Then war council was awkward. I wasn't paying attention to what everyone was saying, and from the looks of it neither was Piper. I gazed at her the entire time. I just couldn't think about anything other than last night. Our bodies. Our movements. Our actions. The more I thought about it, the more I felt like it was my fault. I could've said no, but I didn't want to disappoint her. I didn't want her to feel like I didn't love her. Silently, I felt like a coward. I know one thing, if it was a monster I was fighting with, I could quickly calculate a great plan to defeat it. But this was something bigger. It wasn't a monster. I was Piper. It was my girlfriend.

After lunch, Piper and I walked alongside the beachshore, as we saw Percy, surfing in the distance. He was pretty good, for a person who had never actually tried it often. I turned to Piper, and pulled her close. Tilting her chin, I smiled. It was faint, almost illegible, but still there. "Pipes, you know I love you, but what happened last night. I think we should wait longer. I honestly just did it for you. Even half the things I did, I didn't know why or how I knew that."

Piper gazed at me, with her brown eyes. They held something different. I couldn't understand what, but they looked differenr, almost cold. "It's ok. After I went back to my cabin, I had a dream and talked with my mom." She muttered. "She told me, that it was a natural thing for children of Aphrodite to crave sex."

Nodding, I wondered. What did that mean, did it mean that if we did it again it would affect her once more? Taking a seat on the hill top, we watched the sunset and caught the early nighttime breeze.

Cuddling up on the hill top, we both watched the gentle waves beat against the shore. With on kiss, I caught a bolt of lightning to explode over head. This ended up being the best anniversery I've ever had.