Me: Hmm... So whom should I take this time

Rubs hands together with an evil grin.*

Everyone: *goes pale*

Me: so I choose... Grover!

Grover: *bleats like a sheep. Or rather, a goat*

Me: come on, do it!

Grover: *frantically waving his hands* No, no! Me no speak Inglis

Annabeth: Inglis?

Me: I think he meant English

Grover: *frantically nodding* Me no speak Inglis!

Me: *cleaning my nails with a knife* I would hate it if anything happened to Juniper, you know

Everyone: *gasps*

Katie: You're evil!

Me: oh, no, I was just joking. But somebody has to do the disclaimer. So... Nico!

Nico: meh.

Me: aww come on!

Nico: *deep sigh* Fine. This idiot here doesn't own us. Rick Riordan does.

Me: see? That was easy!

Nico: *gulps as everyone else glares at him for doing it so easily*

【~~】【--】【=】【】

"Right here." A voice said. Percy Jackson, the sixteen/seventeen year old Percy Jackson, took off a yankees cap and grinned.

Annabeth stared at him. Her vision tunneled. Percy smiled at her—that sarcastic, troublemaker smile that had annoyed her for years but eventually had become endearing. His sea-green eyes were as gorgeous as she remembered. His dark hair was swept to one side, like he'd just come from a walk on the beach. He looked even better than he had six months ago—tanner and taller, leaner and more muscular. (Sorry, but I had to copy it from the Mark of Athena.)

"Annabeth" his voice croaked and he rushed forward. Annabeth rushed forward at the same time. She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him. Percy threw his own arms around her and returned the gesture. Just like before, his lips were salty. Annabeth couldn't believe it. It was her seaweed brain!

The others stared at the two lovebirds. Aphrodite cooed. Little Percy and Annie stared at them, their eyes wide, their mouths gaping and wide open, their cheeks shades of red and crimson. Thalia stepped forward and covered the eyes of the two ten-year olds with her hands. She coughed loudly. The two ten-years-olds put her hands away from their eyes and continued to gape.

Percy pulled back and grinned, studying her face carefully.

Her chest started welling with anger. She felt a hot lump of anger forming in her throat. For months she had endured his absence. She had cried, grown out of her mind, all the worry and bitterness for him. It was like someone had ripped away a part of her.

And yet, he had the nerve to play with her and grin at her ! She grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the floor. She put her knee on Percy's chest and pushed her forearm against his throat. Her eyes stung from all the worry and bitterness and anger and frustration.

"If you ever leave me again," she said, her eys blazing, and brimming with tears at the same time "I swear to all the gods-"

Percy's chest and throat vibrated as he let out a laugh. All of Annabeths fear, anger, worry, bitterness melted away. It was difficult to stay mad at him. "I know, I know. I missed you too. Consider me warned."

Aphrodite cooed even more, all her hellhound pee flavoured make-up glory forgotten.

Annabeth rose and helped him up. She wanted to go somewhere private with him right now, but she knew the other people were waiting to meet the Perseus Jackson they had heard about so much.

But Percy knew exactly what Annabeth wanted. "Let's go to the guest hall and talk, shall we? The others can wait." He said lowly. He put an arm around Annabeth's shoulder and pulled her close, then gave everyone a nod and started walking away.

Everyone else stared at the two, trying to process the events that had just taken place.

【】

As soon as they reached Annabeth's couch, she pushed him away. Her anger started returning. She crossed her arms on her chest and tapped her foot.

"You were here from the day my Yankees cap got stolen, weren't you? Why didn't you tell me ? Why didn't you show up?"

Percy rubbed the back of his neck nervously "I was under orders. I wasn't allowed to-"

"Whose orders?" Annabeth asked.

"The Fates. They said that I cannot appear in front of everyone till they tell me to."

"And you didn't try to signal me that you were here?!"

Percy sighed and put his arms around her waist. Again, her anger started melting away. "I was under orders. And I am telling you, I won't leave you again. If Hera tries to stick her godly nose in my life one more time, she won't have a nose left to stick it anywhere."

Annabeth tried not to smile. "I missed you, seaweed brain."

Percy's troublemaker smiled reappeared and she had to restrain herself hard. She wanted to kiss him so badly right now.

"I missed you too." Percy came a bit closer. Annabeth's hair stood on their end. "Actually just 'missed you' doesn't seem to cover it... Is there any other way to show it?" Percy muttered slowly. Annabeth's heart started beating faster. She couldn't hold it anymore. She smiled and pulled him into a kiss.

Time skip to 5 minutes later.

Everyone was chattering and talking excitedly, exchanging stories about Percy as they waited for the two to come back.

Percy and Annabeth walked into the dining room 5 minutes later, Percy's arm casually draped around Annabeth, both of them smiling widely.

The demigods whooped and immediately surrounded Percy, patting him on the back and asking him questions and punching him and complimenting him and overwhelming him.

But, Zeus had had enough. This boy was getting too much attention. He even had had the nerve to prank him. He snapped his fingers and his normal clothes returned, the leftovers of the prank wiped off his face. The boy should be adressing the Owner of the House first. He cleared his throat loudly. Everyone stopped chatting and looked at Zeus.

"Lord Zeus," Percy bowed.

Then he looked at his father and smiled. "Hey, dad." He said casually. "Hello, Percy." Poseidon's eyes twinkled as he smiled. The other demigods felt a twinge of jealousy. They never had had such an easy, casual relationship with their own parents.

Then Percy bowed to all the other gods. He grinned and fist bumped with Apollo and Hermes as if they were old pals or something.

"Ahem. Can we please get back to breakfast now?" Zeus asked. Everyone nodded and got seated. Zeus pinched the bridge of his nose. He was supposed to be the leader. Others were supposed to look up to him and follow him. But things were not going exactly that way right now.

【】

"...And so I smashed Polybotes' nose with Terminus' head. And then they raised me on a shield and made me praetor." Percy finished telling all the demigods his story. All the demigods had come to eat at his table, to welcome him back.

"Thanks bro," Jason said. "For saving my Camp while you were away."

"Same goes for you, bro." Percy grinned and feast-bumped with Jason.

Annabeth rolled here eyes. It had been like 10 minutes since they had met, and they were already having a budding bromance. "So you are Thalia's little brother. You two look nothing alike." Percy mused.

"Dude! I am a big fan of your sarcasm!" Leo grinned.

"Yeah. Me too." Percy grinned back.

"So, Percy." Piper asked, leaning forward. "Tell me, how desperate were you to meet Annabeth when you were at Camp Jupiter."

Percy blushed and looked down at his cheeseburger.

"Careful Pipes, your Aphrodite side is showing up." Jason and Leo said together. She smacked both of them on the head. Jason rubbed his head and started sipping some juice from a glass. Leo grinned.

"Desperate enough to turn down every single girl who proposed to him." Hazel supplied. Annabeth felt heat rise to her face.

"He turned down even Reyna's offer." Frank added.

"He what?!" Jason choked on his juice.

Annabeth's face felt even hotter. Jason had told Annabeth everything about Reyna. It seemed to be a big deal that Percy had turned down her offer. So there wasn't a scarcity of people crushing at Percy at Camp Jupiter either. If Percy had wanted to, he could've easily pushed Annabeth aside and picked someone else to replace her, probably Reyna. And yet, he had turned them down. She forgave her ridiculous boyfriend for everything wrong he had ever done. She wanted to fling her arms around him so bad, but she managed to restrain herself.

"Ahem." Little Percy interrupted, red in the face and wanting to change the subject. "Can we talk? Like, away?" He asked older Percy.

Percy had known this was coming. His younger self would want to know everything about the future and how to prepare for it. He nodded.

"Just a minute." Luke interrupted. "Dude, please forgive me."

Percy shook his head. "Don't blame yourself. You know I forgave you the moment you killed yourself with that dagger."

Then Percy leaned forward with a worried look on his face, and whispered."Uh, just-just try not to have my girlfriend re-develop her old crush on you."

"Percy!" Annabeth scolded, but Luke let out a laugh. "Don't worry bro. She won't leave you for the world. Besides, she's been more like a grandma to me. Atleast since the past few days."

"Luke!" Annabeth scolded.

"Okay then. We can talk later guys. I'll go and talk with my younger self, and Annabeth's younger self here."

Little Percy and Annie pulled Percy with them to a corner. "So, what do you want to ask first?"

"You want to give me any advice?" Little Percy asked. Percy considered it for a moment, then said "never argue with Annabeth."

Annie smirked. "Learn a bit from your future self, seaweed brain."

"Um, okay." Little Percy said quickly. "All this attention and people treating you like a hero...doesnt it go to your head?"

"Well, Annabeth is their to prevent that in my universe." Percy said, then turned to Annie "and I hope you are upto the task in this universe?"

Annie blushed and nodded. Jeez, the future Percy Jackson was hot.

"What am I like?" Annie blurted. "You're cute." Percy smiled at her.

"Whoa!" Little Percy stepped in. "Go flirt with your Annabeth. This Annabeth is from my universe. Wait a minute. This is so weird."

For some reason, Annie found this move from Little Percy sweet and irritating at the same time. She smacked him on the head.

Percy Senior raised his hands "Don't worry. I like the matured and mellowed Annabeth more."

"Excuse me?" Annie asked indignantly.

"I am sure I am going to fight lots of different monsters in future. How do I know how to beat them?" Percy Junior asked.

"You ask Annabeth how to beat them. She tells you how to beat them. Then you beat them." Percy shrugged.

Annabeth walked upto them from behind. Percy Senior interlaced his hands with her. "So what have you asked him yet."

Little Percy shook his head sarcastically. "Whatever I ask him, his answer is always you."

Annabeth blushed, then nodded. "I should have expected that."

"How do you keep him out of trouble? It's so annoying! How do you put up with him?" Annie asked Annabeth.

"It's difficult. He's like the magnet for trouble. And I still can't understand why I put up with him." Annabeth answered.

"Hey!" Both the Percys protested indignantly and both the Annabeths let out a laugh.

"It's okay." Annabeth said. "You'll grow up to him with time." Then Annabeth leaned forward and whispered. "You can definitely see how better he gets in the future. You wouldn't want to let go of such a golden chance."

Annie nodded, blushing.

Percy Senior narrowed his eyes playfully. "What are you whispering?" "Probably they are sharing tips about the best ways to keep us in line and out of trouble." Percy Junior said.

"Hey Percys and Annabeths. If you people done getting all cosy and warmed up, the book reading is going to start. Are you people coming or what?" Leo yell-asked from behind them.

"Coming!" They yelled together.

Annabeth and Annie walked away, but Percy grabbed Percy Little's shoulder and stopped him. He bent down on a knee so he was at Percy Little's eye level. Then he took something out of his pocket. "I have something for you." He gave Percy Little a bead- the prize gift for the prank wars. "But this is-"

"I know you don't want to accept this gift. But I insist. This shield-it is a painful reminder of something that happened to one of my friends. I don't want to keep it. Take it. I am sure it will come handy. I hope things will turn out better in your universe..." Percy Little shook his head. "But I-"

"If you don't take it, I will give it back to the Stolls. I don't want it." Percy said. Percy Little sighed.

"Fine." He pocketed the bead.

"Use it well. I hope things turn out differently in your universe, atleast." Percy Little nodded. They walked to the throne room.

"So who's gonna read?" Hestia asked. Everyone turned to Percy Senior. He raised his hands. "With all due respect, me reading is a big no-no." "Read, seaweed brain. The book's specially made for dyslexic people." Annabeth said.

"And what about my ADHD? You know I won't be able to sit still." Percy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Fine." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"I'll read." Demeter volunteered. She had for some reason grown fond of reading this book. Probably Rick Riordan can have that affect on people a lot.