A/N: This is my first foray into the Percy Jackson series, written for the Temple of the Sage "Literature Fanfiction Drabble Tag".
The Prompt for this drabble was Envy.
Annabeth Chase sighed in frustration as she watched the two of them interact. There was an easiness that shouldn't be there. A familiarity that shouldn't exist and yet...
She closed her eyes and counted to ten.
She was being ridiculous and she knew it.
After all, so what if Rachel Elizabeth Dare could see through The Mist, she was still just a regular mortal girl, whereas She was a demigoddess, a daughter of Athena. She had been there when he had slain the minotaur and Medusa, She had been there when he was trapped in Hephaestus' trap for Ares and Aphrodite, had gone into Tartarus with him to save his mother and was there when he challenged and defeated the God of War. It was She who had sailed with him into the Sea of Monsters to find a lost friend and retrieve the Golden Fleece and only They had shared the torturous ordeal of Atlas' burden- even their ancient Greek half brothers and sisters couldn't say that.
He knew her worst fears, helped her through one of them and was even aware of her fatal flaw.
What had Rachel accomplished? All she'd contributed thus far was throwing a blue plastic hair brush at the Lord of Time. Granted it was a beautiful throw and had hit Kronos right in the eye, but it still wasn't much, even if it had allowed them to escape.
An uneasy feeling crept into Annabeth's stomach as she remembered Rachel's current and still ongoing contribution to her quest. Despite everything she knew about the Labyrinth, despite everything she'd studied about her half brother Daedalus' works, despite how well versed she was in Ancient Greek Mythology- she couldn't get them through the Labyrinth. It had been as unnavigable as it had been in the old tales and her hubris had nearly cost them their lives.
She could still feel the sharp pain in her chest as she left him to deal with the telkhines in Mount St. Helens alone, knowing that he was likely to do something extremely stupid. She couldn't bring herself to tell him of her growing feelings just then- not verbally anyway- as she'd tried to put everything she felt for him into a single kiss- not that it seemed to do much good, if current events were an indication. Still, her heart had shattered into a million pieces when the mountain exploded and she'd known Percy hadn't escaped.
Even though he'd never said- she had an inkling an idea of where he'd been when they all thought he'd been dead. And even though he'd come back for them- for her she couldn't help the feelings of jealousy that threatened to bubble up onto the surface. While she'd managed to stamp it down then, it was returning ten fold.
It wasn't until she noticed the slight blush on his face and the subtle looks of interest between them that she realized what she was feeling went beyond mere jealousy. While she was that, it was a different emotion that reigned dominant over the others and left her with an empty longing that could only be filled by one thing.
As Annabeth fumed silently as she walked behind the two within the darkness of the Labyrinth, she couldn't help but wonder if she should give an offering to Phthonus as well as her mother.
Good, Bad, Ugly...?