#thuke

               Truth be told, it still felt strange to be stared down at by someone who looked a couple of years younger than herself and was shorter than her. But Thalia never dwelled on that. Artemis was too powerful to be taken lightly. "We're hunting, not in the middle of a war."

               Thalia chewed on her lower lip. Though she'd grown up some, she still felt the urge to talk back, even to Artemis, though she never did. Of course they weren't in the middle of a war—not yet, at least. Things were still brewing between the Greeks and Romans.

               Artemis must've read the defiance in the Daughter of Zeus' eyes. The huntress' expression softened just a fraction. "Go. Rest. Melina and Dara are capable of keeping an eye on things."

               In response a few yards away, clear-eyed Melina and raven-haired Dara turned their heads in the direction of the goddess and the lieutenant and nodded their heads.

               "You've not slept for nearly two days, correct?"

               Artemis really always did know everything. Thalia sighed. "…yes, milady."

               "I can give you immortality, Thalia, and it's been a while since you took the oath. But adjusting to this life is a process. It's good to sleep, even if you don't feel the need. I've heard it recharges the body and mind." Artemis paused, her eyes piercing the girl. "Is everything all right?"

               Thalia waved her hands dismissively and tried not to laugh things off nervously. "No, no, milady…! I—I'll go rest as you say."

               Artemis watched her go. She noted the way the lieutenant's grip on the strap of her quiver tightened, but she didn't bother Thalia about it. Not now, at least.

               Inside the lieutenant's tent (dubbed only by the other, younger Hunters who were taken with Thalia), Thalia placed her bow and arrows on the floor beside her cot and shed her jacket. She left her boots on and lay down anyway, though she knew it wouldn't help. She tried closing her eyes, which took a lot of effort, but her nerves just wouldn't let her sleep.

               It wasn't that she had lied to Artemis at all, but Thalia didn't like sleeping much these days. …no, that wasn't entirely true. She hadn't been sleeping well nearly ever since she'd become a Hunter ages ago. But it wasn't anyone's fault…

               …okay, so maybe that was a lie.

               But Thalia avoided thinking about it too much. That was why she hadn't been sleeping. Now it was catching up to her.

               Thalia sighed. It wasn't that she hated sleeping for the normal demigod reason: getting horrific premonitions. She just…if she fell asleep…

               She'd begin to regret.

               Thalia ran her hands over her freckled face and up into her spiky black hair, running her fingers through the pixie cut and mussing it up. Her eyes began to feel heavy, as if Artemis had gotten Hypnos to cast a spell on her. And the heavier they grew, the harder it became for Thalia's arms to stay up, for her hands to hide her face away from the rest of the world as her dreams appeared onstage…

               It's an interesting fantasy. It's one that has visited her from time to time, sometimes in her sleep, sometimes as a midday reverie. But it's always the same.

               It's the three of them, together again—or, rather, never having split up in the first place. She, Luke, and Annabeth never make it to Camp Half-Blood. She never turns into a tree. Annabeth remains like their little sister, even though things become something more than kinship between Thalia and Luke.

               "I think the monsters have gotten the message by now," Luke tells Thalia one night under an overpass. It's fall, but it's not quite so chilly yet where they currently are, in South Carolina. If they feel like it, they could always keep heading south to the warmer climate, like untamed birds.

               Ha. They're a flock. The thought makes Thalia smirk.

               "Thalia?"

               The blue-eyed girl picks her head up and finds Luke's face right by hers. It takes all her strength not to blush madly with him sitting so close to her. If only dealing with boys could be as easy as slaying a harpy. "Uh, yeah?"

               Luke chuckles. "You didn't hear a word I said just now, did you?"

               She sighs. "Sorry. But what was it?"

               "Nothing. Just… I think our reputation precedes us now. We're not getting attacked as often." He takes a deep breath and slowly releases it. He looks so relaxed. "It's nice, chilling like this."

               Thalia nods.

               Luke bumps her shoulder with his and nods his head to where Annabeth sleeps. "She's really enjoying that community class at the shelter. It's good you saw the sign for the kids' classes at the local shelter."

               Thalia watches Annabeth, too, and how the blonde sleeps with her arms wrapped tightly around her notebook. They might be transients with little to their names, but what they do have is theirs. For Annabeth, that includes a school notebook full of things too easy for her to learn and too hard for her even to begin thinking about. "Yeah… But I'd like to help her get into some place proper. Annabeth's smart."

               "You know why," Luke reminds her.

               For a brief moment, her smirk which had morphed into a smile wavers. "I don't want to talk about the gods."

               He shrugs. It's not his favorite subject either, reminiscing about the parents that left them (which of course makes them think about the parents from whom they had to run). "Well…maybe we should make some contacts or something."

               Thalia blinks, wondering where his head is. "What do you mean, 'contacts'?"

               Luke shrugs again. "I dunno, like…people who make up papers and IDs and stuff. Won't she need that if we send her to a real school?"

               "Luke…" Thalia laughs nervously, not knowing where he's going with this. "You're kidding, right? Sure, we've scared enough monsters that the attacks are fewer now, but school? That means staying in one place. We can't do that. Besides, how would we pay for it?"

               "I'm working age," he reminds her, his cheeks pink as though he's affronted at her having forgotten that he's the eldest. "And you will be, too, next year. We could save up."

               He's cute when he's sincere. "But it always happens, Luke," she says, resting her head on his shoulder. "We wouldn't be able to stay long."

               "Then I can look into online classes. Every state does that K-12 thing, I think."

               "Doesn't that require registering the student with the state, though?" It's not that she's trying to harpoon all his good ideas, but…these ideas might work for others, not for them.

               Luke shrugs again, but he seems to be placated by her cheek on his chest. He wraps an arm around her. "Well…I'll figure something out. We will. I think we can keep our family together. After all, family's gotta look out for family, right?"

               Thalia says nothing. She smiles into his chest, his warmth making her forget that it's autumn in South Carolina, not summer in Florida.

               Another instance seems a little unfair to Annabeth.

               In this scenario, Thalia and Luke never met the Daughter of Athena. In it, they'd never heard of demigods and, somehow, had never attracted the attention of the monsters. Maybe, perhaps, it'd be nice—they'd never been demigods.

               Thalia had lived as normal a life as possible and struggled to make it to college.

               Luke had used school as an escape from his crazy mother and made it into college.

               They'd be enrolled at the same place at the same time. Of course Luke would still be older, that was fact, but college mixed everyone together, so they'd have a class together.

               It would be a week and four days before Thalia got annoyed with something their professor said about the current topic in Psychology of Children and debated with him for the rest of the hour and fifty minutes allotted to the twice-weekly class.

               It would be a week and four days before Luke would watch the spectacle that was the punk girl in class with the electric blue eyes argue to the death with their psych professor.

               It would take two minutes after class let out for Luke to congratulate her on her brilliant verbal sparring skills.

               It would take Thalia a full minute after seeing his winning smile to realize that her small talk skills were nonexistent.

               After that, Luke would take the hint and ask her to join him in the dining commons for lunch, and it would be an urban fairytale after that.

               …okay, so perhaps Thalia can't quite let go of the notion of them being perfectly regular mortals.

               Her mind sometimes imagines Luke living near her, but neither of them would come from broken homes. Luke would be the son of the mailman and the town psychic and Thalia would be the daughter of a small-time actress and an important businessman. Neither of them would be unhappy, but they'd be the only ones in their neighborhood around the same age.

               So they'd meet naturally, out of curiosity. Luke would spy her playing with little Jason out in the front yard and ask if he could join them. Jason would be ecstatic to have a big brother type around, and Thalia would be fine with it because she never had and never has a "Boys Are Icky" stage.

               In some ways, this dream is the kindest, because Thalia can understand why Luke appeared at the Graces' from the start. His manners, his cleverness…how good he is around her intimidating father and how playful he is with Jason…his smile…

               Everything about Luke Castellan would win Thalia Grace over, bit by bit, piece by piece, and they'd fall in love as though it were the most natural thing in the entire world.

               Other times…other times, Thalia just wished for a different outcome.

               Other times her mind took her to what felt like far-off places…far-off but real places. Places where they'd been demigods and had suffered loss and someone had been enticed to the wrong side because his father had too much pride to admit that his son was damaged and needed affection before he was damaged beyond repair.

               She'd save him from Atlas and from Kronos. The gods would try to be merciless, but Thalia would have none of it, and she'd dare her own father to kill her, too, if they didn't let Luke survive. She would never become a Hunter—there was no need.

               She'd hide Luke away from the rest of the world, and heal him.

               It wouldn't matter how long it would take, but she'd heal him. She'd keep her communications short and private, only speaking with those who'd be able to help her, because Luke's mind and body would be equally broken—not as badly as if he'd given all of himself to Kronos, no, but still he'd be near death.

               And once his mind and body were healed, Thalia would mend his heart, too. She'd convince him that the love of their parents ought to be the last thing on their lists of priorities. It wouldn't exactly make things right, but it'd certainly make things better. And then, maybe one day, they'd open their world and invite others in…but for now, for now it'd be just them.

               Thalia awoke, disgruntled. Her eyes stung with the threat of tears, but she sighed, and the stinging went away. She really wasn't one to cry after her dreams. Still…even she didn't feel as impervious as Artemis' gift of immortality had left her, so she sat up and tried to Iris-message Annabeth.

               Unfortunately, Annabeth was asleep aboard the Argo II. Urgh.

               Thalia gave it some thought… She really did want to talk to someone, anyone, right about now, but if it couldn't be Annabeth… She didn't want to discuss this with Artemis or one of the Hunters, either… So she tossed another drachma into the mist and tried someone else.

               Unsurprisingly, Percy was awake. "Thalia?" he yawned.

               "Hi to you, too," she chuckled softly as he ran a hand through his already messy black hair.

               "What's wrong?" Percy asked.

               "What, something has to be wrong for me to call?"

               He gave her an unconvinced look.

               "Stop that. You picked that up from Annabeth."

               That woke him up the rest of the way. "So, what can I do for you, cousin?"

               "Just…" Thalia sighed, but she caved and told him about her dreams. "I miss him, y'know? Nobody talks about him anymore, unless they're talking about the bad things he did. I just want to talk about the good parts about Luke, though, just this once."

               Percy rubbed the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable. "Well…he was great with a sword. Quick on his feet."

               "Oh, my gods, Percy, if I wanted the obvious stated, I'd have contacted Grover," she teased. "But, no, you're right. He really was one of the best."

               "He was smart, too, not just clever like the other Hermes kids," Percy continued. He sighed in exasperation. "I always felt as though he was what…" He paused.

               "What?"

               Percy pursed his lips. "He was what a big brother was supposed to be like. He was actually pretty good at taking care of others."

               Thalia…was kind of stunned by the honesty in his voice. "Yeah…yeah, I agree." Her old memories of being on the lam warmed her enough that she smiled. "He hated his real family, but he was made to be in a family. You know?"

               Percy considered it. "…I guess. You and him and Annabeth…" He still had that clenched jaw whenever he spoke about the three of them in the same breath, but it meant a lot to Thalia that he was talking about Luke at all. He exhaled. "Sorry, Thalia, but…it doesn't feel right for me to say these things. I didn't know him well enough."

               "But you knew him, Percy. You could see him past Kronos."

               "Yeah, but…"

               "Percy, that's enough for me. Really. Thanks, cousin," she added lightly, earning her half a smile before she swiped her hand through the rainbow.

               The Hunter stood and put her jacket back on. Having the dreams again but talking about them this time…and about Luke… Artemis was right. Thalia's body and mind did feel recharged.

               And her heart? Maybe her heart was beginning to agree with immortality, too, as sad and lonely as it could be at times….

Well, that turned out angstier but better than I thought it would. My apologies that it's late, though, Saffie. :') I always have to pause and really think when I write Thalia… But I wonder if Thalia does ever have moments like these where she misses Luke and imagines what could've been…. Dx

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave an anon/unsigned review via the FFN link or comment via the AO3 link at the top of the post, especially if you enjoyed this!

~mew