All rights to Rick Riordan. I do not own the Percy Jackson characters.

*Foreword from the author: Hi guys! I hope you like this version of Mark of Athena. I've got a plan for how this is gonna go and I really like it so tell me what you think. Comment and favorite!

-Sosie98: I am in love with Leo Valdez. He is mine. I claim him. I would take Percy, but hey, I'm a Percabeth shipper.*

Percy

Percy tried to smear as much of the eyeliner off as he could before Annabeth saw him. It just added to the stupidity of the purple (Gods-I'm-not-Justin Bieber) cloak. He thought about taking it off and folding it up too, but with Reyna standing nearby and she having applied and thought out the aforesaid artistic touches, Percy was a little too scared to do anything about it.

The boat was huge and looming above them like an enormous flying elephant with a dragon's head. It looked fancy too and shined like a million drachmas in the sun. Percy couldn't help but compare it the Roman "navy" with its single wooden dingy.

Reyna walked over to him, but he didn't even realize she was by his side before she started to speak.

"I was talking to Octavian…"
That was all Percy needed to hear, "Why were you talking to that idiot?"

Reyna raised her eyebrows, "Octavian can be very wise… on occasion."

Percy rolled his eyes.

"Anyways," said Reyna, "He suggested that… maybe… you shouldn't be the first person to see your friends."

Percy stepped away from her, "What?"

"He said he thinks they'd get overwhelmed."
"Oh my gods. How could he ever think something so stupid?"
"And I agree."

Percy stopped talking, not trusting himself not to cuss at her.

"Are you serious, Reyna?"

She nodded.

"This all comes back to Greeks being lesser than Romans, doesn't it, like we can't handle the same things you can."

"No." said Reyna softly. She was good at controlling her temper but her look said 'don't even go there'.

"You don't have to hide it for me. You wouldn't have a problem rushing over there if those were Romans you hadn't seen for eight months."

Reyna abandoned all pretense, "You don't understand. Romans are different than Greeks."
"How?"
"Well, for one, Romans know their battle strategy. Battle strategy indicates a smarter person and a smarter person indicates a larger complex for handling personal emotion."

Percy blinked, "In American please?"

"Romans are smarter than Greeks and therefore they won't freak out over small things."
"Small things? I've been gone for eight months, Reyna, eight. That would be horrible if my friends weren't excited to see me. And as for being less smart, my girlfriend Annabeth could take you down in a chess match any time."
(Ok, so maybe Annabeth didn't know how to play chess, but it sounded like something smart.)

"I might just take her up on that challenge," she smirked, "Now, leave before they come down."

"Who says I have too? I'm praetor."
"You're only praetor because Jason's not here. If Jason's on that boat this very well may be your last day in office. So," she said leaning in close to his face, "I suggest you make your decisions wisely."
Percy unbuckled his cloak, threw it on the ground and sneered in her face, "I never wanted to be your stupid praetor anyway."
-

Walking away from the ship was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do (hyperbolically speaking), but his anger kept his feet moving. He was going to see Annabeth either way later, but from the way she'd sounded so irked in his dream the night before he'd wanted to ease her conscience soon. Maybe if he'd said it that way, Reyna would have seen the problem differently. He kicked himself. He could be so stupid sometimes.

Part of him believed Reyna that Romans were smarter than Greeks. Or at least they were in most cases. Annabeth had the ability to make everyone around her to look stupid in comparison but he didn't know who would win if Reyna made a guest appearance on Are You Smarter Than a Half-Blood?

Inside his cabin Percy stared at the picture of her on the computer screen. He'd found it online when he remembered his password to the facebook neither of them were supposed to have. They were both laughing at the time it was taken so they looked like idiots, but at the same time they looked happy. Percy hadn't laughed that hard in a while, even with Hazel and Frank. He guessed it was just something that happened when you knew a person so well. You just… understood them and could crack up laughing about just about anything.

Outside he heard a scream from one of the girl campers. Probably just some girl being scared out of her mind by a Mercury kid. He shook his head as he laid down across his bed sheets. They were always being idiots, tricking people and looking at girls while they showered. Sickos. He fell asleep with that final thought, no not the looking at girls while they showered thing, the Annabeth thing, and imagined how amazing it would be just to see her again.

When Percy finally woke up it was about five o' clock in the afternoon. He'd missed lunch and boy was he starving. Reyna was sitting on a bench in the forum, writing something down on a chart.

"Hey Reyna…"

She slammed the chart down on the bench and smiled up at him, "Perrcyy…"

She seemed a little too happy to see him, "Are they out yet? Can I see them?"
"About that…" she looked down at the floor and shrugged, "There was no one on the boat."
"What?"

"Yep. No signs of a struggle or anything like that. It looks like they just… left. But they're not anywhere in the camp and we searched the whole boat."

Percy squinted at her, "Reyna you're a terrible liar."