It had been two months since Percy's sixteenth birthday—the disastrous birthday in which Percy fought the final battle against Kronos and had to make the decision that defined the future of Olympus. It wasn't easy, of course it wasn't, but there was one thing that stayed with him throughout the war: you. You two were friends, very close friends, which kept Percy's feelings for you from leaking out of his pores for a long time.

Everyone loved him, he was the hero of Olympus, the Son of Poseidon, the most skilled, the most adaptable, the one who comes up with the craziest plans in the middle of the battle against a thousand monsters. Or at least that's what everyone saw. You, on the other hand, knew the affectionate, funny, absent-minded boy that few saw. The real Percy. The Percy who secretly loved you.

'Should he tell you?'

'No, no, Perseus, don't do anything stupid.'

'Oh, but you looked so cute swinging next to the dock at Camp Half-Blood Lake.'

You turned around, and the sun painted your skin a golden color and passed through the strands of your hair, "Hey, what did you want to tell me?" you asked, oblivious to what was going through his head.

He looked like a little dog, staring at you, mesmerized. His head carried his thoughts from one place to another, but there was one thread that tied each thought together: your smile. It was like a pearl necklace that lit up your face every time your lips parted. And that was all it took for him to do what would definitely earn him the award for most idiotic ADHD kid in camp.

"Let's say that hypothetically... there's a boy. And this hypothetical boy likes a girl, a girl who..." he sighed, smiling, "is fantastic, and he doesn't really know how to approach her."