It was getting dark by the time they reached Percy's block. They were twenty feet away from his building when a man stepped out of the shadows. He looked at Percy, who brought his hand into his pocket to grab his pen. Then the man looked at Annabeth and a lewd smile spread over his face.

Annabeth was used to this type of creep and mentally prepared herself for the sexist, degrading comment that was sure to follow.

When it came, she didn't pause to think. She surged forward, reaching for the knife stuck in her belt loop, intent on making it stick somewhere.

She never reached him. An arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back with enough force to lift her off her feet. She struggled for all it was worth, but Percy was still able to press her back into his chest.

Who did he think he was? She was the one who had been insulted. This was HER fight, not his. But the harder she struggled, the tighter his arm got.

"Stop fighting me!"

"Let go Percy!"

"Now you did it," he muttered. The man in front of them seemed to be growing taller. Scratch that. He was getting taller. He was standing at ten feet and still lengthening from the torso. Annabeth stopped fighting and stared in horror at whatever the man had become. She couldn't move.

"Perseus Jackson," the thing growled.

Percy let go of her and shoved her roughly behind him. She heard a shink. The thing charged at Percy and Annabeth squeezed her eyes shut for the second time that day, not wanting to see him get hurt.

"Ugh." Percy grabbed her hand. "Hey, It's fine."

Percy was covered in some sort of dust and his shirt looked like it had claw marks in it. And he was holding his pen the same way that he had taught her to hold the sword. He gave her hand a gentle tug toward the door.

"What was that?"

"You could see it?" Percy gave her a sidelong glance.

"What kind of question is that?"

"I don't know," he said, still eyeing her up as if for the first time.

Percy opened the door and started towards the staircase.

"Hold up."

Percy stopped walking. "Yes?"

"Can I see your pen?"

"No."

Annabeth had a hunch and her hunches were usually right. How his sword had disappeared earlier. Why he always reached for the pen. What had he said that night? The Pen is mightier than the Sword. She had assumed it was supposed to be an offhand remark, but what if he was making a joke?

"Fine." She caught up, waited one, two, three steps, before sticking her hand into his pocket.

"Annabeth!" he sounded scandalized.

She pulled out the pen and before he could try to grab it from her hand, she flicked the cap off. She watched in disbelief as the pen lengthened into the sword that Percy had used that afternoon. Honestly, Annabeth couldn't believe that she had been right. She WAS usually right, but a pen that could turn into a sword made her head ache.

"What the hell? Explain. Now!" She aimed the tip of the sword at his chest for good measure.

"Can we not do this in the hallway?"

"No! What are you?"

Percy winced like she wounded him, and she immediately felt bad.

"Half-human." He sounded defeated. He pulled his sword out of her grasp, pulled the cap that Annabeth had just tossed onto the floor out of his pocket, and returned the pen to its home in his jacket pocket.

"And half what?"

He walked up the steps.

"Why are you being so difficult?" She followed him. She was frustrated and confused and she needed answers.

Percy unlocked the door and stepped into his living room.

"You'd better tell me everything, right now!"

Over the past few weeks, Annabeth had come to realize that Percy's natural facial expression was extremely brooding. Something that was not at all appropriate for when someone was yelling at him.

"Percy, I swear if you don't start talking right now…" Annabeth had no idea how to finish her threat. Usually death threats were the route she'd take, but she had no idea how to kill him.

He took a deep breath. Thank God, he was finally going to say something.

"Hey Mom."

Annabeth spun around.

"This is the architect genius I told you about."

A woman was leaning against the doorway into the kitchen. A little girl, about five years old was peeking around her legs.

The girl was the first to speak. "Percy, you're dirty."

"Yeah, I am." He took a step forward. "Annabeth, Sally, Sally, Annabeth, now as Estelle so thoughtfully put it, I'm dirty. If you'll excuse me."

"Percy Jackson, don't you dare take another step."

He took one more step before turning to look at Annabeth. "Yes?"

"Half what?"

"C'mon, Wise Girl, you're telling me you haven't already figured it out?"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him, and Percy practically ran out of the room.

Sally smiled at her. "Lovely to meet you Annabeth."

"Likewise." She glared at the doorway Percy had just disappeared through. "Percy said you wanted help with your book?" She was here for a reason after all.

"Yeah, if you could, I just have a few questions. I looked up some information online but wanted to doublecheck with someone who knew what they were talking about."

"Course."

Sally led the way to a desk and pulled out a notepad. She eyed the knife in Annabeth's belt. "How do you know Percy?"

"Oh, I punched him in the face at a bar." Annabeth leaned against the desk.

"Why do you have that knife then?" Sally frowned.

"He gave it to me. Where'd he get that sword?"

"You'd have to ask him."

"I've been trying!"

"Don't worry about it. He'll tell you soon."

Annabeth made a face and muttered, "Soon isn't good enough."

"He's just afraid of how you'll react."

"Believe me, I'd have no trouble believing that he's Jesus at this point."

Sally laughed.

"He's not Jesus, is he?"

"Oh, no, he's never been crucified."

Annabeth frowned. That was exactly how Percy went about avoiding answering questions. An implied answer that didn't really answer the question. The longer she talked to Sally, the more of her she could see in Percy. The vocal patterns and facial expressions and sense of humor were the same. She even twirled her pen the same way he did.

Partway through helping Sally, Percy walked past, pulling another orange t-shirt over his torso. He shook his head spraying water droplets around the room. He nervously smiled at Annabeth. Estelle stood up from where she had been playing on the floor and followed him into the kitchen.

"That's it. Thank you so much for your help."

"Oh, no problem." Annabeth followed Sally into the kitchen.

"I told you to stop doing that!" Sally didn't sound the least bit exasperated. And Annabeth had a feeling she was talking about where Percy was sitting rather than what he was doing.

Annabeth's mouth dropped to the floor. Percy and sitting next to Estelle on the counter and he was juggling balls of water for her entertainment.

"Right." He pointed at a glass on the table and the water balls drifted into it. Percy hopped off the counter, picked it up, and took a drink.

"Can you walk on water too?" Annabeth asked weakly.

"Hmm. I've never tried."

Percy carried his glass of water into the living room and sat down heavily with a crash and a sigh. The water would have fallen out if he hadn't stopped it with his hand.

Annabeth followed him. He didn't say anything at first, just twirled the pen in his fingers.

"So…" Annabeth sat down on the other side of the couch. "Water."

"Water," Percy confirmed.

"And you're not Jesus?"

"I can't turn water into wine. Although, I do know someone who can…"

"That's still not an actual answer."

"The two of us have a few things in common."

"What? Have you died too?"

Percy smiled. "No. I have been to the underworld before though. My dad is a god."

"Hmm. Which one?"

"You don't believe me," he said, misreading her flat tone.

"No, I'm just not really surprised."

Percy dropped his pen onto the table. "Not the direction I was expecting this to take, but you are mortal, right? I know you can see through the mist but that's a rare ability. It's just as likely that you're a demigod."

"The mist?"

"It's magic. Keeps mortals from seeing the monsters. Causes innocent demigods to be blamed for everything. Anyway, can I try to cut your hand with my sword?"

"What? No!"

"Why don't you try to do it yourself?"

"Percy Jackson, I am not stabbing myself!"

"I'm not asking you to stab yourself. Just a nick would do." He held his fingers up, so close together that they were nearly touching.

"Fine. Anyway, question time. You never told me who your dad is."

"Poseidon."

"Like the statue at Virginia Beach?"

"Hey, hey, hey, let's not do that." Estelle had appeared while he was distracted and was trying to pull the cap off the pen. He grabbed her and sat her on his knee, gently prying the pen from her grasp. He stashed the pen in his pocket. Estelle pouted.

"You can't lift it, remember?" he asked.

"You're worried about her being able to lift it, not that she might stab herself," Annabeth clarified.

"I'm worried that she'll try to eat the cap."

"But not that she'll stab herself."

"She can't."

"Like I couldn't cut your head off?"

"You tried to cut his head off?" Sally had walked into the room. She didn't sound accusatory, more amused.

"He asked me to."

"I asked you to cut off my arm!"

"Whatever."

"There's a difference! You can't just hit me anywhere and expect me to be fine."

"Maybe," Annabeth said, "you should try explaining everything."

"Before you start, Annabeth, what do you want for dinner?" Sally asked.

"Oh, I'm not picky."

Percy spread his arms. "The story starts when I was twelve and I cut my math teacher in half."

"Oh, well," Annabeth frowned. "What? Was Algebra not your thing."

"She tried to kill me."

"As you do."

Estelle leaned over and tried to grab the knife out of Annabeth's belt. Annabeth automatically slapped her hand away, causing her to start crying. Percy, with impressive speed, stole the knife and gave it to Estelle, who immediately stopped crying.

"Seriously?" Annabeth asked.

"I want to stay the favorite."

"You're ridiculous. What can you do other than juggle water?" Annabeth asked, keeping an eye on Estelle who was playing with the knife. Percy didn't seem the least bit concerned.

"I only get wet if I want to, but you already knew that."

He looked miffed at Annabeth's laughter. "What?"

Annabeth shook her head.

"I can breathe underwater, control liquids, talk to fish and horses. Make hurricanes. And," he added in a small voice, "I caused the Mount St. Helen's eruption eight years ago. By accident of course."

"Which one?"

"The smaller one, although the second one was also technically my fault."

"Two, wait, three more questions. The Gateway Arch?"

"Chimera tried to kill me, so I jumped out of the hole that it created."

That wasn't a very satisfactory explanation, but Annabeth pushed forward. "Iron skin?"

"Jumped into the Styx. It's the Curse of Achilles."

"So, I can't stab you in the ankle?"

"Oh, no, you can. My Achilles heel has nothing to do with my heel."

"Third question. Why do you hate that knife?" Annabeth gestured towards Estelle.

"It killed one of my friends."

"What?"

"Yeah," he grimaced. "It's not a good story."

Estelle continued to play with the knife, happily oblivious to its history. Annabeth noticed that she wasn't getting cut. Unlike Percy, for who weapons would bounce of his skin, the knife seemed to be going right through her skin.

"How is she not getting hurt?"

"She's mortal. Celestial bronze can't kill mortals. Only monsters, demigods, etcetera."

"That's why you wanted to try to slice and dice me."

"That is not what I said!"

Annabeth held out her hand. "Do your worst."

Percy looked at her hesitantly, before reaching into Estelle's thrashing hands and pulling the knife out. He reached one hand around Estelle to pull one of Annabeth's fingers closer to him. He poised the knife over, exhaled, and…

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Percy flinched enough to completely miss her hand. He dropped the knife, cursed, and covered Estelle's ears as an afterthought.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The door was vibrating on its hinges. "What is that?" Annabeth asked.

"Blackjack."

"What?"

Percy stood up, swung Estelle up onto his shoulders, and walked over to the door.

Annabeth did a doubletake. There was a black Pegasus in the hallway.

Estelle squealed happily and leaned over to pet its nose.

"How," Annabeth swallowed and started again. "How did he get into the hallway?"

"I'd like to know that myself." He paused and scrunched his nose. "That's Annabeth. Why are you here?"

Blackjack whinnied, tossed his head, and stamped one of his hooves.

"Right, right. Estelle, do you want to grab a donut?"

He put her down and a minute later, she came back with a donut with blue frosting which she fed to Blackjack.

"You need to go on a diet," Percy told him.

Blackjack huffed indignantly.

"Yeah, yeah." He looked over at Annabeth. "I'll be back in twenty."

He pulled the door closed behind him, leaving Annabeth to gape at a wooden board. She hadn't considered how it would look when Percy talked to horses, but that wasn't what she had been expecting. She had seen him talk to the carriage horses in Central Park before, but they conversation then was much more ordinary, just a "hey" and a "how you doing?"

Estelle walked up to Annabeth. "I like Blackjack. Percy said when I turn eight I can ride him!"

"That's exciting."

Sally poked her head out of the kitchen. "Did he say what it was?"

"No."

"Hmm. Probably just a dolphin. When it's interesting he usually says something." At Annabeth's blank expression, she continued. "Sea creatures get stuck in old fishing nets or need some type of help, so a hippocampus gets Blackjack, who gets Percy. You'll still stay for dinner, right?"

"Umm…" Usually Annabeth would feel very weird being alone with the parents of someone that she barely knew, but Annabeth couldn't help but to like Sally. And she really wanted to know more about Percy.

"He'll be back soon. I can help fill you in on most things if you have any questions."

That sealed the deal for Annabeth. "Yeah, sure, that'd be nice."

"Here!" Estelle held up the knife that Percy had dropped.

"Oh, thanks," Annabeth took it reluctantly. This knife had killed someone, which she hated, and the thought of it made her insides squirm.

Annabeth helped Sally mix up some pancake batter, watching with something between horror and awe when she dumped an entire bottle of blue food coloring into the mixture.

"Why?" Annabeth asked.

"Why not?"

Deciding that was a good enough answer, Annabeth continued mixing.

She wasn't really sure when she became aware of his presence, but an itchy feeling started to crawl up the back of her neck. She turned around to see Percy leaning on the counter with a blue smoothie.

"Hey," he said nonchalantly.

"How'd you get there? That door never opened!" Annabeth jerked her finger over her shoulder to where she could see the entryway through the doorway into the living room.

"Fire escape," he replied as if that was as mundane as turning on the lights when you entered a room.

"Fire escape," she mouthed incredulously. "Right." She turned back around, trying to lay her finger on why she had felt him in the room. She pursed her lips. "You smell."

"I get that a lot. Buttery bread, right?"

"No, I was going to go with salt."

"Well thank the gods for that."

"What did Blackjack want, honey?" Sally asked.

"Just a dolphin in a net. They're always easy."

"So, is that what you do all day?" Annabeth asked.

"Seeing as I've declared myself retired, yes."

"Retired? You're only 22!"

"Well, I've already outlived all expectations, so yes."

"I kind of figured you'd live a long time with that immortal blood."

Percy smile ruefully. "I get attacked on a daily basis. Sometimes I think that I should've taken the chance to become a god when it was offered."

"You were offered to become immortal and turned it down?"

"Yeah, I had friends. And," he added in a stage whisper, "the gods are crazy." He returned to his normal tone, with an undertone of extreme resent that Annabeth would not have expected from him. "But, well, now all my friends are dead. What's to live for?"

The bitterness in his voice surprised her. As did the guilty look he shot towards his mom. Sally pursed her lips and flipped the pancakes. She didn't say anything, and Annabeth got the hint. This wasn't a new conversation and it was Annabeth's turn to talk him out of the dark place.

"Hey." She slapped his chest gently. "That's rude."

"What?" he furrowed his brow at her. The spiral of thoughts she could see behind his eyes had slowed.

"I'm your friend."

Percy didn't smile, but his scowl lessened. "Yeah, alright."

Annabeth pulled his hand with the smoothie over towards her and took a sip. "I have a question?"

"Hmm?"

"If you've got that Achilles skin thing that makes you invulnerable, how come I could break your nose?"

"I…" Percy frowned. "I don't know." His brow creased in concentration. "It shouldn't have."

Annabeth silently congratulated herself. She had completely gotten him off the topic of death and immortality.

"I can punch you again, if it'll help." She suggested, layering the sweetness on her words until it tasted like honey in her mouth.

He pretended to consider it. "Maybe as a plan, like, J."

After eating, they retired to the living room where Percy put in Friends reruns in the background.

"So, how does the talking to horse's thing work? Like is it reading body language?"

"No, it's telepathic, so when Blackjack pounded on the door, someone in my head screamed 'Boss!'"

"He calls you Boss?"

Percy rolled his eyes, though Annabeth wasn't sure if it was at her or at Blackjack.

"Sorry, what's his voice like?"

Percy considered the question. "He has a surprisingly robust vocabulary. But I don't really know. His voice does remind me of someone though."

"Okay, and does he have a stable somewhere?"

"Oh, he has a stable, but he knows how to open it, so he just wanders around."

"Okay, and can he read your mind."

"I don't think so…" he trailed off and his eyes focused on the wall over Annabeth's head. "But he does seem to know way too much about my life, so he's either a spy or he can read my mind. I never really thought about that before…." He shot Annabeth a sarcastic "thanks" look.

"One last question."

Percy nodded.

"What happens if you fly a Pegasus into restricted airspace?"

"I'd love to find out."

"Oh, no. Forget I mentioned it."

Percy slithered down onto the floor to sit next to Estelle. She had gotten out a puzzle and was going to town on the 50 pieces. Percy would hand her the pieces out of her reach when she pointed to them.

Someone like him, stereotypically would be horrible with kids and generally an asshole. But Percy was the opposite. He was genuinely, probably, the nicest guy she had ever met. And he was great with Estelle, which made him that much more attractive. Annabeth tried hard not to stare at him, focusing instead on the TV which proved difficult despite it being one of her favorite episodes.

It didn't take long for Percy and Estelle to finish the puzzle and when Percy looked up at Annabeth, she realized that she had been staring at the side of his face for the past who-knows-how-long. He arched his eyebrows at her but didn't say anything. Regardless, Annabeth could feel the blood rushing to her face. She knew that looking away would make her look guilty, but she couldn't control the reflex. She looked back quickly, as if that could make up for the elusive look away and obvious staring. This time Percy was the one that was staring. He remained unbashful and met Annabeth's eyes. If he was trying not to be coy, Annabeth could certainly play the game.

"See something you like, Seaweed Brain?"

In the half light and glow from the TV she couldn't tell if he blushed or not, but he did look away, and focus a little too hard on the program. He managed not to move for about five minutes until Estelle walked over to him and put her hand on his knee. He bent over and put his ear near her mouth. They had a brief conversation, none of which Annabeth could hear. Percy stood up and stretched, his back arching and cracking all the way up. He grimaced before walking to the kitchen, Annabeth felt her eyes follow him, against her will. Estelle pulled out a seat cushion and sat at the coffee table, looking very excited. Percy came back within two minutes with two large mugs and one baby one. He placed them all on the table before sitting with his legs stretched out, leaning against the wall. He pushed the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows and clinked mugs with Estelle before taking a deep sip.

Annabeth picked up the second mug and took a drink. How had he managed to prepare tea that fast? It would take Annabeth those two minutes only to choose the flavor and find a cup. The tea was actually really good. In high school, she used to drink some almost every morning during her first period, but after going away to college, the habit had effectively died out. After drinking this she considered starting the habit up again. The tea really was that good.

"What did you put in this?"

"It's not good?" he asked, baby seal eyes widening.

"No, it's very good."

"Oh, well I definitely did not pour whiskey into yours."

"Whiskey. Really."

He shrugged. "It was on the counter. My mom always used to mix it with her tea. I thought it was disgusting."

"So naturally you had to feed it to me?" Annabeth asked.

Percy chose not to answer, instead running a finger around the lip of the cup. He glanced up at her quickly, as if doing it fast enough would keep her from noticing. Annabeth could tell he was struggling between apologizing and cracking some sort of joke. His face flickered through dozens of minute facial expressions before he managed to reestablish his poker face. They hadn't known each other for very long, and they certainly hadn't spent a lot of time together, but even so, Annabeth felt she could understand his expressions, body language, and thought process, even better than her own.

"Stop being mean to me," was the response that he settled on.

"I'm not being mean."

"Your face is doing the thing. You're thinking about the best way to make fun of me."

Actually, Annabeth was thinking about how incredibly attractive he looked at that moment, but she decided not to mention that.

"You're still doing it!" he protested. "I could literally choke you right now without breaking a sweat and you're laughing at me."

Annabeth laughed. She realized that he was threatening her - or trying to as a joke. And while he looked intimidating, the better she got to know him, the less she could take him seriously. "How would you go about choking me?" she asked before she could stop her mouth. She prayed that Percy wouldn't pick up on the obvious innuendo.

He paused for a second before responding. Annabeth silently cursed herself. "I can control a lot of bodily functions. Like for example…" he looked up at her and raised his hand, palm up before pulling it back towards himself. Annabeth felt her cheeks grow hot.

He lowered his hand and the heat lessened significantly. "See, I just made you blush. I could also make you throw up. Or choke you. Or make you explode. But I'm going to try to avoid that."

Annabeth wasn't sure if he had made her blush or not. If he had, it had been increased in effectiveness by the intensity of the gaze as he had studied her, sensing rather than seeing how her body was put together.

"That's not water," Annabeth said, somewhat dumbfounded.

"You're just a big pile of gunk floating in liquid."

"I do not like that comparison."

"Neither do I, but it's the truth in a brutally honest way."

Percy finished his tea and took the mugs back into the kitchen. When he came back, he jumped onto the couch causing Annabeth to let out a shriek. She really hadn't expected to be flattened by half a boy. He smiled, trying to look sweet and innocent, which was not something he could really pull off. He stretched out, pushing Annabeth almost off the sofa. She braced herself against the arm of the sofa, pushing back.

"Would you stop?" she pleaded, but her laughter defeated the bluntness of her statement.

Percy gave her a shit eating grin, that was very reminiscent of some of the older pictures she had seen online when she and Piper had first tried to research him. Like the video of him wiping out on his skateboard for example. He gave another push with his foot. It wasn't hard, but it was enough for Annabeth to fall off the sofa and land ungracefully on the floor.

"Oh, that's it." Annabeth took a running leap onto the couch and tried to shove him off, but he wouldn't move. In trying to squeeze herself between him and the sofa's back in order to gain leverage, Annabeth planted her knee into his chest. Percy grunted and his breath hitched.

"That, Wise Girl," he let out a long shuddering breath, "was my solar plexus."

"I don't think it was. It should be lower, like here." She gave the general area a jab with her free thumb.

"Ouch?" his voice was impossibly soft.

Annabeth gave him another good shove and he rolled off the sofa onto the floor. Annabeth almost felt guilty, but not for long since he grabbed her arm and pulled her over the edge with him. She landed flush on top of him.

"That's not fair," Annabeth protested.

"You're the one who started playing dirty," Percy reminded her.

Annabeth tried to stand up, but Percy wrapped his arm around her waist, preventing her from moving off of him. "You are not winning that easily."

He rolled them over so he was easily able to pin her arms at her sides. Annabeth felt her eyes widen as she stared up at him. He flicked his head to get his hair out of his eyes. Annabeth's heart rate sped up and she tried and failed to steady her breathing.

His gaze flickered from her eyes to her lips and he started to lean down. Annabeth froze, staring up at him. Every molecule in her body was screaming for the two of them to make contact. Something deep in her gut flipped in a final type of way.

A door slammed and Percy shot to his feet, faster than Annabeth would have thought possible. "Hey, Paul."

Annabeth turned her head to look around the couch. Starting at the shoes, Annabeth worked her way up to his face. He looked tired but also amused, as though he knew exactly what he had just walked in on.

"Perce, Annabeth I presume."

"Yeah, that would be me."

"Percy's told me a lot about you."

Annabeth looked over at Percy who seemed to be purposefully avoiding eye contact. "Really?" she asked.

Percy cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I'll just leave you two to…" he waved one of his hands and walked out of the room.

"Percy, you're not 15," Annabeth said, very amused.

"No, but it's still his house." He lifted one of his shoulders in a halfhearted shrug.

Annabeth resisted pointing out the technicality that they were not in a house, but rather an apartment. "Come back over here, Seaweed Brain."

Percy moved closer, the soles of his black Converse barely reaching above the fibers of the carpet. He sat down by her head, legs stretched out and at her encouragement laid down so that their heads were side by side, bodies stretched out in opposing directions. She tilted her head to look at him. His fingers were tapping out some sort of rhythm by his side. And he kept fidgeting, especially when he realized Annabeth was studying him.

Percy turned his head towards her, their foreheads less than an inch apart. Annabeth realized that he had a scattering of light freckles across his nose. She noticed that her hand had started to move on its own accord, she stopped it, hovering just over his skin. Percy's hand stopped beating its mantra.

To Annabeth, they seemed frozen in time. She was unsure if she should touch him, despite how much she wanted to. Gods, she wanted to. Eventually, Percy shifted to the side to lean on his elbow.

"Whatcha doin, Wise Girl?"

"Nothing?"

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious. Just do it."

"What?"

"It's fine. We can just do it."

"What!" Annabeth really didn't appreciate that her brain immediately jumped to the dirtiest meaning of those words. He probably – definitely, had not meant it in that sense. Although, in her defense he really could have phrased that in so many better ways.

"Ah, Wise Girl." He grabbed her wrist and brought her fingers into contact with his skin.

"Right." What on earth had she been planning on doing? She couldn't remember, but she was pretty sure that there hadn't been a plan, which was unusual for her. She always had a plan. Always, always. But right then, in that moment? She had no clue what to do.

She decided that making things up as she went along, as much as she hated it, was the way to go. She smoothed her thumb under his eye, across his cheekbone. She pushed the hair off his forehead, running her fingers through the shorter hair on the side of his head. When she reached his ear, she rolled the earlobe between her fingers, before settling to play with the beads on his necklace. She twirled it around like she did with her own when she was nervous.

She hooked her thumb under his jaw, debating whether or not she should pull him in to her. He tucked a curl behind her ear and made the decision for her, leaning down to capture her lips with his.

Annabeth felt like her brain short-circuited. Looking back, she didn't remember the kiss itself, only the feeling that accompanied it. It just felt right - there was no other way to describe it.

Percy pulled away, sitting up to lean against the coffee table. Annabeth sat up too, in a trance-like state. She spun around to face him. She pursed her lips.

"What?" he asked. He looked incredibly nervous, like he was about to make a speech in front of large crowd.

"Do… do you sweat salt water or something?"

"What?" he furrowed his brow, causing a crease to appear, which Annabeth desperately wanted to smooth out. He was too young to have so many stress lines.

"The only thing I can taste is salt."

"Oh." He held out his arm. "Lick me and find out I guess."

"I'm not licking your hand."

"Lick me wherever you want." He spread his arms.

"Percy, I am not licking you."

"Hey, you asked the question."

"And you made it weird."

He stuck out his tongue playfully.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Percy asked, "Do you want me to walk you home?"

Annabeth didn't particularly want to go home but walking home with Percy was the preferable way to do it. "Yeah, that'd be great."

He stood up and stretched, back arching, toes tipping, shirt lifting to reveal his midriff. Annabeth realized she was staring at the skin and quickly looked up to see the twitching of the corner of his mouth. Oh, that little shit, he was doing that on purpose.

"You're a little shit." Annabeth decided that making her feelings known was a wise course of action.

"I'm offended. I'm not a little shit, I'm a huge shit." He walked over to the door and held it open for her. When Annabeth didn't move, he tilted his head to the side, giving her a once over.

Unable to decide on a good rebuttal, Annabeth opted to flip him off when she walked by him. She may have been smart, but comebacks did not come as easily to her as most other areas of expertise.

Percy reacted immediately, reaching out to loop his middle finger around hers, like a pinky promise.

"What the hell?" His method and technique were too smooth and polished for it to be just off hand. He had definitely done that dozens of times in the past. Did he really get flipped off that much that he had an automatic response for it? She supposed it was possible. Ripping past pedestrians on a skateboard tended to make people mad. And she HAD flipped off multiple reckless riders in her years in the city. But it was one thing to grab her hand and a completely different thing to wrap your finger around a stranger's.

Percy grinned and pulled her through the door, giving her a spin, her hair flowing around her like that of a ballroom dancer.

If you have seen the punk!Percy art by Viria, that's basically how I'm picturing Percy for this story if you were wondering.

As always, thanks so much for reading.