Annabeth was a bit mortified the next morning, when Frank found them asleep in the stables. Percy didn't help anything by straight up telling Frank that they'd kissed (although she supposed he'd watered it down a bit from "made out for about twenty minutes", so that was something). Still, once Frank stumbled out of the room, his face beet red, the two of them looked at each other and couldn't help laughing.

"Gods, though," Annabeth said, dropping her face into her hands, "this is going to be awkward. And we didn't even do anything. It was an accident."

Percy stretched, then rose, holding out a hand to help pull Annabeth to her feet. "Worth it though, even if the goat flips out."

She had to smile at that as she let him help her up. "Definitely." She kissed his cheek as they headed out of the stables hand in hand.

The goat flipped out. Naturally. But nobody else seemed too worked up about it, except for Hazel, who appeared scandalized. However, when Hedge grounded Annabeth, she just blinked at him for a moment before saying, "Excuse me?" The word "grounded" didn't compute. She'd never been grounded in her life. Her father knew better than to try, and she'd never pushed Chiron quite that far. However, there didn't seem to be much point in fighting it. Given the circumstances, she decided it was safer and wiser for the quest as a whole to let the satyr have this one.

She did go up on deck to say good-bye as the Atlanta group was heading off. Ignoring Hedge's glare, she gave Percy a quick kiss and said, "Just come back to me."

"Of course." He squeezed her hand.

"And try not to get kicked in the head again."

"I'll do my best."

She watched the three guys leave with an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, but there was nothing she could do about it. They were a capable group. Surely they could handle most situations. She debated going down to check on Hazel, but it appeared that Piper had beat her to it. So instead, Annabeth took a deep breath and asked Leo, "Okay, what needs to be done?"

Percy felt off-kilter once they returned from Atlanta. The experience of being trapped in the aquarium had shaken him up more than he wanted to admit. So it was a relief, once they were well outside the city limits with no sign of pursuit and Leo had dismissed them all from the helm after sending Buford off with Frank's laundry, when Annabeth came up to him and kissed his cheek before saying, "Glad you made it back."

"Yeah, me too. And on the plus side, Keto got a hoof to the head this time, not me."

She smiled sweetly at him. "Silver linings."

"Exactly." He absent-mindedly rubbed his arm, which was covered with tiny nicks and scratches from the glass.

Suddenly, Annabeth's face blanched. "Oh my gods, Percy. Your skin."

"What about it?" He looked down, half expecting to see webbed fingers or scales. Maybe Phorcys or Keto had put a curse on him? But his arm looked normal. Scratched up, but normal.

"Look at it," Annabeth insisted. She took his arm, turning it up and down, examining the scratches. "I noticed before, but I didn't think about it…how did this happen?"

"Uh, remember that part about shattering a glass aquarium wall?"

"I know that," she said impatiently. "But the glass shouldn't affect you."

Percy was starting to feel like he was missing something in this conversation. "Um, why not?"

She stared at him. "Are you sure you got all your memories back?" She leaned closer and said very quietly, "The curse of Achilles."

"Oh that." When she looked ready to hit him, Percy quickly added, "It's gone. Apparently you can't carry a Greek blessing into Roman territory or something. At least that's what Juno—Hera, whoever—said. So when I crossed the Little Tiber at Camp Jupiter, it washed away."

Annabeth looked stunned for a few moments. And then her eyes narrowed. In a dangerous voice she said, "And you didn't think to mention this to me sooner?"

"We've been a little busy?" Percy tried an apologetic grin, but he wasn't sure it worked. Annabeth still looked like smoke was about to start pouring out of her ears, Valdez-style.

After a moment of glaring at him, she grabbed his arm and grumbled, "Come on, you idiot." Percy wasn't one hundred percent sure following her was a good idea right now (maybe she just didn't want witnesses), but he allowed her to lead him down the stairs, all the way to sickbay. Then she pushed him down onto one of the cots before rummaging through the cabinet. She came back up with a bottle of nectar and said, "Take your shirt off."

"Uh, what?"

That response didn't make her look any less annoyed. "Your shirt is covered in holes, so I assume your chest and back are all scratched up, too, right?"

Judging from the stinging sensation of his skin, she was probably right. "Maybe."

"So take your shirt off, Seaweed Brain, so I can try to fix up your dumb ass."

"Gee, thanks," he muttered, but he did as she said.

Despite her obvious annoyance, Annabeth's hands were gentle as she applied nectar to his cuts. After a few moments, she said in a low voice, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Honestly?" Percy said. "I forgot."

She snorted. "Seriously, Percy? You've had two days, not to mention last night. And this is kind of a big deal."

"My bad?" he offered. When she just rolled her eyes, he said, "Look, I'm not sure what to say. I am sorry for not telling you, but we've been a little busy. And it's been like a week since it was washed away, so I guess it just doesn't feel as shocking anymore."

She pursed her lips as she dabbed nectar onto a cut on his shoulder. It stung, but he'd been in worse pain. Then, her voice still low, like she was trying to keep it controlled, she said, "So it didn't occur to you that maybe you should tell me, the person who knows about your Achilles spot, that I need to watch out for all of you now, not just that one location?"

Suddenly, Percy understood where her frustration was coming from. She'd already been stabbed once trying to protect his single vulnerable spot. If that wasn't an issue anymore, obviously she needed to know that. He flashed back to their fight with the tar monsters and the way Annabeth's eyes had widened and she'd moved to intercept the one attacking him from behind. A chill ran down his neck. "Shit. You're right, Annabeth. I'm sorry. I should have told you right away."

"Yeah, you should have," she said, but her chin trembled just slightly.

"Come here." He took the nectar from her, then took her hand and pulled her to sit down next to him. Tentatively, he put his arm around her shoulders. She didn't shove him away, so he figured he was okay for the moment. "I'm sorry, okay? Seriously. I just forgot in all the chaos. I know that's not a great excuse, but it's true."

"It's not a great excuse," she agreed, "but I forgive you."

He kissed the corner of her eye and said again, "My bad."

"Yeah, well…" She sniffed. "So…so the spot's completely gone?"

"I guess so." He shrugged. "I mean, I haven't exactly checked or asked anyone to stab me in the back, but I assume if the curse is gone, the Achilles spot is too."

Annabeth ran her fingers up his lower back, along the hollow of his spine, and, yeah, the sensation definitely set his nerves dancing, but it wasn't the supernatural electric feeling he'd experienced before when she touched his Achilles spot. He shook his head sadly when she met his eyes, asking a silent question. She nodded. "Okay. Good to know, I guess." She stood up, retrieved the nectar bottle, and went back to dabbing drops on the numerous cuts on his arms and chest.

Percy was quiet for a minute, studying her. She wouldn't meet his eyes. Finally, he said, his own voice low now, "It doesn't change anything, you know."

She glanced up at him, her smile tinged with sadness. "Doesn't it?"

"No." He kept his eyes on hers as he took her hand again. "It doesn't change that I saw you when I went into the river. You came first, not the curse."

She held his eyes for a long moment. He couldn't quite make out the expression on her face. Then, to his surprise, she nodded. "Good point."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, Seaweed Brain." The corner of her mouth turned up as she bent back to her task. "You're right. About that. But I needed to hear it. It was…" her voice trembled and the smile faded. "It's been really hard. I didn't know if you would remember me or even want to come home."

"I never forgot you," Percy said. "And, honestly, I can't wait to go home, once this is all over. Even though my mom's freak out is probably going to make what Coach Hedge did this morning look like nothing."

"Probably." Annabeth's lips quirked up. "I think the last I heard, once we get home you're grounded until New Year's."

"I thought you said Christmas?"

"Maybe I added a week because you forgot to tell me about losing the curse." She paused what she was doing to lean in and kiss him lightly.

"Doesn't that punish you, too?"

"Nope. Your mom already told me I get a pass to see you while you're grounded. It sounded like it's going to be a long time until you see a video game again, though." She smirked when he groaned. Then she surveyed him critically before putting the top back on the bottle of nectar. "There, that looks a lot bet—"

"What the Hades is this?"

Coach Hedge was standing in the doorway, baseball bat slung over his shoulder, eyes wide. "Jackson," he barked, "put some clothes on!"

Leo happened to be walking past at that exact moment, his arms full of supplies. "Um, what did I just hear?"

"It's nothing," Percy said, grabbing his shirt and yanking it over his head. "I just had some cuts from the aquarium and Annabeth was helping me get patched up."

"Unsupervised!" Hedge's face was getting red. "That's it, mister. You're grounded too!"

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose if we're both grounded together?" Annabeth asked.

"No, it most certainly does not," Hedge fumed. "Now get upstairs and go to your rooms. I don't want to see your smart mouths until dinnertime."

Leo raised his eyebrows at them from behind Hedge's back, a grin on his face, then he hurried away down the hall toward the engine room, probably hoping he wasn't going to be grounded too. Annabeth shook her head, then brushed past Hedge into the hallway and headed for the stairs. The satyr glared at Percy for a few more seconds, which made it a little uncomfortable to walk past him. It didn't get any better when Hedge followed Percy up the stairs, the bat smacking against the coach's shoulder at each step.

"Coach, I'm literally just going to my own room to lay down for a little bit," Percy said.

"Darn right you are," Hedge growled. "I've got my eye on you, kid."

"Fantastic," Percy muttered under his breath. Annabeth was already at her own door. She shot him a quick smile before disappearing inside. He hoped they were okay now. He thought so. But he could always talk to her later, just to be sure. Supervised, apparently. Percy sighed.

"Inside," the coach ordered, pointing with his bat at Percy's door.

Percy swallowed back a few choice comments, then headed into his own room. It was a relief to shut the door in the satyr's glaring face.

Later that evening, after dinner, Percy found Annabeth on deck, leaning against the main mast with Daedalus's laptop open on her lap. He sat down next to her. Leo, Piper, and Jason were standing at the helm having a conversation, so Percy figured this counted as supervised. Besides, if Coach Hedge really wanted to enforce his rules, he shouldn't be holed up in his room watching kung fu movies. Not that Percy was complaining about that fact. Especially after the satyr's kung fu knowledge helped to save them in the aquarium.

"What're you working on?" he asked Annabeth, glancing at her screen, but it was full of diagrams he couldn't decipher.

"Just looking through some of Daedalus's notes on Roman architecture, trying to see if there's anything useful for this quest. Like somewhere Nico might be kept or…or anything else."

"Find anything?"

"Not really." Annabeth sighed and leaned her head back against the mast. "I mean, his notes on Roman architecture are amazing and I could literally spend weeks going over them. But as far as anything related to this quest, I'm coming up with nothing."

"Darn." Percy stifled a yawn. "He say anything about Charleston?"

"Not much. I checked earlier. Just a few notes about how to implement plan 23 in the city."

Percy shuddered. "Yeah, let's not do that again."

"Agreed."

They sat quietly for a couple of minutes, Percy content to just sit close to Annabeth while she scrolled through files on her computer, occasionally typing a note. The sun was setting, turning the sky pink and orange. The humid summer air was pleasantly cool, since the Argo II was flying several thousand feet above the ground. The moon hung just above the horizon, half full. It was a surprisingly peaceful evening, especially considering they were currently a primary target for a lot of monsters and an angry Roman legion.

"Nice sunset," Percy offered.

"Mmhm." Annabeth didn't raise her eyes from her laptop screen.

"You didn't even look," he complained. When she didn't respond, he poked her in the side. "Annabeth. Look at the sunset. Please?"

She heaved a small, huffy sigh, but raised her eyes to the sky. Her expression shifted from annoyance to wonder. "Oh wow. Yeah, that's a good one."

"Right?"

"Mmhm," she said again, but this time she slipped her hand into his. With her free hand, she hit a couple keys on her computer, then closed it.

"Done?" Percy asked.

"For now." She leaned her head against his shoulder. "I have some time to keep researching Rome. Right now, I just want to watch the sunset with my boyfriend."

"Works for me." He kissed the top of her head. They watched the sunset in comfortable silence. Finally, as the sky darkened, Percy asked quietly, "Hey, are we good?"

Annabeth nodded against his shoulder. "Yeah, Percy. We're good."

"Cool." He laced his fingers through hers and she squeezed his hand. Percy again experienced the sensation that his soul was settling more comfortably into his body as they watched the sun slip below the horizon.