A/N: MY GOD IT'S BEEN FOREVER SINCE I UPDATED. Time totally slipped away from me, I am so sorry you guys. I hope you like the chapter since you waited so long for it (AGAIN, I AM SO SORRY)!

Perseus's POV

"Percy?" she said, muffled into his shirt.

"What is it, Rach?" he said quietly, gently stroking her red frizz and tightening his arms around her protectively. He knew her time was coming soon, but it pissed him off to no end because he couldn't do anything to stop it. He could only comfort her in her shortened days, so comfort he did.

"When I die—"

"If you die."

She shook her head, her frizz going everywhere, and released a sigh of exasperation. "No, Perce, when. And it's soon. I can tell, you know it to."

Percy sighed and nodded his acknowledgement. He knew that argument would get him nowhere.

"And when I do, Percy, please promise you'll find someone else. Someone who makes you happy," she continued, kissing his chin.

"No one can make me as happy as you, Rach," he muttered. "I don't know if I'll ever love again after you're gone."

She pressed a gentle kiss on his cheek and quietly said, "You will, Percy, trust me. I know you will."

And suddenly, she was lying on her hospital bed, taking slow breaths, in time with the beeping of the machine telling Percy she was alive, she was still alive.

"Go get 'em, Tiger," she whispered to him.

"I will," he whispered back.

And the beeping stretched into an eternity.

Perseus's eyes opened slightly, slightly more conscious than asleep, and was clenching the white sheets in his fists. Breathe…breathe…

Opening his eyes a bit more, he surveyed what he could see of the unfamiliar room around him. Crimson pillows, plain white sheets, dull orange striped walls, and a beautiful voice muted from behind a wall.

Annabeth…

And then his eyes drooped again, lulling him into some place in between sleep and consciousness, where Rachel and Annabeth were both singing something, something completely foreign, but something full of hope. Rachel was singing to him directly, right in front of him, though while nuzzling his hair, so it was muted as well.

And they sang to him in unison, in beautiful, muted unison.

"Go get her, Perce. Just don't completely forget me."

"I won't."

His eyes opened again, and he had a sense peace he'd forgotten he could feel. Annabeth was snuggling into him, fully clothed and obviously ready to do something today, most likely having to do with a mall. She was nuzzling his chest, which really confused him.

No doubt he smelled like a corpse.

"Mornin, snuggle bug," he croaked out, smiling drowsily at the younger girl.

She grinned up at him and snuggled even closer to his body, which remained under the blankets. "Good morning, sleepy head." She ruffled his already messy hair, making it even messier, and kissed his cheek.

"Go shower," she said, playfully pushing his shoulder. "You reek of body odor and sex," she said teasingly, helping him up.

He groaned playfully and got to his feet, stretching his arms to their full length. "Ya know, you're an amazing singer, love," he said, while turning to grin at her.

She blushed deeply; resembling a blonde topped tomato, and squeaked, "youdidn'tseriouslyhearthatdidyou."

Grinning ear to ear, he looked at her over his shoulder and said confidently, "I kinda did."

After messing with his Annabeth, and cleaning up in the shower and poking his tattoos since they looked pretty cool when he pressed hard enough and thinking Wow I've been with Annabeth for a little over a month and I'm already sharing a room with her hope this doesn't back fire horribly, he was on their bed with her again.

Generously, it could be called cuddling, but it was really just a tangle of their bodies, to the certain point where the only way to tell the two apart was to look at their hair. Arms and legs were generally thrown lazily about, their bodies pressed lightly against each other, and just lying there, contently.

"Should we do something, Perseus?" Annabeth murmured against his skin, tracing invisible spiral designs into his back.

He shrugged and moved his face closer to her hair, easily one of his favorite parts of her. The usually straight blonde hair in a ponytail was now totally undone, blonde curls unfurling in a beautifully crazy fashion down to past her shoulder blades. As he moved his hand to her hip, he thought about how she called him Perseus.

And how maybe it was time to move on with his life, to move on to something new. Maybe.

He closed his eyes, and he saw a ginger girl smiling up at him behind his eyelids, a messy room filling the space behind her, her green eyes shining with approval, perfectly healthy, hair full, skin a healthy shade of pale. Maybe.

"Anna?" he quietly asked, tracing his hand up the side of her body, rising and dipping with her body's natural build, relishing in her small shiver as he went up her neck to cup her cheek in his hand.

She hummed in response, closing her eyes and gently leaned into his touch, and she had almost never been more beautiful.

He kissed her, only a touch of his lips against hers, and whispered, "I've been doing a lot of thinking, Anna. And I need to tell you something, and it's probably something I should've done a while ago."

Her eyes opened, two gray circles frantically flashing open and shining with worry. Gray met green, and he chuckled softly. "I'm not dumping you, Anna, if that's what you're so worried about."

Gray eyes now switched to the dullness of certainty, and then they slitted with curiosity. "What do you need to tell me?"

He sighed nervously, ran his hand through his hair, and sat up on the bed. As she sat up facing him, still very curious, he spoke to his calf, "I figured you deserve an explanation for why I go by my full name now, instead of my old nickname." Green looked up at gray, and he had never been more nervous or scared or any amount of any emotion that he was right then. "And it's because I broke into a million pieces."