A/N: Okay, a few things before I begin.

I've aged the characters so they're no longer minors: Percy is now 18 and Thalia is 19, going on 20. Everyone else is aged accordingly, and the prophecy cut off age is now 20, instead of 16. Also now demigods can use technology more or less without problems. And I'm not sure how well I've managed to write Annabeth, but I hope it's not terrible.

Besides these that, I try to stick to canon as much as possible - except obviously the way the fic diverges from it. I might have to copy/paste excerpts of the book here and there since this fic is generally based on the TTC canon, but I'll try to summarize and only copy/paste the relevant quotes.

I absolutely do not promise frequent updates, but I'll try my best. And yeah, I guess that's it for now.

Percy

Thalia was the most frustrating person Percy had ever met. She was very private, and stubborn and competitive and no matter how much she'd like to pretend that it wasn't true; everyone in camp knew she had a thing with Luke, way back when.

So of course, the only logical thing for Percy to do after she was resurrected or whatever, was to stick around camp to keep an eye on her.

"Hello, Earth to Seaweed brain! You're not even trying!" Thalia called him. They were practicing sword-fighting skills and Percy had gotten distracted for a moment.

"Yes, I am! And would you stop calling me 'Seaweed brain'? I hate it!"

"Oh, oh, well that's just perfect isn't it? Come on, Jackson, you know better than that! If tell me you hate it, I'll just do it more. And by the way, if that is you trying, we might as well surrender to Kronos right now."

That annoyed Percy so much, he managed to channel it into beating the sword out of Thalia's hand. He took advantage of the split second of her confusion and placed his sword on her left shoulder, right at the side of her throat.

"Fair enough," she grinned and slowly pushed off the sword, until Percy dropped it to the ground beside her.

"Say it!" he grinned

"Hell, no! I never agreed to that!"

"Say it!"

"Fine," she puffed. "I'm your bitch!" Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Now say it like you mean it!"

"I'm never going to mean it, Seaweed brain!" Thalia snorted.

"Fine, I'll take what I can get," Percy sighed. "Dinner?"

"Might as well - I'm starving! And just so you know I'll beat you next time. I'm just still a little rusty."

"Sure," he smirked.

"Oh, shut the fuck up!" Thalia slapped him lightly at the back of his head.

Percy laughed - that was Thalia's way of showing she's bonded with you. But then Thalia wasn't like most girls. She wasn't like most demigods either. While pretty much everyone walked around camp in their camp t-shirts - except for most of Aphrodite's children, as they usually insisted on wearing their own clothes, because "bright orange didn't look good on anyone" - Thalia was wearing a gory, black t-shirt portraying a Barbie with an arrow through her head and a leather jacket. She also recently put a blue highlight in her dark hair. If nothing else, it suited her electric blue eyes.

Eating at Poseidon's table was always lonely and most nights, Percy hated it quite a bit. The table was just as big as everyone else's (as per tradition), but because eating with other demigods, Percy was always alone on it. It was even worse since Annabeth (his almost-girlfriend) had left for school and Tyson (his cyclops-half-brother) had left to work for his father. His only friend in camp now, was Grover.

Percy looked across to the black-haired girl, who was also had to sit alone as the daughter of Zeus. She gave him a reassuring smile for a second and then immediately looked away, pretending she hadn't caught his gaze at all. She probably didn't want anyone to know that she could be nice at all. She probably just wanted to be seen as cool and edgy and fearless and absolutely terrifying.

Thalia finished eating just a little before Percy - she hadn't been eating a lot since she was back - and she was throwing what was left of her food in the bonfire with the rest of the food sacrificed to the gods. She seemed distracted, looking in the distance without focusing on anything and Percy decided it was the best time to catch her off guard. He snuck up on her behind her back and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

"What the…?" Thalia was so surprised she stumbled to the bonfire, burnt her hand, which jerked and she threw the plate up. It turned upside down in midair and grapes and coke spilled all over her.

Percy had to try hard not to laugh as he watched her face go from shock, to pain, to anxiousness in the split second before her food and coke attacked her from above and finally to bitter acceptance as she realised she couldn't do anything about it.

She turned to Percy, with a glazed look. She brushed off the cola from her eyes with her fingers smearing her eye-liner and asked. "Why? Why would you do this to me?"

Then Percy couldn't help it anymore and he burst out laughing. "Sorry! I thought it'd be funny to startle you, but I had no idea how much."

Thalia punched him in the shoulder - hard. That caused him to stop laughing. "You are a jackass!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Percy said, brushing tears off the corners of his eyes. "Did you burn your hand? Let me see."

"It's just a scratch, you wimp, I'll live!"

Thalia pulled her hand and looked at the distance again. Percy finally realised what she was looking at - Hermes' table.

"It's bullshit!" she said, as if she knew what he was thinking too. "They have more people than they can handle, and yet you and I have to sit alone."

"Yeah," Percy nodded.

"I'm going to wash my face and take a walk," Thalia said. "See you later, Seaweed brain."

"See ya'."

He decided to go send Anabeth another email - she hadn't responded to his last few, and that worried him. Maybe he could call his mom too. They'd never spend that much time apart. After, he could head to his horse-riding training. If he saw Thalia on the way, maybe he could ask her to come along - she'd never said anything about liking or hating horses. When he thought about it, he really didn't know her all that well.

Flying with Blackjack always improved Percy's mood. It was the only kind of flying Percy could do, and he was fine with that. Soaring through the air on an elegant pegasus was just what Percy needed.

Eventually, Percy landed back on the surface. Both he and Blackjack were thirsty and neither had noticed how fast the next hour and a half had passed. They landed near the lake, but as they got closer, Percy saw someone there. At first he simply walked on - kids hung around the lake all the time (even though Percy didn't expect anyone at this), but as he got even nearer he realised that the the person he saw was Thalia. And not just that - she was curled up in a ball, knees to her chest and hands covering her face. She was crying!

Percy stopped. He didn't want to go further - not only because it would be super awkward and he was terrible with crying girls; not even because Thalia would most probably kick his ass, if he disturbed her, but mostly because this seemed like a very private moment that no one was supposed to see. It would be best, if Percy left and pretended he hadn't seen anything.

"Let's go," he told Blackjack, and patted him comfortingly on the snout. "There should be some water back at the stables."

This night, like every other, Percy joined everybody at the singalong around the bonfire. Except, this time he sat next to Thalia.

"Why aren't you singing?" Je nudged her lightly with his left shoulder.

"Are you kidding? I'm a terrible singer! If you ever heard me sing, you'd wish you were deaf."

"Well, so am I, but it's never stopped me before,' Percy grinned and started singing as loudly as he could."

Thalia looked at him, blinking twice. Then she laughed, "You are an idiot!" she shook her head.

"Annabeth says the same - that's never stopped me, either."

"Speaking of Annabeth, how is she? I barely saw her, after I… well, you know."

"I don't know how she is," Percy shrugged, trying to act nonchalantly. "She hasn't answered my emails and every time I try to text or Iris-message her, she is either not there, or barely says three words to me."

"That's strange! I thought that as your girlfriend, she'd want to talk to you more."

"Annabeth is not my girlfriend!"

"She isn't?" Thalia seemed genuinely surprised.

"Well, there was this moment… honesty, between you waking up and Kronos' constant plans to destroy us and…" Percy was going to say something about Luke, but he stopped himself just in time. "Well, let's just say that defining our relationship wasn't high on the list of priorities. If she'd talk to me for twenty minutes we could, but I don't know - apparently, I don't mean that much to her."

"Huh," Thalia said nothing more, and looked at the ground, kicking a few pebbles. "Are you ok?" She looked up at Percy again.

"I'll live," he shrugged and looked away.

Just before they had to go to sleep, Percy grabbed a bottle of water from what was left from dinner and followed Thalia.]

"Thalia!" He grabbed the hand that she had burnt a few hours ago on purpose, catching her just before she entered her cabin

She groaned and pulled her hand back.

"Well, I just wanted to say, 'Goodnight!' but that's,…" and before she can answer or react, he grabbed her hand again. There was a red scar on it with the diameter of a golfball. "Yeah, that's not a scratch!"

"Oh, please, it's just a scar - we've both had worse!"She tried to pull her hand back again, but Percy was holding tightly onto her wrist.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean we should just endure pain for no reason!"

"I'm fine, Seaweed brain!"

"You are left-handed, aren't you? So that's the hand you use for - pretty much everything? Holding weapons, eating, brushing your teeth… so unless your definition of 'fine' includes terrible pain whenever you try to do anything…"

"Whatever," Thalia rolled her eyed.

"You don't always have to everything on your own and be perfect at it, you know!"

'Oh, please, you are full of it!' ' She snorted and pulled her hand back.

'What?'

"Do you think I'm blind or stupid or something? That I didn't figure out why you stayed in camp, when I know you go back to school every year? That I haven't noticed how you've been looking at me ever since… It's like you think I'm two minutes from having break down or just straight up running off to join… Kronos," Percy noticed how careful she was not to mention Luke either. "Tell me that if you were in my place, you wouldn't want to be on top of everything - or at least, look like you are!"

Percy considered this for a second. "Yeah, I would," he nodded, then took a deep breath. "Look, I get it, ok? You and I are the same! But if I've learned something at all, it's that I usually need someone to tell me whenever I'm being a stubborn idiot. For me, that's usually Annabeth, but since she's not here: you are being a stubborn idiot! Now shut the fuck up, and let me help you!"

For a second Percy wasn't sure if Thalia would hit him or let him help, but she chuckled and gave him her hand. "I guess I am being a little too stubborn."

He clicked open the water bottle with his teeth and spilled some of it on her hand. She winced, but didn't move. Percy imagined Thalia's hand recovering and a few seconds later, the water circled around the red spot and it was turned into a tiny, barely noticeable scar.

"Cool trick. Thanks, Jackson," she said looking at her hand.

"No big deal," Percy shrugged. Healing others was harder than healing himself. Little drops of sweat had broken out on his forehead, just below his hairline, but he didn't plan on wiping them in front of Thalia.

She looked him in the eyes. "Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"You annoy me a lot! You almost never think before you act; you made me spill my very sticky drink all over myself and I had to redo my entire make-up. I hate it when you beat me at things ,and not just because you make me say that I'm your bitch, which by the way, I'm so not! I hate it that you've pretty much had as much experience as I have, even though I'm older. And though I understand where you are coming from, I hate that you don't trust me! But I guess, you are not totally awful."

"Thanks, thats's nice," he chuckled. "For what is worth, I'm not sure I like you most of the time either. You frustrate me, you make me angry, you constantly provoke me. But I guess you can be nice too."

"You know, I wouldn't constantly provoke you, if you would just listen to me every once in a while and took a break from being a huge jackass once in a while!"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault that you burnt your hand. Maybe you wouldn't have gotten hurt, if you had a little more balance than a drunk elephant!"

"That's not an actual expression, you moron!"

'Yes, it is! But I guess, I can see how you'd think that! English was so much different in the 80s, where you seem to be stuck! You do know that grunge and punk went out of style about that time, right?"

"You're an ass!" said Thalia indignantly.

"Right back at ya'!"

They were now the only two people left outside their cabins and they were standing just a couple of feet from each other, looking into one-another's eyes with angry, challenging expressions.

Then, Percy took a step forward. He wrapped his arms around Thalia's waist, stopping for a second - just enough time for a demigod to decide whether to push him away. Instead, Thalia grasped the collar of his jacket and pulled him down. Their mouths pressed together in a passionate kiss. It was angry, intense, hot… and so much more different, then the way Percy usually pictured his first proper kiss.

Kissing Thalia was zealous and heated. He pulled her closer, their entire bodies were now pressed together hard, almost painfully. He could feel her breasts squished between them, but she didn't seem to care, so clutched to her even tighter. Thalia ran her hands through his hair and even pulled slightly, but Percy liked it. He placed his hands on her small back as she put hers on his neck. After a couple of minutes, they separated, their lips hurting.

At first none of them said or did anything.

Then Thalia forced a smile."Well, good night, then."

Percy nodded, still too stunned to speak. Before his thoughts managed to form into words in his head, she was walking back into Zeus's cabin.