Hope ya'll enjoy this chapter!
Annabeth's POV
My alarm blared in my ear, I grabbed my phone and turned the alarm off. My head felt like it was splitting open and it hurt to open my eyes. I did my best to check the time without making my head hurt any more. The time read 6 AM and I rolled my eyes, which even hurt to do, I slowly got up and made my way to the kitchen to get some water. As I rubbed my eyes and walked into the kitchen the memories of last night hit me.
"Oh fuck…" I mumbled, throwing my hands into my face.
I remembered vividly what I had said to Percy after he told me how Bailey had manipulated me into breaking up with him. While I was still very confused about Bailey manipulating us, I remember thinking that it was a load of bullshit, but if he had chosen a lie that was the worst lie to come up with. Ugh, I can't believe that I was such a bitch to him, especially after he had said that he didn't want to even get back together and that he just wanted to be friends again. I did want to know why he had waited five years and what he meant by complications and roadblocks, but sober me now realized how mean I was to him. Grabbing my phone and opening it to text Percy an apology, I prayed that he still was okay with taking Diana and I out Friday. Typing it out multiple times, trying to figure out the words to say, I finally settled on a text and sent it. Grabbing a glass of water and some ibuprofen I walked around and checked everything. I couldn't believe Percy actually cleaned the rest of the dishes and everything after what I did, I felt terrible. Heading back upstairs to take a shower I slowly tried getting ready for the day and hoping that Percy wasn't too pissed.
Percy's POV
I woke up from my alarm going off on my phone, as I went to grab it I noticed it wasn't on my night stand. I sat up and asked Annabeth where it was. No response. I looked around on the bed since I heard it close and finally found it with a note stuck to it. My heart broke as I read the note and prayed it was some cruel prank. I opened my phone and saw the texts that Annabeth had seen. Yet none of it was true and I didn't even know how I sent that picture since I never even took it. I went around the apartment but couldn't find her. My heart was pounding and my body was shaking. My mind felt like it was going a million miles per hour and I couldn't think straight. I pulled on some pants and put my shoes on and stormed to Bailey's apartment. As I got there and slammed on her door it opened by itself. I walked in and called out for Bailey, pissed and ready to demand her to tell me what she and Lily had done. As I walked closer to her bedroom door the sounds of moans started coming from behind the door. I didn't care if she was in the middle of having sex I was going to find Annabeth. As I pushed the door open forcefully I was shocked at what I saw. It wasn't Bailey making those sounds but Annabeth. She was getting fucked by two random dudes and as I stood there mortified she looked over at me and smiled as cum dripped from her lips.
I shot up from my bed in a cold sweat, normally dreams weren't that vivid and usually if a dream involves the morning Annabeth left it didn't end like that. Shaking off the nerves from the dream and grabbing my phone I looked down at it to see that I had a text from Annabeth.
Hey Percy I'm so sorry for last night. I had way too much to drink and I let the past affect me too much. I appreciate you telling me the truth…it is a lot to take and again I'm sorry for my reaction. I am especially sorry for what I said before going off upstairs to bed that was totally uncalled for and unfair of me to do. You don't have to explain anything that you don't want to but… I would greatly appreciate just some more clarification on everything if that is okay and ofc whenever you are able to. I also will completely understand if you want to cancel tomorrow just let me know as soon as possible if you can… oh and you did NOT have to finish cleaning up I would totally have understood if you hadn't and am so embarrassed and sorry for what I said and did.
I appreciated the text as I read through it, but still felt hurt by her words. I quickly texted her back that I would not want to disappoint Diana over something like that. Also that I appreciated her apology and accepted it, and that I am open to clarifying and talking more about whenever we have time. After sending the text I got up fully and went to get ready for a day out at sea.
TIME SKIP TO FRIDAY MORNING
Annabeth's POV
I woke up to Diana jumping on top of me and screaming "Shark day Mommy!" over and over. I groaned and grabbed her into a giant bear hug. She squealed and laughed as I turned and laid on top of her and yelled out "Shark attack!". After a couple of minutes of laughter and playing around I got up to get ready. Percy texted me yesterday after his response to my apology that Diana and I could meet him at his place at around 7:30 AM. I was thankful that he had forgiven me and not held what I said against me. After getting dressed and ready, all while Diana kept telling me to hurry, we finally left for Percy's place. I wasn't sure what I expected since he had told me, when we saw each other at the store, that he was staying in a small beach home Piper owned. But as we pulled into his driveway I saw this place was not small, at least not in the way I thought it was. What he had said was small was true since it was a one story house but it was wide and clearly had a lot of room on the inside. As I helped Diana out of the car, Percy opened his front door and came out to help.
"Good morning! Are you ready to see some sharks?" He said, smiling at Diana as she ran to him to show off her scuba goggles she brought and screaming "yes".
"Good morning. This place looks amazing Percy, I did not expect it to be this big though." I said, giving him a soft smile and trying not to seem awkward.
"Well I guess I kind of thought of it as small since it was only one story, but yeah it is amazing. Here come inside while I finish getting everything ready." He said, grabbing the beach bags of snacks, toys, clothes, and towels I had brought for Diana and I.
As we walked into the house it looked even more beautiful, all of the furniture seemed very expensive. Percy placed the bags towards the back door and then showed us around the place before telling us he just had to grab his laptop and get the boat ready. We sat in the kitchen and had some breakfast he had made for us, which was really sweet as he had even made shark shaped pancakes for Diana. He placed everything down in the boat and then led us down to the dock behind the house. The boat itself was a small yacht, and clearly a very high tech one as it had several antennas sticking out of it, as well as there being all sorts of tech things I had seen on some boats on some of the marine shows Diana would want to watch. Diana asked Percy to hold her as we went down the steps and as he picked her up they both were smiling. As I looked at the both of them, I smiled to myself and thought of how much they looked and acted alike. I couldn't believe how much she adored him already, granted it didn't take a lot to get her admiration, especially if you had a job that involved working with ocean life. Still, part of me wondered if it had to do with her somehow knowing she was his daughter. Snapping back to reality as we started getting on the boat and Diana was calling for me to see how cool it looked.
"Yes honey, that is cool." I smiled, as she had been pointing at a shark cage on the side of the boat.
"Are you going to be using that today?" I nervously asked Percy, who was walking to the wheel of the ship getting ready to take off.
"Um no, maybe in a couple of weeks we can since Piper will be down here visiting. She can help operate it and the ship." He said, not really making eye contact with me and focusing on getting us out to sea.
"Okay." I said, nodding along and just walking off to make sure Diana sat down while Percy got us out to the open sea. I knew it was probably just him trying to focus on steering the boat and everything but I still felt a little like it was him being mad or something at me.
After about an hour and a half he started slowing the boat to a stop, he came over and told us that he was going to start chumming to get the sharks. Diana asked if we could swim with the sharks and Percy laughed a little and told her that we will go swimming later with some sand sharks. As he started chumming Diana walked around and looked over the edge of the boat to see if she could spot any. I walked over to Percy as he finished throwing some chum off the back of the boat to make sure everything was good between us. Before I could say anything a shark appeared towards the surface of the water.
"Woah. Diana, come here look at the sharks!" I said, turning back to the front of the ship. She rushed down and before she realized she shouldn't be running on a boat Percy grabbed her and scooped her up.
"No running Diana." He sternly told her as she looked down avoiding his eyes. "You could get hurt or fall into the water."
"Okay, sorry Percy." She quietly said.
He smiled and told her it was okay and then directed her attention to the sharks. Her eyes lit up and as he held her, for almost an hour, they watched the sharks and she would point out what kind of sharks they were. I stood there and took pictures of them before Percy handed me Diana and took pictures of Diana and me. After a while Percy started the boat up again and took us to another spot so we could go swimming. Once we got to the spot he had chosen for us Percy took his shirt off. Before I had left Percy, he was very muscular and had some scarring over his body. Now with his shirt off, you could tell how much bigger he had gotten muscle wise. However, his body was now riddled with scars, big and small, it looked like he had fought hundreds of battles in the last five years. Thankfully Diana hadn't said anything, but Percy did see my shocked expression as I looked at him before jumping in the water. After swimming and having an amazing lunch that Percy made for us we all laid down to take a nap. Percy gave the captains bed to Diana and I so we laid down and rested as he went to nap up top. After making sure Diana was fully asleep, I got up and went up to the main deck of the boat. Percy was laying there near the front of the boat and had a hat covering his face. As I walked up to him I noticed he was still shirtless. He hadn't seemed to notice me as I got closer and kneeled down, I stared at his heavily scarred torso. There looked to be gunshot wounds, stab marks, giant slashes, there even looked like what could've been spear marks too and they were all over his body. I noticed the one that ran from his neck down to collarbone and then down his chest and ended with a giant round scar.
"Do you want me to turn around and you can see my back too?" He spoke up from under his hat. I jumped a little not realizing that he had woken up.
"Sorry, I-um… I was just going to see if we could talk since Diana is napping but then I saw that you were sleeping and then I saw that you didn't-" I rambled, embarrassed and a bit more nervous than I had realized.
"It's okay. Yeah we can talk, what would you like to start with?" He cut me off, thankfully, sitting up and putting his hat back on his head.
"Um, how about from the beginning? Can you explain Bailey manipulating us again?" I sheepishly asked as I took a seat next to him, sitting cross legged and looking towards him.
Percy went on to explain again but a bit more detailed on how Bailey had apparently always been the best at everything and got a lot of attention and praise for it. Well, until she got to Camp Half-Blood while we were out trying to stop Gaia. While there she had trouble with picking up fighting monsters and such. She then got claimed by Athena after she was able to outsmart some Hermes kid, which she found out later was like outsmarting a toddler. After that she wanted Athena's attention more than ever but heard that Athena's supposed "favorite" was me, and I had been tasked to find the Athena Parthenos. Bailey, determined to get Athena's proper praise, started trying to find a way for her to find the statue first and when she couldn't, she started trying everything and anything to get the praise she desired. After the war ended and I had successfully retrieved the statue to unite the camps as well as survive Tartarus, her hatred for me grew. Eventually learning that Percy and I were going to New Rome University she also applied and got in, then she started her multi-year plan to manipulate and destroy me. Percy explained too that she had lied about being a daughter of Venus to everyone because she thought it would make her "relationship advice" and comments seem more believable. Or at least something to that extent, Percy claims he thinks she just was crazy and over-thought too much, which he was not wrong on the crazy part.
"Okay…she definitely was crazy." I said, not knowing what else to say as I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that she manipulated me and I had not seen it and fell for it.
"Yeah, and she used your jealousy and dislike of Lily to fuel things and that's why she started a relationship with Lily. Only thing though was that Lily truly didn't like me until Bailey convinced her that I was in love with her secretly and that she needed to help "free me" from you." Percy continued, looking down and ashamed. "Which she was only allowed to do because I didn't listen to you…"
"And you apologized for it already, plus from the sound of it Lily and you were manipulated too. What happened after I left? ." I asked, trying to push forward and get a better grasp on why it's been five years before I heard any of this.
"To put it plainly…I went to Bailey to find out what happened and she told me what she did…So then I almost killed Bailey and gave Lily such a good scare she is now afraid of the ocean." Percy shamefully said, avoiding any eye contact .
"What did you do to them, Percy…" I said, I knew when Percy got mad he could be dangerous, I mean he almost killed Akhlys so I knew when he gave into his darker urges he could be terrifying.
"Bailey found out I could do more than just move water when I made her entire apartment crumble and then I flooded that area of New Rome and left Bailey pinned under rubble and Lily to get attacked by fish." He said, looking down at the water as a pod of dolphins passed us.
I just sat there stunned, Percy's voice showed remorse and shame but his eyes told another story. I reached out to hold his hand but he pulled away as my fingers grazed his hand.
"What next?" I quietly asked.
"I went straight to your dad's house, I saw your car in the driveway so I knew you were there. But as I put the car in park, Athena teleported me to Olympus. She then gave me a choice as my punishment for almost killing Bailey and destroying a part of New Rome." He spitefully said, looking down at the sea again.
"What about Demeter and Zeus?" I asked, wondering why just my mother would punish him.
"She understood why I did what I did, also I didn't almost kill Lily, I made sure she was going to be okay, physically at least, before I left. As for Zeus, I think Athena told him to not worry about it and he did." He coldly responded, still not looking at me.
"Anyway, your mom gave me a choice for my punishment, die or basically be her errand boy until she says so and I never speak to you again. To which I said "Die.""