Hey everyone! Real life kept me busy (fortunately in very positive ways), so I haven't been able to update nearly as soon as I had planned to... sorry for that. Thank you for following/ favoring my story :) I'd love to get some reviews though. You see, I write because I simply love writing but I view writing FF as a helpful "exercise" for the "real thing" and since I'm also currently writing my own novel, it'd be really great to get some feedback on my writing... ;)

This story takes place after the Giant War, about a few weeks/ months after "Sleeping Arrangements", so Annabeth and Percy are still in New York (and I really seem to have a thing for making them uncomfortable - it's just too much fun making them blush XD). Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I'm not Rick Riordan and therefore don't own these characters, nor some of the places mentioned, like Camp Halfblood. Since Leo can't keep his mouth shut or ever stop teasing: I don't own Aquaman either XD

PICKING UP PERCY

Annabeth's POV

„By the gods", Thalia cursed, her tone clearly impatient. Annabeth knew her friend was getting closer to exploding every second.

„Valdez! Get in the car already or you're staying here. Solace, stop keeping the door open!"

Leo immediately obliged, taking a seat in the front row of the car next to Annabeth and Thalia, but Will Solace shook his head.

„Nico is supposed to be in the infirmary. He's certainly not ready to be going to New York with-" „Could you please stop talking about me as if I'm not here?", Nico asked from the seat behind Thalia, sounding annoyed.

Will arched his eyebrows. „Then could you please stop running from the infirmary all the time?" Thalia made a sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh.

„Someone's being over-protective..."

„Shut up, Thalia", Will said angrily. „You've never seen him after doing his Death Boy stuff."

„Stop calling me that!", Nico muttered.

Will shot him a look, as though he wasn't sure whether to be angry or concerned. Rachel, who was in the middle seat and thus right between Nico and Will's glare, looked uncomfortable. Thalia sighed.

„It was my idea, Solace."

„What?!"

„He always looks like death himself. So I thought a little bit of daylight might be good for him."

Annabeth almost smiled at that. Percy, Hazel and Frank had gone on a quest to Alaska not too long ago to free Thanatos, the god of death. Comparing their description with Nico she was almost certain Nico looked nothing like Thanatos. She kept that thought to herself though.

Will and Thalia were having a silent staring contest. Finally, Thalia rolled her eyes.

„If you're so concerned, why don't you just come with us?"

„I don't need a chaperone!", Nico said.

„I'll keep an eye on him, Will", Jason suggested from the back row, where he was sitting next to Piper who was leaning against him.

Annabeth looked at her watch and turned around, facing Will.

"Please, Will. We're gonna be late. I really don't want to let Percy wait any longer than necessary."

She feared she might be glaring at him more fiercely than he deserved it. Annabeth was sure he was genuinely concerned about Nico's well-being. But she couldn't wait to see Percy – and someone had to prevent Thalia from murdering the son of Apollo.

Will looked at Annabeth for two more seconds, then sighed and got in the car next to Rachel.

"Fine", he said.

"Aaaand Annabeth's death glare strikes again!", Leo commented.

"Shut up, Leo", Will and Annabeth said simultaneously.

Piper snickered lightly. Thalia let out a huge sigh.

"Now that everyone finally came to their senses..."

Annabeth elbowed her.

"Just start driving, Thals."

It wasn't exactly a comfortable road trip. Thalia was a fast and kind of emotional driver. She kept muttering unflattering things about male drivers in the cars in front of theirs. Leo was asking Thalia tons of questions about her life with the hunters of Artemis, slowly but surely driving her crazy. Will and Nico kept bickering, making Rachel between them more and more uncomfortable. Jason and Piper seemed to be the only ones happy with the ride.

Occasionally, Piper would lean over and give him a peck on the lips until Thalia looked into the rear-view mirror and made a face.

"You know how much I like you, Piper", she said. "But could you please not eat my brother's face? That's disgusting and... well, just weird."

Leo doubled over with laughter at the sight of their bright red faces.

Annabeth, for her part, was trying to give Thalia directions to Percy's school, which was kind of difficult with all the noise in the car.

She tried to stay calm and focused. All of the people in this car belonged to her closest friends and most of the time she was incredibly thankful to have them in her life. Nevertheless, her nerves – already tense, because she hadn't gotten to see Percy in over a week – were slowly being pushed closer to the edge with every minute that passed.

When Leo started to sing along with the radio and, on top of it all, dancing to it, accidentally hitting Annabeth's ribs with his elbows a few times, she snapped.

"Stop that!", she chided him.

Thalia took advantage of the situation, turned off the radio and put on a Green Day CD.

Meanwhile, Annabeth turned around to face Nico and Will.

"You two are unbelievable! Can't you find another way of expressing your affection for each other instead of constant bickering?"

Thalia let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like 'hypocrite'.

"Maybe you should ask Grover about traveling with two people who are constantly bickering and not able to admit their real feelings for each other", the daughter of Zeus suggested.

"He sure knows what he's talking about in that department."

Annabeth ignored her.

"I'm expressing my annoyance", Nico corrected her. "Not my affection."

"Not true", Piper chirped from behind him.

"Who asked you, Aphrodite Girl?", Nico asked.

"Hey!", Jason intervened. Nico sighed.

"Sorry, Piper. Annabeth just annoyed me with her... totally wrong... assumption."

Annabeth arched her eyebrows at him.

"So now it was me annoying you?", she asked.

Will came to Nico's aid, grinning at her.

"Well, you certainly could be a lot more relaxed... I might have to suggest to Percy that you need to get laid more often... as a remedy."

Thalia nearly drove the car into the next tree.

"WHAT?!", she coughed.

Annabeth felt herself blushing furiously. Piper was apparently attempting to hide her laughter by burying her face in Jason's chest, shaking silently. Leo didn't even try to hide his huge grin.

He turned around to give Will a high five.

"Great one, dude!"

"Certainly not!", Thalia said, still looking slightly shocked. "That's practically my little sister we're talking about..."

Annabeth smiled at that.

"... getting laid... by my cousin", Thalia continued. "Ugh. Gross!"

Annabeth's smile vanished.

"Look, Thals...", she said, still bright red.

"Don't you 'Thals' me!", Thalia interrupted her and grimaced. "I can't believe you let him..."

"I didn't, okay?", Annabeth almost screamed. "We... haven't done it yet", she added quietly.

Leo's uncontrollable laughter echoed through the car. Thalia sighed, apparently relieved.

Nico looked incredibly uncomfortable with the topic being Percy and Annabeth's love life.

"Oh, that explains a lot", Will said. "Although I would have thought... I mean, you're sleeping..."

"Shut up, Will", Annabeth managed through gritted teeth.

Thalia shot her a look somewhere between concern and curiosity.

"What's Sunny Boy talking about?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"I'll tell you later.. oh! You need to turn left here!"

Percy's POV

"Hey Perce!", someone shouted behind him. Percy closed his locker door and turned around to see his friends strolling over to him through the corridor full of students. Everyone was trying to get out of school as fast as possible. He couldn't blame them.

It was summer, it was Friday and, most importantly, Percy was determined to get out of school even faster than on a normal Friday as well – he was going to spend the weekend at Camp Half-Blood and Annabeth and Thalia were going to pick him up.

He had seen Annabeth just a little over a week ago but he already missed her and he couldn't wait to see his other friends again, especially Thalia. It wasn't often that she joined them at camp since she'd become lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis and even though meeting her meant constant teasing, Percy had to admit that he sometimes missed her when she wasn't around.

Sam, Dan, Hannah and Jared were standing right in front of him now, all four of them staring at the books in his arms.

„Since when do you study on weekends, Perce?", Sam asked incredulously.

„Since my girlfriend makes me", he sighed.

Sam rolled his eyes. „Here we go again. Your super hot awesome girlfriend who only has the one fatal flaw of not being real."

„Her fatal flaw isn't... never mind. But I assure you, she's perfectly real", Percy gave back. „And she could kick your butt anytime."

They joined the other students pushing towards the exit. Dan put his arm around Hannah.

„Oh yeah? So how come then that none of us has ever met her?", he asked.

„She's just... really busy."

Even in Percy's own ears that sounded like a very lame excuse, even though it was the truth.

After the Giant War Annabeth had gone back to redesigning Mount Olympus and she was also studying very hard to graduate from high school with the best possible grades. Not that her stressing over grades made any sense, as she had never even so much as failed a test – she was a daughter of the wisdom goddess, after all.

But Percy couldn't exactly tell his mortal friends that the Greek gods were real (more real than necessary if you asked him) and were currently residing on the invisible 600th floor of the Empire State Building.

„Busy with what?", Jared asked.

„Eh... homework, for instance."

Jared raised an eyebrow. „Uh-huh."

That would have been the perfect moment for Percy's mind to come up with an extravagant but believable excuse why he and Annabeth couldn't see each other all the time but of course it didn't. They had had this conversation before and he never came up with anything that didn't sound ridiculous or like a lame excuse.

When you were a half-blood many topics were a minefield. You just couldn't talk about all the unusual aspects of your life, which Percy found incredibly exhausting.

Dan shrugged. „Well, I don't believe that this Annabelle-"

„Annabeth", Percy corrected him automatically.

"That this Annabeth actually exists until I see her with my own eyes", Dan continued.

Percy smirked. „Then today is your lucky day."

„She just sounds way too perfect", Sam added. "Even if she's real, she can't possibly be like you described her."

„Yeah", Jared chimed in. „Tall and blonde with princess curls, muscular, adventurous, brave, incredibly smart and crazy about you..."

Percy pursed his lips at him and pretended to be offended.

„You don't think anyone could be crazy about me?"

"It's not that", Hannah explained. "It's just that we don't believe she can be real because... well, you practically make her sound like a goddess."

Percy couldn't help it – he burst out laughing. They had no idea how close they had come to the truth.

His friends looked at him funny, shaking their heads.

"Well, you'll see that she's real", he said, still grinning. "She and my cousin Thalia are gonna pick me up. We're going to camp for the weekend."

Jared whistled. "The mysterious summer camp you never want to tell us anything about?"

Uh-oh. Another minefield topic. Percy punched him lightly on the arm.

"Believe me, it's for the best. It's a pretty... peculiar camp."

"You're weird, Percy, you know", Hannah teased, but she was smiling.

He grinned. "I've been insulted much worse than that", he countered. 'By monsters, gods and even by my own girlfriend', he added in his mind.

They were outside the school now and Percy let his eyes glide around the parking lot. So far, nothing.

"Well, I don't see anyone who could possibly fit your description", Sam said.

"They're probably just late", Percy said, silently wondering how that could have happened to Annabeth.

She didn't do anything – well, almost anything – without planning it at length and she was usually awfully punctual. He just hoped nothing had happened to them, a monster attack maybe, or a god randomly deciding that today was a good day to mess with their lives.

Jared sat down on the stairs leading up to the school's entrance.

"I'm not leaving until they're here."

He thought for a moment. "Hey, is your cousin attractive?"

"What a surprise." Dan rolled his eyes.

Percy stifled a laugh at the image of Jared trying to ask Thalia out and getting punched in the face for it.

"Well, you shouldn't try anything", he said. "She's... not really into boys, you know."

"Ohhh, she's a lesbian?", Jared asked. "Wicked!"

His friends shook their heads at him. Percy tried to decide how to respond to his question.

"Um-", he started, but was interrupted.

"Hello, darling", Ashley Simmons' sickeningly sweet voice said behind him.

Percy rolled his eyes and turned around. Annabeth had told him that most of the time he was totally oblivious to girls flirting with him. Ashley Simmons however wasn't exactly subtle about it, so even Percy had got the message. And he hated it. He had even tried to get Annabeth to come to his school once, to give Ashley a good judo-flip or maybe a little slap – since he felt that he couldn't exactly punch a girl – but Annabeth had just laughed at him.

"That's your problem, Seaweed Brain. I'm sure you can deal with her on your own", she had said. "And since your voice is full of disgust whenever you talk about her I don't think I have to worry about anything, do I?"

"You don't ever have to worry, Wise Girl", he had answered.

She had kissed him for that.

"What do you want?", he now asked Ashley, wishing she would go away.

She smirked. She was pretty, in a way, with her long brown hair and blue eyes, but she couldn't compete with Annabeth. Then again, in Percy's opinion, no girl ever could. Ashley's attitude didn't help much either.

"I was wondering, honey, what you're doing this weekend", Ashley replied. "Because it's time that you stop telling that lie about already having a girlfriend and finally ask me out, don't you think?"

Percy sighed.

"I do have a girlfriend", he said. "Why does nobody believe that?!"

"Oh, please", Ashley said. "You might be hot but nobody's ever seen her, so..."

"Be my guest", Percy answered, rolling his eyes again.

"Huh?"

He shook his head and pointed at his friends.

"You can be next in line after them to meet her. They don't believe me either."

"Which proves my point", Ashley argued. "They're your friends. You'd think they'd know it if you had a girlfriend. In fact, you'd think they actually would've met her, too."

"Whatever", Percy said. "You'll see."

He wondered if Annabeth would even want to get out of the car when she arrived. He decided that if she didn't, he'd have to make her. He was going to end this nonsense once and for all.

This made him go back to wondering what the heck had happened to her and Thalia on their way from camp.

He got the answer almost immediately.

Ashley was just saying "... and you could pick me up at seven tomorrow night..." when loud noises made her look away from Percy's face and towards the far end of the parking lot.

"What the hell-", she started to say.

A white van had rounded the corner in a dangerous maneuver. The words Delphi Strawberry Service were painted on its doors. Through the rolled down windows music from Green Day blurred out, echoing over the whole parking lot. Many students turned their heads to see what was going on.

Percy felt a huge smile creeping onto his face. "That's my ride", he said.

When the van stopped with screeching tires just a few feet away, Percy's smile widened.

This was even better than he had imagined. From the back row of the car, Jason was grinning at him and Piper was looking over his shoulder and waving. In the middle row he saw Nico di Angelo, giving him a friendly nod. Behind him, the red hair as messy as ever, Rachel Elizabeth Dare smiled at him. Apparently, there was someone else sitting behind her but he couldn't make out who it was because their window was still up.

Thalia stuck her head out of the driver's window.

"Good to see you, Kelp Head", she said. "Need a ride?"

"I'm not sure I want to ride in a car that you're driving, Pinecone Face", Percy gave back.

"What's with the weird nicknames?", Dan asked, but Percy was too distracted to answer.

Behind Thalia, he could see a familiar mane of blonde curls. Annabeth wasn't looking in his direction but he could hear her voice.

"Get out of the car, Leo", she growled. "Or do I have to introduce you to my new dagger first?"

"Whoa there", Leo replied. "Let the one and only super-sized McShizzle take his time."

"Take all the time you want", Annabeth answered. "If you crave instant and painful death, that's in fact exactly what you should do."

Percy felt the eyes of his friends and Ashley on him, all of them giving him questioning looks. He just shrugged.

"I told you they were weird."

Meanwhile, Leo had gotten out of the door on the other side of the car and let out Annabeth. He climbed onto his seat and leaned over the roof.

"Hey there, Aquaman", he said. "And hey there Aquaman's friends." He looked at Percy.

"Your girlfriend is a little insane. But Will came up with an idea to..."

He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence because Thalia leaned over and pulled him back into the car.

"Don't even think about it. You'll just give him ideas."

"Ideas?", Percy asked but at that exact moment, Annabeth rounded the car and came jogging towards him.

Many people – especially boys – were staring at her and while he didn't like that very much he couldn't help feeling a little proud that she was his.

"No way!", Sam said. "She looks just like you said."

"She's pretty", Hannah whispered, leaning in closer to Dan who kissed her cheek.

Jared was gaping. "She's smoking hot. Eh... gorgeous", he corrected himself after seeing the look on Percy's face.

Ashley looked disgusted. "She is your girlfriend? Really?!"

Annabeth reached them and tackled Percy with a hug. She kissed him fiercely and ruffled through his already messy black hair with her hands.

Behind him, Ashley let out a surprised cough, as if something was stuck in her throat.

Percy ignored her and slung his arms around Annabeth, pulling her close to him, stroked her back and her hair and kissed her back.

"Ugh, please", Thalia called from the car. "Is it eat-faces-day or something? You're even worse than Jason and Piper!"

Neither Percy nor Annabeth bothered to answer but Annabeth blushed slightly and pulled away, resting her forehead against his.

"That was a long week", she mumbled.

He nodded and allowed himself to get lost in her fierce gray eyes for a moment.

"I've missed you", he murmured into her ear, earning himself a bright smile.

Annabeth pulled away from him and laced her fingers through his.

"So, are you going to introduce me to your friends or what?"

Percy took a moment to look at every single of his friends' faces. They were still gaping.

"With pleasure", he said to Annabeth.

He introduced Dan and Hannah, Sam and Jared to her and she smiled at everyone of them. They smiled back, apparently still surprised that she was real.

From the corner of his eye Percy saw movement by the car. The back door opened and Nico stumbled out, practically pushed by Rachel, who got out behind him.

"On our way back I'm sure as hell not sitting between you guys again", she said.

Behind them, still in the car, Percy could now make out Will Solace who waved at him casually. Percy waved back and grinned. He should have known.

"Sooo", Ashley's annoying voice interrupted his thoughts.

She was holding out her hand to Annabeth. Annabeth took it, looking slightly confused.

"Sorry, you are?", she asked politely.

"Ashley", Ashley said confidently. "I'm sure Percy has told you about me."

Her voice was as sweet as ever but her smile didn't reach her eyes. Annabeth turned to Percy and frowned. The expression in her eyes was hard to read but she certainly wasn't pleased. She turned to Ashley again and sized her up. Ashley herself was giving Annabeth a similar once-over.

"I don't think Percy has ever mentioned you", Annabeth said, her voice slightly tight. She let go of his hand and didn't meet his eyes.

"Oh really?", Ashley asked.

Judging by the smile on her lips she seemed to enjoy this.

"Oh, I'm sure you've got nothing to worry about, sweetie, but we're pretty close, so it's rather strange that he hasn't even bothered to mention me, don't you think?"

When Ashley called her 'sweetie' Annabeth looked about ready to kill her. Sadly, she seemed even too focused on the other girl to notice Sam's sarcastic "yeah, right" cough at Ashley saying that she and Percy were close.

Percy put an arm around Annabeth's waist and pulled her close again. She remained stiff.

"Of course I've told you about her", he said.

Now, she looked at him. Her gray eyes were stormy.

"No, you haven't."

He held her fierce gaze.

"Annabeth, that's Ashley Simmons."

For a few seconds she just looked at him and frowned, then suddenly a wide smile appeared on her face. She turned to Ashley again, now in a noticeably better mood.

"Ohhh", she said, in a very un-Annabethly tone. "Silly me. Of course Percy's mentioned you." Funnily enough, her voice sounded similarly to when she had met Rachel for the first time.

Ashley looked irritated, then apparently decided to change her tactic. She slowly let her eyes wander over Annabeth's messy bun, her orange camp shirt and jeans shorts.

"Percy could certainly do better than you", she said.

Percy clenched his fists, but Annabeth took his hand again and held him back. She gave him a look that said 'I can handle this.' Jared, Sam, Hannah and Dan were looking back and forth between the two girls like they were watching a fascinating ping-pong match.

"I mean, how well can you two know each other anyway?", Ashley continued.

At that, Annabeth and Percy exchanged a look. He tried to put everything into it, everything he felt for her, everything they had been through together. He was probably staring, but Annabeth didn't seem to care. She smiled widely at him.

"I think I'm gonna be sick", Thalia shouted. "Stop staring, Kelp Head."

That snapped Percy out of it. Annabeth turned to Ashley again.

"You have no idea", she said quietly, somehow managing to make her words sound dangerous.

"You have no idea what we went through together. You have no idea what he means to me."

"Uhhh, take this, Simmons", Jared said, but shut up instantly when Annabeth looked at him.

Ashley let her eyes wander between Annabeth and Percy as if trying to decide what to do.

"If I were you, I'd run now", Leo called from the car.

He was standing on his seat again and leaning over the roof of the car, grinning widely.

"Annabeth is a dangerous girl, you know. And if you don't stop hitting on her boyfriend she'll kick you from here to Greece."

Ashley frowned and took another look at Percy and Annabeth, standing close to each other, their hands intertwined. Then she shrugged, apparently trying to pretend that it wasn't that important to her anyway.

"Whatever", she said. "I hope you'll be happy together."

Her tone made it sound more like 'I hope you'll go to hell together.' Percy almost smiled at that, although the memories were painful. 'Been there, done that', he wanted to say but he restrained himself. Instead, he pulled Annabeth closer to him.

"I'm so lucky", he said quietly.

That seemed to be enough for Ashley. She shot them one last disgusted look, then turned on her heels and stormed away.

Jared stared at Annabeth like she was some kind of heavenly creature.

"You managed to intimidate Ashley Simmons", he said, his voice full of admiration.

She grinned at him. "Not a big deal."

"Yeah", Rachel said loudly from where she was leaning on the car. "Annabeth has quite a history of intimidating girls who take an interest in Percy."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at her, but she was still grinning. "Shut up, Rachel."

"Not that I want to interrupt your friendly bickering", Jason called. "But we should get going. Chiron told us to come back as soon as possible."

"Do you always have to be so responsible?", Piper chided him.

"What kind of a name is Chiron?", Hannah asked. "And why does that sound so familiar? Something with Greek mythology... hey, wasn't he that underworld ferryman?"

"Nope, that's Charon", Annabeth corrected her automatically.

When Percy's friends stared at her she shrugged.

"I'm really into Greek mythology", she said.

Percy could only admire her for how calm she sounded and how quick she had come up with an explanation. His own heart had nearly stopped when she had corrected Hannah.

"Oh cool!", Sam exclaimed. "I've read this book bout Greek heroes in the ancient times..."

"Well, we really should get going", Annabeth interrupted him. "Maybe another time?"

"Oh, okay. Sure", Sam said.

Annabeth smiled at his friends again, then pulled Percy over to the car. He turned around one last time to see Dan and Hannah smiling, Sam grinning and Jared giving him a thumbs up.

Rachel got in the car next to Nico and Thalia punched Leo lightly on the arm.

"Go sit in the back row and let Percy sit next to Annabeth", she commanded.

Leo didn't argue. He got out of the car. Will let him in, so he could take a seat next to Piper.

Percy stared at Thalia.

"That was really nice of you", he said.

She nodded. "No need to sound so surprised. You're welcome."

"Oh please, Thals", Annabeth said while she climbed into the car and sat down next to Thalia.

"Admit it. You just did that so Leo wouldn't sit in the front row anymore."

Thalia shot her a look, pretending to be offended, but then she grinned.

"Damn right", she admitted, winking at Percy who was closing the door.

"Hey!", Leo shouted from the back row.

Percy grinned at his cousin. "Have you bought a dam T-shirt yet?", he asked.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Here we go again", she mumbled.

"No", Thalia said to Percy. "But we should really go eat some dam french fries together sometime."

He laughed and slung an arm around Annabeth.

"Only if Annabeth comes with us this time", he said.

"Of course", Thalia replied. "She'd kill us if we went to Hoover Dam without her again."