AN: I know, I know… It's been WAAAAAY too long, and I've gotten some pretty positive feedback, and I should've updated sooner, and yada yada yada. I'm sorry, but I will be updating fairly frequently now. Hopefully this will make some people happy :/ By the way, I'm changing around the ages of the characters, for plot reasons. Sorry if that annoys you :/ One last thing (I know, super long AN): It will switch between the PJ characters and the DW characters every couple of chapters, until their meeting, when they will switch back and forth within the chapter.
PERCY'S POV
While Thalia had the delay of digging her snow clothes out of her closet, I had no such problem. Annabeth (my ever wise and ever-thoughtful girlfriend) had my clothes ready by the time my underworld excursion had ended. She had easily figured out that Thalia was the one who pranked me the second Nico started running away from me. I guess I don't call her wise girl for nothing.
"You are the best." I said, grinning mischievously.
"I know." She retorted, smirking with self pride.
"Remember your hubris my dear," I softly responded, still grinning. She simply rolled her eyes and took another sip of hot cocoa. I gave her a light kiss once her lips left the mug, then, while she was still in a post-kiss trance, took the mug from her and downed the remainder of the sweet, energy-refueling chocolate. I felt ever-so-slightly guilty, but the warm liquid was so delicious I just ignored it.
"Hey! That's just wrong!" Annabeth pouted. I had guzzled the last quarter of the fairly large cup in about five seconds. I just grinned, feeling her glare burn into the back of my head. I went to put the cup in the sink, and, before I could turn around, there was a surprisingly cold sensation down the back of my pants.
"ANNABETH!" I roared, shuddering and fiddling with the back of my pants and trying to get the ice cubes to fall out of my jeans.
"Y' know, it's your fault for wearing jeans." She giggled. While she had a point, being that they were slightly tight, and harder to wiggle ice cubes out of, I still wanted to enact revenge somehow. Before I could turn around to tackle her, she put on her (stupidly convenient) invisibility cap, and vanished into thin air.
"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE THAT THING ON!" The front door to our apartment opened, and then slammed shut with a fit of giggles erupting from the other side.
"Wow man, smooth…" Nico said, stretching out the O's. He had finally decided to come out from behind the flipped couch. "An apology would be appreciated, by the way," he continued. I begrudgingly muttered something resembling "sorry". Then I got an idea, and an evil smirk spread across my face.
"Wanna have some fun with girls?" I asked, my mood improving ever-so-slightly, since the ices cubes had started melting. His face lit up, a devilish grin crossed his lips, and he began rubbing his hands together in villain-like fashion.
"Oh yeah." He responded, his tone now changed from weary to energetic. The look in his eyes said he was contemplating battle strategies, and his twitching fingers showed that he was ready for action.
Several minutes later…
After the drying of pants, I was ready. Looking out the window (we were on the 4th floor) we could see a slight blue light in the park across the street from our apartment building. Looking closer, we realized it was electricity forming the female gender symbol from our resident daughter of Zeus sitting atop a fairly large snow fort. It was quite a beautiful sight, the bright blue and white light surging and waving slightly. None of that really crossed my mind, as I realized how sad it was that Annabeth didn't seem to consider my abilities. This was going to be much easier than I had thought.
"Wow… They really thought they could hide a snow fort?" Nico quipped, still grinning devilishly.
"I'm actually curious how they were able to make a snow fort that big that fast." I responded. Nico shrugged. I smirked, and then, with the snap of my fingers, melted the roof of the fortress and watched it drop onto the heads of my girlfriend and my other cousin. Nico broke into hysterics, his eyes tearing up from how much he was laughing. I would be lying if I said I wasn't rolling on the floor too. As I brushed the tears out of my eyes, I stood up and looked out the window again. The female gender symbol had dissipated, and instead, lightning struck sporadically in areas around their now-slushy fortress. My smile faded, and I realized that I had just made a grave mistake. Now electricity formed in the shape of a skull, and I knew I was about to be in some SERIOUS trouble. I could see Thalia, even from that far away, with her fists clenched and her whole body surging with electricity. Annabeth was standing about a yard away from Thalia, only in a long sleeve shirt and sweats. She was shivering, and holding her soaked invisibility cap at her side. I felt like a pretty bad boyfriend, but my probable death via electroshock from a not-so-happy cousin was a bit more pressing. Nico, wiping his eyes and grinning, still hadn't seemed to grasp the urgency of our predicament.
"We are toast…" I said, very scared of what creative torture methods Thalia had thought up. Nico stopped laughing, the concept of our consequences finally dawning on him, and he shivered.
"Oh no dude, you are toast! I was just an observer, and I'm not going to get fried today!" He snapped, annoyed that I thought we were in this together.
"Sure, it's not like you hadn't suggested turning an entire block of snow into water and then dropping it on their heads!" I retorted, not wanting to have to face Thalia's wrath alone.
"I WAS JOKING!" he shouted, obviously fearful for his life. At this point, I was worried about getting noise complaints for having a loud argument at 2:35 AM. Before I could think of a comeback, the apartment door slammed open. A soaking wet (and angry-looking) Thalia stormed over to where we stood. Her fists were clenched, and the water in her hair was slowly becoming more and more electrified, literally.
"Who's. Idea. Was it." She asked slowly, each word sending shivers down my spine.
"Nico did it." I quickly responded, and then ran into the living room and dove behind the couch. Before Nico could even open his mouth to respond, Thalia jumped on him, electricity crackling from her hands.
"I'm surprised that worked…" I muttered to myself. I figured that a mixture of ice cold slush and pure aggression kind of got in the way of her rational thinking.
"So am I." I heard a voice next to me. I yelped and jumped a bit when I saw Annabeth materialize. She, much like Thalia, was drenched in water, and appeared to be equally as angry. Her fists were clenched, and she was still shivering a bit.
"Oh, uh, hi babe!" I stuttered, slowly inching away, considering my options. I knew she couldn't kill me, but, despite my curse, she could probably manage a way to make me feel pain. The kitchen was to the left of the front door, which was the most obvious escape route, but there was a full-on warzone happening in there, with Thalia chucking lightning bolts at Nico, and him trying to concentrate enough to summon some kind of hell-spawn to fight her. There were knives and other assorted sharp objects that occasionally flew at the adjacent door. I decided that was probably a last resort. The only other options were one of the bedrooms, which Annabeth could easily lock pick and/or break her way into, and the window that was across the room from the door.
"Don't you babe me." She snapped, glowering at me. She started stalking towards me, and I realized that it was either the window, or the warzone. If I knew Annabeth, this wouldn't be pretty if I didn't run for it.
"Yeah… GOTTA RUN!" I bolted for the window and crashed through the glass. I thought I had formed a temporary solution, until I noticed something unnerving: Pain. While I could still feel some pain, even with my curse, I hadn't felt this kind of pain in many years. I could feel the glass splinter into my skin, and blood trickle out of the wounds, and it burned. My left shoulder, the one I rammed through the window with, was starting to go numb. My left leg had clipped the windowsill on the way out, and I could feel cold, red liquid dripping out of it. Before anymore thoughts of worry crossed my mind, I realized I was still falling, and I hit a metal bar of some sort, which made me spin in the air, and then, before I could even cry out in agony, I landed flat on my back on a metal surface…
ANNABETH'S POV
'I AM GOING TO MURDER HIM' was the only thought running through my head at that point. I rushed at him, and then he ran for the window smashed through it, presumably landing on the ground four floors below, or on one of the various fire escapes. That was a pretty cheap move, considering his Achilles' curse and all. Before running to the window and trying to locate him, I noticed Nico and Thalia still battling in the kitchen.
"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Nico practically screeched while popping in and out of different shadows in an attempt to dodge Thalia's lightning bolts.
"YOU'RE GONNA DIE!" Thalia yelled, her common sense clearly overrun by her animalistic hunting instincts.
"OW!" Nico yelled, as Thalia landed a good electric shock on his right shoulder. She smirked, and stalked over to him. He stopped clutching his shoulder and writhing for a moment, and closed his eyes, seemingly trying to concentrate. As she opened her mouth to gloat, Nico's eyes opened, and were pure black, and four skeletons rose from the shadows and began attacking Thalia. She was taken by surprise and, after some struggling, they were able to chain her to the floor with ghost-like chains. He stood up, dusting off his charred shoulder, and walked over to her.
"Truce?" he asked, with a smug grin. Thalia grumbled and nodded. With a snap of his fingers, all the skeletons and the chains sunk into the floor. He then proceeded to collapse onto the floor next to her, worn out from the use of his powers.
"Well played you little twerp," Thalia muttered, equally as tired. Her clothes, a typical snowy day attire, were slightly tattered and bloody from her fight.
"You are aware that I am older and taller than you, right?" Nico panted, still with enough energy to make a snide remark. His T-shirt was charred in a couple of places, and his jeans were ripped in several places.
"Shut up." Thalia said, closing her eyes and yawning. I smirked at their banter and then returned my attention to Percy. I looked out the window and looked down. There was no sign of him on the snow at the street level, just some glass shards from where he exited, so I shifted my view and saw-
"Oh my gods!" I gasped, seeing Percy's bloody and limp body laying on the fire escape a floor below us. His right leg looked like it was broken, and there was blood coming from his face, his arms, and his chest. A wave of panic immediately flooded into my mind, and I almost had a breakdown right there.
"What's up Annie?" Nico asked from the floor next to me. I would have kicked him in the head for calling me that, but I was a bit preoccupied. Without giving him an answer, I vaulted out of the window, and landed on the fire escape at our floor level. Percy had probably jumped further, hit the railing, and landed on the next fire escape. It was still freezing out, considering I was still covered with slush, but I tried to ignore it. I dashed down the steep stairs, probably getting some glass imbedded in my shoe, and almost slipped off of the building. Luckily, my training and Camp Half-Blood had included balance and acrobatics.
"Annabeth?" Thalia called out the window, but I didn't respond.
"Percy? Percy!" I ran over to his body and kneeled next to him. No response. His right leg was definitely broken, and was probably what hit the first fire escape. He had a small shard of glass embedded in his forehead, and both his arms were cut, bruised, and covered in a mix of blood and glass shards. I tenderly picked up his wrist and checked for a pulse.
Thump… Thump… Thump…
I silently thanked the gods. I felt a steady, but slow heart rate emit from his wrist. He was still alive, but heavily injured. His chest was rising and falling, but it was inconsistent. He seemed to be silently gasping for breath.
"Perce?" I whispered, sitting down, lifting his head gingerly onto my lap. Still no response. I cradled my boyfriend's head in my arms. "Please wake up…"
"Annabeth?" I heard the concerned voice of Thalia call from the fire escape above us. She looked down through the grating and gasped. "What happened to him?"
"I-I don't know…" My voice was shaky. "But he's still breathing…" Thalia dashed down the stairs of the fire escape and stopped, nearly slipping and falling on us, right next to me.
"We should probably visit Olympus and see if any of the gods decided to mess with him again…" Thalia said, standing over the two of us, scratching her head, seemingly trying to think of something.
"Hold on, I have an idea." She said with a smirk. Before I could even ask what she was going to do, she yelled "CLEAR" and sent volts of electricity into his chest. I instinctively dropped Percy's head, and he yelled in pain.
"Thalia Grace!" I yelled at her angrily. I was about to pounce on her, because that could have killed him, but I heard a small cough from the floor and I looked down.
"It was only a couple of volts... And it worked, didn't it?" she responded smugly. Percy groaning and rubbing the back of his head in pain, from where I'd dropped it.
"Ouch, what just happened?" he asked through groans and coughs. Instead of responding, I brought his head up to mine, and kissed him. He was warmer, presumably from being mildly toasted, and it was nice.
"Ah, get a room." Thalia groaned, averting her eyes. I smirked on his lips, and then pulled away, smiling. He blinked confusedly a few times, and then grinned.
"It's nice waking up looking into the eyes of an angel," he quipped with a smirk, obviously getting some of his strength back. I rolled my eyes and hugged him.
"So… What happened to me?" he asked, after pulling away. His curse (or gift) was starting to kick in, as his cuts were closing, his bruises were healing, and his leg looked almost as good as new.
"I don't know, but tomorrow, we're going to pay a couple of immortals a visit." I responded, determined to fix whatever happened to my boyfriend…
I hope that satisfied you guys… AND I PROMISE IT WON'T TAKE YEARS TO UPDATE AGAIN! :P