ONE-SHOT!

MY PARENTS LET ME EDIT AGAIN! (If you're confused about that, read "Descendants of Heroes" chapter "Steven IV")

Disclaimer: Actually, this is all a part of my plan. I will draw you in with my amazingly suckish writing skills... Soon... I WILL own the PJO series! And I will start with destroying that evil creature known as the DISCLAIMER! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Umm... Too much sugar...)

"Life ain't always what you think it oughta be, no." -The Band Perry "If I Die Young"

Cold.

She had never felt so cold.

The world was slipping away from her.

She was dying, and she knew it.

She stared up at those sea green eyes that she loved so much. That she hadn't seen in three years. He was dying as well. She could see it in the exhaustion in his warm gaze.

It was too cold.

At age nineteen, three years after they had beat the odds, she drove to the city that he loved. It was there that their searches for the other had ended. Not two days ago.

Now, they were finally together. They had finally found each other again.

But now they were dying.

She reached up and traced his jawline with her hand, trying to memorize every inch of his strong, warm face. When she traced his lips with a finger, he caught her hand and brought her fingers to his mouth, and kissed them gently.

"I love you," he whispered against her skin. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before."

She smiled weakly. "It's all right, Seaweed Brain. I love you too."

He returned the weak smile, and pulled her into his warm chest.

He held her gently, the scent of the ocean and salty breeze twisting around her like a comfort. In his arms was where she felt safe. In his arms was where she felt loved. In his arms was where she wanted to be.

And in his arms was where she let go.

They lay on the cold earth, as the chill sapped the warmth from their bodies. But she was not afraid. She was calmer than she had been in a long time.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes and let the darkness take her.

He felt it when the warmth disappeared from her still figure. He saw when the light disappeared from her stormy grey eyes that would never again capture his gaze and erase his thoughts. But he couldn't cry. He was numb. He held her lifeless shape tightly against him, and shut his eyes.

It was over.

They were going to college. She was going to be an architect. She was going to be somebody. They were finally together.

But that was all gone.

No more music. No more laughter. No more happiness. No more life.

Gone.

All of it.

Just. Like. That.

He buried his face in her golden hair and sighed. What was left? She was where he wanted to be. He wanted to be with her. Nowhere else.

He wanted her and her alone. His life was meaningless without her. She had been the only thing that truly mattered to him. He had been willing to die for her.

And so the Fates granted his wish…

The next morning, a group of people crowded around a thin yellow tape, trying to get a glimpse of two figures lying beneath a large Oak tree. A boy and a girl. Both still and lightly dusted with snow.

And they would never know…

They would never know about the car running out of gas.

They would never know about the hours of cold and life-sapping exhaustion.

They would never know how it felt to die…

But they would also never know that somewhere… Far off where they couldn't see… In another time… another place… a lone girl stood on a grassy hill, under an apple tree. The light that seemed to radiate off of her made her long blonde ponytail glow with a golden hue, and her stormy grey eyes seemed to shine with wisdom well beyond her years.

They would never know how a distant voice called a name from somewhere behind her. They would never know how she spun around, searching for the source of that all-too-familiar voice. Or how a boy raced up the hill, heading towards her as if his very life depended on getting to her immediately; his messy black hair flying back with the speed of his movement, revealing deep sea green eyes shining with pure joy.

The people standing there would never know how the boy caught the girl up in his arms and spun her around, their laughter echoing around the hilltop. How the boy and girl were truly happy in this perfect moment. How they kissed passionately under that apple tree.

The people would never know how the rising sun reflected off of them, signaling a new dawn.

A new chapter.

A new beginning.

A new life.

They would never know…