The beach was always a nice place to just sit, relax and think about things. Good things, bad things, happy things, not so happy things, but things just the same. A lot has happened in such a short time that any normal person would have overloaded by now. The dark haired, green eyed boy began reflecting on the past few years as he stared out at the ocean; Apollo's chariot was setting below the ebbing flow of water. It was crazy to think that just six years ago, Percy thought that the sun was a flaming ball of gas, millions of miles out into space. He knew better now. Up until that point when he was attacked by his crazy maths teacher, he thought he was just a normal kid. A troubled kid, mind, but still just a kid. Then his mother disappeared before his eyes and that was when his life turned into a roller-coaster. There were the ups when Percy made friends for once in his life. He found out he had a family he could depend on, and he went on all these great adventures with said friends and family. Then there were the downs like the fact that he could no longer live a normal life. He always had to be on the watch for the monsters. Then there were the deaths of his friends. Percy knew that not all of them were his fault but he couldn't help thinking that he could have done more. Beckendorf...Silena...Michael Yew...they all perished in the second Olympian War. Percy knew he was being stupid, bringing all of this back up but he couldn't help it. Ever since the end of the war everyone seemed to have found their calling. Sure, he was Hero of Olympus, but that was a one time thing. Now that there was peace, well, what was there for Percy to do? His friends had slowly been drifting away from him, yet he understands that they were getting on with their lives.

Grover was really busy these days now that he was Lord of the Wild. He made it his duty to spread the word that Pan had died so that those with false hopes would come to realise that nothing would ever come about unless they took action themselves. Nymphs and Satyrs have slowly been trying to clean up the mess that humans have created. Wood nymphs have be subtly accelerating the growth of tree saplings to improve the ecosystem in their areas while naiads have been doing their best to reduce the pollution in rivers and lakes. Grover had also sent out the satyrs all over the place to gather information on which areas needed the most work. Naturally, this kept Grover really busy and he barely had time to speak with Percy much these days. Grover had to break the empathy link due to...private matters on his part. The corners of Percy's mouth lifted slightly at the memory of that explanation. Juniper had been with Grover at the time and her face was flushed such a deep green that Percy immediately understood why Grover had to break it. Percy didn't fault Grover for being too busy, in fact he was happy for him. Grover used to be so timid that nobody would have guessed he would turn out into this. Or maybe Nobody did guess but no one paid attention to him. Either way, Percy understood why his best friend didn't have much time for him anymore.

Nico, on the other hand, spent most of his time down in the underworld despite now having a cabin within the camp. Ever since Percy made the Gods promise to claim all their children before the age of thirteen, a lot more campers have been showing up. Many of them were sons and daughters of minor gods, the majority of which would not have attracted many monsters to them. However, since everyone had to be claimed, they had to be taken to camp as well. This led to an influx of new cabins such as Hypnos, Iris, and Hades. However, Nico was loathe to stay in the Hades cabin for longer than a month. He had no intention of becoming a year rounder at camp and he was happy being able to roam around freely. Besides, Hades usually had a job for him to do. Percy never knew what those jobs were but the one time he had asked, Nico had given him a grin that chilled him to the bone so he learnt never to ask again. Nico still stayed the whole of summer though so Percy at least got to see his cousin then.

His other cousin, Thalia, was still the Lieutenant of Lady Artemis and so Percy didn't see much of her. The Hunters occasionally stopped by at Camp Half-blood every couple of months now that relations between the two groups have become better. Thanks to Thalia's influence, the hunters no longer hated boys quite as much as they used to, yet they were hostile to any that made the slightest of advances towards them but that was understandable. Besides, the idiot that thought they could 'woo' a hunter deserved an arrow in undesirable places. Or at least that's what Thalia said. Percy felt a bit of sympathy towards whoever was unfortunate enough to rile the hunters. Thalia and Percy remained good friends, however, and they knew that would last, even if they only saw each other occasionally.

Then there was Rachel. Rachel had gotten sick of her father trying to control every little aspect of her life. She was moderately happy at Clarion Ladies Academy and after a semester, she found that it wasn't nearly as bad as what she was expecting. Percy still found it ironic that the girl that had painted herself gold and pretended to be a statue was at a finishing school for society girls and pretty much anyone who knew Rachel agreed with him. However, after a semester, her dad wasn't happy with her as every few weeks, Rachel would go down to Camp Half-blood, with or without her father's permission. Rachel's dad never knew where she went but he had had enough of it. One day he told her that they were moving to Britain for a 'business opportunity' that had conveniently risen for their family. Rachel flat out refused. As Oracle of Delphi, she had a duty to to the camp, not to mention she had all her friends here. Unfortunately, he father knew nothing about that so she had no argument against his decision. Her father just told her to pack her bags and that they were leaving the next day as everything had already been sorted. Eventually she just stormed up to her room and threw anything that was worth something to her into a small suitcase. That same night, she snuck out and made her way to camp. She knew some people who wouldn't tell her dad where she was and had them giver her a lift, as well as give her father false trials as to where she went. Rachel now lived in the Big House as full time Oracle for the camp. She was the only one who still managed to see Percy on a day to day basis.

Finally there was Annabeth. Their relationship had started off great, as you would expect from two people who had been dancing around each other for five years. However it just wasn't meant to be. Percy wanted to blame Aphrodite because he knew that she had wanted to make Percy's love life difficult, but the rational part of his brain that spoke up occasionally said otherwise. Despite their obvious attraction to each other, the fact the Annabeth was head Architect for the rebuilding of Olympus put a major strain on their relationship. Percy was in his sophomore year at Goode High School so he wasn't really bothered that Annabeth was always busy since he had a lot of work to do. They got together as often as they could but those times grew few and far between to the point where the time they had was never enough. Annabeth had started to drift further and further away from him to the point where they knew it wasn't going to work out. It had been a mutual breakup so there were no hard feelings between the two; they were still best friends and there was nothing awkward between the two. After the breakup, Percy thought that he would be depressed. He was all set on knocking down Rachel's door at the Big House in the middle of the night to cry his heart out in the most manly way possible but it never happened. Percy didn't feel sad, he just felt empty. That added to the little contact between most of his closest friends left Percy feeling hollow. He put up a smile when he was interacting with the other campers, showing them a sword technique or another. He put the effort in in capture the flag so that no one would notice that something was missing in the Son of Poseidon but there were some days, like today, where Percy had to look at everything that's happened and just sort himself out.

It was just one of those days where you think back on your life and wonder, 'what if?'. What if he had stayed with Calypso on Ogygia? What if Percy had decided not to take a dip in the Styx? What if he never managed to convince his father to help with the battle against Typhon? What if he never gave the dagger to Lu-he stopped that train of thought. There were a lot of 'what ifs' and hypothetical mumbo jumbo in Percy's head about a certain blonde haired demigod. Luke had sacrificed himself to save Olympus and the Gods, despite the fact that he hated them for what happened to him in his life. He hated them for his disturbed mother, for his neglected childhood, for the overcrowding at the Hermes cabin. He hated them for a lot of things. What if May Castellan had never tried to become the Oracle, would any of this have happened? What Rachel said was right. Int he end, he had not been the true hero, but Luke. Te blonde, battle scarred boy had saved everyone from annihilation by the Titans, and yet no one thought twice about that. They all thought it was Percy's doing, and that doesn't sit well with him. Percy's mood darkened at the though. He had never really gotten to know Luke. He had only stayed at the Hermes cabin for a week, and although Luke was the only one who would spar with him, not many words were said. The only real conversation he had had with the older boy was that first night he had spent in cabin eleven and even then, the son of Hermes had been guarded. The only good thing he could say about the guy was that he was the first person to welcome him to Camp Half-blood. On that first day, he was the only one to show Percy and kindness, even if it was by stealing a couple of toiletries for him. Luke couldn't have been all bad. There was something about the older demigod that Percy found intriguing. Percy couldn't put a finger on it, and he'll never be able to find out now.

Percy fell asleep where he was sitting. It had been a long, hot, summers day which made everyone feel tired and lethargic. Percy had spent most of it in the lake, creating waves for the campers to have fun in. The use of his powers added to the curse of Achilles meant that Percy would be passed out for a while. The last things he noticed before his eyes shut against his will was the sound of the waves crashing and the smell of the ocean. He dreamed of Luke- him and Luke sparring for the first time and Percy managing to disarm him successfully. Luke giving him the winged shoes and feeling gratitude towards the older camper. Luke siccing the pit scorpion on him and feeling more than just betrayal. Luke aboard the Princess Andromeda before his eyes had turned golden. The memories carried on and on until the sound of wings and a light thud woke him up. Being a demigod, even the smallest of disturbances could wake him from the deepest of sleep. It was necessary if you didn't want to be killed. Percy felt someone shaking him and if he wasn't so tired then he would have probably jumped up by now with his sword out. However, the curse of Achilles took a massive tole on the body and the best Percy could do was give a small groan. As a wise man once said, 'with great power comes great need to take a nap'. The soft flutter of wings folding up and being tucked away into a pair of shoes was all Percy's groggy eyes could see. He had turned onto his side while he was sleeping be he could still see Artemis high in the sky which meant he had been asleep for a while now. His eyes stayed open for a few more seconds before it became too much and he drifted off into unconsciousness again. The person tried everything he could to was the demigod up but nothing worked. He had wanted to talk to Percy as soon as he got there but the sight of the boy staring out at the ocean and looking so...lost made him stop. He had watched for a while before deciding to leave the younger lad to it. He didn't expect to find him asleep on the beach several hours later but his gut told him to check it out just in case. Luckily he found him before the harpies did. He contemplated just dumping him in the ocean to wake him up but he felt that would be harsh so he picked the sleeping boy up into his arms and began to make his way to Poseidon's cabin. Percy instinctively wrapped his arms around his carrier's neck, making it easier for him to be supported. Luckily, everyone was fast asleep so no one would think that the man was kidnapping the hero of Olympus. Even the harpies weren't around. There wasn't much he could do and he couldn't leave Percy out at the beach all night. Slowly, he made his way to cabin three and thanks to his adept skills in thievery, managed to get the door open. Inside the cabin, there was only one bed that looked like it had been slept in recently so he gently lowered the black haired demigod into it and let go of the sleeping boy. However, Percy's arms were still locked around his neck.

He started panicking. He didn't want to wake the other boy but there was nothing he could do that would let him get out of this without doing so. There was nothing else for it, he laid down next to Percy and hoped that no one would walk in on them in the morning. Everyone would freak if the saw him with the demigod. At least this way, there was no way that he could run away from talking with Percy since the boys arms were wrapped tightly around him. He watched the boy sleep as he cautiously made himself comfortable in the small bunk bed, curling himself around the sleeping demigod. Thankfully, he was only wearing a T-shirt and sweats so it wasn't going to be an uncomfortable night.

The last thing Luke thought before he too drifted off to sleep was, 'Crap, Percy is gonna kill me when he wakes up tomorrow.'