The longest chapter so far! :)

You know what feels awesome when you're drenched with freezing rainwater and mud and manure? A hot shower. I loved it.

However, it didn't turn out to be as spectacular as I had planned. I was in the midst of rinsing out the shampoo in my blonde hair, feeling the hot water run down me and warming my bones, when I saw something in the corner of my eye. My hands froze, and my head whipped around, praying with all my might that what I saw was not what I thought it was.

Unfortunately, the fates weren't on my side. My eyes landed on a furry, eight-legged creature, the size of my big toe. It was about a foot away from my elbow, menacingly still.

If you don't know anything about me, at least know that spiders are my worst fear. The worst. I hate them, and I was convinced they hated me as well.

Letting out an ear-piercing scream, I stumbled back on shaky legs, almost falling out of the shower. My hands flailed as I tried to find balance, stepping out and getting tangled in the shower curtain. I shoved it off of me, grabbing a towel and quickly wrapping myself in it, still staring at the arachnid. It hadn't moved. It's going to kill me.

I was still gaping in horror at it, up against the opposite wall as far away as I possibly could be, when I heard a pounding at the door. Apparently my scream hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Annabeth?" Percy's voice sounded worried. "Annabeth, are you okay? What happened? Let me in!"

Wordlessly, I reached out and undid the lock with the hand that wasn't holding the towel around me. Percy burst through the door and took in the scene with one glance.

"What's the matter?" he asked frantically. "Why'd you scream?"

I pointed to the shower, the water still running, managing to croak out a stammered word. "Sp-spider!"

He raised an eyebrow, then followed my finger to the shower. Walking over, he shut off the running water, then peered into it. Reaching back, he grabbed a piece of toilet paper, then disappeared behind the shower curtain. I waited with my breath held. In the foggy mirror, I could see my room through the open door, and a blast of cooler fresh air flew into the humid bathroom, making me shiver. I heard a smack, then Percy emerged, holding the toilet paper folded in his hand. He walked over to me, an amused smirk on his face.

"No, stop it, Percy," I said, backing up as far as I could, flattening myself against the wall as he approached.

"It's just a spider."

"I hate spiders. Get it away."

He shook his head, but he stepped away, throwing the crushed spider into the small trashcan next to the sink.

I let out a huge breath, water dripping from my hair onto my hand. Percy turned around to look at me. "Scared of spiders?"

Narrowing my eyes, I said threateningly, "Something wrong with that?"

He held up his hands in defense. "No, no—nothing wrong. But I would just never think of you as scared of spiders."

"And why would that be?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, you're just so . . . scary. Like, your glare could make a lot of people wet their pants. I wouldn't believe you to be scared of harmless spiders."

"They're not harmless!"

"Well, maybe in, like, Africa or Asia they aren't."

I rolled my eyes, then went into lecture mode, telling him about the many spiders in America that were poisonous, and that they could easily be here. However, I noticed he wasn't really soaking it all in as I gabbed away.

Sighing, I said angrily, "You aren't paying attention to me, are you?"

But I found he was paying attention to me, just not to my talking. He proved it when I saw his eyes flicker down a little, then back up to my face.

I glanced down, seeing that my towel had ridden pretty low. Scoffing, I pulled it up, then glowered at him, my cheeks reddening quickly. "You pervert! Get out of my bathroom."

He spread his hands out wide, his jaw dropped. "What did I do?"

"You looked!"

"Well, sorry! I can't change the fact that I'm a teenage boy!"

My face felt hot as I swatted his shoulder and pushed him towards the door. He snickered as he let himself get ushered out. He was in my room, and I was just about to slam the door shut, keeping a careful hold on my towel, when he said, "Wait!"

I paused, looking through a slit of the open door to him skeptically. "What?"

He motioned to his head. "You've got shampoo in your hair."

My eyes went skyward. "Nice observation, Sherlock," I said sarcastically. "It might be, you know, because I was in the middle of my shower!"

"Oh, good thing," he said. "You stunk pretty badly."

I let out a growl, then threw the door shut, hearing his sniggers behind the closed block of wood.

"I was joking, Annabeth!"

"Go away, let me finish my shower!"

My ear pressed to the door, I heard him retreat, muttering to himself about how girls "couldn't take a joke." I exhaled, going back to my shower. Hesitating, I peeked into it, looking for any sign of another spider. When I didn't see anything, my hand reached out and turned the knob, making the water spout out again. I stepped in.

I'm pretty sure I set a record for finishing a shower. I didn't want to spend a second longer than I had to in there with the threat of spiders hanging around. Changing quickly into a pair of leggings and a green shirt, I sprinted out of the bathroom into the safety of my room. I shuddered at the memory as I threw my dirty clothes onto my bed then headed out into the hall. Someone was moving downstairs, clanging around plates. Faintly I could hear the rain pounding relentlessly overhead, and thunder booming in the background. Quickening my footsteps, I practically jumped down the stairs into the kitchen. That spider made me jittery.

Yes, I was that afraid of spiders. Just imagine your worst fear coming to life, and multiply the mind-numbing terror by a hundred. Then you'll get an inkling of what I feel every time I see a spider.

Percy was eating out of a bag of potato chips (yes—they were blue). He had just been on the phone, for he lowered it as I entered.

I almost moved my hand to cover my chest, but I forced that down. I was wearing clothes now.

"Where's your dad?" I asked suddenly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Hello to you, too." When I sent him a look, he just grinned goofily, making my heart skip a beat. "He went straight from town to my mom's. Her and Paul's dog is pregnant, and she's giving birth right now, so my dad's helping them."

Nodding, I glanced at the time, surprised to see it read four o'clock. "Woah, it's later than I thought!"

"Well, we did have that mud fight," he said, adding in a quieter voice, "that I won."

A glare was sent his way, then I said randomly, "Do you guys have puzzles?"

"Those things of the devil?" Percy replied, his nose wrinkling. "Yes."

I raised my brow, then queried, "Where?"

He let out an exaggerated sigh at having to get up off his butt. I rolled my eyes, following him as he led me down the hallway to a closet. Yanking it open, he gestured to them with his arms, and I nodded my thanks. He trudged back to his potato chips while I studied the puzzles.

Despite Percy's apparent hatred for puzzles, he and his dad appeared to have quite a few. There were two hundred piece ones, three hundred, and I even saw a puzzle that had a thousand puzzle pieces.

I settled on a three hundred piece puzzle with a picture of the Greek gods. Pulling it carefully out of the tightly stacked closet, making sure none of the others would fall, I went back into the kitchen.

"Come on, Percy," I told him without stopping my footsteps. "We're doing this puzzle in the living room."

"Uh, excuse me?" he asked. "I don't do puzzles, madam."

"Well, you do now. Let's go, slacker!" I called using the same word he used on me when I didn't want to go in the paddock. He rolled his eyes, grumbling, then grabbed his chips an followed me dejectedly, holding the bag of food like a child would hold their favorite stuffed animal. I smiled, shaking my head before sticking the puzzle on the small coffee table, then pouring out the pieces. Instantly, I started to divide the edge pieces with the middle pieces.

"What're you doing?"

I looked at Percy. "A puzzle. Duh."

His green eyes went to the ceiling. "No, what are you doing with the pieces."

"I'm separating them. It makes it easier."

He looked at me like I was from another planet. I sighed, then said, "Why don't you find all the red ones and put them in this pile. We'll need that for Ares."

Placing the bag of potato chips at his side, he started sifting through the multiple pieces, putting some in a different pile.

Even though it was mid-afternoon, it was considerably dark. The light above us supplied some contrast to the darkness, but the lightning still lit up the room like a firework. Whenever thunder crashed, I tried not to jump. Rain pounded at the walls and windows, and in the silence of the room, it seemed deafening.

I saw Percy pick up a piece and move it to his pile, which had gotten pretty big. Stopping him, I said, "What are you doing?"

He looked at me. "What you asked me to. Duh."

I scowled at him, but otherwise ignored the gibe. "No, you're supposed to get reds."

He raised his eyebrow. "I know."

"So why in the name of Hades are you putting a pink in your pile?"

Frowning, Percy looked at the piece in his hand. "This is red."

I pursed my lips. "That's pink."

He narrowed his eyes skeptically. "No," he said slowly. I motioned to the light, urging him to look at it closer. He held it up to the bulb above us, squinting and studying.

"Hm," he finally concluded. "You're right. Well," he continued, shrugging as he tossed the piece back, "that means that more than half of this pile is probably pink."

I exhaled impatiently, putting a hand over my face. Hearing a chomping noise, I looked back to see Percy eating his chips again. "What are you doing?"

"Eating. Duh. How many times will we have to go through phrases like this?"

Letting out a little growl, I snatched the bag away from his hand. A pouting look came on his face, and he reached for it. But I held it back farther, shaking my head. He glowered, crossing his arms.

"Don't have a tantrum," I told him in my talking-to-a-toddler voice. Before he could protest, I asked, "Why don't you like puzzles?"

"Because they're confusing!" he said. "And I'm dyslexic."

Rolling my grey eyes, I told him, "Percy, dyslexia doesn't have anything to do with puzzles, it's words. Besides, even if it did, I have dyslexia, and I'm doing fine."

His eyebrows drew together. "You do? But you seem so smart."

"Dyslexia doesn't make you dumb, idiot. You just don't try hard enough."

He held a hand over his heart. "Ouch. That hurts, Wise Girl. That hurts right here." He patted his chest, but I frowned.

"Wise Girl?"

Lifting a shoulder, the boy replied, "Yeah, 'cause you're smart. So I thought it fit."

"Really? That's the best you can come up with? You're brain's full of seaweed." I snapped my fingers. "Seaweed Brain. That fits."

He cast his eyes skyward, then just looked at me. I tried to focus on the puzzle, but I could feel his gaze on me like an intense laser.

Rounding on him, I demanded, "What? Why're you staring?"

He still just watched me with a funny light in his eyes. "It's just so weird. I feel like I know two Annabeth's. One of them is a famous actress, and the other is just a normal teenage girl sitting next to me."

"What?"

"I just can't think of you as a celebrity. It always seems as if celebrities are in a whole different world, and we normal people have our own world, and we don't mix," he told me. "You're a celebrity, but you seem so normal."

"So you said. Is normal Annabeth a bad thing?"

He cocked his head. "I don't think so. I don't know yet—I've only know you for a couple days."

"Around a week," I corrected him. "But I'll be here for the summer."

He feigned dread. "Oh, no, the horror!"

I rolled my eyes, going back to the puzzle.

"Well, just so you know—" he cut off, then said in a panicked voice, "Oh, my gods! There's a huge spider!"

I flipped, letting out a loud scream before scrambling up into a tight ball on the couch, holding my fetal position until I saw Percy. He was laughing. Laughing so hard he couldn't breathe, and he was holding his sides and sputtering for oxygen between his bellows of laughter.

My mouth dropped. There was no spider. I shoved my hand out, punching Percy hard enough in his shoulder that he fell over onto the floor, sprawled out like a spread blanket. He didn't care, he was still laughing.

"That's not funny, Percy," I shouted down at him in an angry voice.

"I'm sorry," he said between breaths, calming down slowly. "I just wanted to see how scared of spiders you actually were."

"Well, did that satisfy you?" I said in a cutting, sarcastic voice.

Percy wiped at his eyes nodding. Then he looked at me, him on the floor and me glaring down at him from the couch. His face split into a lopsided grin. "You should've seen your face . . ."

He drifted off into a fit of giggles once more, climbing back onto the couch.

"Oh, I bet it was hilarious." I tried to make my voice angry, but a smile was creeping up on me. I shook my head, going into the kitchen to grab a drink. I could still hear Percy chortling behind me, and my attempt to ignore it failed miserably.

"It really wasn't that funny, Seaweed Brain."

"Yes, it definitely was, Wise Girl," he called back to me. I smiled a little at the nickname. I had a lot of nicknames, and usually I hated them (if you call me "Annie," I will hurt you) but this nickname just made my brain go fuzzy.

"Oh, stop it," I muttered to myself, trying to focus again.

It was darker in the kitchen, the rain pelting the window above the sink and blurring your view of outside—not that you would be able to see anything anyways. When the telephone rang, I jumped about five feet into the air, and I was surprised I didn't drop the glass and have it shatter everywhere. But to my credit, I didn't scream.

Soothing my frantic heart, I went to the house phone.

"It's probably dad," Percy yelled from the other room. "Just pick it up."

I looked at the caller ID and saw that he was right; it read, Poseidon's Cell.

Clicking the talk button, I held it up to my ear. "Hello?"

"Oh, hello, Annabeth. How are you and Percy holding up?"

"Good," I informed him.

"That's good. Well, we just checked, and apparently the weather isn't too good." I glanced out the window once more just as another lightning bolt flashed. It was getting darker rapidly. "Like, not good at all. Bad enough that I won't be able to make it home."

"Oh," I said softly.

"Yeah, I know," he replied. "Normally I would've tried to come home anyways, but Sally absolutely forbade it. So I'm staying here for the night, but can I talk to Percy really quick?"

I complied with his wishes, walking into the room where Percy was eating (surprise surprise). I handed the phone to him, and he greeted his dad into the speaker. I went back to the puzzle, trying to find more edge pieces. All the while, my ear listened to their conversation.

Poseidon's words were quiet in the distance, but I could catch a word every once in a while. I heard "tornado", "basement", and "Annabeth". Tornado? It was that bad?

When Percy hung up, I prodded him for answers. "What was he asking?"

The boy shrugged, standing up. "Just telling me a few things."

"Like?"

"The storm." He started to walk out of the room. I followed him curiously, but paused when I saw he was heading for his boots and coat.

"Where are you going?" I asked warily.

He glanced up at me, sliding his foot into his muck boots. "To check on Blackjack."

My eyebrows rose. "What? No. You can't go out there."

"I just—"

"No," I said firmly. "Your dad can't even drive in this weather, so I'm not letting you go outside to the paddock. You're dad wouldn't let you."

He sighed. "No he wouldn't, but Annabeth, I need to. Blackjack is still pretty young, and he gets skittish and runs into things when he's scared. During the last big storm, he ran up against the fence or something out there, and we found him with a gash running up his foreleg. I need to bring him into the stable. I should've thought of that earlier."

I bit my lip. "But it's too dangerous outside."

"I'll be fine. Besides, are you going to stop me?"

Exhaling, I caved. "Fine. But I'm going with you."

He held up his hand. "No. Definitely no. You're staying here, where it's safe."

Throwing my hands up in exasperation, I replied, "I'll be fine!" But he shook his head determinedly.

"You're waiting here. Make me a cup of hot cocoa, though, will you?" he asked with a grin.

"Oh, so now I'm just your servant at your beck and call?"

He shrugged with that adorable dorky smile on his face, and I shook my head. "Fine, I'll stay inside. But don't count on the hot chocolate."

He smiled as I added one more thing. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Aw," he said, his smile growing wider. "Does Wise Girl actually care?"

"Yes," I said. Though in my brain, I was forcing myself to think of it in a friend way. Nothing else. "You're my only friend right now here."

"I'll be good," he zipped up his coat, sending me a wave. "See ya."

With that, he opened the door, permitting a screeching howl of wind and slapping raindrops before slipping out and shutting the door firmly, leaving the house in silence. I took a deep breath, glancing at the clock. If he didn't make it back within a half hour at the most, I was going out there.

Yes, I was nervous. Storms made me that way, don't know why. I definitely did not want Percy out there.

Making my way into the kitchen, I searched for a pan and some milk. Turning the stove on, I started warming up some milk. When I had finally found the cocoa mix after what seemed like an hour, I looked once more at the time to see it had only been five minutes. Exhaling harshly, I sat down at the kitchen counter to wait. My thumbs tapped a beat on the counter, sounding like gunshots in the quietude.

The clock hand inched forward, agonizingly slow. I tested the milk with a finger, drawing back with a gasp and sucking on my now burning fingertip with a frown. Dumping it into the mug, I stirred it, then let it sit on the counter. When I saw there was enough left for me, too, I did the same to a second cup.

Fifteen minutes.

My knee started bouncing as I warmed my hands on the hot mug. The wind sounded eerily like screams outside, screams of tortured people. A shiver went down my spine, and I resisted the urge to look behind me. It was stupid. There was no one there.

Twenty minutes. What was taking him so long?

There was a crash outside—a tree having lost a branch to the vicious wind. I tried to imagine what the ranch would look like tomorrow. We'd have a bit to clean up.

I realized that while I had been marveling at the beauty of nature for the past few days, I had forgotten about the other side of it. Nature was like a gorgeous lady—she was breathtaking, but oftentimes her beauty came with another part of her that was a heartbreaker, and she made you feel pain.

Twenty-five minutes.

"Percy, where are you?" I mumbled, mixing his cocoa with a spoon. It was getting cold.

Then the door slammed open, making me whirl. I saw a dark figure stumble into the house, then struggle to close the door once more. It was a fight against the wind. The wind tried bravely and fiercely, but it lost, and the door banged shut with a boom similar to the never-ending thunder outside.

The person turned, and Percy's familiar green eyes met mine. A wave of relief poured over me, and I stood and smiled at him. But that faded once he raised his arm to wipe off the water from his brow.

"Percy!" I cried in alarm. "Your shoulder!"

A crimson liquid was squeezing out from a laceration on his upper arm, looking about three inches long. It was pouring blood pretty quickly, and I rushed over to him as he got his coat off. The sleeve of the coat, so it seemed, took the brunt of whatever had cut at him. It was slashed up the side, unusable now.

"Blackjack," he said, throwing his boots off. "He was scared, and rammed into me without knowing I was there. He pushed me into a big limb of a tree that had fallen, it's sharp side was sticking out. It's not too bad."

I sighed, shaking my head. "Not too bad?" I repeated. "Go get changed, then come back down and drink your cocoa and I'll look at your cut."

"Yes, mother," he replied with a smirk. Scowling at him, I pushed his uninjured shoulder towards the stairs and he mounted the steps, snickering.

"Hurry up, though!" I called after him. "Your drink is getting cold."

I heard him mutter something, but it was too quiet to hear. Instead, I just listened to the storm raging outside. Now that Percy was in the house, safe, and I wasn't alone, it didn't seem that scary anymore. I waited for Percy to return, stirring both cups.

I looked up as I heard him start down the stairs. Mentally I cursed myself for looking so soon, since it made ignoring everything harder.

He was in the middle of pulling on a shirt, his upper body exposed to the air. And what a fine upper body that was, might I add. I had no idea what these ranch boys did, but we needed to have all men do it.

Though in my opinion, most of them couldn't even compare to Percy.

Stop, stop, stop.

I cleared my throat, turning my face back to the kitchen, my skin feeling hot. Percy didn't seem to notice anything—he probably had girls swooning over him every day. For some reason, that thought made me angry and irrationally jealous.

Oh, stop it!

"Where's your first-aid kit?" I asked Percy, still not quite looking at him.

"Same closet as the puzzles, but the lowest shelf."

I followed his instructions, finding a box of salves and bandages and band aids. I brought it back out, seeing Percy inspecting his wound.

"Thanks for the hot cocoa, Wise Girl," he told me, grinning cheekily.

I smiled back at him. "You're welcome. Now let me see that."

For the next half hour, I cleaned away the blood that had clotted up around his injury. After all the gunk was gone, I was glad to see it wasn't as bad as I had initially thought. It was only deep enough to hit a vein, and that's why it was bleeding so much. When I finished cleaning, sitting opposite of Percy, I took a large bandage, tongue between my teeth as I concentrated on getting it on perfectly.

Once it was all done, I leaned back, inspecting my work. Satisfied, I looked back at Percy. He was watching me, like he had been the whole time I was taking care of his arm.

"Thanks."

I dimpled. "Again, you're welcome. But you owe me."

He took a sweeping bow. "I will never be able to repay you for your chivalrous deeds, m'lady."

Snorting, I replied with, "You're such an idiot."

He grinned, about to answer when his cell phone rang. It was sitting on the counter, where he had last put it. He glanced at the number, then held up a finger, pressing the green button.

"Hello?"

There was talking on the other side, a female voice. I drank down to the dregs of my coffee as I waited.

"I'm fine, Rachel," he said insistently. My ears pricked. It's her. "Yes, I'm fine . . . Yes, Annabeth is here."

Jealous much, Rachel? I wanted to tell her don't worry, her boyfriend didn't and wasn't going to think of me like that. No matter how much that made disappointment bloom in me.

"I told you before, Rach, it's—" he sighed as he was cut off by his girlfriend. I could hear her rambling, and feeling a sudden tiredness come upon me from the day, I decided I'd go upstairs. It was only around seven, but I was exhausted. I motioned to the stairs, letting Percy know where I was going. He nodded distractedly, still talking to Rachel.

I listened to his voice drifting up to me as I trudged up the steps, his deep and soft tone circling in my ears like a child's lullaby. The hallway was almost pitch black because no lights were on. I stumbled into my room, groping the wall for the light switch. When I turned it on, I realized I hadn't done anything since I got here. My clothes were still in my suit case, just messier from my digging around in it. The toiletries bag was unpacked in the bathroom.

I sighed. If I was going to be here for the summer, I might as well make it feel like home.

The next hour was me unpacking, folding, hanging, and humming. Percy still hadn't come up, I didn't ever hear someone go up the stairs through my closed door, so he was either still talking to his girlfriend or he was eating.

Once it was all finished, neat rows of shoes and orderly stacked shirts and pants, with dresses and nicer shirts hanging, organized by color, I pulled out my phone to play a game that was a total waste of time.

Flappy Bird.

I hated that game, but I couldn't stop playing it. Malcolm and I had a contest to see who could get the most. He had sixty-three, I had eleven. Great, huh? It was so frustrating. If there was a way to calculate or use physics or something, I would be fine.

But there isn't. So it was just plain infuriating.

I didn't know if I was mad or relieved when my screen suddenly went black. Exhaling loudly, and too lazy to get off my butt and grab the charger, I just settled for throwing it down and reading a book instead.

I was engrossed in Pride and Prejudice. Every part of it I loved—especially Mr. Darcy. He was awesome. Rain kept pouring, and I absentmindedly thought that if it doesn't stop soon, we might have a recap of the flood. Thunder flashed, trees groaned, wind whipped by. Just when I was reading the part where Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth see each other at Pemberley, everything went dark.

No, I didn't pass out, and no—I don't think it was the end of the world. Though I was startled.

A very faint light came from the window, but the lights in the house were off. My hand went for my phone, but then I realized it was dead. I needed electricity to charge it. I'd never really had this problem before. Electricity was always there in San Francisco. If it wasn't, then that was a pretty big deal. I slid off my bed, standing shakily. Walking over, I opened the door and looked into the dark hallway. Everything was pitch black.

"Percy?" I called out tentatively.

"Yeah, one sec," he said back, sounding like he was still downstairs. "You wanna try and come down to the kitchen? Be careful of the stairs, make sure you hold the rail. I'm gonna try and find a flashlight."

I did as he said, keeping one hand on the wall as I made my way to the stairs. A lightning bolt lit up the hallway through the one window, casting a creepy light onto the room for a second before it went dark again. I sped up my steps, anxious to be downstairs.

My foot went down, then the other went as well. Slowly I descended the steps.

Of course, with my imagination racing, when the next lightning flash lit up the room when I was almost at the bottom and I saw a figure at the end of the stairs, all horror movies poured into my brain. Stupid brain.

I let out a shriek, jumping. But the shriek turned into a yelp as my foot slipped. Making a desperate grab for the railing, my other foot went as well, and unbalanced, I fell and careened right into the figure.

But instead of a cold cloth with a metal scythe that I expected the unknown person at the bottom of the stairs to have, I crashed into a warm, hard chest. Percy chuckled as his arms went up to catch me.

"I thought I told you to be careful," he said. I couldn't see his face, but I saw his smile.

"You scared me," I replied in an accusing voice.

"Did you think I was the Grim Reaper or something?" he asked. "Please, I'm way too hot to be him."

Got that right.

Stop, stop, stop.

"Come on, I was on my way to the kitchen." He turned, his arms that were wrapped around me falling. But his hand found mine and clutched it tight, pulling me along so I didn't hit anything.

I took a deep breath, holding his hand tighter. It engulfed mine, covering it like a blanket. The same sense of heat was there too, sending spikes of electricity up my arm. If only we could plug a chord into my arm, I could charge the whole house as long as Percy kept holding my hand.

The thought made me smile.

I was glad, however, that Percy was holding my hand, and not just for the reasons I had been thinking. I didn't know this house very well, so I would've been crashing into things left and right. Instead, I just walked wherever Percy walked as we went into the kitchen.

He led us over to a drawer by the utensil cabinet. Opening it, he searched for a flashlight. I stepped closer, peering into it as well, but I couldn't see anything.

"Can't find it," he said. Then he paused, "Wait, here's a candle, and the matches are attached to it." He let go of my hand to take the matches off of the candle. I realized that we had held hands longer than necessary.

No, he just didn't remember you were holding hands. Besides it wouldn't mean anything—he already told you he's not interested, even though nothing happened already.

I'd been here for a few days. Already this boy had made my feelings go to war with each other.

"Here we go," he said suddenly. A small spark of light came into existence, and he held it close to the wick. A brighter flame came now, and he dispensed the match, then turned and brought the candle between us, coming face to face with me.

We were an inch away, our noses almost touching.

"Oh," he said, his voice weird, but I didn't know with what emotion. His green eyes looked incredibly endearing as they latched onto mine, and the fire made shadows chase each other across his face. "Well, hello there, Wise Girl."

I rolled my eyes, shoving him away with a smile as I heard him snickering.

A yawn escaped through my lips, causing Percy to young as well. Then we both grinned tiredly.

Suddenly, a thought struck me. "What did Poseidon really tell you?"

He was silent for a while, contemplating. "He just said that if the storm got worse, then we should stay in the basement, just in case."

I gestured to our black surroundings. "Is this 'worse'?"

As if nature wanted to answer me, a huge lightning flashed, and not a second later, thunder exploded above us, shaking the entire house and rattling our used mugs on the counter.

Percy pursed his lips. "Yeah, probably." He went back to the drawer and grabbed a few more candles. "Let's go." I followed the light of the candle, shielded from the breeze by Percy's hand. He led us around the corner to a door, which he opened and started going down the stairs.

It was a nice basement, not like some that were musty and concrete and basically just used for a storm shelter or storage. It looked like another part of the house from what I could see, but the small flame gave out limited light.

My eyelids were starting to grow heavy, and when Percy turned around, he saw me yawn once more.

"Come here, you can sleep on the couch."

I followed him diligently, finding a sofa set on shaggy carpet. Dimly I could see a TV facing the couch, and a small table like the one in the living room that held the abandoned puzzle.

Plopping onto the couch, I stretched my arms. Percy set a candle on the table, then lit it using his own. It brightened up a foot around it, making Percy's glossy hair reflect the red and orange.

"I'll be right back," he said, disappearing into another room. The couch lulled me to fall onto the pillows there, and I gave in, letting myself lay down on the comfy couch. I couldn't hear the rain, but the occasional thunder made it's way downstairs. The dark surroundings that would've made me somewhat fearful had I been fully awake just made me more tired, my brain telling me that it was dark, and dark meant night, and might meant sleep, and I needed sleep. Any teenager needed sleep.

Teenager. I wondered how old Percy was. My drowsiness made my thinking weird. "Percy? How old are you?"

I heard Percy's amused voice. "Eighteen."

"Hm," I mused tiredly. "That's my age, too."

Sleep was overtaking me quickly. I faintly remembered Percy chuckling, then I felt something being thrown over me, a soft blanket.

Right before I fell into unconsciousness, a hand touched my cheek gently, a light caress. It moved up, pushing my hair behind my ear in a soothing motion that quickened my descent into sleep.

"Good night, Annabeth."

I tried to answer, but the words just slipped past my lips in incoherent mumblings.

Finally, I fell asleep, watching the steady flame of the candle set before me. It flickered as Percy passed, the fire dancing in the darkness like a lonely ballerina.

A little Percabeth! They're so adorable. I love them. :)

BTW: I have a new oneshot out. It's a Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood one. It's meant for a competition on Wattpad, but I put it on Fanfiction. It's called "The Mistake To Not Make" if any of you want to check it out. Thanks. :)

MeganAnnabethJackson: Thank you so much, you're always reading my stories (including the new oneshot) and reviewing you make me smile with your reviews. Again, thank you! :)