We continued doing cute couple stuff that would have summoned the entire Aphrodite cabin, had they not been tens of kilometers away. The sun was sinking lower and lower and so was the temperature. "I'm cold" Annabeth said. It didn't sound like a complaint, simply an objective observation, like a mechanic saying "The oil tank's empty" With the same tone, she continued. "There are several possible solutions to this problem. I could get dressed properly. I could-" "Annabeth, we're leaving" Someone called over to us. "You can go without me, I know the way" "I could-" This time I was the one to interrupt her. "My will for you to be healthy and my self control agree that idea number one is very good" "Fine" She left for where her stuff was and came back a minute later fully dressed. "I could go back to school where there's heating. Or I could…" Before I could even blink, Annabeth was on my lap, hugging me tightly. "You're so warm" She whispered. "And you're hot. That's probably the reason I feel so warm to you." I used another trick from Annabeth's 'Things you can do with your powers that I am willing to share with you because you doing those things won't scare the living schist out of me.'-course; I condensed the humidity in the air to form little droplets. This somehow made it warmer, don't ask me how. I think it's basically reverse sweating. That didn't do much to heat up the air, so I pulled the hot steam coming from the power plant over to us. I again condensed the humidity and made the drops fly away, leaving me with warm, dry air. "Are you still cold?" I asked Annabeth, but she didn't respond. Probably a switch. I let her finish it at her own pace. After a minute, maybe less, she looked up at me again. "Are you still cold?" I repeated. "Cold? No, it's nice and warm. Why would I be cold?" This wasn't Annabeth, likely a little. "Annabeth said that she was cold, right before you came out. By the way, who is this?" "It's Annie. Hi Percy. Where are we?" "We're at a lake near the school you go to. Everyone else is packing up because it got too cold for them." "But it's not even cold. It's warm and it feels safe. That's why I'm here." I'm using my powers to warm it up. It's kind of complicated" "I think I'll understand it. Luke said I'm clever and I am" "Oh, I'm sure if someone explained it to you properly, you'd understand. The problem is I don't understand it." "Oh, okay. Hi Piper. You look really good" "Uh, thanks. Who is this?" "I'm Annie." "Oh hi, haven't seen you in a while. Wait no, I last saw you a few hours ago but only for a few minutes. So, any specific reason why you're here? Did you have a flashback?" "No, but it's warm and I feel safe and I like that. Oh, I think it's raining." Seconds later, I was hit by a raindrop as well, so I created a waterproof barrier around us. "I better get my stuff in here" Piper said. "Can you get Annabeth's stuff as well? I don't know where she put it" "Sure thing Annie." Piper left and returned a few minutes later with two bags. She got a bit wet, but the water separated from her once she entered the bubble. "Percy, have I ever told you how useful your water resistance powers are?" "I don't think so" "In that case, they're pretty dam useful." "DAM" "What the Hades is up with that dam thing? Luisa told me about it as well, but didn't know why you said it." "So, I was on a quest. That was almost three years ago, December 2007. We, that is Grover, Thalia, Zoë nightshade and me, were at the hoover dam and Zoë was like 'let's find the damn snack bar' and she meant it as 'darn snack bar' but it was at a dam, so it was also the dam snack bar, as in the snack bar of the dam so I was like 'The dam snack bar?' and Zoë didn't get the joke and that, Annie, is why dams are funny." "Oh, okay. That makes sense" "Okay, what's next?" Piper asked. "How about a group hug? If that's okay. I like to feel close to people" "Of course" I wrapped my arms around her and Piper joined. After a few minutes, we let go. "Thanks, I kind of needed that. It's kinda nice to have friends that aren't hunters or dead. My first found family didn't really last that long. And I think they are the reason I exist" "Luke and Thalia?" Piper asked. "I thought alters come from trauma. They didn't like cause you trauma, right?" "No. I'm not really sure how all this works, but I'd say Luisa and I, just like all other alters, were created from trauma. But meeting Luke and Thalia and suddenly feeling safe was so… anti traumatizing I guess that it's the reason why two alters were created. Without them I, as in a little holding trauma from our journey to camp, would still exist, but I'd be the same who holds the trauma from a bit before. Like, Luisa and I wouldn't be seperate"

"I'm still amazed at how interesting and complex this disorder is. Like, I've heard from it before I diagnosed Annabeth, from the TV show, but I didn't get such an in depth look at everything. But now I'm friends with an actual, real life system. And I love it. Annie, you're cute as Hades and I'd do almost anything to protect you." "What about you Percy?" "Well, when I fell in love with you, you referring to the body and all alters known at that point, so basically Annabeth, you were just some attractive person with some issues and trauma. I was like 'I'm guessing Annabeth and her trauma are a two in one deal, I can't get one without the other, but I'll still take her, even if it means having to deal with her issues. Of course, I had no idea how much trauma and how many insecurities and issues you had, but I still stand by my choice from back then. Except now, me helping you isn't just a if-you-can't-handle-me-at-my-worst-you-don't-deserve-me-at-my-best kind of requirement for dating you, I actually love seeing you get better." "Great. People support me. Hopefully this time none of them die" Her voice had changed from excited to sad within a fraction of a second. Piper and I reached for her hands. "It still hurts you, doesn't it?" "Yes, it all went so fast. From my perspective, I only found out that Luke betrayed us a few hours ago. And Thalia's death is also just a few days. I mean, she's back now, but it still hurts. We were so close to camp, where she would have been safe." "But she made our camp safer for everyone. Speaking of safer places, we should probably go back to our school now." "Can Percy come with us?" "I kinda have to get back to my own school but I can stay with you for the way."

Piper took the lead, Annie went in the middle and I was last, keeping the rain shield floating above us. After some twenty minutes, we reached the girls' school. "Okay Annie, I have to go now." "Okay, just don't die" I left the girls alone and made my way to my school.

Piper

'Well, that was an easy goodbye' I thought to myself. I remembered the last time Percy had left Annabeth to go to school. It had taken me minutes to calm her down. On the other hand, this was Annie, not Annabeth and she had been through way less abandonment related trauma. I led her to our room, doing my best to avoid meeting anyone that would find Annie's childlike demeanor strange (So basically anyone except the campers, the Jacksons and the Chases, none of which were within five or so kilometers of us. I pretty much avoided everyone). In the long run, the flashback caused by the room Annabeth was supposed to go in had been very helpful. A few minutes after we had arrived, everyone was called for dinner. "What does that signal mean?" "That dinner is starting" "So we'll meet many people?" "I'd say that's pretty much inevitable." "Well, I'll try my best" "To do what?" "Act like Annabeth. I think I can pull that off as long as I don't talk too much." We made our way to dinner and I picked a spot at the corner of a table, such that I was Annie's only neighbor. Of course, this didn't do much to stop the questions? Annie did her best to answer every question as Annabeth. "Who was that guy that just showed up?" "My boyfriend" "Where did he come from?" "He traveled through the shadow realm using a skeleton cat" "Why did he come to you?" "Imagine calling yourself out like that." That was me, not Annie. "What do you mean, calling out?" "You're saying that the relationship you're picturing for them, which is highly indicative of your own lived experiences, is so bad that seeing each other actually requires a reason. You were calling yourself out by indirectly saying you were used to such a type of relationship." A collective OOF was heard from the students. "That's right, Percy doesn't need a reason to see me" Annie added. "Also, I had a flashback" "Flashback? Isn't that the thing that soldiers get? Aren't you a bit young for that?" "I am too young for having to deal with all the things that cause flashbacks, but fate didn't care. You wouldn't believe some of the things that happened to me. Now pass me the salt." "Annie had somehow managed to make that last sentence- well, not the last, but you know what I mean- sound really sinister without completely losing her childish voice, which made for an interesting contrast.

After dinner, we went back up to our room. "That went okay, right?" "It was okay. But did you really tell everyone that Percy appeared from the shadow realm with a skeleton cat?" "That's what happened, right?" As we were talking, Annie's voice slowly changed to how it usually was. "Well, yeah, but you can't just tell that to the other students. They're mortals." "Oh, okay. That makes sense I guess. I'm not really used to being around mortals. I mostly talked to Luke and Thalia. And some other homeless people, but they don't care what someone my age is saying. I could just say whatever I wanted because anyone who didn't know I was a half-blood wouldn't listen anyways. But now it appears I'm older and need to take responsibility for what I say. Ugh, adult logic sucks." "Adult? Your body is 17" "Still too old. I miss being a child. Everything was easier. I had Luke and Thalia by my side. Wait, not everything was easier. Getting food was harder. But now at least I know where you can get food. For example…" Annie then went on a rant about the best places for finding affordable food, affordable in this case meaning one dollar per day max. Obviously, most of her tips were operating in a legally grey area, but, as Annie put it "The rules don't care about us, so we don't care about the rules" As someone coming from a community that had been exploited heavily in the past and also enjoyed "borrowing" cars (not that these things had anything to do with each other, that's pure coincidence) I fully agreed with that statement. "I mean, who cares about rules that don't benefit you." We then spent a while discussing the legal system in the US. We conclude that it sucked. This could either mean that she was too young to see the advantages or that most adults were blind to its disadvantages.

I was used to Annabeth saying lots of smart things, but hearing her (well, not her, just someone using her body) do so with the voice of an eight year old made it very strange. "Can we make a pillow fort?" Annie asked. Her suddenly shifting back to an age appropriate topic might have actually been even more surprising than the previous topic. "I mean, there isn't exactly a whole lot of pillows available here, but we can try." Call me childish if you want, I don't care. I didn't really get a proper childhood. At least not one with my dad, and his assistants don't count, so I had to catch up on what I missed and the times littles were out were perfect opportunities for doing so. We really didn't have a lot of material, pretty much just two blankets, but it was somehow enough to cover the entire lower bed. It ended up being really comfortable. Once we were finished, we got into our fort, where we ended up sitting next to each other in the half dark and telling each other stories. I told Annie about my childhood and she told me about her time with Luke and Thalia. She tried to avoid the most traumatic situations, but didn't always succeed. The traumatic episodes were so deeply intertwined with the rest of the story that they were hard to skip. "Another time, there was this old mansion. I really liked the way it was built…" Cue another architecture rant that I couldn't be bothered to remember. "… Anyways, we went inside and everything went well until weird voices came and we were separated. Someone lured us apart and-" Annie stopped talking and just looked at me. "It's okay" I told her. "You all made it out alive. And if you want to stop for any reason, just do so. I won't judge." "Okay. So, we were separated and then there was this really big mean cyclops that wanted to eat us. He also tried to trick me with my dad's voice." Another short pause followed. I could tell this wasn't easy for her to talk about. "And what did you do?" "I didn't listen and stabbed the cyclops in his big foot." Within a fraction of a second, her voice had changed from said to sounding very proud of herself and excited. "And then we ran away really fast so the monsters wouldn't catch us. Well, they did catch us, but only a few days later. Before that, we…" That's pretty much how the conversion went. I learned some really interesting things about being homeless and also about some monsters I had never even heard of. From the point on where Annie first mentions her teddy bear, it got to sit next to us. "It used to help me when I was scared or sad. Now I don't really need it anymore, because I have Percy. And you. I like that, people are better than teddies. Though I'm pretty sure people have a much higher chance of betraying you." "Don't worry, I won't betray you. And neither will Percy. Remember, loyalty is his fatal flaw after all. He couldn't betray anyone, even if he wanted to." "Oh, okay. I like that. I've had- well, not I, but in total, we've been betrayed a couple of times. And now most of us have trust issues, yay" "I get it, you've been through a lot. All of you" "I guess that's what it means to be a demigod. But I think I'm more traumatized than most demigods" "Definitely" "What was that?...detector? Oh, that one." "What was that" "Annabeth told me something about the smoke detector, but I don't know what it was. Our communication still sucks." "I think I know what she meant. There's a smoke detector in our room and it has this little red light. When it's time for lights out, the detector is the only light source and the entire room is filled with dim red light, which was very triggering for Annabeth" "Why would that be triggering?" "Do you really want to know? Because if I tell you how it's triggering and to what trauma it relates, that might be triggering itself. So maybe I shouldn't tell you for your and everyone else's safety" "Yeah, that makes sense, don't tell me. Maybe we should do some about that light." "Sure, I'll see what I have. We could cover it up with.. Okay, I don't know why I have it, but there's a whole pallet of different eye shadow colors." "I think green works best against red. Do you have that?" I did. I genuinely have no idea why, one of my siblings must have smuggled that into my bag. "I guess I'll just try it out." Okay, I never thought I'd do anything like this ever at all, but here I was, smearing green eye shadow onto a smoke detector so that its red light wouldn't remind my friend of the time she spent in hell. The things you do for your friends. Once the threat was neutralized (Annabeth's hard-wired-for-battle-tactics brain was really rubbing off onto me) we went back to what you do in a pillow fort. A bit later, we got ready for bed. Suddenly, it was already bedtime. I routinely turned the light off as soon as we had to. "Don't do that" Annie complained. "I don't like the dark. That's where the big bad monsters hide" "Well, we have to turn them off, it's the rules. Also, how are we supposed to sleep with the lights on?" "Well, I don't like it and I'm scared" She was holding onto me in a position that would have probably been less awkward had she been the size of a typical seven year old. "I mean, we can…" I got Katoptris and Annabeth's dagger from our bags. "Look, the daggers are glowing. Is that enough light for you?" "Yes, that's enough" "Then I guess we can continue now" "Well, I don't have more stories, I've not been outside very long" "Well, I've existed for quite a while now, so I have a lot to tell. Wait, you said you've not been outside for very long, but do you have any stories from the inner world? Annabeth has only been able to give me some details" "I know, she's almost blind in there." Annie laughed about that. "I actually have a story about her. The great Euclidean collapse of last week. For that, there's something else you need to know: scientists are annoying because they invent weird rules like conversation of momentum" a few seconds of silence "Conservation, not conversation. Annabeth's close enough to complain. Hey, I'm only seven, I don't need to know these things. Anyways, scientists come up with weird rules. If you want to break the rules, you get rid of the scientists. We do that by destroying statues. So, recently while Annabeth was in the inner world, she somehow, well, we don't actually know if it was her. Hey Annabeth, did you fix the Euclid statue?" Another few seconds of silence followed. "Okay, so it was Annabeth. There was this Euclid statue that was cut in half. Annabeth somehow managed to join the two halves back together, which made Euclidean geometry reactivate in our world, so all the non-Euclidian shortcuts disappeared. So yeah, that was really bad. Another time, our water wheel detached itself and we didn't have power in the house" "What water wheel?" "There's a big dam with a water wheel and that powers everything. I don't really understand it. You can ask Annabeth tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow…" What followed next was probably the most in context, well placed yawn I had ever seen." "Let's get you to bed Annie. You seem tired" "That's a great idea" based on my very limited experience with kids, I had expected more resistance than that. Together, we disassembled the pillow fort and I put our daggers on the night stand. Then I went over to my own bed. "Good night Annie. Good night everyone else who might be listening" "Good night Piper. Also from Annabeth"
So, that was another day. Sorry for making a bit long *cough* seven long chapters *cough* I'm trying to make the days shorter.