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It had been a long day at university and all Annabeth wanted to do was collapse on the couch with a very large mug of hot chocolate and an even larger bowl of something carb-filled, like pasta. So when she steps into her apartment and finds the lights already on and low music filling the space she very seriously considers stepping back out and closing the door.
Before she’s fully made up her mind, a voice, charcoal raspy and caramel sweet, calls out. “Annie? Is that you?”
“Hey sweetheart.” Despite her exhaustion she can't help the smile that finds its home on her lips as her girlfriend comes into view. She is a vision in a t-shirt that brushes her thighs and her long hair in a messy braid. Nudging off her shoes, Annabeth winces at the cold of the wooden floors but all of it is trumped as soon as she feels hands on her cheek, gentle in their quest, their ask.
“Piper,” She sighs happily. And then they’re kissing and it feels so much like comfort, like knowing your place, like having a place to know. It feels as it does every time: solid.
“I didn’t think you’d be back for another hour.” Her girlfriend frowns, staring into her, looking for signs of worry or stress or general badness.
“I skipped my last lecture,” She shrugs, tracing circles on the soft skin of Piper’s hips. The action is absentminded but it keeps her focused on the present, especially when she’s tired like this. Tired enough to forget reality exists, that she is part of the world, that she exists too.
“Want me to run you a bath?”
“You make the world go round Mclean.”
She laughs, deep and soft. “Thanks, I love me too.”
“Can I order Giovelli’s for dinner?”
“Only if you get the cheesy garlic bread with it,” Piper grins, stepping out of their embrace and towards the bathroom.
Annabeth laughs as her girlfriend disappears down the hall. Like she’d ever forget the garlic bread.
She places her laptop and the various notebooks she hadn’t bothered to pack away on the kitchen counter before tugging off her blazer and unbuttoning the first few buttons on her shirt. She’d had a meeting with the department heads this morning and she wanted to look the part. All business, all serious. She was going to get her thesis approved one way or another.
“Annie, bath is done.”
Her outfit is almost completely demolished by the time she makes it to Piper and when she sees the steaming tub, bubbles practically floating in the air she wants to kiss the floor her girlfriend walks on.
“I really do love you, you know.” Annabeth climbs into the water, staring up at those brown eyes.
“I know.” Piper is soft, nodding like she’s never doubted it even once. “I love you too.”