"So, some centaurs used a Trojan horse pickup line on Atalanta?" "Correct"
"Didn't she live long before the Trojan War and therefore long before the concept of the Trojan horse was a thing?" "Yes, maybe Kronos was drunk and didn't take care of things happening in the correct order." "How did he get drunk? He was a pile of sliced titan meat at the bottom of Tartarus" "Maybe he got too close to the river Lethe. If you look at what that did to Bob, the idea of someone getting a bit tipsy from it doesn't seem too far-fetched" "Okay, back to the bad pickup lines. Show me what you got" "This would make more sense if you said it, unless… okay: They always say I'm a child of Poseidon, but if I am, why am I drowning in your eyes?" "That was clever. Any more?" "I'm trying to find one that's not super horny…" "I got one: Let's role play; I'm Hercules and you're the Nemean lion" "Why would you kill me?" "The lion had invulnerable skin, so Hercules literally hugged the air out of his lungs" "That makes a lot more sense. I'm not so sure about the part where I die from asphyxiation, but the rest sounds good. I've got another very fitting one: Hey, are you a child of Athena? 'cause you're owldorable" "I have no idea whether that was good or bad. You might not have been the lightning thief, but you sure as Hades stole my heart" "Aww. I got another Troy one: I see you got your walls up. Luckily, I have a Trojan horse" "What would that be in our current situation. Quick warning, I will now hyper fixate on this question for at least a few minutes eradicating all chances to resume our previous conversation. So, what does it stand for? Because it implies you used a disguise on something that made me let my guard down on you" "Idk, maybe love hormones" "Oxytocin strikes again" "Wasn't that the stuff that gives you creativity boosts at inappropriate times?" "Exactly. You could say that you infiltrated me with oxytocin. But what was the cover?" "Me comforting you I guess. I have a feeling that physical touch is kind of your love language" "It's more of a relief-from-traumatic-symptoms-language, but love language also fits. It does make me happy beyond the level of 'not currently having a breakdown'. To say it with the (slightly modified) words of a certain song, I love the way you hug" "You're also great at comforting. Remember what happened after our first quest?" "The day with the thunderstorm?" "Exactly that"
I though back to that day, over four years ago.
I was walking through the strawberry fields, thinking about what had happened in the last few weeks. After five long years, I had finally gotten my first quest. And all it took was a threat to the safety of the entire world and a child of the big three arriving at camp (though that had happened before and not led to a quest) Percy was such a seaweed brain, but also kind of cute, especially in the way he drooled in his sleep. Maybe bringing that up to him hadn't been the best conversation starter but he hadn't been completely weirded out by it, which was already better than how most people treated me. After my first quest with him, that impression hadn't changed. Neither had the impression of him being a seaweed brain. A cute one, but still a seaweed brain.
There was a thunderstorm right above and around us, but I knew the border would keep us safe. While walking, I spotted Percy, sitting on the grass next to the field. I felt my heart beating a bit faster. I'll admit it, maybe I had a tiny little hint of a crush on Percy. "How's it going?" I asked. "I'm fine" after a few years of at camp-half-the-time-I-spend-attracting-monsters-that-cause-severe-trauma, I knew when someone was not fine, but I didn't bring that up. I didn't need to though as just seconds later, lightning struck just outside the border. Percy took a step back, obviously scared. I sensed an opportunity. "Percy, are you scared of lightning?" I asked. "Lightning is significantly more dangerous than spiders" "Good point, but spiders are actively hostile towards me" "And Zeus is hostile towards me" "Fine, you win" "What happened to 'Athena always has a plan'?" "A plan for what? Successfully making fun of you for being scared without you successfully making fun of me for the same thing? Also, I wasn't trying to make fun of you" "It kind of sounded like that" "Are you talking about that thing where instead of assuming the person meant what they said, you try to determine a hidden meaning based on stuff like intonation and body language?" "Yes" "That doesn't really work for me. I just asked if you were scared" when lightning struck again, Percy's entire body twitched nervously and I could see he was about to reach for his sword. "I think this answers your question" That opportunity I had been sensing was becoming more realistic.
Even though I was trying to stay distant and despite my protest against going into the thrill ride o' love, I certainly didn't dislike Percy's company. There was just something about him drawing me to him. The idea of being physically close to him seemed very appealing. Being emotionally close was… it just seemed dangerous more than anything else. If I opened up to him, who knew how he'd harm me. But being physically close, no problem with that. I sat down on the grass, Percy did the same next to me, but not like right next to me. "Okay, you're scared" "Yeah" "And I understand that. Zeus doesn't like you. He just got his favorite toy back, so he's probably not that responsible right now. And the quest… a bit too much for a twelve year old" "You're just as young" "I'm 37 days older and five years more experienced. Back when you were still failing to learn your ABC's, I was already… It doesn't matter" I had almost told Percy about those terrible months of homelessness. I didn't remember a lot from them, but maybe that was normal with trauma. "That's okay" "So, you're less experienced. That's why it's okay that you're scared." I slid closer to Percy, but not close enough to maybe come off as weird. Lightning struck for the third time, scaring Percy so much he moved to be right next to me. Now this was what I'd been hoping for. Physical contact with Percy Jackson. After a second or two, he pulled away. "Sorry, I didn't mean to do that. When I looked at him, he looked scared. Of course he did, we were in a thunderstorm after all, but it was different. He almost looked like he was scared of… me.
I remembered something Percy had told me. His mom had married a mortal and her choice had been significantly worse than my dad's. Percy wasn't exactly talkative when it came to his new stepdad, but severe punishments at the slightest mistake seemed to be a defining characteristic of their relationship. "It's fine" I said as quickly as possible. "Sure. I just crashed into you" "Seriously, it's fine. You were scared. You needed someone to comfort you. Want to come back? Don't worry, I won't mind" Slowly, he moved back to where he'd been. As we sat together, I thought about the future. The lightning bolt had been retrieved, but things were changing. Kronos was slowly waking up and would definitely cause us some more trouble. Other than that, I didn't know what the future would hold, but I hoped that Percy Jackson would be a part of it.
"Are you alright" "Why wouldn't I be?" "You looked totally gone mentally, I thought maybe you're in like a flashback" "No, I was just thinking about that day" "That was nice. Apart from the thunderstorm of course, that was terrifying" "Terrifying you say? Well, I'm in no position to judge people based on seemingly irrational fears" "Good. I like not being insulted" "And even if I was in a position to insult you, I know better than to do that and risk repeating the Star Wars challenge incident" "But the aftermath of that is usually great" "Homework, traumatic responses, what else are you going to use to get hugs from me?" "First of all, I didn't use homework to get a hug, you used my love for hugs to get your homework done for free, so you exploited my attraction to you" "You said it was fine" "I guess I did. Sorry, sometimes I overreact" "But only when it comes to trauma related stuff, which in your case is more or less every possible situation" "There's no denying that. I should probably go back soon, Piper's probably waiting" "Do you want to go back" Percy asked "Not really" "What do you want to do?" "Get into bed with you and cuddle forever or until an oxytocin spike gives me another temple idea" "Sounds like a plan" Before we started, I checked the time to later be able to see how long it took said oxytocin and ideas to come to me. It took 2 minutes. "Okay, enough cuddling, time to make some temples" "Did you just say 'enough cuddling'? Who are you and what did you do to Annabeth?" "First of all, that's my line. I literally used it like five minutes ago. Secondly, influence is a thing, so there is a real chance that I wasn't even the one who said that. Thirdly, interest based nervous system. Instead of prioritizing the things that are truly important, I like to focus on whatever is most interesting at the moment" "So cuddles are truly important, is that what you're saying?" "I guess what I said could be interpreted like that. Now, can I design this temple or not?" "Fine. Maybe you can do both at once" "Getting cuddles while designing. That sounds amazing. Let me try" I turned away from Percy to grab my laptop, then put it in front of me. Working on it while laying down was a bit awkward, but being right next to Percy was worth it.
"So, let me get this straight" Percy said. "You won't get anything straight from me" "It's just a saying" "I know it's just a saying" "And I know you're gay for Piper" "So, what did you want to get straight?" "You went over to my school just to talk about a prophecy from two years ago?" "And because I had HDAD" "That's a very valid reason" "So, during our initial conversation, when talking about the battle of Manhattan, you said something along the lines of 'I didn't want that for you'. What did you mean by that?" "Back then, and even in the year before I was kind of spending some time with Rachel" "Yeah, I've noticed" I heard the jealousy in my own voice. "Sorry. Yeah, you did do that" "So, this wasn't anything romantic, at least not for me" "Good" "It was mostly for escapism, to get away from the world of monsters and titans, but that wasn't the only reason" "Where are you going with this?" "I also did it to get away from you" "You're on really thin ice right now. Let's say 9.9 centimeters thin. By the way, ten is considered the minimum to be safe" "Okay, that was phrased horribly. I knew that you had abandonment issues-" "Yeah, they're pretty hard to miss" "Not for a seaweed brain. Anyways, I did notice and I didn't want to make them worse in case I would leave you by, you know, dying, so I figured that the more attached you were to me, the more my death would hurt you, that's why I was avoiding you" "Good safe seaweed brain, good safe" "Are you implying that I just made all of that up to save myself" "Not really. It's just, doing what you did with the intention you stated would require an amount of emotional intelligence that I just don't think you had back then" "Hey that's, okay that's fair. I didn't understand why you had a problem with Rachel until pretty much the battle of Manhattan. But I'm not 100% clueless" "I'm just surprised that you did that for me, but I'm not sure whether the part that surprised me is, as I already mentioned, the fact that you were aware of my emotional state and how you could avoid damaging it or if it's just the usual people-doing-things-for-me thing" "At that time, I had saved your life multiple times, you should expect that from me" "But all of those times, I was essential to the mission. This would be the first time you'd do something that benefits me purely because it benefits me" "Wait, so, all these years you thought I was only protecting you to ensure the success of the mission?" "I at least thought it was the primary reason" "What about that time I went on a mission just to save you?" "It could have been to ensure the success of the entire war rather than just one mission. It could have been you thinking the Artemis rescue mission needed you. Listen, my distrust in people is so deep that it goes beyond logic." "I can't put into words how sad that is" "I know. Like, it's gotten better, because of you, but there was a time where the concept of me being important to someone beyond my planning skills was just not something I could grasp" "I feel like if I do what I want to do, I'll give you hug overload" "Remember what I said about the lack of hugs during childhood and the high interest rates?" "In that case; Empathy mode activated, it's hugging time"