Prompt: Would love to see the beginning of the Rachel/Annabeth friendship in TLO. Annabeth helping her decorate the cave.


Rachel POV:

"Want a hand?"

Rachel jumped when a voice spoke at the mouth of the cave. Her surprise didn't change when she realized it was Annabeth standing there. The other girl's expression was a little sheepish, her shoulders slightly hunched.

Rachel wasn't sure she'd heard Annabeth right. Her own voice came out sounding a bit disbelieving when she said, "You want to help me?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I know you're getting set up in here and thought maybe you could use some help."

Rachel raised her eyebrows. "From you?"

Annabeth winced. "Never mind. It's fine. I'll go."

"No," Rachel said as Annabeth turned to the door. "You don't have to." When Annabeth looked back at her, Rachel added, "You can stay."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's fine." Rachel waved a hand at the hastily assembled furniture sitting around the cave that Apollo had designated as "supremely worthy of my Oracle." She had plans to paint the cave walls, but at the moment everything was dark, dingy, and a bit of a mess. "I could actually use some help getting this all together."

To Rachel's surprise, the two of them worked together well. They had different design aesthetics—Rachel's had more of the chaos of Jackson Pollock, while Annabeth's favored the clean lines and natural elements of Frank Lloyd Wright. But between the two of them, they managed to create a nice vibe in the design of the cave.

After about half an hour, as Rachel was adjusting an armchair, trying to find a good angle with the coffee table, Annabeth blurted out, "I'm sorry."

Rachel raised her head. "What?"

"I'm sorry." Annabeth's ears were flaming red. "I was a complete jerk to you."

Rachel studied her for a moment, then said, "Yeah, you kind of were."

Annabeth looked down, lips pursed, but she didn't say anything.

Then Rachel added, "But I get it."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Rachel shrugged. "I swooped in out of nowhere and tried to steal your guy. Or, at least, that's probably what it looked like, right?"

Annabeth crossed her arms, studying Rachel for a moment. Then she said, "I guess. I mean, that's probably what it looked like to you. About how I was looking at the situation. But…" she morosely kicked a loose stone. It skittered across the cave floor. "It wasn't just because I had a crush on Percy." When Rachel gave her a skeptical look, Annabeth shook her head. "It wasn't. I mean, that was definitely a part of it. But it's also…" she paused, then gave a frustrated huff, as if she were searching for words. "Percy is my person. He's been my best friend for years now and he's the person I trust most in the entire world. When I thought that he was going to run off to the mortal world and leave all this mythological mess—which it totally was at the time—behind, I just…panicked." Annabeth's shoulders slumped and she sighed. "And none of that was your fault. So, I'm sorry."

Rachel didn't say anything for several moments as she processed Annabeth's words. Honestly, the apology, not to mention the rest of the explanation, had taken her completely by surprise. She had spent just enough time with Annabeth Chase to guess exactly how hard it had been for her to admit all of that. And that was something Rachel could respect. So, she simply said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome?"

Rachel laughed. "I appreciate the apology. And I appreciate you sharing the other stuff with me, too. Now," she put her hands on her hips, "can we please just move forward and you can help me figure out where in the heck to put this life-size statue of Apollo so that I don't have to look at it all of the time?"

Annabeth gave a relieved laugh, even as she nodded and turned to study the statue. "I'm assuming this was his idea?"

"Of course. And I couldn't exactly say no. I'm definitely going to make a loin cloth or something for it, though."

"Yeah, you don't need to stare at a naked sun god all day every day." Annabeth critically scrutinized the cave, then pointed. "What about that niche there? Near the back. It'll look like you've made him this special shrine or something, but you can also hang a curtain over it to hide it when he's not here."

"And there's the design skills I was hoping for." Rachel smiled and Annabeth returned it. "Now, how are we supposed to move this damn thing? It weighs possibly a literal ton."

Annabeth frowned, but just as if she were thinking, not as if she were annoyed. Then, a mischievous glint came into her eyes and she gave Rachel an evil grin. "You know what? I think that sounds like a great job for Percy and Tyson. Should we go ask them?"

"And let him think we've been talking about him?" Rachel slowly grinned. "Yeah, let's go."

As they left the cave, Rachel suspected that, much to her surprise, she had just made a new friend.


AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I have to say, I was a little nervous about opening up to prompts, but it's actually been a lot of fun so far. It's been an opportunity to play with some different characters' perspectives and points of view, and to think about some different scenes that I might not have thought of otherwise, and I'm really enjoying it.

Having said that, though, I have a busy summer season coming up, so I'm going to be closing to prompts until September. I'll be finishing the ones I already have in the queue, so they'll be up in the next few weeks. Starting in September, I'll be accepting prompts again.