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Percy is sitting across from Annabeth in a cafe, Riptide carefully tucked into his shirt pocket and arms thrown over his face. It’s a nice day out in New Rome, the two of them catching a break from their classes to grab a cup of coffee. Although, Annabeth is using their “break” to study for their upcoming finals. Percy’s given up on the whole thing, his own textbooks in his bag on the floor while Annabeth has hers sprawled out on the coffee table in front of them.
He was pretty sure that being with him was distracting Annabeth more than helping, though.
“Rip off the band-aid, Perce,” Annabeth says, not looking up from her laptop, and Percy groans.
“It’s not that easy, though,” Percy grumbles.
Annabeth shuts her laptop and Percy jumps. “Look. You guys have been dating for how long? Years? He’s not going to leave you because of who your dad is.”
“They might leave me because I’ll sound stupid when I say ‘Hey Carter, my dad is the god of the sea!’” Percy counters.
Annabeth rolls her eyes, and reopens their laptop.
“Anyway, it’s not like you’ve told your love interest everything about you, either,” Percy says, and Annabeth flushes.
“I have no love interest.”
Percy waggles his finger, “Your hours spent with Rachel when we visit camp say otherwise.”
Annabeth scoffs. “We just argue.”
“Mhm, right.”
Percy leans forward to tease her more but is cut off by a buzzing in his coat pocket. He pulls out his phone, smiling when he sees his partner’s name glowing up at him.
He clicks accept on the call. “Hello?”
“Hey,” Carter’s voice is soft on the other end, and happiness floods Percy’s chest. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much. Talking to Annabeth, so I’m almost falling asleep.” Percy ignores the tongue that Annabeth sticks out at him.
Carter’s laugh filters through the phone. “Are you free to come up to Brooklyn next week?”
Percy nods, though Carter can’t see him, of course. “Yeah, I’ll be there!”
“Okay, great,” Carter says, and Percy can hear their smile through the phone. “I’ll send you the address. I’ll see you then.”
Percy echoes the farewell and hangs up, smiling to himself. Annabeth gives him a look over their computer, and Percy sighs.
“What?”
“You two are so painfully in love, there’s literally no way that he’d be mad at you.”
Percy sticks his tongue out. “Shut up, go back to studying.”
Percy shivers as he and Nico step out of a shadow, Annabeth next to him.
“Where’s my payment?” Nico sticks an expectant hand out, and Annabeth sighs as she hands him a McDonald’s gift card. “ Thank you. Next time you need me to be your personal chauffeur, I’m asking for double pay.”
Percy waves a hand at the child of Hades. “Yeah, yeah, thank you, hope you like the gift card. Anyways, we gotta go.”
Percy gives Nico a quick wave before grabbing Annabeth’s hand and dragging her away, towards the Camp’s entrance. Nico waves back before dissolving into another shadow.
They had landed in the center of camp, since three people hopping out of a shadow anywhere else in New York would’ve probably freaked some people out. Although, considering that Percy sees a lot of weird crap in New York, maybe not… Regardless, Percy needs to get to Brooklyn by noon in order to meet Carter.
“Woah there, slow down,” Annabeth says, extricating her hand from Percy’s. “I have to visit Rachel.”
Percy looks her up and down. “And you tell me you don’t like her.”
Annabeth flushes. “I don’t! I just need to show her that I’ve gotten full marks on my tests! Better than her anyway, sitting in that Oracle cave all day long.”
Percy raises an eyebrow. “Okay. Sure. I’m still going to go, then.”
“Mhm, bye,” Annabeth says, but their focus is already elsewhere.
Percy sighs through his nose and shakes his head. “One day, they’ll realize.”
By coincidence, the place that Carter asked to meet them at was close to Rachel’s mansion/penthouse place. Percy only realizes as they pass the Dare estate and keep going, on to another mansion that he never noticed. Unconsciously, his hand drifts to the pocket where he keeps Riptide.
He approaches the mansion, wary of the fact that when he looks away, it flickers in his peripheral vision.
He knocks on the door and starts when it opens by itself.
“Hello?” he calls out, stepping inside. “Carter? Anyone home?”
And then: “Oh my gods.”
The closest thing to this house, Percy thinks, is probably Olympus. The inside is giant and opulent, the walls covered in artifacts and a giant statue in the middle of the room. Percy really hopes that Carter is in here somewhere, because otherwise he’s just broken and entered into a very expensive place.
Something rustles in the corner of his eye, and in a flash Percy has Riptide out, the bronze blade gleaming in his hand. It’s then that Percy notices the path of destruction leading up a set of stairs, the material scratched and artifacts strewn over them. He creeps forward, Riptide in hand, following the destroyed items up two flights of stairs, and down a hallway. Finally, he makes it to a room.
His eyes fasten on a figure in the room, propped against a bed and wheezing. They are covered in dust and blood. Percy’s own blood runs cold.
“Carter?”
The figure looks up weakly and oh gods, it is Carter. Despite the grime coating him, he manages a smile. “Percy. Hi. Glad you could make it.”
Percy forgets he’s holding Riptide and rushes towards Carter, whose eyes widen when he sees the blade.
“Oh shit.” Percy fumbles with the sword, finally managing to shrink it down to its pen form after a few moments of struggle. “Uh. That was always a pen. Not a sword. Wouldn’t it be weird if I carried a sword around, who would do that–”
“Percy,” Carter cuts them off, “if you haven’t noticed, I am also holding a weapon. And I’m covered in blood. I don’t think you should be worried.”
Percy looks Carter up and down and realizes he is holding a strange curved blade, one that Percy’s never seen before.
“Huh.” He looks back up, meeting Carter’s eyes and smiling sheepishly. “Guess we were both hiding things.”
Carter chuckles, then winces. Percy almost slaps himself for somehow forgetting that Carter was still hurt. “Oh gods, Carter, do you need– do you need an ambulance or something?”
Carter shakes their head. “No, I’m good. Just nicked my arm, and it’s already healing. Most of this isn’t mine, anyway.” He gestures to the blood coating him.
Percy nods slowly. “So… Greek or Roman?”
Carter frowns. “Neither. Egyptian magician.”
Percy stares. “What.”
“You’re not Egyptian?” Carter asks, and this is the first time Percy’s seen them confused.
“No, I’m a Greek demigod. Son of Poseidon.”
“Oh. Oh. Poseidon, like ocean Poseidon?” Carter lets out an impressed whistle. “Nice.”
Percy blushes, suddenly self-conscious. “You think so?”
Carter nods. “Not to brag, though, but I was kinda… a full-blown god. Still am, a little bit. Sort of. It’s weird.”
“A full-blown– Nevermind, I can ask questions later.” Carter laughs at that, which makes Percy laugh.
“We are definitely going to have to talk about this later,” Carter says, “preferably after I’m done healing. Hey, do you want to carry me to the Infirmary?”
“You guys have an Infirmary too?” Percy asks, already gathering Carter in his arms. “And if you wanted me to carry you, you could’ve just asked. Didn’t have to get injured.”
Carter scoffs good-naturedly. “It’s not like I asked the monster to show up in my house. But yes, next time I’ll just ask.”
He winks at Percy, and Percy takes advantage of the small distances between their faces to land a kiss on Carter’s cheek. They groan and drop their head on Percy’s shoulders.
“Just take me to the infirmary.”
“Got it, part-time god.”
“Oh boy. You're not going to let that go, are you?"
"Not a chance."
“So just to clarify,” Annabeth says, “you are an Egyptian magician that hosted the god Horus, saved the world, and also is the most powerful magician in the world.”
Carter nods. “Yes.”
“And you,” she turns to Percy, “have saved the world and are one of the most powerful Greek demigods in the world.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Annie, you also saved the world,” Percy says cheekily, and Annabeth scrunches their nose.
“The chances of this happening are… I don’t even know how to calculate them. But they are low , that’s the point, they are low. ”
Percy squeezes Carter’s hand. “Well, you were right about me not having to be worried about telling Carter, at least.”
Annabeth pinches her nose and sighs. “Yeah, at least that happened.”
“Do you want to visit the mansion? Percy tells me you like artifacts,” Carter offers.
Annabeth looks up and hesitates before saying, “Oh whatever, yes I’d love to come.”
Carter beams. “Great.”
“You won’t regret it!” Percy promises.
Annabeth sighs, “I already do.”