A/N: Hi! I don't mean to be one of those authors who beg for reviews, but I just want to check my reader's pulse. You guys liking the story so far? Anyway, I hope you read and enjoy!
Before they could begin, however, the door banged open. A familiar male voice called out, "Mom? I'm home, and I brought Thalia and Annabeth."
The two women shared a look. Colt wondered if she should hide, then immediately ditched that thought. She wasn't doing anything wrong, and, yeah, it may be awkward, but she promised to help Sally, so that was what she was going to do.
The three demigods froze in the entryway to the living room. It was more awkward than Colt had assumed, but she tried to conjure up her "Dean charm" as she liked to call it and try to play it cool.
"Hey, Percy." Colt tossed a wave at the bewildered son of Poseidon. "Sorry for popping in unexpectedly. I was in the area, thought I'd drop by and see if you were 'round."
"I invited her to stay overnight," Sally continued, getting up to greet each of the slowly defrosting demigods with a hug.
"Cool," Percy said with a smile, getting over his shock fast. He plopped onto the middle seat of the couch, jostling Colt. He gestured at the two girls he came in with. "Colt, meet Annabeth and Thalia. I told you about them, right?"
The hunter nodded, struggling to keep her Dean charm up and full force.
"Thalia, Annabeth," Percy introduced, sweeping an arm towards Colt as she quietly tucked her now shut notebook under her arms. "This is Colt." The hunter didn't appreciate the way the two were sizing her up. Colt tried not to feel threatened or insulted because she knew she'd probably do the same in their position.
Eventually, after Sally had long left the room to get them drinks and snacks, the two girls removed themselves from the doorway to curl up in the nearby armchairs. The four teens remained in a sort of silence that wasn't awkward or frosty, but unknown. Percy seemed unconcerned at the mixture of demigods and hunters or that Colt knew his address and showed up there unannounced. Instead, he seemed intent on snatching her notebook, which she clutched to her chest, alternating between kicking and slapping him whenever he seemed to get a good grip on it. She didn't know why he wanted it, but she wasn't going to give it up without a fight.
Percy stole the knife from her boot. She immediately dropped the notebook to retrieve it, while he used the distraction to successfully grab the notebook out of her lap. She stuck the knife back in her boot, pouting at the demigod next to her.
Well played, Percy Jackson. Well played.
He began flipping through the pages, stopping every so often to skim the page. There seemed to be no order or theme to his search. Percy rifled through page after page until he reached the description she had written on the ghost boy's interaction. Her breath caught. There was no way she could play it off on some hunt. She had literally written Sally and ghost and a sketch of the Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and the boy's face on the same page.
Sorry, Sally. Colt couldn't lie about this. If he asked her about the hunt, she'd tell him. It wasn't fair to him. They were partners. Well, sometimes. When they were together, they were partners, and partners don't lie to each other. Plus, Percy would never forgive her if she lied to him after he clearly saw her notes on a hunt involving his mother. She couldn't stand to even think about the betrayed look he would give her. She had seen it turned on others, but never on her.
He looked at the page for a while. So long, that Annabeth and Thalia began to turn their attention to the unmoving demigod. Colt could see their minds working in sync with no more than a couple glances at each other—weighing the pros and cons of breaking whatever trance Percy was in or just to go look over his shoulder at the apparently captivating page.
Colt could feel the heat of their gazes on her, but she refused to look away from Percy's bent head. The gray streak in his hair flowed so seamlessly with the black, it was hard to believe it was an addition to his head instead of something he had been born with.
Steadily, Percy lifted is head, holding Colt's gaze. She refused to be the first to look away. His eyes were stormy. Not mad, not sad, just… stormy and unreadable. It made Colt nervous, like judgement was imminent, but she had no idea what the outcome would be.
Percy shut the notebook quietly, slipping it into her bag and zipping it shut. He continued watching her as she watched him. Colt felt the sudden urge to confess everything. She clamped that unwanted emotion down fast. It was one thing to tell Percy about the hunt, but the other two? No. Sally didn't want this getting out, so Colt wasn't going to tell more than she had to.
Percy finally turned his gaze away from hers to talk to Thalia and Annabeth about so shenanigans pulled by some campers at one of the camps. The air rushed out of her in one swift gust. She took another breath in, gulping down air like she had survived a drowning.
Sally entered the room, bearing drinks and snacks for the hungry teens. Sally sat down on Percy's other side, easily becoming absorbed into the conversation with the three demigods. Colt thought it odd that all the tension from the notebook page was apparently forgotten, but then Percy rested a hand on her ankle beside him, giving it a light squeeze as he slid her bag farther under the coffee table with the nudge of a foot.
To keep her from running off, Colt realized. His legs were propped up on the table now. The only obstacle between her and her bag. She would have no way to slip away quietly. The page wasn't forgotten, just set aside.