Hey. Chapter Twenty-Three…I started schooling on Tuesday (even though online school actually starts next week) but I am still going to be posting these chapters on time. Or so I hope. I put a story on hold, but this is more important…anyways. Time to wrap this all up with everything I have. I'll also be posting a one-shot on September 18th that should be good, so look out for that.

Reader12859: I was hoping the call would be from Annabeth too, but it didn't turn out that way. :/ But now here we are. Hopefully you can post SCBN soon. Oof. I hope the bruise goes away at least!

Aeufinger: Yup. Time to involve Piper (or maybe not, we'll see) and hope everything turns out alright!

LivingInBibliomania: I don't think so. :D But by all means, say it more often! And I definitely will.

Annabeth's POV (Cause I'm Original):

Annabeth shifted uncomfortably, ignoring Percy's and Piper's gazes both on her. It annoyed her, honestly. Annabeth, after fleeing Percy's apartment, had come home from the remainder of her day's classes to Piper. Piper, who knew something. Too much, really, but Piper wasn't going to let it go, she knew something was up. Annabeth wasn't sure how, perhaps it was just Aphrodite, but Piper had questioned her slyly before seeming to give up, but she was more cunning than that, Annabeth knew.

"Guys," Piper said suddenly, standing up and clapping her hands, "we should get that sparkling cider Jason brought over." The others murmured assent, but Piper made no move to get up. Annabeth, among others, raised her eyebrows at her. "Percy, Annabeth, why don't you get it." Annabeth opened her mouth in protest, and Leo glanced at Piper.

"Can't you get the cider yourself, Pipes?" Annabeth asked innocently, not sure what this was about. But Piper just smirked at her with a glint in her eyes that Annabeth didn't like.

"Oh, but it's really a job for two, you know, Beth. I know- why don't you and Percy go?" Annabeth protested again, Piper was not going to guilt trick her- yes, guilt trick- tricking her, and guilting her- into talking to Percy. She was not. How much did she know anyway? What would Piper say if she knew the reason Annabeth and avoided Percy's gazes and comments all evening?

"You and Jason could go get it then." Annabeth pointed out, complacent on the outside, mildly annoyed on the outside. She'd had enough of Piper's meddling, her friend had gone from the Piper she knew to more of her mother, Aphrodite, than her father, Tristan McLean. Maybe that was just due to the circumstances here. After all…okay, Piper didn't really have excuses. Besides being Aphrodite's child, and that wasn't much of one. At least Reyna wasn't the one doing this, or Calypso. That would just be rather out of character overall…after all, both girls had tried inadvertently to break up their relationship. Annabeth didn't begrudge them, however…their relationship had broken up without any interference from Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano or Calypso.

"But, Annabeth…it's more a job for Percy, Jason and I couldn't do it so well." Piper explained.

Next to her, Jason raised his eyebrow. "Pipes, I-" Annabeth couldn't see from where she was sitting, but Jason abruptly started singing a different tune. "You know, you're right, Piper, Annabeth and Percy are more ideal for the job." Hazel, Frank, and Leo- alone, Calypso didn't like to join the Sevens' gatherings, saying she felt like the eighth leg on a seven-legged horse. Annabeth narrowed her eyes at Jason and Piper, the latter having gotten her boyfriend in on whatever nefarious plan she'd concocted to- 1. Make Annabeth's life hell and 2. Get her to talk to Percy after whatever happened.

"Sure, Beauty Queen." Annabeth said slowly and methodically, feeling a spark of satisfaction at Piper's face at the name. Two could play at this game. "Percy and I will get you the sparkling cider since you can't do so yourself, Your Highness." her voice dripped with sarcasm. Piper managed a tight smile.

"Hey!" Leo cried dramatically, flopping to the floor as if in agony. "That's my name, and only I can call Piper Beauty Queen!" Annabeth shot him a wholly unamused look, and Leo looked a little afraid for a second, turning to indignant when Annabeth responded with:

"Suck it up, Buttercup." Piper guffawed, Jason's lips twitched, Hazel hid her smile behind her hand, Frank looked like he was trying not to laugh. Percy, Percy just raised his eyebrows. Like it was something new, that he hadn't known was there before. Maybe it hadn't been the last time.

And there was also Leo, who fell to the ground with a look of shock. "You wound me!" He stood up. "I must go- to nurse my battle scars." Annabeth almost smiled. Almost. However, she only got to her feet and beckoned to Percy.

"Cider?" Percy stood, a flash of relief streaking across his face before he followed her into the small apartment's kitchen, looking a little apprehensive and wondering. Annabeth hoped he didn't try to push his luck. It was Piper's fault that Annabeth was talking to him in the first place…

"What did you tell her?" she hissed, out of sight of the rest of the Seven, and grabbing the collar of his shirt and pulling his face down to meet hers, inches apart. Percy looked briefly frazzled but replied in a low whisper.

"She called, and I said some stuff, but she doesn't know, honest!" he looked a little scared of her, but Annabeth was pretty sure the expression on her face could've burned a hole in someone who hadn't been used to her glares before. "And both of us know she sent us here to talk." Annabeth released him, not happy about it, but unsure of what to do about it. "So shouldn't we? We both know it has to be resolved." There was an odd sort of urgency, and Annabeth detested it. She hated it when Percy was right about something she didn't want to do.

"There's nothing to talk about, and nothing to be resolved. It was all a mistake. The kiss, that was a mistake. The night, that was a mistake." Annabeth had to believe that. Perhaps not wholeheartedly, but she couldn't do this to herself again.

"What?" Percy's voice was raspy, and Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him. Did he not understand what she was saying? He couldn't possibly be saying he didn't feel the same way about their momentary lapse of weakness.

"We shouldn't have even kissed, Percy," she was saying, "you can't possibly be telling me that you think this all should have happened. This Winter…" Annabeth couldn't keep going. She was probably wrecking one of the best things to have happened to the only really big relationship she ever had.

Percy's POV:

Annabeth thought it was a mistake. That they shouldn't even have kissed, but Percy could see the waver in her voice as she tried to speak strongly and stiffly, the shadow in her eyes when she said it was all a mistake. He knew her, knew that beneath the Annabeth everyone knew, there was more than that. However much she tried to hide it all, Percy knew her. He had been- still was?- her friend. More than that, her best friend, for years, after Luke had turned away, had left her. After Thalia died.

"No, you don't." in retrospect, that was probably the wrong thing to say. Annabeth's eyes narrowed quickly, and Percy, while he'd been on the receiving glare of the infamous Annabeth Chase glare too many times to count, including just a few minutes ago, this one was one of the scariest, and he winced back for just a moment, and he saw a bit of painful satisfaction in Annabeth's gunmetal gray eyes.

"What?" Annabeth was largely different right now from the Annabeth he had known and loved for years, the one he'd been a friend of for years. She was rattled, he realized- she was rattled because she didn't know what to do and he'd gotten to her, he'd gotten to Annabeth Chase, and the normal clear-headed girl wasn't sure what to do about it, because it had meant something to her too. And if he rattled her enough, maybe he'd be able to really get through to her and get her to recognize what it meant. That the spark was still there.

That perhaps they could try again if Annabeth was willing to try, because Percy was, wasn't that much clear by now? He stared at her, she stared back at him.

"You still lo- like me." He stated boldly. "You still have feelings for me." He said, rephrasing. Annabeth stared at him like gum she needed to clean off her shoe, like she couldn't believe what he was suggested. But there was something past that, like she was surprised that he had seen that. True, he was no Piper, but he knew Annabeth, perhaps, or so he liked to think, better than she did.

"You're wrong." She told him, and beneath her surprisingly strong voice- gods, had he gotten this wrong, he couldn't have gotten it wrong- there was the faintest tremor, and it was all the confirmation she needed. Percy took a step forward Annabeth took a step back. "You- you're wrong." She told him again, as if repeating it to him would magically change his mind, but Percy had to resist Annabeth sometimes, stand up for this. He wasn't running away this time, and he couldn't let her run away this time, either. He didn't have infinite chances with Annabeth Chase, and every one could be the last.

"Prove it." Annabeth looked confused for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows and glancing up at him for a moment before looking away as if she'd been burned. An image of Annabeth, two or three years younger, eyes pure white, flailing in Tartarus after smashing an Arai, filled Percy's head, and he flinched at it. She'd been blinded then, and Percy, really Bob, had gotten her out of that. A flash of white in Annabeth's eyes only served to make him remember. He didn't like her looking at him like that. He took another step, a smaller one, and Annabeth, looking away didn't notice for a moment, before she took another step back.

"How do you expect me to do that, Perseus Jackson?" she said firmly. Percy was only dimly aware of the murmured conversation in the other room, catching snippets of his friends' voices.

"-a while, you know-" Hazel, he recognized, a tinge of worry in her otherwise light voice.

"-probably just-" Frank, reassuring Hazel, replied.

"-leave them be for now-" Piper said, her voice rising above the others. Meddling Piper…Percy supposed he should be thankful in part for this meddling, otherwise this wouldn't be happening.

"Like this." Percy stepped forward again, feeling a little guilty at how forward this was, and Annabeth's back hit the counter. There was nowhere to go. The guilt intensified at the look of annoyance in Annabeth's eyes, as if she couldn't believe he was doing this.

"Perc- mmph-" Annabeth's words were cut off very nicely when he kissed her again, something Annabeth did not seem to be appreciate. She tried to push him halfheartedly, but Percy noticed that she stopped trying and melted. "No," she muttered weakly, breaking away from him, for air, but something glittered in her eyes, and she seemed to break down the slightest bit. Percy's lips were locked on hers after that, so he wasn't really sure what was happening next, until…

Percy was dimly aware of five people traipsing into the kitchen and varying murmurs, gasps, and shrieks of glee (Piper) as they took in the scene before them. Annabeth against the counter, and the two of them kissing. The two broke apart, Annabeth's face flushing red, Percy just kinda wanting to disappear in that moment and take Annabeth with him. Piper's face was like a cat who had caught a canary.

"Well, well…what do we have here?"