Rain pounded against the roof of cabin number 3, torrents of icy water cascading down the misty window and soaking the already waterlogged ground below it. Flashes of stark white light frequently bleached the condensation blanketed window, indicating the angry bolts of lightning striking the sky with furious intensity, rumbles of echoing thunder accompanying them, reverberating around the camp as the rain continued to pour from the heavens, drenching all that lay in its path.

Percy Jackson, wearing a pair of loose pyjama bottoms, black hair unruly and messy, green eyes piercing and bright in the gloom, lay with his arms behind his head on his bunk, listening to the sounds of the rain mercilessly hammering on the roof and wishing he were somewhere else.

As he lay there, watching the rain drenched window flash with glaring white light from time to time, he thought about his disastrous day on the beach with Annabeth, curling his toes in embarrassment as he recalled the awful events that had occurred there. He cringed as he remembered the details, cursing himself for saying those three little words that were so small, and yet meant so much.

It had all started off so well…

The sun, warm and bright, shines down on the beach, making the waves sparkle and gleam in the sunlight. The sand is hot against his feet as he digs them down deep, enjoying the feeling of the familiar element between his toes as he wriggles them playfully. He smiles widely, breathing in the scent of salt and fresh air, drinking in his surroundings with a satisfied sigh.

Slowly, he turns and looks at the girl sitting next to him.

Her long, wavy hair flows down her back, shining just as brightly as the sun above her as she tilts back her head, closing her eyes to drink in the warmth of the summer sun, stretching out her long, suntanned legs and wriggling her toes in the sand, kicking off her worn and scabby flip flops. Her eyelashes flutter against her smooth, suntanned cheeks as she breathes in deeply, savouring the day. Her lips curve into a small smile that lights up her face and she wrinkles her nose, upsetting the formation of the light dusting of freckles adorning it, evidence of the summer sun. She is so effortlessly beautiful, so endearing, so amazing that it takes his breath away.

To this day he still cant believe that she chose him.

He find himself once again looking at her lips in wonder, marvelling at their softness and natural red colour. Annabeth never wears makeup - she doesn't need it anyway, in his opinion. Still looking at her lips, he reaches out with his hand an entwines his fingers with hers, causing her smile to get wider and she opens her eyes, fixing him with her stormy grey gaze, rendering him speechless (as usual).

He cant help himself. He leans over and very gently kisses her on the lips.

She jumps in surprise before leaning into the kiss for a second, relaxing against him and then pulling away so suddenly he ends up face-planting the ground. Spitting out grains of golden sand, he looks up at her now standing figure, coughing and spluttering.

Finally, after having spitting out what seemed to be half the beach and rubbing his t-shirt across his tongue in an attempt to rid his mouth of the troublesome sand, he splutters: "Wh-what did you do that for?"

"I wanted to go swimming" She replies, her voice deadly serious but the gleeful twinkle in her eyes tells him she is dying to laugh, watching him lying there, spluttering in the sand.

"Annabeth," Percy began, trying to look casual as he slowly gets to his feet, spitting out the last of the sand and taking a step towards her "Come here a second…."

That was when she made the very wise decision to run like hell.

Laughing, she flies down the beach, with him in hot pursuit, laughing and uttering loud war cries. The beach is deserted, everyone else is doing camp activities, leaving Annabeth and Percy the only ones there. Her blonde hair flies behind her as years of practice running from monsters come into play, dodging and weaving in front of him, gaining speed. But he is faster. He jumps and they both of them go sprawling in the sand, rolling over and over, laughing and shouting unto they come to a stop, him lying on top of her.

They are face to face, breathing heavily, smiling at each other in their stupidity and looking into each other's eyes.

"Do you surrender?" growls Percy, brushing a stray curl from Annabeth's face as he looks into her intense grey eyes, grinning.

"Never," She whispered, smirking at him and wriggling in a vain attempt to throw him off her but only succeeding in burying herself deeper into the soft sand. This was around the time that Percy once again becomes very distracted by the way her lips move when she talks and it was then that he realised just how close together their faces are. He can taste her breath on his tongue and their noses are a hairs breadth apart. She was still breathing very heavily beneath him, and she too is looking at his lips with an odd expression on her face. Percy, moving on instinct alone, leans in and once again presses his lips on hers.

She responds immediately, kissing him back, bringing her arms up and looping them around his neck as he winds his around her waist, pulling her closer. She deepens the kiss and he rolls them over until she is lying on his chest, pulling him tighter against her as the waves crash onto the beach. Slowly they pull apart, breathless and smiling and he gently kisses her forehead, breathing in the smell of her shampoo. She sighs contentedly and pecks him on the lips once more before resting her head on his chest, tracing patterns on his lightly with her fingertips.

Percy watches her, feeling so elated and content that nothing can spoil his mood. And that was when he made his fatal mistake….

Percy cringed.

Why did he have to ruin such an amazing moment with his own stupidity? It was all so perfect until he said that. What in the world had possessed him to say those ill-fated words, to leave his soul bare, to talk abut his feelings.

Frustrated and angry, Percy buried his face in his hands, cursing himself. Those three words, those eight little letters, that had caused all this trauma and pain. Percy curled round into tight ball, screwing up his face and listened to the rain cascading down the windows and wondered what to do.

Annabeth's POV:

"No Mother, please, don't kill him!"

Her hands were bound behind her back and the ropes bit mercilessly at her wrists but she hardly noticed. All she could see was Percy's agonised face as her own mother twisted a knife in his gut. Her mother laughed, such an evil, sinister laugh, and sneered at Annabeth as she begged for his release, crying and screaming, twisting at the ropes, trying to wrench her hands free but only succeeding from drawing more blood from her already scarlet wrists.

"Stupid girl" Cackled Athena in a voice that was not hers "If you love him then I cannot allow him to live"

"But I didn't tell him I Ioved him" screamed Annabeth

"You didn't need to" Athena's face was changing, switching between Luke's face with golden eyes that gleamed in the near darkness, her fathers angry face, Zeus with lighting crackling in his stormy grey beard and then back to Athena, her faced livid, foam flying from black lips, pulled into a cruel snarl.

Annabeth could do nothing as she was forced to watch as her mother sliced off the head of her love. Then suddenly Percy was being tortured with hot knives, then drowned, then whipped, then killed over and over again in a thousand different ways, all because she loved him.

And the dreams continued…

Percy's POV:

Percy lay, face down on his bed.

Why did he do it? What had come over him? He probably didn't even mean it, it was just the heat of the moment…

But you DID mean it argued inner Grover, an annoying form of his conscience that always seemed to appear whenever he had Annabeth related issues. Only the Gods know why…

Percy quickly blocked out inner Grover and screwed his eyes tight shut and curled into a ball under his sheets, willing himself to fall asleep.

But despite his efforts, images of Annabeth just kept appearing in his head; her amazing smile, her stormy grey eyes that showed bare her soul, her beautiful blonde hair that lay perfectly on her head even when she didn't even try…. (AN: virtual cookie for anyone who guesses the song reference)

He couldn't stop thinking about her.

A timid knock at his door brought him back to the present and he bolted upright, reaching for Riptide that lay on his bedside table as he called "Who is it?"

"Annabeth"

Annabeth.

Percy practically ran to the door and wrenched it open, bringing an unwelcome icy wind that made him shiver violently and wish he had thought to put a shirt on. There stood Annabeth, drenched to the skin, shivering violently in her thin cotton t-shirt and pyjama trousers, eyes red. Her feet were bare and her hand were clenched into tight fists, her nails making scarlet grooves in her tanned skin.

"C-can i c-c-c-come i-in-n?" She stuttered, yet more shivers racking her small frame, making her shudder so violently that he was sure she was going to collapse. Percy didn't hesitate, flinging open the door as wide as it would go and ushering her in quickly and shutting it firmly behind her. For a moment he paused, his back to her, composing himself, and then he turned to her and looked her in the eyes.

She was very pale, still shuddering violently and dripping rain water onto the floor, an already sizeable puddle beneath her. They stood awkwardly and looked at each other for a long moment before he finally found his voice.

"Are you…? I meant you must be you're shivering…" stupid Percy "…. do you… errrmm… what I mean to say is… w-well what i'm trying to ask is….W-w-would y-you like a blanket?"

Inwardly he cursed. Nice one Percy, now you look like the brainless idiot you are muttered inner Grover, exasperation in his voice.

Shut up Grover thought Percy

Before his brain could really start babbling, Annabeth, after giving him a wary glance, nodded shakily and Percy strode over to a nearby bunk, ripped off the blanket and handed it to her, keeping as much distance between them as possible and folding his arms across his chest.

Percy was not at all surprised by her appearance. For weeks now she had been turning up at his door at night, shaking with tears and terror in her eyes, babbling about nightmares and visions. However, if he attempted to ask about these dreams, she turned her head and mumbled something about not remembering anything. But he knew she was hiding something from him and it troubled him.

But it didn't trouble him as much as this prolonged, awkward silence.

Things between himself and Annabeth were never awkward. They were plenty of other things, such as heated when they argued as always, calling each other stupid names and storming off, just to return moments later, apologising profusely and laughing at their idiocy, and things were also heated when they did…other things…. (AN: I mean KISSING, you dirty minded ones!)

Percy wrenched his mind back to the present with difficulty and forced himself to take a step towards the girl in front of him who still had tears pouring down her cheeks. Suddenly, a feeling of remorse welled up inside him. Why aren't you comforting her? What kind of brainless fool are you? Scolded inner Grover Be a man and DO SOMETHING!

He slowly reached out with one arm and gently wiped away the glistening tears away with his thumb, caressing her cheek and staring into her eyes, trying to convey his pity. Annabeth shuddered, sniffed, then suddenly launched herself at him, sobbing with new passion, locking her arms around his neck so tight he had difficulty breathing and burying her head in his shoulder.

Unfortunately the strength of her embrace caught him off guard and unfortunately (or fortunately as Percy saw it) they both toppled backwards onto his bed. Annabeth, in the middle of a heart-wrenching sob, hardly noticed but Percy (being Percy) immediately started to stutter and make incoherent excuses, his mind utterly blank as he struggled to control the urge to kiss her there and then. Deciding that this probably wasn't the best time to start making out with the love of his life whilst she was in the middle of a crisis, he consented to cradling her in his lap and stroking her hair, talking to her in soft tones and saying words that made no sense but had a comforting feel.

This seemed to work, for, after a while, her sobs turned to gulps, then to hiccups, then to half-hearted sniffs, then silence.

Tentatively he looked down at her face and sure enough she was fast asleep in his arms, breathing deeply with a look of serenity on her face, her cheeks still blotchy and red from her tears. Without meaning to he started to rock her slowly from side to side and humming tunelessly as he waited her sleeping face with fascination.

She was so beautiful.

It seemed that every time he looked at her she took a little bit more breath from his lungs. But it was not her looks that made him love her so much. What made his heart beat faster, what made him speak alien language every time he saw her, one of the words being 'Uh duh'), what now tortured him as he watched her, was what was behind that perfect face. He loved her right down to her very soul, who she was, not her pretty face.

Annabeth stirred in his arms, surprising him. Then she stiffened and mumbled "Percy… no, Percy don't go…."

He was so stunned that he almost feel backwards off the bed but caught himself just in time. He was so overcome that for a moment he had no idea what to do and he sat there, utterly complexed.

What the hell he thought, sending a mental shrug to inner Grover, who was chastising him for his general stupidness and kelp-for-brains.

He stopped rocking her and held her close to his chest and started whispering, so softly that only she would have been able to hear if she was awake "I will never leave you Annabeth. I love you so much that I feel as if my heart is going to burst out of my chest, that if you're away from me, every second feels like a year, that that I would single handedly fight all of the gods if it would mean that you would love me too. I would hold up the sky for a thousand years if it meant that you would hold my hand, and I would stop the tides if you would just kiss my cheek. Please Gods, don't leave me ever. I don't care if you don't love me like I love you, just you don't ever leave me. I love you Annabeth, and I know I always will…"

He trailed off and bowed his head in sorrow, wishing by some miracle that she might do that and stay with him…

Then, the miracle happened.

Annabeth's eyes opened blearily and looked at him for a long moment. Then, the smallest whisper escaped her lips, so quiet he could barely hear it. But it's meaning was very clear.

"Percy… I love you too"