Luke looked at the little girl sleeping in the corner of the barn they had found for the night. The barn was large, but damp, and the old wooden door barley kept the hammering rain from sweeping into their hideout. The little girl in the corner stirred, when hearing a crack of lightning, and Luke quickly slid next to her and took her in his arms. Luke looked down at the little girl with golden blond hair, and sparkly gray eyes with concern. She always was scared of thunderstorms.
'Are you okay?' Luke asked softly.
The little girl winced as she heard another crack of lightning and more thunder rolling above them. She nodded but crawled in closer to Luke, so her little fingers could cling to his dirty jacket. Luke gently rocked her in his lap, while the rain continued. Suddenly, the wooden door burst open and a splintering wind rushed through the barn, freezing everything in its path. Luke was already on his feet, placing himself unconsciously directly in front of the little girl behind him. Luke drew his knife, and the little girl behind him did the same.
'Annabeth, go hide'
'No' Annabeth stuttered. Luke didn't know if it was from the cold or from fear. Probably from the cold, Annabeth was too stubborn to be afraid.
Luke twitched in annoyance at Annabeth's refusal, but braced himself ready to shield Annabeth with his own body if he had to from their visitor. The visitor's body visibly tensed at Luke and Annabeth positions, and their drawn weapons, and whispered urgently,
'What's wrong? Are their monsters again?'
Luke sighed in relief and put his knife back in his belt. He heard Annabeth exhale and drop her knife to the ground before bounding up to their visitor and jumping into her waiting arms.
'Thalia!' Annabel cried happily.
'Hey, Annabeth! Why are you still up? It's late' Thalia crooned to her best friend, who although was only a few years younger, was so small that Thalia could lift her with ease.
'Luke said I could stay up!' Annabel pouted.
'I did not! Annabeth's a little liar. I think we need to punish her' Luke said, faking anger in his voice and failing miserably at trying to look scary.
Annabeth laughed and jumped from Thalia's arms, before skipping to her blanket on the floor. Thalia laughed silently at Luke, and they both advanced on the little girl who's back was turned trying to make her blanket straight. They both launched on her at the same time, tickling every part of her they could reach. Annabeth laughed and squealed with laughter, kicking their hands away. Thalia, who was laughing almost harder than Annabeth, took Annabeth in her arms and gave her a huge hug, before putting her easily under the thin blanket on the floor.
'I love you, Annabeth' Thalia smiled.
'I love you too, Thalia' Annabeth giggled.
Luke watched them with a small smile on his face, before leaning down to kiss Annabeth on the head.
'Night, kiddo. Love you.' Luke whispered, smoothing Annabeth's blond curls from her head.
'Night, doofus. I love you too.' Annabeth laughed, piercing him with her big, gray eyes.
Luke smiled at her before slowly walking towards the already sleeping Thalia under their only other blanket. Luke slipped under the blanket, and moved around until he found a piece of the hard wood that didn't hurt so much against his injured back. Luke's hand found Thalia's under the blanket and he felt Thalia squeeze his rough hand once before her hand fully relaxed as she fell instantly asleep. There would be time to talk in the morning, but for now, they both needed to rest. Luke could feel his tired eyes drooping, probably from not sleeping for 2 days straight when Thalia was gone looking for a new no-monster spot to stay for a week or two. Before his eyes finally shut, Luke turned his head slightly to look at the lightly snoring Annabeth under her little blanket. Luke smiled again, and made a silent promise to the little girl.
Years later, and Luke looked down the battle ground. He wiped every victim dead who dared face him with the effort of flicking his finger. Luke had already seen Thalia from a distance, fighting off a hydra on her own. She was so beautiful…but he could not approach her, even if she would even look at him. His orders were clear: get the blond. Luke knew why they wanted to get her out of the way first, she was a big threat, especially with that Jackson kid fighting by her side. Together, they were unstoppable. But where was she? She would no doubt be somewhere around here, fighting with all she has. And then, in the sea of bloodied faces, he see's those piercing gray eyes lock with his own cold ones. Annabeth has grown, her hair is longer, but her curls are still there, her face has grown older, and she is taller too. But those eyes are yelling at weird red-head, point to their safe building, most likely telling her to get back out of the battle get. Nowhere near to protect Annabeth. Luke can feel his heart break, as he takes a step forward without breaking her eye contact. He can feel her fear in his eyes like it's his own, the anger as if it's his, and the betrayal as if it's ripping through his body, wiping him clean with the knife he was about to run her through with. Luke wants to turn back, to call to her that he's sorry, that he loves her, and that he never wanted to hurt her. But he can't. Annabeth was like his little sister, never would he have ever thought all of those years ago that the promise he made included himself. And as he prepares to lift his knife to strike her the deadly blow, and she lifts her own, he looks one last time into those big gray eyes.
"I love you, Annabeth" Luke screams silently and the swish of the knife being brought up fluently is heard even over the raging battle.
Annabeth's eyes flash at him, before her head hits the ground with a sickening crack and the her big, gray eyes go blank.
The last thing Luke remembers then is turning, his heart feeling like it's on fire, and tears spilling from his cold eyes, and seeing messy, sweat drenched dark hair holding a sword slice him through. Luke can vaguely hear the screams that Jackson is hurling at him as Luke buckles over, slowly dying. Dying is good, compared to the pain he was just experiencing, death was numbing. It would be over soon. And even as Jackson forced his face to look into his, as he bellowed at him, Jackson's tears falling onto Luke's bloody shirt, Luke would refuse to open his eyes. He wanted Annabeth's big, gray eyes, telling him that they forgave him as the life left them, to be the last memory he had as he sunk into darkness.