Percy

"Fuck," Percy mutters under his breath, whipping open the door to the women's room. His eyes dart desperately around the room, seeking her out. Then he sees her. She's the only one in the room. Her back is turned to his and her hair—the curls he's reminisced spun around his index finger for weeks—are pulled back, the golden locks spilling down her back.

"Piper," he hears her groan and is forced to swallow back a strange urge to scream at the sound of her voice after so long. "I specifically asked you not to follow me."

Silence follows her words. He's unsure how to respond. He's imagined this moment, their first conversation, dozens of times but nothing seems to fit the atmosphere.

"Piper—" she begins again, and he watches as her head shake softly before settling into her arms. It's then he notices, with an air of what the fuck and is she okay, that she's spread in front of the toilet, her head perched just above the bowl.

"Annabeth," he murmurs. He thinks it might have been unintentional, maybe his subconscious was craving her reaction, he can't remember, can't find it in himself to care anyway because as soon as the first syllable leaves his lips, her head whips around.

"Percy," she breathes, her stormy eyes stuck on his figure, peering at him with such intensity he worries he'll disintegrate.

"Annabeth," he repeats, his voice stronger, slightly more confident. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she utters, her lips barely moving. She blinks severely—like she's trying to wish him away, to rid the space of his presence. "I'm fine," she reiterates, her tone taking a sharper edge the second time. She stands, albeit shakily, and purses her lips defiantly, the way he's so used to, the way he always loved.

"Are you sick?" he questions, concern laced in his breaths dancing between the words.

"No," she assured, discretely wiping at the corner of her mouth and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Are—" the thought strikes him like lightning, freezing him momentarily before setting him ablaze. "Are you pregn— "

"Can't be," she snaps, not allowing him to finish the thought. "We were always safe, used a - "

"But condoms break," he cuts in. "And they're only 87% effective when not used perfectly so maybe - "

"No," she shuts him down again and he's surprised to see a begrudging smile imprinted in the curve of her lips. "I'm on birth control. 99.98% effective."

"And that—"

"—means the chances are astronomical," she finishes his thought. "But .000026% to be exact, I calculated."

"Oh." He bites his cheek and glances up at her, swallowing thickly at the memories.

"How are you?" Annabeth asks him, her posture unusually rigid, even by her own standards.

"Fine," he replies automatically, having gotten in the habit over the past week or so. His friends didn't know exactly what had happened to him, but they knew heartbreak well enough to recognize the symptoms.

"Good," Annabeth responds. He sees her hand twitch at her side, curling into a tight fist, and wonders if it has been as hard for her as it has for him. He wants to ask. He wants to beg for her forgiveness. But then he remembers he has nothing to be sorry for. He clearly stated his feeling, and she did not reciprocate. That's not his fault. And she didn't seek him out afterward anyway.

Okay, so maybe she texted him an apology a few days later—but it was so insincere, so apathetic, so un-Annabeth, he was sure it had been dictated to her. So he ignored it, because... well—fuck that, and fuck her.

"Why were you throwing up if you're not sick?" he queries, his eyes shooting to the toilet which is no longer filled with clear water.

"Becuase," Annabeth bites out, catching the direction of his gaze and quickly rushing to flush the toilet, washing away any remnants of her sickness.

"Becuase why?"

"Just because," she insists, her fingers tapping rapidly against the toilet paper dispenser. She's nervous, he notes. Nervous Annabeth was always difficult, not too difficult, no, never, but difficult nonetheless.

Percy breaths in, bracing his patience.

"Just tell me," he pleads, his voice soft, negotiating.

"Why do you want to know?" she demands, her jaw clenching beneath her unusually pale skin.

"Becuase I care about you," Percy laughs. He isn't sure where the impulse originates, but his breath is escaping him in short sharp exhales as his lips curl around his words. "Even if—"

"Do you care about her?" she blurts out before snapping her mouth closed, seemingly surprised by her own outburst.

"About who?" he questions, confused.

"Rachel," she discloses tentatively, her eyes drifting to the floor as her throat trembles.

"Rachel?" he repeats, his brows drawing together as he watches her cringe at his word.

"Yes," she permits, shutting her eyes momentarily before opening them again and peering at him through her dark lashes, a dangerous glint in her eye, like she was on a precipice, teetering, just barely balancing between the possibilities.

"She's a friend—"

"She has your sweatshirt on, Percy." He watches her eyes fill with emotion, the sharp gray piercing him. "She's wearing it like I used to. She's touching you like I used to."

"She's just a friend," he assures her, wanting to put an end to any pain regardless of what he's suffered. "She was cold so I let her borrow my sweatshirt."

"You're friends," Annabeth nods, kicking at nothing with her feet. "Like you and I were friends?"

"We were never really friends, Annabeth," he tells her and is immediately ashamed at the flash of hurt that takes her features. It blinds him for a moment, that look of absolute anguish, of lung-crushing agony.

"Okay," she smiles, her eyes meeting his normally, her pain hiding in the darkness of her irises. "Have a good life, you deserve - "

"Wait," Percy interrupts as she begins to move towards the door. "That came out wrong I—"

"No," she shakes her head. "You're right—"

"No!" he insists forcefully, throwing his arm out to block her passage. "You don't understand."

"I don't understand what?" she sighs shakily, doubt dancing in the dark of her irises.

"I don't know what you want from me!" he screams finally, oblivious to the scene they're causing outside the doors.

"I don't want anything!" Annabeth flares. "You sought me out. You walked into this women's bathroom with the intention of—"

"Becuase you were sick," he explains, exasperation slipping into his words. "I wanted to make sure you were okay!"

"Leave me alone, Percy," Annabeth shakes her head, her loose curls floating over her forehead. She tries to move past him, but he is determined.

"No."

"Let me go, Percy."

No, he can't let her go. He wishes he could but apparently he cannot. He thinks about her all the time, whenever he picks up a book or drives past a coffee shop. When he falls asleep, her features manage to flash across the blank canvas of his mind, drilling her face into his psyche, rendering the change irreversibly.

"No."

"Percy! Stop torturing me!" Annabeth screams, and he watches her fall apart before his own two eyes. He watches as she reaches her breaking point and snaps.

It's elegant before. Her movements, still somewhat controlled. But after, with a simple twitch of her brow, she becomes chaos.

She gasps, beckoning air into her lungs as the tears slowly festering in her eyes begin to roll down her cheeks.

"It hurts to look at you, Percy!" she manages between desperate breaths. "It hurts to see you, to hear you, to think of you even. Don't you get it? Didn't you see? It made me physically sick to see you and Rachel together—"

Holy shit. This was happening. Like really really happening. Percy covertly pinched his arm, wondering if he was dreaming.

"—That's why I was in here. That's why I can't listen to you, why I can't even be in your presence. Not while knowing that you don't love me anymore—"

"But I do—" he tries to cut in but she's not listening, he can tell, he always could. He wonders if she's rehearsed this moment like he has. The words are too choppy, he decides, too sloppy and simple and non-convulsed to be a Chase essay.

"Don't look at me!" she commands, turning away from him.

"What?" he solicits. "Why can't—"

"Because," she continues. "You told me crying girls were your kryptonite, and I don't want my tears to impact your opinion of me. I'm not going to manipulate your feeling for me. That would be completely unethical—"

He is tempted to laugh at her ridiculous antics, reminded of the girl he used to love, still does.

"—I know that you don't love me anymore. And that's fine because I get it. I took too much time to figure out how I felt and I lost you and—"

He freezes as her words halt. He hears her breath catches in her throat and is compelled by some otherworldly power to remain silent.

"I love you," she says finally. His eyes widen the smallest degree, but the surprise rapidly dissipates from his expression and is replaced with a broad grin. She turns to see his reaction and for a second, a minute, an hour—he's really not sure—they're caught in the moment, silent, even the sound of her breathing has ceased.

He blinks. And he's barreling towards her, taking her in his arms and holding her he's wanted to for over a fortnight. It's all he needs, for now, just skin to skin contact. Just the pleasure of knowing she's his and he's her's.

"I love you too," Percy whispers into her hairline. "In case you were wondering."

She sighs, seemingly in relief, or perhaps in satisfaction. It doesn't matter.

She knows now. And so does he.

And that's all the matters.

And maybe it's the emotional turn the night has taken or perhaps its the feeling of his heart expanding like in that animated Grinch movie he had forced Annabeth to watch in the middle of the fucking spring, Percy, nowhere near Christmas, Percy. Or it could just be the fact that he can say her name freely, he can scream it from the rooftops. But he's suddenly extraordinarily exhausted.

"Damn it," Annabeth bits out, pushing Percy away from her as tears fill her eyes again. "Fuck, Percy."

He's momentarily filled with fear, the cold curling around his heart and stealing the flutter from his lungs. Has she changed her mind? Is she going to take it back? Maybe she never -

"What?" he questions, his lips parted, his breath trickling out in short hot puffs as he recovers from the rough shove.

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this!" she begins to cry, waving her arms in apparent anger. "It was supposed to be perfect. This moment was supposed to be perfect. This moment will forever be tainted by the smell of pizza and my puke and that horrible red curly hair on your shoulder."

What was she talking about? He is developing a bad case of whiplash from her rapidly changing mood.

"What are you talking about?" he voices.

"The I love you moment," she cries. "Stop looking at me! I'm manipulating you with my tears!" She sniffles and turns away from him before resuming her thought. "I wanted it to be perfect. But now we'll forever remember this as that time when I threw up because I saw you touch another girl and my possessive tendencies were revealed and - "

"Forever?" Percy grins but she can't see the expression, only hear the teasing lilt of his voice.

"I mean, I don't know. Until—until we—um—"

"Our relationship has never been perfect," Percy tells her, stepping into her line of sight and placing his hands on her shoulders so she can't look away. "It wasn't love at first sight. Not even like at first sight. In fact, I don't think I actually liked you until I saved you from that fake spider at the frat house."

"You didn't save me," Annabeth mutters without meaning to.

He smiles, leaning forward to capture her lips with hers in a chaste kiss. "I love you," he says as he pulls away and watches her eyes flutter open and her pupils dilate at the attention. "You and I aren't perfect. Our relationship isn't perfect. So why would we expect our big moments to be?"

"I just—" Annabeth begins to argue, feeling silly.

"Besides," he advances, his smile softening. "Perfection is overrated. If you were truly perfect, you'd be super boring."

A comfortable silence follows his words, wrapping them in new found adoration and warmth.

"Are you sure the crying didn't impact your decision?" Annabeth checks as she reaches up, wrapping her arms around his neck and drawing herself towards him the way a plant grows towards the sun.

"Yes," Percy chuckles gently with a shake of his head. "I was wrong, anyway. Crying isn't my kryptonite isn't my weakness," he presses another kiss to her lips. "You are," he mutters against the soft petals and is rewarded with a brilliant smile.

"It's summer," Annabeth states seemingly out of the blue. "What are we going to do?" she questions, gazing up at him with her big gray eyes.

"I don't know, don't care," he says decidedly, delicately tracing the familiar lines of her face with his fingertip. "As long as I'm with you, it won't matter."

OoOoO

(12:05 pm) we're waiting

(12:05 pm) r u coming or what

(12:07 pm) sorry

(12:07 pm) couldnt find my keys

(12:09 pm) ethan has officially started eating

(12:10 pm) were gonna eat ur food pretty soon

(12:12 pm) i have arrived

(12:12 pm) good

(12:13 pm) bc brandon is eyeing ur biscuit in a way i am just not comfortable with

(12:13 pm) pls walk faster or u will no longer be invited to boys brunch

(12:13 pm) sorry

(12:13 pm) running

OoOoO

"Don't go in there," Annabeth warns ominously as his fingers reach for the bottom drawer of her dresser.

"Why?" Percy asks, eyeing her with suspicion.

"Just because," Annabeth shrugs as she leaps forward, prancing awkwardly until she's standing between her boyfriend and the furniture.

"Just tell me why," Percy chuckles, shaking his head slightly at the anxious look in her eyes. "What could possibly be so bad that—"

"It's not bad per say," Annabeth illustrates. "Just something I'm not ready for you to see yet."

"Annabeth," Percy sighs softly, raising his hand to gently cup her cheek with the curve of his palm. "You can tell me anything."

"I know, but—" she groans in an exaggerated manner. "Fine."

He watches her with a funny look on his face as she digs into the drawer, covering its contents with her arms.

"Remember how you told me I should take some time to myself?" she queries, having seemingly located what she desired.

"Mhm," he mumbled, trying to see past her body. She appears to be holding a canvas.

"Well I enrolled in an art class outside of school and I painted this!" Annabeth shoves the piece into his arms, like an embarrassed toddler waiting for a reaction. "Do you like it?" she asks, her teeth gnawing nervously at her lower lip.

It's not amazing, not even good really. It's clearly a painting of the pond where he'd fed ducks with his mother, with her. But the trees are slightly deformed and the ducks look psychotic, not to mention the water is a strange overly saturated cerulean.

"I love it," he replies smiling. He steps forward and steals a swift kiss from her newly bruised lips.

"Ugh," she laughs. "Don't lie to me, Percy." She looks down at the painting. "It's horrible! It's ugly and—"

"You're right," Percy agrees and his expression of amusement only widens at her scowl. "It is ugly. But I still love it, not because it looks like that, but because you made it for me."

"Ugh," she groans again, slapping his chest lightly. "You're a hopeless sap."

"I know."

"I understand all the techniques perfectly," Annabeth explains, eyeing her painting critically. "I've extensive notes on color theory and read an entire book on watercolor, but when it comes to the actual painting I just can't seem to get it right."

"You don't have to be so unerringly accurate," Percy reassures her, setting the art on the floor. "Not for me." He nudges the painting away and uses his delicate hands to angle her face towards his. "This is enough. This is more than enough. It is perfect."

OoOoO

(5:03 pm) r u ever coming back

(5:03 pm) bc like im not complaining

(5:03 pm) ur a usual dick and everything

(5:03 pm) but piper doesnt understand my dr phil references and its getting to me

(5:10 pm) ill be back soon

(5:10 pm) just to pick up some clothes tho

(5:12 pm) oh

(5:12 pm) fine

(5:12 pm) guess ill just be here

(5:14 pm) r u good?

(5:14 pm) ur being weird

(5:16 pm) im fine

(5:16 pm) i just miss u bro

(5:16 pm) broseph

(5:21 pm) no

(5:21 pm) broseph is long dead

(5:21 pm) but i miss u too

(5:21 pm) lunch tomorrow?

OoOoO

"When did you know?" she asks one night, out of the blue as they lay, still intertwined in sweaty sheets.

"That I loved you?" he clarifies. "Or that I liked you?"

"Both."

"I suppose it was at Jason's party over spring breaks," he starts, thinking back to that warm California night that seemed so long ago. "I spilled that drink on you just to piss you off and—Jesus—your eyes just lit up at the slightest inclination of conflict."

"So that was when you—"

"Not quite." He smiles as she smiles into his neck. "You interested me, intrigued me."

"Ooo," she teases.

"Then that night, when the cops showed up I saw something," he continues, smiling at her outburst. "A crack in your mask, a glimmer of something softer underneath. So when I came home, I asked around. And it was strange because—becuase everyone knew you. But I didn't. Then, at the April Fools day party. You shattered, you broke in the face of a plastic spider.

"I was then, I think. Or maybe, when I took you outside—and you just stared at me, analyzed me in the cold winter air. I knew I was fucked—not as thoroughly and irreversibly as expected, but fucked nonetheless."

"And when you loved me?" she asks after a second of sizzling silence.

"A moment like this," he grins down at her, smiling easily now. "A night with my arms wrapped around you and your breaths tickling my neck."

Annabeth can't fight the stupid cheesy spread of her lips and smothers the gesture in his skin, making sure to breathe obnoxiously while she was at it.

"What about you?" he counters.

"It wasn't a moment as much as a series of strong emotions, the culmination of undying tension," she says after a long while, so long he'd wondered if she was asleep. "It started out as an annoying itch, an inkling of a crush, and it slowly became an undeniable force."

"I'm pleased to know I never left your mind, even in my absence," he husked, sleep beginning to overtake him.

Never.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

OoOoO

(6:03 pm) where r u?

(6:06 pm) On my way!

(6:07 pm) really?

(6:07 pm) yes

(6:07 pm) really

(6:14 pm) how far?

(6:18 pm) 5 minutes

(6:18 pm) its only a 10 min drive

(6:19 pm) i knew u were lying

(6:20 pm) not my fault

(6:21 pm) i wanted to bring the watermelon and annabeth tried to convince me not to

(6:21 pm) anyway it was a whole thing

(6:23 pm) uh

(6:23 pm) did u

(6:23 pm) or did u not

(6:23 pm) bring the magical watermelon

(6:25 pm) yes

(6:26 pm) OMG I HAVE TO TELL PIPER

(6:26 pm) She says tELL HIM THanK YOU A MILflON Tiesm

(6:30 pm) did u capitalize that weird on purpose?

(6:30 pm) MayBE

(6:31 pm) lol k

(6:31 pm) be there in 5

(6:37 pm) we're hither

(6:45 pm) dude

(6:45 pm) why tf is there blowup dinosaur in ur moms living room?

OoOoO

"So," Percy remarks, wrapping his arms around Annabeth's waist from the back. "What do you think?"

"It's okay," Annabeth permits, fighting a smile as his mouth traveled up the column of her neck.

"Are you sure?" he whispers against her neck, reveling in the soft giggles escaping her lips, slowly morphing into a faint whimper. He's grateful, for the private balcony their standing on and her reaction. She'd usually shake her head and glare at him for such an egregious show of affection. "Just okay?"

"It's been good." He nipped at her pulse point, eliciting a gasp.

"Great."

Another bite, at the shell of her ear this time.

"Amazing."

"I'm glad," Percy breaths, chuckling against her skin. "I told you it would be fun."

"I have fun with you regardless of the setting," she smiles into the warm air after a beat. And it takes his breath away. They've been together for over a month but he's still not used to the touching words, the poetic lyrics that trickle out of her lips and down his spine, coaxing a shiver from him every time.

He's silent. Unsure what to say. He doesn't say anything in the end, knows she won't mind anyway, because she's Annabeth, and he's Percy—and they're them.

"Jason burned his hand," Annabeth remembers. She turns her head slightly to catch his gaze and watches, entranced, as the fireworks glowing in the sky reflect off his endless irises. "You owe me ten bucks."

"There's no other way I could repay you?" he grins, a playful look flashing across his features.

"Nope," she says with a pop.

OoOoO

(12:02 am) where did u go?

(12:07 am) come back

(12:15 am) piper is being reckless

(12:15 am) is kind of freaking me out if im being honest

(12:15 am) she says he misses u guys

(12:22 am) we're getting pizza

(12:22 am) u want some?

OoOoO

"Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we'd met under different circumstances?" Percy questions, his glassy eyes flicking from the clear night sky to the blonde laying next to him. "Do you think it would have changed things?"

"You mean if you hadn't hit me with a beach ball and then made weird jokes?" Annabeth returns, cocking her brows as a good-hearted smile graced her lips.

"Yes," Percy agrees with a roll of his eyes. "And if you hadn't been a total bitch and not even attempted to laugh out of courtesy."

"Yes," Annabeth shakes her head. She takes a deep breath in, savoring the warm night air. "I suppose I do."

"Do wonder or do think it would have changed us?" Percy clarifies, laying his head back down with a flutter of his lashes.

"I do think it would have changed us," Annabeth replies honestly. "But I told regret it, the way we met."

"Why not?" Percy chuckles, his eyes lingering momentarily on the cluster of stars he knew covered the Andromeda galaxy.

"If you hadn't met me and Rachel on the beach," she begins thoughtfully. "You would have never spilled your beer on me at that horrible party or intervened when the cops showed up. If we hadn't known each other previously you would have never saved me from that ginormous spider on April Fools. And if you had never saved me from that spider, then we would have never kissed."

"You don't think we would have met otherwise?" he inquires, eyeing her through his peripherals. She's staring up at the sky, mimicking his position. She's so beautiful in the bare moonlight, a silly 4th of July tattoo on her cheekbone and her hair up in a frizzy bun from when they'd gone swimming earlier.

He loves her. So much it hurts, it hurt, back then.—but now it doesn't, not anymore—no, he just loves her, pure and simple.

He loves her and she loves him.

"I think if we hadn't met on that beach," Annabeth explains, pursing her lips together, like the words have to fight to get out. "We would have had little run-ins, small meaningless encounters that never amounted to anything. I would have thought of you as a spoiled frat boy and you would have remembered me as an irritable workaholic."

"Perhaps," Percy ponders. He reaches out with his hand, looping her fingers through his. "You think it was fate then?"

"Hm?" she hums softly, tilting her head to face him, her half-lidded gray eyes shining.

"Do you think it was fate that brought us together?" he questions, swallowing at the sight of her.

"No," she whispers, laughing quietly. "I don't believe in fate. I like to believe we have autonomy over our decisions, over our lives."

He grins, using his spare arm to drag her into his chest, pressing a kiss to her forehead as she presses her head into the curve of his neck.

"Maybe it was luck," she decides, her eyes drifting up to his.

"Good or bad?" Percy wonders out loud, his words tickling her hair.

"I've always had back luck," she confesses, her breath slowing, spreading warmth to his extremities despite the weather.

"Me too," he sighs, tightening his grip around her.

"Neither then," Annabeth decides, tracing intricate patterns on the skin of his arm. "Dumb luck."

"Must have been," he agrees, his fingers readying themselves at her sides. "To land me with you, weirdo," he says before tickling her into madness.

And then they just lay there, her loud howls and gasps for air melting into giggles, and the giggles bleeding into the the summer air, disappearing into the promise of warmer days, of colder nights, of sun and rain and snow and shine and who the fuck cares what, because it's a future. And it's a future with her.

Yes, it's over. Now, on to hotel escape. Hope everyone liked the ending, I thought it was fitting.

makes me kind of sad tho, my first finished story. Oh well, out with the old and in with the new.

(didn't edit. will in the future tho)

Lots of love to all those who supported this story by reviewing or following or favoriting. I appreciate every single one of you!

¡Ciao!