Percy

There were no more attacks on the rest of our journey to Antikythera, thanks to Adrian and his men. But I still didn't let down my guard, and I kept a protective arm around Annabeth just in case. I had seen her fall into the water during the last attack, and I think my heart stopped when I didn't see her come up for the longest time. I was so scared, but I was stuck with at least three mermen fighting me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get to her. I hated that feeling; the feeling of not being able to do anything while the ones you loved were being hurt. I just thanked the gods that Adrian came.

"Lord Percy, we have more warriors coming in as we speak, and war creatures."

I nodded to the merman that had spoken, and he bowed and swam away. I had long ago given up trying to correct the mermen saying "lord" before my name. It wasn't necessary, and I didn't really like to be called that. But they did it anyway, so I just let it go.

More warriors... that was a lot of mermen coming to fight. But they couldn't get above ground, which was a downer. The war creatures were sharks, deadly fish, all those dangerous sea creatures. Even hippocampi were known to fight, but we were going to need those if we wanted to make it to the island without taking a long swim.

The water around me swirled in greens and blues, the greek fire swaying like the smoke in the air it would make if it were above the surface. I was currently in the middle of the camp of mermen warriors underwater. It was in one of Poseidon's old temples, shielded from enemy eyes. But it wasn't nice like the temple Poseidon was living in right now. It was a circular marble plateau with greek columns surrounding it. Mermen had camped up on the edges of the round upraising, and Lord Caspion and I were discussing battle plans.

To be honest, I couldn't stand this. I couldn't stand making battle plans. Partially because it meant that a fight was on its way, and fights mean death and harm to my friends, and partially because I in no way could ever devise a decent plan. Ask the Questers.

So that's why Annabeth was with me, standing in a sphere of air. She was studying papers and maps, her eyebrows scrunching up in a cute little way. I remembered the conversation we had when we were riding the hippocampus. I had almost told her that I thought of her as more than a friend. Then I probably would've gone on to say I loved her and all, what with my mouth having no filter whatsoever! I had finally worked up all that courage, and then Shar and his stupid cronies had to come and disrupt it. But at the same time, I didn't know if that was a bad thing or a good thing. After all, if I had told Annabeth that I was in love with her, and she didn't feel anything in return... well, let's just say if we piled that on top of my little sister, I would pretty much be the most depressed man in Greece.

But I wanted to tell Annabeth. I wanted to so badly. Just like, right now, staring at her breath-taking face and pink lips, I wanted to just grab her and kiss her like mad. Gods, it was tempting.

"Percy, look at this," Annabeth sounded exasperated and confused as she addressed me. I swallowed down my thoughts, forcing my feet to walk over to her. I entered the bubble and stood close to her. If I went a few inches closer, we would be touching. I clenched my jaw and leaned over her shoulders.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" I asked.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, a small smirk appearing on her face. "If this is where Luke and his men are, why is there nothing on the island?"

I pursed my lips. "Well, we think he might have an underground something."

Annabeth groaned. "That's going to make devising battle plans so much fun." Sarcasm dripped off her words, and I didn't blame her. It was going to be hard, especially with nothing to go off of. But I trusted she would do it.

"I had Frank fly over the island before we left to see if he could find anything," I said, trying to reassure her. "And Lord Caspion sent one of his merman out to try to gather some information on the land as well." I sent a questioning look to Lord Caspion, just to make sure I wasn't spouting lies. He nodded, his silver hair sliding slightly in the water.

"I sent Adrian. He should be back any minute now," Lord Caspion replied with a deep voice.

Annabeth sighed, dipping her head and bringing it back up.

"We'll make a plan, Wise Girl," I said. She was so worried, I could tell. I hated to place this burden on her shoulders, but I needed help. "And it'll end up being great and saving Greece as well as the world, and probably end evil altogether."

Annabeth looked over her shoulder at me, a small smile of amusement growing on her face. "If only that would happen, Percy. But we live in reality, unfortunately." I sent a grin back at her, and then we heard a shout from the edge of the plateau.

"Lord Caspion!" Adrian said, rushing up to his leader and bowing quickly, doing the same to me and Annabeth. The mermen had started to accept Annabeth; even respect her. They knew that she was making basically the leader of this battle, and they didn't complain, or refuse to place their lives in the hands of a daughter of Athena. She had proven herself enough, over and over, throughout the past months.

"I bring news, good and bad," Adrian explained.

"Well then," Lord Caspion said, a smile playing over his lips. "I have always said to have the bad come first, and maybe the good will override it. In this case, I hope it is true."

Adrian nodded. "Bad news, then. It ends up that Luke's place is underground, but I could only find a few entrances, and some look guarded. There are mermen, Shar's men-" all three of us listening wrinkled our noses in disgust at the name "- and they seem to use an entrance at the bottom of the island. It's unguarded, that's some of the good news. But other than that, most of the other entrances are small and surrounded by mermen. I couldn't get too close; it's a wonder I was able to get as close as I was then.

"Some good news is like I told you before: there is one entrance that is virtually unguarded. But the reason for that is every mermen uses it at least once a day. So the mermen going into the tunnel are basically the guards. But during the day, at exactly six hours after midday, they were all called in. Every single one of them, except for a few guards outside. They went into the entrance, and I waited for nearly an hour, and they still didn't come back. So..." Adrian trailed off uncertainly, waiting for someone to say something.

Annabeth had that light in her eyes, the light that lit when she was thinking hard. "So if we could somehow get a group in there during those hours, we could do something. If the entrance really leads to Luke's headquarters, and if there are no more guards inside, and if we could somehow sneak past the ones outside..." Annabeth's voice faded much like Adrian's, the tone losing some of it's life as she listed off some of the "if"s. I put my hand on her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze.

"Thank you, Adrian. And you, Lord Caspion, for meeting with us. I think we'll call it a night right now, but we'll come back first thing tomorrow morning." I said this all with one thing in my mind: bed. I hadn't been able to get sleep the last couple of nights, and Annabeth hadn't either. She looked dead on her feet, and she just needed a hot meal and sleep. She would think a lot better tomorrow. We both would.

Lord Caspion nodded, understanding. "Of course." He bid us both farewell and Adrian waved at us, then they left the plateau. I turned to Annabeth, who looked frustrated and tired.

"Come on, Wise Girl," I said. "We need some sleep."

Annabeth scoffed. "You could say that again."

"We need some sleep."

The daughter of Athena rolled her eyes, giving me a look. I grinned, then pushed the bubble forwards. We slowly started to drift to the surface a hundred feet up.

The Questers and I had found a sandbar a couple miles off of Antikythera, and Hazel had raised up enough of it to fit the camp. I was impressed; she was getting more powerful each day, and she could even raise this small island. Though she did black out immediately after that, and Nico had been extremely worried, saying that her lifeline had gotten incredibly thin. But it worked. Even though it was a really small plot of land, it was enough to squish all the Questers onto it. Though we didn't have room for tents, we just slept out on the ground. The only tent was the one we were making plans in

For a while, Annabeth was silent. She just looked at the dark water surrounding us, a thoughtful look covering her face. A blonde strand of hair was loose from her messy ponytail, and I subconsciously reached up to tuck it behind her ear. Her gaze met mine, dark grey against sea green.

"Percy..." Her voice was anguished. "If- What if I can't make a plan? What if... what if I can, but it fails, and everyones life depends on it?" Her grey eyes looked hopeless and lost. My heart hitched slightly.

"You will," I reassured her. "I promise."

"You can't promise that!" Annabeth said, her volume raising. "You're not the one making the plan! This is so... frustrating! We have basically nothing to go off of, and so far the only entrances are underwater, and if you haven't noticed, you're the only one who can breathe underwater out of the Questers, and we all need to rest, but we don't have enough time, and we don't even know why Luke wants me in the first place, and what really he is planning, and we can't contact the gods, and-"

I stopped her. I did it. I gave in to that voice that was fluttering around, making me move towards her. I just surged forward and placed her lips on mine. I don't know why, but I knew I couldn't stop now.

For a moment, Annabeth was stiff, shocked and surprised at the sudden encounter. But then she slowly relaxed into the kiss, and my first thought was, Oh, my gods. I'm kissing Annabeth.

I'm kissing Annabeth!

I forgot about everything. I forgot about the war coming, I forgot about all the troubles we were having, I forgot about the Forbiddance Law the gods had passed between me and Annabeth. I didn't care about anything right now but Annabeth; her lips against mine, slowly coming closer until we were crushed against each other. Our bodies fit perfectly together.

The kiss was gentle and soft at first, but then Annabeth's head tilted and she deepened the kiss. My hand was bunched up in her soft golden curls, my other hand around her waist, pulling her small but strong body flush against mine. Her hands were up around my neck, tangled in my hair, sliding over my chest. I wanted to pause the messed up world and just melt into Annabeth. I could feel her heart beating against mine, like twin drums playing along with the music of our mouths sliding against each other.

Her lips joined with mine flawlessly, as if they were made to go together.

I didn't want to stop.

But slowly, we drifted apart, both breathing hard, cheeks flushed. Our foreheads rested on each other, and I kept my hand in her hair, entangled into the silk-like strands. Momentarily, we just stared at each other, her mind probably racing with thoughts, and my mind not able to form a single thought.

I just kissed Annabeth. A smile started to grow- a small one- on my face. There was a similar one on Annabeth's.

"Everything's going to be fine," I said forcefully, gazing straight into Annabeth's grey eyes that were rushing with emotions. She seemed not to have heard me.

"You just kissed me," She muttered, dumbstruck. My smile grew into a lopsided grin.

"You didn't protest."

Her eyes sparkled. "Why in Hades would I do such a thing, Seaweed Brain?"

Again, we were silent, just staring at the other.

"I- We better, uh, get back to the surface," I said, stumbling over my words. I pulled back, and Annabeth nodded, but she looked disappointed. Heck, I would've stayed there all day and kissed her, but we needed to get back.

We had almost reached the surface. The rest of the journey was filled with small sideways glances, blushes, and smiles. Oh gods, I can't believe I just did that! And she didn't get mad or punch me or anything! I kept pushing back all the impending danger and troubles we were having, just holding on to this strand of complete happiness, and trying to never let go.

I had no idea what that would do for us... were we still only friends? Was that just a one time deal? It couldn't have been a mistake, I wouldn't take that. But what now?

I guess we had a little more time, for we reached the surface. The bubble popped, and I hooked my arm around Annabeth's waist, swimming over to the shore about ten feet away. We soon reach the shore, and we trudged up. I made us both dry, and reluctantly let go of Annabeth.

She flashed a small smile at me, "Thanks." I dipped my head, then she started forward again, heading to the one tent on the middle of the island that held all the plans. I watched her go, her feet gliding over the grassless, dirt ground, her hair flowing behind her slim, tough and athletic body. I smiled at her back.

"Well, well, well," someone mused from right beside me. I rolled my eyes and faced Leo, who was grinning at me. "What do we have here? A son of Poseidon goggling at a daughter of Athena? Why such a sap, Cap'n?"

"Shut up, Leo," I replied, starting to follow Annabeth.

"Ooh, he's getting mad," Leo observed, tapping his chin. "But there's still that smile stuck to his face." Leo was stepping close behind me, apparently bent on the need to annoy me.

I didn't answer, and he continued. "Percy's lovestruck, and he's drooling!" Leo sang, skipping along behind me. I grit my teeth, ignoring him and all the other Questers who were smirking as they watched me walk up to the camp.

"Percy's lovestruck, and he's drooling!" I was almost at the opening of the tent.

"Percy's lovestruck, and he's drooling!" That was it.

I swung around, bringing my hand out. The water just twenty feet away responding, shooting out and wrapping around Leo's leg. It drug him back, him kicking and screaming, to the water. I knew he hated water, him being a fire-user and all. I just smiled and walked away. The water would only pull him out fifty feet or so, he'll be able to swim back. The Questers were chuckling at the both of us. This happened regularly; Leo irritating me and me chastising him.

I pushed open the flap and entered the tent. Jason, Nico, Annabeth, and Thalia were all standing inside around a table. The table had papers and scrolls scattered across it, and the torches in the tent sent flickering lights over them. They all looked up and greeted me. I returned the greeting and shared a smile with Annabeth. Her gaze glanced fleetingly down to the bottom of my face, and her cheeks heated up slightly. She dragged her head back to the papers.

"Frank returned," Jason said. He was leaning on his sword, which was point first in the dirt. I nodded, and he resumed talking. "He found no sign of any entrance to anywhere on the island, except for one. There was a cave set in the side of a hill, hard to find. But if there is one, we might be able to find more, but it would be almost impossible. Other than that, the place is pretty much barren. Frank only saw one person, and it was for a brief moment. It looked like a scout or guard. He also saw mermen traveling close to the island in the water, looking like they were on guard as well."

Annabeth stared at the papers, taking this all in.

"Well..." I pursed my lips, then looked at the daughter of Athena. "Got anything, Wise Girl?" She gave me a glare, but the corners of her mouth didn't go down. Thalia was looking back and forth between us, frowning. Since she was a girl (girls could always tell everything. It got annoying), I thought maybe I should switch tracks.

"There was nothing else on the island at all?" Nico and Jason shook their heads. I then recounted what Adrian had told us. They bobbed their heads at parts, thinking hard on their own.

"I think... I might have an idea," Annabeth said. She was still, her eyes not blinking as she looked distantly at the papers in front of her. "So we can't really get to the island anyways, because Shar and his men are patrolling the area-" she glanced at my two second-in-commands for confirmation, and they nodded "-and there's only one way to get underwater, and so far only one way to get in above water. But both are guarded. We don't have that many fighters. We can't contact the gods, and we only have so much time, just in case Luke is planning something that is happening soon."

We all nodded. She snapped her fingers. "I've got it."

All of us just stared at her for a moment, then Thalia threw her hands up in the air, "How in Hades did you find a plan this quick?"

"And after she listed all that off," Jason added, looking boggled. Nico was scratching the back of his head, frowning. I just shook my head, chuckling inwardly as I looked at Annabeth, who was glowing with excitement and about to burst with the plan wrapped up in her head. This girl is awesome.

"Okay, here's how we're going to do this."

She looked at us all, and she smiled at me, ever so lightly, but it was enough to make my heart leap up and dance around.

She started talking, telling us her plan. Bit by bit, everything came together, and we started smiling as well.

Get ready, Luke, I thought savagely. Because we're coming, and you better be afraid.