AN: Hello from the author! Please enjoy my first fanfic! R&R, and don't be too mean! I can take criticism, but only so much (haha) Happy Reading!

Oh, and remember i (sadly) don't own PJO *sniff*

3 Simple Words

Percy's POV

Today started off with me awaking to a sharp pain in my arm. It probably was due to the fact that I was lying, not in my bunk as usual, but on the hard floor of my cabin. Great, I thought, a perfect way to start today. This normally wouldn't have bothered me, but I was nervous enough as it was.

Today was an important day for me. Today, I was going to tell Annabeth, my girlfriend of almost a year, that I loved her.

I was going to tell her at the beginning of camp, but I chickened out every time I saw her. So now, it was mid-July, and I was pissed off at myself for always backing down. So I decided that I would tell her today.

The sharp sound of the horn signaling breakfast drove me out of my thoughts. I got up, threw on some clean clothes, and left my cabin, following everyone else up to the dining pavilion. There were so many campers this year. It looked like the gods were keeping their promise about claiming their kids. The only downside was that camp was full, even with the expansion of the grounds and all the new cabins Annabeth had designed. And it seemed like new campers were straggling over the boundary every other day.

I met up with Annabeth walking up the hill. Even though we've been dating for a while, and were friends before that, she still manages to take my breath away. Her 'princess curls,' as I once called them, shined in the sun. And her eyes are like a storm, grey and swirling, and almost always lost in thought. They looked that way when I walked up to her, but as soon as she saw me, they came back to reality. She smiled at me as she broke away from her cabin mates. "Well hey there Seaweed Brain." I gave her a swift kiss on the cheek and we held hands the rest of the walk.

We parted during breakfast, in which I tried to plan how I would tell her those three little words. By the end of breakfast I still had nothing, just telling myself I'll "wing-it."

It was hot out, almost 98 degrees, so after breakfast, we decided to take a swim. We stopped by our cabins to change, and then made our way over to the dock.

When we got there, we stripped down to our bathing suits. Annabeth looked amazing, not that she didn't normally, in her blue and grey two-piece, and I was looked decent, I hope, in a pair of green swim trunks.

Annabeth thought that it would be funny to push me in when I wasn't looking, and then, after laughing at my expression, got pulled in on top of me. She surfaced right away, but I waited a minute, trying to scare her. Sadly, since I did this every time we went swimming, it barely fazed her when I sprung out of the water.

She smiled and shook her head sadly. "Poor Percy. If you still think you can scare me, your head really is full of kelp."

"Haha," I replied. We swam over to where we could both stand up, and I looked back at her. The sun was shining on her perfectly, so she looked like and angel. My own personal miracle. I hugged her, and when I pulled back a little, our faces were two inches apart. I leaned forward and she met me halfway. My hands around her waist, and hers in my hair, I could have stayed there forever. She made me so happy.

Unfortunately, the Stoll brothers, Conner and Travis, used our momentary discretion to sneak onto the dock, and steal our clothes. And then proceeded to hide them.

When we finally broke apart, I had just gotten the courage to tell her, but at that exact moment, Annabeth looked over at the dock, only to discover and immediately verbalize that our clothes were no longer there.

We waded out of the water to find Conner and Travis walking onto the beach. They waved at us and smiled mischievously. "Have fun on your treasure hunt!" said Travis. "We'll give you a hint, it's somewhere in the forest." Conner added, and then they ran off into the forest.

Annabeth and I just stood on the beach. "Great." I said "'it's in the forest, like that narrows it down!"

"Well, there's no point in going after them, they'll never tell. We might as well start looking." She said, sounding exasperated. Great, I thought, this isn't turning out anything like I planned it. But, I had to agree with her, so, still holding hands, we walked into the forest.

After an hour of searching, we had nothing. "You know…" said Annabeth, "If we split up, we'll probably find it faster." My heart sank a little, "You want to split up?" I asked. "…no." she said, and smiled a little, which made me smile with her. "Come on," I said, "Let's take a break. I'm tired of looking."

I found a tree and sat down with my back against it. Annabeth sat down too, her back leaning against my chest. We sat there for a while, with me stroking her hair. "Percy." she suddenly asked.

"Yes?"

"I'm really happy. Thank you." It seemed like a simple statement, but I understood what was behind it. "Me too," I said, and smiled to myself.

"Hey Annabeth," I paused. "Yes?"

"Umm, I wanted to tell you…" She turned around to face me, with a questioning look in her eyes. But just by looking at her, I knew that what I wanted to say was true, and suddenly, I wasn't nervous anymore. "I love you." But no matter how much I meant it, I still couldn't look at her, what if I had just ruined the best thing that ever happened to me. I stared at my lap, playing with a leaf.

Her finger connected with my chin, and gently raised my head up until our eyes met. "I love you too." was all she said, but it was enough. I smiled, and kissed her, this time though, it had more behind it then ever before. It was like, through my kiss, I was confirming the words I had just spoken. And she kissed me back, in the same way. I was so happy. While it's totally cliché, everything seemed brighter then before. I pulled away for a second, "I love you," I said again, and leaned back in…

It seemed like we had been in that clearing for minutes, but my stomach begged to differ. So did Annabeth's. "We should really find our clothes," she said once we pulled apart. "I know," I said a few moments later. When we sat up I smiled and laughed. "What?" she exclaimed.

"You have leaves in your hair." I said, and laughed again.

"Oh…" she said, and I helped her pull them out.

"Ah, do we have to go?" I said laying back down, staring at the tree's branches. Annabeth just laughed. "Oh gods!" I said, and jumped up. I started to climb the tree I was originally leaning against, despite Annabeth's many protests.

When I came back down, I was holding our clothes. "Ironic!" I said, and she giggled. We dressed and headed for dinner, knowing full well that we'd be late, but we didn't rush.

Don't forget to R&R