The ending is a bit flaky but oh well. This is one of my sadder one shots, but I hope you like it all the same.
Happy reading.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Rick Riordan.
The Story of Us
10.
He knows the moment he opens his eyes.
She's sitting beside him, swinging her legs in the water and smiling. Nothing looks different; he could almost believe that the past year hasn't happened, that they're back at camp and enjoying a moment together before Grover comes by to tease them.
"It's happened, isn't it?" He asks. "I'm dead."
Her smiles slips and she looks at him sadly, but doesn't say anything.
He stays quiet for a minute, thinking of all the people he's left behind. He hopes they'll move on, continue to live. He doesn't want them to live in grief for the rest of their lives. She stops splashing her legs in the water and lets him pull himself together.
He knows why he's ended up where he has - Camp Half-Blood is the only place where he's ever felt truly happy and it's the same for her. It's quiet - unnaturally so - and as he looks around he realizes they're the only people there.
He looks at her.
"What happens now? Where do we go?"
Annabeth smiles and holds out her hand, speaking for the first time. "Let me show you."
He takes her hand.
9.
They're fighting but it's not enough.
Everything is splintered, fragmented into pieces. He can't see anything clearly in the blaze of red that shrouds his eyes. They're all colors and noises that fade the minute he slashes with Riptide.
Leo fights next to him and he wishes that he wouldn't, just so he could destroy the monsters himself because it's their fault she's gone and he's broken irreparably.
They pull back for a brief respite but Percy knows that they're only chance of escape is to get away because they won't survive this. He tells them to go, to flee to the Argo II and get the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood.
They protest at first, just like he expects them to do, but they all know that without a sacrifice, they will all perish. He suspects that maybe they realize with her gone, there's nothing for him to live for.
Piper and Hazel's eyes glitter with tears and they both hug him, but they don't know that this is what he wants, what's he's always wanted ever since she left him. Jason gives him a bear hug and looks like he wants to say something before turning away, and Frank doesn't say anything but looks at him like he might burst into tears at any minute. Leo manages to crack a last joke even though his voice shakes visibly.
He asks them to tell his mom and Tyson and Paul that he loves them, to take care of Blackjack after he's gone. For a minute, a hard ache forms in his chest at the fact that he'll never see them again, but he pushes it away. He tells Leo to tell Calypso how sorry he is, asks Hazel to look after Nico.
They know it's the last time they'll ever see each other and goodbyes aren't good enough but it's all they can give.
They run and he fights until he's overrun and it's her voice he hears in his head when everything fades away.
8.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
She wasn't supposed to die.
Not like this. Not in his arms.
But she is and even as he stares blankly at the blood seeping from her abdomen and hears Piper's muffled sobs there's a pounding in his head that refuses to go away.
Annabeth's eyes are open and still but he grabs her hand and squeezes it, as if he can pour the life back into her by doing so, as if she's simply sleeping and she'll wake up any minute.
One.
Two.
Three.
The sun glints off her hair, turning it to curls of fiery gold that tumble down her back as she stares lifelessly up at him and it hits him then.
She's gone.
The tears don't come but he's screaming, screaming until his voice cracks because how can anything be the same ever again when she's gone and she isn't coming back?
He screams until his voice is gone and then the tears fall, quietly, soundlessly because the grief that grips him can't ever be expressed.
She's gone, and he'll never be whole again.
7.
She's dangling by one hand, her grey eyes wide and terrified as she looks up at him and he knows what's going to happen.
He knows but he doesn't care, not as long as they're together. He can't lose her again, not after he's just got her back.
He sees the realization in her eyes and he calls up to Nico to meet them at the Doors of Death, although he doubts if they'll survive.
He lets go of his tiny ledge and together, they fall into the darkness.
6.
Annabeth.
She's here.
Annabeth, the only person he remembered. Annabeth, the blonde haired, grey-eyed Daughter of Athena that he loves. Annabeth, who he hopes hasn't given up on him.
And then she's there and she's straddling him, her dagger at his throat and he can't help but laugh because that's nothing more than what he would have expected.
She's wearing jeans and a T-shirt and her blonde hair is tied in a ponytail, but to him, she looks nothing short of beautiful.
He pulls her down and kisses her and suddenly it seems like everything's right in the world.
5.
She's kissing him.
Part of him wants to do cartwheels and whoop with delight and the other part wants to keep kissing her as long as he can.
Looks like the choice isn't up to him though.
Their friends dump them in the lake and he smirks, because now he can kiss her for as long as he wants and no one can interrupt them. Annabeth is still laughing, her blonde hair loose around her shoulders when he pulls her close and captures her lips again.
She loops her arms around his neck and he tangles his fingers in her hair and for a while, nothing exists except Annabeth, the feel of her in his arms and the softness of her lips pressed against his.
4.
He stares at her and the weight of the words she just said seems to be another burden on his shoulders.
And lose a love to worse than death.
Does she love Luke?
He doesn't know why the answer is so important to him but he needs to know. He doesn't want to lose her, but it feels like that's what's happening and it hurts more deeply than he ever thought it would.
She's Annabeth, his best friend, but everything is different.
She walks down the hill and she doesn't look back.
3.
"Annabeth," he says urgently, desperately. "Don't do it."
She looks at him, puzzled, and he wants to kick himself. He wishes he could show her his thoughts, just so she'd understand how much it would mean to him if she went. He doesn't want her to join the Hunters because even if she lectures him and annoys the hell out of him and makes him want to scream in frustration, he can't lose her to them.
He tries again. "Annabeth, I - I don't want - "
Goddamn it!
Annabeth just shakes her head and squeezes his hand and when it's Thalia that Artemis asks, he feels as if he'll nearly faint from relief. Annabeth doesn't look surprised, as if she expected it all along.
She'll stay at Camp Half-Blood and continue to drive him up the wall.
He wonders why he feels so happy about that.
2.
They've won.
He grins and turns to exchange a high five with Annabeth. She slaps his hand and gives him a quick hug, but just before she pulls away, she kisses his cheek.
It's barely a minute long, but he feels as if his skin is burning where her lips touched it and he stares at her rather bewildered. She turns a faint shade of red but he doesn't have time to reflect on it before the Athena cabin hoists them onto their shoulders.
Annabeth's just kissed him on the cheek and he finds that he rather likes it.
For a minute, he wishes there was another chariot race because if this is the reward he gets for winning, then there's no way he'll lose.
1.
Percy wonders how Grover can fall asleep so easily.
He turns his head to the side, trying to get rid of a crick in his neck, and comes face to face with Annabeth.
She looks peaceful when she sleeps, her eyelashes brushing her cheekbones, her blonde hair falling over her face. He hesitates before reaching out to push it back behind her ear. She doesn't stir but murmurs something in her sleep before falling silent again.
He thinks of the conversation they had just before she fell asleep, how she'd confided in him about her dad and her final words before she turned away.
"I just know that whatever happens, I'll fight next to you."
And as he looks at her sleeping face, he forgets about the lightning bolt and his mother and their impossible deadline, feeling strangely comforted that no matter what, she'll be by his side.
~ Fin ~