The Forgotten Encounter...

The Forgotten Encounter...

They were all running. They hadn't stopped for quite a few hours.

"Luke," Thalia spoke hoarsely, out of breath, "We can't keep going like this, we're gonna pass out-I mean, look at Annabeth!" The ten year-old waved her arms towards a young seven year-old that was being kept balanced by a satyr, whose name was Grover, gently holding her shoulders. The youngest of the four was red in the face and was coughing.

Luke's' eyes softened at the scene. He had taken on the role of becoming the leader of the group; the 'dad' of the group, you could say, since Annabeth joined.

He sighed and looked up at the sky, to glare up to Olympus-his father in particular-for causing so much crap for them. But then he noticed how dull and grey the sky was. It reminded him of Annabeths' now-tired eyes after all of the many sleepless night of travelling and, not to mention, all of the monsters they had to battle.

Then he realised it was grey because it was about to rain. Luke figured that if they continued in the pouring rain that one of them would get seriously ill and fall behind... And with all the monsters coming after them lately...

No! Luke decided swiftly, I can't allow that to happen! But where can we go...?

He surveyed his surroundings.

His eyes locked on to the building just as the first few clear pellets of water began to fall from the clouds in the sky.

He turned to the other and said. "Hey Annie, how would you like to see the Metropolitan Museum?" He said and he saw something spark in her eyes as the daughter of Zeus smiled and mouthed 'thank you' to him.

"Really, Luke, You mean it?" The daughter of Athena said excitedly and he nodded.

The youngster ran of faster than lightening; only Thalia was fast enough to react and set off after her straight away.

"C'mon Luke, you don't want to see people look upon us weirdly as we stop Annabeth answering questions that tourists ask the tour guides?" Grover laughed and Luke joined in. It took them longer to get to the museum because Luke wanted to keep pace with Grover and he struggled to walk in the fake shoes, which was understandable, really seeing as shoes were made for human feet and notSatyr hooves.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier as they got inside; thankfully it was toasty and warm inside and it provided a great amount of shelter and ways to pass the time.

On the way they passed a mother and her son, but they didn't spare them a second glance.

Why should they have?

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"Mum!" A young seven year-old boy whined, holding his coat hood over his jet-black hair, "We can't walk all the way home in this!" He gripped his mothers' hand tighter.

"Percy, we need to go home" Sally Jackson replied, pulling her son.

"Mum..." A young Perseus 'Percy' Jackson complained, making her turn around to face him. "Please..." He turned on his best puppy-dog eyes.

After a few seconds the rain only got worse and so did Sally's will-power.

She sighed and groaned, "Fine, Percy, we'll go somewhere to spend the time." Percy smiled at his lovely mother. "But, we're going to spend that time in the Met." She smiled down at him as his face fell slightly.

Okay, Percy thought, maybe not so lovely...

"Well, let's not spend any more time in the rain; one of us will catch a cold." Sally began leading her son to the museum happily.

"Can we walk home?" Percy grumbled to himself, almost shuffling alongside his mother.

"What was that, darling?" She asked her son knowingly.

"Uh, n-nothing!" He answered immediately, making Sally laugh happily.

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"I have never seen her so... Happy," Thalia said to Grover and Luke, smiling as she watched Annabeth skip around the antiques and ask the tour guides such complicated questions that they could only answer with: 'Well little girl, have you seen this little piece of history here? I can tell youall about that'. This made Annabeth laugh and say: 'Yeah, well so can I, thank you very much!'

"I really like seeing her like this, y'know." Luke stated. "She deserves to be kid-well, a kid ofAthena,mind you, but still." Thalia smiled at him.

"Let's treat ourselves, there's a café, we can buy ourselves ice cream; Athena knows we deserve it!" Thalia said, her voice getting more and more excited as she continued talking. She hadn't been treated for months!

"I have some extra cash on me y'know." Grover piped in. "I'll take Annabeth with me to get the ice creams, 'kay?"

The two parental figures of the blonde nodded and called Annabeth over to them.

"Annie," Thalia called. She got a persuasive smile on her lips as she began talking. "D'ya wanna treat?"

"What do you mean by 'treat'?" Annabeth questioned. It was almost painful to the other three how this seven year-old responded to the offer of a treat the way she did, as if it was a foreign concept. She didn't get excited and say, 'yes please!' she answered the question with another question.

Grover tapped her shoulder and grinned. "We're going to get you an ice cream. How does that sound? You deserve it after all." Annabeths expression was adorable yet still remained quizzical, but in an 'I-not-going-to-question-this' kind of way. She nodded eagerly and the two walked off.

"Why did she have to be a demigod, Thalia? She doesn't deserve-none of us do. But, she was shut out of her family even before she ran away... And they would have done it whether Annabeth was a full mortal or a demigod, it would've made no difference..." Luke trailed off from his rant as Thalia stroked his arm. Her lightning blue eyes became duller-as if losing their spark, no pun intended.

"Yes, I believe you Luke. I believe that Annabeth would have run away regardless... Maybe-preferably-she would've been older, even if she was on ten when she ran away, she could have prepared better for it but... But..." She trailed off and looked at him.

"... But she wouldn't have met us" Luke gulped and looked at Thalia, her eyes boring into his with a message that she couldn't say aloud: 'And, without us, she could have died'.

Luke sighed, "Okay maybe it's not all bad, but all three of us ran away from dysfunctional families because of who we are."

Thalia looked as if she was about to comfort him-confess something even-with a faint blush on her cheeks. "Luke, there's something I never to tell you. You see-"

"We're back!" Annabeth exclaimed happily, getting smiles from a few adults she passed, skipping and holding two ice cream cones, one in each hand. "Here you go, Thals." Thalia took the chocolate ice cream with sprinkle and ball bearings on it. Everyone took a few licks, taking in the surroundings, a comfortable silence being shared.

It lasted about twenty seconds until Annabeth gasped. "They have a Roman and Greek section!" She pointed excitedly, stretching her arm fully. "Can I go see a statue of my mother? Please?" She turned to them so fast her newly-washed (in a river they had passed yesterday) maroon knee-length dress spun around as well; she wore such a dress to hide her dagger, only the tatty, ripped, pink ribbon around her waist to hold it in place, since the dress was a size-and-a-half too big. Another bit of black fabric, from one of her past tee-shirts, kept her hair tied into a short and scruffy ponytail. Her socks we're black, which helped hide the rips and blood that stained them, and she was trainers. Her coat was in Thalias' backpack.

To those who just spared her a single glance, she looked like a darling little girl, nothing out of the ordinary there except for the trainers. Those who dared to look her over more would notice these problems and would notice the dirt mixed with her blonde locks and the dullness of her eyes, along with the bags under them.

But no-one did, it was a perk of travelling through New York for these demigods, everyone was too busy to waste their time on this children.

Luke shrugged and stretched his arms upwards; making the multiple rips in his tee-shirt more noticeable to those with a keen eye, but this was New York, so no-one did. "You got it, plus they're weapons there made out of Celestial Bronze, if we need to defend ourselves." After he finished, Thalia grabbed Annabeths wrist lightly and the four made their way through the crowd safely, together.

That was until Annabeth saw the statue of Athena. She gasped quietly and quickly got out of Thalia's grasp and ran as fast as she could through the crowd, still keeping an impressive grip on the ice-cream cone.

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"Mum! There is absolutely nothing here!" Percy whined as he rubbed the tip of his red nose to get some warmth into it.

"Really, Percy? There are centuries of our history in this single building!" Sally argued, grinning and sighing wistfully at a detailed statue of Poseidon.

"Fine then, mum! There is absolutely nothing interesting here!" Percy said childishly, sticking his tongue and his mother copied him, which led to them laughing happily.

"Okay then, whatever you say, sweetheart." Sally attempted to smooth his slightly damp hair out, pushing his fringe out of his peculiar sea green eyes. "Lemme take your coat, Percy, there's room in my bag for it." Sally offered and he accepted, taking his yellow rain coat off, leaving him in just hisBlue Power Ranger-themed tee-shirt, faded jeans and his black Nike trainers. He ran his fingers through his hair, resulting in it becoming scruffy again, and smiled at his mother. He had yet to meet someone that he admired and loved more than her.

She sighed at the state of his hair, but held his hand as they walked on.

Sally shook her head lightly and moved on. "Hey, Percy, how would you an ice cream?" Percy's eyes lit up happily.

"Yes please!" He said excitedly, "The blue bubble-gum flavour please!" He asked enthusiastically.

"Okay then, hone, let's go to the café quickly and get you one."

"I love you, mummy" Perce said sweetly.

"Nu-uh, 'mummy' doesn't work on me, hone, you're not getting any fizzy pop, it will have to be one or the oth-"

"-Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream!" Percy cut her off and smiled at her and they began walking to the café.

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~five minutes later~

"Percy!" Sally called out. Where had her little boy gone?! She was getting more and more anxious each passing second.

For a second, she thought she heard three other, and younger, voices-two belonged to boys, the other to a girl-calling out for a girl named... Annabelle?

Sally shook her head of those thoughts; she just wanted-she needed-to find her son.

Now.

But where had he gone?

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Annabeth didn't have too hard off a job freeing herself from the sea of people, she dodged and swerved her way around everyone easily enough, there was basically no-one here today. Top number, Annabeth had decided, of people was around three hundred people in the entire building.

But getting through the tight crowd of people surrounding the Athena statue, now that was the hard part.

She walked at quite a fast pace around the crowd, for a space to shuffle through without her eyes leaving the statue, when...

"OW!" Annabeth exclaimed as she fell straight on to her butt, her bubble-gum ice cream in a crushed pile next to her. She hurt almost everywhere. The fact that the person that made her fall was somewhat on top of her.

"Ditto..." The boy groaned, her knee had been digging into his stomach.

He crawled away from her and slowly got on to his feet, he held his hand towards her, but she just got up by herself, as if proving a point.

He looked at his... smushed up ice cream pile, not too far from the girls'.

"You're welcome," He muttered sarcastically.

The blonde girl glared at him, which would have been scary regardless, but her eyes only made the effect intensify. Her eyes were a peculiar stormy grey-they might have been pretty cute, but right now they were just plain scary.

"You squashed my ice cream..." She said bluntly, a hint of anger in her tone. "Why?" She asked, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

"S-sorry, but I don't think either of us we're looking where we were going... Urm have you seen my mum?" the boy, Percy, asked. "She's got... Urm... Uh..." The seven year-olds ADHD acted up and he struggled to concentrate on wording an explanation of his mother.

Annabeth noticed this and felt her expression soften. "You have ADHD, don't you?" Percy looked taken aback by this statement, but nodded slowly, nonetheless. "It's okay, I have it too-and dyslexia." Annabeth admitted. Too soften the blow of him losing his mother, Annabeth reasoned to herself for blurting such a thing out. She thought for a minute, "How about we go to the stairs so we can look at the people passing and find the people we're looking for..." She trailed off. Or looking for us, she added to herself.

"But, I don't notice things that well, because, y'know..."Percy said shyly, he was becoming dependant on a girl that he had literally just met!

Annabeth grinned. "Good thing you have me, then, isn't it?" Percy couldn't help it; he smiled back at her.

The two sat on the far right, leaving people lots of room to walk passed them. They tried to make chit-chat but it was quite awkward, really.

This gave Percy time to take in her appearance: Her dress looked too big, for some reason she was wearing scuffed trainers, her makeshift belt and hair ribbon was just that- makeshift-ripped and now used for these purposes. And...

"What's that stuff on your socks?" Percy blurted out, making the young girl jump. "It's weird."

"Urm..." Annabeth had to think quickly. "... Mud. It's mud."

"It doesn't look like it to me, really." Percy said, disbelievingly, making Annabeth gulp.

"Well, it is so s-shut up!" Annabeth said with finality, something Percy didn't have a knack for picking up on.

"And your face! Do you not sleep or anything?" Percy blurted out once again. Annabeths bottom lip trembled slightly, but he didn't notice.

"Stop concentrating on me, would ya?!" Annabeth growled.

"Sorry, but I can't help it, since you're... So..."Percy thought for a minute. "Different. Whether it's in a good or bad way is hard to decide with you." Percy laughed lightly.

The two went into a comfortable silence, until Annabeth spoke up. "I haven't talked to someone my own age in over four years." She stated, out in the open.

Percy looked at her, surprised. "What'cha mean? That's impossible!" He exclaimed.

"Actually, it is only improbable, but it is incredibly possible for me." She sighed and lost her concentration for a moment, losing herself to her ADHD.

This gave Percy time to think. How could that be possible?

Then he looked her over again... Could she be...?

"Urm, I have a question." Percy mumbled.

Annabeth snapped out of her daze and answered with a simple "Hmm?"

"Are you... Y'know... Urm... Homeless?" Annabeths' eyes widened and they both gulped.

How did he figure that out?! Annabeth thought frantically. Now, that's meant to be impossible! Or at least highly improbable... I think.

How did I figure that out?! Percy thought, amazed.

"You don't have to talk about it, I don't really mind either way." He held up his hands in an 'I surrender' motion.

"Thanks. I won't" Annabeth said gratefully.

Percy didn't know why, but he didn't feel guilty for her, or sorry, really, he just wanted to make up for squashing her ice cream. She probably didn't get treats often and seven year-olds basically livedoff of treats, so...

He grinned as he remembered her fascination with the Athena statue. Then he remembered that he had the change from the ice creams his mother had bought.

"How much do you like Athena?" He asked spontaneously.

Annabeth grinned. "So much! She's so cool!" She said excitedly. As if she knew her, or had a connection to her.

"Well, how about I make up for that mess of an ice cream?" He offered.

"You didn't have to do that!" Annabeth argued, holding her present in her hands. "I don't even know your name, for the gods' sakes!"

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." Percy hesitated to speak, she was right, but for some reason he felt like he shouldn't give her his name-as if now wasn't the right time to do so. Little did he know young Annabeth was feeling the exact same.

Then, out of nowhere, a name popped into his mind, and he didn't question it. "Peter." He grinned at his swift lie.

Annabeth smirked, "I thought that I was meant to go first." She laughed. "My name is Annie."

Both names had just popped into their minds, but they didn't question it.

"Hello Annie" 'Peter' stuck his hand out.

"Hello Peter" the newly-christened 'Annie' shook it.

Then their quick friendship was soon destroyed.

"There you are!" Two voices shouted.

Annabeths head spun to the right, Percy's to the left.

Annabeth smiled sheepishly. "Sorry Luke..."

The older boy had shaggy blonde hair, but it looked cool on him, Percy thought, and just sighed Annabeth, not really mad, more relieved.

He looked over to Percy. I coughed uncomfortably, saying, "Thanks for looking after her, urm... kid." He smiled, sort of.

Percy raised an eyebrow at Annabeth; she had looked after him!

Annabeth only grinned and held her new necklace tighter. "Yeah...Thanks. I would have gotten lost otherwise."

Huh? Percy thought, baffled, she's letting me be the hero in this story? Well, I'm not one to argue, so why start now?

"You're very welcome, Annie." Luke raised an eyebrow at this.

"Where have you been?" Two new voices shouted.

Luke filled them in on an abridged story provided by Annabeth and Percy. Annabeth was too tempted to see the Athena statue, she got lost and got separated from the group. Percy had blanked out for a moment after buying ice cream and saw a woman that looked like his mother and followed her, the two kids bumped into each other and soon, they found themselves here. They left out the detail about him buying her a necklace and, accidentally, throughout the entire story only referred to one another as 'he' or 'she'.

"Well, good job on being so responsible, honey, but we need to get home... Gabe called and he needs food setting out for his poker game with the guys tonight." Sally told her son. Percy's face hardened at the mention of his step-dad.

"... Okay, let's go mum..." Percy said solemnly and they began walking off. Then he remembered something, he turned his head around the see Annabeth. "Bye Annie!" He called, smiling.

Annabeth smiled back, sweetly. She waved as she said, "Bye Pe-..." She trailed off as he disappeared in to the sea of people.

Luke ruffled the young girls' hair affectionately. "What got into today? I mean, you never let anyone but Thalia, Grover and I call you 'Annie'." Annanbeth hid her face. "Made a new friend today, did ya now?" He chuckled.

Annabeths' smile turned shy as she thought of her gift. "I hope so..."

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~Nine years later...~

Perseus 'Percy' Jackson was freaking out. Anything could go wrong right now!

It was his and his girlfriends', the beautiful Annabeth Chases, first date. It was a Camp Half-Blood beach picnic... And he was, as mentioned beforehand, freaking out.

He could have forgotten something, most likely; she could be allergic to some of the foods, with his luck, she would; he could...he could... he...

... Should stop drooling at the sight of his simply astonishing and gorgeous girlfriend; right now, preferably.

Percy grinned a stupid lopsided grin as he thought about how he wanted to go back being thirteen and see Matt Sloan's' stupid face when he saw that picture of Annabeth (back when she was only just cute; not this stunning, as well!) and said 'No way, Jackson... Is she your...?' and to that he now wanted to reply: 'Not yet, give it three more years, a kiss on Mount Saint Helens and her being just... So Annabeth and then I'll get back to you!'

Annabeth wore flip-flops, a Camp Half-Blood spaghetti-strap top and a denim skirt-all courtesy of the Aphrodite cabin. This was finished off with her usual bead necklace.

She sat down next to him and winked. "I'm starving; can we eat first then be all lovey-dovey?" She said bluntly.

Percy's eyes widened slightly. "You... you are the perfect woman!" He exclaimed, kissing her cheek. She chuckled.

"I know this already, Seaweed Brain." She stated as she tucked into (blue) potato salad and hummed in appreciation. "Gods, I never knew you could cook Percy!" She praised.

"Anything blue: you bet I can." Percy laughed and saw a loose piece of hair fall into Annabeths face. As he tucked it back, his hand caught on a thin chain, pulling it upwards.

It was an intricate owl necklace that said on the back 'Property of the Met Museum'. Percy's breath hitched.

"Urm, Annabeth, where did ya get the necklace from...?"Percy asked, something of a memory stirred in his mind, but was too far down to be thought of.

She thought for a moment and shrugged. "I honestly cannot remember... Weird, huh? Seeing as it's my favourite necklace-next to the bead necklace, of course." She answered and kissed him on the lips, making him forget everything since he had to focus on not melting into a puddle.

They led on the blanket and watched the stars, secretly both of them felt the memory of the necklace begging to be found, but was too far lost now.

It didn't matter; they didn't need a memory, they needed each other.

And they, at the very least, had that.