I knew I wanted to write a big story for PJO and BewareTheFandom thought I would PNG-fy or Selfie-fy it but no. Wrong story. We're Photos-fying it. None of this makes sense to anyone else but that's how this story came to fruition when I was forced to take out the compost. I was saving this story for a later date but swapped some things around to publish this on the last TOA book's release.

This story is a one-shot series of mini-stories that happen between the books, during, or after. There will be a lot of Percabeth with other couples and characters. If anything doesn't go with canon, whoops, but I'm trying to stay as close as possible. If you're starting this story when there are a lot of chapters out, you could start wherever and read whatever chapters you want. (Some titles don't fit in the navigation bar but I tried keeping keywords in.)

Disclaimers - I don't own the characters. I apologize in advance for any OOC. As I started writing this story, I only read up to HoH but will keep you updated on reading the books as chapters go on.

I hope you enjoy :)


Story #1: Percy and Clarisse Play Some Carnival Games

"How do you make that choice?" Percy asks. "Between what you think you want and what you think you need?"

"You hope they become the same thing," Annabeth responds.

"And did they?"

"Working on it."

Annabeth's eyes narrow as she raises an oversized mallet. Her grip around it tightens as her grey eyes focus on the five holes on the station in front of her. The moment a small neon gopher pops out, she'd slam it back into the table. The game attendant jumped and wanted to run for the hills but Percy smiles. He's done that with every game she slayed.

She saw a giant stuffed turtle and she was determined to get it. If Annabeth wanted a giant stuffed animal, then Percy made sure to win it for her if she couldn't get it herself. Those occurrences happened if she was playing one game and he went to another. Annabeth managed to get all the animals she wanted while Percy added more to her zoo, mostly aquatic animals. He won that giant seahorse for himself but let her have it. He knew Annabeth would love Coney Island and they've been at these games for hours since they arrived winning every giant animal they could find, specifically the blue ones. They've won so much that they had to go back to his car many times and stuff them in the backseat and the trunk.

Percy has never seen Annabeth so concentrated other than when she would browse on Daedalus' laptop or her blueprints for Olympus. But when she saw that big and puffy blue-spotted owl, she knew that she had to win it. She would whack every gopher into Tartarus if it meant she could get that owl for her bunk. Annabeth knew her siblings would be all over the animals, trying to snag one for themselves but Annabeth wouldn't let them. She planned to keep them all in Percy's cabin. There are so many vacant beds for the animals and endless storage, and Tyson wouldn't mind at all when he would stop by.

"Yes!" Annabeth exclaims as she cheers. The whack-a-mole's booth lights up as she completes the level, winning a perfect score.

"Wow," Percy says. Although he knew she would win the blue-spotted owl and has seen her win every other animal she had her eyes on, watching her light up with her proud victory enlightens him.

But this time he's distracted. It's not his ADHD because it hasn't bothered him before. He heard a cackle that instinctively made his hand hover over the pocket with Riptide. Percy takes a few steps to the edge of the whack-a-mole booth. From his peripheral vision, he sees Annabeth hold her arms out and jumps on her toes like a child as the game attendant hands her the owl. She hugs it tightly, nestling her head into it and closing her eyes in bliss. Percy looks at her for a second and wonders why he doesn't get hugs like that. She almost murdered the game for that owl.

"Can I borrow your keys to drop this off?" Annabeth asks as she walks over to him.

Percy looks back to where he was before. "Yeah, here."

Annabeth catches the keys when he tosses them. She keeps them in her fist as she peers over to where Percy's looking, putting her head beside his as he looks around the corner to find what he's looking for. "What is it?"

"My gut says something bad's nearby." His voice is lowered to a whisper.

"You mean the fried everything booth?" Annabeth points at it. "The cotton candy lemonade?"

"No, those look amazing." He looks back at Annabeth for a second to see her cringing in disgust. The cotton candy lemonade has a blue option which he has his mind on before looking back for his possible threat.

Percy continues scanning the crowds, squinting his eyes although that doesn't affect his scouting skills. All he sees are parents with their kids, other couples holding hands or kissing, or groups of teenagers messing around. Nothing is unusual. Maybe he's just paranoid after everything.

When he hears another battle cry, Percy throws himself in front of Annabeth and her stuffed owl before rolling forwards. He's on his knees, about to whip out Riptide but then notices a bright orange Camp shirt. Percy stands again, hearing Annabeth walk up to him and they both see Clarisse cheering as she plays an aiming game with water guns. Sitting beside her is Chris, smiling as he watches her knock over targets and scares the game attendant into hiding underneath all the stuffed animals.

It makes sense why they're here. Chris and Clarisse are dating and after the Titan War, Chiron let them have a little vacation to rejuvenate from everything they went through and to grieve the fallen ones. Some half-bloods who had decent enough relationships with their mortal parents got permission to go home for a bit. The majority of the campers stayed at camp. Some older ones, like Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, and Chris, were allowed to venture into town and have fun as long as they were careful. Percy and Annabeth didn't know Chris and Clarisse left camp, let alone expect to see them here.

"I wasted a good somersault," Percy says. He really wanted to make an epic entrance towards a monster eating a corndog.

"You used up a bad one," Annabeth responds.

Percy looks at her offended. "That was uncalled for."

"So was your bad somersault. It's just Clarisse and Chris."

Percy looks at her going another round with the water guns and moving targets. "I want to mess up her game."

"She'll slaughter you."

"I'm 50% a god, 80% a great warrior, and 70% determined."

Annabeth pauses to do the math because it sounded wrong. "That's 200%."

"Because I'm double the half-blood Clarisse will ever be."

Annabeth pauses again to look at him because, as much as she loves Percy, that also sounded wrong. She has to give him credit for doing that math correctly despite being used incorrectly.

Percy shrugs as he continues to watch them. "Maybe I would've gotten along with the old Clarisse. You know, the Clarisse before she came to camp."

"Maybe," Annabeth says, "but that's probably why she changed everything about her life and got brought to camp."

Percy scoffs. "Please, there are only two types of people in the world - those who love me and those who deny it."

Annabeth glances at him and sees the confidence in his face through his sharp and jutted jaw. "You said that with an alarming amount of seriousness. Why don't you just forgive Clarisse? The war is over and you needed each other during the battle."

"I can get passed some stuff for Manhattan but I can't forgive her since she was never sorry. She just likes to pretend I'm bad so she won't feel guilty for things she does to me."

"All Ares kids are like that. They get it from their father. Look, this may be hard for you but don't do anything stupid for two minutes. I'm dropping off the owl in your car."

"That's a lot to ask for."

"Get some blue cotton candy lemonade."

"Sweet."

He kisses her cheek before they part ways.

Percy walks up to the booth selling the blue cotton candy lemonade but stops when he hears Clarisse scream again. He leans against the booth as he continues to watch. Like him and Annabeth, they had a pile of prizes as well and, based on what he sees, Clarisse was winning Chris everything she could. If Clarisse had the power, which she definitely does, she would win Chris that entire booth and bring it back to Camp. Everyone would play with it given that it survived a moment with the half-bloods. The Stoll brothers would break it instantly or rework it to mess with the other campers.

Still, aside from possibly being friendly with Clarisse (he thinks), it can't be a coincidence that he'd find her here out of anywhere in the world. And she just happened to be playing a water game. It's a sign from the gods to mess with her. But what could he do? The possibilities are endless and Annabeth isn't here to stop him. He perks up when he thinks of something and a burnt-out lightbulb along the canopy of the booth lights up. Percy looks at it and didn't think lightbulb moments happened but look at that. It really is a sign from the gods.

Percy eyes Clarisse's next shot with the water gun. With a wave of his hand, instead of hitting the target, the shot of water curved back right into Clarisse's face. She screams, stumbling back to wipe her eyes. Chris stands up, wondering what happened and the game attendant has left the booth and made a run for it. Percy watches Chris try to dry her face with the sleeve of his jacket and Clarisse tries to swat him away to dry herself off with her hands but doesn't make that big an effort to get rid of his advances.

See? Percy's doing her a favour.

And then she sees him, connects the dots, and frowns so hard she could explode.

"Jackson!" Clarisse screams.

Percy smiles lovingly. Hearing that was music to his ears.

He starts running when she begins chasing him. Percy narrowly dodges people, leaps over kids, dives over some booths. He weaves through lines and runs through funhouses. Percy stumbles upon his reflection, wondering if he was really that tall, or thin, or round. Either way, Clarisse looked angry in every reflection she appeared in and Percy continues running. Once he's back outside on the fairgrounds, he runs through more booths of carnival games.

Percy turns around to see how much distance he made since he lost her in the funhouse. Instead, he sees her with a baseball bat she snagged from a booth. Clarisse throws the ball high enough in the air for her to hit in his direction. Percy doesn't have time to duck before it whacks him straight in back of the head. He thinks he's having a concussion since he heard a bowling strike sound effect when his head hit the ground. Percy looks up and sees that the baseball bounced off his head, hit a target from the booth Clarisse stole it from, and a prize fell from the canopy into Chris's arms.

Surrounding people who watched were clapping and Clarisse balances her weight on the bat as she bows, throwing snarky glares and grins at Percy. At least, Percy thinks that's the face she's making. He's seeing a lot of them because his head is now spinning and making him see many Clarisses. Something he didn't plan on seeing nor did he ever want to. He smells funnel cake and wonders if they sell ambrosia.

The fact that nobody's helping him is telling, even if the mist is making the mortals see something different. Not even Annabeth, who followed the sounds of Clarisse's screams and Chris who ran after them after she came back from dropping off the owl, is clapping for Clarisse. When she makes eye contact with Percy, she shrugs mouthing, you deserved that. He knows he'll get a mouthful from her later that won't involve kissing.

Percy tries to get up but stumbles down because Clarisse knocked him out of the park. He watches as she stomps towards him, dragging the baseball bat behind her with one hand. She grabs his ankle with her other hand and starts dragging him. Percy looks upside down and sees Chris and Annabeth trailing them.

"I should've probably been helping you," Chris says to him.

"No, it was fine," Percy responds.

"Good, since it was just an offer." He looks at Annabeth. "You shouldn't have left him alone."

"My bad," Annabeth says sarcastically, "but we're four half-bloods in one place. We should probably leave."

Before Chris could respond, Clarisse stops in front of a test-your-strength game. Still holding the bat and Percy's ankle, Clarisse swings Percy over her head and slams him on the metal plate like the oversized hammer meant for the game. The column lit from the bottom up, knocking the bell right off the top. Clarisse drops Percy's ankle and backs away with the bat as the bell lands squarely on his head. Now Percy hears ringing which is either coming from his head or the bell, likely both.

"The monsters here probably ran away already," Chris responds to Annabeth as Percy groans on the ground and Clarisse bounces the top half of the bat in her palm, eyeing Percy. "Clarisse has a bat."

"And Percy's whimpering on the ground," Annabeth adds.

"We're fine."


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