A/N: Idea that just WOULDN'T GO AWAY! Don't you just love/hate those? Anyway, this is exactly 500 words because I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could write about this moment in 500 words. Please review!

Annabeth, in this fic, is basically realizing that Percy, even though he hardly knows her, hasn't left her. He didn't leave her in the ocean to die thanks to the sirens, and he didn't follow Luke. Luke, the boy she's known and loved most of her life, did leave her.

In case there is any confusion—like my friends had—with the last sentence, Annabeth is saying it to herself.

"I thought you were my friend! Let me go! Please, Percy, just let me go!"

Annabeth screamed, fighting her binds as waves crashed around her and the sweet voices of the sirens urged her overboard. Percy turned around suddenly, watched her for a moment and she screamed even louder.

"Percy! Please, please! You don't understand! Please, Percy!"

He looked away and Annabeth thrashed against the ropes. Frantically, she looked around her for anything to cut these restraints keeping her from everything she wanted—needed—right now. And she had thought Percy had been doing her a favor tying her to the mast. Couldn't he see that this was right for her? Directly under the ocean surface there was everything she had ever wanted.

She grinned as she noticed the knife still at her hip. Within seconds she was breaking the surface of the water, swimming deeper and deeper, following the beautiful voices.

Suddenly there was a new world in front of her. A land she had built. Buildings and everything. And then, her father was there, smiling, holding out his arms to her, waiting to accept her. Next to him appeared her mother. Beautiful. Friendly. Warm. She loved her—it was clear in her eyes—and wanted to be a part of her life. Next to Athena materialized Luke, charming as always. And he wasn't…angry. He wasn't distraught or frustrated or plotting against the gods for unknown but no doubt selfish reasons. He was just…Luke. Her heart thumped painfully at how utterly, heartbreakingly handsome he was.

Suddenly, she felt a hand around her ankle and kicked viciously, swimming again for the image. They were beckoning to her. They loved her. Luke loved her. But then it all disappeared as someone pulled her close. She realized for the first time that she could breathe—even though the fact that she hadn't been able to before had never occurred to her—and that tears were streaming down her face.

Annabeth's heart felt like it was shattering all over again. Blinking past her tears, she looked around and saw the thin shell of the bubble around her and the boy holding her as she cried.

Percy.

It wasn't Luke here with her now. It was Percy that was comforting her. Luke had betrayed her. But Percy? Percy was holding her against his chest while she sobbed, getting salt water and snot all over his shirt, soothingly shushing her, whispering calming things in her ear. Her tears came even harder as she realized this.

"Thank you," she whispered brokenly. "Thank you for not leaving me." Annabeth doubted he could hear her. He probably still had the wax in his ears; but it needed to be said all the same. She mumbled it again and again into his shirt.

Percy looked down at her and their eyes met. Annabeth's gaze flickered—for barely half of a second—down to his lips before snapping back to attention at his sea-green eyes.

Sometimes you're so stupid, Annabeth.

A/N: Thanks for reading, please review!

Love always,

E. M. Zeray