The Good and The Bad ~ Percabeth

forty six

[unedited]

p.j.

Annabeth and I bring Becki home with us. She barely says a word on the subway and when we get to the apartment, Annabeth gets her a glass of water.

"Are you okay, Becki?" She asks, sitting down beside her.

"I'm fine," Becki says, crossing her arms. "But I killed that freak. I killed him. I'm going to be in so much trouble."

"We've got that covered," I say, perching on the edge of the coffee table. "We just want to make sure you're okay."

"Those giants..." she shakes her head, ignoring what I said. "Those are the grossest things I've ever seen."

Annabeth and I exchange a worried look. Becki looks earnest, so finally, I clear my  throat. "You... could see them?"

"How could I not?" She says. "Those weren't even humans. They were fucking monsters. My eyes didn't deceive me." Suddenly, her eyes flash to a panic. "Wait, you could see them too, right?"

I nod. "Uh, yeah, yeah we could. Have you, um, ever seen anything like that before?"

Becki ducks her head and immediately lifts a hand to a hair, a habit i've noticed she picks up whenever she's uncomfortable. "No."

"Okay," Annabeth starts, but I cut her off.

"Yes, you have."

"What do you mean?" Annabeth looks at me, and I nod. So we tell her. Her eyes are big throughout. We lay it all on her, from the day we met and what we do up until now. One thing, however, seems to stick with her. "So when I would say you guys have a deeper connection than two kids that met at summer camp..."

"You nailed it," I say. Annabeth grins at me. Part of me knows that she will always be some kid I met at summer camp, but that's part of the beauty.

"So you guys have, like, almost died for each other?"

"When Percy disappeared for a few months, I slept less than four hours every night and went on at least seven different cross country trips following leads to find him," Annabeth offers. Becki's eyes bug out of her head.

"Holy shit," she says. "That's crazy. Percy would never do that!"

"When I was missing, my memory got wiped," I remind Annabeth begrudgingly. I turn back to Becki. "But I remembered Annabeth's face and name and used the fact that I might be able to see her again to keep me going for weeks."

"Woah."

"Don't even," she shoots back. "The amount of quests I risked my life on just to keep your dumb ass out of trouble..."

"I needed one thought to tie me to Earth when I went for my little swim in the River Styx," I retort, my tongue tasting faintly like metal. "And it was you."

"Jesus, you guys really..."

"I gave up immortality before we were even dating because I couldn't bear the thought of not even getting a chance to try and be with you," Annabeth reminds me, bringing me back to our encounters with the Hunters.

"Or a chance to try and be with Luke," I mutter, until I remember my sixteenth birthday. "Bitch, I gave up an offer of immortality from Zeus himself because I knew I would never get to bone you if I took him up on it."

"That's romantic as fuck, hey?" Annabeth rolls her eyes, turning back to Becki.

"You know it's deeper than that!" I complain, even though it's true. I cant pretend it wasn't my first thought. My second thought was, damn, it would be cool to live forever and my third thought was fuck, then I'll never get to have kids with Annabeth (which I didn't even know I wanted until that moment) but my very first thought was, will immortality stop me from finally getting with Annabeth? Oh gods, maybe I am shallow.

"Point is, we've done a lot of shit over the years to keep each other safe. It's always been our first priority, even when we didn't know it," Annabeth says.

"But that summer camp wasn't just summer camp. It was our life. This was our first time experiencing a real, mortal social life," I say. Becki seems to be following. "We made it, like, a day without becoming jealous of new people in each other's lives and, what? Four or five months without trying to break up with each other?"

"You tried to break up?" Becki exclaims. Great, so we have monsters and Greek gods, but the idea of two teenagers breaking up is what freaks her out.

"He didn't succeed," Annabeth says. "So it's fine. But yeah, we're not very good at this whole human interaction thing. I think I speak for both of us when I say it's been good for us, but we're really, really bad at it."

"Really fucking bad," I reply, nodding my head. Becki picks at her fingernails, seemingly trying to understand. 

"But you're good at attracting dangerous things, because you're also kind of dangerous."

"Dangerous, but not bad."

"Which is why you wanted me to stay away. Because if I'm around you when you attract these bad things, even though it's you they want, they won't be bothered if they hurt me too."

"Nail on the head, Becks," I say.

"I've seen things like those before."

Annabeth purses her lips. "Monsters are around. It happens."

"They've tried to hurt me."

We're quiet for a long time. There's no way Becki is a demigod, but if they've tried to hurt her... I don't know what that could possibly mean.

"People you're with when that happens... do they see it too?"

Becki's face twists. "My dad... I think my dad does. He won't talk about it with me. He thinks I'm crazy but... I feel like there's something he's not telling me."

Annabeth is shouldering her jacket before I can even finish my sentence. "Sounds like it's time to pay him a visit."

- - - - - - - - - -

Oooooooh

Thanks the gods for everything in your life that brings you happiness.

Love, tumblingupwards