Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and The Olympians, nor do I own any of the mentioned movies.


Aquarium


Movie Night

There had been quite an argument about what movie we should see first. As the most logical option I was about to propose that we watched either Gladiator or Titanic, since they were they longest, Rachel beat me to it. Clarisse had said that it was a bad idea, because they were so long and we wouldn't be able to sit still, at that point I took over and explained that there existed a lovely invention called a 'Remote' and that it could pause the movie – very smart for people who have ADHD. Clarisse sent her best death glare at me, while Katie, Thalia and Rachel were trying their best to hide their laughter.

"Fine," Clarisse had snapped at us and took Titanic from the table, to start it. "Let's just get it over with and watch the stupid movie."

And we did, we saw it. All 194 minutes.

"Okay, now it is finally done can we eat? I can't be the only one who's hungry, can I?" Thalia asked.

"No, you're not," Katie said as she whipped away the tears from her cheeks. In the end Rachel and Katie had both sat and cried. Me, Thalia and Clarisse had just looked at them when the credits came, then looked at each other and started laughing. Rachel who had sat with a pillow through the entire film, stood up and started to hit us, while saying we were 'Heartless, cold, evil persons.' That didn't help us to stop laughing. In the end Thalia, Clarisse and I each took a pillow and started to hit Rachel to make her stop hitting us.

When we had calmed down, we found that Katie had, while we had played with pillows, found and prepared our meal, pizza, beverages were to be found at the table.

"Oh Katie, you're a pearl!*" I said and smiled at her.

"That is very true, but the truth is, I'm hungry," She laughed.

"You're so considerate towards your friends, you know that?" Thalia said.

"Yeah, I know and I love you too Thalia," Katie smiled. "Aren't you guys gonna eat?"

We all took some food and smiled at Katie. The conversation started to flow easily, we talked about all kinds of things – work, friends, things we heard on the news and our families. All the topics were quite harmless, but of course peace never last, and in the end an unavoidable topic came up: Relationships.

"So Clarisse, how's it going with Chris?" Rachel asked.

Clarisse glared at Rachel. "Aren't you the oracle? Shouldn't you know stuff? Besides it's none of your business."

"Oh, as your friends, I'd say it's definitely our business," Katie said.

"I have to agree with Katie on this one. You're our friend, your business is our business," Thalia laughed.

I cringed a bit, if I knew my friends as well as I thought I did, I knew that when they were done interrogating each other, it would be four against one. They would team up against me and catch me in a corner so I couldn't escape, then they would start questioning me. They had done it before and they would do it again. Luckily I'd had some practice in changing topic – I'd done it before and I'd do it again.

"Clarisse is right, it's none of our business."

Katie, Thalia and Rachel looked a me. "'Course it is. That's what friends are for, right?"

I was about to make a genius retreat, when Clarisse interrupted me.

"Me and Chris are fine, no problems. Thanks for your concern, but I don't need it," she smiled.

Rachel and Katie didn't look satisfied. They were about to continue their interrogating of Clarisse, when she interrupted them.

"What about you Katie? Got a special someone?" Clarisse asked. Ahh, leading the attention on to someone else. Good thinking, Clarisse.

"No, I'm single and I'm happy," Katie answered.

"So you don't have a single little thing for someone? Not at all?" Thalia asked.

Katie shook her head.

I snorted. "Yeah right and you so haven't talked on the phone to some mystery person for two hours."

Clarisse, Thalia and Rachel laughed.

Katie sent me a death glare. "Traitor."

"So you admit there is someone?" Rachel pointed a finger at her.

Katie sighed. "Will you believe me if I say no?" We shook our heads. "I guess there might be one I like-"

"I knew it!" Rachel interrupted, she stood up and did a little happy dance.

"As I was saying, there might be one, but I'm not sure, we haven't been friends for a very long time," Katie continued.

We shared a look and then sent Katie one, she gave us an assuring smile. "Don't worry, if something happen, note I said if, you'll be the firsts to know."

We were all satisfied by her little speech, her reassurance if you want.

"So, Annabeth," Thalia said and directed her attention to me.

"So, Thalia?" I answered.

"So, Annabeth, how is your love life going?"

I rolled my eyes. "How do you think? Last time I checked, I didn't have one."

"It didn't sound like that from what Katie told us," Clarisse mumbled. As the mature person I was, I ignored her and ate some more pizza.

"Silence gives consent," Rachel sang. Mature as I am, I hit her in the arm.

Thalia looked at me and smirked. "You're blushing."

Curse my body! Since, as long as I can remember, whenever I felt pressured, I would start blushing. Unfortunately, many people see that as a sign of either a lie or embarrassment. I shook my head, it didn't matter to explain, they wouldn't understand.

"Anyone up for another movie?" I asked.


I sighed as I looked over the blueprints. Who would have thought it would take so long to redesign Olympus? Yeah, neither did I. So far it has taken me 13 years and I'm not done yet. Sure I have been a perfectionist in the process and wouldn't accept less than perfect, but still, it's a long time.

At Olympus, there had been made a room for my disposal, so I could work in peace and quiet. When I was introduced to this room 13 years ago, it seemed bigger. The room was not the biggest in the world, about 7 square meters, the walls were white and 4 meters tall, at the wall opposite the door there were a desk and to the left of it there were a window. That was how it looked when I first arrived, now every single inch were covered in blueprints, plans, pictures, notes and ideas. Even some of the floor was covered in stacks with paper. And believe it or not, I had a system! If I was asked to get a specific plan or drawing to inspection, I could do it in less than a minute.

The reason to my sighing, you may ask. A blueprint. I had been working on it for months and it just wouldn't cooperate with me. Usually, when I get inspiration, I can just take some paper and start drawing. This one wouldn't let me, it would in no way down on paper. It was frustrating as a certain place I have been and which happened to be located far below my feet.

I layed the blueprint down on the desk again, and sat down on the floor, my hand found my forehead on their own. Sometimes when I worked on something and it wouldn't cooperate with me; I'd get a headache. Lovely, I know. I also know what you are going to say: "Go see a doctor, you might have a migraine. Blah, blah, blah..."

My answer to that is simple: When I get a headache, I'm on Olympus. At my 'normal' work there is not that kind of problems, the things there are very cooperative (maybe because there are no Greek gods disagreeing and arguing over my designs) When I get those headaches and I'm on Olympus, I'm surrounded by gods. See my point? No need to go to a doctor. One hing that had done no good to my headache was the stares people, sorry gods, would give me when I had walked past them on my way from the entrance to my workroom. Already there, a headache had been just around the corner, ready to attack me – so to speak.

I sat there on the floor, my head resting on my hands and eyes closed, heaven know for how long. I just concentrated on my breathing, it usually made the pain go away.

"That's an... Interesting way of working," I heard a voice, definitely male, say behind me.

"I'm an interesting person," I murmured, not changing my position. The person behind me chuckled, I could feel that he made his way towards my work desk.

"Why isn't this one being constructed right now? It looks nice. Hmm... I see. Something is missing, but what?"

I opened my eyes and looked up at him. Inwardly I groaned. Poseidon stood with the final straw to my headache, also known as the blueprint, leaning on the desk. My dignity, I thought. That's what's missing.

"Now, I think it would be a bit hard to put your dignity on a fountain."

I narrowed my eyes.

"You do read minds," I accused.

He started to laugh. "No, I don't. But it does help, when you're thinking out loud."

I felt my cheeks start to heat up. That happened a lot lately.

"I can't figure out what's missing," I said, as I stood up. I'd like to say I did it gracefully, but then I'd be lying. I fell right into Poseidon.

"You just can't resist me, can you?"

Can you hit a god? Is it even legal? I didn't take the chance. I quickly placed myself away from him.

"I've considered to make the fountain Greek," I said to come back at the original subject. "But I don't have any ideas that'll fit the surroundings."

Poseidon looked thoughtful. "You don't necessarily have to get your inspiration from Greece. You could take inspiration from anywhere. Maybe some of the famous fountains in the world, there is the Fountains ofVersailles in France, the Fontana di Trevi in Italy, there is the fountain at Trafalgar Square in England, the Buckingham fountain in Chicago is also nice. If you want to go after the less known, but still mythological, I say the Gefion Fountain in Denmark or maybe, in fear of sounding full of myself, the Neptune Fountain in Germany." He grinned at me.

"The problem is that I already have looked at those," I said, waving my hand towards the photos of said springs. "Nothing seems to fit," I sighed and rubbed my head. I turned towards Poseidon.

"Not to be disrespectful or anything, but what are you doing here?" I asked.

He glanced up from a sketch of a temple. "Hiding."

I raised my eyebrows.

"I'm gonna say Hermes, Apollo, Hephaestus and I'm gonna say gun filled with, only the gods know what. Need I say more?" he asked.

"And they are chasing you," I concluded.

Poseidon looked down at the sketch again. "Yes, that would be just about right. You know, this is nice." He smiled at me. "So is your jacket."

I smiled sheepishly. "What can I say, I like this fabric."

For a while neither of us said anything. Again, it wasn't an uncomfortable silence – actually very pleasant. I stood with a blueprint of a temple, trying to figure out if I could improve it. But there were something that kept nagging in the back of my head, and not just a headache, so I couldn't concentrate.

"It's not the only reason you're hiding, is it?" I asked.

He looked up from another drawing I had made, a park. "No, there were too much love in the air, wherever I went."

"Understandable," I nodded.

After that we stood in silence, until the door opened again. I looked up from the blueprint and black dots appeared in my vision. I hate when you have looked at something for a long time and then look at a source of light, stupid black dots.

"Annabeth, hello," Athena greeted warmly. "Poseidon," her voice turned cold.

"Hi mom," I said at the same time as Poseidon greeted my mom.

There was a silence, an uncomfortable one.

Poseidon cleared his throat. "I think it's safe to go now. Bye Annabeth, you might want to consider removing this jet. It's kind of disturbing the image." He smiled at me and handed me the blueprint of the spring, the one that gave me a headache.

"Thanks, I'll think about it," I murmured, though I could now see he was right.

Poseidon started to walk out. "Athena," he said, when he passed her.

When he was out of earshot, my mother turned to me. "I don't think I like that you're spending time with him."

"Mom, we're not spending time together. We've just met. Accidentally." On more than one occasion, I added in my head.

You would think that Athena and Poseidon had started to get along since Percy and Athena started to be an item, but no. I won't say it got worse, but it definitely didn't get better.

My mother looked sceptically at me.

"If you would excuse me, I would like to pack up and get home. I've been here for a long time, I'm very tired and I would like to go home." I took my bag and looked if I had everything, I did. I said goodbye to my mother and walked over to the door. When I had one foot out of it, Athena called me back.

"Listen, Annabeth. I know you were... were hurt when Percy and I started to date, are hurt. But please don't... Please don't, you know, settle for someone who looks like him." I had never heard my mother sound so concerned and certainly never stutter.

"I won't, that's not my style," I said, as I started to walk out of the door.

"Annabeth," my mother called. "We never, I never meant to hurt you. Please remember that."

I sent my mother a warm smile before leaving her alone in my workroom.


A/N: *: In danish, you can say: 'Du er en perle.' It translates directly into: 'You are a pearl.' But the more roughly translation would be: 'You are a sweetie' – I think. In Danish you can also say: 'You are a sweetie' (Du er en skat) but in this case, I found 'pearl' better (If you can't see why, I'm not gonna bother to tell why. Then you'll just have to wait)

When I have math and do mathematical stuff, I use the meter system: Centimeters, meters, millimeters, kilometers etc. So to any non Europeans/ anyone who don't use 'my' metric system, here is the converting:

7 square meters = about 75 square feet.

4 meters tall = about 13 feet.

If you want, I can put links to the fountains on my profile.

On a different note, what did you think of this chapter? Please let me know, and if you have any ideas, that would be nice too (I have a plot, I just need some ideas. Please?)

Thanks to all of those who have read, reviewed, favorized and/or alerted. Makes me happy to know what people think of this.