isnt she lovely

by ghosttotheparty

Summary:

Their eyes always meet in the halls. Her eyes are grey and shiny, and they make Percy think of stormy skies and marble sculptures. (She could be a marble sculpture, in the entrance of a museum, surrounded by scholars and artists and mesmerised passersby. Fucking beautiful in a way that only art ever is.)
- - -
Percy has had a crush on Annabeth since eighth grade. (He doesn’t know she likes him too.)

Notes:

guys this was so fun to write i love them sm

Percy has a crush on Annabeth Chase.

They only have one class together (first period with Mr Katz; Annabeth sits in the last row, and he sits at the desk under the window against the wall, diagonal from her. They’re in a group chat for the class, and have each other’s numbers, but they’ve never actually texted each other directly. Percy barely says anything in the groupchat, and she only ever answers questions others ask about due dates or assignments.) But they pass each other in the halls: between second and third period, sixth and seventh period, and after school Percy and his friends pass by her as she’s rummaging through her locker (number 206). And he sees her in the cafeteria during lunch.

Their eyes always meet in the halls. Her eyes are grey and shiny, and they make Percy think of stormy skies and marble sculptures. (She could be a marble sculpture, in the entrance of a museum, surrounded by scholars and artists and mesmerised passersby. Fucking beautiful in a way that only art ever is.)

They don’t really talk. They’re not really friends. But she still smiles when their eyes meet in the hallways, and she still gives him answers to worksheets in class when he whispers to her that he’s lost. She stills rolls her eyes at him and smiles like she doesn’t want to be smiling when he acts like an idiot. (The first time he hears her say his name he has to lay his head on his desk and close his eyes so his heart can slow down.)

—————————

Percy lets his head fall against the wall, watching the documentary out of the corner of his eye. It’s an episode about Athens, but Percy is barely paying attention. He didn’t get nearly enough sleep last night after losing track of time at the pool and staying up to finish an essay outline due in second period. He glances around the room. He’d missed what Mr Katz had said before putting the documentary on, but it doesn’t look like anyone is taking notes or filling out a worksheet.

He lets his eyes close, sighing heavily. He could fall asleep. He doesn’t want to really; he wishes he had a Red Bull or chewing gum or something. (Neither of which are allowed in Katz’s class, but no one ever really cares.)

He shifts, furrowing his brows as his hair tickles his neck. He relaxes against the wall, but his hair tickles him again, and he grimaces in discomfort. He opens his eyes to find the hair tie around his wrist and tilts his head forward to gather his curls into a messy ponytail.

When he finishes he drops his arms, feeling better. He picks at the holes of his jeans, ripping the threads even though he knows he’ll regret it later. He tried to watch the documentary again but after a few minutes he forgets to pay attention, distracted by the sound of someone bouncing their leg, their desk creaking quietly.

He sighs again, letting his head fall against the wall and looking over at Annabeth (his go-to when he doesn’t know what else to do with himself). She’s resting her chin in her hand, but she’s not looking at the screen. She’s looking down at her desk, sketching in her notebook, but Percy can’t see what she’s drawing. As he watches, she sighs, frowning at the page, and spins her pen over her thumb, catching it deftly before writing something on the page and doing it again. Percy lifts his head, narrowing his eyes like she’s doing a magic trick.

She looks up at the documentary, swinging the pen around like it’s connected to a string, and Percy tilts his head, watching. She finally notices him looking, her grey eyes meeting his, and she furrows her brows, smiling.

What? she mouths.

He jerks his chin up, gesturing to the pen.

“How do you do that?“ he whispers quietly, and she looks down at the pen in her hand like she’s just noticed it. She spins it again, shrugging. Percy finds his pen on his desk,
looking at how she’s holding hers and copying her. She does it again, slowly, demonstrating, and he tries, but instead of spinning around his finger easily the way hers did, the pen is flung across the room. They both gasp.

“Percy,” Mr Katz says from the front of the room, and Percy scrambles up to get it.

“That was an accident, I swear,” he says, bending down so he’s not in anyone’s way. “I’m so sorry.”

When he gets back to his desk, Annabeth has her head on her desk. Her shoulders are shaking, and when she lifts her head, she’s grinning so wide her sparkling eyes are squinting at him.

He sits in his seat, holding his pen awkwardly.

“It didn’t work,” he whispers, and she bursts into giggles again, covering her face with the sleeve of her flannel. (It’s at least two sizes too big and it covers her hands.) He gazes as she drops her head to her desk again, and he can hear her soft laughter. He feels like he could cry.

He glances at Katz to makes sure he’s not looking before he moves to the desk behind himself, next to Annabeth. She looks up when he moves, still giggling quietly as he leans over, his elbows on his knees, his pen in his hand.

“I’ll try again,” he says softly, and she shifts to face him, smiling. She’s almost glowing. She demonstrates, spinning her own, and he watches, trying. They stay there through the rest of class, sitting close enough to hear each other whispering (“Do it slower.” “I literally can’t do it any slower, Percy.” “…Do it again, I can do this.” “I’m not sure you can.”), close enough for Annabeth to catch his pen when he drops it several times.

Neither of them notice the class go by until the bell rings loudly, and Annabeth jumps, wincing at the noise and laughing again when Percy tries one last time.

“I’m gonna get it,” he says, moving back to his desk and grabbing his bag. “Eventually.”

“That’s what you say.” She tilts her head, wincing.

“Wow.”

She giggles, and his heart lights up. He catches a glimpse at her notebook before she shuts it and shoves it in her bag. The page is covered by a sketch of a building, surrounded by little notes. It’s beautiful.

“I like your hair, by the way,” she says as they’re headed to the door, following behind everyone else. He looks at her, startled.

“What?“

She stares back, her eyes wide.

“I… Your hair is tied up,” she says, almost awkwardly. “It looks nice.”

His whole body combusts.

“Thank you,” he says softly, moving so she can leave the room in front of him. “I’m gonna tie it up all the time now,” he adds, seeing her glance at him over her shoulder with a grin. “Twenty-four seven.”

He can’t stop smiling even when she’s gone (after another eyeroll), and Jason sees him grinning from down the hall.

“Why are you smiling?” he asks dryly. “This is weird.”

Percy doesn’t say anything until he’s pressing his forehead to Jason’s locker door, trying to cool himself down. He shuts his eyes.

“Hung out with Annabeth during history,” he says, almost mumbling. “She said she likes my hair.“

“…You’re pathetic.”

Percy groans loudly.

“She’s so fucking pretty,” he complains. “I can barely think when she’s looking at me.”

“You can barely think regardless.”

“Ha-ha.”

—————————

Percy collapses into his seat, exhaling sharply as he drops his backpack to the ground. He looks up at Annabeth, who’s sitting with her hands clasped on her desk, her locs tied up at the top of her head. She rolls her eyes with a smile when he jerks his chin up to her with a, “‘Sup.”

He grins when she looks away, setting his iced coffee on his desk and reaching into his backpack, rummaging through it for a pen, which he finds under a pile of loose paper. He sets it on his desk carefully so it doesn’t roll off the uneven surface before reaching back into his bag. His fingers find something cold and smooth and he pulls a can of Red Bull out, staring at it for a moment before he looks at the cup of coffee, setting the can down and opening the cup to see how full it is.

He chugs some of it, turning to sit properly in his chair, looking to find Mr Katz at his desk talking to a student. He keeps his eyes on them as he brings the can under the desk and crack it open, wincing. Mr Katz doesn’t look, and Percy carefully pours the Red Bull in his coffee, stirring it with his straw. The empty can goes back in his backpack, and he screws the cup shut, taking a sip and shrugging to himself.

He’s taking another sip and moving back to sit against the wall when he looks around the room to find Annabeth looking at him. Her head is tilted, eyebrows furrowed, eyes wide. Percy grins around the straw.

He holds the cup out to her.

“Want some?”

“No, Percy,” she says. Percy laughs loudly, taking the cup back and bringing the straw to his lips again. “I don’t.”

He shrugs.

“More for me.”

“You’re insane,” she says matter-of-factly. He tilts his head like he’s considering, contemplating. “You’re gonna die.”

“Only if I’m lucky,” he says, lifting the cup in a cheers gesture with a wink. She shakes her head in disbelief, but can’t say anything before Mr Katz asks loudly if everyone is in class.

Percy finishes the whole drink by the time class ends, and as Annabeth is carefully, meticulously putting away her worksheets and pencils, tucking them into her bag, she looks at him and he shakes the cup, rattling the ice.

She scoffs, pulling the strap of her bag over her shoulder.

“If I don’t see you later, I’ll just assume you’ve had a heart attack,” she says as she’s passing him, and then she’s reaching out and ruffling his hair playfully, looking at him over her shoulder as she walks away.

He short circuits. He forgets to breathe. He stares until she’s out of the room, and then he suddenly realises his lack of oxygen, taking a sharp breath and looking down at the floor.

“Percy, don’t you need to leave?” Mr Katz says from his desk when he realises Percy is still in his seat.

“Uh, yeah,” Percy says, blinking, the feeling of Annabeth’s hand in his hair still rattling around him. “Sorry, I zoned out.” He grabs his back and his cup, the ive rattling again, and leaves quickly. “Have a nice day.”

“You too?” Katz says behind him as students start to file into the room.

Percy finds Jason in the hall, and wordlessly falls against him, letting Jason catch him with a light laugh.

“Did she make eye contact with you or something?” Jason asks, petting the back of his head comfortingly.

“She, like… ruffled my hair,” Percy says, his voice muffled by Jason’s shoulder.

“Oh, she’s into you.”

“Fuck off,” Percy groans, shoving himself against Jason, who laughs and hugs him tightly.

“You guys look really gay.”

Percy rolls his eyes so hard his nose might bleed before he lifts his head.

“Yeah, I bet you’re jealous, Bryce,” he says, turning to look at him.

“Why would I be jealous?” Bryce says, wrinkling his nose.

“‘Cuz you want some of this hot piece.”

Percy reaches over and smacks Jason’s ass, grinning when Jason cackles and catches his hand, tugging him in the direction of their class. Bryce follows behind them, unamused.

Bryce Harris is not Percy’s favourite person. He’s vulgar and homophobic, and rude to anyone he decides is different from him. Percy doesn’t think he’d really even hang out with him if they haven’t known each other for so long. And if Bryce wasn’t also on the swim team. And if they didn’t have so many classes together.

Luckily, Jason is also in most of Percy’s classes. Percy opted to sit next to him in all the classes at the beginning of the year, until a few of their teachers felt obligated to separate them.

In second period, algebra, Percy sits across from Jason. They kick at each other under the table, and Percy silently begs for answers to the “warm-up” worksheet” (which uses up the rest of Percy’s functioning braincells). Jason refuses to help him until he tries. Percy tries. (He gets most of them right; Jason insists Percy just isn’t confident enough in his skills. Percy says, “What, are you my mother?” even though he knows he’s right.)

He follows behind Jason after the bell rings, eyes up until he spots Annabeth over the other students’ heads. Their eyes meet, and she raises her eyebrows.

You’re alive? she mouths, and he grins, shrugging, watching as she gets closer, passing by in the sea of students.

“Drink water,” she tells him when they’re close enough, her voice loud for him to hear her over the bustling hallway.

“I don’t wanna!” he complains as she passes, and she laughs.

He looks behind himself, catching her eyes as she glances over her shoulder, and he beams.

She looked back.

“Dude, seriously?”

Percy startles at Bryce’s voice next to him, and he looks, careful not to step on Jason’s heels.

“What?“

Bryce doesn’t say anything, taking a deep breath and shaking his head like he’s disappointed. Percy stops walking, furrowing his brows. Bryce keeps walking.

“What?” Percy says again.

He follows him and Jason to their next class, his brows still furrowed in confusion, and annoyance.

“Bryce, what the hell?”

“Nothing, man, whatever.”

“What’s going on?” Jason asks, setting his bag on the table and looking between them.

“I don’t know,” Percy says, dropping his bag and gesturing to Bryce, who’s avoiding his eyes, rummaging through his bag for the homework that Percy knows he doesn’t have. “I said hi to Annabeth and Bryce is acting like I pissed on his grandma’s grave. What the hell?”

“Nothing, just… You don’t have to be so nice to her.”

Jason snorts in disbelief.

“What?” Percy says again, dropping his hand. It grips the back of his chair.

“You’re so nice to her.”

“I said hi to her,” Percy says.

“You bantered with her.”

“We’re friends.“

“Whatever, man.” Bryce looks away, looking back to his bag, but Percy’s blood is boiling.

“No, what the hell is your problem?” he says, staring at him. “Do you have an issue with Annabeth or what?”

“I don’t know,” Bryce says, resigning. “I just…” He shrugs, looking at him with a sigh. “You’re only really nice to her because you like her.”

Percy blinks, his brows furrowing again.

“I…” He shakes his head. “Has it occurred to you that I’m just nice?”

“But you do like her.”

“Yeah, why does that matter?”

Bryce stares again, an awkward smile spreading across his face.

“I just don’t get it,” he says lightly. Too lightly. Percy’s stomach clenches.

“You don’t get it,” Percy repeats lowly.

“I… She’s weird. I don’t get why you like her, or… or why you’re nice to her.”

Percy tilts his head, his eyes narrowing as anger bubbles in his blood.

“Maybe I’m just not a dick like you.”

Jason inhales sharply, looking away, and Bryce scoffs.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously.”

“Dude, you have a crush on her, whatever—“

“Yeah, I have a crush on her, but this isn’t just about her,” Percy says firmly. “You’re a dick to everyone, and I’m fucking over it. Apparently this was the last straw, but I’m fucking done, man.”

Bryce stares, wide-eyed.

“I’m a dick,” he repeats as though Percy’s just told him he’s glowing purple.

“Entirely,” Percy says, nodding. “I hear all the shit you say about people, about people who are just slightly different from you in any way, about the people on the swim team that aren’t as skinny as you, I mean—“ He cuts off, laughing, but it isn’t funny. He gestures to Jason. “You told me and Jason we looked gay because he was hugging me.”

Bryce stares back him.

“Why is that a problem, Bryce?” Percy asks, gripping his chair so hard his hand aches. It’s only now that he realises how quiet the room is, even though other students have filed in behind them, even though they’ve all found their seats, even though the teachers standing by her desk.

“Bryce, find your seat, please,” the teacher says lightly before he can say anything, and Bryce snatches his bag, glaring at Percy as he moves to an empty seat at the back of the room. Percy watches him go, his body too hot with anger, his hands shaking as everyone’s eyes shift back to him after Bryce collapses in a seat.

Percy looks away, grabbing his bag and moving it to the floor before he sits heavily, watching as the teacher approaches his desk.

“Everyone get your homework out, please,” she says, sliding a pink slip of paper onto the table in front of him. He recognises the slip, and huffs, shutting his eyes. “We’ll go over the answers together. See me after class,” she adds quietly to Percy, who gives her a resigned nod. She gives him a tight smile before moving on.

He looks at the slip of paper. The reason for detention is written in her slanted handwriting as foul language toward another student. He sighs and folds the slip, pushing it into his pocket before he reaches for his backpack.

As he’s scanning his homework sheet, trying to decipher his sleepy handwriting from last night, Jason reaches over and takes his empty hand, squeezing it gently before letting go. Percy sends him a grateful smile and kicks him under the table. Then he goes back to trying to spin his pen.

He waits in his seat when the bell rings, looking up and nodding as Jason tells him he’ll wait outside, watching him leave and watching Bryce stalk out after him.

Ms Martinez is waving goodbye to student, collecting worksheets, until the room is empty. She sets the papers down on the table next to Percy and leans against it, looking at him.

“So,” she says lightly. She doesn’t look angry. Percy looks up at her. “Passionate language.”

He laughs lightly.

“That’s one way of putting it.”

She sighs, crossing her arms.

“I probably shouldn’t say this,” she begins, looking at him with her eyebrows raised. “But I agree with just about everything you said to our friend Bryce.”

He raises his eyebrows back at her.

“I know Mr Harris,” she says gently. “I’ve heard him talk about others, and he can be…” She tilts her head, taking a deep breath. “For lack of better words, a bit of a dick.”

Percy scoffs, almost laughing.

“There’s always the hope that he’ll grow out of it,” Ms Martinez continues. “But we can’t ignore his behaviour in the hope that he’ll get better. Especially when people like you, Mr Jackson, can already tell that his behaviour is unacceptable.”

She smiles at him, softening and tilting her head fondly. She reminds him of his mother.

“I had to give you that detention slip,” she says. “I have to do my job. But…” She sighs. “You’re a good kid, Percy.”

He smiles weakly.

“And I know Annabeth,” she adds. His face burns, and he looks away, remembering how loudly, how boldly, he agreed that he has a crush on her. Ms Martinez laughs lightly. “I probably shouldn’t say this either, but she’s one of my favourite students.”

He grins.

“Yeah, she’s smart,” he says softly.

“She could be good for you.”

He pauses as he processes this, then clicks his tongue and looks up at her. “Oh, wow.”

She laughs brightly, his eyes squinting shut, the wrinkles around them deepening. He can’t help but smile back.

“Alright, get out of here,” she says, standing up straight and collecting the papers. “Don’t get another detention for being late.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Jason is leaning against the wall outside, out of the way of the passing students, and they begin to walk together in silence, side by side until they reach Jason’s locker.

“For what it’s worth,” Jason’s says, twisting the lock and dropping his bag. “I think Annabeth is cool.”

Percy sighs, leaning against the locker next to him and looking up at the ceiling.

“She is, isn’t she?”

“God, you’re smitten.”

“Yeah, I have a serious problem. I don’t even care that Bryce hates me now, Annabeth fucking looked back.”

“In the hallway?“

“Yeah,” Percy sighs. Jason laughs and shakes his head at him.

When Percy sees Annabeth at lunch, Jason has to kick him to get him to stop staring. She’s sitting with people that Percy doesn’t know; a boy with long blonde hair that’s sitting on the table and a muscular girl that’s bickering with him. Annabeth is eating a sandwich, looking back and forth between them, amused.

“Percy, did you do the reading for Mitchell’s class?”

Percy blinks, turning to look at Piper as she’s sliding into her seat next to Jason. She’s staring back blankly.

“What?”

“Wow,” Jason says dryly, knowingly. He reaches to take a fry from Piper’s tray, but she smacks his hand away, calling him a whore. Jason just giggles and kisses her cheek.

Percy didn’t do the reading for Mitchell’s class, but luckily Mitchell doesn’t seem to care all that much. Percy manages to follow along with the class, flicking tiny balls of paper at Piper, who ignores him until she gets bored, at which point she makes a tiny paper airplane and flicks it to him.

Annabeth looks upset when Percy sees her next, between sixth and seventh periods. Not angry, or sad, just… upset. Dejected, maybe. Their eyes meet and he knows he’s looking at her confusedly, concerned, but she just gives him a little smile. A soft smile. She passes by him silently, and he wants to turn around, to grab her shoulder and gently pull her to the side, to ask what’s wrong. (He wants to kiss her until she forgets what she’s upset about.)

But there are too many people walking for him to turn around, and she’s gone by the time he glances back over his shoulder. So he waits until after school, hoping to see her at her locker as he’s walking Jason to his bus stop, but she’s nowhere to be seen.

“Text me when you’re done with detention, yeah?” Jason says as he’s hugging him, and Percy agrees, pecking his cheek before he lets go and waves at Piper, who’s watching from where she’s sitting on the bus.

“Yessir.”

He runs to the detention room even though he still has some time before he has to be there, passing by Annabeth’s locker once more.

“Mr Jackson,” the teacher in charge of detention says when he walks in. “Welcome back.”

“Uh-huh.”

He hands him the pink slip that’s crumpled from being in his pocket all day, and takes a seat at the back of the room. There’s are only a few others, some that Percy recognises, some that he doesn’t. He sets his bag on the ground and sighs, leaning back in his chair and pulling his pen out to fidget.

A few more students file in after him, dropping pink slips onto the teacher’s desk as he greets them.

And then Annabeth walks in, pink slip in hand. Percy falls forward, the legs of his chair hitting the floor. Their eyes meet and he drops his pen, tilting his head as she furrows her brows at him before looking away to hand the slip to the teacher.

“Miss Chase,” he says, as surprised as Percy. “Wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“I know,” she sighs, and he takes the slip looking at it before looking up at her with wide eyes.

“Take a seat,” he says lightly.

She turns and looks at Percy, who’s still staring at her.

She sits next to him heavily, avoiding his eyes, dropping her bag and crossing her arms over her chest and she looks around the room. Some people are already laying on the tables, some doing homework, some staring at the ceiling. Percy leans close to her.

“Miss Chase,” he says quietly, watching as she suppresses a smile.

“Fuck off,” she whispers.

“I was wondering why I didn’t see you after the bell rang.”

“Mmhmm.” She shoots him a look, her eyes sparkling.

“What are you in for?”

“I bet you’d like to know.”

“I really would, yeah.”

She looks at him and leans closer, and he loses his breath. He’s never seen her this close before.

“Suffer,” she says quietly, and his jaw drops in offence.

“You’re so mean,” he says. She looks away, smiling, reaching into her bag for a notebook and a pen. “What’d you do?“

She just glances at him, smiling.

“Mr Jackson,” the teacher says from the front of the room. “Please stop flirting with Miss Chase.”

Percy lays on the table to hide his burning face. Annabeth giggles quietly, flipping open her notebook.

He keeps his head down even as the teacher goes over the rules, squeezing his eyes shut and wishing the ground would open up and swallow him whole. After a while the room falls silent, except for the occasional cough or creak of a chair, and the scratching of Annabeth’s pen on her sketchbook. Percy moves his arm, opening his eyes and laying his cheek against the cold plastic wood of the table to look up at her. She’s sketching again, looking down at her notebook.

He gazes at her, at the softness of her cheeks and chin, at the fan of her eyelashes that flutter when she blinks, at the way her lips shift and twist as she thinks and focusses. He watches her hands move over the paper, watches her fingers twist the pen between strokes, spin it as she pauses. He looks at the chipping red polish on her nails, the silver ring around her index finger, the bar that goes through the cartilage of her ear and the little studs in her lobe.

Percy’s whole body aches. He can feel himself falling harder, but he doesn’t mind, especially when Annabeth takes a breath and lifts her eyes, looking around the room before she looks at him, only to find him already gazing back. She looks away, smiling, and he can’t fight his own smile, his cheek squishing against the table.

She spins her pen in her hand, looking around the room, still smiling, before she looks back at him. He shifts, tucking his arm under his head comfortably as he looks up at her, and she rests her cheek in her hand.

Percy’s eyes flick back and forth between hers, the tension between them somehow easy. Soft.

She reaches out and flicks a curl off of his face carefully. His cheeks flush with heat, and she grins. He can almost hear his own heartbeat.

After a moment he holds his hand out, gesturing to her pen, and she hands it to him. He sits up, reaching out and pulling her notebook toward himself.

He pauses, looking at her sketch. It’s a spiral staircase, the handrails and gates drawn as ornate, delicate swirls, the stairs shaded with straight, hatched lines. Percy stares at it like like it’s going to start moving, a slow smile spreading across his face before he finally looks at Annabeth, who’s watching him almost nervously, and gives her a approving nod. She smiles, her eyes squeezing shut.

He carefully, quietly flips the notebook to the last page and deftly draws the crossing lines of a tic tac toe game, sliding the notebook and pen back to Annabeth.

They play, passing the pen back and forth, both of them leaning down to the table so they don’t have to move the notebook. They reach draws the first three games, then Annabeth wins with a triumphant grin, drawing a line through her consecutive Xs with a flourish. Percy drops his head to his desk, hearing her muffled giggle.

He finally wins a game a while later, with a bright smile, and she scribbles down a little congrats.

Her handwriting is pretty. Almost cursive, but not quite.

The page of the notebook is covered with tic tac toe games by the time detention is over, and when the teacher calls out in dismissal, Annabeth is doodling on the back of Percy’s hand, planets and stars and a UFO by his wrist. She pats his hand gently before reaching down for her bag with a smile, and he short circuits again.

He follows her out silently, stumbling and tripping over his own feet, and as they go outside with the others, their hands brush between them. Neither of them pull away.

“Which bus do you take?” Percy asks when they get outside. Annabeth turns to look at him, pausing.

“I walk.”

He blinks.

“Oh.” He hesitates, looking up at the orange sky, at the empty sidewalks. “Can I— Can I walk with you?”

She starts to smile, fidgeting with her sleeve.

“Do you want to?”

He takes a breath.

“I’d feel a lot better if I walked you.”

She grins, rolling up onto her tiptoes before falling back to her heels.

“Okay.”

(She’s so cute Percy wants to cry.)

“So,” he says as they’re walking side by side. She looks up at the sky, like she knows what he’s going to say. “What’d you do?”

She sighs heavily.

“I…” She trails off, and he looks at her, curiosity running rampant in his mind. There’s no way she missed an assignment, or was late to a class, he thinks, wondering and wondering until she finally says, “I cussed Mrs Click out.”

He stops walking, slack-jawed.

“You did what?”

She turns to look at him, stopping, wide-eyed and almost smiling.

“She was being insanely disrespectful to a student, and I just— I just lost my patience, and…” She shakes her head, taking a shuddering breath. A slow smile crawls across Percy’s face as he stares at her.

“I think I’m in love with you.”

She just giggles, pivoting on her heel and continuing down the sidewalk. He runs to catch up after recovering.

“What’d you say to her?” Percy asks. “I need to know.”

“Uhm.” She sighs again. “I told her she should never have gone into teaching, I called her an asshole.” Percy’s eyes are getting wider by the second, his smile broadening until he’s beaming at her. “I said a lot.”

“Annabeth Chase!” He lunges at her, wrapping his arms around her tightly and lifting her up, and she lets out a loud laugh, lifting her hands to hold onto his arms. “You’re my hero,” he sings.

“Seriously?” she laughs, stumbling, and he releases her with an adamant Yes.

“I’m, like, proud of you,” he says. “You told her what I’ve wanted to tell her for two years.”

“Well, it better be worth it,” she says, swerving around a light pole. “I have detention until Wednesday next week.”

“What?”

She laughs again, nodding.

“Tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.”

“Jesus Christ. Okay, now I have to brainstorm.”

She looks at him with furrowed brows.

“What are you brainstorming?”

“Four ways I can get detention.”

She stops, looking at him with wide eyes, and he turns to look at her, walking backward.

“You are not getting detention for the next four days, Percy.”

He ignores the rush he gets when she says his name.

“Why not?”

She walks to join him, and he keeps walking backward to look at her, holding the straps of his backpack.

“Because I know that you’re already a regular in detention and I don’t want you getting suspended, dumbass.” She reaches out and grabs his shirt, tugging him to a stop, and he freezes, their eyes meeting. “Turn around,” she says, her voice softer, when he glances down at her hand, and she releases the fabric, walking past him. He turns to find a telephone pole barely two inches from him.

He laughs, moving around it to join her.

“But I need to walk you home,” he says.

“You don’t need to,” she says. “I make this walk every day.”

“Yeah, but after school there are more people walking with you,” he points out. She looks at him, still confused. “I want you to get home safe,” he says with a shrug.

“…You’re sweet.”

“Yeah, totally.”

“You still can’t get detention every day, Percy, that’s ridiculous.”

“Well—“ He sighs, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “What if I just waited, then? Until detention is done? And then I walk you home.”

She’s quiet for a moment, and he looks at her to find her already looking at him.

“Fine,” she cedes, but it doesn’t seem like she would have fought it much anyway, her smile soft.

“Cool.”

They fall into a comfortable silence for a while, the air filled with the sound their shoes against the pavement, the distant sound of traffic and sirens.

“What did you do?” she asks finally. “Today, to get detention,” she clarifies when he looks at her, even though he knew what she meant. “Whose honour were you defending?”

“Uh.” He takes a breath, reaching to bite his nail for a second before, “Yours. Kind of.”

“Mine?”

“Uh, yeah.” He sighs, running a hand through his hair and scratching the back of his neck. “You know, uhm. You know Bryce Harris?”

“Uh-huh.” She makes a face. He laughs.

“He saw us talk to each other in the hallway,” he says, looking ahead. “And he is… a douche bag. So.”

“What did he say?” she asks, and his heart twists.

“He…” He shakes his head, wrinkling his nose. “I don’t even— He— Okay.” He swats his hands in the air like he’s shooing the words away, clearing the space for him to the think. Annabeth giggles. “He was acting weird when we said hi, so I asked what his problem was, and he said—“ He gestures quotations. “‘You’re so nice to her,’ and that he doesn’t get why I like you and stuff, and I just kinda snapped at him that I’m not a dick like him, and that he’s a dick to everyone about everything and that I’m over it, and—“ He cuts off, realising that he’s rambling. “Yeah.”

He looks at her nervously, pushing his hands back into his pockets, and she’s already smiling at him.

“Thank you,” she says lightly. He melts.

“‘Course.”

She’s quiet for a moment before she takes a breath and says, “I’m sorry,” looking over at him apologetically. He blinks.

“For… what?”

She takes another breath, shrugging.

“I know Bryce is your friend.”

“Fuck Bryce.”

She laughs, shaking her head.

“I’m serious,” Percy insists. “He’s a human garbage pile, he’s irrelevant. Fuck him.”

“Fuck him,” she agrees.

They walk in silence again. Annabeth is fidgeting with the sleeves of the flannel jacket she’s wearing. It’s too big, even over the hoodie she’s wearing under it. (She always wears stuff like that. Percy is pretty sure she must have a closet of flannel.) The sleeves of the flannel are hanging over her hands, making her look tiny even though she’s Percy’s height. After a few moments, she takes a breath like she’s going to say something, furrowing her brows and turning to face him without looking away from the sidewalk, but she stops.

“What is it?” Percy prompts gently.

“…You like me?”

He blinks, his face flushing with heat.

“Uh, yeah.” They both slow to a stop, looking at each other.

“Like…” She’s looking at him with wide eyes, looking so anxious it makes Percy’s chest ache. “Like me how?“

“Like… uhm.” He squeezes his hands in his pockets. They’re shaking. “I have a crush on you.”

Her expression doesn’t change, but she lets out a soft, “You do?”

“Yeah,” he says with a light laugh. “I thought my flirting what super obvious.”

“I—“ She shakes her head, shrugging again. “I’m not very good at— at knowing what’s flirting or just… friendliness. Even in movies, I can’t really tell.” She’s twisting her sleeves again. “And sometimes jokes go over my head, and sarcasm, and I, like, I sometimes need my friends to actually tell me when they’re joking, especially if they’re texting me.” She cuts off, blinking. “I thought you were just nice,” she concludes.

He smiles. The sun is starting to set, sending golden light across everything, and her dark skin is glowing warmly, her eyes shining.

“I have a crush on you,” he tells her. “And I flirt with you, like, constantly.”

A smile spreads across her face until she’s beaming at him, her cheeks rising until her eyes almost close.

“Okay.”

“Is that cool?”

“Yeah,” she says softly. “That’s cool.” Her eyes look back and forth between his. “I like you too,” she says lightly, and then she pivots on her heel and starts to continue down the sidewalk. “Which is ridiculous. Fucking absurd.”

“What?” Percy laughs, jogging to catch up, quickly moving past the whiplash of her little I like you too. “How is that ridiculous?”

“Because you’re Percy fucking Jackson,” she says, grinning, teasing. “Swim captain, popular boy, class clown— We are two different genres of people,” she’s insists, looking back at him until he’s by her side.

“Opposites attract,” he shrugs.

“It’s ridiculous that I like you,” she insists, stopping again and looking at him. She takes a deep breath, scanning his face and looking like shes going to scream. “But, fuck, you’re pretty.”

He’s on fire. He knows he is. His face is hotter than it’s ever been, and he feels almost lightheaded.

“And I…” She takes another breath, looking back and forth between his eyes. “I know you only get detention because you stand up for people who can’t, or— or won’t, stand up for themselves. You’re so nice, which should be, like, bare minimum, but I know you bring extra granola bars and give them to people who don’t have lunch, and I remember that time you bought someone’s lunch because he didn’t have enough money in his account, and I did notice that day you asked Katz to lower the volume of the video he was playing because I had a headache.”

He remembers that day. She’d winced at everything, and kept her eyes down at her desk even when Katz was talking and demonstrating something. She’d covered her ears with her hands, and Percy moved to the desk behind him to lean over and ask if she was okay as soon as he’d gotten the chance. She’d just whispered, “Head ache,” with a small smile, and he’d nodded, wishing he had a water bottle to give her. She laid her head down when Katz put on a video, and Percy went to ask him to lower the volume. She never said anything.

“You don’t— You don’t treat me like a lot of other people do,” she continues. “You’re nice, and when you tease me, it’s never about anything, like… real. You’re funny, and you make me laugh even when I feel like shit, and I just—“ She shakes her head. “I like you so much.”

Percy blinks. Swallows. Looks up at the sky and blinks again, his eyes burning.

“Are you crying?” Annabeth asks quietly, and he laughs.

“I’m trying not to,” he says, his voice shaking.

“Percy,” she whines, and then she’s reaching up and wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug. He squeezes his eyes shut, sliding his arms around her back, under her backpack, and hugging her tightly. “Why are you crying?” she asks softly, her voice muffled by his shoulder.

“I like you so much too,” he says. “I’ve liked you for ages, I’m pretty sure I’ve annoyed the shit out of my friends, I—“ She interrupts with a little laugh, tucking her face in his neck. “You’re so beautiful,” Percy says softly. “I’ve wanted to tell you for so long, you— you’re so beautiful, Annabeth.”

Her arms tighten around him.

“And you’re so smart,” he adds when they finally part, looking into her eyes. Her hands rest of the sides of his neck. “But you—you never make me feel stupid, even when I’m asking for answers in class or I’m doing dumb shit, I—“

“You’re not stupid,” she interrupts gently.

Percy sighs, sliding his hands over her waist. The flannel is soft.

“Do you wanna be my girlfriend?”

Her eyes light up, and she takes in a deep breath as her shoulders raise, grinning.

“Yeah,” she says with a tiny voice.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

She beams excitedly, her fingers tightening on his neck and pushing up into his hair as she bounces up and down on her toes giddily.

“I’ve never dated anyone,” she says after a moment, still excited, though her smile falters. “I don’t really, like… know how to be a girlfriend.”

“That’s okay,” Percy says softly, smiling at her, looking at the sun gleaming in her eyes. “I’ve never dated anyone either, we can figure it out together.”

She scrunches her nose, dragging her fingers through his hair, smiling at him for a moment before she tilts her head, her eyes flicking down to the ground.

“You’ve never dated anyone?”

His cheeks flush.

“No? Did you think I did?”

“Yeah?” She looks at him again, her fingers digging into his hair. It feels nice. He tries not to react. “I thought you got mad bitches.”

A laugh bursts from his chest, and he turns his head away, feeling her laugh too.

“I’ve liked you since, like, eighth grade so definitely not,” he says, watching her smile soften, feeling himself burn up at the confession. “Never really had eyes for anyone else.”

Annabeth furrows her brows, looking upset, but she just tugs Percy into another tight hug, burying her face in his neck.

“I hate you,” she mumbles, and Percy laughs, wrapping his arms around her again. “Giving me butterflies and shit.”

Percy lifts a hand and holds the back of her head tenderly, his other hand sliding under her backpack to press against the small of her back. They sway slightly together, and Percy has butterflies too, his stomach and heart and lungs all fluttering relentlessly as Annabeth nuzzles into his neck.

“Gotta get you home,” he says after a minute, tilting his head to press a kiss to her temple, and she sighs.

“May I hold your hand?“

“God, yes,” he says as they pull away, and she slides her hand down his arm to his hand, their fingers lacing. “Always.”

She swings their hands, looking down at them before she starts walking, tugging him along. The sky is red now, red and orange with slashes of pink in the clouds. Annabeth is still glowing warmly.

“Boyfriend,” she says happily, laughing and shaking her head at the absurdity. Percy lifts her hand to his lips, kissing the back of it gently.

“So,” he says as they slow to a stop outside an apartment building, following her under some scaffolding as she rummages in the chest pocket of her flannel. “Tomorrow.”

“Mmhmm?”

“Is Friday.”

“Mmhmm?” She finally pulls out her keys, giving him a knowing look and a smile.

“After detention, I’m walking you home,” he says, swinging her hand and leaning against the wall of the building. It’s dark under the scaffolding, but the lobby of the building is bright enough for him to see her face. “And I was thinking we could go on a date.”

She grins.

“Okay. What will we do?”

Percy shrugs exaggeratedly.

“Don’t know. I’ll think of something.”

She swings their hands.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” she says softly, and he gets up off the wall, releasing her hand and reaching to hold her face gently, lifting his chin to press a careful kiss to her forehead. When he pulls back, her eyes are closed, her brows furrowed like she’s focussing.

“Text me when you get home,” she whispers, opening her eyes, lifting her hands to hold his wrists. He nods, watching almost in awe as she tilts her head and kisses his palms. “Promise?”

“Promise,” he whispers, kissing her cheek.

He could skip home after he finally leaves, his heart pounding, his cheeks aching with how much he’s been smiling. He opens his phone as he walking down the sidewalk to find a surplus of messages from Jason, and he winces.

there’s no way you’re still in detention you bitch

where are you

the only reason i haven’t called the cops is because i know who you are as a person

i will however be in contact with your mother

percy jackson

percy

All of this followed by several messages that just read Percy’s name.

yes hello i’m alive
i was walking annabeth home

It takes a minute for Jason to respond.

you were fucking doing what

—————————

Percy shoves his hands into his pockets, manoeuvring through the hallway, around students laughing and jostling each other around with too much energy for eight in the morning. He winds around them until he’s at Annabeth’s locker, leaning against the other lockers so the open door is between the two of them before he taps gently on it with a knuckle.

She swings it shut enough to look at him, and then she’s beaming at him.

“Good morning.”

“Morning, beautiful,” he says, flirting, and she rolls her eyes, still smiling. She pulls a book out of the locker, and Percy watches. The books are messily placed, a few scrap papers tucked into the books and between the books at the walls of the locker. A book falls over when her textbooks is finally out, and she sighs. He’s already thinking about what kind of notes he can slip into the locker between classes.

“Did you do Katz’s homework?” she asks, looking at him, holding the textbook against her chest as she swings the locker door shut, wincing as it slams.

“Of course.”

She raises an eyebrow.

“I did!” he says, feigning offence, a hand to his chest. “How dare you?”

“Okay,” she resigns, shrugging and spinning the lock.

“No promises I did it well, but it’s definitely done.”

“Ah, there’s the catch.”

“There’s always a catch.”

“What’s your worst class?” she asks, leaning over to put the book in the bag at her feet and looking up at him, and it’s honestly criminal for her to look this good this early in the morning. “Which one do you struggle with the most?”

“Uh.” He sighs, looking away and thinking. “I guess literature.” He looks back at her. “If I focus on the others I can get through them but I don’t like reading, it’s exhausting.” He reaches out when she stands and tucks a loc behind her ear.

“I’ll help you.”

His fingers linger on her cheek, and she presses her face against them before reaching up and taking his hand, entwining their fingers and letting their hands swing between them.

“You are a daydream, Annabeth Chase,” he tells her, his voice softer than he intended, because it’s not just the homework. It’s the way her eyes crinkle up when she smiles, and the way Percy’s forgotten about all the other chaotic students in the hallway, unable to hear them when he looks into her eyes.

“And you’re a nightmare, Percy Jackson.”

She grins at him, and he squeezes her hand before she looks past him, her face lighting up as she says hi to someone over Percy’s shoulder. He’s about to turn to look, but someone’s arm wraps his shoulders and a loud kiss is pressed to his cheek. His eyes widen in surprise and he turns to find Jason, arm still around Percy, and Piper holding his hand.

“Hi, friends,” Piper says brightly.

Annabeth is laughing at Percy’s expression, squeezing his hand and moving closer when Jason releases him.

“Hey,” Jason says to Annabeth, and Percy moves so his back is resting against the lockers. (He hopes he’s not in anyone’s way.) “You gotta tell me how you got detention, Percy’s refusing to tell me.”

“Oh, yeah,” Piper says excitedly, looking to Annabeth with wide eyes. Annabeth sighs, looking at the ceiling, smiling like she doesn’t want to be.

“I…” Percy squeezes her hand, and she leans closer, lifting her other hand to hold onto his arm. “May have called Mrs Click an asshole to her face.”

There’s a moment of silence, and Annabeth snorts.

“You what?” Piper says loudly just as Jason squeals and lets go
of Piper’s hand, lunging and wrapping his arms around Annabeth tightly, cackling. Annabeth laughs loudly, letting go of Percy to hug him back.

“Oh my god, I love you,” Jason is saying, rocking back and forth. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

Annabeth squeezes her eyes shut, giggling. Piper finally wraps her arms around both of them, jumping up and down.

“My hero!”

“So you just got detention?” Jason asks, finally releasing her. “That’s it?”

“Well—“ Annabeth immediately takes Percy’s arm, so easily it’s like she doesn’t even notice she’s doing it. “Detention until Wednesday. And I’ve been removed from her class.”

Piper’s jaw drops and Percy tilts his head.

“You didn’t tell me that,” he says. “You had to drop it, or…”

“I forgot,” she says. “I haven’t really dropped it, but they’re going to put me in another teacher’s class. I don’t know who yet, they’re still figuring it out, so I have a free period until then.”

“What period is it?” Jason asks, draping his arm around Piper’s shoulders.

“Sixth.”

“Oh, that’s my free period,” Jason says excitedly. “Wanna hang out?”

“Yeah!” Annabeth says with a little happy bounce. Percy looks over and gazes her.

“Are you guys finally dating?” Piper asks abruptly, sounding tired, and Percy looks at her with wide eyes, his face flushing with heat.

“Yeah?” Annabeth says, and Piper lets out a loud noise, throwing her head back.

“Fucking finally.“

“Thank God,” Jason chips in, much to Percy’s embarrassment. “That was fucking agonising.”

“What was?” Annabeth asks, grinning, and Percy groans quietly, letting his head fall to the lockers, closing his eyes. Annabeth’s hand tightens on his.

“If I had to listen to his bitch ass for one more day,” Piper complains. “Annabeth looked at me today,”she says in a high-pitched voice. “We made eye contact.”

Percy covers his flaming face with his a hand, listening to Annabeth laugh.

“Her eyes are silver like the moon,” Jason says obnoxiously.

“I don’t fucking talk like that,” Percy says defensively.

“Yes, you do, you bitch.”

Annabeth is laughing harder, pressing her face to his shoulder as he flips Piper off. The bell rings before he can say anything.

“Okay,” Jason says with a sigh. “I hope we’ve embarrassed you sufficiently.”

“Yeah, you’ve done plenty,” Percy says shortly, and Jason snickers.

“I’ll see you later,” he says, knocking his forehead against Percy’s. “I’ll see you during sixth,” he says to Annabeth. “You wanna just meet here?”

“Uh, yeah, that works.”

“Okay.” He leans close to her. “You’re a part of this now, come here.” He and Piper press chaste kisses to her cheeks, and Percy beams at how her nose scrunches and her eyes squeeze shut.

He holds her hand until they have to separate to sit down in Katz’s, and he feels like his hand almost aches, missing hers.

She kisses his cheek before they part in the hallway. And then, between classes, as they pass each other, her hand squeezes his arm, and he pushes down the urge to call out I love you! through the crowded hallway. During sixth period his phone buzzes in his pocket and he carefully, subtly pulls it out to find a Snap from Jason. He furrows his brows, glancing up to make sure the teacher doesn’t see, and opens it. It’s a selfie of him and Annabeth, both grinning broadly and cheesily, captioned talkin shit.

He immediately saves the photo, smiling softly at it before he sends back a picture of the underside of his desk.

i hate u both

A few minutes later he opens his phone to find a response from Annabeth, a close up selfie of her pouting, scrunching her nose, captioned nuh-uh. He saves this photo too before responding with a selfie, zoomed in on himself smiling.

you’re so pretty

Jason responds with a photo of himself, smiling awkwardly. what about me?

Percy responds with a grimacing selfie.

He tucks his phone away after a moment, hearing the teacher’s voice get louder as he gets closer to Percy, looking up and pretending he’s been paying attention.

After a few minutes he opens his phone to a text from Jason reading, annabeth says to pay attention, and Percy rolls his eyes fondly, responding uuuuuugggggghhhhhhh.

He slips a note into her locker as he’s headed to seventh period. It’s a short note, just a ripped piece of paper that reads you’re really pretty (i’m really lucky) with a small P at the bottom.

He sits outside on the steps, working through his homework with his earbuds in, loud music blasting so he can work through it, twisting his pencil in his hand as he thinks, poking the calculator and flipping through his notes. He doesn’t bother with the literature homework.

He manages to finish his algebra homework, and is starting on his biology when he’s startled out of his thoughts by a hand in his hair. He looks up at Annabeth with a grin, and she sits down on the step next to him as he pulls his earbuds out, her hand still in his hair.

“How was detention?” he asks, pausing his music, and she sighs, leaning over and resting her cheek on his shoulder.

“So fucking boring,” she complains as he flips his notebook shut with his worksheet in it. “Maybe you should’ve gotten detention to hang out with me.”

“That’s what I said…” he says in a told-you-so tone, and she snorts again.

“I still don’t want you to get suspended.”

“I won’t.”

She looks at him, lifts a hand and teases the end of a curl between her fingers.

“You had a swim meet?” she asks, carefully moving it so it isn’t touching his face. (He’s grateful; there’s a breeze, and every time his wet hair touches him it’s freezing.)

“Mhmm.”

“How’d it go?“

“Was fine,” he says lightly, gazing at her. “It was kinda awkward because Bryce was there, but…” She grimaces and he laughs lightly, resisting the urge to lean in and kiss her. He forces himself to look away, closing his notebook.

“Also that note,” she says, watching Percy tuck away his notebook, dropping his pencil the bag, dragging her fingers through his wet curls in a way that makes a shiver run down his back.

“Mmhmm.”

She tugs his hair, and he sits up straight, leaning back to look at her. She’s smiling almost slyly, warmly.

“It was very sweet,” she says softly, combing through his hair gently. She doesn’t seem to care that it’s wet and cold.

“…You’re sweet,” he says after blanking, and she tugs his hair again playfully.

“Your mom’s sweet.”

He lets out a sarcastic laugh, followed by, “That’s not a dig, because she is. Hah.”

She laughs lightly, tugging his hair again before she says, “Alright, are we headed somewhere?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Where are we going?” she asks when they stand, reaching for his hand, and he lets their fingers lace, feeling the press of her ring against his skin.

“The most romantic spot in New York.”

They go to get pizza.

Percy tells her he did most of his homework while waiting for her, and she smiles almost proudly, kicking his leg from where she sits on a swing beside him.

She tells him about her dad and stepmom. Her half-brothers.

“I’m not that close to them,” she says between bites of pizza. “Im kinda close to my dad, but my half-brothers… They don’t really like me all that much.”

“Why not?” Percy asks, furrowing his brows. It’s absurd that someone wouldn’t want to be close to Annabeth, that anybody wouldn’t like her. He can’t imagine how good a sister she must be, or how proud her parents should be of her.

She shrugs, tearing the crust of her pizza, kicking the ground so she swings slightly.

“I’m not like them,” she says lightly. “But it’s okay, I know I’m weird.”

“No, you’re not,” Percy says quickly, a flash of Bryce’s easy, casual, cruel smile in his head. She looks over at him, taking a bite of the crust, smiling slowly.

“It’s okay,” she says softly, comfortingly. “I don’t mind it. Weird isn’t bad.”

“But you’re not weird,” he insists. “You’re… the coolest girl I know.” She stares at him, chewing and smiling. “Don’t tell Piper I said that.”

She laughs and mimes a zipper across her lips.

“Well, I like you,” Percy says firmly, nodding resolutely and kicking his feet to swing forward. The sky is orange.

“Hand.”

Percy sticks his hand out promptly, and Annabeth takes it, lacing their fingers and letting their hands swing between them. They’re quiet for a few minutes, watching the sky together.

“Do you…” Percy starts, pausing, hesitating.

“Hm?”

“Do you know what you’re doing after we graduate?”

“Yeah,” she says, still watching the sky.

“What?” he asks, looking at her, at the side of her face. Her locs are tied up, fanning around her head like fireworks, her skin glowing in the sun. Ethereal.

“NYU,” she says. “For urban design and architecture.”

“…Wow, that makes sense.”

She laughs.

“What did you think I was gonna do?”

“I don’t know,” he says, shrugging. “I didn’t think about it, but architecture makes sense with your art and your brains.”

She laughs again, squeezing his hand, swinging.

“What are you gonna do?”

His smile falters, and he looks back ahead.

“I don’t know,” he says, biting his lip. She’s quiet for a moment, then she squeezes his hand.

“That’s okay,” she says lightly. “You have time.”

He sends her a little smile.

“Yeah?”

“Mhmm.” She sighs, swinging their hands. “You have all year. And you can take a gap year if you want, get a job maybe, figure out what you want to study. If you wanna go to college,” she adds. “You don’t have to. It’s not for everyone.”

He gazes at her. He might be falling in love.

“Plus,” she continues, “if you take a gap year you can come hang out with me.” She grins at him.

“You’d want me to?” he asks, only half-joking. She must see through the joke, because she turns to face him more.

“Of course.” Her thumb strokes down the side of his hand. “You can hang out while I study and make models and shit.”

“You don’t think I’d just be a distraction?” he asks, smiling. She takes a moment to consider.

“…A welcome distraction.”

He grins.

“I’ve thought about competitive swimming,” he says.

“You could do that.”

“I could.”

“I’d support whatever you wanna do, Percy.”

“Yeah?” He looks over at her again. “Would you come to competitions?”

“Of course.” She swings their hands. “I’d make a poster that says something stupid like ‘You’re my favourite fish in the sea’ or something.” Percy’s cheeks flush as he smiles. “And when you win I’d shout ‘That’s my boyfriend!’ really loudly.”

He squeezes his eyes shut, smiling so brightly it makes his face ache.

“Daydream,” he mutters, covering his face with his hand.

She giggles.

It’s almost dark when they finally leave the park, and Percy walks her home, the way to her apartment building already memorised.

“What are you doing this weekend?” she asks, turning to look at him under the scaffolding. He sighs.

“I’m going to see my stepdad’s parents,” he says lightly. “We’re staying all weekend.”

“Will you text me?” she asks, and he smiles at her.

“Of course.”

She leans up to kiss his forehead.

“I had fun,” she says softly, resting a hand on his chest, smoothing over a crease. He’s surprised his knees don’t buckle.

“Me too,” he whispers.

“I’ll see you Monday?”

“Monday.”

—————————

She’s waiting, leaning against her locker when he gets there, and when she sees him, her face lights up and she lifts up off the locker, waiting until he gets to her around the students.

“Hey, pretty girl.”

“Hi,” she says sleepily, then she lets her head fall against his chest, pressing close to him.

“You okay?” he asks gently, wrapping his arms around her. She nods against him, sighing.

“Missed you.”

He laughs lightly, aching.

“It was only a weekend,” he says, even though he missed her too.

“Longest weekend of my life.”

“We’ve gone weekends without talking at all,” he points out, and she pulls away, resting her curled hands on his chest, twisting the string of his hoodie.

“And who says I didn’t miss you?” she asks, her eyes cutting up to his.

He has to look away. It’s like her eyes can see through him.

“I missed you too,” he says softly after a moment, and she gazes at him for a moment.

“Simp.”

“Oh my god.”

“How were your step-grandparents?” she asks, leaning against the lockers.

“Good.” He drops his hands to her waist, holding her flannel lightly. “They made me eat three servings of pie.”

“You deserve it.”

“I do, don’t I?” She smiles at him. She’s wearing makeup today, a shimmery gold over her eyelids that shines against her dark skin. “How was your weekend?”

She looks away, down at where her fingers are twirling and twisting the string of his hoodie. She shrugs.

“It was okay.”

He tilts his head at her, pulling her closer.

“Did something happen?”

She sighs, tugging the string.

“Had a little fight with my dad last night,” she says finally. “But it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

She looks up at him and shrugs again.

“I don’t feel amazing today,” she says. “But it’s… I don’t know.”

“If you need a rejuvenating hug at any time, let me know.”

She smiles, scrunching her nose and pressing her forehead to his chest again.

“What’s your locker number, by the way?” she asks after a moment, lifting her head. “I wanna leave you cute notes too.”

“Very bold of you to assume I know my locker number.”

She gives him a disappointed look, tilting her head.

“Are you serious?”

“…Yeah.”

“Percy.”

“Sorry.”

She shakes her head, smiling fondly.

“You’re a nightmare.”

“I know.”

She fidgets all throughout Katz’s class, spinning her pen, drawing in her notebook, playing with her hair. He wishes they say close enough for him to reach over and hold her hand. She kisses his cheek before they part in the hallway.

—

“Percy, how do you do this?” Piper asks sharply across the table, gesturing to her worksheet. He looks over at it, at the jumbled math equations, at her messy handwriting, at the numbers crossed out and circled and scribbled through. His brain turns to TV static.

“Fuck if I know,” he says, sitting back in his seat. “Ask Jason.”

“Jason,” she says loudly, and Jason looks up from his phone.

“Huh.”

“Number four.”

Jason looks over, sliding the page in front of himself and staring at it for a little bit before,

“C.”

“How the fuck is that possible?” Piper rages, hitting his arm. “How’d you do that? This is due next period.”

Percy looks around as Jason helps her. There are some kids playing music from a speaker across the cafeteria. It’s noisy music, with a bass strong enough that he feels it vibrating in the table. They’re just doing it to be obnoxious, raising the volume when someone asks them to lower it. Percy has half a mind to go over and tell them off.

He sighs, glancing back at Piper, who’s furiously punching numbers into a calculator while Jason talks, and then he looks back across the cafeteria, looking for Annabeth.

Usually she’s sitting and eating, looking up at her friends. They’re usually bickering or laughing, the blonde boy sitting on the table. But she has her head down now, and they’re both sitting next to her, looking down at her.

Percy sits up straight, looking closer, more intently.

Both of their brows are furrowed, the girl talking while the boy runs his hand across Annabeth’s back gently. Annabeth sits up after a few moments, and Percy can’t see her face, but she shakes her head, gesturing vaguely with her hands, and the boy drops his hand before she gets up and leaves, grabbing her bag, both of them watching her go with concerned expressions on their faces.

Percy hesitates for a second, then grabs his bag and leaves Piper and Jason behind with a deft, “Gotta go.”

It’s quieter in the hallway, but the chatter of the students passing through and eating lunch on the floor still echoes around slightly.

He finds her at her locker.

She’s got her head inside her locker, her backpack on, and Percy approaches her slowly.

“Hey,” he says gently, leaning against the locker next to her. She lifts her head, looking at him with wide eyes. “You okay?”

She takes a sharp breath, almost a gasp, looking between his eyes frantically. She gestures again, similarly to how she did in the cafeteria, moving her hands near her ears.

“What’s going on?” Percy asks, wanting to pull her into a hug. “What’s wrong?”

“‘S too much,” she says after another gasping breath, and she squeezes her eyes shut.

“Too much,” he repeats softly. “There’s… There’s an empty classroom down the hall, do you wanna go there?” he asks gently, and she nods quickly. “Okay, come on.” She moves closer to him, and he carefully, gingerly, shuts her locker.

He leads her down the hall, past students eating their lunches and laughing and talking and watching videos on their phones, and she grabs his hand. She’s shaking.

She only lets go when they get to the classroom. He shuts the door behind them, and when he turns around she’s shaking her hands, swinging them like she’s trying to dry them off.

“Take off your bag, Annie,” he says gently, and she does, dropping it to the bag. She’s squeezing her eyes shut, clenching and flexing her hands. “Hey,” he whispers, setting a hand on her shoulder and carefully guiding her to a chair.

She collapses into it, looking around the room with wide, shining eyes, and then she’s rocking back and forth, breathing heavily. He moves to the floor, looking up at her, not touching.

“What do you need?” he asks when she meets his eyes. “What do I do?”

“Can you… My headphones.”

He moves to grab her bag, rummaging through it until he finds a pair of black headphones, folded up and tucked between a book and the bag. He unfolds them and holds them out to her, waiting as she takes them and puts them on, holding them tightly over her ears as she continues rocking.

After a moment she lets go and her hands go back to clenching and flexing in the air, her eyes squeezing shut.

He waits.

She’s breathing heavily, but she isn’t hyperventilating. Eventually she opens her eyes again, blinking and looking down at him before holding her hands out. They’re still shaking. Percy slides his hands into hers, and she moves them to press them to the tops of her legs, above her knees. She squeezes, pressing harder, and Percy tightens his grip, squeezing her legs.

She nods, looking across the empty room and releasing his hands, closing her eyes. He runs his thumbs back and forth over her legs carefully, listening as her breathing normalises. He keeps squeezing her legs, even when her hands lower and her rocking slows to an almost stop.

She opens her eyes after a while. He doesn’t let go.

“Okay?” he asks gently when she pulls off her headphones, holding them in her hand and looking at them.

She nods, but her eyes are gleaming and her lip is trembling.

“‘M sorry,” she mumbles, her voice wobbly, and Percy shakes his head, squeezing.

“Don’t apologise.”

She exhales shakily. He squeezes her legs again gently and she drops her headphones in her lap and slides her hands over his, twining their fingers and squeezing.

“My friends are probably worried,” she says softly.

“You can text them,” he says. “When you feel better.”

She sighs heavily, closing her eyes. He twists his hands so their palms press together, the backs of his hands resting on her legs.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” he asks softly. “Or do you just want some quiet?”

She opens her eyes and looks at him, smiling weakly, and then she’s leaning down. He lifts his face up, and their foreheads press together as she takes another breath.

After a minute, she pulls away, releasing his hands and moving her headphones aside, setting them on the floor before she slides off the chair, pushing it away and moving into Percy’s lap. He opens his arms for her, wrapping them around her when she settles against his chest, her head resting on his shoulder.

“Alright?” he asks gently, shifting his legs so she can sit on the ground between them. She nods, nuzzling her face into his neck and relaxing.

He thinks she might fall asleep. He wouldn’t mind. He’d wait for her.

When she speaks, her voice is soft, right under his ear.

“Sometimes…” she starts. He runs his hands over her waist, her back. “Sometimes I get overstimulated. Usually just in like… noisy, bright places. Grocery stores, shopping malls. That’s why I bring my headphones everywhere.”

“Wise girl,” Percy praises softly, and she smiles, twisting the strings of his hoodie.

“The cafeteria is usually tolerable,” she continues. “But today…”

“The music?”

“Yeah.” She sighs. “And I was… I don’t know. Already kind of upset. Anxious, I guess.”

“That makes it worse?”

“Yeah, it makes me, like… Sensitive.”

Percy kisses her forehead gently. She sighs.

“My family doesn’t get it,” she says. “My dad’s the only one that kind of does, because he’s known me longer, obviously, but even he, like… doesn’t get why I can’t just deal with it.”

“Doesn’t seem like it’s easy to just deal with.”

There’s a pause, and Annabeth takes a shaky breath.

“It’s not.” She relaxes against him. “It’s fucking— frustrating, and no one gets it, and I can’t just— just be normal.”

“You sounds like you’re blaming yourself,” Percy says softly. “It’s not your fault, Beth, you can’t beat yourself up over it.”

“I know,” she breathes.

He kisses her forehead.

“Did I help at all?” he asks after a moment. She nods.

“You did a good job.” He smiles. “A quiet place is always a good idea, I just… can’t really think when I’m freaking out.“

He hums softly, running his hand over her arm.

“The way you touched me helped too, I think,” she adds.

“How?” Percy whispers.

“So—“ She shifts against him, and he lifts his arms for her to move. She stops with her forehead pressing to the side of his neck. “It’s all just… too much. It’s sensory overload, so there’s too much noise, and too much light, or too many things touching me or like… if what I’m wearing is uncomfortable it might make it worse, that’s why I always wear basically the same thing. But…” She sighs. “When I go somewhere quiet and put on my headphones, and close my eyes, and… I’m blocking everything out. And when I’m… rocking or pacing or… doing that thing with my hands and stuff, I’m… regulating.”

“Okay,” Percy says softly, listening intently.

“So when you touched me like that, it gave me something to focus on. I sometimes…” She hesitates. He squeezes her arm. “God, it sounds awful, but I… Sometimes I end up, like, hitting things. Tables or the floor, or— or my legs or chest. Not really hard, I’m not— I’m not trying to hurt myself, I just… Need something to focus on. If that makes sense.”

“It makes sense,” Percy says. He squeezes her again, his chest aching. She holds his arm gently. “If you… need me. You can call me. You know that, right?”

“I know,” she murmurs. “Can we stay here until the bell rings?”

“‘Course.”

She sighs again, shifting to take Percy’s hand, playing with his fingers.

“Did you eat anything?”

Annabeth shakes her head.

“It’s hard to eat when I’m anxious.”

“Think you can eat now?”

“Maybe.”

Percy shifts, careful not to jostle her, and pulls his bag off his back, moving it to rummage around im the front pocket to find a granola bar.

“Here.”

She takes it with a little smile.

“I really like you,” she says softly, almost whispering, as she rips it open and takes a bite. He kisses her forehead again.

“I really like you too.”

She gives him little pieces of the granola bar, holding them up in front of his mouth as he traces lines over her thighs lightly. When it’s gone, she curls up against his chest again, sighing. She trails her fingers over the side of his neck. He sighs, suppressing a shiver.

And then she’s pressing closer and kissing him softly, just under the line of his jaw, and he inhales, his eyes fluttering shut.

“Annabeth,” he breathes.

She kisses him again, pushing her fingers into his curls.

“I appreciate you,” she says softly before she rests her head against his neck again. He can feel the moment she falls asleep, feeling her relax completely, feeling her soft breaths against his neck. He holds her while she rests, running his hands over her legs and arms, pressing kisses to her forehead.

He scrolls his phone, paying close attention to the time, responding to Jason’s where did you go??? message with a selfie, smiling with Annabeth nuzzled into his neck.

After a while Percy kisses her forehead again, whispering her name. She stirs, taking a deep breath.

“Hey,” Percy says softly, touching her cheek. “Babe.”

“Hm?” She cracks her eyes open, looking at him and around the room, stretching without moving off of him. He smiles fondly.

“Bell’s gonna ring,” he says softly. “I didn’t want it to wake you up.”

She smiles, sighing.

“…You’re not entirely a nightmare,” she says quietly.

“Aw. That’s so sweet.”

She stays there until the bell rings, and then she groans, moving so Percy can get up.

“I have to find my friends,” she says as he’s handing her the headphones, taking them and letting him grab her hand and pull her up.

“Hey,” he says softly, squeezing her hand gently as she swings her backpack on. Their fingers twine, and he pulls her closer. “Be nice to yourself.”

She smiles at him, squeezing his hand.

“I’ll try.”

They leave the empty room, and he kisses her forehead before they part in the hallway, ignoring the suggestive looks from other students.

In his next class, his teacher gives them a worksheet that he finishes in record time (he doesn’t know if they’re all correct, but it’s done, and he doesn’t think it really matters), and then he lays his head on his desk, opening his phone under it and googling sensory overload.

He opens the first article, skimming the first paragraph and then scrolling through the symptoms.

* difficulty focusing due to competing sensory input
* extreme irritability
* restlessness and discomfort
* urge to cover your ears or shield your eyes from sensory input
* feeling overly excited or “wound up”
* stress, fear, or anxiety about your surroundings
* higher levels than usual of sensitivity to textures, fabrics, clothing tags, or other things that may rub against skin

He remembers what Annabeth said about her clothes, that she always wears almost the same thing because other things might be uncomfortable. And the way she covered her ears when she had a headache, the way she sometimes is looking directly at the ground as she walks through the crowded hallways. The way she flicks her locs away from her neck and ties them up so they’re out of her face.

He scrolls through ways to cope, ways to help children with it, through examples of situations, and some of them sound achingly familiar, reminiscent of the times he’s left parties early with shaking hands and headaches, of the times he’s gotten too annoyed too quickly at overlapping voices, the times he’s snapped at his friends because the world suddenly felt too loud and too heavy.

Huh.

That makes sense, he supposes.

He keeps scrolling, reading, taking mental notes.

He waits outside after school again, finishing most of his homework and listening to loud music until Annabeth shows up again, collapsing next to him and laying on him as he pulls his earbuds away.

“How was detention?”

“I fell asleep,” she says. “‘M fuckin’ tired.”

He laughs lights, lifting an arm and setting it across her shoulders, pulling her close.

“I’m having a very long day,” she says softly.

“Tomorrow will be better,” Percy tells her. She just hums in response, sighing. “You up for hanging out or do you just want me to take you home?” he asks quietly. She lifts her head, looking up at him, smiling, her eyes almost misted over, glazed tiredly.

“Do you wanna come over?”

Percy raises his eyebrows.

“Is it cool if I do?”

She shrugs.

“I don’t really care if the parents have a problem with it,” she says softly, and he laughs again, brushing his fingertips over the side of her neck. She’s soft. Warm. “They’ll probably just want us to leave the door open or something.”

“Okay,” Percy says. “Homework date?” She gives him that smile he loves so much, the sparkly-eyed, scrunched-nose, giddy grin, and he melts, shaking his head. “You’re such a dork.” She just hums in agreement.

It’s awkward when they go into the apartment, walking through silently, passing by Annabeth’s father, who’s sitting at the dining table working on a laptop. He looks up at them and his eyes meet Percy’s, but he just looks back the laptop with a firm, “Leave the door open.”

“Uh, yes, sir,” Percy says awkwardly, and Annabeth snorts, leading him to her room.

“I hated that,” he says quietly as soon as they’re in her room, and she swings the door until it’s open just a few inches. “I don’t think he likes me very much.“

She shakes her head, shrugging her bag off and moving last him to drop it on her desk. It’s a white desk, partially covered by a laptop and sheets of papers, probably homework or drawing. There’s a little plant in the corner by a desk lamp, and another, taller potted plant between the desk and a sort of open wardrobe, a row of hanging flannels and heavy cardigans above stacks of neatly folded pants and shirts, a row of shoes placed underneath them.

Percy looks around the room. There’s are drawings and photos of buildings pinned and taped to the walls around the desk. The curtains are thin and white, drawn open so sunlight streams into the room. Her blankets are tossed aside on the bed, beige and striped and soft pink, and there’s a stuffed bear by a pile of pillows. It’s cozy. Warm.

“He just thinks you’re messing with me,” Annabeth says, kicking her shoes off and placing them by the potted plant.

“Why would I be messing with you?” Percy asks confusedly, untying his shoes to put them next to hers. She hesitates, taking her bag and crawling onto her bed before she sits cross legged against the wall.

“Uhm. In sophomore year, some guy asked me out,” she says, rummaging through her bag as he sits on her bed, leaving his bag on the ground. The bottom of it is dirty, and he doesn’t want to mess up her sheets. “But when I showed up, he left to meet up with his friends, and I found out it was just… like, a dare. To see if I’d show up. I ended up sitting there for a few hours before Dad came to pick me up.”

“Jesus,” Percy says, aching at how nonchalantly she says it all, as how it just seems to be a passing thought as she sorts through her homework.

“So Dad’s kind of traumatised on my behalf,” she says with a light smile. “I think he hates boys more than I do.”

“Hey.” She looks up at him, and Percy reaches out, leaning closer and holding her chin with a soft hand. “I really like you.”

She softens, gazing back at him, tilting her head.

“I know,” she says softly. “I believe you.”

He gazes at her, his eyes skimming over her warm, dark skin, over her soft, smiling lips, her grey eyes and fluttering lashes and the gold shimmer on her eyelids.

“Percy,” she whispers, and he blinks.

“Hm?” His face flushes with heat as her smile widens. “Sorry, I got distracted, you’re really pretty.”

“You’re so annoying,” she says, shaking her head and grinning, taking his hand and pressing a kiss to his wrist before she drops it and reaches for her bag again.

“Did you get anything done in detention?” he asks as he pulls out a textbook, crossing his legs.

“A little,” she says. “But it was so quiet I couldn’t really focus.”

“Yeah, detention sucks.”

“Not really much a punishment, though. I just got to take a nap.”

“Same energy as suspending kids for skipping.”

Annabeth laughs, spinning her own in her hand as she sets a worksheet on her binder in her lap.

“Oh, you don’t wanna go to school?” she says, raising her eyebrows. “Well, now you can’t. That’ll teach ‘em.”

“You wanna call your teacher an asshole?” he says in the same tone. “Now you get to take a nap.”

They banter and giggle as they work side by side, both of them sitting against the wall. Percy stretches his legs out in front of himself, a textbook resting across his thighs as he punches numbers into a calculator, as he scribbles equations and sentences on worksheets. Annabeth plays music from a small speaker that she leaves on one of the pillows at the head of her bed.

As he’s flipping through the literature packet, attempting to skim the swimming paragraphs of required reading, he glances up to stretch his neck, resting his head against the wall and looking at the ceiling. Her room smells like lemons. Like summer.

With the buildings on the walls, there are photos of Annabeth and some others pinned up. One that’s slightly blurry of Annabeth and the blonde boy from the cafeteria, both of them sticking their tongues out. One of her and a brown-skinned boy laying in some grass, Annabeth’s head resting on his stomach. A few of people that Percy doesn’t recognise, laughing and smiling brightly, one of a boy holding up a peace sign, one of Annabeth braiding a girl’s hair, her brows furrowed in focus while the girl grins at the camera. The same girl is in another photo, her arms around a boy’s shoulders, her lips pressed to his cheek. He’s blushing.

“Percy?”

“Hm?”

He looks over at her. She’s watching him, smiling.

“Are you working?”

He sighs, grinning bashfully.

“Yes,” he lies, looking back to his paper.

He tries again. As his mind begins to wander, he absentmindedly fidgets with the corner of a page, curling and crunching it and ripping it. He tries to pay attention to the music playing from Annabeth’s speaker, tapping his foot in tune with the beat, and after a while Annabeth reaches over and wraps his fingers around his forearm.

He looks over at her. She’s looking at her worksheet, scribbling answers in her slanted handwriting, writing faster than Percy can even think. Her fingers squeeze his arm absentmindedly.

He looks back at his paper, feeling her warm fingers against his skin.

He’s almost done with the packet when his phone buzzes in his pocket, and he drops his pencil, leaning onto Annabeth more than necessary to reach into his pocket. She laughs, shoving him away.

“I have to go,” he says, reading the text firm his mom, and she sighs, leaning against him.

“Don’t want you to go,” she says softly. He lifts an arm, wrapping it around her and hugging her, pressing his cheek to the top of her head.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” he says. She sighs again.

“I’ll walk you to the door.”

She finds a pair of slippers while he puts his shoes on, and holds his hand as she leads him to the door.

“Wait,” Mr Chase’s voice says from the living room as Annabeth is reaching for the doorknob, and she turns with a powerful eyeroll. “Come here.”

Percy looks at Annabeth with wide eyes.

“Dad,” she says loudly, “you do not have to do this.”

“I just wanna talk,” he says, and Percy squeezes her hand.

“It’s okay,” he says softly when she starts to protest again. “It’s fine.”

Mr Chase nods to a chair across the table when Percy walks back in, and Percy sits silently, setting his bag on the floor and knotting his hands in his lap, squeezing his fingers anxiously.

“Annabeth, give us a moment,” Mr Chase says, and Annabeth huffs from where she’s lingering in the doorway.

“I’ll… be in the hallway. I guess.”

Percy glances up at her and tries to give her a reassuring smile.

“So.” Mr Chase closes his laptop and looks at Percy. He has the same grey eyes as Annabeth, but they’re not as warm as hers. He looks firm. Not scary exactly, but definitely intimidating. “You’re dating Annabeth.”

“…Yes, sir?”

“Why?”

Percy blinks, squeezing his hands again.

“Why… am I dating Annabeth?”

“Mhmm.”

“Uhm.” He swallows. “Because I really like her. And I— I think she likes me too.”

“You think?”

“Well—“ Percy squeezes his hands again, trying not to reach up and rub his face or pushing his hair back. “She says she does, but sometimes I… wonder why,” he finished weakly, his face flushing.

Mr Chase just scoffs lightly.

“How did you and Annabeth meet?” he asks.

“Uhm.” He pauses, thinking. “I think… We’ve known each other for years, but I don’t think we ever actually met. We just kind of knew each other by name because we went to the same school for so long.” He hesitates. “But this year we have first period, uhm, history together. And we sit kind of close to each other so we ended up talking and, uhm. Working together.”

“What’s your favourite class?”

“Uhm.” He pauses again, looking at the table, following the grain of the wood with his eyes. He doesn’t have a favourite class. He never has. He’s never particularly liked school. But next to Annabeth, who probably has straight A pluses, who seems to get through every class effortlessly… Percy must look like an idiot. (He really does wonder why she likes him.) “I like biology.”

“Biology?”

“I think it’s really interesting. I’m not the smartest, but… When I’m doing something I’m interested in, I’m better at it.”

“Are you planning on studying that after high school?”

“I…” Percy hesitates, taking a breath. “I’ll be honest, I don’t… I don’t know what I’m going to do after high school.” He shrugs weakly. “I’m— considering going into competitive swimming, or… taking a gap year, but I’m— I’m not sure yet.”

“You’re good at swimming?”

“Yes, sir, I’m … captain of the swim team.”

Mr Chase hums in response, nodding approvingly.

“What do your parents do?“

“My mom works in a candy store,” Percy says. “And my father is absent. I never knew him.”

“You have a good relationship with your mom?”

Percy breaks into a little smile, twisting his fingers.

“Yes, sir, she’s… my best friend.”

Mr Chase smiles softly. Percy’s hands are shaking.

“When did you know you like Annabeth?” Mr Chase asks abruptly. Percy’s cheeks flush with heat, and now he does reach up and push his hair away.

“Uhm. Eighth grade?”

Mr Chase’s eyebrows fly up, and Percy laughs awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

“I saw her in the hallway in eighth grade,” Percy starts to explain. “She was talking to someone, and laughing, and I just… I though she was the prettiest person I’d ever seen in my life.” He pauses, taking a breath, but Mr Chase doesn’t say anything. “I thought it was just… that, like, she was cute, but every time I saw her, I just… fell harder and harder. When I walked into history this year, and she was there, I— I thought I was gonna die.”

Mr Chase laughs lightly.

“Did you ask her out, or— How did this all happen?”

Percy looks at the table.

“We, uhm, had detention together,” he says after taking a moment to collect his thoughts. “And I walked her home because the sun was going down, and she asked me what I did to get detention, and I, uhm. Told her that a… classmate of mine, uh, said some things that weren’t very kind about her when he saw us say hi to each other. And that I used some very… passionate language when I told him off. In front of, uhm. The whole class. And the teacher.”

Mr Chase laughs again, but doesn’t interrupt.

“So I kind of just ended up telling her that I like her,” Percy finishes. “And she said she likes me too, and that it’s ridiculous that she likes me, but—“

Mr Chase laughs harder, his face softening, the wrinkles around his eyes deepening.

“That sounds like something she’d say,” he says lightly, and Percy exhales a sharp, “Yeah.”

There’s an awkward pause, and Percy slides his hands over his legs.

“Okay,” Mr Chase says finally.

“…Okay?”

“You pass.”

“Oh.” There’s another pause. “Okay. Cool.”

“You can leave.”

“Oh, right, okay. Uhm. Thank you.”

He can feels him watching him go, swinging his bag over his shoulder, his hands shaking.

Annabeth is leaning against the wall outside, flipping her pink slipper over with her foot. Their eyes meet when he shuts the door, and she slides it on, sighing.

“I’m so sorry,” she apologises. “Was it awful? What did he say?”

“Uh.” He pushes his curls back, taking a deep breath. “He said I pass?”

“Oh.” She blinks in surprise, then her lips spread into a sort of Well, shit smile. “I gotta marry you now.”

He giggles, his cheeks flushing again, and then he’s reaching out, pulling her into a hug and pressing his face into her shoulder.

“Text me when you get home,” she says when Percy pulls away, and he presses a chaste kiss to her forehead.

“Yes, ma’am.”

—————————

Percy pushes his phone into the pocket of his hoodie, stepping back against the wall so some girls can pass him. He waits for a moment as more people come out of the classroom next to him, leaning against the wall and putting his hair up with a hair tie from around his wrist. The elastic is worn, too loose as he twists and twists it.

He tugs his curls to tighten it as he crosses the crowded hall, wincing at the sound of overlapping voices echoing around, bouncing off the metal lockers. Annabeth had her headphones on when Percy gets to her, leaning against the locker next to hers.

“Hey, pretty girl.” She’s flipping through a textbook, looking for something, and she smiles up at him. “No detention today, right?”

She shakes her head.

“Do you wanna go to the library with me?” she asks, finding a sheet of paper and shutting the text book.

“I haven’t been to the library since I was thirteen,” Percy says. “But I will go with you.”

She beams.

They stop at a convenience store before they head ti the library, and Percy doesn’t let her pay for the gummies and the bottle of Gatorade she picks out, snatching them from her hands as she’s headed to the cashier.

“Hey—“

“I’m paying,” he says, setting everything on the counter. The cashier watches them, amused, and Annabeth gives him a look. “We’re on a date, Annabeth.”

She just rolls her eyes.

In the library they find a little nook, a table with a little bench against the wall that’s hidden from view, and as he’s pulling their snacks out of his bag, she sets her leg across his, sitting as close as possible.

Annabeth works quietly. It looks like she’s working on an essay or something, but her handwriting is hard to read. She nibbles at the gummies while she works, her brows furrowed in focus, periodically leaning to the side and pressing kisses to Percy’s shoulder.

Every time he thinks his heart might give out.

He usually hates working in silence, in classrooms quiet enough to hear chairs creak and pencils scratch, but somehow he manages to finish almost everything before his mind starts to wander. Something about sitting with Annabeth, working together quietly with their legs pressed together, with little kisses on his shoulders like encouragement.

He’s almost done with his algebra when Annabeth sets her pencil down and wraps her arms around Percy’s arm, laying her cheek on his shoulder. He finishes scribbling an answer, checking the number on his calculator, before he looks over at her.

“Alright?”

“My brain is tired.”

“Mm. Same.”

He stretches, setting his hand on her leg gently, and sighs.

“Oh, I had a question,” he says abruptly, and she hums questioningly, her eyes cutting up to him. “So tomorrow’s Friday.”

“Mhmm.”

“My parents are going somewhere for the night,” he says, running his thumb back and forth across her leg. “They said I could have some friends over, I was thinking you, Piper, and Jason could come over for a movie night.”

She presses her cheek against his shoulder, her arms tightening around his.

“We could get pizza or something after school. Mom said it’s cool if you guys wanna spend the night.”

She’s quiet for a moment.

“Just a movie, right?”

“Just a movie,” he reassures her. “Just the four of us. It’ll be quiet.”

“I went to a party a while ago and it was awful,” she says, wide-eyed, staring blankly. “Everyone was drunk and gross and loud.”

“It’s not gonna be a party,” Percy says, setting a hand over Annabeth’s, tracing her knuckles. “My parents and I don’t drink, so there isn’t even any alcohol at the apartment. It’ll be chill.” He squeezes her hand gently. “And if you wanna leave at all, I’ll take you home.”

She smiles, her cheek squishing against his shoulder.

“Okay.”

“You wanna come?”

“Mhmm. What movie are we gonna watch?”

“Dunno yet. Probably like… Finding Nemo or something.”

“Mm.”

“Did you finish your homework?”

“Almost,” she sighs, hugging his arm tighter. He squeezes her leg. “But that essay is due in two weeks, so.”

“Jesus,” he scoffs. “You’re ahead.”

“Not really, I’m working on the rough draft right now.”

“Oh, I don’t do rough drafts.”

“…Of course you don’t.”

“I turn them in raw,” he says, and she laughs, shaking her head. “But I’ve made it this far, so I think I’m good.”

“I dont know how to feel about that.”

“That’s okay.” He sighs, kissing her head. She smells like lemons. “You ready to go home?”

She groans quietly.

“I guess.” She lets go of him, but not before lifting her head and kissing his cheek softly.

They pack their things in silence (except when Percy drops a book loudly and Annabeth has to muffle her laughter in her arm). Percy holds the door open for her, bowing formally with a little Madam.

They hold hands the whole way to Annabeth’s, and Percy uses her hand to make her twirl, commenting that she is beauty, she is grace.

“Text me when you get home,” she says as she’s hugging him.

“I will,” he whispers, his cheeks flushing warm when she turns her face and presses a soft kiss to his cheek again.

—————————

“And I brought my cutest pajamas,” Annabeth adds, pushing her overnight bag, a SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY tote bag, into her locker.

“Oh?” Percy says, raising his eyebrows.

“Sweatpants and a sweater,” she says, closing the locker and twisting the lock.

“Red carpet worthy, my love.”

She just laughs lightly, knocking him against the lockers with a shine in her eyes. He lets himself fall against them, smiling as she steps in front of him.

“You gonna finish all your homework before we go to your place?” Annabeth asks, leaning against him, and he sets his hands on her waist, holding her as she lets her weight rest on him.

“I make no promises.”

“Percy…” She leans close enough that their noses brush, and his breath gets caught in his throat, his cheeks flushing with heat. She must see him blush, because she grins.

“Are you just trying to fuck with me?” he asks, his hands tightening on her waist. “I don’t appreciate it.”

She doesn’t say anything, just smiling knowingly at him, her eyes skimming down to his lips before they meet Percy’s again.

“You’re gonna kill me,” he says quietly. She hums in response, smiling slyly.

“Excuse me,” Jason’s voice says loudly suddenly, making them both jump, and before either of them can say anything, Piper is shoving between them, separating them. Annabeth laughs loudly, stumbling back, and Jason catches her before she can fall into the crowded hallways.

“PDA!” Piper says loudly. “You whores!”

Annabeth laughs harder, leaning against Jason and Percy tries to push Piper away, and Piper smacks his hands away.

“We were just looking at each other,” Percy says, smacking at her.

“I could feel the tension in the air,” Piper says dramatically, and Jason laughs, his arm draped across Annabeth’s shoulders.

“You’re lucky Cohen didn’t catch you,” Jason says. “You’d both be suspended.”

“He couldn’t suspend us for looking at each other,” Percy says, his face still warm. Annabeth is grinning at him.

“He’d try.”

“I find this very rich, considering you guys are constantly making out at school,” Percy says. Piper scoffs, smacking his shoulder with the back of her hand.

“We don’t make out at school,” she says sassily, but then she and Jason look at each other blankly. “Except that one time.”

“That was fun,” Jason says, pointing at her with the hand that’s dangling from Annabeth’s shoulder.

“It was, we should do it again sometime.”

“You hypocrites,” Annabeth says, laughing.

“Anyway,” Piper says, deftly changing the subject. “We all ready for tonight?”

“Yeah, Annabeth brought her cute pajamas,” Percy says, and Annabeth snorts as Jason and Piper give her suggestive looks.

“Oh, is that so?” Piper says, quirking her eyebrows, and Annabeth whispers, “Sweatpants,” like it’s a scandalous secret.

Piper laughs, smacking Percy again.

“Are we just meeting here after school?” Jason asks, and Piper leans against the locker next to Percy, ignoring him shove his shoulder against her. Just to be annoying.

“I think?“ Percy looks at Piper. “You don’t have detention, do you?”

“No, I’m not you, asshole.”

When Percy rolls his eyes and looks away, Annabeth is looking past Jason, down the hall, and then she’s gasping excitedly, patting Jason’s chest so he moves out of the way with a short, “Be right back.”

The three of them watch as she goes to a boy that’s standing down the hall and punches him in the arm, grinning as he looks at her and laughs, hugging her tightly.

Percy pulls a slip of paper out of his pocket and pushes it into Annabeth’s locker while she isn’t looking.

He recognises the boy from Annabeth’s wall, the photo of them laying in the grass.

“Oh my god,” Jason says sharply, looking at Piper with wide eyes. “That’s him.”

“What?” Percy asks, but Piper’s jaw drops as she grins, and she looks back at Annabeth and the boy, both of them talking animatedly.

“That’s him?” Piper says loudly, and Jason shushes her, standing next to her against the lockers, facing Piper and Percy, pressing a hand to his face. He’s blushing.

“What the fuck is going on?” Percy asks, looking at them.

“Jason has a crush on him,” Piper explain, looking past him, and a laugh bursts from Percy’s chest.

“Are you serious?”

Jason just squeezes his eyes shut, groaning, reaching under his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Percy looks past him too, looking at Annabeth and the boy. He has overgrown curls that fall in his face, but he doesn’t seem to notice, smiling brightly and talking to Annabeth quickly. He’s talking with his hands.

“Oh, no,” Piper says after a second, looking at Jason, wide-eyed.

“Huh?”

“Oh, he’s really cute.”

Percy laughs, interrupting Jason’s “Right?”

“This isn’t good,” Piper says, containing her laughter and shaking her head at Jason.

“Or it’s great,” Percy says lightly.

“Shut up, Percy.”

“Shut the fuck up, Percy.”

“They’re coming over, prepare yourselves.”

“What?” Jason says, his eyes wide and shining.

“Hey,” Percy says, ignoring him as Annabeth approaches with the boy, standing up straight off the lockers.

“Leo, Percy,” Annabeth says, gesturing to Percy, who lifts a hand to meet Leo’s.

“The boyfriend?” Leo says dramatically, dapping him up, and Percy laughs.

“The boyfriend.”

“And Jason and Piper,” Annabeth interrupts, smacking Leo’s hand aside and moving to stand against Percy’s chest. He wraps an arm around her as Leo turns to them. Both of them are slightly red-faced, and Piper smiles awkwardly.

“You… are in Thompson’s class,” Leo says, pointing at Jason before hesitantly lifting his hand, and Jason’s cheeks darken as he nods. Leo’s playful demeanour seems to have dropped, replaced by wide eyes and an air of nervous awkwardness. Percy grins.

“Uh, yeah, you— you sit in the back, right?” Jason says, dapping him up nervously, and Percy knows that Jason knows exactly where Leo sits.

“Yeah,” Leo says, turning to look at Piper, doing the same as he stares at her, the same spellbound look in his eyes. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Piper says, grinning knowingly. Percy and Annabeth watch as Leo looks back and forth between Piper and Jason, and then Percy starts laughing, turning to press his face into Annabeth’s shoulder to silence himself, and she smacks him, watching them like they’re a suspenseful movie.

“Sorry,” Leo says finally, scratching the back of his neck bashfully, his cheeks flushing. “I’m having, like, uhm. Like a bi crisis right now.” He clears his throat, glancing at Annabeth and Percy briefly and shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “So, uhm. How’re you doing, how’s your week been?” He leans back, shifting his weight onto one leg, trying to be casual. “Fridays, huh?“

Percy and Annabeth sneak away as the three of them talk, Annabeth giggling silently as she slowly reaches for her bag that’s by Piper’s feet. None of them notice.

“Oh my god,” Percy says when they get away, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She looks at him, wide-eyed and frantic, hitting his chest as they navigate the hallway.

“Can Leo come with us tonight?” she asks excitedly. Percy stops short and grabs her shoulders, shaking her.

“You’re a genius.”

She laughs happily, her eyes squeezing shut, and then she’s hopping slightly and flapping her hands, and Percy wants to kiss her.

“Oh my god, I love you.”

His face flushes with heat, and his eyes widen, and her grin somehow grows even more, her eyes widening.

“You said it,” she says, poking him in the chest.

“Wow, I said that way too soon, didn’t I?”

“Say it again,” she says giddily, hitting his chest rapidly. “Say it again, say it again.”

“I love you,” he says without hesitation, looking into her eyes. She smiles so brightly her eyes are almost squinting shuts, her shoulders hunching, and she lets out a little squeal.

“I love you too,” she says shortly, and then she turns around, headed to Katz’s room. The Earth falls out from underneath him. The sky opens up. The sea crashes over him in a tidal wave, and every cell in his body is glowing.

“Wh— Beth, you can’t just walk away after that!”

He hears her laugh over the chatter of the hallway.

She’s sitting in her seat on her phone when he finally is able to make his way inside, and she looks up at him as he approaches her.

“You’re the worst,” he says, and she hums a soft Mhmm as he leans down and presses a kiss to her forehead. “Are you texting Leo?”

“Yeah,” she says, watching him go sit at his seat and glancing at his phone. “I have a feeling he’s still talking with Jason and Piper, though.”

Percy just grins.

—

“I cannot believe you guys invited Leo,” Piper says, her voice muffled by the sofa cushion her face is buried in.

“We had to,” Annabeth tells her, giggling at the glare Piper sends her.

“I’m kinda surprised you guys didn’t invite him yourselves,” Percy calls from the kitchen around the corner.

Annabeth smiles, but it’s not entirely about the Leo situation.

There’s a blanket across her shoulders, and she’s nestled into the corner of the sofa, hugging a pillow from Percy’s room.

(Which she loves; it’s dim and cozy, almost everything a different shade of blue. There’s a shelf with a row of swimming trophies and medals, and his desk is covered with textbooks and forgotten homework. There are seashells and pretty rocks everything; on the base of his desk lamp, around and in his trophies, on his bedside table. The walls are covered with posters of bands Annabeth doesn’t recognise and posters of sea creatures and animals. There’s a worn blue rug by his bed, partially covered by the duvet that must have come from a children set, patterned with cartoon whales and fish and sting rays.

“I didn’t know you liked the ocean so much,” she’s said when she followed him in as Piper and Jason made themselves at home in the living room. He’d just shrugged bashfully, his cheeks flushing pink.)

The pillow in Annabeth’s lap smells like Percy, warm and masculine and cozy, and she buries her face in it as Piper bickers with him, her voice loud enough to carry to the kitchen.

Percy’s apartment is nice. It’s small, much smaller than Annabeth’s, but it feels like a home. There are pillows and blankets almost everywhere, all of them worn and loved, and there are photos on every single wall: Percy as a baby, as a toddler. On his first day of school, grimacing as his mom presses a kiss to his squishing cheek. With a bright blue birthday cake in front of him, his eyes shining.

Annabeth feels almost sleepy, curled up on the soft sofa, but before she can drift off, a loud buzzing comes from the door, and Piper groans. Percy runs to the door, wiping his hands with a checked kitchen towel, and clicks a button.

“Sí?”

“Yo.” Leo’s voice crackles over the speaker. “I think I’m in the right place.”

“I think you are, too.” Annabeth laughs into the pillow lightly. “I’ll let you in.”

Before he goes to the kitchen again he leans over Annabeth, pushing a loc out of her face and brushing his fingertips over her cheek. She sighs, lifting her chin to look up at him. His hand smells like dish soap. She can still hear Jason putting dishes away, the glass clattering in cupboards.

“Are you falling asleep, my love?” Percy asks softly, holding her chin lightly. Her eyelids flutter shut, and she smiles softly, shrugging.

“Little bit,” she says quietly, looking up at him. His hair is tied up in a bun, a few curls escaping by his neck. The gold stud in his ear flashes as he tilts his head at her.

“Well, you better wake up, ‘cuz we ordered pizza.”

She laughs lightly, lifting her chin up more so he can kiss her forehead before he goes back to the kitchen.

“‘My love?’” Piper says dryly, and Annabeth looks at her. She has an eyebrow raised, a smile teasing her lips. “What, are you married?”

Annabeth sticks her tongue out at her.

Before Piper can retort, there’s a short knock at the door, and Annabeth laughs as Piper scrambles up from the sofa to open the door. Annabeth turns to look as the door swings open, and Leo look at Piper, his face lighting up.

“Hi,” he says breathlessly.

“Hi.”

They stare at each other for a moment before Annabeth interrupts but clearing her throat loudly, and Leo blinks, looking past Piper to find Annabeth on the sofa, watching them.

“Hey,” he says, stepping inside, and Piper shuts the door behind him. “Sorry, I got distracted for a second.“

“Mhmm.”

Leo takes a breath, looking around the apartment.

“I brought my sexiest pajamas,” he says, dropping his bag off his shoulder. “Just warning you guys now.”

“Oh, so did Annabeth,” Piper says lightly, dropping onto the sofa again with a breath. Leo follows her, leaning against the armrest and looking over her to Annabeth, raising his eyebrows.

“Oh, yeah?”

Annabeth shifts, moving to lift a leg up.

“Pink sweatpants.”

“Oh, me too!”

—

Percy sits close enough during the movie that Annabeth can feel his warmth, and she leans against his shoulder in the dark, holding her slice of pizza with both hands. He leans back, carefully removing the olives from his own slice and placing them hers. She watches, smiling softly at the way his brows furrow in focus, at the way he makes sure none of them fall.

“Love you,” she whispers softly. He smiles without looking at her, still meticulously placing olives on her pizza.

“Love you too,” he says when he finishes, kissing her cheek as she takes a bite.

He looks back at the movie, sighing and leaning back against the sofa, shifting his legs under the blanket they’re sharing. The movie lights up his face, his eyes shining and sparkling.

She looks past him after a moment, at the other. Jason and Piper and sitting next to each other, watching the movie raptly, eating pizza, and Leo is sitting on the floor between them. Piper’s hand is in his hair, playing with it absently, and he has his head tilted back into her hand, a soft smile on his face.

Annabeth smiles.

She finishes eating first, and waits for Percy to finish before she moves, pushing his hands aside and shifting so she’s between his legs, laying on his chest. She can’t see the movie anymore, but she doesn’t care, especially when Percy’s arms wrap around her and his face rests on her head. She closes her eyes, sighing, smiling when Percy moves the blanket so it’s draping over her body. She nestles into him, rubbing her cheek against his chest.

“Comfy?” he whispers.

She hums softly.

He kisses her forehead, shifting down the sofa. He runs his hands over her back, pressing over her sweater until he reaches her neck, and he scratches over the back of it gently with his short nails. She hums again. Her hands curl into loose fists against him.

The movie muddles into white noise as she drifts off, feeling Percy’s heartbeat against the hand that rests on his chest by her face, feeling his chest rise and fall with every breath.

“Percy,” she says, mostly asleep.

“Mhmm?”

She takes a long sigh, shifting and lifting a leg, hitching it up on his hip. He runs a hand down her thigh, squeezing it the way he did when she was experiencing sensory overload.

“Smell good,” she mumbles, feeling him laugh lightly.

“You smell good too.”

She wakes up when the sun is streaming through the windows, smelling something sweet in the air. She has to detach from Percy, carefully moving so his arms fall away, looking down at him. He’s still completely asleep, curls fallen from his bun, face relaxed and calm. He’s drooling. It’s cute.

She smiles softly, sitting up and looking across the room. Jason, Leo, and Piper are all asleep on the floor, Jason in the middle with Piper’s face resting on his chest and Leo’s arms around his middle. Their legs are tangled.

Annabeth grins at them, spotting Jason’s glasses balancing precariously on the edge of the coffee table. She pushes them back as she makes her way to the kitchen, tugging the sleeves of her sweater over her hands.

There’s a woman, presumably Percy’s mom, in the kitchen, working at the stove. Her hair is curly like Percy’s, tied up in a haphazard bun, wearing an apron on top of her pajamas. She looks like an art teacher, Annabeth thinks.

“Good morning,” she says softly, entering, and Ms Jackson turns around, her face lighting up. There’s french toast on the stove, a bright blue spatula in her hand, but she drops it.

“Annabeth,” she says warmly, and Annabeth smiles, nodding. “Are you a hugger?”

“I am,” she says, smiling brightly, and Ms Jackson crosses the kitchen, hugging her tightly. Annabeth hugs her back, squeezing her eyes shut.

When Ms Jackson pulls away, she holds Annabeth’s face tenderly. She has the same green eyes as Percy, but she has wrinkles around them, soft lines from years of laughter.

“Oh, you are beautiful,” she says softly, lovingly. Annabeth looks at the floor, trying to suppress her smile. “You know, Percy won’t shut up about you,” she says before she lets go, turning back to the stove.

“Really?” Annabeth asks shyly, taking a seat at the dining table. She looks around the room. There are herbs hanging on strings, small plants on the windowsill.

“Really,” Ms Jackson confirms, flipping a slice of french toast on the stove before moving it to a plate. “Always going on about your eyes, your hair, how smart you are.” Annabeth’s face burns. “He says you’re really cool,” she adds, with finger-quotes.

Annabeth giggles lightly, lifting her feet onto the chair and setting her chin on her knee.

“What do you think of him?” Ms Jackson asks as she cooks. “Is he sweet to you?”

“Yes,” Annabeth says without hesitation, smiling. “He’s very sweet.” She wraps her arms around her legs, thinking. “We ordered pizza last night,” she starts, and Ms Jackson hums, listening. “And he got on with olives, just so he could take the olives off his pieces and put them on mine.”

Ms Jackson chuckles quietly.

“Of course.”

“He always seems to know exactly what I need,” Annabeth says thoughtfully. “Sometimes I… need more time to speak, or I get overwhelmed with noise, and stuff, and he’s… He’s so patient with me.”

Ms Jackson turns to look at Annabeth, smiling almost proudly.

“You did a good job with him,” Annabeth adds lightly, and Ms Jackson laughs. (She has a wonderful laugh. Light and careless and motherly and warm. Comforting.)

“My pride and joy,” she says.

“Are you talking about me?” a voice grumbles from the entry, and Annabeth turns to see Percy, rubbing his face tiredly, his eyes almost closed.

“Yes,” Annabeth says, and he smiles at her fondly before coming in and leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead. “You drool when you sleep,” she says.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he says dryly, and then he’s stepping up behind his mom, kissing her cheek with a soft, “Morning, Mami.”

“Buenos días, cariño,” she says, leaning against him as she works. He says something softly to her, and Annabeth watches fondly. He taller than her, and he pushes her hair out of her face for her.

“You sleep okay?” Percy asks when he joins Annabeth at the table, moving a chair closer to hers so he can lean over and be close.

“Yeah,” she says, turning to face him. “You’re very comfortable.”

He smiles, scrunching his nose at her.

“Did you see the others?” he asks, and Annabeth gasps, hitting his arm.

“They’re so cute,” she says giddily. “You say Piper playing with Leo’s hair last night?”

“Yes.” His smile is beautiful. It makes his eyes squeeze shut, and Annabeth knows he’ll have wrinkles like his mother’s when he’s older. She hopes they’re still together then. She wants to see it. “We’re so good at this.”

“It was entirely an accident,” she says. “But yes, I agree.”

“Eh.”

They sit with Ms Jackson for a while, eating and recounting the story of how they got together, kicking at each other under the table. Ms Jackson asks about her parents. Annabeth tells her everything.

She’s a warm person. Like if the middle of summer was a person, careless and full of ease, the comfort of we have tomorrow and the golden evening sunlight. Annabeth doesn’t even try to stop her mouth from talking, even when she knows she’s rambling, talking too fast, the way her own parents would usually scold or huff or roll their eyes at, the way that makes her half brothers tell her to shut up. Because Percy and Ms Jackson are both listening. Nodding, smiling, asking questions, prompting. Like they want her to talk.

Leo comes in after a while, rubbing his face, and Ms Jackson promptly says she doesn’t know him, asking his name.

“Uh, Leo. Valdez.”

“Jason and Piper’s boyfriend,” Percy teases, but Leo grins awkwardly, shrugging. Annabeth’s jaw drops, and Ms Jackson laughs loudly. (Annabeth and Percy already told her everything.) “What?” Percy exclaims, the legs of his seat dropping the floor. “Already? Are you kidding?“

“Yeah, you guys fell asleep really quickly last night,” Leo says. “We got to talk.”

“This is bullshit,” Percy says. “I pine after Annabeth for years, and you get with them after like… less than twenty four hours.”

“God has favourites,” Leo says simply.

Piper calls Ms Jackson “Mom” when she wakes up, and kisses her cheek, and Jason follows soon after, glasses askew. Leo reaches up and fixes them wordlessly, easily, like he’s been doing it for years. Annabeth’s hear swells at the soft look Jason gives him.

They all stay for a while. They watch another movie, though this time Percy lays with his head in Annabeth’s lap. She plays with his hair. Piper sits on Jason’s lap, her legs across Leo’s lap, and Leo fiddles with the ends of her sweatpants until Jason reaches over to hold one of his hands.

Leo leaves first, to help his mom at her workshop. Then Jason, then Piper, and when Annabeth needs to leave after a text from her dad, Percy insists on walking her home. He takes a quick shower, and while he’s gone, Annabeth steals a hoodie from his room. (A swim team hoodie; it smells like Percy.)

He carries her bags for her while they walk, swinging their hands as humming quietly.

“Look how pretty,” he says after a while, gesturing go the sky. She looks. It’s blue
and orange and pink, rays of sunlight beaming through the clouds. “Oh, wait.”

He releases her hand, finding his phone in his pocket and lifting it to take a picture.

“Jason loves the sky,” he says. “I always take photos for him.”

He snaps a few shots, and she can’t help it anymore.

“Percy.”

“Mhmm?”

He turns, eyebrows raised, and she hesitates for just a second before she reaches out and tugs him close, kissing him on the mouth.

It lasts a few seconds, lingering and warm, and then she pulls away, looking at him. His eyes are closed, his mouth hanging open, but he opens his eyes after a moment.

“Oh,” he breathes.

“Oh,” she repeats, letting go of his shirt.

He opens his eyes, looking at her.

“You just kissed me.”

“I’m aware.”

“You… just kissed me.”

She giggles, tilting her head at him.

“I know, Percy.”

He stares at her, wide-eyed, almost smiling.

“Do you need a moment?” she asks, and he nods promptly with a little uh-huh, and then he turns on his heel. walking a few steps away before he stops and drops to his knees, raising his fists to the sky. Annabeth bursts into laughter, watching, and she’s almost in tears when he stands and goes back to her, shoving his phone in his pocket before he grabs her and kisses her again. It softens after a moment, his hands gentle on her cheeks and then the sides of her neck, and she reaches up to hold his face.

They pull away when they’re both smiling too much to kiss, and he just pulls her into his arms.

It takes a while for them to get back to her apartment building, and when they get there, he gently pushes her against the wall under the scaffolding, leaning in and kissing her gently. She hums quietly, pushing a hand into his curls. They’re tangled. He doesn’t seem to mind.

It takes longer for her to actually go inside.

“Text me when you get home,” she says between kisses, a hand gripping his shirt and the other holding his jaw.

“I will.” He kisses her again.

He does.

Followed by a message that reads, i am getting that hoodie back right?

She laughs, tucking her legs up on her desk chair. It wasn’t exactly a secret that she’d taken it, but she didn’t think he’d notice that quickly.

no promises

Notes:

pls leave comments i need them like air <3