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Push and Pull
A/N: By now, I have absolutely no idea which reviews I did or didn't reply, so make sure you remind me in case you got ignored the last time. I'd love to send you a reply. As I've mentioned before to those who reviewed, there will be a chapter about their first encounter with the Huntresses but it can only happen after they meet Annabeth, so let us continue with this for now.
P.S.: I should probably warn you that this chapter contains a bit too much fluff and it might eventually cause you to fall in love with Luke. So, hm, be warned.
6. Wish
"So you have finally gone mental." I sighed these words knowing they'd make him turn around and stare at me with annoyance. I also half expected him to let go of my wrist but that much didn't happen.
"I'm not mental." He stated matter-of-factly with the exact annoyed expression I thought he'd come up with. "You, however, are definitely losing it."
I scowled and opened my mouth to protest but Luke yanked my arm painfully to the front, forcing me to walk with him.
"I'm not losing it!" I said as I struggled to set myself free. Gods know how Luke managed to never let go of whatever he is trying to hold on to; it must be a thief thing. "You're the one who decided to "take a break" from running away from monsters, weren't you? We can't do that! We can't take a "day off" from our lives!"
I bumped violently against his back when he stopped walking abruptly. He let out a long, heavy breath and then turned around again, letting go of my arm:
"Ok, then." He said shrugging. "You don't need to come with me."
I was beyond startled:
"W-what?" I hated myself for stuttering; that wasn't something I'd normally do. I was caught by surprise; the Luke I knew would never give up that easily on our arguments, besides, suggesting I didn't go with him wherever he was going –especially since we were in the middle of nowhere – hurt a very specific part of me even though I couldn't really say whether it was my pride or something else.
"Stay here." He shrugged. "Find yourself a nice, clean spot to stay, set the tent you have in your backpack and sulk in there for the rest of the day while I" He gave me his trademark smirk as he said "I". "…have the best time in ages all by myself and monster free."
I rolled my eyes at him and crossed my arms:
"You're insane." I said. "You know it won't be monster free." I looked down and stared at my own shoes; my combat boots looked old and my jeans were already too thin for the winter weather. I felt tired, hungry and, above all things, frustrated. "It's never monster free."
"Thalia…" He started out with a sympathetic tone to his voice but I raised my hand to cut him off . A thought had just occurred to me:
"I'll set the tent." I said already taking the backpack off of my shoulders.
"What?" It was his turn to stutter and sound surprised against his will.
"Truth is, Luke –and we both know that – that your only chance to get a monster free day is if you don't have me around you." I knew that for a fact, I knew Luke alone would attract some monsters but for them to come as often as they came, as hungry as they seemed…that part was my entire fault. Even though I would probably never get a day off from my life, Luke had done more than he could for me already, I owed him more favors than I'd like to admit so I'd step out for a day, let him get the rest he deserved.
I placed the backpack on the grass and was about to open it when I noticed he hadn't moved an inch yet.
"What?" I said looking up to find Luke staring at, his jaw dropped. "What?" I asked again, wondering whether to laugh at his expression or to take him seriously (I honestly had to do that a lot while travelling with him all that time).
"Did you just implied that all monster come chasing us because of you?" Typical Luke: I try to go on and do something nice for him, he gets his untouchable male pride hurt for no reason. I stared at him and pretending to be thinking about an answer before saying with a winning grin:
"Not really." I answered finally, playing with his mind. "I'm not implying anything. I'm stating that they show up because of me." Typical me: I get a chance to be nice and reasonable but always choose to be arrogant and make fun of him.
Luke seemed pretty offended for a few seconds (and this comes to show how miserable were our lives if we were fighting over who attracts more mortal peril to the two of us) and then he grabbed me by the wrist again.
"Hey!" I yapped as he yanked me forward again, barely giving me the chance to grab the backpack from the floor again. I held on to it as tightly as I could. Luke was running so fast that, even on the absurd possibility of me managing to set myself free from his hold, I'd probably get really hurt. "Where are we going?"
"You'll see." He panted. It was the last thing he said to me for the next fifteen minutes 'till we abruptly stopped (and I almost lost my arm because of that), only a few inches away from reaching a gigantic stone wall.
"Here we are."
"A giant stone wall?" I said with a mocking undertone that was pretty obvious. "You do realize monsters could destroy this easily enough, don't you?" Luke rolled his eyes at me and pointed his index finger to a place above our heads:
"Must you always be so close minded?" He asked crossly but I could already see the shadows of a smile playing on his eyes again. I let my eyes follow his finger and felt my own jaw drop this time. There was a strong source of light coming from somewhere near and I could hear music, cheerful voices and smell something like I couldn't exactly remember what it was cause it had been ages since the last time I had even seen one; cotton candy .
"A…a…Carnival?"
"Yes!" He said, his grin suddenly becoming so wide you could mistake him for the Cheshire Cat. "Aren't you excited?" He looked so happy, I almost felt bad for raining on his parade.
"Luke, what are we going to do in there?" I said trying to sound reasonable. "These things are filled with people; if a monster attacks…" He waved me off and looked more pleased with himself than I had ever seen:
"That's the brilliance of the plan, dearest." He played with his hair in such an extravagant manner, I held back a chuckle despite my humor not being the best at the moment. "Carnivals produce their own powerful scent: something like fried chicken and melting iron mixed together. This confuses monsters, besides, it's so cold, they'll have trouble sniffing us down naturally." I stared at him skeptically and he rolled his eyes at me moodily:
"But" he started as to prevent me from finding holes in his silly theory and snatching something from his cargo pants pockets. "if this doesn't work; here's plan B."
He handed me a leather bracelet.
"What's this?"
"Remember that daughter of Hecate we ran into last week when we were running away from that huge pig?"
"It was a boar and yeah, I remember." Luke scratched the back of his head a little before speaking again.
"Well, she kinda liked me." I raised an eyebrow. It wasn't supposed to look threateningly but I guess it did anyway:
"And…?"
"Well, she told she'd been working on these bracelets; said they weren't really strong because she wasn't that great of a sorceress just yet but apparently, these things are a mix of monster powder and fabric."
"Monster powder…? I asked already twitching my nose and holding the bracelet as away as possible from my body. "Ew." Luke scowled at my unusual girly attitude. He hated when I was being "high maintenance" (and by "high maintenance" he usually meant me wanting to take a shower or sleeping at a clean place for a change).
"Anyway, there's a mist controlling spell on these things so, if we happen to come across a monster, it will be confused by the smell and think we are another monster. Of course, she told me that it only work on weaker monsters who'd be too scared to come looking for a fight but still…"
"So," I said while holding the bracelet high in front of my face so I could analyze it better. "It works fine on silly monsters but if we happen to find something really dangerous, then we are screwed?"
Luke shrugged:
"Yeah, pretty much."
We exchanged glances in a silent battle of egos for almost a minute before Luke burst:
"Oh, c'mon!" He took the bracelet from me and held my hand tight between his own to tie it around me. "I had to do some seriously seductive work to get that girl to give us these!"
"Seductive work, Luke?" I asked with a mean sneer but he ignored me.
"Are you ready?" He asked rubbing his hands together. I sighed, resigned; I was there already, I might as well enjoy it.
"Sure." I said sounding absolutely bored. "Where do we get the tickets?" Luke laughed out loud.
"Tickets." He said as if I had something absurd. "You're so funny sometimes." He leaned down, still chuckling and shaking his head from side to side, and grabbed a rock from the floor. "We are using the back door, Thalia."
Carnivals are a place filled with glee and nice smells and cheerful laughter and happy families. Needless to say, I hated it all.
"Do you want a cotton candy?" Luke's voice got me out from my trance; unlike me, he seemed to be pretty happy to be there which was very hard to understand since he usually pretty much hates these familiar scenarios as much as I do.
"Sure, why not?" I shrugged. "Are you paying?" He smirked at me. "Of course you aren't." I concluded and he chuckled.
That was it: Luke had hit his head against something on our last battle. That was the only possible explanation for his attitude today.
"Blue or pink?" He asked with another non-Lukeish smiley face.
"Have we met?" I said smiling a little myself and wondering if what he had was somehow contagious.
"Ok, then. Wait right here and don't move an inch." He disappeared in the crowd and I took a deep breath. I watched the little cloud that came out from my mouth sadly as I wondered what kind of Carnival opens when the weather is so cold.
As I stood alone among those bright lights and happy families, I felt a familiar pain in my heart. Part of me hated myself for feeling sad or fragile whenever Luke disappeared but other, more mature part of me, understood that I had a reason for feeling like that and that it was ok to be like that. I had lost someone before; it wasn't that big of a surprise that I were scared of being left behind or getting lost. I shook away the sad, pathetic thoughts from my head and tried to think about something else.
"Hm, I'm alone and vulnerable. That's usually when the monsters attack." See? Happy thoughts. "Maybe these things do work." I said staring at my wrist.
"I'm back." Luke appeared behind me holding two blue cotton candies.
"And now, somewhere in this Carnival, two children relentlessly weep." I added while grabbing my cotton candy. He chuckled:
"I wouldn't steal candy from kids." He told me. "I stole it from two old ladies." His principles weren't always the best, I should probably add.
"Awesome." I said with my mouth full while he looked from side to side to the park, as if deciding where to go first.
"Wanna see if you're tall enough to ride the Ferris wheel?" I kicked him under the knee for making fun of my height but he didn't even flinch.
"Of course I'm tall enough." I said as I followed him around and secretly hoped I wasn't tall enough: that Ferris wheel was huge. I had successfully managed to keep my fear of heights a secret from Luke for the past year and I intended to keep it that way.
"It's ok if you don't want to go." He said all of a sudden.
"What?" My head practically snapped on top of my neck as I turned around to look at him.
"I mean," He chewed on his cotton candy. "I know you don't like heights, it's ok if you're scared."
"Are you mental?" I snapped at him and all he did was smile.
"No offense, Thalia, but we've been running away together for over a year now, you must take me as really stupid if you think I didn't notice anything." I scowled at him:
"You are stupid if you think I'm afraid of anything. Especially heights."
He stared at me and then smiled:
"If you say so…"He said while grabbing me by the wrist again. "Then you won't mind the wheel, right?" I pretended to be ok with it:
"Not at all." I was terrified.
The Ferris wheel was worse than I thought it'd be. It shook, there wasn't any balance, it made noises and went up all at once just to stop abruptly. I held so tight to the security bars, my hands were starting to hurt. Luke was horribly quiet as the dreadful thing went up but just when I thought I was going to faint from fear, I closed my eyes not to see anything and felt his hand on top of mine.
"Relax." He told me gently. "You're so silly sometimes. What was the problem of telling me you were scared? Now you're hating it."
I looked at him with narrowed eyes and breathed in and out heavily:
"I…am…not…scared."
"Of course." He said. "Then let go of the security bar for a second." He dared me.
There was another battle of egos.
And I lost.
"Alright." I sighed. "I am scared of heights. Are you happy now?" I asked irritated. Luke sighed too:
"Not really." He sounded sad.
We remained quiet for what seemed like centuries to me until Luke spoke:
"You know, you don't have to be scared." He told me and I looked at him. Not for a second his hand left mine uncovered. "Even if you are too scared to control the wind, I can still manage to get us down safely with my own powers."
I managed a weak smile:
"I know." Luke's eyes were on the stars now, so I followed his gaze mostly because I didn't want to look down anymore. "Wow." I said as I contemplated the stars. "Everything looks so beautiful." I couldn't help but saying it.
"I know, right? We got lucky; it's a pretty clear winter night. You can see a bunch of constellations."
"Ugh." I couldn't care less for constellations; Luke adored them and their stories, so I prepared myself for another lecture.
"You see those two over there? Those are Laelaps and the Teumessian Fox." He looked at my stare that always meant "no, those are just shiny dots in the sky" and chuckled, pointing his free hand to the two constellations. "Laelaps was a dog that would catch whatever it wanted to catch."
"Hm." I started wondering when the Ferris wheel would start moving down.
"And the Theumessian Fox was made to never be captured." He added, totally lost in his story. "Someone once thought that sending Laelaps to catch the fox would be the smartest thing to do but the truth was that…"
"They had created a paradox." I interrupted, suddenly interested. "How was that solved?"
"Same way everything gets solved by them." He added bitterly. "Zeus sent them to the sky and now they can go on with this forever." Luke never called Zeus "your father", he knew I didn't like it.
"Sounds like him." I said with sarcasm but Luke didn't seem to be listening. His mind was miles away as he stared at the sky.
"Say, Thalia, what do you think is the saddest?" He asked me. "To be hunted for the rest of eternity or to chase something without ever actually getting to have it?"
I analyzed his expression for a while; Luke was definitely turning into someone different from the person I had known and I could tell there were thoughts he was hiding from me and that bothered me to no end.
"Don't you sound deep today?" I mocked him – I always did that, I could never manage to just listen to him when he seemed to be opening up. I didn't know why, I was just too scared to maybe find out something I wish I didn't. I wanted to believe Luke was the hero I though him to be. He was my family after all.
"I am, aren't I?" He chuckled, surprised by his own attitude. He was back at his relaxed self from before. "I shouldn't be talking about this, especially not today. Today is a especial day."
I snored:
"Because it's our "day off"?" I asked him with scorn and he rolled his eyes:
"Unbelievable." He said, honestly surprised. "I never met a kid who'd forget this type of thing…"
"I'm not a kid." I replied automatically. "And what am I forgetting?"
Before he could answer, however, there was a loud "clung!" and the Ferris wheel started moving even higher in the sky. I closed my eyes again and let out a little yelp; Luke's grip on my hand grew stronger and I heard him say:
"Man, I really wish you'd have admitted you were afraid. This Ferris wheel was such a bad idea. It's ruining everything." The wheel stopped again and I tried to gain enough courage to open my eyes as I heard Luke say:
"No, wait, don't open your eyes just yet!"
"No problem!" I answered, impatient. His hand remained on top of mine but I could tell he was moving. "Luke…What are you doing?" I had strong reasons to believe there was a possibility he was cracking the security bar open and trying for an early escape so I was really worried.
"Nothing. Just open your eyes now." He said cheerfully and I dared to open only one of my eyes.
"What's this?" I asked as I saw the little square box he was holding.
"It's a burguer." He told me matter-of-factly and I opened my second eye to glare at him:
"Do you sincerely want me to puke from up here?" He laughed out loud:
"No, of course not, you moron." He said while laughing. "You are not supposed to eat right now, you can eat it when we are back to earth."
"Then why…?"
"Because…"He opened the box. "This isn't any burger! This is a birthday burger!"
"A what…? Luke, I…" I stared at the burger and the little candle on top of it, then I stared puzzled at Luke and the lighter he was holding on his other hand.
Oh!
"What day is today, Luke?"
"December twenty second." He told me sounding happy that I had finally remembered.
"I can't believe I forgot my own birthday."
"Me neither." He said lighting the candle. "I know we are on the run and everything but to forget your own birthday…How air-headed of you."
If I were brave enough to let go of the security bars, I would have punched him on the arm or something but I wasn't, so I just chuckled.
"C'mon, Thalia." He said protecting the flame from the wind by approaching the burger to our bodies and hiding it with his hand. "Make a wish."
I never believed in wishes; I don't think Luke did either. Wishes are like prayers, you can ask and ask and ask but they never get granted. For years and years, the one thing I had ever wished was to find my brother, I had wished for my mother to stop being the way she was, I had prayed for monsters to stop chasing me and nothing had been given to me. Ever.
So I thought maybe this time, I should just ask for something simple, something reachable and easy to do like "getting back on the ground safely" or "fried chicken for next Friday's dinner"; I should just stop making absurd wishes and dreaming about ever getting them. I should just ask for something simple.
But I didn't.
I blew the candles feeling Luke's hand tight around mine: I wanted to be with my family forever.
A/N: This came out surprisingly soppy, don't you think? This is probably the longest one we will get besides, maybe, the encounter with the huntresses one. Hopefully, you'll all like it despite all the fluffiness, lol. How does it feel to have me writing romance? I feel so cheap and corny when I write this type of scene. X_X

:) (Smile) — Description

Push and Pull
A/N: By now, I have absolutely no idea which reviews I did or didn't reply, so make sure you remind me in case you got ignored the last time. I'd love to send you a reply. As I've mentioned before to those who reviewed, there will be a chapter about their first encounter with the Huntresses but it can only happen after they meet Annabeth, so let us continue with this for now.
P.S.: I should probably warn you that this chapter contains a bit too much fluff and it might eventually cause you to fall in love with Luke. So, hm, be warned.
6. Wish
"So you have finally gone mental." I sighed these words knowing they'd make him turn around and stare at me with annoyance. I also half expected him to let go of my wrist but that much didn't happen.
"I'm not mental." He stated matter-of-factly with the exact annoyed expression I thought he'd come up with. "You, however, are definitely losing it."
I scowled and opened my mouth to protest but Luke yanked my arm painfully to the front, forcing me to walk with him.
"I'm not losing it!" I said as I struggled to set myself free. Gods know how Luke managed to never let go of whatever he is trying to hold on to; it must be a thief thing. "You're the one who decided to "take a break" from running away from monsters, weren't you? We can't do that! We can't take a "day off" from our lives!"
I bumped violently against his back when he stopped walking abruptly. He let out a long, heavy breath and then turned around again, letting go of my arm:
"Ok, then." He said shrugging. "You don't need to come with me."
I was beyond startled:
"W-what?" I hated myself for stuttering; that wasn't something I'd normally do. I was caught by surprise; the Luke I knew would never give up that easily on our arguments, besides, suggesting I didn't go with him wherever he was going –especially since we were in the middle of nowhere – hurt a very specific part of me even though I couldn't really say whether it was my pride or something else.
"Stay here." He shrugged. "Find yourself a nice, clean spot to stay, set the tent you have in your backpack and sulk in there for the rest of the day while I" He gave me his trademark smirk as he said "I". "…have the best time in ages all by myself and monster free."
I rolled my eyes at him and crossed my arms:
"You're insane." I said. "You know it won't be monster free." I looked down and stared at my own shoes; my combat boots looked old and my jeans were already too thin for the winter weather. I felt tired, hungry and, above all things, frustrated. "It's never monster free."
"Thalia…" He started out with a sympathetic tone to his voice but I raised my hand to cut him off . A thought had just occurred to me:
"I'll set the tent." I said already taking the backpack off of my shoulders.
"What?" It was his turn to stutter and sound surprised against his will.
"Truth is, Luke –and we both know that – that your only chance to get a monster free day is if you don't have me around you." I knew that for a fact, I knew Luke alone would attract some monsters but for them to come as often as they came, as hungry as they seemed…that part was my entire fault. Even though I would probably never get a day off from my life, Luke had done more than he could for me already, I owed him more favors than I'd like to admit so I'd step out for a day, let him get the rest he deserved.
I placed the backpack on the grass and was about to open it when I noticed he hadn't moved an inch yet.
"What?" I said looking up to find Luke staring at, his jaw dropped. "What?" I asked again, wondering whether to laugh at his expression or to take him seriously (I honestly had to do that a lot while travelling with him all that time).
"Did you just implied that all monster come chasing us because of you?" Typical Luke: I try to go on and do something nice for him, he gets his untouchable male pride hurt for no reason. I stared at him and pretending to be thinking about an answer before saying with a winning grin:
"Not really." I answered finally, playing with his mind. "I'm not implying anything. I'm stating that they show up because of me." Typical me: I get a chance to be nice and reasonable but always choose to be arrogant and make fun of him.
Luke seemed pretty offended for a few seconds (and this comes to show how miserable were our lives if we were fighting over who attracts more mortal peril to the two of us) and then he grabbed me by the wrist again.
"Hey!" I yapped as he yanked me forward again, barely giving me the chance to grab the backpack from the floor again. I held on to it as tightly as I could. Luke was running so fast that, even on the absurd possibility of me managing to set myself free from his hold, I'd probably get really hurt. "Where are we going?"
"You'll see." He panted. It was the last thing he said to me for the next fifteen minutes 'till we abruptly stopped (and I almost lost my arm because of that), only a few inches away from reaching a gigantic stone wall.
"Here we are."
"A giant stone wall?" I said with a mocking undertone that was pretty obvious. "You do realize monsters could destroy this easily enough, don't you?" Luke rolled his eyes at me and pointed his index finger to a place above our heads:
"Must you always be so close minded?" He asked crossly but I could already see the shadows of a smile playing on his eyes again. I let my eyes follow his finger and felt my own jaw drop this time. There was a strong source of light coming from somewhere near and I could hear music, cheerful voices and smell something like I couldn't exactly remember what it was cause it had been ages since the last time I had even seen one; cotton candy .
"A…a…Carnival?"
"Yes!" He said, his grin suddenly becoming so wide you could mistake him for the Cheshire Cat. "Aren't you excited?" He looked so happy, I almost felt bad for raining on his parade.
"Luke, what are we going to do in there?" I said trying to sound reasonable. "These things are filled with people; if a monster attacks…" He waved me off and looked more pleased with himself than I had ever seen:
"That's the brilliance of the plan, dearest." He played with his hair in such an extravagant manner, I held back a chuckle despite my humor not being the best at the moment. "Carnivals produce their own powerful scent: something like fried chicken and melting iron mixed together. This confuses monsters, besides, it's so cold, they'll have trouble sniffing us down naturally." I stared at him skeptically and he rolled his eyes at me moodily:
"But" he started as to prevent me from finding holes in his silly theory and snatching something from his cargo pants pockets. "if this doesn't work; here's plan B."
He handed me a leather bracelet.
"What's this?"
"Remember that daughter of Hecate we ran into last week when we were running away from that huge pig?"
"It was a boar and yeah, I remember." Luke scratched the back of his head a little before speaking again.
"Well, she kinda liked me." I raised an eyebrow. It wasn't supposed to look threateningly but I guess it did anyway:
"And…?"
"Well, she told she'd been working on these bracelets; said they weren't really strong because she wasn't that great of a sorceress just yet but apparently, these things are a mix of monster powder and fabric."
"Monster powder…? I asked already twitching my nose and holding the bracelet as away as possible from my body. "Ew." Luke scowled at my unusual girly attitude. He hated when I was being "high maintenance" (and by "high maintenance" he usually meant me wanting to take a shower or sleeping at a clean place for a change).
"Anyway, there's a mist controlling spell on these things so, if we happen to come across a monster, it will be confused by the smell and think we are another monster. Of course, she told me that it only work on weaker monsters who'd be too scared to come looking for a fight but still…"
"So," I said while holding the bracelet high in front of my face so I could analyze it better. "It works fine on silly monsters but if we happen to find something really dangerous, then we are screwed?"
Luke shrugged:
"Yeah, pretty much."
We exchanged glances in a silent battle of egos for almost a minute before Luke burst:
"Oh, c'mon!" He took the bracelet from me and held my hand tight between his own to tie it around me. "I had to do some seriously seductive work to get that girl to give us these!"
"Seductive work, Luke?" I asked with a mean sneer but he ignored me.
"Are you ready?" He asked rubbing his hands together. I sighed, resigned; I was there already, I might as well enjoy it.
"Sure." I said sounding absolutely bored. "Where do we get the tickets?" Luke laughed out loud.
"Tickets." He said as if I had something absurd. "You're so funny sometimes." He leaned down, still chuckling and shaking his head from side to side, and grabbed a rock from the floor. "We are using the back door, Thalia."
Carnivals are a place filled with glee and nice smells and cheerful laughter and happy families. Needless to say, I hated it all.
"Do you want a cotton candy?" Luke's voice got me out from my trance; unlike me, he seemed to be pretty happy to be there which was very hard to understand since he usually pretty much hates these familiar scenarios as much as I do.
"Sure, why not?" I shrugged. "Are you paying?" He smirked at me. "Of course you aren't." I concluded and he chuckled.
That was it: Luke had hit his head against something on our last battle. That was the only possible explanation for his attitude today.
"Blue or pink?" He asked with another non-Lukeish smiley face.
"Have we met?" I said smiling a little myself and wondering if what he had was somehow contagious.
"Ok, then. Wait right here and don't move an inch." He disappeared in the crowd and I took a deep breath. I watched the little cloud that came out from my mouth sadly as I wondered what kind of Carnival opens when the weather is so cold.
As I stood alone among those bright lights and happy families, I felt a familiar pain in my heart. Part of me hated myself for feeling sad or fragile whenever Luke disappeared but other, more mature part of me, understood that I had a reason for feeling like that and that it was ok to be like that. I had lost someone before; it wasn't that big of a surprise that I were scared of being left behind or getting lost. I shook away the sad, pathetic thoughts from my head and tried to think about something else.
"Hm, I'm alone and vulnerable. That's usually when the monsters attack." See? Happy thoughts. "Maybe these things do work." I said staring at my wrist.
"I'm back." Luke appeared behind me holding two blue cotton candies.
"And now, somewhere in this Carnival, two children relentlessly weep." I added while grabbing my cotton candy. He chuckled:
"I wouldn't steal candy from kids." He told me. "I stole it from two old ladies." His principles weren't always the best, I should probably add.
"Awesome." I said with my mouth full while he looked from side to side to the park, as if deciding where to go first.
"Wanna see if you're tall enough to ride the Ferris wheel?" I kicked him under the knee for making fun of my height but he didn't even flinch.
"Of course I'm tall enough." I said as I followed him around and secretly hoped I wasn't tall enough: that Ferris wheel was huge. I had successfully managed to keep my fear of heights a secret from Luke for the past year and I intended to keep it that way.
"It's ok if you don't want to go." He said all of a sudden.
"What?" My head practically snapped on top of my neck as I turned around to look at him.
"I mean," He chewed on his cotton candy. "I know you don't like heights, it's ok if you're scared."
"Are you mental?" I snapped at him and all he did was smile.
"No offense, Thalia, but we've been running away together for over a year now, you must take me as really stupid if you think I didn't notice anything." I scowled at him:
"You are stupid if you think I'm afraid of anything. Especially heights."
He stared at me and then smiled:
"If you say so…"He said while grabbing me by the wrist again. "Then you won't mind the wheel, right?" I pretended to be ok with it:
"Not at all." I was terrified.
The Ferris wheel was worse than I thought it'd be. It shook, there wasn't any balance, it made noises and went up all at once just to stop abruptly. I held so tight to the security bars, my hands were starting to hurt. Luke was horribly quiet as the dreadful thing went up but just when I thought I was going to faint from fear, I closed my eyes not to see anything and felt his hand on top of mine.
"Relax." He told me gently. "You're so silly sometimes. What was the problem of telling me you were scared? Now you're hating it."
I looked at him with narrowed eyes and breathed in and out heavily:
"I…am…not…scared."
"Of course." He said. "Then let go of the security bar for a second." He dared me.
There was another battle of egos.
And I lost.
"Alright." I sighed. "I am scared of heights. Are you happy now?" I asked irritated. Luke sighed too:
"Not really." He sounded sad.
We remained quiet for what seemed like centuries to me until Luke spoke:
"You know, you don't have to be scared." He told me and I looked at him. Not for a second his hand left mine uncovered. "Even if you are too scared to control the wind, I can still manage to get us down safely with my own powers."
I managed a weak smile:
"I know." Luke's eyes were on the stars now, so I followed his gaze mostly because I didn't want to look down anymore. "Wow." I said as I contemplated the stars. "Everything looks so beautiful." I couldn't help but saying it.
"I know, right? We got lucky; it's a pretty clear winter night. You can see a bunch of constellations."
"Ugh." I couldn't care less for constellations; Luke adored them and their stories, so I prepared myself for another lecture.
"You see those two over there? Those are Laelaps and the Teumessian Fox." He looked at my stare that always meant "no, those are just shiny dots in the sky" and chuckled, pointing his free hand to the two constellations. "Laelaps was a dog that would catch whatever it wanted to catch."
"Hm." I started wondering when the Ferris wheel would start moving down.
"And the Theumessian Fox was made to never be captured." He added, totally lost in his story. "Someone once thought that sending Laelaps to catch the fox would be the smartest thing to do but the truth was that…"
"They had created a paradox." I interrupted, suddenly interested. "How was that solved?"
"Same way everything gets solved by them." He added bitterly. "Zeus sent them to the sky and now they can go on with this forever." Luke never called Zeus "your father", he knew I didn't like it.
"Sounds like him." I said with sarcasm but Luke didn't seem to be listening. His mind was miles away as he stared at the sky.
"Say, Thalia, what do you think is the saddest?" He asked me. "To be hunted for the rest of eternity or to chase something without ever actually getting to have it?"
I analyzed his expression for a while; Luke was definitely turning into someone different from the person I had known and I could tell there were thoughts he was hiding from me and that bothered me to no end.
"Don't you sound deep today?" I mocked him – I always did that, I could never manage to just listen to him when he seemed to be opening up. I didn't know why, I was just too scared to maybe find out something I wish I didn't. I wanted to believe Luke was the hero I though him to be. He was my family after all.
"I am, aren't I?" He chuckled, surprised by his own attitude. He was back at his relaxed self from before. "I shouldn't be talking about this, especially not today. Today is a especial day."
I snored:
"Because it's our "day off"?" I asked him with scorn and he rolled his eyes:
"Unbelievable." He said, honestly surprised. "I never met a kid who'd forget this type of thing…"
"I'm not a kid." I replied automatically. "And what am I forgetting?"
Before he could answer, however, there was a loud "clung!" and the Ferris wheel started moving even higher in the sky. I closed my eyes again and let out a little yelp; Luke's grip on my hand grew stronger and I heard him say:
"Man, I really wish you'd have admitted you were afraid. This Ferris wheel was such a bad idea. It's ruining everything." The wheel stopped again and I tried to gain enough courage to open my eyes as I heard Luke say:
"No, wait, don't open your eyes just yet!"
"No problem!" I answered, impatient. His hand remained on top of mine but I could tell he was moving. "Luke…What are you doing?" I had strong reasons to believe there was a possibility he was cracking the security bar open and trying for an early escape so I was really worried.
"Nothing. Just open your eyes now." He said cheerfully and I dared to open only one of my eyes.
"What's this?" I asked as I saw the little square box he was holding.
"It's a burguer." He told me matter-of-factly and I opened my second eye to glare at him:
"Do you sincerely want me to puke from up here?" He laughed out loud:
"No, of course not, you moron." He said while laughing. "You are not supposed to eat right now, you can eat it when we are back to earth."
"Then why…?"
"Because…"He opened the box. "This isn't any burger! This is a birthday burger!"
"A what…? Luke, I…" I stared at the burger and the little candle on top of it, then I stared puzzled at Luke and the lighter he was holding on his other hand.
Oh!
"What day is today, Luke?"
"December twenty second." He told me sounding happy that I had finally remembered.
"I can't believe I forgot my own birthday."
"Me neither." He said lighting the candle. "I know we are on the run and everything but to forget your own birthday…How air-headed of you."
If I were brave enough to let go of the security bars, I would have punched him on the arm or something but I wasn't, so I just chuckled.
"C'mon, Thalia." He said protecting the flame from the wind by approaching the burger to our bodies and hiding it with his hand. "Make a wish."
I never believed in wishes; I don't think Luke did either. Wishes are like prayers, you can ask and ask and ask but they never get granted. For years and years, the one thing I had ever wished was to find my brother, I had wished for my mother to stop being the way she was, I had prayed for monsters to stop chasing me and nothing had been given to me. Ever.
So I thought maybe this time, I should just ask for something simple, something reachable and easy to do like "getting back on the ground safely" or "fried chicken for next Friday's dinner"; I should just stop making absurd wishes and dreaming about ever getting them. I should just ask for something simple.
But I didn't.
I blew the candles feeling Luke's hand tight around mine: I wanted to be with my family forever.
A/N: This came out surprisingly soppy, don't you think? This is probably the longest one we will get besides, maybe, the encounter with the huntresses one. Hopefully, you'll all like it despite all the fluffiness, lol. How does it feel to have me writing romance? I feel so cheap and corny when I write this type of scene. X_X