Worth It (A Percabeth FanFiction) [COMPLETED]

chapter two

p e r c y

     I refused to believe Annabeth had been taken from me. It didn't matter what anyone had to say about it, either. Zeus, or Poseidon, or any god or goddess him or herself could have come down from Olympus right then and told me she'd never remember me. I would have simply put in earplugs and walked to her cabin.

The Oracle herself could speak a prophecy rhyming Annabeth will never remember Percy with something about herpes, and I would've told Rachel to shut up.

It had been reflex to save her when that rock came through the window. It had been so hard not say, Stay on your toes, Wise Girl, and then have her make a comment about my kelp brain or how many times she'd saved my life (or my grades) afterward. Hera could take her memory. But she could never take her heart.

      It didn't feel fair. I thought about when I had lost my own memory and been sent to Camp Jupiter with nothing but the word Annabeth on replay in my head. Annabeth didn't even have that — no, she didn't even get that. A wave of sympathy rushed over my body for her.

The last place I'd seen her so scared was Tartarus. Even without a memory, she kept a composure about herself. No one else could tell. Annabeth, to anyone who wasn't me, was still cool and confident. I'm convinced she could win at least a dozen wars even without a trace of who she is. But there's still the glint in her eye. The unknown. Her fear of it.

     I picked up a plate I'd been using for breakfast that morning. Before Annabeth forgot, I thought, but I tried to let it go quickly. I figured doing the dishes would be a good distraction from emotion while I thought through a solution to this problem.

     Instead, I reminisced our first kiss, the fall into Tartarus, sleeping in the stables, all the times we refused to acknowledge that we were barely alive but just simply that we were together which was more than plain survival ever would be.

Then, I heard a knock at the door. My heart did a little back flip when I saw Annabeth standing there. Instead of landing the back flip, however, it kind of tumbled and got sad. She always knocked three times to warn me, then would open the door whether I had said something or not. But this time she knocked once, and waited until I came to open it.

"Tell me about us, " she whispered, and I could see she'd been crying. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything is gonna be okay because it really looked like she didn't believe it would be. But somehow, I managed to just step out of the doorway and let her in.

      "What do you wanna know?" I asked her, biting back a sob. She needs you to be strong right now, I reminded myself. She's even more scared than you.

I realized that was the same mindset I'd used to get through Tartarus. A flood of curses swam in my brain. She sat in the chair on the far left of the table — the one she always sat in. That made me want to jump for some reason. Maybe her memory would just be slowly gained back, and it was beginning it's reappearance by her sitting in that chair.

Instead of suggesting that theory, I just said, "You always sit in that chair whenever you come over."

      "Oh." She blushed. "I just thought it had — "
      " — the most sunlight, " I finished for her. "What are you here for, Wise Girl? I told you stay where you're safe." I tried to keep my voice upbeat, almost like I was talking to a child. The Annabeth with her memory would've started an all-camp game of Capture the Flag if she heard me talking to her like this — and I would be the flag. I guess I just didn't want to scare her.

      "Wise Girl?" Annabeth asked me, her eyebrows forming into that confused crease that makes her look ten million times cuter, which is pretty hard to do, considering her already precious face. I realized I'd also called her that back at the mess hall.

     "You're the daughter of Athena, " I explained. I figured that explaining was going to be a pretty common theme from now on. "Ummm, she's the goddess of wisdom. Kind of an inside joke between us. You call me Seaweed Brain."

     "Oh." It was a mere word, full of confusion and realization, but, hey, most words are that way to demigods . "How long have we been together?"

     "Well, we've been dating for almost two years now. Our anniversary is my birthday."

I wanted to tell her about the blue cement cupcake she'd made with my brother, about the conversation that had been produced from me giving up immortality, about getting thrown into the lake and creating the air bubble underwater where we kissed for what felt like hours.

I decided to save all of that for another time. Truthfully, I debated saving all of the us talk for another time. We had bigger problems than Annabeth remembering my birthday. But talking about something lighter, something happy, something hopeful... I could almost see my Annabeth coming back.

"But we've been friends for six, seven, maybe eight years? Maybe even a decade by now," I continued instead. She was watching as I spoke like she watches sunsets. "It's kind of a blur because I don't know how to categorize the time. From hating you, to being friends, to loving you — "

      "You love me?" she asked. Her eyes widened.

      "It's more than that, Annabeth," I told her while I scrubbed away at the dishes. "It's so much more than that."

I turned to look at her again. Annabeth got up from her chair, and walked right over to me, grabbing some more dirty dishes. It was such an Annabeth thing to do. I was almost upset that she still had so many of Annabeth's mannerisms but wasn't really Annabeth.

"I wish I could remember," she mumbled. My heart broke.

    "I wish you could remember, too."

    "Yeah." Continuing with the theme of not being Annabeth but acting totally like Annabeth, she stared into the window so intently that I could see the thinking gears in her brain. She was wondering what to ask next. "Did we always have feelings for each other?"

    "You hated me," I told her. "So naturally, I hated you. We found each other... so annoying."

We made eye contact over the growing dish soap mountain in the sink. I thought she was offended - about to yell at me in her usual Annabeth way. And then she laughed so I knew it was okay to continue the story.

"And then we talked some. And then we became... friends. I think somewhere around our third quest I realized I had a crush on you -  that I needed you. Not in an unhealthy way, or anything, just, like... I cared about you a lot."

I hoped I hadn't said too much or made her think I was exaggerating. Annabeth began putting the clean dishes in cabinets, which was either at random or she was going to reorganize the whole kitchen. Either way, I didn't really care.

She might not have had her memory, but standing in my cabin, a few feet away from me, at least I knew she was safe.

"That sounds great, then," she murmured. Then, the sound of a plate clattering interrupted the insane coolness she had put around herself since regaining consciousness. I watched her scramble to pick up the pieces she'd accidentally dropped, probably in a lapse of reality.

"I need to remember," she sobbed, and I took the pieces away from her and pulled her to me like I wanted to when she first showed up at my door. I rubbed her back gently as she cried, thrashing. I placed soft kisses in her tangled hair. I pulled her away from the sharp plate remains.

If anyone knew Annabeth Chase, I knew Annabeth Chase, and Annabeth Chase absolutely despised not knowing something — let alone not remembering something. Both applied here.

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