A/N: Sorry for the long absence. This is the second to last chapter – right now, I am trying to improve the last chapter, since I'm not really satisfied with it yet.

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus are the property of Rick Riordan. I own nothing but the plot.

Wow. Just wow. I had to be really keen on prolonging the 'Luke Castellan's stupid decisions'-list, otherwise I wouldn't have run away when he mentioned that he was in love. Of course, that stung. I have to confess that I had plenty of ulterior motives when I asked Percy who it was who had caught his eye. I really wanted to find this person and beat the hell out of them. That had always been my approach: Violence. It was what made me the loser I was. It had made it easy for Kronos to set me against the gods. Vengeance was what had driven me back then; now it was jealousy. I didn't even waste one thought to the fact that I might hurt Percy if I'd hurt whoever-he-was-in-love-with. When he hadn't told me who it was, I had flipped out. My best friend didn't even trust me enough to tell me whom he was crushing on.

I had cried myself to sleep that night; and the following nights. Obviously, I wasn't meant to be happy. Who else would manage to scare their love away? Those things only happened in books. And since this wasn't a fairy tale, Percy wouldn't—

'Luke? Are you in there?'

—come back. The few people I kept company with should be wiser than interrupt me when I obviously didn't want to be interrupted. Nonetheless, I poked my head out of my tent to murder whoever dared to interrupt me. My ears were still teary, so it took me a few moments to recognize—Percy? And was that a cake he was carrying? Suddenly, I became very aware of the fact that the tears I had spilled during the past week had left quite visible traces on my face.

'Luke… I'm sorry. I trust you. I didn't mean to offend you. And… I'm here to make up for it. Maybe – maybe we can retry the whole party-thing?'

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Had Percy just apologised to me, although I had flipped out and run away? And did I get this right, he had made a cake to make up to me with giving the party a second try? Still overwhelmed and not trusting my mouth not to fail me, I nodded and let him in.

'Luke, please say something' Percy all but begged. I swallowed hard. Right. I had to do this.

'I'm sorry, Percy. I've overreacted. I shouldn't have get so agitated or run away from you.' Almost against my will, I smiled. 'It's really sweet that you baked a cake, do you know that?' The thought of Percy in an apron, baking a cake, in a comfy kitchen – cute didn't even begin to describe that image.

'So… you're not mad at me?' Percy frowned, apparently trying to process my apology. Was it really that hard to believe that he hadn't done anything wrong?

'I could never be mad with you, Percy.' Oh shit, had these words really just left my lips? That sounded way to cheesy. But judging by the hopeful grin on Percy's lips, my words didn't fail to have the desired effect: To cheer him up. He gestured towards the cake. 'Uhm… if you're not mad at me and I'm not mad at you… we could cut the cake?' From somewhere, he produced a knife and a cake lifter and got ready to hand them to me. Unable to hide the wide grin that was plastered over my face, I begun to cut pieces of the cake.

While we ate the cake (not all of it of course), we talked about irrelevances, unimportant things. It wasn't exactly 'the weather is nice today', but close enough. I carefully avoided any topic that might make one of us uncomfortable, and I think so did he. Which meant: Don't talk about anything from your life. As in, alive-life. Not as in afterlife.

We gradually scooted closer to each other, and maybe an hour later we sat so close that our thighs and chests touched, arms draped around each other's shoulder. We had stopped eating long ago, and although none of us would have admitted this, we were basically cuddling. On the outside, rain was falling, increasing the comfy feeling inside the tent. Before too long, thunder growled. An outright thunderstorm discharged above our heads.

"I, uh, probably should go home" Percy muttered. But I held him back when he got ready to leave.

"I can't let you run through that storm, Perce. You can sleep over here." I gestured towards the camp bed that served as my sleeping place. "It's okay. I can sleep on the floor." It wouldn't be the first time I slept without a bed, I had done that plenty of times during the war.

It took a lot of arguing, but in the end, I convinced Percy to take my bed and sleep. I had made up a makeshift bed on the floor for me, built out of blankets and pillows. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it would have to do for this night. I had never had high standards on where I slept. You don't live the better part of your childhood on the streets if you're fastidiously. Back when I had lived with Thalia and Annabeth, we were been happy when we had a place to sleep at all, no matter whether it was under a bridge or in a cave.

This night, I lay awake until long until midnight. I tried to convince myself that it was due to the unfamiliar bed, but it was most likely due to the close proximity to Percy. You can't feel attracted to a guy for, like, two and a half year, miss him like crazy for seven years, drool over his appearance for one year, and then lay one metre beside him without being affected in any way. I was painfully aware of more than ten years worth of pining.

"Luke?" Percy's voice, a mere whisper rather, jolted me out of my thoughts. "What is it?" I responded in the same, hushed voice, even though there were no other people we could accidentally wake.

"I—can't sleep" Percy answered, his voice insecure at this confession. "Can – can I sleep in your bed?" Obviously, the insecurity in his voice was there for a reason. Usually, you would assume that only little children ask someone – their parents – if they can sleep in their beds when they can't sleep. I decided not to point this out, however, as well as the fact that, technically, Percy was sleeping in my bed while I lay on the floor.

"Sure." I opened the blanket so he could crawl under it, which he immediately did. "And you don't have to be embarrassed, Percy. I mean, we've been hugging all year and stuff, it's not like I will bite your head off or something." Of course, the sudden proximity and warmth was both pleasant and embarrassing – at least for me, what with being in love with him and all – but who was I to deny him anything?

"Thanks." Percy's voice was tiny. "G-Good night, Luke." I smiled fondly into the dark. "Good night, Percy."

When I woke up, my back hurt like shit from sleeping on the floor. Ouch. Seven years of sleeping in a bed – even if it was a camp bed – had softened me. Lazily, I opened an eye, only to let it fall shut again. Too dark to wake up. I allowed myself to go back to sleep, however not without feeling for Percy to make sure he was still there and hadn't left in the morning or something. As soon as I felt the gentle rise and fall of his chest, I turned around to fall—

'Luke!'

—asleep again. A blonde – Silena, maybe? – head poked inside the tent, and disappeared with a quiet squeal.

'Are you guys… decent?'

Silena, no doubt.

'Yes, we are. And now piss off, Beauregard, I want to sleep.' Groaning, I let my head fall back onto the makeshift-mattress again, this time finally falling asleep again.

The next time I woke up – several hours later, judging by the way too bright sunlight – Percy was carefully removing his arm from under me. I hastily closed me eyes, but he had already seen that I was awake and his face flushed.

'Uh, sorry. I didn't intend to wake you' he mumbled. I sat up, allowing him to remove his arm. 'No problem. Should have waken up anyway.'

Percy averted his gaze. 'Er, I didn't mean to cling to you like that, it's just, I woke up and you were in my embrace, and I thought you wouldn't like that, so I tried to get my arm out from under you without waking you…' He kept rambling but I put a finger on his lips, effectively silencing him.

'It's okay, Perce. I didn't mind. We're hugging all day, so why would I mind if you hugged me at night? Besides the obvious fact that it's something you have only limited control over.' I didn't add, 'and I don't mind your touch at all'. That would have sounded creepy.

Much to my dismay, Percy beat me to making breakfast. When I came back from the makeshift camping shower I had set up outside – I was really proud of it, Beckendorf had helped me with it, it drew its water from the creek and was really sophisticated – he had already made coffee and set the table.

'Luke… what do you think about risks?'

'Hmm?' I didn't exactly know how to interpret Percy's question.

'If you had the chance to win something wonderful, at the risk that you may fail and loose everything… how would you decide?' I pondered the subject in my head for a moment, not sure what this was about. 'Depends. How "wonderful" is the lucky outcome?'

'The most wonderful thing you can imagine.'

Percy, shot through my head – though that was most certainly not what the son of Poseidon had meant – and without a hint of hesitation I answered, 'take the risk. If it's worth it…'

Percy stood up, walking around the table before he stood in front of me. Combined with this risk-conversation, it made my heartbeat quicken.

'I'll do something risky, then.'

And with this, Percy leant down and sealed our lips.

I pushed my chair backwards, almost causing the table to topple over when I pulled the slightly smaller man on my lap. I couldn't believe this was happening.

'Those are bad manners, Perseus. Kissing me without asking me out properly… I don't know if I can tolerate this' I taunted. Instantly, Percy's smile faded. Oops. 'So, will you ask me now, or do I have to do all the work?' I added, unable to wipe the stupid grin off my face.

'Will you be my boyfriend, Luke?' The grin grew so broad, I was afraid my jaw might hurt the next day. 'Yes' I smiled at the son of Poseidon on my lap.

'So, am I now allowed to kiss you?'

I adjusted his position on my lap, bending down to seal our lips once more. 'More than allowed' I breathed against Percy's lips. Once we broke apart, gasping for air, I stood up, carrying him bridal-style to the pillow corner that the makeshift bed now resembled. As soon as I had set him down, Percy flipped us over, lying on top of me and straddling me, returning to covering my lips with his.

'I like it when you're so dominant' I whispered between two kisses. He sent me a quizzical look. 'Really?' I nodded. 'I've been a leader all my life. I led Thalia and Annabeth, I led a bunch of unclaimed and Hermes kids at Camp, I led an army to destroy the world. I've never let anyone else take the lead. But… I like it when you're in control. Like now.' Sure, this was a bit fast, five minutes after our first kiss, but relationships shall be built on trust and talking over things. And I wanted him to know this.

Percy smirked. 'Good to know.' He bent down to capture my lips again, since I was practically immobile, with him on top of me, restraining my movements. That was what I liked about this: Knowing I was virtually at his mercy, and knowing he wouldn't take advantage of this. Trust.

But instead of pondering the psychological aspects of this stance, I rather focused on making out with Percy. With my boyfriend Percy. And I forgot about anything else when Percy's tongue found its way into my mouth.