PERCY

"Guard up, Seaweed Brain!"

Percy cringed as his best friend and girlfriend launched a barrage of short, quick attacks to his midsection. Her dagger was just a flash; he couldn't help but think that he was lucky to have lasted this long. He parried the first two with Riptide, and then jumped away, giving some space in between them.

He exhaled from exhaustion. How in the world did I get in this situation?

The sun was setting behind us; the last little bits of sunlight were poking through the trees and hitting Annabeth's hair perfectly. It shone like drachmas and it attributed a sort of goddess-like aura around her. Her face was twisted with concentration and force as she clenched and unclenched her jaw, trying to find a weakness in my guard. Her face was grimy with sweat and dirt (from being knocked down…hey, it's training!), but that didn't make her any less beautiful as her gray eyes calculated my posture.

A crowd had gathered around; the younger and the older demigods were crowding around to see their two great leaders spar together to learn different strategies and techniques when they're in close combat. The hero and the heroine had been at it for a good half-hour, striking and blocking, kicking and dodging; they would hate to see the two when they were on the same team.

Leo watched on with the older demigods as Percy and Annabethfought it out. He was a brave soldier in the Seven…one of the most useful. He was the one who could always make people laugh when the situation seemed hopeless.

Percy mentally cringed as he thought of him and Annabeth falling into Tartarus together…

"Percy, let me go. You can't pull me up."

Leo had told Percy afterwards that his face was priceless; white with effort.

He refused to let his girlfriend go…he would rather tumble into the greatest and most torturous prison in history to save his girlfriend.

"To save a friend, you would sacrifice the world." Was this part of his fatal flaw? He would be willing to sacrifice the world (him being alive to team up with Jason and Leo would be their best chance to beat Gaea…earth, wind, and fire against earth) to be with one person.

"Never. The other side, Nico! We'll see you there. Understand?" At this point, Percy was not to be trifled or argued with. He had already made up his mind of what he was going to do.

He remembered how Nico panicked. "But-"

"LEAD THEM THERE! PROMISE ME!" Percy's face had been full of determination. He was going to fall into Tartarus, where he had sent so many monsters with the one sword that had sent so many monsters there. Those monsters tortured him in there…the ones he killed…Procrustes and Medusa, Kronos, and others. He wouldn't talk about his experiences except with Annabeth and Nico. But apparently, everyone could tell that he was pretty shaken up.

Annabeth smiled sweetly, catching him slightly off guard. Percy lowered his elbow a fraction of an inch, and Annabeth took the opportunity to strike with the speed of a Kindly One. Percy stifled a yell of surprise and blindly swung Riptide in a golden arc. Annabeth's eyes widened, knowing what was happening, and ducked instinctively. The blade passed harmlessly over her, but the time that it cost her allowed Percy to regain his balance.

He breathed a sigh of relief and tried for a low swipe. The flat of his blade clanged into Annabeth's ankle, forcing her to change her center of balance and eventually forcing her to fall to the ground and her dagger clattered to the ground about 10 feet away…out of reach.

Like regular procedure, Percy was getting ready to put his sword to her throat, but she grabbed his wrist and flipped him over like she did when she saw him for the first time in months at the Roman camp.

Percy's back crashed against the ground and he winced in pain. The crowd ooohhheddd and cheered Annabeth on as she walked to get her dagger…a little bounce in her step, pride that she had won.

Percy grinned. Hubris. Her fatal flaw.

Percy grabbed Riptide by the hilt and used a technique that Jason had taught him from the Roman camp; he threw Riptide on a frozen rope along the ground towards the knife.

As expected, the sword knocked the knife away from Annabeth's reach and Riptide kept flying across the ground for another fifty feet. Annabeth scowled and stomped her foot in frustration as the oohhhs of the crowd were turned to her. "Damn it, Seaweed Brain! Why couldn't you just let me-"

She couldn't finish her statement because he had gotten up and tackled her to the ground, prompting both of them to start wrestling hand-to-hand. The crowd groaned and started to file out; as they knew how this was going to end up.

However, the two warriors didn't give up an inch. They kept wrestling, back and forth until sweat was beading on their body. Eventually, Annabeth kicked him in the chest, so hard that Percy fell back to the ground. Annabeth climbed up and straddled her best friend and boyfriend, smirking. "I win."

Percy smirked back. "Deadly pride, Annabeth."

Annabeth made the mistake of looking into Percy's sea green eyes, and became transfixed as she saw literal waves crashing in his irises.

Percy threw her off and straddled her, pinning her wrists and ankles down and rendering her virtually helpless. He felt Riptide return to his pocket as usual. Percy grinned and looked in her eyes, stormy gray to sea green. "I win."

Annabeth grabbed his face and leaned in, but at the last minute shoved him to the ground. She straddled him quickly and kissed him softly to get his hopes up. Percy's heart spiked a couple of beats per second as he tucked her golden blonde hair behind her ear and they kissed again. Everything was blocked out; Kronos could come out of the lake giving a piggyback ride to Gaea with Atlas on a leash and he wouldn't have noticed.

Percy smirked at the crowd's reaction when they had both disarmed each other and they got to wrestling. They're just jealous that I have the most amazing girl in the world and they have them and their imaginary friends to be with.

And so they were having an effective make out session until Percy's phone vibrated, accompanied by the sound of waves crashing…his ringtone. Someone was calling him.

Percy and Annabeth broke apart, their faces red with embarrassment and from attraction to each other.

Percy blushed a deep shade of crimson. "Sorry, Wise Girl." He looked at the phone, then looked around.

Rachel was calling him.

As soon as Annabeth saw that, her face glowered and turned into a sight more gruesome than Grover in a wedding dress. "Why is she calling you", she said in a cold voice.

"I don't know…should I answer?"

"I don't know, should you?"

This next thing he shouldn't have said. "You should know, shouldn't you? Miss Daughter of Athena with all your wisdom."

Annabeth's eyes widened when she realized what her boyfriend just did. "OH, don't even get me STARTED on parents! Both you and your dad have Seaweed brains, so full of kelp that you can't understand what was going on!"

Percy turned red with anger this time. He felt a tug in his gut, but he forced it down. "Give me ONE good example when my father didn't know what was going on!"

Annabeth slightly smirked, the way she does when she knows she is about to win a debate with someone. "The second legendary monster you faced. Perhaps the most popular monster you fought."

Percy thought through the monsters he faced back when he first learned how to fight. "Medusa?"

"Exactly." Annabeth smirked as if Percy knew where she was going with this.

"And…that's significant…how?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Gods, your hopeless. I mean my mother had a CRUSH on your father!"

Thunder rolled across the sky as clouds started to form. Was Annabeth supposed to tell me this?

Percy's mind was reeling with questions. "How is that possible?"

"Do you really think that she would curse a woman for all eternity just because she was in her temple messing around with her boyfriend?"

"…that's exactly what I thought happened."

"NO! She LIKED your father. The slow, Seaweed Brain Poseidon didn't pick up on the hints that my mother dropped and totally disrespected her and almost broke her heart by having Medusa in HER temple!"

The waves of the ocean picked up heavily, and Percy didn't know whether that was him or his father. Both of them were irritated at this point, so he couldn't really tell the difference.

"No offense, but Athena doesn't seem like the type of person to drop the most obvious hints. She's the goddess of wisdom for gods' sake! Poseidon probably felt intimidated by your mother, or even thought that she hated him! And she does!"

Annabeth looked out towards the sea, not meeting my eyes. "Like parent, like child."

Percy's eyes widened. He leaned towards Annabeth and a slightly threatening way, curious of what she said. "Excuse me? Can you repeat that, I didn't hear it."

Annabeth whipped her head towards her boyfriend and shot back, "Sometimes you're just so insolent that I don't know why the two of us are dating!"

Percy's jaw slackened. He didn't think that there was any problems with their relationship; in fact, Thalia and Grover established to them that him and Annabeth were the model couple for the camp…every couple wanted to be as close and inseparable as Percy Jackson and Annabeth Jackson. Now that they defeated Gaea and everything, things seemed like bliss. But then again, ignorance is bliss.

The tugging in his gut increased slightly. "Well, maybe if you weren't such an smart, stuck up, asshole all the time, then we might get along better."

Now, it was Annabeth's turn to widen her eyes. She took a step back, her eyes searching mine as if she couldn't find the guy she loved. Unfortunately, he was doing the exact same thing to her.

"You dare call me those names? After everything that you DON'T understand? All the information that I had to give you, to throw out, just to be admonished at first! But then it turned out to save your life!"

"Here you go with the big words again!"

"MY POINT EXACTLY. You're so dumb, you can't notice anything!"

Percy saw her eyes swirling with emotions, and took a step back. If he kept doing this, he would say something he regretted. "If that's how you feel. I'll just…get out of your way then."

He turned on his heel when he heard a voice, "Young love. So beautiful at some times, and so ugly at others."

Annabeth gritted her teeth and unclenched her fists, revealing her palm to be completely white from stress. "Aphrodite. Is there any reason why you're here?"

The goddess of love smiled sweetly at her, almost sending Percy in a daze. "It's just that you two don't understand each other. Put yourself in his shoes for a while, darling."

"Oh, so you're taking his side now? Why should I listen to you, when your so-called 'love plots' caused the deaths of countless people?!"

Aphrodite waved her hand dismissively. "Water under the bridge, honey. And you wouldn't talk to me like that, would you?"

Her beautiful form flickered slightly as she took on blonde hair and gray eyes, then going back to her original form. "What you need is a nice…long…sleep."

Aphrodite smiled at Percy, almost making his knees give way. But he resisted. "You too, honey. Go to sleep. You need some rest."

Her charmspeak was much more powerful than Piper's; as soon as the words were out her mouth, Annabeth nodded and was curled up on the beach sandy floor.

Percy fought the urge, looking the love goddess in the eye with his eyelids drooping slowly. "What…are you up to…"

The last vision he saw was her eyes sparkling and saying, "Something grand and priceless."