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one.
They get so engrossed in the movie – well, not the movie itself so much as the talking and commentating and throwing popcorn at each other – and with Percy’s tendency to get distracted and miss a moment, combined with Annabeth’s tendency to start rambling about a line of dialogue over a moment, they continuously rewind and rewatch all the parts they miss; a one hundred minute movie takes them over two hours to get through.
Percy steals the last bit of popcorn while Annabeth scowls and punches him in the arm. It’s about then where Sally peeks out of her room. “Annabeth? How are you getting home, dear?”
Annabeth’s eyes fly to the clock, and she cringes. “Oh gods, I didn’t realize –” She swears in Greek under her breath, and Percy looks at his mom nervously, hoping she doesn’t miraculously gain the ability to understand the language. Annabeth starts gathering up her things haphazardly, but Sally steps out into the living room.
“It’s late,” she says, crossing her arms. “Why don’t you just stay here tonight?”
Percy stares at his mom open mouthed, and Annabeth freezes in place. “Um, no, that’s okay, Ms. Jackson. I don’t want to intrude.”
Sally shakes her head, walking over and lifting the backpack from Annabeth’s hands. “Nonsense. And I’d feel a lot better if you were here, rather than traveling across the entirety of Long Island at midnight or later.”
“Are you sure?” Her voice is quiet, almost like she can’t quite believe someone made her this offer. Probably no one has.
Sally smiles. “Of course. We’ll set you up right on the couch.”
And that’s that. Sally gets some blankets and a spare pillow, and for a good five minutes, neither Percy nor Annabeth even look at each other, trying to pretend they’re both not rolling in awkward. Percy helps his mom set up a sheet over the couch cushions, and by the time eleven o’clock rolls around, Sally’s bid them goodnight and retreated to her own room.
Percy hovers behind the couch. His hands and fingers move around, like he doesn’t really know what to do with them. “Do you want water or something?”
“No. I’m okay.”
The room goes quiet, and she breaks the tension by climbing into her makeshift bed. Percy flicks off the lamp, but Sally’s plugged in a small nightlight in the hall, just in case.
“Um. Night Annabeth.”
She wriggles her toes under the blanket. “Good night, Percy.”
She listens to him walk into his own room, closing the door behind him. Annabeth is just fourteen years old when she crashes at the Jackson house for the first time. It’s warm and safe, and she falls asleep with a smile on her face.
two.
Annabeth blinks herself awake; it’s a difficult process, because she’s buried in blankets and she’s just so comfortable. She sighs, happily, even starts smiling as she closes her eyes in the feeling, about ten seconds from burrowing even further into the cocoon she’s found herself in. It smells distantly like the ocean.
When she opens her eyes again, she has an entirely different reaction. Because she’s staring at the wall of Percy Jackson’s bedroom. She has to physically restrain herself from letting out a startled scream, bringing the blankets up to cover the lower half of her face. For being so relaxed about five seconds ago, her heart rate’s off the charts right about now.
She carefully looks around the room, peers over the side of the bed at the floor. But it’s empty. She’s the only one in here, which is a relief, even if she can still feel her face burning.
Tentatively, she wriggles to the edge of the bed, wrapping the blankets around her as she stands up and creeps towards the door. It’s shut tight, so she cracks it open to look out into the living room. The rest of the house is quiet – Sally and Paul must either still be sleeping or just haven’t left their own room yet.
A loud snore from the couch alerts her to exactly where Percy deposited himself the night before. She tiptoes out, still hoarding the comforter around her like a ward, and finds him sprawled out in a deep sleep on the sofa. His mouth is wide open, his limbs twisted in the sheets, but it’s not the sight of him sleeping there that makes her heart skip a beat.
It’s the fact that she’d fallen asleep on his bed, and he let her stay there. She might have expected him to obnoxiously shake her awake and complain. Or maybe not at all, if she really thinks about it – because he’s a jerk and a pain nine times out of ten, but he’s still Percy. He’s her best friend for a reason, and the thought has her smiling as she rushes back into his room.
Annabeth might have fallen asleep in his bed accidentally, but there’s no way she’s going to get caught staring at him like an idiot. She’ll just have to thank him in a way that isn’t totally embarrassing.
three.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. She only says it in her head, because calling herself that out loud is against all of the rules. Personal rules. The next hellhound that attacks her is going out in a blaze of violence, simply out of spite.
Annabeth doesn’t even think about it, the way she ends up standing on the street outside the Jackson house. But she’s out of ambrosia, and she’s a borough away from her dorm. It’s safer, obviously, to just swing by the Jacksons’ apartment, which is why she pushes herself up the elevator to their floor.
Paul greets her at the door – his expression panicked at her bodily state (a little bloody, yes, but she’s not incapacitated). He rushes for the stash of ambrosia and when she takes a bite, it tastes like cookies. Blue ones. “Do you need to sit down for a minute?” he asks, and she nods, letting him lead her over to the couch.
She collapses into the cushions, leaning her head back as the ambrosia slowly works through her system. “Sally and Percy went out to a movie,” he explains without being prompted. Annabeth nods lazily, and Paul makes another offer, but she goes down on the couch.
When she comes to, Paul’s still sitting in the living room, book in hand. He looks relieved when she blinks at him. “Good, there you are. I was worried for a second.”
“Sorry.” The apology is instant and earnest – Paul’s still pretty new to their world, though the Jacksons had assured her he took it fairly well.
Paul waves his hand. “I checked with Sally. You can stay and rest as long as you’d like.” He pauses to chuckle. “Though she was careful to remind me that my question was entirely unnecessary, and that I ‘better not let that girl leave till she gets home’.”
Despite the pain in her arm, Annabeth’s chest feels light, and her face flickers with a smile. “I’ll stay for a while, yeah.” She’s gotten a lot more comfortable with that, with just vocalizing what she wants about her time in this house, and her limbs do still ache.
Apparently enough that she falls asleep on the couch before Sally and Percy even come home, though when she wakes up in the morning, the blankets have been tucked in around her with the utmost care – though not quite in the way Sally usually does.
Annabeth has long since come to the conclusion that she really likes Paul.
four.
She drains the last of her coffee and smiles at Sally; it’s weak, but it’s there, and Sally returns it in kind. Another no news day, but it doesn’t stop Annabeth from swinging by. She spends a lot of time with Sally lately. The two of them have plans to hit up a museum tomorrow, and really, Annabeth should go back to her dorm – she’s missed a lot of classtime already, and she knows the nuns notice when she doesn’t come back for the night. They probably assume the worst (worst by Catholic school standards, at least).
Clinking the spoon in the cup, Annabeth flops her head down on her arms tiredly. Sally lets her sit in the silence for a few moments, taking the two cups and setting them down in the sink.
But that’s the last thing she remembers, because Annabeth finds herself jumping awake, her arms having fallen asleep along side the rest of her. She blinks, searching out the clock as she shakes her wrists. It’s 10:40 now, long past the weeknight curfew. The television is playing quietly, so she heads for the living room to the sight of Sally and Paul watching some mindless reality show, her head on his shoulder.
Her heart hurts at the sight, and she feels like an intruder. She raps on the wall to get their attention. “Sorry,” she starts. “I should just head out. Fortunately, my room’s on the first floor.”
Even though she says it, part of her knows she doesn’t really mean it. Sally stands up, crosses over, and wraps her arms around her. Annabeth stiffens for a moment, then finds herself returning the gesture, even sinking into it.
“Paul and I are going to bed. The couch is yours,” Sally whispers in her ear, answering the question Annabeth was too afraid to ask, as much as she wanted to.
She knows where the blankets are at this point, gets everything all set up on her own, and she sinks into the couch with a relieved sigh. Percy’s room smells like Percy, but the rest of the house is different – it’s cookies and candy, the smallest hints of caramel, and lilacs from the air freshener down the hall. It’s Sally and her warmth, welcoming her here
The nuns would get a kick over her staying at her boyfriend’s house when he wasn’t even there.
five.
Not that she’d ever admit it, but playing catch up on all the school they missed because of the Giant War takes a lot out of her. Percy’s already snoring behind her on the bed, and it’s distracting as she stares down the mathematical calculations littered across her textbook and notebook. Sally’s told her she was welcome to stay the night, and maybe it’s time to follow suit and hit the hay like her boyfriend.
She closes up the books and shuffles around, but the movement is enough to alert Percy, and his hand tentatively touches her arm. Annabeth looks over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow.
He suddenly looks abnormally shy, his cheeks a little red, but there’s a quiet determination in his eyes that keeps her glued to the spot and silences her urge to tease. “You could, uh. Stay here, if you wanted.”
“I already am?”
“No. No, I mean –” He pauses, swallowing nervously. His eyes flicker down to the space beside him unconsciously. “Here. With me.”
“Oh.” Her own face heats up, but the butterflies in her stomach aren’t the kind that triggers her flight instincts. She drops her books on the floor. “Are you sure?”
He nods once.
She resigns herself to spending a good five minutes thinking it over – but that’s stupid. It’s really stupid. It’d hardly be the first time they shared a sleeping space. Is there really that much of a difference, just because it’s his bed? It’s not like he’s implying anything else – he wouldn’t do that. So she smiles at him. “Okay.”
His entire body relaxes. “Okay.”
Annabeth is already in her pajamas, so she just shifts to lay down beside him, face to face. They lock eyes for a few moments, before he leans in and kisses her forehead, then wraps his arm around her and pulls her in close.
She laughs. “I’d like to breathe in my sleep, I’m just saying.”
“Do you really need to?”
“Just a bit, yeah.”
He loosens his grip with a mocking sigh, and she settles in more comfortably. She weaves her fingers through his, smiling contently, and he beams, like he couldn’t be happier to be with her here, right now. He kisses her once. “Good night, Annabeth.”
“G’night, Percy.”
She knows the Jackson house like the back of her hand by now, feels at ease whenever she’s here, no matter who’s here with her. It’s the first time she falls asleep in Percy’s bed with him in it too. It just won’t be the last.
Annabeth never sleeps on the couch again.