Archive of Our Own

Percy moved to their school at the beginning of the year and Grover became his friend almost instantly. Well, Leo was the first person to run into Percy and they got along great on their way to Percy’s first lesson of the day. Leo showed Percy how to get to class and they got to talking and Leo kept on ranting about how the new kid was super fun to talk to and how he’d just found his soulmate.

But then their teacher told Percy to take the empty seat next to Grover and by the end of that lesson Grover was beaming and chatting animatedly with Percy like they’ve known each other for years on end now.

A week into knowing him, their group found out that Percy’s father was Poseidon and that his powers reacted to his emotions, which didn’t bode well for them because he was one of the most emotional people they’ve ever met.

He was usually chill, but when something got his temper going, there was no stopping it. He was like a tornado, wreaking havoc. He was actually kind of scary when he got all intense and angry and his powers would spike and make all the bottles around him shake as the water inside splashed restlessly.

Their little group adjusted to him almost like they’ve been waiting for him to arrive for years now. Leo, Piper and Jason—the newest ones who only joined a year before that and were very glad to find out they didn’t need to move to a different school again—welcomed Percy with open arms and were very sympathetic as he explained to them all that he’s never been in one school for longer than a year. It was actually a worse case than Leo’s, and that was saying something.

Hazel and Frank were closest to Percy right behind Grover. Annabeth sometimes felt like those two were dancing around each other in this endless circle that their group was certain would never come to an end even though they all knew that Hazel and Frank liked each other, so it was pretty surprising when three weeks into the school year, Percy managed to get those two idiots to finally confess and go on their very first date.

And then there was Annabeth. Percy was most definitely not the kind of person she was used to hanging around with, and she only spent time with him because she wanted to be with her friends who kept on inviting him to their hang outs. It was frustrating. And it was even worse once she knew his father was Poseidon. No wonder she couldn’t stand the guy—they weren’t supposed to get along! No wonder she wanted to strangle him half the time!

“You’re glaring at him again,” Piper said.

Annabeth forced herself to tear her gaze away from Percy as he laughed at a joke Leo had told their group. They were sitting at the coffee shop, each with their own drinks and pastries. It was Jason’s idea because they all needed to study and they figured they could do it together. Annabeth suggested the café because she wanted to visit Luke anyway. Grover invited Percy to come, too, and Annabeth, sadly, couldn’t argue with him without coming off as just plain mean.

“Am not.”

“Annabeth, I’ve never seen you staring at something this intensely without blinking before. It’s kind of unnerving,” Piper said.

Annabeth ignored her.

“And I’m telling you right now—it’s not unnoticed by him. He’s just too nice to say anything. Percy’s one of the most observant people I’ve ever met.”

“Right,” Annabeth scoffed. She turned her gaze back to Percy for a brief moment and found his sea-green eyes on her, questioning her silently without really saying anything. She quickly looked away and back to a smirking Piper. “Shut up.”

Her friend swallowed a smile. “I didn’t say anything,” she said and then elbowed Annabeth’s side lightly. “Oh, incoming!” she whispered into her ear and then straightened up and pulled away from Annabeth just as Luke stopped next to their table, beaming at Annabeth like usual.

Heart skipping a beat, Annabeth offered him a smile in return, praying her cheeks weren’t as red as she feared they were. A part of her brain could feel Percy’s eyes trained on her as he watched Luke and her. She wanted to force him to look away and focus back on the others, but she also didn’t feel like looking away from Luke.

“Hey, Luke,” Annabeth said.

He nodded at her. “What’s up? Enjoying your coffee? I made sure to add extra sugar to it so that it’s not as dull as you claimed the last one was,” he said and Annabeth smiled warmly, her fingers wrapping themselves around her mug of warm coffee. “How’re things at home?”

Her smile turned a little sour and forced as she could feel the others tuning into their conversation, too. Annabeth’s grip on her coffee tightened even more.

“Oh, it’s alright,” she said self-consciously. Piper knew a little bit about her home situation, but other than her, nobody else knew everything except for Luke and… well, Thalia. But she wasn’t around because she couldn’t really hang out anymore. And she didn’t really want this information to weigh down all her friends.

Luke smiled in understanding and turned to grin at the others. “Hey, guys. You doing alright? Feeling the pressure of being Juniors yet?”

Grover pointed at his textbook tiredly. “It’s fine for now, I guess,” he said. “But every test is like we have to read everything we’ve learned for the past three years and it’s kind of a lot,” he added with a grimace.

“Wait till you begin your senior year,” Luke said knowingly.

Leo glared at him. “Not helping, man. I’m already dying and I’m still a Sophomore.” He dropped onto the table, his arms spread to the sides and covering the textbooks of Jason and Hazel as he groaned so deeply, it made Annabeth roll her eyes. Piper snorted a little. “Luke, how the hell did you do it?”

The older boy chuckled and shook his head at Leo’s dramatics but didn’t say anything. Instead, his gaze focused on Percy who was still watching him like he was trying to figure something out. Annabeth moved her eyes between the two, feeling like she was watching a tennis match rather than two people meeting for the first time. She wasn’t actually sure what was happening.

“You’re new here, right?” Luke asked eventually, smiling at Percy like he smiled at everyone else.

Percy nodded once, still looking uncertain. “More like new to this hectic group. I’ve lived in New York my entire life,” he said.

“Hey, we’re not hectic, man,” Leo objected.

“What would you call us, then?” Hazel asked.

The boy hesitated for a moment. “Chaotic,” he decided.

Luke rolled his eyes at Leo’s antics and turned back to Percy with a smile. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Luke,” he said and extended a hand toward Percy who took it cautiously, like he actually expected Luke to judo-flip him or something. “I graduated two years ago from your school.”

“He’s Annabeth’s friend,” Jason explained. “He and my sister were like her mentors.”

“You have a sister?” Percy asked.

The table fell silent. Nobody wanted to think about that as they all avoided Percy’s curious gaze as he stared at them all, waiting for someone to explain the sudden shift in the mood.

Eventually, Luke offered Percy another smile. “Yeah… well, anyway, if you ever need a drink to keep you up while you study for those tests, come here and I’ll get you something, man,” he said.

“Oh.” Percy still looked at Luke like he wasn’t sure he trusted him. “Right. Thanks.” And he quickly turned around to face Frank who was poking Leo with a spoon to try and get him to get up from the table, painting him with a little bit of cream from his own drink that Leo wiped away without bothering to actually sit back up.

Luke turned back toward Annabeth, lowering his voice as he went. “Another one?” he asked her.

Piper pretended like she wasn’t listening in on their conversation.

“Son of Poseidon,” Annabeth said. Luke made a face and Annabeth knew he was feeling sympathy toward her, probably instantly realizing why she didn’t sound too enthusiastic about Percy’s addition to their group of friends. “Percy Jackson,” she added when she realized the boy hasn’t even bothered introducing himself to Luke. Rude much? “He’s not usually this…” She trailed off uncertainly.

“Cold? Calculating?” Luke suggested with an unbothered shrug. “It’s fine. I don’t mind. It means he’s probably not too surprised when a monster comes to try and kill him, right? He probably needs that.” He glanced back at the counter and sighed. “Gotta go and get back to work. I’ll talk to you later, alright? We’ll visit—“

“Yeah,” Annabeth agreed before he even finished talking. She glanced at Jason briefly and then smiled back at Luke. “I’ll see you after work.”

Piper gave her a knowing look and a wink once Luke was far enough away and Annabeth shoved her away lightly, feeling a little ridiculous as her face still burned. This would have been much easier had their entire group not been around to witness Annabeth’s interactions with Luke. It was bad enough when she didn’t have an audience. Now she had one that she knew judged her every response.

Across the table, Percy leaned forward, his piercing gaze seemingly trying to look into Annabeth’s soul as he frowned at her. “Luke… you’ve known him for a long time, then?” he asked.

Annabeth regarded him coldly. “None of your business,” she stated firmly.

Next to her, Piper rolled her eyes and offered Percy a smile as he leaned a little back again, looking at Annabeth with an unreadable expression. “Yes. Luke was like an older brother to her. I swear, sometimes I feel like he knows more about Annabeth than me and I’m supposed to be her best friend,” she huffed mockingly.

Percy ignored that. “And you trust him?” he asked Annabeth.

She glared at him. “I’ve known Luke for six years, Seaweed Brain,” she said frostily. Percy’s eyebrows furrowed a little but he didn’t back away this time. “Which is more than I can say about you. I’d trust Luke with my life. I’d trust you to show up late to class, at best.”

“You know, you don’t have to be this mean,” he countered. “Are you always this difficult to deal with? Tell the truth.” He turned to Piper. “Is she always like this?”

Piper made a so-so gesture with her hand, apparently enjoying this more than Annabeth would have liked.

“You know what? I may not like you and I may not see why the others do,” Annabeth said, leaning across the table to look straight into those mesmerizing green eyes that stared right back, curiosity and caution swirling in them, “but I’m at least sure of one thing—by the end of the school year, you’ll be gone and I’ll never have to see you again.”

“Annabeth!” Piper said, aghast.

Percy’s lips thinned a little and she could see the anger swelling in him—building the same way it always did before he snapped. The glasses of drinks around the table started shaking and some of the liquid splashed onto the wooden surface. Leo yelped in alarm when hot chocolate hit his face and he finally sat up and looked around in confusion before they all seemed to realize this was Percy’s doing.

He held Annabeth’s gaze for a few moments and she wondered what he was going to do—drench her in all the liquids around them? This would definitely not be pleasant. And she didn’t really have powers she could use to fight back unless she wanted to get physical, which wouldn’t be the best solution when they were in public. And in front of their friends, who clearly liked Percy.

Then the glasses stopped shaking and Annabeth noticed something dimming in those bright eyes of his. Percy looked down at his own glass of chocolate milkshake and his shoulders hunched a little.

“Right,” he muttered. He didn’t meet Annabeth’s gaze again, which made her swell with pride because she definitely saw that as a victory, even if Piper looked absolutely disapproving. “I won’t be around to bother you next year.”

He didn’t seem to notice the horrified looks they all sent toward Annabeth. Frank stared at her like he was seeing her for the first time. Hazel had a frown on her face though she was too kind to really say anything. Leo looked from Annabeth to Percy, as if not completely believing he was really hearing right. Jason was staring at Piper, a silent plea in his eyes to fix this somehow since Annabeth was closest to her.

“It’s getting late. I should go,” Percy said and stood up without meeting anyone’s eye. “Thanks for inviting me. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” he said with a weak smile and then he left his unfinished milkshake on the table and marched toward the door with his backpack slung over one shoulder, his figure slumped in what seemed to be almost defeat.

Grover gaped at Percy’s back for a moment until the door closed behind him and then he rounded on Annabeth. “What was that about?!” he demanded.

“He was being mean toward Luke!” Annabeth defended herself instantly.

“That’s not it! You’ve hated the guy since the moment you realized who his dad was!” Grover argued. “You know that the fact that your mother is Athena doesn’t instantly mean you have to hate children of Poseidon, right? You’re not your mom.”

“It has nothing to do with who his father is,” Annabeth insisted. “He was being super weird with Luke! Piper saw the whole thing! Luke was being friendly and nice and Percy was all… weird and strange, like he thought Luke was a monster,” she objected.

Piper’s eyed widened when they all turned to look at her. She flushed a little. “I, uh…” She cringed as Annabeth and Grover both glared at her. “I wasn’t paying attention?”

Grover didn’t get to berate Annabeth some more after that because just then Leo and Frank worked together to try and change the subject and the two let it go begrudgingly.

“I don’t know…”

“Come on—it’s just coffee, Will. What’s the harm?”

“I know why you want to go there, and it’s not the coffee.”

“Oh, come on! It’s definitely the coffee. Nothing else to see there, Sunshine.”

Annabeth blinked tiredly at Will and Nico as the two kept on arguing about whether or not they should head to the café next to the school—the one where Luke worked.

They were on the bus, after another school day and Annabeth was ready to just collapse after another eight hours of having to deal with the annoying Percy Jackson who kept on teasing her every time he could with a smug grin on his face, like he was enjoying making her miserable.

And none of her friends seemed to care! They all kept on ignoring the rivalry between the two, like it didn’t even exist.

Percy would say something offensive and Grover would pass his pencil over to Juniper like he couldn’t hear a thing and Annabeth would retort and Juniper would laugh at something Grover had said and Percy would lean back in his chair, his arms folded behind his head, and smirk like he was waiting all day to hear Annabeth’s comeback. Then he’d blurt something right back—something that he just couldn’t have come up with on the spot!—and Grover would take his pencil back from Juniper with a lovestruck grin, unaware of anything around him.

Even worse—her friends weren’t siding with either one of them. She was used to them agreeing with her when it came down to it. There was once this kid that tried to join their group and at first they all accepted him, but then Annabeth and he started butting heads and the rest kind of pulled away from him. That was just how it worked. They’ve been friends for long enough for Annabeth to trust them all to not just… disappear or choose someone else over her.

And now they weren’t choosing Percy over her, but they weren’t choosing her over him, either, and it was driving her insane because it meant she had to either sit with them and with Percy or meet with them and with Percy or sit in the cafeteria with them and with Percy… or find other people to hang around from time to time to get a few breaks from Percy Jackson’s smug face and ruffled, windswept black hair and scary sea-green eyes that seemed to taunt her wordlessly every time she got close.

Nico and Will weren’t exactly her conscious choice. They were just… sort of… there. Nico was Hazel’s stepbrother so he and Annabeth were on speaking terms and he was nice whenever he wasn’t too solemn and quiet and depressing. And Will was the opposite of him. As in… the exact opposite of him. Always so bright and happy and cheerful and smiley. He and Annabeth didn’t interact too often but they were alright with each other, so whenever she dropped next to them in the cafeteria, they just accepted her presence there and didn’t ask questions.

But now they were heading back home on the bus (her friends decided to walk because Percy wanted to show them this amazing video game store and Jason, Leo, Grover and Piper were all intrigued. Hazel was, too, but she was mostly just curious as to the concept of video games in general) and she felt like she should just smack her head against the window because Will and Nico have been arguing about whether or not they should go to the café now or not for the past ten minutes.

“Yeah. I’m sure. It has nothing to do with the cute new barista, huh?” Will teased Nico who flushed a little and grumbled as he looked away from Will and over at Annabeth.

“Make him stop. He’s being mean to me,” he told her.

She rolled her eyes. “Ugh, just go to the stupid coffee shop and be done with it,” she groaned.

“He’s probably not even there,” Nico said under his breath.

“Who?” Annabeth asked.

Will smirked at Nico. “The new barista,” he said and ducked under the punch Nico tried to send his way. “Haven’t you heard? Nico here has his first crush. It’s adorable.”

“Shut up,” Nico grumbled.

“First crush?” Annabeth didn’t even know Nico liked guys, but okay. “Who is it?” she asked, already imagining talking about this to Piper and Hazel. Piper will be super enthusiastic about it and Hazel will probably be happy for her brother after fanning her face in this old-fashioned way of hers, like she was a little caught off guard by this turn of events.

Nico pressed his lips together, looking reluctant to share, but Will didn’t seem to mind. “Oh, you aren’t going to like it, Annabeth,” he warned her, bright eyes twinkling knowingly

It made Annabeth even more curious as to who the new barista was. She hasn’t been to the café in a little over two weeks because of the tests they’ve had, so she wasn’t really up to date on who the employees were. She knew Luke was still around and he’d told her they were looking for some extra help, but, well, she didn’t know who had been taken in the end.

“Who?” she asked.

The two boys exchanged a look. Annabeth was pretty sure Nico was pleading with Will to shut up silently. Will looked at him like he wanted to force Nico to talk and there was a warning in his eyes, like he was telling Nico he will tell Annabeth who it was if he didn’t confess himself, first.

In the end, Nico slumped down in defeat and looked down at his hands as he mumbled something that Annabeth couldn’t hear. “What? Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” she said.

Will nudged his friend’s side lightly. “Come on, Neeks. It’s no big deal, you know.”

“Yeah, this whole thing is pointless anyway.” His eyes flickered over to Annabeth for a moment, like she was the cause of all the drama in his life. She had no idea what that was about. “He doesn’t even like guys. It’s kind of pathetic, isn’t it?”

“Of course not. I totally see why you’re so taken by him,” Will promised. He glanced at Annabeth, eyes still twinkling in this way that made her fingers itch to just shake him until this smug, knowing look would wipe off his face. “The first time I saw him at school, I swear my heart stopped for a moment—I thought he was one of the gods. Like, an actual god. Then I heard he was the new student and I thought everyone was pulling a prank on me.”

Nico sighed longingly. “I haven’t seen him until he suddenly appeared in the alleyway where a Laistrygonian was cornering me. He just pulled out his sword and killed the giant like it was nothing…” Nico said with a faraway look and Will rolled his eyes. “And then he said my name and I was so awkward because I didn’t even know who the hell he was, but apparently he knew me. Hazel’d told him about me before, according to him. He looked so cool…” He sighed again.

Will looked at Annabeth with this what-can-you-do look. “He’s got it pretty bad, I’d say.”

“Shut up.” Nico grumbled again, though his voice wasn’t sharp like before as he was still seemingly thinking back to those precious moments of being saved by someone.

Tilting her head curiously, Annabeth stared at Will and Nico. “Wait, he knows Hazel?” She asked, frustrated with not knowing who they were talking about. “Who is this guy?”

They glanced at each other before the bus came to a stop. The doors opened and a few people got out. Two came in. One was an old lady that kept on rambling to the boy that came right behind her, carrying a bag that definitely belonged to the lady before putting it down next to the sit she’d chosen.

Annabeth’s stomach clenched as she tried to suppress a groan. It was Percy Jackson. She wondered why he’d ditched the others but decided to just try and ignore him and focus on Nico and Will instead.

It worked until a second later, when she noticed Nico’s eyes were trained on Percy as the boy smiled at the lady and nodded at her as she kept on talking his ears off. Will was clearly holding back a laugh at the expression on Nico’s face.

“No.” Annabeth said. Will turned to her and a moment later Nico joined him, looking slightly apologetic but mostly just giddy. “No way—him? Of all the people in this city—in our school—you had to go and pick him?!” She hissed.

“I—“

“Oh, hey guys!”

Annabeth braced herself as she heard Percy’s cheerful voice. He approached them, not minding the way the bus nearly threw him off his feet as it kept on going without waiting for Percy to take a seat. He smiled first at Nico and Will, apparently oblivious to Nico’s adoring gaze, and then at Annabeth, though the smile was different when it was turned on her. Like he was already anticipating a fight.

“Hey, Perce.” Will greeted him—the only one, apparently, who had no agendas regarding the guy in their group of three. “What’s up?”

“You know, great and all.” Percy shrugged and then, without even asking or giving her a second look, dropped into the seat right next to Annabeth like it had his name written on it. She pursed her lips but didn’t say anything. “I got a call from home—apparently I have to come back right this second.” He said, something in his usually upbeat and unbothered tone a little different. Like he was hiding something or not telling the whole truth. “How about you?”

“Great. Awesome.” Nico said almost dreamily.

Percy didn’t seem to notice. “Great!” He told the boy who looked like he was going to just melt into a puddle in the middle of the bus.

“Heard you started working at—“

“The coffee shop.” Percy nodded. “Yeah. I am.”

Annabeth felt a jolt running through her body at those words. “Wait, you applied to work there?”

Percy glanced at her. “Yeah.”

“You?”

“Still the same answer.”

“You applied to work at the coffee shop?”

“You know, asking the same thing over and over again doesn’t always get you different results.” He teased her with a smirk and then leaned back in his seat, hands behind his head like he did almost every time he wanted to annoy her. “Why? Is it bothering you, Wise Girl?”

She gritted her teeth. “I thought you hated Luke. Why did you decide to work with him?”

His sea-green eyes flashed for a moment with an emotion Annabeth couldn’t give a name to but then Percy’s easy smile returned and he just shrugged at her. “You know what they say—keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

“Luke is not your enemy.” She chided him.

“I didn’t say he was.” Percy retorted and then turned his back to her and faced the other two boys again. Annabeth didn’t need to see his face to know that he was feeling victorious. “So what are you guys doing today?”

Will grinned at Nico brightly but the boy just pulled a face at him and then turned to Percy, not quite meeting his eyes. “Oh, nothing much. Just heading over to Will’s place.” He said almost tonelessly.

“Cool.” He pulled his hands down and started drumming on this thighs—ADHD, Annabeth knew. That was one thing about Percy she couldn’t complain about because most of them had it, too. “You should come over to the café sometime. It would be fun to see a familiar face.” He said enthusiastically.

Will looked like he was going to burst out laughing but Nico quickly kicked him—not very discreetly, yet Percy didn’t seem to notice anything weird about their behavior. “Sure. Maybe.” Then he got up and pulled Will to his legs, too. “Well, that’s our stop. We’ll, uh, see you around.”

“Bye, Percy.” Will waved at him. “Bye, Annabeth. See you tomorrow.”

She waved back as they got off the bus and then turned to glare at Percy who didn’t bother moving from the seat next to her. “Move over.”

“Why?” He asked.

“Because you’re crowding me.”

“There’s nobody else around—one person cannot be a crowd.”

“Well, I still feel like I’m going to go insane if you don’t pick another seat in the next five seconds.”

“I’m going to test that theory.”

She groaned in frustration. “Fine. I’ll move.” She got up and kicked his legs. “Let me pass. Come on.”

He didn’t move. “So why exactly do you hate me so much, exactly?”

“I don’t hate you.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

Annabeth glared at him as he just smiled up at her, eyes twinkling mischievously. He was enjoying this, the jerk! She wanted to pull her hair out from how frustrated she was, but she felt like this would be like admitting he was getting on her nerves and she couldn’t allow that. Percy Jackson wasn’t going to break her by taunting her with this smile of his and his endless retorts.

Taking in a deep breath, Annabeth kicked his legs again (mostly just to make herself feel better). “You’re a son of Poseidon.” She stated in a hushed voice, just to make sure nobody else could hear her.

Percy stared at her blankly. “I think we’ve established that ages ago.” He said. “But I’m glad you finally caught on.”

She kicked him again and this time Percy rubbed his leg with his hand, looking mildly irritated, which satisfied her quite a lot. “My mother is Athena, genius.”

“I knew that already.”

“Don’t you know about our parents?”

He tilted his head to the side. “Like… have I read all of the myths and stories and stuff? Because I have as much as I was willing to force myself to do this torture.” He said. “Some pretty gruesome stories, gotta say. I really hope my future doesn’t consist of me being strapped to an island as a sacrifice to my dad.”

Annabeth considered wringing his neck, but she figured the Mist wouldn’t really hide it that well and running from the law wasn’t on her to-do list right now. Maybe some other day. “You’re pretending to be this stupid, right?”

“What?” He demanded of her, finally getting truly frustrated.

“Poseidon and Athena are rivals, Seaweed Brain.” Annabeth told him. Percy looked at her with the same blank look as before.

“So?”

“So we can’t be friends.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Because our parents are immortal beings that can’t get along, we can’t try and be our own people and decide who we can tolerate and who we should hate to our last breath?” He snorted. “Right. Makes sense. The logic in this theory is ten out of ten.” He looked at Annabeth like she was an odd specimen. “So that’s why you hate me?”

“Pretty much.”

Percy regarded her for a moment or two and then shook his head. “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

She glared at him. “Like you don’t hate me for no reason.”

“I have a reason—you picked on me first.” He defended himself immediately, his tone of voice suggesting this should have been obvious to Annabeth from the very beginning. “I’m just not the kind of person to sit back and let people walk all over me without retaliating.” He moved his legs out of the way. “You can go now—wouldn’t want you to disappoint your mom if she looked down right this second and saw you talking to her enemy’s son, gods forbid.”

His tone was mocking and Annabeth could tell he found her reasoning stupid. She glanced at the path he was clearing for her to move through. This was her opening. She could just leave him be and sit somewhere else, away from him until her stop came. Instead, she narrowed her eyes at him without moving.

“That’s not the only thing.” She said.

Percy looked at her skeptically for a moment before he nodded. “Oh, right—it’s about Luke, too.” He said.

“What do you even have against him?”

“You know, I don’t think I want to tell you about it.” He said. “You’re not exactly at the top of my list of people I actually trust.” His lips tugged up in a smirk. “Although I do trust you to always be first at class without fail—and I’m sure you’ll throw a party when I get kicked out of this school by the end of the year, which I’m sure you’re already anticipating and planning forward.”

“Why, you—“

He got up abruptly and slung his bag over his shoulder. “This is my stop.” He cut her off and walked toward the door without looking back at her once.

She narrowed her eyes at his retreating back as he hopped off the bus to the sidewalk and started walking away down the street.

Percy Jackson was everywhere, Annabeth learned pretty early on. He was always around her friends, always in the same classes as her, always joking around or laughing or telling jokes or pouting when everyone else laughed as he tripped down the stairs and to prevent himself from crashing did a ridiculous sort of pirouette.

So she decided to go to the one place where she figured he wouldn’t be—Thalia’s room in the hospital. It was a place where their group of friends usually couldn’t be found. They all knew about Thalia’s condition but kept quiet about it because it always dampened Annabeth and Jason’s moods instantly—of course it did. Thalia was Annabeth’s oldest friend and Jason’s older sister.

Annabeth knew it was pointless, but she still brought a book with her—like she always did. It was Thalia’s favorite one from before… before. A book that Annabeth had trouble reading because of her dyslexia, but one she still always read to Thalia, knowing she would have liked to hear it. And who knows, maybe she really can hear their voices even while she is unconscious.

But everything came to a screeching halt when she opened the door to Thalia’s room and saw him standing next to the bed, staring down at Thalia with an expression Annabeth couldn’t decipher. She didn’t really care about trying to, either—it didn’t matter to her in the least.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” She stomped her foot.

Percy turned his head around to look at her. His eyes flashed for a moment and Annabeth realized his gaze was lingering on the book she was holding for a second too long. “Oh, hey.”

“Don’t you ‘hey’ me!” She marched into the room, glaring daggers at Percy. The only reason she was holding herself back from actually attacking the guy was because she was right next to Thalia, and while Thalia was never really opposed to fighting people she felt deserved it, Annabeth figured it wouldn’t be right to tackle someone right next to her unconscious body. “What are you doing here, Seaweed Brain?”

He jerked his thumb in the direction of the restroom attached to the room. “Jason brought me here. He wanted to introduce me to Thalia.” Her name coming out of his mouth made Annabeth’s skin crawl and she narrowed her eyes at Percy. He pointed at the book. “You got bored of reading to yourself and decided to have a captive audience?”

Her fingers tightened around the book. “Shut up—you don’t know what you’re talking about.” She snapped at him and Percy shrugged like it didn’t really matter to him.

“Probably.” He said casually, his hands resting in his pockets as he shrugged.

Annabeth stared at him, suddenly seeing something for the first time. “What’s wrong with your face?”

Percy’s indifference slipped a little and he lowered his gaze, his shoulders tensing like she just asked him what his social security number was. “None of your business.” He said, throwing her own words back in her face, she recalled.

And it probably really wasn’t her business, but it was a little alarming to see Percy’s usually (objectively) handsome face with a bruise blossoming on his cheek and a puffy, black eye. He looked like someone punched him several times and he didn’t seem to care about it. How come she hasn’t noticed it the moment he turned to face her?

Well, duh… she wasn’t expecting to see anything. She wasn’t looking for bruises.

“You should probably put some ice on it—“

“Drop it, Annabeth.” He locked eyes with her for a brief moment and she expected to see steel anger glaring at her from their depths, but instead Percy looked more like a caged animal than anything else, his eyes begging her to just leave it be and not ask anything.

She loosened her hold on Thalia’s book just as the water flushed in the toilet. She could hear Jason as he washed his hands in the sink. “Who did this to you?” Annabeth asked.

“Annabeth…”

Jason opened the door and blinked at Annabeth in surprise, but she ignored him in favor of taking a step closer to Percy, suddenly very intrigued. “Who did you manage to piss off this time—“

Percy’s face closed off and he picked up his backpack from the seat next to Thalia’s chair, tearing his gaze away from Annabeth after sending her one last scalding, blazing glare. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Grace.”

“What—“ Jason blinked in surprise as Percy moved past both of them, walked out the room and slammed the door in his wake. The blond turned to stare at Annabeth with wide, slightly accusing eyes. “What happened? When did you even get here?”

She shrugged. “About a minute ago.” She said. “Do you know what happened to Percy?”

He stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“His bruises—he looked like someone turned him into a personal punching bag. Or did you miss the colorful blotches on his face?”

Jason tilted his head at her. “Annabeth… Percy never tells us what causes this. All we know is that it’s from a monster. He won’t say any more than that, though.”

“You mean this has happened before?”

The look he gave her made her feel a little uneasy, like she was slightly unhinged. “He almost always looks like that.” He said.

Annabeth was stunned into silence.

She started noticing it, then. Percy’s bruises usually weren’t on his face, like someone was being very conscious of the fact that other could see it, but he was still bruised. Sometimes his sleeves would ride up and Annabeth would get a sneak peek at purple markings on his skin that Percy would casually hide with a laugh at some joke or another, like he couldn’t feel a thing. Like everything was okay.

He always looked so casual and carefree around their friends that it took her a few days to realize he wasn’t the same around adults. Teachers seemed to unnerve Percy in a way that sent alarm bells ringing around Annabeth’s head. Their teachers could be the nicest people on earth and Percy would still flinch a little at their every movement, as if anticipating something to go wrong. For them to lash out and attack him like the monsters that always sought demigods out.

A part of her brain insisted on berating her for not noticing those signs that Percy was either being stalked by some kind of creepy monster, or he was being abused somewhere, and no one was doing anything about it. She asked Grover about it once, because he was swiftly becoming Percy’s best friend, but the guy just sort of shrugged helplessly.

(“He won’t talk about it. What can we do?”

“Tell a teacher?”

“We can’t prove anything. And Percy won’t trust a teacher to help. He’ll just hide the proof and then resent us for it.”

“He already resents me, so I don’t see the problem.”

“Let it go, Annabeth.”)

But she can’t let it go.

It’s annoying, like a bug crawling under her skin, pestering her about someone she doesn’t care much about. Percy Jackson was an annoying prick that really enjoyed making her life just that much worse, but he was still a human being and he was a friend of all of her other friends, so how could she just let this fade away? Ignore it? How could they all just stand aside and let it happen?

But Grover was right. Annabeth couldn’t go to a teacher because she had no proof and she didn’t doubt Percy would just hide everything the moment he knew what was happening. He would deny, deny, deny if it meant keeping everything a secret because that’s exactly what he’s been doing all along and she didn’t think it would just change like that.

So she tried to just keep on living her life without thinking about him and his bruises and the way he flinched away from adults and became a little more subdued around their teachers. He didn’t mind being scolded, but only if the other students were around and the teachers were far enough away from him.

It was really sad to notice, so she tried to unsee it.

“You know, he’s not that bad.” Luke told her. He was using his break to take a few moments and sit opposite her in the café, a can of diet coke resting before him, half-finished.

“Huh?”

Luke offered her a smile, the scar under his eye glinting a little under the unflattering lights of the shop. She kind of wanted to trace it with her finger to feel its texture, but that would have surely been weird and Luke would have pushed her away and Annabeth would have wanted to jump off a cliff at just how embarrassing it would have made her feel.

“Percy—he’s not really that bad.” Luke explained.

She set her jaw. “Oh.” And she let her eyes glance briefly toward the counter where Percy was chatting with a middle-aged lady that was the only one in line. She didn’t seem to be giving him an order—just talking to him—so Annabeth got the impression they knew each other. “Really?”

Sighing, Luke rubbed the back of his neck. “Well… not really.” He offered Annabeth a sad smile and her gaze hardened. “I mean, he’s not a bad person and he’s really nice to everyone that comes here. He’s probably a little too clumsy, but not a terrible employee. He’s just…” He leaned across the table, his eyes suddenly a little anxious. “Did he ever mention a beef with me? Something that might make him dislike me?”

“No.” Or… at least, Percy’s never agreed to explain himself, and Grover (when asked) had no answers, either. It was frustrating, really, because Annabeth just didn’t understand how Percy could just take one look at Luke and decide he was bad news. Luke didn’t deserve such treatment from a stranger he was trying to be nice to. No one deserved being treated this way, really. “I have no idea why he’s so snappy with you.”

Luke laughed humorlessly and shook his head. “Snappy is… one way of putting it, that’s for sure.” He shook his head, like describing Percy’s attitude toward him with that word amused him.

The woman moved away from the counter and toward the door, Percy following her with a worried expression as she told him something and for the first time Annabeth could see the woman’s expression—she looked a little anxious, like she was on edge but she wanted to calm Percy down.

They didn’t look much alike, Annabeth supposed. Their features were all completely different, but there was something connecting the two of them—like a similar spark in their eyes. Percy’s sea-green eyes that held such sadness, now that Annabeth really looked. The woman’s changing eyes that seemed to shift from color to color like she couldn’t decide on which one was best, but still held the same sadness in them…

If this woman wasn’t Percy’s mother, Annabeth would willingly beg Percy for forgiveness for all of her mean comments.

“Percy…”

“I’m not going to quit. Forget it.”

“This isn’t what I meant when I said you should get out more.”

“I know. I just chose to interpret it this way.”

The woman gave Percy a tired look, like she wasn’t sure what to do with him at this point, but there was love in her gaze—so much love and support—it nearly made Annabeth’s head swirl.

Luke and she both seemed engrossed in listening to the conversation that wasn’t meant for their ears, yet Percy and the woman (his mom, of course) were standing only a few paces away, so they couldn’t really not hear what they were saying, could they? It was their fault, if you really thought about it.

“What am I going to do with you?” The woman sighed fondly and ruffled Percy’s hair. He swatter her hand away with a grin, like he didn’t really mind but he was obligated to act like he did. “You’re growing up too quickly.”

Percy’s lips tugged up in amusement. “My friends would tell you otherwise.” He promised.

Annabeth snorted. That was the wrong thing to do, because it drew the duo’s attention to Luke and her. She blinked under the intensity of their gazes. The woman stared at Luke and Annabeth like she was noticing them for the first time. She looked a little confused, sure, but also warm and sweet and like she was willing to step forward and drag them into a big hug, like they weren’t complete strangers.

Unlike her, though, Percy looked almost panicked as his gaze shifted from the woman, to Luke and then back. Annabeth wanted to snap at him as usual for being rude and judgmental toward someone as sweet and kind as Luke for no reason, but Percy’s mom was right there and something about this woman just made Annabeth want to be as nice as possible around her. This woman wasn’t at fault here—it was only her son’s actions that were driving Annabeth crazy.

“I’m going to guess—you’re said friends from school?” Percy’s mom said.

Percy blew out a long breath. “’Friends’ might be a stretch…”

“I’m Anabeth.” Annabeth said to the woman whose eyes gleamed a little in recognition, which intrigued Annabeth because if there was one thing she didn’t expect to discover today, it was that Percy had mentioned her to his mom. Of all people, she never thought Percy would bring her up in conversation with his parent, not when she wasn’t even really his friend. “And this is Luke.” She added and gestured toward her friend.

Another flash of recognition crossed the woman’s face but this time it was a little more cautious and Annabeth wanted to strangle Percy for feeding his mom with, probably, lies about Luke.

“It’s very nice to meet you both.” The woman said eventually. She stepped forward and shook both their hands. Her grip was solid, if a little weak. But she was warm and her smile made Annabeth feel a little more comfortable, at ease. She was like a ray of sunshine—even more so than Will Solace, who was the son of the Sun God. “I’m Sally. Percy’s told me so much about you—“

“Mom!” He called immediately, looking absolutely alarmed and awkward as his eyes flitted from his mom to Annabeth. He didn’t even linger on Luke this time, as if there was nothing awkward about what he must have told his mom about the older guy. “Weren’t you leaving?”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “A minute ago you begged me to stay here.”

He looked a little shocked for a moment or two and then he scrunched up his nose and crossed his arms. “Yeah, well…” He shrugged. “You’ve overstayed your welcome, I guess.” He said with a hint of humor in his voice and Sally rolled her eyes fondly, like she was used to this behavior from her son—she probably was.

Then she turned to look back at Annabeth. “It’s very nice to finally meet you, Annabeth.” She said and Annabeth didn’t need to ask to know that Sally meant it from the bottom of her heart—she wasn’t just saying this to be polite.

Percy dropped his face into both hands and let out a muffled groan that Luke chuckled at.

“Y-you too, Mrs. Jackson.” Annabeth said.

“Oh, please—Sally is fine.” The woman said. “I really thought I’d never see any of your friends, Percy.” She turned to her son who peeked at her through his fingers like a nine-year-old. There was no accusation in her tone, though, like she knew exactly why Percy wasn’t letting her meet his friends and she couldn’t argue that point. Then her eyes glinted mischievously. “You should tell me the next time you all meet in here so I can drop by with a few of your baby photo albums—“

“Okay, this was fun, but sadly it’s time for you to go.” Percy said and immediately started pushing his laughing mother toward the door. “Thanks for stopping by, Mom. I’ll be back the moment my shift is over.” He promised.

She squeezed his hand for exactly four seconds and then let Percy go, waved goodbye to Luke, Annabeth and her son and stepped out of the café. The moment the door closed behind her, Percy heaved a sigh of relief and sagged against the wall next to him, his eyes closed. He didn’t look at ease, though. Annabeth thought he mostly just looked… pained? Like he felt bad about pushing his mother out of there in such a rush.

“She seems really nice, Percy.” Luke commented.

This didn’t cheer Percy up at all. His eyes opened sharply and he gave Luke a long, assessing look before he pressed his lips together. “Yeah, she’s the best.” He said slowly, cautiously. Luke squirmed a little under his gaze, sending Annabeth a distressed look.

“Yeah, she’s definitely nicer than you.” Annabeth cut in.

Percy didn’t seem to get offended by this like she expected him to. Instead, he gave Annabeth the kind of look that made her feel stupid. “She’s nicer than everyone, Wise Girl.” He stated firmly and then sent Luke another look, this one cold but unreadable. “I think your break is over.”

He walked away.

They both watched him for a moment or two as he settled back behind the counter, looking upset and antsy all of a sudden. Luke was clearly feeling bad because of Percy’s attitude but he didn’t say anything. Annabeth wanted to comfort him and tell him that Percy was just being annoying and that Luke shouldn’t take it personally, but she didn’t actually know why Percy was acting that way and she wasn’t sure what she could say to make Luke feel better about it.

“I should go.” Luke said eventually and got up, downing the rest of his diet coke as he stood up.

Annabeth watched him worriedly. “Don’t let him get to you—his problems are his. He shouldn’t take his frustrations out on you. You know that, right?”

Luke didn’t answer.

Another monster attacked their house and Annabeth found herself being targeted by her parents as they screamed at her and accused her of endangering all of them. They didn’t even think of blaming Athena for any of this—no, it was all Annabeth, like she wanted monsters to come and invade her space in order to kill her.

It made her escape out the window the moment she could and run over to Piper’s house where she was welcomed into the arms of her friend who let her sleep in the guest room (she didn’t even make a fuss about Jason having to leave early because Piper needed to be there for her friend and that was more important than making out with her boyfriend).

It wasn’t her first time spending the night at Piper’s. Sometimes she ended up at Jason’s house, just to feel somewhat closer to Thalia, as well. A few times she found herself on the doorsteps of her other friends—all of them welcomed her in with open arms and no complaints. But it was mostly Piper because they were the closest.

But for some reason, that night she just felt too agitated to stay in bed, so she found herself climbing out the window of the guest room, too. It was chilly outside and she only had an old sweater on that didn’t warm her quite enough so she ended up hugging herself pitifully. She kept on glancing around, expecting to see, perhaps, someone who would come after her.

Nobody came, though. Not Piper, not her parents, not a monster. It was only Annabeth and the other people who were still awake in the middle of the night in New York City. It should have scared her, wandering around on her own at night, but life as a demigod would make anyone less prone to jump at danger. She usually pulled out her trusty dagger if she felt intimidated. Humans took one look at it and at her stance and normally just left her alone, anyway, not knowing that it wouldn’t even be able to harm them.

It was a quiet night, which didn’t help her racing mind that kept on reminding her what her parents had to say about her. Dangerous. Cursed. Useless. Why did her father not just drown her as a baby if he thought she was this pointless to keep around? Why did he not insist on Athena doing anything else with Annabeth? Couldn’t he stand his ground and tell the goddess that he didn’t want to take care of a baby he never even asked for?

Would have saved Annabeth a lot of trouble…

“What have the gods done for you lately?”

A sickeningly sweet voice reached Annabeth’s ears and she found herself frozen in place. Her hand tugged her dagger out of its hiding place as her body tensed. She was facing an alleyway where she thought the voice came from though she could still see nothing from who was inside, though mentioning the gods already made it pretty obvious that whoever it was was either a monster or a demigod.

“Nothing, huh? Oh, you poor thing.” The same voice came again and Annabeth edged closer to the alley, keeping her steps light and silent so as not to draw attention to herself. “When even was the last time your dad spoke to you?”

“Shut up, Kelli.”

Oh. She recognized that voice.

Apparently Annabeth’s luck was bad enough for her to run in the middle of the night into Percy Jackson of all people. She should have probably seen this one coming, but she was kind of hoping he wouldn’t actually show up everywhere she went. It was getting annoying.

The other one—Kelli, apparently—crooned in a way that made Annabeth’s skin crawl. “I’m only telling the truth, you know.” She said in that same sweet voice that Annabeth thought was perhaps laced with a bit of magic. She tightened her grip on the dagger. “Join us, Perseus Jackson.”

Perseus? Annabeth swallowed her laughter. Seriously?

“Help us and we will fix the world and build a better one, where the gods can no longer pretend like their children don’t exist. No one will ever feel this pain again.”

“Tempting, but Dad is still better than Grandpa, as far as I’m aware, so I think I’ll pass.” Percy said, his voice a little strained. Yes, Kelli (a monster of some kind) was probably using magic on him. Annabeth was almost impressed with Percy’s ability to withstand it. “Now, I don’t suppose you’ll just disintegrate on your own, right?”

Kelli hissed. “You will regret not taking our offer, Fish.”

“Er… probably.”

She heard the beginning of a scuffle and Annabeth hurried forward and saw Percy kneeling on the ground, looking like he just rolled forward and was yet to stand back up. He had his sword in his hand—glowing faintly in the darkness—and his back was to her as he seemed to glare at an Empousa that smirked at him menacingly. They were both still oblivious to Annabeth watching them, apparently.

“Oh, wow… you look…” Percy trailed off, sounding a little like he was going to either laugh at Kelli’s appearance or say something sarcastic. Annabeth quirked an eyebrow as Kelli just stood there, narrowing her eyes at Percy like she wanted to know what the rest of the sentence was even though they were clearly supposed to be fighting. Percy seemed to realize she was waiting, too, because he lowered his sword a little, still kneeling on the dirty ground. “I didn’t think that far ahead…” He mumbled.

“Oh, for the love of—“ Annabeth groaned to herself.

The Empousa snarled at the boy. “Has nobody ever told you it was rude to stare?” She demanded of him.

Percy stood up, at long last. “Oh, right. Yeah.” He rolled his shoulders a little and then smiled a little at Kelli. “I’ll go straight to the killing-you part, then.”

The Empousa snorted like she couldn’t believe Percy really thought he could kill her and then they both attacked again. Annabeth wasn’t sure whether she should even step in. Percy was pretty good. Okay, he was a lot good. The only person using a sword that Annabeth was ever impressed with was Luke, and the way Percy was moving right now…

He was better. Maybe.

Jury’s out.

Kelli and Percy moved fast around each other, attacking and retreating as needed in this duel that almost looked like a dance if you wanted to be poetic. Annabeth didn’t—she just wanted to forget about her parents and this was, sadly, providing a good distraction since she was thinking about Percy Jackson instead of her dad and stepmom.

She wasn’t actually so sure Percy Jackson was the better option here.

“You’re a fool.” Kelli hissed at Percy as she avoided another slash of his sword that nearly separated her head from her neck and—by extension—the rest of her body. “You should’ve accepted the offer. Do you really believe the gods will ever be better? Overthrowing them should be a no-brainer, Fish.”

Percy ducked and rolled to avoid her fangs and when he turned around to face her again, preparing his sword and shaking his head to get the hair out of his eyes, he was finally facing the entrance of the alleyway so Annabeth could see his face. And in the light of the celestial bronze of his weapon she could see he was bruised, once again. She was pretty sure it wasn’t because of Kelli the Empousa.

“The nickname’s getting old.” He informed Kelli.

She straightened up and offered him a hand instead of lashing out once more. “Come on, Jackson—join us. Mold the world into an image of your liking. It will certainly better than the poor job the gods have done, right?” She said in her sweet, enchanting voice.

Annabeth’s muscles tensed when Percy didn’t move and instead stared at Kelli, a look that bordered on contemplation on his face. She didn’t like Percy—he was annoying, the son of her mom’s rival and treated Luke like he was some kind of untold monster that was still hiding its true nature without explaining himself to anyone or making any sense. He was constantly mocking Annabeth and sending her triumphant smirks at her lack of responses and he was a smug, arrogant demigod that kind of wormed into her life without her permission.

But even she could tell that he shouldn’t make a choice this bad. He’d mentioned a grandpa of his before, speaking of him like he was the one Kelli wanted to put at the top instead of the gods, and since Annabeth figured said grandfather wasn’t someone from Percy’s mortal side, then he was probably talking about Kronos (as weird as it was to think of Percy as the Titan’s grandson) and even though she had no idea what he had to do with any of this, Annabeth knew it would be bad if he ever rose again.

So she prepared to jump in and join the fight because it looked like Percy was too busy actually considering the option now (she blamed the magic in Kelli’s voice), but then the boy frowned at Kelli and shook his head as if to clear it.

“You know, they’re not perfect, but my dad actually tries and he’s gotten me a pretty cool gift for my last birthday, so I think I’m going to go with ‘no’ again. Though I will say it’s almost admirable how determined you are about recruiting me, too. I’m flattered, really.”

This time when Kelli ran forward, Percy was ready. Annabeth watched as he sidestepped the Empousa and then slashed with his sword at a speed that nearly made her brain go numb. The next moment Kelli screamed and then she turned to dust, dead.

Percy sagged immediately and his hand came up to rest against his ribs like they were aching. “Ow.” He complained to himself. He kicked the dust left behind with a scowl. “I knew there was no way a girl wanted to hit on me…” He muttered.

“Well, that I can believe.” Annabeth said.

The boy’s head snapped up immediately and he prepared for a fight again before his eyes landed on Annabeth and he relaxed. “How long have you been standing there?” He asked.

“Enough. What’s wrong with your ribs?”

His expression turned blank for a moment before he sighed and put something small against the tip of his blade. The sword shrank instantly until all that was left of it was a pen Percy flipped once before shoving into his pocket, like it was no big deal. Annabeth stared at his pocket with wide eyes, a little stunned, but Percy didn’t seem to linger on the fact that his sword just turned into a pen.

“I rolled wrong.” Percy said.

“Liar.” Annabeth declared. He narrowed his eyes at her. “What happens if you lose the pen?”

His hand tapped against his pocket, as if to make sure it wasn’t empty. “Riptide always comes back to my pocket. I can’t lose it.” He said.

“Riptide?”

“Anaklusmos. That’s the name of the sword.” He explained. “Do you want something?”

Annabeth kept on staring at his pocket curiously. “What if it uncaps by mistake while in your pocket? Won’t it just cut you?” She asked. “You’ll get impaled by your own sword.”

He looked uncomfortable with the idea for a moment and Annabeth knew that thought never even crossed his mind. Then he crossed his arms over his chest and levelled her with a look. “What do you want?”

“Gee, so much hostility.” She rolled her eyes and put away her dagger seeing as there was no danger around. Plus, Percy just put away his own weapon—it was only fair. “I didn’t follow you or anything—I was just walking around the area. Am I not allowed to wander around aimlessly anymore?”

“At night? By yourself?”

“You’re saying I can’t protect myself?”

He looked like he wanted to respond with a resounding ‘yes’, but then just shrugged tiredly and winced a little as he seemed to aggravate the bruise she was sure was on his ribs. “You know what—every other night I’d happily do this back and forth thing, but I really don’t feel like arguing with you on top of everything else, so just… go, Annabeth. Just go wander around some more.” Percy said and he sounded tired, the bite lacking from his voice now, like it was just taking too much energy for him to keep this up.

Annabeth shrugged. “Whatever. Keep your secret injuries to yourself. Not like I already know that someone’s abusing you.” She said and Percy’s eyes flashed as he glared at her, leaning his body against the side of a building. Despite the darkness, Annabeth could still see the anger in his sea-green eyes, even if it suited more a cornered animal than anything else. “Take this.”

His reflexes were good enough, at least. He caught what she threw him and Annabeth could tell he was recognizing the ambrosia by the anger fading—just a tad. He glanced up at Annabeth again. “What do you know?” He asked.

She shrugged. “I’m behind on planning that party for when you get kicked out.” She said but there was no bite in her words, either.

Percy’s anger disappeared completely and he just stared at her like he couldn’t figure her out no matter how hard he tried. And he was clearly trying. “You look terrible.” He said eventually. Which was definitely not what Annabeth was expecting to hear from someone whose face was colorful once again from bruises he won’t tell anyone about.

“Thanks. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear right now.” She grumbled as Percy took a piece of ambrosia and started chewing it. He heaved a sigh of relief almost instantly, probably feeling some of the pain fading away.

“Do you…” Percy grimaced, like he couldn’t believe he was going to say what he was going to say. “Do you want to, I don’t know, talk about it?” He asked awkwardly.

She opened her mouth—probably to laugh in his face—but as she watched the bruises slowly disappearing, she felt all the fight leaving her body and she found herself stepping forward until she was standing right next to Percy. He stared at her like he was seeing her for the first time, eyes a little wide and lips parted just enough to make him look kind of stupid.

(Not cute.

Definitely not cute.)

“Just my dad and stepmother being themselves.” She said quietly, twisting her fingers to take her mind off the fact that she was talking to Percy Jackson of all people. At least he wasn’t mocking or teasing her right now—he was staring at her silently, instead. “A monster attacked me at our house. They blamed me, again. I sneaked out to sleep at Piper’s.”

“And what, you got lost?” Percy asked, apparently incapable of leaving the sarcasm behind for one conversation.

She glared at him. “I slipped out of her guest room—I needed to just… walk for a while.”

This time he didn’t crack a joke. “Yeah,” He breathed out and turned his gaze away from her and up to the polluted sky that prevented them from seeing the stars. “I guess we had the same idea in mind, then.”

She bit her lip. “Who were you running away from?”

Percy didn’t answer and Annabeth sighed and just leaned back on the side of the building and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about her parents right now—about her home life and what she was escaping by sleeping at Piper’s—but for some reason it didn’t feel as bad now. She hadn’t told Piper the reason as to why she decided to just drop by this time. Her friends all knew that something was wrong with her family, especially Piper, but they never got more details.

Telling Percy about it somehow made sense. Because he wasn’t her friend. He was just… someone she couldn’t stand most of the time. Someone she was certain wouldn’t spread the knowledge around, but someone who won’t really care, in a way. It kind of felt like she was just throwing the information out there, to the open wind rather than to a living, breathing human being just like her.

“When my mom showed up at my dad’s house with a baby all those years ago, he tried to make Athena take me back because he never wanted a baby. He never wanted a child. He wasn’t ready to be a father, according to him.” She said into the silence and she could feel Percy’s eyes on her, but she kept hers locked on the sky because she didn’t want to know what expression he had on his face. “Athena told him the mortal parent had to take care of the demigod, so basically, he had no choice in the matter.

“And the thing was, when I was younger Dad wasn’t as bad. He tried, at least. He wasn’t always there and he didn’t always know what he was doing, but I could tell he was doing his best because he was given a child to take care of and he couldn’t just let me die… But then he married my stepmom and they had their own two kids and suddenly my dad had his perfect family put together and I was this fungus, clinging to them and unwilling to let go and I bring monsters to our house and with them comes the danger…

“I started running away when I was seven. Thalia was my neighbor back then and she was always really nice to me. Her own mother was kind of… lost inside her own head, so I’d just slip out of my house and cross the street and spend the night with Thalia and Jason and pretend like everything was okay and like I was a part of their family, too, because they really cared and they didn’t blame me when a monster came. Thalia helped me train to fight. And then she reached high school and Luke started coming over to her house, too, and he gave me my dagger and helped me train with it.”

She gulped loudly, well aware of the fact that Percy was completely silent, listening to her words intensely, like there was a hidden message somewhere in there that he had to decipher. She still kept her eyes on the sky, though.

“And then I started middle school, and you know it’s the same building as the high school. I mean, we hang out with Hazel all the time and she’s still in middle school…” She trailed off for a moment and Percy hummed a little to let her know he was still listening. “One day Thalia collapsed in the middle of the cafeteria. Everyone panicked and she was sent to the hospital when she wouldn’t wake up…” She sniffled a little, feeling pathetic. “Nobody knew what was the cause of it, but she’s been in a sort of coma ever since.”

“Jason told me.” Percy said, his voice surprisingly soft. “I’m sorry. I can tell it sucks for him whenever he goes to visit her at the hospital, to see her like this.” He hesitated. “He keeps on inviting me over to his house to show me these pictures of her or videos, like I have to get to know her despite the state she’s in.”

Annabeth finally tore her eyes away from the starless sky in favor of looking curiously at Percy. He was staring down at his hands, expression grim. “He does?”

He nodded. “I asked him why he was doing it once. Because Hazel and Frank said they barely even got to see pictures of Thalia and it was kind of confusing.” His voice cracked a little. “He said I reminded him of her.”

She wanted to object immediately and insist that Percy and Thalia were nothing alike. That was her first instinct. But then she really thought about it—her memories of Thalia and what she knew about Percy from observing him from the outside and from what their friends had to say.

A sigh escaped her mouth and she leaned her head against the brick wall. “He’s right. You are a lot like her, it’s kind of overwhelming, actually.” She admitted. Percy’s eyes were on her now—she could see them sparkle from the corner of her eye. “You would have been best friends had she been around. Or the worst enemies, I suppose.”

“Let’s go with best friends.”

“Well, I basically lived with Jason for two months after that since he was missing Thalia and I was still trying to cope with both my parents and the fact that she wasn’t around anymore. Luke fell off the face of the earth for a while there, too—it broke him, I know it did. But then I met Grover. And then Frank and Hazel and Leo and Piper…” She smiled a little. “They never learned the full story. I think none of us could really say it all to them, but they understand most of it and they never really pry.”

Percy’s hand jerked up to touch the place where the bruise on his face used to be. “Yeah, they’re pretty great.” He said, a small smile on his face.

Annabeth’s lips tugged up in a small smile. “We’re a mishmash group of kids with different backgrounds from different grades that probably shouldn’t have gotten along, but it works for us.” She nudged Percy’s side a little, offering him a small smile. “And they adopted you immediately, so I guess you can’t be all bad.”

“Gee, thanks.”

But he was smiling a little, too.

“I’ve never really… had friends before now.” Percy confessed. Annabeth stared at him, disbelieving. She couldn’t see Percy—the guy who instantly fit into their group of friends effortlessly—as incapable of making friends. It was ridiculous. “I was always the odd one out and typically just got bullied for whatever reason.” He closed his eyes and nodded to himself. “I’m going to really miss this place when I end up switching schools again.” He said wistfully.

Annabeth kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t sure what to say. She wasn’t sure there was anything to be said. So they both just slid down until they were sitting on the dirty ground in the dark, dingy alleyway and silently basked in the silence like it was their best friend.

At some point Annabeth’s head fell tiredly onto Percy’s shoulder and she expected to get shoved off, but he just put his own head on top of hers and sighed like he was content for the first time in his life. And the thing was… it felt good. It felt right. And it shouldn’t have.

“Tomorrow… we’re going to go back to normal, right?” She asked.

Percy didn’t answer immediately. When he did, his voice was tired and earnest and a little defeated. “Is that what you want?”

She closed her eyes, her heart pounding in her chest against her better judgment. “Yes.” She lied.

He sighed and suddenly her hand was in his and she felt like there was another universe in which the two of them were together like this and instead of falling back on old habits the next day, they would actually become friends and learn how to be around each other. A universe where Annabeth is just a little bit braver and is willing to give in to those feelings stirring inside her chests—the ones she kind of wanted to tear out right now because they were absolutely terrifying.

Too bad this wasn’t that universe.

“Okay.”

Annabeth woke up first the next morning, blinking against the sun that seemed to want to blind her. She was pretty stiff and her neck was aching painfully. She lifted it slowly and took in her surroundings. She was outside, in that alleyway, still. Next to her was Percy Jackson, still asleep in a very uncomfortable position. His hand was still loosely holding hers as he drooled a little, eyes flickering as he dreamed.

He looked so peaceful like that, she kind of wanted to take her words back and try to become that universe where everything worked out.

Then she shook her head, stood up and left him there. Because they weren’t friends and this was a one-time thing and she wasn’t going to change her mind about Percy of all people when he was still the son of Poseidon (that excuse was getting old) and still weird toward Luke for no apparent reason.

(And he wasn’t telling her the truth about those bruises he was getting even though she’d just opened up to him like she never had to anyone else. Which made him kind of ungrateful and this entire situation unfair, in her opinion.)

A week from that incident and Annabeth was worried things might actually not go back to normal. Every time she and Percy were in the same vicinity it felt like something was pulling her toward him and her eyes would drift over to look at him and his eyes would already be trained on hers.

And sure, he teased her every time that happened and all but it didn’t feel the same. Maybe the jabs were the same jabs—Annabeth had the feeling they were—but she took them all in a different way. Instead of insulting, they almost felt like he was just bantering with her, going back and forth just to pass the time because it was fun and they enjoyed it. It no longer felt malicious or annoying.

She was going to break and actually talk to him about it because this was too much and her chest was beating out of her chest, she was kind of surprised Percy couldn’t actually see it every time she found him staring at her with this sad, longing look in his eyes that immediately switched to playful and daring to keep up appearances.

And then Nico saved her.

It wasn’t in the nicest, best way for him because he just accidentally talked about his crush to someone and another student overheard and they told someone who told someone who told someone who told someone and the rumor spread until everyone in school knew that Nico di Angelo—that emo ninth-grader—was gay and had a crush on none other than Percy Jackson, the new kid that was a friend of his sister.

The other students were actually kind of ridiculous to listen to. Some of them theorized that Percy would go for it because he was obviously either gay or bi and with how energetic and alive he seemed to be, why shouldn’t he want to go out with his exact opposite? Others immediately insisted on Percy being straight and that there was no way Jackson would ever date Nico, no matter how nice (even if not a lot of people believed that) Nico was.

And then there was the real issue—their group of friends.

Nico wasn’t exactly a part of their group because he and Will mostly remained close to each other, but he was still Hazel’s brother so the news hit the group double hard. Nico himself was seen bolting out of the cafeteria the day the rumors finally reached his ears and he hasn’t been seen since even though it’s been over a week.

Hazel, despite being younger than Nico, walked around the school with her hands balled into fists and a murderous expression she aimed at every kid she heard talking about her brother and Percy until they shut up and sheepishly escaped her fury. And she really was scary—it hit her rather hard, this whole thing, because she was both close to Nico (of course she was) and one of Percy’s closest friends (even in their group she was probably only second to Grover). She hated the rumor with a burning passion and she’d missed two days of school because she chose to stay home and keep Nico company.

Will was almost as scary as Hazel was. His sunny personality was gone, replaced by anger that seemed to burn everyone that made fun of Nico (or Percy. He was quite fond of the guy, too, and none of this was Percy’s fault, so he was going to side with him, too, apparently). Since Nico wasn’t around, Will joined their table for lunch and glared at all the other students that walked past them, sending Percy smirks and looks. When a guy tried to hit on Percy, Will actually snapped at him to beat it and the poor guy (a senior from what Annabeth remembered) actually ran away.

The others were dealing with this in different ways.

Frank mostly hovered around Hazel and Percy, trying to comfort his girlfriend helplessly and sending Percy distressed looks every now and then like he wanted the older boy to help him when he was dealing with his own mess without also making sure Hazel didn’t spontaneously combust.

Piper tried to find every piece of delicious, interesting information there was around the school and tried to start other rumors that would overshadow this one, but nothing seemed to stick. Nico wasn’t exactly a popular student at the school, but Percy was becoming one. Even if only by association with the group of strange kids that seemed to always be at the center of all the weird things that happened around the school. So a rumor about him was better than a rumor about some random girl who may or may not be pregnant.

Jason, looking a little like he didn’t know how to deal with this turn of events in the least, resorted to glaring at every person around him like that would help anyone. He didn’t even care who was on the receiving end of his glares—it could be a friend of foe and he would still glare at them freely until they either walked away or snapped at him to get a grip and let them eat their lunch in peace.

Leo, in full Leo fashion, tried to joke about it and make the situation as light as possible by trying to convince everyone that it was the most hilarious thing in the world (not in a mean way—that would have made Will and Hazel kill him before he could even explain himself and he seemed to realize that very quickly). But even his lighthearted comments fell flat and eventually Leo just gave up and sulked with the rest of them.

Grover—the loyal friend that he was—stayed by Percy’s side at all times and tried to convince him that it wasn’t that bad and that this will go away in no time—the students at this school couldn’t focus on one thing for too long. Soon something more interesting will pop up and they will leave Percy and Nico alone and forget all about this incident. It didn’t really improve Percy’s mood.

His mood, by the way, seemed to have flattened. It was a little scary, actually. Annabeth watched as he either sulked by himself, trying to block everyone and everything out, or snapped at everyone who came within five feet of him.

There were countless water-related accident around the school these days and somehow (nobody knows how) most of the people who made fun of Nico in Percy’s vicinity ended up being drenched from head to toe. Either their water bottles exploded on them or the water from the toilets would spring out and hit them in the face or the sinks in the bathrooms would splash all around or the water fountains would suddenly go crazy, as if possessed, and the water would splash everyone—except for one Percy Jackson who would walk away, simmering.

Once Annabeth walked down the hallway when she heard three kids laughing at Nico. She was going to say something—probably to yell at them to stop and demand to know what was wrong with them that they even felt the need to mock a kid that was clearly younger than them and who’s done nothing wrong.

But then the ground shook under her feet and she stumbled along with everyone else in the corridor. She blinked in surprise and alarm, thinking there was an actual earthquake, which was the last thing she felt like dealing with right now, until her eyes fell on the only person who didn’t seem to be affected by the shaking floor—Percy. He was standing there, one of his hands in his pocket, like he wanted to pull out his sword and fight these stupid kids. And the earth shook all around him, as if reacting to his livid expression.

She wanted to kick herself—they all knew about Percy’s powers on water. Son of Poseidon—the god of the sea and all that. But Poseidon was also the god of earthquakes and apparently that power didn’t skip Percy, either.

“Percy!” She called. It wasn’t loud enough—the doors of the trembling lockers all around her drowned out her voice. She gritted her teeth and took a few careful steps toward Percy—she was one of the only students who didn’t fall down from the force of the earthquake he was causing. “Percy!”

And suddenly sea-green eyes were locked on hers and Annabeth tried to beg him with her eyes alone to control himself and his stupid temper because she didn’t feel like losing her voice because of something like this. Luckily, there must have been something in her gaze because suddenly the school and everything in it went still again and Percy’s shoulders sagged before he collapsed, completely drained of energy.

There were screams and yells from all of the students around as they panicked over the earthquake and Annabeth knew the teachers were probably going to escort them all outside and make a few phone calls to see what the hell was going on, but she just found herself stabilizing herself and running toward Percy who was groaning on the ground, a hand pressed to his head as he seemed to suffer from a severe headache.

“I… I’m sorry.” He mumbled, his eyes barely able to focus on her. “I lost control.”

“It’s okay. Everyone’s okay.”

The screaming didn’t really help prove her point but she wasn’t even sure Percy was capable of taking in the chaos all around them right now.

“They were just… saying all this stuff about Nico—“

“I know.”

“And it’s not true. None of it is true. It’s not fair.” He whimpered a little and tried to sit up. It must have given him a headache because he groaned and lay right back down. “I’m sorry.”

Annabeth couldn’t believe she was the one to help him right now. “It’s okay. You didn’t mean to do it.”

“I didn’t.” He confirmed hurriedly, like he was worried she might change her mind. “I didn’t even know I could do that… I’ve never… That’s never happened before.” He said, wonder and fear entering his voice.

“It’s okay.” She said again, because she wasn’t sure what else she could tell Percy right now.

He shook his head even though it was probably less than stellar for him. “I lost control. I can’t lose control.” He moaned and then suddenly his eyes were on her, more focused than before—almost desperate. “Did you know?”

“About your powers?”

“About Nico.”

She gulped but that was all the answer Percy needed because his lips pressed together and he looked so miserable and hurt and guilty, it made Annabeth’s heart shatter a little.

“I’m such an idiot…” Percy muttered.

Annabeth didn’t know what to do.