Lost

5 | Splish Splash

Annabeth stared at Percy as he shoveled food into his mouth, not stopping to take a breath. "You are... very hungry," Annabeth noted, tilting her head.

"Mm, yeah," Percy agreed through a mouthful of stuffed food, licking sauce off his lips. "God, that's good."

"It is," Annabeth nodded, taking a much smaller bite on a scale to Percy of her barbecue. She was seated at the Poseidon table with Percy, Chiron giving her permission since it would be pretty dumb not to.

"So," Percy said, looking around, "What's with all the flying chicken women? Honestly not that weird compared to everything else today, but it still admittedly is."

Annabeth looked up at the harpies. At least that's what she assumed that's what he was talking about. "Uh, wires and stuff. We're very into medieval role play and reenactment kind of stuff."

"I'm into medieval reenactments?" Percy raised his eyebrow and smirked playfully. "I honestly don't think I'd be into that," He laughed, "Then again, I have no clue what I'm into..."

"You like to swim," Annabeth offered, "You absolutely love the water. Maybe- maybe we can head out to the ocean later."

"Awesome," Percy grinned.

"Hey, Percy."

Annabeth's expression twisted into a scowl as Percy turned around to face Drew, who was dressed in the most revealing clothes Annabeth had ever seen anyone wear casually. She was swaying her hips, her hair falling in ringlets around her face.

"Uh, hello... you," Percy narrowed his eyes, his eyes darting around, trying not to look at Drew, and with good reason.

"Aw, Percy-poo, why don't you look at me?" Drew pouted. Against his will, Percy obeyed, his mouth immediately dropping open. Drew couldn't say anything else though. Why?

Because Annabeth slapped her across the face.

"How dare, and I mean how dare, you try and take advantage of Percy like this! Especially in this vulnerable state! I mean, how big of an asshole, a complete idiot do you have to be to do that?!" Annabeth demanded.

Drew tenderly touched the red mark Annabeth had left on her face. "Buzzkill. Sweetie, you and I both know that more than half the girls here would gladly take advantage of Percy if they had the chance," Drew rolled her eyes.

"At least they don't actually act upon it," Annabeth scoffed, her nose wrinkling in disgust.

"Hmph," Drew said, spinning on her heel and strutting back over to the Aphrodite table.

"She's so insufferable," Annabeth growled.

"Uh... who is she? And, um, why was I suddenly attracted to her?" Percy said hesitantly.

Annabeth froze. There was hardly a way to explain to Percy, at least without bringing Greek mythology into the mix. "Um... I can't exactly explain that right now. You're just going to have to trust me," Annabeth said, still not taking her eyes off Drew.

"Trust," Percy said, "Of course."

Annabeth inhaled sharply, taking her seat again. "Hey, I'm really sorry about that. Such a mood killer, heh. Why don't we head out right now? We can go down to the beach, it'll be amazing with the full moon tonight. You and I used to go out there all the time," Annabeth suggested, brushing her hair out of her face.

Thinking of the moon only made her think of the Hunt, which of course only brought her thoughts to Thalia Grace. What would her closest friend think about this all? Percy's cousin, one of his closest friends. Knowing Thalia, she wouldn't take it very well.

Still, it felt like Thalia was obligated to know, even if she wouldn't be able to come or see him. Maybe she could Iris Message her later, talking would be nice. Thalia always knew what to say.

"That sounds nice, actually," Percy said with a small smile.

"To the beach it is," Annabeth smiled.

-

Annabeth waded through the shallow end of the waters, watching Percy stand at the far edge of the beach, staring past her. They had gotten down there and Annabeth had rushed to take her shoes and socks off, figuring Percy would follow suit. When he didn't follow her in, she figured she'd stay in the water, possibly encouraging him to come in as well.

At least fifteen minutes later, he still hadn't moved, and Annabeth had to admit, she was getting bored, just waiting for Percy. She sighed, jogging out of the water to go stand by Percy's side.

"What's wrong, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked. She really needed to stop calling him that. He had no idea what it meant to them, it probably just seemed weird and rude. It was more of an impulse, she was used to calling him that for five entire years.

"I'm... not sure," Percy said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper, "I- I keep having visions about earlier this morning, last night or whatever. When I took a nap earlier? I had a nightmare. I can hardly remember anything, just- just rushing, white water. I can't go in there."

"That's-that's great!" Annabeth said.

"That's great? Excuse me?" Percy narrowed his eyes, taking a step away from Annabeth.

"No, you being afraid of the water is horrible, what's great is that you're having memories, or at least glimpses, of before you lost your memory. We could figure out who did this to you," Annabeth explained.

Annabeth still wasn't sure about how she felt restoring Percy's pain to him, but one thing was for sure. She could get some epic vengeance and a fantastic beat down if she knew who did this to Percy. Relieving stress like that felt like it would be awesome at that moment.

"How do you know someone did this to me? That it wasn't just a mistake?" Percy asked.

"Because last night I had a dream. With you. Someone dropped you into a river, but I couldn't see who they were," Annabeth said. She didn't want Percy to grow distrustful of her again.

"You had a dream... of me? Odd..." Percy said. Of course, he didn't know what demigod dreams were.

"We're connected, Percy," Annabeth chuckled softly. Okay, now that she thought about it, that sounded insanely creepy. "Sorry, that was weird. Um, what do you say we go give the water a shot? I know you used to love it when you have your memories. It might help you feel... refreshed. I'll help you, okay, Seawee- Percy?"

"Yeah," Percy said, taking a shaky breath. "Water. Let's go."

Annabeth gently grabbed his hand, carefully leading him into the water. He inhaled sharply, but slowly relaxed. "Wow," Percy breathed, a smile appearing on his face, "I- this feels great, Annabeth."

Annabeth smiled back at him, and couldn't help but wonder what he'd do if he knew he had powers, if he knew he was a son of Poseidon. "Told you," Annabeth said.