AN: Oh. My. Gods. You guys are so freaking amazing! This is a new story, and my first story for this fandom, and y'all are already so supportive and awesome! It means the world to me when I get the notification that there's a review for this story, or when I get a notification saying that someone favorited/followed. So I just want to thank every single one of you for being so amazing! Also, this chapter is kind of slow and not very huge, but there's some stuff I want to lead up to and I needed this chapter to do it. Again, if there's anything you want to see happen, please let me know! Thanks for reading, I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series.

Annabeth's PoV:

Annabeth felt the hot water trickle over her head and down her back, finding solace in the heat that was surely burning her delicate skin. She felt a small, bitter smile creep onto her face; this was her first shower without Percy in months, which he hadn't been happy about. He had insisted that he should go with her, so she had insisted that he was such a teenage boy. She knew, of course, that he had only wanted to shower with her so as to make sure that she was okay after her little episode, but it was still fun to tease him. Teasing him made it seem like old times, when they hadn't been through a very literal hell and they were still innocents.

A part of Annabeth wished that they had never had to endure Tartarus, or maybe even being demigods at all (and she was sure that a part of Percy shared her same feelings about this). Of course they loved being demigods at times; times that involved playing capture the flag at camp, and just camp in general. There was also the very sentimental fact that camp was all she had as a child, before Percy came around and provided her with a sort of family. Sure she had Grover, even before Percy came to camp, but he was always gone (ironically enough, he was always gone because of Percy) and they hadn't always been as close as they were now. But despite all of this, despite the fact that it brought Percy to her and gave her a home and a family, Annabeth couldn't help but loathe the gods and wonder what would've happened if she and Percy had never been born as god-spawn.

Annabeth was somehow very sure that demigods or not, she and Percy still would've found each other somehow; maybe she would've been in the library and he would've come in and- well no, her Seaweed Brain would never be caught dead in a library unless he was sacrificing for her because she wanted a new book to read. Maybe they would have met in a coffee shop or in school. Maybe they would've bumped into each other on the crowded New York streets, if she was even in New York then. But no matter how they could have met, Annabeth was sure of two things: they would have found each other because after all, that's how this whole "soulmates" thing works, and they would have led perfectly normal, happy lives together. Their biggest fight would have been one of them forgetting their anniversary, or Percy being too oblivious to notice a ditzy waitress flirting with him while they were on a date (this one had actually happened not too long after they started dating, but all was forgiven quickly). Maybe Tartarus had drawn them impossibly closer, shown them what they truly meant to each other, but Annabeth was certain that they didn't need to go through hell for those things to happen.

The tears began to pour down her face again until Annabeth was sobbing as she pounded her fists into the tile of the shower wall. A scream ripped its way out of her throat as she felt an overwhelming anger overtake her. Those fucking gods and their fucking quests and their fucking ignorance towards their own children. She heard thunder rumble in the distance but she couldn't find it in herself to give a shit. They certainly didn't care so why the hell should she? Annabeth didn't know for sure if she was crying for herself or Percy, or maybe even both of them. She didn't know if she was crying out of anger at the lifestyle they were both burdened with, or if she was mourning the loss of something they had never had.

Annabeth was vaguely aware of the bathroom door slamming open, and she knew in the back of her mind that she had probably scared the shit out of Percy when she screamed. He was always on alert now, especially where she was concerned. But Annabeth wasn't thinking of all this because all that she knew in that moment was that she had felt her body fall to the shower floor right before Percy had come in, and she knew that she was shaking now. She knew that she felt more broken in that moment than she had in her entire life, and she knew that she felt ashamed for having forced Percy to see it. She also knew that Percy wouldn't mind seeing it, that it hurt him to see her like this but he would always take care of her when she needed him to. But she couldn't keep away the nagging thoughts of how Percy should have a normal life with a normal girl; a girl who wasn't needy (even if he had told her before that she was all too independent sometimes), a girl who could help him with his problems instead of burdening him with her's.

She was aware of Percy trying to talk to her, taking her into his arms as he tried to calm her down. Annabeth looked into his sea green eyes and knew that despite the overwhelming love and tenderness they held, they also held fear. Fear that Annabeth would never get better, never be happy again. Fear that Percy wasn't good enough, or that he couldn't protect her well enough from her demons; fear that he would lose her. And it killed her; it killed her to know that she could cause him this much pain just by being in pain herself. It killed Annabeth that he was so amazing to her, that he knew her well enough to know just how to make her feel better, and yet this was how she repayed him: by causing him pain and self-doubt.

As Annabeth slowly calmed down and zoned back in, she was aware of the way in which Percy had cradled her, her head resting in the crook of his neck as he held her back with one arm and the back of her head with the other. She was aware of how he lightly rocked her as he whispered reassuring, sweet things into her ear. Percy had this habit that Annabeth had noticed a while back, something that he had always done when comforting her: he would do exactly what he was doing now, although sometimes it varied, and he would always plant random kisses on the top of her head at random intervals. How he knew this would comfort her, she had no clue; the perks of dating your best friend, she supposed. But she loved him so dearly for it, and for so many other reasons as well.

"I love you so much baby," he whispered, planting another one of those gods forsaken kisses on the top of her head. Normally they weren't the type of couple who used sickeningly sweet pet names for each other; they were Annabeth and Percy, Annabeth and Perce, or Wise Girl and Seaweed Brain. When one of them felt threatened by an outsider trying to steal the other one away from them, they occasionally became "his" or "hers". But they never used anything else until Tartarus came and went; once that happened, pet names had become more common, especially when comforting one another. Why this was, neither of them would ever know; they both just summed it up to the fact that their relationship had become impossibly more intimate, and therefore, so did their respective nicknames. Had anyone else tried calling Annabeth "babe" or "baby", they would've been judo-flipped in an instant. But it (surprisingly) made her heart melt when it came from Percy, so it was allowed.

"I love you too," she whispered back, pulling away slightly to look at him. "I'm sorry if I scared you."

"Don't worry about it."

Slowly Annabeth got back up, Percy assisting her. As she turned the water back on (because apparently Percy had turned it off when he came in), Annabeth said, "I'm gonna finish my shower, 'kay? Be out in a second."

Percy's eyebrows furrowed with worry. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

Annabeth granted him a gentle peck before saying, "I'm sure. No more screaming for today."

Percy gave a small smile before walking out. "Love you!" he called.

"Love you too!"

Percy's PoV:

It was another fifteen minutes until Annabeth entered Percy's room wearing his old camp shirt and some jeans. Although the shirt had become much too tight on Percy, he noticed how it hung off of Annabeth's frame loosely. This brought a deep frown to his face; ever since Tartarus, both of them had been far too skinny, so Sally had made it her personal mission to feed them as much as possible. But even so, Annabeth's eating habits had been peckish, which worried both Percy and his parents.

"Stop worrying about how skinny I am." It surprised him sometimes how well his girlfriend knew him.

Percy got up from his laying position on the bed and walked to her, resting his hands on her hips and pulling her in closer as he said, "Sorry but no can do. It's my job to worry about you."

Annabeth looked up at him sadly. "You worry about me way too much you know."

"Do not," Percy retorted, sticking his tongue at her childishly and earning a smile from his love.

"Whatever Seaweed Brain." She ruffled his hair in a playful way that he pretended to hate despite them both knowing that he loved it. "Go get ready."

Percy groaned and plopped his head onto Annabeth's shoulder. "But I don't wanna..."

"You know, the sooner you get ready the sooner we can go to camp," Annabeth sang.

Percy lifted his head and looked down at his girlfriend. "Fine, but only because I want to go to camp."

Annabeth sat on Percy's bed as he began to grab clothes for the day ahead. "Are you sure that's why? Because I think it's because your wonderful girlfriend asked," she said, a mischievous smile on her face.

Percy didn't even turn to look at her as he walked out, saying, "Whatever floats your boat."

Annabeth just grinned broadly and flopped back on Percy's bed.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled, causing said boy to quickly spit out the water in his mouth and grab Riptide, running to his bedroom expecting to see a monster. Instead he found Annabeth grabbing her dagger, ambrosia, and a small vial of nectar and throwing the last two items into the small backpack she carried with her when going to camp.

"What, what is it?" Percy asked, noticing the worried look on his best friend's face.

"Chiron just IM'ed. Camp is under attack."

AN: And there's chapter two! I hope it was okay, and I want to say thank you again to all of you for supporting this story so much already. It means so much to me! Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following, if you do! Later!