Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Eight

If Cupid Had a Heart

"Who's Eros?" I asked.

"He's the god of sexual desire and lust," Annabeth explained. "He's a minor god, but he's more commonly known by his Roman name – Cupid."

"So Andee is making out with Cupid? Now that's just plain weird," Grover mentioned. Annabeth gave Grover a dirty look before looking back at Andee frantically, trying to think of a way to break her out of Eros' control.

"ANDEE!" she finally shouted at the top of her lungs and Andee broke away to look at her best friend. Within that single second of eye contact with her best friend, Andee seemed to realize what was really happening.

"You sicko!" Andee yelled, pushing him away from her and storming away. She was obviously angry, but she was doing something I had never seen her do before. Her eyes were turning black and flames were appearing in them. That was something only a full god could do as far as I knew.

"Your eyes…" I said and she cursed, shielding them with her hand so that no one else could see them. She scrambled around in her bag before pulling out a pair of sunglasses to put over her eyes.

"That happens when I get upset," she mumbled as Eros casually strolled over.

"Let's take this outside, shall we?" Eros asked, a cocky grin on his face when he saw me reach for Riptide. Annabeth held onto Andee protectively as if she were her real sister as they made their way outside. That was the first time I truly realized how close they were with each other. I mean, sure, Annabeth had said Andee was like a sister to her and they were practically always together, but it hadn't really clicked in my mind until now.

Eros led the way and rounded the corner so we were in an abandoned alleyway, littered with beer bottles and other garbage.

"Are you happy now that you've made a complete fool out of me?" Andee growled at him.

"Just doing what my mother told me to do," he said. "She's been waiting for your life to get more…interesting. Some very intriguing things going on up there –" he pointed to his head "– that she's going to love to hear."

"Your stupid mother needs to stay out of my life! What I do and don't do is none of her business!" Andee yelled at him, Annabeth having to restrain her. Eros' eyes flared, much like Andee's had done before.

"I wouldn't take about her like that," Eros said threateningly. If Eros was Cupid, then who was his mother? The answer came to me almost as quickly as I had asked myself the question – Aphrodite.

"Tell her to leave Andee alone," Annabeth snapped at him. I think we all knew that it wasn't a good idea to piss off a god, no matter whether they were minor or major, but at that moment, I don't think any of us really cared.

"But you see, she can't do that. Not after the Prophecy –"

"SHUT UP!" Andee screamed before momentarily breaking free and lunging at him. Annabeth had probably been expecting this reaction because she was quick to grab Andee and restrain her again.

"For such a cute little thing, you've sure got a bad attitude," Eros commented, smirking at the reaction he got from Andee, which was a very inappropriate hand gesture.

I immediately uncapped Riptide and pointing it Eros' chest. I knew the gods were immortal, but they could still bleed and they could still feel pain. And quite frankly, most of the time they needed a reminder of that.

"You do not want to do that, Son if Poseidon," he warned.

"Trust me, I really do," I retorted. A sword appeared in Eros' hand out of nowhere and he quickly thrust it at me. I jumped back and narrowly avoided being hit. I knew by now that if you pissed off a god, they wouldn't hesitate to slice you into little pieces.

I continued fighting him, only concentrating on his sword. It felt weird to concentrate on just one thing, but I was getting more and more used to it with every battle, so that it was basically second nature by now. He had landed a few hits on me now, but I barely noticed – I was more focused on staying alive than on a few scrapes. And besides, I had gotten in way more blows than he had.

The fight ended abruptly when two arrows flew rapid-fire into Eros' chest and neck. I looked over at Andee who still had her bow up and another arrow drawn. Eros looked down, a mildly impressed look on his face.

"Apparently you're not the only one who can shoot an arrow," Annabeth remarked, a shadow of a smirk playing across her lips.

"Touché," he nodded wisely, a small smile on his face before he plucked the arrows out of his chest and neck and tossed them back to Andee, who snatched them out of the air and tucked them back safely into her quiver. "You don't have to wreck my shirt – this cost me a lot of money."

"Too bad. Do you have information for us or not?" Andee asked.

"Smart one, you are," he said and Andee reached back for another arrow. "If you want help, you're going to have to calm down." Andee put it back but crossed her arms over her chest. "There's a boat waiting at the dock near your hotel that will take you where you need to go. Of course, I can't tell you which boat and where you'll be going, but you've got about fifteen minutes before it leaves without you." He turned and looked at me. "And don't worry, Perseus, this isn't the last time you'll see me. And next time you won't have your little girlfriend there to protect you." He snapped his fingers and disappeared, leaving behind a puddle of Ichor that had been pooling at his feet.

We all stood in daze before quickly realizing that we had to go. The four of us began sprinting down the street. "You guys! Our bags!" Grover shouted, stopping in his tracks.

"Keep going, Andee's taken care of it!" Annabeth yelled back at Grover. We made it to the shore with about a minute to spare, but we still had to figure out what boat it was.

"You've got to be kidding me," Grover said and pointed at a smaller two-deck boat. It looked like it said TESQU RFO VOEL.

"Of course he'd name it that," Andee muttered darkly.

"What does it say?" Annabeth and I demanded simultaneously.

"QUEST FOR LOVE," Andee said, clearing unimpressed.

"Uh guys?" Grover asked nervously. I looked over and he was standing on the deck of the boat – which was slowly drifting away from the shore. Annabeth cursed in Ancient Greek before running and jumping onto the deck, landing crouched down.

"Go," I said to Andee and she turned to face me, her hands resting on her hips.

"It's fine, you go first," she said graciously.

"Andee, just go," I argued.

"I can go last – I'm fine with that. I can easily catch up," Andee retorted.

"YOU GUYS!" Annabeth and Grover shouted in unison, catching our attention. They were now too far out for either of us to attempt jumping.

"Looks like we're going for a swim," I said and Andee grimaced before pushing me into the water. It was really shallow water, so I sank to the ocean floor before pushing myself back up to the surface, perfectly dry.

"Cheater," she muttered angrily.

"Just get in here before the boat gets too far away," I said, lightly treading water.

"Fine," she said, plopping down on the cement as she took off her shoes.

"What are you doing now?" I asked.

"Saving my shoes," she said simply. She chucked them towards the boat and Annabeth caught them. She changed her little clutch back into her shoulder bag (so that was how she did it) before putting it on. When she looked down at the water, a look of apprehension crossed her face. "You know, maybe I should just wait here and you guys can tell me where you are or something. I'll catch up, I promise."

"Do you know how to swim?" I asked.

"Of course I know how to swim, don't be daft."

"Then are you afraid of the water?" I asked.

"No," she spat, rolling her eyes at me. Apparently that was an idiotic question. I had lots of those.

But then I figured it out.

"You're afraid of the dark," I said quietly.

"Well," she spluttered. "That's just ridiculous!" The way she said it made it perfectly clear that she was lying. Her fear made sense, though. She was the daughter of the god of the sun, so the dark would be something that could be quite frightening.

I raised my eyebrows at her. "Okay Percy, you got me. I'm kind of afraid of the dark, especially when there is a large body of water involved."

"It's okay – I'll protect you," I said.

"I don't need to be protected!" she snapped, reverting back to the same personality she had when I first met her. "I am perfectly capable of defending myself, thank you very much – I've been doing it for many years."

"But sometimes it's nice to know that there's someone who's got your back – someone you can trust."

She sighed, running a hand through her hair, loosening up some of the curls. "Just make sure I don't drown, Jackson. It's hard to heal when there's water in my lungs."

"Can do," I offered cheerfully as she jumped in, resurfacing a few moments later with her hair soaking wet and slicked back. Her sunglasses were still firmly covering her eyes.

"Better get going," she mumbled. "The boat's pretty far away now."

We swam in silence to the boat before climbing on bard. Annabeth and Grover were ready with towels for the both of us, but I didn't need one, of course. Andee was shivering like crazy by the time we got on the boat and her lips had turned blue. She assured us this was normal when she was in a cold environment for what her body deemed too long.

I volunteered to take the first watch and Andee said that she'd take the second one before the rest of them descended to the lower level of the boat, leaving me alone on the deck. I didn't mind, really. Being near the ocean helped me relax.

I didn't know what time it was, but it must have been far into the night now. Or maybe the morning the morning.

It was dark.

I heard footsteps behind me but didn't turn around.

"Hi," a quiet voice said.

"Hey," I replied, just as quietly.

"Look, Percy," Andee started. I could tell she was struggling to find the right words. "I'm not actually like that."

"Like what?" I asked as she came to sit down beside me under the helm of the old-fashioned boat. I looked over and she was now in the nightgown I had seen her wearing the first time I met her. Her hair was in a high ponytail and barely wet anymore, but her sunglasses were still over her eyes.

"Like – oh, I don't know how to describe it," she said frustratedly, holding her head in her hands and letting out a loud sigh before leaning back. "I just – I don't go around making out with random guys and I definitely don't dance like that."

"I know."

"How could you poss –"

"Have you ever been around Ares?"

"I don't choose to spend much time around him if I can help it," she answered cautiously.

"Me neither. But the times I've had the misfortune of running into him, I've become so angry that it didn't even seem like me. It wasn't how I really was – it was manipulated by his presence. So I get what was happening," I told her.

"It's just so frustrating to think that I can be taken advantage of so easily, even after all of my training," she growled.

"Is that why your eyes…?" I trailed off.

"Yes," she said shortly. I turned to her and took off her sunglasses for her to immediately shield her eyes. "I look like a freak, please give me my sunglasses back." I gently cupped her face in my hands and she kept her eyes closed.

"Open your eyes," I said softly and after a few moments she slowly did so. Her eyes were as black as night except for the flames that appeared in the center of them. That's usually what happened when a full god got angry. But it explained why she had been so snappy before – she was still angry about everything that had happened.

A few tears spilled from her eyes and I gently brushed them away. She looked absolutely devastated and ashamed of herself. "Why are you crying?"

"Because I wish I hadn't been given this stupid gene. I wish I was just a normal Muggle with no clue whatsoever as to how the world really worked," she explained, her eyes never fully meeting my own.

"Muggle?" I asked, smiling.

"I love the Harry Potter books," she chuckled a bit, her eyes starting to go back to normal.

"See? All back to normal," I told her after and she smiled, rubbing at her eyes a bit.

"Normal," she repeated, sighing as she leaned her head against my shoulder. "Do you ever wish this wasn't our lives? That we could just go to school, graduate, go to university, get a job and all that?"

"Sometimes," I said. "But then I always remember that the 'normal' life is extremely overrated."

She giggled a little. "I guess you're right," she stated before looking down at my chest. "Percy, you're bleeding."

"What?" I asked, looking down to see blood seeping through my shirt. Usually the salt water would've healed it, but maybe the water here was just a little too polluted. "I guess Eros actually got a few really good hits in after all." I took off my shirt to get a better look and saw that there were a few long gashes along my chest. "Didn't really notice."

"Don't worry, I'll heal it," Andee said and I did as I was told. She climbed on top of me so that she was straddling my lap and could look at my chest properly. "This might hurt a bit." Her hands hovered over the cuts as she started to sing a beautiful song in Ancient Greek, moving her hands in short, strange movements above. It felt like my body was on fire and just when I was going to tell her to stop, the pain ended. "All done."

She looked a lot more tired now, and lingered a bit longer on my lap, letting her hands trail down my bare chest.

"Mm…I'm so tired," she mumbled, kind of sliding off my lap and wrapping her arms around me. "I'm just gonna sleep here. Riiiiiiight here." She kind of slid off my lap in the opposite direction and wrapped her arms around me, falling asleep on my shoulder. I guess any time you use an ability like that instead of just fighting, it takes a lot out of you, no matter how strong you were. As I looked at Andee, I was glad I wasn't normal. I had too many amazing things happen to me that outweighed all the terrible. I wouldn't have the friends I did if not for being a demigod, so I was grateful.