Alternatively

Once Upon A Dream (iii.)

Percy was pushing the arm rest up and down and she watched him for some time, questions and roadblocks rising up in her mind at a million miles per hour. It wasn't going to be a walk in the park; she needed passports and papers and money...all things she really didn't have. His trick may have worked on their weak willed chaperone and influenced her peers, but maybe it would fail when it mattered. Maybe trouble awaited them in Customs or some London airport jail.

And maybe, she wasn't worrying exactly about those things, however pressing they were.

Maybe the words "true love" tumbled in her head and it numbed her hands and stuttered in her chest.

She excused herself, walking up the aisle to where Grover sat with Miranda Gardiner.

He glanced at her, then back to the prince, then back to her again. "Ya?"

"Um," she crouched to keep from falling over. "So, how long is this bus ride?"

"Nine hours," he squinted, scruffy facial hair shimmering as he made a face. "You have a lot of bonding time ahead of you."

She groaned, thunking her head on his arm rest. "It's so..."

"I told you I'm not getting in the middle of this," he huffed, though she knew that if she pressed, he'd take her seat.

"I can switch," Miranda piped up, interest piqued and eyes sly. "I never got to talk much to him in business last semester."

Annabeth peeled her forehead from the arm rest, staring at the unabashedly flirtatious girl with deadpan eyes. "Thanks, but I'm probably gonna go back in a second."

"You just let me know."

"I will, Miranda."

"Because he's very attractive."

"I got that, Miranda."

Miranda shot her finger guns, putting in her earbuds and returning to the book in her lap.

"Like, you woke him up," Grover sighed. "So you kind of have to be the one to make sure he understands what world he's living in."

"I liked it better when you wanted to put him back," she grumbled, standing up.

The bus went over a bump in the road and somewhere in the front, she heard Mr. D snort in his sleep. She thought a whisp of black shot by the window, but there was only rolling country side as she stared. The whispering in her head warning her to be careful blossomed back into the headache that had hammered at her skull the night before.

Rubbing her temples, she stumbled back to her seat.

Percy mirrored her action, pressing the heel of his palm to his forehead as he greeted her with a small nod. "I figure we could talk."

"What do you want to know?"

"Well," he looked out the window, his reflection meeting her eyes. "I don't really know. What should I know?"

She resisted the urge to pull one of the hoodie strings from where it was tucked into his neck, staring instead at her hands. "You know about the internet and phones, so already you know a lot. Um, I was never really good at history, but I can tell you about some countries that-"

"What's an airplane?"

"It's like, a bus that can fly."

His eyes widened. "That is...terrifying. Why would you ever go in one?"

"It's faster than a boat or a car," she crossed her arms. "I live across an entire ocean, so a plane shortens a week journey to a couple hours."

"I'll trust a boat before a metal tube in the sky."