WARNING:
This story contains Blood Of Olympus spoilers

I'm going to be honest. I hadn't been planning on spending my first stress-free Friday at a funeral. But Annabeth convinced me the night before that we should go, an I'd kind of felt obligated to go. These people had been my friends, and I didn't want to insult their memory by not showing up to say goodbye.

Friday dawned bright and clear, the sky tinged cotton candy pink and bright yellow and red as the sun rose over the treetops. I watched Apollo's chariot rise into the heavens until the increasingly bright light forced myself to avert my eyes. So I turned my head to look at something equally as bright and far more beautiful.

My Wisegirl, her chest rising and falling gently as she slept. Her eyes were closed but I could easily see the gray gems that were her eyes in my mind. Eyes that I could lose myself in. Her hair tickled my nose as I inhaled her lemony scent and I pulled her closer to me, burying my face in her hair.

I felt her breath hitch as she woke up, my movement possibly jostling her awake even though I'd tried to not to move too much. But after Tartarus, we'd both become light sleepers. Even when we were out, we were still affected by that place either with nightmares or fits when we'd get sucked into the memories. Part of me hoped we would get better, but the other part knew that hoping was pointless. Sure, the nightmares would go away someday, maybe when we're both seventy years old, but the memories and fear would always be there.

I didn't realize I'd started shivering until someone warm wrapped their arms around me. Bright gray eyes the color of liquid silver looked up into mine. Annabeth smiled comfortingly and leaned upward to give me a gentle kiss. I felt my muscles relaxing and wrapped my arms around her to press her closer to me. She sighed and rested her forehead against my chest.

We stayed like that for who knows how long. Long enough for the birds to start chirping and for the camp noise to begin was all I could gather. A gentle hand on my cheek brought my attention away from the outside world and back into my cabin where I was laying.

"Percy," Annabeth said quietly. "Did you get any sleep last night?" I lowered my gaze. I could lie to her, and say I did but she knew me too well and would call me out.

"No," I admitted to her. "I was watching you to make sure you didn't get nightmares..." I knew it was stupid to act all protective like that over her, but I couldn't help it. It hurts to see her in pain and I would rather get no sleep and make sure she doesn't get nightmares, than to get a few hours sleep while she writhes in emotional pain.

She furrowed her brow at my words. "Percy, you need to sleep at some point."

Annabeth was right and she and I both knew it so I didn't say anything. She only sighed and kissed me again. "Come on," She said softly. "Lets get ready for...the funeral." She sat up and pushed back the covers to shower and get changed. I watched her go, feeling cold without her with me.

I finally pushed myself out of the bed and to my feet. I looked around to locate the outfit that I was going to wear today. And no, not like 'should I wear these pants with this shirt?' kind of outfit. Yesterday I'd had to find some fancy dress pants and a shirt because Annabeth and I wanted to wear the proper mourning attire.

I finally found my pants hanging on one of the metal Hippocampi on the ceiling. I had no idea how they got up there. I went to work looking for my shirt and found it underneath the pillow on the bunk above mine. Which was stupid because I hadn't put it there.

I considered taking a shower before ditching the idea. I didn't need one, I'd taken one last night anyway. I pulled the white button down shirt over my head without bothering to unbutton it. Next, I discarded the sweatpants I had been sleeping in and pulled on a pair of black dress pants. They were stiff and felt uncomfortable against my skin but I could suffer through it for a few hours.

I sat on the edge of the bed and laced up my ratty sneakers. Yeah, they weren't fancy loafers but when your a demigod you can't afford to wear shoes like that. Not even if your in a safe place like camp. Something could always go wrong, something I'd had learn pretty quick when I first found out I was half god.

I heard the water in the bathroom shut off and knew that Annabeth would be coming out in a few moments so I took the time to make the bed. Yeah, I know I know. Percy Jackson making his bed?! Well, I needed to o something while I waited.

Sure enough however, Annabeth came out of the bathroom ready to go. She wasn't wearing a dress and I hadn't been expecting her to. This was, after all, Annabeth. She wore black dress pants and a white blouse. She was wearing her old sneakers as well. The only difference between us was the fact that she was wearing jewelry and a smidgen of make up.

She smiled when she saw me and walked over, lacing her fingers though mine. "You look great." I told her and kissed her cheek. I ran a hand through her wet hair and the water disappeared, leaving her hair golden and curly and dry.

Annabeth grinned and put her hair up in a ponytail. "Thanks," She said to me. "And you look amazing." I laughed.

"Are you trying to one up me?" I asked. She shrugged but she was still smiling.

"Maybe."

I laughed and we both headed towards the door. It felt so good to laugh. I hadn't had a very good reason to since the battle against Gaea. I opened the door for her and she stepped out into the bright sunshine. I followed after her and my happy mood was instantly spoiled. Everyone was wearing black, everyone was unhappy. Couldn't the gods have had the decency to make the weather gloomy too? But no. They just had to make the weather perfect. The gods weren't even coming. Didn't they care that their children had died?

Even if the gods didn't care, we did. And we cared so much that we personally went to the homes of the fallen demigods to tell their families what had happened. It was the job of the head counselor to tell the family of their half-siblings that they were since Annabeth was head counselor for the Athena cabin, she had once left on a trip to go to Georgia to tell a father that his son wasn't coming home. She had returned home in tears and only told me what happened after I'd spent three hours trying to coax it out of her.

Apparently she didn't have to tell just the father, but a stepmother and three younger siblings. They'd been a happy family, and the news had been a hard blow. It had been very emotional and hard and I could only imagine what it must have been like, and how hard it must have been for the other demigod head counselors to have done that.

A gentle squeeze on my hand brought me out of memory lane. Annabeth was looking at me worriedly. "Are you okay?" She asked and pressed up against my side. I tried to put on a brave smile and nodded, looping my arm around her waist.

"Fine," I told her. She nodded as we walked to the Amphitheater were the shrouds would be burned. On the way, we met up with the remainder of The Seven.

They were all grim faced as we paused in our movement to look at each other. Like Annabeth and the camp and I, they were dressed in good clothes for the Funeral. Hazel was the only girl wearing a skirt. Piper had even placed a raven feather in her hair to match the dark feelings all around. Everyone was trying to keep a stiff upper lip but I could see that they were all weakening under the strain. Poor Hazel had tears swimming in her golden eyes. The war had taken a lot of loved ones from both camps and one of them had been Leo.

Losing the son of Hephaestus had hit us hard. We'd searched for days trying to find his body but we hadn't found a trace of him. We'd still hoped though, but this felt like we were finally giving up. It hurt. But it hurt Jason and Piper more since they'd been his closest friends. Jason had even taken to wearing contacts instead of his glass's, like Leo had once suggested he do.

"Hey guys." I said with a weak smile. They all tried to return it, but only Hazel and Frank managed to keep it up. Jason was just staring at his shoes, the cards for his speech clenched in his trembling hands. Piper wrapped her arm around his and rested her head on Jason's shoulder.

"I don't want to do this." Hazel sniffed and wiped her eyes on the back of her arm.

"We have to." Piper said. Her voice was trembling and a lone tear streaked down her cheek. "For Leo, we have-have to honor his memory." She sobbed and Jason looked up, wrapping her in his arms. I saw a tear trail down his cheek but I didn't say anything. I was close to crying too.

It was a silent decision that we keep walking. When we reached the Amphitheater it was a sea of black and white, a sea of emotions too. But there was one major emotion that everyone shared and that was sadness. The fire in the middle was a dark blue as it reflected the campers mood and it flickered only a few inches above the ground.

I looked around and saw Reyna at the base of the stone seats. Looking around, I also saw familiar Roman demigods among the Greek demigods. Everyone was here today to honor those who were gone. Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth and I made our way to stand next to the Praetor. She looked up once to acknowledge we were there before she returned to staring at the long line of burial shrouds at our feet.

I gripped Annabeths hand and watched as Chiron trotted up to face everyone. His face was devoid of all emotion. After centuries of doing this, I guess he was better at hiding his emotions than us. In Chirons hand, he held aloft a torch. Slowly, he lowered it to set ablaze the central (and empty) shroud. A fiery red cloth with the symbol for Hephaestus on it. It lit up immediately and the orange blaze spread quickly down the line of shrouds. Chiron stepped back and for a second I couldn't see him behind the wall of fire. But then it was gone along with the shrouds. Not even ash's remained.

The Amphitheater was deadly quiet save a few sobbing demigods. My own throat felt painfully tight as I tried to swallow back the wail of pain that was clawing it's way up. Beside me, Jason inhaled deeply and made his way towards the center. He turned to face everyone, his cards held in front of him but I don't think his eyes flickered downwards to read off of them.

"There aren't enough words in the world to describe how I'm feeling right now." He began. "There isn't enough to describe how you guys are feeling either. The war against Gaea tried to take away someone from us. From all of us. And yes, I say tried. Tried, because while you can take away someone from us physically you can't take them from our hearts." Jason's electric blue eyes darted to me. "Or our minds."

I smiled and pulled Annabeth closer to me.

Jason took a deep breath as he continued. "Today, we say goodbye to our friends from this world. But we all know that if we keep them in our hearts and our minds, we wont really be saying goodbye. And we'll be seeing them again someday. Hopefully not soon, but someday. I wish-"

A bright light and a clap of thunder suddenly cut him off. I screwed my eyes shut against the light and when I opened them again, we weren't in camp. Across from me, Jason threw down his cards in anger.

"I wish you'd have waited until I was done!" He screamed at someone behind me, and I turned along with Annabeth to see the Olympian council staring down at us, stern faced and tight lipped.

Oh great. And here I thought today would be uneventful. I thought bitterly. I looked around and found that all six of us, the remainder of The Seven, were here. Hazel was looking around with wide eyes. Frank was trying not to seem like he was too enchanted by the room, but he was failing miserably. Jason was still looking murderous and Piper was trying to calm him down. Me? For me, it was all 'same old same old'. The only thing that was bugging me, was I didn't know who I had pissed off this time.

Even Annabeth leaned over to whisper in my ear, "What did you do now?" I only shrugged and began walking with her towards the front of the room. Warily, the others began to follow after us. The gods watched us pass coldly as I headed towards Zeus but I didn't care. They didn't scare me anymore.

When I reached the base of the god of thunders giant throne, I gave him a slight bow before turning to face my father. I bowed as well. Beside me, Annabeth bowed to Zeus and then to her mother. The others followed our example.

The gods still hadn't said anything and it was really beginning to bug me. Usually, they start yelling at each other the instant a meetings started, but right now they were still quiet. It was giving me the creeps.

"Okay," I spoke up after everyone was finished. "What do you want now?" Beside me, Annabeth held my hand and I could tell she was matching my angered look. Zeus looked down at me in outrage and I though I saw lightning flicker in his beard.

"Be careful with your tone boy." He said to me. "I could blast you apart right now if I so wished."

"No you can't." I replied. "Even I know that, and I'm a Kelphead." Beside me, Annabeth let out a snort of barely suppressed laughter. "I've saved you guys too many times for you to smite me where I stand, so all I have to say, is what do you want that's more important than us honoring our friends?"

Down the row of thrones, Dionysus bellowed in outrage. "You dare disrespect a god?" He cried. I glared at him.

"Yeah." I answered briskly. "I do." I turned back to Zeus. "Seriously Lord Zeus, what do you want?"

Zeus was still glaring at me and his grip tightened around his master bolt. "Well Perseus," I gritted my teeth at his usage of my full name. "It has come to my attention," He glared pointedly at my dad who sat beside him looking undeterred by the look of rage."That you, and the rest of your friends, have been working hard. So e council and I have agreed to help you by letting you have a break from your demigod duties."

I was instantly suspicious. Usually when a god says they want to help you, it ends up being a bad thing. I looked at my friends and they were mirroring my own look of caution.

"Oh yeah?" I said cautiously. "And what did you have in mind?"

Zeus puffed out his chest. Was it a good thing? The king of the gods was acting like it was but I refused to get my hopes up. "We have agreed to let you have an all expense paid, vacation at the High School called 'Goode'."

Oh gods no.