Annabeth's POV

I was wandering around England. I was homeless. I ran away from home when I was seven years old. I'm sixteen now. For nine years I've been begging people for food and shelter.

I was at least two hundred miles from my birth place. The only time when I've ever returned is for my parent's funerals, though I hid in the corner because I didn't want to be seen. There were some moments when I wanted to return, but I just couldn't. Yes, everyone would be happy for the first five minutes. Then they would start yelling, and hitting me. My childhood was so horrible. No one ever loved me. The only people who ever cared for me were Bobby, and Matthew, my two younger brothers. They were devastated when I told them that I was leaving. I can't shake the look of their shocked faces. After I explained slowly to them why, they understood.

So now here I am, alone and hungry.

I kept walking along. All of the sudden bright lights blazed across the sky. I squinted. After a few seconds I could make out a shape of a castle. A beautiful castle.
I suddenly recognized it. This was the castle where Prince Percy lived. Along with King Poseidon and Queen Sally. I walked closer to the castle.

I was about to knock on the door, when I heard someone clear their throat. I turned around and saw a boy about my age with messy black hair and gorgeous sea green eyes.

"Um…may I help you?" the boy asked.

"Prince Percy!" I jumped. I realized that I must have sounded kind of crazy. I straightened my top and bowed to him. He smiled.

"You….er….don't have to be so formal with me. Call me Percy." He said.

"Ok…. Percy…sorry. I was just wondering around."

He nodded. "So, do you live around here?" he asked. I clenched my fists.

"No. I'm homeless." I said through gritted teeth. Percy blushed.

"Oh. Sorry about that."

"Ya….it's fine. I guess." I said.

"So do you need anything?" He asked. I think he could see my face light up, because he smiled a little bit. "Yes. I need some food. I'm starving." I said.

He grinned. "I can help you with that." He took my hand and dragged me behind him.

"Where are we—?"

"Shhh!" He cut me off. "If anyone knows that I brought an outsider inside the castle, than I'm dead."

"An Outsider?" I asked. Percy rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."

He kept dragging me until we got to a little door. I mean this door was about the size of a infant. I looked at it and then back at Percy, who was still holding my hand. I blushed and then pulled my hand out of his grasp, and put them in my pockets. "Am I supposed to fit through that?"

He laughed. "Yep. Come on, it's not that hard. I mean you did say that you were hungry right?"

"Ok, fine." I opened the doors and squeezed through. When I got to the other side I gasped. There was a huge room that was full of food. Percy, who already made his way through the tiny spot started to chuckle.

"Take what you want." He said. I stared at him. "Really?" I asked.
"Yep. We have enough food to last ten centuries. I am not exaggerating."

"Well. Ok. Thanks, Percy." I said smiling at him.

"No problem. Oh and do you have a place to sleep?" He asked.

"No, but it's alright. I guess I'm used to sleeping on the ground."

"Oh, no. You're not sleeping on the ground." Percy said. I stared at him. "Why are you doing this? I mean with the food, and the shelter?" I asked.

He smiled at me. "I don't know. Cause I want to. Anyway I know where you can sleep. There is this one part of the castle that no one but me goes into. There is a bedroom in there if you wanna sleep there."

I smiled back at him. "Ya. Ok. Thanks Percy."

"No problem….. You know what? I don't think I caught your name." He said.

"Annabeth. Annabeth Chase." I said.

"Well, Annabeth. I believe that you have a room waiting for you." Percy said grinning.

"I Believe that I do." I said laughing a little bit.

He took my hand and started to pull me along into the castle. He showed me every little detail about it. When we got to the room that I was staying in for the night, my mouth dropped. Just like everything in the castle the room amazed me. It was only a bedroom, bath room, and a living room, but it was the nicest thing that I had every stayed in for my entire life. Percy pulled me along to the bed.

"So. How long do you think you're going to stay here?"

"I don't know. Maybe just tonight." I swear that I saw a little disappointment in his face.

"Oh. Ok. Well I'm sleeping in the room right across from here, just in case you need anything." Percy said.

"Ok. Percy. Thank you so much for everything." I smiled.

"No Problem. Goodnight Annabeth." Percy said.

"Goodnight Percy."

I had a nightmare that night.

I was running away from something that I couldn't see. I could hear it scream at me .It was screaming something horrible. Something in another language. I knew that it was speaking in Greek. I could understand the language, but it was yelling something that I couldn't understand. I glanced next to me. Percy was running next to me. He had a sword in his hand. We keep running until we found a tree. Percy gave me a boost to get to the top. He climbed up after me.

"Annabeth, we have to fight it." He said to me.

"What! We'll die!" I screamed. He cupped a hand over my mouth.

"Shhh. He will find us. Annabeth, we have to at least try. You stay up here and shot arrows, and I'll go down there and try to kill it with my sword." I didn't realize that I was carrying a bow until he said that.

"Percy, no. I-it's too dangerous. I am not going to let you go down there and fight a monster that we can't even see!" He looked at me with sadness in his eyes. "Well, I'm sorry Annabeth. I have to. It's the only way you will stay alive." He kissed my cheek and jump out of the tree.

"Percy!" I was about to jump out after him, but he would've gotten mad. I got my bow and started to shoot arrows at nothing. I could sometimes hear deep groaning so I was only hoping that I shot him. I glanced down at Percy. He was amazing with his sword. Every time he slashed it the groaning got louder. It was like he could see the invisible monster. I keep shooting the arrows until I heard Percy scream. I looked down at him and he was on the ground. He was so broken it was hard to look at.

"Percy!" I jumped out of the tree and picked up his sword.

How could I let that happen? He did so many things to help me and I just let him die! I took the sword and started to slash at the air. There were tears in my eyes.

After a while I couldn't hear the groaning or the monstrous footsteps. I ran over to Percy and kneeled down next to him.

"Percy, I am so sorry. This is all my fault."

"Stop that. No it is not your fault. I just wasn't strong enough I guess."

I looked at his beautiful green eyes. All of the sudden I felt an enormous hand go around my waist.

I started to scream as I was being picked up into the air from nothing.

"Annabeth!"

I was being shaken awake.

"Annabeth. Come on. Wake up!"

I opened my eyes and I saw Percy looking at me with a very concerned look on his face. We stared at each other for a long time, until I finally couldn't take it.

"Percy. Oh, thank the Gods." I said as I hugged him really tight. I felt him hesitate, but then he hugged me back. "Are you ok?" He asked. "I woke up and heard you screaming in here."

"Ya. Just had a nightmare." My eyes were getting watery. He started to wipe the tears away.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked

"No." I didn't want to see the look on Percy's face when I told him that I was dreaming that we both died. I looked at him. With the light hitting him I could see features that I couldn't see last light with only the moonlight. He was really cute. His bright sea green eyes were staring deeply into my gray eyes. He had a tan, he was muscular, and really tall.

"Well. Thanks for letting me stay here tonight." I said, trying to get over the fact that I might be crushing on the prince.

"No Problem." When he saw me get out of bed and make my way toward the door he grabbed my wrist. " Where are you going? You aren't leaving yet. Are you?" he asked.

" Well, I can't stay here forever Percy. I have to leave sometime." I said.

" Well, I just met you. So I want to know more about you. So you can't leave yet." He said pulling me back over to the bed.

"Ok, fine." I sighed. "What do you want to know?"

Percy grinned. "Everything."

"Everything? Ok, but I got to warn you. My life was pretty boring until now." I said.

"Mmmhmm. I bet it was. Everyone's life is boring until they meet the prince. I mean there really is no excitement until you have a tall, muscular, and handsome prince in their life." He said pointing to himself.

"You are such a dork, seaweed brain." I said smiling.

Percy looked confused. "Seaweed brain? What is that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Well, your father is Poseidon, like the god of the sea and your green eyes remind me of the ocean, and guess what? The ocean has seaweed in it….so…ya. Seaweed brain."

"Whatever wise girl."

"Wise girl? Why wise girl?" I asked.

"Well you must be pretty dang smart to come up with a nickname like seaweed brain. I got to admit, it was pretty clever." He said smiling at me. I smiled back. I felt Percy's hand slip into mine. It felt good. Like his hand should belong there. "So. I want to hear more about your life."

I sighed. "Let's just say that my childhood was not the best. People treated me like I was a piece of crap. Even my own parents. The only people that ever love me were my twin brothers. I've never had friends. One day I just couldn't take it anymore. Actually I did something wrong. Something really stupid, like I didn't make my bed, I think, and so they took out a belt and gave me a whopping." My eyes were getting a little watery. I looked at Percy's face. He was looking at me with sadness in his eyes, but he obviously wanted me to continue. I squeezed Percy's hand. "I-I ran away after the whopping. The only time I've ever returned was for my parents' funeral. Than I was on the run again. I-it was pretty hard. I went almost three weeks with very little food and water. Coming to this place was the greatest gift in the world. I am s-so glad that I left my town." I was shuddering because tears were staring to fall.

I couldn't believe myself. I was letting myself look weak, which I hated to do, and I was doing it in front of the prince.

I was half expecting him to give me an awkward pat on the back, but he did something that surprised me even more. He pulled me into his arms.

I started to cry on his shoulder. His shirt was getting all wet, but he didn't seem to care. Percy rubbed my back and said soothing words. After my tears were gone, we just sat into each other's arms for a while. It felt really good.

"Are you ok?" Percy asked me after a while.

I pulled away from him, but I made sure that we were at least holding hands. "Ya. I don't know why that happened. I never cry. Sorry if it was awkward for you. But thanks for making me feel better."

"Hey, it's all right. I'm just glad you're happy again, or at least happy-ish. What I learned is that I don't like to see you cry. It gets me depressed." He said frowning. He saw me staring at him and smiled.

"So, are you gunna leave?" He asked.

I looked at him. He was being really nice to me. Acting like a true friend. Acting like he would make sure that nothing hurt me. I may never see him again if I left and that would devastate me. He was the nicest person I have ever met.

"No. I think I'll stay around for a while." I said. He grinned really big and then pulled me into a hug.

"Good, because I wasn't going to let you go anyway." Percy whispered in my ear.

I laughed. I finally found a friend who cares about me. Who won't let anything hurt me.

We heard a knock on the door. Percy hesitated. He looked at the door and then at me. He looked me in the eyes and some kind of silent understanding passed between us. I dove under the bed and made sure that I wasn't seen.

"Come in." Percy said. The Door creaked open. There was a girl about our age with red hair and freckles. I could still see Percy's face and I saw an annoyed look on his face.

"Hey, baby!" She said. She ran over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

I felt myself blush. I was so happy that Percy couldn't see me.
"Ugh, Rachel. Don't call me baby. You know I don't like it." He said. The girl pouted. "Anyways, what are you doing in this place. I didn't even know this was a part of the castle."

"Ya, and it was supposed to stay like that." He said. Percy looked really annoyed.

Rachel looked like she was in love. She slid her hand into Percy's hand really slowly, like he wouldn't notice. Once he found out what she was trying to do, he shook his hand away. "Rachel, you know I don't like to have physical contact with anyone." I fought back a laugh. It was so obvious he was using that as an excuse. Percy and I just meet and we already held hands about five times.

"Anyways, why didn't you tell me this was a part of the castle. It could have been our hideout. To get away from everyone when they started to annoy us." She was looking at Percy really flirtatiously. She was batting her eyelashes ten times per second. Once again she tried to slide her hand into Percy's again but he shook it away again.

"Actually, this is my place to away from everyone else when they start to annoy me. So I would really appreciate it if you leave and never come back to this part of the castle." Rachel pouted.

"Are you sure baby? It will make me very sad."

Percy laughed. "I will live."

Rachel frowned one more time before saying, "Okay. Well, see you later babe." She stood up, and kissed his cheek one more time. Percy tried his best fake smile as she left.

I got out from under the bed laughing. "Sooo, who's your girlfriend, seaweed brain?"

He rolled his eyes. "Gods you don't know how much I hate her."

"Hate is a very strong word, Perseus." I said while tried to scowl at him, but it just ended up as a laugh because of the look on his face.

"Fine. If it makes you feel better, wise girl, you don't know how much I dislike her." He said. I grinned. "Much better." He grinned back at me. I walked back over to the bed and sat next to him. He slid his hand into mine, but instead of keeping it there, I pulled back. "I thought you didn't like to have physical contact with anyone." He smirked at my comment.

"Ya, that was a pretty lame excuse, huh?"

"Very lame, seaweed brain." I said while shaking my head.

He grinned at me. "Well, I don't like to have physical contact with her." He slid his hand back into mine. "But, I guess its fine with anyone else." I smiled.

"I just think it's funny that no matter how many rude remarks you throw at her, she just keeps loving you more." I said while smirking.

"I know. She is Sooo annoying." I looked at him. "Why is she even in the castle anyway?" I asked.

"I don't even know. She started to stalk me when we were both little, and she asked if she could move into the castle, and my parents being nice and all, thought it was cute that someone liked me that much, so they said yes."

I put my head into his neck .I was still really tired. "That's stupid." I yawned. Percy frowned.

"Are you still tired, Annabeth? I don't think you got that much sleep last night."

I nodded. He lay us both down on the bed, and put the covers around me. He put his arm around my waist and started to stroke my hair. He kissed my forehead and said, "Sleep tight, Annabeth."

I smile and fell asleep.

Percy's POV

I was laying in bed with my arm around Annabeth Chase, a.k.a the most beautiful girl in the world. She looked even more beautiful when she slept. She was so at peace….except when she had that nightmare.

Flashback:

I was sleeping in the room right across from Annabeth's, just as I had promised.

I kept imagining her face. Her beautiful face, with her beautiful features. She was absolutely gorgeous. She was cool too. I've never meet someone who met me and didn't spas out. Annabeth wasn't like that. I just wish that she wasn't acting like she was cool, and actually was like a Rachel and stalked me. No, Annabeth wouldn't do that. Because if she would, she would have shown more interest in me. She looked at me like I was just another boy that she meet. I kind of respected it. It's so annoying when someone pretends to be my friend just because I was royalty. Annabeth didn't seem to be that way. I hope that she will stay here. I wouldn't let her leave if she said that she wasn't going to stay, anyway.

I was finally about to go to sleep, when I heard yelling from the room right across from mine. Annabeth's room. I tore off my covers, and ran to her room.

I looked at her and she looked like she was in pain. She was screaming stuff. Stuff that freaked me out a little bit.

She screamed stuff like, "Percy! This is my entire fault I'm so sorry!" and "Percy! Help me!"

She was having a nightmare. Something was happing to both of us in the dream. Apparently I was hurt, or something, and Annabeth was in danger.

She was still trashing, and I couldn't take it anymore. I ran over to her bedside and started to shake her awake. She wasn't awakening though. I shook her harder. Still nothing. Finally I shook her to the point to where it looked like it would hurt if she was awake, and her beautiful grey eyes fluttered open. She stared at me for a long time, and I stared back. Finally she said, "Percy!" and flung her arms around me.

End of flashback.

I fell asleep for a little while. I had a dream about me someday becoming king. I dreaded the moment, so it was kind of a nightmare, but I didn't thrash like Annabeth did. I woke up and my arms where still around Annabeth, and she somehow found a way to flip herself around, and put her arms around my neck, and her head in my chest. I smiled down at her. I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. Apparently she was already awake.

She looked up at me and smiled. "What was that for?" She asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just glad you're not having nightmares like last night. That was horrible."

She put her head back into my chest and nodded. "Ya, it was."

I started to stroke her back. She looked at me and said, "You're a good friend, Percy." I smiled back down at her. The words stung, though. I was holding her hand, and kissing her head because I wanted her to be mine. I wanted her to be my Annabeth. My wise girl. But she thought I was doing all of that stuff in a friendly way. Could we ever be more than friends? Gods, I hoped so. We stayed there for a little while, until I broke us apart.

"Come on. Let's go get some food." I said, taking her hand.

"But, can I be seen?" She asked.

I laughed. "Well apparently because your gunna be staying here awhile, it means you need to have your own bedroom, with new clothes, and some food, and all of that stuff. So…I'm gunna have to introduce you."

She smiled, and squeezed my hand, sending chills up my arm. "Oh, ya. I guess I will be staying here for awhile, won't I?"

"Yes you are. You're not going anywhere without my permission. That just won't do." I said, opening the door for us.

Annabeth smiled at me. "No, it will not." She said.