A/N: I own nothing but the plot. Enjoy!

When Percy came out of the bathroom, Annabeth was setting down a cup of warm milk on the table. She took a deep breath before turning to face the water mage.

"Oh, your hair is still wet. Here, sit down and let me dry it."

As a water mage, Percy could have dried himself with a simple wave of his hand. But before he could say anything, Annabeth grabbed a cloth and began drying his hair as she stood behind him.

Somehow, he had the feeling that she was busying herself because she was too embarrassed to face him after accidentally walking in on him in the nude. It wasn't like she could hide anywhere in the small cottage.

Percy closed his eyes and let her ruffle his hair with the cloth. She was still gentle as she rubbed his hair. The corner of his lips lifted.

The next day, Annabeth and Percy set off for the village nearest the outskirts of the Forest of Illusions, leaving Eclipse to watch over the cottage. To the villagers, Annabeth was known as a witch now living alone in the Forest with the passing of her mentor, so for a strange man they had never seen before to accompany her attracted much attention.

Both ignored the obvious stares and gossip of the villagers. The villagers' stares were more of curiosity rather than fear.

After selling her weekly load of medicine at the village's pharmacy, Annabeth grabbed Percy's hand and headed to a merchant's stall.

"How does this shirt look?"

She held a white shirt against him and guessed the fit. Percy stood there obediently as Annabeth compared different shirts on him. He looked down at her as she wrinkled her brows cutely. It was the first time that anyone had taken such care to choose his clothes. It wasn't a bad feeling, he finally decided.

"Okay, we'll take these!" Annabeth declared.

Before Percy could protest, Annabeth had already paid for three shirts, two trousers, and a cloak. In a few minutes, he was outfitted in the new clothes. The material was nowhere as high quality as any of the clothing he had worn as a mage knight but somehow he preferred this homespun cloth more.

As he came out of the clothing shop where he was changing, he spotted Annabeth next to a tall young man. Percy's smile slowly fell.

"Annabeth."

The witch turned around to see one of the young men she was somewhat familiar with from the village.

"Oscar," she acknowledged.

The youth was one of the hunters Annabeth and Chirana had worked tirelessly to save eight years ago when the group of hunters had accidentally ventured too deep into the Forest of Illusions. It was after this incident that the villagers had begun to warm up to Annabeth more. There were still some villagers who were frosty at best, but Oscar was one of the nicer villagers.

"Are you here to sell your medicine?" Oscar asked.

"Yes, I just finished earlier." She replied.

Oscar awkwardly shoved a basket of flowers towards her, and Annabeth winced inwardly as the youth stepped too uncomfortably close into her space. She knew that Oscar had a crush on her, but she held no interest in him. Almost every time the witch went to the village, Annabeth would sense that someone was following her. After some time, she realized that it was Oscar, who was both shy but also brashly forward when facing the pretty witch.

Finally, she couldn't stand it when feeling eyes on her back all the time and told Oscar to please stop following her. Oscar listened, but now openly came up to Annabeth to start conversations when she did not have the time to. Even when Annabeth dropped gentle reminders that she needed to concentrate to do her work in the village, the youth didn't seem to get it, intentionally or otherwise.

"Oh, well, if you have a little time, I was wondering if you...if you..."

The village youth suddenly stammered as a tall, young man walked up to them. Annabeth found Percy standing at her side.

"Oh, you changed your clothes. How does everything fit?"

"It fits well."

"Spin around. Let me see."

Percy obediently spun in a circle for Annabeth to see. The quality was not as good as the luxurious silk shirt he had been found in was, but at least he was no longer wearing patched clothing.

"Are we going to buy anything for you now?" Percy asked.

This time, he slipped his hand in Annabeth's, catching her by surprise. Oscar, who had sadly been neglected by the two who seemed like they were in their own world little together, had his mouth open.

"Annabeth, who is this?" The village youth demanded, his shock fading.

"Oh, are you selling flowers?" Percy asked, seeing the basket of flowers but ignoring the youth. "Pity, they look a bit withered. I would suggest getting fresher flowers to sell next time. Now, Annabeth, shall we go look for hairpins for you?"

Without another single word, Percy led Annabeth away and the pair disappeared into the crowd, leaving Oscar alone. The youth's shoulders drooped, and his friends tried to cheer him up. But it was no use. The sudden appearance of a love rival was too strong, and the love rival was taller and more handsome to boot.

"Haha, nice one, Percy!" Annabeth laughed.

He had been quick on the uptake, and she relished the opportunity to be away from Oscar. Perhaps now the youth would be less inclined to bother her in the future.

"You looked a little uncomfortable earlier. Was he someone you knew?"

"Oh, I'm quite fine. That was just Oscar. I suppose he has a small crush on me, but he really doesn't get any hints that I can't return his feelings. So I must thank you for helping me out back there. Perhaps he'll be less inclined and move on to someone who can truly care for him."

Percy was still holding her hand as they walked through the crowd. A few people stared at their joined hands, but none heckled the pair to Annabeth's relief. Perhaps they didn't expect the witch to have a partner. Nonetheless, Annabeth expected Percy to let go of her hand, but it happened much later than she thought. When he did, she caught herself missing the warmth of his larger hand wrapped around hers.

"Thank you for the clothes. Let me buy you something in return," Percy insisted.

At his stubborn insistence, Annabeth picked out an enamel hairpin in the shape of a flower. Percy tried handing over a gold coin and was met with much confusion by the merchant. Being raised in the royal capital, Percy had never used any other denominations other than gold coins, and he only had three gold coins in his pocket with the rest being lost with his jacket in his escape from Octavian's men. It was here in the village that he saw mostly copper coins and the occasional silver coin being used in transactions.

In the end, Percy bought out the whole stall and presented the stash of jewelry and the change to an astonished Annabeth.

"This...this is too much," Annabeth gaped.

"Consider this as part of my payment for saving my life," Percy said seriously.

He had heard that the antidote to his poison was made of expensive and hard to find ingredients when he had tried to secretly obtain the antidote for himself. For Annabeth to slowly be able to cure his poisoning was priceless indeed. Percy would have paid heaps of gold to his savior, and the mere trinkets of silver jewelry to Annabeth was nothing compared to what she had done.

"But...but still..."

"Please?" Percy blinked his eyes at her innocently.

In the past few days, he found that if he looked deep in her eyes and lowered his voice, Annabeth would slightly flush and soften her demeanor whenever she nagged at him for working his body too hard. He found this out when he convinced her to let him practice his swordsmanship and help out with chores so soon after her treatment of his wounds. He had never experienced this with other women since most people were afraid to approach him.

"Please?" He pleaded again.

"All-alright." Annabeth agreed, looking away. "Then, thank you. I'll choose one to wear."

Annabeth looked through the assortment of hairpins and chose the enamel hairpin with the flower in the end. Percy had been to a few balls before and knew that women often dressed up with jewels in their hair. The enamel hairpin looked shoddy by comparison. He resolved to get her some better ones, when the opportunity came.

Percy suddenly paused. He had only been with her for just less than a week and already he was thinking about staying by her side for a lot longer than he expected. He hadn't thought that he would have to leave her one day, and he found himself dreading that day.

Annabeth was struggling to put the hairpin on, so Percy dutifully helped her. He brushed the stubborn wayward hair out of her face before sliding the enamel hairpin. This close to her, he could see the fluttering of her dark eyelashes and a small mole located right beneath her left eye.

"You sure must be all healed to start flirting like that," Annabeth muttered.

"What's that?"

"Nothing." Percy smiled up at him. "How does it look on me?"

It was only a plain hairpin, but combined with Annabeth's golden hair and rosy cheeks, Percy could only reply truthfully, "Pretty."

The single merchant who had been happy that his wares had been bought out so quickly felt his mood dim somewhat. Could the happy couple please move on from his empty stall and stop reminding him that he hadn't found a wife yet?

A thundering of hooves on the dirt path made the nearest villagers look up. A horde of mage knights on horses were coming through. This was a rarity in the village where not a single mage lived.

"Move out of the way!"

In the rush of the horses, the stall of a man selling cabbages was overturned and a few other people had to dodge quickly to get out of the way before they were trampled.

One of the knights on the horses grabbed a village woman by the arm. She tried to get away but found a sword pointing at her neck. Some villagers tried to help but found the other knights had drawn their weapons. This village was a peaceful one, eking out a living by the dangerous Forest of Illusions. Never had they met such horrifying knights before.

A man nudged his horse forward. It was clear from the horse's gilded armor and the man's gold thread clothing that he was the one in charge.

"Where is the witch living in the village?" Prince Octavian demanded. "Answer me truthfully or your head will be severed from your neck."

A/N: Heads up, I also updated this past Thursday c:

To guest reviewer "its me here": I think I'm dropping Scandal for now. I just don't like how I wrote out the story, unfortunately. Maybe one day I'll rewrite it.

As I wrote this chapter, I thought rest in peace to the poor cabbage merchant that Octavian and his men overturned. Both in the PJO and Avatar the Last Airbender universe, cabbages are not safe. Hide your cabbages. Protect your cabbages. Worship those cabbages-cough, cough. That's enough of cabbages right now.

Also, RIP Oscar's first love to Annabeth. She saved both his and Percy's lives, but Percy snagged her heart first.

Welp, the pace of this story will pick up now. Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. See you all next chapter!

Edit: Yes, I know, a prior version of this mentioned Oscar as Peter. Peter is the original version of Oscar. It's like Mr. D. calling Percy, Peter Johnson.