A/N: This is set after The Titan's Curse. Another A/N is at the bottom of the story.

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians is the intellectual property of Rick Riordan. I own nothing but the pathetic excuse for a plot.

KNOCK-KNOCK

I froze in my tracks. I had been on my way from the kitchen, getting me some chips and getting ready to have a parent-free afternoon with Finding Nemo. Mom couldn't be back by now, and she had a key, so there was really nobody who would knock on our day right now. Carefully, I set the bowl full of snacks down and grabbed Riptide.

The pen in my hand, ready to uncap it if necessary, I opened the door, and found myself face-to-face with—

'Luke!'

Immediately, I backed off, uncapping the pen to turn it into a sword and pointing it at my enemy's face. Within seconds, my brain went into battle-mode.

'I'm not armed, Percy.' As if to prove his point, Luke spread his arms, exposing his unprotected chest to me (he wore a shirt, mind you!).

'What do you want? Why are you even alive?' By all standards, I was doing a pretty bad job right now. Don't get involved in a conversation with the enemy. Don't let them distract you. But the question why Luke was alive – sure, Annabeth and my father had told me so, but Luke had fallen down several metres – was too important to ignore it.

'You can drop your weapon, Percy. You can't hurt me. One of the perks of bathing in the River Styx' Luke shrugged. I frowned. 'So I'd better hit your foot, then?' Luke shook his head and lifted his arm. 'If you want to kill me… there. That's the critical spot.' He chuckled at my confused expression. 'You could thrust your sword forward, kill me, end this war, prevent Kronos from rising. Or…' He left his sentence unfinished.

'Or what?' I demanded. 'And why are you telling me this?' His behaviour made absolutely no sense. Unless he was suicidal, why would he reveal his vulnerable spot to me?

'Or you could let me in. I know that I'm asking for a lot, but you could trust me. I'm unarmed. I want to talk, Percy. And besides… killing someone who has no weapon isn't like you, Percy.'

Damn right he was. Slowly, I backed off, my sword still pointing at him as I stepped aside to let him in.

'Talk' I demanded once Luke had sat down. I had turned Riptide into pen form again, but it was still in my hand. I would not put my sword away in the presence of the enemy. I had already taken a way too big risk. If anybody ever learned about this, it would probably be my death sentence.

'Run away with me.'

If I wouldn't have seen Luke's lips – pretty lips, by the way – moving, I would have been sure that I had not just heard these words.

'Run away, as in, join Kronos? I thought you'd know me better than this, Luke.' But the son of Hermes shook his head. 'No. Run away as in escape the war. End the war. Without me, Kronos cannot rise. We can hide. You didn't ask to run errands and get your hands dirty for the gods. Neither did I.' His eyes had begun to light up. 'We can leave this behind, Percy! We can live our lives without the gods, without the future The Fates have created for us! We can be free of all this!'

'Why me, Luke? Why would you ask me of all people to run away with you? I have the least reason to trust you, you who left me to die.' At this, Luke hung his head and sighed. 'I know' he whispered. 'But you… you're also the least biased when it comes to me. To the others… they've been my friends for years and I betrayed them. They hate me. But you… you are special. You don't believe the whole bullshit about the oh-so-important gods. You know that they only use heroes. And… I trust you, Percy. I trust you more than anyone else in the world. Otherwise I wouldn't have come here.'

'Come back' I countered. 'Come back to camp. Join us again. As I understand it, Kronos depends on souls who join him. If you, his first follower, defect from him, he will be weak again. You don't have to run away. End Kronos, and you can leave Camp Half-Blood. Without a war impending, we can leave Camp Half-Blood.'

Luke smiled weakly. 'They would kill me if I returned to camp. To them, I am a traitor.'

Angrily, I stood up. 'Give it a try!' I demanded. 'You said you trust me! If you were the one to stop Kronos, nobody would kill you! And if they wanted to, they'd have to kill me first, because I would stand up for you! Just come back!' Hot tears flew out of my eyes and streamed down my face, dropping onto the floor.

'Did you learn this in one of Annabeth's "negotiation with the enemy"-classes?' Luke asked. 'Pulling off this whole feelings-shit… very impressive, Percy. But why?'

I was unable to stop the next words.

'Because I love you!'

Yes. That was true. I was in love with Luke Castellan. With the man who had tried to kill me on multiple occasions. With the man who had betrayed me and left me to die. With my arch enemy. I knew it was wrong. I had never felt this way before. But I couldn't change it. He was my first crush, and The Fates were truly cruel, because one day, I would have to kill him or vice versa.

Luke looked shocked for a moment, while I was still crying and sobbing. Tears blurred my vision. Suddenly, strong arms wrapped themselves around me and pulled me to Luke's muscular chest, hugging me tight.

'Sshh, Percy. Don't cry. Please don't cry, Percy.' And despite the fact that I was supposed to hate Luke, I wrapped my arms around him and cried onto his broad chest until—

'Well, if that's not a cute sight' snarled a female voice, and we jumped apart. A few metres away stood a demon with a human and an artificial leg. An empousai.

'Lord Kronos is very angry, Castellan' the empousai snarled. 'You will be punished for this. But now that we have the Jackson kid…' She grinned cruelly.

'You! You betrayed me again!' I spat at Luke, venom overwhelming me. In the end, he was just a cruel strategist, and he had planned all this to lure me into his trap and bring me to Kronos. My hand uncapped Riptide, and the sword cut the air. Where the empousai had stood was now yellow dust. My vision red from hatred, I turned towards Luke, who raised his arms in panic to shield his face.

It might have been coincidence. It might not have been coincidence. The tip of my sword hit the spot under Luke's arm, and Luke cried out in pain. My sword fell to the floor as I saw blood splattering out of the wound. Next thing I knew, I was on my knees next to Luke, who was coughing and panting. Everything, my hands, my arms, Luke's body, was covered in blood.

'Luke! No!' I cried as I hugged the son of Hermes, begging him not to die in panic. He couldn't die. He mustn't die. Enemy or not, I needed him. I couldn't live without him. For the first time today, I wished I would have accepted his offer. Now it was too late.

Luke's hand found its way to my face, his thumb caressing my cheek. 'Percy,' Luke panted, 'please… believe me. I didn't… know this. I… did not… betray you.' He coughed. His other hand petted the hair on the back of my head, bringing our faces closer.

'I love you too, Percy.' He closed the distance, pulling me closer, our lips touching for the first and last time. 'Would you… have been… my boyfriend?'

'Yes' I whispered. And this were the last words spoken before the life left Luke Castellan's body.

Hundred miles away, the remnants of Kronos screamed in hatred and agony as they were sucked back into Tartarus as his strongest follower died. I couldn't care less.

I lay next to him for an eternity, crying and sobbing into his shirt, my head rested on the chest of my dead love. My would-have-been boyfriend. In another universe, we might be together, happy, but now and here, Luke was dead.

I was jolted out of my thoughts by a loud scream. My mother had come home and scared at the dead body and the blood. Slowly, I rose from the floor, my arms still covered in Luke's blood.

'We need a shroud. A shroud for the son of Hermes.'

'A shroud for my dead boyfriend.'

A/N: This is the most (and first, I guess?) non-canon story I've ever written. Besides the – obvious – fact that Luke x Percy is – best case – a headcanon, Percy has as far as I know also never dealt with empousae before The Battle for the Labyrinth.

I deliberately used the words Percy speaks in The Last Olympian for the ending. Though I had – since I only own the German version of the PJO books – to translate them from German back to English. Feel free to correct me and provide me with the original quote.