Hey! Chapter Nineteen, we're getting pretty far, aren't we? That's six more chapters…it's gone fast. The next chapter will finally have some drama! But, for now, we're back to the slow building of the Percabeth, until it goes into a fast build sometime soon…

Sarah: Thanks! And I will be posting more chapters soon…here's one now.

RaizelKirrily: …there are other chapters?

ThatGirlWithaCat: Yes, it really does, doesn't it? My winning character indeed. It really does. Yes, I know about the whole you hate Comic Sans thing. I'VE ONLY HEARD ABOUT IT A MILLION TIMES. But anyways. We aren't here to talk about your Comic Sans obsession. Yes, it is good that they're healing, very good indeed.
Lukabeth's okay. Pretty much the same. I like Luke, he's okay, he had reasons for doing what he did however horribly he did them, but anyway.
Yup. Piper and Annabeth have the 'whole shebang'.
I will start the Percabeth soon. And, no. Jake did not die as soon as his part in this was done, I'm not that horrible. But no. And yup. It won't be much of the long way soon enough…Yup. We should thank Jake. Yup. :D Happy Writing!

Anyway, so, here we go. Chapter Nineteen. I have…another slow weird Percabeth thing! But the chapter after this one will be better, I promise.

Also, I changed my username. Again. This is the last time, I promise. I'm making too many promises in four lines. Okay. This is the last time. I'll just reiterate. Anyways, my username was Silversky247 when I first joined , and then last month, I think it was July 24 or 25, I changed it to The Dark Fallen Fairy, and now, as you can see, it is Nymph of Faeryland. So yeah.

Anyways, here we go. Annabeth's POV:

Annabeth bent her head over the textbook, trying to concentrate. She snuck a glance up at the clock, having promised herself she'd only study till 5:30, that way she could be home for dinner with Piper by 5:45 without rushing.

The pair had started a weekly dinner thing, Piper claimed it was to catch up as they hadn't been seeing enough of each other and 'didn't know' Annabeth anymore, Annabeth suspected it was partly true and partly a ploy to get her to eat. Whatever it was, it was working, and it made Piper happy, and Annabeth just couldn't keep disappointing her not after everyone she was disappointing now.

When she'd gotten back to school, it had turned out that rumors had been spread about the anorexia. Even her teachers knew and gave her pitying little looks that Annabeth couldn't stand. She hadn't turned to dust over winter break. She was still the same person. But no one talked to her the same way anymore, no one talked to her like Annabeth Chase, Hero of Olympus, they talked to her like Annabeth Chase, Charity Case. And she wasn't dying, she was just in a more compromised health position than many others in the same school. Nothing had changed. If anyone had been a little clear sighted, they would have realized. But no one had realized. Annabeth sighed and went back to the studying.

The workload had gotten a little more intense and Annabeth was still trying to study and keep on top of everything, however, she found this increasingly difficult as Piper had their Friday-night, weekly dinner, she had sacrificed her time with Jason for Annabeth, a gesture that had helped put her in this position of having to agree, along with the fact that it was true that finding time to spend with Piper that wasn't scheduled was becoming harder. School had started up again, break was over. There was less time unless Annabeth held herself accountable for it.

Unfortunately, holding herself accountable had not been going so well. With a sigh, Annabeth bent back over her books, trying to make sense of what the words were saying, only roused from her stupor when she felt a tap on her shoulder and started, looking up at the slight motion. What? When she realized who it was, she resigned herself to not studying for the rest of the night, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try. "Oh, hi Percy. I- I didn't see you there." She said feebly. Even she could tell just how weak her words were. "Uh- what are you doing here?"

Percy looked much less uncomfortable than Annabeth did, something Annabeth envied. He was probably over IT. He probably didn't feel any discomfort if someone asked him about IT. He probably answered easily. He probably wasn't at all uncomfortable around her. He wouldn't be tapping her on the shoulder if he wasn't, right? That was right, right…Annabeth licked her lips nervously, avoiding Percy's eyes lest she get trapped.

"I came in to borrow a book. What are…what are you doing here?" okay, so he didn't sound very comfortable in this situation either. Was that good? Annabeth didn't know if she thought it was good. Because if it was good that he didn't seem very comfortable, that would mean that Annabeth wasn't really over him and that she was glad that he wasn't over it. And if that was bad, that would mean that Annabeth was over him, and she was pretty sure she wasn't actually over him so that would just be lying. She thought. Maybe.

"I'm studying." She said. "For my…degree." She said. "In architecture." She resisted the urge to keep going on and adding a few words and stringing them on to her weird mish mash of sentences, so she bit her lip and waited.

"Right, right." Percy said. "You wanted to build something permanent." Annabeth balked for a slight second at the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes. He remembered? It felt like forever since she had told him about that dream of hers, it had been years. And his voice was heavy. There was an oddly foreign look in his eyes, when had she stopped being able to read him and his beautiful eyes? It was oddly confusing, something that gave Annabeth discomfort.

"Yeah." Annabeth swallowed. Hard. "I…I did. Still do. Uh- you remembered." She wasn't sure what to say besides that. It was obvious, terribly obvious, something that Annabeth disliked. When had she become so bad at communicating with the guy who used to be her best friend in the world?

"Of course I did." Annabeth blinked at him, confused. The moment was tense but not in the uncomfortable way. But Annabeth was still uncomfortable, now not because of Percy because of…well, she didn't know what it was. But she kinda liked it. At the same time, it didn't feel right, somehow. Like it was something she wanted so badly but wasn't supposed to have. She wasn't sure what it was. "It was important to you." He stated simply.

Annabeth breathed out quickly, embarrassed and trying to break whatever tension persisted through the quickly disappearing seconds. Seconds she was supposed to be studying in. "…oh." Percy seemed to be sort of pleased with her flustered answer, and the flush that had risen to her cheeks quickly abated. So he was finding this funny, huh? Well, there it was. Annabeth's next words were cold. "I see." He looked taken aback, oddly enough. Annabeth was getting really confused. One moment he's taking pleasure in seeing her not sure what to say, and the next he's getting confused about her mood?

"Yup." Annabeth said shortly. "Is the book you're looking for around here or are you just here for no reason?" she winced mentally at how cold she was being, but he deserved it. He didn't get to just play around here, he'd left her.

You told him to. Annabeth knew the little voice was right, but she couldn't do this again. It was hard, and she didn't like any more unnecessary hardships, and she would just have to deal with not having Percy Jackson in her life anymore, as she'd already told herself enough. So why wasn't it working? Annabeth had always prided herself in her strength of mind. She was a daughter of Athena, the goddess of knowledge. A goddess of the brain. Why wasn't Annabeth able to keep herself simply from having leftover feelings? It had been more than a year. Shouldn't they have died off by now?

Oh, Annabeth…so naïve sometimes. Annabeth startled slightly at the voice, glancing around quickly but seeing no one there. So now she was hearing voices? She just hoped it didn't draw Percy's attention as well.

"Um, no, it's not. I just wanted to say hi." Annabeth was once again perplexed by this, unable to read the mixed signals Percy was sending her all over the place. He was acting sweet one moment and then appeared to be teasing her the next, and then confused when she reacted badly. Again, soon it'll be too late for you two. Annabeth looked around again, but still, no one was there. The voice was smooth and honey-sweet, and Annabeth felt a sinking feeling of dread as she realized whose it was. "Er, I'll just be going now. Bye, 'beth." Beth?

How sweet! Annabeth whirled around as Percy walked away, trying to find the source of Aphrodite's voice. "Lady Aphrodite?" she asked reluctantly, when she noticed she was fully alone. "What are you doing here?" why would the love goddess be here now? Annabeth's mouth tasted sour.

Aphrodite appeared, body forever changing, each instant becoming more beautiful than the next, her hair going from a golden blond like Annabeth's own to a brunette, her curls impeccable. Annabeth ignored the faint jab of jealousy as she averted her eyes from high cheekbones and light blush, slender fingers and a curvy figure, to say the least. She pushed the jealousy away- she had to believe she'd grown at least a little bit in the two years since she last had a conversation like this with the goddess of love, this time, she was alone. There was no Piper or Hazel to help her with this one now. Annabeth was doing this alone.

"I'm here," Aphrodite started, "to offer you advice." Annabeth's fist clenched tightly around her pencil. Advice?

"Advice?" Annabeth asked cautiously. She saw Aphrodite's look as the goddess raised a finger as if to stop her.

"Before you go jumping to the wrong conclusions, I thought that as the goddess of love that I needed to give my favorite couple a little push." Annabeth crossed her arms, already aware of her stony look.

"Your favorite couple?" the goddess thought for a moment, shaking her head for a second.

"Well, one of my favorite couples. Such a romantic ride you two have had- you, nursing Perseus to health after a fight with the minotaur. Four quests together. A kiss on Perseus's birthday. Him forgetting your one-month anniversary and going on a mini quest for Hermes to make it up to you, and going to Paris, the city of love! Perseus losing his memory but only remembering you, you searching for him for months…" Aphrodite kept going, and Annabeth resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "being reunited in Rome, of all places- does it get more romantic? A few happy years, until it all fell apart, and now this…such an amazing story." She seemed happy, and Annabeth's blood began to boil.

"It's Percy, not Perseus," she tried, "and I wasn't there for one of his four quests. I was kidnapped. And it was New Rome. And what's 'this'? There's nothing there now." She tried to deny all of Aphrodite's words, but the love goddess gave her a knowing glance, and Annabeth's cheeks flushed.

"Perseus and Andromeda- Percy and Annabeth. There's good luck in that name. And yes. You were kidnapped, he went on the quest to save you. And, as Juno once said, all roads lead to Rome. And if you can't see all the sexual tension between the two of you…" the goddess shook her head. "but anyway, the advice. Don't wait too long, darling, Perseus won't be around forever." Annabeth could only watch as the goddess disappeared, shocked, a little angry, but unable to deny that some of her words hit a little too close to home, being true, of course. She was the love goddess, after all.

Don't wait too long, darling, Perseus won't be around forever.