Chapter Text
Percy
There way no way Percy Jackson was this lucky. He had been kicked out of seven schools in his lifetime. His dad was a deadbeat for the majority of his life, leaving him and his mom in the hands of a grade A asshole. He had dyslexia and ADHD, as if one wasn’t enough. He’d scrapped his way through high school with the help of his step-dad Paul, but he still felt that he’d really only got into college because of his swim scholarship. Point is: he was no one special, and special things never happened to him.. There was no way a coincidence this incredible would happen to him of all people.
He wasn’t even sure he could call it a coincidence, or even luck.
Which meant it was…
No. He shook the idea out of his head. Thinking it was “fate” was just silly. He was back in his dorm room, pacing around, restless after his shift ended. The rest of his day had been excruciating. He was in such disbelief at seeing the order name on the two cups that he’s one hundred percent sure he messed up both drinks. He was shocked and pleasantly surprised by how he’d managed to speak to her without making a complete and utter fool out of himself. He’d even flirted with her! (Or, tried to, at least.) Their fingers had brushed! When they locked eyes, he was certain it was her.
She was captivating—he felt as though he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. There had been a peculiar glint in her large brown eyes. He was tempted to say her gaze had reminded him of a deer’s, but there was an expression behind them that kept him from making that comparison. No, she had regarded him with too much curiosity to be entirely doe-eyed (and not that he’d ever flatter himself by saying a girl that pretty had given him doe-eyes). She looked at him as though she knew him from somewhere, or at least that she should have known him.
The strange look of familiarity was definitely reflected in his own eyes. He had a brief moment of there’s no way this is real , until he’d caught her eye again, just as she walked out of the café, and realized that she’d said the words he heard in his dream. Order for Annabeth . His dream hadn’t been all that clear in the morning, but suddenly her words were seared into his memory. It was her, it actually was her . He couldn’t believe it. He spent the rest of his shift replaying their brief interaction over and over in his head—visualizing her big brown eyes, memorizing the inflection of her voice, skin tingling from the lightness of her touch—and effectively ruining every drink he made from that point on. It was a relief, truly to both himself and his coworkers, when he had finally gotten off work.
Percy considered calling his mom, to tell her the unbelievable news, but something stopped him. He wasn’t exactly sure how to proceed with this information: that he’d met his soulmate mere hours after reading her name for the first time, that she was a student at his same university, that she could very well be a regular to his coffee shop. How was he supposed to explain that when his own brain didn't even know how to comprehend it? By the time he reached his dorm, his head was pounding. So many thoughts were racing through his head, yet he couldn’t quiet his mind down enough to settle on a singular one. Now, he was over energized with possibility, with disbelief. He thought about going for a swim to clear his head, when a knock on his door snapped him out of his craze.
Already knowing who it was, Percy jumped up and swung open the door.
“Grover!”
“Percy!” exclaimed his best friend. “Happy birth—” Grover faltered, eyeing Percy warily. “Why are you standing like that?” he asked.
Percy realized how aggressively he was gripping the doorframe. He reached out and pulled Grover into his dorm by his shoulders.
Grover made a weary face. “This is intimate,” he observed at their closeness.
“Gover,” Percy began, his tone dead serious, “I found her.”
“Found who?”
“ Her her!”
“ Who is her her?”
Percy grinned, placing both of his hands on either side of Grover’s face. “My soulmate,” he whispered.
Grover stared at him. “You know,” he said, “you could have delivered this news in a much less…weird way.”
Percy rolled his eyes exasperatedly. “Grover! Aren’t you listening!” he exclaimed, “I found my soulmate the day I got her name!”
“There’s no way,” Grover said, shaking his head in disbelief as Percy’s words began to register. “How?”
So Percy recounted his day, not leaving out a single detail. Grover listened attentively, nodding and gasping at all the right moments. For as scatter minded as Percy had been just minutes before, talking to Grover helped him sort out his thoughts. This was always the case between them: Percy, unable to deal with all his emotions, would attempt to explain them to Grover, who somehow could always make sense of the chaos in Percy’s head. Similarly, Grover often found himself falling down anxious spirals, and Percy always managed to gently pull him out of those. Sally often joked that the two boys were linked by some natural force. Grover called it empathy. Percy called it being best friends. Regardless of what it was, Percy was grateful for it.
(Especially in moments like these.)
By the time Percy finished telling his story, Grover was freaking out just as much as he was.
“So, what—I mean wow , what are you gonna do?” Grover asked enthusiastically. “Are you gonna try to find her again?”
“Well I’m kind of just hoping that she comes back to the coffee shop!” Percy responded. “Maybe I could actually talk to her, you know? Figure out if it’s actually her.”
“Why wouldn’t it be her? You found your soulmate, Percy, this is insane!”
“Well, think about it,” Percy began, “how many Annabeth’s could be out there?”
Grover stared at him blankly. “Like, at this college or in the world?”
The thought caught up to Percy. “I guess…the world.” He sat down defeatedly. “Cause, I mean, this is just too much of a coincidence to be true, isn’t it? What if it isn’t actually her? What if—”
The ring of Grover’s phone startled them both, snapping Percy out of whatever spiral he was about to fall into. Grover pulled out his phone, confused at first, then realization dawning on his face as he looked at the caller ID.
Percy furrowed his eyebrows. “Who is it?”
“So,” Grover started, “You remember I said I was inviting my friend from work to get dinner with us tonight, right?”
“Um. No?”
“Oh!” Grover was still awkwardly holding his phone, staring down at the now missed call. “Well, I met this girl at work, and she has a younger brother who’s starting college here in the fall. I thought it’d be nice for you to meet some people outside of your swim team before classes start!”
“So you invited two people tonight?”
Grover paused, as if doing the math in his head before saying, “Mhm!”
Percy absentmindedly bounced his leg. “That’s nice…I guess.”
Grover immediately spewed an apology. “I’m sorry,” he pleaded, “I should’ve asked you first, I can’t believe I forgot—”
“Hey man,” Percy said, getting up to pat Grover on the shoulder. “It’s alright. You’re just looking out for me, G-man. Are they here now?”
Grover’s eyes were large and apologetic, but he nodded. “They’re downstairs,” he added softly.
Percy gestured toward the door. “Let’s go meet em then!
---
His birthday dinner with his best friend and two people he’d never met was (shocker!) just as awkward as Percy feared it would be.
Grover wasn’t the world’s best buffer, though you couldn’t say he didn’t try his best! It definitely helped that Percy and Grover’s friend from work—a girl named Thalia—were similar enough to keep a conversation going. Thalia was an animal rights activist working out of Berkeley at the moment, which is how she met Grover. She had actually gone to a boarding school in New York for high school, so their conversation mainly surrounded the places they missed and didn’t miss, and how shocking it was that people from California actually spoke like surfer dudes in movies.
Her brother, Jason, wasn’t impressed with that last point. Not that he spoke like California, even though he (unlike Thalia) went to a boarding school here in the Bay Area. He was a lot quieter than his sister was, and looked almost nothing like her. Jason had a serious, contemplative expression and short-cropped blonde hair. Thalia, from what Percy could tell, was the type of person to wear her emotions on her face unashamedly. Like, when he and Jason ordered steak and burgers after Grover and Thalia ordered their veggie burgers…
At least he and Jason had been able to share a knowing look between each other.
By the end of the night, Percy decided that despite the awkwardness, he’d had a nice time. It was so Grover to try to set him up with friends before entering a new place, it made Percy grateful for his best friend all over again. And if he was being entirely honest, Percy was glad to at least know one other first year at NRU. He and Jason were even living in the same dorm building! Maybe this meant that Percy wouldn’t be stuck hanging out with the douchebags on his swim team all the time.
Maybe this college thing won’t be so bad.
Back in his dorm, Percy went to bed contentedly, dreaming of the girl in the coffee shop coming in again to see him.
Annabeth
Classes were beginning in two days, and Annabeth decided that she was delighted to be in college.
As someone with learning differences, she never found the high school education system to be all that great. She liked that in college, she could pick her own classes, create her own schedule, and study in as many different places as she’d like. She could have all her classes on Mondays and Wendesdays, or Tuesdays and Thursdays, and give herself a three-day weekend every weekend if she wanted to. If a course had multiple sections with different professors, she could go through each of their reviews and pick the professor she imagined working the best under. She could even see what building the class would be in, and could plan for them to all be relatively near each other.
Or (and she was just thinking off the top of her head, here) she could see how close her classes were to her favorite spots on campus! Like, you know, maybe a coffee shop, for instance! If she liked a particular one and there just happened to be a class she needed to take in a building near this particular coffee shop, that meant she could stop by either before or after her class. A nice treat in the morning would be nice, or a rewarding treat after a tough class! Yes, she thought that would be great for her future self, so Annabeth did in fact strategically plan her classes around her favorite coffee shop.
Did this have anything to do with the cute barista named Peter who had smiled at her in a way that made butterflies flutter in her stomach? Of course not! (It absolutely did and she had only a little shame in that.)
It didn’t help that Annabeth and Piper hadn’t returned to that coffee shop with the cute barista since the one time she saw him there. Piper didn’t want to go somewhere that messed up their orders as horribly as they had. Besides, they’d moved out of their summer dorms and into their actual dorms for the normal school year, and there was a different cafe that was closer. The few times Annabeth allowed herself to pass by, he hadn’t been working. Her timing could have just been poor, but part of her felt like perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be.
The idea saddened her, but she reminded herself that his name hadn’t even been Perseus. She’d deleted the files of names of employees she’d been searching through. She thought, why not give fate a chance? Maybe Piper had finally gotten it through Annabeth’s head: if you’re meant for something, it’ll find you.
Piper could be pensive like that at times. Currently, however? Annabeth watched as Piper curled up in her bed, groaning and murmuring curses that were nowhere near pensive.
“Annabeth,” Piper said painfully, “I think I’m dying.”
Annabeth rolled her eyes. “You’re not dying. What did the doctors say?”
Piper whined miserably, “I have a UTI.”
Annabeth laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. “I told you to go to the bathroom yesterday!”
“ Sorry I didn’t want to lose our place in line,” Piper snapped back.
“We would have been fine ,” Annabeth said. “Point is, now you have to deal with the consequences. Did the doctors give you any medication?”
Piper nodded into her pillow. “They said I could pick it up at the Target pharmacy near campus.” She sat up then, and gave Annabeth pleading eyes. “Will you come with me? Plea-a-ase?”
“ Now? ” Annabeth asked, making a face.
“Yes, now,” Piper said. When Annabeth started shaking her head, Piper continued pleading.
Annabeth, at risk of her eyeballs falling back into her skull, rolled her eyes again and got up. She slipped on her shoes and grabbed her new NRU tote bag.
“Well, I do need to get tampons anyway,” Annabeth relented, “Fine I’ll go with you.”
“Yay!” Piper jumped down from her bed. “We can get some sweet stuff too!”
“Sold.”
About fifteen minutes later, Annabeth was making her way through the candy aisles of Target, grabbing whatever could fit in her arms. She hadn’t thought to grab a basket since she figured she’d only be carrying a few things; but she was now meticulously balancing multiple items. She’d grabbed about three different types of chocolates in case her and Piper wanted options, and a pint of vegan Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. She agreed to meet Piper back in the feminine care aisle after Piper had grabbed her medicine, so she headed there now, careful not to drop anything.
(In retrospect, she should’ve gotten a basket.)
Piper was already waiting for her, medicine in hand. Annabeth laughed, teasing her friend again for not listening to her the night before.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want,” Piper said flatly, “karma will get you. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Oh sure, Piper,” Annabeth giggled. She reached out to grab a box of tampons from the shelf.
“Oo do you need help?” Piper asked.
“Actually yeah, could you—”
“Too bad,” Piper quipped. She gently placed her medicine on top of the other items in Annabeth’s arms. “I need to go to the bathroom, hold this for me?”
Annabeth stared at her blankly. “Sure.”
“Thanks, you’re the best!”
As Piper turned the corner and disappeared, Annabeth fumbled to hold everything in her arms. She debated putting them in her tote bag, but didn’t want to seem like she was stealing (especially when she was around Piper, who would then ironically egg her on, and was an “ex”-klepto herself). Deciding to just keep them in her arms, Annabeth figured she might as well go to self check out to pay.
Her phone was in her back-pocket, so she stopped for a moment to try to reach for it by putting everything in her other arm. Her tote bag slipped down to her wrist, which was annoying but fine since she couldn’t really shimmy it back up. Miraculously she managed to grab her phone without dropping anything, and pulled up her messages with Piper.
Going to check out, she typed, meet u outside.
Piper responded quickly.
kk. just ran into leo n jason!
Oh that’s fun, Annbaeth replied.
ya theyre w some guy idk just dorm shopping. invited us over later to hang out!
Right as Annabeth was typing her response, she turned the corner towards self check out and promptly ran into someone. The items in her arms went tumbling down, along with her tote bag.
“Agh!” She exclaimed, bending down to retrieve her things (and her dignity). “I am so sorry, I totally wasn’t…” Her voice trailed off as she looked up at who she’d run into.
He smiled at her, his blue eyes bright. “It’s alright,” he half-laughed.
Her phone was the only thing in her hand, and she was gripping it tightly.
There’s no way, she thought to herself .
The cute barista from the other week was bending down to help her pick up everything. Her eyes widened as he reached for Piper’s medicine and, much to her horror, the box of tampons.
“Here’s your, um,” he seemed to struggle for the words. “Stuff…”
There is no way this is happening to me.
But it was happening alright. At the risk of Piper calling her a thief, Annabeth grabbed the stuff from his hands and shoved it in her tote bag, along with the chocolates. As she did so, she decided that she was going to kill Piper for making her go to the store with her.
“Um, thanks,” she said, standing up as quickly as she could. “I’m gonna go now—”
“Annabeth!” Someone else exclaimed. That someone turned out to be Leo, who smiled cheerfully at her, his roommate Jason trailing behind and grinning politely.
“We just ran into, Piper,” Leo said, “you know Jason, and this is—”
Not registering what Leo was saying, Annabeth cut him off with a quick, “Nice to see ya, gotta go!” Annabeth smiled (more like grimaced) at the cute barista, who for the record was still looking at her with amusement, and practically ran away. Leo had started to say something else, but whatever it was she didn’t want to hear it. She couldn’t believe what had just happened and needed to leave as soon as possible. She blew through the self check out, paying with her phone, and dashed out to the front where Piper was waiting.
She spent the entire walk home listening to Piper discuss the pros and cons of going over to Leo and Jason’s, expressing curiosity at who they were with, and teasing Annabeth about what had happened after she shared the story.
Annabeth did not want to go, which is what she told Piper, who laughed again.
“Fine, we don’t have to go because you embarrassed yourself in front of the cute guy,” Piper said, still giggling to herself. “I’ll just tell them you aren’t feeling well.”
“Oh they know I’m not feeling well,” Annabeth scoffed.
“Oh my god, Annabeth, you don’t even know if he read what the medicine was for,” Piper pointed out, “and even if he did, it had my name, not yours.”
Annabeth only grumbled in response. Sure, Piper could be right, but it didn’t change the fact that she felt totally and utterly pathetic. She was an adult now, for crying out loud. She shouldn’t be embarrassed about purchasing products she needed. She didn’t even know the guy—he (very poorly) made her coffee once. She had no reason to be as bent out of shape as she actually was.
But then why did she feel like she was missing some important piece of information? Why did she feel, just for a split second when he smiled at her, that she was close to something important? Why was she so so hung up on this one interaction with him? For the life of her, she could not get him out of her mind. She’d even gone as far as to plan a class nearby the coffee shop he worked at on the off chance that they’d meet again.
The absurdity of that suddenly made her feel even more pathetic and desperate. Who was she kidding? After that interaction, she doubted he’d give her the time of day, let alone another smile.
Annabeth decided, only slightly sadly, that she would not be returning to the coffee shop (delusional daydream about the cute boy be damned).
Percy
“Uh sorry, guys,” Leo was saying, “Annabeth doesn’t usually run away from people like that. I don’t think…”
Percy’s heart was pounding so loudly, he could hardly hear Jason’s roommate, Leo. He looked down at the ground where a small coin purse laid forgotten. He felt frozen in his tracks, like the sight of her had paralyzed him.
From the moment they’d all ran into Jason and Leo’s other friend Piper, who had mentioned she was at the store with Annabeth , Percy hadn’t been able to focus. He spent the new few minutes ducking into the aisles and scanning the walkways to see if he could find her. Did he feel only slightly stalker-ish? A little, yeah, but he couldn’t pass up the chance to talk to her, to see her again. It was just his luck that he’d scared her off the minute she saw him.
Slowly, Percy reached down and picked up the wallet.
“I think she dropped her wallet,” Percy said. He unzipped it to find her student ID, her name there in all caps. Annabeth Chase. Percy felt like he couldn’t breathe.
“Oh, crap,” Leo said, stepping towards Percy to see. “Well, I can give it to her when they come over later.” He paused, frowning, and turned to Jason. “Did they actually say if they were coming or not?”
Jason shrugged. “No idea,” he said, “I can ask Piper.”
“So you like, know- know her?” Percy asked, gesturing at Annabeth’s wallet.
Leo nodded. “Yeah, I met them in the summer program I did. She’s pretty chill. I mean, usually.” Leo then looked at Percy skeptically, and asked, “Do you know her or something?”
Percy wasn’t sure how to respond. The answer was honestly no , but clearly they’d picked up on the fact that Percy knew of her beforehand. How was he supposed to explain that he was convinced she was his soulmate? Take off his shirt and show them her name on his back? No, he definitely didn’t want to do that. He just met these guys. He wasn’t even sure how much he should trust them with. He was better off keeping that information to himself, he decided.
“Um, no she just,” he began, “she came to the coffee shop I work at one time. I…yeah.”
He was going to say he thought she was pretty, but held himself back (even though he very, very, very much thought so).
Leo shrugged again. “Cool. Anyway, yeah, I can give her her wallet tonight—”
“Ah, Piper just said Annabeth isn’t feeling well,” Jason chimed in, looking up from his phone. “Looks like it’s just gonna be us tonight.”
“Ugh, women,” Leo huffed dramatically. “Tell Piper she’s lame and that Annabeth sucks and that I hope they fail their classes this semester.”
Percy gave a small laugh at that. It was nice of Jason to have invited Percy out dorm shopping with his roommate. Leo was a funny guy with far too much energy, but Percy could relate to that. Jason and Leo were an odd pairing for roommates, Percy thought. Jason was a lot more stoic and serious than Leo was, but after hanging out with them for just a few hours Percy could see why they got along so well. Leo brought out a much goofier side of Jason than Percy had seen before. Percy was glad to have met them both, even if he did feel a little awkward being a third in their trio.
Jason checked his phone again. “Piper says to kill yourself,” he informed, “and that Annabeth says not to come crying to her when you need help in engineering.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “Whatever, tell Annabeth she isn’t getting her wallet back then.”
“Leo, why don’t you text her that,” Jason said, raising his eyebrows. “You have a phone, don’t you?”
Leo waved him off. He turned to Percy again. “Excuse our friends, they’re kinda stupid,” he said, “But yeah, I’ll just give this to her in class or something.” He reached out his hand to take Annabeth’s wallet.
Percy held onto it for a moment. It made the most sense to give it to Leo, but Percy had been hoping he could be the one to return it to her. He didn’t want to seem like a weirdo though, clinging onto the wallet of a girl he didn’t know. That wasn’t really the impression he wanted to give Jason and Leo, especially if they were his new ticket to actually meeting her for real this time.
So reluctantly (defeatedly, miserably even), he handed her wallet over to Leo.