He Stoll My Heart - Connor Stoll.

Ch.4: Rose's First Camp Meeting.

A/N: This chapter takes place during TLO, ch.3 ("I get a sneak peek at my death")

Rereading the book feels amazing, Percabeth has my entire heart.

I promise to be as faithful to the original book as I can while doing my best to keep Rose's story interesting.

Thank you for sticking with me!

Happy reading!

- - -

That afternoon, Rose climbed up the lookout tree, knowing Connor was on duty. She found him perched on a branch, holding the conch horn.

"Hey," she said.

He jumped and nearly fell out of his tree. She thought she wasn't nearly quiet enough to have that effect.

"Rose! Don't sneak up on me like that!" He reprimanded her, but his eyes told a different story. He was happy to see her.

He helped pull her up so that she was sitting right beside him.

"Alice told me you were on duty," she said, "I couldn't find you so I asked your siblings. They kept teasing me," she added, turning pink.

"Don't mind them," said Connor. "They're desperate for any drama, and ever since Beckendorf and Silena got together, camp's kinda been lacking any juicy news."

Rose hummed.

She hesitated. "I know you're on duty, but... can I steal a kiss?" she asked.

He grinned. "Thought you'd never ask." He kissed her.

His hands wrapped around her waist and she held onto his face. Moving was pretty limited in the tree, but they made it work.

Until Rose pulled away and said: "Hey, there's Percy Jackson!"

Connor whirled around. "Huh?"

But the sudden movement destabilized him enough to make him crash out of the tree.

Percy Jackson had just walked out of the ocean. Normal stuff.

Connor muttered under his breath in irritation and he blew the conch horn to signal the camp.

Rose quickly climbed down the tree and ran to greet Percy with him. She hoped she made it seem like she'd just been wandering around, not making out with Connor in a tree, but Percy Jackson wasn't the best at figuring out relationships. He probably assumed Connor fell out of his tree because of excitement.

"Percy!" Connor yelled. "What happened? Where's Beckendorf?"

Rose and Connor saw his expression and their faces fell.

"Oh, no. Poor Silena," said Connor. "Holy Zeus, when she finds out..."

Rose's heart fell. What about Nino? How would he react? He hadn't known Beckendorf for long but...

Together, the three of them climbed the sand dunes. A few hundred yards away, people were already streaming toward them, smiling and excited that Percy was back.

He stopped at the dining pavilion and waited for them. Rose and Connor copied him.

Chiron galloped into the pavilion first. He wore a green T-shirt that said "MY OTHER CAR IS A CENTAUR" and a bow slung over his back.

"Percy!" he said. "Thank the gods. But where..."

Annabeth ran in right behind him.

"What happened?" She grabbed Percy's arm. "Is Luke-"

"The ship blew up," Percy said. "He wasn't destroyed. I don't know where-"

Silena Beauregard pushed through the crowd. Her hair wasn't combed and she wasn't even wearing makeup, which wasn't like her.