The next few days were very labor intensive. So laborious in fact that I had taken to wearing my invisibility cap to avoid any alone time with him. There was a lot to do at camp, and it was nice being back in a familiar place, but it was hard to enjoy with Percy always being around. I tried to stay by large groups of people, but doing that for three days is something of a challenge.

It was no surprise that the day before we were supposed to leave for Olympus, Percy found me in my cabin working on my laptop. And unfortunately enough for me, none of my siblings could be found. Before I could even begin to formulate an excuse, Percy held up a hand and said, "Annabeth, don't." He walked over to my bed and thankfully did not sit down, but rather leaned up against one of the poles connected to the bunk above me. I could feel him looking at me, but I couldn't bring myself to look back. When did I become such a wuss that I let talking to my own boyfriend scare me so much? In retrospect I was being really stupid, but I'd never had to deal with something like this before. Thankfully Percy broke the silence between us first, although what he said wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.

"Look we need to talk about what happened. And don't get me wrong, I was really embarrassed, but you can't just ignore me forever, especially when we're staying on Olympus together." I could just tell he was looking at me in that sad way he likes to use on me. Damn him I thought, because I didn't want to look at him but I also knew he was right. We did need to talk about it no matter how much I didn't want to.

"If you think it'll help," I said, finally looking up at him. And I was right. He was using his sad face. Jerk.

"Well I didn't actually think you'd agree so easily…" he mumbled, but obviously loud enough for me to hear him. Jerk. But I chose to ignore it.

"All I have to say is that I really wish you could've sought out some more privacy before doing… 'that!'"

"It was almost two in the morning, I didn't think you'd still be awake and I definitely didn't think that you would walk out to the living room!" he said, coming off the beam and moving closer towards me, which I for some reason took stock of. Why would him getting closer to me make me nervous?

"I don't really know what we have to talk about as far as this is concerned."

"I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen. Look, we're both at the point where we should probably talk about this stuff and—"

"This stuff? This stuff? What is this stuff that we need to talk about?"

"I'm just saying that—"

"You're just saying that you think that we should already be talking about sex?" Truth be told, I'm not really sure where that came from. I never intended to even mention it. But I guess that was my subconscious working against me. Thoughts that I used to have started to bubble to the surface, and I could feel my cheeks start to flush. Go away hormones! I tried to tell my body to stop what it was doing but for some reason I was responding to this completely embarrassing conversation. Maybe… no. No, I couldn't think that.

While I was having my own internal dialogue, Percy moved and closed the door. It took me a moment to realize what he was doing, but when I did I was mad. Why did he suddenly feel the need to close the door? Was he planning something?

"Why'd you close the door?" I asked as he turned around back towards me.

"Because I don't want other people to hear what we're talking about!" he replied rather forcefully. And at that I conceded to agree; I didn't want anyone to overhear us either.

"This isn't something I want to talk about right now."

"Well then I'll talk and you can listen and I know you're going to punch me for saying that later but whatever. Annabeth, just hear me out. I've known you for years and I have feelings for you that I don't want to voice because honestly I don't know if you want to hear that yet. But you're my best friend and you're my girlfriend and sometimes I have to do that stuff because I know we are way far away from sex. And because I don't want to make you uncomfortable, I just do 'that' and keep what I want to myself since all of that is up to you anyway. And when I finally got to see you after these past couple of weeks, I couldn't help myself because I'd missed you and sometimes that's what I do."

For once it seemed like Percy had shown me up. I thought that I was supposed to be the smart one in the relationship, and somehow he had been smarter about this than me. After all, I guess he was right. And he wasn't trying to force me to do anything; he was just trying to make sure he didn't make me uncomfortable. Which was kind of nice in a weird way. In a Percy way I guess. But I felt better now that he explained himself.

"Who said I hadn't thought about it?" I asked him, acting innocently. I both wanted to talk about sex and tease him, but now that I felt better I really wanted to tease him.

"You have?!" he exclaimed, as I knew he would.

"Maybe a little bit," I replied, just as innocently as before. He then moved to sit down on my bed with me, and I moved my laptop off to the side.

"So, you're like, naughty?" he asked me. As soon as he got the last word out I punched him on the shoulder. "Okay, okay, sorry," he mumbled, massaging his shoulder. But I could see his smile and I smiled back in return.

"That doesn't count as the punch you'll get for telling me to shut up. That was just a bonus punch." I punched him again. "And so was that."

"You can be really mean sometimes, you know that? I know you said you'd never make things easy for me, but come on…" he muttered, rubbing the spot on his arm where I'd punched him again. Even though he'd gotten bigger than me, I was glad that I still had a little power over him. Except…

"Hey wait a second! What happened to not being able to feel pain? Were you just faking that?" I completely forgot that he was now invulnerable, except for one spot on his back that I somehow unconsciously knew about. When he hung his head and started mumbling, I knew he had been faking being hurt by my punches. With his head turned the other way, I reached around him to where I thought his "Achilles' spot" was and poked him. He shot up and emitted something like a shriek and a squeal that I couldn't help cracking up at.

"What was that for!" he stated more than asked. Of course he knew what it was for. He massaged his back while I tried to regain control from my laughing fit.

"Well I've got to keep you in check somehow." He looked at me with feigned innocence and I thought I had an idea of what he was going to say.

"Ya know, if you think I've been a bad boy, you could always give me a punishment…" but before he got any further I went to poke his back, except he was quicker than me. He grabbed my wrist and simultaneously pulled himself closer to me so that our legs were touching. And then he kissed me. These weren't the kind of kisses that he had given me when I would go over to his house; those were pecks since his parents were around. There was a longing in these kisses, and a lust. And I could feel myself responding to that.

Before I knew it we were laying down next to each other, kissing with a passion I had never experienced between us prior. The feelings I used to have safely in my dorm when I was alone started coming back to me. I felt so excited, but there was also a knot of nervousness in my stomach. What if things go too far? I thought as I rolled on top of Percy to take charge. His hands were beginning to roam and I knew we were fast approaching uncharted territory and I didn't know if we were ready for that; I didn't know if I was ready for that.

But I couldn't stop. I wanted him; I had for a long time and now that we were alone in my cabin… Crap. We're in my CABIN. And there's no doubt that my mom can see us right now. And there's every possibility that one of my siblings could walk in.

I had a sort of mental tug-of-war while we kept kissing; I wanted to see where this went but at the same time I didn't want anyone else, especially my mother, seeing it as well. But Percy's hands felt so good on my… Wait, his hands were on my butt. How did I not notice that before? Yeah, it felt good, but it seemed like he was getting away with too much.

"Okay," I said, finally breaking free of him. He instinctively moved his head up to meet mine but only found empty air.

"What's the matter?"

"I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. And there's every possibility that my mother is watching or that one of my siblings could walk in." At that I took his hands off my ass and placed them down on my bed. He looked at me with disappointment, and I was disappointed, too. But I just didn't want to risk it. And if things did get to "that" point, I didn't have any kind of protection, though whether or not he did wasn't really a factor in my mind. Why am I even considering this?

"I hate it when you're right," he mumbled, pulling himself up into a sitting position. At that I couldn't help but laugh.

"I am the daughter of the goddess of wisdom after all," I said, half joking, and half attempting to ensure that there wasn't any awkwardness later. Unfortunately my level of desire remained the same, and I wondered how long it would take before the feeling went away, if ever. Inwardly I sighed of frustration. If this was how I was going to feel all the time then I would have to find some kind of solution to abate it. You do have a boyfriend, my brain seemed to think on its own, and for a second I agreed before I forced myself to stop thinking like that.

"Whatever, Wise Girl," he said, smiling at me. I smiled back at him.

"Sometimes you really are a Seaweed Brain."