A/N: So, hey guys.

Yeah. I'm Ilsoaubieslele (don't ask with the name). Call me Ilso. Yay!

So yeah, this is a collaboration between me and Smartzy. I know you guys know her more as the Pertemis kind of girl and so I may have convinced her to do this Percabeth AU.

Sorry not sorry.

Anyways, I wrote this chapter. And yes, as much as I hate to admit it, I do slack off more than usual. Not just 'cause I'm really busy, but yeah I tend to procrastinate a lot and eat and distract myself see this is why my stories are never actually done, so yeah. :)))

But of course, I hope you do enjoy this one. And yes, we both have different writing styles. You can clearly see she's better at this—because hello, read her stories?—than I am so please bear with me. :D

Adios.

Chapter 2: Useless

He did look pretty cute when he drooled.

Annabeth Chase slowly put the spoon full of nectar between his lips, trying to push it inside without actually having to touch his mouth. It was hard spoon-feeding a sleeping person, not to mention a drooling one. The more she thought about it, the more she smirked. If he really was the one, then some guy he must be.

She gave up trying to push the utensil inside and put it back in the bowl, choosing to study the boy's face instead. He looked twelve, the same age she was. For a half-blood, he's pretty . . . not built. Annabeth thought silently, choosing not to say any harsh words even in her mind. His hair was a mess, but it didn't make him look much of a slob actually, it made him look even cuter. The rugged, casual kind of cute, if there was anything like that.

"Mmh," the boy was starting to stir awake. Annabeth leaned back on the chair, making it seem as if she wasn't secretly observing him when he was asleep—because honestly, that was a creepy stalker move.

"Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead." She murmured, amused. He was even cuter when he was all sleepy and yawning.

He opened his eyes. A startling shade of green, like a gorgeous, glittering sea overlooking the cliffs and valleys of Greece. "Wh-where am I?" He asked, a numb hand reaching up to scratch at his hair.

"What do you know about the summer solstice?" It was pretty early to ask that, since the guy just woke up and he was looking more confused than satyrs having a whiff of alcohol, but she was dying to get out and go on a quest already. Annabeth had been waiting for, what, five years already? This might be the chance she's been waiting for.

And sure, Matthew Hathes might be a son of Poseidon's, but all he ever did was attract a few monsters. And not even the deadly ones. What use was he? Maybe this guy right here was it. She'd waited such a long time for somebody to arrive and be the one to lead her on to being one of the greatest campers.

Annabeth gave him a hopeful look.

"I . . ." The boy managed to mumble before snapping his eyes shut and falling back to the bed, going back to Dreamland.

A small sigh left Annabeth's lips as soft purrs of snoring came from the cot. She tried once again to feed him some nectar before reaching for his hair and patting it lightly in an effort to make it flat. "Night-night, sleepyhead."

He had hit a nerve when he asked about her dad.

"My dad is a professor at West Point." Annabeth was clutching the metal bars that barricaded the pier, trying to hold herself together. Her dad was a touchy subject. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American History." She remembered reading the dusty encyclopedias her father owned in his study, full of Post-it notes which had his scrawly handwriting all over it. Sometimes, they were added information, trivias. Sometimes, they were just personal reminders he randomly stuck in pages.

Annabeth missed her father.

"He's human?" Percy dumbly asked, shoving a pile of sand from under his shoe.

She rolled her eyes. Men. Typical. "What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?" Annabeth gave him one of her disgusted looks.

"Who's your mom, then?"

"Cabin six." There was a small smile on the side of her lips. On the other hand, Annabeth loved talking about her mother. She felt the need to show off that she was a daughter of Athena. The goddess of wisdom, which was pretty much a big deal for her. She wasn't just like those stupid, narcissistic girls from Aphrodite's. Or those bulky, hard-headed ones from Ares'. She was smart. Intellectual. Wise. She actually had sense.

"Meaning?"

Really? "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."

Percy was silent for awhile, staring at the metal railing before finally asking. "And my parent?"

"Undetermined." Annabeth said, for about the one billionth time. "Like I told you before. Nobody knows." She said it rather softly this time, trying to not sound harsh for the boy's sake. He just got chased by a rampaging Minotaur, resulting in being beaten up pretty badly. Now he's like a lost, confused sheep, looking for his other sheep-siblings.

"Right. So I've either got a mortal father and a goddess mom, or a godly dad and a mortal mother? That's pretty messed up."

"I don't know, Percy." Annabeth shrugged her shoulders, trying to avoid meeting his gaze. Percy wasn't like the others. The other demigods usually had one, standalone parent who had fallen in love with one of the gods, got left alone, and they'd raised their own child. Percy . . . He was just all by himself. No dad. No mom.

"Oh." Percy gently kicked the sand to the other side of the railing, another awkward silence stopping their conversation. He was trying to keep his cool, Annabeth could tell. "Well, maybe I'll find out, I guess. Someday? I mean, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't leave me all alone in the dust like this, right?" His voice, it sounded different. So . . . hopeful. Like he really hoped that one of the gods would claim him as their own.

Annabeth was feeling sorrier and sorrier for him by the minute.

She chose her words carefully this time and spoke in a much lighter and gentler tone. "Maybe . . . you're right. Maybe they'll send a sign, that's the only way to know for sure. Your parent has to send you a sign claiming you as his or her son. Sometimes it happens."

It snapped him up and Percy gave Annabeth a look. "You mean sometimes it doesn't?" His tone was slightly bitter this time. And rash.

"The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always . . . Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy." The conversation was not going good. "They ignore us."

His silence was back. He was just looking down; pretending as if the rusting on the metal was much more interesting than whatever Annabeth was telling him. It's okay. She could hear her brain think. We've been through this. All of us.

Percy Jackson gave a shrug, and kicked some more sand, letting the grain fly through the railings and make a tingling sound as it hit the metal.

"Watch it, Percy!" Annabeth yelled, taking out her sword. Percy was battered and bruised up.

Badly.

The hellhound was in front of him now, growling and glaring with those menacing red eyes. Matthew was thrown off to the side, bloody scratches from both the battle and the knockout from the creature. It gave Percy another low growl and Annabeth swiftly slashed a cut by its side, buying her more time to drag Percy out of the hellhound's way.

The monster howled out loud in pain, its eyes flickering even more and searching for its attacker. Annabeth was with Percy, hiding out of a bush big enough to cover at least the both of them. Once the hellhound found no else, it settled its eyes on the only person left in the clearing.

Matthew.

It started stalking towards him, snorting and barking at the same time. Annabeth wanted to laugh because the hellhound sounded like a crossbreed between a dog and a pig, but now was not the time. She closed her eyes, and held onto Percy tight. The monster crouched low, and pounced up high, its razor-sharp canines inched out from its slobbery mouth and aiming directly at Matthew's head when—

The hellhound stopped mid-air and crashed to the ground, giving another long howl as blood started pouring out from its backside, staining the dark coat of the monster.

Annabeth opened her eyes and saw Matthew's sword stabbed against the hellhound. She slowly came out of the clearing as a pair of trembling hands took it out from the creature and dropped it to the ground.

It was Percy.

"I—I came after it before it could . . . take on Matthew." He gasped, staggering to his knees and collapsing onto the hard dirt. Soon, the other campers came rushing in, blue and red-feathered helmets scattered around the small space and watching the scene before them.

Luke shoved his way into the crowd. "Matthew? Perce?" He gave Annabeth a stern look. "What happened here?" He was clutching onto the red team's banner. Nobody seemed to be making any move to snatch it away from him, but he was still holding tight to it.

But Annabeth wasn't answering at all. She was too busy fixated on the pink aura around Percy. "Why are you pi—" She stopped herself as Percy's clothes started de-materializing and were now changing to a dark purple-colored French suit. The pink aura was glowing even brighter and brighter as other things were appearing and changing on Percy's body. A chain of gold around his neck, a gold watch fastened on his wrist. His hair was still sticking up, but it was styled in a much neater way. Everyone's jaw dropped and their eyes were bugging out.

He was . . . handsome.

"W-Why are you guys staring? What's going on?" Percy asked, looking at down at himself to where everyone's eyes were at. "What the—How'd I change? I didn't even touch anything and—Guys, what's going on?"

They heard hooves clopping against the dirt and in came Chiron, looking worriedly at the crowd. "What is happening here?" All of the campers pointed at Percy, and the centaur gasped. "It is determined."

"W-What are you talking about . . . ?"

Everyone kneeled before Percy, even Clarisse, Annabeth and Matthew. From the left, they can hear the Aphrodite campers squealing and cheering.

"Aphrodite." Chiron announced. "Goddess of Love, Beauty, and Desire. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Lady of the Doves."

An Aphrodite kid.

And Annabeth thought he was any use at all.

Aaand I'll take it from here. In my opinion, the chapter was just... yeah. Just yeah.

All that was her work. I simply made two corrections. And sooo..

We've already done the plot (just yesterday, actually) and we're ready for some action. Because there's two of us, updates would be faster, of course. But I have something *coughPertemiscough* to finish, so the next chapter should be in about two-three days. Anyway..

Yay. He was claimed. There was a reviewer who already guessed that. Well, here you go: (::)

Please do review. I know Percabeth is pretty mainstream but hey, I tried to tell her to do the PerZoe I've been planning about. Or the Perlia, maybe. But nooo. So please do give this fic a chance :)) I try hard to be original. And annoying.

REVIEW! ~Smartzyfan