Disclaimer: Everything that you recognize from the Riordanverse or from the musical Hamilton belongs to Lin Manuel Miranda and Uncle Rick respectively. I only own the plot and the occasional OC.
A/N: Wow, chapter 10! At the moment I'm writing this, we're at 953 views! Nearly one thousand! Hopefully we'll be at 1k by the time this is posted. To celebrate, here's a thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and made my day with their kind reviews.
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Special shoutouts to ExponentialAdventures, nothing could go wrong, and risc2131 for being the first people to review, follow and favorite.
Recap:
"Could I talk to you?" Luke asked.
"Sure," Annabeth answered, wondering what this was about.
"Annabeth… would you maybe want to go out with me tomorrow?"
Annabeth POV:
Annabeth was completely taken aback. Of course, she liked Luke, but she hadn't expected him to ask her out now. Especially since Luke had only broken up with his girlfriend last week. Then something occurred to her.
"Luke, I'd really love to go out with you, I would. But tomorrow we're performing, and I want to celebrate with all my friends. Could we reschedule?"
Luke didn't seem too happy about that.
"Come on, Annabeth. Can't you skip? You work with them. You're going to see them for seven hours the next day."
"Please?"
"Yeah, okay," Luke finally agreed.
"Here's my number; we can figure out the timing later." Annabeth told him her phone number, and Luke typed it into his phone.
"See you later," Luke said, waving her goodbye as he walked away. Annabeth stood in silence for a moment, then ran to Piper who had been waiting for her on the next flight of stairs. Annabeth bounded up the stairs to her.
"Piper! Guess what Luke just did?"
"What?"
"I said guess."
"Annabeth!"
"You know, I get why you enjoy having information other people don't have. It's pretty fun."
"Ann. A. Beth."
"Fine. Luke asked me out!"
"Annabeth, that's so exciting! What are you going to do? Where are you going? When? What are you wearing? Do you have his number?"
Annabeth laughed. "Slow down. Also, don't know, don't know, the day after tomorrow, don't know, yes."
"The day after tomorrow?" Piper frowned, "But that's our last day here. I thought you'd want to spend it with us."
"I-I don't know. The plan was to go tomorrow. I already rescheduled once… I don't think I can do it again. He didn't seem too happy about changing it once."
Piper smiled. It didn't seem too genuine, but Annabeth appreciated the effort.
"Well, I suppose there's only one thing to do," Piper said with a sly smile.
"What?" Annabeth asked.
"Do everything in one night."
"Piper! You can't explore all of DC in a night! Besides, we've got most of tomorrow."
"You underestimate my power."
"Oh god. Okay, I guess there's nothing I can do now. I should probably go with you. It'd be an awful lot of paperwork if you got yourself in trouble."
Piper smacked her on the arm. "Hey!"
"It's true!"
They ran up the rest of the staircase and then walked down the hall.
"We're number 57, so we're… here." Piper said. Piper scanned the card and opened the door. Annabeth and Piper walked in and tossed their bags on the ground beside the couch.
"It's tiny," Piper reported, looking around. She wasn't wrong. There were two twin beds, a small couch, and a pretty small bathroom.
"Well, they were booking like fifteen of these, so they wouldn't have been able to book big ones. Besides, it's only three nights," Annabeth pointed out.
"Oh well. Well, now that we're all set up, time to get going!" Piper said, running out the door.
"Piper!" Annabeth chased after her. As she was running, she bumped into someone.
"Sorry," Annabeth called over her shoulder as she continued to run after Piper.
"Annabeth?" the person called out.
"Percy? Hi, sorry I didn't realize it was you."
"Can I ask why you're running down the hallway?" Percy wondered.
"Yeah. Piper made the plan to explore all of DC in one afternoon, and I agreed to make sure she doesn't get herself killed. Piper just started running out the door. I think she was planning on grabbing Hazel."
"Sounds fun."
"You got any plans?"
"Nah," Percy answered, "Grover's going to be hanging out with his girlfriend Juniper -she's in the orchestra- so I don't have anything to do."
"Well… you want to come with us?" Annabeth invited.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Bring Frank, Jason, and Leo. You guys are kinda friends, right?"
"Yeah, sort of."
"Meet us in the front of the hotel in ten minutes."
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Percy POV:
Percy ran over to the hotel room where he knew Leo and Jason were staying.
"Hey guys, it's Percy," Percy called, knocking on the door.
Jason and Leo came out.
"Hey, Percy. What's up?" Jason asked.
"Piper, Annabeth, Hazel, Me, you two if you say yes, and maybe Frank are all gonna head out to DC for the afternoon. Piper made the decision to go explore all of DC in one night, and Annabeth went with her to make sure she doesn't get herself killed. Annabeth invited me. So, do you wanna go?" Percy offered.
"Wait, Piper's gonna be there?" Jason asked.
"Yep."
"Well, I'm in." Leo agreed.
"I'll go," Jason said.
"Great, we're meeting in the front of the hotel in about," Percy checked his watch, "Five minutes. I'm going to get Frank. You want to come?"
"Sure," Jason asked.
"Why not?" Leo agreed. They walked over to the room where Percy was pretty sure Frank was staying. There had been an odd number of people, so Frank was by himself. (A/N… yes, of course, there were an odd number of people. That has nothing to do with the author having absolutely no idea who to make Frank stay with)
"Frank? It's Percy, Leo, and Jason," Percy called.
Frank stepped out. "Uh, hi?"
"The three of us, Piper, and Annabeth are going to DC for the afternoon. You wanna come?"
"I'm not su-"
"Oh, come on. Uncle Leo's gonna be there!" Leo interrupted.
"Leo, do us a favor and shut up for a minute. Let Frank decide," Jason told Leo.
"I guess I'll go," Frank agreed.
"Great. We gotta head down to the lobby now; Annabeth and Piper are probably going to wait for us," Percy told the group. They walked down to the front of the hotel, and met up with Annabeth and Piper.
"So," Percy began, "What's the game plan?"
"Okay, I've figured out some things to do. We're going to the National Air and Space Museum first, and then we're going to the National Zoo. Next, we're going to Lincoln Memorial, and after that th-"
"Wait, wait, wait. This sounds like a lot of museums. You literally put in two things that aren't museums. Isn't there something fun we could do?" Percy interrupted.
"Uhh… let's see… free attractions… well, I was planning to go to the Washington Monument after the Lincoln Memorial, hang out there for a bit, and then we could go out to dinner at the Olive Tree. There's a competing restaurant called the Salt Water Spring, but people say the Olive Tree is better. Lastly, we can walk through Georgetown Waterfront Park, and call it a night. By the way, this is all free, except the food."
"Okay… sounds good." Percy agreed, "What do you think?"
"Great," Everyone agreed.
"Okay, well, let's go and head to the Air and Space Museum," Annabeth led them all down the street, and through the next few blocks until they got to the Metro station. Then, they hopped on, and got off on the street next to the Air and Space Museum.
When they got there, Annabeth stopped right before they entered.
"Wow. The architecture… that's just amazing."
"Come on," Percy said, "I understand the outside is cool, but in most museums what's inside is slightly more interesting." He grabbed her and tugged her inside with the rest of the group.
As soon as they reached the first exhibit, Annabeth was in awe.
"Look at that! And that! That's huge! Just imagine the strength needed in the suspension cords just to get that thing to stay up! I think that's made of..." Annabeth continued to ramble on and on about the planes.
"Annabeth, we have to keep moving," Piper said, grabbing Annabeth.
Leo was also fascinated.
"I used to work as a mechanic, you know. Honestly, this is just amazing. I would kill for the chance to take some of those apart," Leo commented, his hands twitching as if to reach for a toolbelt.
Jason, rather surprisingly, was interested as well.
"That's a Boeing B-29, that's really rare. Actually, I used to be a pilot. That's where I met Leo; he was one of the best mechanics we had."
"What are we going to do with them?" Piper had sighed, looking at all their friends chatter on and on about this smart-people-mathy thing and that.
They had ended up spending a total of two hours there, mostly due to the fact that Annabeth insisted that they take like fifteen pictures of every exhibit, and spent 10 minutes reading every little plaque.
Next, they went to the National Zoo. First, at the entrance, they all decided to pose for a picture.
"Excuse me, will you please take our picture?" Piper asked a man walking past.
"I'm in a rush, I don't have time," He responded gruffly.
"It'd be really helpful," Piper said. He nodded. She really had a way with words.
After that, they entered the zoo. First, they looked at the majestic big cats.
"Oh hey, look! The tiger's name is Richard Parker! (A/N: Not true irl) Isn't that cool?" Annabeth commented.
"And…?" Percy questioned.
"Haven't you ever read Life of Pi?" Annabeth asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll add it to my reading list," Percy sighed. Being friends with Annabeth, he would probably have to actually start one.
Percy jumped when the tiger stood up.
"Scared?" Annabeth asked.
"...No," Percy responded.
"Sure," Annabeth responded, sounding oh-so-knowledgeable.
Next, they went on the Asia trail.
"Look at the big pandas! They look like huge teddy bears!"
"Is that panda red?"
"Look at the leopards!"
"Oooh, is that a sloth?"
After that, they went to the Small Mammals section, at Percy's insistence.
"Is that a raccoon?"
"No, Seaweed Brain. It's a coatis."
"I'll pretend I know what that is."
"Look at the monkeys!"
After a bunch more exhibits, and about two hours, they moved on to the Lincoln Memorial.
"Wow," Annabeth breathed.
"You've said that five times today," Percy pointed out.
"Shut up."
It was a huge building, tall and magnificent. Even Percy had to admit he was pretty amazed. They only ended up spending about 30 minutes there, because everyone was getting hungry.
Finally, Annabeth dragged them to the Washington Monument.
"Ooh, look, more big important buildings. I haven't seen any of those today," Percy commented sarcastically.
"Percy, just be quiet. I want fifteen minutes to look around, and then we get food," Annabeth said. There was a general murmur of agreement in response.
Percy, Hazel, Frank, and all the others reluctantly agreed. Percy had seen a lot of big, fancy, important buildings that day, so this was nothing new. However, Percy had to agree this was pretty cool. It was a super tall, majestic, white obelisk, surrounded by trees and grass.
"Doesn't the sunset reflecting off of the water look amazing?" Annabeth said.
She was right. The huge pool of water in front of the monument was reflecting the sunset, making it all soft pinks and warm oranges.
After a couple pictures, and about fifteen minutes, they finally trooped to the Olive Tree.
"So, what kind of food do they serve here?" Jason asked.
"Italian, I think," Annabeth answered.
"Great, I love pizza," Percy responded.
After they ordered, and their food was served, the group ate their food in silence for a moment.
"This is so good," Percy commented, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, it's amazing," Frank agreed. After that, they talked and laughed until it was nearly 9:00. They'd been there for an hour and a half.
"Okay, time to walk through the park. It's on the way back, so we'll be back soon," Annabeth said.
Together, they walked to the park, walking along the path in the moonlight, watching the waves gently land on the shore.
"It's beautiful," Annabeth said. She'd fallen back so that they were walking next to each other in the back of the group.
"Yeah, yeah it is. The lights from the city over there look pretty cool," Percy noticed.
They walked in a comfortable silence for a bit, just enjoying each other's company.
"Thanks for agreeing to come, Percy. I know it was probably just a bunch of boring museums for you, but I-"
Percy cut Annabeth off. "No, no, I really enjoyed it,"
"That's good," Annabeth responded, "Because, for the record, I would have dragged you with me even if you hated it."
"So you admit you would deliberately bring me somewhere? As in, because you actually enjoy my company?" Percy asked.
"You're tolerable. In small doses."
Percy laughed. "You keep telling yourself that."
As they exited the park, and neared the hotel, Annabeth paused. She seemed like she was about to say something, but then she stopped herself.
"What?" Percy asked.
She blushed. Annabeth looks really cute when she does that, Percy thought. Wait, where did that come from?
"It's nothing," Annabeth said.
"Spill," Percy said.
"I said, it's nothing! Drop it," Annabeth insisted.
"Okay, okay," Percy agreed, backing off.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Annabeth said as they entered the hotel.
"Yeah," He echoed, "See you tomorrow."
After they reached their respective hotel rooms, Percy crashed onto the bed. It had been a long day, and Percy needed to sleep before tomorrow.
Tomorrow was important.
Tomorrow they were performing.
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A/N: Aaand that's it, folks. Today we got a nice mixed salad of Annabeth and Luke, Annabeth and Piper, Percy and co., and a little bit of Percabeth at the end there.
Recommendation:
Luna Lovegood: The Early Years
This is a great Harry Potter fanfiction about Luna Lovegood as a kid. It's a series of cute stories about her childhood, starting with her birth. Along the way, Luna makes friends, learns life lessons that shape her as a character, and creates her own style of quirkiness.
s/13763203/1/Luna-Lovegood-The-Early-Years
Reviews:
Just the Soulmates: First, thanks for reviewing again and for the compliment. :) While I definitely agree that I might have overdone it, some stories have Percy clutching the chair, and being absolutely terrified throughout the whole flight. However, those are usually stories with Percy as a demigod, with a legitimate concern about Zeus striking the plane out of the sky, so maybe I did go slightly overboard on Percy's fear, considering it was a mortal AU.