AN: Help. School is taking over, and it isn't leaving any survivors. Delete my browser history if I perish. Nah, thought I should write something for this fandom before House of Hades comes out and kills all my feelings. So I decided to write this.

Don't be that guy and please leave a review.

(tumblr: Zadi-Zadi-Zadi)

Disclaimer: How the Hades am I Rick Riordan? Guys, even I wouldn't have thrown Percy and Annabeth into Hell.
Words: 700
Title: The Fifth Circle Involves Blue Cupcakes.
Summary: "Happy birthday to me…I'm still suck in hell-y? Annabeth, please help me write this song." They're still in Hell, but help is bound to come on his birthday. Right? Vignette.

"You can't sing," Annabeth reminded him. She raised her knife. "Stop. Now."

Percy tried to keep the saccharine low in his voice but it just seeped out. "But I thought our all-consuming love can get past that?"

"Not if you're missing some important guts."

Being in Tartarus was really making her patience thin and easy to break. All which were a horrible thing when Percy tried to lighten their impending doom with a joke. Said joke would be taken the wrong way and a monster would them tried to rip them from limb to limb. He figured that in the near future that this would become a routine, then he realized that he was thinking that they weren't going to be saved in the long-term.

It was a sucky feeling to have on his birthday.

"Did you do something different to your hair?" Percy asked. "It looks less bloody."

Annabeth turned her back on him and limped ahead.

Percy watched her walk away. "What? No happy birthday?"

Tartarus was weird. There was no other way to put it. Of course, there were the monsters that he dispatched down here, and were patiently waiting for their revenge; there were the glimpses of even scarier monsters that only existed in nightmares; and even the half-whispers of other people in the damned place.

However, under different and not life-threatening circumstances, he was sure that Annabeth would enjoy this and would pursuit for more knowledge about Tartarus. Simple things, really, like how powerful was the prison that kept the Titans down, what the Hades was with that glowing cage that was in that deep chasm near Kronos' place, and how long it would take a monster to regenerate?

Like he said, Tartarus had some weird stuff. Educational, maybe, but it got to be pretty damn weird.

It was easy to catch up with Annabeth due to her injury, and Percy found himself strolling ahead of his muttering girlfriend. He held his sword up and kept with his jovial attitude among the brimstone and Greek Fire. "I wonder if something conveniently lucky will happen to us?" he asked, feeling rather hopeful for once.

She sighed and pushed some of her matted curls away from her weary face. "Hasn't the last few years taught you anything?"

Percy held a finger up for each lesson. "It taught me that anything that rhymes means nothing good is about to happen; family and friends makes you stronger because you know who may want to kill you next; and beware when something gets too good to be true because it ain't gonna last."

Annabeth was apparently thinking of a different answer. "Birthdays bad, Percy. Happy celebrations bad. Nothing is ever happy for long in Greco-Roman mythology."

"We saved the world last year on my birthday," he reminded her. "That wasn't so bad."

She said something too fast under her breath in Ancient Greek. Percy couldn't catch it all, but he got the gist that it was something about lazy cattle and romantic partners. Smiling, he threw an arm over her shoulders. She leaned her weight against his shoulder, sighing. "Cheer up," he said, thinking about blue cupcakes, family, friends, and a hot shower. "Help is bound to come today. We'll be fine."

He started to horribly sing his new version of the Happy birthday song, and Annabeth smiled fully for the first time since they had arrived in Hell.