Percy stands there staring at the door for a minute. Should he leave? Annabeth will likely see this as a direct intrusion, and Percy can't disagree that this might be an invasion of privacy.

He turns around to face the rest of the room but doesn't dare sit on the bed. That would be super invasive, wouldn't it?

Despite trying not to stare, Percy can't help but notice the trash bag in the corner of the room, no doubt containing Annabeth's ruined clothes from this morning. It's a little obvious; black goo seeps from a small hole. Should he clean that up? He wouldn't want Annabeth and Will to get charged for a ruined carpet, but that would involve touching her things. He won't do that.

A sketchbook sits on the nightstand. Percy smiles. He guesses it's full of new ideas for buildings and landscapes or whatever it is she's working on. That's his Wise Girl, bringing work with her to a vacation.

Is this a vacation? He's not so sure anymore. Something or someone is clearly out to ruin this wedding, he knows this for sure. And things keep getting more confusing by the hour. What were Nico and Will doing in here?

Screw it.

Curiosity gets the best of him. Percy takes the sketchbook and turns to a random page, hoping for just a glimpse of what's going on in her mind.

Well, if it isn't... a drawing of a mouse held in some sort of bird's talons. The drawing may be unfinished, but the fear on the mouse's face is haunting and so very real. The image jumps off the page, it's that vivid.

As this clearly isn't Annabeth's, Percy closes the sketchbook. He notices, however, the name etched into the front cover: "CHASE".

Well, now Percy just has to learn more. The first page is blank except for a million eraser marks and stray lines.

The next one has a cartoon tiger on it.

A few pages later, Percy sees the same tiger, except it's more realistic and sort of scary. She's good. She's really good at this.

Another drawing is a portrait of Will Solace. He's wearing a goofy grin and some scrubs.

Percy's stomach churns with feelings of regret. He knows, of course, about Annabeth's passion for designing buildings; everybody knows that. But how could he date her for so long and not know of a hobby like this? She's too good at drawing not to have put in so much time. It would certainly make him feel better to think that this is something new she started doing perhaps quite recently, or maybe even right after they broke up.

But that can't be so, can it? All those times she'd been scribbling away in a sketchbook, Percy had assumed it was buildings she'd been designing for Olympus or maybe just for fun.

"Whatcha working on?" he'd ask like it was a job she was completing.

If she vocalized an answer, it was always a grunt, or maybe the occasional "nothing much." He always just admired her ability to become completely immersed in her work.

Were there pictures of him? Maybe she'd been pouring her heart out onto a piece of paper and Percy hadn't even bothered to look.

Percy also hadn't bothered to listen for the water to turn off.

"What the hell are you doing with my shit?" Annabeth asks.

"I'm sorry! Will and Nico let me in and then left and I wasn't sure what to do 'cause I was waiting for you, and then I saw this sitting here and I wanted to see what kinds of buildings you were working on but then there weren't any buildings and I wanted to see and... well, you're really a great artist..." He trails off.

Annabeth takes the sketchbook, holding a towel over herself with her other hand. "What are you even doing here?" she asks.

Percy clasps his hands behind his back. "I needed to talk to you, and I guess I also wanted to make sure you're okay after this morning."

"I'm just fine." She disappears into the bathroom.

"Is now not a good time?" Percy asks, ready to retreat.

"It's never a good time," she says.

Percy can't see her face, but he's sure it's not a pleased one.

"I just wanted to talk through this prophecy. If someone's targeting the wedding, we should probably come up with a game plan, right?"

Annabeth laughs. "Ah, so you came to me for my genius plans, how smart. Funny thing: I'm not one for quests anymore. Have fun saving the wedding though!"

"Annabeth, this is serious!" Percy shouts to be heard over the hairdryer.

"Is it? It's a demigod wedding. I'm surprised it took this long for something to go haywire."

Percy rubs his temples. "Can I at least run my ideas by you?" he says, exasperated.

"I guess. Can you get the Aquiphor for my tattoo? It's on the nightstand. You know, where you found my sketchbook."

Percy deserves that one. He finds a small white jar with a blue lid. It's not marked very clearly, but there's nothing else on the nightstand, so this has to be it.

He tries not to look when he hands it to her through a crack in the bathroom door.

"Thanks," she says.

"Uh, you're welcome."

So the tattoo is new. Percy's a little proud to think he may have had something to do with her covering up the old one.

"Does it hurt?" he asks, trying to make conversation.

"Not really. It didn't even hurt all that much when I got it."

"It's kind of cool," Percy says.

"Yeah, it's pretty badass. The artist did a really good job. She was nice. I might go back for another one."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure what I would get. Maybe a sun or Medusa or something. Lots of people get Medusas though."

"Cool." Percy never really thought about tattoos. Technically he has one, but his Legion tattoo isn't quite the same as, say, a snake wrapped around Luke Castellan's dagger. He wants to ask what that's all about, but that might be a little personal given the circumstances. Annabeth and Luke had a relationship that Percy never really understood. Plus, he already overstepped a boundary when he opened that sketchbook.

"So," Percy starts. Talking to Annabeth is hard, but not talking to her would be even more uncomfortable. "What were Nico and Will doing here?"

"Nico was here?" Annabeth asks. "First I'm hearing of it. I'll have to ask Will later."

At last, she emerges from the bathroom. Her tattoo is shiny from the ointment, but that's not the first thing Percy notices for once.

Annabeth tugs her Camp Half-Blood t-shirt down to meet her hips. That's his Wise Girl, even if her face is red from bold piercings and her leg is newly inked.

Percy clenches his jaw to keep it from dropping when she pulls her hair into a messy ponytail.

"Not one word," she says.

Annabeth looks good. She looks really good.

Percy stares for a moment longer as Annabeth sits down on the bed. She opens her sketchbook to a new page.

"The prophecy's on the floor over there. Let me see it."

Under normal circumstances, Percy might object to touching something that had been in someone's bra, but he's learned not to question Annabeth.

She holds the napkin and begins to copy the prophecy into the sketchbook. "Okay, so why don't we break down the lines. That's how we did this stuff before, right?" Annabeth asks.

"I, uh, yeah..." Percy's not sure what's happening right now. What happened to the Annabeth that yelled at him in the bathroom this morning? Admittedly so, Percy is quite happy to be with this Annabeth, but he's on guard. Like Janus, there seem to be multiple versions of Annabeth Chase, and he's found that he can never be one-hundred percent sure which one he's getting. Percy wonders what brought her to this point. Is she okay? He could give her Cletus's email address, but he doesn't want to set her off by suggesting therapy.

He decides to forget about this morning, hard as it may be, and just enjoy the opportunity to be with Annabeth the way they used to be.

Well, not entirely like they used to be.

"You can sit down, you know," Annabeth says.

Percy sits down next to her. It's intimate, but not like they're going to make out or something. It's like when Percy was carelessly rifling through Annabeth's drawings; she's vulnerable. She must feel exposed like this. Percy can see just how much she's changed. The Camp Half-Blood t-shirt doesn't fit the same; it's riding up for gods' sake, but she's here. It's Annabeth. She's making a plan.

She just drew a penis on the prophecy napkin.

"Here." She returns the napkin to Percy. "Safe to guess you'll want your copy of this."

"Can't you text me a picture of yours? You know, with notes and stuff?" Percy asks.

"You have a phone?"

Percy decides not to open that can of worms. They have a prophecy to unravel.

"Okay," he starts. "I was guessing that maybe Hera's involved-"

"You told me that in the bathroom. I think this line 'Glowing in the dark' might refer to Will. You know he glows in the dark? Sometimes he cracks his knuckles like glowsticks at the club. It's really funny," she says.

"You go clubbing often?" Percy can't hide his surprise.

"Yeah, I guess so," Annabeth says. "It's kind of fun. You should try it for real sometime."

"Don't get your hopes up. That's really cool about Will though. Good for him, being in a prophecy and all," Percy says.

"When have you ever liked being in a prophecy?" Annabeth asks.

That's a fair point. "Sorry, I'm a little rusty."

"You think? Okay, so we only have a little bit of time to secure the venue before the rehearsal dinner tomorrow. I'm guessing it's just going to be people in the wedding party, but we can't risk anybody getting hurt."

"We? Oh, so you're all in now," Percy says, pleased to not be taking whatever this is on alone.

"Now that my best friend could be involved, hell yeah I am," Annabeth says. "What are you doing tonight?"

What are you doing tonight? The words echo in his head, sung by an angelic choir. Actually, they don't need to be sung. Annabeth's voice is beautiful on its own, even when she says crude things like 'fuck me in the ass.'

"Hey, dumbass. Are you coming to check out the venue with me tonight or not?" Annabeth demands.

"No! I mean, I can't. Frank's bachelor party is tonight. We're going to decorate the venue before the drinking and stuff starts, so I can check in on you when we drop by," Percy says.

"Oh, I wasn't inviting you. I was being nice." Annabeth has a weird way of being nice. "I should probably go on my own. I've fought more of these weird monster hybrids than you anyways. Besides, you'll be better at keeping people distracted."

Ouch. "I could help, you know! Kind of saved the world twice."

"Mmm, I don't really do the whole 'partners' thing anymore," Annabeth says. "Don't you have a party to get ready for?"

"Are you sure you don't want to talk through this more?" Percy asks. "We haven't even talked about the monsters are just trees line or whatever it was."

Annabeth stands up and opens the door. "Goodbye Percy. Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

The door hits him on the way out, and he's not so sure it's an accident.