Rikki's smirk dropped into a wearied expression. "Oh, ha ha," she replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes before letting the grin tugging at the corners of her mouth take over. "You're hilarious, new guy." When Percy said he could do better than drag her in, Rikki arched one eyebrow at him. "If that's some kind of bravado, now is not the time; don't get my hopes up," she told him, wrinkling her nose slightly.
But then he bent down and lifted her up like she weighed nothing. Rikki stared at him, duly impressed, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and shifted herself so that her abs didn't strain from the disproportionate weight of the tail. She appreciated his haste, but the fact that he could move that quickly when even Rikki knew that stupid tail weighed a ton all on its own caught her off guard.
Percy set her down on one of the couches in the lobby and for a moment, even as he asked if she needed anything, Rikki just stared back at him. "What, do you have, like, super powers or something? What the hell was that?" she asked, awestruck. He wasn't exactly a huge guy, after all. "Sorry, uh...no, I got it," she said, looking around making sure that no one else was within sight line. Rikki looked back at Percy pointedly then, as she raised her hand over her tail. "You saw nothing," she said very seriously before closing her fist and beginning to steam dry herself.