Tower of Secrets

Annabeth Chase

Gods, I just love judo-flipping my boyfriend in the morning.

He pecked me on the lips, long enough to make me blush while being short enough to not make our audience uncomfortable. "Hey, Wise Girl."

"Seaweed Brain," I returned, standing and offering him a hand as well.

"Y'know," he smirked, "if you're gonna judo-flip me every time you see me, I'll have to learn that move, too." His arm wrapped around my side and I did the same to him so that he was on my left.

"Maybe I'll have to teach you, Kelp Head," I replied easily. I gestured to our audience. "Your friends here are the Avengers."

"So you've told me," he retorted.

Tony looked at me, baffled. "You knew?!"

He nodded.  "Annie told me all about you within the first few days of my stay. I've known the whole time." He looked down at me and I looked up at him. "Speaking of, who was your source? You mention having a source."

"Thor told me," I deadpanned. The Avengers glared at the god. "I had my suspicions, so I asked. Thor knows I'm trustworthy."

"And how does he know that?" Natasha asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

I rolled my eyes. "We may or may not have saved all of humanity a few times."

"Annabeth!" Percy whined. "I told you I was trying to see how long I could last before they figured it out!"

"You've saved the world?" Peter asked incredulously.

"Yes, but my boyfriend wants to see how long he can keep it a secret so I won't disclose anymore information about it," I sighed. Percy gave me a grateful peck on the head. I twisted and looked up at him. "Have you gotten taller?"

"I'm almost eighteen," he laughed. "I'm done growing. Maybe you're getting shorter?" I promptly punched him in the gut. He barely flinched.

"I almost miss when you were a scrawny twelve year old," I huffed.

"I don't," he shuddered. I gave him a quizzical look and he elaborated: "You were scary when we were twelve."

Several of our onlookers stiffled laughter.

I frowned. "Are you saying that I'm not scary now?" I asked, pretending to take offense.

His face went white. "I-"

"Percy?" I smirked, getting on my tip toes and grabbing his collar to pull him down so we were level. "Are you scared of me?" My voice was low, but loud enough so that the audience could follow along, amused.

He seemed to gulp, but we both knew we were acting. Thor's face was priceless. We knew the gods gossiped about us, so we figured Thor knew that Percy and I were pretty tight. Us acting like I was super dominating seemed to through him for a loop.

"Gods, I missed you, Owl Face," Percy finally grinned. I gave him a peck on the cheek before allowing him to stand straight again.

"You guys have weird nicknames," Peter commented. Percy laughed.

"Have you eaten any breakfast yet?" Bruce asked. I noticed Percy tense slightly.

"No, I figured I should wait for you."

"You usually just eat a bite or so of an apple, right?" Bruce asked. Percy nodded. "Try and finish it today and we'll go from there." It was like the entire atmosphere had shifted into awkwardness.

"You're trying to fix the eating issue," I said after a moment, pointing out the obvious. "I'd given up on that a while ago."

"Yeah, what do I have to lose?" he shrugged. He whispered in my ear. "You should try, too. Who knows? I might get to eat birthday cake this year." I looked him in the eyes and pursed my lips. I didn't want to give myself another false hope; I didn't think I could stand it if it didn't work.

But the look on Percy's face was enough for me to at least pretend. For him.

"Okay, Percy."

He grabbed my hand and led me behind everyone to grab the fruit. We looked at each other took the first bite. So far so good. A few bites later and I grabbed my stomach and gasped. I set the half eaten apple on the counter and shook my head.

"I can't finish it. It feels like my gut's on fire again," I grunted.

Percy nodded and tried for another bite before making a strained looked. His fist went into his pocket, probably playing with Riptide for comfort.

"Sorry, Doc," he croaked. "I don't think we're gonna be able to-"

"No need to apologize Percy," Dr. Bruce sighed. "Your stomach is still worked up from the other day. I'm guessing something similar happen to Annabeth." I nodded.

"The other day, Dad fixed my plate and told me I couldn't move until I ate everything. I was puking for the rest of the day," I remembered.

Percy gave me a weary look. "Puking blood?"

"Yeah."

"Same."

"So, Natasha mentioned you still get the nightmares?" I muttered.

He glanced back at the Avengers. "Can we take this discussion somewhere private?" I nodded. "To the pool," he announced, throwing away our half eaten apples.

Tony snorted. "How is the pool private?"

"I wouldn't expect you to understand," Percy sighed as he led the way. A series of stairs and hallways later, Percy and I were sitting on the bottom of the pool, an air bubble around my head. He had commanded the AI, Jarvis, to turn off the video and audio and to let him know if anyone overrided it. "So... I had a really bad one last night. I hadn't slept for, like, a week and I knew that the regular trips to the pool would only keep me moving for so long. I finally decided I should just face the music and sleep."

"Yeah, I'm sleeping about every two or three days," I frowned. "I end up waking the house up once a week. What was yours about?"

"Just some memories: fire water, Arai, and the Doors of Death," Percy deadpanned. "Apparently I was screaming for three hours straight."

"Yikes," I commented nonchalantly.