DISCLAIMER: All the characters belong to Rick Riordan
I covered the Lightning Theif for both characters. I tried to get into it as much as I could. This is all I could write up. Happy reading.
Annabeth was twelve when she met her most annoying thing.
Chiron had dumped the unconcious boy on her to take care of him. Her gaze is filled with curiosity and apprehension. In a moment of heat, she decides he's her fated one, but she's not so sure anymore.
His eyes draw her in instantenously, something that has never happened to her before. His eyes are a very beautiful shade of green she has never seen, a shade she takes a liking to it instantly. It was like pouring different shades a blue and green together to get the variant. In a daze, she stutters the first thing popped into her head.
"You drool when you sleep." She was beyond mortified to look at him after that, so she ran away with an excuse.
She introduces him to the mythological world and studies his every move trying to see which god was more likely to claim him. He's too skinny and weak for an Ares kid, no sense of how to use a bow and arrow and if the campfire sing-alongs had something to say, he definitely didn't have the pipes for an Apollo kid. Athena, Artemis, and Hera were discarded almost instantly the moment he arrived at Camp. He didn't excel at picking strawberries and he almost killed half of the Hephaestus cabin trying to use a hammer so Demeter and Hephestus were out.
He didn't have powers and commanding aura like Thalia, so not Zeus'. She'd hoped it'd be Zeus. He isn't fast enough and definitely can't pickpockets like Hermes' kids. Not to mention the sneaky looks, he didn't have any. He doesn't look that charming with his scrawny self to be Aprodite's either.
Percy has captivating and mesmerizing eyes, Annabeth decided. He would smile at what the rest of his cabin had said but it wouldn't reach his eyes. Annabeth hates the fact she could see those eyes when she closed her eyes at night.
He's claimed not long after. A son of the big three, no less—a Poseidon kid.
He's her rival. How come she didn't see it before? So she studied him more often, she acted colder towards him, trying to find his weakness and strengths, but he's a puzzle and he never reacted like she was expecting and it was driving her crazy. The fact that none of her siblings understood the animosity she felt towards him isn't helping her mood.
He's proved to be the fated One. He was issued a dangerous quest, one filled with peril and two of the Big three would be after his life. She acts on impulse to join the quest before anyone else. They bicker all the time, and she can easily guess the reason behind it—their parents. She wanted to move past it and try to be civil, for the sake of their quest, but the annoying 'Seaweed Brain' manages to tick her off always.
He's rash, hot-headed, impulsive, obnoxious, clueless and dumb that it's becoming little hard to believe that he's the hero that would save the world from the catastrophe. But she can see the hero he is, deep inside.
Percy has stepped up to the challenge to clear a framed crime he didn't commit. He's risen to the occasion to go to hell and retrieve the master bolt. He seemed to always focus on the task ahead rather than how terrified he was. Even when he was scared, he did what's necessary.
She's saved him, many times. And he's there to back her up and returning the favors too. Slowly but surely, they're forming a team. A well coordinated and balanced team. She realized his past was not a walk in the park too. They talk about their pasts, their problems and pains.
Percy doesn't judge her for her fear of spiders. He didn't laugh like Thalia and Luke had. He didn't have a look of scorn on his face like her family. She realizes he's earned her trust and opens upto him about her past. He has the same values as her regarding family and hence listens to his advice to mend her other interpersonal relations.
She's decided that she likes him. She's decided that they're friends now. True to her words, they worked like a well oiled machine in battle. She finds herself communicating with him through simple glances, she finds he understood her perfectly with small changes in his expressions.
She reaches out to his hand when they're crossing the Styx with dead around them, and he takes it without a second thought, completely understanding her situation, which she is grateful for. She grasped his fingers hard for her to feel the heat radiating from him. It's comforting and reassuring for her. She appreciated this feeling for the first time—his warmth, trust and presence beside her, always having her back. It's what she longed all her life
She finally puts down their parents feud aside to declare their positions when she ties her necklace around his neck. That she would always stick with him, that she doesn't want another friend to sacrifice themselves to save her. That she accepted their intertwined destinies whole heartedly.
Before going on a quest, a selfish part of her wanted to be his saviour, like what Luke and Thalia were to her. She'd wanted to be the hero for him. She doesn't get to be a saviour for him, instead she get to grow with him, along with him. He was not one to need her saving, they saved each other. He's the one to grow along with her, fight along with her, laugh and suffer along with her. He's the one to share burden with her. They'd have each others back.
Weeks later, when she had her arm around his neck laughing and wearing matching laurel crowns while the rest of the camp was celebrating the success of their quest, Annabeth would look at him in a different light. He was smarter than she gave him credit for and yeah, he drove her crazy but he also made her laugh. He was still shorter than her, something that Annabeth wasn't used to. Before his arrival, she had been the youngest camper, and it was fun to finally have the higher ground. But now when Annabeth looked at him, she didn't glare or curse at him, instead, she smiled and laughed along with the first best friend she'd ever had.
Everything went downhill from there. Luke tried to kill Percy. She couldn't get over the fact that Luke betrayed her. He betrayed everything Thalia had given her life to protect for. She couldn't help but curse him for the bitterness to let it take over him. She made it her goal to bring Luke back. To hunt him down and bring him back to camp.
She follows her mortal family for the year, after taking Percy's advice to mend her relationship with her father. His compliment made it worth her effort.
They part on a good note to meet again next year for an adventure together. She grins to herself for the their upcoming time together. She didn't realize that she anticipated it just as much he did.
Percy was twelve when he met his witty chatter box.
The first thing that registers in his head is her princess curls, blond and bouncy and pretty, and he really wants to tug them. He just lost his mother and couldn't find the world beautiful, but here she was, stuffing tasty pudding in his mouth that tastes like his mom's cooking.
She introduces him to the world of gods and monsters and tries to teach him Greek, rolling her eyes when he pronounces something wrong, smirking when he glares at her. Annabeth acts all perfect, straight-backed and alert, so unlike him, tripping over his own feet and stumbling in his speech. It doesn't help that one of the first things he does to her is drench her in toilet water, but she is more shocked than angry, which is good, because his instincts are warning him again and again to not get this girl pissed off.
Annabeth is bigger than him and stronger than him and scarier than him, too. She has long fingers which are always close to her dagger. She has dark grey eyes that analyze him and zero in on his weak spots. She's sharp with him, always pushing him, expecting more, glaring when she doesn't get it. She doesn't seem to like him much, either; a stark contrast to the girl he'd seen a few days ago, wide-eyed and wondrous, calling him 'the One'.
When Percy is claimed she makes sure that she doesn't have to be around him any more than she has to, even averting her eyes when she sees him in public. Which is kind of sad. After his mom, she'd been the only person he could talk to. Somehow, he'd felt that he could confide in her, as they'd gone through, more or less, the same kind of hardships.
Acting on impulses unfathomable to him, Annabeth decides to accompany him on his quest, which is apparently doomed to fail anyway. He's thrilled to have any help, especially from her but she isn't thrilled to go with him. When asked for a reason, she spouts some lame ass reasons of their parents being rivals and it applies to them too. For a child of Athena, she can be dumb too, sometimes.
Percy's almost always confused talking to her. He's not the smart one, and he doesn't want to pretend to be something he isn't. Of course, Annabeth, supreme defender of Athena, doesn't fail to pick this up, even calling him 'Seaweed Brain' to rub it in.
Annabeth has a lousy sense of humor. Her snarky comments and wit somehow manages to get under his skin. A lot of the time he finds himself biting his tongue to stop it babbling too much. She has that effect on him; she makes him angry that he's so useless, she makes him want to prove himself with an unquenchable thirst that is, quite frankly, beyond him.
Once in a while, she allows her smirk to be replaced by a real smile and he secretly thinks she looks much more human when she does that, and he can see her small dimples and her face brighten and her eyes literally sparkle and it's kind of infectious, really.
He learns more about her as each day ticks by. She hates admitting he's right (he can't help smiling at her reluctance), and she wants to be an architect (he laughs). An image of the ADHD Annabeth pops into his head, sitting at a table and making measurements, and it somehow amuses him.
He immediately curses himself for grinning because her eyes flash and she snaps at him. In that one sentence she manages to glorify Athena and her children and disrespect both him and his father, and something in his chest hurts.
She apologizes quickly and he nearly begs her for a reconcilation. He can't take this constant arguing, and although she'll never admit it, he suspects she's a little tired of it, too. He asks for any possible cooperation scenario's and they immediately agree on one.
And so they become a chariot. In essence. She's the brains and half of the brawn, he's the drive and the unpredictable factor. They're lured into a trap, but the important thing is they're working together, slowly but surely warming upto each other. They're so completely different but it works, they complement and balance each other.
She has a deathly fear of spiders. She's been through a whole lot more than he has, she's seen death and has been exposed to the evil of the world at such a young age. They both feel like they're similar in many ways too. They've suffered much that deep down, they're sympathetic to each other. She tells him about her own life and only a complete nutcase can miss the pain in her voice. He tries to give her the best advice he can and she hands him half an Oreo.
And it all becomes different. Somehow, he finds himself communicating things to her with a single glance, he knows she understands and she merely has to blink a certain way and he gets what she's trying to convey.
Still, when they're crossing the Styx on Charon's boat with the dead, her hand reaches out for his without the slightest warning, and he takes it without a second thought. He can feel warmth radiating from her like she's some kind of sun and in the silence, he thinks he can hear her heartbeat, and he grasps her fingers hard because she's alive—like him, and he can feel the blood pulsating through the vessels. And it's comforting and reassuring, and somehow he feels like this is when he really appreciates her for the first time, her warmth and her closeness and the very fact that she's there with him on this quest, always there, always ready to help. And it's like his nerves are slowly coming back to life, warming him from the tips of his fingers to the soles of his sneakers.
He probably owes his life to Annabeth, she's got them out of so many near-death situations. The thing is, he finds himself saving her too, not to be completely useless. They're a team now, fighting monsters (and each other), and he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can trust her. And by the way she lets him take charge is a proof that she trusts him too, which is altogether new to him.
He completely understands what demigod friendship means when she ties her camp necklace—her most prized possession, around his neck with trembling fingers and worried expression, that she'd stick around him. That they got each other's back all the way.
When everything's complete with the quest he feels happy, he feels content, he feels awesome now that he's not in danger of dying any time soon. He's never felt more wonderful having Annabeth at his back. He feels complete, whole, that she's there to share the burden with him and he doubts she'll ever leave.
Annabeth leaves for the school year, while he's contemplating leaving her alone at camp. He would've stayed at camp had Annabeth did, probably. She tells this to him when he's half dead and Luke betrayed them all. He can see the hurt and grief in her eyes, but has the fire back in it again.
She tells him how she'd tried to patch things up with her dad, sent him a letter. He is astounded. She's taken his advice after all, and he feels all warm at the thought. She beams at his complement and that kinda made up for her absence for a year.
They part ways on good terms and a promise of adventuring together next year.
"Take care, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth says. "Keep your eyes open."
"You too, Wise Girl," he says.
She smiles slightly at her nickname and turns, walking with slow steps away from him, and he watches her go over the hill and out of sight and feels, for the first time in a long time, lonely. But then he makes his decision, decides to go back home where he belongs.
xXx
A/N: That takes care of the Lightning Theif. A budding friendship and companionship developed into a relation like never seen. Good? Bad? Tell me about it.
This is their first adventure and one together too. With Luke & Thalia, it's always they're fighting while she's either hiding or doing something insignificant. The mutual trust and reliance, acceptance, the in-sync battle rythm, agreements/disagreements would only be formed from a friendship forged in fire.
