Work Text:
Annabeth sat on a bench on Olympus, scribbling angrily in a sketchbook. She mumbled to herself as she scrubbed the worn eraser over the smudged lines again.
Her curls fell over her face, despite the bun she'd tied her hair into just a few minutes prior.
The pencil she had a death-grip on snapped, and she threw it with a groan, watching it bounce down the stone stairs in front of her.
"Well, that wasn't very logical."
Annabeth's head snapped up, her posture straightening impossibly.
Athena sat on the bench next to her, robes falling around her as she assumed a regal pose.
"Why did you throw your pencil?"
"You see this?" Annabeth snapped, holding up the spiral-bound sketchbook with one hand and pointing to it with the other. Athena nodded.
"It's... very nice."
Annabeth scoffed. "Yeah, right. I can't get these columns right."
"You have all the time you need."
"Easy for you to say, Immortal Goddess."
Athena rolled her eyes, her gaze lingering on the bright blue sky. She sighed, gaze returning to Annabeth, then said softly, "There is no set deadline. What seems to take forever for you is a blink of an eye for us gods."
"Gee, thanks. That makes me feel so much less inconsequential."
"That wasn't my intent."
Annabeth rummaged through her bag until her fingers closed around a pencil at the bottom. She started sketching again.
"You haven't spaced these columns correctly," Athena noted, pointing to a space near the edge of the page.
"I know. It's just a concept at the moment. So I can have a... vague idea of what I want the final sketch to look like."
Athena hummed.
"I've been pushing this project off for... a small forever. I just need to get it done."
"Procrastination is a waste of time."
"Are you here to give me anything constructive or are you just here to spew nonsense?"
"I do not spew, much less spew nonsense."
Annabeth scoffed and scribbled a note on the page.
"Annabeth--" She cut herself off with a huff.
"What?"
"I may not understand you. I may not approve of many of the things you do. I may have moments that I see what you're doing and think to myself 'How in Hades is she descended from me?'."
"... But?"
"But then I see this. You, dedicating your entire being to something that no one will notice. No one even looks at the tops of columns, and you know that. You just want to know that it's perfect."
Annabeth said nothing, staring blankly at the ground.
"Your boyfriend may be a pain..." Athena started with a sigh, "But he cares about you. And you're smart enough to know that. You don't care what anyone else says about it."
"No one else has had anything to say about it. You're the only person who's ever been against us."
"I'm trying to compliment you. You're smart. Brave. Kind of a pain in the ass when you set your mind to something."
"Thanks, mom," Annabeth scoffed.
"I mean it in the best way, promise."
"It's--" Annabeth sighed and reached down to grab her iced coffee, taking a long drink from the clear cup.
"You know what's best. If this--" She tapped the spirals on Annabeth's notebook, careful to not smudge the charcoal on the page, "-- doesn't feel right, trust your instincts. Change it. Scrap the whole project. Nothing is worse than dedicating all of your energy to something you hate."
Annabeth, after considering for a moment, tore the page out of the book and shoved it into her bag.
"There you go."
Annabeth sketched a rough shape on the fresh page, indented with the pressure she'd used on the sheet before. As Athena watched a group of minor goddesses stroll through the park, Annabeth's hands flew over the page, whipping up a brand new design out of thin air.
"There. Better."
Athena looked at it, then nodded approvingly. "There's the passion. You knew what you wanted."
"Yeah, but it's not what Aphrodite commissioned--"
"Since when does her opinion matter to you?"
Annabeth snorted. "I guess it doesn't."
"Besides, anyone who doesn't like this is mad."
She smiled to herself, adding a few minor details along the lower edges of the columns. Athena stood and brushed off her robes, pristine as they'd been when she'd sat down.
"I have other matters to attend to." She looked at Annabeth for a moment. "Come find me next time you're here. I have something to show you."
She walked off without another word. Annabeth looked at the sketchbook in her lap, considering.
She flipped to yet another new page, drawing a vague outline of a woman, using Athena's quickly retreating form as a vague reference.
Annabeth carried her messenger bag over her shoulder as she followed Athena through a garden. She'd never seen a majority of the plants she passed, and she made a mental note to come back to inspect them further at a later time.
"Here."
Annabeth stopped beside the taller woman, gaping up at a small building. The intricate designs in the marble were so tiny that she had to take a step closer to inspect them thoroughly.
She ran a hand over them reverently.
"I knew you'd like that," Athena said quietly. "No one comes here, as you can probably tell."
Annabeth turned around just as she gestured to the overgrown weeds around them.
"Why not?"
"They're too busy. No time to appreciate the small things."
"Their loss, then," Annabeth breathed out.
"Their loss," Athena agreed, staring at a spot where weeds had cracked a step to the building.
"Do you mind if I work here for a bit?" Annabeth asked, to which Athena nodded.
"Go ahead. Not like anyone would stop you."
Annabeth took a seat with her back against a column, pulled a notebook out of her bag, and started sketching, leaving Athena to sit down awkwardly on the other side of the entryway of the building.
"Oh! I mean, you don't have to stay," Annabeth said awkwardly.
"I don't mind."
"Right..."
They sat quietly, Athena's head tipped up to the sun as Annabeth worked fervently. She muttered to herself as she added notes and revisions in the margins, and, in that moment, Athena spoke.
"I'm proud of you, Annabeth."
The blonde's pencil stopped moving, and she turned her head to face Athena.
"You're... I'm proud of you."
"Thanks," Annabeth whispered, a soft smile gracing her face as she went back to working.
Athena watched her work for a few long minutes. "Olympus is lucky to have you."