Seaweed and Wise - Never letting go

The tale of her past

There are some excerpts from Ricks book. The Demigod Diaries to be specific.

Here you go, love you all ♥ btw, I missed writing so much.

It was the middle of the night when Annabeth woke Percy up, sort of. She smacked him with the back of her hand right to his face and growled. She was a sleep talker on occasions so without the hit, Percy would have overlooked it.
"What the-" He sat up, rubbing his forehead. It hurt. 
Percy watched her carefully. She was writhing slightly but didn't seem like reliving Tartarus this once. No this was different. He figured she was probably just having a bad dream. "Annabeth," Percy whispered. 
"Come on, wake up." Percy shook her shoulder a little and she opened her eyes immediately. She sighed and he saw the tears right away.
"Gods," Annabeth said, running a hand through her messy bed hair. She yawned and tried to focus on Percy's face in the darkness. He was there for her.
"Was it a bad dream?" Percy asked sweetly. He turned on the bedside light. Yes, she was crying. Annabeth noticed the tears on her cheeks too and wiped them away.
"Kinda, I guess," she scooted closer to him and he embraced her in his arms. 
"You can tell me about it seeing as you woke me up so nicely." 
She looked at him quizzically but Percy just shook his head with a smirk.
"I- Okay," Annabeth pulled up the blanket. They lay down again, Percy's arms still around her. Everything she'd say was safe with him, she knew that. 
"The dream was about something Thalia gave me yesterday."
"The book? You were afraid of a book?"
"It's not a book Percy, it's-" Annabeth bit her lip. She turned to face him and lay on her side. But it was hard to force the words out while looking into Percy's eyes, those cute lips. She felt bad for reminding- it. 
"It's Luke's diary. Trav and Connor kept it and remembered Thalia and I might want it. I- I didn't read it yet. She did, but I just, I don't know." 
Annabeth was honestly quite afraid to read it as she saw how much it affected Thalia. Luke was her only friend once and they've been through a lot but she never spoke of him as far as Annabeth remembered. But what was there to remember when she was just a kid when Thalia died, or turned into a tree to be precise.
"We can read it together," Percy suggested. 
Annabeth knew he had more difficulties with reading than her but she could see in his eyes that he meant it. Reading the diary of the boy who loved his girl.
"You're too good of a boy for your own good."
"So I'm a boy now?" Percy grinned that cheesy smile of his. 
"Men don't steal cookies from a cookie jar their mother keeps on the highest shelf and they most definitely don't fall from the chair and almost break their neck." Annabeth rolled her eyes but she imagined the epic fall again and had to stifle a laugh.
"Well wives don't steal the cookies from their said injured husbands to eat them."
Annabeth chuckled and reached into her nightstand. The diary was bound in leather and old but for the most part, it felt heavier than a few hundred of pages. 
"Let's get to it then?" 
Reading it with Percy was like watching a horror movie with your friend, you were scared but knew nothing could happen to you. 
"But you'll have to be patient or read it aloud, you-"
"I know Percy," they scooted up and leaned on the headboard, stuffing the pillow behind their back.
"So. . ." Annabeth found the first page of Luke's writing, it obviously belonged to someone else before.
"My name is Luke. Honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with- with this diary. My life is pretty crazy. B- but I promised the old man I would try. After what happened today. . . well, I owe him-" Annabeth too had some troubles with the text, especially because of Luke's handwriting, but they got through the most in less than an hour. 
It felt odd, reading the words of someone who died years ago. But they both knew they needed to hear it. Luke would have wanted them to, that they both knew. 
It made Percy remember how pitiful his death was in the end, but also how he let Annabeth hold the sky. And how he caused Charles to die, and Silena. And all the others...
"Promise, Halcyon Green had written. I promise Hal, I thought. I will learn from your mistakes. If the gods ever treat me that badly, I will fight back."
Annabeth started turning the page but Percy stopped her.
"That's when he-" Percy didn't want to finish the sentence but Annabeth knew what he meant to say. That might have been the moment Luke felt true hatred for the gods for the first time. That Greek fire didn't just burn the house and Halcyon Green, it also sparked the consuming vengefulness inside the 14 year old innocent boy he used to be.
"Percy it's not only that," Annaeth's voice quivered. "Thalia and Luke, I think they weren't just friends."
"I figured that one too Annabeth, you know, from the way he wrote about her. I felt- I think he was already realizing it," Percy narrowed his eyes at the last sentence again. 
"Losing Thalia was probably just another push to what he became. Annabeth I could have ended up the same way and you know it, you remember how I lashed out in Tartarus and whenever I thought I'd lose you I was ready to do anything. I'm-" 
"No you're not the same. End of discussion, you would never allow innocent people, children die. And you'd never betray a friend like that." Annabeth glared at him. Percy smiled at her, if she thought so, he believed her.
"Will you finish it?" Percy asked and let loose the page he was pinning down.
"Of course," Annabeth said and continued. She had a slight feeling this wasn't the peaceful end.
When Annabeth said the words James River a shiver ran up her spine. She continued reading, her brain working on 100%, trying to figure it out.
"Someone's close by- Not a regular mortal- platform- someone underneath- A blur of flannel and blonde hair-" Annabeth's eyes flew back and forth on the page. This was her.   
A moment of silence overtook the room as Percy and Annabeth stared at each other before she kicked off the covers and ran into the hallway. The diary landed on the floor and Percy glanced at it as he followed Annabeth. She almost kicked open the door to Victoria's room and stopped over her cradle, breathing as if she just ran a marathon.
"Hey," Percy came to her slowly and turned her to him. He didn't want to say it's okay because it wasn't. She was too little to be alone, to innocent to fight all the monsters.
When Percy was 7, he was afraid of non existent monsters under his bed. His mom lay down with him, brought him a glass of water if he asked so, told him a story she made up, kissed him a goodnight and waited until he fell asleep, every night. And in some of those times Annabeth was fighting for her life while he was eating blue cookies, watching a cartoon. She rarely cried but now seemed like the right time. 
Percy hated her dad for not being there for her. Oh he so hated seeing her sad.
Annabeth pressed herself to him way too strongly but let go right away, like if she just needed to know he was there, he'd always be. She looked at the sleeping baby and shook her head. 
Of course Percy knew how... sensitive she was about the fact that she had to run away at barely 7 years of age. Of course he knew that her being so worried and careful about Victoria had it's bases in her shitty childhood. Percy always had his mom. Annabeth? No one. That's why she decided to raise his baby sister with him, to stay home from school when Vick was sick and to become a mother at such young age, she swore to herself Victoria would never feel like she did. 
Luke promised he'd be her family and he coldly betrayed her. Her own father couldn't hold up a promise or not blame her for her existence... Promises never meant as much as she believed, coming from others.
"I-" Percy didn't know what to say. "I love you," he said the simplest thing there was. "And-" Percy pointed to the hall and they left silently. He didn't want the little she-devil up right now. "I know Luke made all those empty promises but he also saved you. I wouldn't have met you if you didn't run away back then. That was kinda worth it, right? Look at me, I'm a limited edition."
"Oh you are," Annabeth laughed. He loved that he could make her smile.
And so as she smiled Percy picked her up and she laughed again, surprised, amused, happy. All her worries gone. Percy headed for the stairs and refused to let her down. She kinda knew what was to come and tried to get away but he just shushed her and smirked. "If you wake up Estelle or Vick mom's gonna kill us."
"If you throw me into the pool I'll kill you," Annabeth tried to get free of him but he just stood his ground.
"It'll be fun," Percy pushed open the glass door to the back garden and finally set her down. "I'm going in. There's nothing like swimming under the moon. Oh, by the way, I love your cute Bambi pyjamas and I think it would be a real shame to get it all wet and salty. You know, it could wash off that cute little deer."
Percy put her down and slipped off from his clothes, he jumped into the water and Annabeth stared after him.
"You're unbelievable," she called when his head popped out of the water.
"And what are you?" Percy laughed back. She was already walking to the stairs.
"Obviously crazy as it's like 3AM and I'm- oh damn this!" She jumped to the pool from the side and Percy dived right after her. He caught her face in his palms and kissed her under the water.
"You know," Annabeth said as she caught her breath. "You're the only person I never really doubted." 
"And you're the only person on my mind since the day I saw you." Percy kissed her again.
"Oh stop being so cheesy," Annabeth grinned against his lips.
"Me? Cheesy? Never!" Percy shook his head dramatically. He made the water look like two dolphins jumping up. "How could you ever say that about me?" He smirked.
"I wonder," she replied and dived again. They stayed in that bubble in one of the corners for a while...

-Vendy