He was sitting on the beach. Normally it wouldn't be too odd to find him there, being the son of a sea god made the water his natural habitat.

This time was different, something felt off. Then she saw he was soaking wet. Percy, wet?

Annabeth stopped just a few steps behind him. He didn't seem to notice her yet and she hesitated for a moment before standing beside him.

"Anything on your mind?" she asked.

He perked up at the sound of her voice, turning to her with shocked "What?" followed by a quick "No, nothing." as he turned back towards the sea.

There was no way he could think that would fool her. She plopped down in the sand besides him. "Any reason you let your clothes get wet?" she asked hoping that a more casual start might get him to open up.

He kept his gaze towards the horizon, "You're not going to drop this are you." He shot a quick glance over, a ghost of a smirk on his face as he caught her eye.

"You should know me better by now."

He signed but answered anyway, "I just came out to clear my head a bit. Guess it got too clear..." he started doodling aimless shapes in the sand between them. "I just wanted to feel something different."

Annabeth placed her hand on his, "You know you can tell me anything right?" she knew she didn't have to say that, but maybe hearing it out loud would help him.

"Of course. It's just..." he hesitated then turned his hand so he could hold hers "I'm just worried if I say it out loud it'll be true, or I won't be able to stop it."

She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "Whatever battle you're facing, I'm going in with you."

"Maybe you'd better at this anyway, you are the smart one after all."

She had a feeling she knew where this was going, but was afraid to speak it. Because if she was right she might not be able to help him as much as she want to.

"Sometimes I have... these bad days. Like most of the time I don't really care what everyone else thinks of me, or whatever. I usually forget about how important everyone thinks I am. I don't really think about the high shelf I get put on. I'm just trying to be a regular guy like everybody else, you know?"

Once he got started it was like she broke the dam, all these bottled up feelings just came rushing out of him.

"But some days, when I remember all that junk, I just want to scream. How can anyone think I'm so perfect? Or even good at anything? Sure I'm a kid of the big three, but that really has nothing to do with me. I didn't make that happen. And I'm not the only one either. And sure I guess I'm powerful or strong or whatever, but I don't even know what I'm doing most of the time. Some new ability pops up and I'm just going with it because it's either that or die, so-" he throws his hands up in clear frustration.

It had been awhile since Annabeth had seen him get upset over anything, and to see it be himself was hard to watch.

"And to make matters worse I'm not even good at anything."

"Percy," She chided, "that's not true. You're good at a lot of things."

"Anything I can put on a college application? Cuz I don't think the ability to survive underwater for-probably-ever, talking to fish, and monster killer counts."

College worries? She could handle college worries. "You're doing pretty well on the swim team right?"

"Yeah, obviously."

"Well sports look good on applications, shows things like work ethic and teamwork."

He nodded reluctantly.

"And as for your language skills, even without the animals, you are still multilingual."

"Multi- linguini?"

She pressed her lips together trying to hide her smile. Of course he'd miss-hear her now. "No sweetie, you can speak more than just English. You've got Greek and Latin under your belt."

"I suppose..." he hooked his arm around hers and leaned against her. "You this just proves you're the brains of the operation."

"How so?"

"You knew that talking would help."

She smiled and leaned up to kiss his cheek. "You promise to remember that for next time too ok."

"Will do."