"Thanks," says Annabeth when Percy magically dries her off.

"No problem. Tattoo all good?" he asks.

She offers a weak smile. "Yeah, thanks."

This could be a good moment to ask her about why the dagger from Luke is on her thigh, but Percy decides to let well enough alone. That can be a conversation for another time. He's lucky he got this far with her today.

Percy puts his undershirt back on before they leave. "I didn't get to eat much at dinner. I know it's late, but do you wanna grab something with me?"

"Nah, I'm okay. I ate my sub and half of yours, remember?"

"Hmm. Sounds familiar." Percy doesn't even consider stepping into the elevator when he sees someone trying to keep the doors apart for them.

He waves the kind stranger off and follows Annabeth up the stairs.

Percy's not sure what he's doing right now; he'll probably change, tend to the potential stain in his shirt, grab a snack and then go out with the guys, which at this point, is more than likely to end with him taking care of an intoxicated Annabeth. It's happened every single night so far. Is it unreasonable to think it could happen again?

Still, he's not sure what his intentions are when he comes to a halt outside Annabeth's room.

"Well, I think I'm going to finish off the mango White Claw and turn in early," she says as if she didn't just cry in a suspiciously warm swimming pool.

Percy scratches the back of his neck and says, "Thanks."

"For what?" Annabeth asks.

"Just... for today. I..." I missed you? That's not quite it. This isn't the girl he left at Camp Half-Blood ten years ago. She's moved on. She's all grown up, and so is he.

And that's great.

"I like this new Annabeth," he says finally.

Annabeth offers a small smirk. "You barely know her." She cracks open the door and looks down the hall, checking to see if there's anyone else in sight. "Um-"

Percy never hears what he wants because the door adjacent to Annabeth's, which he thought led to a vacant room, opens up.

"Well isn't this just a heartfelt moment?" Thalia Grace saunters towards Annabeth and Percy. They're both taller than her now. Gods, when's the last time anybody's seen her?

"What? Am I interrupting something?" she asks when neither of them answers.

Annabeth starts. "Thalia! Hi!" They hug.

"Look at you guys, all grown up!"

"You haven't changed a bit," Percy says. It's true. She hasn't. She's still sporting her leather combat boots, leather jacket, and leather everything, really. She's even got a septum ring and some piercings through her eyebrow. Woah, she looks kind of like Annabeth.

Or rather, Annabeth looks more like Thalia now.

Thalia rolls her eyes. "No shit, I haven't. Gods, I love the ink, Annabeth!"

"Oh, this little thing?" Annabeth tilts her leg into better lighting. "Just felt like changing it up."

Thalia gives an approving nod.

"Okay," says Annabeth. "Well, this has been great, but I'm going to go to bed."

She disappears inside her room and slams the door.

"I think the others were going to grab drinks and play games down in the hotel bar," Percy says sheepishly.

Thalia crosses her arms and leads Percy down the hall. "You're gonna have to tell me what's up with that tattoo."

"Well, I mean, you know we broke up, so she just got it covered-"

"No, I mean the dagger."

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"So she just looks like a mini-me and nobody's checking in on her?" Oh, Thalia's upset. She would be, having practically raised Annabeth. Damn, she'll be pissed when she finds out about Annabeth's new piercings. Maybe Percy won't share that little detail.

Percy takes a calm and collected breath. "Look, we just had a little check-in, and-"

"And?" Thalia asks.

"And..." Percy doesn't know how much Thalia knows about Annabeth these days, so he keeps it vague. "It's probably not my place to say."

Thalia rolls her eyes. "You better not have been about to sleep with her."

"Good gods, what is it with everyone and having sex all the time? Am I missing out on something?" Percy asks, exasperated.

"Good."

Percy runs his fingers through his hair. Damn, he should've gotten his hair cut before this trip. "Since that's over with... when did you get in?" he asks.

"Just a couple of hours ago," Thalia says. "How was my baby brother's memorial?"

Percy shouldn't lie. "I think it went well."

"You missed Jason's memorial brunch?"

Percy winces. That sounds bad. "Okay, so not technically... Annabeth got attacked by gorgons in the bathroom, so-"

"So there's monsters getting through the allegedly impermeable barrier?"

Annabeth probably wouldn't want Percy to explain what's going on to anybody if she was here, but if she had to pick somebody who had to hear about this, it would be... well, Will, but then Thalia, right?

Percy shows her the pictures on his phone of the prophecy, the theories that Annabeth and he came up with, and the pictures of the arrow in the mine shaft (although he left out the part about Annabeth essentially being drugged). He explains that the monsters haven't been disappearing. It feels good to get this off his chest.

Thalia doesn't say anything at first. She opens her mouth once or twice but quickly closes it, not sure of what to say to this.

Finally, when she gathers her bearings, she says, "I can't believe the prophecy is a bunch of Taylor Swift lyrics. How sappy. But yeah, I can see how some of these lines tie in with the monsters not disappearing. And the wedding tomorrow has to be when something big is going to happen. Speaking of, I have to work on my speech."

"Your... speech?"

"Yeah, I couldn't make it to the memorial, but Frank and Hazel still want me to talk about Jason. I really tried to get out of it; I mean, that sounds awful, but it's their wedding. Jason already had a funeral," Thalia says.

"Oh, well, let me know if you need any help," says Percy. "I am a teacher, anyway."

"But you'll always be a Kelp Head."

***

Percy lays in bed, once again left to brood. You wouldn't think it, coming from a typically upbeat guy, but he tends to become immersed in less than joyful thoughts, especially when left to himself.

And right now he's thinking about his bro Jason.

It's really sweet of Frank and Hazel to honor Jason not only with a memorial but at their wedding ceremony as well. That was what he thought the day they asked him to be a groomsman.

And it's honorable of Leo to name his firstborn after Jason. They'd been so close despite the roots of their friendship being fabricated by Hera. Percy admires how their friendship was able to persevere despite the godly meddling.

But he can't stop thinking about what Thalia said, about how maybe this should be solely about Frank and Hazel's marriage. Maybe the Jason thing was better left for another occasion. They can't dwell on it every time they get together, can they? Like when Percy gets married, is he supposed to put a little figurine of a blond superman on the cake alongside him and Ann... his bride?

Jason would have been able to give some decent input on the prophecy. He was always good for looking at something with fresh eyes and offering a new perspective that Percy hadn't considered before.

Like when he was having trouble with a school assignment and couldn't ask Annabeth for help because she was sick, Jason was there. He showed Percy that the pages in his algebra textbook were stuck together with a gummy shark, and that's why he was having so much trouble with problem twelve.

Percy hoped Jason could pull a gummy shark out of his breakup with Annabeth, and somehow lead him towards a solution to a problem that didn't want to be solved. In the middle of the night, between sobbing and drafting apology notes to leave outside Cabin 6, he threw a drachma into a rainbow and tried to message Jason. His friend would always be there, even in the early hours of the morning.

Except he wasn't there. The rainbow just flashed a sparkly message that said it couldn't find the person he was trying to contact. 'Try again?'

And try again he did. He tried over and over again, desperate for some piece of a life he was watching fade away before his eyes.

Then, he got banned from using the Iris Messaging system for a week because of 'suspected spam calls.'

But yeah. A new perspective might be nice.