Heroes of Olympus Series. Annabeth Chase X Male Reader Story

Fighting The Worlds Worst Sandwich

(Y/N)'s POV

In (Y/N)'s experience, hiking wasn't that much fun at the best of times. It was made much more difficult to enjoy if what you're hiking on is broken glass. He decided Tartarus was definitely not making it onto his list of favourite hiking trails, however short that list was.

He and Annabeth tried to pass the time productively, knowing that they didn't have any excess energy to spare, thanks to the short dip in the river, so they started to devise a gameplan. Step one was obviously to make it to the river of fire.

The final step was meeting their friends at the doors of death, high fives all round, and going home to party, the problem was thinking of everything in the middle. How would they get from point A to point B without falling prey to the monsters or the terrain?

The game plan was to avoid conflict at all costs, make sure that they kept moving, use any resources conservatively and make sure that they always stuck together. Pretty simple stuff sure, but it felt good to have at least some sort of plan. Everything felt more manageable.

Even if they disagreed on the finer points at the start. Their gameplan for when they inevitably did run into monsters could not have been more different. Their experiences with monsters clearly defining what they wanted to do.

Annabeth said they should take it on a case-by-case basis, (Y/N)'s idea was a much cruder one. "If we come across anything in our way here, we'll have to kill it. Simple as that." (Y/N) suggested. Annabeth was quick to protest.

"What? No, we can't waste our time and energy on that, besides, not all monsters are vicious, they have a choice, and if they want to get out of here as badly as we do, chances are they'll leave us be." She reasoned as they stomped through the glass shore.

"You're right, monsters do have a choice, and most of them choose to try and kill children, some of them succeed, Annabeth, if they are here, they deserve to be. If we want to make it to the doors, we don't have the luxury of kindness." He said in retort.

It was clear she was frustrated by his reasoning. "I'm not saying we go hunting for every monster Annabeth, I'm saying if they get in our way, we aren't going to try and talk them down or strike any deals."

"There are no Ella's down here, no Tyson's. Just think of it like that. This place is for the worst of the worst and nothing less. You're smart enough to realise we usually trick our enemies right, talk our way out of things. Not here."

"But that's what I'm good at." She spoke. He nodded, "I know." His stomach lurched at the trepidation in her eyes. "That's why I love you, but we're in Tartarus now, we no longer have the luxury of the moral high ground."

With their moral dilemma solved, or at least shelved for the moment, they soon stumbled upon another issue. It made itself rather apparent as they went over a glass shard filled incline.

Every now and then, Annabeth's face scrunched up in pain that she tried to play off. Her ankle, while now fixed, was definitely a hinderance to their overall walking speed. They stopped for two minutes about half a mile into their hike to look at it.

As much as it had recovered, with the bone not being broken and her ability to put weight on it, it still looked swollen and her skin was raised and purple, (Y/N) dared not remove her shoe, because of the glass, and because it kept the injury from swelling further.

(Y/N) had healed it as best he could before they fell, but that was only a quick fix, he fully expected to treat her properly once they were aboard the Argo II, if he had known they'd get chucked down here, he would have been more thorough.

He offered to carry her some of the way, an idea she promptly shot down, not just to spare her pride but also because that made the both of them sitting ducks for any flying creature to swoop down and pick off.