Like I Can

Lullaby (Nickelback)

Percy walked in to his apartment, dropping his keys on the bench beside the door. He wasn't prepared for what he saw.

Annabeth was sitting at the dining table, grinning from ear to ear as she sketched, her papers strewn across the entirety of the mahogany. That was normal and unsurprising.

What wasn't normal was the man in the kitchen. He had salt and pepper hair and a faint scar stretched across his left cheek. His blue eyes trained on him. Percy immediately recognised him.

Luke.

He tried not to growl.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain, how was work?" Annabeth barely lifted her head from her sketches let alone her pencil and ruler.

Percy grunted in response, moving lethargically to grab a drink from the fridge.

Annabeth laughed wholeheartedly, like that was the funniest this she'd heard all day. "So, the usual?"

"Yup." He popped the 'p' like it tasted good and then proceeded to smack his lips in time with the beat the radio was playing out.

Luke looked up at them, Percy could feel his eyes on him. Luke struggled with whatever he was cutting and made eye contact with Annabeth.

She knew exactly what he needed. "Hey, Seaweed Brain," Percy could hear the wince Luke made, "could you get Luke my knife from the kitchen." Percy nodded curtly, handing the man the knife and slinking away as quickly as possible.

Luke nodded in thanks and began to use the double edged blade, one side was serrated, perfect for slicing the skin, and the other was sharp and ideal for carving.

Percy made a move to leave the table, he didn't acknowledge either of the couple, that was the last straw for Luke.

"I can't believe it! I can't!" He screeched. Annabeth looked up from her work, Percy stopped dead in his tracks. "You two really aren't together?"

Percy nearly choked on his drink, some of it flying comically from his lips. Annabeth dropped her pencil in shock, standing up with such force that her chair fell to the floor, clanging against the tiles repeatedly in the silence that ensued. "No." She sounded small, mousey.

"Its just, I saw you two at a restaurant a few months back and I figured-" he cut himself off, gripping the knife in his hand so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "Annabeth," his voice sounded vulnerable, "I'm sorry, I thought the worst, I tried to get back at you. I wasn't faithful when you were, how can you forgive me?"

Annabeth made a move toward him, she didn't like how crazed he sounded.

"I hurt you, how can I live with myself?"

Annabeth saw Percy find his phone through the corner of her eye, she recognised the strain on his face as his fingers typed the three numbers she'd been thinking.

"Luke, its okay, I forgive you, its okay." She treded lightly, making her way closer to her boyfriend.

"No, its not." The tears were streaming steadily down Luke's face, Percy could see Annabeth struggling to swallow her own tears. "I can't." The dagger like knife poised by Luke's armpit, directly in line with his heart.

Everything happened so quickly after that, even though it was also in slow motion.

Luke crumpled to the kitchen floor, Annabeth rushed him but was too late. Percy watched as she craddled her boyfriend's head and cried.