Heya guys HAHA Back with another chapter! It's more of a filler because Yea I don't want to rush it too much right After the confession. The next few chapters would probably be kinda slow in moving the story plot as I plan to add some fluff into percabeth before starting the last arc of the story. As to the suggestion about the parents of Annabeth meeting her, I don't think I'll be using it in the main story as I think this story should come to a close soon. Maybe After the end, I'll do some add-on. As of right now though, I have no plans to include them. Sorry!

HAVE FUN READING! I hope I'll stay as active as this so Yups yups pls review on What could make it better! The parents one is a good idea but I legit think I domt have enough time to include an entire new arc on them so yeaa I won't be doing them!

R&R!

Nico's POV

The moment they appeared in my line of sight, I knew something huge had happened between the two of them.

It wasn't exactly obvious- they weren't doing anything that was out of the norm at all- but I could tell that the way they looked at each other, the way they communicated and chatted had changed drastically from the day before.

It stunned me that such a drastic change could happen in just one night.

"Wanna make a guess about what transpired between the two of them?" Thalia asked, amusement as well as happiness saturating her voice.

"I think we're all thinking along the same lines," A small but genuinely joyful grin emerging on my face as I stared at Percy and Annabeth walking towards us.

At the corner of my eye, I could see Grover grinning widely as he stared.

"Hey, are they finally here? They're twenty minutes late," Leo's voice erupted across the air as he squeezed his face between mine and Thalia's to look at the two.

"Is it just me, or do they seem a little different today?" A confused Jason piped in. The rest all frowned as they stared at the ignorant couple, seemingly contemplating hard on what seemed different.

Grover, Nico and I smiled knowingly as the rest mulled over and over it. We could hear them quietly discuss theories about what happened.

Surprisingly, despite not knowing Percy and Annabeth as well as we did, most of them managed to guess the correct answer- at least what we think is the correct answer.

"Heya, sorry for being late. We kind of overslept," Percy laughed shamelessly as he waved and walked towards us.

"Both of you overslept?" Silena's voice had a tinge of teasing in it. She was the fastest to deduce what had occurred between the two of them. It wasn't really that unexpected however- Silena had long since been known as the 'Master of Love'.

Apparently, she was so good at pairing up people that almost three quarters of all the stable couples in school were due to her ingenuous matchmaking.

Percy grinned and gave a thumbs-up while Annabeth's face reddened a little. As soon as people saw their reactions, almost everyone caught the revelation.

Even though I had prepared myself, the outburst of screams and shouts still managed to throw me off a little. It was just too loud.

The newly-formed couple was immediately buried under the rest of the gang as they all gathered around the two, questions spurting out of all their mouths at a thousand miles per hour.

"Since when did you two become a couple?"

"You guys were together last night, weren't you?"

"Have you guys done that yet?"

Some of the questions asked were so preposterous and weird that I felt like gagging and laughing at the same time.

"Stop, Stop!" Percy's voice thundered across the air, overpowering the rest of the voices. Finally, the gang managed to calm down enough to stop shooting off random questions and give the two some space.

While Percy looked completely unaffected, Annabeth's face was beet red. I sympathized with her- some of the questions were a little too private and most of them came from three particular people, who were so kindly knocked at the back of their heads by Thalia.

I sighed in exasperation as I saw Travis, Connor and Leo throwing a tantrum at Thalia for hitting them while rubbing the back of their heads. Seems like they have a long way to go before they can be considered 'grown up'.

"I know you guys are really curious over this, but may I propose that we go on to eat our scheduled lunch first?" Percy asked in a bargaining tone, a playful grin stuck to his face.

Reluctantly, everyone agreed. We then set off towards Lakeside mall to have our weekly Saturday hangout session- which usually consisted of eating lunch and dinner and doing a bunch of interesting things in between.

Ultimately though, the gangs' patience were too thin, and they ended up asking so many times while we were walking that Percy simply gave up and told them a downplayed version of what happened.

He didn't mention about what we talked about, and even I didn't know what He and Annabeth shared, but we all didn't try to delve into what they discussed about.

Thankfully, even Leo knew that what they shared about was solely for both of them to know and for us to find out only in due time. In the end, all we found out was that they had a heart-to-heart talk the night before, and it ended up with Percy asking for Annabeth to be his girlfriend. They then hugged each other to sleep and woke up late the next day.

"Man, we've been waiting for a thousand years for you two to finally get together," Travis grinned impishly. Connor nodded eagerly in agreement.

"How long?" Percy asked in surprise. Annabeth also shot him an inquiring look- her curiosity aroused despite the terribly red face of embarrassment she had.

"The first time I saw you two interact, I knew you two were made for each other. I just didn't want to interfere as I knew you two needed no help," Silena winked knowingly at Percy and Annabeth.

"I honestly thought you two were already a couple many times in the past," Beckendorf stated in a matter-of-fact tone. Always the straightforward guy, as usual.

"I knew you two were gonna be making babies in the future long ago!" Travis shouted from the front as he sped ahead, probably knowing Thalia would wreck him immediately when he said what he did. Thalia caught him in ten seconds and thrashed him anyway though.

His pleas for help and cries of desperation were like music to all our ears.

"I never knew we were such a popular pairing," Annabeth said softly in genuine bewilderment and surprise, finally getting over her initial embarrassment-although her face was still as red as a tomato.

All of us chuckled at her statement. Little did they know that almost the entire school had been silently rooting for them, even coming up with a pairing name called 'Percabeth'.

While Percy could read many people like an open book, the one thing he wasn't really good at was reading into relationships or specific emotions such as love and affection. Annabeth was probably the same or even more clueless towards this sort of things.

That thought dampened my mood a bit. It brought my train of thoughts to what they may have talked about yesterday. I knew that Annabeth and Percy probably laid out every single one of their secrets to each other last night, and they had accepted each other's dark and painful past- the proof right before my eyes.

It didn't change the fact that they had suffered- were suffering. Since long ago, I had felt that both of them had been missing something- a deep, black hole in some part of themselves that had not been filled.

It comforted me a little, to know that after so many years of grief and pain, they had finally found what they were missing in each other. I could tell from the way their eyes always seem to glance into each other's, the occasional smile- from Annabeth- and grin- from Percy- that they shoot at each other, the frequent teasing and laughter they manage to elicit from each other.

I silently prayed to the gods to protect them. To protect their relationship, to give them a break from all the terrors and horrors that have incessantly haunted them for years.

Yet, no matter how much I prayed, I could feel a heavy sense of foreboding. Something huge was going to happen soon, and it wasn't the good kind.

As I observed the newly-formed couple- with exuberance and elation literally radiating and leaking off them in waves- a spring of hope erupted in the middle of the heaviness of my heart.

"You okay there, Nico?" Percy's voice floated through the air. I looked up and saw him grinning once again.

It wasn't his usual grin- the half-smirk, playful kind- but it was a grin filled with joy and satisfaction. However, I saw something even stronger than the previous two emotions hidden not only in his grin, but in his body posture, his voice and generally his demeanour as a whole.

It took me a while to realise it, but I did in the end. Every single action and word he did and spoke exuded a strong sense of determination and even a hint of danger.

At that moment, I knew that he was aware of that sense of foreboding- perhaps moreso compared to me. He knew the danger that was incoming, the terror that was about to befall us all.

More importantly, I knew that he was ready. He was ready to fight, to protect, to triumph over whatever was coming his way. To protect his precious people, to protect us, to protect Annabeth.

And when I shifted my eyes to observe Annabeth, I saw the exact same thing I saw in Percy. I saw the hidden strength inside of her, the resolve that burned bright within her eyes.

I smiled and nodded, moving forward to chat with him and the rest

Somehow, we will make it through.

They will make it through.