To Fight Next To You (Percabeth One-shots)✔

26. Home

AU where Annabeth never gets to Camp Half-Blood but instead chooses to stay with her father.

XXX

Annabeth bit her lip anxiously, as she tapped her foot against the floor. "Bus number 88, to New York City is at terminal 5. All passengers please secure your tickets at the booth. Thank you." A woman shouted over the loud speakers in the station. 'Oh boy,' Annabeth couldn't help it, she felt like puking her breakfast (which was just burnt coffee from a beatdown diner, but whatever).

Annabeth grabbed her backpack and slung the heavy baggage on her shoulders with a grimace. She sure did pack lots of stuff, she only noticed now.

Huffing, she started walking towards the said terminal when her phone suddenly rang. Someone was calling her. Who on earth could be calling her?

Oh. Right.

She pressed the green little phone icon to receive the call.

'Hey.' Anabeth dryly greeted the person on the other end of the line. He sounded tired, Annabeth thought absently. 'Yeah, no. I'm not going back. I'm going.' Annabeth sighed as she finally reached the booth. She silently nodded at the woman whom she gave her bus ticket to. The said woman, who had dark grey hair and beady brown eyes, waved her off.

'Listen, I'm already here.' Annabeth sneered as she entered the bus, her eyes searching until finally finding a seat at the back, near the window. 'Yes, here at the station. So, there. I told you, I'm not ever coming back. Bye.' Without another word, she ended the call and plopped down on her seat.

Annabeth Chase was never really one to run away from her problems. Not since she was seven, not since that day her friend, Thalia, sacrificed her life for her. She stopped running away and decided to stand up for her own sake. Annabeth chose to be a fighter that day. And now, she's choosing to step away from the battlefield. Too many times, she's been pierced by an arrow, too many times she's taken punches, too many times she's tried to fight, only to fail at the end. Fight and fail. Fight and fail. Fight and --- and nothing. Here she was, nothing. Long ago, on that fateful night, she had a choice. She remembered the camp for the gifted. A place where she could belong, a place for demigods like her. But, she decided to stay. Stay for the person she's choosing to leave right at this very moment.

At first, she knew it was crazy. She knew she  belonged at that camp, yet she made the decision to be with her father. All because she believed he could change, for her. But she was wrong, she's never been this wrong in her lifetime. Annabeth stared at the ground, she regretted it. She regretted ever giving Fredrick Chase a chance to be a good father. She was blind to everything. Annabeth ignored the times when her father brought home a another woman. She put to rest all the times he had ignored her and told her he had better things to do. She brushed off all the moments he called her, 'worthless' or 'stupid'. Beacause this was her fight. She could win this. Thalia won her battle and it was time to prove that she could to.

But now, she's feeling nothing but dread and shame. 9 years later, she's on a bus to Long Island to find that camp. If she isn't insane, that is.

"So much for winning," she flinched.

A few minutes later, "Hey, uh- can I sit here?" She hears someone ask her, but she couldn't care less. Without looking up, she nods. She feels the subtle lurch of the seat, meaning the person who asked her had just taken the seat next to her. Meaning, someone was next to her.

Pursing her lips, she slowly looks up to the guy next to her. Messy raven black hair, green eyes (although she couldn't quite know for sure), tanned skin, probabaly the same age as her, and he was looking at her now.

He smiled, "Hi, I'm Percy Jackson."

Her breath caught in her throat, "Annabeth Chase."

"Nice to meet you, Annabeth."

But then all sound was blocked, as if someone had suddenly placed noise canceling headphones above her ears or the whole world's volume was turned down. Completely.

Because the only thing Annabeth Chase could register at the moment was a gleaming sword in his hand and his worn and faded out orange shirt with the words, "CHB. Camp Halfblood, Long Island, New York" printed in bold letters.

"Oh my gods," she whispered but then something pulled her from behind and hauled her out off the bus through the roof. She screamed as they went soaring high and as Percy raced out of the bus himself, yelling, "Don't worry! We'll save you! We're gonna get you home!"

Home, wherever that was, it sounded better than this.