I positively LOVE Soulmate AUs. There should be more of them out there. Just saying.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, HoO, or the following lyrics in italics.
The first time they met was at a shoe store.
An old, local one that was on the verge of closing down. Nobody's ever heard of it. It was called The Lucky Horseshoe. It was a cute little store, if Annabeth had to describe it in three words. The lavender paint was chipping off of the walls. It smelled faintly of vanilla. The shoes were all designed by the owner Aphrodite (or Dite, as she preferred to be called, pronounced die-tee) McLean and her daughter.
The shelves were always covered in stickers that changed every month or so.
Annabeth distinctly remembered autumn leaf stickers (despite the fact that it was the Christmas holidays) when she first saw her.
Her tanned self was dancing around the store singing along "White Horse" by Taylor Swift (which was blasting on the store's radio), her choppy braids flying behind her. Her feet were bare, and she was modestly (not to mention warmly) dressed in a baby blue turtleneck, mauve scarf, purple earmuffs, and purple denim jeans.
"And it's too late for you and your white horse, to catch me now!" she sang loudly, as she stuffed another pair of shoes into a box before putting it on the shelf.
"Um..." Annabeth stuttered awkwardly, being more used to isolation rather than human contact besides her only friend Thalia. She internally cursed at the fact that she sounded so unsure of herself. Her mother would have been disappointed. "Hi?"
The girl ignored her, continuing her dance around the store. On the last few chords of the Taylor Swift song, she ended with an extremely exaggerated bow to the chipping mermaid painting on the window of Dite's office.
Annabeth just rolled her eyes. Some people.
"Oh, I stare at the phone, he still hasn't called, and you feel so low you, can't feel nothing at all, and I flashback to when he said forever and always!" the girl crooned at the top of her lungs.
She did some complicated dance move that ended with a flourish of a twirl that she ultimately failed. She ended up tripping over Annabeth who was hunched over, looking at one of the loafers on the bottom shelves.
She emitted a high-pitched shriek that must've embarrassed her, because once she let out the noise, she clamped a hand over her mouth and reddened to the point where she was purple.
Annabeth's eyes had widened, and she may have groaned when she bumped her forehead against the corner of the splintering shelf, but she didn't embarrassingly shriek like the girl had.
"Oh, my god, you're bleeding," she gasped, brushing at the thick red liquid.
She pulled out a first-aid kit from around her neck (making Annabeth vaguely wonder why anyone would have a first-aid kit necklace), cleansed the wound, and chastely put the tan band-aid on the other girl's forehead.
"I'm so, so sorry. I didn't notice you. I'm Piper by the way. Do you mind if I ask you your name?"
"Annabeth," the blonde muttered.
Her cheeks reddened when she realized the cuff of her right sleeve had rolled up all the way to her elbow, revealing the initials of her best friend for life, or soul sister, as everyone seemed to call it. PM. Annabeth's friend Thalia and she had laughed about how the initials meant 'afternoon', but it was just plain embarrassing when strangers laughed about it.
PAUSE. Soul sisters and soul brothers (soul brothers don't really have a catchy nickname) have always been best friends in past lives. Each time a soul is reborn, the initials of their soul sister/brother's new identity is imprinted onto the right-hand wrist. Sometimes the soul sister/brothers were of opposite sexes, but that's a major rarity. PLAY.
"PM, eh?" Piper asked, smiling secretively. "You haven't met your soul sister, yet, have you?"
"No," Annabeth mumbled, internally groaning.
She'd already met her soulmate (who she found pretty annoying. She was supposed to meet him later that day), but her soul sister still had yet to come.
PAUSE again. Everyone is born with a necklace, a half-heart necklace, with the initials of their soulmate engraved onto it. Whenever the soulmates meet, a glow will emit from the necklace. PLAY (yet again).
"Well," Piper sighed. "My soul sister's initials stand for air conditioning. Still haven't met her yet anyways. Don't worry about me laughing at your soul soul sister's initials."
Annabeth cringed at the disorganization of Piper's speech pattern.
"Those are my initials, too, anyways," Piper continued.
Annabeth froze. Annabeth Chase, AC. AC stood for air conditioning. PM, Piper-what even was her last name? Well, she was setting up shoes, so she must've been Dite's daughter. Piper McLean, PM.
"Hello?" Piper snapped her fingers in front Annabeth's face. "Anybody home?"
"You're my soul sister," Annabeth murmured in awe, still processing it. "So I get an annoying soul sister, as well as a soulmate?"
"Gee, thanks," Piper said sarcastically. "You must be no peach either, blondie, if you're jumping to conclusions like that in a snap."
"You have no right to judge me," Annabeth snapped, jumping straight up. "You barely know me!"
"And you barely know me," Piper replied, imitating Annabeth's action. "But I bet I can guess a few things about you. I'm pretty good at analyzing things."
"Go ahead and try," Annabeth said, crossing her arms.
"Okay," Piper clasped her hands together, a small smile forming on her face. "You hate that you're blonde. You wish that you can have dark hair so people can take you seriously. You're smart, though. Extremely smart."
"Basically anyone can figure that out," Annabeth intercepted.
"Yes, but can they figure out that you have your mother's eyes?" Piper said patiently. "They say soul sisters can know pretty much anything about one another if they just want it enough."
"Well, I want to," Annabeth said grumpily, tapping her foot, already sick of her aren't soul sister. "But I can't seem to be able to. Continue."
"You..." Piper trailed off, looking at her vacantly.
"Well?" The blonde huffed impatiently.
"You have a stepmom," Piper continued. "Looks nothing like you. Acts nothing like you. Hardly cares about you in favor of her own children, with your father following her lead."
Annabeth's owlish gray eyes blinked.
"Your mom was the one who left, because she wanted to work instead of love. Her soulmate is your father. Your stepmom was born without a necklace," Piper stated confidently. "You hate your dad and stepmom, for neglecting you. So you want to end up exactly like your mom, completely drowned in your work."
She paused for breath.
"Also, you hate your soulmate because your mom hates his father," Piper added.
"Fine, you're my soul sister," Annabeth caved. "I get it. You know me. I get it. So now what are you going to do?"
Piper smirked.
"I'm going to get you to like-no, love-your soulmate."
Piper was ambitious, Annabeth had to give her that.
Piper dragged Annabeth to the park where (Annabeth was somehow persuaded into telling Piper) she was supposed to meet Percy Jackson, her soulmate.
She hated those two words: her soulmate.
She sees him talking to a scrawny redhead holding crutches with a rasta cap on.
Percy's smiling, his pink lips stretched into that annoyingly attractive lop-sided grin of his. (Wait, attractive?) His shaggy black hair is falling into swirling, ocean-green eyes, making her want to push it back. But that's just Annabeth's slight OCD acting up. That's all.
"But I hate him," Annabeth moaned in protest to Piper's constant shoving her toward him.
"No, you love him," Piper grinned.
"No, I don't."
Surprisingly, this time Piper responded more...intelligently-for lack of a better word.
"There are two types of soulmates," Piper said. "They say that some soulmates meet each other and fall in love instantly. They look at each other, see the glow, and instantly fall in love. Quite the fairytale ending, eh? But that love, that love is bland in comparison to the second type of soulmates.
"These soulmates start of hating each other, or thinking it wouldn't work out. It usually takes a while for them to fall in love, but when they do, it's beautiful. It's passionate. It can even bring tears to one's eyes. Give him a chance and it can turn into something beautiful."
Piper smiled. "Sorry about the cheesiness, but I love love. And he deserves a chance."
Annabeth sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll give him a chance."
Just as Annabeth turned around to see Percy smile at her with his annoyingly happy green eyes, she whipped her head back around toward Piper, coughing and spitting at the stray blonde locks that got caught in her mouth when she did.
"I can't do this," Annabeth said miserably. "I can't be responsible for someone's entire happiness. What if I do end up like my mom? My dad was crushed! I can't do that to Percy!"
"Hey," Piper's voice was annoyingly calm, in Annabeth's opinion. "It'll be alright."
"Alright?" Annabeth screeched. "Have you even met your soulmate yet?"
Piper nodded, biting the inside of her cheek, seemingly to keep from smiling.
"His name is Jason Grace," she sighed dreamily.
It was so un-Piper-like that Annabeth had to keep from laughing, even if Annabeth had only known her soul sister for a total of an hour and a half.
"Wait, as Jason Grace whose sister is Thalia Grace-Castellan?" Annabeth exclaimed.
"But Thalia isn't married to Luke yet," Piper said.
"Yeah, yeah, but your soulmate is Thalia's little brother?" Annabeth exclaimed shocked. "Blond hair, blue eyes, 6'1"? Looks like a Greek god statue and acts like a Roman emperor?"
"Yeah?" Piper chewed her lip. "When I first met him I thought that he was way out of my league. We would never work because he's so perfect and I'm so me."
Annabeth was about to cut her off there and say something along the lines of, "No, you are most definitely the perfect one," but decided to let her rant. Piper had been kind enough to her the past few...hour and a half so Annabeth decided to return the favor.
"And then we started dating and he completely loosened up and now we're happy and yeah I'm rambling without stopping long enough to make an actual sentence and Annabeth go over there and talk to your soulmate so you can be together forever and please Annabeth as your soul sister take a chance a risk and fall in love!" She paused for breath.
"Piper-"
"Just go," Piper smiled. "Have fun."
And Annabeth did have fun, so much fun she went out with Percy again, and again, and again.
2 years later...
"So have you met your soul sister yet?" Percy Jackson asked his fiancée Annabeth Chase. They were to be married after college. At the moment they were 19 years old, at Starbucks enjoying the free wi-fi, and happy. And completely, totally, sickeningly in love.
"A couple of years ago actually," Annabeth murmured. "I haven't seen her since our first date."
"Annabeth!" Annabeth turned around at the sound of her name.
"Piper?" Annabeth asked.
"I'm so glad I found you!" Piper grinned. She was wearing that same blue turtleneck, mauve scarf, purple earmuffs and denim jeans as when they first met. "I wanted to give you this."
It was a piece of black stationary with the words written in white, block letters (thank goodness, because she wouldn't have been able to read it otherwise thanks to her stupid dyslexia):
You are cordially invited
To the holy union
Of the soulmates
Jason Grace and Piper McLean
"Really?" Annabeth asked, promptly ignoring Percy's curious stare on the back of her neck. "After these two long years?"
"Hey," Piper playfully punched Annabeth in the arm. "I left you there because I wanted you to be happy. And you are. Now, I want you to see me be happy, even though I know you're shocked because I'm only 18. But we're sole sisters, right?"
"Yeah," Annabeth laughed. "We have a lot of catching up to do."
"Did you see what I did there? With the word 'sole' because we me at a shoe store and-?"
"Yeah, Piper," Annabeth laughed. "I get it."