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[tooprettytodie]

It was time to stop hiding. That didn't mean she was going to fully integrate herself into island society again. She still wasn't going to go to her dance classes, especially not with Percy there, but she had decided to go ahead and live in her own place again. As grateful as she was to Charlie and Edmund for letting her crash at their place, she wanted to be back home.

She had left notes in the mailboxes of everyone that had gone home with everyone. They simply said I'm sorry. -Valkyrie

She wasn't sure what could be said beyond that. She hated herself for what she had done to them, even if becoming Darquesse had been to save them. In the end, she hadn't been strong enough to save her friends, not from herself. Not only that, but each time she became Darquesse, it was harder and harder to find her way back. If it hadn't been for the ending of the dream, she wasn't sure if she would have come back from that.

Then there was the fact that all of her closest friends now knew her secret. It wouldn't have been so bad except that her secret was that she had the potential to become some sort of crazy-powerful nut job without any conscience. Go her.

Sighing, Valkyrie curled up on her couch and hugged her knees to her chest. She'd just sit here for a while and try not to obsess over what happened. Later, much, much later tonight she would head to the ring and take out some anger on one of the bags and maybe go for a run along the beach.

[This can be set for any time between the 1st of June and now.]

Comments

[percy_jackson]

I frowned. Who jogged until they were about to puke? Someone who wanted to run and not stop, ever, I realized. I kept my voice light. "Hello to you too." Then, more seriously, I added, "Maybe you'd like to sit down?" I nodded at the sand.

[tooprettytodie]

"No, let's keep walking for right now. If I sit down I'll especially sore tomorrow," she said.

She was breathing hard, but it was a good excuse to be short on words for the moment. Normally with Percy she knew exactly what to say or do, but right now she wasn't sure.

[percy_jackson]

I nodded, and fell into step beside her. A part of me wondered if she didn't want to sit down so she wouldn't have to get up in case she decided to run away, but I left that thought alone.

We walked in awkward silence a moment, as the horizon brightened with moonrise. I ran over in my head things I wanted to say. Everything I could think of seemed trite or stupid.

Finally, I settled with, "Okay, stupid question of the year: are you all right?"

[tooprettytodie]

"I'm not in love with you."

Perhaps not the smoothest transition in the world, and not even remotely an answer to Percy's question, but it's something she wanted said right away. Bless him for asking about her well being first, but she figured that had to be eating at him, the fact that he threw that out there and she didn't get a chance to answer. At least the real her didn't.

It probably wasn't the best to seem overly eager to say that though. She didn't want to hurt Percy anymore than she had.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice soft. "That doesn't mean I won't ever. Or that I couldn't. Or that I don't think you're incredible. It's just that I... don't love you."

[percy_jackson]

I stood at her, mouth agape, for a moment, before I closed my mouth. "Well. Hello to you too," I said again.

It hurt to hear that, there was no denying that. But I'd be lying if I said I was surprised by this. After all, hadn't Valkyrie told me flat out at the start of... whatever this was... that she wasn't ready for a serious relationship? I wouldn't have said 'I love you' if I hadn't thought I was about to die.

I looked away a moment, thinking over my next words. Then I said, "So... tell me something. Are we... still friends?"

[tooprettytodie]

"I'm sorry," she said, wincing at the expression on his face. She hadn't meant to hurt him, that was the last thing she wanted to do. But the last time she had dragged a relationship on because she couldn't say what needed to be said it had been horrible. She really needed to work on finding a happy medium.

"And I want to be friends. If you still want to be friends with a girl who is prophesied to destroy the world."

[percy_jackson]

"It's okay," I said quietly. Actually, it was a bit bitter, but what could I do? I wondered where we'd redraw the boundaries. I hoped that hugging wouldn't be ruled off limits. But she did give me a ray of hope. She'd said that she might love me in the future, and if there was anything this Island had taught me, it was how to wait.

At her comment about a prophesy, however, I frowned thoughtfully. After facing Darquesse, yeah, I could see it. She could beat Kronos if she put her mind to it. But then I couldn't help but smile a little. "A prophesy, eh? Did yours come in the form of a creepy and enigmatic poem?"

[tooprettytodie]

"No, it came in the form of watching a vision of myself killing my parents," she said. That still haunted her sometimes and she almost wished she wasn't both on the island and back home, because her family would be safe.

"And every medium of any power back home is freaking out about Darquesse. Only one other person knows it's me, but the visions of the future are so strong and so terrible they're all seeing it. No matter what I do, they don't stop having the visions."

[percy_jackson]

I winced. "Okay, as prophesies go, give me the Oracle's stupidly cryptic verses any day. That... really sucks. I'm sorry." I nodded at the sand again. "Are you sure you don't want to sit? And talk about it?"

[tooprettytodie]

"I want to talk about it, I just want to keep moving," she said. She felt like moving, like if she stayed in one place her mind would settle too and would brood.

"And I'm going to find a way to stop it. I just haven't yet."

[percy_jackson]

"Well, that's the spirit," I said, smiling. Seeing her like this, I could see that she had something Darquesse never would, and that, at least, offered hope. Then, more softly, I added, "Look, about your note... You don't need to apologize. What happened back there was the Island giving you a worst case scenario."

[tooprettytodie]

"Percy, I totally kicked your ass, almost killed you, and said really horrible things to you," she pointed out, as if he had somehow forgotten that.

"It wasn't the island that made me do it. Yeah, it put me in a really awful position, but I was the one that did it. Darquesse isn't some sort of alternate personality. It's just me without a conscience. I still have my free will."

[percy_jackson]

"Yeah," I said, touching the place where she'd stabbed me -- though the pain seemed to be easing up a bit. I thought a moment, then added, "But if that's true, you have one hell of a conscience. At least, I think so."

[tooprettytodie]

"Thanks," she said, giving a bit of a smile. That was sweet of him to say, but she knew he wouldn't have said it if he didn't mean it. She did notice that he rubbed where she stabbed him with the sword though.

"Percy-" she stopped and put her hands on his shoulders. "I care about you. A lot. And I know you wouldn't have ever said what you did if things hadn't have been what they were. But I also know you wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true. I can respect that you didn't say anything until then though. I'm not- I'm not running away from you because of it. I want you to know that."

[percy_jackson]

I struggled for a moment to think of something to say to that. Like, 'what do you mean, you're running away?' or 'I thought we were just backing off!' but I realized that what Valkyrie wanted most to do, right now, was to get what she wanted to say off her chest, and the best thing I could do was respect that and listen.

"Okay," I said. "I understand that. Why are you 'running', then?" And couldn't you maybe just jog a few paces away and stay?

[tooprettytodie]

"No, no, that's now what I meant!" she said. "I meant I'm not running away despite all that's happened. I mean, yeah, that confession is going to change things. But we're not going to stop being friends, or stop being close. But our feelings for each other are on two different levels and there needs to be some balancing out before anything major happens. But that doesn't mean I'm not open to things balancing out."

Of course that would most likely mean she was in love with Percy, or closer to being in love with him than she was. She couldn't guarantee that would happen but she wasn't going to just outright deny that it was a possibility.

[percy_jackson]

"Okay," I said, then added, "Sorry." I had to admit that Valkyrie looked rather cute when she was flipping out, but I knew enough to at least try to avoid this. This was very much in dangerous territory.

I took her hands and held them in mine, as long as she let me. "I understand. And I'm really glad we're not going to stop being friends. I guess I just want to know, after all that's happened, what happens now?"

[tooprettytodie]

"I- I really don't know," she admitted. She wished that she did because that would make things so much easier. Usually she had an answer for things and she hated when she didn't.

"At the very least I'd like to start going back to dance class if I haven't already been kicked out for not showing up."

[percy_jackson]

"I'd like that," I said. "And it shouldn't be a problem. We might have a lot of catching up to do, but Alcuin seems like an understanding guy."

[tooprettytodie]

"Good, I'm glad. And I promise I won't be such a stranger anymore."

Now that they had talked, there was a sense of relief. Sure things were up in the air a bit and the "I love you thing" still made her freak out a bit but it wasn't all that bad.

[percy_jackson]

"I'd like that," I said. Seeing the relief on her face made me feel better. Whatever Darquesse had done, we had managed to salvage things.

I opened my arms a bit. "Hug?"

[tooprettytodie]

Valkyrie didn't hesitate before wrapping her arms around Percy and hugging him tight. She wasn't the type of person to say that she couldn't do this without him, but it definitely made things easier to deal with when he was around.

"You can always have hugs from me," she said, pulling away just a bit to smile at him before reaching up to brush his hair out of his face. "Always."

[percy_jackson]

The hug felt good. Having her brush a strand of hair from my face also felt good. Maybe a little awkward.

Fortunately, before things got too awkward, Mrs. O'Leary bounded out of the woods and ran past us into the water.

"Uh, oh," I said, looking past Valkyrie as Mrs. O'Leary frolicked in the waves. "When she comes out and shakes herself..."

[tooprettytodie]

"Yeah, you're going to get really wet, aren't you?" she said with a grin, laughing a bit.

[percy_jackson]

"Yes--" I said, before I realized what she said. I jerked my gaze from Mrs. O'Leary to her with a look that clearly said what I was thinking, which was, 'what do you mean, just me?'