Disclaimer: So… yeah… I don't own the PJO or HoO series, but I would like to start a petition to take the characters away from Rick so he can't hurt them anymore!

AN.: So this is chapter four! I noticed some people are commenting that this is a Percabeth fic, well it is but I will try to add many more things. It really is more centered in Percabeth but I'll try to add other parings and many events will happen not really connected to the pair.

Ch 4 – The Boy and the Beach

"Hey, Annabeth, wait!" Percy got up in surprising speed and grabbed her arm ruining her attempt to leave. She felt the muscles of his hand and knew she'd never be able to escape his grip. He was warm, hot, as if he had a fever, and her skin tingled where he touched.

She turned and accidentally looked straight into his eyes. At that moment she knew that she was most utterly and completely fucked.

He let her go after making sure she wouldn't leave by leaning on the door, and started talking in that amazingly sexy voice of his. "I'm sorry if I did anything that made you feel embarrassed or something. Normally I'm very cool when I'm sober but, as you might have noticed, I don't have a, let's say, very high tolerance to alcohol. I'm really sorry but I don't remember anything so if I did anything, anything at all, I am really, really sorry about it. I didn't mean to ask your hand in marriage or-"

"You didn't," Annabeth cut in, "you asked if I had a boyfriend and said I was hot." Why did I say that? She thought. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

"Oh, okay," he said smiling. "Well if that made you uncomfortable I am truly sorry but, if I might add, my drunken self was right." That made her blush. "Though, I really hope we can be friends, is that okay or are you too traumatized?"

"No," she said. Very intelligent Annabeth.

"No as in yes we can be friends? Or no as in 'I'm too traumatized'?" he asked smiling.

"No as in yes," she answered.

"Yes, we can be friends, right? Or you're too traumatized?" he asked, the smile widening.

"Yes! Wait. Are you trying to confuse me?" she asked scandalized.

"Is it working?" he laughed.

"Yes, I mean no!"

"Oh, no," he said getting closer to her. "I heard it. I make you confused."

She was paralyzed. He was inching closer and closer with that silly grin and she couldn't think of anything to say so she came up with something completely weird and totally unlike her: "You smell funny".

He stopped and looked at her grinning confused. "What?"

"I mean, I think you smell weird. I've never smelled something like that before," What!?

"Okay," he said grinning, "well it's probably just the smell of the beach. I spend so much time there that people say I have its natural perfume."

"Oh, so that's why."

"Why what?" he asked.

"Why I thought it was weird. I've never been to the beach," she answered.

The look on the boy's face was of absolute horror. "What are you talking about? You've never seen the ocean? The sand? The- the water?"

"Not from up close."

"Well that's gonna change right now," he grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the kitchen, onto the corridor and out the back door. She could see the others having some sort of picnic/tag game out on the fields but Percy turned left, onto the stone path.

"Follow me!" he yelled as he ran ahead. The only thing she could do was oblige. She soon caught up and they raced each other along the path. She couldn't see ahead but she could sense they were getting closer to the beach. The noise of the waves grew louder and that weird, salty smell grew stronger. She had seen the beach from Thalia's bedroom window so she knew the house was on a cliff. She knew this path led to stone steps which finished down on the sand and she knew that after that there was a huge amount of water.

But when she got to the steps and looked down she saw wonders. She felt the breeze and smelled the salt. She looked into those waters and felt a wonderful feeling of freedom.

"Come on!" Percy said again. She walked down to where he was waiting for her.

"Leave your shoes here," he said pointing to where his sneakers were sitting on a flat rock. She took off hers and put them next to his, then looked down to see that they were only a few steps from the sand. She looked down at her toe nails and noticed the red nail polish coming off.

"Nice," said Percy and she looked up to see he had taken his hoody off, despite the cold. This was actually the hottest day yet this winter but still, she was wearing Capri pants and a jacket. He was now only wearing his sweat pants.

"What?" she realized she was staring.

"Your nails." Oh great, she thought, of course he had to notice. "Just didn't picture you as the red kind of girl."

"What did you picture me as?" she asked, trying to switch off the fact that she could now see his entire exposed chest.

"Dunno. More of the blue kind," she looked into his eyes and noticed that he wasn't just talking about her nails, but about her personality. More of the blue kind… what was that supposed to mean?

He broke the gaze and said once more "come on" before continuing down the steps and onto the sand.

She followed him but stopped at the last step. She'd never stepped on sand before. She took a tentative step forward and was surprised at how soft and slightly warm it was. It wasn't cold and brittle as she thought. She dug her feet deep onto the golden-white surface and heard laughter from up ahead.

Percy was laughing at her, possibly extraordinarily funny, face but she knew it wasn't a mean laugh, just the kind that you let out when you watch children find things out for the first time. The kind that makes people warm inside.

He put his hand out and she took it, allowing him to guide her closer to the water.

He stepped in without any hesitation, despite the fact that his pants got all wet.

"Come on," he said again.

She stepped forward but immediately jumped back, letting go of his hand. The water was a lot colder than she had expected. He laughed again.

"It won't hurt you, you know," he said smiling, then put his hand on hers again and gave it a soft tug. This time she was ready for the cold but as her ankles were covered in water, she realized she wasn't cold at all. The water swept around her feet and she decided it was actually very pleasant to have that salty atmosphere around.

"So, I guess you like it, huh?" Only when she had to open them to look at the boy asking her that question did she realize her eyes were closed. "What are you thinking?"

"Its…" she couldn't put her thoughts into words, "perfect". As soon as she said it and saw the huge, marvelous white smile on the boy's face, she had no idea what she was talking about anymore, the sea or the guy. Though, when she thought of it, she realized it didn't really matter. They were one and the same thing.

"Agreed," he said, totally oblivious to the fact that she wasn't talking about the sea.

She looked away, not wanting him to notice her thoughts somehow.

"What is it with you?" he asked making her look up again. "I just can't seem to figure you out."

She thought about that, she'd always shut people off, she'd just met Percy, why should she tell him her story? She was doing exactly what she always did.

"I know I've only just met you but most of the time it seems that you're hiding yourself." He continued.

"Yeah," she answered looking onto the horizon. "I learnt to do that a long time ago."

"Do what?"

"Shut people out."

He walked back out of the water, past her, sat down and patted the sand beside him. "Tell me."

He looked much better now that he'd been in the sea; his hangover seemed to be gone, making Annabeth think again that they were one and the same thing.

She walked back and sat beside him. She didn't know where to start so she started from the very beginning. She told him everything. Everything about her parents splitting up when she was really young, about her having a horrible relationship with her dad, about her mom never visiting, her father remarrying and her horrible step-mother. She told him about her half-brothers and the fact that she never felt like she was part of the family.

She even told him about the worst year of her life. Every detail of when she was seven just flooded out of her and she gave him the whole story of her running away to live with her mom in San Francisco. She told him about meeting Malcolm, her new half-brother, and going to a new school, where she bumped into Thalia.

It was so easy to talk to him; the story just came out of her with no difficulty or worry. He was a great listener. Most of her friends knew her background but she hated to tell people those things because she hated to see the pity in people's faces. She could stand anything but pity. It was horrible to see the look in people's eyes when they heard her story but Percy wasn't like that. He just listened. This is everything she ever wanted, for someone to listen, and it was very strange that it was Percy, her best friend's cousin who she'd just met, who was sitting there beside her.

"Aren't you gonna say anything?" she asked after she finished, turning away for him not to see the lonely tear running down her cheek.

"What do you want me to say? Sorry? I don't think that's what you want to hear," he answered.

"Not at all," how did he understand her so much?

He smiled and placed his hand on her chin, turning her face to look at him. "I know how you feel. I know that sounds cliché but its true. I know how it feels not having anyone to talk to. Thalia, Nico and by best friends Grover and Rachel are the only ones I can talk to. I mean, I can talk to my mom, my cousins, my friends, but it's not the same thing and even the others don't really understand things sometimes. I had another friend who did but… well she's not here anymore." He paused for a bit, dropping his hand and looking ahead at the sea. "Thing is I know how it is to have a complicated life. Thalia probably told you my story already, the shit I do, but I'll tell it anyway, from my point of view."

He told her everything. He told her the strange things that happened to him when he was a kid, how everything seemed to happen to him. How he had stalkers, exploded school buses, everything. He told her about being kicked out of all those schools, more than he even knew. He told her about crashing a car and being subject of a national manhunt when he was only twelve. He told her about when he was thirteen and he set fire to his school's gymnasium. When he was fourteen he was in the news again and at the age of fifteen he made his school's band room catch fire giving the school much of a headache. When he was sixteen he somehow got involved with some pretty hard core people and ended up getting into a lot of trouble. He told her about last year, when he was kidnapped for eight months.

Annabeth remembered that. She remembered Thalia talking about it, her best friend had been really worried about him. He told her about it. How he was scared at first but then had begun to think. He told her about being in captivity and then running away. It really seemed that everything happened to him.

"Summing up, I guess I know how it is to have some pretty rotten luck." He looked at her and she felt safe talking to him, even if they'd only just met. He smiled at her again. "Don't ask me why I do it, act like a delinquent I mean, I don't know why. But when you have that kind of luck, I guess, you know, you've just got to toughen up and do what you have to do. I hate making people worried, I hate hurting my mother but it's really not my fault. I try to explain but most people don't get it."

"I guess I found someone who finally understands me," she said.

"Is that a yes then?" he asked her.

"A yes to what?" she answered confused.

"A yes to 'will you be my friend'?"

"Of course that's a yes, Seaweed Brain," she laughed.

"Seaweed Brain?" he laughed, slightly confused.

"Yeah, I mean, you love the ocean and it's pretty obvious to me that you don't have a normal brain," she said shyly.

He laughed. "Yeah," he thought for a minute. "Wise Girl."

"Are you addressing me?" she giggled.

"I think so," he laughed again. "Thalia always told me how smart you are and… well it always seems like you're analyzing me and reading my mind so… yeah, Wise Girl."

"You and Thalia talk about me?" she asked smirking at him.

"Sometimes," he answered with a smile. "I know more about you than you think."

"Oh, I doubt that, Seaweed Brain. I've got many secrets and I'm a difficult person to read."

"And I'm an easy one?"

"Maybe."

"You don't make sense, Wise Girl."

She laughed again at the name. "Wise Girl."

"Yeah… Wise Girl."

"I like it," she said smiling.

"You're not supposed to like it!" he said annoyed. "Nicknames are meant to irritate!"

"You're gonna take some time to manage to irritate me, Seaweed Brain," she said, and then laughed at his expression. He smiled at her, though still clearly annoyed.

They stayed like that for some minutes, smiling at each other and just listening to the waves when there was a shout from up far.

"Percy!" someone called.

"Who's that?" asked Annabeth, not recognizing the voice.

He sighed and looked up in the direction of The House. "RED"

AN.: So that was chapter four! Mainly Percabeth fluff, yeah, I know but seeing as it is an AU their relationship can't start from nowhere! See ya next time!