When We Were 'Us'

Separation Update- Annabeth POV/Percy POV

"Do you think I'm a bad person?"

Luke paused, and I could feel him looking over at me.

"Annie-"

"Just answer the question."

He sighed and reached over, taking my hand. "No, I don't."

I looked up.

"Annabeth, there were things that probably should have happened differently. You should have told Percy. But stuff happens, emotions happen, all of that. You're not a bad person for wanting to put that off."

I sighed and nodded, looking down again.

"You should apologize though."

I chewed my lip. "You're right."

"'Course I am." Luke offered a crooked grin. "I'm always right."

"Don't push it, Castellan."

He snorted. "So you'll apologize?"

"Next time I see him, yes. And if he lets me." I nodded. "If it's okay... I'm going to go think about what I want to say for a little bit, actually."

Luke grunted, nodding. "Feel free, I'll find something to do. Maybe I'll go offer the kids in the arena some swordplay advice."

"You could probably still outfight them in the wheelchair." I chuckled, standing up. 

"Well yeah, I'm the greatest swordsman in 300 years."

Luke wheeled himself in a half-circle and we went back down the dock to the grass. I shook my head, smiling. "If you say so."

"I do."

"Whatever, go do whatever it is you do when I can't see you."

Luke wiggled his eyebrows and I shook my head. "You know what I meant, stop that."

I walked back to the Athena cabin alone, playing with my camp necklace. There were several things I needed to talk to Percy about, but I had to figure it out first.

Borrowing a notepad from Malcolm's desk (which I knew would upset him but I'd apologize for that too), I sat down on my bed and began to write. 

And write and write and write. Drafts piled up, scrapped and dumped in a pile on the floor next to my bunk. I just couldn't figure out how to phrase it honestly and come off in a way that wouldn't aggravate it.

That was the worst part. Having dated Percy for so long, I knew exactly how he'd react to each draft, and I didn't like any of the outcomes I was seeing.

"Why is apologizing so hard?" I finally groaned out loud, flopping backwards onto my pillow.

"Because it requires us to swallow natural pride and deal with a side of ourselves that we don't enjoy seeing," One of my siblings commented as he walked past, arms stuffed full of who even knew what.

"Gee, thanks." I rolled my eyes and sat up again, grabbing the mostly empty notepad. I scribbled something on the top about buying Malcolm a new one and tossed it over to his bunk, then grabbed my blanket and yanked it over myself. Maybe a nap would help me deal with this.

-----------------

"You have no fashion sense, you know that, right?" Hazel asked as she helped me unpack my bag that I'd brought. 

"Most of my clothing gets bloody and torn to pieces within a week or two, so what's the point of buying good clothing?" I pointed out, holding up a t-shirt. "See? Why did I even pack this."

"Okay, that's fair." She sighed. "Really, boys in this century have no sense of style anyway.

"Hazel, I distinctly remember being disgusted by the above the waist pantsuits that guys wore in your era." 

"At least the pants stayed up."

"Hey, I was a skater kid and my pants always stayed up properly."

Hazel's eyebrows shot up. "You were a skater kid?"

I nodded slowly. "Uh, yeah? I was scrappy, had a reputation for being a bad kid, and I liked to go fast. Skateboarding naturally fit with the image the world gave me and I was really okay with that."

"That's perfect though!"

"For what?"

"Well," Hazel kind of made a waving motion at my general appearance with her hands. "You're not going to have torn up clothes nearly as often anymore because we don't get many attacks. And you're a son of Poseidon, you can just extract blood from your clothing. But that's not what I was thinking about anyway!" 

"Okay?" I tilted my head, waiting for her to explain.

"There are several clothing shops in New Rome! We could go shopping and you could sort of bring that skater image back, right? It would give you another thing that kind of separates Camp Jupiter life from Camp Half-Blood, right?"

"That's... actually a pretty good idea, Hazel." I smiled.

"See?" She grinned. "And Haley seems like more of a skater name anyway so you could fit the persona?"

"Haley, the punk swords instructor from New York. I think it's a great idea." Frank commented from the doorway of the room.

I snorted and looked over at him.

"See, Frank's onboard!"

"Alright, alright, lets try it."