Work Text:
Not-So-Platonical
Luke, Annabeth decided, was a complete and utter douchebag.
"Are you ready to order, miss?" Her waitress, a pretty girl with kaleidoscope eyes, asked for what felt like the hundredth time in the last half an hour.
Annabeth looked up and she gave her the same tight smile that did not seem to leave her face before shaking her head.
"A few more minutes?" She pleaded, her silvery eyes flickering briefly towards the restaurant's crystal door, hoping that guy would just finally arrive, before returning to the waitress.
The girl, Piper (Annabeth managed to read her nametag), had the decency to look apologetical, "Maybe he's n-"
Annabeth sighed, "Just a few more."
The waitress nodded, sending one more small smile her way, before retreating to attend another table.
Really, Annabeth should have seen this coming from a mile away. Dating had never been a first on Annabeth's list. Until halia, her best friend, announced that she had had enough of her solitary attitude. Thals wanted her to get her nose out of her goddamned books she was always reading and her ass out of the stupidly boring library she spent half her time at, as she had so kindly put it.
'Luke Castellan,' Thalia had declared with a wide smile as they sat at the coffee shop not to far from the apartment they shared, 'You'll like him.'
'Highly doubt it,' Annabeth had rolled her eyes and returned to look back at the book resting in her hands, only to be pulled away by a mad looking Thalia before she had been hauled out of the coffee shop.
Now, as Annabeth sat at a table for two (alone, she might add), pushing her water glass from side to side, she wondered why she even bothered showing up. To her credit, she had spent a complete hour getting ready, deciding to wear a light blue summer dress along with her favorite silver heels. Her curly blonde hair was loose over her shoulders and she had even put on light make-up, which she despised but her best friend wouldn't take no for an answer, the hypocrite. She glanced down at her watch and cursed under her breath. Forty minutes, she had waited, and, by her standards, that was more than enough. Annabeth had more important things to do, like finish her last design or get done with her calculus homework, than waiting for a boy who would never come.
Why had she even agreed to come to such an excuse of a date?
Annabeth raised her hand, about to call Piper and stop from embarrasing herself any further, when a guy slid into the seat in front of her, looking flustered.
"I'm really sorry, babe, I got stuck in traffic on the way here, you know how it is," he announced, rather loudly, she noted.
Annabeth blinked at the boy, clearly taken aback by his sudden appearance. When she had asked about Luke, Thalia had showed her a picture of a sandy haired boy, with bright blue eyes the color of the sky and a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye down to his jaw.
'An accident,' Thalia had offered before she could even ask.
This boy, however, was completely the opposite of that sandy haired boy with a friendly smile. This boy looked about her age. With a messy mop of raven hair and his eyes were definitely not bright blue, but sea-green, a color so beautiful and unusual that Annabeth was reminded of the beach on a sunny day. He had freckles, thought they were barely visible, since she only even noticed them when he leaned over the table towards her.
"I'm sorry to startle you, just go along with it. Whoever decided to not come to your date is obviously a douchebag," he said, this time low enough for only her to hear and Annabeth's lip twitched, as if she wanted to smile at the fact that he had just insulted her nonexistent date, which she did want.
At her blank expression and complete silence, he cleared his throat, quickly trusted his hand towards her, and sat back down on Luke's —now his— chair.
"I'm Perseus. Perseus Jackson," he said, sending his a small smile that made the butterflies, she did not know even existed, in her stomach awaken, "Call me Percy."
Where had those come from?
She also noticed that his smile was totally different from Luke's. Where Luke's had been friendly enough, Percy's was warm, welcoming. Like he wouldn't mind sitting down for hours as she ranted about her problems before he gave a brief input to show his support. It made all her worries disappear, as irrational as it sounded. So, even if he was a stranger sitting at her table without her permission when she was supposed to be on a date with an idiot who decided he was too good to show up, she had a sudden sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, this date wasn't ruined yet.
Finally, she wrapped her hand around his, which sent unnecessary sparks to her skin, and shook it quickly before she pulled away.
"Annabeth Chase," She said, raising an eyebrow at him as his smiled widened. Gods, she thought, that smile.
"Nice to meet you, Annabeth. You have a beautiful name, and I don't want you to think like I'm trying to hit on you, which I mean- I could, since you're beautiful-" he said, making the stupid butterflies threaten to burst out of her midsection, "Just... I thought you would like the company after all your waiting," he muttered, looking anywhere but her eyes.
"How do you know that?" She asked, watching him cautiously.
He rubbed the back of his neck, "I work here."
"Oh."
He turned to her and his smile returned, "I just finished my shift so... would you mind..?"
Annabeth shook her head, "I wouldn't," she replied, shooting him a smile of her own.
His eyes twinkled at that and he turned to her waitress, "Hey Pipes? Could you get me a menu?"
Piper stopped at their table with a face splitting grin, "Get it yourself, asshole," she replied sweetly, whacking him on the head with her notepad and causing Annabeth to burst into a bubble of laughter.
They know each other, was Annabeth's first thought as she watched them banter back and forth like children fighting over a toy. Percy worked there, she remembered, so of course they knew each other. For a single moment, she thought the worse, Piper now knew for sure that her date had not bothered to show up and would look at her in pity. Like everyone else often did when they saw her walking alone through the hallways of her college. But the more she stared and listened to their childish fighting, the more she realized she couldn't bring herself to care.
Then, done with their bickering, her waitress turned to her, still smiling, and winked, "Don't worry, honey. I won't let him give you any trouble."
At this, Percy's ears turned red in embarrassment as he halfheartedly glared at his friend while she walked away, making Annabeth's laughter continue. Percy turned to Annabeth and shot her small smile that made her turn red instead before he began asking about her. She did the same and slowly, the began to know a little more about each other. And as Percy and her talked, Piper giving her juicy input on Percy's life choices every now and then (much to the boy's displeasure. I mean, blue food? Really?), she couldn't help thinking, maybe coming here wasn't a bad idea after all.
She made a mental note to thank Thalia later.