Chapter 20

The Met.

Or the Metropolitan museum if you wanted to call it.

Probably one of the most favorite places that Annabeth loves to go to when she's bored.

And now she gets to go for work? Score!

Reyna had approved of the A.R.G.O II project, so after telling Leo, Annabeth was now going to the Met to get some inspirations for the project.

First of all, A.R.G.O II was going to be a huge memorial statue that they were going to build inside the building.

It was supposed to be this very big attraction, so Annabeth was pretty honored to be able to design it.

The whole team was there to get ideas.

Leo decided that they would all get into pairs and spread out through the whole museum.

An arm suddenly grabbed hers and a very familiar voice shouted out, "I pick Annabeth!"

Out of her embarrassment, she couldn't control the growing pinkness rising to her cheeks as she turned to see no other than her brother— Percy Jackson— smiling that billionaire smile at her.

He was wearing a dark cardigan over a white shirt and some nice jeans with some converse sneakers.

It was sort of weird seeing him in rather casual clothes. She had seen him wear a t-shirt and jeans before, but he dressed rather like a rich billionaire's son most of the time.

Annabeth decided she rather liked casual Percy— it was more.. him.

"What in the world are you doing here?" she asked, staring at him with her raised brow, "This is a team assignment. And last I checked, you weren't on the team."

"Yeah, but I'mthe CEO. I have to make sure the plans go great for the A.R.G.O project." he said then leaned down to whisper in her ear, "And… I also have to make sure my lovely sis doesn't get kidnapped by bad guys. We wouldn't want that now would we?"

Annabeth tried to resist letting her body shiver from his whispers. Her efforts failed terribly and she shot a glare at his all knowing smirk.

She rolled her eyes and started to walk away from him in the direction, she knew was the greek mythology section.

"Wow," she said staring in awe at the ancient sculptures and antiques. This part of the museum never failed to amaze her.

Annabeth was well aware of how Percy was doing well to not leave her side, which she had to admit— felt good.

She took out her sketchbook and started jotting down ideas as she passed from artifact to artifact. Her eyes caught a painted vase done very exquisitely, though it was what was painted that had gotten her attention.

It was a drawing of an awesome looking ship with what looked to be seven demigods on it.

The thing was, the ship looked like it was flying, seeing as there wasn't any ocean drawn anywhere. It looked almost out of its time, like it should have been something built in this modern century. Plus… it had a metal dragon's head attached to the front and it was breathing fire.

Huh. That's weird, but pretty cool.

She sketched out a drawing of the ship— it would definitely come in handy.

Percy's breathe blew lightly on her neck.

Her breathe hitched and her pencil froze in her hand as Percy leaned further until he rested his chin on her shoulder, staring in awe at the vase.

He pointed to the description below the glass show case.

"Look, Annabeth."

She did and was interested even more, to say the least.

It read: "Vase with a painting of the Argo II ship which was used to help the seven great demigods known as the Heroes of Olympus to close the gates of Tartarus and defeat Gaea also known as Mother Earth…"

It went on and on about some of the rest of the things these seven demigods did and Annabeth thought it was pretty interesting.

"Heroes of Olympus, huh?" Percy said, narrowing his eyes as he read.

"Yeah, I guess."

They moved on after a while and Annabeth led Percy over to a statue of the demigod Perseus who was butt naked as all the other statues were.

"Hey, it's you." She said staring to laugh.

Percy went beet red and covered her eyes and said, "That's inappropriate."

She shook off his hands and laughed even more, not too subtly staring at the crotch area, "My. my. that's just sad."

"Hey!"

Snickering, she looked up at Percy, "Oh come on. I'm just joking."

Percy smirked at her slyly getting over his previous embarrassment, "Well then, I can prove to you that mine is so much better and nicer than that." he said pointing at the sculpture.

"Ew! No thank you."

Percy chuckled, "Well, whenever you want me to prove it, I'll be glad to—"

"No! Nonononono Definitely not."

He looked at her with a warm, amused smile on his face.

She was just too adorable.

Annabeth stared back and then finally gave him a bright, small smile of her own.

Percy smiled even wider and wrapped his arm around her shoulders to lead them over to the next artifact. She felt warmness rise in her face from his brotherly gesture and though it wasn't supposed to be mean anything more, she still felt her heart flutter a bit from his very near presence.

The rest of the Met trip went like this.

And Annabeth had to say she felt like she was able to always be herself around Percy. Every time she was with him she felt like she was herself. And the more she spent time with him, the more she felt like she would always need him beside her. And she knew he would always be there for her no matter what.

Her own words rang through her head.

He's my brother and he always will be.

The "always" in that sentence, now didn't seem that sure and definite to her.

Was she scared of this?

Scared that she might actually love him more than just a brother?

Scared of how that tugging feeling that was ever growing in the pit of her stomach would eventually overwhelm her?

She realized she wasn't. Not anymore. Because she knew something now as she sat at Thalia's kitchen counter with A.R.G.O blueprints set out in front of her.

She knew something definite about how she felt about Percy.

He was her brother and she was in love with him.

Author's Note:

Yes! She finally realizes it! Haha. Now there's room for some amazing Percabeth.

Percabeth which I know everybody has been very very patiently waiting for.

I know the chapter is short, but I thought it was best to end the chapter here— for effect.

This is still AU, just to clarify. Annabeth and Percy haven't been wiped of their memories of the fact that they were demigods or anything like that—though that would be one hell of a story. The history just seemed pretty cool to put in.

So guys, thanks for the reviews, as always!

And be sure to wait closely for updates.