"What are you reading?" Annabeth asked, looking over Malcom's shoulder.

"Huh? Oh, just a book," Malcom smiled. Annabeth had regressed a small while ago. They were reading together, a sibling bonding activity. Annabeth was reading, looking, at some toddler books. And Malcom was reading some very big kid books.

They had a lot of books on the shelf, so Annabeth looked confused, "Which one?"

"A big kid one."

Malcom smiled at the huff Annabeth gave him. He shook his head, showing her the cover, "It's about architecture. I-"

"I wanna read it!" Annabeth gasped, trying tk grab the book from Malcom's hands. Malcom held it out of her reach. "Hey!"

"I was reading it first!" Malcom argued. But there was little hope arguing a toddler, both of them knew this.

"But I want it now," Annabeth frowned, looking defeated. "It looks cool . . ."

". . . Your puppy eyes only work on Percy, you know," Malcom sighed, but handed Annabeth the book.

"Yay!" Annabeth giggled, sitting back in her spot. "Here, you have this one!"

Malcom's new book was the Hungry Little Caterpillar. it wasn't in Greek, but the pictures were cute.

Plus, he figured Annabeth would get upset over her new book choice sooner than later.

. . . Which he was right about.

While the book was also in Greek, it was a difficult book, high school to college level. Words were hard, and Annabeth struggled to understand most of them. She could have asked Malcom for help, but she couldn't! THen he'd tease her for needing help over something she demanded to have!

"Its too difficult!" Annabeth huffed, shoving the book to the floor.

Malcom held back an I told you so, instead walking over to the teary eyed toddler.

"Well how about we read a better book?" Malcom asked, kneeling down. "We can reread some books together, or-"

"No! Want this one," Annabeth sniffed, pointing to the book. "Wanna read it."

"I could read it for you?" Malcom offered.

Annabeth didn't like this either, huffing and looking away from him, crossing her arms.

". . . You want a book about buildings, how about we make a castle?" Malcom suggested. This caught Annabeth's eye. "The building blocks? YOur super smart, you could make a super good base foundation."

Annabeth thought for a moment before lighting up, "I wanna build a castle!"

She jumped up, trying to drag Malcom with her, "Come on! You gotta help me!"

"What? But I-" Malcom sighed as he let himself get dragged. Well, he guess he didn't need to do any research. Right now, he needed to build a castle. . . He just really hopes the castle doesn't get knocked over by accident.