Between TLO and TLH

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus, all rights to Rick Riordan.

Annabeth leaned against a tree in the common area. Percy had surprised her with a new book, saying she needed to relax a bit from her new job redesigning Olympus. Everything started off peaceful: the Stolls were teaching some new kid from Cabin Eleven different ways to break into the camp store, the Ares kids were dunking people's heads in toilets; Aphrodite's children were flirting and gossiping. The Hunters, who'd decided to drop by, surprisingly hadn't tried to kill anyone yet and were even having a friendly competition with the Apollo campers – meaning they were shooting targets, not each other this time. It was just a normal day at Camp Half-Blood.

"We do not fight that much!"

"Yes, you guys do!"

"No, that's you two!"

"Bullshit!"

"Thalia! There's a kid here!"

"I'm not a kid! I'm older than both of you combined!"

Scratch that. Nothing was ever normal with children of the Big Three around.

Annabeth sighed and closed her book, following the rising voices of the quarrelling cousins. She made her way across the grass towards her boyfriend's cabin. She leaned against the doorframe, watching the trio for a moment.

"We barely ever fight! You two on the other hand, fight over everything."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"You two fight more than me and you!"

"You guys fight way more than we do!"

"We do not!"

"You so do!

"No we don't!"

"Fuck you! It's true!"

"Nico!"

"Yes?" the young boy asked innocently.

"Language, you're twelve!"

"Mi dispiace, non parlo inglese."("I'm sorry, I don't speak English.")

Annabeth pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"Are you guys seriously fighting over who fights more?"

"No…" they said in sheepish unison.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at them.

"Percy and Nico fight the most!" Thalia blurted out after a moments silence.

"No way! You and Percy fight the most!"

"It's you and Thalia!"

"Hold it!" Annabeth called before another fight could break out. She walked over to Thalia's bunk across from the boys and sat down. "It's generally all three of you that fight the most."

Percy opened his mouth to pretest but Annabeth held up a hand silencing him.

"What happens is two of you start fighting then the other sees the fight and jumps in for fun."

"Not true." Thalia muttered.

"Percy," Annabeth said, "make me a rainbow please."

"Sure!" Percy obediently jumped up and opened a window before using the mist from his fountain to make a rainbow. When he'd finished he took a flying leap back onto his bunk, almost crushing Nico.

"Hey! Watch it!"

Percy gave his cousin a gentle shove – which lead to a full blown fist fight. Thalia instantly leaped off the bed and joined in.

"And point proven." Annabeth said.

All three cousins froze and looked at her before blushing.

"Shut up." they muttered. "It's not true."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and fished a drachma out of her pocket.

"O Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please show us yesterday morning."

Annabeth tossed the coin into the mist and a scene slowly began to appear.

~o~O~o~

The three cousins lay on the ground beneath Thalia's tree, Peleus snoring around the trunk.

Thalia yawned and point at the sky, "That cloud looks like a turtle."

"No it doesn't, it looks like a giraffe," Percy murmured.

"How do giraffes and turtles look alike?" Nico asked with his eyes closed, soaking up the warmth.

"Woah, Zombie Dude, I thought you fell asleep." Percy said, propping himself up on his elbows.

"No, keeping my eyes open is just too much effort."

"Amen to that little cousin," Thalia said, "I still think it's a turtle though."

"Giraffe."

"Turtle."

"Giraffe!"

"Turtle!"

"Giraffe!"

"Turtle!"

The duo's voices got louder and louder and soon they were standing, shouting in each other's' faces.

"GIRAFFE!"

"TURTLE!"

The shouting was quickly silenced by Thalia punching Percy; then, it was war. Any love the relatives had for each other seemed to disappear. They threw punches and kicks until Percy picked up Thalia and slammed her on the ground.

Thalia swung her leg out and knocked Percy off his feet, jumping on him and trying to pin him. They continued to punch and try to wrap their hands around each other's throats for a while longer before Nico (who had seemed oblivious to the sounds of the fight) opened his and sat up, watching the two for a moment.

The youngest of the trio seemed to study his fighting family for a minute before calmly standing up and stretching then jumping on Thalia and Percy to join in the battle.

~o~O~o~

The three sat on Percy's bunk across from Annabeth, watching as the mist faded.

"Now do you believe me?" she asked.

They sat in silence for a moment.

"I thought it looked like a skunk." Nico said quietly.

"Seriously, Corpse Worm? It was obviously a turtle!"

"No way, it was a giraffe!"

Annabeth sighed and shook her head. "You three are hopeless."

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it! Constructive criticism is welcome as always. Personally, I don't thik it's my best, but that's always how I see my stories when I put them up.

Have a good day/night!