Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

We broke up because of the war. It seemed as if the gods never wanted us to be together. And I’ve convinced myself to accept that I guess.

But after Tartarus.

After the things that happened in Tartarus I don’t think I can live without him. It’s torture every single night. Thankfully I don’t suffer as much from night terrors but Percy on the other hand does and often comes into my room to check on me at night. I guess to make sure that I’m still here. Little does he know that I wouldn’t leave this ship even if I could.

I can’t stand being two doors down from him.

During the day we are inseparable. I can barely go to the bathroom without Percy having a freak out about where I am. I can’t blame him, it's hard for me too. The freakouts happen at least three times a day. Percy gets. Well I guess he’s more overprotective than I thought. I am very thankful that we have Jason aboard because if not I think this ship would be in ruins.
If I’m gone for longer than ten minutes and Percy doesn’t know where I am he basically starts to tear the place apart. I’ve walked in on a few and the look he has in his eyes reminds me of him in Tartarus protecting me. It’s that dark brooding look. It can be quite terrifying, but as long as he sees me he instantly relaxes.

I have my issues too. Instead of having night terrors they’re replaced with constantly dissociating and breakdowns throughout the day. In reality, I thought that I’d have all of this under control by now but they seem to be getting worse. Rarely do I leave my room, everyone’s given up trying to get me to go to the mess hall for meals. Hazel and Jason bring me snacks throughout the day and Piper gave me a bell to ring if I ever needed anything. The bell thing made me smile a bit.

I’m on day ten of not leaving my room. I can tell that even Hazel is getting fed up with my act. So I decided that today I’ll try to have dinner in the mess hall. I haven’t actually seen Percy in ten days. Other than hearing him check on me in the night I haven't seen him. I’m surprised that he hasn’t gone insane yet. But I guess he knows where I am and the only thing that does give him sanity is checking on me in the middle of the night.

As the day goes on Hazel brings me my breakfast and lunch. Around day three of me being in here whoever made my plate that meal puts a little note on it with a funny drawing. So far I’ve gotten at least one from each person aboard the ship. Today on my lunch plate the notes from Percy, you can tell by his scratchy handwriting and misspelling of some words:

Hey Wise Girl,
I hope you’re doing okay in there. We’re all worried about you as past notes have probably stated. If you wanna talk about you know what I’m here. I’ll be out on the main deck at 1am probably. I hope that you’re not mad at me.
-Percy

I set the note with all of the other notes I’ve received and begin to eat my lunch.

Twelve hours to decide if I go and talk with Percy.

~*~

Dinner time comes too fast and I’m not prepared. After I took my shower I looked in the mirror and saw a pale girl with bags under her eyes. I tried to clean up as much as possible before someone brought down my dinner plate. 6:30 rolls around and I take some deep breaths before I exit my room and head down to the mess hall. I sat down where I used to sit. Apparently I’m early because there’s no one in the hall. So I sit and wait.

The first person to come into the room from the kitchen is Percy, who is carrying two plates, one with a note and one without one. He doesn’t notice I’m in the room until he sets the plates down across from me. He looks up from the table and we meet eyes. It takes all of me not to get up and hug him but I manage a small smile.

“Hey,” I say in a small voice.

But as Percy is about to respond someone walks into the room.

“Well you look terrible.” Leo yells and sits down at the head of the table. Then Jason and Piper walk in, “Look guys guess who’s out of her room!”

Jason sits down next to me on my right and Piper across from him.

“It’s nice to have you back.” Jason says.

Piper gives me a warm smile and then Hazel, Frank, and Coach Hedge walk in.

Everyone sits down and we begin to eat. Leo says we have around three weeks to a month left until we get back to camp since he wants to conserve energy. Then we all thank Leo for making the food.

Coach gives me a sympathetic look from across the table. He isn’t looking too great, he isn’t his usual strict rule-bearing self. In some ways I feel as if it's my fault, I haven’t been the easiest person to be around the past two weeks. And neither has Percy. Hedge also has to worry about Mellie and their unborn child. I don’t know how he’s keeping it all together.

Coach and I are cleaning up the table together while the others go above deck.

“Do you remember why I supposedly “grounded” you and Percy?” he asks.

“Of course I do.” I respond.

“Well I can’t believe I’m saying this but you and Percy are “ungrounded” now. And I know that you two aren’t together anymore but I can still see the way you guys look at each other. Before you locked yourself up you two were joined at the hip,” he begins stacking the glasses, “I think you two probably have some things to discuss from what happened down there. I hear him get up every night to check on you. You guys can’t shut eachother out after all you’ve been through.”

“It’s just hard to talk about it without breaking down or something like that. Does Percy know that you’ve “ungrounded” us?” I ask.

“Oh god no. I made up my mind about this while you guys were gone. I was going to tell you before you locked yourself up but I decided to wait because if I would have told the boy then he would have not left your room for ten days as well.” Coach laughs.

“Well thanks for that,” I chuckle and then there’s a loud crash from above deck. “I can take the rest into the kitchen go join the others before Leo does something dumb.”

Before he leaves he turns around and says, “Meet with him on the main deck tonight ok?”

Chapter Text

It’s 12am and I’m laying in my bed staring at the ceiling. I’ve been trying to sleep for three hours with no luck. Though sleeping on the Argo II hasn’t ever been an easy thing for me; it’s not easy for anyone. It’s just not the same as camp; nothing will be the same as camp. If there even is a camp left. Let’s hope Reyna completed her quest.

“Meet with him on the main deck tonight ok?”

Is the phrase that keeps running through my mind. Over and over like clockwork. Do I go and meet him? If I do go do I have to get dressed up? I don’t know what he’s expecting to wear? It feels like when we were twelve all over again. Freaking out over the littlest things. I wish it were that simple again. The gods had a different plan though.

They always do.

Now it’s 12:25 and I’ve convinced myself to go and meet with Percy.

Will I be a mess? Probably.
Will I run away upon encounter? Potentially.

I head up there early to ease my nerves. When I get up there, the wind blows my Hello Kitty robe and I have to re-secure it. The breeze is warm and crisp. You can tell it’s getting colder and closer to autumn. The sky is partly cloudy so the stars peek out here and there.

I assume that around 30 minutes have passed and I hear the door that leads to the below deck creak open. Percy walks out into the open wearing basketball shorts, a sweatshirt, and his panda slippers.

“That’s quite the outfit there.” I say gesturing at his slippers.

“You don’t look any better.” he says pointing at my Hello Kitty robe.

I roll my eyes, “So did Coach tell you yet?”

“Tell me what?” he immediately spits back.

“As of today you and I are officially ungrounded,” I say with air quotes and turn to face the railing.

“Wait really? Uh I mean not like I would care.” He changes his tone to try sounding like he all of the sudden doesn’t care.

We stay quiet for a few moments before I break the silence, “I know you check on me in the middle of the night.”

His expression at first is shocked which eventually leads to embarrassment.

“And I thought I was sneaky! I swear I didn’t make a sound. I didn’t even step foot in your room. I promise.” he rambles.

He’s nervous. I think to myself.

“Some things never change.” I laugh.

“What do you mean?” He asks.

“Well first of all your wardrobe, and second of all you act the same when you’re nervous.” I say.

“No I do not.” He spits back.

I give him a knowing look, “If you weren’t nervous you wouldn’t be standing so far away and you would be acting more out there,” I pause. “ Not saying that I’ve changed since then I’m sure I’ve stayed the same as well.”

“Yeah, not much has changed. You just started ramling, you’re also nervous, not just me.” He laughs.

I turn to face him. “So what did you want to talk about up here?”

“Well I haven’t really seen you in over a week so I thought it’d be nice to sneak some alone time with you. But now I guess we’re not sneaking around.” He runs his hand through his hair.

It goes silent again for a few seconds, all I can hear other than my heart pounding are the sounds of the ship settling. For some reason I’m mad at Percy, I feel hurt. I know I shouldn’t because I was the one to break up with him. I have too many mixed emotions about him right now and I'm not in the right headspace to make rational decisions. Annabeth Chase does not and will not make irrational decisions.

“How do you handle nightmares?” I ask.

“I don’t.”

“That’s not very helpful Seaweed Brain. I need some tips.”

“Woah is that Annabeth Chase going to someone for advice?” he gawks.

I punch his shoulder, “Oh shut up.”

“Do you remember what I wrote in that note right?” I nod, “Are you ready to talk about-”

“Don’t say it.” I interrupt him.

“Glad we’re on the same page.” he sighs.

I can’t stop the words before they come out. “Will you come back to my room with me?”

“Of course.”

~*~

We head below deck to my room. I want to take his hand so badly, it feels so natural, like an instinct, but I know I shouldn’t. It’s too soon. Everything is too soon.

Before we walk in I realize that I didn’t clean up today not knowing anyone else would be coming in here.

“Please excuse the mess.” I say sheepishly.

“You’re good.” he points at my bed. “May I?”

“Yeah go ahead make yourself comfortable.”

Percy indeed does make himself comfortable, just like he used to. He takes off his slippers and shirt then waits for me to be ready so I can lay against the wall. I get under the covers and so does he. I can feel all of my worries melting away as we get settled in.

“I don’t want to go to sleep.” I say.

“Then don’t.” He responds.

“Thank you for being here.” I whisper.

“Thank you for letting me lay here with you.”

“Anytime seaweed brain.” I say and doze off.

~*~

I wake with a start and my whole body feels as if it’s going to combust or turn into an ice cube. Beads of sweat roll down my forehead and that’s when I feel Percy’s hold on me.

I look up at him and all I can manage is, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’re okay. I’m here. I’m not leaving.”

He looks like he hasn’t slept at all. There are bags underneath his eyes and he looks like he could fall over at any second.

“Have you slept at all?” I ask.

“No, not really. I don’t really feel safe with both of us sleeping at the same time.”

Right. Sleeping in shifts. I forgot.

“Get over here,” I pat my stomach for him to lay his head on. “Now try and sleep. It’s my watch now.”

Chapter Text

I wake up and Percy isn't asleep next to me. He must have gone to breakfast already. I think to myself. I put my robe on and head to the mess hall to see if breakfast is still going on.

“Two meals in a row? This must be a record!” Leo shouts with his mouth full.

“Yeah, guess so.” I sit down.

“So what’re we doing today?” Jason asks no one in particular.

“Well I think we might need to land soon because things are looking a little funky with the air conditioner and heating systems. I want to make sure everythings ok, and we can’t really do that in the sky.” Leo says.

“Do you need any specific parts to repair it if there is damage?” Frank asks.

“We’ll burn that bridge once we get to it.” Piper responds.

“Alright cupcakes let’s go and get prepared for what we might encounter on the ground. Come on let’s go! Hustle! Hustle!” Coach yells a little too enthusiastically, guess he’s back to his more normal self now.

Everyone gets up and takes their dishes with them and we go and get ready for the long day ahead of us.

~*~

Leo is usually good at landing. Not today though. I don’t know what happened, but one second I’m brushing my teeth and the next second I’m smacked against the bathroom wall like a fly.

“IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT? WE ARE HAVING SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES UP HERE NO WORRIES.” Leo scratches over the intercom.

If something wasn’t already broken, something is definitely broken now. I decided it would be a safer idea to stay leaning against the wall for the time being.

There’s another loud crash right as I’m about to get up.

“I AM DEEPLY SORRY FOR WHOEVER JUST TUMBLED DOWN THE HALLWAY. AGAIN I AM HAVING SOME DIFFICULTIES.” There’s a pause. “OKAY WE ARE NOW LANDED.”

As I open the door to the bathroom, I look down the hallway to see Jason getting up off the floor.

“You were the one who got flung across the hallway?” I start laughing hysterically.

Jason looks unamused, “Well first I was thrown to the opposite side of the ship and then two seconds later I’m over here on the ground.”

“Is everyone ok?” Piper pokes her head out of her room.

“Jason was the one that got thrown.” I tell her.

“Really? I thought it would be Frank or Percy out of the seven of us.” She laughs and heads toward us. “Does anything hurt?”

“My head.” He murmurs.

“What’s with you and hitting your head lately?” I ask him.

“I don’t know. Must be a curse or something.” He gets up and we hear the static over the intercom again.

“OKAY. WE ARE SAFE AND SOUND NOW. EVERYONE MEET IN THE MESS HALL ESPECIALLY WHOEVER GOT FLUNG ACROSS THE SHIP. THANK YOU.”

“Oh god.” I say.

“You’re never gonna hear the end of it.” Piper follows.

“On a scale from 1-10, how bad does your head hurt?” I ask getting back to the real problem at hand.

“A five or six? I guess?” He rubs his head. “I can go to the stupid meeting but I am not getting chosen to get the parts Leo needs to fix whatevers broken.”

“We can cover for you if you don’t want to go.” Piper says.

“It’s fine. He’d figure out it was me, and I know he’s gonna play the security footage on loop in the mess hall for the next month.” We start walking to the other end of the ship.

Jason stops right before we enter the room and he raises and lowers his shoulders as if he’s preparing to go give a speech. We go in and take our seats.

“Okay first order of business, who was the fling-ee?” Leo slams his hands down on the table. No one fesses up. Piper and I see that Jason is trying to stay as neutral as possible throughout this.

“It wasn’t me Leo you can stop staring at me now.” Frank says sheepishly.

Leo looks over at Percy, “Was it you water boy?”

“Don’t call me Water Boy, and does it look like I was railed into a wall?” Once Percy said those words we all knew he would instantly regret it.

“Well I mean you weren’t in your room last night and you came to breakfast late this morning so you may have been railed in a differ-”

Before Leo can finish his sentence Coach walks in and his eyes go wide.

“What the hell did I just walk into?” Coach sits down, eyes still wide.

“Take it back Leo. Take it back.” Percy and I both say in unison but he doesn’t look phased.

“Take it back Leo.” Piper says.

He laughs nervously, “Haha it was all a joke guys. There’s nothing to worry about my man, just good ‘ol teenagery jokes. But back to the real issue. Who fucking got flung?” He looks around to find a new victim.

“Leo I was in the control room with you.” Hazel says flatly.

“Right right.” He pauses for a second. “Jason it was you! Do you want to know how I know?”

“As interesting as that sounds Leo don’t we have more important matters to discuss?” I redirect the conversation so Jason doesn’t lose his self dignity.

“Oh yeah. Right. So as we were landing I had a few issues and there were some malfunctions and I need to replace one major and two minor parts of the cooling and heating systems.” He pauses again. “There are eight of us here and there are three parts to get. I have already located all three parts so all we need to do is get them.”

“We go in pairs of two and then two people are left to stay behind and take watch.” Coach explains.

Piper volunteers to go with Leo to get the major part. Then Jason and Hazel to one of the smaller parts. That leaves Hege, Frank, Percy and I.

Who stays and who goes?

Chapter Text

Who stays and who goes?

“Frank and I can get the last part then Percy and Hedge can stay to keep watch.” I suggest.

Apparently that didn’t sit well with Percy and I should have seen that coming.

“You’re not going out there Annabeth. You’ve barely gotten out of bed since we got out of Tartarus. What’s going to happen when a hellhound pins you down out there? Are you ready to deal with that again?” He stands up.

“Are you ready to deal with that again?” I lean across the table and ask him.

“Hey hey guys. How about both of you stay back? Frank and I can go together, you two can hold the fort down.” Coach prompts trying to keep the peace.

“No, I can go-” Percy starts.

“This isn’t up for discussion.” Hedge interrupts and walks out. “We’re leaving in fifteen!”

The room goes silent. Everyone has taken a sudden interest in the floor and ceiling. The screen that usually broadcasts camp has Jason’s fall going on loop.

“Ok guys, so it’s settled. Jason and Hazel will get one of the parts for the heating system, Frank and Coach will get the other part, and that leaves Piper and myself to get the large part for the ac.” Leo starts handing out pieces of paper to the pairs. “These papers have the location, a picture, and a description of the parts.”

“When should we aim to be back by?” Frank asks.

“7ish? That leaves you enough time to get back if things don’t go as planned for you guys.” I say sitting back into my chair.

“Sounds good.” Piper says and everyone leaves the hall.

~*~

“You think they’ll be ok out there? Oh and go fish.” I ask.

“Damn it. And yeah I’m sure they’ll be fine. They usually are.” He draws a card.

“You got a dolphin? But what if they’re not? And we aren’t there to help?” Percy found a deck of Go Fish cards and as of the moment the score is 3-2.

When we were packing for the trip to Camp Jupiter, I found the deck of cards at the big house and they reminded me of Percy so I decided to pack them even if we didn’t end up using them. It was just another thing to help hold me together.

“I try not to think like that nowadays. They survived without us while we were gone before.” He slides over the dolphin card.

I place down my four dolphin cards on the table, “Do you have any goldfish? I pause. “Why didn’t you want me to go?”

“Because I don’t want to lose you and I don’t think yo- we are ready to go out there again yet. Go fish.” He snaps back.

“I’d be fine out there; so would you. Just because we walked through literal hell doesn’t mean we automatically become doormats Percy.” I retorted.

“I just don’t want to take any risks right now Annabeth.”

We both go silent.

“You can’t control my every move Percy.” I whisper.

“God you know for a daughter of Athena you can be such a dumbass sometimes.”

I get up and leave the main deck.

~*~

Sitting in your room for five hours doesn’t sound that bad when you’re wanting alone time. But when you’ve recently spent two weeks cooped up in your room, it’s absolutely awful. And since the cooling and heating systems are broken the temperature throughout the day fluctuates too much for my liking.

The air gets cooler as evening rolls in, meaning you put on more layers and pray that everyone comes back soon so Leo can get repairing.

I’m laying on my bed reading some random magazine Piper gave to me a while ago. This issue is all about how to communicate with others, specifically your crush. Honestly I’m not too sure why she reads some of this stuff. I can’t blame her though at that age I probably picked up a few magazines like this too. Everyone has their guilty pleasures.

Trying to distract myself from what Percy said isn’t going too well. He hasn’t said anything like that to me in years. The last time he said something like that to me was when we were like 14 when he was going through a minor douche phase. Not saying that I wasn’t a dick back but in this situation I don’t think I did anything wrong. I’ll have to talk to Piper about it. Her being a daughter of Aphrodite and all.

There’s a knock at my door right as I continue reading. I don’t respond. The knocks continue. And continue. They don’t have any sort of rhythm, just sporadic knocks.

“What do you need Percy?”

“Can I come in?” His voice is small.

“Not unless you have food with you.” I turn the page, and hear the sound of his footsteps leaving the hallway. Hopefully to bring me food.

Ten minutes later the sporadic knocks begin again.

“You have food now?” I ask, I really hope he does.

“Yes I have food Annabeth. Now can I come in?” He sighs.

“Come in.” I shove the magazine underneath a pillow and sit up acting like I was doing nothing but waiting for the food.

He hands me the plate and sits in my desk chair, leaning back into it, his hands behind his head.

“So why’re you here Seaweed Brain?” Are you here to apologize?

“Well no one’s back yet, it’s getting pretty cold so I thought I’d check in on you, and see if your room is staying pretty warm.” His gaze shifts to the floor.

“Oh ok.” I guess we’re not here to apologize.

“Did Leo say how long it’s going to take him to fix everything?”

I shrug my shoulders. I just want him to get out of my room. He’s just sitting there doing nothing. He’s done his job by bringing me food. If he’s not here to apologize then he should leave.

“Why’re you really here Percy?” It comes off more rude than I intended it to.

“Like I said, no one is back yet, it’s getting pretty cold so I thought I’d check in on you-” He stops himself. “Are you expecting me to apologize?”

I give him a knowing look.

“Really? Is that why you’ve been cooped up in here all day? You’re really that mad?” He crosses his arms.

“I mean you’re not wrong. Yeah, I can be a dumb ass sometimes it’s just you haven’t said anything like that to me in a hot minute. I wasn’t prepared for that.” How could anyone be prepared for that after what we went through?

“Ok ok it was out of line. But you were acting a little reckless. You know you don’t have to be strong all the time right?” He moves to my bed, “You don’t always have to put on a brave face and act like nothings wrong.”

“Everything’s wrong Percy. You, me, the world, even this god forsaken ship. I just want to go home.” Then the stupid tears start pouring out.

“I’ll be right back.” He leaves and comes back with his old ipod from middle school and a pair of headphones. “Put them on.”

Reluctantly I put in the earbuds and he presses play. The whistling begins the song. I instantly know the song and I lean against Percy’s shoulder.

“Alabama, Arkansas. I do love my ma and pa. Not the way that I do love you.” He attempts to sing the song softly but his voice isn’t as angelic or smooth as you’d think. Let’s just say that he’s not an avid vocalist. But in the end, his horrible singing comforts me in an odd, Percy-y way.

I drift off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Leo and Piper were the last ones to get back. Apparently they had a few dilemmas. Jason and Hazel were the first to arrive and Jason wasn’t feeling too hot; his head was and still is bothering him. Leo claims he can fix everything in two to three days give or take. After we ate dinner he went beneath decks to start fixing. He’s blasting music that booms throughout the whole ship. No one goes down there to complain because he already has a lot on his plate. He’ll turn it off around 11ish since that’s unofficially when ‘lights out’ is supposed to happen.

Yet again I’m alone in my room and the temperature has stopped dropping. I have three layers of everything on me. I don’t know why Percy hasn’t already come into my room. We don’t have anything else better to do and I’d rather not be woken up in the middle of the night by him trying to sneak in. Once I’m asleep I prefer to stay asleep.

Since he’s not coming here, maybe I’ll go to him. I wrap my Hello Kitty robe around me and head two doors down. This isn’t weird right? Not creepy?

I knock quietly on his door and wait. I start tapping my foot in the silence. Then I can’t take it any longer and I open the door to see him drying his hair with a towel.

“You could’ve waited another two minutes.” He laughs. “What’s up, Wise Girl?”

“The usual. You know.” I try saying nonchalantly.

“Come on in.” He says and leaves the room to put away the towel.

Nothing has changed since the last time I was here. And the last time I was in here was right before- My gaze shifts to the window and I notice that it’s cracked just a smidge. If the heater is broken why would you leave your window open? There’s also a thick layer of dust on the windowsill. Then Percy’s back in the room with blankets from my room.

“Well come on get in so I can get in.” I snap out of my window trance quickly and get in the bed. “Are you cold?” I shake my head.

We lay there for roughly an hour. No talking. No moving. Just staring at the walls.

“Are you asleep?” A voice croaks.

“Well if I was I wouldn’t be now.” I say.

“Ha ha very funny.”

“Were you asleep?” I turn on my side to face him.

“Maybe for like five minutes.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“I could get used to this again, that's all.” He replies.

“Get used to what?” I know the answer, I just want to hear him say it.

“All of this. Us. You and me.”

“You are very endearing when you’re half-asleep.” I laugh and run my hand through his hair.

He rolls his eyes and sits up. “I’m going to get snacks you want to come?”

“Uh no, it’s cold as fuck out there.” I reach out for his arm, he moves it so I miss it.

“It’s not that bad. You have your Hello Kitty robe don’t you?” He puts on a shirt and in some ways I really wish he wouldn’t. “Come on, let's go get you something warm to eat to heat you up.” He leaves the room.

Eventually I get up and follow him to the kitchen. When I walk into the kitchen, I see him standing there boiling a pot of water.

I walk up behind him and wrap my arms around his waist. “What’re you cooking?”

“Mac and cheese obviously.” He rests a hand on mine.

I guess the theme of the night is “is this okay? Because I’m enjoying this a little too much.” Old habits never die apparently.

Percy slightly shifts his weight and I immediately remove my grip on him. Somehow it doesn’t feel okay that I did that. He turns to me.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Everything’s fine.” I lie.

We start eating the mac and cheese in silence. I’m sitting on the counter and Percy is standing next to me.

“Thanks for cooking by the way.” I say.

“It’s nothing wise girl.” He gives me one of his captivating glances, heat flows to my face. “Oh my god is Annabeth Chase getting flustered over me simply looking at her?”

“No.” I say shoving a mouthful of pasta in my mouth.

“Sure Annabeth. Sure.” He shoots another glance, he knows what he’s doing at this point.

“Seaweed brain.” I turn so he can’t see my face.

Percy moves in front of me again and I get down from the counter.

“We need to clean up Percy.” I walk over to the sink and start rinsing my bowl. And he just stands there leaning over the counter still giving me one of his “looks.”

“Are you going to help or not?” I ask.

“Alright alright I’ll help.”

After cleaning up the kitchen, we head back to his room. On our way I stop by mine so I can grab a book and a reading lamp. I don’t think I’m going to be able to fall asleep.

Upon entering his room he’s gotten ready for bed and is sitting on the edge of the bed. His hair is ruffled from laying down, his shirt is off (again), and looks obviously tired. I know he’ll try to hide the fact that he is but in some ways he’s like a young child; immature and needs plenty of sleep. He stands and stretches so I can get in bed. I have a feeling that he’s lowkey showing off for shock value. But I get caught staring.

“What’re you looking at?” He laughs.

“Nothing, just waiting for you to get in.” An attempt to brush it off.

It didn’t work. “Tonight is just the night of me embarrassing you isn’t it?” He walks over to me.

“Shut up Percy. You’re tired so you should sleep. And if you shoot me one of those glances I can’t be held responsible for my actions.” I sigh.

“Then I will definitely send another one of my glances your way.”

We lean in to kiss but at the last second I turn my head so he ends up kissing my cheek.

I’m not just quite ready to seal this again.

Chapter Text

After I dodged the kiss last night, surprisingly, Percy didn’t treat me any different. He didn’t seem as hurt as I thought he would be. On the other hand he does internalize a lot of his feelings, so I could end up being completely wrong. Knowing me it’s probably the ladder. I try not to think much of it.

We’re all sitting in the mess hall discussing Leo’s progress on the heating and ac systems.

And I swear everyone somehow knows about the almost kiss.

“Things are going smoothly, worked through most of the night.” The boy looked like he was going to pass out on his scrambled eggs.

“You should take it easy today.” Hazel suggests.

Leo mumbles something about some new music he’s been listening to.

“We all should take it easy today. Especially since most of us went out there yesterday.” Coach sips his coffee. “How’s your head doing sparky?”

“Doing better.” He rubs his head.

“Good, good. All of your duties regarding chores and such have been dismissed today. Just don’t make a mess.”

After that everyone scarfed down their food and left the hall as fast as possible. Jason and I being the only ones left in the room we assumed that we should probably clean up the aftermath of breakfast.

“So uh do you think camp will still be there when we get back?” Jason jokingly asks.

“Honestly I don’t know what we’re going to go back to.” I hand him a wet plate.

“How’re things with Percy?” He asks in a hushed tone like the topic of us is taboo.

If this were Leo I probably would have snapped back at him, but this is hits-his-head-way-too-often-Jason. I take a deep breath, “Things are fine. Just complicated, that's all.”

A plate clatters to the floor, “How is it so complicated? You two are practically together, whether you see that or not, that’s what everyone else sees.” He picks up the plate. “You two are meant for one another.”

As I’m about to say something Leo walks into the kitchen.

“I have a feeling that I am not supposed to hear any of this. But anywho, yeah I don’t get why you two are still being salty towards each other.” Leo puts his hands on his hips.

“Why does everyone need to know all about mine and Percy’s business? Things are hard right now. He might be ready for all of this again but I am not.”

I hear someone leave the room and assume it’s Leo because he has better things to do but then he speaks up.

“We just don’t want you shutting down again A.”

~*~
Somehow I find myself below deck, in the pegasus stables. I’ve always associated this as a safe space where no one will judge you. Leo had set up this place for any pegasi (or any other creatures) to come and go as they please. Sometimes injured pegasi come in so Hazel and Percy work with them until they’re healed.

Tonight there’s only one winged horse in a stall. Which is quite unusual nowadays due to the constant monster attacks. She has a palomino coat that's in much need of a good brush so I grab the bucket full of them and introduce myself to her.

That’s when I start talking to her about what’s going on right now. What’s going on with Percy and I, the war, camp, and other things that seem to come to mind. I know she may or may not understand what I’m saying but it feels good to get it out of my system.

I begin to braid her mane and she stands there patiently, lowering her head so it’s easier for me to reach.

“That’s when I knew I had to end things you know?” I look over at her and she nods her head in agreement whether that was a coincidence or not I don’t know.

“We were already in a lot of danger because of us just being demigods and adding a relationship to that was just pushing it I guess.” I tie off the last braid and head to braid her tail.

“He’s ready for things again but I’m not sure if I am. I know it’s probably killing him but I don’t want him to disappear again. Things are just too complicated right now. Too complicated and we are too busy. Things are moving so fast. We’ll be home in a month or two and then I can maybe start thinking about stuff like that again. But for now I need to take things slowly.” I head towards the front of the stall.

“Well don’t you look stunning?” I hold out my hand with a treat in it. “I’ll leave you alone now. You probably want to get some more rest.” I slide a blanket over her back and start cleaning up the brushes.

I hadn’t ever noticed or given any thought as to what kind of music Leo listens to while he works.. Until now. Kpop. I guess Piper finally got to him after two months of trying to get him to listen to it. Down the hall “Love Yourself” by BTS is blasting and all you can hear is the faint sound of Leo yelling “I’M LEARNING HOW TO LOVE MYSELF.” Sometimes you just have to jam out to some good tunes I guess. Whatever gets him through his work I guess.

After I’m done cleaning up the brushes and giving the pegasus one last treat I head out of the stable area. I turn the corner and see Percy sitting there. He looks up at me.

“Guess you know everything now.” I roll my eyes.

“So-” He begins.

“I’m not having this conversation right now Perce. C’mon let’s go to bed.”

He mumbles something but I’m walking up the stairs before I can hear him.

Chapter Text

The morning started out with a monster attack.

Just what Jason needed at 6am. He was up early to watch the sunrise because Jason is sentimental now I guess. And the beast was taken care of quickly thankfully. But this was honestly the last thing that Jason needs in his life. He’s hit his head god knows how many times in the past few months. I don’t know how he hasn’t lost his shit yet.

Everything is fixed now Leo says and we’re planning for departure in two days. He finished last night and he ended the night with blasting BLACKPINK’S BOOMBAYAH. We are all very glad that he is finished, now we can all sleep at a decent time. Not that I could if I wanted to anyway.

I’m trying to get things back to normal with Percy. I’m not that mad that he was eavesdropping on me last night, at least he knows the truth now and I don’t have to say it to his face. But I know that in the end I’ll end up having to talk about it to him. We aren’t communicating that well and everyone knows that communication is key.

We’ve been hanging out more and more again. I hope that things don’t go downhill anytime soon cause I could get used to this and he doesn’t seem to mind. We’re sitting above deck on a blanket eating snacks in the sun.

“So how have things been up here?” I tap my temple.

“Uh things have been fine. Just want to get home.” He pops a grape into his mouth and He blushes. “Not just because- I just want to- gods I didn’t mean for it to sound like that.” He puts his head into his hands.

He’s filtering himself.

I sigh. “Okay. Look at me Seaweed Brain.”

He looks over at me.

“You can yell at me for however long, just really talk to me. No filter please?”

~*~
Jason’s head starts to feel better from this morning. We are all hoping that this trend of him hitting his head constantly comes to an end.

Everyone is off doing their own thing. Leo and I are in the kitchen planning a short scouting trip for tomorrow. We are trying to find a good picnic spot as a way to keep everyone’s spirits up. We have an idea of where this place could be but we would like to check it out to make sure it’s safe.

Everything is pretty much figured out supplies and plan wise, just one last problem. Percy.

“Looks like you’re gonna have to sleep in your own room tonight blondie.” Leo teases.

Yes, even with all of the delays and fights we've been having, we still sleep in the same room. The pact didn’t really have to be said, it was just kind of enforced. But still, it doesn't mean I like people to know about it.

“Ha ha very funny. How do you even know about that?” I glare at him.

“I built this ship, remember? There are eyes everywhere.” He whispers.

I shoot him another glare.

“Not saying I use them to spy on you guys! When I’m working I have a monitor that displays the hallway and top deck cams.” His cheeks flush.

“So what time do you want me up?” I ask.

“Uhh around four will be fine. We just have to be out of here by six because of Jason and his old man leisurely activities.” Both of us chuckle at the thought of Jason’s odd habits.

“Okay well I better get packing and head to bed.”

I start walking out of the kitchen and into the hallway before we hear a voice call us back. A voice I did not want to hear. It was almost as bad as being called into the Big House at camp.

“Where are you two cupcakes going tomorrow morning? You gotta run it by me before I let one of you step off of this ship.” Coach is standing in the doorway creepily.

“Guess Leo didn’t check to make sure that absolutely everyone was occupied.”

“Technically he was occupied, he was occupied spying on us.” Leo shrugs.

“Anywho, Leo and I are heading out tomorrow morning to scout for a good picnic spot for everyone. It’s kinda like one last “hurrah!” before we leave Europe and to get everyone’s spirits up again.”

“Alright alright. Just don’t do anything stupid while you’re out.” He rolls his eyes.

“Also we want this to be a surprise so please don’t tell anyone.” I grimace.

“Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem.” Leo and I exchange looks trying to figure out if he’s being sarcastic or not.

Then we both realize what the real reaction from Percy will be.

And I start to regret agreeing to go on this short trip.

Doesn’t matter how long I’m gone; I’ll be gone.

Let’s see how he handles it.

Chapter Text

“You ready princess?” Leo asks me at 4:45 in the morning.

I nod in agreement and we head down the ladder off the side of the Argo II. We packed pretty much everything under the sun. Leo and I are not light packers so puting the two of us together on a possibly dangerous outing. Each of us carry a decently sized backpack full to the brim.

The place isn’t too far from the ship, just roughly a mile. But a lot can happen between getting there and back, I try not to think about the in between.
~*~

We found the spot and, thank the gods, it was a) safe and b) not a mud bath as I suspected it might be. As we started to head back to the ship, we stopped in a clearing of trees to eat some of our breakfast. The sun has just started to rise so Jason should be up soon. Hopefully we’ll get back onto the ship unnoticed.

“What time is it?” I ask.

Leo looks down at his watch, “It’s around 5:30.”

“We shouldn’t take too long here, we should try and get back before the old man wakes up.” I take a sip of my water and stand up.

Ten steps later my face meets the ground. I don’t remember how exactly I got on the ground, but here I am. There’s a burning pain in my lower left leg. Is it on fire? I consider the possibility for a few seconds before disregarding it. For a hot minute I decide that I’ll lay here on the forest ground for the rest of my life and not deal with the responsibilities of life. That’s when Leo starts laughing hysterically as I sit up.

“I never thought I would live long enough to witness Annabeth Chase trip and fall on her face.” His smile is wiped clean off of his face and he’s on the ground helping me get up.

“Can you put any weight on it?” Leo helps me to sit on a log. I shake my head no. “Ok, ok it’s going to be fine. Can I take a look at it?”

After a few sighs and mhms he stands up. “So it looks like nothing too serious, probably just a sprain. But we need to wrap and ice it.” He starts getting out the medical supplies.

There’s a little voice in the back of my head saying “this feels familiar doesn’t it?” Honestly I thought my ankle problems were done but I guess the gods have other plans as per usual. First during a game of capture the flag a few years ago, another time in pe class, on my quest, then in tartarus, and now from tripping over a small tree root. I don’t have the best luck when it comes to the health of my ankles.

Leo finishes wrapping my ankle. “We need to get you back to the ship now.”

“You’re not calling someone for help right?”

“Hell no. You think I want to be shredded by Percy? I’m carryin’ you back. It’s not too far and we can rest if we need to.” He lifts me off the ground bridal style and we are off.

Along the way Leo makes some jokes to try and lighten the mood and for a while it helps. Then the overthinking starts, Percy is going to be beyond mad now. Yeah sneaking out no big deal, but injuring myself while sneaking out? Not a good combo. Now we are probably not going to even be able to have this picnic because of my stupid ankle.

When we’re almost back at the ship I fall apart. The tears start, my eyes get puffy, it’s a pathetic kind of cry. And I can tell right as I start crying that Leo is startled because I’m supposed to be the girl-from-the-athena-cabin-who-made-it-through-tartarus-and-doesn’t-cry. People usually only see the aftermath of my crying not the “during”. Then I’m snuck back onto the Argo II.
~*~

Just as expected Percy got overly mad at me. He practically forgot that Leo was there too, and just let loose on me.

“I told you not to go out there Annabeth. Especially after a monster attack yesterday?” He’s pacing back and forth in my room. “What were you thinking?”

“Leo and I wanted to find a good picnic spot so we could take everyone there. It was supposed to be one last hurrah in Europe before we go home.”

He shakes his head. No matter how many times I try to explain it to him he still seems to not understand it.

“You’re not the boss of me. You can’t control me, ok? I am my own person just like you.” I yell at him.

Percy’s silent for a beat and then he leaves my room leaving the door open. He’s starting to remind me of Helen and how she used to treat and act around me. I hope he sees the resemblance.

Piper comes in a few hours later bringing me a new ice pack for my ankle. She sits in my desk chair beside my bed and hands me an ice pack that’s wrapped in a spare camp shirt so the ice doesn’t hurt my skin.

“How’s your ankle feeling?” She strokes my forehead.

“It still hurts but the swelling is going down so that helps.” I readjust my blankets so I’m sitting upright.

“How did you guys even get back?”

“Leo carried me.” I laugh.

“Wait really? Maybe he really does lift. He’s been telling me for months that he “does actually lift bro” and “it’s not a joke.” Not saying that you’re big or anything, it's just that he’s tiny.” She sighs looking down at my ankle.

“Did you hear any of the yelling?” I ask not meeting her eyes.

“Oh everyone heard all of it. We were gathered in the mess hall just sitting there. Praying that you made it out alive. Jason and Frank had to convince him to let you sleep and to not wake you.” She pauses. “How are you holding up after that?”

I shrug. “Not too sure yet. I’ll be ok but he just doesn’t understand I guess.”

“It’s the thought that counts right?” Piper grins. “And some people are just ungrateful.” She stands.

“Now let's get some ambrosia in you.”

Chapter Text

My ankle heals quickly due to the ambrosia and nectar. Doesn’t mean I’m 100% again. I still have to use crutches to get to the bathroom, before that Piper would half walk/half carry me there. It’s been a day and a half since then and we’re departing today. In the end there will be no surprise picnic. At least I tried.

Percy is still furious with me, I’m not surprised at that. But the thing with Percy is that even though he’s fucking pissed at you, he’ll still attempt to take care of you. It’s a lot of tough love. He’ll come in and help me change into new pajamas, tidy up my room, bring me my favorite snacks, and other things like that. The other part of this is that he won’t speak to you while he does any of this. He also tries really really hard to keep a scowl on his face the whole time but he usually slips up a few times. It’s quite entertaining.

This morning he comes in with a mug of tea and some tylenol. He sits on the desk chair and hands me the mug and pills. I take them in silence. He stands and goes over to my dresser to pick out new clothes.

“Do you think we could arrange a shower or something? Don’t we have a seat we could put in there? From when Jason had that really bad concussion? I feel really gross and the heat might help.” I ask him.

He stops looking for clothes and walks out of my room. I assume to go and try to set that up. I sit there with my tea waiting for him to come back with an answer.

Ten minutes later he comes back and nods. I grab the crutches and begin to stand and Percy rushes to my aid.

“I can do it myself.” I mutter.

He lets go and looks at me, his scowl is gone and his face is soft. “Just please let me do this. Ok?”

I nod and we are off to the other end of the Argo II.

Once we arrive at the bathroom he lets go of me and I sit on the toilet. And then I start to notice all of the little details. Such as how a new set of clothes is folded perfectly on the counter along with my Hello Kitty robe. Later I noticed that he put out my shampoo and conditioner in the shower. Everything looks like it was placed with care.

He starts turning on the water, making sure it's a reasonable temperature. The Argo II has not been known for its water heater.

“You’re all set A. You need help getting in?” Percy tries to say in a serious tone but he lets a smile slip.

“No, I think I got it.” I roll my eyes waiting for him to leave. I think he’s seen enough of me for the next forever. “You can leave now.” I wave and he exits the bathroom.

There’s a sliding sound after the door is closed. Can’t he just wait? I think and get into the shower.

After I’m dressed and out of the shower I tell Percy he can come in. As we’re walking back to my room I start thinking about how he must have felt seeing me be carried in after my outing. I’m in no way saying that the way he reacted was okay, but he has every right to feel the way he does. Especially after Tartarus. But does that give him the right to lecture and yell at me? No. No it doesn’t. Mentally I make a note to attempt to contact Athena once I get back to my room.

“I was trying to do something nice for you, you know that right? It’s not like I purposely went out and sprained my ankle.” I say.

We approach my room. “You just being alive is good enough for me.”

God, Percy needs to lay off of the Twilight movies for once.

“You’re so annoying sometimes.” I sit on my bed.

Once Percy leaves, yet again without saying anything, I try to find two items. One to make an offering and the other to make a rainbow. I found both items in about ten minutes because of the ankle, navigating around a room on a desk chair takes more practice than you’d think.

“Oh Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow. Accept my offering.” I throw the Gold Drachma into the rainbow and it goes through surprisingly. I’m asked who I want to speak to and where their destination is and I say, “Athena, Mount Olympus. Or wherever she is.”

A few minutes later my mothers face appears in the midst of the rainbow. “What do you need? I am breaking almost every rule answering your call. And I have not much time.” She, as per usual, doesn’t seem amused.

I quickly explain to her my situation and worries. All I get in response is,

“Things of this nature I am unfamiliar with. I cannot guide you at this time child.”

And she fades away.

Later, Leo tells us that we’ll be home in 21 days.

“We don’t want to overdo it with the ship and don't want to push it to it’s limits again.” Leo hands me a cup of hot cocoa and a small chunk of ambrosia.

I nod. “We barely made it here. So we’ll probably barely make it back.”

~*~

A few hours later, I can walk without my crutches. Though I’m still slow. I try a few times to Iris Message Chiron back at camp, but nothing will go through. Guess even the rainbow goddess has other things to worry about too.

Everything is starting to feel like Percy was missing again. It’s major deja vu and I’m not sure how to handle it. So I resort to the only way I know how to cope with it. Cleaning. Personally, cleaning is not my favorite pastime, it never has been. But if you see an Annabeth Chase cleaning then you know to stay away from her. I would much rather be reading or doing something else. But when Percy was taken by Hera and I couldn’t do anything about it, I cleaned. “If I couldn’t do anything about it then there’s no use in moping around so I might as well make myself useful.” Was a philosophy I developed.

I start with my own room. Yes Percy did help keep it clean but he isn’t the most efficient. I collect all of my dirty clothes, reorganize my books, and desk. Then I end it with a quick vacuum.

Moving onto the bathroom (which doesn’t take long), the mess hall, kitchen, and then I go around asking people for their dirty laundry. It starts out with just Hazel and Piper if they need anything washed. Then Leo overhears me and somehow I am in charge of everyone’s laundry.

I started my day with a dirty room. Now I have a dirty room and everyone's laundry. Thankfully Frank offers to help me fold the mountain of clothes in the lounge area. Later this turns into a “folding party” because one by one everyone comes down to help fold.

This is better than a picnic.

Chapter Text

If I hadn’t had help, then folding everyone’s clothes would have taken at least three hours. But with everyone's help the job got done in roughly half the time. Not saying that it wasn’t hard work. After we got done we were all starving. So Percy and Jason go and grab snacks from the kitchen. Then we eat snacks and hang out.

No one mentions the stuff going on between Percy and I.

No one talks about the war or camp.

It’s all just fun.

All of our worries melt away.

And that’s when Leo brings out the Wii so we can play Just Dance. Things went from zero to 100 real fast after that. Even Coach wants to play.

Piper kicks everyone’s ass because that girl knows how to move. She keeps trying to claim that this was a standard practice in Cabin 10 but no one believes that Drew would partake in something like this. Some of the songs that were on the disc include: Call Me Maybe, On the Floor (which Leo Killed somehow), Asereje, and Love You Like A Love Song. Everyone is enjoying themselves. Even Percy and I.

By the second hour of playing Just Dance we’re all practically on the floor dying. So we gather up most of the blankets on the ship to get cozy and watch Adventure Time. Then it’s decided that we are sleeping out here tonight and Leo and Percy start fighting over who should get to sleep on the couch. Percy would be hanging off half of it if he slept on it but that doesn’t seem to bother him. Leo starts to offer up the idea that they could share it; share it meaning they would take turns every hour on the couch.

Later it’s deemed that Percy should get the couch and he falls right asleep on it. An hour later I wake up to see Percy getting dragged off the couch by Leo. He holds a finger up to his mouth, making sure I don’t say anything. Then Percy thumps down from the couch and barely wakes up.

Two hours later this happens again but the roles are reversed and Leo is crashing down from the couch. The difference between Percy and Leo is that Leo’s a light sleeper and won’t hesitate to fight back.

Percy almost ends up with a bloody nose and resides to the floor after this happens.

Chapter Text

17 days until we arrive at camp. I just want to sleep in my own bed again. And yes, I know that this ship was built on a deadline so I shouldn’t be expecting much. But I just want to get home faster. I’ve never usually been the one to get homesick. I’m usually the one running away from home. The Argo has made a good temporary home but day by day my homesickness is growing. I just have to make it 17 more days.

Percy and I aren’t really speaking again. I guess the picnic wouldn’t have done much to help fix things anyway. You can’t put a bandaid on a bullet wound and expect it to heal everything. We don’t go out of our way to speak to one another, but we don’t necessarily avoid each other. It’s this kind of safe but not so safe middle ground of “I’ll talk to you if you want to talk to me” kind of thing. Even though we aren’t speaking, the sleeping arrangement continues. Again, we’d rather be well rested so we can be angry at each other rather than being angry and grumpy. So every night at around eleven or so we doze off in his room.

Leo says that the weather is supposed to be going downhill soon so we should be enjoying some of our last days in the sun. So Hazel, Frank, I are spending the day together above deck.

Hazel and I are playing chess on a blanket while Frank is attempting to tan.

“We all know that he’s going to get sunburned.” I say moving a chess piece.

“I tried to talk him out of it. But he kept claiming-”

“I want to try and be like a normal teenager for once!” Frank interrupts from his towel in the sun. “Isn’t this what teens do in their free time?”

I look over at Frank, “Yeah, but the thing is they usually don’t get sunburned. Are you even wearing any sunscreen?”

There is no response from him. Hazel rolls her eyes and reluctantly goes and gets sunscreen for her red boyfriend. After she comes back she tells me that Leo hid the sunscreen so that Frank would be as red as a tomato.

“I swear these boys are going to be the death of me one of these days.” We both agree.

“Speaking of boys, how are things with Percy? Anythin’ getting better?” She opens a can of coke.

“Things are fine.” Is all I say because there’s nothing too new to tell her about the situation. “There’s just so much to think about. And what’s going on between him and I is the last thing I want to think about.”

“Well, even though I haven’t known you for that long I know that you’re a worrier. You’re going to worry about everything and anything until this world explodes. But there’s one thing I can tell you, there’s no point in worrying about things with Percy because right now we have bigger problems like what’s going on at camp.” Hazel smiles at me.

I’m very thankful for Hazel’s kind words of advice, I don’t know what I would do without her. If Percy wants us to be together so bad then he’ll just have to deal with waiting.

I tell Hazel about what my mom told me, and her response is “Ouch.”

“I honestly don’t think they know how much words can mean to others. And not just in a godly sense you know?” She looks down.

“Yeah.”

~*~

It’s later in the evening, Percy and I are hanging out in the kitchen. Not by will though. We would both much rather be off watching a movie with the others but we were assigned dish duty tonight by Coach so here we are in the kitchen. Percy washes, I dry. Things are still going smoothly thankfully. I’m glad I got to talk to Hazel earlier today about the things that are going on in my head. She’s more helpful than I thought when it comes to boy troubles.

“Did you notice anything new about Frank today?” I ask Percy.

“Um not really. Why?” He hands me a plate.

“No reason. I guess we’ll just wait until Leo gets his hands on him.” I snort and place the dish in the cabinet.

Percy stops washing the dishes, “Oh god. Oh god Annabeth, how bad is the sunburn?”

I almost drop a dish in an attempt to keep myself from laughing. “Percy, he's as red as a tomato. He had his face covered while he was tanning so it’s not so much in his face but you should see his back.”

“Is that why Leo had to skip dinner to go and fix the flooding in the stables?” I nod. “Frank must be really afraid of what Leo’s gonna do to humiliate him then.”

~*~

It’s late and we’re laying in bed. The rain has picked up and is keeping both of us up. I’m lying here staring at the ceiling as the rain is pouring down outside. Percy won’t stop tossing and turning, he’s never really been a fan of storms. Finally he settles for laying on his back staring at the ceiling like me. And that’s when he drops it.

“I love you too, you know.”

Chapter Text

Stupid, stupid, Annabeth.

Ok, yes you thought that you were going to die but you shouldn’t have told him that you loved him. Stupid stupid Annabeth. I can already hear Athena screaming on Olympus, she’s probably on her way to rip apart Poseidon. Now I can officially cross off being a stupid teenage girl on my list of normal teenager-y things to do in my life.

So Percy heard the “I love you’s” in Tartarus. It’s not that big of a deal. Right? You know what? I’m going to go the route of acting like I was too tired to remember what he said. That should work. It usually does. Unless he was looking at me when he said it. I don’t mention the situation to Percy for a few days. How could I?

But things are changing slowly, and I’m not sure how I feel about this change in things. I’ve started to notice the little things that have changed. Now I notice every touch that is shared between us, even if it was accidental. And everytime after an accidental touch we both end up blushing. When I change into my pajamas I can see him get more flustered than usual and the same goes for me I guess. At meals I always find his hand in mine somehow. Every morning I find our legs entangled and I don’t push away when he pulls me close anymore. There’s nothing more than cuddling or holding hands and at this point I think he’s okay with that. I guess you could say that I’m liking the change of things. Even after the bomb he dropped.

As I’m going to get a snack I get odd glances from Piper and Jason. This happens usually a few times a day now. They’re noticing the changes too and they don’t want to “break the spell”.

“What?” I ask Piper and Jason when I come out of the kitchen.

“Nothing, just glad that everything is going well.” Piper says with a shit eating grin. Jason elbows her in the side, “What?”

“Stop being weird Pipes. Annabeth, we’re just glad things aren’t so-” he pauses as if to think of the right word, “tense anymore that’s all. And there’s no reason to be weird about it Piper.” Jason looks over at Piper when he says the last part.

I head back to my room and sit at my desk. I start to think about how I never realized how the tension between Percy and I would affect the others. In reality, it affects everything. Now I feel ashamed and selfish that I didn’t try and fix things sooner. Ever since things started getting better between us the atmosphere aboard the ship has shifted drastically. In the most positive way of course. Everyone is less irritable and Coach has seemed to be less stressed out. I try to not let this eat away at me.

A few days ago Hazel and Percy made a countdown poster until we got back to camp. The blue poster hangs in the mess hall and today it reads 15 days left! I wish it would come sooner. Again I just want to sleep in my own bed.

Everyone becomes bored and almost everyone starts up new hobbies. Frank is learning how to bake crepes, Hazel is helping out Leo with mild repairs on the ship, and Jason is doing Piper and Percy’s nails. With everyone being bored I convince Percy to pick up a book, and for once he doesn’t complain. So as Jason does his nails, he reads my copy of Perks of Being a Wallflower.

While I’m going to get Percy a drink from the kitchen, I pass through the mess hall and see that there’s a note underneath the countdown poster that says MAKE THE DAYS GO BY FASTER PLEASE -LEO. I guess Leo isn’t handling being bored too well either and make a mental note to ask him if he wants a mani-pedi from Jason.

~*~

Percy is laying on his bed and I’m sitting at his desk sketching nonsense architecture designs. After I gave him that book he hasn’t put it down. Even though it’s a fairly small book he takes his time with it. I go over to the bed and flop down next to him.

“Where are you at?” I ask scooching next to him.

“Christmas party.” He mumbles, obviously still immersed in the book. I laugh and kiss him on the cheek. He starts to smile a little too much for comfort. I return to the desk and begin sketching again.

I too wish the days would go by faster. I think back to Leo’s note below the poster. But then I look over at Percy and decide that it won’t be as bad if he’s here with me. And given the circumstances that we’re in the middle of the ocean high in the clouds, I doubt he’ll be going anywhere.

Percy is losing focus on the book. I can tell because every three to five minutes he’s changing positions or is face down in the bed. We all knew that he’d eventually run out of focus. At least he’s reading, is my final thought on the matter.

The next thing I know Percy’s lips touch my cheek.

“Payback.” Is all he whispers.

It takes all of me not to kiss him right then and there. We just gaze into each other's eyes for a few seconds. That’s when Frank barges into the room and sees us. His face is even more red on top of his sunburn.

“I’ll just leave you two alone now-” He starts to leave.

Percy doesn’t miss a beat, “What’s up Frank?”

“Oh I was just going to tell you guys that dinner is almost ready, that's all.” The boy sprints down the hallway probably embarrassed as to what he just saw.

“Did we have to terrorize Frank again?” I sigh.

Percy looks at me with his bright smile. “It’s not my fault it happened.”

Even though he was the one who kissed me I don’t push it. “Mhm sure I was the one who started all of this.”

“Of course you were the one to start all of this Wise Girl. I never start anything.” His smile has turned into a shit eating grin.

“You are such a little shit.” I lean in towards him. His face has now turned from shit eating to priceless, thinking I’m really leaning into kiss him. At the last second, I get up. “Let’s go get dinner Seaweed Brain.”

The look on his face is blank. The prank-er has become the prank-ee.

Chapter Text

Thirteen days until we arrive back at camp. In less than two weeks I can sleep in my own bed. In less than two weeks I have to deal with stuff I don’t want to deal with.

Percy and I are still on a high and I really don’t want to hit a low again. Being at rock bottom is not fun and I never want to go there again. It makes me feel all heavy, like I can’t breathe. Things are much easier when things are like this. But recently he’s begun being more secretive than usual. Secretive in the way where he wants to tell me but he knows he can’t. I know this for a fact because he has always been the worst liar. Since he doesn’t usually have a filter he just says what’s on his mind and that’s usually how he gets secrets leaked. Back at camp most people have learned not to go to him with huge secrets. Though one thing we have learned is that if the secret has to do with a crush or something love related, then he’ll make sure that absolutely no one knows. That’s one thing Perseus Jackson won’t leak.

Despite the fact that he’s being a little more secretive than usual, things haven’t changed. Kisses on the cheek are few and far between but, again, I don’t think Percy minds, he’s still on a high from the first ones. In a way, so am I.

Here’s a rundown on what the past two days have looked like: wake up at 11am, Piper or Percy brings me some sort of breakfast, go back to sleep, around two pm Piper comes back to hang out with me, then more sleep. Then the cycle repeats itself. I don’t bother with a morning routine anymore. I can tell that homesickness is getting to me. I just want to get home. Again, Piper tries to cheer me up and sometimes it helps but by the end of the day I go back to sleep with the nightmares.

I’ve gotten used to tolerating the nightmares. Most of them are recurring so at least I know what’s going to happen next. They don’t wake me up anymore but I’m sure that I still thrash around when having them. Hazel told me that this is probably going to be a lifelong kind of thing. I shouldn’t be surprised, most half bloods have them. Some more than others I guess.

~*~

Over the past few days Piper’s check-ins have been shorter and shorter. Today she said that she had to help Jason with something so she didn’t even visit today. So now I sleep the day away until Percy wakes me up for dinner. At least the days are going by faster.

~*~

“Wise girl, wake up.” Percy gently shakes me awake.

“Why? What time is it?” I ask, rubbing my eyes.

“Doesn’t matter. Just get up and get dressed.” He whispers.

“Why do I have to get dressed?”

“You Athena kids and your questions. Just do it Beth.” He steps out of the room.

In an attempt to find clothes in the dark somehow I manage to find some leggings and a Coca-Cola shirt. Then Percy leads me to the upper deck. By the looks of the sky it’s probably five in the morning. The barely rising sun casts a warm glow on the horizon. I look around the deck to see that everyone is scattered out on blankets with different types of breakfast foods all around them. In the middle there is a makeshift woven picnic basket.

Percy grabs my attention, “Since we couldn’t do your version of a picnic we thought we’d give you our version.”

My feet won’t move. I try to walk but I can’t. This is what everyone must have been doing this week. That’s what Piper was helping Jason out with. In the background there’s a banner being held up by a half asleep Frank and a very proud Leo that says “stop being so mopey and sad Annabeth” and we all know who wrote the banner. We sit down and have one very very early breakfast together. It’s a simple gesture, but it means a lot. It also reminds me that I’m not alone in all of this. No matter what, they’ve all been through just as much shit as I have.

Is it roughly 5am? Yes, yes it is. Does anyone seem to care? No.

“No one should be smiling this much at 5am.” Piper says.

“I smile at 5am!” Jason says defensively.

“That’s only because you wake up this early due to the fact that you are prematurely aging.” Leo says between sips of orange juice.

~*~

The picnic concludes at around 7am. After cleaning up the mess, everyone goes back to bed for a quick nap since they all woke up at 4am to set up.

As Percy and I are walking back to the room, somehow my hand ends up in his and I don’t remove it.

“Thank you for doing this Seaweed Brain.” I smile up at him and swing myself around so I’m facing him.

“It was the least I could do for being an asshole to you a while back.” He says and rubs the back of his neck.

I lean in and kiss him, I don’t think about it. His eyes go wide after I quickly pull away. At first I’m not sure what I did and then it hits me all at once. My lips feel as if they’re on fire, just like the first time I kissed him, even though it’s not.

His face is still blank and I start to think that I’ve done something wrong but then he leans in to kiss me again. He pauses right before so I can nod yes and our lips connect again. It starts off slow and sweet. Then his hands are in my hair and I’m cupping his face. I begin to feel sweaty. It’s been so long since I’ve felt like this.

After a while I pull away and notice that we are literally in the middle of the hallway and I start laughing.

“What?” He asks panting.

“Nothing. Let’s just hope Leo’s not watching the cams right now.” I say between fits of laughter.

Percy turns as red as a tomato. “Oh gods Annabeth.”

“Shut up seaweed brain, let's go to sleep.”

Chapter Text

For the next three days I am still thriving off the high from the picnic and the kiss but I can’t tell which one is the main source of it. Sometimes I don’t know how to feel about that whole situation. In the end it was just another thing that drove us closer together. Another part of me is paranoid that one of our godforsaken parents saw it and all hell is going to break loose soon. I make a mental note not to kiss Percy again until we get back to camp.

Leo estimates that we’ll arrive at camp in around a week.

One part of my new and improved morning routine is going into the mess hall and checking on the countdown poster. Over the past few days it has accumulated many different sticky notes with an array of messages on them. The most recent one reads “7 days till we’re on the ground praise the lord”, others say “take me home”, “Jesus take the wheel”, and one just has Britney Spears lyrics written on it.

Seven days until I can sleep in my own bed. Seven days until I have to face the problems at hand. I can do this.

I try to make my day as productive as possible in an attempt not to spend another day sleeping. I walk into Percy’s room and there’s just stuff everywhere so I begin my day by tidying up the room. I’m not sure why it hasn’t bothered me until now. Halfway through it Percy walks in and starts helping.

“I can’t believe we’re almost home.” He says while folding a shirt.

“Yeah.”

“I wonder what we’ll come home to.”

“If there’s anything left you know? I’m just done fighting and done doing their dirty work. I want to have a life too, you know?” I spit out. I didn’t mean to say all of that.

“I really hope we all get a major apology from the gods when we get back. The amount of shit we’ve gone through for them.” He goes and sits down on the bed. So much for coming in and helping.

I sit in the office chair, “But some part of me wants to stay floating on this ship for forever, not having to deal with what comes next. Just being.” This comes off a little harsher than intended.

I regretted it as soon as I said it. Percy goes silent after I say this. He knows that I’m stressing about us too and now he probably feels like a burden. Percy leaves the room after that and I finish cleaning up by myself.

~*~

It’s much later and I’m reading a book in my room but I can’t stop thinking about what I said to Percy. Especially after the picnic that he planned to make up for being an ass. Now I’m being the asshole in return. I think the worst part is that I didn’t mean it to be directed at him. Again it reminds me of Helen and how she used to act and I begin to panic, thinking that I’m turning into someone as terrible as her.

The book isn’t helping to distract me so I put the book down and start looking for him. He’s sitting above deck with Jason and they’re talking about something. Not wanting to interrupt their conversation, I hid in the doorway. Instantly I know what they’re talking about.

“Are you sure she was implying that?” Jason asks, sipping a glass full of what seems to be iced tea.

Percy sighs his head in his hands, “It was pretty implied.”

“I’m sure she didn’t mean it in that way. You know she has a lot of shit going on in her head, we all do Percy.” Jason reassures him and puts his hand on Percy’s back rubbing it in circles.

“Yeah I guess. I just feel bad, that's all.” He chokes out the words as if he is going to start crying.

No no no don’t start crying. You can’t start crying. Not now.

I can’t listen anymore. Immediately, I run to the room and sit on the bed. At this moment I can’t tell whether I should bawl my eyes out or if I should sleep it away. In the end, I decide to take a hot shower because if I do choose to bawl no one will know or see. Seems like the better safer option.

On my way to the bathroom I pass Leo who asks me if I’m ok and then says that there’s still enough hot water left. Though he looks at me as if he’d just seen a ghost.

I turn on the water and step in. I hurt him. He’s crying because of me.

Then the tears start flowing. And they won’t stop. So I just stand there while sobbing. For once I tell myself it’s okay to cry. No more having to put up a strong front cause there’s no one here with me. No romans, no gods, no Percy, just me. At this point people are probably hearing me. I don’t care anymore. I try to stop crying but the tears just keep coming. Nothing stops them.

Chapter Text

Six days till we get home.

Ever since last night, I’ve felt a little bit better. I don’t feel like there’s a constant lump in my throat threatening to make me cry every five seconds. I think what’s contributing to my better mood is that we’re going to be home soon. Though realistically speaking the crying could have legitimately helped because it helps detox the body and relieve stress. But I’m not sure that’s the only reason why it helped. The hardest part of crying was making it stop. I probably sat there in the bathroom for a solid hour and a half trying to get the tears to stop. And I’m 100% sure that everyone who was in their room at that time heard me, thankfully, no one has brought it up though.

Since then, I’ve made an attempt to forgive myself for hurting Percy’s feelings. I just hope he knows that it wasn’t intentional. I don’t hate him. There’s no possible way that I could hate him. Right now I want to hold his face in my hands and say “I don’t hate you I don’t hate you. It’s okay I’m here.” I should just formally apologize to him because I can’t stand the tension between us.

Last night when I went to his room he was lying on the bed facing the wall and I had to sleep on the outside, our backs facing each other. He probably heard me crying too which was just overall embarrassing in the end. But one of us must’ve had a nightmare because when I woke up my head was on Percy’s chest and he had a death grip on me. I had to wait for him to wake up to be able to get up.

Now that we’re within the last week before we’re home the overall mood on the ship is bittersweet. Some people are excited to get home; Coach, Percy, Piper, and Hazel. While others don’t want to or don’t know how to feel about going home; the rest of us. One person that has been very vocal about how he feels though.

Leo. He has started crying at every dinner saying “This is going to be our last monday dinner on the argo II.” He has done this every day of the week since yesterday. We all gather around and comfort him to make him feel better. But it’s hitting really hard on Leo. Piper, Hazel, and I often discuss what we think is left of camp. We try to get ahold of Chiron back at camp but he’s busy most of the time so we end up sending messages to him through Travis and Connor. We’re just glad that the Iris messages are going through again.

~*~

Later I find Percy sitting on the open glass ground in the Pegasus stables.

“Hey.” He turns and waves at me. I wave back. “What’re you doing down here? Not stalking me are you?”

“Just needed to get some stuff from the supply closet for the bathroom.” I sit down next to him.

“What are you doing down here?” I elbow him in the side.

He laughs, “Just wanted some quiet time.”

“Well this is the perfect place now since Nike isn’t being held captive here anymore.” I know why he’s here. This is where we spent the night right before..

“I’m sorry about what I said with the whole not wanting to deal with what comes next. I shouldn’t have said it that way. I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad.” I’m afraid that I may start crying so I turn my gaze away from him.

He puts his arm around me and scooches me closer to him. “It’s ok, I know you have other matters to deal with other than me and I know I’m a part of it too. I just want this all to be over.” I lean my head on his shoulder and let a few tears slip out. “Also you know you can talk to me about the things going on in your head right? We’ve been friends for way too long to hide things from each other.”

“Fair enough.” I say between hitched breaths trying to hide the fact that I’m crying.

“So miss Chase, why are we crying tonight?” He asks in an animated tone.

“Where should I start?”

“How about when we were right here before-”

I don’t want him to mention the name of that place so I lean in and kiss him. So much for not kissing him until we get back to camp.

The kiss lingers for a while before he pulls away.

“Woah okay. Glad we’re on the same page. So anywho let's start right before we got grounded.” His face is flushed, he looks like a confused puppy, and it’s probably the most adorable thing ever.

We sit there and just talk. About the big things, the little things, and everything in between. In the end, he starts crying too.

Chapter Text

Two days.

The day feels like a normal day aboard the Argo II even though we’re two days away from being home. Jason still wakes up at 5am, Leo cries at breakfast, and we comfort him; but nothing seems too out of the ordinary.

After breakfast, the ship starts to feel weird. Leo goes down to check in on it. We’re all still in the mess hall when he comes back.

“So good news and bad news. Good news, we’ll make it back to camp. Bad news, we’ll probably only barely make it back.” He says it like nothing's wrong and everything’s fine. It’s probably just him trying to convince himself that everythings fine so he won’t go haywire.

“How can you nonchalantly say that Leo?” Piper scolded him.

“Now what? Are we going to go down in flames?” Frank rests his head on the table.

“Hey, hey, I’m confident that we won’t go down in flames- I think!” He adds the I think several seconds later.

Piper stands, “Since we may go down in flames, everyone should pack an emergency bag or duffle full of stuff they don’t want to be burned if we do go down.”

“I said we probably won’t go down in flames.” Leo interrupts but Piper keeps talking over him.

We all part our ways to start packing. I begin by sorting things into piles that are most to least important. I look over at my bookshelf and see the mess that it is. When Leo was building the ship, he and I spent way too long deciding on what the bookshelf should look like, how big it would be, and how many books I’d be allowed to bring. We came to the conclusion of a small three tier that goes up about three feet and it could hold a decent amount of books. And, at the time, I thought that I would have more time to read so I brought many of my comfort books as well as some other books to keep me busy. I guess I didn’t know what would come in the next few months. Now as I pack, I wish I hadn’t brought so many books now knowing that they might all be destroyed in a fire.

I move onto clothes which don’t matter too much because most of them have been destroyed in one way or another. I pack some basic essentials and head over to Percy’s room to grab a few things.

When I enter, Percy is on the floor in the midst of clothes.

“Need some help?” I say leaning on the doorframe. He just nods and looks down into his lap.

Percy hasn’t ever really been the best about keeping his spaces tidy, so I’m not surprised that he’s having trouble packing. Most of the clothes he has aren’t his due to the fact that we didn’t stop at camp on our way to Europe after picking up Frank, Hazel, and him.

We start out with three piles, Jason, Frank, Leo. Later we add another pile dedicated to Piper because they have similar fashion tastes apparently. He borrows the most clothes from Jason and Piper. So after we’re done sorting through everything we go to Jason and Piper’s rooms first.

“How did you accumulate so much of my stuff?” Piper says and Percy just shrugs.

Jason on the other hand also gives Percy a pile of clothes that he stole from him. “I was looking for this the other day, man. Glad to have it back.”

The rest of the returnings go similarly. Percy gives them a pile of clothes, and the other just looks down at them in confusion as if they’ve been looking for these items for the past year. Then Percy acts as if he just happened to find the articles of clothing in the laundry with his.

The day is already halfway over and it’s slowly starting to hit everyone that it’s almost the end of this adventure. This terrible, awful, and overly long adventure that we didn’t ask for. There have been some good moments and there have been some really shitty ones. It was all good for character development I guess.

It all hits me right before I go to bed. This is the last normal day on the Argo II. I start to freak out. And all of the sudden I don’t miss my bed back in Cabin 6. I enjoy sharing a small cramped twin bed with Percy. I enjoy doing everyone’s laundry. I love the way everyone has grown closer, even with Coach Hedge. I don’t want it to end. I don’t want any of this to end.

~*~

I won't sleep tonight ie; I can’t sleep tonight. So I lay in bed alongside a snoring Percy until around two in the morning. Finally I decided to give up on trying to sleep and get up to walk around.

While Percy was missing still I developed the habit of pacing. At the time, I thought it would help ease my nerves, but the next morning I always ended up 10x more tired. That’s also when I started drinking more and more coffee. When we were in Tartarus there was no coffee, obviously, so I’ve stopped relying on the beverage for support.

As soon as I start walking every inch of the Argo II I stop. It reminds me of when Percy was missing and I don’t want to think about that. I don’t want to let that pain resurface again.

I return to the room and see Percy sitting on the edge of the bed rubbing his eyes like he just woke up.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just needed some fresh air.” I say walking over to him on the bed and hugging him.

I let myself melt into his arms for the first time in ages. His skin against mine. We sit there for god knows how long but neither one of us dares to move. I’m about to fall asleep in his arms when the engines start making screeching sounds.

Chapter Text

Leo was on top of the screeching as soon as it started at three in the morning. For a new unknown reason something in the engine room started screeching. The sound is unbearable but Leo has it under control in less than an hour. But before the screeching stopped it was unbearable, and I’m sure everyone on the ship developed a headache within the first ten minutes.

We were supposed to have one day left until we got home. One more day to prepare. Just one more day. Key word supposed.

Everyone is gathered in the mess hall with our emergency backpacks while Leo is downstairs fixing things. Frank and Hazel are somehow sleeping soundly at the table. While Jason and Percy are in the same boat trying to sleep but failing. Jason keeps trying but at this point Percy has given up and is laying face down on the table.

One thing about something being wrong with the ship is the fact that Leo is the one that has to fix the problem so that means that he’ll be blasting his music to help him cope. When it’s a serious problem, he’ll blast the music 10x louder. He’s chosen his Mario Kart x Blackpink playlist with songs such as; Boombayah, Coconut Mall Theme, Playing With Fire, and Sour Candy.

Coach walks into the room with three mugs and a pot of coffee in his hands. He sets the mugs down, Piper and I each grab one and begin to mix our drinks.

“Went down to check on the boy.” He takes a sip of his coffee, without adding anything to it.

“And?” Piper and I say in unison.

“And the ship isn’t doing well, obviously, and we’re going to have to get home as soon as possible. No more cruising our way back to camp, just straight zoom home.” Hedge makes a zooming motion with his hand.

“Are we going to make it?” I ask taking a sip of coffee.

“Yeah, probably.”

Then we all sit in silence.

Piper gets up and removes the countdown poster from the wall and starts to roll it up. Everyone stares at her.

“What? If the ship goes down I at least want to remember this when I’m old.” She places the poster in her backpack.

Leo walks into the room and announces that we’ll be at camp in approximately 12 hours. Festus is doing his best to keep everything intact. Leo is worried that Festus won’t make it home, then he chugs the rest of Piper’s coffee and walks back down to the engine room to keep an eye on things.

Piper offers to make us breakfast and I join her to keep my mind busy since things are moving so quickly.

“It all feels rushed, I’m not ready to be home yet.” Piper gets out some mixing bowls and pancake mix.

“Neither am I.” I respond, getting out the waffle iron.

Piper goes quiet. I look over at her and there are silent tears streaming down her face. We make eye contact and I start crying too. As we make breakfast, many tears are shed. I think we’re both just overwhelmed with all that’s happened in the past 24 hours and now we’re processing it. It’s hitting everyone and we’re all dealing with it in different ways. Everything’s going a mile a minute and nothing’s slowing down.

Emotions are running high on the Argo II today. After Piper and I are done making breakfast, we compose ourselves before entering the mess hall again. Making sure that no one can tell that we were crying because we don’t want to start a crying train. It’s happened once and it’ll happen again.

We carry in the plates of food and set them down. Piper offers to take a plate down to Leo so he gets some too.

Frank wakes up to sleepily say, “We’ll pray for your ears.”

Piper then solutes to us and then she’s gone. Percy wakes up as soon as he smells the pancakes.

“Why are the pancakes blue but not the waffles?” He asks.

Jason perks up, “Yeah, I’m surprised that they’re not both blue.”

“We ran out of the blue food dye halfway through and we had to make another batch of batter but there wasn’t anything left.” I explain.

While Percy manages to inhale three pancakes in seven minutes, I can’t get myself to eat a single bite. It’s probably the coffee. Even though it’s not helping I continue to sip the drink, wishing it were iced instead of hot.

~*~

No one leaves the mess hall for the next four hours. But they are probably the most productive four hours I’ve had in a long time. Hazel gets the idea of contacting camp to let them know what’s going on. And surprisingly we get through to Chiron.

“Is there any way we can prepare camp for you?” Chiron asks through the mist.

Hazel and I look at eachother. “We’re not sure. Leo says that we won’t go down in flames but there is always a possibility. So maybe prepare for that? Again we’re not sure.”

By this time we have seven hours until we arrive at camp. We’ll be getting there at around five in the evening. Everyone is anxious to get back. Everyone is exhausted. Leo is working overtime so we can arrive safely. The coffee pot has been refilled three times since this morning. Every other hour someone goes down and checks in on Leo. He says things are doing okay. He looks like he’s going to collapse at any moment. His eyes are bloodshot, he’s got more oil and rust stains on him than usual, and he’s trembling.

“I just hope we get back soon.” He whispers before returning to his work.

There are a lot of “hopes” being said today. And as hours pass, anxiety and boredom quickly turn into restlessness. Hazel starts pacing to help her motion sickness that has mysteriously come back and hit her like a ton of bricks. Frank is clenching a mug in his hands and is staring at the table. Jason is on mug duty, meaning he keeps everyone’s glass full. Piper makes trips down to Leo more and more frequently. Percy has picked up another book and is sucked into it. I sit with my knees to my chest and zone out much like Frank and try not to freak out. Though Coach is doing most of the worrying by pacing the halls and trying to get contact with Mellie to see if she’s given birth yet.

More and more hours pass and the only difference there seems to be is that we’re closer to Long Island. None of us bother to check the time anymore.

“We’ll know when we get there.” Jason mutters to himself.

The ship then jolts as if it’s scraping against something. There’s a cackle over the intercom and Leo’s voice comes through, even though he sounds near death he manages an upbeat tone, “Hello this is Leo your captain speaking. We have officially arrived at our destination. I recommend you take the nearest exit off the ship. Have a nice day.” Then there’s more cackling before the ship comes to a complete stop.

We all get up and take a look out the nearest window port and see Camp Half Blood.

Chapter Text

The next few minutes happen too fast for me to comprehend what’s going on, so in short:

We attempt to get off the Argo but we’re suspended in the air. Someone finds a rope ladder for us to climb down on. I think Chiron thought that Leo was going to land in the ocean but here we are in the middle of the southern woods near the pegasus stables.

As we exit the forest, I see a scorched Camp Half-Blood. Most of the grass is either yellow or black. Probably from the summer heat or fire. There are some brownish spots on the ground and no one can tell if it’s just another burned spot or blood. We all hope it’s not blood.

No one is in the archery range as we pass it so everyone must be having dinner. So we head over to the dining pavilion. On our way we pass by the infirmary and it seems to be packed to the brim. Will Solace is frantically running in between patients. He runs past the door and we make eye contact and the boy stops in his tracks.

He whispers, “You’re alive.”

“Well duh I can’t leave you guys behind.” I respond.

He sprints down the stairs and gives me a tight hug. We had developed a close friendship after he saved my life when I got stabbed in the Battle of Manhattan. The past few months have been hard on him, especially being one of the best healers at camp. His usual “child of Apollo glow” is dull, his eyes are bloodshot, and he seems to be trembling like he’s drank too much coffee.

I pull away from the hug, “Is everyone okay?”

“Most have only minor injuries but some are worse than others.” He says looking back at the infirmary.

“Did Nico and Reyna make it?” Jason pipes in.

“Reyna is fine, she's in the pavilion with everyone else, Nico on the other hand-” the boy blushes after saying his name. “He practically slipped into the shadows for good this time and now owes me three days in the infirmary.”

“Is he awake?” Jason starts toward the infirmary.

“Yeah he should be, last time I checked he was.”

“You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up with you guys in a bit.” He walks into the building with Will.

Finally, we approached the dining pavilion. At the front of the pavilion Chiron and Reyna were giving updates about our whereabouts. When Reyna see’s us, her face dims.

“Where’s Jason?” She asks in an attempt to keep it all together. How is she still able to put on a brave face after all of this? She walks toward us, her cape flowing behind her. Not much has changed since the last time I saw her.

At this point everyone in the pavilion has their eyes on us now. All of the campers look tired and beaten up in one way or another. As Will said “some are worse than others.” Some look like they’re just a bit bruised up while others are in several casts and slings. Connor has a broken arm and Travis has a splint boot. Usually there would be whispers going around at this time but right now the pavilion is dead silent.

Piper steps forward. “He’s in the infirmary with Will checking in on Nico. No worries, he’s not gone.”

Reyna goes around and gives everyone hugs except for Frank, instead she gives him a handshake, nods her head, and says “praetor.”

The pavilion is still silent. I don’t think anyone was expecting for all of us to come back alive. It’s a major shock for the whole camp I guess.

“We have a lot to discuss.” Is all Chirom says.
~*~

The next few days are spent cleaning up camp and removing the Argo II from the forest before it decides to explode. And things are slowly starting to feel somewhat normal again. Very slowly. Reyna successfully completed her quest on returning the Athena Parthenos to reunite the Romans and Greeks. I am informed that Octavian is dead.

Reyna and I are overlooking the camp from half blood hill, leaning against Thalia’s tree. The sun is setting over camp. Though there is still much work to be done, everything's coming together again. Camp is starting to feel like home again.

“You are welcome to stay as long as you need.” I say.

“We appreciate your hospitality, but soon we’ll need to get back to Camp Jupiter and assess what damage has been done there.” She says in a warm tone.

“If you need any help cleaning up or reconstructing anything we’re happy to help.” We both keep our gaze on the horizon.

“We’ll definitely keep in touch Annabeth Chase.”

I turn to her. “You should come back for capture the flag. All of camp against you. You could probably beat us single handedly in five minutes.”

Reyna laughs. “I’m not sure about five. Maybe 30?”

Then the conch horn blows, signalling for campfire to commence.

“It’s been nice getting to know you Annabeth. Even if you are a child of Minerva and greek.”

I give her a funny look and she starts to crack up.

“What?”

“I was kidding, god.” She continues to laugh hysterically, my face still blank.

“I never thought that Reya Avila Ramirez Arellano could make a joke.” I laugh.

“Well I am a woman of many talents.” She winks then starts down the hill. “C’mon, I don’t want to miss one of my last campfires here.”

Chapter Text

On an afternoon I find myself drawn to the canoe lake. I sit down on the deck and begin swaying my feet in the water, gazing down into the water at my reflection. Not much has changed physically since before the wars. I still don’t take good care of my hair, my style has barely changed, and I’m practically the same height. Yet something seems off or different. I seem older. Not older as in wrinkly old, I think it shows itself in my eyes most; like I’ve seen too much for my own good. In many ways that’s true, I have seen and been through too much. They remind me of Athena. I push away the thought of looking more like her. The last time I saw her in person was at the Acropolis in Athens.

Since we’re all back at camp and there isn’t anything going on anymore I have to deal with the things that I’ve been avoiding. And over the past few days I’ve dealt with pretty much everything I’d been so worried about. Except for one thing that’s still been left out in the open. And here he walks over.

“Hi Wise Girl.” Percy sits on the deck and starts swaying his feet in the water.

“Hey Seaweed Brain.”

“How’re you adjusting to being back at camp?” He asks.

“Pretty well, I just don’t want any of this to be taken away again.” I place my hand on his.

Percy’s quiet for a beat then he looks at me and starts to lean in for a kiss. “Since we’re officially back at camp now..”

I push him away with one finger. “Woah there buddy, you don’t have a speech or anything?”

He looks like a puppy. “Was I supposed to?”

I ignore his comment. “We’ve come a long way in the past year. We literally walked through hell and back and still somehow made it. I wish things were back to the way they were before Hera took you but I think that there were some perks to this.”

“How were there any perks Annabeth? I legit don’t sleep anymore.” He deadpans.

“I’m being serious! If none of this happened we wouldn't be sitting here right now. And things are getting back to a new form of normal, so I mean I guess I have not a lot to worry about now.” I continue.

“Do you have something to say to me, Wise Girl?” He gives me a shit eating grin.

“You’d probably kick my butt.” I look into the water, avoiding his gaze.

“This time last year I was the one saying that.” He pauses, “also this time last year I gave up immortality and I was invulnerable and I said that I didn’t want things to stay the same for eternity, because things could always get better and then you started laughing at me.”

“And I said that I was never ever going to make anything easy for you Percy Jackson.” I have a smile on my face too.

“And then after you said that you kissed me because Annabeth Chase always makes the first move. I swear you’re gonna be the one to propose to me, I bet you already have everything planned out.” He says in a singsong voice.

At that moment I see where things are going and I know what he’s about to do. No one else is around so it’s up to him to drag me down with him into the canoe lake.

“Don’t you dare Jackson.” I say through gritted teeth. “I just took a shower!”

“We can take one together.” He winks at me and then drags me into the canoe lake with him.

I make an effort not to shriek but instead the shriek turns into gurgling sounds.

This time around he kisses me as we sink to the bottom of the lake. The naiads swirling around us as if saying “not them again.” I feel like I’m 16 all over again though instead of feeling like I’m on fire, I feel like I’m melting into him.

And we stayed underneath the water for hours (thanks to his powers).

Nowhere to be.
Nothing to worry about.
No quests.
No gods.
Just us.
And the lake.
It was the second best underwater kiss of all time.