Stupid weather. Stupid task. Stupid Annabeth with her long blonde hair that just seemed to absorb all the sunlight at once. Stupid, pretty Annabeth. If he did lose this, he shouldn't be the one to be blamed. Damn it. How could he think about something logical when the world kept swirling around the both of them, glistering with feelings that wasn't logical at all?

"I'm not gonna let her do this to me." Percy thought angrily to himself as he kicked one of the sons to Apollo hard and made his wooden shield break into thousand tiny little splinters. Hah. He could so do this. And she didn't affect him at all. No way. And it didn't matter at all that she had just started laughing at him with that laugh that sounded like birds in the sky with millions of stars beside them and FUCK IT. When did he became such a pathetic romantic loser? It was all her fault. Stupid Annabeth. Stupid, pathetic, Annabeth. Stupid Percy.

Maybe she wasn't even that pretty. Maybe this was just some stupid illusion in his head. Yes, that must be it.

"She's just my best friend!" he screamed inside himself, trying to quiet down that little voice that'd been bothering him for such a long time. It sounded a lot like Thalia. Stupid Thalia-like voice. Stupid feelings. It's not like he needed a problem like this right now. Hell, even though he was only 16 he had faced far more than he should and with an upcoming, usual end-of-the-world-scenario he didn't want the feelings to start a war inside him too. Why did this have to happen? And why right now? No, not just right now. The stupid Thalia-like voice whispered inside him once again. You've been through this for years. You've been in love since you first laid your eyes on her. No, no, not at all. This was really stupid. Why?

"Percy?" he woke from his own thoughts when he heard her voice. Slowly he looked up and found himself staring right into her eyes. God, did they have to be so beautiful?

"Erhm… yes? What do you want?" Great Percy, your opening lines deserve a nobel prize. Wait, make that two.

She looked puzzled.

"Well duh. It's not like you can sit here and… doze off, all day. Just cause you've beaten pretty much everyone here we still have to train. Do you remember the world and it's about to end-thing it's got going?"

"Of course" he grunted. Oh why couldn't she just leave him alone?

"Then why are you sitting here seaweed brain? Get up!" she reached for his arm to drag him off the ground but when he saw her motion he quickly got up on his own. He didn't need touching right now. Well, maybe he wanted it but he didn't need it. Ah, hell, he needed it. But touching and feeling Annabeths hand should be far worse than just seeing her stand there. And he couldn't take that right now. This was stupid. The whole act was just stupid and he felt like killing something really vicious right now. Once again she looked puzzled.

"Okay, what IS wrong with you? You've been acting weird the whole day?"

"Nothing. Just forget it." He turned his back on her.

"Percy?" her voice was awfully quiet now. "Did I… Did I do something wrong?"

Oh no. he didn't want this. Not a fight. Not a time of not talking to Annabeth. He looked at her, over his shoulder. No, there it was. The tears that seemed to be showing themselves more often recently.

"No Annabeth, please, it's not something… I've just got a lot on my mind you know? Come on, where's the Athena-spirit?" Don't cry." He lifted his hand to her cheek and somehow his fingers seemed to absorb the tears from her eyes. She looked at him again, the grey eyes piercing through him.

"You've been ignoring me Percy. Don't make excuses, I know you have. You barely look at me when I'm talking to you. How could I think something else then?

He bit his lip. Great mess Percy, really, great mess. How are you gonna get away with this?

"I just… I don't…" and now he was turning into Percy Jackson – the babbling idiot. He shook his head. "This is just crazy."

"What is?" she moved closer to him and in a heartbeat he realized that she felt closer now than she's ever been, even though their fights often turned into wrestling. (He didn't want to admit it, but she won them all)

"This, Annabeth, this. Really, what's not crazy? We're here with a war in front of us and… We shouldn't be. I shouldn't exist."

"I'm glad you do."

The words came so sudden and sounded so serious that Percy felt like he was going to burn up inside. He could feel his face burning and he didn't wanna know how red he looked. It didn't get better when Annabeth came even closer. He wondered how much air it was between them. Probably not much. Maybe nothing. It was getting hard to breath. She took his hand and this time he couldn't stop it. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and she smiled as she pushed his hair that kept falling in his eyes, away.

"Why are we doing this?"

"Doing what?" for the first time Percy smiled and let his fingers gently touch her cheek again, even though she'd stopped crying.

"This. Being so… I don't know. Why can't we stop thinking just for a while? Why can't we just… Be us?"

No, he couldn't believe that she was saying this and he couldn't believe that she was so close that her eyes seemed to melt together with his. He swallowed and tried his best to keep his voice steady.

"And what would be… us?"

"You've never been really good at realizing what people wants Percy. Stop talking." And then her lips was on his, he could feel her all over him, her soft body came closer and closer, and he covered his hands in her beautiful hair and he wanted this moment to last forever. Then it started to rain and Percy didn't know if the weather just was messing with them or if the gods were furious, but he didn't care. He didn't care. The gods were stupid anyway.