"Yes, and you're Mike, Chloe, and Jack. Percy's friends," Annabeth smiled at them, "I'm Annabeth."
Percy was still in a state of shock. He couldn't even form coherent words! All that was running through his mind was Annabeth, here, friends, here, Annabeth here...
It was on a continuous loop.
"Yes, we are. So then why are YOU here?" Chloe demanded, giving Annabeth her best glare (which compared to Annabeth's was nothing).
"Well, I think Percy can explain that for you just fine!" Annabeth exclaimed with mock-enthusiasm.
Everyone shifted their gazes to the demigod in question, but all he could do was open and close his mouth like a fish. Annabeth had to stifle a snort at the sight. Her boyfriend seemed to be stuck. Looks like her payback is going just according to plan!
"Percy?" Mike asked his friend, furrowing his eyebrows.
That one word somehow struck him out of his stupor, and he instantly said, "It isn't what it looks like!"
Chloe raised her eyebrows at that, "So there isn't a girl, who is rumored to hate you, standing there in your shirt?"
Percy resisted the urge to just run out of there. The ADHD side of his brain was starting to realize that THIS must be Annabeth's retaliation. It was so her that it made him feel stupid for not recognizing it sooner.
"I told you, we don't hate each other!" Percy shouted, letting his anger leak out before he could stop it.
Percy could usually keep a good grasp on his emotions, but the situation was just overwhelming him too much. His Poseidon side causes him to go from calm to freaking out in an instant. And on top of it all, his powers are tied to his emotions, so if he isn't able to control himself when he gets kitchen duty at camp, things could get very wet.
Because of all these clashing emotions, Percy didn't realize that he had started to make the water in their dispenser start to shake. It started off slow, just little ripples, but it quickly escalated to thrashing around in an attempt to escape. It very clearly showed his current emotions.
"Percy! Get ahold of yourself!" Annabeth shouted, walking up to her boyfriend and taking him by the shoulders.
Annabeth didn't even care that his friends were standing next to them. If Percy REALLY lost it, she wasn't sure anyone would be able to stop him. Only he could. And it would still probably take awhile.
And this still was over something as trivial as losing a competition.
But he wasn't the one to break first, because, acting on instinct, Annabeth kissed Percy. She tried to put all her thoughts of calming down into it, as well as all her love. Sometimes this happened when he had bad nightmares, and she was the only one able to break him out of it.
"Huh?" Percy finally snapped out of it when they broke apart.
"Oh, thank the gods," Annabeth sighed in relief.
"Umm...what just happened?" Mike asked, clearly confused.
That made Percy and Annabeth remember that they still had company. Now they had to deal with something even worse than Percy losing control: explaining.
"Heeeey, guys! Have you met Annabeth Chase?" Percy pointed to his girlfriend.
"Vlakas," Annabeth sighed, rubbing between her eyebrows.
Chloe crossed her arms and gained a 'don't mess with me' look. "Care to explain why you just kissed a girl who you've never met?"
Well, it seems that the Mist has worked its magic once again! At least now they didn't have to explain why Percy was controlling water while having a panic attack from going on a multitude of dangerous quests for gods that are 'myths.'
That would be bad.
"I'm his girlfriend," Annabeth answered before Percy could come up with some elaborate excuse that nobody would believe.
However, her idea wasn't exactly the best either. All Percy could do in response to that statement was stare at her with wide, stunned eyes.
His friends didn't seem to be expecting that answer either. Jack seemed physically affected, falling onto his butt.
"Uh, what?" Mike asked, being the first to voice any questions.
"Yes! She's. My. Girlfriend," Percy said, sounding REALLY proud for someone only declaring a relationship.
Chloe's thoughts finally spilled out of her head, "For how long? Why didn't you tell us? I thought we were your friends!"
Because of his fatal flaw, those words affected Percy a lot, "Of COURSE you're my friends! This was just part of some stupid competition!"
And now both of their fatal flaws were flaring up, "Stupid competition? Perseus Jackson, are you calling me stupid!?"
Oh, no. Full name. That's never good.
It seemed that Annabeth's outburst had sucked all of Percy's other problems away, and now all his focus was on his girlfriend. Just further proof that he was completely and utterly whipped.
"No! You are amazing, smart, and beautiful. I love you so much, and I would never, EVERcall you stupid!" he reassured her.
And that's all she needed, so Annabeth's scowl turned into a delighted grin, and she even seemed to stand up straighter, too. This was still a part of her plan (sorta). Athena plans for everything, after all!
"That's great! Now, I'll just leave you to explain everything else to YOUR friends," Annabeth said, skipping back to their room.
All of Percy's friends turned to him once again and Mike laughed, "Dude, you are SERIOUSLY whipped!"
"Whatever. Let's go to the couch," Percy sighed, already feeling a headache coming on, "I think I need to be sitting down for this."
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