Wise Girl

“Icarus!” Cora exclaimed with a giggle. “My knight in shining armor!” Cora herself stumbled a bit before saying, “Maybe we shouldn’t have opened the second bottle of wine.”

“And we definitely should not already be halfway through it.”

“No, you’re fine, I’ve got it under control.”

“Can I still sit here and give you words of encouragement?”

“Yeah, but asking is nice, right?” Jason smiled and turned her channel to something about the latest scandal between Ares and Aphrodite. “So, how’ve you been, Annabeth? Besides everything that’s happened?”

“You still don’t have to. My house is your house.” She shrugged,grabbing a water out of the fridge before shutting the door. “I’ve been alright. Finally catching up on some sleep. How’s the search going?”

“Talk to that Mac kid. He’s a pretty cool son of Demeter.” Jason set his stuff on the counter of the kitchen. “Can I turn the TV on?”

“That’s where I was planning on going tomorrow. Tayla talks bout him nonstop, so I figured I might as well.” She nodded. “You know you never have to ask for anything here.”

“Beach clean up week is every week Annabeth.” 

“My mistake. Need any help?”

“Oh really?! Annabeth that’s so cool!” Jason beamed and looked over the … well, very uninteresting patch of dirt. “What flowers are you planting?”

“Whatever’s in season, I guess. I’ll go with whatever they tell me.”

Emerging from the water of the lake with a number of items of trash in one hand, Percy stuffed them into a bin and stormed away. An angry tinge in his eyes. “Fucking litter, isn’t a joke..” he muttered under his breath angrily.

“Is it time for the annual beach clean up already? I thought that was next week.”

Jason smirked. Oh Annabeth. He followed her up to the house and looked around. “It looks different from the last time I was here. I like it. What’d you change?”

“I’m starting a garden. I’ve always wanted to have one.” She pointed to the patch of dug up dirt. “I’m buying seeds tomorrow.”

“Don’t drop me- don’t drop me-”

“Well it’s kind of hard not to! I can barely keep myself up.” She whistled, Icarus coming in from the other room. “See, help has arrived.”

“Perfect. We have a lot to catch up on.”

“And it can all be done in the comfort of my beautiful architecture department-funded home.” She shook her head. “No, there’s plenty in the fridge at home.”

Jason grabbed his muffin and pet Annabeth’s dog. “Do you wanna take a walk? We should catch up.”

“I’ll do you one better, you can come by the house. It’s not that far from here.”

“I thought they may have hidden her there. It was a total waste of time. Some of the Greeks were even wary about letting me in, thinking I’d brought all the bad luck we’re having with me.”

“A crazed manic is not going to go to a place with a bunch of demigods, they’re smarter than that.” She shook her head. “They should have known better.”

“Well, Percy was right,” Jason said to the cashier behind the desk. “Reyna wasn’t at Camp Half-Blood,” he explained. “Can I just get a blueberry muffin, orange juice and a banana, please. Make that two muffins.” He looked over to the wall which had a poster of Reyna on it. “We’ll find you …”

“Jason I don’t think she would be there. I don’t even know why you would look there.” Annabeth leaned against the counter, Icarus at her heels because obviously everywhere is dog friendly. “You wouldn’t take a demigod leader to another demigod camp, she would be just as safe there.”

“I think he got pretty lucky with you too. You’re pretty awesome, Annabeth.” Tayla gave her sister in law a soft smile then went back to shifting through the fridge. “I don’t think I wanna know what you mean by that… Have you planned any dinner or anything though?”

“I like to think so.” Annabeth thought back to the bag stashed underneath her work bench, and she shook her head. “No you don’t. Well, I can’t really cook that well, so.”

“I would probably do that just to be safe. Can’t risk having a medical condition going unchecked.” He scratched his head, “I know, I know. I’m just not used to having a dog is all.”

“I’ll take care of that in a few minutes.” She ran her fingers gently trough his hair. “Well like it or not you’re stuck with him for the rest of his life. Icarus is very fond of you.”