Camp Jupiter: War Games

The Book of Love

Nyssa

Defense, Cohort I

Soulmate AU where Character X and Character Y are soulmates...but one is in love with Character Z.

Words: 1,143

Hey! So...here's another prompt. Again, for the forum. If you want to join, don't hesitate! Anyway, so, the prompt is above...I guess you'll see who Characters X, Y, and Z are soon enough.

The Book of Love

Annabeth wished she could do away with the system entirely. Not because she hated the idea of soulmates, or that she was opposed to it or didn't believe in them. The problem was that she believed in soulmates.

If she hadn't believed in soulmates, it would make it that much easier to pretend she felt nothing over the idea of meeting him.

Percy Jackson.

When she met him, she was just trying to make a little extra money to take her girlfriend out on a date for Valentine's Day. It was mid-January, with a month to go before that date, but Valentine's was their anniversary, and Annabeth wanted to make it that much more special.

"Next?" She snapped. She had only two more minutes until her shift ended, and then she could go home to Piper and drink hot chocolate and watch a movie.

"Jeez, who spat in your coffee?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes. Who'd spat in her coffee? No one.

Annabeth looked back down- the words, scrawled in messy black print on the inside of her wrist, were an everlasting reminder. Jeez, who spat in your coffee? They read. She hated those marks. Her friends Jason and Reyna, soulmates, had it so easy. They could sit next to each other and the words peeking out from their wrists were in each other's handwriting. The words branded into Annabeth's did not belong to Piper, and the words on Piper's wrist weren't the ones Annabeth had spoken to her the first time they'd met.

Annabeth had rung up the guy, waited until the new cashier had taken her place, and then left.

He had found her the next day, with an annoying pleading look and a whole speech about how they were soulmates. "I have a girlfriend," Annabeth had told him. He hadn't asked her to leave Piper. Both of them knew how ridiculous it would have been. She had been friends with Piper before they'd started dating, now a little over a year ago, and she wasn't going to ruin it, for her soulmate or not.

Instead, he and Annabeth had parted ways. He'd given her his number, but she hadn't given him hers. It was a contact, now, but not one she'd contacted. She hadn't even told Piper about him yet, how could she talk to him? It would be like cheating on her girlfriend, and Annabeth was pretty fond of the serious relationship they were in. Annabeth was afraid that if she said even one word to Percy Jackson, she'd never be able to go back. She wanted to think they could just be friends, but she knew it wasn't that simple. They were 'bonded'. It was fate for them to fall in love and spend the rest of their lives together, if they could. Annabeth knew she wasn't as strong as God, or the Norns, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

If she spoke to Percy Jackson, she might fall in love with him, and Annabeth Chase was not a cheater.

"Hey, Piper," she tried to smile. Her phone, with Percy's contact in it, felt heavy in her hand as she spoke. "Can we talk?" Piper's soulmate, a girl she'd met from Oklahoma, had never been a subject of jealousy between them. They talked. Annabeth liked Piper's soulmate. It wasn't shocking. She could see how she would be good for Piper.

"Yeah, sure. Coffee, around six?" Piper said distractedly. "Sorry, but it's really busy right now, and I have a client coming in- well, minus two minutes ago."

"I'm sorry to bother you. I'll see you then."

"Wow, you're right on time," Annabeth said in surprise. Piper fiddled with sleeve of her cardigan.

"Yeah, well. You- didn't sound very happy over the phone, and I was worried." Piper's eyes, downcast, searched hers. "Is everything alright?"

"I- think so." Annabeth said slowly. "I- Piper, I met my soulmate."

Silence.

"Oh." Piper said slowly. "Is...is she nice?" Annabeth cringed.

"Well, actually...she's a he."

Piper paused for a moment. "Oh?"

"It was a surprise to me, too." Annabeth rolled her eyes, the corners of her mouth tugging up before dropping as Piper raised her head from where it had been staring at the plastic lid of her coffee.

"Are you breaking up with me?" Annabeth choked.

"What? No." She paused. "Do you want me to break up with you?"

"No," Piper said. "But...people, you know. They do that, when they meet their soulmates. Before Travis, Katie dated a guy for six years before he dropped her like yesterday's trash." Annabeth winced. Piper's coworker, Katie, was a good friend of Piper's, and while Annabeth had only met Katie a few times, she could sympathize.

"Well, I'm not," she said firmly. "You're my girlfriend. Not an old phone." Piper rolled her eyes.

"I can't believe you just compared me to an old phone."

"Thank you, Percy." Annabeth smiled. Percy smiled back at her softly, a tear budding in his eye as he stepped aside and Annabeth took her place up front. Next to Piper. In the place of her long dead father, Percy was walking her down the aisle.

Percy, her soulmate, was giving her away at her wedding.

Who had ever said soulmates couldn't just be friends?

"Piper," she started haltingly. "For a long time...I was conflicted. I didn't know if I was supposed to go after what society had decided I should have...or what my heart had. You were my best friend first, and my girlfriend second- and even after I met the man supposed to be my soulmate...I didn't want to let go of you." She breathed shakily. She could see Percy's messy hair in the corner of her eye, his smile silent encouragement. "For as long as I've known you, it's been one social standard defied after another." She could hear Piper chuckle. "But today isn't one of them. Today, I'm marrying my soulmate, and I'm marrying you."

She could barely hear Piper's own vows as she stared at her, Percy long forgotten in the background.

This was her real soulmate.