Since you've gone I've been lost without a trace

Annabeth was idly brushing Blackjack's coat; she let her thoughts absently run away with themselves. It was only a couple of hours before the ship would take off in order to finally retrieve Percy. Annabeth found that her body rocked with excited jitters the entire day; she also discovered that when she was in Blackjack's presence, these sporadic, inevitable nerves faded away.

Annabeth knew she was like this because she subconsciously registered that the pegasus had a connection with her boyfriend. And she consciously knew that this was the closest she was going to get to him until these two, sluggish hours passed her.

Her jitters returned again at this thought, and the pace of her brushing picked up, making Blackjack protest with a sudden neigh.

The demigod gave the pegasus an apologetic look and dropped the brush to the ground. This movement sent a dusty cloud into the air. She sighed at the fallen brush; she sat on the floor, leaning against the wooden barrier that separated Blackjack from the rest of the pegasi. Porkpie nonchalantly looked over at her as he chewed some hay.

Blackjack had stopped drinking water from the metal container that was attached in the corner, and turned his attention to his master's distressed girlfriend; the pesgasus knew, even without casually chattering with her, that she looked like a mess. However, he chose the word 'lost' from his impressive vocabulary; he knew that a girl would not want to be called a 'mess'.

The pegasus slightly turned and nudged her head with his snout, accompanied with a quiet flutter of his wings. She looked up at him and Blackjack nudged her again in the forehead. The first nudge was to get her attention because he knew that he couldn't say, "Master", and she would respond. Nevertheless, the second nudge was through comfort, and Blackjack could see that she understood the hidden language behind this nudge. The girl smiled before petting his long snout.

"Thanks Blackjack," Annabeth said. The pegasus flapped his wings more in response, which made the pegasus in the next stall to him neigh in annoyance. From what Annabeth could tell, Blackjack rolled his eyes at the other pegasus. Annabeth smirked but then leaned her head back on the barrier again.

"Oh, Blackjack," She sighed as she buried her face in her hands, making her sentence sort of muffled. "Do you think we'll ever find him?" Blackjack nearly winced at the amount of doubt that dominated her voice. He was so used to her being one of the strongest figures at camp that it made him weak in the wings to see her this vulnerable.

Even though Blackjack couldn't physically talk with the girl, he understood how much his master meant to her. If Percy wasn't talking about how things were at camp or even at home, he would be talking about her. His master would list the multiple things they did or talked about that day. And that even included who initiated their make out session in the middle of Zeus's fist.

Annabeth let her hand fall from the pegasus's nose and to her absent lap and looked from the horse to the wooden ground. After a couple of slow, quiet minutes passed, the doors to the stables opened. Annabeth's head immediately perked up at the somewhat threatening sound, but the tense look on her face melted with relief once she saw who the unintentional intruder was.

"Hey, Annabeth," Jason said as he made her way for the girl. Annabeth stood up, brushing off all of the mischievous but miscellaneous pieces of hay from her shorts.

"Jason," She greeted him back, her face returning to the mask of seriousness that she wore daily now. "Are we all ready to go?"

"Yeah," Jason nodded. "Leo and some members of the Hephaestus cabin managed to make the finishing touches a bit early. We're only waiting for your presence on board." Annabeth's eyes widened slightly in response, Blackjack didn't know whether or not it was in surprise or embarrassment.

"Oh, yeah, of course," She conjured up an apologetic smile. "I'll be there in a couple of minutes." Jason nodded as he took her orders. His footsteps pattered against the wooden floor as he made his way out. Annabeth turned back to Blackjack once she saw the foreign boy's figure disappear in between the two, wooden doors.

"Wish me luck, Blackjack." She took his snout with one hand and placed a kiss on his forehead before resting her forehead on his, letting out a deep, contained sigh.

Annabeth pulled away after a couple of seconds and waved to the pegasus over her shoulder, and just like Jason, she disappeared in front of his eyes shortly after.

Even though Blackjack received some of her stress with that kiss, he also suddenly felt lucky. Blackjack smiled to himself: he finally understood Percy's definition of Annabeth's good luck kisses, because he experienced one himself.

Nevertheless, Blackjack wished all the best for the distressed demigod. He thoroughly knew that she missed him, and she knew that the pegasus did too.