Annabeth's POV

"Carrying Tartarus with us?" I repeated.

Chiron looked at both of Hades's sons, grieved, "Annabeth," he sighed.

"Like carrying it on us. Like perfume. It's just hovering around in our air and everywhere we go," I felt my heart quicken, my palms sweat and my whole body shake.

Percy leaned forward and touched my arm, "Let's take a break," he whispered, "You're freezing."

"That," I remembered, "What about the chills?" I was running out of breath and I was feeling dizzy.

Edmond started to look concern for the first time that day, "That, I was thinking, is maybe something you could figure out."

Sweat was forming on my forehead.

"Was there something you did there Percy and Nico didn't?"

Before I could answer, Percy fell back into his seat. He had just fainted.

~~O~~

With the help of Argus, Chiron had Percy carried up the stairs.

It reminded me of when Percy first came to camp five years ago. Chiron and I had found him on the porch with Grover, unconscious and all ratted up from his bullfight with the minotaur. He was out for two days and in those two days, Argus carried him up and down the stairs of the Big House, from the room he had stayed in and to the front porch rocking chair to give him some sunlight. I spoon fed him nectar pudding while he was asleep, and I thank Chiron silently till this day that he's never mentioned to Percy that I volunteered to feed him myself.

Jason put a hand on my shoulder, "You look like you could use a nap, too," he scratched the back of his head.

Not meaning to be rude about it, I shrugged off his hand, "I will. Just let me watch over him alright? He's been doing this for me for the past few days."

He nodded, "I'll be outside."

I nodded back as Jason quietly shut the door.

I sighed and sat next to sleeping Percy. I would've loved to have said he looked peaceful, but his scrunched up eyebrows begged to differ. So then he was just cute.

Not really caring anymore about who could have walked in, I pulled the cover up and slipped beneath it and cuddled up next to Percy. I put my elbow on the pillow and rested my head on my hand. Percy was drooling, of course, so I used the collar of his shirt to wipe it off. Percy stirred and mumbled something incoherent but continued his slumber.

I couldn't help but think about Percy's sudden outburst of anger earlier. It's been years since any of us have seen him like that. Like, there were times when Percy got angry.

A few weeks before he disappeared, we were in Lower Manhattan stuck in traffic. Percy had picked me up from Clarion for a date to this crazy good pizza place. And I guess we were lost in the moment or the mozzerella and we lost track of time only to realize that Percy had a little more than a hour to get me back to the dorm before curfew. Eighty minutes to get me from this little pizza parlour to Clarion Academy in New York traffic. Percy was getting antsy, worried about me getting in trouble and I guess that the arhythmic honking everywhere was irritating his ADHD and the rude yelling from the other drivers just wouldn't do with him. Fingers tapping, eyebrows scrunched, tongue poking the inside of his cheek, he breathed deep and counted to ten over and over again, saying as little as he could to me, avoiding saying something that he didn't mean.

After seventy-two minutes, parked in the visitors spot in front of Clarion. We were both sitting in wet clothes since his stress was high enough to cause the water in the bottle to shoot through the cap and explode all over both of us. The water seemed to have cooled down Percy who burst out laughing and kissed me on the cheek.

"Sorry," he said shyly, "I just didn't want to get you in trouble."

That was nothing like today. Percy didn't count to ten. He wasn't trying to distract himself. He breathed shallowly. He snapped. He yelled. He threatened. And he was close to attacking.

Something was wrong with Percy.

Drool dripped out of his mouth again and I wiped it away with his collar once more.

Percy stirred at my touch and un-scrunched his eyebrows. Sensing I was there, he wrapped an arm around me, tugging me closer. I nestled my head underneath his chin and for what felt like the first time in so long, I really breathed. It felt good. To be on the bed, all warm and relaxed. It felt good to be with Percy, the smell of the ocean came off of him and the weight of his arm made me feel protected.

He moved again and exhaled deeply, "I pulled an Annabeth, huh?" he said, his voice still raspy from sleep.

I ignored his joke, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Bad timing."

"Like fainting would've made it any better."

"To be honest, I was trying to use you as a scapegoat really," he whispered.

"I thought so."

He hugged me tighter, pulling me closer, "You're feeling okay?"

"Percy, you just fainted," I rolled my eyes.

"I asked about you."

"I'm fine," I said, defeated.

Percy hummed lowly and rubbed my back.

"Percy," I hated myself for bringing this up, "What Edmond was saying-"

"I wanna sleep," he mumbled into my hair, "You should, too. You weren't exactly a hundred percent in there."

"Percy," I scolded.

He kissed the top of my head and it wasn't long until I felt Percy's grip loosen and his breathing grew heavy as he fell back to sleep.

And like the sea taking in the sand, Percy brought me into sleep.

~~O~~

We woke up to the sound of the bedroom door opening. By instinct, Percy and I sat up in bed and reached for a weapon. For Percy, that was Riptide and for me that was a pencil that was on the bed side table.

Piper gasped and dropped the fruit basket she was holding.

"Oh, gods, Piper," I gasped.

Percy groaned, resting back onto his pillow holding his head, "Got up too fast," he pressed his head into my back.

"I'm so sorry," Piper apologized, "I just wanted to bring this up. Katie and I picked these earlier, we thought they'd make you feel better."

"It's okay, Piper," Percy grumbled into my back, wrapping an around my stomach.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked pouring me a glass of water. She walked over to me and put it into my hand, sitting next to me, "Jason told me about everything."

"We're fine," I brushed over, drinking the water.

She raised an eyebrow at me, "Sure. Percy, you alright there bud?" she rubbed his shoulder, grinning.

"Mhmm," he said into my back, "Pipes, what time is it?"

She glanced at the watch on her wrist, "Quarter to seven. Dinner almost."

I felt Percy's head raise a bit as he looked out the window, "We slept for like, six hours," he mumbled. His head dropped again.

"I'll leave the two of you alone," Piper patted the bed and stood up, "You'll be out for dinner right?"

"Mhmm," Percy mumbled again.

"Kay, see you guys in a bit," she winked at me as she closed the door.

Placing the glass of water on the bedside table and tossing the pencil with it, I swiped the pillow underneath Percy's head away and hit him with it, "Don't wipe your drool on me!"

He pulled me back beside him, laughing, " did it to me earlier."

"I wiped your drool with your shirt," I laughed as Percy kissed my cheek, "Feeling better?" I tried pulling my cheek away from him.

Percy's hand stopped me from doing so and held my face to his, trailing his lips across my cheek and to the corner of my mouth, "A little bit," his lips moved gently against that corner as he said that. He slid his lips again until they were at the centre of my own, prying them open.

I moaned and held the back of his neck, pushing him closer to me, my eyes half-lidded while his were closed. My lips fumbled while I tried to get another breath in, and while instead of returning my lips to his, I caught them with my teeth, biting softly. Percy moaned, opening his eyes a bit, those sea green orbs of his pulling me in like his arms were. My lips replaced my teeth, capturing his lips again, sucking on them. He moaned even louder this time, a sound I was sure I've never heard him make before. Both of our eyes were closed, letting our other senses work. I let go of the pillow and placed my left hand on his face, my fingers gliding the line of his jaw. This made me move closer to him, our bodies unbearably close. His left arm rested on the bed space above my head while his other was curled around my back, his hand rubbing my upper back. I felt my whole body flush.

It wasn't like we've never kissed before or that we were never laying next to each other. It was just, never like this.

An odd energy went running through my veins but the rest of me was completely relaxed or maybe even paralysed by what Percy was doing.

The small movements of his hands between my shoulder blades or the way his nose bumped into mine a few times, which should have been awkward but really weren't.

And I would've been scared of the possibility that Percy wasn't feeling the same energy I was. But the way he panted when we finally pulled away for some air put my fears to shame as he leaned in and pressed his smile to my forehead.

"I feel so much better," he said lowly in between breaths, his lips were swollen and darker.

"Glad I could help," I grinned hazily, surprised my voice could sound so smooth and out of breath.

Then like Frank, Jason and Piper, the conch shell sounded, reminding Percy and I that we skipped lunch.

"Sit with me?" Percy smirked.

I pulled the blanket off of me and threw my half over Percy's head, "If I have to."

He tugged the blanket off of him and quickly followed me, "Really? You'll just never be a little easy on me?"

"I've said it before, Seaweed Brain," I opened the screen door, "I will never ever make anything easy for you," I winked, smiling as he followed closely behind me.

I couldn't help but notice something wrong about his eyes.