I could post this in Bittersweet but it's a bit more bitter with little sad sweet to compensate and I decided to have put it in a new story. It's yet another of my favorite little pieces so...

~Enjoy!

Annabeth was the one that suggested it. It sounded silly to Thalia but at this point she would try anything. Do anything just to sort out her chaotic emotions. Her grief, her anger, her confusion. And really it was Annabeth's idea and Thalia had learned a long time ago that all of Annabeth's ideas were brilliant.

The idea was simple really. Perhaps that was the genius. Write Luke a letter. A few quick words. The goodbye she never got to say. An apology and accusation all rolled into one. She'd then burn it and with any luck it would reach Luke in the Underworld. Even if it didn't, it was more supposed to be a release than anything else. A chance to get everything off her chest. Explode her emotions across paper so she could let go.

Except it wasn't working. She managed a couple quick words, not a one of them that even began to touch on what she was feeling, but she was now staring at a blank page and had been for more than a half an hour now. Willing the words to appear on the paper. All the things she never got to say to him, but for the life of her, she couldn't put words to a single one. And it was frustrating her. The wax candle beside her left-hand flickered, casting mocking shadows across the parchment. They almost seemed to form letters but whenever Thalia tried to reach for them they vanished and she was left choked up with her pen poised over the paper.

She thought back. Back to the last time she'd seen Luke, his eyes solid gold and grinning wickedly. How badly she'd wished she could see his blue eyes again instead of that wretched gold color. And then she remembered what Annabeth had told her about his last moments. His words, his courage, his love. She hadn't even gotten to see his body afterwards, just the shroud. The Fates had taken him before she'd been able to get free from that statue.

Everyone else had gotten to say a proper goodbye beforehand. Annabeth, Grover, Chiron, Hermes…even Percy, Luke's mortal enemy, had gotten more of a farewell than Thalia did. And it wasn't fair.

Yes Thalia was a Huntress but she had a right to see him one last time. To say goodbye, good riddance and oh gods I'm going to miss you. After all that they'd been through…He was her first and only love; Hunter or not, she would admit it now. And maybe...a torn and beaten part of her was still in love with him. It might be wrong for her to still love him given all that he'd done to her and her position as Artemis' Lieutenant, but Zoë Nightshade had never quite let Heracles go, so why should Thalia let Luke go?

Her mind drifted further back still to memories of a happier time. Every single moment she'd spent with him and Annabeth, both good and bad, were the most precious things in the world to her. Nothing would ever compare…not quite. Not even the camaraderie she felt with her fellow Hunters would overshadow her time with Luke and Annabeth and even Grover. They were memories to be forever cherished, existing in a very special part of her heart for all time, as damn cheesy as that sounded. But she meant it.

And maybe she hadn't wanted things to end the way they did. She'd hoped she could have been there for his last breaths and finally she would know. She had wanted to...needed to...talk to him. But she'd never get the chance now and there would always be a part of her that never fully reconciled with that fact. She was bitter about that, but there was nothing she could do but move on with her life. Continue the Hunt, forever haunted by a pair of piercing blue eyes and an arrogant smirk that she'd never escape.

Thalia turned her attentions back to present reinvigorated. Perhaps she could whip up a little something now. But then she realized she already had. As she sat there, reliving memories bittersweet, her hand had moved of its own accord. Leaving in its wake a sketch of Luke, as she remembered him. Before his eyes went gold. Before age altered him. Before a thin scar marred his cheek. The Luke before her was that fourteen-year-old doofus she'd somehow fallen for before she even realized it. The boy that both infuriated and enamored her.

Beside him were herself and Annabeth, laughing around a campfire. None of them really looked like quite how they really were in reality, but it was how Thalia had seen them. How she pictured them together in her head every night as she bedded down. She could hear their voices even, laughing together at some stupid joke.

A tear slid down Thalia's cheek. This was far better than a letter. It embodied everything she was feeling and more. She wrote a couple quick lines beneath, nothing of any particular depth or anything. Just a few words; a send off. A mild goodbye.

Take care, you big lunkhead.

And then she dipped the corner into candle's flickering wick and watched as it burned into ashes in the dirt at her feet. Watched their faces shrivel and blacken before going off to bed. And she did feel better. Annabeth was right. Of course. As always.

In the morning she woke to find that same picture, whole once more, on her desk. Only where her goodbye had been neatly printed was a line of text that brought a fresh sting to her eyes.

Back at you, Thals.

Could very easily be a companion to Inevitability, using the same dynamics from it. But this piece is going to stand alone. Hope you guys liked it!

~Crisi