Hi. I'm back with another story for you. This is something that's been bugging me for a while and I finally decided that I should type it down and post it for the whole world to see. My plan was to make a Luke-centric oneshot, but I feel that I haven't clicked with Luke's personality yet. I want to make one because I want to explore outside of the overused PercyxAnnabeth themes but for now, tada! It's another Percabeth story.

Enjoy!

Note: This story happened after the Last Olympian, but no relationship trains. In plain English, Percy and Annabeth never got together. So yeah. That's pretty much it.

Special thanks to:

storyteller1425 - for the amazing beta. You know I'm running out of words to describe how awesome this author is. If you want to verify, please click on her profile and read her stories. You'll be amazed, I'm sure.

Story Music Pick - Fire by Augustana

The Quest For The Cestus Apple

Chapter 1: Annabeth Eats An Apple

It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters. ~Roger L'Estrange

Peering at the tranquility, the goddess chuckled.

Causing indecision, madness, and conflict was her specialty and a brilliant goddess in that.

Eris lightly swirled the water with her fingertips as she took a shining scarlet-colored apple. She gazed at it in awe. How wonderful the apple was. Small, seemingly harmless but devilishly beautiful and destructive in its own way. Irresistible. An apple. Always an apple for a simple trick.

Eris smiled at the reflection of the girl she was about to target now. Curly blond hair, running across the fields in tennis shoes, not expecting the little plan Eris had been waiting to unfold. And yes, in perfect condition. She would be a perfect test subject for her little scheme. Not diabolical enough, but bigger things do start in smaller things. Just one bite and it'd all be over…

"Dissonance is sweet," Eris dropped the apple on the fountain, watching it plop and fall almost eternally below, watching the curious girl pick it up critically.

Annabeth was doing her daily jog around the secluded woods of Camp Half-Blood, her shoes trotting and trashing with the green, green grass. She whistled under her breath and jogged even faster, trying to keep up and build endurance as she went on. Jogging made her feel like she accomplished something, made her feel worthwhile. Daedalus' laptop had gotten her preoccupied for two summers and in-between, and seeing herself as a gods forsaken couch potato, she decided that she needed to burn the extra flab and cholesterol. Sometimes, if she got lucky – or unlucky – she would run into a monster (she jogged outside the camp's boundaries from time to time). Unsheathing the celestial bronze dagger she constantly hid in her shirt sleeve, she'd gut the monster, the effort adding to the exercise. Real fun.

But today, nothing seemed to be out of place. The sun was almost setting and she began to think about how long she was out running around outside camp. Too late even for an adamant jogger like her. Turning around, she headed back to the camp dining pavilion, seeking the added comfort of her cabin bed. She had had enough today.

Everything suddenly went into a total blur when an apple fell right out of the sky. An apple falling right out of the sky. A classic.

Slowing down, she picked the thing up and did a quick check-up.

She glanced around the fields, wondering which tree the apple might have fallen off of. The nearest tree was a good ten feet away and it wasn't actually a fruit-bearing one. Unless the wind was unusually strong and hectic enough to the apple off a tree a mile from here, the apple seemed to have just… appear out of thin air and fall down from space. Annabeth looked at the apple skeptically, seeing a hazy reflection of her face glow from the apple's skin. If the gods were messing with her today, well… they picked the wrong gal to mess with.

But then, her stomach rumbled. She clasped her mid section abruptly. She hadn't taken any lunch today and she was getting really, really hungry right now. This is convenient, Annabeth thought. A flying apple happened to land on her feet just when she was about to pass out from hunger.

Too convenient actually.

The apple was teasing her. Are you going to take a bite or not?

She sighed. She was getting paranoid, and all it took was a visit from a hideously delicious-looking fruit during an ordinary day of exercise.

And yes, it is stated in the non-existent handbook for demigods about not eating any suspicious looking fruits that you pass by on your travels. But then, her stomach rumbled even more and she couldn't take it. Knowing she'd regret this later, she bit a huge chunk from the apple, its skin releasing a squirt of juices. Licking her upper lip, she almost heard herself sigh in satisfaction. The fruit was good. Really good. She took another bite until she loaded herself with the apple, leaving it with only a skinny core. She sighed again and to her surprise, she felt instantly full. The apple was amazing. Surely a fruit that tasted that good wasn't meant to do any harm.

She felt instantly giddy and restless, that she could jog another ten miles. She felt so hot and energized that she couldn't wait to get back to camp. A god, or at least her mother Athena might have sent her a strength-boosting apple or some nonsense. But a deep and burrowed voice from the back of her head spoke otherwise, saying that she was in deep crap trouble now.

Ignoring the nagging voice inside her head, Annabeth straightened herself, threw the once happy apple on the grass as she jogged back to camp, feeling ecstatic. The apple core rolled down the grass and slipped off the cliff, going down, down, down the lake water as it went.

Percy had been throwing his best acquired barbeque from the brazier and eating himself to fullness when Annabeth arrived. She looked happy, and that was really saying something. Ever since the Titan war ended, Annabeth became a real cranky camper, turning into the exact opposite of what Percy imagined she would be after the whole mess got resolved. They lost contact during the school year; she was too busy with the rebuilding efforts on Olympus, and he was too busy trying not to flunk his junior year at Goode High. Irritated, Annabeth told him she wasn't angry at him or at anybody else after all his nags about how she never answered his calls. Could've fooled him, with all the glares she sent everyone walking on her path.

Knowing Annabeth was back from her day-to-day jog, he instantly knew he caught her in a good mood and decided to talk to her about borrowing some of her stuff to do his assignments. Goode High was hell-bent on torturing their students to death. The teachers constantly gave them homework even during school break. Goode is good! We prepare to excel early. Percy snorted at the thought.

"Uh, hey Annabeth," Percy ran after her. His chest heaved up and down exhaustedly. He really needed to follow Annabeth's example and bust up his cardio. "Can I talk to you?"

Annabeth whirled around to face him. One look on her face, and Percy knew something was wrong.

Her face was flushed, cheeks rosy. On blushing mode. Percy expected that coming from a whole day of jogging. But it was a different kind of red color. The tint was way off, and it seemed to him that Annabeth was… glowing. She was smiling a smile Percy hadn't seen in a long time. And as he took another step closer, the glare of the full moon made Annabeth's pupils look dilated. Altogether, it seemed like she was just extracted from a wave of pure frenzy and he had a weird feeling it was directed to him.

"Percy!" she said his name exultantly. "Hi!"

"Uh yeah," Percy replied, finding Annabeth's newfound cheerfulness a little bit strange. "How's the jog?"

"Oh, it was wonderful! I had an absolutely wonderful time," she giggled an un-Annbeth giggle. "Thank you for asking."

"Are you feeling alright?"

She sighed at him in content. "I feel wonderful." She announced the last word, emphasizing it.

Unconvinced, he checked her temperature, putting his palm on her forehead. He pulled away instantly. "Man, Annabeth! You're burning hot! Are you sick or something?"

"I feel wonderful," she said.

"No, seriously. Is there something wrong?"

"I feel wonderful," she repeated.

Okay. Theory confirmed. Annabeth was freakishly sick. Percy contemplated for a while about taking her to Chiron and in a split second, Annabeth was about to fling her arms around him. Percy held out his hands to stop her as fast as he could. He did not need a whiff of his best friend coming from all-sweat mode; hot and insecurely sick.

"Uh, maybe you need a shower, Annabeth," he said. "You look exhausted… uh, sort of. When you're done, I'm taking you to Chiron. We need to get your fever down."

Annabeth beamed at him widely and said, "Aw. Aren't you a sweet guy. I knew I picked the right man." She pinched his cheeks and Percy stared at her wide-eyed. "You're too cute for your own good, Perseus Jackson." Without letting him answer, she brushed away from him, leaving him more confused than ever.

All Percy could do was stare open mouthed after her, his intentions of borrowing her school stuff forgotten as she sauntered her way down the pavilion and into her cabin. And he swore that he even saw her skip around like a school girl, whistling a few happy songs, gaining her a few weird glances from her fellow campers.

Something big was in the horizon, and Percy was not sure whether he liked it or not.

Percy Jackson wasn't sure if he was just cursed or destined to have a rotten day.

It all started when he had just finished taking a morning bath. As usual, his room was a clattered mess and he started maneuvering his way towards the end of his cabin, throwing away some empty, discarded bags of chips as he went. He searched his dressers for clothes and was fishing out his underwear when a loud bang and thump echoed across the cabin.

"OH MY GODS!" Percy wrapped his towel frantically across his still wet and bare body. He shyly hid his clothes behind his back as he glared at the intruder. "What in the name of Zeus' sanity are you doing in here?"

"I was just… checking on you," Annabeth smiled innocently, the blush still not gone from her face. The redness made Percy angrier.

"Checking on me? For god's sake Annabeth! It's like nine thirty! No one ever checks on me at nine thirty in the crabby morning! Not even you!"

"Well, maybe I decided to take it up a notch."

Percy glowered at Annabeth even more, while she just stood on the other side of the room, grinning cheekily.

"What?" Percy growled. "Are you leaving or not?"

Annabeth's grin grew even wider. "No, no. I'm staying right here."

Percy sighed morosely. He wasn't going to win a fight with Annabeth when she was all determined and annoying as hell, especially not now while he was standing stupidly in his own cabin, wearing nothing but an old, ragged towel to cover his humiliatingly barren body. "Fine. Just… close your eyes. No peeking."

"Aw, come on, Seaweed Brain! Can't I take a little peek?"

"Annabeth!"

"Alright, alright. Fine. Sheesh, someone's grumpy today," Annabeth pouted as she placed her hand on her eyes.

"You have no idea," Percy muttered as he bit an end of the towel and slid on his boxers subtly beneath his towel. He was being paranoid, yes. But Annabeth was being too, so no big deal.

"So," she said with a laugh in her voice. "You're a boxers kind of guy."

Percy hastily slid on his underwear with much force he could feel his own eyes watering. He glared at the 'seemingly-not-peeking' girl across the room. "I said no peeking!"

"I wasn't peeking!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

"What? You really want me to look?"

"I – argh! Forget it!" Percy yelled as he slid on his jeans in a flash. He breathed heavily as if he was running in a marathon, but with Annabeth in his room witnessing his everyday routine of getting dressed… well, it was close.

After a few seconds, Annabeth removed her hands on her eyes, seeing just in time as Percy slipped on his shirt frantically over his torso.

He tugged on his shirt hard. He straightened the crinkles on his shirt as he glared at her full-on. Percy was beyond furious now. "I told you not to peek!"

"Well, I didn't," she defended although she was smiling uncontrollably now. Her pupils became more dilated in the slight change of darkness. She eyed his wet, mussed, black hair lovingly and they stared down on each other.

"I just, opened my eyes and I saw you putting on the camp shirt and… well, your chest too, actually. But it doesn't matter, really. I, like, see your chest a bazillion times when you go swimming or if a monster tears up your shirt or something like that." She laughed at his horrified expression. "No big deal."

"This is a big deal!" Percy shrieked madly, the towel on his hand flailing. "You waltz into my cabin without knocking – at nine thirty in the damn morning, Annabeth! –, you totally invade my privacy, and you're peeking while I get dressed when I told you not to!"

"It's not my fault you're too sloppy in getting your clothes on."

"Just get out of here, Annabeth. Leave now," Percy said scathingly and pointed hard on the doorway.

She empathically rolled her eyes and made her way out before saying, "And Percy, I came in here to tell you that sword fighting class is on me. You'd better get ready."

She winked at him as she closed the door behind her, leaving Percy and his heart thumping even harder as the marathon in his head plunged to a climax.

When Annabeth laced her arm around Percy's, he dragged his very sorry ass along with Annabeth's to the Big House. One look at Annabeth and Chiron would know what to make out of Annabeth's predicament.

Knocking in the middle of the night really arouses the spirit in centaurs. Chiron opened the door, wearing foot warmers and looking really annoyed. Percy tried really hard not to laugh at the sight of Chiron's pink curlers tied up on his mane. Hey! The rumors about the infamous curlers were true.

"What is it, Percy?" he asked.

Percy gulped. "Sorry for waking you up in this ungodly hour, but I need help with something." He jerked his head pointedly at Annabeth, who was now leaning on to him. She buried her head in his shoulder and the smell of her favorite shampoo washed over Percy's face.

Chiron analyzed the scene for a minute and let Percy in with Annabeth in tow. They sat on the couch as Chiron went to the get lemonade. She clung on to him until he whispered over to her to let go, that she was cutting off the circulation of blood in his arm. She immediately let go, spurting a full blow of rants about how she cared about him and how dreadful it would be if she would cause him pain by disrupting his blood flow.

She smiled at him and Percy's heart did a little dance on his chest. This wasn't right. He took in deep breaths and rubs the bridge of his nose. He winced. He was battered and bruised from all that sword-hilt hitting with the girl beside him. The little spark in Percy flared and he got scared out of his wits when he saw the signs that Annabeth Chase was flirting with him. The hair tugging. The cheesy name-calling. All those piggy back rides he was forced to do when she wailed endlessly all day. He really couldn't take it anymore. The words "Annabeth" and "flirting" did not really fit in the same sentence, and it sounded foreign to Percy as he thought about this. He exhaled through his mouth, not wanting Annabeth's lemon scent to scatter his all-time minimum thinking ability.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Annabeth asked sleepily him and he cringed at the nickname. From the derogatory usual "Seaweed Brain" nickname to "sweeties" and "handsomes" made him flinch. Annabeth was sick and Percy wondered what kind of dreadful sickness made her act like this.

"Nothing," he answered. He wasn't about to lose his cool, especially in Annabeth's 'delicate' state.

Chiron walked – sorry, trotted – towards the wooden table, and then quickly glanced at the two sitting on the loveseat. He offered them glasses of lemonade and the demigods accepted. He looked over them sternly, seeing Percy's expression.

"Hmm…" Chiron mused. "What seems to be the problem?"

Percy looks over at Annabeth as she was sipping her glass, and she blushed merrily, though her cheeks were already red.

"Uh, Chiron, there's something wrong with Annabeth."

It took a few minutes for him to answer. He set down his glass and made a gurgling noise on the back of his throat. "I see."

"Is she sick?"

The mentor shook his head, amused as Annabeth's head landed on Percy's shoulder again. "Not in that sense."

Percy darted another worried glance at the girl slumbering on his side. "W-what's going on, Chiron? Is she going to be okay? She's been acting… pretty weird." Weird was the loosest definition.

Chiron threw him a look and went closer to examine Annabeth. The centaur propped himself to Annabeth's front as he jerked her eyelids open a little further. She giggled. The centaur then examined her hair, her arm and the red tint on her cheeks.

Chiron stood in full-height as he questioned. "Was there something she told you? What was she doing before you ah… found her like this?"

"She came back after a whole day of step aerobics," Percy replied. "She does that almost everyday and she doesn't come home like a love struck zombie until yesterday, so nothing unusual about that."

"Did she tell you anyone she met? Any occurrences? Anything at all?"

Percy shook his head slightly. And then, a thought just clicked in his head. "Well, there is something."

Chiron cocked an eyebrow, urging the younger boy to continue.

Percy racked his brain listlessly. "I gave her a couple of barbeques and peanut tarts the night before, but she said she was skipping dinner because she was full." He gently laid Annabeth's head on the armrest of the couch. He flexed his numb shoulder momentarily. "She said about eating a fruit or something when she was on her way back, said it somehow made up for camp dinner."

"A fruit?" Chiron leaned a little closer, getting intrigued, which was a surprise to Percy. "What kind of fruit?"

Percy scratched his head. "I don't know. An apple. Or was it a peach?"

"An apple," Chiron repeated in his breath, straightening himself and buckled a sigh. "Oh dear Zeus. This is something dire… What kind of apple was it? How did it look like?"

Percy looked at him disbelievingly. "How should I know? She already ate it! It's probably dissolved in her stomach right now!"

"Hush, child. Don't wake her up. Now, calm down. The apple. I want you to tell me if she actually said anything about the apple. About how it looked like."

"I'm not really sure. I'm guessing not. But she did tell me it was the best thing she's ever tasted, could've saved me some and… well, I don't exactly remember the rest." Sensing Chiron's distress, he added hastily, "And besides, I'm not really sure if it was an apple. It could be a peach, or an orange – "

"I'm afraid it was an apple, Percy. And not just any apple. It's the Apple of Cestus, named after Aphrodite's girdle, borne and lush in the fields of Lemnos."

Percy blinked. Reading Chiron's grim face, this was not good. Clearly not good. As soon as Percy heard the name 'Aphrodite', he knew he and Annabeth were off to something bad. He knew how that laughter-loving, ostentatious, bimbo-of-a-goddess worked her magic. Chiron pranced around nervously, muttering words in ancient Greek and Latin.

"So what's with the Apple of Catsu?"

"It's Cestus. The apple of Cestus," Chiron stopped pacing. His eyes darted from Annabeth's lying form to Percy. "It is an ancient apple conjured in the holy earth of Lemnos; the fruit is as ancient as the island itself. Aphrodite created the apple as a gift, and a curse, to the maidens that lived there."

"And what does the apple do?"

Chiron's eyes locked with his. "I assume you already know."

Percy slapped his leg nervously. "So… if we're dealing with Aphrodite here, I'm guessing it has something to do with… love?"

Chiron nodded. "Romantic love."

Percy shifted his hands uneasily. "But what does it do exactly? You eat the apple and you fall in love?" Percy was praying with all his heart for Chiron to say it wasn't so. Because the thought of Annabeth, the Annabeth he knew since he was twelve, falling in love with anyone, particularly him, because of some ridiculous Aphrodite-conjured spell was really freaking him out big time. Not to mention how it struck another low string on their already strained relationship. They were best of friends, but they couldn't possibly stray anywhere else from that definition, could they?

"Yes. One bite of the Cestus apple and you will… fall in love immediately with the first person you lay your eyes on," Chiron managed to say it with nonchalance. After eons of weirdness and stuff, Percy figured he could have gotten used to it.

"And I'm sure you're the first one she saw after eating that apple."

"So Annabeth likes me? As in like likes me?" Percy stared at Annabeth widely, as if the blonde girl, who was comfortably dreaming on the couch, would answer him.

But Chiron offered, "If that's how you'd put it, then yes. Annabeth 'like likes' you. Lots."

"Hell," Percy retreated his back to the couch and slapped his palm on his face. He couldn't imagine… He never expected… No, this was terribly wrong in so many terrible ways.

"That's impossible."

Chiron smiled ruefully. "You have been exposed to this – to monsters, to things that defy the satirical laws of the world – for more than six years if I am not mistaken. I thought that after all this time, you might have accepted the concept that the most impossible things can be made possible."

"You're wrong. Annabeth can't be…," he choked hard. "This isn't good. This is definitely not good! Why on earth is Aphrodite so hell-bent on making me miserable all the time? She needs to get her damned rocker straight!" Even with the camp's magical borders, the Big House shook as a roll of thunder banged overhead.

"Now, Percy. It would not help as a matter of toenails if you call the goddess of love… crazy."

"Well, she is!" Percy ignored another roar of thunder blasts. "We are talking about Annabeth here! She can't be like this!"

"The apple might have belonged to Aphrodite, but we are not sure who gave Annabeth the apple and how she could have possibly acquired it. We are not of place to pull out conclusions and make assumptions that are completely beyond us. This is out of our hands."

"But this is crazy! She's not supposed to be in love with me! She can't be!"

Chiron did not answer to that.

"What?"

"Maybe, child. Maybe. We can never be sure about Annabeth's… lingering feelings towards you, but yes. I quite agree with you. This is crazy."

"But Annabeth's my best friend."

"Yes."

"I don't love her in that way. And neither does she."

Chiron remained silent.

Percy glared momentarily at the breast plate on the other side of the wall. Aphrodite, or whoever immortal it was, was giving him the stink. The whole concept was ludicrous and irrational. He said it to Chiron, and the centaur frowned.

"It has been a rough day, Percy. You need rest," he gave a fleeting look at Annabeth, who was sighing deeply in her sleep. "Leave her here."

Percy slightly nodded and left. He returned to cabin three, pacing hyperactively in the room, let out a couple of colorful cuss words under his breath, and decided to call it a day by trying to get some sleep. He thrashed and turned. It took almost an hour and a half before he started drooling.

And every so often, he got his nightly dose of nightmares.

A/N: Things you should know before I end this note:

Lemnos - it is an island located on the northern part of the Aegean sea. In Greek mythology, specifically Homer's epic, Hephaestus landed in this island when Zeus threw him from Mt. Olympus. There is another myth that says previous inhabitants of the island where women who got deserted by their husbands for Thracian women, and in revenge they murdered every man on the island.

Cestus - the name of famous battle gloves used by fighters and girdles by women. Aphrodite's favorite girdle is named Cestus, so I named the apple after it.

The myth about the Cestus apple is just a figment of my imagination, and not really stated in the famous Greek epics. So if you want to find out about the myth about this apple, the best reference would be this story...

So did you like it? Was it good enough or really terrible? Thanks for reading.

Please review.