Love Beats Invulnerability
A Percy Jackson and the Olympians FanFic.
Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns all characters except for my OCs. Percy Jackson will forever and ever belong to this amazing author.
Love Beats Invulnerability
Chapter One
By the Gods, she was beautiful. Her grey eyes were speckled with black, giving her eyes that smoky look I adored, and her lips were full and red—she had been biting her lower lip too much. I smiled at her but she just kept talking, babbling on about her plans for Olympus, all about how she was planning on fashioning the Gods’ chambers, thrones, and she was so excited to begin that she already had her sketch book in her hands. She had been drawing by the lake near my cabin when I found her.
The school year would not be fun without Annabeth by my side, but we’d have to work through it. She would be in a boarding school, meaning she would have roommates, which didn’t appeal much to me, but there were such things as phones, and if we wanted to talk we could.
Her lips moved a hundred miles an hour, discussing the throne for Zeus that she felt was far too overdone and I smirked, leaning in close.
“Hey, Wise Girl,” I whispered.
She froze, midsentence. “Yeah?”
“You talk too much.”
--
“Perseus Jackson?”
I looked up from the photo tucked inside the book I was pretending to read. My dyslexia didn’t make it that hard to pretend. “Yeah?”
The teacher glared. “Pay attention, young man.”
I sat up straight and fought the urge to roll my eyes. Annabeth would’ve made some comment about my seaweed filled brain at this point. That made a sting go off in my chest. I missed her.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
Homeroom was over soon, and then I was off to English, my least favorite subject. I would spend the hour staring off into space, pretending to care while students who knew how to read correctly breezed through the class. Lunch would pass uneventfully, leaving me with a table to myself, just like always. Unless something had drastically changed since last year—in my social life, not the whole me-saving-Olympus-and-the-world-in-one-afternoon-and-getting-the-greatest-girlfriend-ever thing.
When the bell to freedom rang at 3:15, I scooped up my notebook and book and high tailed it to my locker. I walked home and opened the door to the scent of chocolate chip cookies—blue, of course.
“Percy?”
I dropped my backpack. “Hey, mom. Where’s Paul?”
“Work. In fact,” she appeared in the hallway, smiling, “I was just off to work, myself. Have to fill in.” She kissed my cheek and mumbled something about not sneaking off with Annabeth or to save the world and I rolled my eyes. “Bye, Percy—love you.”
“Love ya, Mom.”
As soon as she was gone I pulled out my newly purchased cell phone—I figured since I had pretty much beaten every monster and was invincible I could finally have one—and dialed the familiar number.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Wise Girl—when am I picking you up?”
“Why do you assume I wanna hang out with you, Seaweed Brain?”
I cocked my head, smiling. “I have blue chocolate chip cookies.”
“I’ll be standing in the lobby—you have ten minutes.”
--
We hadn’t kissed since last week when she said goodbye and went off to the boarding school that was determined to put an ultimate STOP to any visitations from boys. When I showed up in the lobby of Annabeth’s dorm—which was more of common room with a huge flat screen TV, food stations, etc, etc—I was given the evil eye by a security guard who was leaving.
I nodded at the guy and he scowled.
Mentally shrugging, I looked around for the blonde curls I had missed so much. When I spotted her, I had to bite the inside of my cheek—she was surrounded by three girls who were trying to fix her hair, her makeup, pretty much everything.
Her eyes widened when she saw me and she swatted away the girls around her.
“Seaweed Brain!” She ran up to me and threw her arms around my neck. “Mmm…I smell cookies.”
I kissed her forehead. “Hey, lean back—lemme see you.”
She looked up at me and I bit the inside of my cheek again.
She frowned. “That’s not nice, Percy.”
“You have all this…powder all over you. How do you breathe? And it looks unnatural.”
“Holy crap--this is Percy?”
The three girls were now surrounding me and Annabeth, staring up at my 5’11” figure, mouths dropped, eyes wide. I stepped back from my girlfriend and smiled at each of them.
“Annabeth—he’s…he’s hot!”
“Okay, that’s enough.” Annabeth kissed me possessively and twisted my unruly black hair into her fingers. “What do you think, Seaweed Brain—wanna go to the beach?”
She didn’t have to ask twice.
--
This was my home.
The sand in my toes, the sun beating down, gluing the salty water onto my skin, fusing the scent of…everything into my brain. I closed my eyes, leaned back in the sand and thought, Now this cannot get any better.
And then she kissed me.
I opened my eyes and said, “What was that for?”
She blushed. “Oh—no reason.”
“You are so bad at lying.”
She gave me her Annabeth glare and pushed on my shoulders, silently willing me to sit up, when I did, she fixed her position so she was next to me, her head leaning on my shoulder, our eyes fixed on the water.
“Ouch!” I hollered.
She giggled. “That’s for calling me a bad liar.”
I reached back to rub the small of my back, wincing silently. “Yikes, Annabeth, be careful.”
She apologized with a kiss to my cheek and then stood, walking cautiously towards the water. I saw her whole body tense and I frowned. Of course, my girlfriend had to hate swimming. Just my luck. Then again, that meant she’d be holding onto me for dear life if we went in together. The thought made me grin. Oh, this was going to be fun.
She squirmed nervously and I stood, smiling at her retreating figure until she froze.
“You won’t drown—I promise.”
From her lips came an uneasy laugh that basically said, “Yeah, right.”
“You don’t even have to get wet.”
“Seaweed Brain, you’re kind of impossible. You know that?” But she smiled up at me to let me know she was teasing. Her fingers interlaced with mine and led her slowly towards the water that was lapping at the sand. “Don’t we need swimsuits?”
I glanced down at my outfit—jeans and a plain blue T-shirt—and then at hers—jean shorts and a black tank-top—before shrugging. “I’m going in like this.” And with that I ran into the water, allowing myself to get wet, allowing my lungs to ache when I held my breath for too long under the water. When I surfaced, Annabeth was still on the sand, her arms crossed, her eyes narrow, as if she was thinking too hard. “Hey, Wise Girl—you come in and I’ll kiss you.”
Her eyes widened and I noticed her cheeks go red with blush. “Why would I kiss you though?”
“To make up for hitting my vulnerable spot.”
She rolled her eyes, but hesitantly stepped into the water. She stopped when she was to her waist, her jeans soaked to her skin. “I’m not moving anymore.”
“I bet I could make you,” I teased. “After all, I gave you cookies; I rescued you from a swarm of crazy girls who were trying to rearrange your face…” I smirked. “Besides, I’m only up to my chest—take like five more steps. Or are you chicken, Wise Girl?”
“That’s so juvenile!”
I made bawking noises until she forgot about the water and her fear and started storming towards me like she was about to hit me—then I remembered… “Oh, by the way, there’s a dip in the sand…” But she had already walked into it, falling unaware under the water. When she appeared again, spitting and pouting, her blonde hair stuck to her face, I had to try very hard to keep from laughing.
“Shut up,” she said, brushing her wet locks out of the way of her eyes.
I wrapped my arms around her waist and said, “You’re still very pretty.”
“Can you dry me off?”
As if considering it, I cocked my head, looking down at her. “Hmmm…yes. But later. First—we swim.” And I dunked her under the water.
--
Chapter 2: The Lion-Headed Dragon Goat
The weeks of school went by and I noticed a change in my social life. Girls gave me the time of day, people wanted to sit with me at lunch, people wanted me to join study groups, three guys from the swim team asked me if I was interested in joining, and I was absolutely overwhelmed by people from every corner of my life.
Now that I was invulnerable, I could join any sport I wanted, and since I was the son of Poseidon, I could win by a mile on the swim team. I had friends now, something I hadn’t known much, with the exception of Grover and Annabeth—but that was…different now.
It was two months into the school year and I was white knuckling it. One more month until winter break and then I was off to camp to meet up with Grover and Juniper, Annabeth by my side. Mom wanted to take that time to go on an anniversary trip with Paul and I had no arguments, not that she had really asked my permission. It was more along the lines of, “What are you doing for vacation? I’m going on a trip.”
She had gotten very used to my independence.
A newly made friend, the captain of the swim team at Goode, Michael, was asking me about the mysterious blonde that was the background on my phone on the last Monday before Winter Break, and I didn’t have anything to say but, “Girl. Friend. Girlfriend.” She was, wasn’t she? I made a mental note to ask her when I saw her—if she remembered our plans which had been subtly made out by her and had been texted to me last week.
It had said we were to meet at the lake by my cabin at exactly 6 o’clock. Nothing more. I’d responded with, “Why?” but had never received an answer. Mentally shrugging, I’d accepted it. Now I was going to find out what it was—well not for another 4 days.
And those 4 days passed slowly.
--
Swim practice ended and I sat at the edge of the pool, letting my feet dangle into the water. I wasn’t ready to leave yet. My heart seemed to calm down the rapid beating when I was near water. I felt safe.
And then I heard growling. I looked up and saw it, and for a moment I wondered what a lion was doing in here, and then my head cleared from the safety of the water and panic and adrenaline rose in my chest. Riptide was in my jeans in the locker room and the small of my back was exposed. That’s when a snake head appeared over the lion’s right ear, and a goat head sprouted on his left shoulder; the animal breathed a light puff of fire.
Chimera: a creature with a lion’s body, a goat’s head, and a snake’s tail. Not to mention that the lion’s head breathes fire.
It watched me for a moment before I remembered…water.
The creature bunched up on its hind legs, getting ready to release the tension in his muscles and pounce—this was a creature that Hercules had faced and defeated. And now it seemed like it was back to attack another hero. But this time it was me, not a dude that had strangled a bunch of snakes as a baby.
It pounced at the exact moment I willed a wave from the pool to carry me to the doorway that the creature had been in, that led to the locker rooms. I passed over it, causing the creature to get a bath of chlorine, and landed nicely on the tiles of the other side of the pool. Without looking back, I sprinted for the locker rooms, rummaged around in my jeans a little, finally coming up with Riptide. Unfortunately, just as I’d closed my fingers around the pen, the roar of the dripping wet creature was heard and I winced, turning around to guard my back against the wall of lockers.
The tail hissed at me, fangs elongating quickly, and I noticed that a portion of lockers were melting and smoking.
“Hey, ugly!”
The lion head turned towards the voice, forcing the snake onto me. With a yelp of surprise, I uncapped Riptide and swung it skillfully, cutting off the head—and half the body—of the creature. The lion roared, but stayed focused on whoever the voice belonged to. The voice shouted again.
“Over here, you disfigured mongrel!”
“Annabeth?!” I called, recognizing the voice.
“Well, hey there, Percy—long time no see. Not that you can really see me…”
Damn that Yankees cap. I cautiously stepped over the squirming snake head, running after the chimera, which was running after Annabeth’s voice, towards the pool again.
“Annabeth! Why…?”
“You can fight him better in water, Percy!”
She yelped and I heard a splash.
I sprinted. Her Yankees cap was lying on the diving board, and I saw a mess of blonde hair falling steadily under the water.
I was caught between my need to save Annabeth and my need to kill the animal that was trying to kill me. Speaking of the creature, it turned towards me, teeth bared, goat blaring angrily, lion spitting sparks of fire.
He took a nasty swing at me with a paw of sharpened claws and I slipped back into the water. I pressed down against the floor of the pool and willed the water to hold me up. Water splashed against the animal, but it didn’t seem to do much more than agitate it. It was spitting fire everywhere and I slashed at it with Riptide and got singed chest hair for my troubles.
With a sudden pang of remembrance, I raised Annabeth out of the water on a wave, depositing her on the tiles. “Please, Annabeth. Please don’t die.”
Summoning every bit of courage I had, I slid under the chimera’s neck on my back and in one fluid thrust, forced Riptide into its stomach, causing a roar and its collapse. The air was knocked out of me and blood was dripping onto me until, three seconds later, the blood and the weight was replaced by dust.
I coughed.
“Nasty,” I mumbled, looking down.
When I looked over at Annabeth I saw an ugly woman with a string in her hands leaning over her form. My breath caught I stood up, staring at her.
“Atropos, it’s not her time,” I said loudly, feeling more confident than I actually was. The Fates were not to be messed with—especially not the Fate that cut your string of life.
The woman looked up at me, an evil, ugly smirk planted on her thin lips. Taunting me, she waved a pair of scissors over the string, lowering it slowly…slowly…
Chapter 3:
What happened next was not my fault. It was instinctual, so the giant splash of water that knocked Atropos off her feet, sending her scissors flying, was the product of temporary insanity. Her shallow wail followed by a shout of wordless anger was drowned out by me leaning over Annabeth, listening for a heartbeat, listening for her breath… And I heard it. I nearly cried.
Instead, I lifted her up bridal style and went to retrieve her Yankees cap; all the while I was silently praying to every God I could think of, apologizing for the watery attack on the Fate Atropos. Not that I was very sorry.
When I sat her down in the locker room, I noticed her head was bleeding silently, probably from hitting her head against the diving board when the chimera forced her back.
“Apollo,” I whispered silently. “Please heal her.”
The God of Sun and I were buds, since my best friend, Rachel, was his new oracle and he was just a cool guy in general—except for the fact that he was pigheaded, too confident, and probably had a nasty crush on Rachel.
He appeared in the locker room, in teen boy form, giving Annabeth’s head wound a serious look. “Hm, that doesn’t look good.” He looked up at me. “So, a chimera?”
I grabbed my jeans and boxers off the floor and said, “Just heal her. Please.”
“Sure, sure.”
He tossed his head, forcing his blonde hair away from his eyes and he healed her. I ducked back behind a row of lockers and changed, returning to find Annabeth with her head on his lap, still asleep. I glared at the golden god, wishing he’d fall into a hole.
He winked. “Nice seeing you, Percy.”
--
When she woke up, she was lying in my bed, her blonde locks spilling onto my pillow and her body tucked under my blankets. I was sitting in the bright blue chair by my door, watching her closely. She started squirming, mumbling, and then her eyes snapped open. For a moment she seemed to just blink, breathe, and take in her surroundings.
“Percy?” she whispered.
“I’m right here.”
She sat up, staring at me. “Why am I in your bedroom? Last thing I remember…” She touched her head and bit her lip. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’m…good. I think.”
I stood and sat at the edge of my bed, leaning over her. “You gave me quite a scare, Wise Girl. I thought…”
“Well now you know how it feels, Seaweed Brain. You nearly died at Mt. St. Helens, and I—” She broke off and I realized now probably wasn’t the time to be arguing about our near death experiences. We were both alive, and that was all that mattered. “Seaweed Brain, thank you for saving me.”
“My pleasure,” I said huskily, my voice low and tense. “Annabeth, how did you know?”
“Hmm?”
“That the chimera was there.”
“I…I don’t know. I had a feeling that you wanted me at Goode and so I…went.” I considered that for a moment before she reached up to twist her fingers in my hair. “You wanna know something funny? I was so busy trying to save your butt that I hardly noticed how good you looked without a shirt on.”
I felt the blush rising in my cheeks, but she just smiled at me and gently forced my head down to meet my lips with hers. After the day—not to mention the months before—I’d had, I needed this. I was starving for her kisses, and she never disappointed. And I got that feeling again; that feeling that my brain was melting right through my body.
--
I still had one more day left of school, but Annabeth didn’t. She stayed the night and kissed me goodbye in the morning when I disappeared off to school. I definitely didn’t want to be there when Mom woke up and found her—that would not be fun for me. Thankfully, I wouldn’t get much of a talking to, since her plane took off at 9.
Annabeth called me after school and told me she was waiting in my car in front of the school. I smiled to myself and hung up, running out the front door and sprinting down the steps.
My car was a gorgeous blue Mercury Mariner Hybrid that took up too much room, but made my heart beat fast when I put her in gear, when I started her, and when I lowered my foot onto the gas pedal and made her purr and start up. I shivered. I loved my car.
I opened the shotgun door and looked into the back where our bags were already packed. Annabeth winked at me. “I had fun packing for you.”
“Shut up, Wise Girl, and get over here. I’m driving.”
“Hey, Percy!” I heard someone call. I turned around, looking for whoever owned the voice. Cassie, a girl with dark brown skin that she wore with obvious pride—considering how much of it was showing, even with the brisk weather—and dark chocolate colored eyes came running towards the car. “Lemme give you my number. You know—for Morris’s group project?”
I glanced behind me at Annabeth and noticed she was glaring evilly at Cassie.
“Hey, Annabeth,” I muttered, “relax.”
Cassie must have heard me because she looked into the car as well. “Oh—well then. Maybe you could just Facebook me.”
Annabeth mumbled something about “when did Facebook become a verb?” and “punching sounds better,” but I ignored her and nodded at Cassie.
“Yeah, sure, Cassie. See you next year.”
She blew me a kiss and winked before moving on. When Annabeth stepped out of the car to walk around to my side, she was scowling.
“You’re jealous,” I teased.
“Ha!” She laughed without humor. “Of…that?!”
I shrugged. “Oh, yeah.”
“Shut up, Seaweed Brain, and get in the car. Camp awaits.”
--
My cabin by the lake was my third home, right behind the beach and the apartment Mom, Paul, and I shared. When I arrived at camp, it was clear that snow was falling outside of it, avoiding the magical barriers Dionysius had created. Grover met me at my cabin first and we talked for a bit—how was Juniper, how was Annabeth, what’s the new Lord of the Wild been up to lately, etc, etc… Dinner was uneventful that evening, as most kids were home, not at camp. The Stolls were there, though, and I noticed a daughter of Aphrodite was sending Annabeth horrid looks when she sat by me after dinner, but most of the familiar faces I knew were gone.
There were newer faces, though. A boy of 12 that was added to the Apollo cabin, a girl of 14 that was hanging out in the Ares cabin, and multiple Aphrodite girls were added, as well, something that Annabeth groaned at.
Annabeth and I sat at the edge of the lake by my cabin, watching as snow fell somewhere in the distance, but the lake was still pure water, and the weather was still warm inside of camp. She leaned her head on my shoulder, sighing.
The sun finally disappeared and my breath caught.
“How about a midnight swim?” I asked, kissing the top of her head.
All I heard was her breathing, and then she looked up at me. “I don’t know.”
“You can trust me.”
“I know…”
I eased her into the warm water carefully; when she reached waist height she stopped, silently letting me know she didn’t wish to continue. When I made a slight move to let go of her hand, she whined and held tighter, gripping my arm. Smiling, I turned to wrap my arms around her waist and rest my forehead against hers. “I’ll never let go. I promise.”
--
My dream was the kind of dream that made me sweat and made me squirm. And so when I woke up, I breathed easier, happy that the nightmare was over, but then again, worried that it wasn’t. I ran a hand through my hair and looked around my cabin before noticing that the padded blue chair near my bed had slight indents in the cushion, as if a weight was added to it. Maybe I was being paranoid—correct, I was definitely being paranoid—but then I heard breathing, soft and even.
My fingers curled around Riptide.
Without saying anything, I brushed the covers off and lunged for the chair, skidding on my knees, before freezing, the tip of Riptide in the air. My eyes searched for the invisible thing. I lowered Riptide and reached up. The brim of the cap met my fingers and the breathing I heard hitched. My sword clattered to the ground. Using both hands, I felt down to her perfect, smooth cheeks, her parted lips, down to her neck. My heart was in my throat.
“Dammit, Wise Girl, you scared me.”
I reached back up to where her hat should be and pulled it off, letting her blonde hair fall into my hands.
“H-how’d you know?” she whispered, half stuttering.
“Paranoid, I guess,” I whispered back. My eyes were fixed on hers and my heart was pumping erratically as fear settled down and the sudden need to kiss her and make sure she was real presented itself.
Waves crashed loudly around me, like a warning—a warning that I should probably pay heed to. Instead, I leaned towards her and she leaned over me. Right before her lips brushed against mine, she grabbed her hat from my hands, throwing it on and disappearing.
I was so shocked that for a moment I did nothing but stare at the now empty chair that I knew Annabeth was no longer in. Then I heard, “Come and find me, Seaweed Brain,” from the direction of my door.
“If you go outside I’m not following you.”
But the door didn’t move. I stood and froze, listening for a minute. Then I heard the rebellious creak of a floor board and I picked up Riptide, smiling.
“I have a sword. You have a baseball cap. Hmm…”
She didn’t speak. Next thing I knew I was tackled onto the floor, my back hitting the wood floor hard. I groaned and she giggled.
“Oops,” she taunted.
“Oh, you’re gonna pay for that.”
“Invulnerable or not, Percy, I can still kick your butt.”
“And how would you go about doing that?”
“By distracting my opponent, of course.”
I pretended to consider that for a moment before I said, “How?”
And when she kissed me, I reached up and pulled off her cap once more.
Chapter 4:
This was…strange. No quests, no monsters—with the exception of the chimera, but normally once a monster tried and failed, another followed it—and it was so…calm. I thought it might have been the calm before the storm, but I didn’t want to think about that. The New Year was here and lucky Annabeth began school one week after me.
I sat on my bed, leaning against the headboard, looking over my English homework: a two page comparison between Macbeth and Hamlet. Annabeth sat in front of me, between my legs, her back against my front as she typed absentmindedly on her laptop.
Without a warning, she started her playlist of songs from YouTube and I was bombarded with music that ranged from classical—that she listened to when drawing her architecture plans—to modern. Thankfully, the modern music didn’t include any of the disgusting rap some of my school friends listened to.
She moved the laptop off her lap and turned around, kneeling now.
I glanced over the paper I was trying my hardest to proofread. “What?”
But she didn’t answer me. Instead she put her knees on either side of my hips, resting her hands on my shoulders.
“Well, okay then,” I said, setting down the paper. “Uh, Annabeth—”
Her lips silenced mine.
Okay, I thought to myself. This is…okay. My breathing was quickening and my heart was thudding, but I managed to calm myself down. Just kiss her—you know how to do that…kind of.
The situation continued pleasantly enough until she backed away. Her grey eyes were full of something…new, scary, dangerous.
“Annabeth, maybe we should stop.”
“Yeah, maybe we should.”
She was breathless and breathtaking at the same time.
Instead of making her get off me, I did the stupidest thing possible in this situation and held onto her hips, pulling her even tighter against me.
“Jeez, Annabeth.” I kissed her slowly. “This is…awful. I mean—” I mentally slapped myself and started over. “This is a little…mature—don’t ya think?”
She just kept kissing me.
And I was so caught up in her kisses that I forgot about everything else, about where we were, who we were and just focused on her—her lips, her hands, her breathing. I was testing my limits. She was making me very, very nervous. But it was the kind of nervous that happened when I was in battle, when I was fighting—adrenaline, anxiety, eagerness…
“Perseus!”
I instantly pulled my lips from Annabeth’s, looking towards the door where my mom was standing, glaring furiously at what she saw.
“Oh,” Annabeth whispered, moving off me and standing. “Hi, Mrs. Blofis.”
Paul appeared in the doorway, smiling calmly, a hint of mischievousness in his eyes. “Hey there, Percy. How was your day?”
It all went downhill from there. Long story short, my phone was out of my possession and Annabeth and I didn’t see each other for a long, long time.
The next time I saw her, it was her birthday, April 9th, and even though my mom was reluctant to let me be alone with her again—and really, who could blame her?—Paul had calmed her down and I was off to her boarding school.
When she got over her initial surprise of realizing that I knew her birthday, she was happy to see me. I think.
--
The clang that her celestial bronze knife made against Riptide made me smile. We’d been fighting for maybe twenty minutes and she still wasn’t giving in. She was fighting with maybe a ten inch blade while Riptide was almost half my height.
I had been careful not to actually make contact with her skin, but she wasn’t trying that hard. It didn’t hurt when the knife came in contact with my skin, and she hadn’t yet attacked my vulnerable spot—not that I thought she would.
“Getting tired, Owlhead?”
She scowled. “You haven’t called me that in a while.”
I thrust forward and she blocked the jab easily, getting in a slice of her own. “Answer the question.”
“Not in the least.”
The easy training went on for a while, but it lacked passion—real fight-or-flight instinct involved in battle. We eventually gave up, collapsing in a sweaty mess before I voted on a swim. She had settled on a shower while I walked from the field to my cabin, grabbing my swim trunks and heading down to the lake.
It was Sunday afternoon and in two hours Annabeth and I would be heading back to the real world, back to the place where normal teenagers don’t practice sword fighting for survival, where Greek Gods and Goddesses were simply folklore and fairy tales to explain mundane things like the sunrise and give a final resting place that might make people more wary about life choices.
I wasn’t ready to leave yet.
“Percy, darling, could you move my umbrella for me? The sun really is beating down hard today.”
I looked up from the lake. There was a gorgeous woman lying on a pink chaise beach chair that seemed extremely out of place in the rugged setting. She had a bright pink umbrella stuck in the sand that was covering her from the sun and I had the urge to roll my eyes. Instead, I stood still. Aphrodite was dressed in a bathing suit of her favorite color—duh, pink—and looked very…prissy.
“Didn’t you just love that little twist with Rachel? Hm…well, she’s Apollo’s now.”
I scowled.
“Now, now, Percy, just relax. Annabeth and you…are happy, correct?”
I was a bunch happier before you intruded. I stayed quiet.
“I thought for sure you were going to fall for Rachel. She was so much easier to be around, you know, I’m sure. And when she kissed you before the war—oh, my, that certainly made me happy. I thought you were really going to fall for her.”
I didn’t want to say what I was thinking—so had I.
“But, seriously, Percy. You don’t think I would let you get off that easily? Annabeth is Athena’s daughter. Athena and Poseidon—my Zeus, they’re worse than teen girls after the same football player! Always, always arguing!” She squished up her nose as if she had smelled something funny. “They’re both so stuffy. But it makes for wonderful drama—especially where you, Percy dear, are concerned.”
Unfortunately, this was true. I wasn’t Athena’s favorite person in the world, and not only because I was in a relationship with her daughter. My dad had managed to piss her off too much, too often, and that meant that Annabeth and I were basically Romeo and Juliet, except with a happier ending…I hoped.
“So, I’ve concocted this wonderful novel for you and Annabeth.” She leaned forward, smirking. “The question is—is it a romance or a tragedy?”
“Why are you here, Aphrodite?”
“Just came to warn you. By the way, Annabeth’s on her way.” She cocked her head, as if listening to a voice inside her head for a moment. Then she scowled—though her face was still beautiful—and said, “And my darling husband is calling my name. I’ll be in touch, Percy.” With a wink of a perfectly made-up eye, she erupted in a puff of pink that smelled like perfume.
When I was done coughing, I heard, “Seaweed Brain, you done swimming yet?”
I had a feeling that the last 5 weeks of school were going to be the most vacation I could have. When summer came along, I had a feeling that some gods were going to want to have a conversation with me. In no uncertain terms, some of these conversations were likely to end badly.
Chapter 5:
Over the next five weeks, I saw multiple gods, which should have freaked me out, but after facing them on Olympus last year, I got used to it. Apollo’s favorite form was that of a teen boy—probably because he got looks from teen girls every three seconds when he appeared like it—and Aphrodite’s was that of a young college student, skinny and pretty. Ares preferred hard core biker dude, mid twenties, and Athena was all about the middle aged, wise woman. My father was always in his fisherman’s attire, sporting eyes the same color as mine: green. I’d only seen Hephaestus on Olympus, and he never looked happy. He was a big guy, well muscled, dark brown, nearly black, hair, and always appeared to be in his late 30s, early 40s.
On the last day of school, I had had enough of the gods. Apollo, Ares, and Aphrodite had appeared multiple times, mainly to tell me that bad things were going to happen. Annabeth and I hadn’t seen much of each other lately—school had enveloped us both. I was sick and tired of having the gods breathing down my neck.
I dialed the phone number that had burned into my mind.
“Hello?”
“Hey, you packed?”
“Yeah—when are you picking me up?”
“Give me ten minutes.”
I hung up and grabbed my bag from the door. Camp, finally.
--
A lot of older demigods had been claimed recently. One stopped by Annabeth’s table, leaned over her to whisper something and then backed away, keeping his eyes directly on her. As I watched, she blushed, looked around at her half-brothers and then back down at her plate. The boy was bulky, but in a muscular way. His hair was dark, but I could see that his eyes were blue. Something hit me in my gut. Aphrodite’s plan was coming into effect, and Annabeth was falling for someone else.
She joined me in my cabin later that night. I didn’t mention the boy that had spoken to her and she didn’t bring it up. Unfortunately, the next day, someone else did.
One of Annabeth’s half-brothers, Markus, had told me about the boy the next day at target practice. He had said that the boy was named Riley—he was new to the Hephaestus cabin, was 17 years old—our same age—and had heard about me and Annabeth. Apparently he had made it his personal mission to get her to fall for him.
I instantly knew Aphrodite was interfering.
Angrily, I strung up an arrow, letting it rip from the bow and hit…the grass. I sighed. Archery wasn’t my thing.
I thanked Markus and started to leave, but a voice stopped me.
“Nice shot.”
The boy that had spoken had shaggy blonde hair and blue eyes the color of the sky. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “You must be new to Apollo’s cabin,” I grumbled.
He nodded. “Good guess. I’m Kensey. You’re Percy Jackson—I’m a…fan.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“That guy Riley—he’s harmless. You’re girl’s gonna be fine. Who’s her parent? Aphrodite?”
I resisted the urge to laugh. “Athena.”
“Ouch. I retract my ‘harmless’ comment.”
“How do you know him?”
Without answering, the boy fletched an arrow and raised his arms to point at his target. Three seconds later, the arrow landed with a smack, right in the center of the board. “Old friend. Stole a girlfriend. Some girls are very into guys that are ‘sexy because they’re broken.’ They think they can heal every guy with a problem, and Hephaestus boys have problems. Mostly insecure, ‘cause their dad is considered the pimple on the face of Olympus.”
He notched another arrow, speaking while he shot. The arrow landed right next to its brother.
“They’re creative, that’s one thing. And Athena kids are really into them.”
Athena was artsy, wise, and beautiful. She was all for women’s equal power with men, and had many talents. Annabeth inherited her wisdom and her architectural passion from her mother. She was creative and Hephaestus was, too. I didn’t see this ending well for me.
“Hey, don’t take this the wrong way, Percy, but you’re pretty doomed. Unless, you know, you kill the guy.”
I wish.
--
“Hey, Seaweed Brain, let’s go out tonight.”
I arched an eyebrow and stepped back, stopping the fight. She had been poised with her knife against my throat when she said that. Riptide was somewhere down the hill—it had been knocked out of my hand right before she won.
“You gonna try to kill me if I say no?”
“You have a reason to say no?”
Quickly, so she missed it when she blinked, I snatched her knife from her hand and lunged, knocking her down. When I stood I thrust the tip of her knife into the grass, and noticed by her panting that she was knocked breathless.
“Nah,” I said, smiling. “But we can’t exactly ditch camp for a date.” I brushed loose pieces of grass off my jeans.
She stood, looking around for her knife. “I’ll drop by after dinner.”
“That’s not going out. That’s staying in.”
She shrugged as she picked up her knife and dropped it back in the sheath by her hip. “Wanna go again? I’ll even let you grab Riptide.”
“I already beat you.”
“And now I’ll beat you. Or are you chicken?” She winked.
“Oh, bring it on, Wise Girl.”
--
After dinner I ran back to my cabin and got changed from my grungy camp clothes to clean jeans and a black T-shirt. When I heard the door to my cabin open, I turned, excepting a girl with blonde hair and grey eyes. I got that, but she wasn’t young, and she wasn’t Annabeth.
“Lady Athena,” I said, bowing my head awkwardly.
For once she wasn’t dressed that boring grey robe. She looked younger than usual, too.
“Percy Jackson, you don’t seem to take no for an answer.”
“I don’t remember hearing no…Goddess,” I added after the offensive nature of my comment.
“Do you or do you not love my daughter?”
“Of course I do.” The words were out before I could stop them. Oh. Did I? Did I really love her? It certainly seemed that way. I couldn’t stand the thought of her with someone else. I already wanted to kill the guy…Riley.
She smiled softly. “I figured. But does she love you?”
That wasn’t as easy to answer. She had never told me she did. “I…don’t know.”
“Find out. Or your relationship with my daughter is over. And don’t bother arguing. Your father is on his way to tell you same thing.” With a slight nod of her head, she said, “Goodnight, Percy. Make your decisions wisely. You’re still a fool.”
Yeah, it seemed most people were thinking that lately.
When Annabeth made it to my cabin, she didn’t even say hello before she was in my arms, kissing me. Somewhere in the middle of our kissing, I remembered that there was something… What had I been thinking? As her kisses got more urgent, I realized that whatever it was couldn’t have been all that important.
Then I heard my name spoken and it wasn’t from Annabeth’s lips.
I wanted to scream. “What is it with all the interruptions lately?!” I shouted, turning towards the voice. “Oh. Hi, Dad.”
Chapter 6:
He was dressed in his fishing outfit, Hawaiian shirt, cargo pants with hooks sticking out of pockets, and his hat, of course. He was frowning slightly.
“Percy, what are you doing?” he asked calmly.
“I’m kinda…on a date.”
Annabeth stepped out from behind my back, blushing. “Lord Poseidon,” she said, bowing her head.
“Maybe I should just…talk to you later.” His eyes went worried and I resisted the urge to yell.
“I know what you came to tell me.”
He nodded, as if he had expected as much. “Then we’ll definitely talk later. Tonight, Percy. At the bottom of the lake.”
The thought of that made my heart thump faster. Oh, jeez, this didn’t sound good.
“Yes, sir,” I agreed quite scornfully.
His gaze hardened, but he just blinked and dissolved into little pieces of salty water. When I got those cleaned up, I noticed Annabeth was standing rock still at the door, arms crossed, as if she was afraid to walk farther in.
I smirked at her. “You okay, Wise Girl?”
“Aphrodite visited me.”
Stick a fork in me. I’m done.
“Oh,” was my brilliant reply.
“But, Percy, I just wanted to say…” She looked at her shoes and slowly stepped farther into my room. “Our parents hate each other, we both know that. But, I…” A harsh laugh came from her throat and she rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe I’m saying this. I don’t know why I can’t just say it. Get it over with.”
I cupped her head with my hand and wrapped the other arm around her waist, pulling her against me. “We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”
“No, I don’t want to talk, but…”
“Wise Girl, what happened to the hot kiss you were giving me two minutes ago?”
“You’re dad walked in.”
“So pretend he didn’t.”
And she threw her arms around my neck, pulled me down to her and gave me a kiss that gave every nerve in my body a shock. This continued for a while before she broke away to breathe. Her eyes were glazed, her pupils were dilated and she was smiling softly.
“Annabeth, I love you.”
And she froze. Her eyes softened. “Oh. Percy, I love you, too.”
And for the first time in a very, very long time, I felt that feeling that only shows itself when you’re really in the right place at the right time. Happiness. And then something just had to ruin it.
The meeting with my dad had consisted of shouting, mostly from him, and it was all about Athena and how if he had known I was in love with Annabeth he would have never allowed it to continue. Long story short, I wasn’t exactly on his good list right now.
When I saw Annabeth the next morning, I learned she had gotten the same thing from her mom last night. Well, this sure wasn’t going well.
--
As the days continued, it seemed I was spending more and more time with Grover, and less and less time with Annabeth; not that I noticed until he pointed it out. And even then, I just brushed it off. Grover and I were friends—we didn’t need an excuse for guy time. Nico arrived at camp late, sporting a brand new look. Gone was the pale, pimply kid and here to stay was the buff, tall, devilish boy that I had to give a second glance before I realized who it was. It had only been a year—what the heck happened?
Every once in a while I noticed Annabeth hanging out with Rachel, but never gave it much thought.
Tonight was the first Capture the Flag game of the summer and the cabins had been split like this: Poseidon, Hephaestus, Ares, Aphrodite, Hades, and Apollo versus…everyone. This shouldn’t have been allowed, since there were a certain number of extra people on the opposing team, but I still believed I could take the whole camp if I had Clarisse on my team, so I figured we were fine.
Our flag had been placed in the middle of the water that ran in a stream to the lake by my cabin. The flag itself sat on a small island that was big enough for one person to stand on—the only problem was getting on and off of it. We’d used this to our advantage, since I could very easily manipulate the water and I knew, without a doubt that the other team was toast.
The boy Riley was to be my partner in offense, except we weren’t really moving. Oh, fun.
Kensey and Clarisse were partners and they stayed close to us. Strategically, I backed against Riley, keeping my eyes open, Riptide up. The other couple decided to do the same thing, but with Clarisse’s glare, I could see it was out of necessity, not choice.
I suddenly heard the crinkling of leaves under foot and I smirked. Who was our first victim? The crinkling stopped, but I kept my eyes everywhere, watching and waiting. No one showed themselves. That was when I realized—Annabeth. She must have been invisible.
“Clarisse, check on the defense. Make sure they’re watching to make sure the water doesn’t move.”
“You thinking Annabeth went invisible?” she asked.
“Exactly.”
She nodded once and punched Kensey in the arm before quietly running towards our flag. Kensey winced and raised his eyebrows at me in a clear message that said, “Dude—crazy.”
I shrugged. “You wanna go after their flag?”
“Not really. I’m really more a defensive person. But, by all means, go for it.”
I turned around to glance at Riley, who had been awfully silent. “What do you say?” I grumbled.
“Why not? I feel like spilling blood.”
--
The girl standing directly at head defense for the opposing team was sporting grey eyes and I smirked to myself as I hid out of view. It was Heidi, one of Annabeth’s half-sisters. I knew her well enough, but she was about to go down. Hard.
I glanced at Riley. He was watching me, waiting for a signal, waiting for the coordination that battle required. I nodded once and he smiled.
Needless to say, in the end, my thoughts had been correct. Clarisse had stopped Annabeth trying to get our flag, and Riley and I had succeeded in capturing the other one, not before an awesome battle scene, of course.
The only problem was at the end, when I was sitting at the edge of the lake, watching the rest of the players pat each other’s backs, I noticed Annabeth, sitting on the bank that the flag had been on, looking very obviously upset.
I made a move to stand, to get over to her and ask her what was wrong. Unfortunately, someone beat me to it. Riley sat down next to her, spoke to her for a moment and then she spoke back. I couldn’t tell what they were saying.
“Hey, Percy,” a voice said.
I turned and saw Rachel. She was frowning. “What’s up, Rach?”
“You’re future’s not looking so good.”
“Not so good like…what?”
I didn’t really feel like another near death experience.
“Like Annabeth’s…” Her gaze hardened slightly and she cocked her head, looking over my shoulder. “Like Annabeth’s leaning on some other guy’s shoulder.”
And sure enough, when I turned back around, there she was—her head against Riley’s shoulder.
“Percy? What did you do to her?”
Chapter 7: Manipulation, Goddess Style
(A/N: I felt so guilty about doing this is 3rd person because the books are from Percy's POV ALL THE TIME.)
3rd PERSON POV
Aphrodite walked into Hephaestus’ forge, a smirk planted on her perfect lips. Her husband was in a simple white cloth tunic that went from his shoulders to his mid-thigh, tying around the middle. He was working on a sword, one that could be covered by the mist, and would work on both mortals and magical beings. It was like Backbiter, Luke’s sword, except it was slightly weaker.
“Husband?” she said, sitting on a plain wooden bench, looking at her nails. “You wished to speak with me…again?”
“Stop using my son for your games,” he said simply.
She looked up from her nails. “Darling—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“—you just don’t understand. I have to prove to Annabeth that her heart belongs with—”
“Yeah, yeah, true love and all that.” He looked up from the sword, his harsh brown eyes boring into the soft blue of hers. “Don’t get him involved any further.”
“He’s hardly even involved.” She crossed her legs, allowing her pink dress to slip farther up her thigh. “It’s just some simple meddling. Percy and Annabeth are absolutely delicious. They’re disastrous, and Cupid and I—”
Hephaestus mumbled something about “the bastard Ares’ child.” It was rumored the Cupid was the illegitimate son of Aphrodite and Ares, but neither god had confirmed nor denied it, though everyone knew of their affairs.
“—can’t resist playing with them. Your son just happens to be the perfect handsome muscle to take care of Annabeth’s side. I’m still doing some digging for Percy.” Her hand rested on her chin and she gazed at nothing, thinking for a moment before continuing her thinking aloud. “Rachel belongs to Apollo, Thalia is a sister to him, and all of my daughters wouldn’t risk ruining their gorgeous faces facing Annabeth, should she get too jealous. And with what I have planned”—an evil grin broke over her lips—“she’ll get very jealous.”
The god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, metals, and fire turned quickly to his wife, a glare in his eye. He held himself up, his arms braced against his working table so not too much weight was rested on his lame leg. “Those children again? I thought Athena handled both of them.”
“Of course she did. She scared them both senseless. They’ve hardly seen each other in weeks. Percy’s thoughts are all about Nico and Grover”—she rolled her eyes—“and Annabeth thinks about Riley. She wishes Percy would do something so that she wouldn’t feel herself being drawn towards him! It all makes a wonderful story.”
“Right—but is it a romance or a tragedy?”
She shrugged. “No idea.”
“You’ve manipulated them into thinking you have it all planned out but you’re really just torturing them.” He scoffed, shrugging like, “how did I not see this?” and shook his head. “Evil. Absolutely evil.”
Aphrodite shrugged off the comment and stood from the bench, coming to stand directly in front of her husband. “How do you think it will end?”
“I’ve always been partial to happy endings, though I’ve never experienced one.” He noticed Aphrodite’s look go confused and he shook his head, trading in his somber expression for his masked one—the one that gave away nothing and asked for nothing. “It is very clear how Annabeth and Percy feel about each other. They would have immediately stopped spending time with each other when they realized who their parents were if they did not have strong feelings.”
The goddess shrugged. “Well, whatever it is that I decide to do, I won’t get rid of a very important player just because you have an issue. And you cannot convince me to stop,” she said, returning to the first matter they had been discussing—keeping Hephaestus’ son out of Aphrodite’s manipulative plans.
“I’ll take away your arrows. Cupid’s, too.”
She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. “But my arrows are the most important part of the scheme!” she insisted.
“Exactly.”
“Oh, but just wait! When Percy gets that arrow, he won’t know what hit him! I just have to decide who he should force himself on.” She looked at her nails again. “Oh, all this thinking really is difficult.”
A chuckle came from her husband’s lips. “You need to spend more time with Athena. She could really do you good.”
“You need to spend more time with mortal women. They know how to have fun! Unlike this bunch of fuddy-duddies.” Her eyes met his unflinchingly, and this was rare for how close they were. Aphrodite generally avoided her husband, avoided getting this close to him. She preferred Ares, his mysteriousness, and he love of everything exciting, like affairs; but then here was her husband, a mysterious man. Hephaestus didn’t let anyone know anything. He was scarred, outside and in, and every god avoided him. Even being a god, an all powerful being, could suck sometimes.
He took a breath of consideration before saying, “So you need less fun and I need more fun?”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll make you a deal. I promise to go out and have ‘fun’”—he said the word sarcastically and with a roll of his eyes—“if you leave my son alone.” When Aphrodite opened her mouth he put his large hand over it. “I mean it.”
She pushed away his arm and leaned into him. He glared harshly.
“Leave him alone.”
“Go have fun.”
“I have fun here. Alone.”
Her eyebrows arched. “Oh, really? Stuck in a dark room, no one to talk to? You have fun with your little toys?”
“I’d have more fun if you’d leave.”
“Hephaestus, you’re a very boring person.” He angled his head down slightly at her words, a smirk that was nothing close to a smile on his lips and she continued. “What? Are you going to kiss your wife?” Her tone suggested it was a scandalous thing to do. He had certainly never kissed her before, and right now, with her telling him he needed to have more fun, he definitely thought kissing her would be fun.
“I believe I have the right to kiss my wife if I so choose.”
Aphrodite didn’t move from their close position but continued to stare up into his eyes. “Remind me again what you wanted to talk about when you asked me to your forge?”
His strong arms went around her tiny waist. “If my son ends up heart-broken I’m breaking all your arrows, Aphrodite.” Him saying her name made his throat hurt.
“Oh, he’ll be fine.”
“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.”
And with that he lowered his lips to hers.
Inside her devilish little head, Aphrodite was thinking to herself, Manipulation is easy when you’re a skinny blonde around a man who hasn’t been with a real woman in centuries. She smiled. Love does always prevail.
Chapter 8:
Maggie McKeel is the girl I met two days later.
Despite my desperate attempts to get Annabeth to talk to me, I was lucky if I got a “hello” and not once did she visit me after dinner or sit with me at the campfires. She was avoiding me, and I was going to find out why. But I got a little side tracked.
Maggie was a pretty girl. Long brown hair and blue eyes. Her lips were perfect and looked soft and inviting—not that I would even think about that. I mean, I was in love with Annabeth… Right? I shook off the thought for the moment. Maggie. Maggie was tall and lean, had pale, porcelain skin. The only thing I felt was unnecessary was the makeup she insisted on wearing. It was like Rachel. Neither of them needed it, but they wore it anyway. Annabeth didn’t bother with things like that.
I was sitting around the fire—Annabeth was on the opposite side, eyes on the ground—when Maggie came up to me, sat next to me and said, “Daughter of Apollo. Maggie McKeel. You’re Percy Jackson.”
It had kind of been like this with Rachel at the beginning. We met randomly, became friends. She was easy to talk to, and I could be myself. It was never like this with Annabeth. I winced at the thought. Annabeth…wasn’t like other girls. I used to think that was a good thing. Now…I wasn’t so sure.
Now I was sitting in my cabin, on my bed cross-legged, with Maggie across from me. She was going on and on about something—I honestly wasn’t paying much attention. Later that day I had to meet up with Nico for battle training, then I had to track down Annabeth. She was incredibly good at hiding.
“Percy? Are you listening?”
“Huh? Oh. Sorry.”
She smiled sweetly. “It’s okay. I can be boring sometimes.” Her eyes went down the mattress, avoiding my gaze but her smile stayed on her lips. “So…tell me about Annabeth.”
Annabeth? Annabeth who?
I shook my head, clearing the weird thought. Annabeth. Pretty. Blonde. Excellent kisser.
Who? I don’t know an Annabeth. I know Maggie. Maggie’s pretty. Maggie could be an excellent kisser.
“Who?” I said, cocking my head.
Her eyebrows arched. “Your…girlfriend? She is, isn’t she?”
I don’t have a girlfriend. Maybe Maggie could be my girlfriend…
No! You’re in love with Annabeth! She kissed you under Mt. St. Helens, she helped you save the world, and she loves you back.
Who? What?
“I don’t think so,” I whispered, trying to fight past the arguing voices in my head.
She scooted closer to me, leaning so she was barely a hands length away from me. Her lips looked welcoming.
Kiss her. You have nothing to lose. Kiss her.
ANNABETH!
“Well, Percy, if you’re not dating her… Maybe you’d like to date me.”
Kiss. Her.
She twisted the fingers of one hand into my shirt and yanked, pulling me closer to her. “Kiss me, Percy.”
No! No!
Yes. Yes. Just kiss her. What could go wrong?
You could lose Annabeth!
Annabeth? Annabeth, who?
Her lips pressed against mine. They were soft and warm…
ANNABETH!
I gasped, and backed away from her kiss. “No. I’m sorry, Maggie. I can’t—I don’t—”
“Percy? What’s wrong?”
Without a word, I stood and ran. Just ran. Ran through the middle of the camp, ran to the row of cabins that held Athena’s and froze. What were the odds she was in there?
What does that matter? She’s nothing. She’s so boyish! Maggie’s feminine. Maggie’s a good kisser. Maggie cares about me. Annabeth has been ignoring me. She doesn’t care about me.
“Annabeth!” I hollered, knocking on the door. “Are you in there?”
Heidi was the one who opened the door. “Percy? What are you doing here?”
“I have to talk to Annabeth.”
Her eyebrow scrunched up like she was confused. “Why?”
“Is she in there or not?”
“Not. She’s by the lake. With Riley.” I turned to go towards the lake but her voice stopped me. “Percy? Why do you have a pink arrow in your back?”
--
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. There she was, sitting in our spot, and she leaning against him, and it looked…it looked like they were about to kiss. Somewhere inside me I knew that it was wrong to be angry at her over this. I’d done the same thing. I’d gone falling for some other girl. Then again, Aphrodite had intruded. But who was to say that she wasn’t doing the same with Annabeth?
I took a step when it looked like their lips had met, but then the boy did something I had never been able to do when it came to Annabeth. He backed away, stood, pulled her up with him and I could clearly see him apologizing. And then I felt a disturbance in the force. Aphrodite’s plan was falling apart, thank Zeus.
He kissed her forehead and looked up towards me. He winked.
When Annabeth turned around to see me, my heart hurt. The only problem was I didn’t know if it was because it was breaking or healing.
“Seaweed Brain!” she yelled, running towards me.
“Annabeth.”
Her arms were thrown around my neck and she kissed me like there was no tomorrow. And it didn’t feel like there was. There was just me and her, and there was just the fact that we loved each other.
“No! No, no, no! This is not how it’s supposed to happen!”
It wasn’t the voice that should have gone with the words. When I looked toward the voice, it wasn’t Aphrodite, but Kensey—who was fuming in anger—and he was standing next to a bored looking Maggie, who was busy examining her bright pink nails.
“Forget it, Kensey. It’s over,” she said, and her uncaring, self-absorbed tone of voice that clearly communicated she would rather be anywhere else made me do a double take.
Daughter of Apollo—yeah right. More like Goddess of Love.
Ew. I’d kissed Aphrodite.
Chapter 9: Promises Aren’t Always Easy to Keep
It was midnight when we were finally alone. Kensey and Aphrodite had had it all worked out, except Kensey didn’t know that Aphrodite hadn’t known the ending.
“Seaweed Brain, what are you thinking about?”
“I was an idiot.”
“Yep.” She smiled and wrapped her arms around my neck. We were standing in the middle of my cabin, listening to the silence of the night. “But you couldn’t help yourself. Aphrodite was playing you.”
“Does that mean you forgive me?”
“Does this answer your question?”
The kiss she gave me made me feel like I was wearing Hermes’ flying sandals. I was floating on air. With her. The kiss was so much better than Maggie’s—it said everything, kept back nothing, was open and honest and it lasted forever and ever, but was over all too soon.
“Nah. Maybe if you tried again…”
I’m not gonna lie. I’m a guy and thinking about making out with Annabeth was one of the things that made me wake up and get out of bed each morning.
“Don’t push it, Seaweed Brain.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, Wise Girl.”
Well, maybe I would, but only because I couldn’t help myself. I wrapped my arms around her waist and angled my lips down over hers. My brain needed to learn to stop turning to mush when this happened.
She gripped my shoulders tightly. “Jeez, Percy, you’re getting good at that.”
“Oh, and I wasn’t good before?” I teased.
“Umm…”
“That’s just mean.”
She giggled, capturing my mouth again. “Don’t worry. I’ve taught you well.”
“I’ll teach you something, Wise Girl,” I grumbled, bending down and scooping her up, an arm under her shoulders and the other under the knees. “Don’t tease a dude that’s stronger than you and knows your deepest fears.”
Her head rested against my chest as I carried her outside. “You’re not gonna sic a bunch of spiders on me, are you?”
“Nah. I’ll just throw you in the water.”
“What?! No, Percy, you wouldn’t—” She was squirming now, hitting my chest, tugging on my hair, but I just walked right into the lake, laughing. When I tossed her away from me, she sunk down under the water and reappeared pouting. “That was pointless.” She was only up to her middle, the tip of the water against her ribs.
My breath caught as the moonlight hit her at exactly the right spot, making her glow, making her eyes light up. Jeez, she was the most beautiful girl that ever lived—more beautiful than Aphrodite, more beautiful than anyone and everyone. She must have noticed my expression because she pouted even more and said, “What? Is my hair sticking out?”
When her hand reached up to flatten her hair I grabbed her wrist, pulling her against me. “No—you’re beautiful.”
I noticed her breath skip for a moment, making her take a shaky inhale. “Oh.” Our hands adjusted so our fingers were interlaced. Her eyes went our hands and then back to my eyes. There was a spark of teasing in her pretty grey eyes. “Promise not to let me drown, Percy?”
“Hmmm,” I said, pretending to consider it for a moment. “That would mean I’d have to get closer to you. Make sure you don’t go anywhere.” She shrugged and I took that as permission to take the step necessary to be standing directly against her, chest against chest. “And I’d have to keep you in my arms. Make sure you’re safe…and stuff.” Her eyebrows arched but she didn’t protest. My arms went around her middle. “And then… I don’t really have an excuse for kissing you, but I’m gonna do it anyway,” I whispered.
“I’d expect nothing less.”
Her soft lips brushed against mine in the suggestion of a kiss. When more pressure was applied, she twisted her fingers into my hair, keeping me locked in her arms.
“Annabeth, I would never let you drown. I promise.”
“Good. Now shut up and go back to kissing me.”
Okay, if that’s how she wanted it, it was fine with me. I actually liked this quite a lot. Her lips fit perfectly with mine and when she pressed herself even closer against me, I learned that our whole selves fit together quite wonderfully as well. I made a big bubble around the parts of us that were underwater and started to slowly pull her under. She gasped at first, but realized we were dry and relaxed.
I had been wrong last year. This was the best underwater kiss ever.
And then the water started swirling. She held on to me and looked down and around at the quickly disappearing water. The spirals were strong, pulling us down, deeper into the lake.
“Percy—what are you doing?”
“Nothing! I swear, it’s not me.”
The swirling sped up, going faster and faster around the two of us. I fought to slow down the spinning, make it freeze; but the power was too strong. It was hard and fast and relentless, stopping my attempts to make the water stay still, overpowering me in everything I tried. Annabeth’s eyes were wide in fright as she held even tighter to me. I returned the embrace with equal fervor, now frightened that I couldn’t even stop what was happening.
“Seaweed Brain, I’m gonna kill you if this is some stupid prank.” She closed her eyes, hiding her face against my chest.
“I swear, Annabeth—”
And then the water sucked us both under, popping the bubble around us.
My first thought was Why are my arms empty? Why isn’t she still in my arms? Annabeth! Oh, dear gods, Annabeth! I looked around frantically, breathing easily under the water. Annabeth. Annabeth. Oh, jeez, she was going to use this as an excuse to not go swimming from now on. That is if I could find her…alive.
Chapter 10: Thank the Gods
Poseidon’s booming voice shook me into awareness. “She’s not here, Percy. She’s with Athena.”
I immediately breathed easier. “What was this all for?!” I shouted. “You nearly scared me to death! Annabeth already hates swimming—”
“I’m approving your relationship, Percy,” he said calmly.
“—and now we’ve probably scarred her for life…” I trailed off. “Wait, what?”
My father smiled. “I’ve always been okay with you and Annabeth. Athena was upset, so I pretended to be, too. If I let you think I was on your side, you would never have taken Athena’s warnings seriously.”
That was probably true. “So…where’s Annabeth?”
“Olympus. With her mother. They’re having a little…heart to heart.”
“About…me?”
The god nodded and made his smile grow larger. “By the way, sorry about interrupting your…moment up there.”
I was sure I was blushing. “Nothing was happening.” That was a lie—the biggest lie I’d told in a while. Kissing her up there like that, I had been so high that I would have needed binoculars to see Cloud Nine.
“What are they saying?”
Poseidon arched an eyebrow. “How about a little eavesdropping?”
He waved his arm and a picture broke out in the water. It was of Athena and Annabeth, very obviously deep in conversation. My dad’s eyebrows scrunched together and he pointed again at the picture before I heard Annabeth’s voice. He shrugged at me. “Audio takes a while to kick in, I guess,” he mumbled.
“You have full permission to break every bone in his body if he hurts me,” Annabeth was saying. “But he won’t. Percy’s a good guy. Percy’s a sweet guy.”
“You call him Seaweed Brain.”
“It’s…an affectionate term.”
Athena rolled her eyes before continuing. “You really love him, don’t you?”
Annabeth didn’t waste a single second with hesitation. “Yes, I really do. I trust him with my life, and I love him more than anything. And if you don’t approve of him, then we’ll see each other behind your back.”
Poseidon looked at me for a moment, obviously checking my reaction to Annabeth’s words. I didn’t particularly want Athena to break every bone in my body, but if I ever hurt Annabeth, she wouldn’t need to. Annabeth would do it for her. And she was right—I wouldn’t hurt her, or I wouldn’t try to anyway. Her nickname for me had always been a loving term; I never took it offensively, but it was one of those…things we had. Like my mom and me with blue foods.
My reaction was simply acceptance.
“Then… Then I guess I’ll learn to live with it.” When those words came from Athena’s lips, I realized that was probably all the blessing I was going to get.
--
On my birthday, Annabeth and I left camp, heading back to New York for our senior year of high school. She was transferring out of boarding school and going to Goode. She was going to be living in the apartment with Paul, my mom, and I, though I had a feeling she wouldn’t be allowed in my room—no matter what.
Fortunately, my parents had given us the run of the house for the whole day she moved in. I was carrying bags up stairs for almost an hour before Annabeth gave me my reward: a long, luxurious kiss. And we had taken the kiss from the front door to the couch, where we happily remained, kissing in pure bliss for a good solid 15 minutes before we realized…there were no parents in the house, and there wouldn’t be for the next 9 hours.
--
The first day of school, I arrived feeling like the luckiest guy in the world, mainly because Annabeth was holding onto my hand like it was a life preserver and she was drowning.
“Oh, well done, you two. I just knew you would make it.”
Her hair was curly and blonde, her lips were pink and glossed, and her eyes were bright blue. She was skinny and pretty and had perfect skin. Her name was Love and yet she did everything she could to make love hard for people, especially Annabeth and me.
“What are you doing here?” Annabeth asked.
Aphrodite was looking rather young. She was dressed in tight jeans, high heels, and a pink shirt, looking rather…excited. “Oh, I’m modeling for an art class. But that’s beside the point. You two didn’t think you would last. Admit it. You both panicked.”
Annabeth glanced up at me.
“Never,” I mumbled.
The goddess laughed. “Well good for you two.” She winked. “Enjoy the last year of childhood. And, Annabeth dear, he is an excellent kisser.”
Aphrodite disappeared and Annabeth looked up at me expectantly.
“So—off to English, then?”
--
She flicked the small of my back and I jumped, spinning around. She winked. “Sorry, Seaweed Brain.”
“Jeez, Annabeth.” I glared at her teasingly. “I’ll tickle you. I swear I will.”
She made a face of mock horror and that was all the invitation I needed. I lunged for her, forcing her onto the ground and then straddled her, pinning her down.
“No! No, Percy, stop!” She erupted in a fit of giggles and I tickled her stomach. “No! Oh, Percy, stop!”
That’s when Paul walked into the living room and saw me, with my wet just-out-of-the-shower hair, just in jeans, and Annabeth underneath me, getting wet because of my dripping hair. He arched an eyebrow and said, “Percy, you’re incredibly lucky your mother’s at work.”
I rolled off of Annabeth, sitting at her side as she caught her breath. Her eyes sent daggers towards me.
“In fact,” Paul continued, walking towards the front door, “I’m just gonna pick her up and take her to dinner.” He winked at me. “Goodnight, Percy.”
When the door was closed, Annabeth and I just sat there for a while. She eventually looked up at me and said, “We’re doomed to live with that guy for another 9 months.”
I shrugged. “Yeah. But we’re only doomed because if he keeps leaving us alone, I’m gonna eventually give in.”
Her eyes lit up. “Thank the gods for Paul, then.”
But I was thinking Thank the gods for Annabeth. Thank the gods that she loved me. Thank the gods that we proved even if you’re invulnerable you can get your heart broken. And thank the gods that we proved that love can conquer everything. Even if you are invulnerable. And, in Annabeth’s case, incredibly stubborn.
Chapter 11/Epilogue: Drabbles and One Shots of Percabeth! TOLD IN 3RD PERSON!!
(A/N: This is told in no particular order. Check A/Ns before each shot for a date like a “before this” or “after this” kind of thing. I will be writing some that come before TLO. All will be in 3rd person unless otherwise stated in the A/Ns.)
A Splash of Her—
He walked into their bedroom, looking around at the blue walls. They had argued for hours about what color to paint the walls of their bedroom—green or blue. Annabeth had wanted green to match Percy’s beautiful eyes, but Percy, always stubborn, wanted blue. It had been atrocious going shopping with him. His ADHD would act up when he was bored, and Annabeth knew shopping for him was boring.
It brought a smile to his lips, knowing that he had won the argument. Then there had been the actual painting of the room. Unbeknownst to him, Annabeth had bought a can of green paint. And when the walls were finally covered in the blue paint, she had brought out the green and rebelliously splashed a bit onto the ceiling and walls. The splashes were still there, little drops and slashes of green in the sea of blueness. It was like a little splash of her to remind him just how lucky he was.
Surprise—
Percy was silent as he walked into the apartment. He knew Annabeth was probably sleeping. Her job was exhausting and he didn’t want to suffer through waking her up.
“Percy?” she called, her voice shaky and slightly higher pitched than usual. “I have a…surprise.”
He scrunched his eyebrows together, confused, and walked towards her voice, into their bedroom and then into the adjoining bathroom. She was leaning against the counter, staring focused on a…pregnancy test.
“Annabeth…”
She showed him the little plastic thing. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears. Her lips broke into a grin. “I’m pregnant.”
Tears— (A/N: WARNING: VERY SAD!!)
Percy Jackson didn’t cry easily.
One thing he would not do right now was cry. Staring at her, her chest slowly and shakily rising and falling… She was unconsciousness and nearly dead. He had been told a million times that he had saved her life, that his heroic actions had helped her live. But if he had hailed a taxi three seconds earlier, if he hadn’t stalled in his actions, the car would’ve gone onto the sidewalk and went straight into the jewelry shop, instead of going onto the sidewalk and hitting him and his love. The car crash had left him with not even a scratch. If he had just stood in front of her, if he had just pulled her around the corner three seconds earlier, she wouldn’t be lying in a hospital bed in a coma, basically already dead.
A tear fell onto Percy Jackson’s cheek. He thought about why they had been in that jewelry shop and glanced at the new, pretty diamond ring on Annabeth’s finger, right under her wedding ring. It was their 10th year together in marriage. Their son was at home, playing with the babysitter, oblivious to the fact that his mother was dying.
Another tear. And then another. And another. And soon Percy Jackson was bawling, head in his hands, not being able to bear to look at her scarred face any longer.
If you let her survive, he said silently to Apollo, I’ll do anything. Anything. Please don’t let her die. Please don’t let her die.
The tears fell steadily.
That Kiss— (A/N: The Mt. St. Helens kiss with more detail. From Percy’s POV.)
Her lips were soft, warm, and I felt like an idiot as she leaned in, planting that delicious kiss on my lips. I wanted to do…something. To maybe kiss her back, but she moved so fast that I wasn’t ready to even realize she was pressing her lips against mine. When it was over I sat there, trying to remember my own name. I had been kidding myself for years. I wasn’t falling for her. I had already fallen. Hard. And I didn’t think I had any hope of getting back up again.
Permanent— (A/N: Percy’s POV)
Annabeth had said she wanted to build something permanent. Maybe she was talking about a building, maybe she was talking about…us. I sure hoped she was, because I felt like we were well on our way there. I was thinking about her words when I picked out a wedding ring, and I repeated those words to her before we said, “I do.” Those words were spoken when our son—a boy with dark hair and grey eyes—was born.
We had always been permanent, whether or not we knew it.
Her Hero--
She screamed. She froze her body in lock down. Pure fear enveloped her. She needed the hero that had always been there, and she heard his running footsteps with her scream.
“Annabeth? What’s wrong?”
She pointed the eight legged creature climbing around in the bathtub. “It’s—it’s—”
Percy smiled, kissed Annabeth’s forehead and walked into the bathroom, gently scooping the spider into his hands. He walked out of the bathroom and Annabeth heard the window opening and closing.
“You let it live?!”
He appeared back in the bathroom and pulled her against him. “Shh, relax, Annabeth.”
“You let it live, Percy!”
“It wasn’t going to hurt you.”
She pouted, burying her face in his chest. “You don’t know that,” she mumbled defensively.
“You’re cute when you’re frightened.”
Smiling against his shirt, she kept quiet, enjoying the hug for a moment. Percy always calmed her fears. He was always there for her. He was always her hero.
Stained Blue— (A/N: Before TBotL, directly after TTC with a bit of poetic license in terms of time.)
Blue was his favorite color. Green was beginning to become hers. It was the color of his eyes, and his eyes were absolutely beautiful. But she saw his attraction to blue. It was soft and pretty, and came in many attractive shades. It was the color of the water he was born with in his blood, and it was the color he and his mother bonded over. It was a wonderful color, but it wasn’t the beautiful sea-green of his eyes.
She found herself staring at those eyes and then she noticed Percy’s lips move, but she didn’t hear anything. She shook herself.
“What?”
He smirked. “Everybody’s gone,” he said, gesturing to the empty dining hall at Camp Half-Blood. After dinner she had walked over to his table and sat down, something that wasn’t normally allowed, but Chiron had a certain…feeling. He saw the blush of Annabeth’s cheeks when Percy was mentioned, he saw the slow distance that had been growing between Grover and Percy whenever Annabeth was around him, and he knew—before either of them did—what was happening.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“I should probably go to bed. Have to go back to life tomorrow.”
He was referring to the end of summer, the end of care-free life, the end of camp fires, sword fights, training, swimming in the lake, capture the flag games… And even though he didn’t know it, that school year he was going to miss one certain girl. That girl had wonderfully tan skin, pretty blonde hair, smoky grey eyes, and a personality that kept Percy on his toes, both in annoyance and wonder.
“Yeah. Me too.”
But they just sat there.
Annabeth considered blue for a moment longer. Blue…wasn’t green.
Percy reached for her and her heart froze. His fingers brushed back the piece of grey/white hair that had fallen in front of her eyes and she looked up at his matching streak of hair; both of them had been trophies from holding up Atlas’ burden.
“Oh,” he said, noticing her hesitation and surprise when he tucked the hair behind her ear. “Sorry.”
She couldn’t speak. But she realized that her heart had been stained just like her hair. Her heart was stained blue.