So... HEY HEY HEY!

Yups, it's Tuesday. I told you guys that I would update today... mostly because of one reason, which you should figure out at the bottom.

Anyway, this is a one-shot I wrote for Goddess. Of. Writing.'s contest. I didn't end up entering it because I missed the deadline (he he, I get distracted easily) but I've had this sitting around for about a month and decided to post it. I'm think of making it a two-shot, tell me what you think.

Enjoy!

Oh, BTW, Annabeth might seem really OOC in this, but I'm conveying her deepest thoughts, not the ones she'd employ out loud. So... PLEASE no comments about how she's OOC. I already know.

Annabeth's POV

I step off the boat and immediately freeze.

I can feel it. Being so close to him, after all this time. I can sense his presence and we're finally connected again, even just in the ground. I can almost see him, and just knowing that he has walked on the earth I am standing on now gives me a sense of security that I haven't had for over half a year.

Of course, it could be Gaea playing tricks on me, but I don't want to think that way. Not now. Not when we're so close.

For the first time in my life, I don't know what to think. It's almost like I don't know how to think. All rationality has been swept from my brain, and I'm pretty sure it's the people standing beside me who are holding me up mentally, making sure I don't do something stupid and get us all killed.

Oh, but how I wish it was him holding me up.

And soon it might be.

I can feel my friends' eyes on me, watching. I'm the leader, with him gone, and although Jason is doing most of the talking, people are still watching me and I need to be strong. For them. For him. For myself.

But I can't. I just can't do it anymore. I've been strong. I haven't let anyone see me cry. I've held up under pressure, under circumstances when I feel like if I take another step without him I'll just break apart. But I still take that step. And every day without him feels like a year and some part of me wears away a little more.

I'm holding on. But I can't do it for much longer. I know I have too, though, because if I let go, it's like he never was here. It's like he's gone, forever, and I can't accept that. Not now. Not when I'm so close.

There's sound, voices, all around me, but it's dull and muted. A question penetrates through the drumming of the blood pounding in my ears and I hear my voice answer. But all the time, I'm still searching. I've never stopped searching, and I won't until I find him. Not until I find what I've been looking for.

I'm so close, I can feel it. Would the Fates be so cruel, to rip him from me and never return him? Would the Fates take the one thing that I had been looking forward to my entire life, the one thing that's kept me safe and sane all these years, the one thing that I can count on?

A little voice inside of me says, They have before.

And there's that question again; Why? Why did this have to happen to me, to him, to us? Why couldn't I have gone along? Why couldn't I have found him, the way he found me? Why couldn't I have been the one by his side, holding up as he slashes his way through enemies and saves the world again?

The little voice comes again. You know that it had to happen.

Yes, I do, but I don't see why.

There are people crowding us, bumping, pushing. And every single time I make contact with someone, I look up, expecting to see a pair of green eyes, boring into me and making me want to melt.

The green eyes aren't there.

I'm starting to give up. I can't be here anymore. I can't do this. I'm not the stubborn daughter of Athena I was before, with my impenetrable walls. I let someone in and now there's a door open, inside of me, that is going to let everything out, whether I want it to happen or not.

I turn, back to the ship, back to my charts and books and papers. Back to where I have some sense of ground, something I'm good at. Somewhere no one can hurt me. I turn back.

Someone grabs my wrist.

I turn around again.

Standing in front of me is someone I have memorized, right down to the tips of his jet-black hair. Someone who I've known for more than six years. Someone who knows me, who gets me like no one else does.

The world goes blank. Sounds are muted, colors are faded, and my entire world is made up of one person.

And so my entire world is perfect.

There isn't need to talk. I look at him. He looks back at me. Our severed link heals right back up. We connect and everything that we want to communicate rushes in between our eyes, where we're holding each other.

His hand is still closed around my wrist. He reaches out and hesitates, like he's afraid I'm not really here. Like if he touches me, I'll disappear and he'll be alone again.

So I reach out and touch him.

He blinks, not in a startled sort of way. He grabs my other hand, which is reaching up for his face and just holds it, in midair. His lips part and a single voice breaks through the sound barrier, giving me a sonic boom, a rush that I've been waiting to feel.

"Annabeth?" he says.

My name. How long have I waited to hear that from him, hear him say my name and how perfectly he does it. How his voice makes each syllable sound distinct and amazing and how I love my name more every time he says it.

How I feel now.

I'm nodding, I can feel it. And I can feel myself wanting to say his name, not say it to someone else, but say it to him, be talking to him. Calling him a Seaweed Brain and smacking him upside the head playfully whenever he does something stupid or almost gets himself killed. Sparring with him in the arena and knowing I'm only beating him because he's letting me, wounding my pride and caring for me all at the same time. To hear him shout at me from across the cabins. To see him smile at me. To see him.

I say his name. "Percy."

Something inside him seems to click, and he's grinning at me. Smiling like he hasn't been away from home. Smiling like nothing has happened. And making me want to punch and kiss him at the same time.

I settle for both.

"Ow!" He exclaims, rubbing his arm. "What was that for?"

"For being an idiot and going and getting yourself kidnapped! Do you have ANY idea how worried we were? ANY idea of how hard we searched for your sorry self? ANY idea, Percy? Any at ALL?"

He doesn't say anything. Instead, his hand cups my face and he brings me towards him. I'm startled for a moment, but then I know what is going to happen. And I don't want to wait any longer. His lips meet mine, and the barricades dissolve.

I can hear the wolf whistles and cat calls. I can see faces of our campers and the Romans. There are a guy and a girl behind Percy, and they're watching us both with tenderness in their eyes, like they had known us before and are reliving something that they've remembered or heard about.

Part of me wants to slap him again, because how can one kiss make up for all that lost time? But he's Percy, and he can move mountains if he feels like it. He can tame seas and hold up the sky. He can save the world and still be home in time for dinner. He's Percy, and he's not going to let six months get in our way. And he's certainly not going to let me go again.

So I let my eyes close and I can feel myself falling, again. But I'm not falling, down in a death spiral like I was before. I'm falling, but it's a nice kind of uncertainty, because I know that he'll be there to catch me. Because that's not a question. He's not a question.

My entire existence was uncertain. Without him, I didn't really know who I was or if I was even me, because he always has held a little part of me. And now he's back and I'm complete again. And even though our whole world is going to come crashing down, even though we don't know if we're going to survive to see the world at peace again, I know without a doubt that we're going to have each other. I know that everything will turn out okay in the end. And it's not a question, this feeling. It's not a question that I love him and he loves me. It's not a question that this is now and everything else is in the past. It's not a question that we're back together again because nothing, not even Death, can keep us apart forever.

It's not a question at all.

The world goes blank. Sounds are muted, colors are faded and my entire world is made up of one person.

And so my entire world is perfect.

OmiBob, I loved that line. I'm re-reading it and all just like, "Whoa, I need to use that again in the future!"

Anyway, tell me if you liked it? Should I continue it? I'm thinking of making it a two-shot with the reunion in Percy's point of view. Or should I continue it FURTHER and do it in someone else's point of view entirely? I don't know... tell me what you guys think.

REVIEW!

And now a word from... ME!

Me: You're forgetting something...

You: ...

Me: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! WISH ME HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

You: Happy Birthday! Now SHUT UP!

Yes, friends, it seriously is my birthday... on a completely unrelated note, it's also Harry Potter's, but whatever. So it would really make me really happy if you... oh, I don't know... REVIEWED!

Please? For me?

*Puppy face*