Percy and Annabeth came into the room "Hey, were you about to do something?" "Yes, but only to pass the time. My plan was to make some more girls question their sexuality" "Well, if I didn't already know I was bi, it would be working. You look great" "Annabeth, stop flirting with her" "1) you don't get to tell me what to do and 2) after Rachel and Calypso, you have no right to complain" "Fine, whatever" "But don't tell me that Piper doesn't look amazing right now" "If I agree, will you accuse me of trying to leave you?" "Given my current emotional state, probably yes" "Then I'm refusing to answer" "So, why are you guys here?" Annabeth looked at Percy, he began to explain. "The issue is this: Annabeth would like to go to the cafeteria, but I can't go there with her and since she had a flashback of me leaving her, her abandonment issues are through the roof and she refuses to go alone" "So?" Annabeth spoke again. "Remember when you said that you would do anything for us?" "Oh gods Annabeth, what do you want me to do now?" "I want you to go to the cafeteria and get food for all of us, claiming that I'm sick and can't leave my room" "And why would I do that?" "Because you love us and because I'll let you copy the chemistry homework" "I don't want to play servant for you, but I want to do my homework even less. Deal" Don't get me wrong, I love Annabeth, but sometimes her issues could get really annoying. On the other hand, they made her weaker and allowed me to exploit her and get my homework done.

Okay, that sounded a bit mean. I was not actually exploiting her, it was a fair trade. She did what I couldn't (chemistry) and I did what she couldn't (going anywhere without Percy).

"Hi, I'd like two portions of meal number three" I said to the cashier. "Two portions. Each student gets one" I turned on charm speak. Considering I was talking to a boy just barely older than me, it should work pretty well. "They aren't both for me, one is for my friend Annabeth. You see, she's sick and can't leave her room" "Fine, here you go. But this is an exception. And if Annabeth does show up here, you're in big trouble" "Okay, thanks, bye. Oh, and I'm sure she'll get better soon, so there's no reason to inform anyone" "Sure, just don't spill anything on your way to her room. The old wood floors are an absolute nightmare to clean" I just nodded before leaving.

"Hey Annabeth, here's your food. Now go do my homework" "After lunch, okay? I don't want it to go cold" "I hate it when you do that" "Do what?" "Make valid points" "I think that's called being a sore loser" "I think you know a lot more about finding it hard to lose. Lose people" "Oof" was Percy's only contributing to the conversation. "Uh, Percy, I just got roasted, don't you want to do something about that?" "Roasted you say?" Percy did do something about it. He sprayed Annabeth with water to "put out the fire she was being roasted on" "Percy, you are so dead" "Is that a joke or a genuine threat?" "I'm not sure. I have multi-threaded thinking and none of the threads have any idea what the other ones are up to. However, the longer I stay wet like this, the more likely the latter will become" "Guys, girls, actually just girls, why are we fighting? Time for a group hug" Percy suggested. In addition to getting us all some oxytocin, the hug also resulted in Annabeth drying up again. Being waterproof and being able to transfer this trait to other people and objects wasn't exactly Percy's strongest power, but it was definitely the one that was most useful. I should note that during this entire interaction, Percy and Annabeth never stopped holding hands. "Your devotion to each other is just insane. Like, how long have you been holding hands for now?" "I'd love to agree" Percy said. "But right now, me holding her hand is like the bare minimum" "It's the only thing that's keeping me stable. Percy isn't holding my hand because he loves me. Well, technically he is because he is only willing to put time and energy towards making me feel good because he loves me but that's not what I meant. What I meant is that Percy isn't holding my hand as a sign of love. He's holding it to make sure I don't slip into another flashback. You know, it sucks when your trauma is just a more extreme version of an everyday situation because that everyday situation becomes a trigger. If one of us has to use the bathroom, I honestly have no idea what to do then, all I can do is hope that I'll have become less sensitive by then. If not, well, we'll figure it out" "That's the thing about being a demigod; all the hot girls are traumatized" "Piper, Annabeth is super worried about me leaving her. By listing of things that make her harder to love, you're not making this any better. Don't worry Annabeth, I like having an excuse to hold your hand"

"You might not mind it, but I'm really stressed because of this. Where are my alters when I need them?" Annabeth complained. "I wonder which one of us would be best. Thalce would be kind of weird because his purpose is essentially to replace you when you're not there, so he wouldn't be of much use when you are there. Chris lived his whole life in a state of 'If Percy disappears, I'll survive for about five minutes", So he'd be the perfect person to copy my abandonment issues after the switch. Emotions sometimes linger around. I am also obviously not well suited for the job" She sighed. "I guess that just leaves the kids. Would you do that for me?" "Do what?" I asked. "Play the babysitter?" "Yeah" "I'm up to it" "Percy?" "Sure thing" "Then I guess I'll try to get them out. I'm giving you permission to use positive triggers" Without letting go of Annabeth's hand, Percy took her dagger and held it out to her- one of Annie's strongest triggers (Well, the strongest we knew of. Actually the only one we knew of). Nevertheless, the switch took rather long. After a while, Annie (probably) began to smile. Then she grabbed the knife from Percy's hand. Let me tell you, a glowing dagger and a childlike smile is not a combination you want to be seeing. She quickly put it away, but for about half a second, I was scared for my life. "Hello Percy. Hi Piper. I heard I was needed" "Yeah, Annabeth was really scared that I'd leave her, so she decided to go inside" "She had a flashback, right?" "Yeah, how'd you know" "We sometimes see bits of flashbacks in the inner world. Then no wonder she was scared" "I think she became more sensitive to some triggers, so it wasn't safe for her to stay in the front. Before that, Percy had to keep holding her hand to avoid triggering her" "Oh, that's why you're holding it. I don't mind if you let go. But you can stay if you want to" "No, it's fine" Percy said before letting go. I cautiously watched Annie, looking for any signs of an oncoming traumatic reaction, but nothing happened. "I think Annabeth doesn't like this. Hey, Annabeth, go away. This isn't for you to see" "Aren't children usually the ones who you tell this kind of stuff to?" "I'm not usual and Annabeth doesn't know what's good for her. Speaking of what is for her, is this for us?" She asked as she pointed to one of the plates I had brought. "It is. We should probably eat now while it's still warm instead of talking" "Great idea" We finished our food before I took up the conversation again. "So, what have you two been up to?" Annie looked at Percy, obviously having no idea what to answer. "Oh, Annabeth just told me about the school. Then she told me about her abandonment issues, specifically about how I disappeared. As per usual, she vastly overestimates her own ability to handle a traumatic topic and triggered herself. I have no idea how she handled herself before meeting me" "I don't know about that time, but I know how she did it when you were gone" Piper explained "She didn't. For the first few weeks at least. Let me tell you how it went.

A few days had passed since I had arrived here, in camp half-blood (do they seriously not see a problem with that name?) and saved Hera from the giants. I was alone in my cabin (most campers were celebrating Christmas somewhere) when I heard something. If my ears weren't deceiving me, someone was crying. It sounded like it was coming from the cabin next to me, but that was obviously empty because of Artemis' whole maiden goddess thing. Then I remembered something I had heard about cabin 8, either from Annabeth or Thalia, I couldn't remember: It was engineering to not block any sound, which probably meant that the sound came from behind it. I got up and went to investigate. I quickly located the source of the noise: cabin 6. When I knocked on the door, no one told me to go away, so I slowly pushed it open to peer inside. Just like with my cabin, this one was empty apart from one person: Annabeth. She was sitting on her bed, crying.

"Can I come in?" I asked. Annabeth contemplated the question for a few seconds, then seemingly decided that she had nothing to lose and nodded weakly. I opened the door fully and walked in. Only now did I get a proper look at her. She was surrounded by all the pillows from cabin six, her eyes were red from crying (though she didn't seem to be crying right now) and she was holding a half-emptied bottle of something I didn't recognize. She appeared to be in desperate need of a hug. "What is that in the bottle?" I asked her. "Blue cherry coke. It reminds me" She didn't say "of Percy". We both knew what she meant. "Do you want me to come to you" I asked. She slowly nodded, so I sat down besides her. During the few days I'd known her, Annabeth had been very reserved, but there was one thing I had noticed. Annabeth did not like asking for things, even if she needed them. If Annabeth wouldn't do it, I had to. "Hey, are you okay?" "I'm fine. I'm doing great" she said with a level of sarcasm that almost sounded like a cry for help. "Um, this might sound weird, but do you need a hug?" "Not really" she said. Her facial expression said something more like "Please come here, I'd give everything for a hug" "But would you accept it?" "Yes" She pulled her blanket up until it reached all the way up to her eyes. I noticed Annabeth could be really cute when she wanted to. Well, wanted to was probably the wrong word here, Annabeth most definitely didn't want to be in this state, but dam was she cute. I sat down on her bed, then joined her under the blanket. Annabeth was kind of hard to reach because she was pretty much pressed into the corner. "Want to maybe move a bit?" I asked. "Or are you too sad to do that?" "I think I can pull that off" Annabeth moved out of the corner and I welcomed her in between my arms. "Before we do anything else, I can tell you're holding back tears. If you need to cry, go for it" Annabeth's head collided with my shoulder and I realized I'd probably need a new shirt after this. I didn't tell Annabeth though. I knew from experience that she was currently in a state of mind where even the slightest hint of a complaint would ruin her. It is incredibly hard to heal when you think your healing bothers those around you. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. "I know it helps me sometimes and if you want, I'd listen to you. But if you don't want to, that's also fine by me. For the moment, I'm just here to make sure you're okay" "Why are you being so nice to me?" "Because you're my friend. Any more stupid questions?" That actually got Annabeth laughing for a few seconds. "Is it really that funny?" "There's nothing inherently funny about what you said, it's just that when the master bolt was stolen and we were all expecting a war, I told Percy that whatever side he chose, I'd fight with him. When he asked why, I answered almost the same thing: 'Because you're my friend seaweed brain. Any more stupid questions?' You just reminded me of that" "What a coincidence" It wasn't a coincidence. My siblings had done a presentation on all the big camp half-blood couples, which had included a list of their best quotes, but I didn't tell Annabeth. "So, want to talk about anything?" I repeated. "I think it will help me if you listen. First, I want you to get an idea of what this boy means to me. First of all, he saved my life so many times that honestly, I've stopped counting. He's done so much for me. Sometimes more than I have for myself. Like seriously, I could tell him 'I'd kinda like to have this thing, but I don't think it's gonna happen or that I'm even entitled to it, and he'll fight gods to make sure I get that thing"