Of Betrayal and Ocean

2

A/N: A short chappie, because I need to figure out how to get out of school tomorrow:)

Annabeth felt as if she was suspended between life and death. 

She could still breathe, but stuff like that wasn't fundamental for her survival. However, if death meant that she didn't have to relive what she had been through, she would happily take it. Percy's face had found a little place in her mind, where all her other pain was.

Whenever she found a family, it all seemed to crumble apart before her eyes. Either dead or they were a traitor. Nothing in her life was permanent. Maybe that was why she felt the need to build something permanent, to give her reassurance that stuff like that did exist, but she just had to build it.

Slowly, she was becoming less sure.

She was surrounded by sea, her eyes becoming used to the watery landscape. Her stupid, stupid heart thought of Pe- no in fact, she wouldn't say his name. 

That would mean all of this was real, and he really did do what she thought he did. Annabeth wanted to believe that he was a figment of her imagination, a monster that stalked her nightmares. So, she wouldn't give him a voice - no she wouldn't. She would let him stay silent, not only because of what he did, but his words found a way to worm its path to the most vulnerable part of her and strike there.

At that moment, Annabeth swore to become a girl of stone and steel. She wouldn't open up to anybody, because all they would cause her was pain. Then they would leave as if she was only a sentence in their life.

They didn't know that they were a chapter in hers.

The sun must have set because the sea took on a darker shade of blue. Annabeth shivered because she knew what type of animals came out at night.

Sea monsters - but she had learnt long ago that they wouldn't be able to touch her. Either way, they chilled her to the bone.

The sea was a perfect example of what lurked below the surface. Annabeth just wished she had listened to her head instead of her heart. 

"What do we have here?" a low, baritone voice asked. Annabeth maneuvered around to face the source. 

In front of her was a lean build with slight muscles and tanned skin. Dark, wild hair hanging in his face and a lopsided but nervous grin. But that wasn't what got Annabeth on edge. 

It was his eyes, a deep sea-green, the colour of the ocean. Wild, untameable but loving and kind, and a little bit scared and threatened too.

Percy.