Percy wished his hands would stop shaking. He was carrying two steaming mugs of hot chocolate with marshmallows and he had already left a sticky trail of spilled brown liquid behind him on his way to Annabeth's cabin.
"Stop it," he commanded the liquid as it rocked inside the cursed mugs, but no luck. Either hot chocolate was not listed under the items he could control with his water powers, or his nerves had started to betray him, making it impossible for him to concentrate.
Probably the latter, he thought.
Unable to knock on Annabeth's cabin door, he kicked gently with his foot. A muffled Come in came from the inside, and he pushed the door handle down with his elbow.
"Hey," he croaked, his throat unusually dry. "Fancy a nightcap?"
Fancy a nightcap? You sound like an idiot. Get it together Jackson! he thought.
Annabeth looked up from her book. She had been lying on her stomach, her feet propped up against the berth's makeshift headboard, an actual wooden board onto which Annabeth had pinned several maps, pictures of their time at Camp Half-Blood and letters from friends. She had changed out of her jeans and camp t-shirt, and was wearing a pair of extremely worn sweats and a New York Yankees jersey that must have been at least five sizes too big for her, but she was totally rocking the look. Her long golden hair spilled over her shoulders, and it surprised Percy how shiny it was – not a trace of soot, blood or monster dust left. She looked like a completely normal teenager doing her homework on her bed – and her ass looked great from where he stood.
He would be sleeping in his own cabin tonight. After all, with things gone back to relative normal, claiming he was too tired to fight off his girlfriend as she dragged him to her bed seemed like a rather thin excuse. Especially since they had slept for a day and a half. And done other things as well. Her ass did look great in that position.
He felt his face grow hot and realized Annabeth was staring at him as he checked her out. She smiled as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.
"A nightcap sounds great," she said, closing her book and sitting up, one leg dangling off the edge of the bed.
The few seconds it took Percy to walk up to her, hand her a mug and sit on the bed beside her went by excruciatingly slow, and he was sure he could hear his own breathing, like some sort of rabid dog.
"Some plan, huh?" she asked, her eyes never leaving his.
"Uh, yeah, right?" he replied automatically, and promptly added "What plan?" This made her laugh, he loved to hear Annabeth laugh.
"Ithaca? Jason turning into an old man? Honestly Seaweed Brain, I could have sworn you had been paying attention at the meeting," said Annabeth, blowing gently at her mug.
"Right, yeah. It's a lousy plan, I hate every bit of it – but it's the best we got," said Percy sounding much more like himself. He was glad she had initiated the conversation, now he could focus on complaining about the lack of Percy in this plan, unless you counted keeping an eye on the ocean, which really didn't require much of his attention.
"I was thinking," she said suddenly. "When we get to Ithaca next week, while I'm off with Piper and Jason, maybe you could have a dip in the ocean? See if you can contact your dad?"
Percy knitted his eyebrows.
"My dad? Why would I want to contact him? I mean not that I have anything against the guy – but it's been so long, and isn't he supposed to be incapacitated? Like, gone loopy not knowing who he is or whatever?" he asked. He hadn't thought about his dad in a while, not even to wonder about his well-being.
