the subject, her face crumples and he caves. Going up to the woman who has just signed "Cinderella" in beautiful cursive writing, he whispers, "trust me," and he can't help but notice how her stray curls resembled an actual princess's.
He leans in and his lips touch hers. Her eyes widen and she stiffens in surprise but relaxes into the kiss before pulling away, cheeks blazing as the kids surrounding them cheer and giggle.
She yells at him later for embarrassing her but he has a feeling she secretly enjoyed it and asks her out.
This universe has a happy ending.
III
The last words of your soul mate would appear on your wrist in this universe. In cursive the word "don't" covers his wrist and her own name is written on hers. They're fighting side by side when she notices an enemy demigod aim a dagger at his back. She knows he's invincible but there's something so wrong that she instinctively jumps in front of the blade.
She gasps when it tears the flesh and tissue near her heart.
"Annabeth!"
His eyes widen as he turns and kneels next to his best friend. She's fading fast and they both know it. The other demigods form a defensive circle around them, protecting them from any incoming monsters.
He digs around his pockets for ambrosia and she puts a weak hand over his,
"I'm dying, seaweed brain. There's nothing you can do about it."
He shakes his head in denial, mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. It suddenly felt as thought he couldn't speak, all his words were stuck in his throat.
"Don't." She says gently and her eyes go glassy.
They never even got to say 'I love you'
IV
She's walking around, inhaling the midnight air when she hears footsteps close behind her. As they quicken, she does the natural thing and judo flips him.
Her arm is against her potential attacker's neck and his mouth is agape in shock. Her cheeks blaze when she realizes that this is a guy from her school and she mumbles an apology before running off.
They meet again around midnight in the park after she gets over her embarrassment and kiss a couple of months later under the polluted sky of Manhattan.
V
One thing she hated about her position as head of Oncology was watching her patients' lives slip away as they battled the cancer through countless treatments.
Her longest patient was her age with tired sea-green eyes and black hair all gone. Lying in the dull hospital bed surrounded by his mother and friends, he wore a reassuring smile with his hand around his mother's. She had never seen so much strength in the face of death.
She stood in the room and watched, heart stuck in her throat, barely holding back tears as her patient – her friend – said his goodbyes and finally let go.
VI
Story grey meet vibrant green and she barely gets a chance to draw a breath when his finger tightens on the trigger and she's gone.
He tries not to think about her cold body on the pavement or her blood on his hands as he collects the money he was promised.
VII
Sometimes they barely even look at each other.
The words are doing skateboard loops across the pages and textbooks all strewn across the table suffocate him. He can barely think right now and wants to throw something across the café.
A blonde girl from his school puts a coffee by his psychology book and tells him gently to take a break or he'll burn out. He looks up with gratitude but she's already disappeared out of the door.
VIII
Rain blurs his vision but he can make out her blonde curls in his fatigue and her grey eyes that resemble the stormy sky. She whispers three words that he doesn't understand but he can't ask because he's unconscious.
She hates him at first but he keeps trying to build up their friendship. What they don't expect is to be kissing each other at the bottom of a lake four years later.
IX
Her grey eyes have bags under them and he can't help but notice as she orders her Starbucks coffee. Feeling sorry for her, he writes as short note on her cup under her name, "smile". When she picks up the cup, she barely glances at it before rushing off.
He doesn't mind and continues writing different notes to her every Monday at 5pm, waiting for her to grace him with her smile. He doesn't even know if she sees it and just doesn't care. One day, she actually looks at her cup after he had squeezed an especially long note on it and the corners of her mouth lift slightly.
It's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen and the next time she comes in, he writes his number on the sleeve.
X
As much as she loves her two-year-old, life as a single mother is hard and all she wants is 5 minutes of peace on the bus home. Her son chooses to be uncooperative, however, and refuses to stop crying.
She tries everything – from singing his favourite ridiculous song to begging him quietly. He suddenly stops and a smile lights up his tear splotched face. She glances around, avoiding the dirty looks other passengers are giving her and gives a grateful smile to a man sending a crooked smile in her son's direction.
She says a silent prayer and starts a conversation with him. A couple of weeks later, her son calls him 'daddy' and she's mortified but he's laughing so hard.
XI
He's watching 'Me Before You' in the cinema and he's desperately trying to stop the tears from escaping his eyes at the ends, cursing because he knows his friends will never let him live this down.
Fortunately, the girl next to him came prepared with a small pack of tissues resting on the armrest between them. He ends up stealing some her tissues whilst salty tears form paths down their faces. After the movie, he returns her smile with his own sheepish one.
XII
She's proud to say that she may be obsessed with a TV show and has an entire Instagram account dedicated to it with 1.3k followers. When one of her new followers spams her with ridiculous comments asking her to notice him though, she's not sure whether to laugh or get annoyed.
Finally she checks out his account and is horrified to realise that he's from a rival fandom. "Why were you spamming me? Your fandom hates us!" is what she sends to him through a direct message.
She doesn't know what he looks like but she can picture him shrugging as he replies "I like your edits and I'm sure we can work together for something." This is followed up by a bunch of points on how their fandoms are so similar. Rolling her eyes, she relents and they work on an edit together. When it's posted, they burn the haters together and find themselves messaging the other a lot more.
XIII
They're kids playing in the sandbox when the blonde haired toddler yells out and starts crying. "Percy poured water on my sandcastle!" She's wailing and the poor green-eyed boy looks terrified at the scene he accidentally caused.
The next day, he's holding a handful of limp daisies as he apologises to the girl, claiming that he was trying to make a moat to join their castles. She accepts the flowers with a grin and they make a huge sandcastle together.
At the end of the day, they pinky promise to be best friends forever.
XIV
In this universe, she's chatting animatedly with her friend on the phone whilst driving and doesn't see the mop of black hair on a skateboard crossing the road. She lets out a shriek and tries to brake but she's too slow and the boy goes flying, landing on the asphalt a few meters ahead with a sickening thud.
She's in shock when she gets to the hospital, face pale and hands shaking like a leaf. There, she hears the wails of a mother who lost her son and is later told that the boy had died in the ambulance.
XV
He didn't set a very good impression as the new student in his class but when he sees her standing outside the school, curls plastered to her forehead, he approaches her.
Tapping her shoulder, tentative and unsure, he opens up his umbrella and offers to walk her home. She glares at him for a while but the prospect of walking home in the rain doesn't seem to appeal to her and she joins him under the umbrella.
XVI
They're sitting together in economy on the plane and he falls asleep against her. She doesn't have the heart to push him away so she tries to ignore him and focus on the low quality movie.
He sleeps through the whole flight and when the plane lands, she comments, "You drool in your sleep" and the look on his face is priceless. They walk to the arrival hall together and wave goodbye and never see each other again.
XVII
They meet in a hospital again. He's sitting in the waiting room, body shaking and head in hands. She's sitting nearby biting the inside of her cheek, fingers tapping rhythmically against the magazine she pretends to read.
He learns that his mother is going to die and she leaves with the knowledge that she has a human being inside her.
XVIII
A boy in her history class she barely noticed before rushes out suddenly and her curiosity drives her to volunteer to look for him. She finds him in the janitor's closet, head between his knees that were tucked tight to his chest. He's crying and sniffling and she doesn't know what to do.
She slides down to sit next to him and whispers, "it's okay, it's okay" with her arms wrapped around him as though that would shield him from whatever was torturing him.
XIX
It's somewhere between evening and midnight and he's getting drunk in the bar after a breakup and calls his best friend to pick him up.
The sharp-tongued, feminine voice of his new roommate answers instead, stating that Grover was busy and reluctantly agreeing to pick him up. When she arrives he can't help but think, damn how did I not notice how hot she was before?
He convinces her take a drink and they end up taking a cab to his small two-room apartment. Somehow they end up on his double bed together, too exhausted to sort out any other sleeping arrangements.
They didn't do anything but the next day he wakes up and there's a note on the bedside table with her name, phone number and a short note: Take me out on a real date x
XX
They're in the Square, waiting for the countdown to 2017 with their own group of friends. "THREE…TWO…ONE!" When the ball dropped, cheering could be heard throughout the square and couples turned to each other to share their New Years Kiss.
She couldn't help but feel a bit left out when all her friends kissed their significant other. Spotting the awkward green-eyed boy next to her, she turns around and kisses him. They pull back slightly breathless and he tries to recover from his shock by asking for her name.
XXI
And in this universe, they don't meet at all.
Hope you all liked this fic :) I really enjoyed writing it! Send prompts because I'm in a writing mood :p
Crossposted on Wattpad
xoxo
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