Author's notes: Wrote this a while back and if you stalk my LJ, you might have seen in buried somewhere. My muse is having a difficult time trying to write new things this summer and I feel bad about not updating my other fic, so there might be a deluge of old, non-posted fics coming in the next week or so.

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Diversionary Tactics

Lord Hades would not be happy to find out his son had been strangled by a certain daughter of Athena, Percy thought idly, watching from the porch of his cabin as Annabeth and Nico continued to argue about the blueprints for the Hades cabin.

Because that was what would certainly happen if Nico kept insisting that he had to have Ionic columns on the outside of his cabin instead of the Corthinian columns Annabeth had decided on or some other dumb minor detail like that. Percy had long ago learned that you just did not mess with Annabeth when it came to architecture unless you wanted blueprints shoved down your throat.

As much as he would have liked to see Annabeth beat up Nico instead of him for a change, the kid was interfering with Percy's valuable alone time with his girlfriend and something had to be done about that.

"Annabeth," Percy said, getting to his feet and stepping between the two of them. "Why don't you just let Nico have his stupid columns?"

"Are you insane? That would ruin the overall cohesiveness of the entire cabin! It'd look absolutely idiotic, and — "

"Your design already looks idiotic," Nico said unhelpfully, peeking around Percy's side. "I look like I'm living in a really fugly tomb."

Annabeth's face purpled. "All right, that's it. I'm going to murder you, you — Percy, what do you think you're doing?"

Percy cupped her face in his hands, and lowered his lips to hers before she could protest much more. He had discovered within the first few weeks of dating Annabeth that she tended to lose all train of thought after he kissed her — it was certainly an awesome way to make her forget she was mad at him, at least for a little while. Or give Nico enough time for a proper escape.

"Mmmm," Annabeth said after he pulled away a few moments later, a dreamy expression in her eyes. "What was I saying?"

"That you wanted to come relax by the lake with me for the rest of the afternoon?" he supplied helpfully, plastering his most winning smile on his face.

The dreamy expression disappeared and Annabeth narrowed her eyes, not buying his lie for a second, and glanced around him. She let out a curse, and shoved him out the way to chase after Nico.

"Percy, now that little brat is getting away! NICO DI ANGELO, YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN!"

"Darn," Percy sighed, spinning on his heel and shuffling after them. "I thought for sure that trick would work."