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Ritual

Annabeth's POV

A week after Magnus' wedding, I started visiting Percy's apartment for "work-related" activities more often.

I always used lame excuses, like going over to borrow a pen or to ask for extra coffee powder. He never drinks coffee, but he had a spare carton anyway. In fact, he probably kept a spare one for me.

Either way, I would end up staying for at least an hour before returning to my apartment. We would do silly little things like wash the dishes together, and on one occasion, we ended up on a movie marathon. That was a memorable night. I ended up falling asleep on his couch, leading to two late employees the next day.

Today, my excuse was that I ran out of shampoo. It was completely untrue, of course. I never run out of shampoo.

I knocked on his door and heard quick footsteps hustling towards me. He opened it and stood there casually with his arm leaning against the door, as if he did not just rush to open it. He seemed a little quirky today.

He invited me in with an exaggerated bow and asked the same thing he always did. "So...what's up?"

I asked for some shampoo as I just ran out and was too lazy to go to Piper's for some. He nodded understandingly and ran off to the toilet to get some.

As he did, I walked over to the single plant he had. It was in full bloom, its blue petals bringing a splash of colour to the somewhat dull room. Suddenly, an idea crossed my mind.

When he eventually came back with some lemon-scented shampoo, I spoke my mind. "How about...we go plant shopping?" I suggested.

His eyes gleamed as he nodded vigorously. They shined with happiness and joy, which was a good look on him.

I quickly brought the shampoo to my apartment and placed it with the other objects I "borrowed" from him. It was among pens, notebooks, toilet rolls and even a back scratcher. I low-key felt sorry for his wallet, but he seemed to be in abundance of whatever object or item I requested for anyway.

After five minutes of dressing up, we headed out to the floral shop that was a few streets down. We took a bus there, patiently sitting and waiting to get there. Personally, I could not think of a plant that would be a good addition to my apartment. I was better with books than with living things. Also, I was unable to think straight because Percy fell asleep and was lying on my shoulder.

I made sure not to move and sat as still as possible. Surprisingly, he smelled more of lemons than he did of the sea. Perhaps he finally learned something from me and decided to use lemon-scented shampoo.

The way he looked when he slept was a little cute. His mouth was agape, causing a little sliver of saliva to drool out from the corner of his lips. Every now and then, he would shake his head or mumble something incoherent. I swear at one point in time, he murmured "Annabeth..." and then continued sleeping after. I had no idea what he was dreaming about, or whether the mention of my name was a good or bad sign. For all I knew, he could be having a nightmare. Either way, I let him continue in his slumber.

When we reached our stop, I awakened the groggy, drooling mess that was my neighbour. He looked around dreamily before coming to his senses. We alighted from the bus and walked briskly to the floral shop.

It was beyond huge. It was even bigger than Aeithales in Palm Springs, which Grover described with great fervor to us. The greenhouse easily spread a few hundred metres across, some glass panes cracking due to large vines creeping out.

We walked in cautiously and peered into the greenhouse. It was beautifully decorated with gold feathers, chains and gems. I guessed that the greenhouse did very good business to have been able to afford such luxuries. Then there were also these weird dwarf statues and ornaments that Magnus would definitely be unhappy about. It felt off-putting and out of place, reminding me of the vibes I got when Percy, Grover and I went to the Emporium all those years ago. Thankfully, Medusa was not one of the reformed monsters that escaped through the Doors of Death.