Goodomenslover20

“Your room is occupied by another guest but we have another available, but uhm-” she glanced between her and Percy and said, “-It's a single”.

Annabeth heard Percy let out a soft chuckle, but she couldn’t be bothered by him at that moment. Not only would she have to share a room with Percy, there would be only one bed. Annabeth swore softly, earning a wince from the receptionist.

“Umm, of course you will be compensated but-” “Are there really no other rooms available?” Annabeth snapped, cutting her off. The woman visibly paled. “No, Ma’am. The NYPD convention have booked most of the rooms and the ones that aren’t booked by them are occupied by other guests”

“Well that’s alright, we’ll take the room” Percy interrupted, saving the receptionist from Annabeth’s wrath. The receptionist sighed softly and tapped away at her computer for a few seconds before handing Percy a key card. He took it and without so much as a glance at Annabeth took off across the lobby, towards the elevator.

Annabeth swore again and followed him, trying to match his ridiculously long steps. Neither of them said anything as the elevator dinged open and a few guests streamed out. It was only after they’d entered the elevator and were alone was when Annabeth whirled on her dark-haired companion.

“I cannot believe this! Not only is Chiron making me attend this stupid convention, now I have to share a bed with you?!” It was only after she spoke that Annabeth realised her phrasing was a little off since Percy gave her an amused smirk.

“No one’s asking you to share a bed with me, Chase” he said and Annabeth scowled. “You know what I meant!” she snapped before turning to glare at the elevator doors.

“Besides, I thought you liked conventions” Percy drawled in an amused voice, leaning against the elevator wall as he did. “I do,” Annabeth seethed. “Just not when I need to attend it with you”. And she meant it.

Normally she found these work conventions quite entertaining and enjoyed coming to them. And she wouldn’t have minded coming to this convention with literally any other of the detectives in the ninety-ninth precinct.

Reyna, despite her gruff attitude, was actually nice company to have. Hazel and Frank were just so sweet and kind, Piper had a tendency to be a little eccentric but she was manageable, and Jason was basically her mirror.

Grover was one of her best friends and Leo perhaps was the only detective other than Percy who got on Annabeth’s nerves, but she could handle him too-he was terrified of her.

But Percy? He was infuriating, immature and the exact opposite of her. It wasn’t enough that she had to put up with Percy’s smug, cocky attitude at the precinct, Chiron was now forcing her to work with him.

She understood Chiron’s point of view- Annabeth and Percy were two of his best detectives and hence the ideal options to represent the 99th precinct at this convention.

Andas much as she hated to admit it, while Percy had tendency to be childish and idiotic, he was pretty smart. He was the only one in the entire precinct who had as many solved cases as she did. And while her and Percy had made an acceptably good team on a few cases before now, that didn’t necessarily mean she liked him.

While Annabeth had her entire game plan sketched out and knew exactly what her ultimate goal-to be a captain in the NYPD- was when she started at the Police academy, Percy only joined the force because of Die Hard.

It was ridiculous and what irked her the most was that there was no other officer in the 99th Precinct who was a better person to have watching your back than Percy freaking Jackson.

It wasn’t as if he was the most physically capable one-there were a few who were better like her friend Jason or maybe Frank- but Percy was reliable. Not that the others weren’t, but Percy somehow was the one who always had her back despite all his teasing and annoying jokes.

Annabeth was yanked out of her thoughts by the elevator door dinging open. Percy stalked ahead turning around the bend towards their room and Annabeth exhaled and followed.

The room wasn’t half bad-it was spacious and being on the seventh floor gave them a perfect vantage point to scan the surrounding buildings. There was a bathroom to the side and a row of closets and drawers to put clothes in with a flatscreen next to it. And as promised, one queen sized bed.

Percy slumped down on a couch before sending her a look. “Do you wanna take a shower first or should I?” Well. Annabeth hadn’t expected him to be concerned about that. But, looking at the way Percy’s hair seemed soft and fluffy, did hint at an obsession with cleanliness.

“I’ll go,” she said curtly and Percy just shrugged and turned his attention to his suitcase. Annabeth scoffed and pulled out her towel and a change of clothes before disappearing inside the bathroom.

The car ride over from Brooklyn to Long Island had seemingly taken forever. Even though it had been only about a 2 hour car ride. Now it was almost 10 in the night and Annabeth was ready to crash, feeling exhausted and hungry.

After spending a quarter of an hour under the cool shower water, Annabeth plodded out of the bathroom and was surprised to find a mini pizza and half a chocolate cake waiting for her on the table placed beneath the TV.

At least she assumed it was for her judging by the discarded plates and chocolate covered spoons in a pile at the edge of the table.

Percy noticed her and shrugged. “Figured you might be hungry, since I was” “Thanks” Annabeth said, not quite able to wrap her mind around the fact that Percy Jackson could be chivalrous. Then her eyes flitted to the bed where Percy had constructed a wall of pillows to separate the two sides of the bed.

Annabeth arched an eyebrow at that and Percy smirked wickedly. “To make sure you keep your hands to yourself.” Annabeth rolled her eyes but chuckled nonetheless.

“I’m going to ignore that comment because you got me cake. Well, half a cake, but at least you did it.” Her old partner at the 64th Precinct would never have done something like that, but of course she wouldn't tell that to Percy.

Percy’s smirk widened. “So all it takes to make you act nice to me is….cake?” he asked and Annabeth grinned. “Chocolate cake. Any other and the meanness will double”. Percy laughed as he made his way to the bathroom leaving Annabeth alone.

And as Annabeth took a bite of her pizza, she got up to rifle through her stuff when an idea hit her. Well he can dish it but can he take it? She thought, smirking.

******

Annabeth heard soft footsteps as Percy trudged out of the shower, bringing the smell of body wash and Old Spice with him. She didn’t bother looking up at him, instead focusing on the book in her lap.

She could hear him rummaging around his suitcase for something and spared a glance at him. And kept on looking. He was shirtless. Annabeth could only see his back but as far as she could see, it was only tan skin over corded muscle.

She’d only ever seen him in loose hoodies and flannel shirts so she’d never actually speculated about how fit he actually was.

She’d seen him sprint after perps and knew he liked going to the gym with Frank and Jason occasionally, but had never known he was that fit. Unfortunately for Annabeth, before she could look away, Percy glanced up in the mirror and caught her staring. And smirked.

Annabeth felt heat rush to her cheeks and glanced down at her book again, cursing silently in her head. Then the rustling stopped and she heard footsteps as he padded over to the bed and felt, rather than heard him freeze.

Annabeth resisted the urge to smirk. While Percy had been in the shower, she’d changed into her pajamas. Which consisted of a sleeveless tee and a pair of ridiculously short shorts which she knew showed off her long tan legs.

But much to her disdain, Percy’s surprise lasted for only about two seconds. He simply scoffed and unceremoniously flopped down onto his side of the bed.

"Yeesh Jackson, I’m sitting here too you know” Annabeth said, not bothering to hide her irritation. “Oh stop complaining” he simply said and Annabeth leaped at the chance to taunt him. Setting her book down she turned to look at him and gave him a smug smile.

“What no jibe? No snarky comment on the way I dress?” she crooned and smiled more widely when his face turned a light shade of pink. In the dim light of the hotel room, Annabeth could see his shower ruffled hair and sea-green eyes blinking back at her as he turned to face her propping his head onto his elbow.

Percy sucked in a breath and Annabeth could see him trying to muster some of his usual smugness as he said, “The way you dress has nothing to do with me. You could sleep naked for all I care”.

Annabeth’s smirk turned devilish as she leaned down until her face was inches apart from his. “I’m sure you’d love that” she chirped, her voice lilting and smooth. To her delight, Percy gulped slightly at the closeness of her face and his eyes flitted up at her lips for a second.

He didn’t respond and Annabeth felt triumphant. Turns out he couldn’t take what he dished out. Oh well. She smirked at him and leaned back over to her side of the bed and returned her attention to her book.

It was silent for a few minutes when the only sounds were them breathing when Percy spoke up again, “Do you really need to dress like that to bed?” he asked and Annabeth shrugged. “You sleep shirtless, this is my equivalent of that” she said although she was lying.

Annabeth often wore a ratty t-shirt and pyjama bottoms because her legs were always cold at night. But she wasn’t going to tell him that. She wanted to tease him and make him feel flustered and she’d succeeded. She was way too proud to get up and change into warmer pants now.

It made sense Percy would sleep shirtless. For the few seconds she’d leaned over him she could feel the heat radiating off him; he was practically a space heater. Her? Not so much.

Again Percy didn’t reply, simply staring up at the ceiling instead. Annabeth sighed and turned off her lamplight before mumbling a goodnight to Percy. She could deal with everything else tomorrow.

*****

Percy only got a few hours sleep before the comforter was tugged off him. His eyes shot open and he glanced at the clock mounted on an opposite wall and realized it was just 2 a.m.

He then turned to look at Annabeth who had wrapped the comforter around herself. Percy laughed softly as he realised during the span of 2 and a half hours, Annabeth had kicked off all the pillows from his makeshift ‘wall’ and was now hogging all the covers.

He winced as he tried to gently get the comforter back. “Hey-Hey-Annabeth, you’re hogging the covers” he said softly, tugging on the end of the comforter as carefully as possible so as to not wake her. “Ugh, Annabeth” he tried again and pulled at the comforter a little harder at which she cracked open an eye sleepily. “Wha-?”

Percy winced. He hadn’t meant to wake her. “You were hogging the covers. There aren’t any left for me” he answered under his breath. Annabeth nodded, seeming to understand but Percy couldn’t be quite sure as she was half-asleep.

Then to his surprise, instead of sharing the comforter she draped an arm over him and nuzzled her face into his shoulder, effectively spooning him and leaving no room for argument.

“Annabeth,I-Nevermind” Percy chuckled softly and settled into the covers to make himself as comfortable as possible. He supposed he should treasure this moment of peace while he has it because Annabeth would no doubt return to their usual bickering the next morning.

So Percy simply closed his eyes and leaned into his pillow, breathing in the smell of Annabeth’s citrus-y shampoo.

Shit. He was in deep and unending shit. But he’d deal with it in the morning.