Forget
I don't own any characters.
This is set after they've been through Tartarus.
Please please please review any comments you have.
Enjoy.
"It's amazing to be sitting down again." Percy grinned at Annabeth, his hand gripping hers across the table. "It's been too long since the weight of the world wasn't on our shoulders."
"Definitely. I'm going to enjoy tonight, Earth can look after itself."
"I'll toast to that." The hero of Olympus raised his glass of on-the-house-for-you-sir champagne. Annabeth clinked hers to his.
This felt like heaven.
The past few months had been torturous. They had plunged into adventures and fights, ones that left them more scarred every time. They had fought Mother Earth herself, fallen into the horrors of Tartarus and the safety of Camp Half Blood had been on the verge of destruction. And, even though they had won. Even though all the seven survived, and both camps now existed in harmony, Annabeth couldn't forget what they'd been through.
She wished she could just wipe it all from her mind.
Forget it all and just enjoy the now. Just enjoy the small restaurant tucked in a side street in a quiet part of London. The trip to England had been Percy's surprise. They had made their way here in a bubble. Right across the Atlantic. They had sat on the back of dolphins and just talked. For hours on end. Hours of architecture facts and knock knock jokes. Bliss.
And that was what Percy had meant. He saw her drowning in her memories, and decided he would make her smile again. So he had spirited her away to a city she'd always dreamed of going to. Took her on a tour of all these amazing buildings, steeped in history
But still she couldn't forget. She could only hide from the memories. Fill her brain with the incredible architecture that they had seen. The incredible moments they'd shared together. Like this moment.
"And then I said, I don't care if she's a starfish, I want my kebab!" Percy paused and looked at her. "Are you alright Wise Girl?"
"Of course I am. Just fine." It was a lie, but she didn't want to ruin the evening for him. Then he was looked at her in that frustrated way. The look he got on his face when he was telling people that a loved one had died on the battlefield. Like he wanted to protect them from it but couldn't. Couldn't make it all alright again, couldn't mend them and make them smile. It broke her heart that he was looking at her like that. But there was nothing she could do.
"If I've done something wrong, I'm really sorry. Do you not like the food, is it too loud? Are you allergic to something?" His words rushed out all at once, all jumbled up. For the first time in what felt like forever, she actually laughed, a gentle true laugh that wasn't false or faked for someone else's benefit. But the words died in her mouth.
Bob would never laugh again. Silena would never giggle again in that way that made boys stare. Beckendorf wouldn't bellow his hearty laugh from the forges. The people she'd only just met, the people she had grown up with.
Bob. Zoƫ Nightshade. Lee Fletcher. Castor. Beckendorf. Silena. Michael Yew. Luke. Oh god, Luke.
All the wounds were so deep, from so long ago, but they still hurt so much. Every time she breathed it was a constant reminder of those who would never breathe again. Never laugh again. Never smile, never cry, never bleed. Never have the chance to grow old.
She was crying. Her tears dripped steadily onto the menu in front of her. Her hands were shaking. Then strong, warm arms wrapped around her, and she was pulled out into the fresh air. She sat down on a wall next to the green eyed boy she'd been through so much with, and buried her head into his chest.
"Hey, it's okay, it's okay." His voice was warm and comforting, his hands gently stroking her golden hair.
"They're dead Perce, they're dead and we're alive." Her voice broke off into a sob, and buried her head deeper into his t-shirt. "How do you do it? How are you so strong all the bloody time?" His hands kept stroking her hair, but he brought her head up and looked directly into her eyes, sea meeting storm. And his next words seemed so genuine that they sent a shiver down her back.
"You'll never forget about them. You'll remember them each time you take a breath, each time you smile you'll feel like you don't deserve to. But the trick is, don't try. Don't try to forget the way they fought or laughed or talked. Always remember them. And live on in their honour. They gave up their lives so we could have ours. They died true heroes. Make them proud."
And after he said that, things started to get a little bit better. She still woke up screaming from her nightmares, still cried into her pillow when it all got too much, but it was better than before. She started to laugh, started to smile. And eventually, sitting on a canoe in the lake at camp, she glanced at herself in the waves. She saw a laughing, happy, healthy girl. And the boy sitting next to her with coal black hair and sea green eyes. With a grey and green ring in his hand. And a question on his lips.
