Annabeth Chase is kind of a bitch, and this is something she is aware of. It’s not that she’s completely unlikeable—she has plenty of friends who like her well enough, she gets along with her siblings (even the most annoying ones), and she can pretty easily hang out with people and fit in just fine. She also understands that the “friend” title is not exactly easy to achieve when it comes to her. She’s easily ticked off, not bothered to hide it, and it’s easier to walk away—no harm done—than to stick around and get walked away from eventually. And this is fine with her. Annabeth cherishes her don’t-f*ck-with-me reputation, her stone cold persona, because after all, it’s been known to save her life.
There’s just one little problem: a certain boy named Percy Jackson, and the way a glance her way from his playful eyes manages to break her down in a way that totally ruins her pristine image. One week calling him her boyfriend is enough to get her giggling by herself at the Athena dining table while her siblings exchange knowing glances, and what is she supposed to do about it? The very image of a lovestruck teenage girl, she thinks everything he does is simply wonderful (though she’d never say it out loud). His stupid jokes? His windswept hair when he runs to her? The way he makes her insides churn when he softly runs his hand up and down her back, slipped underneath the hem of her shirt—and afterwards, when breathes deeply, almost meditatively, after he’s just kissed her and he’s looking at her like she’s the moon? It all makes her forget every reason she was ever angry with him in the past.
Percy seems to have forgotten, too. She couldn’t believe his bravado when, at the bottom of the lake, he put his hands on her waist and whispered, my turn, proceeding to kiss her until she couldn’t breathe. She was even more impressed when he asked her, albeit nervously, if she would be his girlfriend. Annabeth felt as if she couldn’t be happier when she told him that yes, he had earned it—that is, until a few minutes later when he told her they should go back up because he needed everyone else to know the most beautiful girl at camp was his girlfriend.
It wasn’t a week before he told her he loved her. It just slipped out, if the panicked look on his face was anything to go by as soon as he realized what he’d just said.
They’d been lying on a blanket on the beach, facing each other—Percy completely dry, Annabeth still drying off from her swim. Percy had a hand on her waist as they talked, distractedly tracing shapes on her bare skin with his fingertips, which tingled wherever their skins met and filled her stomach with butterflies. Annabeth sighed.
“What?” He asked, observing her carefully.
“That’s distracting.”
Percy furrowed his brows—so cute. “What is?”
Annabeth shot a pointed glance at his hand. “That.”
“Oh. Do you want me to stop?”
“No.”
He grinned. “Okay.”
Annabeth brushed his hair away from his face with her fingers. “You’re distracting.”
“Am I?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re distracting, too. Very distracting.”
Annabeth didn’t miss the way his eyes quickly darted down back to her body (not that she was innocent of checking her out shirtless boyfriend on this fortunate beach day), and he didn’t miss the way she blushed.
“Are you sure it’s not all the seaweed in your brain?” She teased.
“No,” he said decidedly, “you’re just really pretty.”
He’d said it so earnestly, Annabeth wondered if she’d ever get used to this.
“How did you become such a charmer all of a sudden?” Annabeth asked, trying to maintain any resemblance of composure when she felt like melting under his gaze.
“Dunno. I think I just love you.”
His eyes widened, and Annabeth’s breath caught in her chest. Percy’s hand froze on her waist but he didn’t pull it away, expectant. She smiled widely, despite herself, despite how much it terrified her to suddenly have what she had always wanted.
“I love you, too,” she told him, her voice barely above a whisper.
His smile quickly matched hers. “Okay.”
Annabeth kissed him, because she could. “Okay.”
And just like that, he fits the part like he was born to play it. He kisses Annabeth good morning, and good night, and all the times in between. He tells her he loves her, and that she’s pretty, and that he might die when she has to go back to California, and a heart-melting baby, that’s amazing when she told him she’d be sticking around after all. Percy’s sweet like a spoonful of honey, and he sticks to her just the same. And Annabeth’s not complaining.
She never thought she’d be the kind to date a clingy guy until the clingy guy in question turned out to be Percy, and then—well, she doesn’t exactly want him to ever leave her alone. Fortunately for her, that does not seem to be on his to-do list.
For instance, he found her reading under a tree after teaching sword-fighting practice, a task that had become increasingly difficult for everyone involved when said teacher was suddenly invulnerable. This was much to Annabeth’s chagrin, because every single girl now seemed to be tripping over themselves to get Percy to glance their way.
“The new kids are kind of bad,” Percy said one day of the newcomers. “They need way more help than usual.”
Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Are you serious?”
“What? They do.”
“They don’t need help, they want you specifically to go help them.”
“Why would they want that?”
Annabeth slapped her forehead in exasperation. “Because you’re all hero-ey and cute and invulnerable, Percy. They’re all in freaking love with you.”
Percy shrugged at her like this was silly, and she kissed him for being so oblivious.
Under the tree, Annabeth didn’t notice him coming until her book was removed from her hands, revealing Percy standing before her. Before she could protest, he was sitting down between her legs, resting against her stomach.
“Excuse me?” She said, unable to pretend like she was actually at all bothered by this.
He nestled the back of his head on her shoulder.
“It’s me time for you,” Percy said, matter-of-factly. He found the bookmark on the floor and inserted it on the page that had been open before closing the book and setting it down on the ground next to him.
“Says who?”
“I say. Duh.”
“On what grounds?”
“Uh… on the grounds that I want my girlfriend to pay attention to me. Pretty please?”
Annabeth rolled her eyes, and they both knew she’d lost. Grinning with satisfaction, he took one of her hands, the other one she had
wrapped around his shoulder and across his chest. Percy examined the hand, running his fingers across her palm and tracing each of her fingers with his.
“What’s this from?” He asked, pointing to a scar that traveled from the base of her wrist to her thumb.
“I think… empousa?”
Percy nodded. After a few more moments of playing with her hand, he placed it across his own chest where the other hand was and which was now the new object of his investigation.
“What are you doing?” Annabeth asked.
“Looking at your hand.”
“I’m sorry to say, but that one’s just like the other one.”
He considered this for a few moments, then lifted up the hand so it was at Annabeth’s eye level. “That’s not true, look. Your ring finger’s kinda crooked—that’s cute—and this one has no scar.”
“I broke that finger when I was sparring someone, I think. A long time ago.”
“When?”
“I think I’d just gotten here?”
“They were letting a little kid join sparring sessions? That’s literally crazy.”
Annabeth laughed. “It kinda is. But at least I’m really good at it now.”
“Damn right, you are.” Percy yawned. “Mind if I take a nap?”
“Another one?”
“Hey, I am cursed with a body that is invulnerable and constantly needs a nap.”
“Fine, but give me back my book. And I’m kicking you out if you start drooling.”
“Deal,” Percy said, and he was gone.
He did drool a little bit, but Annabeth didn’t kick him out. He held onto her arm as he slept, and he looked so peaceful, so beautiful as the sunlight leaked through the leaves onto his fluttering eyelids, and Annabeth hoped he was dreaming of her.
