A/N: Sorry guys! My bad. I have way too many stories going on here. I try to alternate and spend my time equally, but I fail epically….
So, here's what you've been asking for.
Watching From Afar, Chapter 2:
Luke watched the beach line of New York, thinking about what was happening at his—… the camp at that very moment. He thought about the young boy he had nearly killed, and of his continual improvement as a hero.
He thought about the girl who had once been a sister to him, and who he had betrayed yet again, despite her unwavering—and hopeless—faith that he would "do the right thing".
He especially thought about the girl he was saving. The girl who had caused this entire plan to be put into motion.
The girl who had been saved by his love for her.
Though he hated to admit it, it was true. He was in love with Thalia Grace.
The plan had begun as a way to end the pitiful half-bloods quickly and easily. It had been, of course, the idea of Kronos. The master of time himself.
However, Luke had seen a big problem with the plan. Well, two big problems. The first was that poisoning the tree like that would kill the girl he loved. But he couldn't tell Kronos that. It was basically begging for a long, slow, painful death. The second was that he recognized that it was very possible that one Annabeth Chase would think of retrieving the one thing that could cure any poison, injury, or disease—the Golden Fleece.
And Kronos had loved Luke's idea. They both knew what would happen. The Fleece would heal Thalia.
And Luke knew the personalities of the two most powerful demigods on the planet well enough that he could tell that things would only go downhill from there. They would fight over everything; leadership, strategy, sacrifice, probably even down to the color of the freaking plume on the helmet.
They were just too perfect for their destiny for two of them to exist.
But of course, Luke could honestly care less about the clashing that would weaken the gods' to a point of no return.
All he cared about was that, after nearly five years, he would finally get her back. Get Thalia Grace back into his life.
His brooding fantasies of their reunion, which involved tears, romantically switching sides in the war for each other, and passionate, heated kisses, reminded him of another relationship that only he and maybe two other people saw developing—that of Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase.
His spy, being a daughter of Aphrodite, knew all about it. Selena was a special child of love. She wasn't about the lusty side that her mother was so famous for. She was a child of the side that represented pure, unbridled, passionate, deep, caring, beautiful love, that which could never be taken away.
And, according to her, the two of them were practically a freaking sun when it came to that.
Normally, he wouldn't have cared about romance. But, even if Annabeth was pissed at him, he still loved her as his sister. That was a caring that could never be taken away either—familial love.
Not the kind that you necessarily feel for your blood and kindred; he already knew that, sometimes, blood wasn't enough to create caring and kindness.
But the people who care for you, who want to see you succeed, who helped you grow into the person you are now… That bond can never be taken away.
And, as his "sister", he felt responsible for her—especially those who she was falling in love with.
Of course, this "love" was still developing. Love at first sight probably didn't exist, but if it did, it wasn't for these two. Yes, they were attracted to each other, not they'd admit it to anyone, even themselves. And yes, they have already begun the first step to love, being best friends. But it wasn't all the way there yet. It was like a half-finished sculpture. The love existed; you just had to chip away all the excess stone first. And it appeared as if this particular sculpture was going to take a while.
He genuinely enjoyed hearing Selena describe the two of them. It was the one part of his betrayal of his friends that he actually liked. Though he wished he could experience it first hand, this was the best he could get, and he was going to be happy about it.
He enjoyed hearing about their petty arguments. They'd barely known each other for a year and they already bickered worse than any senior citizen couple. The only difference between the two was that the bickering could end in one of them being seriously hurt. Though, if his thoughts about them were correct, he doubted it would ever come to real blows.
He enjoyed their defense of each other. Neither realized why they were doing it; even with secondhand accounts, that much was obvious. They obviously assumed it was because they didn't want to see their best friend get hurt. While that was sort of true, the actual story went so much deeper than that.
He especially enjoyed hearing about their worry for the other's opinion of them about little things like appearance. Just like the defense, they assumed it was their strong friendship. What neither of them realized was that people who were just really close friends didn't care about what their friends thought of them, as long as they continued caring for each other. With these two, the self-consciousness was so thick, Backbiter couldn't have put a mark in it.
But his favorite part was when Selena described a moment went one of them—surprisingly, mostly Annabeth—caught themselves staring at the other. The utter confusion on their faces (according to Selena) was only comparable to the glazed look on the face of a child of Ares when Chiron started talking about construction of a new war machine. It was like they believed that the only way something like that was possible was through trickery and illusion, just one they couldn't see.
Luke was happy that Annabeth had found Percy; gods knew he could use someone to lean on right now.
Someone like Thalia…
A/N: Ok, so not my best work. Sorry, it's been a long week. Three baseball games on three consecutive nights were tiring. However, I knew that you guys were practically begging me for an update, so I complied as quickly as I could.