At first I thought I must have been dreaming. Or died and gone to Heaven. A face as chiseled and perfect like that did not exist in nature and I could practically drown in his eyes, they were that blue. Some guy - some incredibly good-looking guy was cradling my head, gently in his arms. One hand carefully stroking the hair away from the cut on my forehead and the dabbing what felt like acid on the wound.

I suppressed a groan as the cut on my forehead prickled painfully, concentrating on his face instead to relieve the pain. All of a sudden he looked very, very familiar.

My stomach widened and I felt sick to the stomach.

He had been the dagger-carrying stranger from last night.

"It's you," I gasped, horrified.

"Hey, take it easy you've -"

My first instinct was to punch him in the face, but that didn't go too successfully, the guy had a jaw made out of iron or something. He winced and took a step back while I scrambled for the door. Or at least tried to.

I wavered, unsteadily on my feet and a sharp, pain short through my head. I started to see stars and braced myself for a hard landing. Instead I landed right in his arms. How romantic.

"Hey, hey. It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise," his tone was soothing and I wanted so badly to believe him but I knew what I seen. He gently pried my hands away from my head as if to examine the wound but I wasn't taking any chance. "You have to trust me. I'm - "

I felt a sharp tingle down my spine and all of a sudden my captor was hurled to the other side of the room where he lay, looking stunned and... Shocked. Literally.

His perfectly tousled hair was sticking up all over the place and I could have sworn I saw smoke tendrils rise from where he had touched me. Did I just do that?

He stood up and brushed himself off, still wearing that same stunned expression.

"How - ? What - ? W-Why?" He seemed at a loss for words. "How did you do that?"

"Um," I replied, intelligently.

Surprisingly he looked more angry than surprised. Almost as if he had seen this before...

"Why did you just do that?" He asked, his eyes flashing darkly.

I glared at him, accusingly. "Um... maybe because you tried to kill me? Oh wait, no that can't be it..."

"I was trying to help you!"

"By sticking a knife in my back?"

"By - what?" He looked amused, then angry, then confused and then... oh I don't know.

I laughed, in spite of myself. "Yeah and it's not like coming at someone with a dagger in the middle of the night looks threatening at all."

"I was defending myself!"

"Oh, because I look really scary, right?"

He gave me a look.

"Okay, don't answer that question. But it wasn't like I was doing anything!"

"You were running at me with a stick in your hand! Some kind of religious ritual or something?"

"I - oh. Oh that."

Okay, things kind of made sense now. Well, sort of. But it still didn't explain why he was carrying around a dagger hanging around an alley so late at night. Then again, I was kind of being a hypocrite doing the same thing, only with a stick instead of a dagger.

"I can explain," I began.

"You can?" He cocked an eyebrow, quizzically.

I opened my mouth then closed it again. I didn't how to. How was I supposed explain Arezzo; the goat-headed, lion bodied, snake-tailed giant Chihuahua? How did I even know what happened last night was real?

"No, not - not really," I admitted.

He nodded darkly as if he understood and an awkward silence fell between us.

"Look I'm really sorry about -"

"Forget it," he cut me off attempting to smile. "What was in the past was in the past right?"

I shakily - and painfully - got up, brushing myself off and took a step towards him. He leaned against the door frame and shoved his hands in the pockets of his ripped jeans looking unsure as to what to do next.

"Hi," I said, it was all I could think of. I extended a hand - albeit a slightly cut up one; "My name is Thalia."

Author's note: Any tips on Luke's personality so far? And Nico's for future reference?