twenty-six ── old acquaintances
"𝕹ight baby!" Luke looked up, accepting the kiss that Eden pressed to his hair as he continued to finish up homework. "Don't stay up too late, go to bed soon."
"Yeah, I'm almost done."
"Good, good. Remember, dad's picking you up from school tomorrow for hockey." Eden poked her head back into the room to speak to him. "He said he'll be there on time."
"Yeah, that's cool." Luke nodded again, shrugging his shoulders. "How long's he staying for?"
"A week?" Eden guessed, before pulling a face. "I don't know, Luke. You know he's a bit in the wind at points, kind of hard to pin him down. He'll be here for as long as he's able to ignore his phone."
"Week sounds good."
"What are you two planning?"
"Nothing!" Luke remedied quickly. "Dad said that he and I were gonna go into the city at one point. Think he's taking me to watch a basketball game."
"Sounds fun." Eden nodded, before kissing his head again. "Go to bed."
"I'm on it. You're distracting me." He pulled a face as his mom left the room quickly. Luke turned back to his work, easily flicking through the last of his math's questions as best he could. Finally, he was done and Luke stretched, before grabbing his water bottle from the table and going to fill it up.
Jogging down the stairs, Luke patted Bradley's sleeping form from where he was collapsed in his dog bed, before filling his water bottle up and starting to flick off lights. As he walked back through the house, he was blinded by a quick flash to his right. Turning his head, Luke found a flash light being used to get his attention.
Every nerve in his body was on high alert, as Luke grew tense, and began to think of what he could do. Turning back, he flicked the outside light on, before recognising the face that stared back at him.
He'd know those eyes anywhere. They haunted his dreams and reminded him of why he shouldn't be comfortable around a god, let alone safe in a house.
Luke stood, before opening the door and stepping outside, grabbing keys as he went.
"What are you doing here?" He wrapped his arms around himself, staring down at the younger teenager, who was watching him carefully.
"Came to get you." Thalia Grace hadn't changed a bit. A little skinnier, and her eyes more wary, but she was the exact same as a year ago, when Luke had been on the run with her. They'd found each other in a back alley in a city, when Luke had been trying to run away from Connecticut and New York, and they'd travelled together for a while.
Of course, Luke had then been caught considering he was on both the police and social service's systems, having been caught before after running away from foster care. They'd arrested him in front of Thalia, who had been hidden, and Luke had been dragged back to a foster home in Connecticut, near where May had been. Whenever he had gotten comfortable at his mom's home, he'd always remembered Thalia's eyes watching him as he was arrested, and worried about if she was still living or not.
The weight of her life was a heavy burden for Luke.
"What is this place?" Thalia asked, looking up at the large house, with it's columns and windows. "Are you alright? I didn't know what happened after they took you."
"I'm good. I'm alright." Luke nodded, untensing slightly. "They put me in the system again, and then I got out."
"How'd you get out?"
"Well, I-" He paused, something dawning on him. "How did you find me?"
"I saw this and I would recognise you anywhere, even if you were in a monkey suit." Thalia joked, handing Luke a scrap of paper. The teenager took it, his eyes going wide as he saw the picture of him, Eden and Hermes from the charity gala around New Years. "You've grown, a lot since I last saw you."
"Well, I think I was slightly malnourished when you last saw me. I've been able to eat here." Luke replied with a shrug.
"What is here?"
"I-"
"Thalia." Luke paused, before looking around and seeing a small girl standing and staring at them.
"Thalia, who is that?"
"This is Annabeth."
"Why is there a seven year old holding a dagger?" Luke hissed, turning to stare at the little girl, who was holding onto the dagger like a lifeline, her grey eyes wide. "Gods, did you help a seven year old run away?"
"She was in an alley. I didn't know what to do and it was right after you were taken."
"Take her to the police. Get her back to her family. Thalia, she's seven!" Luke cried, before quietening his voice as he tried not to wake his mom up. "She's a child."
"She's a demigod, and she doesn't want to go home." Thalia tried to argue. "I couldn't let her go back."
"Thalia, she's seven." Luke reiterated, lowering his voice as he stepped closer to Thalia. "You and I both know, better than anyone, that you shouldn't be running around, killing monsters and doing that sort of shit at that age."
Luke did know that.
Sure, he'd been nine when they'd caught him the first time, but he'd survived alone on the streets since he was a lot younger. May would sometimes become more lucid, and they'd go shopping, and then she'd forget what she was doing and leave him places and he'd have to find his own way home. For a six year old stranded in the middle of no where, that was terrifying.
"You shouldn't be here." Luke finished. "Get her to a police station."
"They will take her to a foster home or something."
"Better than on the streets, Thalia." Luke shook his head. "It's not a great other option, but it's better than this one."
"There's another option. Camp Half-Blood." Thalia began to state her case. "We're going and I had to come and find you because I needed to make sure that you got to safety too."
"I'm safe."
"But not as protected as at Camp Half-Blood." Thalia cut him off again, as Luke groaned.
"That's a 160 mile trip from here, Thalia. I know. It would take us multiple days, and we'd have to dodge a lot of things; police, monsters, literally just people in general which means we'd have to skirt New York. That's not even a good option." Luke tensed up, the uneasy feeling washing over him as he looked around. "You should come inside."
"We can't stop, Luke." Thalia whispered. "I messed up."
"What happened?"
"We're being chased."
"By what?"
"Cyclops." Luke also froze. He could handle most monsters, but cyclops'? He couldn't handle a fully grown cyclops. Turning, Luke stared back at the house, thinking of Eden and what would happen if a cyclops attacked them. Would it hurt his mom?
Terror surrounded him, his breath shortening as Luke tried to think about what was best to do. What did he do?
"Luke, we have to go. You've got to come."
"Thalia, please, don't ask me to do this again." Luke shook his head, feeling sick.
"You were on the streets longer than I was. You know the tricks, you know how to get us through, you know how to steal. This is your home area, you've got to get us to Camp."
"Thalia, please." Luke begged, the uncomfortable feeling racing through him once more, as he shook his head. "I can't...I can't do this again."
Her hand grabbed his, shocking him slightly, as Luke faced her.
"Luke, you have to come with us."
☾☼☽
Eden didn't normally wake up in the middle of the night, but something was off. Something was truly off.
Sitting up, she stood up, trying to work out what it was.
"Luke?" There was no reply, and Eden hurried towards his room, flipping the light on. His room was a mess, there were clothes missing and Eden hurried to the closet, opening it and looking for the little box at the top that she knew hid a dagger. Pulling it down, she opened it to find that the dagger was gone. "No. Luke!"
Sprinting down the stairs, Eden checked the entire house, searching for him, before opening the door and hurrying out into the night.
"Luke!" There was still no response, and Eden raced for her phone, dialling a familiar number.
"Eden, why are you up?" She couldn't breathe, and barely speak. "Eden?"
"Luke...Luke's gone. Hermes, I don't know. I don't know where he's gone and I can't find him and there are clothes missing and his dagger's gone, and I'm scared." The phone went dead, and Eden wanted to scream, before turning and finding herself wrapped in a familiar pair of arms. "He was here. I asked him to go to bed and then I went to bed and he's not here, Hermes. He's...He's...He's not here!"
"Hush, it's alright. I'm here." Hermes soothed, holding onto the woman as her fingernails dug into his coat. "We're going to find him, alright."
"How?"
"We'll find him." Hermes promised, before pulling away. "Call Alfie, and Ashlee. Call your mom, I'm going to go and check the surrounding area. Then, we'll deal with this."
☾☼☽
Hiya,
So, you asked for Thalia and Annabeth, and this is what happened. Fun! Anyway, we're getting into a lot of fun for the next few chapter, and I also had this really smart idea to edit Eden and Luke to the 'my baby, my baby, you're my baby' song and it kind of makes me sad. So you can have that edit on my tiktok in about an hour and a half?
Let me know what you think,
Love Li xx