VII

Percy

When he saw Octavian's look, Percy suddenly got a bit scared. The way he looked at Annabeth made him suddenly afraid that he would hurt her or make her do triple the work or something.

Then he saw Annabeth's look and he got afraid for Octavian.

She held her head high and she was wearing her bronze armour, her knife and a sword tied at the side. She held her head high and her grey eyes were so intense under her helmet… Even after 5 years of knowing her the look she followed Octavian with as he came down crept Percy out.

"You're kidding, right?" He told the praetors softly.

"Quid es quod metuis?" Annabeth said- in perfect Latin no less. That surprised Octavian. "Quod ego calcitrare vestrum podex?"

"I'm not afraid." Octavian sustained, taking Annabeth's taunts seriously.'What are you afraid of? That I'll kick your butt?'

"Good, because she's in your cohort." Jason said. Octavian shot them all a dark look.

"Follow me," he said sharply before turning back to his legion, probably not expecting Annabeth to follow as quickly as she did. Percy bit the inside of his cheek. She was going to be surrounded by kids who were influenced by Octavian every day, kids who believed what he did. But if one person had to be out there to impress them… Percy picked Annabeth out of a crowd of a thousand.

The assembly broke and the cohorts went out to their own classes- eagle training, gladiator training, Latin lessons, paintball with ghosts, endurance building (basically hanging from a bar until your arms felt like pudding, or the activity was over), and a whole bunch of stuff.

He watched Annabeth follow the legionnaires, then Leo, and Piper. He couldn't tell which one was more afraid- their faces were plain.

"Piper's got Latin and she'll be fine because she speaks two languages with Latin roots, Leo's got endurance and his arms are strong because of forge work, and Annabeth's got endurance running, which she does for fun at camp anyways." Jason said, following the three with his eyes.

"They'll be fine," Percy said. "I trust them. So what about us? What the heck are we supposed to do?"

Reyna and Jason both smiled and Percy nearly regretted asking.

"Follow us," Jason said.

Percy figured it out soon enough; they were in the Fields of Mars, away from the kids who were practising falling from eagles without killing themselves. A medic stood there, reading a book until needed.

Reyna drew her gladius.

"Whenever," she called out to Percy. He drew Riptide and raised it just in time to block Reyna's sword. Reyna swept at his feet but he hooked one of them around her ankle, and she fell too, he pinned her to the ground, but before he got his sword to her throat she stabbed him in the side and pushed him off. She did that trick that every action movie star does- swinging her legs while she was on her back and getting to her feet.

Percy couldn't keep track of how he blocked, who stroke, it all zoomed past like the battle was on fast forward. Reyna wasn't a daughter of War just by title.

She blocked Percy's strike just in time, but Percy twisted her blade with the flat of his own sword and she dropped her sword. Percy swiped the hand that reached for the dagger and got it under her chin.

"Oh man…" Jason said.

"You have got to teach me that." Reyna told him. He lowered his sword. "That's the quickest I've been disarmed in, well, in 8 months."

"Easy once you get the hand of it," Percy said. "It's the first disarming technique I ever learnt."

"The last you need if it worked so well."

"Keep your options large," Reyna scolded. "Show, again." She picked up her own sword and had Percy show it over and over until she felt satisfied. Watching Reyna's dark eyes follow his hand's movement, he could easily see how she'd taught herself how to use weapons onboard a pirate ship.

"Come here, Grace," she said. Jason walked up to her, holding his sword at ready. Reyna lashed out first, and Jason held his ground okay against Reyna. They were obviously used to fighting each other. But in the end, Reyna managed to twist Jason's blade from her hand with the flat of hers and it clattered to the ground.

"That's it?" She asked.

"Yeah," Percy said. "Or at least it worked."

"I can bring a sword from your hand no problem Jackson," as fast as the wind she drew her dagger, and in a move that would've made her mother, the war goddess, proud, the sword fell from Percy's hand.

"I just want to know the strategy," Reyna said. "Or more importantly; the Greek strategy. That's something new to me, but it's basically your whole life for you."

Percy wasn't sure what to say to that- yeah, he'd already covered sword fighting classes in the arena last summer and winter, but teach Reyna? She already scared him, no need to teach her more moves, for gods' sake.

"Sure," he said.

"It's not that hard; if you've trained Roman you can switch to Greek and vice-versa. That's what Annabeth said." Jason told her.

"You fight Greek now?" Reyna asked Jason with a smile like 'I don't believe you'.

"No," Jason admitted, "Not naturally when you just charge me. But, you know, I guess I could."

"Then come here," Percy said. He felt excited. This was Thalia's little brother? So in 3, 2, 1…

He caught Jason's first stab with the flat of his sword and sent it back. Jason didn't flinch, and stabbed at his feet, which Percy blocked.

He had no idea how long the fight went, but the only focus point he had was Jason's sword and his feet and how he was placed, which way he'd swing…

"Okay, this is boring just watching you guys," Reyna called from the sidelines.

"We haven't been fighting that long," Jason said, slashing at Percy's feet with his sword. Percy blocked and tried to hit the blade from Jason's hand.

"You're just super impatient."

"Just disarm each other or something. Percy- Grace always moves the same way and he's very repetitive even if he knows more than that. Jason- he can't fight Roman yet."

Eventually Jason got Percy by surprise and Percy dropped his sword.

"Good job," he said offering Percy a hand to get up. Percy accepted.

"You fight with both, you know. You stab and you slash."

"You fight Greek, it rubs off." Jason said. Percy nodded, and Jason turned to Reyna.

"Okay, now I'm going to have to show this punk who's boss." Reyna said with a grin.

"You try," Jason smiled. Percy might not be a genius; but he realised that they hadn't had much time to talk alone since yesterday morning. Besides, there was something he felt like he had to do…

"I'll be back in a sec, I just want to check on everyone." Percy said. Reyna nodded.

"Probably a good idea."

"No offence to you two, but I don't trust everyone here."

"That's fine; we don't trust everybody here either." Reyna said. "Take Scipio if you like."

"No thanks, I'm fine." Percy said. Every time he saw Skippy he started to miss Blackjack.

He left the fields of Mars and stopped by eagle training.

Kids were lined up waiting for the giant eagles to snatch them up. They flew until they passed a rock that looked like a dagger sticking out from the ground and then the eagles let them go. They had to drop without dying- simple. Piper was a few kids from her turn. She smiled when she saw him.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey. You doing okay?"

"Me? 'Course. About to drop from a giant eagle, but I'm cool." Piper said.

"You'll… you'll be, umm, okay." The girl behind Piper said. It was Quinn Hunter, the girl who'd given Annabeth the book on Rome.

"Thanks Quinn. Percy, you remember Quinn right?"

"Yes," he said. Quinn nodded and tried to not be there.

"They treating you okay?"

"Yeah. Joan's a little harsh because I'm Venus material, and I'm Greek. Supposedly the ultimate combo package for weak. All I need are crutches. But you know, whatever."

"Good for you," Percy said. "Want me to stick around?"

"If you want to see me die from eagle drop."

"Absolutely," Percy teased. Piper made a face as the kid in front of her took off. The first eagle had just dropped his kid and was coming back to pick her up. She took a deep breath.

"You can do it," Percy encouraged.

"I hope you're- oh my god, okay!" Piper said. The last part was because the claws plucked her off the ground. Percy followed her into the air worriedly, and when the eagle let go she did exactly what she was supposed to.

She positioned herself in mid-air, exactly right and when she hit the ground, turned the impact into a somersault and getting up perfectly. She didn't even stumble on her feet. A few legionnaires cheered, impressed and shocked, and Percy joined.

"She did it once," The Centurion who'd moved up next to Percy, Joan, grumbled. He obviously hadn't been meant to hear that- but he did. He probably should've shut up and let Piper prove Joan wrong herself, but he couldn't do that. She was right next to him and she was picking on generations of heroes that weren't.

"On her first time," Percy countered. Joan looked daggers at him.

"That doesn't make all Greek warriors good, and it doesn't make me respect any of you. You can't change that with your praetorship. If you disagree with that; you go do it yourself."

"I wish I could; but I can't fly. You should know; you were at the senate meeting yesterday morning, weren't you?" Joan turned red like a stoplight.

"Yes." She said sharply and coldly.

"There you go. Have fun." Percy said before leaving. Piper was getting a pat on the bat from a few kids, holding her helmet under her arm and smiling like 'holly Hephaestus I did it!'

Percy smiled. He'd have to congratulate her later.

Annabeth had given him the official rundown on all the new kids after he'd told her about Ella the harpy at lunch yesterday. They ended up not going back to eat right away-not until Reyna had nearly been smashed by the banner. They'd walked around the fort instead, talking. Percy had felt horrible; he'd missed eight months of her projects, her ideas, her problems, and generally her. But he was with her now, and that's all he could have wished for.

Supposedly Piper hadn't been the sword mistress champion of camp- but Annabeth sustained that she was getting better and working extremely hard for it. Annabeth said it was like Piper had a point to prove or something. Percy wasn't sure- half of his brain hadn't been listening and had just been thinking about how beautiful she looked right then, and was still in shock.

He wandered until he found the third cohort. They'd switched activities and they were conjugating Latin verbs- which sucked for Leo. He looked right through the paper.

"Give me some pointers- I don't speak Latin!" Leo whispered to him.

"Dig deep, you know it deep down." Percy said.

"I'm digging, but he's coming my way and I am not there yet!" Leo said, sounding a bit panicky. Maybe it was just Leo's spectacular ADHD.

"Add 'um', 'ux' or 'ilius' at the end of something that sounds French or English." Percy said. "It's how I passed sixth grade."

"Thanks," Leo said.

Percy didn't stick around for long before he went to go find Annabeth.

A Lares pointed him towards the sword arena and Percy grinned. They had no clue what was coming…

Percy slipped into the coliseum- whose backstage harboured corridors to allow gladiators to move around entrances without escaping seeing as most of them were prisoners, and pulley systems to lift animal cages to special doors and release animals into the arena. Percy hadn't really asked if they ever had animals in their tournaments. He assumed that no, and that the pulley system was just a part of the design, but he'd been surprised too many times in the last few days.

He made his way to the bleachers- where the first cohort lined the front row. Nobody noticed- they all looked over at the fight in the center, which Octavian followed. Well, of course they did notice, but they didn't care for long. He sat at the end of a row next to Annabeth.

"Who's winning?" He asked. She jumped.

"Gods, Seaweed brain, don't scare me." She whispered back.

"Too late," he said. She made a face at him.

"The smaller boy- Troy- is good but his opponent- Oliva- is smart and she'll have noticed that his right side isn't defended really well by now." Annabeth said.

Then just like Annabeth had said; Oliva stroke on Troy's right side and the kid went down. Octavian put his thumb down –no death- and Troy left the arena.

"Next," he called, looking up at the bleachers. He saw Percy and shot him a look as another kid jumped into the ring. The fight was 20 seconds tops; the kid was big but that seemed about it. Oliva managed to find a chink in the armour too. He was helped out of the arena.

"Next!"

Annabeth got up and jumped into the arena. She walked up to Oliva and Percy couldn't help but smile. Annabeth was bigger than Oliva, and so far all she'd counted on as far as Percy could tell was her sense of strategy. Annabeth had been watching that for two rounds. She was taller, most likely stronger, and older than Oliva; more experienced. If Annabeth could throw Oliva off with a Greek style…

Octavian gave them the go, and Oliva stroke first. Annabeth fought in a way that Percy had never seen her pull before; she fought like Frank, Hazel, Reyna, Dakota and everybody else he'd watched at Camp. She fought Roman- and she was good.

It was the longest fight Oliva had had, and she was soon on the ground.

Octavian put his thumb down, and called for the next kid.

It took half a second for the next kid to get out.

And the next.

And the next.

Percy smiled at all the different ways Octavian's eyebrows and mouth were raising and twisting.

Soon; all the kids had passed through Annabeth. She'd switched from Greek to Roman to a mix of the two- which confused her opponents.

"What was that?" Octavian asked Annabeth suddenly.

"Fighting," Annabeth said.

"We're doing gladiator fighting. That wasn't gladiator fighting."

"Actually Octavian, the Hoplomachi were a type of gladiator. The name comes from the word 'hoplite' which is a Greek soldier; and the name comes from a similarity in fighting styles." Annabeth told him. Octavian frowned deeper.

"All right; you want to be smart about this?" Octavian drew his own sword. Percy tensed suddenly. Octavian wasn't centurion for no reason, and he'd watched Annabeth since she stepped into the ring, she was tired, and he'd probably been watching her like a security camera since she got to Camp. That idea bugged him for a reason. Shut up, he hates her.

Annabeth got into an offensive position and Octavian stabbed at her chest, but Annabeth swept his sword away. She slashed at him, but he spun around to avoid the blade. Annabeth kept her arm in movement and swerved her arm to his Octavian in the side. He got her in the shoulder and Percy winced.

The sparring went on for a long, long time. The sun had definitely moved in the sky and the rest of the cohort had stopped cheering their Centurion on ages ago. They didn't look like yeay Octavian! anymore, it was more of a Can I go home now? Both Octavian and Annabeth looked about ready to pass out- but neither of them would.

Another cohort actually came in and sat down waiting for them to be done.

Their Centurion jumped into the rink and wolf-whistled. Only then did Percy see that it was the fifth cohort: Frank was in there.

"Octavian!" Frank called. "Rule of gladiator fighting- if both soldiers were too tired to continue, fight's over and it's a tie. Forgot that, maybe?"

Octavian relaxed his position, but Annabeth didn't. She kept her sword raised.

"Don't act so smug, Zhang." He said.

"You should be the one who's getting down. Years of telling us the Graecus are unworthy and weak and now there's a truce called in your gladiator fight against one. I'm guessing she thought others before you too."

Octavian was about to reply something when Frank turned back.

"Fifth cohort- get in here, teams of two, 5 minute warm up and we get to the good stuff, let's go!" Frank called.

Both Octavian and Annabeth got a hand into climbing back into the stands. A few kids actually looked dead-impressed with Annabeth.

"You did good." Percy said when she crumbled down in her seat.

"Oh gods, how long was that?" She asked, slipping her helmet off her face. Her cheeks were bright red and sweat poured down her face.

"45 minutes straight," someone supplied. "And you fought before too."

"Thanks Skye," Annabeth told the girl. Octavian seemed to be in his own corner too. Then he got up.

"Pick yourself up Chase. We're already late."

"We'd have been fine if you'd have remembered the rules of gladiator fighting," Annabeth muttered between clenched jaws. Percy was pretty sure she'd known that, and that it was killing her now. But she did what he asked.

"I'll see you later," Percy said.

"At supper." Annabeth agreed. Percy watched as she, Skye and two other guys left the coliseum.

He was scared of walking in on Jason and Reyna (whatever Reyna said; Percy wasn't that stupid) so he wandered around the city.

That's when he heard barking and squawking and he saw Tyson, Mrs O'Leary and Ella running after each other.

Okay; what?

Percy jogged up and Ella circled down and landed in front of him.

"Dog- large dog- hellhound from Hades- eats heroes, not this one, nope, nope." She informed him. Maybe it was a greeting… Percy wasn't sure; the harpy confused him and being outsmarted by a bird somewhat bugged him even if he knew there had to be more to Ella than a harpy. Annabeth was right- how had Ella learnt to read?

"Hey Ella."

"Hello Friend." Ella said. "Tyson's brother, a child of the three elder gods…"

"Shall reach sixteen against all odds." Percy finished for her. Ella nodded anxiously like she was glad that Percy understood.

"Falling from ice the son of Neptune shall drown."

"Okay, could've lived without the second one," Percy grumbled. "Why's Tyson chasing Mrs O'Leary?"

"Chasing, Chase, Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, the son of Neptune shall drown."

"Yeah, I get it, thanks." Percy said, not really in the mood about hearing about his own death. Again. "Why's Tyson running after Mrs O'Leary?"

"The Large dog stole Tyson's toy." Ella said.

"Tyson's toy?"

"Yes. Toys R Us, headquarters in Wayne New Jersey… Toy for Percy."

"A toy for me?" Percy asked. Ella nodded and took off. She swooped down and plucked something from Mrs O'Leary's mouth. She hovered around Tyson like a helicopter before dropping her loot in his hands.

"Thank you Ella." Tyson said. He whipped it with a corner of his faded shirt and saw Percy.

"Percy!" He said. Percy braced himself for a bear hug but it didn't happen- he still stumbled.

"Hey big guy," he said.

"Percy didn't leave again! Yeay! Annabeth not crying this morning!"

"You guys really don't- wait what?" Percy said. "What do you mean Annabeth's not crying?"

"Annabeth very sad when Percy gone. Thought Percy was dead. But Percy still here!"

"Yeay, right, guess that rules out the possibility of an Egyptian camp or whatnot." At the rate things were going- they could use another super-powerful godly army, but guess not. They were already having a lot of trouble uniting Greek and Rome together anyways. He wasn't ready to tackle Persia or whatever. "Hey- do you know what Ella's talking about?"

"No," Tyson said. "Tyson never understand. Only understand why."

"Why?"

"Ella nice. Nervous. Words make Ella not nervous."

"What is she nervous about?" Percy asked. Tyson shrugged.

"Words. Words make Ella nervous, but also make Ella not nervous."

"Okay… Sure." Percy said trying to figure that one out. Again; always outsmarted by a bird. Everywhere he went. Always.

"I have something for you."

"A toy?" Percy asked. Tyson frowned.

"Ella's words."

"Oh." Tyson understood. "Yes. Ta-dah!" He showed Percy what looked like a small iPad or something, except square and thicker. It hung on a keychain with a metal blue frame.

"Oh cool." Percy said. "What does it do?"

"Toy with pictures, Picture to burn, Taylor Swift…"

Percy looked back on the mini-keychain-iPad and saw three buttons.

"That one." Tyson said pointing to the top one. Percy pushed it and his eyes widened. The screen showed him a picture of his mom and him on her wedding day. She was smiling, and Percy had never seen her look prettier before. He wished she could've done that 8 years earlier.

"Percy's mom." Tyson said.

"Yeah…" Percy said in a daze. Tyson pushed the button under and it was a family picture with Paul. Then one of Percy –about 6 years old- at a beach that could only be Montauk. Then he saw a picture of Camp Half-Blood. Half-Blood hill, the view from the central green, cabin 3 with Connor and Travis in it…

"Hey- what are they doing in there?"

"Took pictures." Tyson said. Percy noted that he'd have to search their bunks if his stuff was missing when he got back to camp. He would get back to camp.

Grover, Rachel, Connor, Travis, Nico, a bunch of random pictures showing fingers in the lens and the ground meaning that the Stolls were wrestling for the camera (and just another proof demigods weren't made for technology), Annabeth Jake and Leo in the forge looking up from blueprints and smiling like 'okay, now go away so we can carry on'. Chiron, that kid from school Jon that he hung out with, the canoe lake (which made Percy smile), the beach, the fields where Katie was rolling her eyes at Travis who was close enough to put an arm around her, another picture of Travis being pushed into strawberries which meant that he'd tried…

"Everything's in here?" Percy asked shocked. Tyson nodded with a grin.

"Percy like?"

"I love it. Thanks big guy." Percy said giving Tyson a slap in the back. It made him feel homesick though. Seeing everything he'd missed, his mom, his friends who weren't here, his teacher… It only made him promise to himself that he would get back home soon.

Percy slipped it in his pocket and Tyson dragged Percy to show him the fort's forge- which he and Leo had sniffed out yesterday. It was small, and only two guys were working it. This thing only made weapons; no inventions, no thing-a-ma-bobbers and definitely no flying ships. Leo and Tyson must've been pretty disappointed; nothing like camp or under the sea. Then again, a forge was a forge.

They even let Tyson come with them when he asked. By now, Tyson was a master at a forge, and he had the two kids impressed in less than 5 minutes and 2 swords.

"Tyson works, Tyson strong, Tyson protect Ella…" The harpy blushed furiously and Tyson became the reddest Cyclops in the history of either Greece or Rome.

"Ella will go read now- words good- Good to You Marianna's Trench… Goodbye Percy, goodbye Tyson, Ella leave."

Percy figured that he should follow Ella's example and move on, especially when he unscripted the roman numerals on the forge's clock and saw the time.

"You good here?" He asked Tyson. Tyson nodded with a huge grin on his face.

"Kay, I've got to go, muster is anytime and I can't be late." Percy said turning around. He froze.

"Oh and Tyson?"

"Yes, brother?"

"She really is a pretty harpy- and she totally likes you." Tyson blushed again.

"Pretty, smart and nice."

"3 good things- go for it." Percy told him. Tyson was still thinking on that when Percy ran to the barracks for muster. Reyna and Jason were already there.

"There you are! Gods of Olympus, where were you? We can't trust either one of you on your own- I completely agree with Annabeth at this point." Reyna said.

Jason made a face at her. "You think having no memory and sitting in a school bus is fun? 'Cause it's not."

"Yeah, nor is being asleep… Somewhere for eight months." Percy said. Reyna rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to get Scipio. Jackson, make sure your armour's straight or Octavian will make sure we hear about it." She said before leaving.

"How were they? How were they doing?" Jason asked. "Everyone was okay?"

"I think so. Piper was pawning at the eagle drops, Annabeth got in a gladiator fight with Octavian-"

"You're kidding." Reyna said.

"I swear I'm not."

"How did it end?" Jason asked.

"Frank put an end to it because they were both pretty much exhausted. I don't know how she is right now but… I'm guessing –well I hope- she's alright. I think they all are. Well, Leo might have had a tough time with the Latin verbs…"

"Leo can't speak Latin." Jason said. "I've tried, but just… I think Seymour understood it better than he did."

"Who did?" Percy asked.

"The leopard. In the mess room." Jason said. The answer finally popped up in Percy's head. The stuffed leopard… That creep of a feline hanging in the… That Mr D dug out from somewhere- right. Jason must've seen it click in Percy's eyes because he said;

"Your memory's still coming in?"

"It's been two days; I wish Hera would make it hurry up." Percy said. "Yours took how long?"

"A week or two," Jason said. "Down to the tiny details like the principia's ceiling,or Vitellius' ancestry or whatever. Yours shouldn't take as long. I mean, you've got Annabeth here to remind you of whatever you'd forget."

"Yeah." Percy said. "It must've been tough. Having 8 months of knowing what you were missing and missing it."

Jason nodded.

"It was hard. Sometimes I'd just lie awake thinking about how many new kids were making the run from the Wolf House to here, or how bad Reyna was having it with Octavian and whatever." Jason said. "But at the same time, at least I didn't lose eight months of my life. That sucks."

"Yeah it does. Hera sucks period."

He grinned.

"Shouldn't be saying it, especially me, but yeah. On that one she does." Thunder boomed, but both of them ignored it.

"But what sucks even more for you is that we're not stopping at Camp Half-Blood before going to Greece and Rome. You won't see it for a while."

Percy nodded but took out the keychain.

"Tyson gave me this. I'll make-do, I guess. I got to hear my Mom on the answering machine."

"You should call again," Jason said. "When they're awake in New York. We keep one phone in the principia, so you could."

"Really?" Percy asked, suddenly excited.

"Yeah, for emergencies and things like that. I'll show you after muster. Reyna probably just didn't think of it."

"Didn't think of what?" She asked, shouldering Jason on Scipio now.

"Nothing," Jason said. "It's not important, really."

To Percy it was really important, and he started not being able to wait for them to leave as the legions started filling in.

It was just muster; nothing new, nothing interesting, and Percy's mind was elsewhere. Jason stood behind Reyna and Percy because, as usual, he didn't want to make it look like he was praetor. Percy has asked him several times if he wanted his job back or something, but Jason said no every time and Percy was starting to believe the guy was honest. In the meantime it wasn't worth it for him to re-join a cohort because the Argo II was leaving soon. And when the Argo II got back, Percy wasn't planning on keeping the name of praetor or 'roman'; Jason could be praetor again.

Piper stumbled over her foot in the fourth cohort, but she got up quickly and kept going. Leo was focusing on his feet. Percy didn't see Annabeth great from where he was but he hoped she was alright. Nobody collapsed in the first cohort's ranks and that was as good as Percy could think of.

When everyone started heading to the mess hall, Percy immediately went to see her.

"You doing okay?" He asked her. She raised her arms to try and pull off her helmet but winced. Percy took her helmet off for her and saw how pale she was, sweat trickling down her face.

"My arms are killing me." She said.

"Common," Percy said taking her to the first cohort's barracks. "Let's ditch you armour and get you to eat."

Annabeth explained her day as she put her armour away.

"So basically it started off with Octavian telling me that I was out of proper armour. Then I told him that this was proper Greek armour. So he hated me even more right there because I was right and he wasn't, and it was probably rubbing it in his face that I'm from the original group of demigods."

"Okay," Percy said thinking 'here we go'.

"Second, we had Latin lessons, and the Lares made it go to verbs and he kept cornering me for these things but I speak Latin just fine. Then there was the gladiator thing, which drained half of my energy. Then we did deathball with the ghosts, and they were nearly all after me because supposedly the whole Civil War was my fault. And then the day ended with eagle landings, and for some reason Octavian made me go first which meant that I went once more than the other kids. I landed awkward, my shoulder sort of cracked and he was all over me with a speech I mostly tuned out but sounded a bit like 'if you can't keep up you don't belong here'." Annabeth said.

"Is your shoulder okay?"

"I'm fine, Skye popped it back into place."

"But you're still half dead." Percy said.

"Yes, but I'm okay." Annabeth lied. "Common, let's go Seaweed brain, or they'll think we got lost."

"Maybe we could get lost?" Percy offered. Annabeth smiled.

"Just this once?"

"On purpose?"

"Alright," Annabeth said, taking his hand.

They should've gone to the mess hall but they wandered down to New Rome instead.

They saw down on the edge of the fountain with Cupid and watched. It was quieter now around; people were settled at home or at friends' for supper. A couple was throwing grapes at each other's open mouths, and the girl at the sidewalk café was bringing sandwiches and soups to tables. A big sister and her little brother were having a picnic on a spread out blanket, and a mother was yelling out her kids' names down the street until they ran home from a park.

"It seems so surreal," Annabeth said. "With all these families everywhere."

"It does." Percy said. "But it seems so good too."

"Yes," Annabeth said. "Maybe one day that'll happen."

"To us?"

"Amongst others," Annabeth said. "But yes; hopefully us." Percy kissed her.

"I hope so."

"So you survive the Argo II, okay?" Annabeth said.

"You're not coming?" Percy asked surprised.

"Well, I told Octavian on the first day here. I don't think this is about me."

"What about Ella's lines?" Percy asked.

"That I don't know." She said after hesitating. "But I'm not the only child of wisdom."

"You're the only child of Athena." Annabeth gave him a look.

"I've been wrestling with prophecies my whole life and a lot of it was about you, Seaweed brain. Can we just relax this one night before all Hades breaks loose? Times two? I shouldn't have brought it up anyways."

She brought her legs up on the fountain's basin and stretched them out slowly, trying not to wince.

"You're sure you're okay?"

"I'm soar; it'll go away by morning if Reyna takes Piper and me to the bath again. That was new."

"Tell me about it." Percy said. "Things are so different here."

Annabeth nodded and you could tell everything in her head was shifting and rearranging itself to fit. Annabeth's brain was like an octopus to Percy- it could do eight things at once and still get them all right and he just stood there going 'what?' Except he'd never kiss an octopus, and he couldn't go a day without kissing Annabeth again.

"Not necessarily bad," she said. "I mean, sure, some things I hate. Like the big opening Octavian has for his trickery and lies, or the fact he's got all the power over all these kids and he wraps them in lies like Santa wraps a present. But it's like camp that way. You've got the Clarisses, the Drews, and then the kids like you."

"Okay- what's his name," Percy joked. Annabeth hit his arm and laughed.

"Shut up, Seaweed brain. I'm talking about loyal, good, honest people who know right from wrong. And aren't necessarily the smartest." She kissed him. "You can be such an idiot sometimes, it blows my mind away."

"You blow my mind away." Annabeth smiled and her fingers touched his chest.

"You miss home?" She was pointing at the faded words that Percy hadn't been able to read before. Now he knew it was 'Camp Half-Blood'. His heart ached.

"Yeah," Percy said. "So bad."

"It's doing okay." Annabeth said. "Everyone misses you. I've talked to your mom a million times, and she misses you too."

"I called her. In Alaska. There was a payphone, and I had change…"

"I'm guessing she didn't pick up because it was night." Annabeth said. Percy nodded.

"She would have. And having that message on her phone is going to make her summer, Percy. We love you, and we've missed you." Percy kissed the top of her head and she leaned back on him. It was quiet- and for once quiet was good. Actually; scratch that, because when it was quiet things tended to then blow up in his face. Quiet with Annabeth was good.

Actually, right now, even if they were off on the most dangerous quest yet and time was counting down on it, as well as on a big prophecy that looked promising to count both of them into doomsday; anything with Annabeth was good.