Pairing: Percy/Annabeth
Category: Percy Jackson & The Olympians
Rating: PG-13 [For swearing]
Summary: Whereas a normal human being's best friend is a dog, a demigod's best friend is a hellhound. Figures. The story of Mrs. O'Leary making her comeback into Percy's world.

A Demigod's Best Friend

Part II

If there was one thing that both Annabeth and Percy would agree on with no hesitation, no argument, just agree on immediately, it was that they were both freakishly scared of an angry Chiron. Oh, yes, there were many versions of the lovely centaur, a fine soul he had, but the angry version, those two could not handle. The angry version of Chiron did not pop out a lot and the mentor always tended to stay calm, wise and humble, that which he was known for. But, of course, anybody in his right mind would be just a little bit more than irritated when an Open House is interrupted twice under two hours, by the same nineteen-year-old son of Poseidon and the second time, a largely important portion of the camp is in ruins. He had immediately bombarded both counselors with the duties of cleaning up after the mess that "their dog" left behind and to clean the damned hellhound, since Mrs. O'Leary was covered in mud, leaves, food and all sorts of trash. The sight wasn't good for Camp Half Blood's reputation. What was left of it.

"You just had to go and show off how bad-ass you are, didn't you?" Percy ranted to Mrs. O'Leary as he, Annabeth, and Libby scrubbed the dog's fur. Chiron demanded that the two counselors who were in charge of the Open House clean up all the debris and file the purchases for new benches and furniture to replace those that Mrs. O'Leary ruined. It was nearing 5:30 now and the sun was beginning to set. Thankfully, being summer, the sky showed no sign of Apollo closing off the sun anytime soon.

"Hey. Six-year-old, right here?" Libby said to Percy, appalled that he would even risk swearing in the presence of such a young child. Annabeth looked disapprovingly at Percy, indicating that Libby made an excellent point, but didn't say anything. She hadn't said a word to him since they both began cleaning up the debris from the mess hall, which was about, oh, say, three hours ago! One thing Percy learned after dating Annabeth for nearly four years was that when she held a grudge, she would not let go. And okay, that didn't piss him off every once in a while, that pissed him off all the time. But he wouldn't lash out at her; even Percy was smarter than that.

"You're still not talking to me?" he asked her in a tired voice. He could feel the effects of his invulnerability start to take its toll. His energy was waning off little by little but he continued to clean Mrs. O'Leary. Percy had forgotten how comforting it was to have a pet. He had a little beagle once but after he and his mom began moving from school to school, they had to give it away. But even after all these years, there was still something soothing about cleaning a dog and taking care of one.

Annabeth didn't reply to him or even look at him. Mrs. O'Leary turned to Annabeth, who was scrubbing her right side, while Percy brushed away on her left. Even Libby glanced at her warily, her nerves pricking at the lack of communication between her two favorite people. The three demigods and the hellhound were currently in the coliseum because it was the only place big enough to handle a hellhound and buckets of fresh water and soap water that were more the size of huge buckets of gun powder you'd see in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean. Because the floor of the coliseum had lost most of its sand over Camp Half Blood's past years, and was now more of a yellow and stony surface, Mrs. O'Leary could lie down for the scrubbing and soaping part of her bath. Libby, who had quickly warmed up to Mrs. O'Leary after communicating with the dog telepathically, sat next to her snout and washed up the insides of her ears, always adding a scratch or two every now and then. Like a very well trained dog, Mrs. O'Leary took a liking to her immediately. Now, they both glanced at each other and back at the two older demigods worriedly. Libby smiled inwardly at the level of communication that she and the hellhound already possessed.

"Guys?" Both college students looked at Libby. She sent a frown towards each of them, "Mom hasn't even gotten here yet and you've gotten into two fights already. It's not Percy's fault, Annabeth, he was just trying to get here until a monster got in his way," Libby was talking directly to Annabeth now. Annabeth turned away from the daughter of Iris and put down the sponge. Percy couldn't really see anything behind Mrs. O'Leary but for the both of them, it was kind of weird to be scolded by a six year old.

Libby sighed in frustration, knowing fully well that they weren't listening as well as she wanted them to. "This is stupid." Libby cringed silently, never one to use harsh words.

"Do I have to force you guys to kiss and make up again?" Annabeth looked up. She cracked a small smile and Libby and walked over to the front of Mrs. O'Leary's snout.

Annabeth sighed. "Gods, you have a way with words, Libby," Annabeth picked her up and carried her over to the bench Percy was sitting on. She sat Libby down on her lap and held her there for a while.

"Okay, Percy," Annabeth started, "I'm sorry. I'm not going to ignore you anymore. And I know it wasn't your fault that you were late, I was just mad because you forced me to embarrass myself a little bit in front of everyone," Annabeth muttered the last bit out quietly. Percy smiled warmly.

"And I'm sorry about that, by the way. I'll try not to run into anymore freaky mutant monsters in the future." Percy winced at the memory of the cow. He shuddered inwardly.

"Nah, that's not possible. I don't think the Underworld's gonna just stop letting you be a Seaweed Brain slash hero," Annabeth teased, looking straight into Percy's eyes. Percy smiled at the nicknames and Greek references and nudged his shoulder at her in playful annoyance. She smiled back before looking at Libby in front of her.

"How's that for an apology? Hm? 'Little Miss Communication.'" Annabeth made a face at Libby who couldn't stop smiling. She hugged Annabeth tightly before giving Percy a hug, too. Her mom should be proud that she had gotten the most stubborn daughter of Athena (Athena!) to actually apologize to her boyfriend, the most troublesome son of Poseidon (Poseidon!). She couldn't wait to hear the approval and pride in her mother's voice.

"Actually, it really isn't Percy's fault that the camp is in such a mess now, is it, Mrs. O'Leary?" Annabeth mock blamed the poor hellhound who now whimpered, surprised that someone actually remembered her current existence in the coliseum.

"Aw, c'mon. Cut her some slack. She has to live in the Underworld. How pathetic is that?" Percy reasoned for his favorite dog.

"Live in the Underworld?" Annabeth repeated incredulously, "She practically lives in the luxury of camp now, don't you?" Annabeth went back to glaring plastic daggers at the hellhound. Oh, she didn't mean to be unkind to the dog, she just wanted to play with her for a while.

"You do?" Percy asked the dog. Mrs. O'Leary cutely placed her paws over her eyes, obviously trying to block out the two demigods.

"Then we're definitely telling Nico to put security guards on you." Percy joked. Mrs. O'Leary barked in protest.

"We're kidding! Relax! Camp Half Blood's your home too, y'know?" Mrs. O'Leary's mouth curved into what could only be a smile and she licked Percy, which resulted in her very large tongue covering Percy's entire body in an overload of saliva. Again. Annabeth and Libby grimaced and Annabeth smiled apologetically at Percy before moving back to her side of the dog with Libby, neither girl wanting to be drowned in dog slobber.

"Thanks," Percy said sarcastically before grabbing a large bucket of clean water and dumping it over his head.

"Much better," he muttered.

"Hey Jackson!" Someone with a rough and scratchy voice called out from the entrance of the coliseum, which was about fifty feet away. The group looked up and saw Alonso Reyes, a Californian son of Ares, the other counselor besides Clarisse. He was known by all of the members of the camp as Al, one of the 'friendliest' Ares members. Please. Back when Percy hadn't graduated from Camp yet, he knew what a bastard Al could be. To him, Alonso Reyes would never be 'Al', but only 'Reyes' and even if they were the last two people on Earth, never, ever, ever would they be mere acquaintances.

Percy stood up. "What do you want, Reyes?" he shouted over to the Ares counselor.

"Nice going, my 'friend.' It's not every day a counselor gets to ruin a huge part of the Camp," he taunted Percy from the long distance, which, to Annabeth, only proved what a coward he really was. No wonder Ares himself never praised him as much as he did Clarisse. To Annabeth, he would always be just 'Al' or The Other Ares Counselor. She'd grown a little bit of a liking to Clarisse, who had become something of a friend after the Battle of New York. A rough friend, but a friend nonetheless. Suddenly, from her side of the hellhound, she could hear Mrs. O'Leary begin to growl under her breath at the sight of the Other Ares Counselor.

"Shut up, Al. We're kinda busy. Can't we beat you up later?" Annabeth shouted back at him. Al's face turned towards Annabeth and he smirked.

"Sure thing, sweet cheeks. But only if you turn up without Water Boy. Then you can beat me up however you want to," Al grinned sickeningly and Annabeth scoffed as her jaw dropped, disgusted. After Al had spoken though, Mrs. O'Leary had immediately jumped to her master and mistress' defense, barking loudly at the counselor, who stepped back a little. Percy didn't hesitate to claw back either.

"You stay away from Annabeth, Reyes, or I swear, I will make sure your father isn't the only thing you're afraid of." Even from the distance of the coliseum's diameter, he could tell that Al flinched at that comment and Percy smiled to himself. Ten points to Percy.

"Whatever, Jackson. You just make sure you get both of your bitches under control." Libby's mouth dropped at the crudity of Al's language. Annabeth's eyes narrowed and Percy fumed. Annabeth held his arm back to keep him from attacking a fellow counselor (who didn't deserve the position, in her personal opinion), but there was nothing she could do when Mrs. O'Leary jumped to her feet, barking ten times louder and charging at Alonso Reyes, who turned back just in time to see the hell hound fifteen feet from him. He yelped pathetically and was lucky enough to get a head start on running away from Mrs. O'Leary. The trio inside the coliseum could hear immediate screams from the other campers, the sounds of glass breaking and other destructive noises. Percy, Annabeth and Libby ran as fast as they can to the entrance of the coliseum and watched for a while as the large hellhound zoomed after Al. The size comparison would have been comical or even hilarious but at a time like this, all Annabeth and Percy could think of was the amount of damage that Mrs. O'Leary could cause and the cost of the repairs that they'd have to make.

Percy muttered his own vulgarities quietly to himself before putting a hand to Annabeth's shoulder, telling her what he needed to do with his eyes. Annabeth rolled her eyes. This was just so convenient for the both of them. Percy shrugged and quickly darted towards the direction where the chase was currently taking place. When he realized that Reyes was running towards the beach like an idiot (he couldn't so much as swim away from the hellhound now, could he?) with Mrs. O'Leary literally only a few feet away, (Percy had to admire Reyes' speed), he stopped and did the only thing he could think of.

He sent a massive wall of water down on Mrs. O'Leary's head.

"Well, how is that effective?" Annabeth commented sarcastically from her spot next to the coliseum's entrance. It turned out, though, that it was very effective. Mrs. O'Leary was forced onto her stomach as the water crashed onto her body. After all the water had drained into the ground, the hellhound's mouth or soaked into her fur, she stood up, shook most of it away, but continued to slowly pursue Al, who had also been impacted slightly by Percy's spontaneous wall of water and was now splayed out on the beach. The Ares camper didn't move and Percy guessed that he was out cold for a while. Ah, well. He'd be fine. Mrs. O'Leary walked up to Al, sniffed him a little bit for a few seconds before snorting, as if she had inhaled something repulsive. The hellhound turned so that her bottom faced Al and started kicking dirt onto the unconscious body. Percy stumbled forward, surprised for a moment, wondering if she was actually willing to take the life of the idiotic camper and if she was going to bury him alive. But after a few kicks, Mrs. O'Leary stopped, rotated her body again, but this time so that her side was facing the Other Ares Counselor. Before anyone could react, Mrs. O'Leary lubricated Al's unknowing body with her urine before skipping off towards Percy, who had slumped to the ground on his bottom, laughing like a maniac.

Mrs. O'Leary leaned down so that Percy could reach up to pat her snout proudly.

"Ahh, who's a good bitch? Who's a good bitch? Oh! You're my good bitch! Yes, you are!" Percy cooed at Mrs. O'Leary and this time, she knew that he used the name as a term of endearment. Right now, she was The Dog. She was The Dog. The Dawg. Whatever "dog" it was, she was it.

Mrs. O'Leary waited until Percy calmed down and had stood up, and they both walked back into the coliseum, not bothering to turn around after hearing some campers (probably the Ares campers) run around frantically for buckets of water to clean up their heroic counselor and others running away as far as they could from the dude who smelled like pee (probably the rest of Camp Half Blood). Mrs. O'Leary confidently sauntered a slow and languid strut and when she and Percy were within hearing distance of Annabeth and Libby, she turned around and gave Al (who had woken up after someone doused him with a fresh bucket of water) one sharp bark. Libby's head jerked back an inch in slight alarm. Annabeth turned to her.

"What's up?" she asked the six-year-old.

"Mrs. O'Leary's a potty mouth, too," Libby mumbled. Annabeth snorted.

"Why?" she asked slowly.

"She just said to Al, 'you're my b-i-t-c-h, now, buddy!'" Libby blinked and looked up at her favorite babysitter, "What does that word even mean?" Annabeth blinked, "I'm sure, Libby, that when the time comes, someone will tell you."

"Should I ask my mom?" she asked curiously, wondering whatever this word could mean.

"Oh! No! No," Annabeth paused, wide-eyed, "don't ask your mom. Maybe when you're older, she or I will tell you." Libby nodded.

"Okay," she said and didn't speak a word of the subject afterwards. Annabeth smiled at the little girl and looked up as Percy walked in front of her.

"That. Was the coolest thing I have ever seen. Did anyone film that? That was definitely a YouTube moment," Percy exclaimed excitedly, his arms flailing in the air, his voice an octave higher and rustier, his eyes wide open with the type of delight that Annabeth usually saw only in a little boy's eyes after seeing something incredibly awesome. Then again, what Mrs. O'Leary just did was pretty awesome. And c'mon, the idiot deserved it.

"No, Percy, no one filmed it. But I agree, that was pretty awesome," Annabeth answered.

"You think! I love you, Mrs. O'Leary, yes, I do! Oh, yes, I do!" Percy went back to rubbing and petting and praising the hellhound while Annabeth smiled and shook her head at Percy's antics. She knew he was definitely not doing this on purpose but he couldn't help it when his ADHD got the better of him. He'd get back to being exhausted in a few minutes, after his adrenaline high stopped powering his invincibility.

"By the way," Annabeth started, suddenly remembering something, "why couldn't you have done that big wall of water thing earlier? It would have saved us so much time."

"Well, I did it now, so I guess she's clean. We have been scrubbing away with soap and stuff for a couple of hours, haven't we?" Annabeth thought about letting Mrs. O'Leary get back into the Underworld, where it was slimy and dirty with Gods know what. As soon as she'd step into the damp earth, she was bound to be swarmed by the dirty, un-showered spirits that lived in the Underworld. Annabeth shivered at the thought of letting a clean!Mrs. O'Leary become a dirty!Mrs. O'Leary in a matter of seconds. She decided to ignore the feeling, though.

"Yeah. You're right." Annabeth reached up to pat the wet dog, "You can go whenever you feel like it, girl," she said to the hellhound.

Mrs. O'Leary whimpered and plopped down in front of the coliseum, but it looked uncomfortably cramped for the dog. It probably was, because she stood up again and walked happily down to the spot in the coliseum where the trio was washing her earlier before settling down on to the ground, worn out.

"Look, Mrs. O'Leary, you really have to go or Chiron'll seriously kill us this time," Percy called out to the dog. He stepped towards her but froze when she barked sharply.

"She says, 'Bite me,'" Libby translated. Annabeth rolled her eyes but smiled slightly.

"Let's just leave her. Chiron doesn't really mind that she stays. She actually provides a very good source of Stamina Training and Survival-of-the-Fittest Practice for the campers," Annabeth added, siding with Mrs. O'Leary for this dilemma.

"Guys!" A rough voice called out to the trio and they all turned around to face the voice. Libby's older brother, Butch, was walking up to Annabeth and Percy. Libby's face immediately broke out into a wide smile and she ran to Butch, springing up with a jump and landing in his arms perfectly. Annabeth had to smile. The couple walked towards Butch slowly as he carried his little sister over to them.

"I'm gonna take her home now," Butch informed them in his baritone voice. Annabeth nodded.

"Just tell your mom that there is absolutely no need to pay me ever again," she raised her hands to prove that she was being truthful. "She is, by far, the nicest goddess there ever was." Butch opened his mouth to try and cut in but Annabeth kept going, "It's hard to believe she ever did such a horrible thing to Heracles in Euripides' play of her back in -"

"Annabeth, we don't care," Percy said quickly because really, they didn't care. He loved her for being such a genius but sometimes her factual outbursts erupted at the most inappropriate and random times. Percy found that telling her frankly to just "Shush!" did the trick quickly and that she was beginning to learn to keep the facts to herself unless asked. Another reason why Percy loved her so much. If it was for her own good and for everyone else's benefit, she would work hard to change and change she will.

"Well, jeez, sorry," she muttered. She didn't really look sorry but the two guys let it pass.

"So. Was she good today?" Butch asked, his eyes darting to the little girl who was clutching to his neck.

"Of course I was good," Libby cried with indignation, releasing her grasp and looking pointedly at her older brother, "When am I not good?" Butch smirked a little, a teasing twinkle in his eyes indicating that his banters with his little sister were not abnormal and were definitely in their regular schedule.

"Whatever, Libs. Thanks again, Annabeth. Percy. Tomorrow. Basketball." He nodded his head towards Percy, who repeated the action.

"Definitely." They didn't really talk, those two. And when they did, their conversations were composed of one, two, three, maybe four words (if they were feeling especially bored) and were only about basketball or camp. They didn't know much about each other. Why, Percy didn't know. That was just how they both rolled. But Percy liked Butch and he only hoped that the Butch, in turn, thought the same of him.

Butch walked away with Libby chatting lividly in his arms. With a splash of the colors of the rainbow, the two had disappeared, to only Iris knows where.

"So. Before we start all those meaningless files... Half Blood Hill?" Percy turned to Annabeth with a tired smile plastered on his face. Annabeth tilted her head, thinking about how her invulnerable boyfriend could possibly still be standing up after all the action and movement he'd had to go through today.

"What if you just follow me to the beach and see what happens from there?" Annabeth teased him, the corner of her mouth sliding up just a little.

"What say you, Perseus Jackson? Are you willing to take this challenge?" Annabeth adapted a very off-key, off-tone and very non-Annabeth Jack Sparrow accent to add to the mood, making Percy laugh.

"I'll go with you, if you promise to never, ever do that accent again," he said playfully. Annabeth scoffed, "Well, then maybe I won't go to the beach with you right now." Percy rolled his eyes, smiling outside and laughing inside, "C'mon, Beth. I'm just kidding. Besides. Where else are you gonna go?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes.

"My cabin," she muttered pathetically. Percy laughed out loud for real now and gazed at her with a loving expression in his eyes. He walked around to her back and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Please accompany me to the beach?" Percy murmured into her neck softly, adding the magic word.

And the magic touch, Annabeth thought, shivering.

"Okay, okay, I will! Just don't do that here. There are people!" she whispered hurriedly, rushing out of Percy's arms and twirling to face him, her face a red blotched mess. Percy grinned like a Seaweed Brain.

"Lovely."

So many thoughts.

Too many thoughts. Annabeth pondered. During times like these when the noises of reality and civilization died down, her mind would also calm. Thoughts would flood her mind. She'd think about her past. Her future. The present. The things she'd been blessed with. The things she'd have to live with for the rest of her life and regret.

Sometimes she'd prefer moments like these to be silent, but most of the time, she didn't. Most of the time, when Annabeth would experience quiet moments like these, she would wish that the world would start up again so that she wouldn't have to deal with all of these thoughts. Annabeth knew that she was a girl of thought, facts, thinking, pondering and wisdom, dammit. But sometimes, the amount of thinking that overloaded her mind was too much. Had the gods forgotten that she too was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD?

She glanced at Percy, who was slumbering quietly with his head on her stomach. She looked at her fingers, which were unconsciously weaving themselves in and out of Percy's soft, dark hair. Annabeth wondered how he got lucky that through most of the day, he got to sleep off the thoughts and deal with them later. Then again, though, wouldn't that be harder? To deal with all this rubbish after you wake up? Or to not have enough time to deal with them? Or...

Or maybe she was just thinking too hard.

Annabeth inhaled slowly before sighing into the setting sky. The sun was almost completely gone now, plunging the sky into a purplish-pink hue with stains of orange tainting the horizon of the earth.

"You okay?" Percy mumbled sleepily from his position on her stomach. He reached over to his head and laced his fingers with one set of hers.

"Yeah," she murmured, looking at the camp's hero, "I'm okay."

"Did you get enough sleep? You've slept less than forty-five minutes," Annabeth asked. Percy smiled through closed eyes, "I'm okay. Just lying here is definitely better than ... taking care of that hellhound." Annabeth laughed shortly, softly.

"But that is one awesome hellhound we have in that coliseum," Percy croaked softly, opening his eyes and raising an eyebrow at Annabeth, waiting for her to agree. Annabeth, still facing the sky, grinned.

"Yeah, she ... she's a keeper, Mrs. O'Leary," she agreed. Annabeth could feel Percy grin as he resumed relaxing on her stomach.

"I'm sorry I was late, okay?" Percy muttered quietly.

"I know," Annabeth replied. The son of Poseidon turned to look at his girlfriend with an incredulous expression on his face.

"That's it? 'I know' and nothing else?" Percy asked. Annabeth smirked, not making any eye contact with him.

"Well, what do you want me to say?"

"I-I don't know... 'It's okay' or 'Just don't be late next time' or 'Yeah, yeah, Seaweed Brain, go back to sleep' but not 'I know'!"

Annabeth snorted before sitting up, forcing Percy's head to fall onto her lap. He muttered an 'ow' while she did this before setting his head into her lap gently.

"Fine, Seaweed Brain. It's okay, it really is, and you're off the hook today because you have an excuse. Just don't be late next time. Now, go back to sleep." Annabeth leaned down to kiss his forehead lovingly and leaving her lips there for just a few seconds before pulling away. Percy's eyes had closed at the touch of her lips and he didn't bother opening them again. He snuggled closer to Annabeth as she leaned back against her arms, taking in the cool and constant breeze that drifted towards them. For a few minutes, all was silent again but this silent, Annabeth could deal with. This silent consisted of her emptying her mind while she continued to play with Percy's hair, which was increasingly becoming her favorite pastime.

The silence was broken when the earth started rumbling lightly, similarly to the sound of that Tyrannosaurus Rex's footsteps, except these steps were lighter. Annabeth looked at Percy, wondering one more time if he was causing small shockwaves through the earth just for the fun of it again. But Percy looked just as confused as her but after a few seconds, recognized what was happening. After a moment, Mrs. O'Leary had collapsed next to them, a heap of black and tired fur.

"Hey, girl. You planning on going now?" Percy asked softly, lifting his head ever so slightly to catch a glimpse of the hellhound, which honestly wasn't so hard seeing as the dog was huge. Mrs. O'Leary woofed lightly in reply. Yep.

"Alright," Percy groaned, getting up. He limped over to Mrs. O'Leary slowly, obviously still much exhausted from the day.

Annabeth watched the two interact for a while before getting up as well.

"Alright, alright, girl. You'd better get going before we get in another mess," Annabeth said, reaching up to pet Mrs. O'Leary's nose. Mrs. O'Leary in turn nuzzled her hand before turning to Percy again. The next thing he knew, he was covered in dog slobber, stinking of dog breath and was completely wet with dog drool ... again.

"I'm gonna just forget that you did that," Percy mumbled before turning to the water and immediately walking in until it was up to his chest. Annabeth laughed as her boyfriend dived into the water completely. Mrs. O'Leary, in turn, panted happily before turning to her. She raised her hands in protest, "Oh, no. Please. Not me. I don't have any water powers -" Mrs. O'Leary didn't listen and gave Annabeth an equally wet kiss that seemed a couple of seconds longer than Percy's. Annabeth grimaced even after the kiss and didn't dare open her mouth. She nodded at Mrs. O'Leary, utterly disgusted at the smell of rotten corpses, dog food and just ... something nasty. It smelled painfully similar to death but Annabeth did not want to think about that. Not at all. She risked opening her mouth just a little bit.

"Okay. Your welcome...? Bye..." Annabeth muttered, allowing Mrs. O'Leary one wave goodbye before turning and following Percy into the water. As soon as the water was up to her waist, she dived in further, hoping, wishing, and praying to Poseidon that she would be cleansed when she floated back to the surface. Opening her eyes under water and ignoring the sting of the water, she saw Percy a few feet away from her, sitting at the bottom of the estuary, cleaning himself off. Maybe he noticed her, maybe he didn't. Whichever it was, he was more focused with cleaning himself than he was with Annabeth plunging into the water. He obviously wasn't trying to hold his breath and Annabeth noticed that his chest was moving up and down properly, as if he was breathing. Annabeth frowned jealously underwater before surfacing with a large gasp. Paddling her feet under water to keep from submerging again, Annabeth glanced towards the beach to see anything but Mrs. O'Leary. All the hellhound left in her departure was a cloud of dust that indicated her rush to the Underworld.

Annabeth began rubbing herself with the water, trying to get Essence of Hellhound off of her as much as she could. Eau de O'Leary really just wasn't for her. Soon, she heard a small splash and turned to see that Percy had surfaced a few feet from. He didn't smell of hellhound anymore, Annabeth noticed, as she leaned close to Percy and took a whiff. In fact, he smelled more like Percy than ever. Damn water powers. They'd cleanse him better than she could clean herself manually. Percy's face scrunched up with amused confusion.

"What're you doing?"

"I'm checking if you smell like hellhound. Do I smell like hellhound? She licked me, too. I don't want to smell like hellhound," Annabeth said everything quickly, sniffing herself just to make sure. Not quite catching a whiff of anything unpleasant, Annabeth grew suspicious and looked at Percy for two seconds, pondering whether or not to do what she did next.

She dunked herself for the next minute before resurfacing to catch her breath again. When she wiped the water from her eyes, Percy began laughing.

"Oh, well you seem way too happy to be tired," Annabeth said snidely. Percy shut his mouth and avoided making eye contact with his girlfriend, trying to refrain from bursting out laughing again.

"Annabeth, it's just dog."

"No, it's not just dog, Percy, it's hellhound. Do you think I want to smell like hellhound? Do you even know where Mrs. O'Leary's been over the past few weeks? I think this is the first bath she's had in…" Annabeth paused, "years!" She splashed a little bit of water at him, just to prove how disgusting she felt. When the drops of water magically (and strangely) defied the laws of physics and gravity and suddenly stopped in the air a few inches from Percy's body before falling back into the lake, Annabeth groaned in frustration. Damn those water powers!

"I feel disgusting! And if you knew any better, you'd actually help me clean up properly what with your magical water powers or someth-mmf!" Annabeth's concluding words were muffled and swallowed up as lips collided.

Percy's hands were warm as they hesitantly held her cheeks, intensifying the kiss. A flash of a second later and Annabeth had forgotten everything she had said, was saying and was going to say. A few minutes and a very quick, very desperate groping session later, Annabeth had to separate from Percy because he was the one with the ability to not breathe for a long time, not her. Annabeth noticed that Percy was grasping her waist, holding her up a few inches above him so that she was looking down at him and he had to face up to reach her. She realized that her elbows were hooked over his shoulders and her hands were grasping what of his t-shirt she could reach. Annabeth let herself sink back a little into the water and unclenched her fingers before replacing her hands on his chest and leaning against him for a while. The kiss was definitely unexpected but it was better than sweet. It was sweeter than sweet and a little rougher on the edges (but she didn't mind) but it was exactly what she needed to end the day and really, she felt much better now and Annabeth thought that she might want another kiss like that and ... and ... and how dare he disturb her whilst she rant!

Annabeth suddenly snapped her eyes up at Percy, a bright look in her furious eyes. Percy jerked back, almost releasing his hold on his girlfriend.

"What? What did I do now?" He asked miserably. Annabeth narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him.

"Why'd you do that?" she asked him speedily. Percy almost didn't understand the whole sentence and it took him a moment to comprehend what she'd said in his mind.

"Oh," he sighed in relief. He thought he'd hurt her or pinched her or something. He answered her question simply. Like a Seaweed Brain should.

"You were talking too much."

Annabeth's mouth dropped as she scoffed, "How dare you, Percy Jackson! I, for one, should be taken seriously through any word that comes out of my mouth and I am honestly sure that everyone understands that. You, of all people should know this, being what? My boyfriend and all? And I thought you, also being a demigod," she didn't notice Percy roll his eyes by the slightest centimeter, "I would think that you'd understand how important it is for our people, for our camp members to rant. Do you know how important it is for half bloods to rant Percy?" This time, Percy really rolled his eyes, but Annabeth chose to ignore it, "Oh, I didn't think so. Well, maybe next time, you'll try and listen to every single word I say because one day, it just might be import-mmf!" Percy kissed her again.

This one went on for about three times longer than the other one. And this groping session moved steadily underwater. This time, though, Annabeth's mind was a focused and angry weapon, intending to seduce Percy as he induced the same treatment to her. It would have been funny. They were both so into the kiss that they'd forgotten how wet they both were, how much trouble they were still in, and how late it was getting. It was a battle between the kiss (or the multiple kisses) but to hell with that. They didn't really care who saw them anymore. Annabeth was currently in the process of analyzing who could possibly be winning the battle (she was just about to pull apart and cry out in triumph, she was definitely winning judging by the slightly inhumane grunts Percy was making) when one voice called out to them from the beach.

"Percy. Annabeth." It was a slight name switch from what the centaur had previously used to start his earlier lecture but it was enough to piss Percy off.

"Whaaaaat?" he dragged on the exclamation for a little longer than needed, but Percy had to notify Chiron that his little interruptions were more than just annoying. They were a problem. A seriously difficult and, ahem, hard problem for him to deal with. Annabeth glanced at Percy worriedly.

"Seaweed Brain," she whispered quickly. He looked at her, "Shut up!" she told him. They were both flushed and mussed up but the water helped a little bit, making them look wet. Just wet. From their place in the lake, Annabeth could swim forward a few feet and was able to reach the warm sand with her toes. She walked slowly towards Chiron and was rubbing her arm in shame as she reached the centaur, who was standing in all of his horsey-manly glory.

"You two, do you know what time it is?" Chiron asked them, looking quite splendidly intimidating from his height, looking down at the two nineteen-year-olds. Percy was a step behind Annabeth, not daring touch her. He realized, this was Chiron who had just found them having a really, really, really, (really) intense make-out session in the lake by the camp. Who knows what could happen?

"It's past six, Chiron," Annabeth said, embarrassedly. She didn't even bother to try looking at the mentor and kept a consistent gaze at her feet, which were still wet while Percy was already dry. Percy couldn't help but reaching out and grabbing Annabeth's arm gently, willing her to be dry. A second later, she was completely dry. Annabeth quickly shot Percy a look that said Thanks and a look Oh-my-Gods-Seaweed-Brain-don't-touch-me-right-now,-Chiron's-looking! at the same time. Percy let go of her arm and stepped back a little more from her. Chiron raised an amused eyebrow at the two and the corners of his mouth tilted upwards in a smirk that would come so many times in the following years. The two didn't seem to notice, both still very set on staring at the sand, which, come to think of it, really was rather interesting. The color wasn't completely yellow and was more of a tainted gold; it even had the sparkles usually found on the yellow brick road or something. How did Percy never notice that even though people swam every day, there no wet footprints left behind? Just footprints. And how come Annabeth never saw that the sand felt lovely and could possibly be made out of the finest material ever since-

"Do you both understand me?" Chiron's voice brought both demigods back to reality. Oh. Yes. They were in trouble. How could they have forgotten?

"Sorry, Chiron, we missed that," Percy said. Chiron gave them a genuine smile. Oh, he was used to repeating things for his students.

"Do you both know which direction Mrs. O'Leary chose to get back to Los Angeles and the Underworld?" Chiron asked calmly. Annabeth looked at Percy, who shrugged.

"I'll take that as a no, then," Chiron paused, maybe to build the suspense a little. It was working.

"She ran straight through the strawberry fields."

Oh. Dear. Gods. Annabeth's eyes widened to the size of the camp's strawberries. The camp's ... ruined strawberries.

"Oh, my gods, Chiron. I'm so - we should have escorted her out the right way! How do we -" Annabeth's eyes darted around in panic, trying to rack her brain for a way to get through this predicament safely. There was always a way to fix things quickly, wasn't there?

"Annabeth, please. This is not your fault. Obviously, it's Mrs. O'Leary's but she can be forgiven. Bless her soul, I do believe that she hasn't seen daylight 'til earlier today when she felt Percy's need for help." Chiron turned to Percy, whose eyebrows rose at that comment.

"Wait, she ... felt me? What do you mean, like ... kind of like an empathy link like the one Grover and I have?" he asked uncertainly, not fully understanding.

"More or less. But more in an animalistic, form of survival version. Animals put their trust and their care into their owners, and those they have formed strong bonds and relationships with. And when their owners desire help, when the person they share the bond with requires assistance, they feel that necessity almost ten minutes before the owner even needs it. That's why she got there in time Percy. Mrs. O'Leary felt your need for assistance about ten minutes before you actually needed it. She ran straight off to you, that girl," Chiron explained. Annabeth smiled at Percy. In a way, the bond that Mrs. O'Leary formed with people was cute. Percy stared straight ahead, grinning lightly at this thought before looking up at Chiron.

"Anyway..." he muttered, blushing at Chiron's sudden scrutiny and Annabeth's gaze, "what's our..." he grimaced at the word, "punishment?"

Chiron's face all but hardened. In fact, it probably brightened up at the mention of more chores for his two favorite students.

"Very simple, you two. You will both be allowed access to the Demeter cabin's gardening tools and will be allowed to stay up as late as you must. The harpies have been instructed not to massacre or eat either of you." Annabeth twitched at Chiron's description of their possible deaths. "But your goal is to clean up Mrs. O'Leary's mess. How both of you will do so, I do not know." Chiron smiled so wide, Percy was convinced that he enjoyed putting them through this.

"Wait, wait, wait," Percy said, "How much of the strawberry fields did Mrs. O'Leary ruin?" Annabeth winced at the possibilities that ran through her head. The question made Chiron chuckle shortly.

"Percy, let's just say that she spent quite some time playing in the entire field and eating quite an amount of strawberries before leaving for LA. Get to work you two. Those fields could go on forever." Chiron retreated back to the Big House at his final word. Annabeth stared after him with a disbelieving expression on her face. How long would it take two demigods to clean up the entire field? Only the Demeter cabin knew how long those fields went and some of even their best gardeners got lost in the fields. So how in gods' names would Percy and Annabeth (two demigods who didn't even know how to keep a bushel of flowers alive for three days) clean up an entire strawberry field?

Annabeth looked at Percy, who was also staring after Chiron helplessly with a dejected expression on his face. He muttered something under his breath. Annabeth laughed at his comment.

Damn dog.

Well, yeesh. This is finally done. ^^ This note won't be as long as the last chapter's. Not much to say. Writing this was a pain, but it was incredibly fun. Seeing as this is my first story that's less than five chapters but more than 10k words … constructive criticism is wanted. Reviews are much appreciated, I'd like to know if I really missed any spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes, so please don't hesitate to point them out. And especially those places where there should be a break-line. The Doc Manager just keeps erasing them. Gods. -_- No problem. I'll fix them. =) Again, I'd like to hear what any of you have to say. But now that this story's out of the way, I guess I'll get working on others, huh? ^^ Thanks to all who has read. I'm eternally grateful. ^^

~Blue