Author's Note: This fic was written for the PJO Big Bang on Tumblr, and therefore has art attatched to it, please see the official pjobigbang tumblr for more information. I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus.
For the Love of a Triangle
A small story set in the winter between The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian
Part I: The Rise
"Be careful of love. It'll twist your brain around and leave you thinking up is down and right is wrong."
-Aphrodite, The Titan's Curse
"The worst part about falling for your best friend is the fact that you can't tell them, not wanting to ruin the friendship. So you're basically forced to keep your biggest secret from the one person you can tell any secret to, and that breaks you."
-Unknown
Annabeth III
Annabeth stumbled into the hallway where Percy's apartment was early the next morning, and found, of all people, Rachel Elizabeth Dare sitting in front of the door.
She looked up from her phone. "Oh. It's you."
"Yeah."
"I was expecting—"
"I know."
"They're not home."
"Okay."
"Yeah."
"So… how have you been?" Annabeth asked stiffly, starting to sit down on the other side of the door from where Rachel was. She did not really care, but really, she had dealt with enough incredibly awkward conversations that day to manage this one.
"Oh, you know, the usual, just realizing a goddess has been messing with my family life for the sole purpose of ruining my morning." Rachel sighed, her eyes darting anywhere but towards the other girl's face.
"You're not that important," Annabeth snorted. She took off her black coat to reveal her bright orange Camp Half Blood t-shirt, mentally cursing whoever was running the heating system in this building for making it always too hot in the night, and too cold in the day.
"You're right, I'm sure that it had a little something more to do with the person I was hanging out with." She didn't have to say who it was, they both already knew, and both of their eyes were directed at the floor to avoid glaring daggers into each other. "How about you?"
"Fixing a misunderstanding between campers."
"Oh."
"So why are you here?"
"Left something inside, and I need to make sure that the lady who I think talked to him really did talk to him right before I left to deal with my family. And I could ask the same of you."
"Returning a spoon."
"Really?" The redhead smirked
"It was weighing on my conscious," the blonde snapped back. Her eyes shot daggers at the redhead. She wasn't totally sure if this conversation could possibly get any more awkard.
"It's a spoon."
"What'd you leave inside?"
"My sketchbook."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
Luckily, they were saved from even more of an awkward conversation by Percy himself coming around the corner with… Drew?
Annabeth first stared at the two of them, who hadn't seemed to notice either her or Rachel yet, and then her eyes darted to the redhead sitting semi-next to her. Rachel's eyes were the biggest she'd ever seen them get. Annabeth sighed. Sure, Drew was gorgeous, but she got enough staring from the boys. Rachel didn't need to boost her ego, too.
Percy noticed. He and Drew both stopped dead in their tracks. They were both in formal attire. Annabeth wondered why in Athena's good name they would be in formalwear… unless… Drew had better not taken him to one of her stupid wealthy-people parties, or else the daughter of Aphrodite was going to get her pretty little dark eyes gouged out with Annabeth's knife. Annabeth decided to act nonchalant.
She raised her hand. "Spoon."
Rachel, who's eyes were still wide at Drew's presence, pointed to the door, following Annabeth's suit. "Sketchbook."
Drew smirked, looking at the two of them with a slight expression of pity. "Well, that's my cue to leave." She started walking away, and then turned her head back to face the three of them, her black curls flying through the air as she did so in the way only rich, beautiful girls could manage. "Oh, and ladies? Don't worry your pretty little heads. My mom just had a teeny tiny quest for us that just happened to involve us going to one of the biggest socialite parties this winter." She then turned to Percy, "You can keep the suit." Drew started walking away again, practically sashaying down the hallway, when Rachel's voice called her back.
"You… you're Drew Tanaka aren't you? Of the Tanaka Corporation?"
Drew turned back yet again, smirking with distaste. "And you're Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the disappointment of the Dare family. It's quite a pity really; in another world we could've been friends." And with that stinging comment, she turned away again, and turned the corner that would lead her back to the elevators.
"Daughters of Aphrodite," Annabeth grumbled. "They never seem to get less dramatic." She then turned to glare at Percy. "For the record, you're still an insufferable idiot who doesn't understand anything about anything." She shoved the spoon into Percy's hand, and as she did so, her fingers touched his palm and she could feel sparks shoot up her arm. Still, it did nothing to quell the angry expression on her face. She put her black coat back on, tossing her blonde hair to get it unstuck from the uncomfortable position between her hood and her neck. "I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of the day," she announced scathingly, stomping her brown, slush-covered boots down the hallway in absolute and complete annoyance.
Of course, she paused right after she turned the corner, wanting desperately for some inexplicable reason to hear what they would say when she was gone. What she was rewarded with, was Rachel's voice, still soft from Drew's stinging comment. "Was… who was Drew's godly parent?"
"Aphrodite," Percy responded, although his voice seemed slightly far away."
"Are all demigod girls like that? So dramatic and hot-headed?"
"Not all of them." Annabeth could hear the key turn to Percy's apartment. "You said your sketchbook was inside?"
"Um, yeah."
Annabeth peeked around the corner just long enough to watch them go into the apartment together, smiling, and a knot tightened in her stomach. She swallowed it down and decided to continue to the elevator, where she sat in brooding silence for the rest of the way down, and the taxi-ride to Camp Half Blood too.
The taxi driver dropped her off about a mile away from Camp Half Blood, which was to be expected, so Annabeth had the whole mile walk to let her feelings fester. Of course, as soon as she got into camp, the morning sun still up, she was greeted by a very, very, very lost pizza delivery guy.