Ugghh…what the hell was going on? Unconsciously, a groan escaped my mouth, before I faintly heard a male voice yelling to someone else.

"Guys! Annabeth! She's awake! Get an Apollo camper in here!"

Annabeth?

Pain flared through my body as I shifted uncomfortably. My chest was pressed down by weights, and my muscles screamed in agony every time I tried moving them slightly.

Groggily, I open my eyes for just a peak. Everything looked washed-out by the light entering my eyes, and it hurt to look. I shut my eyes again, unable to see much as the pain overwhelmed me. My throat felt dry and my brow broke out in cold sweat. I tried grabbing at something around me, but every time I tried to apply some force with my musculoskeletal I would wince in pain. My muscles felt like they were solid heavy wooden logs-that were set on fire, no less- and my lungs were the Sahara desert, complete with sand.

Coughing was just as bad as trying to swallow. It hurt, insanely badly.

I could feel something plasticky, smooth and round press against my cracked lips. "Drink," the male voice said gently, sounding much nearer than before. Opening my mouth slightly (that hurt insanely, by the way. Why does every little action hurt so much?), I felt something roundish and pipe-like pushed into my mouth. "Sip some nectar, Perseas. You need it."

The male voice sounded gentle and kind, but how did he know my name? And who was he?

Grudgingly, I tried to sip a tiny bit of "nectar" into my mouth. My parched throat protested at the movements, and it took some effort to even suck some nectar from the straw into my mouth. The nectar seemed to have helped though, as my throat felt wet, unpatched, and as I gulped down some more, it felt like my body was beginning to function again. Breathing was no longer a pain in the ass, moving my body hurt a lot less, and the nectar tasted like mom's blue cookies. Except it was definitely liquid.

It didn't taste like honey at all.

I gingerly opened my eyes again, expecting pain to shoot through. This time, I could at least see without hurting, so I opened my eyes wider and stared at the guy sitting beside my bed.

He looked very, very much like the guy who appeared in my mental images-back when I met the three old creepy ladies. The one they told me to give the box to.

Except I didn't really have the box at hand, innit? It was back in our apartment. No, the apartment, the one me and mother shared with slimy Gabe.

He had blonde spiky hair, and striking blue eyes. His expression was kind, and though he had defining features, they were somehow able to feel soft and make him look super handsome when combined with his face.

"The sleeping princess wakes. Well? How do you feel?" He asked, his deep and masculine voice triggering something inside me.

"Uh..erm..whe..I uh…uhhhh…."

He raised an eyebrow at me.

It was just then I realized I was fumbling my words. I tried to look away, blushing so furiously I felt my ears turn red.

It wasn't until he started chuckling at my garbled and random response I realized he enjoyed that. Something ignited deep within me at his chuckles, and I sprung up, angrily staring at him. "Woah there, Perseas! Calm down, you won't want your wound opening up again!"

It seemed like he cared for me, and so I gently lay back down as his hand gently pushed me back down onto the bed. My mind was blank as I stared at him, and I was probably drooling at him because he started chuckling again. "What…stop laughing at me!" I whined, suddenly realizing what I was feeling.

Gosh! I was seeing this dude for the first (okay, second if you count the mental images the grannies gave me) and I'm already falling for him! Perseas, get a grip on yourself!

To his credit, he did stop laughing and looked me straight into the eye. "Okay, fine, I'll stop. But seriously, how are you feeling? Hungry? In pain?" "I'm fine…?" Gods, his eyes were mesmerizing, I could get lost in them…I wanted to stare at them for all of eternity…

No! What was I thinking!

I furiously shook my head to clear my thoughts. Apparently, I must've looked hurt or in distress, as he leaned closer and asked in his deep yet gentle voice, "are you alright? Do you need help?"

My heart pounded in my rib cage as I blushed hard and shook my head again. He nodded and backed off, before offering some white-ish slightly transparent cubes to me, with bits of green, orange, honey yellow and purple-reddish stuff inside. "Here, eat one of these. It'll make you feel better." He smiled, and oh gosh his smile was so dazzling-

Cut it out, me!

I blushed again as I gingerly took one and popped it in my mouth. It tasted great, and I sighed in relief. The bits inside tasted-or at least felt like-fruit, and it smelled fruity. He must've seen the blissful expression on my face, as he asked me, "tasted nice? Want some more?" I nodded, before asking him between bites, "what are these?"

He smiled- gods, that infuriating, lopsided smirk of his- and said, "ambrosia squares. They're able to heal you- you're a demigod alert all- and also tastes quite nice, but don't eat too much or you'll burn up."

What did he mean, burn up?

"Oh, burning up? It means you'll start combusting from the inside. Ambrosia is godly food after all, same with-" he gestured to the cup with a straw in it- "nectar, and since we're not fully gods, we can't eat that much or we'll go *poof*." How did he know? Could he read minds or…? He must've seen the shocked expression on my face, as he explained, "you looked quite confused back there, so I assumed you were gonna ask what that meant, burning up."

Well that explained it. I nodded my head- it wasn't polite to speak to someone when you had food in your mouth- and grabbed another square to eat. He stopped me though, saying, "You've already had enough of that. I won't want you to burn up in this bed, won't I?"

"Fair point," I sulked. It was only then I realized I hadn't even asked for his name and I was already (kind of) fantasising about him. Gods! What was my brain doing? "Uhh…random guy I don't know?" I asked, trying to hide my blushing and embarrassment, "what's your…Y'know, name?"

"Oh! Right, sorry. I haven't properly introduced myself, sorry. I'm Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes. And I presume you are…" he trailed off, waiting for my response, but I was deep in fantasy land.

Luke. Such a good name, such an elegant, cool and fitting name for this guy. Like Luke from Star Wars. Oh my…I can't wait to be moaning out his name when I…wait, WHAT?

"Uh…earth to Perseas?" Luke's words brought me back out from my thoughts. "Sorry, nothing, just thinking about…wait, no, nothing." I tried to play it off cool, hoping he didn't notice my beetroot red face. "Ah, it's fine, don't worry about it. But uh…Perseas? You're called that, right?" I looked at him and nodded, avoiding his gaze as I feared I would be mesmerized by it again. "Y-yes," I muttered-gods, why was I stuttering? He nodded and asked me, "how should I call you then?"

"Uhh..you can ca-call me Percy. Or Perseas. Or Perseas Amphitrite Jackson. Or Jackson. Or-no, wait no, don't-" his chuckle cut me off again. Gods, why was I fumbling with my words?

"Right, Percy. I'd like to have kept you here for a bit longer, to know you better, but since you've been here in a coma for 7 days-" seven? What? Was it that long? It only felt like hours with Thaila! "-I must pass you over into Annabeth's care."

He then paused for a bit, before seemingly remembering something. "By the way, we recovered the horn you cut off from the m-minotaur," he said. I couldn't help but notice the slight stutter he had there with the name of that…beast. He then turned around and grabbed a shoebox placed on top of the cabinet next to him, before handing it over to me. It was surprisingly heavy, and I almost dropped the box-luckily for me, Luke steadied the box in my hands, and I gave a sheepish grin and mumbled, "Thanks."

"No problem, Percy. It's not everyday someone shows up fighting the minotaur though, so keep your horn to yourself- it's a valuable spoil of war that a lot here sought after."

He then looked around, before seemingly being annoyed by something. "ANNABETH!" he yelled out of the room. "Coming…" a female voice grumble somewhere outside, before a blond girl about the same age as me stomped in and froze as she stared at me.

Annabeth was every bit like those California girls they liked to put on magazines- except for the fact that her eyes were stormy grey. Her body had nice curves to them, and her blonde ponytail swayed slightly and invitingly as she moved. When her grey eyes locked onto mine, I could see her gears spinning between her ears as she stared at me. Quickly, she broke off her gaze, but I swore I saw her blush for a moment before she reverted into a neutral look.

"So she's the girl you've been going on about?" She asked stonily. "Uh…yeah, why did you ask, annabeth?" He replied. She leaned in to whisper into his ears, and he looked at me briefly before sharing a knowing glance between themselves.

"Uh…guys?" I asked, breaking the silence in the room. They both glanced at me slightly awkwardly before Luke stood up. "Okay, Perseas-" "Please, just call me Percy, or Perce. Both are fine." "Okay then, Percy. Annabeth's gonna go ahead and give you a tour of the camp. Chiron's busy, so it's unfortunate he can't greet you now or give you a tour through the big house." He then turned and began to walk out of the door, before turning around and telling Annabeth to "not treat me too harshly".

Once he was out of the room, Annabeth stared at me for a bit, as if I were an alien, before saying, "You drool in your sleep."

"Uh…excuse me, what?"

"Nothing." She blushed, before turning around and motioning for me to follow. As we stepped out of the room and off the poarch, I gasped in awe, greeted by a marvellous sight.

The camp looked stunning. When I arrived, it was dark and raining , the hill hid the view I could have seen at the camp. Now though…I could see numerous buildings sprawled in front of me, as well as the fields with some people working on them behind one of the nearest buildings near us. I could see some woods beyond that, and a high rise with a pile of rocks that looked like a fist. Within the lush woods, I could swear I saw movement, but those glimpses disappeared as quickly in a matter of seconds. I could also see a small creek running out from the woods and behind the building in front of us, disappearing into the section of woodland surrounding the building.

"Uhh, hello Percy?" Annabeth's voice jolted me out of my awe. "Oh! Sorry, yeah?" She sighed , and I could swear I heard her mutter the words "beautiful but stupid" under her breath. I narrowed my eyes slightly, but since she already had her back turned towards me and was already walking down the path towards the creek, she (luckily) didn't catch it.

Hurriedly, I ran after her, clutching my box tightly. She seemed to be leisurely strolling along the path, occasionally looking back with a cold and uncaring look as if she was all high and mighty. She seemed to be bored by the tour too, as she would point at things and utter a single word, or sometimes words, depending on the location, and not offer an explanation. The camp seemed massive, but I didn't really know why the stables were so near the woods, or why there had to be strawberry fields. Finally, after her brief and hollow introduction of the area in front of the "big house" and the woods, and after she shot me countless numbers of cold looks, I finally couldn't resist asking her while we were on our way back towards the direction where we'd came from, "what's with you and your attitude?" I snapped at her, and instantly regretted it.

She stopped in her tracks, and put down her heels to look at me. Her eyes smoldered with cold fury, and I took a step back. "Uh ...did I do something…wrong?" I asked, reaching for my pocket unconsciously- and felt the tip of the magical pen that landed in my pocket during my fight with the minotaur. How it kept reappearing in my pocket, I didn't know. But honestly, I had bigger problems at hand than questioning why the one kept reappearing- namely the wrath of Annabeth, or at least the fury she seemed to be ready to unleash onto me.

She took a step forward, and I took a step back-well, stumbled a few steps back. If looks could kill, I'm sure Annabeth's look would have cut me into pieces. "Because, Perseas Apmitrite Jackson, your insufferable 'looks and charisma' stole Luke from me." I saw tears well up in her eyes as she continued, "me, Luke and Thaila, we were family! And you, insufferable prick, took my only remaining family away from ME!" Her screeching certainly caught the attention of the people farming in the strawberry fields (at least, those I see), as they all looked in our direction, before resuming their work. I lowered my head, unsure of what to do in front of this raging demigod.

A sniffle in front of me caught my attention, and I looked back toward Annabeth- to my horror, I saw tears streaming down her cheeks. Unsure what to do, I stepped forwards and hugged her. Probably not a wise thing to do-considering she was going to murder me (or at least, looked like she was gonna) but to my surprise, she hugged me back tightly. "I'm-i'm so s-sorry," she choked out, "I-I- my emotions g-got the b-better of m-me, s-sorry Perc-cy." "It's okay, it's okay…I'm sorry to have snapped at you too…"she coughed and choked out a laugh, before she pushed me away, wiping tears from her face. "Either way, I'm sorry," she apologized, still sounding a bit down. "It's just that…I like Luke, and I even…" leben what?" She blushed. "Well…I might have shared a few kisses with him before. We've never officially dated, but he's a…hmm, let's just say he's both a brother and a partner to me."

"Uhm…would you be mad if I had him as a partner then?" I asked, and she looked at me, shocked. "…what?" Her eyes narrowed, and she averted her gaze, before looking at me again. "I…well, I suppose. I don't really have an intimate or romantic relationship with him…but why ask?"

I must've blushed extra hard, because I felt my face heat up and I could see Annabeth giggling. "It's not funny!" I pouted, and Annabeth giggled even harder. "You look so cute when you're frustrated!" She then grabbed my hand and pulled me close. "I'm sorry how I treated you earlier, but…you need any more explanations on anything I've just said?"