Chapter 13

"Come on Chase, what's the worst that could happen?" Percy was laying back on his bed, Annabeth sitting on the edge of it near him. They had been working on his history lesson, but as usual, had gotten side tracked.

"Your father could catch you and put you on lockdown," Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm going to sneak out either way, so there's' no reason I shouldn't come visit you," He insteaded "If you're really not going to then I'll go visit Grover."

"Good, go see him," She replied evenly "You see me at least once a day now. You never get to see him."

"I saw him when I went into town and when I snuck out last time," Percy countered, shaking his head. Fully engaged in the debate now, he pushed himself up so that he could look over at her properly "And sitting around in here is not the same, and you know it. We used to go on adventures all the time."

"Yeah, when we were kids," Annabeth laughed and shook her head "What if my dad sees you? He won't hesitate to tell the king."

"He won't see me," Percy insisted, sighing "Annabeth, come on, this isn't like you. Since when do you care about sneaking out? You've never given a shit about your parents' rules."

It was true. Everyone always seemed to think Percy was the troublemaker of the two of them. Between his crooked smile and sarcastic remarks, and her blonde curls and calm exterior, it seemed obvious. Percy had gotten into a lot of trouble over the years, but the truth was, of the two of them, he generally tried to follow the rules. Annabeth, on the other hand, tended to have little to no regard for rules that she didn't think were important. Which was most of them.

"Percy," Annabeth sighed, looking at him for a moment, before looking down "With everything that's happening- the last six months- I just think it's better to be careful."

There it was. The moment he had been dreading. Of course this was what all of this was about. Why she had been acting weird lately. Without thinking about it, he reached over to take her hand and squeeze a bit "Annabeth, I'm still me. You're still my best friend, and I'm still the guy you went on adventures with. Nothing changes that. So please just relax. Unless my father's around there is no reason to act any different then we did before."

"I know you're the same person Percy, of course you are," Annabeth replied, sighing a bit, but squeezing his hand in return "And of course we're still friends it's just-"

"No just. No but," His eyes scanned her face to try and read her. He was good at reading Annabeth, but she was also good at hiding her emotions when she wanted to "Please Annabeth. You are one of the only things in my life that's not changing. Don't start acting all weird on me now."

For a moment, Annabeth just looked up at him, before smiling a bit "Alright."

"Good," Percy just smiled at her softly for a moment, before breaking into a grin "So I'm going to sneak out tomorrow night. I'm going to go to your house, and we're going to go on an adventure like when we were kids."

"Alright," Annabeth said again, laughing as she looked over at him. That just made Percy grin more. He loved making her laugh.

He was about to lay back on the bed again, when he noticed Annabeth picking up the book they had been working through. He already knew what she was thinking "Come on Wisegirl- just a few more minutes- my head still hurts."

"No way, you already talked me into sneaking out," Annabeth smirked a bit as she looked over at him "That means now we have to focus on your history lesson. Chiron is starting to expect that you've actually done your work."

Percy groaned and flopped back on the bed dramatically "Do we have to?"

"Unless you would rather I left and you could do it on your own-"

Sighing, Percy pushed himself up "Fine, give me the stupid book."

Smirking, Annabeth handed it over.

The pigs were cute. The dogs were cuter. What was really cute though, was how excited Hazel seemed to get around all of them.

She seemed to be completely mesmerized by the different animals, grinning as she looked at them. Every time they stopped at one of the pens or kennels, she would immediately ask Frank if they had names, and other questions about them. There energy she had about all of them, even animals as simple as chickens, just made her cuter.

They ended up looking around a lot longer than Frank had been anticipating. But it was hard for him to prompt Hazel that maybe they should move on when she was grinning at whatever animal they were currently looking at. It was only when he realized that if they didn't get to the kitchen soon they would miss lunch all together that he finally suggested they call it for the day.

Even as they walked back to the kitchen, the energy Hazel had was still around them. They were laughing and mostly just talking about nothing in particular, when an all to familiar voice called out "Hazel. The kitchen girl who isn't a kitchen girl, long time no see. I don't suppose you're here to give me my lunch again?"

Frank was scowling as he turned, but to his surprise he heard Hazel laughing next to him. Before he could say anything, Hazel had spoken up "Sorry Leo, we're just heading in for our own lunch now."

With that Frank was ready to continue to the kitchen, but to his slight annoyance Hazel was walking towards Leo. So, reluctantly, he turned to do the same. Sliding his hands into his pockets he stayed slightly behind Hazel as they made their way to the forge.

"They have you out here again?" Hazel asked, raising an eyebrow as she reached him "Don't they ever let you eat inside?"

"They would if Christopher ever stopped being sick," Leo replied, laughing a bit, before smirking at her "But if it means I get to keep seeing you I can't be that upset about it."

"I can't make any promises," Hazel replied, laughing a little, as Frank merely rolled his eyes. It wasn't at Hazel, he could understand that Leo had his charms, but he'd found the joke Leo had made rather lame.

"I'm glad I saw you actually, I was tinkering around the other day and I think I made something you might like," Leo reached under his tool bench, and a moment later popped back up, keeping one hand under the bench. The other he offered to Hazel "May I see your wrist please?"

To Frank's, and Leo's from the look on his face, surprise she did not offer him her wrist. Instead her hand moved to pull down the sleeve of her other arm, the one that was near Leo's hand. There was a moment of silence before Leo spoke again "It's alright, I'm not going to do anything. I promi-"

"Valdez," Frank snapped, glaring at him "If she doesn't want to then-"

"No-" Hazel cut him off in return, taking a deep breath before continuing "Sorry I just- zoned out for a moment. Of course."

She still seemed nervous, but she got close to the bench, before reaching out to give Leo her wrist. Given the circumstances, Frank couldn't help but watch her wrist curiously. As she moved her arm the sleeve of her dress pulled up, and to his surprise he saw a pale line, the start of some shape, peaking out. It was a stark contrast against her dark skin, and if Frank wasn't wrong it seemed like part of a brand.

From under the bench Leo produced an intricate bracelet. Carefully he set it on the table, before moving to push up the fabric around Hazel's wrist, probably to stop the bracelet from ruining the fabric.

His eyes caught a white spiral.

The wrist was pulled away.

Before they could say anything, Hazel was running back towards the castle.

Frank just watched her, before turning on Leo "What the hell did you do Valdez?"

"I don't know," Leo didn't sound sure. His voice was distant, and his eyes were fixed on where Hazel had disappeared. "I don't know..."