A/N: Hey, guys! This is my new multi-chap fic, and I'm thinking that we're going to have maybe 20 chapters or so. Expect me to update on Wednesdays every week. If I change the update day, then I'll let you know. Please don't harass me with requests to updates bc it's super annoying. Thanks.

I want to thank my amazing beta Shay for helping me so much with this fic. I would be garbage without you, sweetheart, and I owe you so much fr. She also made the amazing cover using some of viria's art. Head over to tumblr for more info. I post sneak peeks there too, so you might want to check that out someday.

Also, if you want to chat with me about this fic or anything else, my tumblr ask box is probably the best way. The link is on my profile!

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, anything from The Walking Dead, or anything else that you may recognize. The title is from Alone Together by Fall Out Boy.

-7222015-

Percy thinks that it's ridiculous that Annabeth carries a guitar with them. It makes too much noise sometimes, and the thing is going to get one of them killed one day.

Even though he jokes about it, he doesn't think it will actually happen.

Ω

Annabeth wakes him up with a kiss and presses her fingers to his lips when she pulls back to signal for silence. She's already got their gear packed up when Percy glances around. There are also a few walkers a few hundred yards away. They should pass by swiftly, but any small noise could make them realize there's food just inside an abandoned house.

(When they pass, Annabeth teases him that she was afraid his snoring would bring them into the house. He scowls at her and splashes her with some water from his canteen. She kisses him again after she finishes laughing.)

They've been together for a few weeks now, ever since everything went to shit. Percy had been just a normal guy in high school on his way to having a swimming scholarship for school when the outbreak happened. His mom had been gone to the grocery store, and Percy had been on the phone with her when the screams started. He hadn't ever seen her again.

After a few encounters with the walkers (and a few more near death experiences), he packs up a backpack with some clothes, his toothbrush, and some of his mom's stuff before hitting the road. It's hell for a few weeks, and he barely sleeps at all then. He passes by a few people here and there, but he finds out that riding solo is the safest option.

He's in a pharmacy when he meets her. Well, when she throws him against the wall and presses a knife to his throat, staring into his eyes and demanding to know how he knew she was here. He stumbles through his answer because damn, she's pretty, and it's been a long time since he's seen anyone and—

She must feel the same way because she presses her lips to his without another thought, curling into his arms when he wraps them around her. He's starved for human affection (damn, he's starved for human contact), and it feels really nice to have someone with him.

She could be a goddamn crazy person, but that's when Percy thinks that you have to be to survive in this new world.

Later, they're camping out in the break room of the pharmacy, eating some stale bread and crackers, talking quietly. Apparently, she was living in a group home with some other girls, and when everything started going dark, she jumped out of her window and never looked back.

Annabeth spends the night curled in his arms, and when he wakes up the next morning, she asks if they can stay together. There are tears in her eyes as she speaks, but there's a look that's there too that says she would be fine on her own.

Percy doesn't want to be alone anymore. He tells her that she's stuck with him, and she laughs in relief.

It's rare that she leaves his side after that. (Which is good because he never wants her to anyway.)

Ω

They meet a few people as they travel. They're not heading anywhere in particular, but Annabeth thinks that it would be best to get away from the big cities where there are a lot of walkers. She grabs a map and draws a line out to the middle of Montana and claims that's where they should head. She wants a place to hunker down and wait it out, to build a life.

Percy has everything that he needs when she's by his side. But it would be nice to be able to sleep at the same time, he guesses.

The people—they aren't great, but there's really nothing wrong with them either. Sometimes when they come across people with a camp, they stay for a night or two, but Annabeth always wakes him up in the middle of the night and tells him that it's time to go. They never stay long enough to make any other connections or relationships with people, but Percy doesn't feel like they need to. He's got everything that he needs as long as Annabeth is breathing.

But then—he starts to regret the fact that they're all alone.

It's been a rough couple of weeks. Since the weather has started getting colder, it seems like more walkers are moving around. It also seems like they move in bigger groups now, and Percy has seen them tear down houses and buildings just from the buildup. It's fucking scary, and he doesn't want to think about it.

They've been hiding out in a small cabin somewhere in the middle of the forest for a few days when a herd (that's what Annabeth has named them in a big group) passes through.

But they manage to escape. It's hard to fight off the walkers, and Annabeth breaks her ankle on their way. He's not really sure how they make it, but Percy just picks her up and runs.

She has to yell at him that it's finally safe to stop.

They find an old house in a small subdivision, and Percy clears out the two walkers that wander upstairs while Annabeth sits guard by the door. After he blocks the door and windows, he drags one of the mattresses from downstairs and puts it in the floor in the corner of the room. Annabeth is silent, and Percy is still clenching his jaw. Once he's finished making sure that the house is okay, he carries Annabeth over to the mattress and lays down facing away from her. He feels her hands on his shoulders a second later, and then she's hovering over him and kissing him and—

Percy can feel the tears leaking out of his eyes as she kisses him, but she's here and she's alive and they're together. They're still together.

When Percy wakes up the next morning, Annabeth is bandaging her ankle. She's finishing just as he sits up beside her.

"You should have left me," she says suddenly. "You could have been killed."

"I would rather be dead than be without you," Percy says harshly.

Annabeth flinches and fixes him with a glare. Her gray eyes are sharp, and she's clenching her jaw. "Don't say that."

"There's no fucking way I would ever leave you behind, Annabeth," he says. "So you might as well get used to it."

"Percy, if it means you dying, I want you to leave me behind. Do you understand? When this happens next time—"

"There's not going to be a next time." His voice is hard and final because he doesn't want to hear this. He isn't going to hear this.

She stares at him. "Percy. You know as well as I do that we can't last forever like this. It's only the two of us and we can't—"

"Stop talking, Annabeth."

"Percy—"

"Stop."

She's quiet until Percy starts talking again.

"Annabeth, I know that the world is a shitty place, and I know that we're barely surviving now, but I'm here with you," Percy says fiercely. "As long as I'm with you, I'm fine. I would rather be dead with you than alive without you, do you understand me?" He grabs her shoulder to pull her closer.

"You don't think I want that too, Percy? But do you know how much it hurts to think that you could have died last night because of me?" She turns away from him. "I love you too much for you to die because of me. When I say to leave me behind, you fucking leave me."

Percy doesn't know what to say because that's the first time that she's ever said that she loves him, and god, this feeling in his chest is so heavy but at the same time it's light and he never wants it to go away and—he just loves her so fucking much.

He pulls her into his arms and presses his lips to every part of her skin that he can reach, whispering, "I love you too, I love you too, oh god, I love you" over and over and over.

They hide out in the house for a few weeks until Annabeth's ankle is a little better. There are still a lot of walkers in the area though, so they don't stay long. Percy steals a car from a garage and raids all of the houses he can get to. Once the car is packed, he grabs Annabeth from the house, and they hit the road.

Annabeth is digging through the glove box and console while Percy drives. A few minutes later she asks, "What's your favorite band?"

It's been so long since he's thought of anything like that, and he smiles at her before he says, "Fall Out Boy."

She laughs, "Well aren't you in luck."

Percy is confused for a second, but then she's brushing dust off of the radio and slipping a CD into the player. His face splits into a grin when he hears the familiar notes.

Annabeth laughs again and takes his hand, threading her fingers with his.

Ω

"Percy, I'm so glad that I found you."

Her voice is breathy when she whispers it, and his hands freeze where they were unclasping her bra. Her shirt is already folded neatly at the foot of the mattress (Annabeth doesn't like to throw their clothes around when they don't know when they will find something else), and Percy is in the middle of trying to forget everything around him except for her when she starts talking.

He pulls back so he can kiss her on the lips and rest his forehead against hers. He whispers, "Me too, Annabeth. I love you so much."

She lets out a deep breath, and Percy ducks his head down to press his lips to her collarbone. Her necklace glints against her tan skin, and Percy reaches up to rub his thumb across the small, silver 'A.' Annabeth doesn't wear any other jewelry, but they had been in a house when Percy found it, and it just looked so much like Annabeth, he had grabbed it and handed it to her that night when they were getting ready to go to sleep. She hasn't taken it off since then.

Annabeth hums happily when his lips hit that sweet spot behind her ear, and she pushes her hands down his chest to his belt, undoing the clasp and pulling him closer.

Ω

Percy isn't sure why there were so many people in a damn convenient store when the world ended, and he doesn't know where all these walkers keep coming from.

He's holding his weight against one door to keep them out and using a knife to cut into the brains of the walkers that are coming through the second door. His gun is tucked into the waistband of his jeans, but it's so loud, it would probably just make it worse. Annabeth is digging through some drawers across the room, looking for some batteries and anything else that they could use. They're too short on supplies as it is, and it's going to be hell trying to get out of here.

"Are you almost done?" He shouts, slicing down one of the walkers and kicking it backwards.

"One more drawer!"

Percy grits his teeth and shoves his body back harder against the door, shoving more of the walkers off of it. It's barely another second before they swarm again, but Percy manages to grab the other door and pull it shut, closing them in the room.

"Annabeth!" Percy shouts, using his body to hold back the door.

She turns and grabs a thick, metal pipe before tossing it to him. He slides it into the door handles but keeps his body weight against the door.

"How does the backdoor look?" He chokes out, shoving his shoulders back harder.

She disappears from his sight for a second, and his heart jumps in his chest.

She's back another second later, and her blonde hair has fallen out of its ponytail. Her eyes are hard, and her mouth is set in a frown. She says, "All clear! Let's go!"

"Get to the car! I'm right behind you!" He yells.

Annabeth grabs the backpack she had brought in with them and runs for the door, and Percy gives her a second before following her. He's not sure if the pipe holds the doors, but he's not taking the time to turn around and check.

He dashes toward the door and nearly runs over Annabeth. She's bent over a desk, digging for something, and Percy grabs her by the hips and hauls her up. Her arms jerk, and she has something big in her hands that hits Percy in the shins as he shoves her forward.

Thankfully, they make it to the car without any other incidents, and Percy jams the car into drive.

He drives for a while before he finally looks over to Annabeth.

"You risked our lives for a guitar?"

She jerks her head up to glare at him. "We were fine. There weren't any walkers outside, and you were right behind me. It's not a big deal, Percy."

Percy is so mad that he doesn't say anything else to her until later that night.

They're camping out in the middle of the woods, and Percy is sipping from a bottle of water when Annabeth comes out of the tent. She's dragging the guitar behind her, and Percy looks up at her when she stops in front of him.

"Can I sit with you?" She asks quietly. Her curls are still hanging around her face, and Percy reminds himself to look for ponytail holders and rubber bands when they raid the next place.

He nods, and she claims the space next to him.

He knows that it's dumb to be mad at her, but he usually always gets like this when they have a close call with the walkers. He hates to think about losing Annabeth, and when it almost happens… He doesn't handle it well.

She fumbles with the guitar, pulling it up into her lap and tucking some of her hair behind her ear.

"Do you even know how to play that thing?" He asks. His voice is rough.

"You know how I told you that I lived in a group home before?" She says, looking up at him.

They don't talk about their past much, but Percy remembers everything that Annabeth has ever told him. And it would be hard to forget about her not having a family and stuff anyway.

He nods.

"Well, my first roommate had one, and she taught me how to play it. When she turned eighteen and left, she gave me the guitar to keep. I can play pretty much anything now," Annabeth says, twisting some of the knobs on the neck of the guitar.

"Can you play me something?" He asks.

She finally smiles up at him and scoots to sit in between his legs with her back to his chest. Percy brushes her hair away to press a kiss to her shoulder, and Annabeth starts strumming the guitar.

He smiles against her shoulder a few seconds later because he recognizes the song. "Fall Out Boy?" He asks.

"You said it's your favorite band," she breathes.

Percy slips his arms around her waist and holds her tight, staring off into the forest and waiting for reality to come crashing down around them again.

A/N: See you guys next week! Leave a review!

-SomethingMoreCreative