Title: In Which Percy Tries to Avoid Dancing and Fails
Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Genre: General/Romance
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth/Percy, Grover, Thalia
Notes: [Post Book 3], Written for kousuke_blade

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It wasn't that I was against the idea of the dance; trust me- a little fun after all the crap I'd been through this year would be nice. Oh no, it was the fundamental concept of dancing that I was against.

Now don't laugh. You probably think dances are all nice and prissy and fun, but for me? Well, let's just say that I'd rather take on a stampeding chimera than try to ask a girl to dance with me. Much easier on the nerves. It didn't help that the dance had been sprung on us at the last minute. I'd heard talk of it before now, but I never dreamed that Mr. D or Artemis would let it pass. I guess they both knew that it would drive me (and other boys like me) mad and decided to do it as a twisted sense of punishment.

Some of the boys had managed to work up some courage, namely the Stoll brothers, and were leading two girls from the Hermes Cabin around the dance floor. Mr. D seemed to be enjoying himself seated at the top table with plates full of food and Chiron looked as if he would have preferred more classical music as opposed to the pop music blasting out over the floor.

Artemis hadn't come, something Thalia said was probably due to her not wanting to see her pure maidens cavorting with unsavory men, and most of the hunters stayed stalwartly seated at their table.

When I felt Chiron's gaze fall on me, I turned to Grover. We had camped out on the edge of the dance floor, myself armed with a can of coke and Grover happily munching the can I'd finished earlier.

"Hey, Grover?"

"Mhpmgh?" He had a mouth full of can and quickly swallowed it. "Yeah?"

"What are we going to do if they insist we dance?"

"I dunno," he murmured. "I could dance with you."

I grinned at him. "You forgot your wedding dress."

Grover sighed. "You are never going to let me forget that are you?"

"Nope."

We both started up as someone right in front of us cleared their throat. "Hey goat-boy, you owe me a dance."

Grover blinked, looking up to see Thalia right in his face. "I-I do?"

"Get your butt out here," she said, grabbing him by the arms and bodily hauling him onto the dance floor. I couldn't help but smile, glad to see that being a Hunter wasn't going to stop Thalia from doing whatever she pleased.

Grover stumbled around a bit, but seemed to be fairing a bit better than he had at Westover Hall. I figured it was probably because he's got a little more grace without his fake feet.

"Thalia seems happy," a voice next to me said and I jumped.

"W-Where'd you come from?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me. "Oh I just appeared out of nowhere. Don't mind me and go back to being a guy, Seaweed Brain."

The way she said it, I knew that she was trying to hint at something; but I didn't quite at first understand what she meant by "go back to being a guy" until I glanced around and realized that almost every male camper was huddling next to the tables and walls avoiding catching a girl's eye. The Aphrodite girls were trying their hardest to lure some of them onto the dance floor, all smiles and giggles and other girly behaviors that tend to make us guys extremely nervous for no reason whatsoever. Some had even succeeded in dragging a few away from their safe borders, and those guys looked half-dazed, half-terrified as they were taken out onto the floor.

For a moment, I thought of the sirens luring people from their safe ships; and then, my mind flashed to Annabeth. How she'd trembled in my arms after her run in with the sirens, how weak she'd looked when suffering under Atlas's burden.

"Hey, uh…" I cleared my throat, feeling rather awkward just bringing this up out of the blue. "You're okay now, aren't you? I mean- that burden it..."

She cut me off before I could finish, a tenative hand coming up to rest on my arm. "Thanks Percy, but I'm fine."

A slight smile tugged at my lips then, not quite certain what she was thanking me for but glad to hear she was okay. Where her hand still rested, my arm burned. It wasn't an unpleasant burn, but almost a very alert awareness of her hand. Impulsively, I reached up and took it, my eyes seeking out hers.

"I know you're tough, Annabeth, but I also know how much holding the sky takes out of you. If you're not up to being here, if you're tired…"

She laughed lightly, her cheeks turning pink as if I'd embarrassed her somehow. "Percy, you held it up too. Stop fussing over me and just ask me to dance already."

I swallowed thickly, all words being constricted in my throat. My hand that gripped her hand suddenly became very sweaty.

Sighing in exasperation, she pulled me out onto the dance floor. "Come on, unless you're too tired for another dance."

My mind flashed back to my dance with her at the Olympian party and I knew I had to blushing. There was dancing in front of random gods and goddesses and there was dancing in front of your fellow campers. Needless to say, the second is the scarier option.

But before I could protest without making a huge scene, there I was in the middle of the Mess Hall with Annabeth moving my hand onto her waist and grasping the other one with a hand of her own.

I hung my head in a vain attempt to hide my scarlet face from the crowd and ended up accidentally leaning my forehead down against Annabeth's instead.

"Percy?" She asked nervously. I tried to act cool, not wanting all the thousands of eyes that I could now feel staring at me to think I was some jerk who ditched girls at dances.

"You were very brave." The words tumbled out of my mouth before I even registered them. Annabeth blushed, but not in a blotchy unattractive way like most people. It was somehow…nice looking.

"You're the brave one, Percy. You always are." She said it so quietly, I almost didn't hear her. I had to smile. This was probably one of the few times I couldn't bring myself to tease her about being modest.

I let go of her waist for a moment, reaching up to brush the strands of gray in her hair as I laughed. "Okay, you be the smart one and I'll be the brave one. And that leaves Grover to put up with us bickering over problems in which I want to do something stupidly brave and you want to be safe and smart. It's a win-win situation."

Annabeth smiled then, shaking her head in amusement as she replied. "You're a genius, Seaweed Brain."

Returning the smile and somehow no longer noticing all the campers staring, I put my hand back down on her waist as we turned in beat to the music.

"I try my best, Wise Girl. I try my best."