Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Demigods. Thalia thought viciously. Damn it! All she wanted was to live in peace for three hours, was that too much to ask?

"Luke, I swear, if you don't shut up right now I'll-"

"Thalia!"

The sharp hiss startled her. Thalia turned around, half expecting to see another spider, or perhaps a dagger Luke had gotten stuck in a tree in a funny angle, but when she turned, Luke was facing an alley, sword drawn, slowly inching forwards. Thalia sighed, and drew her knife, before hesitantly transforming Aegis, her bracelet, into a shield. 

When she saw what Luke was looking at, she froze. 

The alley was mostly normal, if a little on the larger size. A dumpster lay at the back, with a little trash spilling onto the floor. But there was a rattling noise, which she quickly traced to the garbage can a few feet away. She crept forwards, expecting to have to kill another monster, when-

"G-GO AWAY!"

She jumped back, away from the garbage can, as the lid was popped off and a hammer started flailing around, smacking into the brick wall of the alley, and banging into the side of the can.

"M-MONSTERS! L-LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The voice was coming from inside the can, and when she leaned forwards, she could see a young girl inside, maybe six or seven, waving around the hammer, bashing it like her life depended on it. 

"Thalia-" Luke's panicked voice drew her attention, and she snapped her head towards him. "Put your shield up, its scaring her!"

Cursing, she fiddled with the hand grip, before managing to shrink it back to a bracelet.

"Its okay! We- we don't want to hurt you." Luke said, trying to placate the girl.

"L-LIAR! GO- GET AWAY F-FROM ME-"

The little girl poked her head out of the can to glare at him.

She was younger than Thalia had first assumed, with an adorable glare, long blonde hair, and dirtied clothes. Her eyes were a startling grey, and she stopped swinging her hammer around to draw it close to her, hugging it as though it were a lifeline.

"My name is Luke." Luke said. Thalia turned and stared at him. You'd better not mess this up. Though, to be fair, she knew nothing about children, and he had a much higher chance of not-fucking-up than she did. "We're not with the monsters, we fight them too, we-"

"You're not monsters?" Damnit child, for looking all cute and feral like that. 

"We're not." Thalia promised.

There was a long pause, as the girl scrunched up her eyebrows, deep in thought, as she evaluated them.

"Are you gonna bring me back to Daddy?"

Thalia and Luke exchanged a look.

"I ran away, 'cause the spiders came and Mommy didn't believe me. Are you gonna bring me back too?"

"No way." She decided. "We won't, we promise. 'Cause we're family now. We won't ever bring you back there."

The little girl gave her a scrutinizing glare. "You promise?"

"Yeah." Luke said. "We're family now. We don’t abandon family. I promise."

Chapter Text

Left. Right. Loop around the back, weave through the middle string- No, not that one, the one to the left of it-

Luke was bored. 

He was camping out with Thalia and Annabeth in one of their safehouses, taking the first watch, and was trying to pass the time by weaving some rope together. It was only around eleven, but as Thalia kept reminding him (Thalia, who knew nothing about children, who was clueless about everything related to children, like when dinner should be and how to play with kids and how often they should cut hair-), Annabeth was a growing child and needed sleep, so a 'bedtime' had been enforced earlier than the curfew they'd had before.

He sighed, and looked around the safehouse for something to fidget with.

The safehouse was barely a house, with only enough room for four people to lie down comfortably, but they made do. This particular safehouse was in a more swamp-like area, pretty close to the water he was teaching Annabeth to swim in. The safehouse was more like a den, with weaved branches and reeds forming walls, backing into a large rock. A dim lantern illuminated the safehouse, with a cooler in the back filled with Nectar and Ambrosia, and probably a weapon or two, depending on how many Thalia was currently armed with. 

Caught up in his thoughts, he jumped when he heard Annabeth's whimper. A nightmare, most likely.

The sleeping bag Annabeth and Thalia had been using as a blanket ("It's dangerous to sleep inside a sleeping bag, Luke! You could get stuck! Or have to fight in the middle of the night! It's much smarter to use it as a blanket-!") rustled, and Thalia jerked awake, hand on her bracelet, ready to activate her shield. 

"Shhh!" Luke put a finger to his lips. "We're safe, go back to sleep."

Thalia stared at him for a second, then shook her head as Annabeth gripped the sleeping bag tight. She gently scooped Annabeth into her arms, and Annabeth clutched Thalia's sleeve like it was the only thing she'd ever known. 

"Shhh..." Thalia murmured, stroking Annabeth's hair as Annabeth muttered in a daze.

"F-f-family..." Annabeth muttered. "P-promised... L-Luke-"

Startled, he moved towards Annabeth, and he hated how she flinched away. 

"I- I'm right here, Annabeth-" He turned to Thalia for help, and she glared at him, clearly saying I don't know how but you fucked up, its on you to fix it.

"L-Luke?" Annabeth looked up to him fearfully, and her eyes darted around him, as if trying to memorize his face. 

Smiling calms children down, right? Should I smile?

Luke gave what he tried to make a reassuring grin, and sat down next to Thalia. 

"You know, when I was your age, I hated chocolate chip cookies."

What?? What the fuck, brain? This is how I try and comfort a distressed child? I'm screwed.

Luckily, it seemed to work.

"Y-you didn't!"

He gave another grin. "I did! And you know what?"

He leaned in like it was a secret, and Annabeth's teary eyes looked curious, less stressed. "I didn't like brownies either."

Annabeth gasped, and hugged Thalia again. "Y-you're a m-meanie. Thalia is m-my favorite, now."

He shrugged, relieved to have lessened the tension. "At least I still liked pizza."

"True. Everyone likes p-pizza."

Thalia smirked. "I don't."

Annabeth gasped again, and threw herself at Luke. "I-I take it back. L-Luke is my favorite n-now."

He smiled. Hugging Annabeth tightly, he was content to stay there for a while. Eventually Thalia sighed.

"You might as well go to sleep already. I can take over the watch."

"Thanks." He whispered, and tucked the sleeping back around Annabeth again.

Chapter Text

Generally speaking, Thalia hated clothes shopping.

It was a chore, and a long, boring one at that. 

Walking around a mall, paying too much for clothes that fall apart the moment you walk out of the store, and trying to find decent food were all included in the hassle. 

Hot Topic just made it a little better.

"What's that!" Annabeth squealed excitedly.

Annabeth had been running up and down the aisles, between Luke and Thalia, who had been shopping on different sides of the store. This was, apparently, a mistake.

"It's just a choker," Thalia said, eyeing the necklace hanging from a tag on the wall. 

Annabeth gasped. "Does it really choke you? Luke says it doesn't and it just looks pretty, but I think they should have named it something else if people didn't want to think that it chokes them! It looks kinda like a bracelet-"

"Whoa there, calm down, Annie. Uh, yeah, it's safe to wear, and it won't actually choke you."

"SO COOL!" Annabeth shouted, pumping her fist in the air.

Thalia smirked. "Do you want to try it on?"

"R-really?" Annabeth breathed. "I can?"

"Yeah, you can. Hold still, 'kay?"

Thalia took the choker off the wall and examined it for a moment before stretching it out experimentally.

It was one of those cheap chokers you found at dollar stores, just a flexible kind of plastic you expanded to slot over your head. 

Smiling, she extended the necklace, making sure to not let it get caught in Annabeth's hair, and positioned it around her daughter Annabeth's neck. It was loose, but Annabeth seemed fascinated in the way it gently hugged her throat.

"It's so stretchy!" She said, eyes open in wonder.

"It is, isn't it?"

Thalia whirled around to find Luke walking up to them, grinning as he saw Annabeth fiddling with the plastic string.

"Are you done shopping?" Luke asked.

Thalia hesitated, before smirking. "We can take a few things to go, can't we?"