[ she feels his eyes on her more than anything, feels the way he's thinking. it's a little surreal, having grown up around so many other athena-kids, to feel such a different aura looking back at her as she approaches him. but that had always been nico - something impressive, dark, mysterious. something she can't help but be drawn to, to be curious about. she wants to pick him apart piece by piece, in a very different manner than she feels towards just about everyone else.
annabeth chase isn't drawn to many people - and usually it comes across as her being too intense, too serious, to bother with most everyone else. and part of that is true. but really, it comes down to curiosity. is someone piques hers, she's there for life - stubborn and loyal and protective. it took percy all of an hour before she couldn't stop wanting to know, luke and thalia too. nico might have taken a little longer, considering how little she saw of him at first, but now? now she looks at the son of hades, the ambassador for pluto, and she wonders.
the situation itself can kind of be explained that way, too. because yes - she's hurt. she's upset. she's unsure. but she's also a child of athena, which means her head will win out over her heart. she knows that percy loves her, though. in the same way she also knows he has feelings for nico. in the same way she's known, for some time, nico has had feelings for percy, despite the rumors that had gone around camp. despite percy's own thoughts on the matter. she is terrified of this whole situation, because she doesn't know what she's supposed to do, but it has to be something.
nico fidgets, and it actually does ease her slight ping of panic - he's nervous, he's worried, which means she can't be. maybe it's a bit of her camp counselor side coming back into play. or just the general feeling of being an older demigod. she calms, almost instantly, seeing nico worried, because she doesn't want him to worry. it's a moment of feeling she also doesn't understand, but she pushes it away to unpack later. she's already got enough on her plate.
he mentions walking, and she nods, starting off in a direction and pausing only to let nico catch up with her before continuing again. she moves her hands from her shorts to the pocket of the sweatshirt, her eyes falling over the park, the trail, what's out in front of them both. they have plenty of park to wander through for the extent of whatever conversation they're about to have, and that thought makes her feel a little better, letting out a slow breath. ]
So how long have you been here?
[ an easy starting point, she thinks. despite her first instinct being getting right to the point, she wants to give nico a few moments to settle. ]
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annabeth chase isn't drawn to many people - and usually it comes across as her being too intense, too serious, to bother with most everyone else. and part of that is true. but really, it comes down to curiosity. is someone piques hers, she's there for life - stubborn and loyal and protective. it took percy all of an hour before she couldn't stop wanting to know, luke and thalia too. nico might have taken a little longer, considering how little she saw of him at first, but now? now she looks at the son of hades, the ambassador for pluto, and she wonders.
the situation itself can kind of be explained that way, too. because yes - she's hurt. she's upset. she's unsure. but she's also a child of athena, which means her head will win out over her heart. she knows that percy loves her, though. in the same way she also knows he has feelings for nico. in the same way she's known, for some time, nico has had feelings for percy, despite the rumors that had gone around camp. despite percy's own thoughts on the matter. she is terrified of this whole situation, because she doesn't know what she's supposed to do, but it has to be something.
nico fidgets, and it actually does ease her slight ping of panic - he's nervous, he's worried, which means she can't be. maybe it's a bit of her camp counselor side coming back into play. or just the general feeling of being an older demigod. she calms, almost instantly, seeing nico worried, because she doesn't want him to worry. it's a moment of feeling she also doesn't understand, but she pushes it away to unpack later. she's already got enough on her plate.
he mentions walking, and she nods, starting off in a direction and pausing only to let nico catch up with her before continuing again. she moves her hands from her shorts to the pocket of the sweatshirt, her eyes falling over the park, the trail, what's out in front of them both. they have plenty of park to wander through for the extent of whatever conversation they're about to have, and that thought makes her feel a little better, letting out a slow breath. ]
So how long have you been here?
[ an easy starting point, she thinks. despite her first instinct being getting right to the point, she wants to give nico a few moments to settle. ]