A/N: I apologize for the wait - student teaching is quite the task! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Warnings: queerphobic/homophobic language, public displays of affection. Like, real public. Enjoy!

ANNABETH

She's only about ninety nine percent done with Reyna and Piper making out in public and then whining about it back at the apartment or in class. From Reyna it's "I might have real feelings about it" and from Piper it's "I don't actually like her, but I, like, miss her. Sort of."

It's exasperating.

So the whole getting entirely drunk and dancing to Britney is Annabeth's personal way of completely ignoring the two of them until they work things out themselves.

Because Annabeth is sick and tired of dealing with their shenanigans and whining.

Unfortunately, the whole going to a party deal makes things a little more difficult to work through. Annabeth's trying to find Percy, but she's realized that there are a lot more people here than the last time the frat had a party (that's what happens, it seems, when you come at eleven instead of at ten thirty) and guys keep coming up to her.

Her response to the kid with frosted tips who asks her to come back to his dorm is, "Not on your life." Her response to the guy with blonde dreads and a shirt that reads Yale is for Harvard Rejects is who tells her that her shirt is cute, but would look better on his floor is, "And you'd look better if you never spoke." Her response to the guy who claimed they were in Econ together when Annabeth has never taken an Econ class in her life is, "Do I know you?"

It takes a little while before she runs into Percy and he trips over his own feet when he sees her.

"That's approximately the reaction I was looking for," says Annabeth. "Slightly, almost. A little. Do you need help up?"

"Will it make you lean over?"

Annabeth blinks. "Um, I guess?"

"Then hell yeah," says Percy. Cautiously, Annabeth leans over and pulls Percy up to standing. "Why did you ask about me bending over?"

"Because that shirt, while see through, is also low cut."

"So boobs."

"So boobs."

Annabeth can't keep help but laugh, and kisses him. "Happy one month anniversary, you weirdo."

"Happy anniversary to you," says Percy, taking her hand. "Are you ready to absolutely fuck shit up?"

"Yes," says Annabeth. "Piper and Reyna are totally in on it too. Like we'd ever have to ask them to dry hump in inappropriate places. So that's their goal? They're just supposed to make out inappropriately and name drop you if they're asked about it?"

"Yep," says Percy. "And they can say something inappropriate about the frat as much as possible."

"Can I say inappropriate things?" Annabeth says.

"You can say or do anything inappropriate you want," says Percy, kissing her neck. "But just do it in front of the idiot frat leaders, okay?"

Annabeth decides the responding in the manner of grabbing his ass would be the best way to execute this goal.

"And there it is," says Percy.

"There what is?"

"Weird Annabeth," he chuckles. "Weird in a good way, but – wait a second. What's that thing…Britney!"

Annabeth frowns. "My name is Annabeth, numbskull."

He rolls his eyes. "No, I meant Britney Spears. That's what you listened to the last time you got so drunk you tried to death drop and luckily tripped over the rug." He raises an eyebrow. "Were you listening to Britney Spears earlier?"

Annabeth avoids eye contact. "Maybe a little."

Percy just laughs.

REYNA

They've been at the party for maybe twenty minutes, but already Reyna's inappropriately run her fingertips up and down Piper's spine as they danced and shoved her right up against a wall. Or, at least they thought it had been a wall. After a couple unfortunate minutes, they realize it's the door to some kind of bedroom and two guys and a girl have to bang on the door to get the two of them to move.

Reyna presses Piper against the wall (this time they checked – it is a wall, and they're lucky Piper's short and not slamming her head into the decorative shelf) and thanks her lucky stars for the fact that she's actually been encouraged to feel this girl up in public. That girl in her lacrosse pinny (Reyna could tell Piper had never been part of organized sports, as she called it Reyna's jersey. How adorable) caused ninety percent of thoughts to leave her head.

Piper whines against her mouth and Reyna gives up on being anything but stupid as she picks Piper up by her thighs and lets the other girl wrap her legs around Reyna's waist. Piper makes a funny squeaking sound as Reyna shoves her against the wall more firmly, their lips colliding again. Piper's hands thread through her hair and roughly pull out her hair tie with no second thought about it looking good. Reyna's lips make their way along Piper's throat, and Piper sighs and moans concurrently, her head thudding hard against the wall as Reyna chuckles against Piper's skin.

Reyna knows someone is probably listening, knows people are definitely watching, but the feel of Piper's fingers pulling at her hair and her heels digging into her back is something she wouldn't give up for anything.

"Fuck," Piper whines, legs drawing Reyna even closer, "Reyna, come on, I just want to go do this in your room."

"I get it," Reyna grumbles against the skin of Piper's neck, "but we've got to stay here until we've gotten everybody annoyed enough."

"And exactly how long is that going to take?" Piper asks.

"I don't know," says Reyna, "are you seriously going to complain right now?"

"Yes," Piper replies, "because I know that you can do other, more interesting, things with that tongue and I want to experience it. Now."

"Christ you're impatient," mumbles Reyna, her lips working against Piper's more fervently, he movements more determined. "Shut up and just wait for someone to catch us."

Something changes in Piper as Reyna speaks, just like Reyna expects, and she crushes Reyna's lips to her own. Reyna can't help her hands from flying to Piper's ass and grabbing until one hand finds its way up the back of Reyna's shirt.

"Oh, come on," whines Piper, "my back? Why can't you get even more handsy?"

"Because you're the handsy one," Reyna laughs.

Piper groans and grabs Reyna's hand, sliding it up the front of her shirt where Reyna grabs bare, braless skin.

This time it's Reyna who whines.

"You're not wearing a real bra?"

"Just one of those neon half-cami things," Piper chuckles. "But a real one? Not even slightly."

"Are you trying to kill me?"

"Only a little bit."

Reyna rubs her thumb over Piper's nipple, and the gasp Piper lets out is loud enough to make a few people around them look horribly uncomfortable.

"Do you two mind?" asks some guy from beside them. "Some of us are trying to party."

"What the fuck do you think we're doing?" asks Piper, and Reyna can tell she's trying to remain snarky through what Reyna's fingers were doing. "Baking a soufflé?"

"You look like the two of you are baked in a different way," says the guy.

"Not baked," says Reyna, "we're just having a better time than you idiots."

The guy looks outraged. "How the fuck did you even get into this party?" he shouts. "Who invited you here?"

"Jason Grace," says Piper as Reyna replies with, "Nico di Angelo."

His eyes narrow. "Those queers?" he asks, looking furious. "Christ, nobody even wants them in this place, for fuck's sake."

And then, suddenly, something drastic changes in Piper's eyes and Reyna realizes she needs to back away immediately and seek shelter. A bomb is definitely about to drop.

PIPER

There was a little something that bothered her, and that little something is people being all around jackholes about people they don't even know.

"What did you just say?" she asks, and she can tell Reyna's stepped a few feet away. "Repeat it. Now."

"I called the queer a queer," he says. "What are you gonna do with it? Make out with your lesbo girlfriend?"

For a few seconds, Piper stares him down. She feels a strange, backward sort of pleasure as his expression drops from being haughty to being nervous. She grabs the front of his shirt in her fist, turns him, and throws him into the wall with, frankly, more power than she had realized she was capable of. "I think you should be a little more careful with the words you use, kid," she snarls. "And I think you should be a lot more careful who you say these words around. See, I have many friends who like the word queer and use it to define themselves. And when giant fuckwads like you turn it back into an insult, make it sound like a bad thing, that's when I get mad."

She leans closer to him, and he's still paralyzed, still startled, which gives her the chance to say the next part quietly, right in his ear. "How," she says firmly, "is a guy being into guys worse than smelling like an Axe-soaked butcher's bathroom floor and drunkenly parading around a party alone?"

She lets him go and, for good measure and because she's still mad, shoves him back into the wall before he has a chance to get himself back together.

"Come on, Reyna," says Piper. She takes Reyna's hand (she looks almost as shocked as the jackhole) and walks her into another room. Piper worries for a few minutes that she might have terrified Reyna a little beyond necessity.

The first thing Reyna says is, "Holy hell."

"Holy hell what?"

"You're badass!" Reyna exclaims. "Dude, you just read that guy the riot act. That was brilliant!"

Piper shrugs and pretends to brush dirt off her shoulder. "Can't apologize for being better than homophobic jerks." Despite her actions, her voice betrays a strange confusion that she just can't shake. "Though I'm not really sure how I got away with that. I mean, I'm tiny. He could have pushed me off at any time." She blinks. "God, he could have killed me if he really felt like it."

"I may have been standing behind you staring at him threateningly. I mean, not close," Reyna says with a shrug. "But if something had happened, I could have stepped in. It was mostly you, Piper. He looked half convinced that you were going to kill him with your fists and sheer force of will."

Involuntarily, Piper feels her eyebrows shoot up. "I really did that?" she asks.

Reyna nods and laughs a little. "It was all you, vigilante." Piper brightens for a minute and feels herself smile like a goon.

"I'm a badass sometimes," she says. "I mean, I'm always a badass, but sometimes I'm productively badass. Sometimes I use my power for good."

"Rarely," laughs Reyna. "You rarely use your power for good."

"Oh, come on," and Piper makes sure her voice is barely more than a purr, "you like it when I use my powers for evil."

Piper fights back a laugh at the way Reyna's jaw drops.

ANNABETH

"Can we get it on in the kitchen or something," Annabeth asks Percy, nipping at his ear. She can feel him shudder against her. "Come on, Percy, let's get people really riled up when they can't get at their cheap beer in the fridge."

Percy literally whines as Annabeth trails her fingertips up Percy's abs and across his chest. "Annabeth," he grumbles, "come on, we need to at least pay at least a little attention to what's going on."

"But you're hot and I'm bored," she says with a pout, and he sighs, pulling her flush against him. She can feel him smile underneath her lips.

"Jesus, you're annoyingly sexy when you're whiny," he mutters against her mouth.

"Hmm," Annabeth replies, "I'd rather just that sexy part, but I can roll with annoying. Works for me."

"You're an idiot."

"I'm a funny idiot."

His response is to kiss her harder. Annabeth melts into him, and feels almost giddy as she kisses him. This task to make out inappropriately all over the party is the best thing Annabeth's ever been assigned to do, and the amount of horrified looks she's gotten from some of the girls who had given her, Piper, and Reyna snotty eye rolls as they walked in won't stop amusing her. As Percy tilts his head to kiss at her neck, one of them makes eye contact with her and mouths, "dumb slut."

Annabeth grins at her, lets her face fall into something she's hoping is a good imitation of a porn star expression, and flips her off as Percy slides his hand partway up her shirt.

"That's what I thought," mutters Annabeth.

Percy backs away. "What?" he asks.

Annabeth stares at him. "I may have been flipping off a rude girl while you were making out with me."

"That's not a joke, is it."

"Not it is not," Annabeth replies. "She was being rude and I was required to mess with her. It was my civic duty as a human being."

Percy gives her one of his looks, this one suggesting that she is absolutely bizarre if she had to guess, and sighs deeply. "I got myself into a seriously great mess with you, didn't I."

"Little bit, yeah," Annabeth replies, letting him pull her arms around his shoulders and pull her close. "I might be a complete weirdo."

"And I love you for it," he says quietly.

She can tell he didn't exactly mean to say it by the way his eyes widen about a second and a half after he says it, though she can assume her expression is similar. "You love me?" she asks, halfway dumbfounded.

"Maybe?" he responds, his voice a bit squeaky. "Is that o…kay?"

Annabeth nods, then shrugs, then throws up her hands. Words won't seem to come.

Percy grins in a confused kind of way. "I guess I do. Uh. I'm not sure I meant to say it," he says, frowning a bit. "I mean, not right now. All of a sudden. In a frat house we're trying to escape." He frowns. "I did not do this right."

"Not at all," says Annabeth. "And damn, this is early."

"Shut up," he whines, "I can't believe I just Moseby'd."

Annabeth chuckles as she flashes back to when Percy, a few days before Thanksgiving break, had introduced her to the show How I Met Your Mother's first season. "You totally Moseby'd," Annabeth replies. "If this was How I Met Your Mother, your show would make it eight episodes and then would get cancelled because you are a complete weirdo."

"You're the weirdo."

Annabeth raises one eyebrow.

"Okay," says Percy. "Maybe I am the weirdo."

Annabeth kisses him on the cheek. "I'll let you stop floundering around. I'm going to go talk to Nico," says Annabeth, "also, I'm going to give you more time to come up with a better comeback than weirdo. Okay?"

"You're the best!" calls Percy sarcastically.

"I know I am," she replies, and walks up next to Nico. She had spotted him in her peripheral as she and Percy had been talking, and his dour expression worried her.

"Oh," says Nico. "I thought you'd find me eventually."

"That's a kind response," she says. "Let's start over. Hi, Nico, my buddy. How's it hanging?"

"Don't call me buddy," he replies darkly. "Our plan isn't working. At all. I'm going to be stuck in this douchebag frat with me and Jason being shat on every three seconds."

"Oh, come on," Annabeth says. "Look over there. Your alleged lover and Jason's date are getting all up on each other." She gestures over to where Reyna and Piper are now, at this point, grabbing each others' butts.

Nico's eyes linger for a little longer than they probably should, and Annabeth smacks him in the shoulder. "Quit it, dude," she laughs. "I said look, not gawk. I mean, yes, objectively, they are hot, but they're only making out for the task at hand." Annabeth frowns. "Well, probably not. They do this all the time."

"You're right about hot," Nico laughs. "But I have my eye on someone else right now."

Annabeth can feel herself light up. "Someone else?!" she exclaims. "Ooh, tell me! Is it that hot girl with the cargo pants and the pink hair?"

"No."

"The guy with the purple tank top?"

"No."

"Are you going to tell me who you're into?"

"No."

"Well that's all just because you suck," says Annabeth, folding her arms.

"I do," says Nico, with a smarmy grin, "but that's kind of beside the point. I'm not telling you."

"Do you want to go bangity bang with Percy?" Annabeth asks. "Because I know you used to want to, and I totally don't blame you."

"I'm going to kick you and, no."

"Is it one of your brothers?"

"Not really," says Nico, and Annabeth has him caught. She watches his face fall as he realizes she's figured him out. "Oh, no. Oh no, no, no. You are so not able to figure it out by –"

"I know who it is!" she exclaims. "Come with me, young grasshopper, and we shall discuss your affections."

"Who TALKS like that?!" Nico says, but he's dragged away and into another, quieter part of the frat house before he can say anything else. "God, you're weird."

"It's Jason," Annabeth blurts out, but she's quiet and made sure they were alone before running in here. "You're into Jason."

Nico drops his head against the wall. "Do I have to admit it?"

"Yes," says Annabeth. "Because only then you can confront your feelings and do something about it."

Nico stares at her. "Seriously, who ARE you?"

"Annabeth Chase," she says back. "How is this relevant? You're not changing the subject. How long have you liked Jason?"

Nico frowns. "Do I have to answer?"

Annabeth replies with a curt not.

Nico groans. "You are uncontrollable. Well, it only just happened this semester. I don't know, dude, just something changed. He got hot. Like, really hot. Out of nowhere. And went from five foot eight to like six three over about six months…" His sentence trails off. Annabeth takes the chance to prompt him.

"…And?"

" And it's killing me!"

Annabeth grins. "You're not dead yet. I think you should go for it," she says sincerely. "Really. I think something exciting could happen."

"Don't say that," Nico groans. "Seriously, don't say that. Because if I let myself want this and nothing good comes out of it, it's going to kill me."

"It won't kill you," says Annabeth. "It'll suck for a while, but it won't kill you."

He looks at Annabeth. "You say that," he says quietly, "but I don't know how you can know that."

"Because I've loved somebody who turned out to be literally evil and I'm here today." She says it easily, with a shrug and a side smile, because it's true and she's a bit drunk, and Nico's kind and harmless and, frankly, looks like he needs a friend. She made it. Why can't he? "Do I seem dead to you?"

"But what if he doesn't like me back?" Nico asks, and, for once, he actually looks like the nervous seventeen year old he is.

"What if who doesn't like you back?" asks a voice, and Annabeth looks up to see –

"Jason?!" asks Nico. "Jesus, how long have you been standing there?"

"Only a couple of seconds?" Jason says. "I was patrolling the party. I managed to knock over three trash cans and a couple making out against a door." He looks between Annabeth and Nico, and senses the atmosphere between them quickly. "What's going on?"

"N-nothing," says Nico. "Nothing at all." He pushes his way past Jason, but Annabeth goes with Jason to follow Nico, lagging just far enough behind that she can interfere if there's a problem, but she's forgettable enough if it goes well.

"Come on!" Jason exclaims, catching Nico's hand as he tries to dart off. "Wait, talk to me. You've always talked to me about this stuff. What's going on with you this semester?"

"Jason, I think you might want to wait to do this," says Annabeth, eyes darting from Nico to Jason in a manner that she's sure is blatant, but she can't quite help it. "At least until you're not in the middle of a frat party."

"No," says Jason, shaking his head. "No, he's going to like you back, Nico. Any guy, any girl who doesn't like you back is stupid."

"Really?" Nico asks, his trademark smirk starting to falter. "Anyone?"

Jason's fair skin blushes pink. He scratches at the hair at the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact. "I mean, of course they would." Jason looks up and meets Nico's eyes, and Annabeth can tell what he's about to say, somehow, but the way he takes a deep breath. "I do."

Their eyes search each other for a moment, and then, like it was planned ages before, like it had been written in the stars, the two of them surge together, and Annabeth almost can't keep herself from punching the air and yelling like her football team just won the championship. She fades into the background, and makes it so she's as out of the way as possible.

Jason's strong hands clutch Nico's face in his hands almost delicately, like he doesn't want to break him, whereas Nico's hands scrabble against Jason's back, trying to hold onto him, trying to prove that it's real. Annabeth turns to her left and locks eyes with Percy, who, to her surprise is grinning broadly and seems to be doing a strange little happy dance.

Silently, her eyes still mostly on her friends, she moves over to him.

"When did you get here?" she mutters. "I left you over by the pong table."

"Popped over when I heard Jason yelling," Percy replies. "The man is loud when he's trying to get somebody's attention." Percy scoffs. "It took them long enough, though, right?"

"You totally knew they were into each other," says Annabeth. "And you didn't say anything?"

"Wasn't my place," he replies, a small, funny little grin. "But yeah, I knew. I've known on Jason's part for a long time. But he wasn't ready to say anything, and Nico wasn't quite there yet."

"You continue to surprise me," Annabeth says quietly, but just as she's about to throw her arms around him and kiss him for all he's worth, she hears someone with a deep, older voice speak.

"Well now. That's unexpected."

Percy, hopefully acting in a manner out of his control, flings Annabeth's arms away from him and moves to hide her behind him. At first, Annabeth's startled. What, does he think some frat dude is going to jump him in the middle of the party? Really?

That's when she turns around. "Percy, what are you doing?"

"That," he says in a very small voice, "is my father."

"Your father?!"

"And Jason's," he says, his voice even tinier, "and Nico's."

Annabeth looks over to where Jason and Nico, still wrapped up in each other, are seconds away from turning their heads and seeing their fathers' dumbstruck faces.

"Well then," says Annabeth. "This should be quite the interesting –"

"What in the goddamned hell is going on here?!" shouts a blonde man with a beard.

" – night."