Piper followed me back to Annabeth's room. "Hey Annabeth, can I sit down with you?" She asked. "Of course" Piper did as she had suggested. "What about Percy?" "He's scary. He's drowning her" "Listen Annabeth, Percy did some bad things, but he's getting better now. Right, Percy?" "She's right. I swear on the river Styx that I will never again attempt to drown anyone in their own poison using my powers, unless my life absolutely depends on it" "You heard him" Piper said. "I'm sorry Percy" Annabeth said. Want to come to me?" "I'll admit it, that was easier than expected" "Easy?" Piper asked. "Do you know how much charm speak I had to put into those sentences? Anyways, what were you doing?" "Annabeth was just telling me about what just happened at the temple" "Then I guess I'll go back. Annabeth, if you need me, I'll be in my room, I just don't want to get triggered by your explanations" "Okay. See you" "See you"

Once Piper was gone, Annabeth continued explaining. "So yeah, I remembered how you tried to drown Achlys and apparently thinking about it now triggered my fear of you again. I got a few more memories. It ended with Bob and Damasen. Piper asked me to avenge them, and that gave me the strength it took to overcome the fear and kill Mimas. The chamber then began to collapse and we couldn't get out because Piper had, for some reason, cut our rope, so we just ran into a wall and ended up on the surface. Don't ask me how that works, maybe it had something to do with the sacrifice Piper made in the temple. At least I heard her say something about accepting this sacrifice, but I was busy not dying. We survived, but the whole thing was, as I might have mentioned, intensely scary, meaning that I might need-" Before she could finish her sentence, I had her in my arms again.

"Thanks Percy. Hey, want to know why I never wear make-up?" "Because you know how beautiful you look naturally?" "Nope, my indirect self consciousness is way too strong for that. I don't because…" She gestured at her tear filled face. "You'd destroy it somewhat quickly" "Especially when it's a day like this one" "Also you don't need it. I'll find out you pretty either way" "Aww, thanks. Why are you always so nice to me?" "Because your presence is making me happy and I try my best to return that. Also, I don't want your self esteem to completely go to schist. Or your impression of what others think of you or whatever. Doesn't really matter, I just want you to feel good" "What can I say? Mission successful" "Aww. Now you're just making me more happy" "And that's making me happy" "It's like a death spiral, but for happiness" "A near infinite and ever-growing supply of dopamine sounds pretty good" "Aphrodite, if you're hearing this, good job" "Okay, I'd say I'm pretty much recovered from that now. I guess I'll be leaving then" "Did you only come here to trauma dump to me or what?" "I mean, you've given me what I needed, now I can get along myself" "Annabeth, this isn't a hospital where you leave as soon as you're able too. You can stay here for as long as you want. It's not like I'm busy with anything" "I just thought you might-" "Might what? Only tolerate you for as long as you desperately need me?" "Maybe?" "Are you kidding me? While I obviously love to help you, I also love to just have you around, maybe get a kiss or two. Unless of course you want to leave for your own sake, then I won't be stopping you" "I think I prefer staying here with you. I'll just go get my invisibility cap so Buford won't see me" "It's working again?" "It started working around the time we…" She looked down again before leaving. Before she had a chance to come back, the scenery changed again.

I was at camp half blood, fighting monsters that quite obviously didn't give a schist about the borders. I was guessing Gaia was just too powerful. Looking up, I saw her physical form floating in the sky, circled by Festus. Even this high up, she still had the power to manipulate the ground. Tiny ripples were constantly trying to make me fall, which would have meant certain death. I noticed an old enemy charging at me: the Minotaur. Last time, I had barely survived this fight, but now, now I had four years of training behind me, but it still wouldn't be an easy battle. I took a few steps back until I stood in the lake. Instantly, I felt the water giving me strength. When the Minotaur charged, I waited until I was sure it was too late to slow down, then pointed riptide at him.

He slammed right into the tip of my blade. Normally, such a collision would have taken me off my feet, but the water absorbed the impact for me and the Minotaur came to a halt. Seconds later, it turned to a cloud of dust. Another few seconds later, I heard a scream, louder than anything Annabeth could produce after seeing a spider, coming from above. I saw a golden sphere flying towards Gaia and exploding upon contact. Instantly, the ground stopped moving. Was Gaia defeated?

I saw a second glowing golden light, this time coming from half-blood hill. I summoned water from the lake and formed it into a lens so I could see what was going on up there. The Golden Fleece was glowing brightly, its power flowing into Thalia's destroyed tree. Around it I saw Thalia herself, together with most of cabin four. Slowly, the tree was healing. I saw more monsters coming for me. This time, it was a kolchian Bull. The main strategy of these monsters was just to be very hot, so the water should keep me safe for a while.

Or at least that was what I thought. As soon as the bull stepped into the water, it began boiling away. Within seconds, I was on dry land again. I raised my sword, but I knew that it wouldn't be of much help. I'd be incinerated before I could get a hit in. Unless… I returned riptide to its pen form, then loosened the cap a bit. Once that was done, I tossed the pen into the bulls open mouth, praying to the twins that I'd make the shot.

Riptide flew into the bull's mouth where its cap flew of and it expanded. For a moment, I thought I was winning, but the bull didn't die. It came running towards me instead. I ran away, but it would only buy me a few seconds. I looked to the side and saw Annabeth running next to me. When had she gotten here? When I felt the bull's heat behind me, I reached for our hand. If this was going to be our last fight, we'd fight it together. The heat of the bull was getting unbearably intense now. "Well, this is it" I said.

Suddenly, a blue light flashed around us. I turned around just in time to see the kolchian Bull being thrown away from us, along with every other monster. The border had been restored. "Annabeth" I said. "It's over" "It's over" She repeated. "Can you believe that?" "Not at all" "me neither" "I never would have thought…" I began. "…that after all of it…" Annabeth continued. "We'd be standing here together" we finished together. "Is that a valid reason for a kiss?" I asked. "I think it is" She responded. And so we did. Just as our lips lost contact, I woke up again.

Annabeth was still lying next to me and she was cute as ever. Using the same technique of squeezing her hand as yesterday morning, I verified that this was actually Annabeth. It was. I checked the clock. Not too early to get up. Looking over Annabeth, I saw Piper also just getting up. "Morning Percy" She said. "Yeah. Good morning. I wonder how long we'll have to wait for Annabeth to wake up" "Is it even Annabeth" "It is" "How do you know" "I taught her that squeezing her hand means she is safe. We've done that so often that it's engrained into her muscle memory and she even responds when she's asleep. No other alter does this. That's how I know it's her" "That is easily one of the cutest traditions I've heard of" "I could probably punch Annabeth and you'd find it cute" "Probably. But that's a genetic thing" "I'm not gonna argue with you on that because I don't have Annabeth to back me up" "Good choice" "I'll wait until she wakes up" "Good choice. For you at least. For me not so much. But hey, maybe she'll side with me" "Piper, stop trying to steal my girlfriend's diplomatic abilities" "That's a new one"

Annabeth began opening her eyes. "Oh, hi Percy, you're here" "Of course I'm here. That's kind of my thing" "I like that" "Of course you do. It comes with having severe abandonment issues" Annabeth punched me. Being still half-asleep, it wasn't a very strong punch. "I didn't come here to be personally attacked" "Technically, you're the one who lives here" "I didn't invite you to personally attack me" "Sorry" "It's alright. I wasn't like actually offended" "Oh, good" "I mean, you were just pointing out the unfortunate truth. I do have those abandonment issues" "I don't mean to interrupt" Piper said. "But you woke up like two minutes ago. Could you not have a therapy session right now" "If you insist" Annabeth said with fake annoyance. "To be fair, thinking about this stuff too early on could be bad for us and I can't forget about Piper's challenge for me" "The challenge to stay mentally stable until breakfast?" "That would be the one" Piper confirmed. That rule didn't sound very healthy. "Percy, I know that look" "What do you mean?" "You'll try to defend me now even though it is not necessary" "Piper can't just interfere with your recovery process and she can't force you to repress your symptoms" "Percy, you're overreacting. She's not forcing me to do anything. I see it as more of a suggestion that I agree will be helpful. It's also not like her rules actually impact my symptoms. I just try a bit harder to avoid triggers before breakfast than after, especially if the trigger is something that I'll have to face eventually but can delay. I think it's actually helping me" "Okay, good. Piper, you're getting away with it" "Glad to hear that. I really wouldn't want to get on your bad side for reasons that I won't bring up because they'd make Annabeth lose the challenge" "Another advantage: Piper makes sure not to accidentally trigger me before breakfast" "I always make sure not to trigger you. That has nothing to do with the challenge, it has to do with basic human decency" "Right. That thing. People being nice to me. Uh, suggestion: how about we have breakfast now so I don't have any chance to fail" "Great idea" "Grover would approve" "Grover would approve of any idea that relates to food even in the slightest" "That is true" So, we do have to still get dressed before breakfast so Percy, I'm afraid we're gonna have to kick you out" Before I knew it, I was standing in the hallway, contemplating the choices that had led to this; Getting a cute girl with a lot of issues, not believing in bi stereotypes, not policing my girlfriend's friendships, respecting her friend's privacy, respecting her own privacy. Overall, I was pretty happy with those choices. "Okay, you can come back in" Annabeth called. Once inside, I picked out what I'd wear. "So, are you two gonna leave or…" "You can have this" Annabeth responded, putting her cap on my head.

"Annabeth, you know exactly I'm too dumb to take off my shirt without losing the cap" "I have realized that and I am willing to take that risk" "Take that risk? Sounds more like 'seize that opportunity' to me" "Seeing you shirtless is a risk. Just think about what happened last time" "I'm pretty sure you liked it" "So? That doesn't mean I want to do it again" "That's usually how liking things work" "Did you like being in the lotus casino?" "Fine. Wait, no, that was magic keeping you prisoner. That has nothing to do with this" "Yes it does. Both alter my thought patterns" "Seeing me shirtless alters your though patterns?" "Yes, because it's hot. That is not something I'm used to" "Well, if the idea scares you so much, I will respect your feelings and be careful" "Good" "Gods, can't you two have a normal conversation" "When you say normal, do you mean 'talking about a normal topic' or 'neither of us are invisible'?" "Both"

I got changed accident-free and we finally made our way to breakfast. "I'm guessing I'll be going invisible again? " "That sounds the easiest. Also, you don't have the being-ignored-issues necessary to make such a measurement inconsiderate" "And you do?" "I've been nothing more than a burden all my life. Pretending I don't exist was often the best strategy. If you made me do this, it might crush my recovery process" "Then isn't it a bit hypocritical that you're making me do this?" "No, because it's completely different for you. If someone with a peanut allergy made someone without one a pb&j despite not wanting to get one themselves, they wouldn't be considered hypocritical" "Are you comparing going invisible to eating peanuts?" "Okay, better example: If you asked someone in a wheelchair to get something from a different room and you need to go up a few steps to reach that room, the person in the wheelchair would probably be offended and requests that you don't ask them for such things, but they could still ask an able bodied person to get something from said room without being hypocritical. It depends on how the thing you're saying affects others, not about what you say. For example, if I didn't want to be asked to go invisible but made you do something related to alcohol or being physically abused, that would be hypocritical" "Fine, you win" I put on the cap and snuck in behind the girls.

Next Chapter. I'll be honest, I forgot how long I'd made the dream scene