oneshot #68: pride storm

annie and percy are younger in this one. pre-relationship uwu

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It stung her eyes. 

Well, yeah, a voice in her mind muttered. Generally, people don't stare up into pouring rain.

Annabeth frowned a bit. Her mind was a scattered mess, it was hard to make sense of even her own inner nagging. 

She was laying on her back. In the grass. Beneath an angry storm.

Why? It was a good question. Maybe she was doing it as a punishment, maybe to be dramatic, maybe to make a point. Annabeth didn't really know. There was just something about the rain falling like darts towards her face that was challenging. She'd been out there long enough to resist squinting every time a drop raced towards her face. 

The dark night sky stretched across her view, almost as if she were looking into an endless abyss. Paired with the barrage of blade-like droplets, soaring towards her, Annabeth felt incredibly small. And she was. She was nothing but a speck in a universe of bigger things. 

Maybe she was doing this to counter her fatal flaw.

Sometimes she liked the reminder of her minuscule existence. She wanted the vast sky to exclaim in her face that she really wasn't that important. It didn't revolve around her. Nothing did.

Was it cruel? Annabeth didn't think so. Her downfall, after all, was her pride. Deadly pride. That was more terrifying than a little reminder every now and then.

Being aware of her fatal flaw is what she liked to consider an advantage; while Annabeth believed she could take care of things better than anyone else, she wasn't going to let it get ahead of her. And it was on nights like these--when the world was raging and the gods were at each other's throats--that she forced the reminder onto herself. 

Annabeth sent a silent challenge of her own into the eery torrent at the slight shiver she felt throughout her body. Give me a cold, she dared. Do it.

Of course, the child of Athena was positive she'd be perfectly healthy the next morning.

That was how she placed her bets on life; if she knew the outcome, then the situation was hers to control. 

Control brought a sense of comfort to a daughter of wisdom.

But Annabeth had no control over the rain that night. She narrowed her eyes at a crackle of light that split through the hazy clouds. It seemed Zeus had taken the reins for the evening.

It wasn't supposed to rain inside Camp Halfblood, but some air-headed first-years took their chances by breaking curfew and getting caught. Since the harpies hadn't gotten to them, Dionysus ordered the weather change for the night, if only to keep campers inside their cabins after curfew.

Annabeth was confident she wouldn't be caught by the harpies or anyone else. She had control in this situation because no one in their right mind would be out here right now. At least not for a casual stroll; Annabeth was quite busy.

Her confidence didn't often waver. 

Unfortunately, she had to wave it goodbye due to a certain son of Poseidon.

The first sign of him was a let-up in the water flicking her face. It fell as if it were about to collide with her skin, but it stopped short just before it could.

Annabeth didn't move. 

And Percy didn't speak. He stood for a moment, watching her. He wasn't smiling, he wasn't scowling. His expression matched hers. Blank, mostly. After half a minute, he dropped his control on the rain around himself. 

While Annabeth lay dry, Percy stood, each drop splattering onto his blue shirt until it was a deep navy. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Annabeth could see him bite the inside of his cheek. He was thinking, almost like he was making a decision.

Then, eyelashes dripping with little clear droplets, Percy lowered himself down beside her. On his back. In the grass. Beneath an angry storm.

Slowly, Annabeth's eyes trailed back to the sky. And suddenly, she didn't feel so small.

The sky was big and the raindrops were many, but. . .she and Percy? 

They were larger than even that.

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