νεκρός || Annabeth Chase x Fem!OC

Vol. 3-24: i dont love youuuu like i diiiidd yesterdaaayyyyyy

TEMPEST

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

Calypso told me to find a new thing to appreciate every day. Not for what it does for me or for others. Just something I like to look at. Sometimes, I had multiple things. Other times, I only found one thing. Always, without fail, Annabeth Chase was on that list.

It wasn't just Annabeth Chase. It was various things about her. Sometimes, when it was early dawn and the sun hadn't quite crept up on the horizon, the sea would be a strange shade of grey. Grey like her eyes. Sometimes, the leaves would rustle the way she laughs. Or I'd see that owl that had a nest next to my tent, and I always thought about the daughter of Athena.

My favorite physical thing about Annabeth is her hair, though. I've always loved that. Specifically the pieces at the front, where the gold is interwoven with bits of grey from when she held up the sky. She doesn't usually go to get haircuts, since she hates sitting still for that long and allowing someone else to touch her hair, so she just hacks at it herself. There's always one or two pieces at the front that frame her face perfectly, despite being uneven. And her hair always smells like lemons. Lemons repel spiders, so she uses lemon everything. Lemon shampoo, lemon body spray, she even has a lemon scented candle on her desk, plus about four backups somewhere in the drawer.

Unfortunately, I was starting to have a problem. I was finding all of these beautiful things to appreciate. But, I could never appreciate them with Anne.

I appreciated the way the dirt smelled when I helped Calypso in her garden. Then wished I could've been with Annabeth, teaching her how to do this. I appreciated the way the sunset looked, setting fire to the meadow. But, the golden rays reminded me so much of Annabeth, and how I'd never get to see her again, even in my dreams. I appreciated the way the fish swam in the little pond I built. But, Annabeth wasn't there to tell me I was building it wrong.

And it wasn't just her. The fish made me think of Percy and Tyson, how much I would miss those little freaks. Every time I looked at the meadow, I thought about when I would sit in a similar one with Grover, getting a lecture about how I need to stop being mean. Every now and then, the breeze rustled in a way that made me think Bobby and Matthew were three doors down, giggling together when they should've been asleep.

It made me restless. I kept inventing stupid new projects to get everyone off my mind. I built the fish pond next to my tent. I didn't kill the fish in there. They just had to exist, and that was it. I started my own little clump of Iris flowers. I'd never be able to ask the goddess to send a message to my friends. I finished building my boat. I couldn't use it to sail back home. And I didn't even think I had a home. Not until Anne, that was.

"You're unsettled," Calypso said to me, sitting across my campfire.

I scratched the number of days there had been on Ogygia. I didn't know how many it was in the real world, but for me, the sun had set seventeen times since I arrived. "I'm fine."

She gripped her fork nervously. Freckles splashed her face and her dark eyes reflected orange in the firelight. "Are you... happy here?"

"Yeah." A lie. I would never truly be happy on Ogygia. I knew that. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Now, Calypso looked unsettled. I glanced at her and her cheeks flushed red. They'd started doing that a lot when I looked at her. I didn't really like it. "You seem... moody, lately."