Thalia was always an early riser, so naturally today was no different. Luke was asleep on the opposite side of the fire pit, which was burning inside of an old tire, filling the air with putrid burning rubber smell. Thalia yawned and stretched out, scraping her hand against the red brick wall of the ally they were sleeping in, then sat in silence, debating on what to do next. She and Luke were sleeping between two old abandoned warehouses, they had needed to be closer to the city so Luke could steal them some food, somewhere in San Fransisco. The electric sign reading RICHMOND IRONWORKS flickered above her, lighting up the ally as sparks flew from it. She yawned, and scrubbed the sleep from her eyes tiredly.
Then, She heard a noise to her left, coming from just outside the ally, behind some wooden crates. She stiffened, sweeping the area quickly with a practiced eye she rubbed her shield bracelet, but decided to wake Luke up before she acted. She crept silently around the fire pit, and nudged Luke with her foot, he groaned and opened one eye to look up at her balefully, a question on his face, before he heard another scuffle from behind the tin sheet, and glancing up at her, he grimaced, and reluctantly got up, grabbing his sword and yanking it from the sheath. Thalia brought out Aegis and her spear. They edged along the wall, and around the crates. The sound was coming from a sheet of tin propped up against the wall, it shook as they got closer.
Glancing quickly at Luke, Thalia counted in her head even as Luke mouthed the numbers... one... two... three!
Tossing the tin sheet away, he only just had time to duck as a blur of pink flannel and blonde hair leaped out from behind it, swinging a hammer towards his head. He grabbed the girl's wrist quickly and she dropped the hammer, Thalia watched as it clattered to the asphalt. The girl had her eyes squeezed shut and was kicking and screaming, "No more monsters! Go away!"
"It's okay! Thalia, put down your shield, you're scaring her!" Luke said calmingly, trying to get the girl to settle down.
"What's your name, kiddo?" Thalia asked, as she tapped her shield back into her bracelet.
"Annabeth." The little girls gray eyes looked up at her fearfully, and Thalia was hit with memories of Jason.
Luke smiled gently. "Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth-you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."
The little blonde girl's eyes widened. "You could?"
Thalia grinned, which was only a tiny bit fake, she didn't know how this little girl got out here, on the streets, and her grin faltered a little as she considered the child. Bright pink flannel brand-name pajamas, meant she came from a wealthy home, which didn't say much. Thalia came from a wealthy home; a wealthy home doesn't mean a happy home. The girl still had baby fat and an innocent look to her, that meant she hadn't been abused like Thalia had been, and she obviously hadn't been on the run very long, there was no wild animal look in her eyes like Luke and Thalia had. The little girl looked fairly intelligent, which meant that she didn't run away because she had to clean her room or something small like that. Thalia's heart ached as she thought about how Jason would have been around the same age as this girl by now, but she squelched the thought, returning to the task at hand.
"Oh yeah," Luke offered her the knife, the knife that Thalia had given him almost two years ago. Thalia's stomach dropped, and suddenly she felt like running from the alley, but again she brushed off the feeling, fixing a sarcastic grin onto her face. Luke held out the knife turning it around so the hilt was facing Annabeth. "How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer."
Annabeth gripped the hilt.
"Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters," Luke explained using a gentle and teasing voice. "They don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armour. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you're pretty clever."
The young blonde girl stared at him adoringly, "I am!"
Thalia forced a grin. "We'd better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food."
"You're…you're not going to take me back to my family? Promise?"
Annabeth looked up at her, she shook her head. "Of course not."
Luke smiled at her playfully, placing his hand on her tiny shoulder. "You're part of our family now. And I promise I won't let anything hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"
"Deal!" Annabeth said with the trusting, innocent happiness that only a child possessed.
That night, Thalia watched as Luke tenderly wrapped the sleeping form of Annabeth in two of their blankets. They only had three, but Annabeth looked cold, and they didn't want her to freeze on her first day with them. Thalia was sitting a ways off from the camp, with her back to the fire, she was close enough to feel the flames and hear Luke whisper goodnight to Annabeth, but far enough so that they knew she wanted to be alone. Not that it stopped Luke from coming and plopping down beside her.
"It's weird, having a kid, isn't it?"
Not really, seeing as I practically had a kid, while I was a kid…Thalia thought as she looked away from him, blinking back tears as she replied, "yeah… weird."
Luke chuckled and drummed on his legs with his hands.
"I like her, she's got spunk," he started, "I like having someone other than the sarcasm queen in our family."
Thalia casually swiped at her eyes, and put on a pretend to pout, "You didn't mind traveling with me when I saved your ass from that Cyclops down in the coffee shop by Brooklyn bridge."
"Okay, my foot was stuck in that damn bag of coffee beans, if you hadn't pushed me into it; maybe you wouldn't have had to rescue me!"
Thalia laughed; leaning back against the brick wall of the warehouse she kicked his foot with her worn combat boot.
Luke grinned, he reached over and ran his hand through her short spiky hair, Thalia had to resist closing her eyes and sighing at his touch. She managed to restrain herself. Luke seemed to have a fascination with her hair, he ran his hands through it often, smoothing it down, ruffling it, or just playing with individual strands, but Thalia wasn't about to tell him off for it.
"Well, she might end up being a pretty good knife fighter, you never know."
Thalia's easy smirk almost dropped off. She looked away from Luke as she tried to replace it, tugging at a piece of her hair.
"You wanna talk about it?" he asked, as he looked at her sideways, as he crossed his legs.
"Talk about what?" Thalia asked, adding a hint of confusion into her voice, while pulling her worn leather jacket around herself more securely. A strange feeling was beginning to buzz inside her, making her uncomfortable with Luke sitting beside her, but at the same time, making it seem like it was the most natural thing in the world. She wondered if she should tell him about Jason, and how she wasn't sure whether she could handle having another child to look after when she had failed the first one so badly.
"You're angry with me."
"No I'm not."
Luke twisted to face her, leaning up against the red brick of the warehouse wall. He studied her a moment, then whistled.
"Yep, you're angry with me."
"Why would you think I was angry with you?"
"'cause you think I forgot that you gave me the knife I gave Annabeth," Luke started, Thalia glared at him, "I didn't forget Thals, I gave her the knife to show that she's our family now, and because I want to be to her what you are to me. Someone you can trust, no matter what."
Thalia looked away, she knew Luke was telling the truth, and that was exactly how she felt about him, among other things, but she didn't want to deal with the emotion that this conversation would bring up. Beside her Luke sighed,
"You can't keep avoiding this, Sparky," Luke bumped her shoulder with his, and she looked at him, bewildered, did he somehow know about Jason? Did he mean Annabeth, or something else entirely? "Sometimes you gotta face your fears."
"I'm not afraid of anything."
Luke looked at her like a parent would look at a lying child, and suddenly she wanted to punch him. Hard. but she didn't because he had snatched up her hand making her heart beat erratically, drumming against her ribs. He smirked easily; he slowly leaned forward and brushed his lips against her cheek, leaving a trail of electricity sparking below her skin. She was frozen; she couldn't move as he traced her jaw with his mouth and brushed his lips against hers, his warm breath invading her mouth and turning her insides to liquid, thawing her mind and body.
She almost gave in, she almost leaned in to kiss him. Almost. Instead, she yanked her hand from his, jumping to her feet she stalked back to the fire. Her thoughts were running around each other in circles, and her whole body was buzzing. She grabbed the last blanket up off the ground, horror playing across her face as it dawned on her that they'd have to share the blanket, or have one of them freeze. Luke had followed her shortly after she had left him sitting at the end of the ally; he stopped a few feet in front of her.
"You can take the blanket," Thalia started, looking everywhere but at his face, "I have a jacket."
"Don't be stupid." Luke muttered, pushing the blanket back into her arms, and walked back to Annabeth. He lay down with his back to Thalia. Angry, she threw the blanket at him, and settled on the opposite side of the fire. It wasn't very mature, but she thought she had earned a few minutes of immaturity.
The next morning Annabeth woke up wrapped snugly inside of all three of the blankets.
dadada! Annabeth is here!
excitement!
oh, and um, little bit of thuke :3
next chapter will be present time, so
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and thnk you to all my faithful readers and reviewers, i love you guyses :)