"I fell in love the way you fall asleep, slowly then all at once." Annabeth read that in a book once. Sitting in her cabin, the smell of old, leather bound books filled the air and the grand wooden bookshelf in the back of the room. She fell in love; she fell. Why do people use such a silly saying? Is it fair to claim it's meaningless? Or does it describe an indescribable feeling? The saying is very trivial, then again, so is love; is that the hidden meaning? Love is trivial and indescribable and that stupid line from a stupid book is as well?

Annabeth was jealous of Hazel in a way she couldn't grasp. Hazel had cancer; I guess Annabeth's cancer was her heritage. Both incurable, both dangerous, both live-consuming. But Hazel had something Annabeth didn't: an end to her pain. She realized she couldn't get Augustus back, but she accepted mortality; Hazel didn't fear oblivion. Annabeth shouldn't fear death, she was guaranteed a free trip to Elysium, anyhow; a death of peace and luxury, away from all the pain and suffering that came with her supernatural life on earth. But still, Annabeth couldn't help but feel envy nagging at the back of her brain, tugging on her heart. Annabeth loved Percy, she wanted the best life for them. They saved the world so many times and made so many sacrifices, they deserved a break; they deserved a life. Together. Except now they were falling, and they weren't falling in the desirable way either. They were falling into the deepest pits of hell, the cornerstones of their nightmares and the birthplace of misery. Ironic, that it describes love, too.

Hot air rushed up from underneath Annabeth, caressing her face and cocooning her body. Percy had one hand laced around Annabeth's fingers, his other wound tightly around Annabeth's shoulders. She should feel scared, she should be fearing death, but instead she relaxes. Her body unravels underneath her boyfriend's touch, her muscles slowly becoming less and less tense.

And she just fell...no warning, no time to process the myriad emotions coursing through her, nothing, just a huge endless void-filled fall and then a sudden crash that took her breath away.

"I love you," she whispers. Because if she was going to die, those were going to be her last words.