AMANTI, nico di angelo

II. please don't insult my vain uncle

0002. | PLEASE DON'T
INSULT MY VAIN UNCLE

It was six o'clock and Annabeth was awake. She had only four hours of sleep and she was exhausted, but it never showed. If it were possible, when Annabeth was tired, she looked fiercer than ever. But she didn't feel so fierce when she knew the reason she had awoken so early was to hide her hair.

After the events of the Winter Solstice, Annabeth's hair had been marked with a horrid grey streak the width of her finger that grew from the root and dyed all the way to the tip. Annabeth wasn't ashamed of what she had done, that's what she told herself as she tied back her curls to hide the colour in a ponytail; that she was proud of holding up the sky, a burden that a great titan had bore.

But Annabeth was too clever to ignore the looks that people gave her. She had tried to be ignorant to them in the beginning but she had accepted defeat in tying her hair back and away from her face. Out of sight, out of mind. Another one of the things Annabeth told herself.

Still, a single curl remained obstinate to her yield and dangled irritably in front of her eyes that she constantly had to flick away, or blow out of view. Once or twice Annabeth had thought about asking a child of Aphrodite to help her, maybe give her some hairspray, but she had not yet sunk so low in her pride to ask. But maybe now that she had met Vela it wouldn't be so hard to do so.

Annabeth wasn't sure what to think of Vela. Chiron hadn't told her much of his myth, but Annabeth wasn't sure at all what she should understand nor expect from him. According to his myth, Vela was born from only Aphrodite, with the gift of Zeus. That meant only one thing to Annabeth - he was all god, all immortal, all threat.

Annabeth wasn't sure how long his amnesia would last, but as soon as it was over and he had earned all his knowledge of what Chiron had said to be two thousand years worth, she wasn't sure at all what kind of a threat he would be. She could hardly picture the skinny, stuttering, stumbling boy from four hours ago as some kind of monster. But then again, Annabeth was never going to make that mistake ever again. Not after Luke. Not after what he did.

But still, she couldn't be blind to Vela's timid nature, nor his kind smile that mirrored Silena's remarkably. Certainly no one would deny their relation as maternal half-siblings. With their dark, ash brown hair and colour changing eyes, they were a perfect pair.

But Silena couldn't look after Vela forever, and soon Annabeth would have to go and pick him up for his tour and his explanation for everything demigod. Annabeth was dreading the thousands of questions she already knew Vela would ask after hours of speech improvement that came with time. But nevertheless, she had to go.