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“Fuck,” Percy swore, eyeing the churning water of San Francisco Bay. “Fuck, I should’ve known better than to bring us here this close to the water, but we’ve had this reservation for months and I thought it would be fine--”
“Percy,” Annabeth cut him off, placing a hand over his where it was clenched on the table. “Relax. It will probably be fine. Let’s just see what he wants, and he will be on his way soon enough.” In spite of her calm words, Annabeth’s crimson lips pinched tightly; she was just as annoyed as he was at the interruption.
They were at a waterfront restaurant in San Francisco that Percy had picked out to celebrate their fifth anniversary. They had both chilled out since their month anniversary trip to Paris and now preferred to spend birthdays and anniversaries with their friends and family. However tonight they decided to do something special. Even just two years ago, the thought that Percy would live to see twenty-one, that their relationship would last five years, had been unfathomable. Even now that Percy had lived it, he still woke up sometimes expecting his life to have been a dream.
The cloudless night sky was illuminated by the bright moon, its radiance only challenged by the shining gray of Annabeth’s eyes. Her long curly hair was twisted into an elegant bun with feather-light golden tresses tracking her face and neck, and her midnight blue dress reflected the candlelight of the restaurant like the rippling waves reflected the moonlight.
If Triton thought that he would interrupt this date without consequence, then he had another thing coming.
Counter to their usual sparse and somewhat frosty interactions, a few months ago, after an encounter in the Pacific Ocean, Percy and Triton’s relationship finally thawed.
After living in New Rome for a few years, Percy had decided to take the Senate up on their yearly kiss-ass offer to reward him for his role in saving New Rome and in the war with Gaea. He had previously refused each time, reasoning that he was getting free college tuition and rent, but this year Annabeth had convinced him that this was nothing to New Rome, and that all legionnaires who served their tenure received this same thing. Still somewhat bitter about the beat-up dinghy from his quest to Alaska, Percy had requested that a brand new, state of the art ship be added to the Navy of New Rome (the only boat in the Navy), upon the condition that he could use it whenever he wanted.
With sturdy wood gleaming with a new coat of varnish and sails hewn from the slain hide of two drakons, the ship, newly dubbed the Spite of Neptune , outmatched the Queen Anne's Revenge , in every way. Sailing on the Pacific Ocean had become Percy’s new favorite way to unwind over the weekend and he took Annabeth out occasionally when she felt like it. While she never got the same enjoyment out of it that Percy did, her indulgent smile as she watched him run all over the deck explaining what each part did was as comforting to him as the sea-breeze caressing his face.
One cloudy weekend, Percy took the Spite of Neptune out by himself and was having fun steering the ship over rocky waves and through turbulent winds. However, he knew something was wrong when the merely overcast day shifted to a dark, looming cloud cover. The wind started howling and moderate waves turned gargantuan. The change was so abrupt that it had to be the doing of a god.
Intending to ride it out without confrontation, Percy steered his ship towards New Rome, taking in the sails and controlling the ship solely with his powers. He couldn’t help the curses that flew from his mouth though when a waterspout touched down right in front of him, too coincidental to be anything but deliberate.
“Hey!” Percy shouted, pulling the ship away from the twister through sheer force of will. “What gives?!”
Trails of water dissolved like shorn ribbons in the air and the waterspout parted from the inside out. In its place was a twenty-foot tall goddess, her glowing skin luminous against the shadowed ocean. His sister, Kymopoleia.
Her bright eyes met his and she smiled, less cold than when Percy had first met her but not comforting in the least.
“Brother,” Kymopoleia’s voice rang out like the crashing of waves on rocks. “You didn’t tell me you’d taken up sailing.”
“I thought you’d have noticed,” Percy responded, willing his face to keep dry from the spray of water, but the droplets were still irritating nonetheless.
“When would I have noticed,” Kym frowned petulantly. Somehow even her pout managed to look razor sharp. “You didn’t say anything about it at our last storm watching.”
“That storm watching was over four months ago, Kym,” Percy explained, used to the way his sister lost time after not having interacted with mortals for centuries.
“Oh really? How odd,” Kym replied as if she hadn’t done this every few months for the past four years. “Regardless, this is a momentous occasion, Perseus!” She threw her hands in the air joyously.
“And why is that?” Percy asked, suspicious of her motives. They may have started to get along, but she was too chaotic for her glee to be anything other than ominous.
“Because now we can race!”
“Race?”
“Race!” Kym’s smile sharpened. “I’ll start a storm and you try to outrun me.”
“I don’t think--” Percy started.
“Go!” Kym interrupted and reformed the waterspout to chase after him like a missile homing in on a target.
Cursing, Percy had no choice but to turn and flee. Forcing his way through waves the size of his apartment building, Percy raised his voice over the howling wind.
“I’m only going to the lighthouse down the coast!”
Percy hoped that Kym’s cackling was her agreement.
Thankfully, a few hours later the storm abated to a mere Category 1 hurricane and Percy collapsed exhausted onto the deck as he held the boat still just past the aforementioned lighthouse.
Kym appeared in a spray of water and perched delicately on the railing. “Good job little brother. Next time, I won’t go so easy on you.”
“Next time?” Percy groaned.
“Next time,” Kym affirmed. Almost imperceptibly, her smile turned brittle with uncertainty. “It was fun right?”
Sighing, Percy hauled himself up to meet Kym’s eyes and smiled “Yeah, it was pretty fun.”
“But!” Percy hastily interjected before she could disappear, “We can only do this once a month at most.”
“Aww, that’s so few,” Kym complained.
“I can’t do this every time we meet. I’ll get worn out. I’m still just a ‘puny, weak, land-dwelling mortal’ after all.”
Kym snorted, amused at the mimicry of her favorite way to insult him.
“But you can still show up even if we’re not racing,” Percy said. Weirdly enough, outside of Tyson, Kym was his closest sibling on his dad’s side and Percy was loath to jeopardize it.
“Hmm,” his sister affected a considering look, but Percy knew she would agree with him by the way the waves danced happily around the boat. “I suppose that’s acceptable. See you next time, Perseus!”
“It’s Percy!” His yell was lost in the storm, unheard as she disappeared. Still beyond tired from his race with Kym, Percy dove gracelessly into the water below. He’d take just a quick nap under the water to regain his energy before sailing back up the coast. Annabeth would be worried at how late he was, but Percy would make sure to IM her before he headed out.
He sank under the violent waves to lay in the calm weight at the bottom of sea, crushingly heavy yet a familiar comfort to Percy after all these years. Percy’s rest was interrupted only moments later by a large figure approaching via a deep ocean current. He opened his eyes and saw a glowing green face looming over him.
“Triton,” Percy said sitting up. “What’re you doing here?” What was this sibling reunion day?
Triton only frowned, looking at him with confusion instead of with his usual disapproval. “Kymopoleia was just here.”
“Yes?” What did that have to do with anything?
“She ambushed you with a storm and forced you to run away for her.” The flat tone in Triton’s voice raised Percy’s hackles.
“We were only racing,” Percy spat out defensively, even though the situation was pretty much exactly how Triton had described it.
“She created a whirlpool larger than a small town in front of you.” Triton’s frown deepened. “You nearly capsized and your ship was almost crushed.”
“She’ll only need some minor repairs and she’ll be good as new.” It was Percy’s turn to frown at Triton, more irritated by the second at this conversation. “If you’re so concerned about it, why did you just stalk us instead of showing up yourself?”
Triton’s tails swished in water like an aggravated cat.
“I was concerned,” Triton said, his sneer exposing sharp teeth. “That she was harassing you. But it appears that I was mistaken, and you actually enjoyed the wave of jellyfish she hurled onto your deck.”
No, Percy did not, in fact, enjoy that. But he’d be damned if he complained about Kym to Triton, not with what he had heard about her relationship with their family. He was about to go off on Triton when he noticed that the god appeared strangely nervous, even as he put up a front of irritation.
“You’re nervous,” Percy said, startling a flinch out of the god. “Why are you nervous?”
“I’m not nervous!” Triton protested.
“It’s not because of me,” Percy mused, disregarding Triton’s words. It had been hard to tell at first on Triton’s inhuman features, but now Percy was certain; his brother was anxious about something. If it wasn’t because of him…
“Is this about Kym?” Triton fluttered back, agitated at the accusation, and disrupted a nearby school of minnows.
“No! Why would this be about Kymopoleia?” Percy narrowed his eyes, now even more pissed than before though for a different reason.
“It is!” Percy yelled, pointing a finger at Triton. “All of you are hypocrites!”
“Excuse me?!” Now looking offended more than anything, Triton bared his teeth at Percy.
“You heard me!” Percy would not be deterred. “You all go around committing acts of wrath and destruction on a whim, but for some reason Kym is the one who is shunned for acting in her nature?”
Triton opened his mouth like he would interrupt, but Percy talked over him.
“She’s done nothing to warrant this treatment! Dad almost gets into a freaking apocalyptic war over of some dumb lightning bolt--”
“Dumb lightning bolt?!” Triton couldn’t possibly look more affronted than he did at that moment.
“What happened to ‘the sea cannot be restrained’,” Percy mocked, quoting the phrase with his fingers. “When Kym is restricted from doing her literal job!”
“I didn’t choose to do that! I cannot control Father!” Triton yelled back, the sea around them heating up to dangerous levels. “Not all of us can just bat our eyes at him and get our way.”
“I don’t do that!” Percy argued back. Why did everyone always say he had baby seal-eyes? Ridiculous.
“Sorry Father, let me just sit on your throne, a crime that you wouldn’t hesitate to smite anyone else for, and just ask you to let your palace be destroyed!” If they were above water, Triton would be spitting on Percy with the force of his shouting. “Oh, right away son, just for you.”
“I didn’t have a choice! I did the best I could!” Why did he think that Percy avoided Atlantis when he could? Percy didn’t enjoy feeling the accusing eyes of his dad’s citizens when they thought he wasn’t looking.
“That’s all we ever do! But it’s not enough!” Triton yelled.
“I know! But we still have to try!” Neither of them were talking about Kym anymore.
“I just--” Triton visibly deflated and looked away from Percy. “If you’re alright with Kymopoleia showing up then it doesn’t matter. Have fun being assaulted by a tornado of sharks.”
“It’s actually called a--” Percy stopped himself. “Never mind, that’s not important.”
Anger flushed out of his system, Percy looked curiously at Triton. “Why were you actually nervous about seeing Kym?”
Still turned away, Triton was silent long enough that Percy thought he would ignore his question again.
“You’re right,” Triton said, his quiet voice shaded with defeat. “Her nature is not her fault and she shouldn’t be treated the way she is.”
“Then why?” Percy asked, staring intently at Triton. This was the first time since they met five years ago that Triton was exposing his true feelings to Percy.
“She’s not easy to control, never eager to please. I’m always so busy managing the oceans for Father that it became easier to ignore her when she was pushed aside.” Triton looked ashamed at his admission and started twisting his hands in a surprisingly human gesture.
“The next thing I knew it had been over a thousand years since I last spoke to her. And after all that time how could I--” Triton’s voice caught in his throat.
“How could you show yourself to her after treating her like that?” Percy finished for him, voice lacking the accusation of only a few minutes ago.
Triton said nothing, words spent.
“Look man,” Percy said, realizing Triton was really worked up when he didn’t get irritated at being called ‘man’ like he usually did. “You really shouldn’t have ignored her like that, but nothing is going to change if you don’t do something about it. Next thing you know, another thousand years will have passed and you’ll be in the same position. Or worse.”
At Percy’s words, Triton looked back at him for the first time in minutes, sharp teeth biting at his lower lip. He’s just an anxious Type A under his stuck up exterior, Percy realized.
“She likely doesn’t want to even see me.”
“Maybe not at first,” Percy agreed, picturing the storm that Kym would draw up in response. “But I know she’s lonely, and that she misses her family. Why else do you think she’s hanging out with me?”
“I know she would appreciate it,” Percy continued softly. “But you have to go to her, not the other way around.”
“I--I’ll think about what you’ve said.” Triton responded and through the murky water Percy could see that Triton looked pensive and nervous rather than just nervous.
“Good.” Percy said.
“Good.” Triton said back.
They both stared at each other for a few long moments. Where does the conversion even go from here?
First to break the silence, Triton cleared his throat. “Right, I’ll be off then.”
“You do that.”
“Try not to embarrass yourself even more in the meantime. The inelegant flailing that you call swimming is the laughingstock of the whole sea.”
“It is not!” Percy changed his mind; Triton was an anxious and obnoxious Type A. “I had a bunch of crabs compliment my form the other day!”
“Please,” Triton sniffed. “They’re hardly any better, the crawling bottom feeders that they are.”
“I--”
“If you want a real opinion,” Triton talked over Percy’s offended sputtering. “You need to ask a creature with a tail. Maybe one with tentacles if you are desperate, but not more than five.”
“I didn’t ask you!” Percy shouted, bubbles spilling out from his mouth with the force of his outrage.
Triton lost the haughty look on his face and smiled. It was the most genuine, fond smile Percy had received from him.
“Thank you, Perseus.”
“No problem,” Percy said weakly. His brother swam away, disappearing over a cliff and behind a dark veil of water.
“And it’s Percy, gods damn it!” None of these immortals could get it right.
Thoroughly done with his sibling bonding for the day, Percy swam back up to his ship, ready to return to New Rome and complain all about it to Annabeth.
Maybe Triton wasn’t that bad.
Over the next few weeks, Percy had to fight hard to keep his newfound positive opinion of Triton afloat.
A few days after his confrontation with Triton, Percy saw on the news that there was a huge out-of-season storm that cropped up near the arctic circle in the Atlantic and assumed that this was Kym’s reaction to Triton’s apology. His guess was confirmed when Triton showed up at a coffee shop in New Rome of all places.
The god was in human form, looking startlingly like a taller, longer haired version of Percy. He pulled up a seat at the table Percy and Annabeth were seated at.
“I did it,” Triton stated proudly with no added context.
“Hello, to you too Triton,” Percy said dryly and gestured at Annabeth. “This is Annabeth, my girlfriend. Welcome to our date.”
“Prince Triton.” Annabeth nodded magnanimously at Triton even though Percy could see her lips twitching.
“Right, yes. The daughter of Athena who redesigned Olympus.” Triton glanced over and acknowledged her. “Your mother bragged about your work quite a lot. However, I think you made Ares’ nose too flattering on his statue.”
Annabeth pursed her lips, either at the mention of her mother or the criticism of her work. Either way Percy hastily intervened.
“So, you did the thing.”
“The thing.” Triton looked at him like he was a simpleton. “If by thing you mean made up with our sister then yes I ‘did the thing’.”
Choosing to be the bigger person and ignoring Triton’s attitude, Percy continued skeptically. “You completely made up with Kym? I expected that to take longer.”
“Well,” Triton cleared his throat. “Completely made up might be a bit of an exaggeration, but she only destroyed a few small islands on my last visit with her.”
“Such progress,” Percy said flatly, actually meaning it despite his tone; this was an impressive amount of progress for only one week. Triton moved fast when he wanted to.
“Indeed.” Even knowing that he was being mocked, Triton restrained himself to a small curl of his mouth and moved on. “I--”
Whatever Triton was about to say was interrupted by a cafe worker placing their order on the table.
“What is that?” Triton demanded more than asked.
“What is what?”
“That.” Triton pointed at the muffin on the table, giving off steam like it was fresh from the oven.
“It’s a blueberry muffin.” Percy reached for it, but before he could grab it, Triton snatched it up. He held it between two hands right in front of his eyes like he was a scientist examining a new specimen.
“A blueberry muffin.” Triton rotated the muffin to look at it from all angles and put it right under his nose to sniff it.
Annabeth bit her lip, this time not looking like she was barely holding back an angry retort but instead as if she was holding back laughter.
“Does it have ambrosia in it?”
“No,” Percy said slowly, trying once again to grab the muffin, but Triton slapped his hand away.
“Then why does it smell so good?” Triton looked weirdly perplexed. Had he not seen human food before?
“I don’t know man,” A-ha, there was the glare that was missing from last time. “Because the baker is awesome here. I don’t know the recipe, but it definitely doesn’t have ambrosia in it.”
Triton hummed, giving the muffin one last spin before he bit into it. Ignoring Percy’s outraged yelp , Triton chewed the stolen bite slowly.
“This is good.” Triton said decisively.
“Yes, I know.” Percy grit his teeth. Give me my muffin damn it!
“You land-dwellers aren’t all incompetent then.” With that glowing compliment, Triton walked out of the cafe, eating his commandeered muffin as he went.
“He stole my muffin!” Just when he’d started liking Triton!
Percy heard muffled noises coming from across the table; Annabeth had covered her face with her hands and was snorting uncontrollably, shoulders shaking with the force of her laughter.
“Glad to see you find this funny.” Percy faced betrayal from all sides. His loving girlfriend finally stopped laughing, only to look at Percy’s face and be set off all over again.
After the next ten interrupted dates, however, Annabeth didn’t find it so funny anymore. Somehow, someway, Triton found a way to intrude on every single date Percy and Annabeth went on over the next few months. It’s not even like they did anything special or left New Rome; he just kept appearing out of nowhere!
It got to the point where the citizens of New Rome were convinced that Percy had been hiding a legacy of Neptune somewhere all this time.
The worst part about Romans , Percy thought bitterly. Is that their first thought is never that the gods are messing with us. If Clarisse were here, she would only need to take one look to realize Percy’s godly brother was messing with him.
After the first interrupted date, Triton invited himself to their library date next and doused the nearby shelves when he had left in a spray of salt water, framing Percy for defacing the books.
It didn’t stop there.
Triton, somehow, for some unknown reason, summoned a pod of dolphins to the lake where Percy and Annabeth were drifting leisurely in a rowboat. He popped into the back of Percy’s car when they were venturing out to Target and he simply had to come along and marvel at more land-dweller creations to see if they were as magnificent as the blueberry muffin.
And most mortifying of all, Triton once even showed up in their bedroom when Percy was tied to the bed completely naked. It showed just how pissed off Annabeth was that she didn’t even pretend to get off where she was straddling him at Triton’s appearance. To add insult to injury, Triton took one look at him, sniffed, and then proceeded to criticize their knotwork. Percy had to grab onto Annabeth with his thighs to stop her from assaulting his brother.
The list just went on and on. Percy wouldn’t have been able to remotely tolerate this if not for the fact that Triton showed up even when he wasn’t on dates with Annabeth. During those times, when Percy wasn’t automatically annoyed at being interrupted during his quality time with his girlfriend, Triton was actually pretty great.
Triton explained a ton of things about the sea that had left Percy perplexed for years, such as why all the starfish hated him (a grudge with his dad); why the eels hated him (a grudge with Triton that he reluctantly disclosed); and why Camp Fishblood wouldn’t let him visit (a grudge with Rhode of all the gods?!).
Sometimes, he even showed up to go sailing with Percy and if Kym’s monthly race was already used up, the three of them would just hang out on his ship. Percy soon learned that he could pit them against each other to get instruction about how to use his powers.
When Triton corrected him on the best way to form a whirlpool, it soothed the lonely kid inside him that lived alone in Cabin Three like nothing else had. Even with all the insults, Percy could tell they were half-hearted at best.
Percy’s sheer happiness at the sibling bonding time was the only reason he and Annabeth had so much patience towards Triton showing up on their dates unannounced.
But enough was enough. It could not continue. Not on their anniversary dinner.
The water bubbled up beside the deck near Percy and Annabeth’s table. The mortals around them didn’t bat an eye at the man emerging from the water completely dry. Once his grand entrance was complete, Triton stepped on the railing and jumped gracefully down onto the wooden deck. Reminiscent of the first date, he had intruded on, Triton stole a chair from a nearby table and sat down.
“Perseus. Annabeth.” Triton greeted both of them, the epitome of politeness except for the fact that he was third-wheeling their fifth anniversary dinner.
“Triton.” Percy said, grinding his teeth so hard that the word came out closer to a growl than his normal voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Do I need a reason to see my little brother?” Triton asked, not even pretending to be sincere as he picked at the bread basket and shoved a roll into his mouth. “You're right by the water. How could I not stop by?”
“Easily, I can imagine.” Percy glared daggers at him. Across the table, Annabeth speared her food so hard the table rattled; Percy was half-surprised that the plate didn’t break.
“The local sea lions have been causing such a racket, you know,” Triton said around a mouth full of sliced baguette. “As a proper son of the sea, I expect that you will deal with that situation.”
“And I will. Later. Any time but right now.” Percy was going to choke him with that piece of bread, all nice thoughts about his brother vanished in Percy’s ire.
“The full moon is really agitating them right now, Perseus. I suggest--” Triton was interrupted by a loud clang on the table.
“Cut the crap!” Annabeth yelled and the Mist chose now, of all times, to stop hiding them from the nearby mortals.
“Excuse me?” Triton looked like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, but Percy knew from experience that didn’t mean that he wasn’t hiding a roiling temper under the surface.
“You heard me!” Annabeth slammed the table again for emphasis. “You know exactly what you’re doing. This clueless underwater god routine doesn’t fool me!”
“Annabeth--”
“I’m incredibly grateful for how happy you’ve made, Percy over the past few months--”
“Annabeth--”
“But you can’t show up at over ten - ten! - dates without doing it on purpose.” Annabeth’s chest was heaving with the force of her anger. “And I’ve had it! We hardly ever do anything special like this and we’re celebrating five years of being together and Percy being alive. Just give us tonight for gods sake!”
“Annabeth!” Percy stood up, yelling over her to stop her tirade before it went any further. He reached over and her hand where it was frozen in mid-gesture. Percy squeezed her hand reassuringly before turning to Triton.
“She’s right.” Percy glared at him, daring him to do anything in response to what Annabeth had said. “This has gone on long enough. I didn’t want to say anything because I appreciate all the help you’ve given me, but really dude? My anniversary dinner?”
“Enough with the dude, Perseus.” Triton stopped trying to smite Annabeth with the force of his gaze and turned back to Percy.
“Enough with the Perseus, Triton,” Percy mocked.
They stood there in a heavy silence for several seconds, Annabeth and Percy standing while Triton remained seated. When Triton reached for another piece of bread, Percy saw red.
“You--!”
“You know,” Triton said nonchalantly. “I thought you would snap on the third date, but Kym bet you wouldn’t give in until after the twelfth.”
“What?” Percy gaped at his brother, unsure of what exactly he was saying.
“Turns out we were both wrong. You didn’t do anything until Annabeth already said something.” Here, Triton frowned at him. “You really need to be less passive, Perseus.”
“What.” The audacity of this god telling him that he needed to be less passive. Was it a crime to want to spend time with his brother? In reality, Percy had been secretly terrified of offending Triton and losing the positive brotherly relationship they had developed.
Face softening like Triton was reading Percy’s mind, his brother continued. “Once me and Kym started talking again, she explained that a good sibling relationship involves teasing, yes?”
Percy just stared at him, bewildered at the turn this conversation was taking.
“We decided to play a little prank on you and see how long it took for you to notice.” Triton smirked up at Percy. “But it appears I underestimated just how much you really liked me, huh? I am rather great, aren’t I?”
The jibe drew Percy out of his stupor. “In your dreams! I just thought you were some pitiful lonely god! I bet that all the sea animals hate you, not just the eels!”
“Whatever those eels told you are blatant lies!” Triton was finally broken out of his smug gloating.
“Kym told me otherwise!”
“Kym just wants to get back at me! You can’t listen to her about that!”
“Well, Delphin told me--”
Annabeth cleared her throat pointedly. Percy backtracked to the real matter at hand.
“Now that that’s all cleared up,” Percy took a long breadstick and threw it at Triton. It bounced off his face and into his lap. “Leave!”
“Whatever,” Triton sneered and stood up. “I’ll leave you to your date , just don’t forget to take care of the sea lion issue.”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“And Percy,” Triton said, looking serious for the first time in this conversation. “You don’t need to worry about me going anywhere, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Percy breathed out, feeling like a nagging worry had been lifted from his mind.
Finally alone again, Percy and Annabeth looked at each other for a few seconds and then the absurdity of the situation hit them.
“He--” Percy gasped, holding at his stomach. “He even took the bread basket with him!”
Annabeth’s hair had come loose from her bun at some point during the confrontation and Percy admired the way her golden curls bounced as she laughed.
“Excuse me.” A displeased voice cut through their amusement. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Percy looked up and saw that what looked to be a restaurant manager was standing at their table, arms crossed and tapping his foot as he looked at them with disapproval.
“You’re disturbing the other guests.”
A quick look around the room showed that the other guests were looking at them like they were at dinner and a movie but perhaps Percy and the manager had different definitions of the word “disturbing”.
“Fine,” Annabeth said, only letting out occasional giggles, face still flushed from her cackling. “But we’ll take our food to-go.”
“I’m afraid we won’t--’’
“We’ll be taking our food to-go.” Percy spoke up and gave the manager his best wolf stare. The manager paled and scrambled to get two to-go boxes.
Yep, still got it, Percy thought satisfied.
A few minutes later, Annabeth and Percy were walking along the streets of San Francisco, holding hands and swinging their arms back-and-forth.
“I’m sorry we got kicked out of our dinner,” Percy apologized. “I know you had been looking forward to it.”
“Don’t worry about it, Percy.” Annabeth beamed at him, looking just as beautiful as she did under the streetlights as she did under the candlelight of the restaurant. “We’ll make do. We always do.”
She squeezed his hand tightly before letting go to take off her heels.
“Besides, we have some sea lions to take care of.”