Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus.

As fun as it was being kidnapped by a goddess and transported to the other side of the country, then flying on a boat to Europe to fight evil Titans, again, (okay, maybe that wasn't very fun) there was something about being back at camp that made Percy really happy. He was finally back home. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed Camp Half-Blood until he stepped back onto the hill, smelled the strawberry scented air and took in the view of the whole camp. Yup, it was definitely good to be home.

The summer ended on a high note when they celebrated winning the war at Camp Jupiter, then the Greek campers made their way back to New York. They only had a week of camp left before they had to go back home and start school (not that Percy was looking forward to that), so he and Annabeth made the best of it. They were back in the training arena, sparring like they were going to kill each other. Just like old times.

Percy lunged at Annabeth with Riptide, but she parried his sword with her knife. She was faster than he was, so he made for a quick retreat before Annabeth could strike at him. They had been going at it for more than an hour and it was taking its toll. Both Percy and Annabeth were panting as they circled each other, but neither of them were about to back down.

"Getting tired, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth smirked at him, tightening her grip on the knife.

"Not a chance."

He lunged at her again, thrusting Riptide at her abdomen, but Annabeth had been expecting it. She blocked the sword just in time and feinted left before making to strike at his right. He'd been expecting this too, and parried her knife, throwing Annabeth off balance. Before she could fall to the ground, she somersaulted and kicked Percy's legs from underneath him so he landed on his back. She would've punctured his throat if Percy hadn't brought his sword up to catch her knife.

They struggled against each other as Annabeth tried to force her knife down.

"Surrender." She breathed it out so it was barely a whisper, but he heard it.

"Never."

Annabeth may have been faster, but Percy was stronger. He was finally able to push her body off of him and they quickly scrambled to their feet. She was about to strike at him again, when Percy snuck his hand to her side, poking her in the ribs with his index finger. She let out a yelp, and it gave Percy just enough time to take Riptide and slam the blade of her knife. It went flying out of her grasp and skittering onto the dusty floor.

He smirked as he pointed the tip of his sword at her.

"Surrender." He repeated her words, not attempting to disguise the jeering in his voice.

Annabeth crossed her arms and fixed him with one of her famous death glares.

"Cheater."

"You call it cheating, I call it creative strategizing."

He capped Riptide so it changed back into a ballpoint pen and, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Annabeth rolling her eyes at him.

However, he didn't see her charging at him as she took her hands and pinched his sides. He began laughing, trying to grab at Annabeth's hands, but he was on his back again as she mercilessly tickled him. He reached up with his own hands, poking her in her ribs again and from outside the arena, their shrieks and laughter could be heard. Finally, Annabeth had pinned his hands underneath her and she was back in control.

"Surrender!"

Percy gasped through his giggling and finally breathed out, "Okay, I surrender!"

Annabeth relented and a smug look replaced her previously irritated one. Percy took hold of her arm and pulled her down gently so she was lying on the ground next to him. They stared at the ceiling, catching their breaths.

"I've missed this," he said absentmindedly. He found Annabeth's hand next to his and held it, stroking her knuckles with his thumb.

"Me too."

"You think we can live normally now?"

He heard Annabeth scoff next to him. "Things never have been and never will be normal for us."

"That's true." He turned his head so he could look at Annabeth. Her eyes were closed and little beads of sweat were on her forehead. Even post-battle to the death she was gorgeous. "But I guess it'd be pretty boring if things were normal."

"Definitely."

"And if we lived normal lives, I guess I wouldn't have met you."

Annabeth finally opened her eyes. She turned to meet Percy's and gave him a soft look.

"I guess not, " she said quietly. "And I wouldn't be able to do this."

She leaned over and kissed Percy. It was slow and languid. They savored the moment.

When they finally pulled away for air, Percy felt like he was floating. He would never ever get tired of kissing Annabeth.

"So, we're in general agreement that living a normal life would totally suck?"

A laugh escaped from Annabeth's lips, the smile reaching her gray eyes.

"Whatever you say, Seaweed Brain."

He got up, the floating feeling still pulsing through him, and pulled Annabeth to her feet. They were grinning at each other, when he noticed that, suddenly, Annabeth's smile was gone.

"What's wrong?" He could hear the panic in his own voice.

It looked like she was squinting at something on his neck.

"I think I cut you."

She brought her fingers up to the side of his neck and brushed the cut gently. It was shallow, but she could see that some blood had shed from the scratch.

"Really?" He brought his hand up to where he had felt Annabeth's fingers. Sure enough, when he pulled his own fingers away, he saw that a little blood had stained them. "Oh, it's no big deal. I can't even feel it. A little nectar and ambrosia will fix it up."

"Gods, I'm so sorry. I should've been more careful."

"Annabeth, calm down. You're acting like I've never gotten hurt before. Don't worry." He tried to sound reassuring, but the worried expression was still on Annabeth's face.

"It's just hard to remember sometimes that you aren't invulnerable anymore."

"I know, it's hard for me to remember too, but it's fine. I survived before I took the curse and I'll survive after." He gave her another smile.

She let out a sigh. "You have to be more careful, Seaweed Brain. I'm not always going to be there to save you. "

"Don't worry," he repeated, "I'll be fine."

He gave her a kiss, a light one, on the lips, and another on her forehead.

"Come on. Let's get washed up and grab some lunch before all the pizza is gone," he said, grasping her hand and leading her to the exit.

He had a feeling Annabeth wasn't any less worried about him, but she was just being paranoid. He'd be fine.

When camp had finally ended and Percy was back at Goode High School, it felt like he had fallen into an alternate reality. Instead of fighting monsters and seeing his camp friends everyday, he was studying, doing homework, and trying to stay awake in his classes. Hmm... maybe there was an upside to being kidnapped.

What he missed most, though, was Annabeth. After being apart for eight months (with his memory mostly gone), it felt like they had just found each other again, but then they had to go off and fight another war. In the end, they only had about a week at the end of summer to relax and then they were apart again.

It drove him nuts not being able to see her, and making phone calls and Iris Messages just weren't the same. So, he was ecstatic when Annabeth asked to meet up at a coffee shop by her school that Friday. He hadn't even bothered changing out of his school uniform and left as soon as the last bell rang.

He was almost at the coffee shop, he only had to cross the street, and he could already see Annabeth waiting at a table near the window. From what he could see, it looked like she was straining her neck, staring out the window, like she was looking for someone, and when he finally caught her eye, a brilliant smile graced her lips. He waved at her, his own dorky grin on his face.

He just had to wait for the cars that were passing and then he'd be with her. He waited impatiently, cars driving past way faster than the speed limit. Then he noticed a boy, maybe around twelve or thirteen years old. He had on really big headphones that covered his ears and he made to cross the street. The problem was, a black sedan had rounded the corner and it was speeding straight towards him and he hadn't noticed.

Before Percy could make a coherent decision, he ran off the curb and pushed the kid out of the way. He had hoped that he'd make it across too, but the car had hit him.

Percy felt like screaming, but he couldn't find his voice. He only just registered that he was thrown onto the pavement. His body felt like it was on fire and his head was throbbing. Gods, what was he thinking? Oh yeah, he wasn't.

He heard voices around him, but all of it sounded like gibberish. Colors blurred together in his vision. Then, he saw a flurry of blonde hair. Was that an angel? Oh gods, he was dying. He was going to die, and Annabeth was going to kill him for dying right before their date and-Annabeth. It was Annabeth. He could barely make out her face. It was hard to focus his eyes, like a blurry camera lens. Was she crying? There was ringing in his ears, but he heard her voice over it.

"Percy!"

Then everything went black.

When Percy woke up again, it felt like his head had been stuffed with cotton and his whole body was sore. It felt eerily similar to the first time he arrived at Camp Half-Blood. And Annabeth was next to him too, just like she had been five years ago. Except this time, instead of looking unimpressed, it looked like she'd been crying.

He tried sitting up, but as soon as he tried to use his strength, a sharp pain struck him, like a hammer had slammed onto his head. He let out a groan.

"Don't get up. You'll just hurt yourself again."

He blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the fog in his head. "What happened?"

"You're at the hospital. Your mom and Paul are speaking to the doctor."

He took a look at Annabeth. It hurt to focus on one thing for too long, but he made the effort anyways.

His suspicions about her crying were right. She had tear tracks trailing down her cheeks and a deep frown was on her face. She looked worried and sad, but most of all she looked really really angry.

When he didn't say anything, Annabeth spoke again. "Your leg is broken from the impact of the car, your shoulder is dislocated and your elbow is fractured from landing on the pavement, and you have a concussion after smacking your head on the ground, among other scrapes and bruises, but you'll live," she finished clinically.

"Gee, that makes me feel a lot better." He tried for a smile, but, clearly, Annabeth wasn't in the mood for his jokes.

Her voice went from cold to irate. "Would you like to explain to me what in Hades you were thinking when you stepped in front of that car? Oh wait, you're a moronic Seaweed Brain so, obviously, you weren't thinking!"

"Annabeth, you saw that kid crossing the street. What was I supposed to do? Just stand there and watch? He would've gotten hit!"

"But you're the one lying in a hospital right now because you decided to be a noble idiot! Percy, you aren't invulnerable anymore! I told you, you have to be more careful!"

"I know, Annabeth. You always tell me so. You always tell me when I'm wrong. I get it!" Percy and Annabeth argued regularly, but they hadn't fought this heatedly since they began dating. He ignored the sick feeling in his stomach and continued to shout. "You're right. I wasn't thinking when I saved that kid. But I did and I'm still alive. I've almost died dozens of times before. Why are you so worried?"

"Because I can't lose you again!"

Their fighting came to a halt at her words. Percy noticed tears were streaming down her face.

His voice lost its animosity from before. "Annabeth..."

"I know I'm not always going to be there to save you, and I know you're going to get hurt, but," her voice broke, "gods, do you know how scared I was when you went missing? Not just last time, but when we were at Mount St. Helens too."

"Hey-" he tried to comfort her, but Annabeth cut him off.

"I-I was so scared that I'd never see you again. And now, if I'm not worrying about you getting killed by a monster, or on a quest, or trying to save the world, I have to worry about you dying in ordinary, conventional ways too. Like saving some dumb kid trying to cross the street."

The tears were streaming down faster now, and Percy tried to push down the slight panic he was feeling. He'd only ever seen Annabeth cry a few times, and even then he didn't know what to do.

"Hey," Percy started again, "come here."

It had taken quite a bit of effort, but he sat up and used his good arm to reach out to Annabeth and pull her next to him on the hospital bed.

"Do you really think you can get rid of me that easily? Every time I went missing, you always found me, and every time I got hurt, I got better again." He wiped away her tears with his thumb. "I know I'm a Seaweed Brain, but I'm not going anywhere."

Annabeth hiccuped. "You don't know that."

Percy shrugged (well he tried to shrug, but it hurt his shoulder a lot). "I know I can't, but you can't either. Don't you think I'm afraid of losing you too? Remember when you took that knife for me on Williamsburg Bridge last year? I was crazy worried."

When she didn't respond, he continued. "The fact is, we're demigods. Trouble finds us, even if it's just some moron that doesn't know how to look both ways before crossing the street. It's part of the job description. But it's a miracle we've survived for this long, so we might as well enjoy the fact we're still alive, right?"

He pulled her into a hug, gently, so it wouldn't hurt.

"Gods, what am I going to do with you?" she spoke into his neck.

He cracked a smile as he leaned his head into her hair. "You're going to keep telling me when I'm wrong? And keep saving my sorry butt?" he asked cheekily.

When she pulled away, he saw that she had a small smile on her face. "What else is new?"

They spent the rest of the day in the hospital room. Annabeth even bought some drinks, "The ones we were supposed to have at the coffee shop, Seaweed Brain." It wasn't the normal date that they had planned on having. Then again, they had already agreed, things would be pretty boring if they were normal. And, in the end, they'd take crazy and dangerous over normal any day.

AN: So... I'm not sure whether or not I'm satisfied with this chapter. I like the idea. I like the beginning and how it progresses, but I'm a little lukewarm about the ending. Eh, I am my own critic. Otherwise, I decided to step away from the more humorous parts of Percy and Annabeth's relationship and try something a little more dramatic. Tell me what you guys think?

I hope you liked it! Reviews are welcome and appreciated!

xoxo Cherie