Making Waves

Chapter 1

Life was peaceful. But Percy was restless and fed up.

"You still there, seaweed brain?" Annabeth called out.

She had taken too long in her own thoughts, and Annabeth, as patient as she was, was still a demigod with ADHD. She was probably still working too, and Percy felt a brief pang of guilt before pushing it aside.

"Every day, I go into work, sit on the computer, pull satellite data and analyze it. Every day. I mean, I love the ocean and I love learning about it, but it's the same damn thing every day. And once I finally feel like I'm able to form a coherent pattern to present to my bosses, Dad has a tantrum or hissy fit and ruins weeks of research with his stupid freak storms. And when someone asks me, 'Percy, can you explain this tsunami to me? Where did it form and why didn't you see it coming?' I can't just say "Oh sorry! My dad's having a fight with my stepmother about whether they should paint the living room aqua or aquamarine!"

Percy finally stopped her rant to take a gulp of air and calm herself, "Or whatever it is they argue about," she muttered softly, her anger leaving her after she was able to let it all out.

Over the phone, Annabeth breathed out through her nose. "Trust the gods to interfere with our lives even when they're purposefully trying not to."

Percy huffed out a laugh, and then paused for a minute, but decided to continue anyways. "Maybe I made a mistake studying oceanography at NRU," she confessed.

"You really think so? You were so excited about it, though," Annabeth questioned.

Percy chewed on her lip again. This wasn't something she thought she'd ever address but, then again, she could never keep anything from Annabeth.

"Honestly, I chose it because it was easy, and I knew I'd succeed. I thought that if I tried to do anything else and I'd struggle and fail miserably."

"Percy..." Annabeth started, not with pity, but with a little bit of anger, "So what? So what if it was hard and you had a tough time with it? That's never stopped you from doing anything else before."

And here it was. Percy steeled herself.

"After...Tartarus, you seemed to be doing so well. You always had everything together. I mean you went to NRU and Berkley for gods' sakes. I thought if I couldn't measure up to you, I'd drag you down and you'd break up with me."

Percy heard Annabeth suck in a sharp breath but continued before the other girl could start.

"And then we broke up anyways. And I promise I know now that it wasn't because of that, but that's just how I thought about it back then."

Percy and Annabeth had gotten together at the end of the Titan War, enjoyed a few short months of romantic bliss before being thrown into yet another life-threatening situation. Their bond had gotten them through Tartarus together and Percy was so grateful towards the other girl for being her anchor through all those dark times. And Percy knew Annabeth felt the same way.

But after the Giant War ended, things between them slowly started to change. They no longer had to fight for their lives and had to learn to live differently. At the same time, they were both diagnosed with PTSD by a psychiatrist in New Rome. Turns out, their individual roads to recovery were incredibly different, and their relationship was only hurting them more. They decided to break up during their second semester of college, and they both agreed that it was the best possible decision.

Things had been incredibly awkward at first, especially since they were roommates and weren't allowed to switch out until the start of the next school year, but slowly, they learned to heal. Five years later, Percy still loved Annabeth, and vice versa but their love was now platonic, and they knew it was for the best.