Kia was never a huge fan of surprises.

She hated when she didn't know things. When things were obviously kept from her, it drove her a little crazy. Growing up, she was never a fan of surprise parties, whether it be hers or someone else's. Kia was never one to want anything hidden from her or hide anything from anyone else.

So while standing in front of Percy Jackson's house, unbeknownst to him, Kia didn't feel her best. In fact, she felt a little green; perhaps even feeling a bit sick. Not that she didn't like Percy, but she wasn't exactly sure about where they stood. Were they friends? Were they kids who had the misfortune of being packed on to a quest and set of and coincidentally ending up on the same road? Were they those ever elusive 'camp-friends' all kids at her middle school used to talk about?

She wasn't exactly sure where to hold Percy on this scale. Kia was sure that they behaved and acted like people who had been friends for ages, but that was natural; it had just come to them with no special effort of their own, but then again, the circumstances did, admittedly see to it that everyone on that quest ended up bonding one way or the other. In conclusion, Kia was in this weird superposition where she was both best friends with Percy (gods, it was even embarrassing admitting she may have considered him a best friend when she didn't know how he felt) and absolute strangers with each other.

The two had exchanged many Iris-messages over the the rest of winter and through mid-spring, and Kia had had to make a conscious effort to not tell Percy about the visit she had planned with Sally Jackson.

Ah, how could Kia forget: Sally Jackson, possibly the most warm, friendly, loving, motherly woman Kia had ever met in her entire life. During one of their scheduled Iris-messages, Sally Jackson had stumbled within the sphere of view and had quickly grown a fondness for Kia (So Percy claimed. "She won't stop talking about how polite you were!" — "I was polite, Barnacle Face." — "Pfft. You're never that nice to me—") and had insisted that Kia jot down their landline. Kia had no idea how Ms. Jackson expected her to contact them from camp, a place with barely any reception or even phones, but she was sure it was all within good will (mostly because Sally Jackson seemed like the type of person incapable of doing anything morally black).

Soon enough, however, Chiron had approached Kia, his tail swishing back and forth as it did when he was nervous about something, calling her into the Big House, and Kia quickly found out how Sally Jackson would contact her.

Despite Kia's insistence that she didn't want to intrude on any of Percy's normal days (one of the very few he got as a demigod kid of the Lord of the Seas), Ms. Jackson had insisted persistently until Kia eventually gave in, barely any remnants of her remaining that would deny such a sweet lady.

So here she was. Regretting every single life decision she had made up till date. She had already rung the door bell.

Why would I do that? was the only coherent thought in her head. The rest were just jumbles of poorly timed screeches and screams.

Before Kia could turn around and pretend she stopped existing (after praying to the gods for forgiving her for how much it would pain Sally Jackson), the door swung open, revealing... Percy.

His ever-windswept hair was messy as always, raven locks spraying over his forehead as if he had just taken a shower, skin as tan as ever—maybe even a bit more, considering the sun came out much more often now than last winter. He was taller now—Kia just realised. She hadn't ever been properly able to tell through Iris-messaging, but now she could see it for herself. He was now a good maybe inch or two taller than her (which did little to reduce her earlier annoyance about how he could look good despite also looking like he was run over by a truck) and had to tip his head downwards to see her.

The very last thing Kia looked at, purely out of anxiety, was his eyes. They were still that spectacularly entrancing shade of violent sea-green, with almost specks of clear salt if you looked close enough. They looked confused, but the most overpowering feature in them was the crinkles around them—he was smiling. He was happy. To see her.

Looking at him smiling like this at her made her feel like the physical weight of all her doubts and worries had been literally lifted off her shoulders.

As she let out a sigh of relief, she said, with a smile mirroring his: "Hi."

His smile turned into an ecstatic grin, as if her saying something as simple as 'hi' had convinced him of the reality that she was actually here—and that somehow this was a good thing. Percy didn't even reply, wasting not a single second to stoop down and bring her up into a hug by the waist. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, getting swept up into the air as her smile widened, eyes closing in pure bliss.

He spun her around, her legs dangling awkwardly a few inches off the floor—man, that kid got strong. Eventually, he let her down, still smiling at her with that stupid grin of his, barely concealed by his teeth covering his bottom lip.

"Hi," he said mockingly. His face changed so that he rolled his eyes, the remnants of a smiling ghosting against his face. "That's all you've got to say to me? How'd you even know I live here? Either you stalked the shit out of me or my mom was in on this."

Kia rolled her eyes, about to answer but being cut off by a wonderful off-white dress coming into view. Sally Jackson waltzed in—ever so gracefully—placing her hands onto Kia's shoulders from behind. She pulled her face down, next to Kia's, and looked at Percy.

"Language," Ms. Jackson tutted. Her face then became teasing at the sight of Percy's apologetic expression. "Hm, I'm not sure, honey. Take a guess?"

Percy nodded confidently. He confirmed, "She definitely stalked me."

Kia swatted him on the arm, chuckling lightly. "Sure, I did, Pufferfish."

Ms. Jackson smiled down at Kia, leading to a rush of warmth in the pit of her tummy. The house made her feel really, really warm. Like the feeling of having cookies on a rainy day—the chocolate chips still gooey.

Ms. Jackson lightly shook Kia's shoulders affectionately, before whisking off to... somewhere in the house, leaving the two of them be.

Percy scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I have school in, like, five minutes, so..."

"Oh." The realisation dawned on her. "Oh! Yeah, no—"

"I just mean—"

"No, yeah! Like—"

"Kia, you—"

"I didn't mean to—"

"Kia!" Percy put his hands on her shoulders, stopping her from rambling and him as well. He laughed, shaking his head slightly. "Gods, calm down! You act like I'm going to eat you alive! We're friends, aren't we?" Friends. "Don't worry about it. You can come with me, if you want. Although I can understand if you don't want to. School kind of sucks—"

"No," Kia cut him off unexpectedly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to, like, cut you off. I think I wanna go. It'd be nice. I wonder what your school is like. And, you know, if there any cute boys—"

Kia nudged him with her elbow, joking but also totally not joking, and Percy barked out laughing. He struck a pose dramatically. "Well, if I do say so myself—"

"Nope. Too lame."

Percy flicked Kia on the forehead, jokingly making an offended face at her. "Rude much?"

"Please." She gestured up and down at herself. "Like you could ever handle all of this. I'm doin' you a favour, hon."

The last sentence accompanied with a southern accent both put them into fits of laughter, ending with them wiping tears away from the corner of their eyes.

Absently, Percy glanced at the clock, and his eyes widened. "Holy shit! School started like two minutes ago. Come on!"

He grabbed a piece of toast and shoved it into Kia's mouth before she could protest, and he grabbed her hand while swinging a backpack—the same blue as his hoodie, Kia noticed—and dashed down the staircase, pulling her along with him.

In those two minutes, with him pulling her along, Kia had an epiphany: maybe, just maybe, they really were friends.

Before Briares left, Percy had spoken to him in the corner of the room they were in—the room with the waterfall. He seemed angry, murmuring in harsh tones to Briares, but there was something almost passionate about the way he was talking to Briares. Kia didn't mean to eavesdrop (a skill she had picked up from the expert himself, Percy), but she overheard Percy talking abou Tyson and how much the young Cyclops looked up to the Hundred-Handed-Ones—and that they were his heroes.

Morpheus had told Kia about 'her friend's' fatal flaw once: loyalty. In times like these, when all their lives were inevitable at stake, Percy's fatal flaw really shone through. He genuinely cared about his friends, and he went out of his way to attest to this fact; he cared fiercely and brightly, with the strength of a thousand burning suns, and Kia couldn't help but think that... maybe it'd be okay to allow him to care for her too. Maybe she didn't need to pretend or shield herself by holding him at a distance so that she wasn't hurt by any revelation. Maybe her opinion about holding him as a friend meant more than what she first anticipated.

Percy is my friend, she decided, and I will not be scared of that.