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

Chapter Fourteen

Let's Take A Look in Andee's Mind, Part 1

We watched the sun go down, as we were walking

I'd spend the rest of my life, just standing here talking

You'd explain the current as I just smile

…

I never would've believed you

If three years ago you told me

I'd be here, writing this song

But here I am

"Malibu" by Miley Cyrus

I was awake after having a bad dream, and instead of getting out of bed, I stayed beside Percy, where I felt completely safe. I started to play with his messy, raven hair, being gentle so I wouldn't wake him. He looked so peaceful and happy when he was sleeping, so I didn't want to disturb him.

I still couldn't wrap my head around the face that he was now my boyfriend. Mine. All mine. I could kiss him and hug him and hold his hands and wrap my arms around him and just be with him whenever I wanted.

He was so handsome with his perpetually messy hair and his amazing sea green eyes. He had the perfect tan – like he had fallen asleep in the sun for a few hours, and a smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks. He also had a really nice body – I feel like I have to mention it, because he doesn't seem to realize it. All those hours of training at Camp Half-Blood had done him well.

I wasn't just attracted to him for his looks, of course, but they were a definitely plus. He was incredibly smart, funny, adorable, loyal, determined, and stubborn. He made me feel safe and at ease. He also did this cute thing I loved where he'd ruffle his hair if he was nervous or embarrassed or unsure about something. Hell, I loved everything about him.

Love. A simple, four-letter word that has haunted me my entire life. I've never told anyone I loved them in a romantic way. I'd never been in love before – I've never wanted to be. But with Percy, it took one look at the boy to know that this incredible and horrible feeling I had was love. There wasn't a single doubt in my mind. Every time I saw him my heart stopped, my breath caught in my throat, I got butterflies in my stomach. I felt like I needed to touch him just to survive. A touch just as simple as holding his hand. A gesture to let him know that I really do love him.

Love was a dangerous thing for me, something to be afraid of, even more so than a hellhound. When I found out about my dad, I had the first Prophecy I can remember. And it was about me. It said:

A half-blood will enter the darkest depths of her mind,

To save her, and the strongest love they shall find.

A repeat of history but their story's a fatal twist,

For she will never stop loving him once she is kissed.

The gods themselves will try to keep them apart,

Because until death will her love break her heart.

So pretty much, I'll fall in love with someone, falling the pattern of a famous couple in history. But my story gets a fatal 'twist' because as soon as he kisses me, I'll never stop love him, even though he'll constantly break my heart. I knew that the Prophecy was about Percy for many reasons – some obvious, and some you'd only know if you were me.

I've been terrified of this my whole life. Maybe it was someone thing to do with my dad, because he'd gotten his heart broken so many times before, one of his latest heartbreaks being my mom.

I was safe from all of this in Vancouver. There were very few half-bloods there that I was aware of. Valkyrie never let me leave the country for that reason. I even dated once, and even though it hadn't ended on the best note, it was good. I liked him, but I had never loved him, so my heart never got broken.

Then my stupid school had to get invited to perform in New York. And I had to be the lead. I had been excited at first because I'd always wanted to go to New York – my mom and Val had been born there, and getting to perform there would be even better. Then that night, he was in my nightmare. He helped me. I was okay though, because even though we kissed in the nightmare, we hadn't kissed on this plane, the one that mattered. And then I saw him, and unfortunately, he saw me too. Even worse was that everything practically screamed that we were meant to be together.

I had to make him hate me. If he fell for me, I knew there would be no turning back. Unfortunately, it was too late for that, but I still tried. I was a real bitch, if I'm being honest, but it never seemed to faze him. I hated seeing the look in his face every time I rejected him or said something especially mean to him. He looked so…devastated. But then he was right back it, being the sweetest person ever and making me fall even harder for him.

You need to understand that by trying to make him hate me, I was trying to protect both of us. By trying to leave right away that day, it was to protect us. Protect him from having to be a part of this stupid Prophecy, and protect myself from that kind of hurt. I knew it was too late, but I had to try. I didn't want this Prophecy to come true, but unfortunately, the Fates had never been wrong. And now here we were, having had a night full of romantic lights and making out, and waking up in the same bed together.

Let's also make that clear – sleeping in the same bed together, not sleeping together. Hopefully I'd be able to hold that off for a while because I knew that once we got that far, I'd be really screwed. Like, about a thousand more times screwed than I was now.

Back in the moment, I had a dull throbbing at the back of my head. This had been happening a lot lately. It shouldn't have been, though, as you may have very well guessed. I can't get sick so I don't get migraines. Well, I didn't used to. They started around the same time I started to get the nightmares. Someone was trying to invade my mind, to take it over, and the result was the horrible nightmares where I had to literally try to fight the off and try to deal with the increasingly frequent migraines. I had been hoping to avoid getting one on this quest, because I could be put out of commission for a few days while I tried to recover, but apparently, the Fates weren't my biggest fans lately.

Before I realized what was happening, Percy's mouth covered mine possessively. His lips were so soft and I wanted to live in this feeling for the rest of my life, where I could forget the pain I was feeling, both in my heart and my head.

Let me repeat: I was so screwed.

He pulled back from the incredible 'good morning' kiss and smiled impishly at me, making me smile as well. "I had to make sure it wasn't a dream," Percy said, and I reached up and gave him a quick kiss. "How long have you been up?" He had a leg on either side of me and was hovering over top of me in just his boxer-briefs. The images this all brought to mind were a little…well, let's just say that they weren't exactly appropriate.

"Awhile," I said vaguely, extremely aware of how hot my cheeks were getting.

"And you didn't want to get up?" he asked.

"Most definitely not," I said, trying to subtly find a good position that would put some pressure on my head and ease the pain. "You look really cute when you sleep."

"You're gorgeous all the time," he said and smiled afterwards. "It feels so good to be able to say that without feeling like I'm being too forward and creepy."

"You're not creepy and nothing is ever going to be too forward for me," I told him. Honestly, I thought I was being a little too forward last night asking him to come to bed with me, and that I might've scared him off. Apparently we're on the same page, relationship-wise.

Well, for the most part.

"Well, if that's the case I am going to kiss you until I get struck by lightning." Percy gave me a cheeky smile before kissing me softly. For all he knew, my grandpa could very well send down a lightning bolt to strike him dead. He already didn't like him, and I could just imagine how he'd react when he found out that Percy and I were together…oh, he was not going to be okay with this.

Grandfather would have to suck it up.

Kissing Percy was amazing. It was like fireworks were going off in my head! I had never felt this before, and as cliché as it sounds, I couldn't have been happier. We hadn't been together for even a full day yet, but time had never really mattered to me. It was just a number. In the world we lived in, time seemed trivial because we never knew when we might die. Life tended to be short for demigods, and I believed in embracing every moment while we could.

An intense waves of pain hit me and I accidentally bit Percy's lip. And trust me, it wasn't a playful nip or anything, it was a full chomp-down, drawing blood and all. I gasped in pain, gritting my teeth together when Percy asked, "Are you okay?"

See what I mean about him being sweet? I just bit him, and he was more worried about me.

"No," I choked out, finding even the effort of talking painful. Shaking my head would have been much worse, though. "Migraine."

"I thought you couldn't get sick or things like that."

"I can't."

He was silent for a moment, realizing the underlying meaning of what I had said before saying, "What do you need me to do?"

"I need –" I took a deep breath to try and calm the pain, "– a heating pad and sunlight."

Percy immediately went over to the balcony doors and opened them, letting the sunlight stream in on me. That felt good. "Where can I get a heating pad?"

"Bag."

"Got it." He lightly kissed my forehead before getting my bag from the padded bench at the end of my bed and starting to look through it. I closed my eyes, as if it would help get rid of the pain, but it only continued to get worse.

Tears streamed down my face, and a few times I had to bite back a scream of pain it was getting so bad. This was by far the worst one I'd had to date, which meant that the person who wanted me was getting close to succeeding.

Percy came back to my side, plugged my heating pad into the wall and gently laying it under my head, somehow find the exact spot where the pain was the worst. He lay back down beside me and let his hand wander on my stomach, constantly kissing my forehead, neck and shoulders, whispering that I was going to be okay and that he was right there.

My phone started to ring on my bedside table, playing "Walking on Sunshine", which meant my dad was calling. Percy reached over and grabbed the phone, pressed the ignore button and then turning the phone off.

That wouldn't end well.

Percy stayed by my side all day, only leaving to go to the washroom and to occasionally bring up food, which he forced me to eat some of. By the time I started to feel better, night was already starting to creep in. All I could do at that point was take a shower (and make sure Percy took one too) and go back to sleep. So that's what I did.

I didn't have any dreams that night, thankfully. I don't think my body could have handled not getting any rest after the day I'd had. But I felt horrible that I had just wasted a day that we could've been searching for this 'key'. I woke up the next morning to see that Percy was already up and dressed, sitting at the seat at the end of the bed, looking at me with a worried expression.

"Good morning," I greeted him and he smiled.

"Good morning," he said in return. "Feeling better?"

"All thanks to you," I said, holding my hands out so he'd come closer. He came and sat next to me, and I immediately wrapped my arms around him and gave him a passionate kiss.

"Never going to get sick of that," Percy said softly against my lips. I kissed him again and he smiled. "You're amazing."

"Stop talking about yourself," I said and he laughed, hugging me tightly.

"We should go down for breakfast – everyone's been pretty worried about you."

"I'll get dressed then," I said, climbing out of bed, grabbing my bed and heading to the washroom. I quickly brushed my teeth and hair before pulling on a flowy, floral crop top and a pair of high-waisted white shorts. I also put on a pair of my gladiators and a few bracelets.

I saw Percy's shirt that I had been wearing on the floor and quickly picked it up, taking in his intoxicating smell. I couldn't even begin to describe it but it made me crazy, and if you were anywhere near him, you could smell it.

Well, I was definitely keeping this shirt.

I examined my reflection for a few moments and once I was satisfied, I walked back into my room where Percy was patiently waiting for me. He was looking all over the room, but once he saw me, he gave me that lazy half-smile that absolutely melted my heart.

"Hello," he waved slightly as he walked over to me. I knew he was tall, but I was just now realizing how much he towered over me.

"Hi," I tried to say calmly, but my heart was racing at the speed of light just from being in the same room as him.

"Hi," he whispered once he was right in front of me, his voice husky. He kissed me, his hand gently cupping my cheek. I wanted to just melt in his arms. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you," I said with a smile. "Shall we go?"

"Definitely," he answered, taking my hand and leading me down the stairs. The entire stairwell was lined with picture after picture of me, Val and my mom. School pictures, pictures from different performances and events, and there were a few of my mom and dad while my mom was pregnant with me. "There's a lot of pictures of you."

"They don't really get to see me as much as they used to," I told him, looking at some of the pictures where I was with Val or my grandparents.

"Why not?" he asked, looking at all the pictures.

"Once I turned ten and did the test, Val decided I had to learn how to fight so I didn't exhaust myself by using my powers," I said. "Between that, performing, and trying to live a semi-normal teenage life, the visits became a lot less frequent." He nodded, standing behind me with his arms around my waist.

"You were a really cute kid," he said, looking at the picture of me when I was around five and dressed up as a fairy princess for Halloween. "Almost cuter than you are now, but not quite. You're insanely adorable."

I laughed a little before we continued down the stairs, his hand encasing mine. Everyone was looking at us when we walked into the kitchen, including an extra person – my dad.