2 days later
2 days since the Battle. 2 days since Gaia was defeated. 2 days since Leo's sacrifice. And still no sign of him. If only the gods had helped a bit earlier, Gaia would never have woken up. But when has relying on the gods ever worked? That's right, never. But at least they showed up to kill the giants, after Gaia had already woken up.
To be fair my mom hadn't turned Percy into a pile of ash for kissing me, so at least one good thing came from the Gods. Then Zeus had thrown the Argo II across the entire Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean (why don't the gods do that stuff more often, it would help our missions so much) all the way to camp, so we could kill the goddess they couldn't prevent from waking up. Leo had fought against Gaia, and the two of them had been hit by a imperial gold projectile. Since then, we have waited for Leo, but there has been no sign of him yet, which brings me back to the present day.
All was going well with cleaning up the aftermath of the war and I finally had time to think about the last few days. Why couldn't I remember Tartarus? Going through my memories, I noticed that I didn't have memories of a lot of the bad stuff I know had happened to me. Well, it was probably something like post traumatic amnesia, but that still didn't explain the voice I had heard. It definitely was not my normal inner voice; it had sounded more like Percy's. But there was something else mixed into it, which I couldn't pinpoint yet. As I was thinking about the voice, a stream of water hit me in the face. I looked at the water below me and saw Percy's head poking through the surface. "Hey, come in." he told me. "Look, I'm trying to think and you're really not making this easy for me." I thought about the last time someone had said that sentence, after our last war. I remembered what had happened after and I knew that my choice of words might have been a mistake.
Percy must have recognized the sentence as well, as he responded: "I'm never, ever going to make things easy for you, wise girl. Get used to it." Then, the water in the lake rose and dragged me in. The current pulled me into an air bubble where Percy was already waiting for me. "Annabeth Chase" he said, sounding like a strict teacher. "Such unprofessional behavior will not be accepted." I gave him a confused look. What was he talking about? "It's been two days since we won the war and we still haven't had our underwater kiss." I actually did forget about that after we won. "But you would have forgotten that as well, had I not said 'you're really not making thi-'" Percy cut me off by kissing me and for a moment, nothing else mattered. All my worries were just washed away. I had not felt this good since…. at least a few weeks. The last experience on this level was probably when I was able to finally see the sun and feel the grass after- 'don't think about it' I told myself. Just enjoy the moment. After a few seconds or maybe hours, who know, we finally let go of each other.
After a few seconds, my heartbeat went back to normal and I could think clearly again. "I don't know what surprised me more." I told Percy. "That ambush kiss or the fact that you remember my exact wording from…" two days since Gaia was defeated, so today…. 365-15… convert to weeks…. "Fifty weeks ago." "Me forgetting our first real kiss? No way, that thing is burned into my memory for eternity. Even when I woke up at the wolf house, I had at least some memory of it." That surprised me even more. I knew he had remembered me, but we never really got into detail on that. "Anyways, thank you. For the kiss. I really needed that right now." "I get it" he assured me "with everything we've been through. Falling to T-land, meeting him, your solo quest, losing me and so much more. And that's just the stuff from this year. Honestly, I have no idea how either of us is still mentally stable." "You did it, seaweed brain. You asked a question I can't answer. I'm impressed"
"I knew this would happen one day. But here's a question you can answer. Want to go deeper? Like, deeper in the lake?" "Sure, why not" And just like that, we began to descend. I looked up and saw the sunlight far, far above us, getting dimmer as we sunk into the Darkness. Just like when we were falling into- "Stop" I told Percy. I could see the water around us turning into sharp rocks. "No" I stammered "not now" Percy grabbed my hand, but that just made it worse. I could feel the water around me turn into rushing air as I was falling into Tartarus.
A/N
So, that was the second chapter. Originally, I was just going to write some fluff, but apparently, my sense for realisms told me to give Annabeth a flashback. How will she handle it? How will Percy react? You'll find out next chapter.