A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson & The Olympians.
"The worst thing about distance is that you don't know whether they'll miss you or forget you."
-Taylor Greger
Forget Me Not
"Please remember me…"
The Argo II, the best flying device Annabeth's seen the Hephaestus's cabin built so far and Annabeth hadn't even bothered to appraise the "spankin hot war machine". Instead she leaned against to rails of the ship and temporarily found comfort in the soft winds playing with her hair as the Argo II flew across the skies at an amazing speed.
Annabeth sighed softy, the wind taking and blowing it away. She distractedly fingered the petals of the delicate flower she had in her clammy hands—a blue forget-me-not flower Piper had given her in hopes of cheering her up. It was funny really; a forget-me-not flower just before reuniting with her boyfriend that probably didn't remember a thing?
Ha, ha, ha, she thought drily as she walked back into what everyone's dubbed as the Battle Room and seat herself on one of the various chairs in the room.
Intentional or not, it agitated her to no end. Looking at the small petals, she couldn't help but selfishly hope that the Romans didn't find Percy. That he was still wondering around, fighting monsters and hopefully not falling in love with a Roman girl.
He's strong enough to fend himself for eight months, right? He didn't belong with them. Even if was temporal thing, Percy, her Seaweed Brain, belonged in Camp Half-Blood not some stupid Roman camp. They wouldn't be good for him, no, they'd torture him—they'd mold him into someone new; someone who was not the Percy she's been desperately looking for! They'd torture him! Brainwash him! Make him get on his knees and whip him if he did one single mistake! They'd—
"Annabeth!"
She snapped out of her panicked thoughts and met Piper's kaleidoscope eyes. For a second her eyes turned a beautiful color of sea green that made Annabeth's stomach clench and her heart plummet. She avoided her gaze and lowered her eyes to her hands, where she noticed the poor flower she had destroyed by balling up her fists in her reverie.
Piper's voice sounded again, this time much more close. "Annabeth? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she responded automatically, the words flowing from her mouth even though she was anything but fine.
"Okay, well…how many times have you said that and actually meant it," Piper asked with a concerned look at Annabeth's balled fists.
Annabeth's internally winced. She sat up straighter, trying, but not successfully, to push any thoughts of Percy to the back of her mind.
"As many times as Leo's been modest," she answered truthfully. Piper stared at her for a while until they both shared a small laugh.
Still, the light never reached Annabeth's eyes.
They quieted down and Piper took the advantage to drag a chair next to Annabeth. She perched herself on it and looked at Annabeth with quizzical gaze—silently battling with herself as she chose her words carefully, before she settled on a causal tone of voice.
Yet, when she opened her mouth to speak and then Annabeth's gray orbs fixed on her, Piper suddenly found her mind taking a sharp detour from her original plans.
"W-what's Percy like?" Piper rushed out, blood rushing to her cheeks as she realized the words she spoke.
Percy Jackson—son of Poseidon, black hair, green eyes, main participant in the first Great Prophecy, and savior of Olympus—that's what Piper had learned from the campers. However, the past few months building the Argo II, Piper had learned something else: Percy Jackson was also a major touchy subject for anyone who's friends with him. Especially Annabeth.
So when the words tumbled out of her mouth, Piper expected one out of two things: A furious, fiery-eyed Annabeth or a vulnerable, weeping Annabeth. She braced herself for these options yet nothing came at her.
Why, simply because Piper's words seemed to have missed their target and flown directly over Annabeth's head. And if Piper hadn't known better, she would have assumed Annabeth didn't hear her, but she knew better from the way her eyes suddenly flooded with great emotion.
Piper stayed silent after that, and Annabeth appreciated it.
Annabeth had decided to ignore Piper's attempts of making her open up. She appreciated the gesture, she truly did, but she wasn't ready to deal with the issue because she knew for a fact that when she thought about Percy, she was always reminded of that ridiculously, reasonable high chance that Percy didn't have his memories. And she couldn't cope with that.
She couldn't cope with the idea of Percy not having his memories.
It was assumed that Percy had lost his memories like Jason, but it wasn't a rock solid fact, and she was holding on to that.
She never truly considered how it would affect her. How it would affect both of them if the five years' worth of memories she had experienced with him were simply gone.
Life-threatening quests? She had been right there at his side, fighting alongside him. Days where they had to part and return to their respective families? They had iris messaged as soon as they could find a drachma and mist.
They had found a loophole through all situations, but this one? This time, Annabeth could do nothing except wallow in her own self-pity and her furious hatred for Hera.
Annabeth took a deep breath from her nose as she pulled way from her inner musings. Putting her palms on "Annabeth's Strategy/Drawing Table" as she stood from her chair, she focused in on Piper—who looked up when Annabeth coughed softly.
She swallowed, "Uh, I'm going to check on Jason and Leo."
She didn't wait to hear a response but before she could completely flee and run out the door, a lean hand grasped her upper arm. Instinctively she tensed, but loosened up as she saw Piper.
"Annabeth! I…uh, I'm here if you want to talk anytime," Piper told her sincerely, "I'll admit, we aren't BFFs and I'm probably not even qualified to, but I think you could really use some sort of outlet to vent to."
Something about Piper made Annabeth want to spill her worries, problems, and insecurities. She actually contemplated the offer. At first she blamed it on Piper's Charmspeak abilities, but she knew that wasn't that. She truly did need an outlet as Piper had suggested. It was just her stubbornness and pride that prevented her from just doing that.
Annabeth bit her lip, "Why don't you go talk to Jason instead? He looks like he needs an 'outlet' more than I do."
Piper shook her head and stood from her chair. "That's the problem! I know Jason is freaking out about the whole Roman ordeal, he shows it. You, on the other hand, don't. I know you're freaking out too Annabeth, but what worries me is that you don't even show it. You keep it bottled up inside you, not bothering to share. We could help you, you know."
Annabeth glared, suddenly angry at the way Piper had looked at her with pity. "I'm not some charity case! I don't need help, and even if I did, then what? What am I supposed to do? Spill out my sob story to the new campers? You guys don't even know Percy or what we've been through!"
"Then help us understand." This was Jason.
The girls' heads whipped around to see Jason and Leo, they had rushed to the room when they'd heard Annabeth's shrill voice and were now standing idly near the doorway.
Annabeth huffed, and crossed her arms—her eyes stinging as angry tears threatened to spill as she looked at Jason, whom always reminded her of Percy.
"So what? So you can give me false assurances?"
"Better than zero assurances," mumbled Leo.
Annabeth's vision became blurry with unshed tears. She blinked furiously and avoided any eye contact, praying to not show weakness in front of the trio.
"Look," she croaked out, "I don't need any of your stupid sympathy right now, alright? I'm fine."
"You're not fine," Leo said bluntly.
Annabeth let out a small wail before snapping, "I will be fine!"
With that said, Annabeth choked back a cry and pushed past the two boys at the doorway, unintentionally shouldering the boys a little too hard. She left the room, leaving the trio to huddle together and exchange worried looks.
"She's not taking her boyfriend's disappearance too well," Leo stated while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
Jason sighed dejectedly. "Tell us something we don't know. She needs some help."
"Like that's going to happen anytime soon. Children of Athena are typically hubristic; they have a serious pride and dignity issue. You guys think she's going to be asking for help? Especially help from us? The newbies?" Piper asked rhetorically.
"Hey! Who do you think you're calling a newbie, Beauty Queen?''
"Piper's right," Jason said.
Piper let out a deep breath. "She's confused, she's heartbroken and she's upset. With so many emotions and things happening left and right, she's bound to feel a little lost and broken. Not to mention that her boyfriend has been AWOL for almost a year. And not to be so, um, stereotypical or anything, but I don't think… children of Athena are quite so used to being so conflicted or good at dealing with emotions."
"So you're saying children of Athena are super smart robots, and Annabeth's just a weird robot but with feelings? Like that one robot in Will Smith's movie I Robot? Because that was a cool movie!"
Piper and Jason turned to look at Leo with looks as if to say "Really?"
"… I'm kidding! Holy Hephaestus, everyone is so serious here. Haven I told you guys I don't do serious, because here it is: I don't do serious." Leo said.
Jason smiled a bit before stating solemnly, "Okay, okay. That's enough of this crap. Let's just agree on one thing: try to get Annabeth to vent, talk, whatever she needs to do. We have about twenty-four hours before we arrive at Camp Jupiter, she needs to be prepared to accept that Percy might not be there, not have his memories or…"
Jason trailed off suddenly, leaving Piper and Leo to finish his sentence and voice what no camper at Camp Half-blood had openly accepted as a possibility.
"…Or dead."
A/N: I had this one my desktop for quite a bit of time, and I decided on posting in here. I figured, why not? I'm not sure if I'm up to post another chapter. If I do it won't be my full-blown intake of The Mark of Athena. If anything, it'll end a bit after Percy and Annabeth's reunion. Does that have a particular name? Multi-shot? Ha-ha, or is just considered a short story. Either way, I hope you enjoyed this so far. As I said, there's a possibility of another chapter if readers are really interested or if I whip something up. Feel free to review and leave a bit of love. Love you guys.