The Meanings of I Love You

Soulmate AU

When Sally Jackson had given birth to her baby boy she wasn't surprised to find a faded blue trident shaped symbol on her son's right wrist. The very tip of the shape reached almost to the palm of his hand and the base stopped at the middle of his forearm, right besides a dark brown freckle.

His father, Poseidon as he was nicknamed, had had a symbol similar to his, though it was located on the back of his hand and was the prongs were a stormy green that twisted around each other like a whirlwind of design. Sally had worn that symbol for years, but it faded to only a faint outline when her beloved never returned from a trip at sea.

Her own symbol started just behind her left ear and worked its way all the way down to her collar bone with twists and curves lacing down the back of her neck. It was a string of royal blue beads that was so lovely and delicate, and so very interesting to look at. Her symbol was strong and prominent, nothing like her son's light one.

His symbol was just as interesting as her own. It was marbled with fainter and fainter blues. It's edges glowed in minty rays. It was beautiful. No other word could describe it.

Sally knew something so beautiful should be cherished. She knew that whoever was to wear her son's symbol would be as beautiful as it, if not more. She knew her little Percy was going to have a love so radiant it would withstand anything, even being lost at sea.

The first day of third grade Percy met what would be his life long best friend.

She was the only student in the room that hadn't laughed at him as he struggled to read a simple line of text from a first grade reading level book.

Heat was simmering in his cheeks, red crawling through every inch of his face. It was embarrassing enough that the words jumped off the page and twisted and turned so he couldn't make sense of them in their floating state, but to have to read those words aloud to a whole classroom was torture in itself.

He felt hot pricks in the back of his eyes, tears threatening to come when he saw the blonde across the room give him a determined nod of her head as if to say "keep going, you're doing fine."

He gave a slight motion of his head and continued to stumble and stammer over the current paragraph. When his turn was over he breathed a much needed sigh of relief and flashed the girl a friendly smile in thanks. He hadn't cried reading and he owed her much for that with her small encouragement.

After class she approached him with perfect poise.

"Annabeth Chase." She greeted him with a firm handshake like a business woman thrice her age. Her gray eyes did not linger for a millisecond off of Percy's own green eyes.

"Percy Jackson." Percy mumbled back after the shock of the formal greeting wore off. "Thanks for not laughing at me." Percy added on

Annabeth cocked her head.

"Why would I laugh? I can't read either."

This took a moment for Percy to process because she seemed so smart it was hard to believe she had the same problems as Percy.

He was going to say something else when Annabeth began to say something about how it was nice to make "acquaintances" with each other, though Percy hadn't a clue what the word even meant when his mind wandered off.

He got lost in her brewing eyes and how the steels and charcoals danced around and around as the fluorescent school lights flickered.

"Percy!" The young girl snapped.

He shook his head to rid himself of the distraction.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I asked for your home phone number so my father can call your parents so we could get together over this weekend. I mean, if that's okay with you." She said a slight red starting to tint her cheeks.