ᴄᴀᴠᴇ ᴄᴀɴᴇᴍ: ᴘᴀʀᴛ ɪɪ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴀʙᴇᴛʜ/ꜱᴏʟᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ

xɪɪɪ | ʙᴀʙʏ'ꜱ ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ ʜᴀɴɢᴏᴠᴇʀ, ᴇxᴄᴇᴘᴛ ʙᴀʙʏ ɪꜱ ᴀʟᴍᴏꜱᴛ ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ-ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ-ᴏʟᴅ

"Inside voice, please," Percy begs. Is she getting louder?

"I'm standing on two feet, and I am going to try to find a bathroom to clean up in, and then I am going to eat a massive breakfast and Google what I need to do to take care of myself after accidentally snorting cocaine."

"Huh." He regrets ever saying that Annabeth doesn't have her shit together. She just has very different shit together than what he has. He has a steady job and a sense of responsibility for all the things that make up a functional adult. She has street smarts, and Percy is certainly starting to see the appeal of those particular skills.

She's walking away. Somehow, she has gotten up on her feet and is about to turn the corner. "You're not going to leave me, are you?" he asks.

Annabeth looks behind her and raises an eyebrow. It's not as cute as she probably thinks it is; her nose is still bleeding and two dark circles are straining beneath the weight of her eyes. "Well, I'm not going to wallow in an alleyway."

"I wasn't-" He totally was about to wallow in an alley though. "Can you... Can you help me up?"

She walks back over and offers her sort of clean hand, which he gladly takes.

"Thanks," he says. Her hand is pretty gross-feeling in his, and he doesn't even want to begin thinking of all the germs he's coming into contact with, but at least it's not her bloody hand. Well, he's already come into contact with her blood on this trip, so maybe he should have gone for that hand. Then again, is Annabeth's nose blood really how he wants to start his day?

"What's the plan?" he asks.

It's at this moment that his stomach decides that now would be a great time to demonstrate a whale's mating call.

"Breakfast." Annabeth points a bloody finger gun. Percy can imagine she's choosing to ignore the sudden burst of blood coming from her nose. That's nasty.

"Uh, you have something..." Percy gestures to his nose.

She clears her throat. "We're going to find a bathroom to clean up in, and then we're going to eat so much breakfast. I'll buy."

"It's no problem," Percy says, "I can-"

"No objections, Seaweed Brain!" she says, dragging him out of the alleyway by the hand and out into the street.

He trips over a cobblestone but quickly regains his footing. "Can you stop shouting?"

***

Percy heard there are a lot of scams in Europe. People act like they're giving you things for free, and then—surprise—they're either trying to take your money, give you drugs, or more likely both. It's sort of the same when you're a demigod, except the nice lady who offers you shelter and food doesn't want your sensitive banking information. She'd rather just transform into a flesh-eating monster and eat you... And then, yeah, maybe pillage your supplies and take your money. It depends on the monster.

So Percy's demigod instincts are on one hundred percent of the time, no matter who he's encountering here in Prague. The guy who tried to give him a friendship bracelet could be a scammer or a monster, and based on what he's read on the internet, Percy can't decide which is worse.

Obviously, Percy's more than a little skeptical when he plugs his phone into a random charger at an internet cafe while Annabeth takes a turn in the family-style restroom.

This brings us to now. Percy and Annabeth take turns in the bathrooms and try to clean up as best they can. Most of the dirt is clean from Percy's hands; the grime on the rest of his body can be dealt with in the shower later. At least he has clean hands to eat with.