The walk back was uneventful, which with Percy made it eventful. It was the first time that they had spent together that something weird hadn't happened. Nothing happened that is, until they got back to Annabeth's dorm room. Percy came up with her since they were still talking, and it was far too cold to hang around outside on one of the brick walls they had frequented earlier in the year.

Annabeth unlocked the door and walked in backwards only to run into Piper who was standing at her closet staring at a pair of pants in disgust.

"Hi, Percy," she said as she glanced up. "I'll be gone in like two minutes guys."

"Okay, umm, no, wait." The two girls had a silent argument, which neither of them won.

Percy raised his hand hesitantly. "How do you know who I am?"

"You blew up my school bus," Piper answered shortly, giving him a once over before continuing her argument with Annabeth.

"Oh, for god's sake, Piper." Annabeth threw her hands up in the air. This had to be the stupidest argument the two of them had ever had. Whether or not Annabeth wanted Piper to leave. Piper seemed to be under the impression that she had brought Percy to their room for a purely sexual reason, and Annabeth couldn't tell whether or not she was serious or only trying to annoy her.

Percy was slouching in the doorway, trying to remain inconspicuous. His eyes were darting around the room, taking in the mess on Annabeth's desk and the band posters and artwork hanging on the wall. Piper glanced over at him too, and together the girls lunged for the piece of notebook paper taped to the wall between the desks. Piper got there first, ripped it down and shoved it into her pocket, before leaving the room at a run.

"Can I ask what that was about?" Percy looked amused.

Annabeth hesitated. She could tell him that it was their research on him. And he probably suspected that the argument and the paper were about him. Or she could lie. And lying seemed like a good option. She opened her mouth, but Percy cut her off before she could start.

"Save it. I know you're not going to tell me."

"What?" Annabeth was dumbfounded.

"Your thinking face is pretty obvious." Percy scrunched up his face and pursed his lips. "Like this."

"I do NOT look like that," Annabeth protested as she turned to look at the mirror. Percy had captured the essence of the expression, Annabeth decided as she studied the two of them in the mirror. But he had over exaggerated the features by a mile.

"I would recommend in the future that if you don't want someone reading your things you don't write in sharpie and hang them on the wall at eye level. And if you don't want to draw attention to it, don't make a running leap to take it down."

Annabeth forced her face into a neutral expression, which was very difficult considering the screaming in her brain.

"You read it?"

"Just the title. Although I do have a question."

Annabeth didn't respond.

"The drawing?"

Annabeth cursed. "That was Piper. I would not draw a dick on a paper like that."

"Mm-hm."

Annabeth decided a full explanation of the paper would be the best method to approach the increasing awkwardness of the situation. "Piper wrote most of it. The first night when she recognized your name. I don't remember everything," which was a lie, "but the first point was 'blew up a school bus' and the second was something about the Gateway Arch."

"So, it was a list of things I've been accused of blowing up?"

"Essentially, yes. It was a long list, and keeping track mentally was taxing for someone who had been drinking."

"And why was it so necessary for me to not see it?"

"Well if I walked into your bedroom and saw a list of illegal things that I've done on your wall, I would be a little weirded out. And also, I wrote some rather rude comments in the margins."

"Like what?"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. The bastard was enjoying this way too much. And she couldn't just not tell him since he would assume the worst. "I may have commented on you being and I quote 'a fucking dumbass.'"

"Oh, that's rich." Percy sat down on the desk chair backwards, leaning his forehead on the back, ribs heaving with laughter.

"Hey! I'd only known you for a couple hours at that point. And the entire time, your nose was bleeding."

Percy only laughed harder.

"You're impossible," Annabeth groaned, flopping down on her bed.

Percy lifted his head from where it was resting on his arms. His cheeks were red, and his eyes were liquid.

"It's not funny!" And even if it was it was not funny enough to cry over.

Percy rubbed his hands over his face. "It kind of is." He unplugged her laptop from the printer and brought it over. He balanced it on one hand while he typed something. He nudged Annabeth's knee that was hanging over the side of the bed. "Scooch."

He was already online by the time he settled next to her. On YouTube, he selected a vine compilation video and fast forwarded until he was satisfied. He propped the computer on their knees.

Annabeth tried to watch the video, something about walking into your girlfriend's place and seeing the list of all the illegal things you've done, rated, but she really couldn't pay attention. There was not enough room on a twin bed for two fully grown adults, hell, there wasn't enough room for two mildly large children. They were pressed together, shoulder to foot, which Percy was incessantly shaking, knocking against hers at a constant rhythm.

Percy let the rest of the video play, snaking his arm around her shoulders. He wasn't subtle, but the timing and precision was impeccable. The boy had moves – not that Annabeth would ever admit that to anyone.

"Percy?" Annabeth asked.

"Sorry." He started to remove his arm.

Annabeth grabbed his hand, not bringing the arm back around her, but not letting it get further away. She increased the strength of her grip. "How'd you know my password?"

"It was written on the sticky note above the desk? I just took a wild guess."

"That note was in code."

"Was it? Sorry, I'm dyslexic. I just read it." Percy was trying not to smile and failing miserably.

"That doesn't make any sense." The code – well technically cipher – wasn't written using letters from the English alphabet, nor the Greek alphabet, nor any alphabet at all. It was created by a ten-year-old Annabeth and twelve years later, she still used it, because she hadn't realized it was so easy to break. No one had ever been able to do it before, at least that she knew of. Piper had spent a full day trying before giving up when they first became roommates.

Annabeth silently fumed, she could admit that she had underestimated his intelligence and even with the complete invasion of privacy, but the nonchalant tone, the fact that he was acting like it wasn't a big deal, that drove her over the edge.

He closed the lid of the laptop and brought it up to hold it against his side as he started to sit up.

"Where are you going?"

"I was just going to go home…" he trailed off.

Annabeth pulled his arm back around her. "Do you want to try again?"

"Nowhere," he said, phrasing it as a question.

"I like that answer better."

Percy put the laptop on the window ledge by the bed. He didn't lie back down though. "Annabeth, I… Well, we…"

Annabeth sat up, sensing that what he was trying to say was important.

He cleared his throat again, cheeks bright red.

Annabeth squeezed his hand, running her thumb over the ridges of his knuckles. "Spit it out, Seaweed Brain."

"I don't… I think…"

"Percy, do you have to go home?"

"No."

"Okay, and you do realize that if you were here for a purely sexual purpose you would not still be wearing clothes." Annabeth could feel her cheeks start to heat up.

"I'd like to think that I'd have some say in that matter."

Annabeth reassured that she had pegged the issue correctly, reached up to pull the string she had attached to the light switch, plunging the room into the dull haze that counted for darkness in New York City.

"I'm tired Seaweed Brain and I'm going to bed. Feel free to stay or alternatively try not to trip over anything on your way out." Annabeth laid down; hand still loosely wrapped around Percy's. He didn't move for a long time. She could hear an ambulance speed by on a nearby road. She heard someone down the hall drop something heavy and yell something unintelligible, probably fuck. Percy shifted and squeezed her hand before lying back next to her. Two thunks sounded up from the floor – his shoes maybe? He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. He breathed in deeply, letting it out slowly allowing it to tickle the skin of her neck. Annabeth hummed, trying to press herself further into him. Personal space was not something she wanted at that moment.

She startled awake the next morning when a noise blared through the room. Annabeth quickly sat up and looked wildly around. Piper was lounging on her bed propped against the wall, scrolling through some social media app – probably TikTok based on the sound – she looked up and mouthed "sorry." Percy groaned and tried to roll over to get back to sleep.

Annabeth looked down at him, sprawled across the entire bed like a starfish. His shirt had ridden up his back, revealing taunt muscle. His face was buried deep within the pillow, so much that Annabeth was vaguely worried that he would suffocate himself.

Her stomach growled. Breakfast it seemed to say. Breakfast Annabeth's brain agreed.

She stood up and carefully stepped over Percy's torso. She jumped to the floor nimbly, like a cat. She pulled on shoes that didn't match – two different colors of Converse – and walked to the door, grabbing her key chain from the desk with a jerky arm motion.

"Hey, hey, hey. Where are you going?" Piper asked.

"Breakfast." Annabeth yawned through the word. "Do you want me to get you something?"

Piper nodded, "Sure."

Annabeth found that balancing three plates of pancakes and three glasses of orange juice was a challenge – even without going up the stairs. She had a couple danger moments since she could not see her footing and the glasses kept slipping on the plates, but in the end, she managed it. She gave her door a swift kick, hoping that Piper would find it in her heart to get out of bed and open the door for her.

It took a while, but Piper eventually came to open the door. She took one of the meals out of her hands which allowed Annabeth to place Percy's on the bedside table. She pulled her desk chair over to the window and propped her feet on the windowsill, staring down at the students walking to classes three stories below. Luckily, Annabeth didn't have any classes on Thursday. She had managed to schedule all of hers on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday pattern, so she had the other days off to catch up on work. She pitied the figures rushing around below. An 8:30 class in the frigid weather was not something she envied. Her feet were getting cold just from being near the window glass.

Piper tugged the door of the minifridge open, producing a bottle of maple syrup – the real Vermont Grade A kind - not the sugary mess they had in the dining hall. Piper cracked it open and passed it to Annabeth, taking a thoughtful sip of orange juice while she watched Annabeth pour the syrup over the pancakes.

Percy sat bolt upright in Annabeth's bed, causing Annabeth to jump and spill much more syrup than she had intended onto her pancakes.

"Maple syrup," he said, sounded wide awake.

"Yeah." Annabeth hurriedly passed the bottle over to Piper, grimacing at the ocean of syrup that her pancakes were swimming in.

He blinked a few times focusing hard on the bottle in Piper's hand. "That's the good kind!"

Piper snapped the cap closed and tossed it over to Percy, who caught it easily. He opened it up and appeared to be about to squeeze it into his mouth. Annabeth grabbed his knee to get his attention and pointed to the plate of pancakes. She had picked up the blueberry ones, on the assumption that blue by name would be bluer than just normal pancakes.

"Oh, my gods, Annabeth I love you!" He picked up the plate and drowned his pancakes in syrup – even more than Annabeth had put on her own. Annabeth opted to ignore the I love you comment in order to address the more pressing incident.

Annabeth tried to berate him about the amount of syrup he was using, but Percy wouldn't be deterred. "I can't drown, and neither can my pancakes," he said as he poured a thin stream of syrup into his juice.

"Great. Now we need more syrup." Annabeth had picked up the bottle when Percy was done, only to find it nearly empty.

Percy consumed his pancakes with frightening speed. He finished his stack and started on his maple infused juice before Annabeth had finished cutting hers. She preferred to cut her pancakes before putting on the syrup, since that would ensure a better overall surface coverage and evenness to the spread of syrup, but she had been distracted this morning. And it appeared to be a good thing that she had gotten hers early, since Percy had used it all. Annabeth needed syrup on her pancakes, but she needed the ratio to be perfect.

Percy nudged her elbow with his foot.

"What?"

"Nothing." He nudged her again. Annabeth missed her mouth when he hit her elbow, causing her to smear syrup all over her cheek. Annabeth dropped the fork and rounded on him.

"Are you trying to get me to kill you?"

"You can't kill me."

"I CAN poison you and I WILL poison you."

"Damn." He reached out and grabbed her chin, turning her head to the side. He trailed open mouthed kisses across her cheek. Annabeth could feel his tongue against her skin as he removed the syrup. Annabeth could see Piper laughing out of the corner of her eye, which made her mad.

When he pulled away, Annabeth brought up her syrupy plate and shoved it into his face. Piper and Percy snorted in unison. Percy ran a finger across his cheek and made an excessive show of licking it.

"Are you going to help him?" Piper asked her, still looking far too amused for her own good.

Percy gave Piper and approving glance. "Yeah," he turned back to Annabeth. "I cleaned up the mess that I made. You should clean up the mess that you made."

"You seem to be doing well enough on your own."

"I could really use the help." Baby seal eyes, commenced their work, slowly whittling away at Annabeth's resolve.

"I already told you that I'm not going to lick you!"

"That was yesterday. In my living room, with my mother and sister in the next room."

Piper took one look at her and could see that Annabeth's resolve was crumbling. "Annabeth, you need to lick the boy before I do. I'm leaving, before his eyes murder me."

She collected the empty plates and cups to take back downstairs. Over the past years as roommates they had developed a system for getting breakfast (and to a lesser extent other meals in their room). They did have to smuggle out the plates and then smuggle them back in later, since the dishware wasn't supposed to leave the dining halls. The two of them had perfected the system, though Annabeth was almost positive that the entire dining staff knew about it and were just turning a blind eye since they always brought the things back. And Piper wasn't the most subtle. She could talk herself out of almost every situation, but she tended to catch people's eyes when she walked past.

Annabeth clenched her jaw as the door closed behind her. Piper had been the only reason that she hadn't jumped Percy yet. She did have self-control, and she was determined to use it. She could resist him. She directed her eyes to the world map thumbtacked to the ceiling. She was still staring at the map, specifically at Greece, for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with Percy, when Piper returned.

She knocked and asked "are you decent" while she walked into the room with her hand over her face. It would have been a nice gesture if her hand had covered more than her nose and one eye.

"Yes, Piper. I'm fully clothed, Percy still looks like a swamp goblin."

Piper grabbed her backpack and shoved some books and her computer into it, seemingly at random. "I'll be at the library and then I have class. And I will not be coming back until the boy is gone."

"Hey!" Percy protested.

"You're still a fire risk." Piper said while giving Annabeth a look that said clear as day, I'm clearing out before the unresolved sexual tension becomes resolved.

Percy leaned back to lie down, but Annabeth lunged forward to pull him back up. He was not getting syrup on her pillows.

Piper said something as she left – probably a sarcastic comment about Annabeth's eagerness as she left - but Annabeth was occupied trying to counteract Percy's weight and gravity. The boy was very, very heavy.

"Sit UP!" She grunted.

"Yeah," he leaned his weight on his left arm behind him. "I got that."

Annabeth made the mistake of looking him in the eyes. The smart comment died on her lips. She grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss. The taste made her giddy. She pulled away and kissed next to his mouth. He did taste salty. The salt combined with the sugar reminded her of saltwater taffy from the beach. She could feel the beginning of stubble on his jaw. She kissed her way up his cheek to his temple. She looked at him. His entire face was still covered in the sticky syrup and it was starting to dry. She scratched at it with her fingernail.

"You are going to need a shower."

"You think so?"

"Yeah," Annabeth sat back on her heels at the edge of the bed.

"Well, maybe if someone had helped clean it up immediately after she smashed syrup all over my face, it wouldn't be a problem." He was right. She had been the one to escalate the action. And he had sort of apologized for getting syrup on her face, which was an accident. Annabeth had purposefully slammed his face into the plate.

"Hmm," Annabeth stood up and grabbed his hand. "We've got a private bathroom, so by all means. I would assume you'd prefer not to walk across town covered in syrup, even if it does taste good." She gave his hand a tug, the anchor at the end of the line resisted the movement for a minute before relenting and following.

Unsurprisingly, no one was in the bathroom they shared with the room next door. Both those girls had early classes and they tended to spend a lot of time at other dorms in the evening, so Annabeth saw them very rarely.

She passed Percy a spare towel from the clean towel pile and gave him a push towards the shower. She hopped up onto the counter to wait. Percy reappeared in a cloud of steam five minutes later. Towel and shirt slung over his arm. Annabeth didn't try to hide that she was checking him out. Abs? Check. Pecs? Check. Shoulders? Check. Surprisingly even tan? Check.

He held up the towel in question. Annabeth just pointed to the growing pile on the floor. "Laundry day is tomorrow."

He balled it up and tossed it onto the top of the pile, his form perfect for the basketball court. He grinned before walking back to the dorm. Annabeth took a moment to take a deep breath before hopping off the counter to follow his retreating back down the hallway. Annabeth did not fail to appreciate the way the curves of his back disappeared into the waistline of his jeans before he turned around to lean against the doorframe.

Annabeth reached into her pocket for the key as two girls who lived at the other end of the hall rounded the corner. Annabeth had never had a conversation with either of them, but as a rule agreed upon with Piper, the two of them hated these girls. They were the definition of spoiled brats and were the typical, petty, high school mean girls that you expected to leave behind at graduation but never managed to actually do.

They gave Percy a simultaneous once over. He glanced over at them, feeling their eyes. The two exchanged looks and immediately turned on the charm – flirtatious smiles so sickening sweet that it made Annabeth want to throw up.

Ignoring the simpering girls, effectively leaving Percy to fend for himself, she ducked under his arm and tried to unlock the door. The knob wouldn't turn. She cursed under her breath. Why was it that when you were in a hurry, everything went wrong? She heard giggles behind her, the roaring in her ears so loud that she couldn't hear what Percy had said. He nudged her foot with his, the message clear – get me out of here. Although, it could have also been an accident and Annabeth was reading too much into it. She jammed the key back into the door and pushed her shoulder into it without success. She gave the door a kick for good measure, something that only succeeded in making her foot hurt.

Percy looked down, smile amused, eyes screaming for help. "Need help, Wise Girl?" he asked.

"You fucking do it. It's your fault we're out here to begin with."

Percy pulled the key out of her hand and pushed her out of the way. Apparently harder than he had intended since she hit the wall on the other side of the door. He mouthed "Sorry," but Annabeth still aimed a kick at his shin. Not that it would cause any damage, but it helped Annabeth.

He inserted the key and turned the knob, the door pushing open easily. Annabeth really couldn't be mad at him for that, it was mostly sheer dumb luck that he managed to open the door that easily. Sometimes it was temperamental, other times it opened as easy as pie. She silently fumed anyway, already pissed about having to deal with these two girls this early in the morning.

Percy wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her inside behind him. Annabeth shot what she hoped was a sweet smile to the girls behind her, who returned it with half-hearted sneers.

Percy leaned down as he kicked the door closed. He had definitely just given the two of them the impression that they were about to kiss. And he had definitely done it on purpose. Annabeth couldn't be mad about that. She used him and his wolf-stare to avoid being catcalled on the street, he had every right to use her to get rid of girls that wouldn't take the hint any other way. And she also couldn't complain about the fact that he was pressed against her, still bare chested.

"Those two were acting like monsters," he muttered. "They were way too interested in me."

"They were flirting, Percy."

"What… Really?" He looked like he didn't believe it. "But they were acting like monsters."

"Trust me, they do that to any guy that's hot."

"Hot. You think I'm hot?"

"You certainly look nice."

"But you think I'm hot?" He was fixated on it now and Annabeth knew that he wasn't going to let it go until he got an actual answer. He wasn't asking in a cocky, boost-your-own-self-confidence way, but rather in a bewildered way.

"Yes. And so does pretty much everyone else. Do you not notice the people staring at you when we go out together?"

"Honestly, no. I've been uh…" He scratched the back of his neck. "I've been more focused on you." He continued on hurriedly, tripping over his words. "If I noticed I would assume it was monsters or minor gods or something."

Annabeth stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "I have homework that I need to do…" She wanted to ask him to stay, but what would he do for the next few hours while she did this ridiculously time-consuming assignment?

Percy made the decision for her. He took a running leap onto her bed. "We're watching a movie when you're done."

"What movie?"

Percy smiled at her, like he knew something important that she did not, rolled over onto his stomach, and was asleep within a minute. Annabeth shook her head. He had just woken up. She was very jealous; it took her an hour and a play-by-play narrative of her life in order to fall asleep.

She sat at her desk and pulled out her textbook, starting on the reading. It was slow going, only partly because of how dense the text was. It was mainly because she kept glancing over at Percy every 15 seconds and then losing her place.

She had gotten through ten pages and was about to start on the questions that accompanied the reading, when she saw a spider scuttling across the top of the bulletin board on her desk.

"Percy!" The scream came out like that of a strangled goat. She jumped backwards, far enough that she hit Piper's desk.

Percy was out of bed with his sword drawn in a second. "What?" He looked around with a crazed look in his eye.

"Sp-sp-sp-spider."

Percy sheathed his sword. He looked like he was trying not to laugh, which Annabeth did not appreciate. He walked over to the desk and scooped up the spider, watching as it crawled across his fingers and tried to escape on a thread. He caught it in his other hand.

"What are you doing? Kill it!"

Percy gave her a weird look and walked out the door, still juggling with the spider. He was gone for a couple minutes. He knocked on the door and Annabeth moved for the first time to open the door.

"You killed it right? If you didn't it's going to come back. What?" she asked accusatorily at his continued expression of amusment.

"Nothing, I guess. You're just really reminding me of some of my friends from camp. Why do you hate spiders?"

Annabeth shrugged.

"Well there's a reason. A traumatic experience?"

"Yes, but I hated spiders even before that. I just feel like they hate me, and the feeling is mutual."

Percy started to say something but stopped himself with a shake of his head.

"What?"

"Nothing. It'd be impossible." He cleared his throat, reversing course. "Are you finished?"

"I have ten questions left."

He sat on the bed, leaning over to watch her work. It was slow going, even worse than before. She could feel his eyes boring into her soul. And she couldn't look up at him, because she wouldn't be able to look away. Finally, finally, finally, she finished the last question. She looked up at him.

"Gimme."

She passed the laptop up to him. He propped it on a stack of books at the foot of the bed and hit play. He scooted back to lean on the wall.

Annabeth looked at the screen. "That's a dead body."

"It's funny, trust me."

"That's dead Harry Potter." Annabeth hopped onto the bed. She leaned against Percy's chest.

He wrapped his arms around her and placed his chin on her shoulder. "It's funny."

"What the hell are you making me watch?"

"Swiss Army Man."

"Hmm, I was expecting something more like Finding Nemo."

"Oh, I watched that yesterday."

"Okay, fish boy."

Annabeth as a rule did not believe in soul mates. The idea of someone being perfectly suited for someone else and being predestined to meet seemed so unrealistically. Sure, some people were well suited for each other and some people were not, but soul mates? The concept was always something that Annabeth looked down on. But now, she was starting to wonder. She felt a strange type of gravity when she hung out with Percy, like every atom in her body wanted to form a covalent bond with his. They got along so easily, even with Annabeth second guessing everything that happened. She couldn't help but feel like the two of them were supposed to meet.

Annabeth realized that she had been playing with the strings coming from the holes in the knee of his jeans while she was lost in thought. She shoved her finger down underneath the fabric to below his knee.

Percy laughed, the vibration echoing through his chest into Annabeth's back. Annabeth looked up. She hadn't even been paying attention to the movie. She supposed that the scene could have been funny if she had been paying attention. Percy was shaking with suppressed laughter. She looks behind her to see Percy crying, tears streaming down his face.

He shook his head and pointed at the screen. It occurred to Annabeth that he knew what was about to happen and was laughing about that, not what had just happened. She waited a few seconds.

Okay, that was funny, but not that funny. She tried to tell him as much, but her lips didn't stop quirking. Percy fell over, still laughing. He pulled her down too, his arms still wrapped around her.

They finished watching the movie and cuddled for a while before the alarm on Percy's phone went off.

"Shit, I gotta go." He reached behind him to open the window. A blast of freezing air came through, causing Annabeth to shiver. He gave her a tight squeeze before standing up. He leaned his upper body out the window, far enough that Annabeth was worried that he'd fall out. He did his best New York taxicab whistle, probably the loudest she had ever heard.

Some teenagers walking on the sidewalk below looked up in confusion. Percy gave them a friendly wave. He closed the window and gave her arms a quick rub – they had erupted into goose bumps. He pulled open her closet door.

"The hell are you doing?" Annabeth asked.

Percy didn't answer, instead pulling a sweatshirt from the top shelf. "It's cold. I'm taking this." He looked at Annabeth. "If, if that's okay."

"Sure, Seaweed Brain. Usually it's the boy that gives the girl the jacket."

He pulled it over his head. It was definitely a little small on him. He pulled the hood up and fiddled with the strings. "Come over tomorrow after you finish your classes and I'll give you something." He leaned in for a goodbye kiss but missed, getting her nose instead.

Annabeth watched him run down the hallway. She was about to close the door when the door down the hall opened. The timing was impeccable. Had they been actively watching out the peephole for him to leave? Annabeth sighed. She knew she would probably have to deal with this eventually.

"Where's he going?" the first when asked. Elizabeth? That might have been her name.

"I have no idea."

"Oh, honey," she said falsely sympathetic.

"I'm not that insecure about myself."

"Is he your boyfriend?" she asked, with a sneer that showed disbelief that Annabeth could end up with someone that good looking.

Was he her boyfriend? Annabeth wouldn't really characterize them as dating. They hadn't really been on a date strictly as not friends. But he had spent the night. And they'd done an awful lot of boyfriend/girlfriend stuff in the last 18 hours.

Annabeth forced a laugh. "I'd hope so. Based on what just happened…" she trailed off. They could assume what they wanted. And a little implication of something that hadn't happened never hurt anyone. "Have a good day!" She turned to head back into her room.

As soon as the door closed, she broke out into a real, unforced smile. The look on possibly-Elizabeth's face had been incredible.