ATTENTION: ANOTHER LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE

I've gotten many reviews about the past chapter (all of them saying that they loved it. Thanks!) but saying that they read really fast and that they finished with 'x' amount of the song left.

I've realized the problem.

At first I was confused, because I am a really fast reader. I can blow through books in hours. But then it hit me.

When I was reading it over, there would be certain parts of the story that fit in really well with the music, and since I heard the song about 50 times over, I knew exactly what part of the story I should be at pertaining to the song. And since you guys didn't know that, you just read through the extremely short chapter that I wrote with minutes to spare in the song.

Make sense? So I knew that Percy yelling about the spoil of war would be at the part where the music was the most dramatic, and when the music gets quieter, that was when Annabeth forgave Percy. Then I would stall until the music was at its final notes, and that's when I would read the part when she kissed him. So I read unconsciously slower because I wanted to match up the words to the song.

All in all, the song just distracted me. But it was still a good song. :D

The end.

Phew, long authors note. If you read through all of that, congratulations! You win a prize—the joy of reading more words than the other people. You're welcome.

Let it commence.

Percy

Dread washed through me. I trailed off, realizing my mistake.

"What is it?" Annabeth asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Oh, no…" I muttered. My heart sank down to my stomach. I looked away from Annabeth, and I could feel her eyes boring into my back. I felt absolutely horrible.

"Percy," Annabeth said through gritted teeth. "What? Is? It?"

"The spoil of war," I mumbled.

"What?"

I lost it. All of the guilt and the rage towards myself just crashed out. "We were supposed to get the spoil of war!" I yelled angrily, rounding on her. "I forgot the spoil of war, okay? And now we can't get them back! You can't get them back! It's all my fault…"

I realized that I was still holding her hand, and I pulled it away. I rubbed my eyes with my fists, and then let them run down to my cheeks. How could I have forgotten? I stared at the ceiling, avoiding her gaze.

I shouldn't have taken it out on Annabeth. It wasn't her fault. I was just…distracted after we killed the monster. She was so scared and hurt, and she just needed my help. I'd completely forgotten to even look for the spoil of war. I had no idea what it even was. And because of that, it was probably gone by now. We wouldn't be able to go back, we wouldn't be able to get it. We wouldn't be able to get our memories back.

Probably never.

I could see Annabeth out of the corner of my eye. She was staring at me, her mouth open in shock. Several emotions flickered across her face. Anger, confusion, sadness. And hurt. It was in her eyes, and she was shooting the hurt at me like poisoned arrows.

She sank to the ground and sat, wrapping her arms around her legs and putting her forehead on her knees. I couldn't see her face anymore, and I didn't know if she was crying or not.

I was suddenly aware that my eyes were getting wet. I didn't wipe the tears away, though. I felt like I deserved it.

"Annabeth…I'm so sorry. I am so sorry. This is all my fault…all my fault." My hands fell away to my face and to my side. I looked away from her again.

"You probably can't even look at me."

She was silent, and I looked at Hypnos. He had his arms folded over his chest, but he hadn't said anything. He just stared at us with his black eyes, his mouth in a hard line. His wings were pressed tightly against his back.

I suddenly felt her take my hand. I turned around, surprised. Why was she doing this? She had every right to be mad at me.

Her face looked sad, but she didn't seem angry anymore.

"Annabeth, I—"

She cut me off by pulling me into a hug. She held onto me tightly, and her hands ran up and down my back. She put her head on my shoulder.

"Shh. It's okay," she said softly. "Don't worry. We've still got each other, and that's what matters, right?"

I pulled away, shaking my head. "No. It's not okay. I—"

"Just shut up, Seaweed Brain."

She leaned in, closing her eyes, and pressed her lips against mine.

It was like my mind was waiting for it all along. It all became a blur. My eyes shut, and colors whizzed across the backs of my eyelids. Fireworks were erupting in my chest, and sparks flew from our lips.

I pulled her gently closer, just feeling. Feeling the fireworks, the sparks, the colors, and her. Her lips against mine, her hands around my neck, her hair brushing my cheek.

The kiss wasn't passionate. It was gentle and soft. I wrapped my arms around her, and she pulled away. We were inches apart, and our noses were almost touching. Her beautiful gray eyes were shining, and a small smile tugged on her mouth.

She hugged me, and I hugged her back tightly. We stood there for what felt like days, holding each other close.

She relaxed and stepped back, still looking at me.

"Who knew you were such a good kisser?" she said, smiling.

Before I could even answer, a voice yelled out.

"Finally!"

We jumped and looked around. Hypnos had thrown his hands in the air, looking smug.

"Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to do that? I mean, come on!"

I stared at him. "What?"

"It was all a test, and I about thought you would fail! There is no spoil of war for the leukrokottas! Can you imagine what would happen if all monsters had a spoil?"

Annabeth had an unreadable expression on her face. "You're telling me that you sent us on a near-impossible quest killing a dangerous monster, having us believe there was a spoil of war, and all we needed to do was kiss?" I hadn't noticed her storm steadily towards Hypnos until she was staring him down in the face, fists clenched.

He crossed his arms again. "My, for a child of Athena, you've caught on quite slow. Tell me, was the kiss worth it? I know you've wanted to do it for a while."

She blushed pink and glanced back at me. I felt heat go up to my face, too.

"Now, would you so kindly get out of my face? I could easily blast you down, and I'm sure that Percy will try to seek revenge or something, or do you still want your memories back?"

She took an uneasy step back. "I—why?"

"Why did I do this? I knew that you guys were so in love with each other before your memory loss. I can see into dreams, remember? I wanted to see if that would carry over. Of course, with the Lethe being my symbol and all, I was able to do you a little…favor by preventing some of your memories from being taken, along with the help from Aphrodite. She came to me about it, because she knew what was going to happen. Apparently you're the cutest couple she's ever seen since Helen and Troy. And we all know how that turned out."

My mouth was opening and closing like a fish. I think I made a bit of a strangled sound. The only thing I could really think about was what exactly he saw in my dreams.

"But you said you didn't know why we still had some memories!" Annabeth said.

"I lied," Hypnos said, shrugging. "You know, I expected a bit more gratitude. Saving some of your memories and whatnot…"

"I guess…" Annabeth muttered reluctantly. I knew she was still upset about the whole 'I'm-hooking-you-up-without-you-knowing' thing. Honestly, I felt slightly insulted. Did our kiss mean nothing? Because I thought she felt it, too.

"Does this mean that we can get our memories back?" I managed to ask once I swallowed the lump in my throat.

If a guy with pits for eyes could roll them, Hypnos would have. "Did you pass my test?"

Annabeth glanced at me again, and then walked back and took my hand.

Maybe she did feel something.

"Who's going first?" she asked.

And...scene.

Describing the kiss was fun :) I couldn't stop grinning the entire time I was writing it.

Sorry it took me a while to update. When I wrote this a couple days ago, I was seriously about to update it (I had it in the editing, and I was adding the Author's Notes) when my internet shut down. I was so mad! My dad was able to fix it about two hours later, but then I was busy for the rest of the week with back-to-school shopping and freaking out about senior year.

ugh, senior year.

Also, school is starting next week, so I won't be able to update every day anymore. I might have to set aside a day of the week to update like other authors. Sorry :( I don't want to, but it's kinda unavoidable.

AND, since I made it into the top choir in my school (Chamber! Question, it seems like all the writers on fanfiction are in choir. Has anyone else noticed that?) I'm going on a retreat to a cabin in the mountains for two days for bonding and trust and games with the choir before school starts so we are a 'better' choir. I'm excited! So that means that I won't be able to update Friday or Saturday. I might be able to do it before I leave, or on Thursday, but I'm not sure. No promises.

ANYWAY, now that this chunk of an Author's Note is over, tell me what you think!

Quite the curveball, eh?

Sigh...I love Hypnos. Probably because he's one of 'my' characters, and not Riordan's.

You know what I mean.

Okay, I think I'm done here.

OKAY BYE.

R&R THE KISS OMG.