Work Text:
After the battle with Medusa, Grover went out like a light. But Annabeth and I were too wired, so we sat on one of the picnic tables and talked for a while. Somehow the subject of our families came up.
“So wait, I don’t get it,” I said quietly. “You went to live with your dad last year, but you only stayed for two months? Why?”
Annabeth sighed. “Something… new came up that my stepmom wasn’t a huge fan of.”
“Something new? Did you dye your hair or something?”
She fiddled with her beaded necklace for a moment before saying, “Percy, I’m bi.”
Oh wow. I did not expect that. I felt like an idiot. “Oh. Uhh-“
“I came out to my dad and my stepmom last October. It… didn’t go well. It just reinforced the idea in my stepmom’s head that I was a total freak. Any possible relationship that we could have had was over before it started. She was totally cold to me all the time. She wouldn’t even let me talk to her kids. And even though my dad wasn’t a jerk himself, he was super distant and wouldn’t even stick up for me. What kind of parent does that?”
“Uh,” Why didn’t I have anything more intelligent to say?
“Anyways, a month after that, I came back here and swore to never live with my family again. I mean, this is my real home, and my real family is Luke and Chiron and T-... all the other campers.”
“Oh. That really sucks.”
“Uh, yeah, well,” Annabeth shifted as though she was going to get up. If my brain was going to come up for something for me to say, now would be the time.
“Annabeth.” She paused. She looked at me, and I could tell that even though she was trying to seem casual and flippant about the whole thing, she was nervous. She had no idea how I would react. “Your stepmom acted like a real jerk. And I know what jerky stepparents look like, trust me. You didn’t deserve that. You’re not a freak. If anything, you’re the most normal thing about this place.”
She gave me a look.
“Oh! No, I meant you’re-“ I sputtered out.
“I know what you meant, Seaweed Brain,”
Annabeth said, smirking as she gave me a playful shove. “And thanks for being so cool about it.”
“Of course, Wise Girl. If I was going to hold anything against you, it would be something serious, like how your favorite holiday is the Fourth of July.”
“Okay, for your information, Jackson, the Hephaestus Cabin makes fireworks that you couldn’t even begin to dream of. Besides, the Athena Cabin doesn’t have to do any chores that day because of our contributions to the Revolutionary War.”
“Well that’s just not fair. Did you fight alongside George Washington?”
“Oh, like you know what’s fair. You got to fight the Minotaur and lead your own quest within a week of arriving at camp!”
The two of us continued to bicker until Grover threw an apple at us and told us to go to bed.