We finished our pizza without further incidents and ordered the bill. As promised, Piper paid for us all. We got up and continued walking through the park. Annabeth always stayed right behind me until suddenly, she was gone. I turned around and saw her about two meters behind me. "What is this?" I asked. "Stop walking and see how long it takes my boyfriend to notice? And if yes, did I pass the test?" But then I noticed Annabeth wasn't exactly paying attention to me. In fact, she seemed completely gone. Great, another switch. Not that I had any problems with switches in general, but the headaches Annabeth got on switchy days were of course annoying to deal with. For her of course, not for me directly. It just sucked indirectly because I'd have to see her suffer. Eventually, she grounded again and pointed at a sign

"They've got crepes. Can I have some?" Piper gave me a look that said "I'm not paying for that". I didn't mind. "Sure, which one do you want" I asked. Also, who is it?" "Mostly Annie" Annie picked her order. Of course it was the most expensive one, but I couldn't go back on my promise now, so I bought her her crepe. "So, you just came out because you wanted crepe?" "Well, it tastes good" "Can't argue with that. But did it have to be the most expensive one?" "That one tastes the best" Annie proceeded to eat it in record time. Well, she ate most of it. "Percy, why are you laughing?" "You should see your face. You're covered in chocolate" "Good. Now I have something saved for later. Can't argue with that, right?" "But… okay, I can't argue with that, so I guess I'll have to let you walk around like that" "Yay" "So, any plans for today?" Piper asked. "Not really. You Annie?" "Athena always has a plan" "Is that a yes?" "No. I just came out. Percy, want to see my school?" "I already went there after the day at the lake" "Right, you did. But you didn't come inside yet" "I did when helping with the water damage. But sure, If you want to give me a tour, I'm down for it" "Cool. I haven't seen a lot of it though. I don't really leave the room, except when we switch outside it. I'm not good with people" "You handled yesterday's dinner pretty well" "I disappeared after the chair collapsed. I didn't do a lot of handling" "I guess that's true" "She also tends to overshare" Piper told me. "What did she overshare?" "Nothing important, just the fact that she has a shadow traveling cat" "But we do. Why was that wrong?" Annie complained. "People thought you were weird" "I am weird" Piper stepped next to me and reduced her voice to a whisper. "The next day I told Annabeth about it and she was like 'It's not my fault. It's Luke's and Thalia's fault because they raised her. Go complain to-'" "What are you whispering?" Annie asked "Stuff that would trigger you" "Oh, okay" "As I was saying '-go complain to them. Well, you can't complain to Luke because…' Boom, flashback. In other words, do yourself and the system a favor and don't bring up Annie's behavior in front of Annabeth" "I'll try my best not to. Not triggering her is kind of very high on my list of priorities" "I feel like if you two weren't already several years together, that one sentence would make her fall for you" "Well, she's never been anything but a second choice. I don't want to sound like a savior, but I was the first one for whom she was the first choice, though she didn't always see it that way cough Rachel cough" "And saying her mental state is top priority is probably even better than if you said she was the number one hottest person or something" "Makes sense. 'Your personal wellbeing is more important than anything else' is a better thing to hear than 'The personal gain I could get from you exceeds what I could get from others" "Annabeth might have lost the peaceful-and-easy-life-lottery, but she sure as Hades won the relationship lottery" "So did I. Annabeth is amazing in so many ways. Sure, she can be a bit annoying-" "A bit?" "Fine she can be extremely annoying but I love her for that. And the whole trauma thing… sure, I hate to see her suffer, but she's making progress and seeing her get better just makes me so happy" "That's so Zeussing cute. It just reinforces my statement that Annabeth has won the relationship lottery. Wish I was that lucky" "Not so great with Jason?" "I mean it's not terrible. Our relationship started with him waking up and not remembering anything but with me remembering having a relationship with him. In hindsight, that was probably done to keep me away from Annabeth. All in all, not a good start" "Did Annabeth ever tell you how our relationship started?" "Surprisingly not" "Well, I was laying on a couch, recovering from the minotaur fight when this blonde girl showed up. She leaned over me and spoke the words 'You drool when you sleep'. I may or may not fallen in love right then and there. What about you?"

"I think it was something like this" Her voice went up at least five octaves " 'Where's Percy? Have you seen him?' I'm pretty sure my ears took permanent damage" "Can't really blame her for panicking a bit. You know, abandonment issues and stuff. But I was actually talking about Jason's first words to you since he's, you know, the person you're dating" "Oh, I think it was just 'where am I?' or something, considering he had just lost his memory" "You remember the first thing Annabeth said, but not Jason?" "She was just a lot more memorable. I mean what she said, not Annabeth herself" "Sure, that's what you meant" "Of course that's what I meant" "Come on, we both know you like Annabeth" "How about we discuss this later, when she's not around" "You really think we can both be separated from her at the same time? Her abandonment issues are way too intense for that" "Yeah, true" "Annabeth not being out is probably the closest we'll get to her not hearing us" "Oh, I'll tell her everything" Annie interrupted our conversation. "You've been listening to our entire conversation?" "What else would I be listening to? Okay, that's a bad question. Even if I listened to something else, I would still listen to you. I hear everything at the same time, so of course I'm listening" "Wait, why are we walking to your school? We've got lil dam"

Thirty seconds later, we were standing in front of the girls' school. I realized this was already the fourth time I was here, the first three being the water damage cleanup, the prove-Annabeth-has-a-boyfriend performance and after the lake day. Gods, I really did a lot for Annabeth. But seeing her happy made up for it. Easily. "So, want to start the tour now?" "Like I said, I don't know much, but Annabeth can help me" I tried to imagine what Annabeth's reaction to this was. Probably somewhat intrigued by the idea of talking about a building (as I might have mentioned, she absolutely loves that schist) but also not in the mood to do anything after such a switchy day, but also too worn down by her past to not mask that. I knew how annoying all these switches were for her and her mood hadn't exactly been improving throughout the day. Of course, she masked that as well 'You can't be punished for complaining if you don't complain' was an idea I had been trying to get out of her head for a long time now and I appeared to be succeeding in that, but maybe I was just getting better at interpreting what little signals Annabeth was giving. "But only if she wants to. I think she's a bit exhausted from today" I suggested. "Hm, okay. Then I'll just show you the parts that I know" "Sounds great" "Okay, here's the entrance, but you probably know that…" Annie continued to show me everything she had seen so far, which was just the path from the entrance to her dorm room and from there to the cafeteria. "By the way, this is where the monsters live" Piper added as we were on our way back from the cafeteria "The monsters?" I asked. "Is that like a code name for bullies" "No, the girls in that room are actually Greek monsters" I instinctively took a step in front of Annie. "One is a empousa and one is a dracaena, I don't actually know about the third one" "And you're just okay with them living here?" "We called a truce. Same thing apparently applies to some cyclops that also lives here" "You know, under normal circumstances I would be very worried about your safety" "And what exactly makes this situation not normal circumstances?" "The fact that Annabeth, my awesome girlfriend, can kick podex like no other" "Podex?" "I'm not allowed to swear on here" "On here?" "Forget it. Annabeth kicks podex. Though probably not so much in her current state" "Are you saying I can't kick dopex?" "It's podex, and no, I'm not saying that" "Good, because I totally can" "Want to prove it?" "Yeah" She said, grinning at me in a way that looked slightly insane. "Okay, but we should probably do this somewhere that's not the hallway" "Sounds like a good idea"

And so, we went back outside. Piper took the lead and showed us the spot where she and Annabeth always fought. "You choose weapons" I told Annie once we arrived. "I choose my knife. Do what you want" "Then I'll take riptide" Once Annie had her weapon ready, I grabbed riptide. Like Annabeth had predicted a few hours ago, carrying it with the cap at the back saved some precious seconds. The battle ensued.

Annie was a lot better than last time, probably because she had had some time to adapt to her seventeen year old body. Nevertheless, I was able to defeat her rather quickly, so she demanded another try. This time, I ended up with her blade at my throat. We decided to go another round. Annie carefully drove her dagger between my hand and riptide's hilt, levering it out of my hand. I could have pulled away, but figured that if she had wanted to harm me, she would have operated much quicker. Practice fights always worked on the principle of reacting as if the other person hadn't held back. Because of this, I allowed her to disarm me. However, I did hold on to riptide's cap. Once Annie had my sword, I pretended to accept defeat. I stumbled backwards as she slashed at me, but then pulled a clever trick. As riptide was sweeping across my chest, I put the cap back on. Riptide shrank into my hand and I fraction of a second later, I was wielding it again. Annie took a step backwards and fell. A second later, riptide's tip was right in her face. "Okay, I give up" She said. You're better than me" "You're still a pretty good fighter" "I know. Once I… I…" Her voice stopped and I knew nothing good was coming. Lil dam must have sensed something was wrong as he appeared next to her in the grass and jumped on her lap. I touched his fur and a few seconds later, Annie was sitting in her bed in the girls' dorm room. I sat down next to her. "No. Luke. Thalia" she screamed. Luckily, the flashback made the screams more quiet. "Who's there?" I asked. "Bad Cyclops"

So this was the Cyclops she had faced all those years ago. If I recalled correctly, this was the first trauma Annabeth had told me about. If you don't count emotional neglect as trauma. I tried a different approach this time. "So there's a cyclops there. Where is he?" "Don't know" "Turn around, there he is" Annie moved her head to the left a bit. "No. Bad Cyclops" She muttered. "You can defeat him" "How" "You just, uh, stab him in the foot" Over the next few seconds, I watched a range of emotions flash over her face; fear, determination, more fear, relief, a hint of happiness. "That was scary" Annie concluded. "What happened?" "I stabbed him in the foot. Then he was distracted and Thalia could kill him. Why are we in the room?" "Lil dam shadow traveled us here" I pointed at the cat sleeping at our feet. "Want to go back to fighting?" "Not really. I'm kind of not okay. I think I'll leave now" "Okay bye" A few minutes passed, then someone looked around the room. "Hey Percy" Annabeth said. "How's it going?" "I know that's technically a rhetorical question, but… Okay, I'm tired, I have a headache and I feel like schist. If I have one more switch today, I'll- Sorry. I'm supposed to say good" "It's fine. Tell me what you feel" "I just need a break" "Then take a break" "That's hard. I'll be vulnerable when I rest" "I think you know what I'm about to say" "That you will protect me?" "Exactly" I watched a smile spreading across her face. "Okay, what would be the cutest position" Annabeth wondered" We settled on her head in my lap. "Want a pillow?" "You're soft enough" In that moment, Piper came in. "You're being cute again, right?" "That is correct" Annabeth said as she laid down on my lap, her head facing the room. Instantly, a wave of feelings rushed through me. Mostly affection mixed with a little bit of protectiveness. I really wanted to pick her up and give her a hug, but when someone is trying to rest, hugs are sort of counterproductive. Instead, I began stroking her princess curls (though she insists they're not at all princess curls). I would have run my fingers through them, but they were way too tangled for that "How safe do you feel?" I asked. "Don't know. Maybe 60, 70%" "I can change that" I lowered my voice to a whisper. "You are safe. Nothing is gonna hurt you. You're in your dorm room. Nothing can get in here if you don't want it too. You're sheltered in here. That's why you're safe" "Okay, 80% 85" "In addition, I am here. I love you and your safety is so important to me. That's why I'll be protecting you as well. If something happens, I'll be there to keep you safe. You are safe" "95%. Why am I tired again. Does it have to do with the day of the week?" "No. It's because you're safe" "I'm safe" "Exactly"

And with that fluffy ending, I can finally post a chapter on time again