"So... we kissed underwater."

"Yeah, the whole camp saw and then threw you in the lake, remember? We were all there."

"Okay, well, I've been cherishing the more private moments pre-lake so I forgot we had an audience. Ugh, Chiron probably saw it too," I groaned, leaning against the wall of the deserted training arena to let the reality that my trainer and stand-in father figure had watched me messily kiss with Jackson. Even though Chiron was immortal and had seen heroes do a lot more ridiculous things for love than a peck on the lips in public, I still wanted to evaporate on the spot whenever I remembered the camp's bit of voyeurism from the night before.

"Was it wet?" asked Thalia, who, though she was forever hovering just before her sixteenth birthday, looked about a million years old as she asked me about my developing love life.

"The kiss? I mean not like gross or anything, but wouldn't a totally dry kiss be worse?" I was suddenly doubting everything I had assumed about kissing. These weren't things that you could really glean from books, the true Athenian way of learning.

"Seriously, ew, Annabeth. I'm an eternal maiden, why would I even ask about that. I meant the underwater part."

"Oh. Well, you know how it is with children of the Big Three, he made a nice underwater bubble for us—"

"A love bubble-?"

"Oh for Gods sake," I whispered angrily, nearly in tears. "Shut up, please," I implored her, looking around anxiously. I much preferred thinking of myself as Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, warrior and demigoddess, architect and fearless leader, instead of Annabeth: camp Casanova, underwater mistress. I did not particularly like the idea that another camper would overhear the phrase "love bubble" in close conjunction to myself, despite being the inhabitant of said bubble.

Thalia was giggling hysterically, her laughter echoing in the empty training arena where we had met clandestinely to debrief everything from the battle to the party to the kiss. Although we were focusing a lot more on the kiss. The whole camp was still either sleeping, partying, or a mixture of both, and it was after a night of my own fitful sleep that I had woken up and realized that in the post Olympus-saving euphoria I kissed Percy Jackson. Percy Jackson kissed me! I made him a cake! Everyone saw! Love bubble! This was enough to catapult me out of the Athena cabin at 7:12 in the morning, past the Vegas-style breakfast buffet that was happening in the pavilion while Grover inexplicably sang ABBA karaoke to a crowd of campers either on their way to bed or just waking up. I had ducked into Artemis' normally vacant cabin, tiptoed around the silver-pajamaed huntresses, and helped Thalia hop out of the cabin on her broken leg and dragged her to the only empty place in the camp, all before the last verse of Waterloo.

Not that Thalia seemed to mind. Clearly entertained by this latest development but remaining somewhat contained by the pain of her injuries, Thalia winced as she repositioned her recently casted leg. "Alright, I won't say anything..." she said, holding her hands up in mock surrender. "Although as Artemis' lieutenant, I must advise against any further contact with men. But I know that's not possible for you and Waterworks."

"Not possible? I mean, we had one kiss. Well two, above and below the water."

"And the one in the labyrinth last year."

"Damn, I told you about that?" I muttered irritably. I had really been hoping to keep that one out of the count.

"Yeah, dummy," said Thalia, a turn of phrase not often suffered by a child of Athena. "But it's hardly a matter of how many times you've locked lips or whatever, it's that you guys are just so clearly..." she trailed off, and then shrugged as if she hadn't just been postulating on my new love life.

"We're so... what?" I hissed. I was seriously starting to dislike everyone knowing what happened last night.

"I don't know how to say it! So..." Thalia laced her hands together and held them up for me to see.

"We're so... hand hold-y?" Surely no one had seen us hold hands yet!

"No, just... connected. Together. Clearly the fates have wound your guys' strings together. Anyone can see it," she said, shrugging again. The shrug!

"Oh, anyone can see it," I said, huffily. "Right."

"Annabeth, I've been off with the Hunters and even I knew you and Jackson had it bad for each other for years. I woke up out of a coma where I was a pine tree, and right away was like okay, those two are..." she laced her fingers together again.

"Stop doing that!" I said irritably, but I couldn't help but smile. I was irritated that years spent secretly pining for each other was apparently wasted, but I was mostly just happy that it seemed like my best friend in the whole world had also developed similar feelings for me. Is this the kind of mush the Aphrodite cabin was always on about? Because I was starting to feel that love rated right up there with architecture and old scrolls and new pencils and...

I needed to get a grip. I had it bad.

"So are you guys like... dating now?" Thalia asked.

"Uh... I don't know. We didn't talk about it."

"Well, you'll always be my little sister, even though you're going to keep outgrowing me... but if you have to be with a guy, Jackson is... he's good," she said resolutely, as if Percy hadn't just saved the world in the last 48 hours in a series of selfless acts of heroism. Seriously, what exactly was she holding out for.

"I take it that's as close to a blessing I'm going to get from you," I said, poking her in the arm playfully. She grunted, but I knew she liked Percy. Clearly, she was fine with it, since she apparently had known we were meant to be just moments post-comatose. And even if she hadn't been fine with it, bigger things than Thalia Grace had tried to keep Percy and I apart, but it still helped to have your friend's seal of approval.

In the silence between the two of us I couldn't help but feel the gaping hole left by Luke's death. It barely seemed right to be here giggling with Thalia without him.

Thalia seemed to read my mind. "The real Luke has been death for a long time, Annabeth, since he gave himself to Kronos. We've been mourning him for a while."

"I know," I said. I was surprised how dry my eyes were. My heart had let go of him a long time ago, without me even knowing.

"I think the old Luke would have liked Percy," said Thalia quietly. This time I shrugged.

"Maybe. Or maybe he wouldn't like sharing me with anyone. But one thing I do know is that Percy would never do what Luke did, he would never betray this place. Or these people."

"Never," agreed Thalia. "And I don't think he'd ever betray you either," she added quietly. "Percy told me he'd swam in the River Styx."

"Yeah," I said, with a little shiver.

"He told me that you saved him from the river."

"Oh... well not me literally."

"Okay, the mere thought of you saved him from the River Styx," said Thalia with a smile, teasing me, but at the same time filled with seriousness.

"And this just happened to come up?" I asked her, suspecting that Thalia had engaged in some light interrogation and vague threats last night after Percy had walked me to the Athena cabin. Her guilty look gave her away.

"Well... I was just asking to make sure his intentions with you were—"

"His intentions with me, I'm sorry, did we just fall into a Jane Austen novel?! Are you marrying me off?! Do I need to go fetch my trousseau; do you have my dowry ready?!" I asked, collapsing into laughter as Thalia giggled next to me, trying to regain her composure for what was sure to be a big sister speech of the if-he-ever-hurts-you variety.

"No Elizabeth Bennet, we aren't in an Austen novel," Thalia said grinning. "But then again, Elizabeth Bennet didn't have anyone making love bubbles for her—"

"I told you, stop saying love bubble—!" We collapsed on the floor, laughing. It felt wonderful, amazing to laugh with such abandon.

We were still on our backs laughing when Percy came in.

"What's this about a love bubble I hear?" he asked lightly, smiling wickedly. "Annabeth, I didn't think you would be one to kiss and tell." I was more embarrassed that Thalia was witness to this bit of flirting than the fact that Percy had actually overheard us; for some reason I didn't feel self-conscious around him. Which was more than most people could say around their significant others, and I thought that Thalia might be right about our strings of fate.

Thalia hauled herself up onto her bandaged leg with Percy's help and took up her crutches. "I'll make myself scarce, if you guys want to kiss above water this time," she said, laughing as I scowled at her and as Percy very seriously thanked her. I punched him in the calf, the only part of him I could reach in my inclined position, as Thalia hobbled off, no doubt to go gossip with Grover about everything she'd learned from me.

"For an eternal maiden, she has a lot of input," I said, shaking my head. I looked up at Percy and saw his eyes blazing at me a bit. Oh shit, were we about to kiss above water? I was suddenly very aware that I was laying on my back. "Uh, Jackson?"

Percy snapped out of it. "Yes, she does," he muttered, sitting down next to me as I propped myself up on my elbows. "She made her input abundantly clear to me last night after you and I said good night."

"I heard about that," I said apologetically. "I'm sorry."

"You'll make it up to me?" he asked, his face immediately brightening.

"Sounds like Thalia should be the one to make it up to you," I said, before I realized what he was getting at. I hoped it was the lack of sleep making me slow, because if it was the being in love thing, I was going to be a very dumb child of Athena after all, and I didn't think that would fly.

"I really don't want Thalia to make it up to me," he said, brushing a curl out of my face. He had barely touched my lips with his before immediately pulling back. He frowned. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Huh? Nothing!" I said unconvincingly.

"I know you better than that Annabeth. What's going on?"

"I—well—" Thalia's question, so are you guys dating now? echoed in my brain, which had been completely wiped clean the moment Percy had started to lean in to kiss me. Except for this one little thought. I continued to stammer as Percy raised an eyebrow.

"Look, we just almost died like a million times, I feel like you can just tell me what's up," he said, in a moment of great reason and logic for his seaweed brain.

"I... okay this is dumb, I know it's dumb—"

"You're many things Annabeth, but dumb is not one of them—"

"Are we like, dating now?" Oh, my Gods, I wanted to hurl myself off of Olympus. That is not how I planned on bridging this topic. Percy looked amused.

"I don't know, we haven't talked about it yet," he said, eyebrows still raised. "Do you... want to date?"

"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?"

"All I asked is if you wanted to date," he said firmly.

"I don't know what I want!" I said, every bit as spastic as before. "So... don't ask me, because I'm still trying to figure it out! And—"

"Well, that's bull shit," said Percy plainly. "You always know what you want." He was incredibly calm during this conversation, how was he managing this level of emotional composure?

"I... I'm just used to being alone. On my own," I said smally. Pushing down years of abandonment issues and run-away kid trauma, I continued. "That solitary life is just kind of all I know."

Percy grinned. "Well, lone wolf, I hate to burst your bubble. But you haven't been alone for a long time. Yes, I know," he said, holding up a hand as I opened my mouth to protest. "You've been through the wringer, between your dad and Luke," he said, looking apologetic as he brought them up. "But you've had me for the last five years, boyfriend or no. And you'll still have me, no matter if we date or if we don't. But," Percy said, and I could suddenly see how nervous he really was. He hesitated. "If... if you regret last night, or if that was just an emotional reaction or something..." he trailed off, smiling weakly. "I mean, you know where I stand, Wise Girl. I meant it," he said, placing his hand on his back, his Achilles' spot. "You anchor me. And if you'll have me... I'm yours. I think I've always been yours."

He looked at me with ocean eyes, and for a fleeting moment I saw the scared, scrawny, eleven-year-old camper who I nursed back to health, who was a whole head shorter than me, trying to find a place in this world. But I blinked, and there was the same boy all grown up, muscled and scarred from a war that we were both too young to have fought. A grey streak ran through his raven black hair that matched the one running through my blonde. His mouth was anxiously quirking at the corner, knowing me and my answer already, but still nervous all the same. I couldn't help but melt a bit.

"So..." he asked, grinning as he saw me smiling at him. "Are we, like, dating now?" I punched him again.

"Not if you're going to make fun of me!" I said, grinning back. "Ask me for real!"

"Okay! For real, for real," Percy Jackson leapt to his feet and pulled me up, holding both of my hands in his. This is so stupid, I thought to myself gleefully. I felt that after all we had been through, we probably deserved it though.

"Will you, Annabeth Chase, be my girlfriend, for real?" Percy squeezed both of my hands, looking down at me with a smile so big that it was probably equal to mine.

"Yes, absolutely I—," but I didn't get to finish. Clarisse La Rue busted through the door with such force, that for a brief moment I thought we were under attack again.

"Aw man, are you guys just standing here, holding hands and looking into each other's eyes?" she asked, clearly annoyed. "Look, we were all rooting for you two, but we don't need the constant kiss cam moments now that you're dating or whatever." I couldn't even be mad that this moment too was ruined by campers, this is what we got for having all of our romantic moments in public camp places. I laughed into Percy's chest as he wrapped his arms around me, and, grinning at Clarisse, told her exactly how much he appreciated her barging in on our serious conversation. She ignored Percy's protests entirely as she unlocked the armory.

"Gods, what a mess in here," she said gruffly. "When you guys are done staring into each other's faces, will you come help me do inventory?"

"Just tell the Hephaestus Cabin to make new everything!" called Percy, already dragging me out of the arena and out of the way of possible work. "And don't come looking for us!"

"Wouldn't dream of it," Clarise muttered darkly, not even bothering to look at us as we left.

As Percy placed a kiss on top of my head as we walked toward the beach, I grabbed his hand and laced our fingers together, like Thalia had with her own hands earlier. I decided I liked it.

We'd both found a place in this world; next to each other.