After All This Time...

Chapter 5

One of the advantages of becoming an immortal hunter was the increase in strength and speed. As a demigod, Annabeth had never had any extraordinary powers and had always needed to rely on her knowledge and training. All of that knowledge was still useful, of course, but it was nice not to always need it. It was like getting a shot of super-solider serum.

Basically, it meant that a distance that it would normally take two and a half weeks to cover by foot would only take the hunters four days.

Annabeth was unsurprised to see that Percy had no trouble keeping up with the hunters, he was a god after all. He had settled into their swift pace easily and was chatting with Thalia as they ran. Usually, Annabeth would be at the front of the group with Thalia, but this time she decided to drop back and run next to Aliah.

"I wish I had one of those sports hijabs." Aliah panted, "Or that we didn't have a man accompanying us. I miss feeling the wind in my hair."

Annabeth nodded in agreement. While she could't relate to the struggle of running with a hijab, she too wished that Percy wasn't accompanying them. But Annabeth wasn't going to complain about it, after all, Artemis had given her an out and she chose not to take it.

She still hadn't decided how she was going to navigate being around him. Part of her wanted to avoid him like the plague, but that was mostly because another part of her—a part of her that was larger than she'd like to admit—gravitated toward him. 

He looked so much like the Percy she knew, she was curious to see how much he had changed. Had half a century of immortality turned him into a god like Heracles or Dionysis? A callous god who couldn't care less about mortals? If you had asked a fifteen year-old Annabeth if Percy would ever become that, she would have laughed in your face; but ow she wasn't so sure.

After a long day of travel, the group of seven decided to set up camp in the forest outside of Lufkin, Texas. While the hunters set up camp in a leaf strewn clearing, Percy announced that he was going to head to the nearby Angelina River to get water for the group. Without thinking Annabeth volunteered to go with him, and the small smile he gave her almost made her to regret blurting it out.

Operative word being almost. As the pair trudged through the pine trees, they found themselves surrounded by an awkward silence. Percy was nice enough to give her a wide berth, but the large gap between them only made Annabeth more aware of the awkward situation.

"So," Annabeth started awkwardly, "You and Apollo?"

"Yeah, briefly." Percy chuckled a little too loudly. A red flush crept up the god's neck.

"What happened?" Annabeth found herself asking.

Percy shrugged, "I couldn't hack archery and his hiatus really, really suck."

In spite of herself, Annabeth laughed. The sound seemed to relax Percy a bit, the god's shoulders un-tensing as his mouth curled into his signature smirk.

Annabeth had unfortunately heard more of Apollo's haiku's than she ever cared to, first as the Architect of Olympus ad then as a hunter. She had also had the misfortune of doing archery practice with Percy.

"It's nice to know somethings are still the same." Annabeth joked, but her words seemed to sober Percy up a bit.

"Of course things are the same," Percy said sort of sadly, "Nothing ever changes for us immortals."

She wondered if he was including her when he said 'us'. After that they walked in thoughtful silence, or at least Annabeth was thoughtful. They came to the river soon, ad Percy broke away from Annabeth to talk to the naiad.

Percy flashed the naiad a charming smile and the river spirit giggled and brushed her glowing blue hair behind her ears. Annabeth had to resist the urge to roll her eyes, knowing that pissing of the naiad probably wouldn't be a good idea.

The flirting paid off though, because the naiad helped Percy fill up the hunter's water bottles and Annabeth never had to leave the muddy shore. A few minutes later they were back on their way, following the same path they had walked before.

"That naiad was pretty nice," Annabeth said, more to break the tension than anything, "Not as territorial as most."

"It probably helped that I blessed her river's current." Percy shrugged.

"You can do that?" She cocked an eyebrow at him.

"God of the Tide, remember?" 

"Well, obviously I know that," Annabeth rolled her eyes, "I just didn't realize your domain included fresh water."

"It does," He nodded, "Flowing fresh water, anyway."

The silence returned, thick and tangible.

"It probably also helped that you were flirting with her pretty hard." Annabeth said after a while.

Percy looked at her, brows furrowed, frown firmly in place. It took him a moment to realize that she was teasing him, but after that his face broke back into his familiar smile.

"Yeah, maybe a little bit," he conceded, "But between you and me she's not really my type."

Annabeth's heart clenched a little, in a way it hadn't in a very long time.

"Too short?" She choked out in a tone she hoped sounded casual.

"Too blue." He grinned back.

Annabeth found herself laughing again. She tried to protest that he loved the color blue, only for him to say he loved blue food not blue girls—which only made her laugh harder.

When they got back to the group, the tents had all been set up and the hunters were sitting around a fire cooking some game on a spit. When they saw Annabeth laughing as she entered the camp site, tears gathering in the corner of her eyes as Percy made some joke about Apollo and naiad getting caught in one of Hephaestus' traps, their jaws dropped and their eyes nearly popped out their heads from shock.

Annabeth looked at their flabbergasted expressions, then back at Percy who was biting his lip trying to hold back laughter, and then she burst into stitches all over again.

Author's note: Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than normal and is missing a flashback! Writing was a little tough this week because I was busy living through "an unprecedented event." Anyways, I hope you are enjoying this story at least half as much as Ted Cruz enjoyed his trip to Cancun!