Percy's POV

"Percy, are you sure you don't mind doing this?" Annabeth asked me as we walked to her family's new apartment in Manhattan.

"Of course not, Wise Girl. Do you think I lied the first ten times?"  I replied with a smirk.

"Okay, I'll stop asking," she promised.

Annabeth and I are supposed to be babysitting her half-brothers tonight while her dad and step-mom go out. Annabeth is freaking out and I'm not exactly sure why. How hard can it possibly be?

"So, what are we going to do tonight with your brothers?" I asked.

"Not sure. I figured we'd better let Bobby and Matthew pick or else they'll get bored and start misbehaving or something like that," she answered.

"Fair enough."

It didn't take very long to walk to the Chase household. The apartment that they moved into recently was pretty close to mine (which was awesome). Annabeth opened the door with me right behind her, and I'm glad she was in front. A remote control helicopter flew right over her head, unnaturally fast. I would have been taken out, being just that much taller.

"Well that's exciting," I commented. Annabeth just huffed.

A man walked into the room holding a controller. "Sorry about that, just testing out this new thing." He commanded the helicopter back to his hand and held it up to show us.

"Hi Dad," Annabeth said walking over to him. They shared a slight hug, pretty awkwardly. They might have made up, but I still don't think Annabeth fully trusted her father.

I stepped forward with an outstretched hand. "Hey Dr. Chase."

"Percy!"  he responded, shaking  my hand. I was going to say something else but was cut off by someone, two someones, jumping on my back.

"Hm, who could that be?" I grunted with mock confusion.

"It's us! No one told us you were coming!" either Bobby or Matthew shouted in my ear. Apparently Annabeth's brothers liked me. Well that's good.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I was bringing Percy with me," Annabeth chimed in.

"Well, since I am here," I started slyly, "I can do... this!" I shouted the last part and in one motion grabbed the two boys off of my back and hooked one under each arm. They both giggled as I carried them around the room.

"Alright, alright, you two are getting heavy," I said, setting them down. They both ran over to hug Annabeth and then took off into another room. I laughed and turned back around to face the other Chases. They were both smiling at me.

"What? Did I look ridiculous?" 

"No, not at all," Annabeth's dad told me, still smiling. Oh-kay then.

Annabeth's POV

After my dad and step-mom left, Percy and I sat on the couch together.

"Where did they go?" Percy asked me.

"Probably to their room, they kept talking about how they have something 'really cool to show Percy!'" I put the last part in air quotes. "They're most likely setting up."

"Your brothers like me okay then, I take it." He raised his eyebrows jokingly.

"Like you?"  I replied, laughing. "Definitely."

"Good," he mumbled, putting his arm around my shoulders. I leaned into his side, but not for very long, thanks to a little interruption.

"Ewwwwwww!" Bobby and Matthew groaned. 

Percy pulled his arm back but whispered only for me to hear, "That's 'ew'? Oh please, that's nothing." This earned a slap in the chest from me.

"Percy, Percy, Percy, come look in our room and see what we built!" Bobby exclaimed, shaking Percy's arm.

"Wait, carry us to our room!" added Matthew.

"Oh no, I already said you two are getting too heavy for me."

"Anyways, Percy doesn't want to tote you boys around all night," I put in.

"Would Percy tote you around all night? Or are you too heavy, too?" Bobby questioned mischievously. I rolled my eyes but played along anyways.

"Answer carefully, Seaweed Brain," I joked.

"Of course she's not too heavy." Percy smirked and then threw me over his shoulder before I even realized what was happening.

"Hey!" I yelled, laughing, and pounding on Percy's back. Bobby and Matthew were in fits of laughter and Percy was pretty smug. 

"See?" he laughed. "Now what were you going to show me?"

"This way, follow me," Matthew called over his shoulder, already walking away. Bobby was right on his tail and Percy trailed behind, still carrying me.

"You can put me down now, you know."

"Nah." He proceeded to carry me all the way to the boys' room and plopped me down on the bed. He flashed me a smirk and turned around. I stood up, pushing the hair out of my face, and gently shoved his arm.

"Ta-da!" Bobby and Matthew cried out in unison. They were standing beside a huge castle built out of Legos. It was really impressive.

"Whoa, this is really cool," Percy told them, walking around the castle. "This is, like, Annabeth worthy architecture."

"Yay!" Bobby shouted.

"That's what we were trying to do!" Matthew stuck his tongue out at me afterwards.

"Well, this is really awesome," I agreed. "I might just have to take a picture of this to use for Olympus."

"Really?" Bobby asked with wide eyes.

"Yep." The boys knew about the mythological world, it would have been too hard to keep from them. They were smart, they could handle it. They absolutely loved it when I told them about rebuilding Olympus after the Titan War.

"AWESOME!" they both screamed. 

"So, " Percy began, sitting on the bed, "what do you guys wanna do?"

"Ice cream," Bobby said with no hesitation.

"Ice cream? I don't think we have any ice cream..." I trailed off.

"We could go to the park," Percy offered. "Play on the playground, get ice cream."

"Yeah, Annabeth, Annabeth, can we go, please, please, please?" Bobby pleaded. I looked over at Percy, who was giving me the baby seal eyes.

"I'm not convinced I'm only babysitting two kids right now," I told Percy. He smiled. "But yeah, let's go to the park." Three voices yelled in excitement. I laughed softly. "Get your shoes on."

The park was almost deserted, which was pretty strange in New York on such a beautiful night, but I didn't think much of it. Bobby and Matthew walked in front of Percy and I. We were holding hands and watching the brothers bicker.

"See? This is fun, no reason to be worried," Percy softly said to me.

"You're right, you're right. I'm just always afraid something will go wrong and I'll screw everything up with my family, again," I almost whispered.

Percy stopped me and cupped my chin, forcing me to look at him. "They love you, you know that right?"

"I... know, I guess. But I still worry." 

He kissed the top of my head softly. "I know you do, Wise Girl."

"Ice cream!" Matthew called back at us. We both looked up and there actually was an ice cream cart.

"You stay with the boys," I told Percy. "I'll go get the ice cream."

"Let's go sit on that bench over there, guys," I heard him tell my brothers. I smiled. Percy is so good with them and they love him.

I ordered two chocolates for Bobby and Matthew, cookie dough for myself, and something that I have no idea what flavor it is but it's blue for Percy. That should satisfy the three of them.

"Chocolate, chocolate," I said while handing out the ice cream. "And... blue for Percy."

"Aw, you know me too well Wise Girl," Percy commented, giving me a quick kiss. Bobby and Matthew pretended to puke into their ice cream.

"Oh, stop," I scolded lightly, wiggly into a spot on the bench to sit. "When you two get girlfriends, I'm going to come and make fun."

"I'll join in," Percy made out threw a mouthful of ice cream. My brothers just rolled their eyes.

"What flavor is that anyway?" I asked Percy.

"No idea, but it's blue and pretty good. Wanna try it?"

"Uh, I think I'll pass."

"Your loss," he teased, shrugging.

It was really nice, sitting and eating ice cream and playing on the playground like normal people. Of course, that didn't last long.

Percy and I whipped around when we heard the roar of the monster. We each pushed one boy behind us and pulled out our weapons. Just when I was ready to attack, I realized something was wrong. I wasn't able to clearly see the monster. I've never had trouble seeing through the Mist before. I looked at Percy and he seemed to be having the same problem. He obviously didn't care, though, because he raised Riptide to strike. But before he could do anything, something came whizzing from a little ways to our left and smacked the monster. It made circles going the whole length of the creature's body, leaving a sort of binding wherever it had been in the air around the monster. When the tying -up job was done, the object flew away from us again. The wrap became tighter and the monster exploded.

"Was that... was that a boomerang?" Percy asked no one in particular.

"Seriously," a voice said to our left, "I thought you two would have figured out by now that it's a wand, not a bloody boomerang. Or at least you Annabeth."

"Sadie!" I cried out, running to give her a hug.

"As much as I like you guys," said another voice, deeper but similar to Sadie's, "I was hoping we would never have to meet again."

"What's up, Carter?" Percy walked over with Bobby and Matthew.

"Who are these people?" Bobby asked.

"Bobby, be polite. These are our friends," I explained.

"Oh. Hi. We're Annabeth's brothers."

"Hello," Carter and Sadie said together. Then they gave each other dirty looks.

"I thought, brother dear, that we agreed not to do that ever again," Sadie shot at Carter angrily.

"Well, I didn't do it on purpose!" Carter retorted.

"Um, so, I'm guessing that was one of your guys' Egyptian monsters then?" I guessed.

"Yup," Sadie answered, popping the p. 

"What's going on then with your world," Percy started. "Wait, no. No offense, but I do not want to know. I'm retired."

Carter raised an eyebrow. "Retired?"

"Unofficially, yes. Good luck. Hope you don't die. Glad it's not my problem," he said bluntly. I gave him a glare.

"Sorry, but it's true."

"No, I would totally feel the same way if you guys were chasing after a mythological being set on making our lives miserable," Sadie responded bitterly.

"Well, we better go. Nice seeing you guys, even though it's not a nice time," Carter said.

"Bye guys. Hope it goes okay," I told them with as much compassion as I could muster. We all waved and the Kane siblings took off at a run.

"We should really meet up with them sometime when the world is not in danger," Percy suggested.

"That would be fun," I agreed.

"But, I'm glad that's not us right now," he added.

"Definitely."

"That was weird," Matthew commented.

"Yeah, well, that's life I guess," I said, ruffling his hair. "Let's go home."

No one argued and soon we were back at the apartment. Percy helped me tuck the boys in. They both gave us hugs but I'm pretty sure they hugged Percy tighter. After we shut off the light, Percy and I walked back to the couch and flopped down.

"I do hope they're okay though," Percy mumbled to me after we got settled in.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, they seem to know what they're doing," I tried to reassure both of us.

"Yeah, you're probably right," he agreed sleepily. Then he yawned. "Night, Wise Girl."

"Night, Seaweed Brain." I fell asleep in his arms on the couch, and dreamed about the Kane siblings.