"I was going to ask if you wanted to... Uh, be my girlfriend?" He was extremely nervous asking. Even more nervous than when he had to tell her about his stepdad, that nervous!
In the silence that followed, he felt his heart being squeezed by an invisible fist... Hard. And he was holding his breath.
Because in the last twenty four hours, he had fallen for Annabeth faster than he could eat a blue jellybean.
"Okay," she said, before launching herself at him and kissing him. "I thought you'd never ask."
He exhaled, breaking out in a grin. "Really?" If she'd said no he was going to pretend it was a joke, but she'd said yes!
She nodded and smiled, pressing her forehead to his. She pressed her hands to his chest lightly and smiled. She could hear his rabbit's heartbeat. She made him as nervous as he made her calm.
Percy wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her to him, when suddenly he fell straight down into the water with her next to him. He had his eyes open, whereas hers were squeezed shut. Swimming down and out to the deep part, where he formed an air bubble, resting Annabeth in it. She was wet. He forgot she didn't get to pick.
Though it looked like she was still holding her breath.
Is he trying to drown me? I really need to breath! Annabeth was pounding on the bubble, thinking it was Percy. She needed to get up! Desperately she thrashed, until she had no choice, she sucked in a breath of... Air?
She cracked open her eyes to see Percy laughing his a** off at her, outside the weird bubble she was in, deep below the surface. She could see sunlight filtering through from above, glinting on the water maybe twenty feet up!
And yet there was no pressure in her ears, and she could breath. And hear. Percy was still laughing at her!
She shot him a death glare, and he put his hands up in surrender, forming another bubble and merging his with hers. He wasn't even wet!

"You okayyyy?"
She shoved him. "Your brain is full of... Seaweed!"
He arched an eyebrow. "I'm a seaweed brain?"
"Yes. Thanks for the nickname. Now please explain what the heck just happened back there!"
"Well, um, I fought with Luke." He said simply. "Because he was forcing himself on you... So yeah. That's what happened."
She rolled her eyes. "You and I both know that's not what I meant."
He shrugged. "Can we pretend it was?" If Percy sucked at something, other than reading, it was explaining things.
She gave him the look of, "seriously?"
He sighed. It was worth a shot.
"Well... Um, you know those gods from books and stuff?"
She rolled her eyes. "Percy, there are like 50 different religions that have multiple gods and books written about them."
He frowned. "The Greek ones. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."
She raised her eyebrows. "Yes, I know of them."
"Well... They're real. And sometimes they come down from Mount Olympus-"
Annabeth cut him off. "There's a real Mount Olympus? Where the heck is it?"
She wanted to know as much as possible. Yes, Percy sounded absolutely insane, but if you'd seen what she'd seen, it made more sense than not.
"Uh, it moves."
It moves? How did the gods move their home around? Was it a trailer?!
Percy also wasn't supposed to just disclose the location of the gods like that. What if Annabeth, though he seriously doubted it, was an enemy spy?
"But the gods actually live there? How do you move a mountain?" Her head spun with questions she hoped to the gods Percy could somewhat answer.
"Well anyway, they come down from Mount Olympus to earth, and sometimes they fall in love with a mortal."
"Mortal?" She questioned.
"Oh, yeah, that's what the gods call humans. Cause they're mortal, not immortal, you know?"
She laughed. He looked confused with himself as he explained it. Like if she got it he would too. And she sort of got it. Believing that there were actual powerful gods who had mastery over certain elements? Not something you could just snap your fingers and instantly wholeheartedly believe!
"Yeah, I get it." She affirmed.
He smiled in relief. "Okay. Well, when they fall in love they, uh, get married and then they... They do it, and like, have a kid. Then the kid is half God and half human. Those are called demigods."
She eyed him. "Is that what you are... A demigod?"
He nodded. "Son of Poseidon."
She arched her eyebrows. "You, son of one of the Big Three?"
He flushed, and it made her laugh. "Yeah, I am. I swear!"
She laughed more. "Alright hotshot."
He was blushing and it amused her.
"Well either way, I'm one of them, so that's how I can control water and stuff," to make a point, he rolled the bubble, making Annabeth tumble on top of him.
"Oops," he grinned.
She rolled her eyes, flipping off him. "Luke's one too, isn't he?"
Percy nodded, "Unfortunately."
Annabeth thought for a minute. "Which God?"

"Hermes, God of-"
She finished his sentence for him. "Travel and thieves." She knew about Greek mythology, in fact, she was obsessed with it in high school.
"Yeah," he nodded with a smile.
"How does traveling and stealing able him to use the force?"
She asked curiously.
"Oh... Uh, did I mention Luke is the host for Kronos?"
"The Titan Kronos?" She asked in disbelief. "So everything from Greek mythology is real? The gods, Titans, monsters, prophecies?"
He nodded sullenly. She assumed it wasn't as heroically amusing as she'd read it to be. Of course, in a practical fairy tail, everything would be sugar coated. You didn't read a child a bedtime story about grief and loss!
"Why is Luke hosting him?!"
"Well, cause Luke is the bad guy, and the bad guy usually helps the badder guy get what he wants. So Luke is helping Kronos."
"And what does Kronos want?"
"Well, he wants to open Tartarus..."
"Essentially Greek hell?"
He nodded again. "And if he succeeds, then every terrible monster you can think of can come out and be free on earth."
"So how do we stop him?" She asked.
"We?" He questioned.
"I'm not going to let you do all this alone!"
Percy paused. "But you can only see through the mist... That's dangerous!"
"Mist?"
"The mist is the veil that covers mortal's eyes from seeing all the monsters. Some mortals can see through the mist... But that's dangerous. Like when Luke threw me against the wall, most people would've seen him more to the left so it was his hand. Or they could've imagined someone else entirely. I'm not sure. They see weird things."
"And so I can see what everything really is?"

She remembered once when she was 9, swearing she saw a snake lady at the Bargain Mart. Her parents thought she just had an overactive imagination. Maybe it had been something else....
She thought. And thought. Something felt wrong with the term mortal being used to describe her.
It seemed like she was something more. But she didn't have any idea what. Wouldn't she know if she was a demigod by now? Maybe, maybe not.
"Yep, you can. Lucky, lucky you," he said sarcastically. Clearly he didn't think being a demigod was fun. She wondered why. She wondered many things it seemed.

A/N: I know this one was shorter but I felt bad about not updating and I'm having massive writer's block... Been trying on this chapter for seven freaking hoursssss! Ugh. Anyway, don't forget to vote and comment! Those are why I keep writing <3. Xoxo -S.A