Percy Jackson: Night In The Land Beyond The Gods

"To Luke."

Annabeth's POV

Leo grinned at us all, his eyes occasionally flickering to Percy seconds at a time before turning away. There was something hidden in his gaze, but it was hard to decipher what it was... fear, maybe?

He glanced once more at Percy before turning to him and starting up a conversation, a piece of bacon hanging out of his mouth. I guessed Leo was probably talking about the map of Alaska – or the monster territories in Alaska – that Percy had based on how excited he had been when he saw it. He was probably more interested in the mechanics behind how it expanded rather than the information on it, anyway.

"Hey, Annabeth," Thalia said next to me. "What did Percy say to you when you both went below deck for cleaning supplies a week or so ago?"

I turned to face her, my mind spinning with possibilities of why she would want to know. Then it hit me, she was either wondering if he'd said anything about the map or the ideals, or she wanted to know how we reacted to each other after such a long time.

"Well, we were mainly arguing about where they were, if I'm honest." I told her, keeping my voice low as Percy quickly glanced at me, "Then he took out a bottle of some multi-surface stain-remover he got in New Rome a few years back, and went to leave. But he had said..."

Piper, who had quickly dropped into our conversation, looked nervous, "What did he say?"

I took a deep breath, "We... we were looking around, and I had told him we had tons of cleaning stuff, he just wasn't looking in the right place. I don't think I was supposed to hear it, but he had muttered, 'I never seem to, do I? Especially in my taste of women and guys. I swear, if Castellan hadn't told me to do this I'd be far away from this mythological mess. Far away.'"

"So," Thalia said, her lips drawn into a thin line, "We basically know that: A, Percy's bisexual or something; and B, he's only doing this because he made a promise to... to Luke."

My mouth snapped shut as Piper looked between Thalia and I, eyebrows furrowed and forehead creased. Her mouth opened as if she was about to speak, but slowly closed after a moment, thinking better of it.

We sat in silence, each of us left to our own thoughts.

I looked down at my plate, slowly beginning to eat again to distract my beating heart. Percy made a promise to Luke, a nasty voice in the back of my mind taunted, And he couldn't even keep the one he made to you.