Chapter Twenty

Percy laid alone on his cot. The cell was silent. Everyone had long since gone to bed but Percy had an annoying case of "insomnia" if that was the word for it. He turned his head to the right where his half-brother should be, but wasn't anymore. Jason had been given his own cell next to Thalia over the past week and now Percy slept alone.

He blew a lock of black hair out of his face and continued to stare at the ground. Yep, this was the life of our hero, spending the time in which he could be sleeping, staring at a speck of dirt. How impressive.

Percy's lazy thought were interrupted by the sound of footsteps outside his cell. A guard walked to his cell and unlocked the door. Percy sat up in confusion. "Get up," the guard said.

Percy obeyed and followed the guard out of the cell and down the halls of the confines to a wooden door. The guard opened it and gestured for Percy to enter. Once the raven haired boy was in, the guard handcuffed him to a chain attached to the wall.

"You will be respectful to her," the guard ordered. "I don't know fully understand your grudge with the emperor but you will show respect to her. Play nice Cupcake." And he left the room, closing the door.

The door closed with a thud and Percy rolled his eyes. Cupcake? Really? He turned his attention to the sound of voices outside the door. One of them sounded female. He strained his ears to understand what they were saying. The door opened and a figure in a cloak entered. "Thanks Hedge," she said before the door closed behind her.

Percy eyed the person suspiciously. Was it one of Triton's assassin? His attempts were just sad, trying to kill him in secret and chaining him to a wall in case. He chuckled.

"What is it?" the cloaked person asked. The voice was female and it sounded familiar. Then he saw it. A single blonde curl fell out of the shadow of the hood and her identity hit him at once.

Percy grinned his lopsided grin. "What exactly scared you so much of me that you would be possessed to chain me to a wall inside closed doors just to talk to me? I thought we were friends Annabeth."

The figure lifted their petite fingers to their hood and removed it, revealing the smirking face of Annabeth Chase. "Nothing gets past you does it, Percy?"

Percy smiled and shook his head. "Back to my question, why exactly am I chained to a wall?"

A look of guilt spread across Annabeth's face as a sheepish smiled formed on her lips. "Um, that wasn't my idea. Hedge, the guard. He's a little paranoid but he's a nice guy."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "He called me Cupcake."

"He calls everyone he doesn't like cupcake."

"Hey!" Percy protested.

Annabeth chuckled. "You know, the last time I talked to you, you a big, bad, and serious general."

Percy snorted. "Me? Serious? Hmm, must have been someone else."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "So…"

"Why'd you come here?" Percy asked.

Annabeth blushed. Why did she come here?

Because you like him and want to be with him.

She really needed to control her subconscious. It was surfacing waytoo much to be healthy.

"Um," she stuttered.

"The reason wouldn't happen to be me would it?" Percy asked innocently.

She rolled her eyes again. "Oh please, as if your ego isn't big enough."

"My ego is not big!"

"Oh yeah, Mr. 'my-name-is-perseus-romulus-jackson-bastard-son-of-the-emperor-and-all-that-yada-yada'?" Annabeth taunted.

Percy blew a lock of raven hair out of his face indignantly. Annabeth chuckled. Percy paused. Her laugh was beautiful, like music. Cliche, but the truth. He wondered what it would be like to hear her sing.

"So, are you going to free me anytime soon?" Percy asked, nudging his head towards the cuffs around his wrists.

"Sure." Percy expected her to pull out a key or call Hedge but his eyes widened when she pulled out a dagger from her cloak. "Uh, what're you doing?" he asked nervously.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Freeing you obviously, now hold still," she ordered.

She inserted the tip of her dagger into the keyhole of each cuff and soon Percy was free. He gaped at her as he rubbed his wrists.

"What?" Annabeth asked, confused.

"You have a dagger?"

"Why shouldn't I, and stop gaping Seaweed Brain!" she said, annoyed by Percy's open jaw which immediately snapped closed at the comment.

"Seaweed Brain?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Well, you couldn't have been too smart to have been gaping at me for like two minutes just because I had a knife. I mean, if you've met Thalia then-"

"Wait Thalia?" Percy asked bewildered at the mention of his friend.

"Yeah Thalia, my friend, she got banished and-" Annabeth continued.

"As in Thalia, daughter of the emperor?"

Annabeth nodded.

"She's here too," Percy said.

Annabeth's eyes widened. "Sh-she's here? I mean I knew Jason was here but, Thalia? How?"

Percy shrugged. "I guess just luck. One day I'm rolling along on the rode in a slave caravan and the next thing I know this spiky haired girl with anger issues-" Annabeth smacked him upside the head for talking about her friend like that. "Geez, violent are we?" Percy teased. "Anyway, we got sold together to Chiron, a gladiator school master, and then we fought so well along with Luke and my brother, Nico, and we got sent to Rome. Then we fought and PO'd the Emperor and now you're here stalking me," he finished with a lopsided grin.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes while trying to hold in her chuckles. "Stalking? I already knew where you lived."

"Ha, proof! You are stalking me!" he exclaimed, pointing a finger at her.

She raised an eyebrow. "Percy, if you didn't notice, you're kind of a gladiator."

"Oh," Percy said. It was fun teasing the grey eyed girl.

"You're such a Seaweed Brain," Annabeth smiled, shaking her head.

"There you go again with the Seaweed Brain stuff! What the heck does it mean?"

"Well, we already established that you kind of gaped at me for two minutes and to be quite honest, you looked like a fish. Then you somehow got 'stalking' out of me knowing you're a gladiator so, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth explained cheerfully.

Percy laughed. "That's pretty smart...Wise Girl."

"Wise Girl?"

"Hey, if you get to call me Seaweed Brain then I get to call you Wise Girl," Percy said, crossing his arms.

"Fine, you got me there," Annabeth conceded.

"Yeah, I proved I was smart!" Percy said pumping a fist in the air while wrapping his other arm around her waist and pulling her to him. Annabeth blushed from the close contact but managed to get out a snarky, "Don't get ahead of yourself Seaweed Brain."

Percy pouted and Annabeth laughed. It was like they had known each other for years. In a matter of minutes the two had talked like best friends. It amazed Annabeth how easy it was for her to talk to Percy. She had never been able to converse so easily with someone except for maybe Thalia. She stared into his beautiful sea green eyes, her eyes calculating. Both had stopped laughing and before either knew it, they were leaning in and suddenly, their lips touched.

Their lips moved in sync, as Annabeth moved her hand to his cheek and he pulled her closer. The two were absorbed into the kiss, as they were not two, but one. It was fascinating to Annabeth, how she had really only known this man for such a short time and yet, here she was, kissing him. But it didn't feel wrong, like it was rushed. It was gentle and careful. It felt like she had known this boy for ages. From the brief time that Annabeth had known the green eyed boy she had discovered so many things about him that not only made him more attractive but a better person and a better friend.

She smiled into the kiss, mentally laughing at how she was contemplating the boy she was kissing in the middle of the action, so, she relaxed into the kiss. Finally they broke apart for air.

The couple stared into the eyes of their partner, Annabeth nervously searching for any sign of rejection. She found her answer when she felt his lips touch hers again.

This time the kiss was more heated as Percy's tongue ran along her lips, asking for entrance which Annabeth gladly granted. She ran her hands through his raven locks as he traced circles on her back. Meanwhile Percy was in heaven. Her lips were full as he kissed her and he truly felt like he belonged. He belonged here, with Annabeth. This couldn't be lust could it? No, this had to be love. He loved her. Though he had only known her for a short time he had found both friendship and attraction for the blonde grey eyed girl. Wasn't that what your lover was supposed to be? Your best friend, the one you could trust with anything, because that's how Percy felt with Annabeth. Here, after talking to her like a long-time friend. Here while he kissed her, he was in bliss.

Author's Note: Sorry for not updating as quickly as usual! For the past two days I've been trying to balance basketball, homework, and choir and then I got my laptop taken away and then tonight I had to sing at a party so...Well, I hope I made it up to you by giving you, the one, the only, PERCABETH! Thanks for reading and reviewing and I want to give a special shout-out to appleawesomeness who has recently commented on every chapter except for 7. (What's wrong with Chapter 7?) Anyways, please review! Thanks again!