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Breakfast was a grand affair. Atleast, it was for The raven haired boy who practically devoured everything off of the dining table.
He wore a loose white shirt, as he usually did ever since she commented on his preference of purple.

Annabeth stifled a laugh as she ate her bread.

"Tensions have been rising. And King Poseidon has the gall to blame us! He lost his heir, apparently they can't find him anywhere in the seven seas," Minerva gasped, reading her latest news report.

Annabeth listened very attentively. Her auntie rarely discussed these things with her or Malcom.

This time, she noted how the boy seemed uneasy. And how her brother Malcom had dropped his butter knife in surprise.

What was with these two? Were they worried about the state of the kingdom?

"Have they checked the connecting rivers and streams? The ocean is an enormous place, he could he anywhere," Annabeth asked.

"Exactly," Malcom said, backing her up.

"I do not care where the boy is. He could be anywhere! I'm more concerned about the fact that Poseidon might declare war, lest he doesn't find the boy," Queen Minerva slammed her glass of water on the table, sending its contents splashing all over herself.

"Look at what you've done!" she screamed to no one in particular, getting up and dusting herself off. She gave her sister's children one last exasperated look before storming out of the room.

"I think she's becoming senile," Annabeth remarked to her brother, who was staring behind the queen.

"When was she not?" he asked her.

Annabeth chuckled and went back to her breakfast. She noticed the boy looking at her, and she found herself looking anywhere but at him.

"You know she's just trying to hang out to her last thread of power. The kingdom wants you as their ruler and she's been running out of power since you turned 19," Malcom said, excusing himself from the table. He gave the boy a discreet look which Annabeth couldn't comprehend.

The boy and Annabeth had a silent meal. And departed.

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Breakfast was hours ago. And Annabeth had taken her lunch privately in her room durning her day of 'princess lessons'

The day ending was a blessing. She had changed out of the hideous ball gown her aunt had given her, and into her comfortable riding clothes.

She walked through the corridors, trying to tie her hair into a bun.
She let herself focus on her thoughts, and her next...move. Everything was falling into place for her.

But this missing sea prince was definitely going to be a problem.

Annabeth saw the boy ahead of her, he leaned against the railing, staring at the ocean with a longing expression. Almost like he'd been having a conversation with it.

"Hello," she greeted him, waving.

He turned those magnificent eyes on her, giving her a one over.

"You're wearing your top inside out. And it's buttoned wrong," she noted, inching closer to the railing.

The boy looked down at his clothes, cocking an eyebrow.

Annabeth stifled a gasp when the boy shrugged his shirt off, trying to figure out how to flip it.

She averted her eyes, worried that they would betray her and linger on him. Longer than they should have.

"So do you like the ocean?"she asked him, her gaze focused on his shirt. He nodded, his hands unbuttoning his shirt at a very slow pace.

"Just....give it here," she said, snatching the clothes from his hands and doing the job herself.

She didn't understand how she felt so flustered

"You know, the ocean has always given me solace when I needed it. You...heard my aunt in the morning, about Poseidon's missing heir. She still thinks they are our enemies but I don't believe it to be so. I believe we can coexist peacefully," she babbled, finding herself talking to avoid looking at him.

Like she mentioned before, he had a good body. And she, after all, could only resist so much.

"Here," she said, finally meeting his eyes.

She looked up to find him looking at her, a wide grin on his face as he did so. The world was silent for that single heartbeat, only the waves of the ocean and the boys smile remained.

And, for that single heartbeat, Annabeth could have sworn on her mother that the boy glowed and behind him, the ocean rose to wave to her.

She blinked and it was gone. The shapes of the sea that illuminated his body and her ocean's high wave.

Annabeth's heart thundered in her chest, and it seemed that breathing came with a little more difficulty than it usually did.

Had she just had a hallucination?

The boy placed his hand on her shoulder, a comforting gesture. It brought her back from.... what was definitely a dream.

"Here," she said, shoving it into his shirt into his hands.

She was extremely tired and probably just imagined it, she reasoned to herself. There was no way that the boy could have....glowed.

She was saved from further conversation when the clock struck 6, the sound echoing through the palace corridors.

Yes!

"Come with me," Annabeth instructed the boy, grabbing his arm as they sprinted, or more specifically she sprinted, downstairs.

"We're going into town," she explained to him as they ducked behind the bushes of the palace back gate.

The guards changed three times a day. And 6:15pm happened to be one of those moments.

There normally was a two minute window when the guards shifted.

And that would be on exactly

3
2
1

The four guards stationed at the back entrance hit their spears to the ground, a similar sound echoing from the other side of the palace.

They began to walk in pairs of two, straight ahead, eyes still peered incase of any emergency.

When the last two guards departed, Annabeth grabbed the boy's hand.

"Let's go," she whispered, pulling him along with her. And soon, they were out the place.