Nightfall found Percy lying sprawled on his bed. His arms crossed over his face. The water in the lake outside his window lapped lazily against the pillars of the dock, painting the cabin in a wash of dappled moonlight. It had been hours since his fight with Annabeth, and he had barely moved, too bogged down in his thoughts and the events of the day. They would be fine, he knew, but he hated leaving tension between them. He sighed, emotionally exhausted. He just needed to figure out what was going on himself first.

"We need to talk."

"What the-" Percy bolted upright at the sudden voice, the front of his forehead slamming against the top of the bunk bed that held the second bed aloft. He let out a deep 'OW,' his right hand instinctively reaching for Riptide. His other hand touched his forehead, rubbing the pain away when he finally looked up to see who had come unannounced into his cabin. "Gods, Nico! Why?!" He groaned. "You scared me. You gotta knock next time," Percy grumbled, slumping back onto his bed.

"Sorry, it's just faster than walking," Nico shrugged.

Percy sighed, his eyes fixed on the ceiling and his forehead throbbing. "Actually, this can't happen again."

"Yeah, that's why I'm here." Nico crossed from the dark corner he had appeared in to sit in the chair facing Percy. "You're definitely being framed for the bathhouse exploding."

"No. Nico. I mean this," Percy sat up, "You coming into my cabin unannounced. It's not fair to Will."

"I can do what I want," Nico interjected. His eyebrows slightly lowered in annoyance.

Percy silently observed him for a few moments before releasing a dejected sigh. "Alright. Whatever you say, man." Percy was tired and overall exhausted from the recent events happening in his life. He didn't feel like adding an overbearing parental figure to Nico to that list, so he let this one slide. "Just make sure you put Will on a leash. I don't need him attacking me because of his insecurities," he muttered, a hint of bitterness in his voice. A throbbing pain came from the back of his head as he recalled the night of their fight, giving his entire head pain to deal with. He rubbed the back of his head as he stood up from the bed and walked over to his desk to turn on the lamp. The room was now somewhat illuminated, but at least he could see Nico's face.

"You're one to talk. That's coming from the guy whose relationship is hanging on a thread right now," Nico said nonchalantly as he fiddled with a pen that he took from Percy's desk, clicking it repeatedly just enough to annoy Percy.

"What are you talking about? My relationship is fine."

"Hm? Oh, nothing," Nico shrugged.

"Right?" Percy asked, hoping to get some form of reassurance from Nico. Nico didn't say anything but walked across the room to lean on a pillar, all the while clicking the pen rapidly. Percy turned to face Nico. "Right, Nico?" Percy asked again, more hesitantly. Again Nico said nothing, clicking the pen absentmindedly.

Percy marched over to Nico and snatched the pen away. "What's wrong with my relationship, Nico?" he demanded, a new fear suddenly rising inside of him.

Nico met his eyes with a dark stare, "You tell me." He brushed past Percy, leaving him in shocked silence, and made himself comfortable on the bed. "Anyway, back to real-world problems, I think Theseus is behind this."

"Nico, do you know something I don't?" Percy asked frantically, following Nico to his bed.

"I hope not. It's pretty obvious that he's trying to frame you."

"Not that! I mean about my relationship with Annabeth!"

Nico sighed and waved his hand dismissively, "Can we stay focused here? How are we going to expose Theseus for going after you? So far, only you and I can see behind his lies, and if we're going to stop him, we're going to need more people on our side."

"Man, I've had a long day today. I just want to get some sleep. I already have a lot on my plate as it is." Percy threw himself onto his bed beside Nico.

Nico quickly stood up from the bed, annoyed at the way Percy was treating the situation, "Are you not going to do anything about it? Are you seriously going to let him get away with this?"

"Fine, fine," Percy sighed. "I'll think of something. Just let me go to sleep," he groaned into his pillow.

"You better figure this out before it gets worse. Otherwise, I'm not going to be there to help you."

"What's that supposed to mea-" Percy pulled himself up from his bed to find that Nico had already left. He shook his head, expecting this outcome from Nico.

Percy found Annabeth in the dining pavilion the next morning, collecting the dirty dishes from breakfast. He had not slept well the night before; his conversation with Nico had only worsened the stress he was having about his relationship with Annabeth, and he had tossed and turned in bed trying to think of a way to fix the problem.

"Is now really the best time to talk about this?" Annabeth asked in annoyance, not even pausing her chores to look at Percy when he approached her.

Percy frowned. "Well, I didn't like how we left things yesterday. I wanted to address it as soon as possible."

"Percy, I'm busy right now. We can do this later." She reached around him to add a clean plate to the pile she was making on the counter. "Don't you have your own chores?"

"I'll do them later," he shrugged. "You're more important. I wanted to talk to you."

Annabeth slammed the plate she was holding down into the sink and turned abruptly to face Percy. "I don't have anything to say to you right now, Percy. Go away."

"You don't have to say anything. Just hear me out." He held her hands. "I'm sorry for how I acted last night. I was stressed out and angry, and I didn't know how to handle it. And I'm sorry I took that out on you. I know you were just trying to help me."

"Yeah, I was trying to help. I just wish you would trust me enough to tell me what's going on in your head."

"I do trust you, and I appreciate you trying to help. Just know that I'm handling it, and it's not going to be a problem anymore. I would never let anything come between us."

"Thank you for being honest and apologizing," she responded genuinely, "Now finish cleaning the dirty dishes while I go take a well-deserved break."

"I can't believe you just did that," he chuckled, shaking his head.

"You're the boyfriend. That's what you get for acting stupid." She took off the apron she was wearing and placed it over Percy's head, "There. Now you're ready to wash some dishes."

"Anything for you, Wise Girl," he smirked, wrapping the apron around his waist and tying it in the back. He managed to give her a quick kiss on the lips before she left.

Several hours later, Percy finally got to take off his apron. He was exiting the dining pavilion when a pair of hands got a hold of him, forcefully pulling him off to the side and around the building. "Who the-"

"Have you figured out a plan yet?" A familiar voice asked.

"Nico, come on!" Percy gasped, letting himself calm down once he figured out what had happened. He placed his hand over his beating heart, the adrenaline slowly leaving his body. He couldn't take the surprise jumps from Nico anymore. He fears that one more scare and his heart will give out.

"I didn't want to talk out in the open," Nico said dismissively. "Now, have you thought of what you're going to do about Theseus?"

"No, that hasn't crossed my mind. I had more important things to deal with this morning."

"Percy, this is important. Do you not care that this random-ass kid is coming after your life? Do you not care that he is trying to get the camp against you?"

"I do, but not enough to do something at the moment. There's nothing I can do right now." Percy turned to leave, but Nico grabbed his arm and held him back. "Dude."

"What if he does something else and blames you for it?"

"Then let him try."

There was a knock on the door of Percy's cabin, but before he could answer it, Jason strode in, bearing information.

"Dude, really?" Percy laughed.

"What? I knocked." Jason shrugged, a laugh escaping his lips. "Chiron's looking for you."

"Did he say what for?"

"No, he just said it was urgent."

Percy shrugged and decided to leave the cleaning of his cabin until after the meeting. He thanked Jason for tell him the message and made his way to the Big House.

Seated around the table were Chiron and Annabeth, awaiting his arrival. Percy entered the room. The air was tense, and the looks on their faces worried him.

"Percy," Chiron started, "Have a seat. There are some things we must discuss."

"Sure..." Percy answered hesitantly but sat down anyway. "What's this all about?" He looked at Annabeth, who couldn't meet his eyes. "Annabeth?"

Chiron shuffled in his seat, "We finished investigating the destruction of the bathhouse-"

"What does that have to do with me?" Percy interjected, a slight annoyance in his voice.

"Percy, let him finish," Annabeth said.

Chiron cleared his throat, "As I was saying, we managed to figure out the cause of the explosion, but what we can't seem to make sense of is how it occurred." He paused.

"And?" Percy asked anxiously.

"Well," Chiron began, "This is a little hard to put into words. We noticed that there was brute force involved-"

"What does that mean? Why are you all acting so weird?" Percy nearly shouted, balling his fists on the table.

"Percy," Annabeth said his name, her voice wavering and her eyes pleading.

"Wait-" Percy finally made the connection, "You don't think- I would never- You can't actually believe I was the one who did this," his voice thin with disbelief.

"Now hold on, we never said you did this. We just want to know how something like this could happen." Chiron waved his hands in defense. He didn't want Percy to feel like they were attacking him.

"How would I know?" Percy asked weakly. "I don't know what you want me to say here."

"Percy, you have to understand the situation from our perspective," Chiron said, gentle but stern, not wanting Percy to cause a scene. "You are the only son of Poseidon at Camp right now. You alone have the ability to manipulate water like this. What other conclusion would you have us make? Only an explosion from within the pipes could have caused the damage we found to the bathhouse."

"You seriously don't think I did this!" Percy raised his voice.

"Percy, the evidence is right there. What else can we think of, but you?" Annabeth spoke.

"Look at who you're talking to! I would never do something like this. This camp is my second home. I wouldn't endanger other campers like that!"

"We know that. That's why we wanted to talk to you. We aren't saying you did it, but things aren't adding up. This is all the information we have. We just wanted to hear it from you."

"Okay, well, I didn't do it, Annabeth. I don't know how many times I have to tell you."

"Yes, and we know that now. I'm sorry it seemed like we accused you. We will let you know if we find anything else."

"Alright," Percy stood up from his seat, "I'll see you later?"

"Yeah," she said, giving him a soft smile to make him feel better. Once Percy left, Annabeth and Chiron exchanged worried looks.