#mypjo

“Alright, don’t make me hate you.”

“You could never.”

They make their way outside into the beating sunshine. There’s still a cool breeze working its way up from the ocean which makes her glad for the sweater she’s wearing.

“Oh boy, could I.”

Annabeth looks over but finds her friend’s gaze drawn ahead of them towards the parking lot. She follows suit and can't help her grin at the sight of a familiar blue car parked up with an even more familiar boy leaning against the hood. He’s wearing jeans and a grey hoodie with the words UC Santa Cruz in red across his chest. And he’s holding flowers.

“Are you sure he doesn’t have a brother, or a cousin or something?”

Annabeth laughs. “I’m sure. He’s one of a kind.”

“Oh god, disgusting.” She gets a shove to the shoulder. “Go be gross, Juliet.”

Freed, Annabeth barely holds back from breaking into a run across the parking lot towards Percy, who moves away from his car to meet her. When she’s close enough, she drops her bag and actually jumps on him. Percy lets out a laugh as he catches her and she feels his fist press into her back as he strains to keep hold of the flowers.

“Hey there,” he says.

Annabeth plants a kiss on him before jumping down and picking up her bag. She accepts the flowers, which are now looking slightly worse for wear, with a smile.

“Hi,” she says. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Was that your last class?”

“Yep.”

“You ready to go watch terrible movies in my dorm?”

“Absolutely. I love how small your bed is.”

She tugs on the strings of his hoodie. “It just means you get to be closer to me.”

He grins and kisses her cheek. “I can’t complain about that,” he says, with his lips pressed to her skin, still.

They make it back to her dorm and Annabeth finds a cup to fill with water and put the flowers in on her little desk. She shares the room with Katie, who is a welcome reminder of home and will undoubtedly appreciate the flowers. She has exactly fifteen plants around the room, the number had increased from eight when Annabeth accepted them onto her side of the room. Annabeth is happy to hand over responsibility for the flowers, they’re much more likely to stay alive under Katie’s care.

“Oh hey, love birds,” she says when she walks in a few hours later.

Percy and Annabeth are laying on her bed with their legs overlapping each other as they watch the credits roll on Letters to Juliet.

“Hey, Katie.”

Percy holds a hand up to be fist bumped, unable to move any more while Annabeth remains draped over him as she is.

“When are you heading out?” Katie asks.

“First thing,” Annabeth answers. “So you have the dorm all to yourself until Sunday night.”

“Maybe Monday morning,” Percy interjects.

“Maybe Monday morning,” Annabeth concedes.

Katie starts subtly rearranging Percy’s flowers. “And you’re not checking into a hotel?”

“We might.”

“You’d better,” Katie says. “How do you parents feel about this plan?”

Annabeth frees her foot from under Percy’s thigh to massage some feeling back into it. “My mom is asking me loads of questions and thinks I should have booked a hotel.”

Katie rolls her eyes. “Enough snark from you, kid. I’ll take away your allowance.”

Percy snorts and kicks a leg out at her. “So when is Travis coming over?”

“Tomorrow, and shut up.”

They, in fact, do not shut up and proceed instead to make fun of her for the rest of the night as they order pizza and work their way through Drive Me Crazy and Sixteen Candles. Percy and Annabeth fall asleep pressed together on her little mattress. True to their word, they’re up at seven so that Annabeth can throw some clothes into a backpack and kiss Katie on the head before Percy drags her out the door.

They get coffee from a drive thru and then Percy is driving towards the coast and Annabeth feels like she can breathe for the first time in weeks. She turns up the volume of the car stereo and opens her window fully as LL Cool J serenades them on their journey.

They drive all day, without direction, just keeping to the coast and stopping for food and bathroom breaks and a few photo ops along the way. She takes videos while Percy is driving, because he looks too pretty in his sweater and backwards facing cap for her not to. He drives with one hand on the wheel and the other floating on an imaginary wave out of his open window. He drives singing along - badly - to Po’s Late Night Driving playlist and tapping his fingers on the stick shift. He drives with his hand on her thigh and smiling as she threads her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.

He drives looking like a dream and Annabeth wants to capture all of it, but she tries to remember to just live it.

They get burgers and milkshakes from In and Out and Percy pulls into a look out so they can sit on the hood of the car to eat it. They consider finding a hotel to book into but wind up laying back on the windshield and naming the constellations which they can’t see through the light pollution. Then Percy is kissing her and she is rolling over him and they’re nearly falling off the car so they get into the backseat instead.

Percy keeps a blanket in his trunk. They usually pull it out at the beach or on late night drives like this one. This time it is wrapped around them both to protect them from both the cold night and the leather seats of the car against their bare skin.

“Please make sure this goes in the laundry when you get back,” Annabeth murmurs against the skin of Percy’s neck.

She feels the rumble of his laugh against her lips and her hand where it rests on his chest. “You got it. Maybe I’ll keep this one aside. Just for us.”

She laughs. “Our special sex blanket. Very cute.”

“Maybe we won't call it that. I’m scared I'll say that in front of other people.”

“What about the next time your mom is in your car? Are you gonna think of this?”

“Oh my god, I hate you. Why would you do this to me.”

Annabeth laughs some more and pushes herself up so she can kiss his chin. Then she glances at her phone where it lies in the footwell. Then she kisses his chin again because she can.

“Happy Valentine’s day,” she tells him.

“Oh?”

“Mhm. It’s gone midnight.”

He smiles and pulls at her so he can get a real kiss. “Happy Valentine’s day.”

“Are we gonna sleep in your car?”

“Mhm. It’s very cool of us. Besides, no hotel would check us in now so we’re committed to this lifestyle.”

Annabeth gets comfortable against him. “Good night, then.”

“Good night, Annabeth.”

It’s a while longer before they actually manage to drift off and they’re woken up by the rising sun and the heat beating in through the car windows. So they drag themselves up and awkwardly pull on clothes to clamber outside and sit on the hood again as the sun rises over the ocean.

It’s perfect. She has a crick in her neck and needs a shower but she pulls the hood of Percy’s sweater over her head and hooks her arm around his neck as she leans her chin on his shoulder and watches the sun send rays of light over the water.

“Thank you for being my valentine,” she tells him.

Percy turns his head to look at her over his shoulder. “I’ll be your valentine every year, if you’ll let me.”

“Oh, yes please.”

He squeezes the hand she has resting on his chest and smiles at the kiss she presses to his cheek. And Annabeth feels love swell in her chest. She feels captured in the best way, feels safe and known and beloved.

She cackles as she grabs the hand that had shoved her and laces their fingers together as she pulls his arm over her shoulders instead.

“Happy valentine’s day,” Percy tells her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“You too,” she says. “I feel like we should add something to it.”

“What? No, it’s perfect as it is.”

Annabeth tilts her head as she squints at the wonky heart around their initials. “That’s one word for it.”

“I won't stand for this abuse.”

She bumps her hip against his. “You will because you love it.”

He sighs, making it sound long-suffering. “I suppose so.”

Annabeth turns from under his arm to face him with a gaping mouth, mock offence painting her features. “You suppose so? These are the words for the love of your life on saint valentine’s day?”

Percy reels her in, unable to stop his own smile as he pokes at her sides and teases laughter out of her. She lets herself be wrestled into his embrace as he kisses her face, pressing his lips to her cheeks and nose and chin and eventually, her mouth.

“How about,” he kisses her again. “I love you?”

She purses her lips, deep in thought. “Better.”

“Oh, better, hm? What about…” another kiss. “I adore you.”

“Oh?” she keeps her chin tilted up, waiting for more kisses.

“I worship you.”

“Oh?” This time her voice is tilted up too.

He’s pleased with his efforts. “Mhm. I would lay the world at your feet, if you asked.”

Her arms wind around his neck and he feels her push up onto her toes as their chests crush together.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she says. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got all I want right here.”

He’s about to compliment her on how smooth that was but she is kissing him so the thought tumbles right out of his head. In the end, Annabeth carves a few little hearts next to Percy’s creation and does such a good job of it that he wonders why he had been left in charge of it the first time around.

They make their way back into town slowly, batting old stories from their youth between them like they are fifty and not twenty two years old. It feels good to be back on the island, their home. Much to the dismay and open disappointment of their families, they had not been able to get the time off work over Christmas to be able to visit. They were both in their first jobs out of college after graduating the summer before and therefore at the bottom of the pile when it came to perks like vacation time. It hadn’t been a sad Christmas; they had spent it at his mom’s apartment with plenty of food and cheer and falling asleep on the couch to Miracle on 34th Street.

But they both come from big, overflowing families and it had broken both of their hearts to not have spent the holiday with them. So they’re making up for it with a two week vacation which just happens to fall over Valentine’s day.

He walks her back to her mom’s house where she has been instructed via Percy from his yaya to wear “something pretty” which means she has to change out of her cut off shorts and henley shirt, much to Percy’s dismay.

He gets over himself, though, when he picks her up an hour later and is greeted by Annabeth in a little red summer dress which has tiny white hearts dotted all over it. Her hair is falling in those perfect ringlets down her back and she’s looking at him like she knows exactly what he’s thinking.

“Looking good, Mr Jackson,” she tells him with a smirk.

Her mother, thank goodness, is nowhere to be seen, so Percy steps forward and sweeps her up in a hug. Her arms come around his shoulders as she lets out a peel of laughter and he tries not to fall backwards down the steps.

“Can we skip dinner?” he asks her when he puts her down again, barely letting her go.

“Absolutely not,” she says and turns to call back into the house, “bye, mom!”

A chorus of voices call back, telling Percy just how many of Annabeth’s relatives are home and reminding her to be home by midnight. Nevermind that she’s an adult and they live together when they aren’t visiting their families. Annabeth confirms she will be and closes the door behind them, swinging their linked hands between them as they start walking towards his yaya’s restaurant.

“I’ll have to sneak out again, like old times,” she informs him when they’ve left the driveway and are very firmly out of hearing distance.

“You would do that for me?”

“It’s just as much for me,” she informs him. “I’ve grown very used to sleeping with Percy’s Jackson’s cold toes and I’m not sure I can sleep without them anymore.”

“You’re so romantic. How did I get so lucky?”

She tugs on his hand but keeps her eyes ahead when she tells him quite earnestly, “I don’t know. I think we both did.”

Humbled into silence, he squeezes her fingers and follows her the rest of the way to the restaurant. There, they are waited on like royalty by Percy’s yaya who spends five minutes gushing over Annabeth’s dress before insisting that she is too skinny and needs to be fattened up.

“What do they feed you in that New York city?” she asks, disparagingly.

Annabeth laughs and Percy watches with delight as her cheeks bloom with colour. “Plenty enough, Phaedra.”

She gets a pinched cheek for that. “It’s yaya, to you.”

Annabeth ducks her chin and Percy intervenes at last. “Yaya, come on.”

She turns her loving wrath on him. “Oh my boy, don’t let me start with you. You need to eat! You’re skin and bones!”

He is certainly not, but he lets her pinch his cheeks anyway, not that he would have any power to stop her if he wanted to. If it diverts the attention away from Annabeth though, he will accept the torture; especially when it earns him a lip-bitten grin from Annabeth over his yaya’s shoulder and a mouthed you’re my hero to boot.

They are seated into the patio area outside and get a table right next to the edge, overlooking the ocean.

“I guess knowing the owner pays off, huh?” Annabeth says as they clink their glasses together.

“Swear I didn’t ask my yaya to wingman for me but she is very good at it.”

“That she is. You know we’re gonna need to eat at my family’s restaurant every night for the rest of the time we’re home to make up for this.”

He snorts. “Gotta love some healthy competition.”

“Hey, I’ll take this over what it used to be.”

His smile turns more genuine as he takes in the sight of her against the backdrop of the sea spilling out far beyond the edges of this island they call home. The tealights on their table and the strung up fairy lights above them cast a gentle glow across her face, turning her hair golden and her features soft. There are days when he can’t actually believe he gets to have this life with her, after everything they’ve been through to get to this point.

“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he tells her honestly.

The look she gives him sends creeping vines around his heart, filling the spaces between his ribs and making a home there. Percy gladly accepts them, taking in a breath to accommodate the space and feeling caught in the best way.

They enjoy several courses of delicious food, courtesy of a very generous kitchen and opt to take a walk around town before heading back to Annabeth’s house. Before they leave though and while Annabeth is in the bathroom, Percy’s yaya pulls him aside into the back office. The room is a fire hazard of paperwork and photographs pinned to the walls but his attention is drawn to his yaya opening one of the stiff desk drawers to pull out a little box.

“Is that-?”

“Yes, my boy. Like we talked about on the telephone.”

She hands him the little velvet box and Percy feels his heart beat in his ears. “Yaya…”

She gives him a stern look, hands on hips and all. “Now don’t tell me you asked me for the family ring only to change your mind.”

It startles a laugh out of him. “No, I haven’t changed my mind.”

She cracks a grin. “Good. Now don’t waste time, I want that girl in my family.”

“Yes, yaya.”

“Have you asked her mother?”

“That’s very old fashioned.”

She slaps his arm. “Don’t give me that.”

“Ow. Yes, of course I have and before you ask, it was the most terrifying experience of my life and yes, she gave her blessing.”

He is squeezed into a bone crushing hug and left wondering how such a little old lady can have so much strength in those arms. He cradles the box carefully in one hand as he pats her back with the other. Then she is releasing him and patting his cheek with immeasurable fondness and he feels tears spring in his eyes.

“Your dad would be very proud of you, angele mou.”

He forces himself to swallow. “Thanks, yaya.”

She pats his cheek once more and releases him to return to where Annabeth is waiting for him. The whole walk home, the box burns against his thigh in his pocket. Annabeth does sneak out as promised and by that time, the box is hidden with his socks. He retrieves it first thing in the morning to show his mom who gives him a similar look to the one his yaya did before turning away to hide her teary smile and make coffee.

True to his word, Percy takes Annabeth out on his old boat the very next day and waits until they are alone to turn to her. It’s not really warm enough for them to lay on the deck like they used to as kids, but she follows him there anyway, giving him a curious look as he fidgets with his hands in his pockets.

“Hey,” she says with a settling hand on his cheek. “Breathe?”

He sputters out a heavy breath. “Oh god.”

Annabeth laughs at his theatrics and swipes her thumb gently across the skin under his eye. “Try that again for me?”

He laughs this time and lets out a slower breath, allowing the tension to be drawn from his shoulders and watching her smile grow.

“Okay.”

She nods at him encouragingly and the fact that she knows exactly what is happening and is walking him through it only serves to calm his nerves and leave behind the surety of this decision.

“I love you,” he tells her, with confidence and watches her smile grow. “I fell in love with you on this island so it only made sense to come back here to ask you if you will spend the rest of your life with me. I remember spending days camped out on this boat dreaming up our future and making promises to each other that next year we would be free.”

Annabeth laughs at the memory and he’s pleased to see it’s a little watery.

“I never want to stop dreaming with you, Annabeth.”

“Me too,” she says and then laughs at herself.

Percy pulls the box out of his pocket and, with shaky hands, opens the lid. His family’s ring sits nestled in the velvet, diamond and rose gold glinting in the sunlight.

“Percy, oh my god.”

“I know, right?”

Her hands hover over his. “Is this…?”

He nods. “My yaya gave it to me last night and, before you ask, your mom gave me her blessing yesterday. Annabeth I would go through hell for you but I stood in your mom’s office and asked her permission to propose and I think that proves how much I am in this more than anything else will.”

“It really does. Did she say yes?”

“She did. Do you?”

“You haven’t asked me anything yet.”

“Oh fuck, you’re right. Okay. Annabeth, will you marry me?”

He barely gets the words out of his mouth though, before she is kissing him, crushing the ring between their bodies as she holds onto him tight and kisses her smile to his.

“Yes,” she says between kisses. “That was yes, by the way.”

“Thank god for that.”

She lets him put the ring on, eventually, and some people would call it fate for how it perfectly sits on her finger like it had been made to live there. Percy doesn’t know about fate. He knows that something brought this girl into his life, something more powerful and older than he can name. But it wasn’t fate which brought them here, to this point, to the rest of their lives together.

It’s all a blur after that. Annabeth vaguely remembers leaving the bodega, after hurriedly shoving her candy selection back on the shelf rather than attempting to pay for it and shouting an apology on her way out as the owner yells in her direction. She gets a cab to the hospital and spends at least ten minutes at the front desk, trying to figure out where she needs to go and getting lost twice in the labyrinthian halls of the vast building. After nearly hyperventilating in a stairwell, she eventually makes it onto the right wing and finds the woman who had spoken to her on the phone. A nurse, of course, with the strained smile of somebody who is already thinking about the next ten tasks she has to complete before her shift ends.

She explains the basics to Annabeth. Car accident. He was a pedestrian. An uncomplicated surgery from which he is now recovering. No ID, only a phone with her name listed as an emergency contact, the first, due to the spelling of her name.

Annabeth isn’t sure she’s breathing as she is directed into a room with eight beds lined up against the walls, feet sticking into the centre, with curtains half way pulled between them to indicate privacy but not actually provide it. Percy’s bed is the one at the end on the right, she is told. Visiting hours are over in half an hour. Then the nurse is gone. Annabeth hadn’t even caught her name.

Panic seizes her throat and she forces herself to breathe. Then to walk, one foot in front of the other. She can’t look at the other beds as she passes them. They seem to be filled with patients in similar states of unconsciousness as Percy. And there he is. As promised, in the final bed next to the window. Annabeth stands at the foot of his bed and stares.

There are a variety of tubes connected to him, helping him breathe and monitoring heart beat and a hundred other things which she has no clue about. It’s so impossibly strange, to see him like this, after such a long time apart. It’s cruel. She had imagined their reunion in a multitude of ways. Crossing paths in a coffee shop or a bar or a bodega, like the one she had just left. An arranged meet up after reconnecting on Instagram. Hesitant smiles and each other’s names softly spoken, like a secret, before a handshake, a hug, lingering.

Not like this.

He looks lifeless, despite the machines around him telling her otherwise. The droop of his chin underneath the breathing tube acting as a violent reminder of his current state. Stable, was the word used. A hundred scenes from medical dramas flashed before her eyes as she thinks of patients who had been stable one moment and crashing into cardiac arrest the next.

She shakes her head. Grey’s Anatomy isn’t a textbook for medical conditions. If the nurse says he is stable then he is stable.

Releasing a shaky breath, Annabeth moves to sit in the chair beside his bed. It’s hard plastic and makes a noise when she sits down on it, perched on the edge. She doesn’t quite know whether to reach out and take Percy’s hand or not. This whole situation is too strange. Why was she called? Surely there is someone else in Percy’s phone who is better suited for this.

Why on earth is she listed as his emergency contact?

For a few moments, she just watches the slow rise and fall of Percy’s chest and remembers that he is, in fact alive, regardless of the corpse-like appearance before her. She remembers resting her own head against that chest, pressing her hands against the hard planes, feeling the solid warmth of his skin beneath her cheek as he breathed slowly and calmly as they spent the morning in bed. She’s overwhelmed with memories wrapped up in sheets and him and the weight of missing him hits her like a goddamn freight train.

What they had was so good. Better than anything she had experienced before or since. Eight months had not been enough. Percy had been so much joy to be with. Sometimes infuriating, usually forgiving, patient, kind, hilarious. She had loved him. He was such an easy person to love.

There must be others who love him and have loved him since she was a part of his life. She is struck by this certainty as she sits by his bedside and watches him slowly breathe. She grabs her phone from her pocket and does what she should have done the second she hung up with the nurse in the bodega. Sally Jackson’s number has not been touched since Annabeth said goodbye to her son at the airport. Not dialled nor deleted.

She hesitates for another moment, watching Percy’s still face, and hits the call button. Sally answers after five rings, sounding surprised and a little breathless.

“Annabeth?”

“Um. Hi.”

“Hello, sweetheart. How are you.”

Oh, she had forgotten the kindness of this family. She wishes so desperately that she doesn’t have to say what she is about to say.

Sally makes it to the hospital within fifteen minutes and the first thing she does is to hug Annabeth. Then Annabeth has to watch her face contort into a distinctive pain as her gaze turns to Percy laying in the hospital bed. Her hands come up to cover her mouth.

“Oh, Percy.”

Annabeth feels like she should leave now. But she also doesn’t want to leave Sally alone like this. The decision is taken away from her when Sally grasps her hand and does not let go.

“Thank you so much for calling me,” she whispers.

Annabeth nods absently, following Sally’s gaze to where Percy is laying.

“Of course,” she says. “I’m so sorry, Sally.”

Sally sniffs. “I haven’t seen him yet since I got back in town. We were supposed to get breakfast tomorrow. Oh, I’m sure he told you that. God, I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Why don’t you sit down?” Annabeth suggested, gesturing to the chair and tripping over Sally’s words in her head. “He’s okay. The nurse told me he’s stable.”

Sally keeps hold of her hand and nods. She looks up at Annabeth and gives her a watery smile.

“I’m so glad you’re here, Annabeth. It’s so wonderful you two are back together.”

And. Wow, okay. That’s not something she expected.

Sally is already looking at Percy again and she actually starts to cry then, so Annabeth puts her free hand on Sally’s shoulder, trying to offer some comfort through touch, and the moment to correct her is lost. They stay that way until a man in scrubs to tell them that visiting hours are over and Sally is asking for more information about her son’s condition while Annabeth gives her a half hug in farewell before leaving.

She isn’t sure how she got home but she finds herself sitting on the couch in her empty apartment with her keys still in her hand, still wearing her coat and boots. Her phone lights up with a message from Sally which she reads in a daze.

Thank you again, Annabeth. Hope you got home safe. I’ll be at the hospital again tomorrow. Visiting hours are 4-11pm xx

What the fuck is she going to do?

***

Annabeth goes to hospital the next day with the full intention of telling Sally exactly what had happened. She finishes work at five and picks up a bunch of flowers on her way. She manages to not get lost this time and walks straight into the ward where Percy’s bed is. But this time, Sally is not alone.

“Grover!”

Her old friend wraps her in a warm hug which Annabeth returns gratefully. Losing Percy from her life had also meant losing his friends, which had been another chip to her broken heart. She had adored Grover and his fierce optimism and unhidden emotions pouring out of him at every opportunity. He is crying still as he hugs her and Annabeth feels herself tear up as he pulls away.

“It’s so good to see you,” he says and Annabeth smiles.

Then she is swept up in conversation with them both as she is updated about Percy’s current medical condition and there is no opening for her to correct Sally’s assumption from the evening before.

She does manage to collect some information about Percy’s recent activity though. He’d arrived back in New York just under a month ago, staying in his mom’s apartment while she’d finished her book tour. He’s here to stay, for the foreseeable future, by the sounds of things. Annabeth supposes there are opportunities for her to say something, to jump in and correct Sally that she is, in fact, not Percy’s current girlfriend. She assumes though, that this means there isn’t actually a current partner who is about to show up and start weeping at the state of their boyfriend. She tries not to feel too happy about this.

There are opportunities. But she doesn’t take them. She sort of wants to live in this. Not the Percy-being-in-a-coma part, but rather the spending time with his loved ones part. She had missed them. Even in the eight months she and Percy had been dating, she had become so familiar with these people, spending time at Sally’s apartment being plied with food and playing video games with Percy and Grover on the tiny couch of Grover’s shared apartment. She had missed this group of people more than she had let herself realise, and now that they have suddenly been thrown back into her life, even under terrible circumstances, she is loathed to let them go.

So she lets herself live in it. Just for a bit.

***

The thing is, days turn quite quickly into weeks without her realising.

She goes to the hospital almost every day and is often accompanied by Grover or Sally. Sometimes others drift in, colleagues and friends of Percy who she doesn’t know and is introduced to as his girlfriend by Grover or Sally before she can do anything to interrupt it. The snowball is gaining volume as it plummets down the hill and Annabeth does nothing to stop it, keeping her lips pressed together as she mutely nods and accepts people’s sympathies like she is a widow at a funeral.

She doesn’t tell her friends the extent of the situation she has found herself in, knowing that Piper, especially, will call her ridiculous to her face and instruct her to fix this mistake before she hurts anybody. As it is, Piper wonders aloud at the amount of time that Annabeth is spending at her ex-boyfriend’s bedside, but accepts that Annabeth is in a weird situation and feels somewhat bound to return there until Percy opens his eyes again.

She does not resent that feeling though, far from it. It hurts her more than she can comprehend to see Percy like this. To see him helpless and weakened as he is moved by physiotherapists and prodded by doctors who assure her that he is recovering and they are preventing his body from becoming too weak from disuse. She wants nothing more than to hear Percy’s laugh again, to see his smile and watch the joy light up his face as he teases her. She is struck by how much she misses him, misses them, over and over again. She finds herself going through old photos and videos on her phone, from over two years ago, and smiling to herself.

Sometimes, she is at the hospital by herself. On days where Sally and Grover can’t get away from other commitments and she has assured them both that she is there and she will update them with any change. Sometimes she sits close to Percy’s bed and talks to him, at first self-conscious and quiet, becoming more comfortable with the feeling of the one-way conversation after several days in this position. She tells him about her work and the last phone conversation she had to have with her dad at the weekend. She complains about her annoying colleague, Nancy, and brags about her current project which she is feeling very proud of. She imagines his response in her mind, Of course it’s amazing, Annabeth. It’s you. Duh. The silence offered instead is a painful reminder of her situation.

Some days, like today, she sits in the plastic chair and reads her book. It’s strange, but despite all of the noise that comes with a hospital ward, she feels calm as she sits next to Percy’s bedside. Her hand rests on the bed next to his and she lets her knuckles brush against his, like a strange ode to the days they used to spend together in one another’s company in comfortable quiet as they studied or watched TV or just dozed. Annabeth thumbs the page she is reading, has been reading for the past twenty minutes. She can’t move past this passage as she lets the sharp edge of the paper press a line into her thumb and threaten to break through the skin. She feels Percy’s knuckles, painfully still, against hers on the bed. She reads the passage again, from the book which Piper had persuaded her to read.

“You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and he won’t tell you that he loves you, but he loves you. And you feel like you’ve done something terrible, like robbed a liquor store, or swallowed pills, or shoveled yourself a grave in the dirt, and you’re tired. You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and you’re trying not to tell him that you love him, and you’re trying to choke down the feeling, and you’re trembling, but he reaches over and he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist, and you feel your heart taking root in your body, like you’ve discovered something you didn’t even have a name for.”

Annabeth feels like she can't breathe. She snaps the book shut and stares at Percy.

There is no longer a breathing tube because he’s doing that by himself now. The steady rise and fall of his chest confirms this for her. His hair is getting long and his stubble is growing in again after the shave he was given two days ago.

She loves him, she is certain of it.

It’s completely unfathomable given that he’s been unconscious for the past three weeks of her knowing him. But the truth of it is that she never stopped loving him even after he walked out of her life two years ago. If someone were to ask her if she had been in love then she would have to tell them yes, yes I have. I am. Past, present, and future.

Gripping Percy’s hand in earnest now, Annabeth scoots to the edge of the chair and leans closer to him. He’s unconscious and unhearing, but she speaks to him anyway.

“I would really like for you to wake up now,” she tells him. “I’ve sort of dug myself into a hole and I’m hoping you can help me out of it. I also just miss you. God, I miss you. I’ve been missing you for years without really realising. Percy, I know we’ve both grown from the people we were when we were together, but I also know that you’re still the person I loved back then. Grover and your mom have told me enough to know that. Fuck, I wish I had kept contact with you. How different might things be now. I might be here as your girlfriend for real. I might have stopped you from walking in front of a damn car.” She laughs to herself, shocked to hear it come out as a bit of a sob. She wipes at her face, embarrassed and then realising how ridiculous she is.

She is at the bedside of her ex-boyfriend whom she hasn’t spoken to in two years, confessing her love for him.

Piper might be proud, or incredulous. Probably both.

“I do still love you,” she says, voice barely above a whisper. “As crazy as that is, I do.”

Percy’s hand twitches.

Annabeth stops breathing.

Had she imagined it? She stares at his face, frozen in place as she waits for him to move again. His eyes seem to be moving back and forth behind his eyelids and - there - his hand squeezes around hers, unmistakably.

“Oh my god,” she murmurs. “Percy?”

He groans and then, slowly, unbelievably, his eyes open.

She feels like a whole minute passes before either of them move again.

He blinks, frowns, opens and closes his mouth, and stares at her. “Annabeth?”

“Oh my god,” she says again.

“I don’t- ugh, wow.”

Annabeth is reaching to pour him a glass of water before he can move and helps him scoot up the bed as she guides the cup to his mouth. He grips the glass and their fingers overlap and she can’t quite breathe. She can’t believe he’s awake and looking at her with those eyes. God, she had forgotten the bright wonder of those eyes.

“Thanks,” he says, sounding slightly less croaky.

Annabeth nods and sits back down. She feels like she should call for a nurse or a doctor or something. But Percy seems to be okay as he blinks around himself and takes another sip of water, unassisted this time, so she stays where she is.

“I’m confused,” he tells her.

She nods, because yeah. “You were in a car accident three weeks ago.”

“Three weeks? Fuck.”

“You’re okay. I should get someone to come in and look at you.”

She rises but Percy reaches out and grabs her wrist. “Wait. You’re...here?”

Annabeth feels her cheeks get hot as she nods and doesn’t quite meet his gaze. How to explain this one. She had begged him to wake up and now he is awake and she doesn’t quite know what to say.

“About that…”

“Ah, Mr Jackson. You’re awake!”

The doctor who interrupts them proceeds then to ask Percy several questions and gives him a physical examination while she’s at it. Percy moves slowly and clumsily and Annabeth can’t blame him for it. She’s amazed by each simple movement, shocked by how quickly he is able to sit up in bed and follow the doctor’s instructions. His body had healed while he slept, she explains to them both and Annabeth can only nod dumbly.

“I should call your mom,” she says, and steps out of the room before either of them can stop her.

When she comes back, the doctor has gone and Percy is still sitting on the side of the bed, staring at his hands in his lap. He looks up at Annabeth when she stops at the foot of the bed and blinks at her slowly.

“Everything good?” she asks him.

He nods. “Fit as a fiddle, she tells me.”

“That’s great. Your mom’s on her way.”

“Oh god. Wow, yeah.” He swallows. “Thanks.”

“Mhm.”

Annabeth twists her fingers together, feeling impossibly awkward as she stands there. Her book is sitting in the chair, abandoned, so she moves to retrieve it and put it in her bag. The move brings her into Percy’s space again though and he doesn’t reach for her this time but his cleared throat makes her face him.

“I wondered…” he starts. “Um, what you’re-”

“What I’m doing here?” she finishes for him.

He lets out a breath, halfway to a laugh. “Yeah. Doc doesn’t seem to think I have amnesia, so I don’t think I’m blanking the part where we got back together?”

Annabeth sighs, cursing herself for the idiot she is. “You did not, but um… Here’s the thing. They called me.”

He blinks at her. “What?”

She shakes her head, trying to clear it. “From your phone. The night it happened, you didn’t have ID on you but they had your phone and my number was the first the found so they called me and I came and then I called your mom and she kind of assumed that…”

“...What?”

“That we’re together.” She gulps and looks at his shoulder, mapping the pattern of the hospital gown he wears with her eyes. “And I sort of...didn’t correct her?”

“Oh… Okay?”

“I-”

She’s interrupted again, this time by Sally, who is crying before she even reaches Percy. Annabeth moves out of the way as the two embrace and finds herself meeting Percy’s eye over his mother’s shoulder briefly, before he tucks his face against her shoulder. Annabeth hovers behind them, feeling like she should flee yet unable to do so. Then Sally is breaking the hug and reaching for her hand again and she is being drawn into this family once again, somehow.

“Oh, I’m so relieved,” Sally gushes. “I’m so glad you’re okay. Oh, Annabeth, I’m so happy you were here when he woke up.”

Annabeth swallows. She can’t look at Percy so she manages a weak smile at Sally instead, nodding slightly.

“I, um. I should go. Let you guys catch up.”

“No, you don’t have to,” Sally says.

Annabeth is already picking up her bag though. “No, please. I’ll speak to you later.”

This is probably creating more problems than it solves, leaving Percy to decide all by himself whether he is going to expose her lie or go along with it. But she just has to get out of there. She cannot stand the idea of admitting to Sally’s face that she has been lying to her. She can’t face the humiliation and the rejection. So she flees instead.

She picks up a bottle of wine on her way home and slumps against her apartment door as soon as it is closed, sliding to the ground and remaining there for at least forty minutes as she stares into space and questions her entire life decisions. What was she thinking? How the hell did she think that this would ever be resolved in a way that didn’t leave her looking like an absolute fool?

She contemplates calling Piper and asking her to come round and share her misery, but decides to wallow by herself instead. Eventually, she drags herself off the floor and puts the wine in the fridge to cool. She methodically puts her coat away and starts taking out food to make dinner for herself. She picks a recipe which will take at least an hour and demand all of her attention. She puts on music and turns the volume up and pours herself a glass of wine as she starts chopping onions and blames them for the tears which prick in her eyes.

The food is in the oven and she is washing up when her buzzer goes. She frowns to herself, dries her hands, and turns the music down before crossing her small apartment to press the button by the speaker.

“Who is it?”

“Um, it’s Percy.”

Annabeth steps away from the intercom like it has sent an electric shock down her arm. She blinks at it a few times, wondering whether her fevered brain had just conjured that out of nowhere, when Percy’s voice comes through the speaker again, quite clearly not a figment of her imagination.

“Annabeth? Um, can I come up? It’s fucking cold out here.”

She lurches forward, pressing the buzzer for the door rather than saying anything. Then she spins in a circle, clutching her head as she wonders what the fuck she is going to do now. All too soon, there’s a knock at the door. She lets out a steadying breath and moves to open it.

And there he is. Taller than she remembered and looking a little pale but otherwise perfectly healthy. It seems unbelievable that he has been in a coma for the past three weeks.

“Hi,” he says, all casual.

Annabeth clears her throat. “Hello.”

“Um. Can I come in?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Come in.”

She moves aside and holds the door open for him. He’s wearing dark jeans and a warm looking sweater under his coat. He pulls off his beanie to reveal his still long hair underneath. He has managed to shave since she saw him in the hospital, but otherwise looks much the same. He looks around her apartment slowly before his gaze falls to her again.

“How, um. How did you find me?” she asks him. This is not the apartment she lived in when they were together.

“Grover,” he says and Annabeth nods, understanding. Grover had been here two days ago delivering a house plant which she dearly hopes she will not kill through neglect. “Sorry, I should have texted or...something.”

“No. It’s fine. I think...I think maybe we’re past that.”

And there’s the elephant in the room. They can’t ignore it now.

Percy is nodding and still standing there, somewhat awkwardly, wringing his hat in his hands as he meets and then avoids her gaze.

“Do you want a drink?” Annabeth asks him, because she wants her wine glass back in her hand.

“Uh, the doc says I shouldn’t drink for a few days…”

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’ll take a glass of water?”

“Sure. Yeah”

She hurries into the kitchen and pours him a glass from the faucet, taking the moment to breathe without looking at him. She had forgotten what it feels like to be around him while he is conscious. In the first weeks of their relationship, she was constantly jittery, faking bravado through flirting and hiding how nervous he actually made her. The comfort had come later, the ease of being in his proximity, like a warm blanket over her shoulders at the end of a long day. She longs for that in this moment.

Percy had followed her into the kitchen so when she turns around, she hands the glass directly to him and tries not to let her breath catch when their fingers brush. She’s ridiculous. She’s being entirely ridiculous. Percy leans against the opposite counter and takes a long drink from the glass before placing it on the side next to him.

“So,” she starts, attempting to gain some higher ground before he inevitably sweeps it from under her feet. “Why’d you have me listed as your emergency contact?”

The blush on his cheeks makes her chest go tight pleasantly. He brings up a hand to the back of his neck as he looks down at his feet.

“Oh, um. I suppose I never changed it?”

Annabeth blinks at him. “It’s been two years and you never changed your emergency contact from your ex-girlfriend?”

“In my defence, I haven’t used my phone in two years, really. Only when I’ve come back to the city for the holidays.”

“Right. But still.”

He nods, glancing up at her. “Still,” he agrees.

Annabeth gives him a rueful smile. “I’m glad you kept me listed.”

Percy nods slowly. “So am I.” He crosses his arms, ready to tug the rug out. “So about this other business.”

“Oh god.”

“Mhm.”

“Look,” she hurries to explain. “I really didn’t mean for it to happen. Your mom just assumed and then she was crying and I didn’t want to upset her more, and it sort of got out of hand from there.”

“I can see how that happened.”

“You can?”

Percy is smiling when she looks up at him and Annabeth bites her lip at the sight of that dimple pressed into his left cheek. She remembers pressing her lips to that dimple, poking her pinky finger there and laughing as he had squirmed away. She twists her hands together, pressing nail into skin, as he watches her with too much fondness.

“I can,” he tells her.

“Well, I’m sorry anyway.”

“Hey, don’t be.” He steps away from the counter, moving into her space. “I’ve missed you too,” he says, voice barely above a whisper.

Annabeth’s head snaps up as she blinks at him. “What?”

Percy meets her eyes. “Did I hear you right? I know I wasn’t fully awake, but I’m hoping that wasn’t all a dream…”

“Oh my god.”

Her cheeks burn. Her confession, clutching onto his hand at his bedside with her barely contained sobs, as he had laid there, hearing all of it. She covers her face with her hands.

“Annabeth?”

“She’s not here.”

Percy laughs gently and then his fingers are moving around her wrists and tugging her hands down so that she is forced to face him.

“Did you hear what I said?” he asks her.

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m drowning in self-pity right now, it’s hard to hear things.”

He grins and leans closer to whisper against the shell of her ear. “I told you I missed you as well.”

Annabeth stares at him as he straightens, catching up to where he is. “You…?”

He nods. “Me. I’m still in love with you, too, in case that part wasn’t clear.”

That feeling sparks in her chest again and she can’t help the smile that takes over her face. Percy Jackson is here, in her kitchen, telling her that he loves her. She wants to pinch herself. Surely this isn’t real. Surely she is about to wake up from a coma of her own and find that this has been a figment of her imagination.

Better than pinching herself, she moves against him instead, pressing into his space urgently. The moment their lips press together, she knows this cannot be anything other than real. The slide of his mouth against hers is everything she remembered. His chest is warm and solid against hers, his hands cup the back of her neck with familiar gentleness, like they belong there. Annabeth could cry for how wonderful he feels against her. Regardless of how they have gotten here, it could not be denied that the way they fit together is nothing less than perfect.

“Do you want to stay for dinner?” she asks him in a brief moment when they separate.

“Yes please,” he says, kissing her neck. “Can I stay for breakfast too?”

Annabeth laughs, wrapping her arms around his neck as he smothers more kisses against hers. The giddy sound fills up her small kitchen and she marvels at the sound of it, feeling full and happy and spoilt with the affection he adorns her with.

“Yes please,” she tells him.

***

Two months later, they find themselves at Sally’s apartment on a Friday evening for dinner. This is now standard practice for the four of them and one of the highlights of Annabeth’s week. Grover is already there when she and Percy arrive, apple pie and wine bottle in hand as they are shuffled in like he owns the place.

“Where’s my mom?” Percy asks, taking his coat off.

Grover holds the pie for Annabeth as she removes her own coat. “Kitchen.”

Percy disappears down the hall to find his mom. Technically, he still lives here, still looking for his own apartment close to his new workplace. In reality, he has spent more time at Annabeth’s place than here, not that she is complaining at all.

They fall into a familiar rhythm as Annabeth stands around in the kitchen “looking pretty” according to Percy, as the others finish up cooking and setting the table. Sally updates her about the plot for her latest book and Annabeth tells her about her latest designs for an office building in the city. It’s probably boring but Sally manages to look interested enough to let her continue rambling on.

Finally, they are seated around the table and serving up portions of casserole. Before they dig in, Percy clears his throat and lifts his glass in a toast.

“Thank you, mom, for dinner. It looks awesome. I just wanted to raise a toast to mine and Annabeth’s two month anniversary and nearly three months since I walked into the street like a dumbass.”

They all laugh, Annabeth rolls her eyes, and clink their glasses together before drinking.

“Hold up,” Grover says. “Your two month anniversary is today? I’m confused.”

Annabeth sighs, internally bracing for what is to come.

They let go of each other and take their seats as Percy holds back a groan. “I dread to think what he told you about me.”

Annabeth’s smile is full of secrets. “I promise you he was very kind. I don’t think he can be anything other than kind. He just told me you don’t have great time management.”

She says the last part into her glass of wine, meeting his eyes over the top of the glass, like a challenge. Percy shakes his head, having no counter-argument to that comment.

“I’m curious what he told you about me,” she says when he doesn’t offer a verbal response.

Percy picks up his menu to avoid eye contact. “That’s you’re really cool and really smart and probably out of my league, honestly.”

That startles a laugh out of her which he has to look up and see. The smile pushes a dimple into her left cheek and the compliment sends a rush of pink to her complexion as she shakes her head.

“Like I said, he can’t be anything other than kind.”

“You’re not wrong. But also, neither does he seem to be.”

Annabeth meets his eye. Percy is not one for suave charm. His mother has told him countless times that he is charming, but she’s his mom, so it really doesn’t count. He is not a natural flirt, he’s too self-aware and lacking in confidence to ever pull it off. But he’s not going to sit here and not compliment the most beautiful woman he’s ever been fortunate enough to have dinner with.

They are interrupted by the waiter who has arrived to take their orders and Percy picks one of the first things he sees on the menu, eager to get back to their conversation, as premature as it had been.

“So,” he says when they are alone again. “Grover said you’re new in town?”

“Oh. I mean, I’ve been here four months, so I suppose I still am. I’m from here though, originally.”

“Right. Grover said something about Camp?”

Annabeth smiles. “Oh man. Yeah, that place was my whole childhood. I lived with my mom in the city but she was busy so much that I became pretty much full time at camp. Then my mom decided to ship me off to live with my dad in San Francisco. And the rest is, uh, history.”

“So what brought you back?”

“I’ve always wanted to come back here. I even ran away from my dad’s a few times, but didn’t get very far.”

“No way?”

“Yeah. Turns out a thirteen year old with a backpack full of jerky and capri sun didn’t have much chance of travelling cross country.”

“Sounds like you had a fighting chance.”

Annabeth’s smile is rueful. “Well I got dragged back home and ended up staying until I finished grad school before I managed to follow through on my escape plans.”

“Congratulations then.” He lifts his glass in cheers and their glasses clink together delicately.

“Thank you so much.”

“What did you study at grad school?”

“Architecture.”

“Oh shit. Grover was right about the smart thing.”

Annabeth rolls her eyes, but she is smiling too and she doesn’t deny the compliment. Percy has always known that he likes confidence. His friend, Beckendorf, calls it a competency kink which is mildly mortifying and something that Percy does not want to be thinking about right now.

“Okay, enough about me,” Annabeth announces. “I want to know more about the nicest guy Grover knows.”

Her tone is teasing but in a way that makes Percy want to blurt out his life story to her. And he doesn’t quite do that, but it comes close, and Annabeth gently teases him through the whole thing. She laughs at his bad jokes and makes him laugh even more in return and truly, Percy does not want the night to end. They drag things out over dinner and dessert and then the Limoncello which the waiter convinces them into having.

It’s needless anyway, when they leave the restaurant and begin walking in the same direction without saying a word about it, continuing their conversation from the table. Percy has no clue where they are walking, he just follows her lead, hanging off of her every word. Then she’s announcing that they’ve reached her building and she’s standing on the step so their eyes are level and they haven’t kissed yet but their arms have been brushing together on the walk, sending shivers through Percy despite the thick jacket he wears.

Those grey eyes are blinking at him and her pink lip is bitten beneath her teeth and her cheeks are rosy from the chill of the evening and Percy wants in a way he doesn’t remember wanting somebody before. Not least on a first date.

His breath spills out in a cloud between them as he steps closer and Annabeth’s hand is icy cold on his neck but he doesn’t pull away. He wants to pull her close and warm her up. But in the end, he’s not the one who closes that distance, grasping the collar of his jacket and the back of his neck as she draws him in. Her lips are cold too, but not for long. Percy finds himself inexplicably drawn to her, against and around her as they kiss and kiss in the cold New York evening. He doesn’t want to allow any space to come between them again and is grateful that she apparently feels the same way.

“Do you,” she says, breathily, with her arms still wrapped around his shoulders. “D’you wanna come up?”

Percy takes one look her eyes, the grey of her irises almost obliterated by wide, black pupils, and knows he will never be able to say no to this woman. Not that he wants to. His answer is a smiling kiss pressed against hers as he moves up onto the step to crowd her against the front door. And Annabeth just pulls him closer.

--

Annabeth groans as she stretches awake in her bed, feeling the sheets slide over her bare skin as she slowly wakes up. She’s alone, which is not how she fell asleep, and immediately feels a rush of anxiety clench her chest tight as she imagines her date having slipped out of the apartment before she woke.

But then she hears a clatter from outside the bedroom, followed by a curse and the smell of coffee. And she realises that Percy didn’t flee. The thought of him clumsily trying to master her coffee machine in his boxers brings a smile to her face and that tightness in her chest is replaced with a spreading warmth as she pulls herself upright against the headboard.

A moment later, Percy walks through the door with two cups in hand and smiles when he sees her.

“Good morning,” he greets her.

Annabeth smiles. “Morning. I thought for a second that you had gone.”

Percy hands her one of the mugs and carefully sits on the bed. He is, in fact, just wearing his boxers, and he looks just gorgeous with his mussed hair and bare skin all on show.

He scoffs. “As if.”

She grins into her coffee, keeping an arm over her chest to hold the sheet in place there. He had seen it all last night, but still.

“That...wasn’t supposed to happen,” she says after she has taken a sip of coffee. It’s good. He had managed to win the fight with her fickle machine.

“What?”

“Um. Last night. I didn’t plan to take you home.”

“Oh. I didn’t assume that you had.” He shifts on the bed, folding one leg under the other and keeping a careful hold of his mug. “Do you regret it?”

“Oh, god no,” she says, too quickly, but can’t find herself to regret it as that wonderful smile spreads over Percy’s face. “I think it’s probably the best decision I’ve made since I decided to come back to New York.”

“Well,” he says, blushing all the way to his ears and trying to hide behind his coffee. “I can’t argue with that.”

They are both quiet for a moment as they drink their coffee, stealing glances and shifting closer in the large bed as they both slowly wake up and Annabeth is filled with absurd thoughts of waking up with this man tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that. She just doesn’t want him to leave, can’t quite bear the idea of him walking out of her door and not seeing him again. So she makes a decision. Playing her empty mug on the bedside table, she gathers the sheets around herself and moves into Percy’s space, forcing him to abandon his own coffee.

“So, what do you think about breakfast?” she asks, maneuvering herself into his lap.

Percy’s arms move around her as if on instinct. “I love breakfast.”

“Okay. How about breakfast with me?”

He smiles, like fucking sunshine. “Even better.”

“Okay,” she says.

Percy laughs and shifts so they are more firmly on the bed. The movement causes her sheet to drop some but she doesn’t move to cover herself and Percy doesn’t complain.

“Okay,” he tells her. “Breakfast it is.”

They don’t make it out of bed until after midday and wind up getting a late lunch instead, not that Annabeth is complaining. While Percy is in the shower, she sends a thank you text to Grover and feels her chest fill up with that warmth again when he replies telling her Percy had sent the same text several hours ago.

Percy felt himself stiffen before he could help it and Annabeth felt it too, if the shift in her expression told him anything. She looked ready to argue. It threw Percy back to two summers ago, to the summers before that, spent at loggerheads with an Annabeth who refused to accept what Luke had become, who defended him again and again, believing he was ultimately good, despite all actions proving otherwise. Percy had been told that loyalty was his weakness, but he’d never met anyone as fiercely loyal as Annabeth.

She had been right, in the end. To an extent.

Percy had come to forgive Luke, in his own way, having witnessed the sacrifice he had made to make penance. But in his heart of hearts, he only really thought that Luke’s actions had been because of Annabeth, because of her unwavering belief in his goodness, underneath all of the rage and the malice and the bitterness which had caused so, so much destruction. It was a bitterness which percy had grown to understand more and more over the years, but as he thought of the burned shrouds of his friends who should be going to college and falling in love and becoming adult versions of themselves that would never be, he couldn’t imagine himself following that same path.

But Annabeth had lost more than he had, and he couldn’t be angry with her for that. So before her hackles truly rose, Percy squeezed her shoulder and met her eyes levelly.

“I’m sorry,” he told her.

She stared at him for a moment and then all at once, slumped against him. Her head rested against his shoulder as she tucked her legs up onto the bed and pushed herself halfway into his lap and Percy wrapped his arms around her and just held her. He couldn’t undo anything that had happened, couldn’t make these lingering feelings any less confusing or soured, but he could be here for Annabeth if that’s what she needed.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled.

“Okay. We don’t have to.”

But despite her protest, she went on. “He would have been twenty five. I keep thinking about how i’m gonna turn twenty five one day and he never will. Neither will Thalia, not really. It was just the three of us for so long and then it was me and Luke - or at least I thought it was - and now...it’s just me.”

Percy feels his heart cracking in his chest at the pain in her voice.

“It isn’t though. You’re not on your own, Annabeth.”

She took a deep breath against him before lifting her head to kiss his shoulder and then rest her cheek there. She grasped his hand, keeping the small chain cradled between her fingers as she gripped his. Percy squeezed back, wondering at the origin of the necklace he had never seen before. A memory of Luke, most likely. Despite its presence between their palms, it didn’t feel like a barrier, just a shared memory. Like a burden on both of their shoulders instead of hers alone.

And, well, he had carried the sky on his shoulders for her before, so this wasn’t too much of an ask.

“Last year sucked,” she told him after a moment. Her voice was much steadier, which he was glad for.

“Sorry about that.”

Annabeth actually snorted, lifting Percy’s hopes even further. “It was hardly your fault you got abducted.”

“Well, still.”

She lifted her head to look at him at last. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying and her nose and cheeks were pink from where she had scrubbed them dry on the sleeve of her sweater. She was still the prettiest person Percy knew. He reached up to push a wild curl of hair behind her ear.

“It’s you and me, huh?” she said and his whole chest filled up with warmth.

Percy nodded, curving his hand to her cheek and marvelling at the way she leaned in to him with complete trust. He couldn’t really put into words how much she meant to him, but a promise like this was a good place to start.

“It’s you and me,” he told her.

“What?” she asks, perplexed and still trying to do the mental math.

He starts to smile as he shakes his head at her. “I know I never, like, formally asked you out but…”

“Oh my god. We’re dating,” she realises out loud.

“Do you need a minute?”

“Oh my god. Stop laughing at me!”

Percy is shaking with laughter though. “Oh, Annabeth.”

“It’s not funny!”

“It’s a bit funny.”

“Percy, I swear to god.”

He takes a bite of pad thai as she recalibrates a few things in her mind. And then his hand sneaks over the table to tentatively grasp hers. When she looks up, she sees a hint of unsurety in his expression.

“Do you...not want to be?”

Immediately, her hand grips his. “No, I do,” she says, without thinking. Then she thinks for a moment and nods to herself. “Of course I do, I…”

He waits for her to work things out for a moment, keeping a gentle hold of her hand while he continues eating with the other. She’s grateful to sort a few things out in her mind. They had kissed, several times, whilst very drunk and falling asleep on a couch or the floor of a living room or, one time, underneath a kitchen table. They hadn’t quite had sex, though had gotten close on one occasion, but still.

“I’m an idiot.”

Percy puts down his fork. “I wasn’t gonna say it.”

Despite everything, she rolls her eyes. But then she is tugging her hand out of his to cover her face as the shame seeps in, heating up her cheeks.

“I’m sorry for being an idiot.”

Percy laughs as he tugs her hands away from her face, holding them gently in his own. “I forgive you.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

He shrugs. “I didn’t want to scare you away. You’re a little….flighty.”

“So you snuck your way into being my boyfriend.”

Percy’s eyebrows pull up along with the edges of his mouth. “Boyfriend, is it?”

She groans. “Oh my god. Don’t make this more painful for me.”

“Oh I’m definitely never gonna let you live this down.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“Nope. I’m your boyfriend.”

A thought occurs to her. “My boyfriend who I haven’t had sex with yet.”

His expression transforms in a second as he stares at her and visibly swallows. And yes, here it is, the way for her to gain back some ground between them. Even the playing field and get his cheeks flushing with colour instead.

“No, you haven’t.”

Emboldened, Annabeth stands and very slowly moves into his space, keeping hold of his hands as she nudges his knee so that she can straddle his lap and sit there facing him. When she releases his hands they move to her waist and she smiles at the familiar feeling of his warm palms there, long fingers flexing into the curve of her back as she arches into him. She cups his face and leans close, pressing a fleeting kiss to his lips and drawing back as he chases her touch.

“Well,” she says, ghosting her mouth over his. “Problem solved.”

Overcome with conviction, Annabeth retrieves her phone from the mess of blankets and dials Percy’s number before she can talk herself out of it. And, of course - like Lorelai, she gets Percy’s voicemail.

“Hi, it’s um...it’s me. It’s Annabeth. I don't know whether you still have my number saved.” She let out a breath. “It’s two am so that’s probably why you’re not answering but I'm calling because. I’m calling you because I’m watching that episode of Gilmore Girls after Luke and Lorelai break up and she calls him because she needs to talk to him because she feels like shit and she’s so sad and he’s her best friend, you know? So she misses him in so many ways. And then she breaks into his apartment or whatever and ends up telling him she’s done bothering him but Percy, I’m not done. I love you and I miss you and I'm not done! We never got our last talk, you know?”

Annabeth takes another breath which is really a sob, and makes herself carry on with whatever she is saying.

“I just. I need to see you. It’s two am and I need you, Percy.”

She stops and hangs up the phone, finding herself staring at the screen long after it has gone dark and replaying her own words in her head. She reminds herself horribly, awfully, of Luke and his drawled, pleading voicemails to her.

“Oh god.” She buries her face in her hands. “Oh god, oh fuck. Fuck.”

She stands up, letting her comforter fall to the floor, and starts pacing her living room. She’s an idiot. An absolute, out of control idiot. This is the stupidest, most childish thing she could have done. Why hadn’t she called him during the day? Why hadn't she called him at literally any other time rather than waiting until she was in her most vulnerable state and that had happened.

God. Fuck.

Her buzzer goes, scaring her halfway out of her skin. She stares at the intercom, wondering whether she had imagined it until it buzzes again and startles her into movement. She crosses the room quickly and presses the button next to the speaker.

“Hello?”

“Annabeth? It’s Percy.”

Oh god.

She can’t force a single syllable out of her mouth so she just presses the buzzer instead and then wipes at her face which must be red and blotchy and beyond salvageable, probably. All too soon, there are quick footsteps outside her door and a gentle knock on the wood. Three small raps of his knuckles and then nothing more.

Annabeth breathes. Tucking the sleeves of her sweater over her hands, she walks to the door and opens it in one movement, certain that if she pauses during any part of it then she won’t quite follow through. And there he is.

Percy is wearing a grey hoodie over his pyjamas and looking like he’s been awake for exactly the amount of time it takes to get from his apartment to hers by cab. Guilt swells in her chest, overwhelming and loud. His face is a shipwreck of emotions and only serves to constrict her lungs further as they gasp for breath.

“Are you okay?” he asks her, with urgency.

“I’m so sorry,” she says.

Percy stares at her, visibly checking her over as he stands in her doorway at two o’clock in the morning because she had called him and asked him to come. So he had come.

“You’re okay?” he asks again.

Annabeth bites her lip, the pain forces her to move, to speak. To do something about this mess. She nods at him.

“Yeah. I'm sorry I worried you.”

He’s still looking at her like he doesn’t quite believe her and, well, she can’t blame him for that. She must look terrible, and the voicemail she had left him…

“Can I come in?” he asks and she doesn’t have even a fraction of the willpower to turn him away, so she nods and holds the door open for him to come inside her messy apartment.

He slowly looks around and ends up looking at her again where she has backed herself against the now closed door, feeling small and stupid and - horrifically - like she is about to start crying again. She can't even bear to look at Percy’s face or she knows it will send her over the edge, no matter what his expression is.

“You were right,” he says and her gaze snaps up, unbidden, to his face at that.

“What?”

Percy sighs and it sounds so heavy. He’s standing there with his hands pushed into the kangaroo pouch of his hoodie and his shoulders hunched inwards, as if to protect himself. Annabeth is almost overcome with the urge to go to him and wrap him in her arms. She pinches her thumbnail into her finger instead, keeping her feet rooted where they are.

“We didn’t have our last talk.”

He’s too kind. Too unwaveringly loyal and kind-hearted for her to ever deserve or be worthy of. She is convinced of this in that moment.

Slowly, she nods, unsure of what to respond with or where to start to unpick this knot of emotions and unsaid words between them.

“I should have stayed,” she says. Because there really is no point in straying from the narrative, from the heart of the issue and this is it. This is what it boils down to. He asked her to stay and she didn’t and she has regretted that decision every day since. “I wish I had stayed.”

The array of emotions which flicker over Percy’s face send Annabeth’s heart spinning but the one she latches onto is hope. It is there, in the lift of his eyebrows and the shine of his eyes as he stares at her openly. It is replaced with a frown and a shake of his head as he looks at her intently and this time she fights the urge to look away. She holds his stare and thinks of that momentary hope.

“But you didn’t,” he points out. “You went to...him.”

Annabeth grits her teeth and breathes. “I didn’t make it all the way.”

“What?”

“I...by the time my cab got there I realised how much of an idiot I had been and I got the driver to take me back home, but you had already gone.”

He is staring at her with that little frown and shake of his head. “What about Luke?”

“Fuck Luke,” she scoffs, tired of that name and the iteration of it. “I’m done tidying his messes and I’m tired of being used by someone who never gives anything back to me but expects me to be there for him unconditionally. That’s not love, I know...I know that now.”

The side of Percy’s mouth tips up just slightly. “I did try to tell you that.”

It eases some of the tension out of the room as she nods. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”

He shrugs. “I guess you wouldn’t be you without a bit of stubbornness.”

Annabeth leans her head back against the door, groaning a little bit. She slumps her shoulders against it too as she looks at Percy again. His own shoulders have dropped from around his ears and his face looks a little more open now. She feels a rush of relief in her chest at the sight. Then she is suddenly overcome with the need to touch him again. It itches her fingertips which she curls into her palms and clenches tight. He looks so irresistibly soft standing there and she feels impossibly touch-starved after weeks away from him, curled into herself in her too big bed and wide empty couch.

She just wants to go to him and never let go.

“Why didn’t you call?” he asks her, slamming her back into the moment and this talk which hasn’t really been resolved yet.

“I don’t know. Everything just...felt so final. The way we left things. The way I left things. I didn’t know how to breach that gap and then it kept getting bigger and bigger and I… I didn’t know how to come back to you.”

The look he gives her presses her bodyily to the door and holds her there. “You wanted to come back to me?”

“Of course I did.” Her breath catches. “I do. I love you, Percy. I-”

“You need me?” he asks. His voice only gentle as he reminds her of her voicemail.

She nods. “More than anything, more than anyone. Percy, I- I want everything you talked about and I hate that I ruined that. That I ruined us. I meant what I said, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me-”

“Annabeth.” He lurches forward but stops himself before he reaches her and takes a breath. She watches him, keeping her own breath trapped inside her chest. “I can’t…”

She feels the slow drop of her heart into her stomach as she readies herself for this rejection which is surely coming her way. She steels herself, feeling her very skin harden as she straightens her spine and meets the gaze of this man who is about to break her heart. A levelling of the playing field.

It seems cruel though, that she has broken her own heart already, only to have it broken again now.

“I can’t lose you again.”

She doesn’t understand. She can’t understand the meaning of his words.

Percy takes a step closer and she watches him do it, trying to catch up to wherever he is as he slowly reaches for her hands. He cradles them so gently she might cry, stroking his thumbs over her knuckles with a reverence which makes her think of something holy. Something far beyond her.

“I love you,” he tells her.

Her hands tighten around his. Instinct, or innate reaction. She begs her heart to slow down it’s clamouring in her chest so that she can hear herself think. So that she can hear his words properly.

“I still want all of that, what I said that night.”

He looks so vulnerable that Annabeth has to comfort him. He has crossed this barrier, so she lifts their entwined hands to his chest and holds his gaze, cradles it between them like something fragile.

“I want that more than anything. I don’t want to let you go.”

Releasing a slow breath, Percy tips his forehead against hers. “These have been the worst few weeks of my life.”

“Same here.”

“I missed you.”

She works one of her hands free to cup his cheek gently, needing to provide comfort in response to the strain in his voice. He leans into her touch and it’s like she can breathe again for the first time in weeks. As she feels his heartbeat and the gentle warmth of his cheek under her hands, she knows that she will never break his heart again. She knows that the future he had imagined is a certainty which lays ahead of them with comforting inevitability. She sees herself marrying him and building a family with him and growing old with him and feels nothing but love filling her chest.

“I’m not letting you go, Percy,” she tells him, because it feels important that he knows this. Important that he believes it. “You’re not getting away from me.”

A slow smile curves his mouth. “That sounds like a promise.”

“Oh, it is.”

And finally, still painfully slowly, he closes the space between them. The moment before they kiss feels impossibly stretched out, like a record slowed down, saccharine sweet and filled with stilted, half-gasped breaths until finally, finally their lips slide together and it’s like Annabeth’s whole life slots back into place. This is where she is supposed to be. The both of them, pressed together and holding on for dear life in the quiet mess of her apartment as music bleeds through the wall from her next door neighbour and her television plays a tacky commercial and the sounds of the city outside filter in through the windows which have cracks no matter how well they are shut.

It’s a moment filled with too many other things but all Annabeth feels is Percy. All she sees when she pulls back is the bright wonder of his eyes and the flash of his smile. All she smells is the sleep that clings to his skin and she is reminded of the way he rushed over here, to her, because she called and told him she needed him.

She’s getting used to being loved by someone like this, who treats their love like a delicate thing, worthy of being cradled with gentle hands. Though that’s not quite right either. Percy loves in a way that makes her feel strong, too. Pushing her hands into his hair, she endeavours to make him feel this way too. Percy crowds her against the door, holding her impossibly close as she adores him with each press of her lips to his and grip of her hands on his shoulders and in his hair.

Finally, she starts pushing him with some urgency towards her room. They only make it as far as the couch, but she isn’t complaining, so long as she gets him out of his clothes as soon as possible. Percy aquiesces, pulling his hoodie and shirt off in one go as she climbs into his lap and holds his face between her palms and proceeds to unwrap him like the gift he is to her.

***

Morning comes slowly, like a toffee sucked on the tongue until it is stretched thin. Sunlight welcomes itself into the apartment and across the two figures lying entwined on the too small couch.

Annabeth stretches as she wakes, feeling each pleasant pop of her spine and smiling as the arms around her tighten in response.

“Don’t go,” Percy mumbles, the words pressed with vulnerability into the skin at the back of her neck. “Stay here with me.”

Unwilling to deny him anything, she holds onto his forearm and presses back against him, tugging the comforter up over them both.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she promises him.