A/N: Hi again! If you've been on my tumblr, you've probably seen that I've been writing a bunch for pre-HoH excitement and Percy/Annabeth week. I hope you enjoy!

Annabeth storms out of the museum, angering the tour guide, and Percy throws him an, "I'm sorry, my fault, I'm sorry," as he runs off after her.

"Annabeth!" he says, catching her arm as she tried to stomp away. "Annabeth, wait, what did I do?"

She turns to him, her eyes the color of a thunderstorm sky in September, and he reels back, startled at her fury. "You," she says, dangerously quiet, "don't have any respect at ALL for the things I am interested in, and I am absolutely sick of it."

He blinks. "Are you kidding me?" he replies, astonished. "Like your interpretations of that grey painting are any better just because you decided it represents morality and the line between good and evil? Come on."

It's Annabeth's turn to be startled. "You were listening to me?" she asks. Then she returns to her anger. "Not important, Percy. You didn't have to make fun of the painting."

"I did, actually, because it's a piece of paper with grey, dark grey, and light grey paint all over it with a dot of even darker grey paint in the middle of it. Was it wrong to ask if someone hurled a black-and-white movie onto the canvas? Yes. Was it funny enough to be worth it. Also yes."

"NO!" screams Annabeth. "It's NOT okay to say shit like that, you fucking moron!"

This is when Percy knows he has past "Seaweed Brain" and gotten into "moron who doesn't deserve oxygen" territory. Because Annabeth swears when she's about to kill you, and rarely before, and rarely after.

He's eighteen. He's had a good run. But he's not exactly planning on dying anytime soon, mostly because dying because of critiquing a stupid painting is a terrible way to die.

"Whoa, Annabeth, I -"

She storms toward him and looks him dead in the eye. "How dare you talk about the painting like that," she says quietly, "what if the artist heard you speak that way?"

It's like a kick to the chest. "Annabeth, I -"

Of course, that's when the dracaena barges in, clothed in a scarf and a sweater dress and leggings and hipster glasses. "I heard you were mocking my art," she states simply. "The ignorant must die."

Annabeth swears a string of unmentionables and turns to Percy. "When we're getting judged in Hades, I'm blaming you for this. And for everything."

Before Percy can even move, before he can even think, before he can even process what's happening, Annabeth's attacking the dracaena not to kill, but to battle. He finds himself, despite the situation, chuckling a bit as he realizes that the dracaena doesn't know who she's up against, that Annabeth's dueling first to dispel anger and second to kill.

"You defend and don't attack," hisses the dracaena, "you will never deafeat me if-"

"Ugh. Bite me," grumbles Annabeth, and finally decides that the time for play is over and that this dracaena is going down.

Seconds pass and then her pencil skirt and ruffled blue and green top are coated in a thin layer of monster ask, and she's in front of Percy with an extremely annoyed look on her face.

"I'm sorry I forced you to see meaning in a painting made by a fucking monster," she grumbles, almost reluctantly.

"I'm sorry I'm not good at listening to you when you tell me to shut up."

"You're not sorry about that. If anything you're sorry you agreed to come to the museum with me."

"I am not!" exclaims Percy. "I just - well, I thought it would be the science museum."

To his surprise, Annabeth's eyes light up. With one hand she sheaths her dagger and grabs Percy hand, and with the other she begins fervently dusting off her top. "Science museum?" she asks, looking excited. "Why didn't you just say so? Let's go look at the physics exhibits!"

Again, it takes Percy a couple of minutes to figure out how they went from fighting in a museum to fighting a Greek demon to going to another museum, but he figures this is just one of those times where Annabeth takes the lead and he follows her into the great unknown.

And, as he'll figure out later, the spinny thing that explain centrifugal and centripetal force is stupidly fun.