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“Now that was some good food.” Annabeth sighed as she lay back in the grass, shifting herself so that her head rested on Percy’s chest and she was looking up at the sky. “Remind me to thank your mom for that.”
Percy’s laugh rumbled in his chest, his hands coming up to rest behind his head. “How do you know it’s my mom’s doing? I can make a perfectly good sandwich.”
“Your mom came to visit you in New Rome just last week, and she went shopping in the market. Plus, it’s the holidays, so I know she came with Paul and Estelle and I haven’t seen them leave yet.” She turned her head to look up at his face. “And then, even if they hadn’t come, I know your mom’s recipe for blue cookies. You can’t replicate that recipe. You’ve never been able to. I’ve tasted your attempts.”
He was silent for a few moments, taking in her analysis of the situation, before he huffed out a laugh. “Of course. Can’t get anything past you.”
“No sir.”
Percy’s laugh rumbled in his chest again as she turned her head back to look up at the clouds, and she felt his hand run over her hair, playing with it gently. The two of them lay there, quietly, simply enjoying each other’s company. The day was bright and sunny, not a single hint of rain anytime soon, and the warmth on Annabeth’s skin let her know that she was definitely going to be darker by the time they headed back inside from their little picnic lunch. But, at least that meant she would probably look good in her dress when they went out for dinner with some of their old friends from camp that evening.
Staring up at the sky, Annabeth couldn’t help but notice that some of the clouds were shaped oddly, like they were intended to be specifically shaped. The aura around them was too peaceful for her to consider voicing that thought and disturbing it, making Percy think about clouds shaped like rabbits and cows and eagles… eagle standards…
A thought suddenly floated through Annabeth’s mind — one that worried her and also made her think that she should probably forget about it before it came out of her mouth. But it came out anyway.
“You ever think that Nephele uses the clouds to send messages?” she asked quietly. She felt Percy’s hand still and realised she had him hooked, so she may as well keep going. “You know, visual signs that something might not be quite right, signals of a quest—”
“You mean like a cloud shape that looks like an eagle standard?”
Mentally, she breathed out a sigh of relief that she wasn’t just seeing things. “So you’re seeing it too?”
“Yeah…” She could imagine the slightly concerned look on his face now. “…We’re not going on a quest.”
“Nope.”
“We’re past that era.”
“We’ve done our time.”
“We can let the newer, younger demigods do it.”
“Demigods without creaky joints.” She paused. “Well, I guess that would still include me.”
“Hey!”
Annabeth laughed, letting her eyes drift from the eagle standard shaped cloud to the rest in the sky. One looked mysteriously like a lightning bolt…
“Okay, I think it’s time for us to go inside before we read too much into these,” she said quickly, sitting up and pulling Percy’s hand with her. She ignored his whining and mumbling as she untangled his fingers from her hair, and turned to him with a raised eyebrow. “You coming?”
“…I mean, I was enjoying the sunshine—”
“Eagle standard cloud.”
“Yep, coming.”