Chapter Thirteen: Consequatur

Disclaimer: If I had written Annabeth Chase, I would've stopped all work forever because nothing can triumph that glorious achievement. Thank god I'm not Rick then.

Author's Note – Soooo people, I know I was going to go ahead with the plot, but I LITERALLY CAN'T STOP WRITING PERCABETH! So, for the sake of expediency, this chapter is also Percabeth and WHEN I START THE NEXT CHAPTER, ATLANTA HAS ALREADY HAPPENED. Sorry I'm not giving you too much of the action, but I promise this is the last chapter like this for a while.

Also, I'm reeeaaaalllyyyy sorry for taking my own sweet time with this chapter but I have been jogging and studying and all, so it's a little busy. Also, I'm reading fanfics by "herecomesthepun" and she's brilliant, so that keeps me busy too.

P.S – Take care and stay safe!

P.P.S – I wrote today's quote-not-quote, it's basically Percabeth – a summary up till this chapter.

P.P.P.S – Dunno why, I'm probably just trying to up my word count here.

"I don't know what is killing me more; talking to you because I can't bear to ignore you or staying away because I can't stand the hope in your eyes."

Percy's POV:

I had seen tomatoes, I had seen roses, and I had seen Apollo's special red cattle. Yet, it was as if Hazel's face blew all other reds out of the water. Her blush was in a class of its own. It was like Red, but on Ultra Instinct.

"Hey Hazel" I said, feigning nonchalance. In truth, I was just as nervous. What if Annabeth was too freaked out about yesterday and decided to never speak with me again? Speaking of her, apparently, she had heard me and Hazel talking and was beginning to wake up.

"Mhmmhmmm" she said.

I smiled, she looked adorable.

I was trying to extract my arm from under her head when she mumbled "Stop"

"Annabeth you need to wake up." I said softly.

"You're comfortable" she said, still sleeping.

Hazel cleared her throat, reminding me she was here and to quit staring at a sleeping Annabeth like a weirdo. Her face still hadn't recovered from blushing, but a tiny smile graced her lips as well.

I decided to wake Annabeth up fast before others saw us here.

"Wake up Wise Girl"

"No, let me sleep." She said

"Spiders. Big, hairy spiders."(Aaaaah, don't you people just love old lightning thief references?)

That got her attention. Her head snapped up immediately, hitting my nose in the process.

"Owww" we both said simultaneously.

She saw where we were, then she saw Hazel, and then she saw me. Her eyes widened, piecing together what had happened, well, nothing had actually happened per se, but it was still mortifying.

Hazel spoke up, "What were you guys doing? All of us were worried sick about you. We thought you were all kidnapped or something."

"Yeah Percy, what were we doing?" Annabeth asks, a glimmer of mischief in her voice, and I am so relieved that she doesn't hate my guts that for two minutes I basically do nothing except look at the two of them.

"Oh uhmm, nothing, we were just sleeping." I say finally.

"Let's go have breakfast." Hazel says, clearly not believing me.

After she goes away, I turn to Annabeth.

"So…..you aren't mad?" I ask sheepishly.

"Why would I be mad? It's not like you actually kidnapped me or anything. Besides, as you eloquently said, we were just sleeping." She says.

"Okay then…cool."

We head to breakfast and I can immediately tell everyone knows. Leo keeps pointing at me finger gun style and shooting tiny bursts of flame. Also, he's either winking at me or he's on a BAD sugar high. Frank's ears are red, and he keeps looking furtively at me and Annabeth. Jason looks absolutely shocked. Piper is trying to ask him if everything is all right.

He shoots her a discreet thumbs up and resumes eating. When they finish, Leo immediately comes towards him and Piper goes to Annabeth. He groans, mentally preparing himself for the round of 200 questions he'll be playing.

"So Percy, whaddup?" Leo asks.

"Nothing, why do you ask?" I reply.

He snorts, "Oh please, Hazel was practically fangirling about the two of you."

"Nothing dude, we just cleared the air, she apologized, I apologized and we're friends now." I said.

"Uhhhh you sure you're just friends?" he says while doing air quotes on the just friends part.

"Yeah, of course. Why?" I said, hoping he would leave me alone.

He did not leave me alone.

"Friends don't exactly fall asleep with and on each other." He remarked dryly.

"Yeah, well, we're not friends, we're best friends" I say defensively, knowing that had circumstances been different, I would've been saying girlfriend.

"Jeez dude, Piper's my girlfriend, you don't see us cuddling and sleeping together and whatever." He says.

"Well, first off, there's no and whatever and second, uhhhh, just auto-insert a really logical point here."

"So basically your only defense is that there was no and whatever." He says. "Way to go dude, I'm rooting for you."

I sigh, finally admitting defeat. "Thanks bro."

"Don't mention it" he says and walks off.

Annabeth's POV:

I may have joked around with Percy before, but the truth was I was freaking out internally. Percy wasn't helping things by acting like a scared gazelle, afraid that just any second I'd snap and push him away or something. It was that, more than anything that gave me the strength to joke around with him and Hazel. And then Percy had been impossibly cute, worrying about my reaction, asking if I needed space, he had been such a perfect gentleman that I had trouble keeping my breathing regular and my heartbeat rhythmic. Because inside, I felt breathless and my pulse was all over the place and all I wanted to do was kiss him which would've incredibly wrong of me.

The thing was, yesterday I had dreamed of our shared memories, or at least some of them. I was feeling them as if they were new and it was playing havoc with my head.

So, true to form, I compartmentalized my feelings because breakfast was over, and Piper was coming towards me with some sort predatory gaze in her eyes.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Nothing. We were talking, and then we fell asleep. Life of a demigod and all, you know?" I said.

She just gave me a look that said really girlfriend? Try again.

So, I told her everything. Everything everything. Me starting to regain my memories, wanting to kiss Percy, last night, all of it.

She was getting a little misty eyed and, in an attempt to lighten things up, I said "Whoa Pipes! Calm down, your Aphrodite is showing."

"Just don't hurt him Annabeth. And don't hurt yourself." She said.

Great, now I was the emotional one.

"Yeah…..yeah okay." I said.

She nodded once and left; her job done.

"I will fight
I will fight for you
I always do until my heart
Is black and blue"

Author's Note: Someone please come to my home and stab me or something coz I literally cannot deal with the feels from the fics I'm reading. In other news, sorry for the short chapter, I had a writer's block. I promise I'll build it better the second time round. That was a song reference. But also true. Again, sorry.