Percy POV

"Why is the Motel Carolina in Nebraska?" Leo. I was just about to ask the same thing. It sounded moronic, though, so good thing he beat me to it.

"For real, man? Come on, you can't possibly be that-" Frank was cut off by Hazel. "-blind." She finished. Blind? What is she talking about? The sign obviously says Carolina. Or California. Or-

Damn that dyslexia.

I glanced at Annabeth in confusion. Reading my mind, she casually threw out, "Not that Motel Carnation makes much more sense." Gods, I love her. Even after being awake for 36 hours straight and having traveled through the entire never-ending state of Kansas, she still looks gorgeous. How did I get so lucky?

Said good luck gives me a strange look, and I realize someone is probably talking to me.

"Yo, Perce. Do we go in?" Leo again. Say what you will about him, but he recovers damn fast from humiliation. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jason flinch slightly. I can tell he hates that Leo asked me, not him. He used to be the leader. Son of Zeus, and all. However, turns out, a trip to Tartarus and a bit of an age gap basically guarantees you the "leader" gig.

Now is not the time to ponder the feelings of this freak-show group. Now is the time to make an executive decision. I look around, and notice the sheer exhaustion on everyone's faces. Even Piper, child of Aphrodite, has bags under her eyes and a rat's nest in her hair.

"I say we go in. Beggars can't be choosers, right?" Annabeth smiles gratefully at me, and I know I've made the right decision (even though there could potentially be an angry horde of monsters after us, we need sleep BAD). The conditions aren't exactly ideal (potential bedbugs, ratty mattresses, moldy showers, etc.), but after Tartarus this feels like a palace. Plus, we get three rooms for free. (And I only manipulate the Mist a teensy little bit.)

"One bed," Annabeth observes. "Did you plan this?"

"Yeah, Annabeth. I crossed an ocean, the infinite freaking state of Kansas, and a mountain range so I could sleep with you." I say sarcastically, smirking at her.

"Hey, don't you get lippy. I know how the teenage male mind works." She has no idea. I rip my eyes away from her legs as she changes into pajama bottoms and strip down to my boxers.

"Wanna go for a swim?" I waggle my eyes at her. She rolls hers, but takes her pajamas back off anyway. We wrap ourselves in towels and quietly tiptoe past the rooms of the rest of our crew out to the river next to the Carnation. It's surprisingly clear for the location, and I see a naiad swimming happily in the current.

Would you mind…um…? The naiad rolls – waves? – her eyes at me, but swims downstream. I hop in. It's a little chilly, being October and all, but I can barely feel it. I know it won't feel the same way for Annabeth, though, so I warn her.

"It's a little chilly."

"Can't you, like, I don't know, warm it up or something?" I laugh, intrigued by the idea but doubtful.

"Just get in. You'll get used to it."

"Says the son of Poseidon," she mutters, but clambers in anyway. I can tell exactly when the cold hits her, because she freezes with her hands in the air, and then starts jumping up and down. After a minute or so, she relaxes a little and scoots in deeper. I lean against the bank.
"So. Come here often?" I wink at her, and she smacks my arm and laughs. We start talking, and for a while it's like we're the only people in the world. I noticed she's stopped shivering.

"We have to talk about it sometime," I say. Her laughter dies instantly and she glances down, avoiding my eyes. "We'll go insane if we don't." She snorts.

"I know, I just… I don't know if I'm ready," she whispers. A cricket chirps in the distance.

The moonlight falls across her nose and cheeks, casting shadows of her eyelashes onto her cheekbones.

"Like what you see?" She jokes. I nod, deciding to save the Tartarus therapy-group for another day. "Come here." Slowly, she makes her way across the river. I put my arms around her and rest my chin in her hair.

"I love you," I whisper.

"I don't really like you too much, actually. I was thinking maybe I'd go ask the bits of Kronos if he'd give me a chance, because you're not really-" Cutting her off with a growl, I spin her around and kiss her. I can feel her smiling against my lips, and all feels right in the world.

Even the sheets, when we finally crawl into bed, feel like 1,000-count Egyptian cotton. Sleep overtakes us within seconds, and I feel the happiest I've felt in a long time.

At least, until the next morning.

"Wake up." Shaking. Jostling. "PERCY. Wake up!" More shaking. I suddenly register that it's Annabeth's voice and she sounds urgent, so I whip out of bed and uncap Riptide before my eyes are really even open. Annabeth leaps back, but doesn't look overly surprised. More like she expected me to be jumpy.
I mumble something that might resemble "What's going on," but it sounds pretty butchered, even to me. Annabeth gets it, though, and taps her ear, telling me to listen. Stilling, I hear a roar from the lobby.

"PERSEUS JACKSON!"

Why is it always my name? Not that I'd rather the monster be after one of my friends, but seriously. Don't these things have other targets?

Annabeth POV

I can't help it. I giggle a little as Percy stumbles out the door to go fight whatever it is this time. His bed-head is just so damn adorable.

The voice roars his name again. It sounds vaguely familiar. Scrambling down the hall after Percy, I shout at the others to get their scrawny asses out here. In various states of consciousness, Piper, Jason, Leo, Hazel, and Frank stumble out onto the grungy carpet.

"What's up?" Piper asks.

"Yeah, why'd you wake me? I need my beauty sleep, you know," Leo adds.

"PERSEUS JACKSON!"

"Oh," everyone realizes. "What is it?" asks Jason. If I'm right about him, he probably just asked to seem relatively in charge. He and Percy used to be in some sort of manliness war, but now it seems that Percy's won, and Jason isn't real thrilled about it.

"Not sure, but it reminds me of something…" I trailed off.

"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE NOW! GAEA SAID PERSEUS JACKSON IS NOBODY! NOBODY IS YOU!"

Oh, gods. "It's Polyphemus. We fought him for the Golden Fleece once. Gods, that feels like ages ago… We should be able to handle him, although last time we had a daughter of Ares and a pseudo-bride satyr, so we're gonna have to change up the strategy," I informed the group. With that, I turned on my heel and shot down the stairs to go help my boyfriend.

So. How was it? I hope you liked reading it. There's more where that came from.

R&R, please!