Children of The Big Three, Book 3: Titans Curse

Chapter Fourteen: Missing Something

Thalia sighed. They had reached California, which was good. The car hadn't broken down either, so that was also good. However, the drive from where they were in Nevada to where they now stood on was pretty darn long. The Daughter of Zeus was not fond of the idea of stopping yet again, but Zoë and Silena insisted that they needed to be well supplied when facing Atlas, plus others. Thalia didn't really want to talk about the large possibility of Luke being one she'd have to face off with. It had been about three years, but his betrayal felt as fresh as ever to her. Maybe it was because she didn't like to talk about it, or maybe because she thought about it too much; but the fact that her friend of seven years betrayed the Gods, betrayed her, still stung a bit. It had been a nice long while, but she swore that sometimes she could feel the poison coursing through her veins, the pain of the puncture wound echoing throughout her body. Even still.. That was Luke Castellan. Her friend. If the situation called for it, could she-Thalia shook her head of the thought. If the time came, she'd do what needed to be done. She was sure of it.. Anyway the teenager was pulled from her thoughts by The Hunter of Artemis, Zoë.

"Thalia Grace, I have requisitioned some tickets."

"You mean, you bought them?"

"Well, I suppose. Except, not with money."

"Wha-"

"These young males whistled at me in a flirtatious manner. I promised to simply stop at breaking their arms, and not cutting them off."

"oh."

"I recorded it." Silena said, jumping into the conversation.

"You would. Whatever, plane time!"

"We should rest on the way. The Titan Atlas will not be an easy opponent, if open combat is inevitable."

"Agreed, lets all get some shut eye on the way. I doubt any monsters would dare attack us in my fathers domain."

So after being jumped by a Hell-Hound at the metal detector, the trio made their way to the plane, which took off without a hitch.

"How Long is the flight to Mount Tamalpais?"

"Something like, forty minutes?"

"Alright. Then, two of us shall sleep for ten minutes, while one other sleeps for twenty. The other two shall keep watch, in case The Crooked One has eyes even up here."

"Dibs on the twenty!"

"Ahh, ya bitch." Silena said jokingly.

"Welp, have fun you guys, try your best to not get shot out of the sky."

Then Thalia did a sleep.

She wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting this time, weird soup land again or Aphrodite stroll through the park. What she got; was a couch. Not just any couch though! This one has a Percy on it, but he looked weird. Thalia could swear that she could almost see through her friend, like he was see through, transparent. That didn't really matter to the Daughter of Zeus at the moment, however. She rushed over to the Son of Poseidon, and leaned down to be face to face with his sitting figure. "Perce!" She yelled, and for a split moment, the boys eyes widened. Then he just, put his eyebrows back into a rested posture. His mouth opened, and he looked like he was saying something, Thalia didn't hear anything. Percy's eyes weren't even on her, but on something to his left, which Thalia was confused by, because the seat next to him appeared to be empty. She couldn't lie, that did piss her off a bit, that her best friend whom she'd spent the last week trying to rescue, was sitting right in front of her; but either couldn't hear her, or couldn't see her. Whatever the case may be, this did give her the chance to get a better look at him, Thalia hadn't seen him since he'd been freed from the sky a couple days ago. She leaned in closer. His hair had gone from a whitish grey to a deep silver, as if it were slowly turning back to its normal, midnight black. Upon closer inspection, his roots had already begun to shade itself back in. Eventually, Thalia moved her attention away from Percy's hair, and focused on his body.. Of course, she knew it wasn't the time; but she couldn't help but notice that he seemed just a tad bit more muscular then the last time she had seen him in person. Thalia wouldn't go as far as to say holding the sky up did the body good, but Percy certainly wasn't hard to look at, except.. His wrists were red with rope burn, as if at some point, he'd been restricted. Thalia scowled, How could anyone do something like that to someone like Percy? He didn't deserve that. The Daughter of Zeus' eyes widened as an idea came to mind. If this was a dream, then, technically, she could do whatever she wanted, right? Thalia sat down on the seat next to Percy, which the boy was looking at while talking to. Percy made a gesture to whoever he was talking to, and said a few words. Which Thalia decided to take as him talking about her new jacket. "Oh, this? It's nothing."

Percy muttered a few more soundless sentences.

"Oh, I didn't buy it. I made it. By, ya know, killing the Nemean Lion!"

Percy leaned back against the couch, and said two words.

"Cute? Pah, you're just saying that."

Percy rolled his eyes, and muttered a few words that, from the look of on his face, seemed to be of a humorous nature.

"Percy!" Thalia said with a blush. The girl was going a bit wild with what she imagined he was saying to her. It was her dream, after all. "You big tease!"

Percy made a 'come here' gesture with his fingers, most likely to whisper a joke in someone's ear, but Thalia interpreted it.. Differently.

"Perce! I never thought you were so straight forward.. I can't it's.. I'm not ready, and-We're too young, and I-I wouldn't be good at it, and-"

Percy gave his signature smirk. A smile that told her everything would be okay, even if she knew it weren't really directed at her. Percy leaned forward, his lips moving, but not much, as if he were being quiet. Thalia, almost without conscious effort, began to move forward towards his lips.

"You're.. You're right Percy. It's okay." She got ever closer to Phantom Percy's lips. "If it's with you.. Then it's okay." Thalia closed her eyes as she inched ever closer. After a moment, all distance ceased, and Thalia's lips touched the see through Percy's. She knew it wasn't the real thing, but.. It felt real for a moment. She could feel his rough, chapped lips touch her smooth, lipsticked ones; she felt his body heat as she placed a hand upon his chest. Thalia felt kind of pathetic, because she wanted to cry. She didn't know why, there was nothing to be overly happy or sad about. She was kissing a dream, nothing more.

She then heard her name screamed loudly.

Thalia woke with a jump after Silena had screamed her name. "Wha-Who-Is.. Is it my turn to stay up?" Thalia asked, groggily.

"You slept the whole way. We're here."

"What?! Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I was having to much fun."

"What?"

"Yeah, what?"

"Oh, nothing." Zoë made a 'come here gesture' to Thalia, which made her blush at the memory. She leaned in, and the Huntress asked:

"Doth Thou wish to explain what thy sleep talk was about?"

Thalia's cheeks reddened to a maddening degree as she realized what had occurred. "Uh.. No?" Thalia sputtered out, pathetically."

"Fair enough. Shall we be off?" Zoë asked the group.

"Yes! Let's go do the thing! And never speak of this again!"

"I feel like I missed something."

Meanwhile, with Percy.

"Hey, uh, you alright?" Annabeth asked.

Percy had a finger on his lips. He knew it was impossible, but for a mere moment, it felt as if someone had put their lips on his own, despite the fact that Annabeth and Percy were the only ones in the room."

"Uh.. Yeah. Anyway," Percy continued, "That's why I'm sure Minecraft will make a comeback at some point."

"I think that's a little optimistic."

"Nothin wrong with that."

"Guess not."

Percy paused a moment.. "I feel like I missed something."