The Arranged Marriage (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Eighteen

The sea breeze warmed Annabeth to the core as she sat at the docks, her feet dangling in the clear, beautiful water, her hair blowing in tandem with the wind, her crown sitting beside her as a silent reminder of her duties. For the hour that she had sat—sprawled out on the docks, a book in hand, watching sail boats come in and out of Crete's trading posts—no one had deigned to bother her. The sun proceeded to climb up the horizon, pulling a bag of heat that seemed to have a hold in it as the air got stuffier and stuffier as the day rolled on. The faint sound of children playing tag in the courtyard and street vendors beckoning passerbys to their carts could be heard along with the cacophony of small animals, birds and insects frolicking about. Annabeth closed her eyes, letting the wind sing and dance around her, letting the water brushing her toes erase her worries and burdens. Annabeth wasn't stressed, she wasn't scared, she wasn't in pain.

Annabeth simply was.

Annabeth laid her head back onto the wood of the docks, her arms and legs akimbo, decidedly very unprincess-like. It was then that her moment of complete isolation from her life came to an end.

"I came to collect you before your skin turns to char."

Annabeth peeked open an eye, squinting up at the figure above her and groaned. "Does it really make a difference to you?"

Heir Apparent of Olympia, Thalia Grace towered over Annabeth, her hands glued to her waist, her black hair tied back in a braid that snapped at her face in the breeze. Thalia did not seem amused. "Get up you useless lout."

"How sweet," Annabeth murmured, rising up to her elbows. "And here I was thinking that you were going to be kind to me."

"I'm kind to no one, not even my cousins. Consider it a compliment that I insult you. I'm only kind to those I do not like and that is fake kindness." Thalia stuck a hand down to aid Annabeth.

Annabeth huffed but took the hand outstretched towards her, floored for a moment at Thalia's strength, grappling for her book and crown at which she had loosely held at waist level until that point. As Annabeth stoof unright, eye level with Thalia, she grinned. Thalia quirked up one side of her lips but turned around and walked towards the center of the square. Annabeth followed barefoot. "So," Annabeth said, "Percy is your cousin."

Thalia glanced back at Annabeth. "What do you want to know about him?"

"What? I don't – "

Thalia smirked slyly. "You want to ask me about my cousin, so have at it."

Annabeth sighed and bit her lip. "Has he – . . . how many – "

"Two, technically," Thalia said before she could finish her question. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare was his first love, he nearly asked her to marry him. Calypso Atlas was his second interest, you met her yesterday—she's on the Royal Council."

Annabeth nodded, trying to picture her betrothed with the malicious and devious woman she had been acquainted with the last day. "Oh yes," Annabeth mused, "she's quite . . . "

"A bitch?"

Annabeth choked a bit but laughed. "Not quite the word I was looking for but for lack of a better word . . . yes."

"She used to be nice enough," Thalia said, steadying a young toddler whom had ran into her, "I think that she yearns for someone who is worth the effort of being kind and loving to. You know Percy—he's loyal, sweet, admirable—everyone wants to please him, and to be around him. Calypso was like that too. I truly think she loved him and when it didn't work out something in her snapped. She just needs . . . someone."

Annabeth nodded along, smiling at a girl in rags as she hopped over her friend. Annabeth stopped and placed her forgotten tiara on the little girl's head, relishing in the girl's look of awe and general pleasure. "Share with your friends . . . Princess," Annabeth winked at the girl as she skipped away giggling with her friends, their rags suddenly looking much more high class.