WORLDS BEYOND ( pjo )

𝐱𝐯. bad idea

Pissing off Annabeth as soon as he basically came back from the dead while she had been grieving him for the past two weeks? In hindsight, not Percy's best idea.

After Percy told them about his idea, Annabeth had promptly stormed off, calling the idea cowardly and Percy the 'single most annoying person' she had ever met.

He stared at the doorway through which Annabeth had left. "So much for being the bravest friend she ever had."

"Hey," Kia said, nudging him by the shoulder, "if it makes you feel better, you're only, like, the second most annoying person I've ever met."

Looking at her smiling made him feel slightly better. As annoyed as he was, Percy knew that Kia would cut him some slack, if anything. To some extent, Percy also felt irritated because of the things he did to come here. He didn't need to leave Ogygia. He didn't need to come back and try to save the world. But he did, because he cared about everyone here. And when he brought back a possible solution for their problems on the quest, Annabeth was being all pissy about it—all because they needed some help.

"Annabeth's just..." Kia trailed off, and Percy knew she didn't really have an explanation. "I mean, she did think you were dead for two weeks. You have to admit, it must sting to see you back in tip-top shape on the day of your funeral."

"So you're agreeing with her?" Percy said, but there was no bite. He didn't know why he said that. He knew he didn't mean it.

The truth was, he did see why Annabeth was acting like this—but he also knew everything he had done so far wasn't easy either. It was just... complicated.

"No! You know what I mean, Perce."

He dropped his head into his hands and groaned softly. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."

Percy could feel Kia and Chiron have a silent conversation while he wasn't looking. Standing up, Kia brushed off her jeans. "I should go find her—see if she's cooled down any. You and Chiron should—you should talk. Bye, Perce."

Without looking, Percy put his hand up to wave back.

Kia found Annabeth in the Athena cabin, looking over all the notes she'd taken for the labyrinth again—probably looking for something she had maybe missed, if only to avoid the reality that they would need to use Percy's idea. Shuffling furiously through thousands of scrolls and journals, Annabeth barely glanced up at Kia when she came in—in fact, she pointedly ignored her and started going through everything even rougher.

With a sigh, Kia took a seat beside Annabeth on the floor. "Annie, I don't think you'll find anything."

"C'mon, Kia." Annabeth still wouldn't look at her. "What's all that trust you were talking about earlier? Have some faith in me."

"There's trust, and there's desperation. Annie, there's nothing you could have possibly missed after all this. I think... I think we're going to have to resort to what Percy said."

"So you think he's right?" At this point, Annabeth wasn't even looking for anything anymore. She was just handling the papers so she didn't have to look at Kia.

"I—that's not what I said. And we both know that his idea isn't the only thing we're talking about."

"Then what, Ki?" Her voice was thick now, and Kia thought her eyes might've been glassy. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Annabeth! Would you just look at me? Please?" Slowly, Annabeth looked up, and Kia had been right. She was about to cry. "I know what you're thinking, but Percy didn't abandon you. He didn't abandon any of us. It took him a while, yeah, but he came back, didn't he? You have to trust he will come back—he'll come back, each and every time, because he's Percy, and he has too much of a saviour complex not to. I might not know how it felt to grieve for him and have him back scot-free, but it couldn't have been easy for him, either. So why don't we just... I don't know, call it even? Put it behind us?"