thank you riptide2406 for the "willow" song prompt for the first bit of the chapter!

Percy finds his new tattoo that morning at the swim meet.

He'd met up with Juniper for the rally, and Grover was there for the rally. They weren't needed until the school almost opened, but they needed to get into uniform.

"I don't get why people are so whiny about the weather here," Juniper said. "In Leh Ladakh, it'll get down to -28 degrees. Celcius," she quickly added.

"Where's Leh Ladakh?" Percy asked.

"It's near the Himilaya," Juniper answered as she slicked back her dark hair to fit it in a half-updo before pinning the bow in place. She pulled down the short skirt of her uniform. "They have a fucking dress code, but they want me to cheer in a skirt the size of fucking track pants."

Grover snorted, then continued to tune his flute, adjusting the headjoint. "America is a wonderous place, babe," his voice was laced with sarcasm. His girlfriend rolled her eyes in return.

"Okay. This is fine," Juniper gestured wildly to the mirrors surrounding the pool before placing a marching band shako atop Grover's head. "We'll see you at practice."

When he got out of the pool, Grover noticed the red mark on the small of Percy's back.

"Oh, Percy, you're soulmate has excellent music taste," Juniper said when she saw the tattoo.

Percy turned to them and raised a brow. "What?"

Grover took a picture of the tattoo. "He or she is a swiftie. I'm so sorry--" Juniper playfully smacked his shoulder as Grover laughed.

Percy felt his heart stop. That tattoo wasn't there before, and no one has talked to him about Taylor Swift since Annabeth.

That's a development, for sure.

He supposed that was an interesting way for fate to say, hey, you know that girl you've been high-key crushing on? Lmao, yeah, no, she's your soulmate, and she's not remotely interested in you! So fun, right?

It was not fun.

-

Percy was acting weird. He was actually paying attention during physics. Annabeth knew he never paid attention to physics. Especially if Annabeth herself didn't pay attention to Hoffman's monotonous math bullshit that no one cared about.

Something was bothering him.

She'd catch him glancing at her, and when she'd meet his eyes, he'd look away.

That unnecessary swoop in her stomach decided to turn into a fucking rollercoaster every time she looked into his eyes. The deep-sea green made Annabeth seem like the ship that rolled in that night.

God, she needed to stop applying Taylor Swift songs to every potentially romantic situation.

Annabeth wanted to laugh at the thought. It would never happen.

She didn't look at him directly, but Annabeth could feel Percy's gaze on her.

She wished he would talk to her. After all, the less he said, the less she knew.

In the back of her mind, she saw the yearning in his gaze. But she shouldn't assume. He doesn't need to have feelings for her.

Annabeth just really fucking wanted it.

Annabeth wanted him to take her hand, wreck her plans, as she happily thought, that's my man.

But life wasn't a blissfully romantic Taylor Swift song.

Hoffman cleared his throat. "I need to go to the restroom, if anything happens while I'm gone, I'll have you suspended."

Annabeth used the distraction to lean closer to Percy. "Dude, are you okay?"

Percy went red. "I--uh, yeah. Why? Why wouldn't I be okay?"

Annabeth raised a brow.

He cleared his throat. "Fair point."

"I'm aware."

"You are cocky, wise girl," he said with a smile.

Annabeth took the random nickname as a compliment. "No, my brain just isn't made of seaweed."

Percy rolled his eyes but then quickly looked away.

Annabeth sighed. "Seriously, what's wrong."

And Percy told her.

"Oh," was all Annabeth could say. Wait, do I ask him out? Does he ask me out? Hang on, did I confess? Or was it implied? I'm confused.

"So, uh, yeah." Percy said with a sigh. "There's that."

No, I need to do this myself.

So, Annabeth grabbed his hand. "If you're open to it," she said. "I'd like to go on a date with you."

His eyes widened, and Annabeth knew from that look on his face, and she got in his current as he got lost in hers.

"Y-Yeah."

-

Annabeth watched Piper come into rehearsals for Chant; her friend was with Shel.

When Shel disappeared behind the stage and Piper sat next to Annabeth, she muttered, "You have a date?"

"I have a date," Piper whispered in return, her voice filled with disbelief.

"Me too." Annabeth paused for a moment before letting out a laugh. "Oh my God, I wonder how much faster this would have gone if we'd just gotten over ourselves."

"Same."

Piper watched Shel with nothing but admiration in her eyes until rehearsal ended.

-

Honestly, fuck casual fashion.

No, fuck bookstores for being a place for casual attire and also the location of Alex's date.

Samirah sat on Alex's bed as he went through his closet and drawers again. "Nothing," he groaned.

Samirah looked at the closet, filled to the brim with clothes that Alex either made or found at a thrift store. "Clearly."

"Fuck off."

Samirah tugged on her shawl, evening it out. Today, it was a pastel pink. It meshed well with her dark green blouse and light pants. "I don't know what to tell you."

Alex gestured at the closet. "Help me!"

Samirah looked up at the closet before throwing a green flannel, white shirt, and black pants at Alex. "Wear that."

At best, the outfit was mediocre, but most casual outfits were, and Alex was determined to stay within the dress code.

Alex met Magnus at the entrance.

"Hi."

"Hi," Magnus responded.

"Do you know what we're going to do?"

Magnus smiled. "I have a whole plan."

Alex raised a brow. "Really?"

"Yeah, we start off by memeing our sorrows away."

"As we should. How do we do that?" Alex asks.

"Well, don't interrupt and you will find out."

Alex lifted his hands in surrender with a smile.

"Thank you." Magnus cleared his throat. "We will meme by taking magazine quizzes."

Alex's eyes lit up. "Which magazine?"

"Cosmo and Seventee--" Alex grabbed his wrist and sprinted to the magazines.

They quickly went through a few issues of Cosmo before throwing the brand idea away entirely.

"How many quizzes about how good you are at sex are there," Magnus whispered.

"This is unholy, even in my eyes."

Magnus gasped. "Damn, then this is really fucked up."

"Yeah, why is this marketed to teens?"

"I don't know, man."

They end up finding a quiz on undertones.

"It's golden. I have golden undertones," Alex said, trying to grab the magazine.

"Do you though?"

Alex rolled his eyes but let Magnus ask the questions.

"'If you forgot to put on SPF at the beach, do you burn or tan?'"

Alex blinked. "What the fuck does that have to do with undertones?"

Magnus shrugged. "I have no idea, actually. Like, it depends on the weather."

"Exactly. I'll say tan."

"Okay. 'Take a look at the vein in the inner part of your arm. Is it blue-green or blue-purple?'"

Alex looked at it. "Green."

"Does silver or gold look better on you."

"Silver."

"Blues and purples or warms and reds?"

"It depends on the--" Magnus placed a finger on Alex's mouth, and Alex raised a brow.

"That is not an answer option, Alex."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Warm tones."

"Look at a picture of you when you were younger. What color was your hair?" Magnus was barely able to wheeze out the question.

"What the fuck?" Alex laughed. "No, that can't be a real question."

Magnus turned the magazine over, showing the question in bold.

Alex snorted. "Why though?"

"I don't know." Magnus straightened his face out. "We need to focus; this is very important information."

"It was just brown."

"Do you look better in ivory or white?"

"Ivory."

"When you do your makeup, do you go for a jewel-toned lip or bronzer?"

Alex gestured to his face. "I'm wearing both right now!"

"That doesn't matter."

"Bronzer."

Magnus looked at the quiz and sighed. "Alex you have a cool undertone."

Alex's life left his eyes. "Damn, all the Sephora employees really did me dirty with all the lies." He couldn't make it halfway through the sentence before cracking up.

"Okay, now you choose what we do."

Alex looked around the store until he found the YA section. It was larger than he thought it would be. "Let's predict the plot of these books." Alex pulled out the first one he saw. The Selection.

"Um...Princess on the cover, so a royal romance. It's probably set in a different world where all the main cast is white, and the side characters are underdeveloped people of color. The main girl probably doesn't want to fall in love with the prince because he's rich and she's not. They get married anyway," Magnus guessed.

"10 out of 10," Alex said, giving him a high-five.

Magnus picked up a book. Throne of Glass.

It was by Sarah J Maas, so this should be easy.

"White girl in fantasy world fucks the richest person in whatever bullshit government system they have. He is also white. The girl is the definition of gaslight gatekeep girl boss, and no one questions the unhealthy relationship between the two."

"You got close, but no."

Alex could feel his face morph into an expression of utter disbelief. "She wrote about a person on color?"

Magnus laughed. "No, this is Sarah J Maas."

Alex gasped. "Is there no shitty smut?"

Magnus nodded.

"Oh my God," Alex whispered. "She improved!"

Magnus gave him a sympathetic look. "This was her debut."

"I want to rip this entire section of books to shreds."

They played a variety of games. Alex liked the one about having a conversation only using the titles of books. But, the date was coming to a close.

"Wait before we leave," Magnus said. "Let's see how well we know each other. Get one book for me, and I'll get one for you. The next time we do this, we can talk about the book."

Alex nodded, happy with the idea of a "next time."

"I'll see you in...10 minutes?" Magnus asked.

"Yeah."

Alex scoured his mind for any information on Magnus' genre. He found a memory of his room, and in the corner was Sandman and the Star Wars saga with The Hunger Games and The Da Vinci Code with Only Ashes Remain.

Action. Magnus liked action.

As Alex looked for a suitable novel, he came across one of the first fantasy books he read. The Hobbit was on the top shelf, and there was only one left.

Alex vaguely remembers something Magnus said. "I want to read a book that has an older writing style, you know? I still like action, but a more classic feel is nice."

Alex grabbed the copy.

-

Magnus found Alex just outside the bookstore with a bag in his hand. He waved Magnus over.

"Hi again," Magnus said.

"Hello."

There was a pause.

"Do you want to go first?" Magnus asked.

"Uh, sure." Alex pulled out a copy of The Hobbit. "You mentioned wanting to have a classic feel to the book. This has it. It mixes traditional and modern storytelling elements and has a compelling action plot. It's better to use that kind of mixed style because it makes it easier to get through other classic novels." He handed Magnus the book. "I really liked it."

Magnus blushed as he took out The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. "I know you like classics and gay books and poetry. That's why you love Sappho so much. I figured you'd like another poem with a really good friend."

Alex looked down, then up, and smiled. "Thank you. I've been meaning to get this."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Alex looked down at the book. "Thank you, really."

Magnus didn't know that Alex was thinking of Adrian, how he never truly listened to him, and how all Alex wanted to do was kiss Magnus for doing the opposite.

Thankfully, Magnus was feeling the same way.

"Can I kiss you," he blurted. He could feel his face going red.

Alex's lips met his in response.

It was a quick kiss, but it was all Magnus could have wanted, more than what he could have wanted.

When they pulled apart, that tiny tattoo on their wrists began to glow.

The couple looked at each other with widened eyes as the pieces slowly came together in their minds.

Alex solved to puzzle first and said, "Holy shit."

Magnus only nodded before kissing him again.

GUYS *points at chapter* I DID A THING!!!!!

i wanted this to be romantic but still their dynamic. and i found that their dynamic is to be chill at the beginning and panic at the end.

so i made the date feel like them hanging out at the beginning but you can see that they know each other toward the end and that's when they're like wait i like this person

you can also slowly see alex realizing that adrian was emotionally abusive! which we will get into later

i was going to do a hiking thing but to me when someone can get you a book you like or remembers something you want that's really fucking romantic

so i did that

anyway, now i have the main ships going on dates and stuff which means that i need to figure out what kind of dates they are going on.

i also figured out that the last chapter will probably be Hadestown, which means you'll get to see the couples being couples for a bit and i'll do homecoming and stuff

willow was a difficult song for this chapter. i think the tones of this chap and the song didn't match so i had to look at the few lyrics that fit so that was a challenge

also, i actually looked at cosmo quizzes to try to find one and this magazine should not be marketed to teens holy shit

but i actually took that undertones quiz, and i'm warm. but according to Seventeen i'm not

anyway i'm glad i was able to romanticize a kiss that probably wasn't that good i'm the next sjm

i found out i have bronchitis and i've had to miss school for the past week and i'm scared to go back on Monday!

i don't really have anything else to say so

love y'all!