meh

Words w/out AN: 1300+

I am not Rick, so I own nothing.

rainy days take me away

Annabeth briskly walks from her apartment, clutching her purse to her chest like her life depends on it.

And, technically, it does.

But not really her life… more like her academic career, but that doesn't have as nice a ring to it.

Annabeth checks her watch, flicking her wrist up and making sure she's on time. She's on her way to the university to hand in a last-minute essay.

And although her professor is very lax when it comes to due dates, she'd rather hand it in early than risk any sort of mark deductions from handing it in late. Even if there probably wasn't any sort of punishment.

After a couple minutes of weaving through strangers on the sidewalk, trying to make it to her professor's office as fast as possible, she feels a cramp in her lower leg. Annabeth grits her teeth and vows to start jogging or something, in the future. She really needs to get in shape if a bit of power walking has her contemplating a rest.

She considers taking a break for a moment or two, but decides against it. It should only take her, at most, ten minutes to get to her professor's office.

Annabeth figures she can bear through the suffering. No pain, no gain, right?

She feels the tiniest of raindrops hit her head and suddenly she wishes she had the foresight to bring her umbrella. New York had been raining on and off for the past week. She should've known that it probably would've started raining again.

She quickens her pace as the rain falls more, clenching as her leg flares up again.

Unfortunately, the rain starts to fall in sheets. She watches everyone around her scramble to cover, holding their purses, or newspapers, above their heads as they continue on their way, making orderly lines underneath different awnings.

Annabeth just holds her purse to her chest, hunching over it. She forbids it from getting wet.

She slowly exhales, reasoning with herself that she can't possibly outrun the rainfall around her and ducks into an empty, closed-top, bus stop, wiping off the water from her purse and carefully opening it.

The paper she had previously placed was still pristine.

Annabeth sighs, taking a seat and using the opportunity to rest her leg.

The rain puts a damper (literally, and figuratively) on her plans. It probably wasn't the worst thing in the world if she's late to hand in her paper. And she has an actual excuse, this time, Annabeth muses as she watches the rain trickle down the windows of the bus stop.

The sound of the rain hitting the roof of the bus stop is slightly melodic and she listens like she's in a trance.

Her trance breaks as a boy in a black coat with black hair rushes into the bus stop.

"Man, it's a doozy out there." He says, leaning against the inside of the bus stop, obstructing her view of the trickling rain.

Annabeth focuses on him and his eyes are startlingly green, with crinkles around them from smiling. She quite likes his eyes.

"A doozy." She repeats, unimpressed.

"Well," He tilts his head for a moment and brushes the hair that's stuck to his face from the rain away. "Y'know… a doozy. My step-dad says it everytime it rains."

Annabeth cracks a smile but turns away. She doesn't particularly feel like giving this random person the satisfaction of knowing she laughed.

"So, what's up with you?" The boy asks. "Waiting for the bus?"

Annabeth looks around the bus stop that she's sitting in and much to her surprise it really looks like she's waiting for the bus. "Uh… No. I just took a break for a second, avoiding the rain."

She nods up to the sky, as if she's showing him the rain he probably already knew about.

"Me, too." He says, nodding at her. "I'm Percy, by the way."

"Percy…" Annabeth says, testing the name out. She decides to return the favour. "I'm Annabeth."

He smiles bright enough to distract from his striking eyes. "Nice to meet you, Annabeth."

They fall silent for a moment.

"You think we can order a pizza here?" Percy asks and the question alone makes Annabeth confused.

"A pizza…" Annabeth repeats, just to make sure she's heard him right.

"Yeah, a pizza." He nods. "I'm really hungry and I might be here a while. Don't wanna die of hunger or something."

Annabeth decides to humour him. "Well, don't you usually need to give an address when ordering delivery? What are you going to say? The bus stop on 52nd street?"

Percy looks at her like she's a genius. "That's exactly what I'll say."

"Don't order a pizza, please." She finds herself loosening up, the cramp in her leg fading.

"I really want some food, though."

"Yeah, but-" Annabeth starts to say, before being cut off by the hiss of a stopping bus.

Both Percy and Annabeth whip their heads as they look up to see a bus stopped outside the bus stop.

Percy looks at her and smiles like he knew this would happen. "Maybe he thinks you're waiting for the bus?"

The driver stares at Annabeth and all she can do is cringe. Nobody else is around in the rain waiting for the bus, and nobody seems to be getting off the bus.

"Oh, he's definitely here for us…" She says.

"Us?" Percy asks. "He's here for you. I'm not getting on that bus."

"Well, neither am I."

"Then tell him to leave or something." Percy suggests and Annabeth can't hold in the laugh that escapes.

"Fine." She says, the bus driver still staring at her. She tries to motion for him to carry on and he shakes his head, before closing the bus door and slowly driving away.

"He seemed mad." Annabeth says, breaking the silence. Percy laughs and she feels slightly proud.

"I'm sure he wasn't happy that we weren't actually waiting for the bus."

"That probably means I can't stay here much longer, then." Annabeth sighs, looking out the bus stop windows. It was still raining pretty heavily.

"Where are you gonna go?" Percy asks.

"My university." Annabeth replies. "I have to hand in a paper and I don't want to be late."

"What subject?"

"English 2330."

"With Professor Blofis?"

"You know it?"

Percy lets out a soft chuckle. He mutters, "Yeah, I do. Small world."

Percy opens up his jacket and pulls a small, portable umbrella from an inside pocket.

Annabeth frowns. "You had an umbrella the entire time? Yet you've been waiting the rain out in here, like me?"

"This might sound creepy." Percy says. "But I was walking down the street, when I saw you in the bus stop and figured I'd come in and talk to you."

Annabeth blushes. "So, you hid your umbrella, why?"

"Well, I wanted to make it seem like I was waiting out the rain. If I came in with an umbrella you would've thought I was waiting for the bus, or something. Then I would've said I wasn't and then you would've known I was there to flirt with you."

"So, the pizza thing was flirting." Annabeth laughs, crossing her arms.

"Did it work?"

"No." Annabeth says. "It did not work."

He bashfully smiles, looking at the ground. "That's too bad. Since, all it did was make me hungry."

"You're lucky you're cute." Annabeth says, shaking her head and sighing. "How about you walk me to the University, with that handy-dandy umbrella you have there. And after, we can get some food."

"Uh…" Percy says, eyes wide.

"You okay?" Annabeth asks, since Percy doesn't seem like he was capable of talking.

"Yeah…" Percy nods, opening his umbrella and offering her an arm. "Yeah, I'm good. That sounds good. R-really good."

"Good."

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

As Percy walks Annabeth to the University, he says. "I personally think the pizza line worked wonders."

Rain falls around them, bouncing off the umbrella that Percy holds.

"Well, it wasn't as good as your it sure is a doozy, outside line."

"You thought that was good?"

"Oh god, no." Annabeth laughs. "They were all terrible."

"I mean…" Percy wiggles his eyebrows. "We're getting food after this so I think they worked out pretty well."

this is meh. idk. i saw the prompt and wrote this in a few hours. i'm working hard on the soulmate au still, but theres a few problems with it.

it's really dramatic, there's a lot of world building before i even introduce any sort of percabeth. and to make it "good" i'm going to need to make it a lot shorter than i originally wanted to. I'm trying to keep the same basis as what i originally wrote two years ago but it's basically a 90% rewrite, which takes time. idk im working on it though. this is just something that i wrote so i didn't drown myself in the soulmate au.

also im not sure how many chapters this series will be. I've wanted to write for it for a while, but anything i've written recently has become a one-shot in and of itself. this series is mainly for the cute/short percabeth one-shots. (maybe 7 chapters, i'm thinking 7 chapters)

either way, as always i hope you all enjoyed and all mistakes are mine. please do leave a review? maybe check out my most recent fic? spilled water and clingy bags. thank you