A/N: Originally posted on ao3 under the pen name youngjusticewriter.

Chapter Six: How to bullshit a child of Athena and get away with it (even though she knows you're lying) for idiots.

After finishing reading out the sentence Percy looked up from the heavy volume to see Annabeth looking him. She was barely bitting her bottom lip and had her dark eyes narrowed. It was a look that Percy knew well. It always reminded him of the gears of clock turning. That was the look of Annabeth trying to figure out something that was refusing to make sense. "What's up?" Percy asked, going ahead and closing Odyssey that he'd, under Annabeth guidance, been learning Greek from.

Annabeth kept staring at him, she'd stopped bitting her lip only to begin full out frowning. Her fingers, in turn of the pinky to the thumb, were being lifted from the grass to be put down again. Percy felt the urge to make some excuse (okay, not an actually excuse he was suppose to go climbing and burn himself on the lava) and leave. Yes, he knew Annabeth, knew the Annabeth she had been in the original time line, and that was why Percy felt the need to leave before Annabeth figured out whatever question about him she figured out.

A part of him wanted to call her phone the day he'd woken up by Grover - a young Grover (even though technically Grover hadn't been young) - who'd been shaking his shoulders because Percy had been screaming so loud he'd woken up the whole dorm. Percy had went to his home first with the cash he had so far earned from selling candy against the rules of Yancy Academy; he could remember the look the taxi driver had given him when he got in with his worn, sweaty pajamas.

His mom nor Paul had been there when Percy had knocked on the door with a shaky fist. Maybe she was at the hospital for physical therapy, Percy had thought only for that hope to brutally be murdered when some stranger had open the door. The woman had cussed him to hell and back for waking her up so loudly. Percy could smell the liquor on her. Briefly he couldn't help but wonder what would happen to her in a few months for her to move out. Percy been too busy to figure out with remembering where their old apartment with Smelly Gabe had been to guess another reason besides being spending her money on partying to pay the bill.

Thoughts of getting there and beating Gabe were abruptly stopped when Annabeth finally spoke.

"Who was the Luke on your list?" She asked, her eyes dark and narrowed at him like that would give her the answers she wanted.

"He was a kid from Yancy that I was wondering if he'd pay money for some candy I smuggled into the academy."

Annabeth nodded but Percy knew from experience that she didn't believe him.

"Paul?" She asked before taking a sip of her water bottle.

"A nice guy I thought about introducing to my mom."

Blonde curls fell to the side of her shoulder as Annabeth tilted her head. "I thought your mom was married." That wasn't a question.

Percy didn't even try to look innocent; he always looked guilty even when he wasn't. "Gabe had been hitting her. I think mom was going to send me to here while she handled the divorce."

She hummed at him as campers started yelling and splashing in the water several feet away from them. Annabeth screwed on the lid to her waterbottle before speaking again.

"I googled Lotus Casino," Annabeth confessed, her stormy eyes on the Odyssey. Lotus eaters, Percy thought. What an idiot he'd been. When did Annabeth not do something without meaning? When she'd trusted you, Perch thought with a pang of sadness.

"I thought half-bloods couldn't use technology?"

He was frustrating her, Percy could easily tell just as he could breeze through Greek. Though not the Odyssey; one did not breeze through Homer's works. (Percy still couldn't believe it use to be someone's job to memorize it just so they could orally tell the story.)

She was enjoying it though, Percy knew. There was only so much entertainment Capture the Flag could give. Yes, Annabeth would most certainly try to win it but it wasn't a puzzle. But Capture the Flag couldn't bullshit you back and you knew you were be being bullshited and doesn't that make it interesting? Didn't that make Annabeth inch? Her eyes narrowed in interest.

...It probably helped that Percy might be a Roman which the Greeks hadn't meet up with since the Civil War.

"I might be meeting up with my older cousins there," that wasn't a lie. Percy knew if he changed the timeline he couldn't predict it but he had made a promise; he had broken his promise to Nico. Percy would be lying to say that he didn't want to rescue the Di Angelo siblings earlier. That want had even shown up in his dreams with Nico and Bianca being in class about Orphism. Thalia would have been enough to remind him what was at stake and also lovingly chew his sea weed ass out about his tattoo choice.

"Shopping before camp?" Annabeth asked, quoting the last thing on his list that she'd yet to ask about.

"I told you," Percy said, letting frustration he honestly didn't feel leak into his voice. "My mom was planning to send me here before a certain monster Poseidon created decided to kill my mom."

"Poseidon didn't create him."

"No, but he made Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, fall in love with bull King Minos was suppose to sacrifice to him. So he did but not in the traditional sense."

Annabeth got up, brushing her shorts before grabbing her plastic water bottle. "I guess that ends our lesson. I'd like my book back," Annabeth coldly told him. "I don't think you need anymore lessons."

[\]

There's no one there to watch when Luke teaches him to use a sword. Percy can't remember what campers were there the first time around but he remembers there were campers. Now they are none because of the rumors of his tattoo. (Not a single camper - not even Annabeth- asks and Percy doesn't tell.)

"You sure you're up for this?" Luke asks with a kind smile. "Earlier you had look like you'd seen a ghost."

Percy smiled in return though it didn't reach the dark circles under his eyes. Percy doesn't answer that that he had seen a ghost when he had seen his dead friend Beckendorf. Beckendorf who'd been walking with one of his siblings, actually speaking (Beckendorf didn't speak often but when he did people listened) instead of his burnt and torn corpse somewhere lost in the sea.

Percy tried another sword before putting back down with a frown; he missed Riptide in his hand, in his pockets. Not a single weapon in camp felt right but Percy wouldn't always be able to use Riptide so he might as well learn to at least handle another sword.

Despite his earlier question, Luke did not go easy on Percy whose body wasn't use to fighting with a sword. Yes, he had practiced with Chiron's collection but that hadn't been enough time to take on Luke.

Percy ended up bruised, battered, and sweaty. Percy didn't pour the water over his head despite the pain his ribs felt from the whaps Luke dealt out with the flat side of his blade. Luke already had this look in his eyes at the way Percy, despite being twelve, knew how to use a sword but didn't have the second nature or muscle to do so.

Briefly Percy can't help but wonder if that's the look kids who rip the wings off a butterfly get too in their eyes.

He gets it. Percy unfortunately really did but he'll take the shitty gods over world as we know it ending titans and giants when it came down to it. Now did that mean he was going to let all the horrible things they did slide?

No.

[\]

Percy dreams of cut flesh being roasted on fire; he can smell it despite it being a dream. Demi-god dreams suck like that.

Thankfully Luke or one of his siblings wakes Percy up before he starts an earth quake.

[\]

It's Friday afternoon before Percy knows it.

He's sitting on the grass next to Grover, dirt digging into his singed knees, and they're taking about searcher's licenses and children of the Big Three. Percy would enjoy just spending sometime with his best friend if it wasn't for the fact he knows what's going to happen tonight.

Percy tries though as he promises that Grover will get his license despite what the Council thought. Grover looks like he's going to cry because someone besides Luke and Annabeth have his back.

A/N: "Because fear kills everything," Mo had once told her. "Your mind, your heart, your imagination."

[\]

• For those who don't know the Lotus Casino is a reference to one of many problems Odysseus faced while trying to get back home to his wife and son. In the Odyssey, which was the book Annabeth was teaching Percy, some of Odysseus's men ate the fruit of the Lotus Tree like the Lotus eaters had. They didn't want to go home. Odyssey, who already had too little men, solved the problem by simply dragging his men to the ship because damnit he was going home.

• The thing that makes Percy upset during Friday is that he knows his first Capture the Flag is later that night. Remember he gets attacked by a hell hound and then proceeds to be claimed by Poseidon. Percy doesn't know if Kronus knows who is parentage is so he's been trying to keep in under wraps.

• In case you didn't know I'm letting you know there's another part of the series posted. The fic takes place in middle of chapter two and has two chapters though I've only posted one so far...