#firefighter!percy

When Percy opens the door to his house, it’s almost two in the morning. He is still in his uniform as he walks lightly through the dark space, sleeping the only thing on his mind after the night he just had.

When he opens the door to the bedroom, the first thing he notices is how the moonlight is strong as it comes through the window, completely bathing the sleeping body of his wife. She’s lying face down on the mattress, the covers up until almost the middle of her back, and she seems very peaceful. Even in his groggy state he can’t stop himself from appreciating just how effortless beautiful she is. Sometimes he honestly can’t make himself believe that this is real.

And that’s when Percy spots a spider on her shoulders.

This is about one of the worst scenarios to happen in the Jackson household. Even though her fear subdued a lot since the Arachne thing, there’s just a mutual understanding between them that Percy should take care of every spider that would appear in their house without her acknowledgement.

He moves closer and prepares to attack. He just really wants to do it without waking her.

The clapping sound is louder than he expected.

“What?!” Annabeth practically screams as she sits up, awaken by the loud sound, her hand going for the dagger on the nightstand. She’s alert and seems to be tense by the sudden awaken, her heart rate fast.

“Hey, sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.” Percy says nonchalantly as he quickly cleans his hands and starts changing into his sleeping boxers.

She looks at him for a couple of seconds, as if she’s accepting he’s there, and then she goes back to the subject. “What happened?”

“Nothing.” He dismisses.

“Percy.” She threatens.

“Ok, promise me you won’t freak out.”

She rolls her eyes. “Just tell me already what could have possibly caused you to make such noise at” she looks at the clock “two in the morning.”

“There was a spider on your back.”

“There was a what?!” She yells and jumps to the far end of the bed, slapping her arms and legs in a futile attempt to eliminate some non-existent spiders.

“It’s alright, just a spider, it’s gone now.”

“Ugh, that’s disgusting!” She says as she continues cleaning herself, as if she can feel webs everywhere.

Percy can’t help but feel amused by this, staring at her from his place besides the bed.

When she notices his face, she glares and points her index finger at him. “If you laugh, you’re sleeping on the couch.”

His mouth twitches, but he tries his best to stop the grin. She lets a small smile cover her own mouth, but still inspects his with a fake glare.

“You should have more respect for a hero who was just out until two in the morning saving lives.” He says in an extremely cocky way as he draws the covers and lies down beside her.

“Oh, wow, a national treasure.” Annabeth mocks as she adjusts the pillows. “A hero who saved, how many again?” And before he can say anything, she’s counting on her finger. “Three… four… five! Five cats this past month. Wow.”

He laughs with her as she sets her head on his chest and they stay quiet for a while, letting their laughter die.

And that’s when she notices he’s way too stiff.

“Something wrong?” She asks moving her head up so she can look at him. “Percy. What happened?” Her eyes soften alongside her voice and her hand moves to cup his cheek, concerned.

He sighs. “There was this kid… he had some condition, they didn’t explain it right. Something on his lungs. I pulled him out alive, but the smoke had a terrible effect on him. He’s in the hospital, but they didn’t… They don’t think he’s gonna make it.”

He doesn’t meet her eyes as he tells the story, instead fixing his glare on the ceiling. She doesn’t know what to say – there really isn’t much to be said - so she just waits a little and lies down on his chest again.

“Tell me about the other people that you saved.”

“’Beth…”

“Just tell me. I wanna know about them.”

She can feel he takes a deep breath as his chest expands a little.

“Uh, well… the little boy has a sister. An older sister. She was still inside because she went back to- to save their cat, actually.” Percy explains with a chuckle and she laughs lightly with him.

“Look at that, we’re at six cats this month. Two more and you’ll break your record, Jackson.”

He laughs again and starts stroking her hair. He loves what she’s doing, loves how much she knows him.

“Looking forward to that.”

She smiles. “Now go on, the girl?”

“Yeah, uh. I saved her – and the cat. Their parents were already outside, they were taking care of the boy, waiting for the paramedics. They were really grateful. The girl… she said she wanted to be a firefighter someday.”

Annabeth smiles, knowing how much it means to Percy when a kid says that to him, just as much as when a parent thanks him, and because she wants to and feels like he needs it, she raises her head again and kisses his lips. It’s light and sweet, just a reminder that she is there even when things don’t work like they’re supposed to, and he kisses her back.

“You know you are my hero, right?” She asks with a playful tone, but they both know she means it.

He grins. “Yeah, well, you’re mine.”

She lies down again, listening to the calm beat of his heart, and asks him to continue. He tells her about the old lady, and the dog, and the unconscious guy on the highest floor of the building. His voice is quiet and it almost lures her to sleep, but she wants him to know she’s there.

When she can no longer keep awake, she kisses his chest and murmurs ‘I love you’. She can hear he’s calmer now, remembering all the lives he’s saved, all the people he’s helped.

He replies that he loves her, too, and in seconds she’s asleep.

She doesn’t hear his ‘thank you’, but deep down she doesn’t need to.

He realised he was still standing there and she was stifling laughter behind that hand, so Percy did what any grown ass man would do and hid. He dropped to his knees, whacking his head on the side of the sink on his way down and cursing as he clutched at the lump already forming on his forehead.

“Dammit!”

He forgot his was holding a glass of water and spilt it all over his bare crotch.

“Goddammit!”

Percy sprawled his legs out on the cold tile of his kitchen floor and let his head fall back against the cupboard behind him. He was such a disaster.

He sat there for a few minutes, wallowing in self-pity and already mourning the loss of her occasional smiles from across the street because surely she wasn’t going to so much as glance through her window any more. He certainly knew he wouldn't be able to. Eventually, he got on his knees and peeked over the sink to see if she was still there, she wasn’t, thankfully. Although not knowing where she was only made him more nervous. Percy sighed and grabbed a dish towel to cover his junk before pulled himself up off the kitchen floor and bolted to his bedroom.

In there, he shut the door behind him and found some clothes to put on.

“You’re looking for Charles, dear?”

“No-- no, that’s not--” Annabeth tried, but the old lady was already tottering down the hall to find Charles, leaving Annabeth standing in the doorway of the stranger’s apartment. “Not who I’m looking for.”

Annabeth sighed, wondering if she should just give up and go home. This was ridiculous, she was being weird and bordering on obsessive. She leaned against the doorframe and wondered where the old lady had got to, had she forgotten about her? Maybe if Annabeth just closed the door and backed away…

She stared at the closed door and tried to orientate herself. She was standing outside apartment 34, the fourth apartment across from the left which was definitely the right apartment. Except, wait. She hadn’t factored in the basement-- shit, she was on the wrong floor.

Cursing herself, she made for the elevator and once inside, pressed the button for the fourth floor. She watched the doors close, tapping her foot as she waited for them to open again. When they did, she took a deep breath and strode right up to apartment 44, knocking on the door three times before she could talk herself out of it. She waited three seconds, five, ten. Okay, she was leaving, she was going home and never looking out her window again.

The door opened then, and Annabeth was met with a grey t-shirt being pulled down over a set of abs. She dragged her gaze up to the startled face of her across-the-street neighbour. Heat filled her cheeks as he gaped at her.

“Er...hi,” she said, giving him a small wave. Why the hell was she waving? He was standing three feet away.

“Hello,” he replied slowly.

Annabeth tried for a smile. “So, I came over to see if you were okay. It looked like you hit your head when…”

She trailed off, not feeling the need to reiterate what had happened. As she said it, he lifted a hand to his forehead, where, sure enough, a red lump had begun to surface. He cringed visibly and dropped his hand to his neck which was getting redder by the second.

“Yeah, uh, no. I’m fine,” he stammered. “I... you came over to check on me?”

Annabeth bit her lip. “Yeah, I had to make sure you weren’t lying naked and unconscious on your kitchen floor.”

“Right.” He choked out a laugh. “That would be bad.”

“Right,” she agreed.

He was just standing there watching her with those damn eyes of his and all she could think about was the fact that she’d seen him stark naked just five minutes ago. And okay, maybe she’d been looking through her window for the past few months, hoping to see him. Especially when he came home from work in his uniform and yes, she was well aware that she was being creepy.

“So,” he said, snapping her out of it, “would it be polite or weird if I invited you in for breakfast?”

Annabeth looked up at him, a slow grin creeping across her face. “Well, I’ve already seen you naked today, so how much weirder can it get?”

His cheeks flamed with colour. “Right, yes you did.” He ducked his chin.

“I’d love to have breakfast,” she clarified.

He met her eyes and smiled tentatively, and her stomach did the tiniest flipflop. He stepped back to let her in and she walked past him, trying not to inhale his shower gel. She wondered if she would be able to make it through breakfast without the image of his naked body flashing through her mind again.