Annabeth POV

It had been nearly a year since the war with Gaea was won, it was close to the time when demigods went to school to pursue a mortal life, or at least, as close to a regular mortal life as possible.

Percy and Annabeth had become so much closer over these past months. When she had her daily Tartarus nightmares, it was only him that could offer her even the slightest bit of comfort, and vice versa. Her siblings had tried to calm her the first few nights after she had gotten back, but a couple of them had ended up being sent to the Apollo cabin to get bandaged up during one of her after-nightmare fits. The two of them had lots of trouble during the school year. In fact, Annabeth had very nearly begun living with Percy, his mom and Paul as she and Percy had to redo the twelfth year, since she had taken that year off to focus on finding Percy.

It was Malcolm who had decided to give Percy a bed next to Annabeth's and a spare drawer for some of his clothes. Her siblings had all come to the realization that Percy went through the same thing with no one around to comfort him. Annabeth had spare clothes and an extra bed at his cabin too, for when they slept in his, though her siblings didn't exactly approve of that idea. And it was no secret that Will would keep Nico company in the Hades cabin at night. They'd even begun to start publicly seeing each other.

When she was in the Arena with the rest of her cabin-mates for sword fighting Annabeth could have sworn that she had seen something, though she was sure that it was a hallucination. She had already been tired that morning and she hadn't taken a water break just yet. She decided to take a break and went to sit on the cool stone floor away from the clashing of swords. She'd sworn that she had seen a shadow following her. She had been seeing, and she was pretty sure, the same shadow for days. It never did anything other than watch. And it was watching her now. It stood there beside a column, a dark oval that seemed to bend the light away from it and leech the colors from objects near it. Annabeth started to feel a little sick and wanted so badly to tell someone about this stuff. Her mind felt sharp and she wondered what the hell that thing was. She stared defiantly at the darkness and it suddenly disappeared.

Now that the shadow wasn't there anymore she looked over to where Malcolm was teaching the younger kids a defensive move. She needed to tell him. But... as the seconds flew by she felt the urgency inside her slowly melt away into a calm serenity that pushed the mysterious shadow to the back corners of her mind. Annabeth could slowly feel her mind dull down for some reason.

Annabeth was in the middle of archery when she felt a pair of arms circle around her and for a second, she felt a flare of panic. Then she realized exactly who it was. Percy. "If you do not let go of me," She warned, "I will stab you with an arrow."

She only said that because it made her mad, that little flicker of fear she felt. Tartarus seriously screwed her up.

"Well, we wouldn't want that." His arms only loosened a bit as she turned around to face him.

"You realize that you are so lucky. If anyone else had snuck up on me like that, it would have been the last time they ever attempted it again." Annabeth looked him right in his beautiful, sea-green eyes and glared at him as she said that. "You... surprised me." Because I thought you were a horror from Tartarus, were the unspoken words passed between them. Sorry, was Percy's unsaid word back.

"Just wanted to let you know that I made reservations for us at a really nice restaurant tonight. Around six fourty-five-ish." He said this aloud.

Annabeth was actually shocked. Yeah, they had been going out for more than a year, but she was still so surprised when he managed to take charge and plan a date without her giving him 'little nudges' in that direction. She dropped her bow onto the grass and gave him a brief hug.

"I love you, Seaweed Brain." Percy just gave her that annoyingly attractive grin of his and said nothing, though his eyes were telling her the same thing back. She put her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss. His lips tasted salty as usual. His arms automatically wrapped themselves around her waist and she felt the same way she usually did while in his embrace (With the exception of a few minutes ago); safe.

~Hours later…~

Piper lounged on a bed near Annabeth's in the Athena cabin. Annabeth was sitting amongst piles of all her clothing, trying to find something to wear.

"Uh," she groaned. "I don't seem to have anything appropriate." She glanced over to where Piper was lying. "What do you think?" she asked anxiously.

This was exactly why Annabeth was happy to have Piper as a best friend. Children of Aphrodite are really good at clothing suggestions. Then again, Annabeth could only ever stand some of the Aphrodite kids. Selena, who was killed in the Titan war and Piper herself. Grand total of two. Wow.

Piper pursed her lips and gazed thoughtfully at the all of Annabeth's clothing. Her nose scrunched up slightly.

"Come with me," was all she said.

Piper got up and headed out the door. Annabeth did as she was told and ended up in the Aphrodite cabin. There were clothes everywhere as well as cosmetics. Piper went to a dresser and opened up some of the drawers and started to dig through it all.

"So do you know where he's taking you?" Piper asked.

"No, not yet," was the reply she got back.

Annabeth stood awkwardly in the doorway, not sure what to do with herself. She took a few tentave steps into the cabin and decided to sit on a bed half covered in dresses. The cabin wasn't really all that messy. Clothes were just hanging on almost every available surface.

Annabeth watched as the other girl picked up a purple frilly dress that was hanging on the canopy of one of the beds. She stared at it with a frown on her face before shaking her head and putting it back.

"I thought your cabin ranked second in cabin inspection," Annabeth wondered in confusion. "No offense or anything, but how does this," she gestures around her, "get second?"

Piper laughed haughtily at that. "Oh, no, my dear friend. It was clean before, not a speck of dirt to be seen. Then Will came, took a look at our cabin and when he left, my siblings made quick work of making it look like this."

Seeing nothing in the dresser, Piper moved on to a closet at the back of the cabin and started looking around over there.

"Hey Pipes, are you sure it's okay for me to borrow one of your sisters' dresses? Because I honestly do not want to get on one of their bad sides."

"I am positive. Anyways, they have so much clothing that it would take them a long time to even realize that something is missing!"

Piper crouched down and picked up a dress that looked discarded, lying on the ground in a corner of the medium sized closet. She held it up for Annabeth to see and Annabeth was stunned with how pretty it looked.

It was an orangey gold color, with straps attached to the front center of it in order for it to be tied up behind her neck. It looked like it would fall just about to her knees with a tight bodice and slightly looser skirt part. Piper walked over to hand the dress to the Athena girl and as she walked Annabeth was amazed at how the fabric shimmered lightly with even the slightest movement.

"I remember this one!" cried Piper. "Drew once wore it trying to catch Jason's attention, but when he didn't even look at her, she was so mad she wanted to throw it away." She offered it to Annabeth, then turned away to give her a little bit of privacy so she could change.

Annabeth took off her jeans and shirt and put the dress on. She walked over to the floor length mirror leaning against part of the wall and stared at herself. It was almost as if the dress was made for her. It really pronounced her figure and showed how physically fit she was. The tan in her skin was brought out by the color and so were the streaks in her hair

"Wow," she heard Piper softly breath from behind her. She saw in the mirror as Piper drew closer. She touched the fabric and smoothed it out in the back. Annabeth touched the hem of the dress and loved the feeling of the fabric. It almost felt like water caressing her skin.

"I am definitely wearing this." Annabeth decided that she would go in no other.

Annabeth walked out of the Athena cabin half an hour before their date to find Percy waiting outside of her door. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of her. Her hair was pulled back into a messy chignon and she was without make-up (as per usual). She had gone with a knee length dress that was an orangey/gold color which brought out the blond highlights in her hair due to all the sun she got. Of course she also had her dagger strapped to her left thigh.

Just in case.

Percy was also quite the sight for sore eyes. He wore customary jeans, (so Riptide was always at close hand) and he wore a bluey green shirt that not only matched his eyes, but was also tight enough to show that underneath he was physically fit and gorgeously built. His hair was in that windswept state that it was usually in, which just added to the image. There was no doubt about it, he was definitely the son of a god.

They stood like that for five minutes, taking each other in before Percy finally spoke up.

"T-the cab i-is waiting. I called for one t-to peck- pick us up h-here" Tongue-tied. Cute. Annabeth smirked, even though she felt the same way, and Percy flushed. He held out his arm and she took it as he started to walk her down the hill to the waiting taxi.

"Gods, you look… gorgeous." He said to her after they had gotten in the taxi and he had told the driver the place.

"You don't look too bad yourself." She replied. "Where'd you find a shirt like that."

"Would it be emasculating to say that I told Piper that I wanted this and she somehow got it for me?"

Annabeth's eyes widened a fracture. "Are you kidding me? My boyfriend has a sense of style!" She declared mockingly.

"I was just kidding about that part. Piper came knocking on my cabin door earlier with this shirt in hand. I think her mother knows my clothing sizes of something."

"You think Aphrodite made this shirt?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding me? The label says 'made in Olympus', if she didn't make it, you can punch me in the face."

"You're lying. It does not say made in Olympus!" she accused.

"Sure does, check it if you want."

They continued their banter until the taxi slowed to a stop in front of a restaurant and when Annabeth looked out the window at where they were to get out, her breath caught in her throat.

"Oh my gods, Percy." She managed to choke out.

I know there wasn't any action in this chapter, but there will be after the next one or two chapters. As I wrote before, I don't want to rush this. Just like in a good book, It doesn't rush into all the action (though sometimes I wish they would). I want you to get a good picture at the events leading up to the meetings of two worlds.

Oh, and I'm sorry I didn't have any TMI in this chapter, but there will be a TMI POV in the next chapter.