Percabeth One-shots (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Drown in Fate pt. 3

PERCY JACKSON

Her jaw drops as she stares into my eyes.
"You..." Tears spring into her eyes and she looks up to the sky. I gesture for her to follow me as I make my way up to the beach shack. Sand speckles my feet as the water droplets glisten against my skin. We walk in silence the whole way and I try to not look at her. The little boy...Matthew she had said, was priority right now. I enter the shack and place the boy on one of the beds.
Blake walks up to my side.
"I'll tend to him." I nod and step back to let him check the boys vitals.
I look back and see the girl leaning back against the far wall. I look her up and down. She's hardly changed, only that her hair is longer and her face is more mature. And her eyes..they flash from being stormy and strong to being dull and weak.
I take a step towards her, her eyes shift from Matthew to me.
"Come on sweet heart, let's take a step outside." I say, used to having to console worried parents and siblings.
Although I know not who she is to Matthew, I mean they look nothing alike. She nods and steps outside the shack.
I look back at Blake once more before following. When I step outside the chill of the wind hits me and I have to refrain from smiling. I love this time of year. I look at the girl, her flowy white shirt flaps in the wind with sand getting stuck to her shorts. Her hair whips as the wind temporarily picks up, making it look like there is a ray of golden sunshine coming from her head.
I know what you're thinking...your descriptions are weird, but I'm weird so  it will do.
I walk up to her and try to think carefully of what to say. I don't want to come across as an insensitive guy that tries to lighten the mood with a joke but epicly fails. Okay so one part of that is how I always come across to people.
The girl sits down and puts her arms over her knees as she pulls them up closer to her chest.
I catch sight of the scar again. It's a pale pink but not fleshy like it would have been 4 years ago. I wince thinking how much that would have hurt. I sit down next to her on the sand and willingly let the sun dry me.
"You know...I never got your name." I say, thinking that it would be much easier to call her by her name instead of  by 'the girl.' She looks out to the water, watching the waves roll to meet the shore before they are sucked away again.
"Annabeth."
I look at her face to try and read her expression but I can't, so I look back to the waves. Knowing the feeling the waves seem to have, being about to touch what they want but never able to stay very long, always being pulled away again.
"I'm Percy Jackson." I hold out my hand for her to shake. She looks at it before accepting. Sparks shoot up my arm when she grips my hand.
Dam.
She lets go and resumes her original position. There's a long silence that passes between us.
"I hadn't come back to the beach until today." She breaks the silence.
"So many therapists had told me you have to face your fears...to get back in the water. I couldn't do it for so long. Even when I got here I stayed at least 5 meters away from any of the water."
She puts her head on her knees.
"I didn't even get close to the water when I saw Matthew drowning. I just couldn't bring myself to even get in the shallows." She sighs.
"If I had lost Matthew my step mother would have killed me."
I gather that Matthew is her step-brother. So that's why they look nothing alike.
"He's fine now. He was smiling and joking around with Blake when I left."
I say.
"Then I envy his resilience." She brings her head up and looks at the sand around her feet.
"You were bitten by a shark..not caught in a rip. You drowned...you weren't kept afloat. There's a reason he has resilience like that. Because a rip, yeah sure it's scary stuff..but a shark." She looks at the scar on her leg.
"It's so ugly but at least I'm alive."
"It's not ugly. It makes you look tough."
She smiles and looks up at me.
"You saved me that day. You pulled me to shore and told me I was safe. That's what kept me going." A tear slips down her cheek and falls to the sand. She wipes under her eyes.
"You saved yourself really. You're the one that fought off a shark...not me."
"How heroic of me. I fought off a shark then almost died drowning." She says sarcastically.
"What made you come back to the beach today? I mean if you had been avoiding it for so long..then why'd you come back now?" I ask.
She pauses before looking me straight in the eye,
"I wanted to find you. I wanted to say thank you for risking your own life to get me out of that water, and for keeping me alive long enough for the paramedics to come." She adds, "So yeah..thank you."
She awkwardly looks away.
"Oh what the hades." She says before flinging herself at me, gripping around my neck and hugging me.
"Thank you Percy." She says into my ear, still hugging me.
I get over my shock and hug her back, putting my forehead to her shoulder.
"It okay Annabeth. You were worth saving."