Percy dialed Annabeth's number, and she picked up on the first ring.

    "Okay, where is your dog?"

    Percy looked around the room. "I can't use her."

    "Why?"

    "She's sleeping."

    Annabeth sighed. "Fuck, I bet she looks adorable too."

    "She does; I can send you a picture."

    "Please do. But that's beside the point. Do you have an ice machine?"

    Percy paused. "What the fuck?"

    "Do you, Perseus Jackson, have an ice machine."

    "I'm confused."

    "It's a machine that takes water--"

    "First of all, fuck you. Second, why is that relevant. Third, yes."

    "First, thanks for the offer, but not yet. Second, you need to take some ice and put it in your mouth. Third, I'd hope so because you need it for the second," Annabeth responded.

    Percy rolled his eyes. "First, go fuck yourself. Second, why?" he asked as he went to get some ice.

    "First, I'm trying to help you right now, so maybe later. Second, the ice will shock your system and bring your temperature down."

    Percy resisted saying fuck you once more and put the ice cube in his mouth. It instantly touched the back of his teeth, making him hate his life.

    "Did you do it?"

    Percy hummed in response. "It'th tho cold."

    "Yeah, sorry." Percy could hear her cringe. "But, it helps. In the meantime, send me a picture of Mrs. O'Leary, please."

    Percy did after spitting out the ice, and the flash woke her up. "Oh no, I'm sorry," he whispered as he petted the mastiff. "Please don't be mad at me; I love you."

    Annabeth laughed. "Did she wake up?"

    "Yeah," Percy said before going into his room and inelegantly jumping on his bed and throwing himself under blankets. Mrs. O'Leary then decided to jump on him. "I'm using her as my weighted blanket."

    "Okay, that's good."

    Percy discovered he was no longer shaking through the comfortable silence, and his nausea was tardily leaving. He slowly pets Mrs. O'Leary as the previous chills and cold evaporate in the warmth. Percy smiled and said, "Thank you."

    "Yeah, of course." She paused. "I go through similar things. Anxiety attacks, though. Not panic attacks. So, I get it. If you don't want to talk about it now, I understand."

    Percy cleared his throat. "Yeah, probably not now. I'm fragile."

    Annabeth gave a small laugh.

    "Do you want to talk about yours?" At the silence, Percy added, "You, obviously, don't need to."

    Annabeth stayed silent for a time. It could have been seconds, it could have been hours, but to Percy, it was years of excruciating anticipation. "I have something people call Gifted Child Syndrome. It's basically imposter syndrome rooted in the unrealistic expectations set on you as a child. My dad placed a lot of that on me.

    "I was always really good in elementary school. I mean, most of it was just memorizing basic shit. After like two days, your good to go. I was able to do that much better than the average 7-year-old. So, my dad put me in gifted. I hated it. My dyslexia wasn't really seen as much as I needed in that program, but I got through it.

    "Then came middle school, and I fucking sucked. Dad was on my ass about all these missing assignments and bad grades--usually 70s--and mentioned that I was broken. You know, the works. And at the same time, he started dating again. So there was literally no fucking stability for me.

    "I ended up getting very academically anxious and prideful. It's weird because you'd think they'd cancel out, but they don't. I have breakdowns once a month, at minimum. But, you've seen me. I take so much pride in what I do and how I do it.

    "It's like my brain is in constant war with each other. One side wants me to just do everything the way that would get me the perfect grade. That means tutoring, extra time, more homework, more studying, yadda yadda. But if I can't do that, I'm a fucking failure.

    "The other side is telling me that I'm a dumbass every other second. I should do things the normal way. No, not the normal way. Do it the way no one else could because you're above them all. Stop with the extra time and studying; you don't need that. Just be smart. If you can't do that, you're an idiot. Either way, I fucking suck.

    "My brother, Malcolm, is a psychologist and told me that I have imposter syndrome and intense burnout. So it has an explanation, but it'll probably keep happening until I die." Annabeth sighed. "It's not fun."

    Percy stayed silent for a moment. "I know this is probably worth nothing, but I don't think you suck."

    Annabeth snorted. "You don't have to say that."

    "Yes, I do. In fact, I'm going to keep saying it until you believe it. You, Annabeth Chase, are not a failure or a dumbass. You're amazing and way too smart to be human. There's a reason I call you wise girl. You're perfect."

    Annabeth was silent until a quiet sniff came from her end. "Thanks, seaweed brain."

    "No need to thank me, because you would do the same for me." Percy laughed. "Actually, you did do the same for me, like, 15 minutes ago."

    "Percy, I'm already crying, stop," Annabeth laughed.

    He smiled. "Wise girl, I need to hear you say it."

    Annabeth laughed again, "I'm not a dumbass."

    "And?"

    "I'm not a failure. If Percy says it, then it must be true."

    "Exactly. You see, Mrs. O'Leary, she's learning."

    Percy could practically hear Annabeth's eye roll and smile. "Seaweed brain."

    "Yeah?"

    "You're the best soulmate. Better than everything I thought and wished for. Really."

    Percy slammed his face into his pillow for a second. "I don't know what to say to that, wise girl."

    "You don't need to say anything."

    "I swear, I never thought I would be worthy of an actual goddess to even look at me. But, holy shit, I have one as my soulmate. And she actually likes me!"

    Annabeth actually cackled. "Ew, that was gross. I'm sorry you had to hear that," she said between laughs. "Look, my step-mom just got home and I need to help her out a little bit. I'll see you in the morning?"

    "Of course. Bye."

    "Bye, seaweed brain. I fully intend on calling you that forever, by the way."

    "I expected nothing less, wise girl."

    Percy could once again hear a smile. "Okay, bye." And she hung up.

    Percy hugged his phone to his chest with the goofiest smile playing on his lips. His heart was still beating a bit too fast, and he wanted to jump, to sing, just at the thought of Annabeth.

    With that thought, he realized with a start:

    He loved her.

-

Nico danced very terribly around his room as he listened to crushcrushcrush. He wanted to learn how to play the song on his guitar but got easily distracted. The song was just too damn good.

    "They taoed over your motuh scribbled out the truth with their lies. You little spies," he belted. It sounded more like a scream, but belting is essentially soft screaming.

    Then his phone rang, interrupting the music from his speaker.

    If it were anyone other than Reyna and Hazel, he would have just ended the call. But recently, a new person has been added to the numbers he could never ignore.

    "Do you ever dance around your room to 2000s punk to ignore the pain and dysphoria?" Nico said instead of a greeting.

    "Nah, usually it's Bo Burnham."

    "Valid."

    "I know, right? Anyway, on the topic of Bo Burnham, you know his song All Time Low?" Will asked.

    "Yeah."

    "Cool, so that's an accurate representation of me right now, because my mom just called. I spent 45 minutes crying and now I'm dehydrated!" Will said in a cheery voice. "Loving life right now!"

    Nico paused his grooving to the thought of All Time Low. "Oh shit."

    "Yep!"

    "Do you want to talk about it?"

    "Not at the moment, no."

    "Also valid," Nico said. "Can you drink some water for me?"

    He could hear some shuffling from Will's end. "I just chugged a glass. I shouldn't have done that because there is a 50/50 chance that I will get nauseous."

    "Okay, but you did a great thing!" Nico said. "Have you eaten recently?"

    "Yeah, I made a pb&j to relive the good 'ole days of being four."

    "Was it a good sandwich?"

    "Yeah. The ratio between the peanut butter and jelly was just right. I felt like a suburban PTA mom."

    "Alright, now this next question is a tricky one. And you will probably lie to me." Nico paused for dramatic effect. "Have you slept?"

    Will laughed. "Me? Having a healthy sleep schedule? You are hilarious."

    "Yeah, I expected that," Nico said with a smile. "Are you tired?"

    "Surprisingly," Will responded, "no. I think the crying gave me energy."

    "Okay, good. The crying was caused by being triggered, right?"

    Will hummed in confirmation.

    "Do you think it's gotten better or do you want me to go through some exercises with you?"

    Will was silent for a moment. "Nico, literally by asking me that question you've made me feel so much better. You're the best boyfriend."

    Nico choked on his air at the last part.

    "Are you okay?"

    "Nope," Nico said as he continued coughing for a moment. "Okay, I'm good now. You said boyfriend?"

    "Oh shit, I'm sorry. I assumed, you obviously don't--"

    "No. You shush. Are we boyfriends?"

    "D-do you want to be?"

    "I mean, yeah."

    "Then I'd say so, yes," Will said. "If that's okay with you."

    "It is. Now you are going to kind of wiggle around."

    Will was silent for a time. "What would that do?"

    "It makes you be active in a way that's fun."

    "Interesting." There was a long shuffling sound. "That was very effective. I also think the fact that I now have a boyfriend really helped."

    Nico grinned. "Yeah, me too."

    Hazel barged into his room, squealing.

    Nico slowly blinked. "Can you not?"

    "Hazel?" Will asked.

    "Yes."

    "Oh is that Will?" Hazel asked. "Hi!" she screamed.

    "I'm just going to put him on speaker."

    "Okay, so, currently freaking out," Hazel said. "He was so cute and I think I really like him!"

    "Did the date go well?" Will asked.

    "Yeah! It went really well. We're going out again next Wednesday, and I feel like melting in the best way possible. It's like I'm in a fanfiction." Hazel did a little dance.

    "I wish I was Face Timing you," Nico said. "That was the most amazing, terrible dance ever."

ok ok

i KNOW it was cheap, ok i'm s o r r y

anyway hi violation beans

allow me to tell you about the week i've had

my parents both tested positive for COVID and then the baby got a fever so we used ✨ context clues ✨ to determine that he has it too

so i didn't go to school the last two days to help them

now while this was happening i was going through a massive depression and burnout because i finished exams

and i was so blah and dead inside

and then i was like... no

so i went to write the frazel date

there were

4 drafts

4

AND NONE OF THEM WERE GOOD

ONE OF THEM TURNED INTO ME RANTING ABOUT KANYE WEST AND HOW COLLEGE DROPOUT WAS SOME TOP TEIR SHIT

it was btw

so i decided to just scrap it and write something else

i ended up writing the percabeth part (1,000 words) in 45 mins.

and i was like... it's 1 am, we will wait until i'm sentient to publish this

and then i forgot about it and when i was at school today i remembered bo burnham existed

and while i was listening to Inside for the first time in 2 years i wrote the nico part (another 1,000 words)

and i was going to publish that and then i see the percabeth stuff and i'm like

w o a h

and THEN i did a work out

my legs feel like jello

but in a GREAT way

and then i switched to my phone to publish this and realized this was a 2,000 word chapter written in about 3 hours total!

and then my friends got together and o was like, that's some gay shit

it reminded me of how i am a lesbian

so i went on tumblr and was like 💅💅💅💅💅💅

and now my dash is just lesbian memes

and i'm watching the good place again and will probably post about that

would like to issue a formal apology to everyone who follows me before that happens!

AND NOW IM WRITING THIS WHILE DANCING AROUND IN MY ROOM LISTENING TO FOR A PESSIMIST IM PRETTY OPTIMISTIC AT FULL VOLUME

i'm doing GREAT

anyway, for annabeth i really decided i would relate to her on a spiritual level with the whole gifted kid imposter syndrome thing

aw the song ended

hang on about to jam out to the full album

you don't know i was gone for about a minute putting RIOT on my record player but you do now!

and for nico i was just going through my various coping mechanisms!

also, annabeth is now black and grover is now desi

i DO make the rules, and you must follow them or get the fuck off my fic

i don't deal with racist shits here

im black

t r y m e

ANYWAY

im not going to pass out for a while so let's see who gets here first today!

love y'all!!