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February fourteenth was an important day for a lot of people.
Even at Camp Half-Blood, where most mortal holidays didn’t really matter much to them, everyone got very excited for Valentine’s Day. Maybe it was started by the Aphrodite cabin, or maybe Chiron thought everyone needed to just be a kid for a change. Whatever the case, all Annabeth knew was that every year, around February fourteenth, everyone got very excited, and camp got very animated.
Annabeth hated Valentine’s Day.
When she’d first heard about it, she couldn’t understand it. Why would anyone need a specific day to show their loved ones they care about them? As he tended to, Luke tried to explain to her that it was a day of celebrating your relationships, but at the time, she hadn’t understood it in the slightest.
Everything changed a few years later, about a year and a half after she met Percy. That crazy boy had gone across the country, snuck onto a quest, and risked the wrath of not only Zoe, but also Mr. D by doing that, all just to save her. And then, when he found her again, he offered her the dance they hadn’t been able to finish while they were on Olympus.
It was just about then that she decided Percy was the one for her. Maybe it was a bit premature, but she knew she wanted to be with him right then. Before that, Valentine’s Day hadn’t meant all that much to her, with it at best being a waste of time while they could be planning for the war. Now, though, maybe it could have meant something.
Of course, it couldn’t, least of all because she wasn’t even anywhere near Percy that year’s Valentine’s Day. She’d chosen to spend that year back with her dad, rookie mistake, and the one time she did come to New York, around Valentine’s Day, she hadn’t even spoken to Percy. After they’d gotten together, he’d mentioned that it had hurt a little - not that she’d ignored him on Valentine’s, but that she hadn’t spoken to him when she came to New York - and she’d promised they’d get to spend a Valentine’s together, and it would be perfect.
Some promise that turned out to be.
The next Valentine’s Day had been the worst up to that point. Not only were she and Percy on opposite sides of the country, but they were also at each other’s throats, and not in a fun way. And to top it all off, he’d been spending all his time with Rachel Elizabeth Dare.
They’d talked about it a bit after getting together, but it still hurt her to think of that. Still, they’d promised each other that this year would be different, and Annabeth had let herself believe that maybe, just maybe, this year’s Valentine’s Day wouldn’t be a waste of time or a heartache.
Maybe for once, she wouldn’t be thinking of how they could be spending this time planning the war. Maybe for once, she wouldn’t be hurting that the boy she chose, the one she wanted to spend time with on this day, was with someone else. Maybe she could actually enjoy it with her boyfriend like she was supposed to.
Instead, she was spending her Valentine’s Day alone while everyone else was spending it with their partners because someone decided that Percy needed to be swapped with some Roman of all things, taking him away from camp, and away from her.
As much as she tried not to blame Jason for this, it was hard for her to ignore that Percy wasn’t here, and yet he was. And it was even harder to ignore that it had only taken him two months to decide to start dating Piper. It only took him two months to decide he was going to get into a relationship with someone he hadn’t known for that long. And as much as she told herself time and time again that Percy wouldn’t do that, she couldn’t know.
Of course, she knew that logically, the boy who took years to figure out his feelings toward her, so he wouldn’t just hop into the arms of someone he just met. Logically, she knew that, even though he likely wouldn’t remember her, remember them, she wouldn’t have anything to worry about.
The problem was, as it tended to, logic was thrown out the window whenever Percy was involved, and all she could picture these days was getting to Camp Jupiter and finding out that he didn’t recognize her. Finding out that he didn’t remember her. Finding out that he had a new girlfriend or boyfriend. Finding out that he ended up being just another person who left her.
And the worst part was, it wouldn’t even be his fault. At least with everyone else, she knew they chose to leave her. Thalia chose to stand and die then join the Hunt, Luke chose to betray everything and everyone he cared about, and her dad chose to drop her for his new family. But Percy? Percy wouldn’t have chosen this. Percy wouldn’t have chosen to leave her. Percy would have been taken from her against his will and hers.
After all, how could they have stopped this?
And she couldn’t even look for him now. After months of searching, all she’d gotten was injured, and right now, she was stuck at camp to heal. That meant she was stuck watching everyone act all romantic and all happy while she just watched on miserably.
The worst of the bunch was watching Piper be so happy with Jason. It was bad enough knowing they were together, and it was even worse knowing that Jason was taking Percy’s spot in a way, but the worst part was how much Piper loved talking about her relationship, especially with her, while she was sitting there and wondering if she’d ever see Percy again.
Because Percy was more than just her boyfriend. More than even just her best friend. At this stage, Percy meant more to her than just about anyone. He held more of her heart than her father, Luke, and Thalia combined. If she lost him, she wasn’t sure what she’d do.
Sighing, she got to her feet and started making her way back to camp. At least that way, maybe she could find one of her single friends, one of the few she could tolerate right now, and spend some time with them. Unfortunately, Drew wasn’t around, so she’d have to find one of the others. Maybe Leo wasn’t busy right now.
As she contemplated her next move, someone tried getting her attention. At first, she tried to ignore this, knowing that Connor would probably not have anything useful to say, but he was just a bit insistent.
“What do you want, Connor?” she sighed, turning to him. “If you’re trying to ask me out again-”
“I’m not that dumb,” he huffed, shaking his head. “I’m not about to ask you out while Percy’s gone. Give me some credit at least.”
“Can you blame me?” she crossed her arms and huffed. “Ever since we hit puberty, you’ve been asking me out almost once a day, even after Percy and I got together.”
The mere mention of Percy’s name, both from her and from Connor, did cause a slight ache in her heart, but it was outweighed at the moment by the sheer irritation at the memory of Connor consistently asking her out despite her constantly rejecting him, despite him never having been an option even while Percy was with Rachel.
“Alright, fair,” Connor scratched the back of his head nervously. “But even I can take a hint… eventually, anyway.”
“Thank the Gods for that,” she huffed again, but this time, she wasn’t as irritated as before. “So, what’s up?”
“Well,” he shifted a little awkwardly, and she couldn’t help but remember how awkward he used to be before he started trying to ask her out. It was endearing in a way to know that that side of him never left. “I was thinking maybe we could hang out away from camp? Take our minds off of everything, try to stay away from, well…”
From all the happy couples, she imagined he wanted to say. It was a tempting offer, she had to admit, but there was just one thing. “Why now? After so many years, you wanted nothing but to ask me out, but now you want to just hang out? Why?”
“Guess I just missed you,” he shrugged. “Or at least, it caught up to me that our lives are too short for me to try and stay hung up on something I should have known a long time ago wouldn’t happen. I think I’ve missed you for a long time.”
That melted whatever ice she’d started forming around him. “I missed you, too, Con. You know, the way we were before.”
“Back when… when he was still around?” Connor smiled sadly.
“Yeah,” she sighed, shaking her head. “Come on, let’s go. And remember, no spiders.”
“It wasn’t even me who put it there!” Connor threw his hands in the air, and she couldn’t help but laugh a bit. While she had hated him for some time when she thought he’d put a spider in her bunk, when she learned it had been someone else from their cabin, Ashton, she thinks his name was, she quickly turned her irritation toward that guy.
Still, it was kind of funny watching Connor huff and side-eye her whenever she brought it up. At least, it was in the past. Maybe they could go back to being friends; she definitely did miss hanging out with him.
“So,” Connor started, and she had a feeling he was about to put his foot in his mouth. “Percy treating you right?” he was quiet for a moment before he seemed to realize what he’d asked. “Wait, no, I mean, uh-”
“It’s fine,” she smiled gently, finding it a lot easier to tolerate Connor’s messing up now that he wasn’t asking her out. Besides, had she been in a better mood, she might have laughed. “Um, before he… well, you know, yeah, yeah, he was.”
“I’m glad,” Connor put a hand on her shoulder as they walked out of camp. “I hope we find him again.”
“Me too,” she took his hand for a moment and squeezed it before they made their way into the city, dropping off at a nearby cafe, just trying to take their minds off of everything. Of course, because she’d been hoping for a relaxing time, she just had to be met with a pain in her ass.
“Hey there, baby,” a guy showed up at their table, apparently either figuring that Connor wasn’t her boyfriend or just not caring. “You come here often?”
“Three out of ten,” Connor said casually, as if rating the pickup line. That managed to get a small smile out of Annabeth, but it didn’t look like the idiot appreciated it as much.
“And who asked you?” he gave Connor a look that Annabeth did not like one bit. Even when she couldn’t really stand him, she wouldn’t have accepted anyone looking at him like that. At the very least, she would not have accepted anyone from camp being looked at like that, especially not by someone like this guy.
“Who asked you to show up?” Connor raised an eyebrow, clearly not caring. While this guy was pretty muscled up for a mortal, she knew that even the weakest demigod could take on a mortal.
And Connor was definitely not the weakest demigod there was.
“Anyway,” the guy turned to her with what he must have thought was a charismatic smile, but it just made her want to throw up. “My name’s Justin, and you are?”
“Taken,” she said simply. If this guy didn’t leave now, she was going to lose it.
“By who, this guy?” he tilted his head toward Connor, sounding like he didn’t believe it. “Come on, baby girl, you can do better.”
“Do not call me that,” she said calmly, but from the look in Connor’s eyes, she knew that she’d gotten the subtle threat across.
Though maybe it was too subtle, as the guy just kept smiling. “That’s cool. I’m sure we’ll find something you might like.”
“Not interested,” she huffed, turning back to Connor, but the guy leaned against the table.
“Come on, baby, don’t be like that.” he was really close to her stabbing him right now. “I’m sure your boyfriend, whoever he is, couldn’t treat you like I could.”
Maybe he was right, but not in the way he thought. Percy couldn’t treat her like this asshole would. After all, Percy would treat her well. “You have five seconds to get out of my sight.”
“I love it when they play hard to get,” he smiled, reaching out to touch her face, it seemed, when Annabeth snapped.
As much as she tried to remember what exactly happened next, she couldn’t really say the sequence of events. This was something she remembered Percy explaining once, about how he would often black out for a bit and then come to, having somehow brought whoever he’d been fighting to their knees.
The same thing happened here, only this time, she had Justin pinned to the floor, on his front, with his arm pinned firmly between his shoulder blades. Any slight movements, and she’d break his arm. Good.
“W-Wait,” he cried out, sounding like he was in pain. “We can talk about this!”
“I take it you understand what this means?” Annabeth asked calmly. “That this means I’m not interested?”
“Y-Yes!” he cried out. “Help! Help!”
“Oh, they won’t help you,” Connor spoke up from behind her. “I know everyone in this room. You’re screwed, buddy.”
When she turned to smile at Connor in thanks, she found him holding a bucket of popcorn. She blinked at the sight, which Connor must have misunderstood, as he held the bucket out in offering. “Want some?”
“Where did you get that?” she asked, putting some pressure on the arm when the asshold tried to move.
“Instant popcorn,” he shrugged. “Hermes cabin trade secret.”
“Cool,” she turned back to the guy on the floor with a glare. “Now go and never come back.”
She let him go, and the guy went scrambling, rushing out of the cafe without anyone paying any attention. Turning to Connor, she raised her eyebrow. “You can use the Mist?”
“Yep!” he chirped, handing out the bucket for her to take some.
“It wasn’t Chiron who taught you, was it?” She took some popcorn, thankful that at least something was working out today.
“Of course not,” he huffed. “It was Lou Ellen.”
“Ah,” she nodded. “Good to know.”
“Don’t tell Chiron?” he tilted his head at her, putting the popcorn away as it finished.
“Don’t tell Chiron what?” she smirked, their old game coming back just as easily as it used to.
It didn’t take them long to wrap up, and by the time they were done, Annabeth figured that the whole Valentine’s craze would still be riding high at camp. Sighing, she and Connor left, walking down the sidewalk as she wondered what she’d done to deserve this.
“He’ll be back,” Connor said, bumping his shoulder with hers.
“You think so?” She hated how vulnerable she sounded, but at this point, she didn’t care. Besides, if she and Connor were going back to how they were, then she could afford to be vulnerable around him. If Percy could see them now, he’d be a little surprised, though only because she’d told him how they used to be.
“I know so,” he smiled at her, and she couldn’t help but believe him. “Between how stubborn he is and how stubborn you are, there’s no way you two won’t find each other again.”
“I really hope you’re right,” she sighed, staring ahead as she wondered just how Percy was doing.
If they didn’t find him at the end of this quest, Annabeth had no idea what she might do. But for now, all she could do was distract herself from how hurt she was and focus on the way forward.
If she didn’t, she might just lose herself entirely.