Work Text:
It’s 11.34 on a Saturday morning and Annabeth is still in bed. She had gotten up a couple of hours before to brush her teeth and splash her face with water and had promptly climbed back under the covers and pulled her laptop out to work on a paper due Monday. She’d worked out the skeleton of it a few weeks ago when their professor set it but had then neglected to do anything about it since, instead becoming distracted building a perfect replica of the Lincoln Memorial building on Sims before deciding to delete the whole programme from her laptop for the fifth time.
The open windows allow a nice breeze into the room but unfortunately let in the noisy bustle of New York city with it, serving as an unneeded distraction to her already distracted brain. She adjusts her reading glasses and stares at her outline like it might suddenly transform into a fully written essay if she looks at it hard enough. Instead the letters just jump around like they are mocking her.
The sound of a mug being put down startles her out of her concentration and she looks up at her smiling boyfriend. He has already been for a run this morning and has apparently returned to make her a cup of coffee while she still lies in bed. Still wearing his shorts and sweaty t-shirt, he lays down across the bottom of the bed.
“You look so cute in your dorky headset,” he says, referring to the contraption she wears so she can use her speech to text programme with ease.
“Fuck off,” she says, with affection. “How was your run?”
“Sweaty. There are people everywhere in this city.”
“I guess that’s what happens when you choose to live in a city with eight million other people.”
“I didn’t choose New York, Annabeth. It chose me.”
Annabeth stares at him, letting her head tilt to the side as he leans his head over the side of the bed. His face is red and sweaty from the run and his damp hair is overdue for a trip to the barbers.
“You’re so pretty,” she says.
Percy lifts his head, smiling immediately, and gets on his hands and knees to crawl over to her.
“No,” she warns. “I’m working on my paper. You promised.”
He kisses her shoulder. She’s wearing an oversized sweater so this doesn’t do much, but his arms also come around her, displacing the laptop from her thighs.
“But you’re so sexy in that headset.”
She tugs said headset off, letting it hang around her neck instead. “Percy! You’re sweaty.”
“You love it.”
And, well, she does actually. But it’s rude of him to use that against her and okay she needs to shower anyway and the sheets are due to be washed today. But still. It's the principle of the matter. Percy kisses her neck and helps her scoot down the bed so that he can lay over her properly.
“This is not fair,” she complains, tilting her head back as he reaches her jaw.
Percy gets up on his elbows to look down at her. “Do you actually want me to stop?”
Annabeth shifts her leg so that his hips can fit snug against hers and sighs. “No,” she says, wrapping her arms around his neck.
He smiles at her, all pleased, and ducks his head down to kiss her. Except he doesn’t kiss her, he just brushes his nose against hers and she arches up to meet him but he keeps that little bit of distance between them and she’s ready to tackle him in a second. Percy kisses her cheek, right where her dimple usually forms when she is smiling - she knows this only because he’s told her a dozen times. But there is no dimple now. She is not smiling. Then he reaches up to dislodge her arms from around his neck and she’s about to ask him what the hell he’s doing before he presses her wrists into the pillows by her head and, well, okay then. She's not mad about this.
Annabeth’s body feels tightly coiled as he hovers over her, ready to snap. And Percy, with his lean body stretched over hers, with his collarbones and chest exposed by the dip of his shirt and still glistening with sweat - actually glistening, it’s ridiculous - is driving her crazy.
“Well,” he says. “You know what you have to do then?”
“What’s that?”
He leans down, bearing some of his weight against her which feels fucking divine, and presses his lips against the shell of her ear.
“Finish your paper,” he whispers, before abruptly climbing off her.
Annabeth actually lies there in shock for a few seconds before jumping up and tackling Percy. He laughs as she jumps onto his back and wrangles him back onto the bed.
“What the fuck, Percy Jackson?” she says, maneuvering herself onto his lap.
He’s grinning at her as he shrugs. “I thought it would be good motivation.”
“You’re a shit. Now i’m fully distracted.”
“Can you keep the headset on?” he asks as she pulls his shirt over his head, muffling his voice a little.
Annabeth is shaking her head, but she removes her own sweater and the camisole underneath before positioning the headset back over her ears. She drapes her arms around his shoulders as his hands move over her bare back.
“Better?” she asks.
Barely holding back his smile, Percy nods. “Oh yeah. You’re like a sexy telephone operator.”
“I think that might be the first time those words were spoken ever. Congratulations.”
“There are weirder kinks.”
“So we’re calling it a kink then?”
He shrugs. “At least i'm not obsessed with your feet.”
Annabeth laughs. “Oh god. Just fucking kiss me already.”
He does, and it’s a smile that’s pressed against hers before she uses her tongue and pushes him back against the mattress. At some point, she nearly strangles them both with the wire of the headset and has to tear it off and launch it across the room while Percy laughs at her. They both gather a moment of sense to place her expensive laptop on the floor before it falls off and breaks, and in between all of that, she finally manages to get him undressed and exactly where she wants him. He tastes like salt and coffee and she’s certain she could survive on just him for the rest of her life, if she had to.
Annabeth sits at the small desk they have shoved up in the space in front of the window in their tiny living room. She pulls her headset down to rest around her neck and stretches her arms above her head, enjoying the pleasant crack of her shoulders.
“You finished?”
She shifts in her chair, uncrossing her legs and ignoring the ache of her hips after being sat in the same position for so long. Percy is standing in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables as he prepares their dinner. He looks so domestic standing there in a Mets t-shirt with his own headphones hanging around his neck like he has just pulled them down.
Annabeth shrugs. “Mostly. Just got the summary to go. I'm thinking I’ll leave it to tomorrow.”
“Sounds smart.”
She smiles, feeling soft inside as she watches him focus his attention on dicing a pepper. Annabeth hits save one more time, just to be sure, and closes her laptop. She removes the headset and stands up to walk into the kitchen, immediately plastering herself to Percy’s back and pressing a kiss to his neck.
“What are we having?”
“Chili con carne. Mom’s recipe.”
“Of course. Can I help?”
“You can grab me a beer.”
Annabeth moves away from him and smacks his ass lightly in response. She does go to the fridge to get them both a beer and pops the lids off before sitting on the counter next to Percy. He adds the chopped vegetables to the pot and gives them a stir before joining her to clink their bottles together.
“Cheers,” he says.
“What are we cheering to?”
He swallows the sip he had taken and smiles to himself, looking smug. “To you finally writing your paper.”
“Mhm. Why are you smiling like that?”
“It just.” He stands between her legs. “It works every time.”
“What does?”
Percy raises his eyebrows at her as he smiles with affection. He’s teasing her and she hates and loves it. She punches his shoulder, only lightly, and Percy laughs properly as he moves fully into her space.
“Sex is a motivator for you,” he tells her.
Annabeth shoves him back. “Shut up.”
“That’s cute. You’re cute.”
“Percy!”
“You’re telling me we’ve gone through four years of college and two years of grad school and you haven’t realised this yet. I thought the kids of cabin six were supposed to be smart?”
“You dick.”
He’s laughing in earnest now. “I think it’s very endearing that you’re so innocent.”
Annabeth is reeling. “Does that mean you made up the whole headset thing?”
“Oh no, that’s all true. You should be careful with that thing.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Hey, I’m not the one who needs to fuck before they can write a paper.”
“Oh my god!”
He’s laughing as he kisses her, in the middle of their little apartment while their dinner cooks and their sheets hang out to dry over a clothes horse because their dryer is broken. Percy’s music is now playing out loud from his phone, so they are serenaded by 2Pac. He extricates himself to tend to the chili and Annabeth asks him about his week at work and quietly considers the idea of getting a pet as she watches the love of her life talk animatedly about his colleague, Danny, getting pranked by the kids again.
It’s 6.42 on a Saturday evening and Annabeth is fucking happy.