Champion of Love

Should've Seen That One Coming

In a way, it was nice to have somebody to blame when
things went wrong. For instance, the gods who sent Percy on a quest because Zeus thought Percy, the boy who disowned Poseidon as his father years ago, had stolen the Master Bolt for the Sea God even when Percy's alibi checked out on accounts of Ares and Aphrodite. Though, that may have been where things went wrong–Aphrodite was Percy's mother and would no doubt cover for him even if he had stolen the bolt and Ares probably wanted the war currently brewing, so he probably didn't clear Percy.

Annabeth, Grover and Percy walked through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow with light pollution behind them and the smell of the Hudson assaulting their noses.

Grover was shivering and braying, his goat eyes turned sideways-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once!" He whimpered. Percy kept an arm around his best friend, making sure he didn't fall when he tripped while he muttered anxiously. He wasn't surprised, now that Zeus knew he existed and probably refused to listen to Percy's alibi of being with Aphrodite and most of his godly half-siblings because she'd wanted them to celebrate all together. It was an attempt to give Percy a family, but after that fiasco, Percy was fine with Just Aphrodite, Ares, and sometimes Cupid.

Annabeth kept pulling them along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."

"All our money was back there," Percy reminded her. "Our food and clothes– everything."

"Well, maybe if you'd realized that if the Furies found you, Zeus wouldn't be far behind, we would've–"

"What did you want me to do?! Let you get killed?! And I'm sorry, I'm a little preoccupied trying to figure out some sort of plan to complete our quest!" Percy snapped, interrupting her.

"Grover noticed something was off and you obviously felt the same, we should've ditched the bus!"

"I had it under control, it's not my fault I was a few seconds late on the uptake of what type of monsters they were! Yeah there were monsters, but I've grown up fighting monsters! If I'd known it was the Furies, I would've ditched!" Percy protested. The blame game was his least favorite game of all–mortals and demigods died thanks to the blame game way too often.

Annabeth snapped her mouth shut, not having a response to that.

Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans....a perfectly good bag of tin cans." Percy patted him on the shoulder comfortingly.

"It's okay, we'll find some more tin cans for you to snack on, buddy." He promised.

They sloshed across mushy ground in their soaked clothes and sneakers, shivers wracking their bodies and cold sinking into their bones. They tramped through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry in tense silence. After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into step next to Percy and Grover.

"Look, I...." She faltered. "I appreciate you coming up with a plan fast like that, okay? You took one out instantly and got rid of another one in just a few minutes. That was really brave." She said.

"We're a team, right?" Percy bumped her shoulder with his.

Annabeth was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that, if you'd died....aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."

The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind them, leaving them in almost total darkness. Percy couldn't see anything of Annabeth except for the glint of her hair.

A cold feeling prickled in Percy's chest and he looked away, grimacing. Annabeth's disregard for how much it would suck for him to die before he even turned twelve and only caring for her own gain was a sting to the very tentative friendship they had cultivated over the last few months. He ignored it and kept up the conversation. He could finish this quest and then go back to only liking Grover and keeping his distance from everyone else at Camp. Even his siblings were difficult to be with. He knew they liked treating him like a normal eleven year old, but he had trouble accepting their attention. He may look like a child, but his mentality was much older than that. He didn't like being babied. It was like being eighteen and being sat at the Kids Table at Thanksgiving(an experience Percy personally didn't have, but Mira did, because her mortal family was huge).