Promises Skin Deep (Pipabeth)

I

Showing someone your soulmark was a sign of intimacy, something you only did if your soulmark was in a particularly obvious place (Annabeth had once met a boy with it emblazoned on his forehead, poor guy), or if you believed you'd found your soulmate.

As it was, the marks were usually pretty obvious. Once, Annabeth had heard of a couple whose marks were each other's names.

However, when Thalia's arms settled at the girl's waist in an attempt to keep her from knocking the both of them over her sleeve had ridden up her arm exposing the spear shaft that drove it's way up her arm.

The other girl's eyes lit onto it, just the tip of the spear concealed beneath Thalia's jacket. Thalia blushed and tried to pull the sleeve down to cover the mark, but the other girl simply caught her wrist and, without a word, yanked the sleeve all the way up, exposing the tip of the spear where a crown sat on the spearhead in triumph.

Those dark eyes dragged back up to meet Thalia's.

"Lightning..?" was all she murmured and Thalia's face bloomed a terrific red color.

By the end of the day, they'd already exchanged numbers and made plans to meet a second time.

Seeing someone meet their soulmate was surreal because in an instant everything had seemed to click for Thalia. She'd gone from her normal, stubborn self, to running around like a child and smiling more than Annabeth had seen her do in years.

Reyna, as it turned out her name was, had shown her mark almost as soon as they'd started talking, showing off a jet black bolt of lightning that sat along her collarbone. How she could tell that lightning meant Thalia, or that a spear meant herself, Annabeth would never know, but they'd hardly even spared the marks a glance since their eyes met.

It was weird and creepy and in all honesty, Annabeth had wished, for just a moment, that she wouldn't ever meet her soulmate.

Of course, a week later when she saw Thalia and Reyna talking like they'd known each other for years she'd found herself eating her words.

~~

She was fifteen when Percy met his soulmate. It was late December, Christmas just on the horizon, and he had somehow talked her and Thalia into going ice skating with him down at central park like normal teenagers did. As it was he had to drag her away from her textbooks as she attempted to learn the entire language of French within the two weeks of break. (damn new year's resolutions)

Thalia had, of course, brought Reyna along and, as soon as they reached the skating rink, shot off hand in hand with her soulmate, leaving her and Percy alone to attempt to figure out how the hell not to fall over on thin pieces of metal attached to their feet.

As it was, she was currently doing better than Percy.

Percy was floundering about like a fish out of water, sliding on his butt, ankles, and knees and just looking like a total idiot the whole time. Annabeth doubts she's ever laughed as hard as she did when Percy somehow managed to get his skate stuck in the wall he had crashed into and was left floundering about helplessly with his foot attached to the wall.

Annabeth had known Percy since she was nine, met him in her third-grade class and proceeded to dump a carton of apple juice over his head in retribution for him insulting the yellow power ranger.

They'd been friends ever since.

So when Percy slid on his butt for the hundredth time and crashed straight into the knees of a boy with wild red hair and scruffy facial hair, noticed the fish and dolphins that curled down the boy's arms, and proceeded to abandon her for the rest of the hour she was at the skatepark, she was less than enthused.