I have been deleting almost all of my stories on Fanfiction, simply because I need to edit them more. They might be up again later.

After my ("failed") multi-chapter fic, I started a new one. It was an idea I had to get down for a while now, an AU where Percy is blind and Annabeth is deaf. It might sound really weird right now, but I hope it'll get better.

Warning: Percy might seem a bit OOC in the beginning. It's better for that (cliche but useful) "broken guy" kind of feel.

This is also for the ending of the Heroes of Olympus. Just a bit more Percabeth. :D

I do not own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus.

Chapter 1

Percy was a funny kid.

He loved to swim even though he couldn't see where the water was. He could push through swamps of algae and seaweed without seeing where he would end up. He could tell who was beautiful without knowing what their faces looked like.

His mom tried to get help for him.

What for; he didn't need any help.

He was fine the way he was.

Immersed in black, it was okay to him. It was like navigating through water, just the same. He had no problem with darkness.

But Percy was a funny kid.

And maybe one day… he wanted to see something. For once.

Maybe opening your eyes and actually seeing something materialize was cooler than trying to make your way out of an eternal maze.

But for now, he was fine the way he was.

Teachers had called him "blind." Hell, he wasn't blind. Why would he be blind? He just simply couldn't see anything but black. That wasn't blind, was it?

"It is," his mother told him when he was nine. "You used to see until you turned eight."

"Then how come I can't remember?" he protested. "I should be able to remember."

And she had looked at him sadly, and pointed to the few scars on his head and he realized that he couldn't remember.

Percy hated not remembering.

Then, he hated not seeing. He wanted to see his mother's face again. He wanted to meet his father, wherever he was, and see if he was cool like the other dads kids talked about. He wanted to actually know what his best friend Grover actually looked like. And what did he look like, exactly?

Now, he didn't care.

Besides, it was better this way. "Don't judge a book by its cover" was one of his mother's favorite sayings. Look, he couldn't.

Percy couldn't remember ever feeling the need to see ever again, not after the age of ten. Ten was a turning point. Nobody starts to care at ten. Things just tumbled from his brain, and spilled from his mouth.

People said he was handsome. With black hair and the "deepest sea green eyes." Percy couldn't tell if they were lying. If he took a guess, he would be the ugliest beast that ever crawled the planet.

"It's a shame that he can't know what he looks like," they all said, and he shrugged.

"I don't really mind," was always his reply.

Percy never minded until he turned fifteen.

He moved to a different school, to a different city. The move from Manhattan to Long Island was not very far, but he couldn't travel in cars. Percy hated cars. If he could, he would rather swim there.

And he felt long and lanky and out of place at his new school. He could feel presences here and there, and people brushed past him as if he were just a tree or a clump of bushes. He wanted to go after them and hit them, but for now, he was content with nobody talking about it.

So Percy leaned against the bike rack and pulled his hood over his head, trying to leer at any younger kids. He didn't know how to leer; he never saw one. He tried his best, though. He read about them in books, felt the dots beneath his fingers. He should have an idea.

He felt a funny bump to his side and he whirled around in utter confusion, knocking his knees on the bike rack.

Percy swore fluently, reaching his hands out like a desperate zombie trying to catch at a few helpless moths. Do zombies even try to catch moths?

"Stop it, Percy! Shut your mouth! What's wrong with you?"

"Who are you?" he yelled. "Are you harassing me? Go away, go away!"

"It's me, Annabeth!" And Percy stood still.

"A… nna… beth?"

Damn, he felt like he should remember, but he couldn't. He really hated not remembering.

"Yes, it's me, are you blind?"

"No," he lashed back, now offended. "I just can't see you."

Percy felt like he could almost hear her mouth open and close in realization.

"Percy…"

"What now? I don't need pity. I'm a man, Annabeth… something. I can't see you, what do you look like? I don't remember you, I don't know you. Am I supposed to remember you?"

Annabeth sighed, and he felt her hair swish, making the wind blow across his jacket.

"We were friends when we were little, and I moved when we were eight."

Percy cringed. "I hate that year. Worst year ever. Got my fu-"

"No cursing, the teachers are going to hear you-"

"-cking head cracked open when I was eight, and now I can't remember a damn thing."

"Well," and she moved, now to his right, "you're not so off with my story. Seven years really do change people."

"What happened to you?" Percy demanded. "I don't really know, or care, but-"

"My ears," Annabeth interrupted, not caring for a word he said. "They're absolute crap. I can't hear a thing. I was twelve," she automatically said in reply to his unanswered question. "I can read lips well, I trained myself."

"How?"

"I'm choosing not to answer that," she answered briskly. "How did you end up here?"

"'New school, new opportunities,'" and he used air quotes. "Mom never skips a beat."

"Mirrors my dad's words. Hey, did you find your dad yet?"

Percy looked highly affronted. "How do you know?"

"Doesn't the word friend ring a bell to you?"

"No," he admitted softly. "No, but I want to. I sure as hell want to. I hope he wants to meet me, wherever he is. Needs to crawl out of his hole, that old man, not seeing his son."

Percy couldn't see, but he was sure she smiled a soft smile. He was sure she was beautiful when she smiled.

She radiated beauty.

How could he ever forget such a presence?

"It's okay, Percy, I'm here for you, even though you don't remember me anymore. When you need me, just yell at them to bring over Annabeth Chase. They can't say no to a little blind boy."

"I'm not blind!" he protested.

He already knew she disappeared.

"But thanks for the help anyways."

Annabeth Chase slouched.

She wasn't a princess, she wasn't a lady. Nobody could tell her not to slouch.

She slouched because the world sucked. She didn't have a problem saying that out loud, because who would, if it was true?

She lost her first ever friend when she moved. She lost her father along with her mother now; only rarely now he talked to her. And she lost her precious hearing.

Ah, humans, so fragile and easily broken.

Annabeth wished she was an animal. Animals were tough. Why did humans have to dominate the world? Animals couldn't break.

Humans always found hope in others, always thinking there was a cure when there wasn't, and that's what she loved and hated about humans.

Sometimes, she wished they would.

They were too sensitive, too close to everything, too easy to hurt and have their hearts broken and stomped on. Only humans thought about things like that.

Being deaf was stupid. Whoever invented the word deaf was stupid. It sounded too much like death. And Annabeth Chase was nowhere near death.

She wished she could slouch her worries away.

Nobody could slouch their worries away.

It was a sad truth.

She grew used to her dad never yelling at her to come down for breakfast. Even if she could hear, he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't do anything that had to do with her mother. Annabeth was told she was a relic of her mother.

Her dad was stupid. He was so insanely human.

Nobody she knew was as human as him.

Except for Percy.

He was so naive but so hard-hearted at the same time, she was surprised he could be the same person; two sides of the same coin. Once a prankster and rebel, and the other side so delicate at the same time.

And his eyes, his eyes that could see nothing.

Annabeth couldn't say she wasn't surprised when his usually alert eyes were covered with some glassy sheen, as if coated with some kind of gel.

It was disturbing. She wanted to edge away from him, and she wanted to cry and hug him at the same time.

But he was so distant… he wasn't the old Percy Jackson she once knew.

She had no problem admitting it: over a succession of only a few years, she had a crush on him.

Annabeth just wanted to hear his voice again. She had never wanted to hear something so badly.

And when he talked to her, she wanted to hear the words from his mouth… and not just his lips moving in senseless directions.

She wanted him to say her name, not just mouth it.

Annabeth was in a dilemma.

But now… she could start anew.

She had no friends. She loved staying in the classrooms and putting her head on the desk more than playing soccer outside, or run on the grass, or gossip with others. Sometimes, she just didn't want to live anymore.

But Percy Jackson… she wondered if his voice was still the same, the same lilt, the same lisp when he said words with the letter s in them, the same childish laughter that seemed too low for a child and too high for a teenager.

Annabeth was sorry he couldn't see what he looked like.

He said he didn't need her pity, but she pitied him anyways.

And she was glad he couldn't see her, sometimes.

Annabeth wasn't pretty. She had untamable blonde hair, dyed an ugly color from her dad making her swim over the summer (why, she still wasn't sure) and had legs that seemed too broad and muscular for a girl. Her skin was far too tan for the term gorgeous, and her eyes were too cold for the term cool. She even had a spray of acne on her forehead that wouldn't disappear after many weeks.

Her father's friends, who sometimes came over for who-knows-what, commented on her appearance. "Her eyes are just like her mother's", "She would catch people's eye", and "She will grow up to be something special" all boomed around the walls, almost making her blood thunder in her ears.

She wanted to drown into a puddle and evaporate.

Annabeth didn't want to be a person anymore.

Percy was so unexplainably human. He had some sort of weird grace emitting from him, but an ugly something radiating from him, build up from years of hurt and rejection, and wonder and the question "why?".

He was ADHD, and had dyslexia before losing his sight altogether. It was a wonder how he didn't go insane.

Funny, seeing him again almost made her want to be human again. So she could help him stand up again. They would stand together. Two dysfunctional kids in a dysfunctional world.

Humans had too many emotions. She hated that. Humans were like cracked mirrors, never able to revert back to what they once were.

She would help him, step by step, she decided. And maybe, Annabeth would want to be human again. Maybe she would get a second chance. No rejections, no shying away, no people pointing and prodding, and always saying "I'm sorry" and "I apologize" and "pardon me."

She would be brave. Be brave for Percy.

He was stronger than she.

She had parents she knew, and his father had never seen his son's face.

Annabeth Chase had a plan.

So when school ended, she shoved her hands in her pockets and walked out of the gates without a second glance. It was all for Percy. Because, people said feelings grow stronger when someone is not there.

"I'm home… Dad," was what came from her mouth for the first time in many years, almost a decade. "Some stuff happened."

But what she really meant was, "I think I'm in love with Percy Jackson."