"So what do you already know about nuclear chemistry?"

"Scientists used it to create Godzilla."

Annabeth glared at Percy. "Be serious for three seconds."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Have fun for three seconds."

"I have fun all the time! I'm having fun right now with you."

Percy raised his eyebrows and grinned. "Really?"

"Yeah, having fun right now torturing you. But when you have fun too, it ruins it. So be serious!"

Percy groaned. "Fine. Help me study."

Annabeth grinned and opened a brick of a textbook. "Once upon a time in a faraway land, France, Antoine Becquerel accidentally discovered the ability of uranium salts to fog photographic film. His two assistants, Marie and Pierre Curie, determined the fogging of the photographic plate was caused by rays emitted by the uranium. With the discovery of these rays, or radioactivity, these scientists demolished Dalton's Atomic Theory of indivisible atoms and won Nobel Prizes for physics."

"Please hit me over the head with that textbook."

"Radioactivity is the process by which materials give off rays. These rays are called radiation. There are four types of radiation: alpha, beta, gamma, and positron radiation."

"You know, I didn't even ask you to come over here and help me study."

"I've always been able to see things about you that you can't see yourself," Annabeth said playfully.

"Yeah, I know. I'm hopelessly clueless."

Annabeth smiled, but it was strained. Yeah, you really are. She cleared her throat and started reading again.

"Nuclear forces are much stronger - Percy, don't roll your eyes - much stronger than the electrostatic repulsion between protons, so they release much more energy than chemical reactions. Radioactive decay happens to radioactive isotopes that disintegrate spontaneously."

Percy yawned. "Let's take a break, I'm exhausted."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "We've only been studying for twenty seconds, Seaweed Brain."

Percy groaned and buried his head into her shoulder. "Please? I'll love you forever."

Annabeth shoved him off quickly and more roughly than she'd intended. Percy seemed to realize what he did and turned red immediately.

"I'm sorry - I didn't mean -" He stuttered, scrambling for an answer.

"If you really need something you rest your head on I can get a guillotine, you know," Annabeth snapped.

"I said I was sorry!" Percy eyes were wide, and he looked wounded.

Annabeth's anger dissipated immediately. She had really hurt him. She struggled to keep the blush from blooming on her face.

"I know. I just...I'm sorry for being so weird."

Percy let out a nervous laugh. "Let's just study again."

Annabeth smile sheepishly. "Good." She started reading the textbook again and didn't look up again for a while.

She couldn't help it, being so harsh. Annabeth was just...mean, sometimes, when it came to Percy. She tried to tell herself it had to do with his thick skull, but she knew it probably had more to do with his green eyes.

Well, curse his stupid thick skull and his stupid green eyes, curse him for being oblivious to my feelings, and curse me for having them in the first place, she thought.

"Alpha radiation consists of a helium nucleus emitted from radioactive source because a nucleus has too many protons," she said. "The helium nucleus contains two protons and two neutrons, and the electric charge is omitted-"

"It's just-" Percy said abruptly. Then he paused and shook his head. "No, never mind. Go on."

"I really am sorry about blowing up on you like that, if that's what this is about, and I totally-"

"No, it's not like that," Percy said hastily. "I just -" He bit his lip and shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. "Does it - does it really bother you that much when I…" He trails off and coughs, unsure of how to continue. "I...you know. If I'm invading your personal space -"

"I'd follow you into Hell," Annabeth blurts, "And you toss off an 'I'd love you forever' like a candy wrapper."

Immediately after she says it, she clamps her hand over her mouth and buries her face in her hands. She can't look at Percy's face right now. She's not sure she could look into Percy's eyes (his ridiculous sea green eyes) ever again.

"I just…" She said, her voice muffled. "You're such an idiot, sometimes."

"Annabeth," Percy said, and something about how soft yet charged his voice is makes Annabeth's head snap up. He's not horrified or disgusted or uncomfortable, he's smiling helplessly and leaning forward and reaching for her face and-

Percy kisses her, and every logical thought she's ever had skitters away from her brain.

"So," Percy said after they pulled away, still wearing that helpless smile. "Do you want to go out with me?"

Annabeth tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Give me some time to think about it." She pretended to ponder for a second. "Yeah, okay."

"So," Percy said with a grin, "Does this mean we have chemistry together?"

"Okay, we're breaking up," Annabeth said, and then she went in for kiss number two.