The conversation I'd had with Annabeth was still reeling through my head many hours later as I laid in my bed. Any chance at sleeping this night had been abandoned. A dried stream of tears stained my cheeks and combined with a steady flow of snot had caused me to throw my damp pillow on the floor.

"Is there any chance for us?" She had asked.

"No."

Her face fell, and I wished to the gods above that I could say yes.

Images of a yellow colonial house with a white picket fence and blonde and green-eyed children running around the front made my throat tighten. That dream had faded months ago, but now it was all I could think about. I rolled over onto my stomach and swung angrily at the mattress.

It's not fair! It's not fair!

I was sure my toddler level mood swings were embarrassingly bad but I couldn't stop the tears and the pain and anger. I hadn't cried when Annabeth had said we needed to take a break because deep down I knew it was just temporary. It was just another roadblock that together we would eventually defeat. But now, the finality of our relationship was settling in.

My fists continued pounding into the mattress as a new wave of tears began to drip from my eyes. I continued my fight for a good 10 minutes before collapsing into my comforter.

What had I done? I'm going to be alone. I thought miserably.

After everyone I loved now was gone, there wouldn't be anyone left for me. My father will remember me as the once hero. I had become what my mother feared, another washed up tragic hero doomed to an eternity of sadness. Kids at Camp Half-Blood would hear stories about me and learn a valuable lesson of not angering the gods or else end up like me.

But there is still Dionysus…

I remembered he'd said that he had already reached the peak of my trouble and would keep me around.

Chances were he was lying or maybe he was overestimating his own ability to tolerate me. And I didn't even know what to think about us being together. I wasn't even sure that I liked him like that.

"Do you like him?" She had asked with a mixture of disgust and anger.

"I... No... Of course not."

Apollo had said that Dionysus would fall in love with me because he had thing for the wounded innocents. And as pathetic as it seemed, I fell into that pile.

So what if Dionysus wasn't lying? What if he could tolerate me? What if he fell in love with me? What if my future was with an insufferable smart ass who would be having a hangover for the next 50 years and then after that would return to being a drunk?

I wasn't sure if it was the terrifying alternative of being alone, but maybe I could also tolerate an eternity with him…

We could just be friends.

I don't need a sexual relationship with anyone – oh Hades, I'm a big liar, yes I do. I didn't want my only sexual partner to be my hand.

There was also the issue of Dionysus being a man and I didn't particularly swing that way. That part was more confusing.

But then I remembered none of this internal dialogue mattered because he was married.

"Stupid Dionysus," I muttered into the mattress. "Why are you making this so confusing?"

"What have I done this time?"

I didn't even bother jumping at my sudden visitor. By now, I sort of expected him to be listening in on all my internal monologues and conversations.

"Go away." I wished my pillow were still on my bed so I could chuck it at him.

I felt strong hands grab my shoulder. Too bad all my earlier energy had been spent on attacking my bed, because my resistance was futile and his strong arms easily rolled me onto my back.

"What are you wearing?" All he had on were tiger stripped boxer briefs and a matching fluffy robe that went to his mid thigh and was hanging open. "Were you asleep and heard your name ping on your Percy radar and then decided to come to my room?"

"I wasn't sleeping."

"Well, why are you practically naked?"

His pale chest made even the tiniest blemishes visible and I noticed a small scratch on his abdomen.

"Oh."

Ohhhh.

"You know, that makes it a lot worse. So you were in the middle of screwing Ampelon when you heard your name ping on your Percy radar and decided to come to my room?"

"Ampelon?" his head tilted and his eyes followed mine to the small scar, "Oh yes, I forgot about his earlier proposition. I'm surprised you remembered though."

A smirk appeared on his lips and I flushed.

"I – It was pretty obvious what he was doing. I thought you'd go for it."

He grinned cheekily. "Mm, well I'm afraid he isn't my type. Besides, it was you who gave me this."

"What? No I didn't."

"Sure you did, remember? I let you ride on top of me. You were holding on so tight that you wounded me."

I thought back to three nights ago and vaguely remembered scratching him, along with a lot of other x-rated images.

"What are you doing here?"

"I heard my name ping on my internal Percy radar," he answered as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Ignoring how creepy that is for now… I wasn't calling for you."

"I also felt that you were in distress, though from looking at you I can see it's the mental kind." He sounded disappointed.

"Do you require any help?" he asked gently.

"No, I'm fine."

"You were crying."

"Paul accidentally threw an onion at my eye earlier."

"I hate talking about feelings as much as the next sane guy." He sighed and combed his fingers through his curly hair, "But you have been in a state of constant mental distress for the past four months and as much as I would like to not care, your rapidly approaching mental breakdown would cause me a lot of trouble."

"I'm fine," I lied.

"What did you say to her?"

"That's none of your business."

"Your wellbeing is my business."

"Only because it's forced to be. I don't need you. I'm not a helpless pet that you need to look after."

"Did you tell her everything?"

"What if I did?"

His shoulders raised, "I wouldn't mind."

"Of course you wouldn't. You aren't the one who's forced to have sex and be stuck in this – this, whatever this is!"

"I didn't create this situation."

"Yeah, but at least you're enjoying it."

"You could too, if you wouldn't fight it."

"I have to."

"Why?"

"Because, because - I dunno! Because it feels like I'm giving up if I don't. Besides, isn't that what heroes do? We keep fighting to make things better."

Dionysus snorted, "Another reason why I don't like them… Well, most of them anyways. Fighting isn't going to make this situation better, unless you're thinking of joining your father's foolish attempt to overthrow Zeus."

"You know about that?"

"Of course, I'm not obtuse. It's not like they're really trying to hide their plans. Poseidon is flexing his muscles, as they say."

"What are you going to do?"

His shoulders dropped. "If I have to defend my claim over you, I will."

"I tried to stop him."

He turned to look at me, surprised. "Really? I thought you wanted to fight."

I sighed. I didn't know what I wanted.

"I'm not going to risk any demigod dying because of me."

"How noble. But this is your best chance to escape from my evil clutches," he mused.

"No, I couldn't do it. Besides, you're right that I'm going to have to get used to you considering I have a very long time to do so."

"There are highs and lows with living forever, Percy... Most gods keep themselves busy with work and having flings with mortals. I've found travel to be the best time burner. With you as my new travel partner, I'm expecting another journey will give me an interesting new perspective."

I smiled, "Oh yeah, you mentioned that before. Where would we go?"

"Everywhere, with the exception of-"

"Antarctica and Australia."

"Correct. As soon as all my restrictions are lifted we will begin the journey." He stroked his chin, "Of course we'll have to bring some satyrs to serve me my grapes, and maenads have always been good bodyguards…"

He continued to talk about the trip. It would be an adventure that would take years, as Dionysus liked to envelop himself in local culture as much as possible. He enthusiastically talked about his favorite places and restaurants he hoped were still open. I listened intently, but his voice combined with my overdue sleepiness made it harder and harder to keep my eyes open. And soon I drifted off.

When I awoke my waist was constrained and my back felt like it was on fire. But after an initial panic of my legs and arms flailing and having my limbs bound by grape vines, I realized it was just Dionysus.

"What the fuck, Dionysus?" I said after calming down. I turned my head and was met by curly black hair in my nose and mouth. I turned back around and tried to rouse him.

"Dionysus," I called.

He didn't move.

"Dionysus," I said a bit louder and wiggled my body.

I heard a low grumbling that reminded me of Seymour's purring.

"Are you awake?" I asked.

His arm pulled me closer against him and his chest rumbled again, he was like an overgrown cat.

"Could you let me go, I have to go to - SCHOOL!" Oh shit, I looked over at my alarm clock. It was already 10AM.

"Dionysus, get up, I have to go."

I wiggled more roughly this time and his arm that was around my waist roughly pushed me away. I guess I was being too much of a nuisance for his morning tastes. But even without his iron-like grip I still couldn't move very much with my arms and legs bound with his vines.

"Dionysus!"

This time his head snapped up. His curly hair covered his flushed face but I could see his familiar scowl. His head tilted and he brushed the hair from over his heavy-lidded eyes and looked at me curiously.

"Very kinky." He observed my bound up legs and arms.

"Yeah, I thought I'd tie myself up for you this morning," I said sarcastically. "After all, I need my morning whipping."

He slowly stretched his long thin arms over his head and the bed comforter slipped down his chest.

"Untie me, please. I'm late for school."

He yawned and growled something about my room being too cold before burrowing back under the covers like a bear who realized it was still winter.

"School is closed because of busted pipes, or whatever…Your mother decided to let you sleep in." His voice was muffled from underneath the cover.

His hand peeked out from the covers and the vines fell off of me.

"My mom came in? Didn't she see you?"

"No, I'm the master of disguise." Which meant he probably hid under the covers.

I got out of bed and put on a sweatshirt before leaving Dionysus in my room. The living room and kitchen was empty but as I passed my mom and Paul's room I heard their happy chatter. I headed to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

Oh Hades.

My eyes obviously weren't used to crying because they looked like I'd been pepper sprayed, and the whole area around my eyes was swollen. Seeing my pathetic face made me think of Annabeth again and I felt a tug on my heart. My mom had said first loves were always the hardest to get over, and although she was with Paul now I knew my mother still very much loved my father. I figured the same would happen with me and Annabeth – but maybe after a thousand years I'd be able to look at an old historic building and not think of her.

After a quick shower and brushing my bangs into my face I was satisfied my parents wouldn't ask any questions about my wellbeing and returned to the kitchen gathering bowls, spoons, cereal and milk. Then I went back to my room where Dionysus was still burrowed under my covers.

"I have food."

The covers flew off and Dionysus eagerly helped himself to a bowl. I sat on my computer chair and munched on the cereal along with him.

"So, you decided to stay the night." I said with a mouthful of Frosted Flakes.

"I was tired, and teleporting while tired is dangerous. I could end up at the wrong place."

"I thought you had insomnia. You're always sleeping around me."

"I've noticed."

I took another large bite and got the nerve to ask my next question.

"So… What are you doing today?"

"I don't know, did you want to do something?" He asked, amused.

"I dunno! I'm just saying that I'm open to doing something… I did just breakup with my girlfriend yesterday because of you, the least you could do is feed me."

And that he did. After a lot of digressions...

Our first destination was Brooklyn Museum because I had an assignment to complete for my world history class that had to be done at a museum anyways.

I decided to do my report on Ancient Greece because of my walking and talking cliff notes companion. Dionysus's descriptions of a lot of notable past events in Ancient Greece provided an interesting point of view because he'd been drunk during almost every moment of it.

"Ugh, the guy who made this didn't like that I'd slept with sister. I eventually cursed him with only being able to taste salt no matter what food he ate. Unfortunately he enjoyed salty foods," he grumbled. "I should've gave him the same punishment I gave Midas."

The painting he was referring to was of "Dionysus" (very loosely could the guy be considered Dionysus) painted by some guy named Pieter Paul Rubens. In all the artwork that depicted Dionysus he'd always been shown similar to what he actual was, a slim handsome kind of pretty guy. Instead this version was a round morbidly obese middle aged Dionysus with a confused and slightly vacant expression on his face and a rather impressive pair of man boobs. Along with a young cupid looking boy that was peeing nonchalantly by his leg. And beside him was another boy who looked like he'd drowned on a stream of wine.

I bit my lip.

"Laugh and end up in a bottle of Merlot."

I tried, I built a dam bigger than the hoover dam to hold it in. But then I noticed the grapevine pubic hair nestled between Dionysus's thick legs and with a loud snort, that dam shattered. I stood there laughing looking like a damn fool in front of a bunch of other visitors unable to contain it. I laughed and laughed and held my stomach from the pain building in my diaphragm. My eyes welled with tears.

I started to calm down after a bit. I mean, it wasn't that funny but then I looked up at Dionysus who was looking back at me with great contempt.

"G-g-grape vines," I whispered and another wave of laughter hit me.

"I'll come back when you're done." Dionysus grumbled before sauntering out the room.

I continued laughing for another minute after he left before finally catching breaths of calming air. Of course by now everyone in the room was looking at me like I was crazy. I hustled to the next room and found Dionysus standing by a marble statue.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't that funny. I shouldn't have laughed," I said before chuckling just a little bit more. "The very detailed grapevine pubic hair is what got me."

Dionysus ignored me, his attention was towards the statue of two teenage boys walking together while intently looking at each other. It looked like any other statue and I wondered why it had captured Dionysus's attention when I noticed the grape vines in the taller boy's hair.

"It sort of looks like you," I acknowledged. "But who's that?"

I pointed to the smaller boy whom statue Dionysus was looking at. His eyes flickered towards me and his hesitation made it seem he wasn't going to answer.

"Ampelos," he said before moving on in the exhibit.

I thought he'd said Ampelon and I found myself irrationally glaring at the marble figure. But being curious I read the description:

I read the title of the piece, Dionysos et Ampelos.

Oh Ameplos... And suddenly I remembered the young satyr from Epiales's nightmare vision who'd fallen from the tree and died. He and Dionysus looked a lot younger in the vision compared to the statue.

'Beardless Ampelos, they say, a Nympha's and a Satyrus's son, was loved by Bacchus [Dionysos] on Ismarian hills [in Thrake]. He trusted him with a vine hanging from the leaves of an elm; it is now named for the boy. The reckless youth fell picking gaudy grapes on a branch. Liber [Dionysos] lifted the lost boy to the stars.'

Loved by Dionysus…

Dionysus was busy looking at other ancient relics but I had been around him long enough to tell when he was in a bad mood. It had to have happened thousands of years ago, maybe there wasn't hope for me getting over Annabeth if someone like Dionysus couldn't get over his childhood crush.

Angry wild purple flames locked on me. I gulped. But it was not my fault he was peeping in my brain.

He went off on his own while I quickly hurried through my assignment. By the time we were ready to leave I wondered if he was still up to hanging out, he'd gone uncomfortably mute – only making small comments about things he saw.

"Did you want to get something to eat? It's only 2-o'clock but we can get lunch."

"I want to get drunk," he grumbled.

"So do I," I realized.

Suddenly the worst idea I'd ever had which would satisfy both of our wishes popped into my head.

"And I think I know how to do that…"

Okay, it was a stupid idea in which I was sure that if Zeus paid us the slightest of attention he would quickly gather what we were doing.

We were sitting on the couch in my living room, mom and Paul had already left for their spontaneous date night. In my hand was a bottle of a fancy and probably really expensive red wine that Dionysus provided for him and on the coffee table was my personal bottle of Pinot Bleu. Since the plan was to get drunk there was no point to using a glass so I lifted the bottle to my lips and let it fall into my mouth. When there was enough I leaned forward next to where Dionysus was waiting. He had a look of wonder on his face, as if he couldn't believe this is what he was reduced to and that I was the one helping him do it.

"Okay," I said. Though with my mouth somewhat full of the liquid it sounded more like, 'Oh-ay."

Dionysus raised his hands to the sides of my face and leaned in. I tried to position my mouth over his to sort of pour the wine in his mouth, but the process was a lot harder than it looked and a lot of it ended up dribbling down my chin and onto my shirt. His tongue lapped at the little liquid that was in my mouth and I heard the faintest moan. After he was finished I pulled away.

"Does this stain?" I asked, looking at the red blob on my camp t-shirt.

"Yes. Take your shirt off, you'll only keep adding more if you don't."

I didn't want to make this more of something it wasn't than it was – but I also didn't feel like explaining to my mother why my shirt was covered in wine stains. So I pulled my t-shirt over my head and tossed it on the floor.

I sighed and began to seriously question my sanity. But it was me who came up with this crazy idea, so I couldn't give up now.

"You look ridiculous, be more natural. It's okay if it spills a little."

"It's hard to look natural siphoning alcohol through my mouth."

"Shall I show you how it's done?" He snapped his fingers and a diet coke appeared.

I quickly shook my head and took a big gulp of my own wine from the bottle. I was going to need a lot more to make me want to keep going.

I raised the bottle of red wine to my mouth and took another sip. This time I sort of puckered my mouth like a fish and when our mouths got closer I had hoped that he would realize what I was trying to do and open his mouth wider. But instead I ended up squirting him with red wine. This time it was his shirt that got stained. And after giving me an annoyed glare he lifted his own shirt above his head and tossed it on the floor. My body looked scrawny in comparison to his even though I was pretty fit myself.

I took another swig of my wine.

Dionysus sighed heavily and leaned back against the couch. I could understand his annoyance, instead of getting drunkenly happy he was getting splashed in the face with the very drink he invented and couldn't drink.

"I'll get it this time," I assured.

He didn't look very assured but he leaned forward again. His hand reached out and began stroking my nipple.

"Woah! What're you doing? I thought we were going to keep this PG – with a little 13."

"I'm trying to not make what we're doing so obvious in case father wants to take a peek, he'd know instantly and return the 50 years he took off."

The idea of Zeus seeing this if he took a peek was more horrifying than anything.

"Alright, but stay above my waist."

"What are you, a Victorian maiden?"

I ignored him and took another swig of the wine. He leaned his head in close to mine and I angled myself so that his head was above mine. His mouth was open as I latched on and sort of flicked my tongue with the liquid above it, up into his mouth. He swallowed the offering and continued swirling his tongue over mine as if awarding me for finally getting it right.

We pulled away and his face was a maenad shade of red – which was disturbing, and his eyes were glazed over.

"Are you okay?"

His almost dazed look changed to pure happiness and his lips returned to mine again before moving to my jaw and neck and my chest…

"Sheesh, Dionysus calm down or I'll stop." I pushed him away but I was already embarrassingly aroused underneath my jeans.

"More," he pointed to the bottle of red wine.

And I obliged after taking another gulp of mine. I moved my mouth over his again and poured the wine in for him to drink. His eyes closed as he gulped, savoring the taste. After the liquid was down his throat his eyes opened again and he leered at me to the point where I had to look away. A finger went under my chin and pushed my head back up. He smiled and kissed me again. This time his hands began traveling over my body adding to the pleasure.

But I was still too sober and pushed him back.

"More," his hand was trailing over the skin above my jeans.

I had a feeling he meant more than wine this time. Repeating my actions, I drank more of my wine and placed his wine in my mouth to deliver to him. He turned even friskier. Repeat another 40 or so times and we had already finished one bottle with another almost empty, and our clever thwart around Zeus's rules had turned more into something I probably should've expected considering I was a teenager with buzzing hormones and Dionysus was the god of making buzz.

We kissed even when I didn't have wine to give him.

And staying above the waist had ended by the time we were finished with the first bottle. Though, we still had our pants on it had definitely turned into an NC-17 rated activity.

"Fuck!" I moaned into the nape of his neck as the hand that had slid under my pants continued stroking my cock.

My vision was swirling from the wine and wrapping my arms around him was the only reason I hadn't fallen off the couch.

"Do you want more?" He asked huskily before returning to suck and nibble on my shoulder.

"Yes." I panted. I didn't know what more was but I was 100% certain that I needed it.

He grinned and gently pushed me down so that he was straddling my thighs. I heard a snap and felt a chill run over my body as my pants and underwear disappeared. Dionysus was still wearing his pants, though I didn't know how he could manage with the limited space. There was a whooshing sound and suddenly vines were wrapping around my wrists before pulling my arms above my head. Dionysus leaned back and watched intently as the vines moved.

"What're you doing?" The wine combined with my arousal was making me dizzy.

"Enjoying you."

Dionysus's eyes roamed over my exposed body and smiled playfully. His hand grazed teasingly slow from my knee up to my cock before wrapping his hand in firmly around it. My hips bucked up and a cry of pleasure escaped my mouth as his fingers tightened their hold, but he used his other hand to keep my hips down. His eyes connected on mine as he raised his hand up and down in a tantalizing slow pace.

It felt good but I wanted him to go faster, I needed him to go faster. I couldn't even move my hips to get him to go faster because of his non-budging hand.

"Please," I begged.

Dionysus smiled brightly and that magical word made my request come true as he started jerking me off faster. He placed one of his arms by my shoulders and moved his head over my face. I shivered when his long curls brushed against my neck and cheeks. The long soft strands of hair framed my face like a curtain, hiding us from the rest of the world. Our noses touched as his lips lightly touched mine. I realized he was teasing me again as he continued his light caresses for far too long when he knew I wanted more. I raised my head up to deepen it but he pulled back, clicked his tongue disapprovingly and smirked.

Always the ass, but this time he was out of luck if he expected me to beg again.

I pretended to yawn and shut my eyes. After all, what bigger insult is there to fall asleep? His hand stopped moving and I had to fight the urge to abandon my plan. Take one for the team, little guy. I kept my eyes closed and concentrated hard enough that somehow I actually started to doze off.

Dionysus's warm lips were what stopped me from completely drifting off. His tongue probed my mouth, and the vines that bound my wrists fell free. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him even closer. His hand returned to my cock and moved up and down in his tight warm hand. In less than a minute I was spilling into his hand.

"I win," I said after breaking the kiss for air. My orgasm, while great as usual, was nowhere near as intense without the alcohol so I easily came down from the high.

He quirked an eyebrow. "We both win."

"Yeah, but I mostly win."

"I felt sorry for you," he sniffed.

"No need to be a sore loser about it, Mr. D." I teased.

"I'm not, Peter Janson. Besides, if I truly wanted to have you beg, I would've," he said cockily.

He pushed himself up from atop of me and snapped his fingers, his black and purple tiger striped shirt flew back on him without even a single wrinkle. I leaned over the couch, still too comfy to actually stand, and reached for my jeans and boxers before shrugging them on.

"Don't you need to…?" I sat up and stared at his tight pants.

"To what?"

"You know…"

He stared blankly at me.

"Only I had an orgasm." I hinted.

"I know…"

"And that's okay?"

"I don't believe it's against any laws? Has Zeus come up with another asinine rule where he now controls everyone's sexual activity?"

"I thought you said you're a happy drunk?" I crossed my arms. "You're still the same old grump."

"Old? I'm the youngest of the gods!" He said, offended. "And who said I was drunk?"

"Well I'm a bit drunk."

"You're a lightweight, it'll take way more than 2 or 5 bottles to get me going. Even with my lower tolerance level from not drinking in nearly 11 years."

"But you jerked me off."

He looked at me like I was dumb, "I don't need to be drunk for that."

Oh.

"Did you need to be drunk to enjoy it?" He asked seriously.

"Uh, probably. I'm not gay," I added when he looked incredulously at me. "I mean, I'm not used to it. I guess after what we've done I can't really claim I'm completely straight. But come on, don't tell me it's not weird that you and I are doing this. Especially this time, when there was no venom to get rid of."

"I see nothing weird about this. You're considered an adult to many, including me. 15 had been the age of adulthood for a long time."

"That's not the main thing that's weird about it. You practically hated me up until…well, I don't actually know when that stopped."

"I don't any longer."

"And you've known me since I was a 12-year old kid… That's not the least bit weird to you?"

"I once fell in love with a boy who I'd known since I was an infant. We were practically brothers."

Ampelos? I thought back to the statue I saw today.

"Yes, Ampelos," he read my mind. His expression changed becoming unreadable.

I'll admit, I was curious about this Ampelos guy.

"But weren't you a kid when you fell in love? I bet you didn't do all the stuff we do."

"I was 15 when he died, and even before we were considered adults, we were intimate."

"Wait, you looked really young in that vision."

"I was very small until I was around your age. Besides, Epiales's images weren't completely accurate."

"What do you mean?"

"First, we were not as young as he made us seem. Second, he didn't show how Ampelos fell." Dionysus roughly combed a hand through his hair but didn't end his little cliffhanger revealing how the guy had fallen.

"He was your first love, wasn't he?" I couldn't hold in my curiosity.

"Yes."

"That must've been hard, to lose him at such a young age."

"Much harder than having to give up a love as the result of an overblown feud because someone couldn't control themselves around an easily angered but powerful idiot."

I glared at him. His attention was on the little liquid that was left in his wine bottle, he looked almost as bad as Tantalus did.

"Ares was asking for it, and what happened between me and Annabeth sucked too," I defended.

He shrugged and grumbled something under his breath as he forced himself to look away from the wine.

"So. What did you do after he died?" I asked.

"I turned his body into the first grape vine and made wine," he said nonchalantly like it was completely normal.

It was sweet in a kind of creepy way that seemed to be a trend with the gods when they lost a loved one. Like Thalia, who was turned into a tree, and Hyacinth, who Apollo turned into a flower. Except in Dionysus's case it was more significant because wine was the only reason he'd ascended to godhood.

"So I should find some way to honor Annabeth?"

"That would be excessive, she's not dead. In your case the best thing you can do is to forget about her."

"Really…" I rested my head on my hand. "Is that what you do to all your exes?"

"If I need to," he stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Some loves are toxic and need to be forgotten."

"That's not me and Annabeth. Even Aphrodite said we were meant to be together." Though I think she forgot somewhere along the past months.

"Aphrodite is as toxic as they come. To her you are nothing but another character in one of those soap operas. I wouldn't be surprised if she knew about Ares's plan, but didn't act to prevent it. She had been complaining after the war that she would miss the drama."

"Fine, but Annabeth is not toxic. None of this was her fault," It was mine, I should've fought for her. I buried my head in my hands and groaned. I felt my face heating up and my eyes burning. I had gotten drunk to forget about Annabeth, not to bawl at the very thought of her.

Dionysus turned to face me. "Does it hurt you to think that if only you'd kept your mouth shut and simply appeased Ares when you needed to, that you would and Annie-beth would still be together?"

My head snapped up and I narrowed my eyes as a warning to stop while he was ahead, but he kept going.

"Your foolishness is what caused you to lose her."

"Your foolishness is what made you lose him." I retorted angrily, jumping up from the couch.

His eyes flashed and his jaw twitched.

"Perhaps, but I was able to move on. If you want to spend the rest of your long and soon to be miserable life completely alone, so be it. I'll not drag you along with me while you're mourning over some girl."

"You wouldn't take me with you anyways! You're lying. You love Ariadne too much to do that, you're just saying that to make me shut up and obey all your orders."

"I haven't ordered you to do anything."

"You're making me have sex with you."

"I had your consent!"

"You're making me enjoy having sex with you."

He shook his head dumbfounded, "That makes no sense, are you really that stupid Jackson? I cannot make you enjoy sex. Do I try to make it pleasurable for your sake? Yes. But only a dimwitted fool like you would see that as a negative."

"I'm not stupid. You said you were chosen to bond with me because you were the one who could get me to like it. You're only helping me because you were ordered to. None of this is real, you're just fooling around with me. I'm not dumb. I'm just a thing that you'll forget! Isn't that what gods do? They have sex with anything that moves and then dump them when they're done? At least Annabeth and I loved each other. You're too insane to even know what love is. You're the toxic ass hole!"

He looked livid. I'd obviously hit a nerve with that last bit. But damn, did he somehow find a way to make me pissed. And now his scary glare that could send a fleet of war ships away in surrender was focused directly on me.

"Listen hear, Percy Jackson," he spat. "I've tried my best with dealing with you. But now I see how ungrateful and spoiled you really are. Everything I have done these past months has been for your benefit. When I told you I was chosen to bond with you, I forgot to mention that Zeus was considering pairing you with a lower god. One who would not take the effort to commit as much attention to you or be able to protect you from the monsters Ares is still sending after you. If I had not insisted that Zeus choose an Olympian and then accept his request for me to bond with you, you would have either died or already arrived at the point where you'd wish you were dead. As much as I wish I could abandon you right now, I can't. Perhaps my madness has extended into my idea of love, because as much as I want to blast you into pieces right now, I can't."

My heart was pounding so hard that it was sending vibrations to my stomach and making it queasy. Along with that, I felt like my brain was swirling inside of my head.

Did he just admit to loving me?

But he also totally just admitted that he wants to kill me.

Gods, Dionysus was the most confusing being in existence.

Why did I come up with such a dumb idea of trying to get us both drunk?

My queasiness should've been a sign to head to the bathroom because in the next few moments I was vomiting on my pants, on the floor, and a bit on Dionysus's purple Nike sneakers.

A cool thing about having the god of wine being around is that he had handled every known alcohol related resulting fluids at some point in his life. After a sigh and an bemusedly annoyed look that said 'this is so ridiculous it's kind of funny,' directed at me, he scooped his arms underneath my shoulders and carried me like a dirty dog to the tub. He removed my pants with the snap of his fingers so that I was only wearing boxers and turned the shower on so that I sat underneath the hot stream. The energy from the water gave me instant relief.

Dionysus sat silently on the edge of the tub facing away from me, patiently waiting for me to wash the puke off. Once I was clean and satisfied that I wouldn't regurgitate my earlier meal or suddenly burst into more words of anger directed at him, I got out and went to my room where I changed my clothes and tried to ignore every thought that was running through my head.

I'd expected Dionysus to leave as I was changing, as I was sure he was still quite angry at me, but to my surprise I found him sitting on the couch playing with my Xbox in a vomit-less and completely safe for my parent's return clean living room.

We didn't speak, he just held up the other remote for me to take. I sat down on the couch with two pillow spaces between us and started to play. We were silent the whole time, not even yelling trash talk at each other about who respawned more.

And then when my stomach growled we ate in silence the meal I'd asked for at the start of the day, a nice hot pepperoni pizza.

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Just in case some of you haven't noticed, updates will be weekly again as both Mickimoo and I are back in school. Also, if you see a week go by without updates then check our profile which shows if a chapter is coming soon or not.

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