I don't own PJatO or HoO or any of the characters from them.

"There's this new girl," began Leo as Percy set down his tray. "She's hot. Not sure if she's my type, though. Really serious. Tough girl. Ha, maybe she is kind of my type, a little bit. I mean, she is hot."

Percy rolled his eyes. Sometimes he wondered why he had become friends with Leo. It was just… something. They'd looked at each other and known. They had met before. It was a little startling.

It had only happened one other time before, he remembered. There had been a girl in a coffee shop, with a group of her friends. She had spiky black hair and a goth look, which was somewhat ruined by her delicate silver tiara. And… did she and her friends all have bows and arrows? At any rate, he was positive they'd never met before.

But then, she turned.

And their eyes met.

Her electric blue eyes had widened dramatically, and she backed up like she'd been stung. Her mouth moved, forming his name. "Percy."

"Thalia. Thals," he said, the names sliding over his tongue. Her name was Thalia. He called her Thals, or... he had some nickname for her. Something about pinecones. Anyways, someone else called her Thals, too, he recalled. He didn't know exactly who, but he knew somehow that some girl also called her Thals. A pretty girl. Really smart.

Thalia seemed to be in shock. "You… you remember who I am?" she had asked. The girls around her began to murmur to themselves. Confused, Percy shook his head.

"Should I know you?" But somewhere, in the back of his mind, he knew he was supposed to know her.

She had shaken her head furiously. "No, no. Of course not. We were… we were friends in kindergarten," she explained, tugging at her shirt.

"Really?" He had a pretty good memory of kindergarten. Better than most. And she wasn't in it.

Thalia nodded. "Yeah. I… moved. Shortly after I joined. I… um. I gotta go. See you later, Kelp Head." And then her eyes had widened again, and tears were swimming in them. She dashed outside, wiping tears from her face with her lips set in a tight line, and the girls all glared at him before leaving to comfort her (although she pushed them off). He was left confused and dazed. Kelp Head, huh?

"Percy!"

Percy jerked back and looked at Leo. "Yeah, sorry, man," he sighed.

Leo made a face. But he continued, "I don't think you'd be interested in her. The new girl, I mean. Like, you're more into chicks like Lizzy, right?"

Lizzy. Red hair, green eyes. Loved art. She reminded him of someone, so he stuck to her, and they became fast friends, but… "I don't like her, Leo. Honest."

"You're right. It doesn't seem… right, y'know?" asked Leo, hesitantly. He was almost never nervous. Only when they talked about the weird recognizing thing. Leo had recognized someone, too, before. He had crashed into a big Asian guy named Frank and they knew. They kept in touch, but they weren't on really good terms.

Percy sighed. He had to stop thinking about those things. "Yeah. I know. I keep waiting for this one girl… I don't know who she is, or what she looks like. But I know her. She's smart and beautiful and loves books and architecture and…" He stopped, shaking his head. "It's nothing."

Leo sighed, twirling the wrench he carried with him at all times. "I feel like I'm waiting on someone, too. Not afraid to help me out with mechanics. She's got braided hair. Has a massive garden. Makes soup. Does that sound weird?"

Percy laughed. "A little, yeah. But what isn't weird about this?"

There was a moment of silence, before Leo broke it. "I think you'd look good with the new girl," he offered. "There's something. No joke. I recognized her. Like… that kind of recognizing. And she made me think of you, somehow. Not because she acts like you, I mean no, man, she's like your polar opposite. No offense, dude, but the chick's seriously smart."

He paused and laughed awkwardly. Percy frowned, mulling it over. Smart. That was definitely her. But there were plenty of smart girls out there. He stabbed at his radioactive-looking lunch meal. "I don't know," he mumbled.

Leo nodded, not pushing it. "Hey, do you wanna help me catapult food into Lisa's hair using the fork?" he asked. "I mean we got some of these supposedly-green-beans today, and they make excellent ammo."

"Nah, man. Left my Math book in my locker. I gotta go get it. Do you mind eating here alone?" He stood, surveying their nearly-empty table.

Leo shook his head. "You go ahead."

Percy dumped his food in the trash can and walked towards his locker. Honestly, he really didn't know why he was friends with Leo. Something had just drawn him in, saying, "You two are friends, remember? Remember?" It wasn't that Leo was a bad guy, really. He was awesome. It was just that, normally, he probably wouldn't-

"Ah!" There was mild confusion as he crashed into someone, so that there was a mass of flailing limbs and stuttered apologies. There were a few thumping noises, and as Percy backed up, he noticed textbooks littering the ground. "I'm sorry, here…" he said, bending down to pick them up.

He reached out to hand the books back to the girl and… bam.

It was that cliché, eyes-meeting moment over the cliché fallen textbooks. Her eyes were the gray of storm clouds, analytical and shining with intelligence. Beautiful, but intimidating. He knew those eyes.

Her hair was falling out of her ponytail, obviously, but her face was whole and perfect, missing smudges of dirt and the little scar on her forehead. Why he remembered her with a scar, he had no idea. But the rest of her was just as it should be and he had the sudden urge to sweep her off her feet in a giant hug.

"Uh… Hi. I'm… I'm, um, Percy," he stammered, apparently unable to speak.

The girl scooped up her textbooks from his hands quickly. Her hand brushed his arm and that cliché electric spark passed between them. She looked him over, not as though she was impressed, but more like she was evaluating him.

"Do you like swimming?"

The question caught him off-guard. It was so unusual, yet so… so accurate, in a way. "Yeah, actually," he answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "I love it. It's, like, my life. Does that make sense?"

The girl laughed. He loved her laugh. It felt like home. "Sure, Seaweed Brain," she smiled, before jerking back and clasping her hands over her mouth.

Seaweed Brain. It was so familiar. He heard it over and over again, replayed in his head. Affectionately, angrily, fondly, lovingly. The voice was hers, again and again, a million renditions of Seaweed Brain.

The alternate universe him seemed to have a lot of not-so-flattering nicknames. Kelp Head, Seaweed Brain. But Seaweed Brain was almost a compliment; it was always a compliment when it was Annabeth. Nobody could call him that except Annabeth, because she… wait. Annabeth?

"Annabeth?" he asked hesitantly. Her eyes widened, before narrowing in suspicion as she nodded.

"How did you know my name?" She paused for a second before shaking her head. Her loose curls bounced around her face. "I'm an idiot. Did they announce my name or something?"

Percy shook his head. "I'm… I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

She scrutinized him again, looking calm and composed. But she was biting her lip – that meant she was nervous and confused and didn't know what was happening. She hated not knowing. How did he know that again?

"I don't think so," she said finally. She brushed past him to walk away. But then she stopped.

"You like blue food," she said suddenly. "And the ocean. And chocolate-chip cookies. Blue chocolate-chip cookies. You're dyslexic and you have ADHD. You get in trouble in school a lot. Bad grades. Weird coincidences. Do you have the dreams, too?"

Percy gaped at her as she whirled around, glaring. "Answer me. Do you have the dreams or don't you?" she demanded.

"Yeah," said Percy, slowly. "Like… dreams of death and monsters and battles? And bronze swords and daggers? And… and gods? Please tell me that's what you're talking about. That I'm not crazy." He paused before adding a small, whispered, "Please, Wise Girl."

Annabeth's eyes were watery. But not a tear dropped. "You're not crazy," she said, shortly. "Leo's here, at this school. I saw him in the hallway. Have you… have you seen anybody else?"

"Thalia." His reply was immediate. He knew that was what she was talking about, even if he had shoved the memory into the recesses of his mind.

Annabeth looked to be in serious danger of crying at that point. She nodded. "I saw… I saw Jason. And Nico. Nico had seen Luke."

Percy's tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. He had no idea what they were talking about. Except he did. "Luke… and Nico? How was Jason? Was he with… her?" He couldn't remember her name, just choppy hair and kaleidoscope eyes and a commanding voice.

Annabeth's expression crumbled. She looked away. "No."

"What?" said a voice. Leo was standing there, a smile frozen on his face. As they watched, it slowly melted into a horrified expression. "Superman?" he asked, almost whispering. "But that's not right. Jason needs Pipes. Piper. Beauty Queen. They're supposed to be together."

"Well, you're not with her, are you?" demanded Annabeth, almost angrily. "The universe isn't fair, Leo."

"But you and Percy," protested Leo, scowling in a way that he never did, looking back and forth between the two of them. "You always find each other."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Annabeth said, harshly.

Leo's face was nothing but bitter, his normal smile gone. "You and swimmer boy here, you two always are together. Always. No matter how it pans out. It's not always Jason and Piper, or Leo and… Leo and Calypso, or anybody else. But it's always Percy and Annabeth."

The dam of held-back feelings was smashed open. Memories were crashing on them, like the ocean on the shore. With each wave came a new round of memories. Percy was starting to get a headache.

"Leo, stop. Jason could still find Piper, and you could find Calypso, and Frank and Hazel, and Silena and Beckendorf…" His voice broke, and he looked away.

Annabeth's eyes watered. "Silena and Beckendorf, and Juniper and Grover, and Clarisse and Chris…"

Leo seemed at loss. "I don't… I don't know," he said, anguished.

"The Fates are cruel," said Annabeth, wiping furiously at her eyes. "But they're the ones, not like silly flings. It happens again. Always."

"Always," repeated Percy, offering a small smile to Annabeth. She returned it.

Leo echoed, his voice numb, but hopeful. "Always, huh?"

The conversation made little to no sense, but it was exactly what they needed. Leo's lips trembled, and he looked away as Percy tried to make sense of his fragmented memories. He grabbed Annabeth's hand. It fit perfectly in his.

They were alright. It was true that the Fates were cruel, even with all they'd done for the gods, but at least they had their own little always.