Archive of Our Own ^beta

Percy is half asleep when something hits the back of his head. 

He almost doesn’t wake up from it at all with the way his professor’s voice manages to put him to sleep every time. It’s an awful mix, really, having lectures at eight in the morning and a professor that doesn’t seem to know the definition of emotion. Everything is so monotone, and while Percy knows some of the blame falls on himself—he’s never been the best student—it’s to be expected that he begins to drift off after only a few minutes.

It takes a few seconds of slow blinking to realize that it was a mechanical pencil that hit his head and he wasn’t dreaming, and it takes a few more seconds after that for him to turn his head in search of the person who threw it.

There are not many people behind him. The class itself is nearly empty because no one wanted to take the class to begin with, so it doesn’t leave many people to have thrown it. There’s a guy a few rows back, but he seems more sleepy than Percy. A girl sits in the row directly behind him, and she’s the only one that seems to be close enough to snag him on the head hard enough to leave the sharp sting, but she’s also pointedly avoiding eye contact with him.

His eyes linger on her for a few more seconds as a frown forms on his face. She still hasn’t looked at him, but she’s hiding a subtle smile, and while there’s a notebook under her arm, her fingers are missing the blue pencil he swears he saw her holding earlier. 

It’s only when his professor calls his name that he tears himself away from the girl.

“Is there something wrong, Percy?”

Percy shifts in his seat uncomfortably. “No.”

“Are you sure? You seem to be much more fascinated by Annabeth than by what you’re here to learn.”

A few people give off tired laughs while Percy’s ears twinge red. He honestly hadn’t even known her name. He was only looking at her because he has a sneaking suspicion the pencil that’s still resting in front of him was previously in her hand, but the look he’s getting from the teacher tells him it definitely doesn’t appear that way.

“I’m sure,” Percy chokes out. Even as the professor gives him a knowing look and turns back to the lecture, his cheeks feel overwhelmingly hot. He just wants to be through with this already, especially now that he can feel the eyes of a certain blonde settling on the back of his neck. The second that the hour is up, he intends to shove everything into his bag and get out of there as fast as humanly possible, but that plan goes flying out the window when he turns his swivel chair to stand and nearly knocks into someone.

“Have somewhere to be?” the girl muses, but she doesn’t move back to give him space.

“Anywhere but here.”

She laughs, and Percy feels even more embarrassed. He bites his lip when she shifts her foot, and they fall into silence.

“Do you need something?” Percy asks after a moment.

“I was hoping you’d give me back my pencil.” She eyes his hand which is grasping the plastic tightly. She goes to grab it from him herself, but he snatches his hand away before she gets the chance, giving her a chastising look.

“So it was you,” Percy accuses.

Her eyes gleam and she adjusts the bag thrown over her shoulder. “You looked like you were falling asleep. I did you a favor.”

“By hitting me with a pencil?”

“It was fascinating stuff,” she says, looking at the board in the front of the room. It’s covered with messy notes about things he couldn't care less for. “I would have hated it if you had to miss it.”

“You’re so generous,” Percy says.

She smiles again, and while he hadn’t been staring at her for her looks earlier, he definitely was now. She’s pretty, even if she chose to mortify him in front of the entire class. He hadn’t been able to see her eyes earlier when he’d turned to look at her, but they’re looking right into his eyes now. It’s different, the way her eyes shine like a storm approaching a coast, but she seems to be different in general. Normal people don’t hit strangers with pencils.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she says. “I’m not so selfless.”

Percy moves his hand away from hers when she makes another try for the pencil, and he wags the pencil in front of her nose. “What? You needed an excuse to talk to me?”

“I did, actually.”

And it’s not quite what Percy expected.

“I can’t possibly be the only one lost in this class,” Annabeth says. “I figured if I had to suffer, we could at least suffer together. Besides, how else would I get your attention if I didn’t throw something at you?”

“Maybe like a normal human?” Percy offers. “Something like, hey, I’m Annabeth. Let’s study sometime. ”

Annabeth pokes his arm gently. “You sure you’re not fascinated by me? You already know my name and I haven’t even properly introduced myself.”

“It’s definitely not like the professor said it in front of the entire class when he was calling me out, or anything,” Percy drawls.

“Of course not,” she says. “It’s because you’re madly in love with me.”

Percy smiles softly at that and rolls his eyes. “Alright, smartass.”

“I’m serious, though,” she continues. “I do think it would be nice to have someone to suffer through this class with.”

“And you chose me?”

“There’s, like, five people in this class,” Annabeth says. “Come on, Percy, you expected me to ask that kid in the corner that’s always asleep?”

It’s Percy’s turn to tease her. “I think you’re the one madly in love. I never told you my name.”

Annabeth follows his lead with a bright smile. “It’s definitely not like the professor said it in front of the entire class when he was calling you out for being in love with me, or anything,” she mocks, using his own words against him.

Percy pushes her shoulder lightly and finally gives her the pencil back, which she accepts graciously. 

“Come on,” she says, pushing past him. He doesn’t move for a few seconds, instead watching her walk away, but then she stops and turns back toward him expectantly. “Are you coming?”

“Where?”

She looks around the empty room for a moment before her eyes fall back on him. “We’re hanging out,” she says, like it’s obvious.

“Are we?”

“How are we supposed to survive this class together if we barely know each other?” she asks. She motions over her shoulder again, more persistent, and doesn’t wait for him to follow after her this time. She just walks toward the doors, leaving Percy standing behind her wondering if he should follow her.

He’s never met someone so forward before, but it’s a nice change. She’s different from most people he’s met here, though he doesn’t know if that’s a good or bad thing just yet. He thinks he’d like to stick around to find out.

He lifts his own bag over his shoulder before following her steps. He does a light jog to catch up to her, and he holds open the door so she can walk out, which she mutters a light thank you for. She doesn’t say anything as they begin walking down the busy sidewalk, and Percy wonders where she’s taking them. He doesn’t know if he should ask—he doesn’t want to disturb the silence—but then she’s slipping into an alley like it’s something she does every day, and Percy can’t help it.

“You never answered where we’re going,” he says cautiously when she holds open a door along the side of a brick building. It’s dark inside, and it looks a bit dirty too. She seems nice, but at the end of the day, he doesn’t really know her, and she could be planning to murder him the second he steps over the threshold for all he knows. He peeks inside.

“Relax,” she says, laughing and stepping in first when he doesn’t budge. Percy follows after her. “We’re just going to the roof of this place to sit.”

“Are we allowed to?”

“Not really,” she answers, continuing down a dark hallway. It really is dirty. The lights don’t seem to work, and the building is most likely abandoned. In the slight sunlight that filters through the crack in the door, he can see the dust floating around, and it makes him feel a tad bit itchy. 

“Oh,” he says. “Are you sure we should be…”

“I do it all the time,” she promises.

“You’re not going to, like, push me off the building, right?”

“For all of Manhattan to see?” Annabeth laughs incredulously. “Of course not. There are some things you never do in broad daylight. Murder is one of those things.”

“I mean. That’s great to know, I guess.”

“Isn’t it?” Annabeth stops in front of a few steps, and he can tell she wants him to go first. He’s still a bit hesitant, but there’s something about the way she looks at him like she’s known him forever that has him giving in and treading lightly up the steps. It takes a few good shoves to get the door open at the top of the stairwell, but he manages eventually and steps back into the sunlight. 

The roof of the building isn’t much better than the inside, but Annabeth treks right onto the roof like it’s her second home, shoving the door shut behind herself.

“You said you come here often?” Percy asks, looking around when she settles onto the edge of the building and swings her feet over the edge. It does scare him a little bit, but she doesn’t seem fazed in the slightest.

Annabeth looks at his face and laughs. “Yeah. It’s not the prettiest, I’ll admit, but it’s somewhere no one else comes to. It’s as quiet as it gets around here.”

“I’m here,” he argues. 

She tilts her head as though analyzing him. He feels like he wants to impress her. “You’re here,” she agrees after a moment. She pats the concrete wall beside her. “Come sit.”

He approaches the edge, settling his bag down next to hers on the ground, but then he looks over the edge and pauses.

“You’re afraid of heights?” 

“Not usually,” he answers. “Just afraid of falling from them.”

Annabeth ponders this, glancing over her feet toward the concrete below. “You wouldn’t die if you fell off, I think. You’d just break a few bones.”

“I’m pretty against that too,” he says, but he carefully settles onto the edge next to her. His breath shakes a bit, but he does his best to hide it. He’s not sure how successful it really is when she smothers a teasing grin and looks away respectfully.

“So,” Percy says. “Why am I here, anyway?”

She picks at the hole in her jeans. “Why not? You seemed nice enough, and I already said I needed help with that class.”

“If you were serious about that, I should probably tell you I am not the one to ask for help,” Percy says. “I’m failing just about every class I’m in right now.”

Annabeth blinks. “How is that possible?”

“I’m not sure. I swear I’m trying.”

Annabeth smirks and leans her weight onto her hands behind her. Percy has to resist the urge to stretch his arms out to steady her. 

“That’s unfortunate,” she says. “Failing all your classes, I mean.”

“It’s life, I guess.”

Annabeth breathes slowly at that, and he can sense the genuine exhaustion she feels. He wonders if it’s the same way he feels every day, having to go through the repetitive motions of life. Maybe that’s why he is the way he is, stuck and failing at everything he does. It’s the same thing every day, so it becomes a difficult cycle to break at some point.

Percy watches as she reaches into her jacket, and he’s surprised when she pulls out a cigarette and a lighter. He’s captivated when she lights it with practice and brings it to her lips, taking a deep inhale. She holds it a few seconds before exhaling the smoke into the sky. It matches the color of the sky today, gray and dull. It also matches her eyes and the striking way she looks at him.

She offers it to him, but he shakes his head.

“I don’t smoke,” he says. “I never have, actually.”

“ Never? ” Annabeth sounds genuinely appalled by that, but she moves her hand back and takes another deep inhale before putting it out against the rough surface of the building. “What did you do throughout high school, then?”

“Nothing, really. I wasn’t a very interesting person back then,” he tells her. His eyes are glued to the spot she’d put the cigarette out against. The ash is still glowing dimly. “I don’t mind if you smoke.”

She shrugs with a smile. “I don’t usually. Only sometimes with friends.”

“Does this mean we’re not friends, then?”

“Not at all,” she says. She leans in closer, and he can smell the very faint remnants of smoke on her. Somewhere far in the back of his mind, he thinks he likes the smell.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Annabeth leans back. “I will be getting you high at some point, though. I can’t be your friend knowing you’ve never been high.”

“I just never have,” he says laughing. “I’m not particularly against it, I guess. I’ve just never had the opportunity.”

“It’s a great thing you met me, isn’t it?”

Percy chuckles lightly but doesn’t answer.

“What else haven’t you done?”

“What?”

When he looks at her, she’s staring out in the distance. He follows her gaze and he sees a plane that’s nothing more than a dark speck in the clouds. He looks back at her, but her eyes haven’t moved, so he lets himself stare at her. She really is pretty, and he finds himself wanting to know everything about her.

“You’ve never been high,” she says. “I get the feeling there’s a lot you’ve never done.”

“Probably,” he admits.

“Tell me.”

“I’m not sure,” he says honestly. “I’ve never stolen or snuck out.”

Annabeth gasps, though it’s mainly for dramatic effect. “That was the entirety of my senior year. I snuck out almost every night.”

“To do what!? ”

“Get drunk off of stolen alcohol and get high,” she says. “Both things you’ve also never done.”

Percy would normally be embarrassed by his lack of experience in the world, but Annabeth doesn’t seem to actually mind. If anything, she seems more intrigued. She’s perked up and is looking at him like she’s trying to unravel his deepest secrets.

“Unless you were twenty-one, that was highly illegal.”

Annabeth shrugs it off with a laugh. “Half of what I do is probably illegal.”

“That’s terrifying.”

“Or fun!”

Percy gives her a scolding but playful look.

“I have another question,” she says. “You say you’ve never done anything fun. Does that mean you’re a virgin?”

Percy chokes. “ Annabeth! ”

“I’m just asking!” she says, holding her hands up when she begins laughing at his face. “No judgement here, but please tell me you’ve had at least some fun in your miserable twenty-one years of living.”

“I am not answering that question.”

Annabeth tilts her head. “Please?”

“No way.”

“Virgin.”

Percy scowls, and Annabeth bumps his shoulder playfully. 

“Well, now that you’ve met me,” she says, holding a hand toward herself like she’s a gift to him, “you can finally have some fun.”

“I’ve had plenty of fun.”

“Your life seems numb,” she says. “I mean, I get it. Life gets so boring, but you have to feel something sometimes. Break some rules for once.” 

“Uh oh,” Percy says. “Breaking rules? Is that what being your friend means?”

“Hm. Possibly. I'm probably not the best influence, but you’ll survive.”

Percy thinks he should be concerned about that, but he finds that he’s not. If anything, he’s excited. It feels like the planet turns agonizingly slow sometimes, and like he’s meant to just waste hours away waiting for the next day only for it to be the exact same. He hasn’t made memories like he always thought he would when he got to college. He wants to live like there’s no tomorrow, as mortifyingly stupid as that sounds, so he thinks he might like spending time with Annabeth.

“What are we going to do, then?” he asks.

Annabeth hums. “I’m not sure. Do you have any tattoos?”

“Do you really think you need to ask that at this point?”

Annabeth cracks a grin. 

“Do you?”

“One,” she says. She lifts her hand and holds out her index finger. It’s only then that he spots the outline of a sun. It’s in thin black ink, and it’s so delicate on her. It looks like there had been color to it at one point, but it has since faded away. “I was eighteen when I got it. I think I just wanted a tattoo more than anything, so I snuck out—big surprise there—and got it with my boyfriend at the time.”

“You got matching tattoos?”

“God, no,” Annabeth says, retracting her hand. “I’m not that crazy. I wouldn’t get matching tattoos with a boyfriend.”

“That’s probably for the best.”

“I would get a matching tattoo with a friend, though,” she says. “You should get a tattoo of the sun on your finger.”

“Absolutely not.”

“ Yes, ” Annabeth says, suddenly excited. “That can be like your initiation to our friendship.”

“I just met you today,” Percy says.

“But we could be best friends forever,” Annabeth says, but he can tell she’s messing with him. “Think about it.”

“Maybe,” he concedes, if only to see her bright smile and the slight dimple that shows up on her cheek. He likes her smile. He wouldn’t mind sticking around to see it again.

“Until you get that tattoo, because you will, I’ll settle for getting you high.”

Percy sighs. “There’s no getting out of this, is there?”

“The moment that pencil hit your head, you signed the contract to this friendship.”

“Fantastic,” Percy deadpans.

Annabeth leans toward him, and he feels a little dizzy when he’s able to smell her again. The smoke has worn off, but he can smell her shampoo, a mix of citrus and sweet, and it fits her so well. 

“Come on,” she teases. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little adventure.”

He used to be. Maybe he still is. 

All he knows is that there’s something about her that has him drawn to her. He can’t let go of this. He desperately needs to know what she has to offer. He wants to see her way of thinking. He wants to watch her get in trouble because he already knows she’s going to. He wants to be in trouble with her because he never has been before.

It’s weird, the way life works. People build friends and families only to die in the end. He’s going to leave this life behind one day, and so he wants to live a life he’ll remember. He hasn’t built those moments, or felt the nights that never die. He doesn’t have any moments in his life that have shaped him into who he is. He has no core memories. 

There are no major events in his life that have made him truly feel what it means to be happy. He doesn’t know happiness, or disgust, anger, fear, sadness, surprise. Not in the way that he should. Not in the way that he wants to.

He wants to build those core memories, and Annabeth is right here offering to do it with him.

“Not at all,” he says, a smile to match hers.

So here he is with a stranger who might not be a stranger at all. So much could go wrong, but he also thinks a lot can go right. 

As the sun begins to set over the horizon, they get the most beautiful view on top of this building. He thinks that when the sun comes up again the next day, he wants to meet her and sink in hand in hand.

i. fear

Percy isn’t sure what to expect when Annabeth texts him to meet her in a secluded corner of the city. It’s far enough out that it hardly feels like he’s in the city at all. He almost thinks he gets the address wrong when he shows up.

She hadn’t been in class that day, and he found that he actually really missed having her around, even if they’d only officially been friends for a little over a week. It would have been nice to be able to ask her about their plans in person, but judging by the many texts he’s sent her way questioning what was going on that had been ignored, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

Percy leans against the corner of a building as a particularly sharp gust of wind blows his way, and he shoves his hands into the pockets of his windbreaker. He watches a few cars pass by, well over the speed limit, while he waits for Annabeth to show up. It’s relaxing in an odd way, watching the lives of people he doesn’t know. He’s so far in his head space, kind of stuck on the thought that people have their own lives in which they are the main character, that he misses when someone comes up behind him on the corner of the building.

“Boo.”

Percy rolls his eyes and turns his head to find the familiar grey eyes. 

“You were scared,” she says.

“Downright terrified.”

Annabeth just winks at him, and he isn’t really sure what to think of that. 

She links her arm in his, which Percy has already grown used to.

“What are we doing here? I’m beginning to think that you’re actually going to murder me if you keep pulling me out to these weird places.”

“I’m not sure what we’re doing here either.”

Percy pauses. “What?”

“We’re meeting some of my friends. They asked us to meet here.”

“Are your friends drug dealers?”

“Not anymore, I don’t think?”

It’s not the best thing she could have said, but he’ll let it slide. He doesn’t go out very often, but since he met her, he’d been dragged along for everything. He thinks that he’ll survive the night, if only so that he gets to stay friends with Annabeth.

“Do you have any idea what we’re doing?”

“I think my friend said we were going to look at the stars.”

Percy snorts. “In New York?”

“Not in the city,” she clarifies. “They found a really pretty place a few hours away. That’s where we’re going.”

“Where is it?”

“Someone’s backyard.”

Percy’s brows furrow. He wants to press on that some more, but then Annabeth’s eyes catch on a car in the distance, and she bounces away from his side so that she can lean against the open window when the car rolls to a stop to greet her friends. Percy worries it’s going to be awkward, but that thought vanishes when Annabeth steps away from the window so she can grab his arm and drag him into the car behind her.

“So you’re Percy,” someone says slyly. Percy is still busy trying to sit when he looks at the voice and spots a girl turned in the passenger seat. Her hair is messy, though he questions if it’s intentional with the way it’s also thrown into a lazy braid. Percy notices the way her hand is thrown over the center console and interlocked with the driver’s, and he thinks they might be dating. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Percy eyes Annabeth with a teasing smirk. “Really?”

“Mainly about how you’ve never snuck out,” the girl says, turning back in her seat. “I’m Piper, by the way.”

"I’m Percy,” he returns kindly. “Is that all Annabeth’s said? That I’ve never snuck out?”

Piper’s eyes gleam in the rearview mirror. “Among other things, but they’re probably best left unsaid.”

Annabeth snickers and Percy scowls playfully. Annabeth whispers in his ear that the kid next to Piper is her boyfriend, though he thought that was obvious. He discovers his name is Jason.

“Percy,” someone calls from behind him. He hadn’t even known someone was sitting behind him, but when he turns to look at the voice, there’s a kid returning an impish smile. “Do you like stars?”

“Like...the things in the sky?”

“Those things,” he confirms. 

Percy thinks it’s a weird question. “I have nothing against them,” he decides is a safe bet.

“Wouldn’t it be much more interesting if we went literally anywhere else? ”

Piper clicks her teeth. “Leave him alone, Leo.”

“I’m just saying who cares about stars? Do you think I can see constellations? Because I can’t.”

“Maybe you should’ve paid attention last time I tried explaining them to you,” Annabeth says. Her arm rests against the back of the middle row seat so she can lift one leg onto the fabric and twist to look at Leo. “It’s your own fault, really.”

“ Dots in the sky, ” Leo says. 

“You’re just bad at listening,” Jason pipes in.

Annabeth smiles at that. “So he speaks.”

“I don’t recall speaking to you,” Leo says to both of them before addressing Percy again. “Percy. Do you know the constellations?”

“Some of them,” Percy admits.

Leo groans in disappointment while Annabeth gives him a shit-eating grin. 

Piper says something to Leo that has him whining, but Percy misses what she says when Annabeth orients herself toward him. It’s hard not to give her his entire attention, but that’s not something he’d ever admit.

“You look nervous,” she says quietly.

“I’m still not sure where we’re going.”

“I don’t know the address,” she says. “If I did, I would tell you.”

“You said it’s a backyard?”

Annabeth hums in confirmation. “Some rich family has a huge backyard. It’s pretty high on a mountain, and there isn’t much light around, so you can see a lot more stars than you would here.”

“So we’re trespassing?”

“Think of it as hanging out on someone else’s property without approval.”

Percy laughs lightly. “So trespassing.”

“More or less,” Annabeth says, smothering a smile in her hand. Percy notices a bracelet she’s wearing for the first time. It’s beaded and purple, and it looks an awful lot like a bracelet kids would make at summer camp. The beads are scratched, so he’s sure it’s been worn a lot, and he finds it sweet. He can imagine a child making it for her, and her wearing it because it made the kid so happy, even if the bracelet itself is nothing special.

It brings a smile to his face, thinking of her like that.

“Don’t worry,” she reassures him, dropping her hand into her lap. “Piper and Jason have been together plenty of times before.”

“How did they find out about it?”

Annabeth bites her lower lip to stifle another grin. Her voice is low when she speaks. “I’m not the one to tell you this, but Piper says that they were walking around at night and got...distracted. Ended up rolling around in her neighbor’s yard.”

Percy exhales slowly. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” she agrees. “I’d imagine it was quite the experience, but I can proudly say I’ve never gone that far.”

Percy hasn’t ever hooked up with someone in another person’s backyard either, but each to their own.

“They weren’t caught?”

“It’s so big that the family probably never knew they were there.”

Percy looks at her purple bracelet again, and he is filled with a nervous excitement. This isn’t particularly in her comfort zone, but it’s new to him, just like his friend is new with her. He’s scared in the best way possible, and he probably should be more nervous than he is, but he chooses to take her word for it in that they won’t get caught.

They chat aimlessly back and forth, and before Percy knows it, the sun is already long gone, and they’re pulling up in the neighborhood. They end up having to park the car in the woods in hopes that no one sees it. Percy almost tells them that the car is definitely still visible, but Jason looks so proud of his parking job that he can’t bear to tell him the truth. If it ends up getting towed, it’s his car anyway.

Annabeth shares a knowing look with him, and Percy knows then that at least he’s not the only one that thinks they definitely could end up getting caught. But Annabeth doesn’t seem to particularly care, so Percy decides not to either.

Annabeth ends up carrying a bag full of what Percy suspects to be alcohol, if the sharp clinging he hears every time she moves it is any indication. He tries to help her carry it, but she moves away from him before she gets the chance, and Percy gives in, settling for staying by her side as they make their way into the yard. Percy’s eye catches on a sign that reads No Trespassing, but everyone walks right by it, so Percy does too.

“This isn’t so bad,” Annabeth says when they get to the top of the hill. She sets the bag down by her feet and looks down the hill. The house lies at the bottom, and it’s bigger than Percy imagined. The lights are shut off, though, which he hopes means no one is home.

Annabeth sits in the grass as the others gather around, and Percy chooses the empty space next to Annabeth. She runs her hand along his arm when he lays next to her, and Percy tries to bury the flush of his face, even in the dark.

“See?” she says. “No trouble at all.”

“We just got here,” he says, laughing. 

“Are you still worried?”

“Not right now,” he says. “If we get in trouble, I’m throwing you under the bus.”

“I would gladly take the hit for you."

Percy wishes he could see her better, but it’s too dark to see much of anything besides the few stars illuminating in the sky. The sky is dusted with endless stars, and it truly is a beautiful sight. He settles for letting his hand brush against hers again, and she’s the one to lace their fingers together. He can feel her bracelet now, pressed into his skin, and he thinks that fear is not always a bad thing.

He’s terrified right now, for more reasons than one. He’s nervous at the fact that anyone can walk out from the house and find the group of college kids halfway to being blackout drunk. He’s nervous that he’s holding her hand when he’s only known her a week, and he’s more nervous by how much it feels like he never wants to leave. They fall into a silence while the others chat, stuck in their own universe, and Percy’s glad it goes that way because he doesn’t know what he’s meant to say in moments like these.

He isn’t sure how much time passes before she sits up so that she can grab one of the bottles that lay scattered on the ground. He doesn’t know which one she opens, but she ends up settling back against him, this time choosing to rest her head on his extended arm. She whispers in his ear the answer to his silent question, and Percy snorts.

“You brought wine to go stargazing?”

“I’m not the one who brought it,” Annabeth says, and he can practically see the way she rolls her eyes. “And wine is romantic, so shut up.”

“Romantic?” Percy pokes her side lightly. “You’re drinking it straight from the bottle.”

Annabeth’s body shakes with laughter and she shrugs. “It was already almost empty, I swear.”

“Right . I totally believe that.”

“Someone has to drink for the two of us,” she says. “Since you’re too good to drink.”

“I never said I don’t drink,” he protests, humored. He does drink, sometimes. It’s by no means something he does often, but it does happen. Just not to the extent that he knows a lot of other people do.

“Then you can have some of mine.”

And she holds the bottle to his lips, and he doesn’t want to say no. He lets himself take a few light sips, holding the liquid over his tongue and thinking about how it tastes so much like her bracelet looks. The hint of grape, purple and sweet, plays on his taste buds, and when Annabeth leans her face up so she can press her nose to the crook of his neck and laugh, he smells the taste of the wine. It fills him with some sort of tingly electricity, and he imagines the purple sparks dancing through his blood.

“See what you’re missing?” Annabeth asks, giggling against his throat before moving the bottle away from his lips. 

“If I drink too much of that, I’d miss all this,” he says, gesturing to the area around them. Annabeth sighs and turns back onto her back, tossing an arm above her own head. Their position feels so natural. That scares him too because they are polar opposites, but maybe that’s exactly what he’s missed all his life.

“You’re probably right,” she says, and she drops the bottle into the grass. The remains leak onto the grass, but she pays it no mind. He’s not sure if she noticed. “You’re having fun?” she asks after a couple minutes of silence.

“I am.” He chooses not to mention the way he keeps looking behind them to make sure none of the lights in the house flicker on.

Annabeth reads right through him, even if he wasn’t one-hundred percent lying. “Looking at stars isn’t the most fun, I’ll admit. It was more Piper and Jason’s idea—they’re into all this romantic shit—and I knew I was going to be dragged along, so I brought you along with me. It makes it more bearable, third-wheeling.”

“Leo’s here too,” he says, laughing at the insinuation that she’s the only other person here. “What about him?”

“Leo can hardly be considered human,” Annabeth says. “Besides, you’re different.”

“How so?”

Annabeth groans and elbows him. “You know. ”

“I really don’t,” he says with a teasing tone, but he thinks he might know, if it’s anything at all similar to how he’s felt the past week. 

“Then I guess you’ll never know.”

She snuggles her head closer and rests it against his shoulder. Her eyes close, and Percy is scared to move and risk disturbing this moment. It belongs in a museum, painted with an array of royal purples to match the glimmering night sky. The sky almost glows a deep purple with the way it lights up so high up in altitude, and it just fits. He’s not very good at art, but if he was, he would draw them like this, arm in arm, just friends but feeling like something more, and the first thing he’d focus on is that beautiful purple bracelet that rests so delicately against her wrist. 

“That bracelet,” Percy begins. “Where’d you get it?”

Annabeth’s eyes stay closed but her hand trails up to rest on top of his stomach. He feels the beads pressing into his skin, and he knows if it stays there long enough, it’ll leave a faint purple indent.

“I made it when I was young,” she tells him, and a reminiscent smile comes over her face. “I think my dad was just trying to distract me so I’d sit down for five minutes. It only worked for three minutes, though.”

“It’s cute,” he says.

“You think so?”

“Of course I think so,” he teases. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”

Annabeth drags her wrist across his stomach to get the bracelet to roll off, and she places it carefully in his palm. “You can have it.”

Percy blinks, confused. “But it’s yours.”

“I have about twenty at home,” she says with a sigh and sleepy grin. “I want you to have it.”

“Are you sure?”

“If you’re not getting a tattoo to signify our friendship, you have to have something, ” she jokes, patting his arm twice. “It would look better on you, anyway. Purple’s a pretty color on you, Jackson.”

She takes it from him and slides it onto his wrist, and it feels like it’s burned into his skin and becomes a part of him.

“You take care of that thing,” she threatens, but her voice holds no malice. “I’ve worn that thing every single day since I made it.”

“I can’t take this, Annabeth.”

“I’m kidding, ” she reassures, reaching up blindly to pat his cheek. He leans subtly into the touch. “I just found it a few days ago and threw it on.”

He notices that Annabeth doesn’t tell him why she really wants him to have it, and he doesn’t ask. He just takes her fingers in his and squeezes.

“Does this mean we’re best friends?” Percy whispers.

Annabeth turns her face up towards his and smiles sleepily. His face is so close to hers, and he can feel each breath she takes. 

Just as she opens her mouth to say, “I thought we already were,” they hear the sirens and see the lights on the house flicker on behind them.

Percy’s stomach drops.

He doesn’t have time to comprehend what’s going on before the rest of them are jumping up off the ground and leaving everything where they were. Percy’s the last one up, and he almost thinks that he’s going to be the one left behind, but then Annabeth is laughing and extending an arm toward him, and he can’t resist laughing along with her. She yanks him up and they follow the rest, dashing into the forest while the sirens get louder behind him.

Piper and Jason disappear somewhere in the trees, and Leo goes in the opposite direction, which leaves Percy and Annabeth stumbling to a stop to figure out which direction they’re meant to be heading in.

Percy smacks into Annabeth’s back when she comes to a sudden stop, and he knows he should be more concerned about the police he can hear yelling after them. He should be terrified that he’s going to get arrested for trespassing, or running from authority, or whatever else he could possibly get in trouble for, but right now…

Right now, the only thing he’s scared of is that this moment with her is going to end.

“This way,” Annabeth says in a hushed giggle, pulling him straight into the forest. They keep running, hearing faint footsteps trailing behind him, but it’s drowned out by the blood pounding through his ears and the static he feels crawling on his skin where Annabeth’s fingers wrap around his wrist. He slams his knee into the base of a tree, sure to leave a nasty purple bruise to remind him of this adventure in fear.

She ducks behind a tree and pulls him with her, and the next thing he knows, his back is pressed to the tree, and Annabeth is pressed into him. He can see her eyes now as the sirens provide bits of flashing light. It’s hard to see since the trees act as a barrier between the police cars flashing down the hill, but it’s enough for him to see her eyes and the mischievous look she holds behind them. It takes everything in him to not pull her down for a kiss with how pretty he thinks she looks.

The sirens are still flashing down the hill when he hears Leo stutter over his words as he’s the first to be found, and Percy can’t help the snort he gives when he fails miserably to insult one of the officers. Annabeth’s eyes flash in warning, but her lips turn up, and she presses her face into his chest to stifle her own laugh. The lights are red and blue, vibrant and blinding in the darkness of the light, but they blend together in his blurry vision as they hide behind the tree. He can still smell the remnants of the wine that drowns out the fear he would normally feel if this was any other situation. The red and blue that fades to purple cannot possibly scare him when he’s this content, with someone like Annabeth Chase in his arms like they aren’t about to be caught trespassing on a rich family’s property. 

The police seem to be content with just catching Leo, who calls out hopelessly into the night for his friends. He’s dragged off, and Percy can only assume they’re going to be the ones picking him up later that night.

Annabeth exhales as the footsteps retreat, and Percy’s heart is beating right out of his chest, though he doesn’t know if it's the prospect of arrest or the way Annabeth’s body is pressed up against his. 

She lifts her head to smile at him, her face only inches from his, and Percy breathes deeply and smiles back. 

Fear is exciting, he thinks, when it comes like this, bringing opportunities he never thought he’d have. He’s nervous, but it’s a jittery, excited feeling of nervousness, or a feeling of adrenaline.

It turns out, though, that Percy does feel fear, but not for the reason that he thinks. He feels fear when he looks Annabeth in the eyes again and focuses on the purple that lines her irises, wondering if he could kiss her. He feels fear when he realizes he wants to stay here forever, wearing her purple bracelet she wants him to wear, even if it means being caught. 

It’s the best kind of fear.

ii. sadness

It’s the middle of the night when Percy gets a text from Annabeth telling him to meet her outside. 

He’s not sure what’s going on when he walks out, but he never seems to be sure when it comes to Annabeth. It’s cold outside too, so he throws on the first sweater he sees on the floor of his room before he lets the door to his apartment open and he finds her waiting for him along the sidewalk. 

His brain is still riddled with sleep, but it’s all worth it when she gives him a sleepy smile that is too cute for him to handle so early in the morning. When she asks him to get in her car, he doesn’t even think twice about it before he follows her command. All things considered, it’s a nice place to be, in her passenger seat with the heat on blast, listening to the comfortable silence as she drives them someplace new.

Percy thinks he must fall asleep at some point because when he opens his eyes, they’re well out of the city and the sky is beginning to show hints of light, though the sky is still a dull grey as a storm rolls in overhead. 

“Good morning,” Annabeth teases when she catches him shifting in his seat. He looks at her, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t entranced by how effortlessly pretty she looks right now. It should be impossible for someone to be so perfect this early in the morning. “I can’t believe you slept that long.”

All Percy can do is give a yawn. He settles his head against the headrest on the back of her seat so he can look at her as she begins staring at the road again. “You told me to come outside at three in the morning,” he tells her. “I don’t know where we’re going, which seems to be a pattern with you.”

“You love it.”

He does.

“Do you plan on telling me?”

“Not until we get there,” she says. “It would ruin the surprise.”

“One day, you’re going to murder me. I’m calling it.”

Annabeth laughs quietly. It’s a pretty sound, hearing her voice give off a delicate giggle when they’re surrounded by nothing else. They’re far enough out of the city and on some isolated roads, so there are hardly any cars that pass by. They really are alone with nothing to see except the dark greenery that speeds by on the side of the road. Percy doesn’t mind at all—she’s much more interesting to look at anyway.

“Want me to drive?” he offers.

“And crash my car? I think I’m alright.”

Percy pouts. “I’m not that bad of a driver, I think.”

“You said you failed your driver’s test the first time?”

“I should have never told you that.”

“No, no.” Annabeth glances at him in the rearview mirror, and he groans when he catches the look in her eyes that tells him she’s never going to let it go. “You seriously took a left hand turn on red. You’re never driving my car.”

Percy shoves her hand lightly, and she returns the small push before her hand ends up resting against the center console and Percy brushes her hand softly. “You’re just a bully,” Percy says.

“I’m a bully who wants to live,” she reminds him. “Also, I would feel bad if I made you drive when I’m the one who woke you up.”

“I was already awake,” he lies.

Annabeth looks at him doubtfully. “Right.”

“So maybe I was asleep,” he amends. “But, seriously, I don’t mind. I like spending time with you.”

“That’s good to hear. You’re going to be spending a lot of time with me from now on.”

“Piper’s going to be so jealous,” Percy says, though he’s mainly joking.

“I don’t think she’ll mind,” Annabeth says. “She has Jason.”

There’s a shift in her voice that Percy catches on to. She won’t meet his eyes now, and she’s biting her lower lip in a way that makes him think there’s something going on that he doesn’t know about. 

“I invited her here too,” Annabeth says. “We had been planning to go for a while, just the two of us. I reminded her for weeks, but then I went to go pick her up, and she decided to let me know she was spending the day with him instead.”

“She let you know the day of?”

“Mh-hm. I really wanted to go though, so I just dragged you along with me.”

“So I was the second-best option,” he says, but he says it with a smile on his face.

“I didn’t even know you when I planned this.” Annabeth gives him another scolding grin, and he returns the look with a kissy face.

“Are you upset?” he asks. “That you’re not doing it with her instead?”

“I can’t say that I am. Recently, I feel like you’ve been more fun to be around anyway.”

“And here I am,” he says. “Dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.”

“I could have done it on a weekday.”

“It wouldn’t have made a difference. I think I’m still failing all my classes.”

Annabeth shakes her head in mock disappointment and her hand comes up to flick his nose. “You really need to get those grades up before you end up doing another year of college.”

“Will you still drag me out places if I repeated a year?”

“Of course. There’s no getting out of this.”

“Then I don’t think another year is the worst thing.”

It probably isn't the best thing either, but Annabeth’s fingers are tracing up his leg against the fabric of his sweatpants, so his judgement is a little clouded at that moment. 

“You can go back to sleep,” she says. “It’ll be another few hours.”

“I’m alright,” he says. “I’d rather stay here with you.”

Percy feels warmth crawl up the back of his neck when she presses her lips together to stifle the grin. She’s always been like that, too prideful to let him know how she really feels when he says stuff like that. It doesn't matter, though, when he knows her as well as he does. It’s amazing, the way they act with one another even though they met not that long ago. 

The next few hours are spent with Percy trying to coax information out of Annabeth, but she doesn’t budge. Even when she ends up parking her car along a sandy road and steps out with him, she refuses to do anything except give him the sweetest smile and extend her hand so they can walk together. 

It’s still cold outside, so Percy doesn’t mind in the slightest when she steps into his arms for a few seconds so she can bury her cold nose into the skin of her neck. He definitely doesn’t mind when she doesn’t move away for a few more seconds, so he can breathe her in along with the crisp morning air. 

Percy ends up giving Annabeth his sweater after she’d forgotten to bring his own. It’s hard to hide the slight shivers he gets when the wind blows as they trek higher up some sort of mountain, but he manages if only so that Annabeth doesn’t feel like she has to return his sweater. He likes seeing her in it. It’s too big for her, the royal blue sleeves falling well below the tips of her fingers, bunching around his own hand where their hands rest, interlocked.

They reach the top of the incline they’d been walking up, and Percy feels a little breathless. The incline comes to a sharp stop, and below the edge of the cliff is rough water. Waves crash heavily against the edge, coming down on top of itself in dark blue folds, white foam quickly disappearing until the next crash of water a few seconds later.

“Where did you find this?” he asks, captivated by the waves that continue to crash. 

He can’t seem to draw himself away from the deep blue of the ocean that is overwhelmingly loud as it crashes against the stone cliff in a rhythmic pattern. The sky above is a dark, threatening grey as a storm prepares to roll in. The roaring of the wind and water slamming together with a loud crack every few seconds is almost enough to cover the sound of his own heartbeat. 

“I came here once,” she says. “I was little. It was just my dad and I at the time, but...we spent all day here. I just wanted to come back.”

“And you brought me?”

“And I brought you,” she confirms, giving a slight giggle while she sniffs to fight the cold.

“What are we going to do?“

“We’re going to jump in,” she says. “Obviously.”

Percy turns his head to look at her like she’s crazy. “Jump in?”

“This is where people go to go cliff jumping. By people, I mean myself. I’ve never seen anyone else here.”

Percy eyes the waves. “Does it always look like this?”

“Not always,” she admits. “But you’re a good swimmer. You were on the swim team in high school, weren’t you?”

“I wasn’t swimming in the middle of a storm in the ocean,” Percy chokes out.

“Come on,” she says. “It would be fun.”

Percy doesn’t doubt that for a second. Anything with her would be fun, including jumping from a rocky shore into water that he can’t see the bottom of. It’s really not the best idea, but he trusts her more than anything, and so there’s really no chance of him turning this down.

“If I drown, I’m taking you with me,” he warns.

“Then let’s die together.”

Annabeth wastes no time in slipping off his blue sweater and dropping it onto the ground. Her eyes don’t break contact with his as her shirt comes off next, and then she’s slipping her sweatpants off. She’s left in her underwear that he tries not to look at as he lifts his own shirt above his head and strips down to his own underwear. 

Percy can hardly feel the cold anymore. Instead, he feels fiery blood pumping through his veins. His heart is crashing harder than the waves on the cliff. His fingers feel tingly when Annabeth looks him up and down and approval flashes in her eyes. 

He hopes no one is going to end up walking up anytime soon because he knows how this looks. The thought leaves his mind as soon as it pops in, though, because Annabeth is turning on her heel and racing towards the edge of the cliff, and Percy doesn’t want to be left behind. 

“This seems pretty high up, don’t you think?”

Annabeth’s fingers brush his reassuringly. The wind ceased to be nothing more than a light breeze. “Just don’t land on your back and you’ll be fine.”

“Do you want to go first?”

I think I’m alright,” Percy says tightly. “Remember when we first met and I told you I was scared of falling off of heights?”

“You better get over that fear really quickly.”

“I am going to pass out.”

Annabeth smiles. “Don’t do that.”

“I might.”

Annabeth laughs again and her fingers trace along his spine. She plays him like an instrument, and Percy wants to pause time so he can stay here against her, breathing in the salty ocean air.

“Do you want me to go first?” 

Percy shakes his head and takes the initiative to link their hands together again. It fits perfectly, just like everything else about them. “Together?”

Annabeth beams. “Together.”

It does take a few more moments of heavy breathing to get his heart rate to slow down (it doesn’t work as well as he had hoped) before he thinks he’s ready to jump. The few seconds before their feet leave the ground seems to slow, but everything after that passes so fast he doesn’t even know he’s heading toward the water until he’s in it. 

The water is icy against his skin and he lets out a gasp as he comes up for air with Annabeth by his side. The waves are still wild around them, but they ride above them each time it heads for the cliff. He can feel Annabeth treading water next to him each time her foot brushes his, and god, he cannot actually believe he just did that.

“Are you okay?” Annabeth calls out, voice struggling to be heard over the roaring around them. He looks at her and sees her hair wet against her back. Her shoulders are bare as the straps of her bra slide down, and he can see the water beading in the dip of her clavicle. 

Percy moves the few inches to his left to be face to face with her. The first thing he says is: “I cannot believe you made me do that!”

“You agreed!” she accuses, but her smile is vibrant. It overshines the stormy sky and dull blue atmosphere around them.

“Because it was you,” he says. “Of course I agreed.”

Annabeth doesn’t press on that statement, and he’s glad for that. 

Instead, she presses her body to his. He can feel all of her against him, and he focuses on the soft span of her stomach that presses to his, and the trembling he can feel as she shivers through the cold. 

“You’re cold,” he notes, tilting his head. 

“I’m alright.”

Percy frowns, and she shoves his shoulder lightly. 

“I'll tell you when I’ve had enough.”

He just looks at her, wondering how he met someone so beautiful. He thinks that this is why blue is his favorite color. He associates this moment with a deep, rich blue. The ocean and the sky, blue and grey, brilliant and entrancing just like her. Blue, a happy color.

“Aren’t you glad you came with me?” Annabeth asks.

“Of course I am. You should be the one glad I came. Would Piper have jumped in with you?”

Annabeth laughs. “Are you kidding? That girl would’ve been the first one in.”

Percy moves closer to her, and he can feel the pleased hum she gives. “Then I guess you should be glad I came because I’m me.”

“The fearless Percy Jackson,” Annabeth says. A bead of water rolls down her skin as it drips from her hair, and Percy doesn’t think she’s ever looked prettier. “Never thought you’d be diving off of cliffs a few months ago, did you?”

“I can’t promise I will ever go diving off of cliffs again,” Percy says. He looks at the edge that towers over them now, and he finds it hard to believe his feet left that surface. He supposes it’s not all that surprising if it’s Annabeth that was asking. “How do we even get back up there?”

“We climb.”

“Climb what? Do you think I’m a fucking octopus?”

Annabeth rolls her eyes. “There’s an easy way up a couple minutes that way,” she says, jerking her head to the left. “I promise I wouldn’t throw you off a cliff without knowing if there was a way back up.”

“I certainly didn’t think of it.”

“That’s because you have seaweed for your brain.”

“That’s not very kind of you. Isn’t that your whole motto?”

“Whoever told you that lied.”

It’s Percy’s turn to roll his eyes as he pulls her in by the waist. She doesn’t resist, instead helping herself to him by lightly kicking her legs. Her head rests against his chest, and he wonders if she can hear his heartbeat.

“This is nice,” Annabeth muttered. “Thank you for coming with me.”

“I wouldn’t let you come alone,” he returns quietly. “Besides, it’s the least I can do when you end up coming with me to the hospital after I get hypothermia.”

“Are you really that cold? We can get out if you need to.”

Percy shakes his head and touches his nose to hers for a moment, which has her laughing. “I’m alright for now.”

Annabeth tilts her head up, and he catches a look flash through her eyes. He thought he knew all of her looks, but this one is new. It’s not a bad one, necessarily. He thinks it might be the same one he’s looking at her with right now. 

He really wants to kiss her, as badly as that night they’d been in the forest hiding from the police. He thinks he’s about to when Annabeth’s eyes dart down to his lips, only inches from hers, where he’s able to feel each warm pant against his lips.

But then, Annabeth lifts her hand to brush her hair out of her face, and Percy sees something that is definitely not blue.

Percy panics.

“ Fuck, Annabeth, what happened!?”

Blood trickles from her palm into the water. It washes away quickly, but more seeps from a cut that looks alarmingly deep, and his happiness turns to guilt.

“I’m fine,” she insists, trying to pull her hand away from his, but he holds on tight and pulls it closer to look at it. 

“You’re not fine,” he says. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t even feel it,” she promises. She ducks her hand under the water to wash away the blood, and he doesn’t miss the wince she gives at the burn of salt in the wound.

Percy wants to say something, but no words come out when he opens his mouth. All he can think is that she’s hurt, and he let it happen.

He feels sadness at the scene around them, deep blue waves crashing and burning but silent compared to the crashing of blood in his ears. He feels a hint of anger when he sees the blood again dripping from her wound, dissolving at the remnants of water in her hand, falling when the waves offer a mist in the air.

“I’m okay,” she says again, but she shows no surprise when Percy drags them out of the water to an area surrounded by rocks, just out of the reach of the waves. She sits on top of one of them while Percy grabs her hand to look at it.

He feels guilty. He should have known better.

“Hey,” Annabeth says softly, caressing his cheek with her free hand. “I’m okay. I promise.”

“I don’t like seeing you hurt.”

“It’s not your fault.”

A particularly hard wave crashes against the rock, and water washes over their feet.

“I shouldn’t have let you jump off a cliff in the middle of a storm.”

“We both know you couldn’t have stopped me,” she says, a bit of a challenge.

Percy takes a deep breath, and he kind of wants to cry. “I know.”

“It’s just a small cut. I really don’t even know how it got there. I’ll survive.”

“You better,” he says, a choked laugh. “When you said let’s die together, I didn’t think you meant it.”

Annabeth cracks a grin. “Not yet. We still have so much to do together.”

Percy wants to have the world with her. 

“Not yet,” he agrees.

Annabeth grabs his hand now and squeezes reassuringly. He smiles softly at her because he can’t ever ignore her, even when he feels like this.

He feels the embodiment of blue right now. He’s sad, miserable, because he shouldn’t have let her get hurt. It’s not his fault, but it feels like it is. He saw the crashing waves and the grey skies, and he should have been smart enough to stop her from jumping in. He put his feelings before her safety, and he hates that.

"Let’s go sit in the car,” she says when the wind gets a little too cold to handle.

They walk to the car hand in hand again, except this time, he’s thinking about how he might not like blue as much as he had thought. It reminds him of the blue water, and the blue sweater of his that she throws on when they get back to their car so they can sit in the blasting heat. It reminds him of the deep contrast of the red blood that shows on the napkin he hands her, or the blue vein that seeps crimson.

Blue is not a happy color like he thought.

iii. anger 

Percy’s in the middle of a shower when he hears someone banging on his door.

It startles him for a moment, and he waits a few seconds, hoping someone got the wrong door and that no one had done something like hire a hitman on him, before he hops out of the shower when he hears a familiar voice yelling his name.

He barely has time to throw on a pair of sweatpants before Annabeth begins insistently knocking on his door again and he runs out of his bathroom to open the door before she breaks it.

“What took you so long?” Annabeth questions the second he opens the door before shoving past her.

“I was in the shower” he explains, shutting the door behind her. “You couldn’t have given me a heads up that you’d be coming?”

“I would have if I had a heads up myself,” Annabeth snaps.

She turns around, and it’s the first time that he’s able to actually see her face. Concern immediately washes over him.

“Are you okay?”

Annabeth laughs, and her voice sounds nasally like she’d been crying. “I’m great.”

Percy reads right through it. “What happened?”

She takes a deep breath and can’t meet his eyes. He knows it’s because she doesn’t want to cry in front of him, and it breaks his heart that she feels like she can’t trust him like that.

“I just.” Annabeth’s voice breaks. “Piper and I got into a fight.”

Percy waits for her to say something else. She’s silent for a few moments, and he lets her take the time she needs to speak. 

He can only assume she’s just come from being with Piper. She’s fully dressed, and her makeup is done. Her lips are a bright red to match the flush of her cheeks and her eyes, tear-stained and irritated.

Her teeth bite against her lower lip, and he worries she’s going to draw blood.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Percy prompts.

“Not really,” she manages to choke out. “Piper’s usually the person I go to for this sort of thing, but I can’t for this, and I didn’t know who else to go to, so.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says.

“I interrupted your showwer.”

“I was almost done,” he lies. He had just gotten in, but he doesn’t need her to know that. She doesn’t need to feel any worse than she already does.

They make her way to his couch, where she settles down and rests her head on his lap. His hand goes to run through her hair automatically in a way that is much too intimate to be strictly platonic. 

She doesn’t speak, and he doesn’t ask her to.

They sit there, and Percy feels awful as he watches a few tears fall from her eyes. They leave marks on the fabric of his pants as she sniffles, and the sympathy Percy feels for Annabeth quickly turns into some sort of anger towards Piper. It’s not the first time Annabeth had come to him recently after a minute dispute with her friend, and it seems to have become a pattern. He feels anger at the fact that Piper could even make Annabeth this way. He knows it’s irrational to think if he doesn’t even know what happens, but…

He doesn’t care.

The only person he cares about is Annabeth, and so when she gets hurt, Percy sees red.

“We went out to eat,” Annabeth says softly. “She was on her phone the entire time.”

“Talking to Jason?”

Annabeth nods.

“Did you say anything?”

“Not at first,” she says. “I wanted to, but she wouldn’t even let me speak long enough to say anything before she went back to her phone. It’s just. She’s been my best friend my entire life, and the second she gets a boyfriend, it’s like she’s willing to drop everything for him.”

Percy frowns as his fingers twirl one of her curls. He keeps his eyes on the blonde gleam of it when he speaks. “I know the feeling. It’s not fun.”

Annabeth whines. “Did I do something to her? Why does she keep ignoring me for this guy she just started dating.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then why does this keep happening?” Annabeth presses her palm to her face, and Percy catches the pink scar from a few weeks ago. It fills him with red for a completely different reason. “She keeps choosing him over me, and I get it—he’s her boyfriend—but it hurts.”

“What exactly happened? Was it just texting?”

“It was until I told her to stop.” Annabeth lifts the side of her lips in a lazy smirk. “She didn’t like that. She ended up saying something about how I’d get it if I found someone for myself instead of clinging onto her. Basically it's no wonder I have no one, though, because I’m apparently a stuck up asshole.”

Percy’s jaw clenches. “She actually said that?”

Annabeth laughs. “She did.”

“I promise you that’s not true.”

“She’s my best friend,” Annabeth says. “Would she lie to me about that?”

“Well, she did,” Percy tells her. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know, but.”

“Don’t do that,” he says gently. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“It was embarrassing, Percy. I’m pretty sure everyone there heard her say that.”

“I’m sure they weren’t staring at you.”

“I wish I hadn’t gone at all.”

“But now you’re with me,” he tries. “Isn’t that so much better?”

Annabeth smiles against his leg, and Percy thinks it’s so cute he might die. “Lots.”

“Why don’t you stop going out with her if she keeps doing it?”

“Because.” Annabeth pauses to turn onto her back, but her head stays resting against his leg. “Her and Jason aren’t going to last.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I know her. They’re good together, but it’s almost too perfect. It’s like she can’t let herself be herself around him because she’s too obsessed with keeping up with the image of a perfect relationship.” She fiddles with the seam of his couch cushion. “I can’t explain it. I just know they’re not going to last, and I don’t want her to have to be alone when that happens.”

Percy brushes her hair back and his thumb caresses her tear-stained cheek. “You’re a good friend.”

Annabeth sniffles. “I know. You’re so lucky to have me.”

“I am. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

She beams up at him, even through her red cheeks and watery eyes, and Percy’s heart breaks into pieces. 

“Do you want me to fight Piper for you?” Percy asks. “I’ll do it. I’ll kick her ass for hurting your feelings.”

“Aw, you love me,” she teases. “Maybe next time.”

“I’ll be practicing. I’ll even grow out my nails so I can catfight her.”

“Oh god. A catfight?”

“I can be pretty petty when I want to be,” he says. “I dabbled in theater.”

“I love the insinuation that theater kids are petty.”

“Weren’t you a theater kid?”

“For, like, a year.”

“ Petty. ”

Annabeth smiles again, and it seems to reach her eyes this time. Percy wants to keep it that way.

“Let’s talk about something else,” he says. “Forget about Piper.”

“Is she making you mad?” Annabeth asks, half joking.

“She is, actually.”

Annabeth seems surprised at that.

“She’s supposed to be your best friend, yet she says stuff like that to your face. It makes me livid that someone could say something like that to another human being.”

“That’s why you’re mad?”

Percy’s next words are quiet. “Also because she hurt you. I don’t like that.”

“You care about me,” Annabeth says, pretending to be shocked. 

“Shut up,” he murmurs, pinching her shoulder. “You know I care about you.”

“It was bound to happen.”

“What was?”

“You falling in love with me. That moment I threw a pencil at your head, I cast a spell on you.”

“Who says I’m in love with you?”

“I do.”

Percy doesn’t confirm that, but he also doesn’t argue against it. He decides to let her draw her own conclusions from there.

“What should we talk about, then? Since Piper makes you too mad.”

“Whatever you want. We could take a nap?”

“I am not two.”

“No, but I’m tired.”

Annabeth frowns. “I’m sorry. I can leave?”

Percy pulls her in tighter. “Don't you dare.”

Annabeth nestles deeper into his lap and hums. “I’m not ready to stop being sad yet.”

Percy snorts. “You like being sad?”

“I like attention, and you give me attention when I’m sad, so yes.”

He thinks the reasoning is fair enough, so he plays with her hair and drags his fingers along the soft span of her back.

“It’s actually kind of funny,” she starts. “I was seventeen and had my first boyfriend. He was supposed to drive me somewhere, but I left something in my room, so he went with me to get it. My dad chose that moment to come home, and he found him with me on my bed. He was not happy.”

“I’m kind of terrified to know what he did.”

Annabeth shrugs. “He just yelled at me. He basically called me a slut and told me to get out. That if I got pregnant, I would be on my own because he wasn’t going to help me.”

Percy feels a sizzle in his stomach. It genuinely does make him feel sick, knowing how many people hurt her, and how she’s willing to just take it.

“The funny thing was that I never actually had sex with him,” Annabeth says.

“You didn’t tell him that?”

“He wouldn’t listen.” Annabeth laughs lightly, and Percy doesn’t know how she’s able to do that. “That was when our relationship mainly disappeared. We’re fine now, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as close to him as I used to be.”

“I’m getting mad for you.”

“I know. It’s fun to make you mad.”

“So hilarious,” Percy deadpans. 

“It really is,” she says. “While we’re on the topic of sex—”

Percy groans.

“You never told me if you’re a virgin.”

“And I’m never going to.”

“Come on ,” Annabeth drawls. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“I can’t talk about it,” Percy whispers. “It was so bad.”

“You’re not a virgin!”

“Please, Annabeth, the girl told me she wanted to peg me.”

Annabeth pauses, and then she starts laughing so hard that tears are falling from her eyes. Percy would normally be mortified, but he’d rather have her crying over his embarrassment than her own frustration.

“Did you let her?” Annabeth asks between giggles.

“ No! ”

“Why not!? It could’ve been fun.”

Percy ignores that. “Pegging is not a losing of virginity topic of conversation.”

“Would you let me peg you?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

Annabeth giggles. “I’m going to peg you one day.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“My name is Ben Dover.”

Percy makes a stifled shriek. “ Annabeth!”

“It was funny!”

And Annabeth falls into silence with nothing more than a swept smile on her face. Percy gets the moment to look at her again while she gazes at something in his kitchen. Her cheeks seemed to have calmed down and are no longer red, and it lets Percy breathe from his own anger he felt.

He feels slightly ridiculous even admitting that he gets mad when Annabeth’s hurt. He just despises knowing that someone hurts her, and knowing that there’s nothing he can do about it except hold her close and let her cry. He wishes he could protect her from that, but he can’t. All he can do is get angry.

"I’m sorry I showed up out of nowhere,” Annabeth says. “I know you weren’t almost done with your shower.”

“How do you know that?”

“There’s soap in your hair.”

“Oh.”

“Thank you for being here for me.”

“You don’t need to thank me for that.”

“I want to. It was so rude of me to interrupt your shower, and...whatever else guys do in the shower.”

“Okay, I wasn’t doing that. ”

“It did take you a long time to open the door.”

“I changed my mind. I’m miserable that you showed up.”

“You’re not even wearing a shirt. You sure you weren’t doing that?”

“Do you shower with clothes on?”

“Point taken.”

Percy smiles down at her, and she returns the smile up. He could spend every day like this, her sprawled lazily on his lap, just talking and messing around with each other. The only reason he doesn’t is because he hates why she’s here in the first place. She should be here of her own will, not drawn here because someone hurt her and she felt like she had no one else to go to. 

“Do you want to go somewhere?” Percy asks quietly. “We can go get food?”

“Where from?”

“I feel bad, so wherever you want.”

“You’re paying, right?”

Percy pauses. “I feel like this is a trap.”

“I want to go somewhere expensive.”

“I can take you to Burger King. Take it or leave it.”

Annabeth laughs and sits up on the couch. He notes, with a hint of satisfaction, that the red rimming her eyes is gone. Red is the color of her smudged lipstick that he uses his thumb to wipe away from the corner of her mouth. It’s the color of her cheeks, though he thinks it might not be from the crying anymore. It’s the color of the blood that he saw weeks ago from where she’d cut her hand in the water on the edge of a cliff, and it’s the embodiment of the anger he feels when he wishes he could have saved her from all of this.

“I’ll definitely take it.”

She swings her feet over the edge of his couch, and he thinks red is also the color of love. It’s pretty and vibrant, just like Annabeth is when she’s with him. He thinks he loves her.

He knows he does.

“You’re driving,” she tells him.

“I thought you didn’t trust my driving,” he mocks.

“I don’t trust your driving, but I trust you,” she says. She finds his keys on the kitchen island and tosses them to him. “That has to transfer over to trusting your driving skills at least a little bit, right?”

“Does it work that way?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.”

Percy rolls his eyes. “Get in the car.”

Annabeth sticks her tongue out at him, and Percy gets stuck in a bit of a trance. Annabeth snaps her fingers in front of his face, and Percy shoves her hand away.

“I’m not a dog,” he chastises.

“You were staring at me.”

“I was staring at your lipstick,” he says. “It’s a complete mess.”

“Yeah, sure. If you wanted some lipstick, you could’ve just asked.”

“How would you give me lipstick?”

“We could make out,” she suggests. “I’m only half kidding too.”

Percy hates to admit how excited that actually makes him. He’s sure Annabeth already knows that, though. She tends to say stuff like that because she knows that they’re stuck along the fine line between friendship and love, and she loves to watch him stumble through his words.

“I don’t like you.”

“Come here and let me give you a kiss. That might change things.”

Percy tilts his head. “And if I actually did?”

“I would not complain at all.”

“That’s nice to know.”

“Also, if you’re still mad at Piper, it could prove her wrong. Since you love being a petty theater kid.”

“I’d rather just fight her.”

“Hm.” 

“Are you going to get in the car, or am I going to have to carry you?”

Annabeth bites her tongue. “I’ll be fine walking, but it’s nice to know the thought of carrying me crossed your mind. Save that for our wedding.”

As she walks by him, Percy gives her a miniscule shove which has her glaring at him over her shoulder before she opens the front door and runs out. She tries to slam the door in his face just to mess with him, but she manages to snag his fingers instead, which has him cursing and Annabeth nearly buckling to the floor in laughter.

It takes at least five minutes after that for them to make it to the car, and Annabeth’s giggles have yet to stop. Even after he begins driving while simultaneously giving her dirty looks out of the corner of his eyes, a few giggles manage to worm their way out of her throat. She thinks it’s downright hilarious, and while Percy slightly disagrees with that considering it’s his fingers that are throbbing in pain, he’s just glad that she’s finally forgotten about Piper. Even for a moment, he’s also able to forget about it, and he tells her he feels better about the cut on her palm now that she nearly sliced his fingers off with a door. 

He forgets about the color red and the anger that circulates through him. It feels good to forget.

He much prefers being like this, just existing without having to worry about that voice screaming in his head to protect her. Right now, he’s in a world where red does not exist. There is no pain associated with crimson blood, or eyes red from hurt. There is still the pink blush of cheeks for no other reason than being unable to breathe from laughter. There is still the aching of muscles in their cheeks when they can’t stop smiling after they make it to the fast food restaurant and Percy forces Annabeth to wear the tiny paper crown that is too small for her head.

In this world, red loses its meaning. Still, there’s another part of him that thinks maybe red is still a good thing. Feeling anger on Annabeth’s behalf means there’s something for him to fight for her. It means there is love, happiness, the endless conversations even if they all end in Annabeth making jokes about pegging him. 

Anger. Such a silly, important thing.

iv. surprise

“I’m really sensing a pattern here.”

Annabeth pretends she doesn’t hear him as she continues down the dirt path. She’s looking around at the trees that surround them, and she points out at one of the trees covered with oranges.

“Where did you even find orange trees in New York?”

“I looked it up,” she says. “Google isn’t that hard to use, you know. You should try it sometime.”

“Why would I do that when I have you to do it for me?”

“Competence, for one.”

Percy blows air from between his lips. 

She continues down the dirt path, and Percy can’t help but look around as well. He’s surprised this place is as empty as it is. It’s sunny outside, being so late in the day, but it’s still slightly cold as the winter months slowly come to an end. He’s never been one to be easily fascinated by nature, but the tiny specks of orange among the green leaves are so vast and abundant that he can only stare.

The only thing he thinks is prettier is Annabeth herself. 

They stop at the entrance to the small farm, and Annabeth grabs the tickets from the owners for entrance while Percy presses into her back and smothers a smile into the top of her hair.

“Are you comfortable in my sweater?” Percy mumbles. “You keep stealing those from me.”

“Well, if you weren’t going to wear it…”

Percy laughs loudly at her, and the owners glance at him, which only leads to him burying his face in her hair again while her hand comes up to rest on his cheek.

“I was literally wearing it five minutes ago,” he tells her. “You took it off of me. I don’t think that qualifies as ‘not going to wear it.’”

“Do you want it back?”

Percy considers it for a moment, but then they continue walking past the front entrance, and Percy doesn’t have the heart to take it away from her. 

“I’ll let you have it because you look adorable,” he says, tugging playfully on her hair. “You look like an orange.”

It’s an appropriate sentence, considering she actually does look like an orange. The sweater itself is a bright orange color, which he hadn’t actually known he had sitting in his closet. It looks good on her, the oversized sweater pairing well with her baggy jeans that are ripped all up and down the front. The front pieces of her hair are clipped back, though a few strands in the front hang out, and she just looks so effortlessly pretty like she’s just rolled out of bed to go for a walk through a park with him. 

“Is that an insult?”

“Not at all,” he says. “You’re my orange.”

“Ew. Don’t be mushy.”

Annabeth still leans into him sweetly and he presses his nose into her jaw in return. It’s become some sort of unsaid norm for the two of them, acting like this. He finds he likes it a lot, being able to be like this with her.

She leads them through a couple turns in the family-run grove before she stops and looks around. “Do you think this is a good place to stop?”

“It looks fine to me.”

Annabeth sighs, but she sits in the grass. “You’re no help to me.”

Percy sits down next to her and looks at the view. They’re settled on a hill, so he can see above a lot of the orange trees that line the hill going down. The sun is bright overhead, and the clouds are picture-perfect, sparse and white so they can see the light blue sky. 

“I like to think I’m lots of help to you,” he says after a minute. “I’m skipping class to be here with you.”

“Like you wouldn’t have skipped that class anyway.”

“You don’t know that. I might’ve decided to go today.”

“And yet here you are with me. It’s tragic how obsessed you are with me.”

“I don’t like you.”

“Okay.” Annabeth knows he doesn’t mean it, he’s sure. There’s no way he could possibly make himself sound serious when he says something so far from the truth. 

Annabeth stands up again, and he misses having her next to him, but he doesn’t have any time to focus on it when she walks up to one of the trees near them and observes the fruit hanging from it. She looks so serious, Percy thinks, but he can’t stop the small laugh to poke fun at her when she’s wearing a sweater that’s the exact same color as the fruit. 

“Are you done?” Annabeth says sarcastically when he tells her she’s finally found her family.

“You should wear that to a pumpkin patch.”

Annabeth gives him a lovely gesture with her left hand before she plucks one of the oranges from the tree. She chooses one of the bigger ones and considers it, weighing it in her hand for a few seconds, before she comes back to his side. She pretends to throw it at his face.

Percy raises an eyebrow at her. “Are we allowed to do that?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t really care.”

“Where’s your passion for serving the community?”

Annabeth chuckles and bops him on the nose with the orange. “I think they can spare one.” She hands it to him, a silent plea for him to peel it for the two of them. He makes a snide remark about how she’s always pulling him into her trouble, but he still peels it for her. It takes two minutes to get the zest off, and he winds up with his hands covered in orange juice, before he’s able to hand it back to her.

“Is it good?” he asks as she takes a piece and pops it into her mouth.

“It’s fine.” She shrugs and feeds him a piece, which he takes graciously. “It tastes like an orange.” He chews thoughtfully. It’s a lot softer than most other oranges he’s eaten, but yeah, it pretty much is just an orange. It’s still the best one he’s had, though, if only because she’s the one giving it to him. “Do you want another?”

Percy shakes his head. “You can have it.”

With that, she returns to eating it. A part of Percy wonders if he’d be able to taste the orange on her lips if he kissed her. 

She eats slowly, which Percy has always thought was cute for some reason. She’s normally so fast with everything she does—walking, or talking—but she eats slowly, and it’s one of her little quirks he’s grown to love so much, even if it means having to sit at a table with her waiting for her to finish eating. 

Annabeth makes a sputtering noise after a few minutes, and Percy eyes her, confused. 

“Hair keeps getting in my mouth,” she explains. She tries to brush a few strands out of her face, but the wind blows it right back in front of her.

“Do you need a hair tie?”

“You have one?”

Percy lifts his wrist to her sight. He’d stolen a hair tie from her earlier that day—it was orange, ironically, so it fit the rest of the scene—in case she’d need it.

“You’re a lifesaver,” she breathes, reaching to take it from him, but he moves away with a tsk. 

“Let me do it,” he says. He shifts his knees so he’s able to kneel behind her, and Annabeth teases him for it. “Let me focus.”

“Do you even know how to braid?”

“We’re going to find out in a second.”

The truth is that Percy only knows how to braid after the last time he’d attempted it on her a few weeks ago. He’d failed miserably, and Annabeth had teased him then too. He had wanted to be able to do it for her, though, so he watched a few videos on it for the next time the situation came up. He hadn’t physically done it yet, so he has to hope that he can pull the videos off.

“Do you need help?” Annabeth asks, turning her head.

Percy shoves her head back into place with a sh. “You’re going to make me mess up if you keep moving.”

“Yeah, because that’s why you would mess up. Definitely not because you don’t know how to braid, right?”

“You need to work on your pep talk ability.”

Annabeth snorts.

He ends up having to start over a few times, but he manages after about five minutes of Annabeth’s endless taunts and giggles when his fingers tickle against her neck while he tries to grab new strands of hair.

“I did it,” Percy says triumphantly. “And you didn’t believe in me.”

Annabeth’s fingers run over the braid. A few pieces are falling out, especially some strands around her face, but those look good in his opinion since they really frame her face. 

“Where did you learn that?”

Percy bites his lower lip as though scratching an itch languidly. “Last time I tried, it wasn’t great, but I wanted to be able to do it. I watched a few videos on braiding.”

“You watched videos for me?”

Percy scratches his neck and laughs awkwardly. “Yeah. I haven’t actually practiced though, so it’s not the best, but I think I can get better if I just—”

Annabeth cuts him off with a kiss, and suddenly, Percy can’t breathe.

There had been a lot of moments Percy thought would end with a kiss, but out of all of them, he never imagined it to be here in an orange grove.

It surprises him, but it’s the best kind of surprise there is. It takes a few seconds for his brain to catch up and for him to return the kiss, and he thinks everything is perfect in its own way.

He can smell the sweet, citrusy scent of oranges wafting around them. His eyes are closed, but he can imagine the beautiful green trees dotted with vibrant oranges. He had wondered earlier if he’d be able to taste the orange on her lips, and now he knows that he can. He smiles into the kiss, and Annabeth smiles back. It only ends with their teeth clashing, but it’s different than he imagined their first kiss would be—a delectable surprise—and that’s what makes it perfect.

She pulls away, and Percy feels like he’s in a special kind of heaven. He’s in a world with her and nothing else, surrounded by the beauty that is the color orange. 

Still, it had been unexpected to him, and judging by her face, it was unexpected to her too.

Annabeth laughs slightly and turns her eyes away from him. There’s a light dust of pink gracing her cheeks. “I had no idea I was going to do that.”

Percy tilts his head with an adoring smile. “I didn’t either, but I definitely didn’t mind it.”

“It’s just you said you watched videos on braiding just so that you could braid my hair, and...no one’s ever done that for me before.”

“Now someone has,” he says. “For you, I’d do it again.”

“Stop,” Annabeth groans, flopping down onto the grass so she can look up at the sky. Percy plucks a few blades of grass and sprinkles them onto her stomach where his sweater rides up. “If you keep saying stuff like that, I might end up kissing you again.”

“Then why don’t you?” he suggests. “I’m all for kissing. I think there should be more of it, really.”

Annabeth pretends to look disgusted by that, but she’s still looking up at the sky trying to hide a smile from her face.

Percy lays next to her, and his hand goes to hers. He doesn’t lace their fingers together, instead choosing to fiddle with her fingers and trace lines over the orange smiley face he’d drawn on her hand earlier that day with marker. He doubts she even remembers it’s there, but Percy remembers. Percy remembers everything about her, including the lopsided smiley face that looks cute on her skin, already fading and smudging, but the remnants still staring back at him.

Annabeth turns her face to the side so her cheek rests against the grass and her face is only a few inches from him. Percy plucks some more grass to drizzle it on her nose just so he can see her cute laugh and the way she playfully shoves his hand away from her.

“I wish we could stay here forever,” Annabeth says. The sentence surprises Percy too.

“I thought you didn’t like the oranges,” Percy teases.

“But I like you,” she says. “I don’t care where I am as long as I have you.”

“The good news is you’re always going to have me. I’m not going anywhere.”

This time when Annabeth kisses him, he is more prepared for it. He’s expecting the way her hand cups his cheek and the kiss is only a few seconds of her being gentle and sweet against his lips. He is, however, surprised by how much this feels like coming home.

“We can’t stay forever, but we can stay until closing,” Percy says, brushing her hair away from her face and relishing in the way she leans into his touch. “How does that sound?”

“It closes soon,” Annabeth muses.

“We can sneak back in afterward.”

“I’ve turned you into a rebel. I don’t think I ever would’ve caught you saying that a few months ago.”

“It’s because you’re a terrible influence.”

“The worst,” she agrees.

“And somehow, I don’t mind. You make breaking rules fun.”

Annabeth blows a raspberry.  “Like how we almost got arrested? Or when I made you feel bad by getting hurt jumping off of cliffs?”

“All scary, but still good memories, if that makes sense? I mean, not you getting hurt, but us being able to be together.” Percy shrugs and laughs. “It sounds weird, but.”

“No, I get it.”

Percy kisses the tip of her nose. 

“We came way too late,” Annabeth mutters. “The sun is already going down.”

It is, if only a little bit. It’s late afternoon, and it’s still in the winter season, so the day ends somewhat early. It’s still really pretty, being able to slowly watch the sunset together while resting on a hill.

That’s exactly what they end up doing. Their hands end up interlocked this time, and they rest, conjoined, over his stomach while Annabeth begins to point out clouds with shapes that he can’t even begin to see. He pretends he does, even adding in a few shapes that he really has to squint his eyes to notice. He loves the way she smiles up at the sky or squeezes his hand each time she focuses on a new shape. The best part, though, is when she stops focusing on the clouds and starts staring at the sunset that paints the sky an array of pinks and oranges. Orange, to match the feeling for the day. 

She’s staring at the sky full of colors painted by the hand of the universe, but Percy’s staring at her wondering if she knows that she’s a million times prettier than the sunset. 

The sinking sun casts a glow on Annabeth, and her hair is almost illuminated a soft orange. It’s not the bright neon color, but a soft, gentle orange that blends so flawlessly. Orange has never been his favorite color, too much for his taste, but right now, he has a newfound appreciation for it. It’s a scene he would paint if he knew how, but he doesn’t, so he’ll settle for burning this into his memory so he can look back on it. He considers taking a picture of her, and he even pulls his phone out of his pocket subtly, but she turns her head just as he clicks the shutter. It turns out better than he expected now that she’s forever captured giving him that genuine smile he’s grown to love.

“Do you remember when you said I should get a tattoo?” 

“Are you thinking about getting one now?”

“I don’t know,” he answers honestly. His thumb doesn’t stop moving against her hand. “I think if I did, I would want the sun.”

“To match me?”

“That, and also because I want to remember this forever.”

Annabeth coos. “What color would you get?”

“Orange,” he says without missing a beat.

“I thought you hated orange.”

“I don’t.”

At least not anymore. 

“I can make the appointment,” Annabeth says. “Fair warning, this means you’re stuck with me forever, since we’d have matching tattoos.”

“ Forever? ” Percy asks, feigning shock. “Well, I guess there are worse people to be stuck with.”

“Like Piper and Jason,” she says. “Imagine being with them for the rest of your life, having to watch them make out all the time.”

“Now they can be the third wheel with us,” Percy says. “Tell Piper she can shove it.”

“I’ll be sure to let her know.”

Percy nuzzles his face in the crook of her neck, and she presses her lips to the top of his head. They don’t speak for a while after that, and that’s okay. They don’t need to say anything to know that they’re both there. It’s the way they are, able to just exist in silence and still love one another. It’s a special thing they have, he thinks.

They wait until the sun goes down, and Percy takes in every minute of it. He lets himself enjoy the surprise feeling of this day. He hadn’t woken up thinking he’d be kissing her in the middle of an orange grove, but that’s exactly what had happened.

It’s a surprise to him that it happened this way, but it’s also not a surprise at all. 

It was only a matter of time before they ended up tangled in each other’s arms on the side of a hill, watching the glowing orange sun cast light on the two of them. He wouldn’t change a thing about it.

v. disgust

Percy can’t see much of what’s going on around him. All he can feel is Annabeth’s body pressed up against his in the dark of the room. There are a few lights scattered around, but none of them are bright enough to really give anyone in the club more than a faint field of vision. 

It doesn't matter to him, though, because he’s a few drinks in and really loves the way she moves against him, turning in his arms to smile and laugh in his face or shove her face in the crook of his neck in a silent plea for him to hold her. 

He wishes he could see her dress right now, but all he’s able to capture of it is the faint green glimmer of the sequins that perfectly line her body. It had looked good on her earlier that day when he’d seen it in broad daylight. It was skin-tight, and probably too cold for where they were, back up in the mountains with pine trees and roads covered in a pristine white snow that sprinkled gently from the sky. She doesn’t seem to mind being cold. Percy gave her his jacket anyway, at least until they got inside the building. 

They had been meeting a few friends at the club for a night out, but Percy hasn’t seen any of them yet. He may just be a bit distracted from when Annabeth kisses him hard, taking any thoughts out of his mind except for her.

“Are you having fun?” Annabeth calls out. It’s hard to hear her over the music that blasts from the speakers around them, or the tipsy yells of other people trying to communicate with their own friends.

Percy’s hand rests against her waist. He can taste the alcohol on her lips when she presses her lips to his again, and he holds her there for a few seconds longer. 

“Are you?” he returns, tugging her toward him slightly so someone can pass behind her. “I’m having fun if you are.”

It’s hardly a question he needs to ask. Annabeth’s always having fun. Annabeth is the fun at this point.

“I love you,” she says, and Percy gives a lopsided, amused smile.

“I’m sure you do,” he says. She brings a drink she’d been trying not to spill to her lips, and Percy takes it from her in warning. “Maybe let’s slow down on the drinks, yeah?”

Annabeth rolls her eyes but lets him take it from her. “You’re so protective,” she mumbles against his cheek. He can feel the shivers sent down his spine. “It’s cute.”

“One of us has to make sure you don’t get alcohol poisoning,” he teases. “Alcohol poisoning is much less cute.”

Annabeth sighs dramatically and drops her back against his chest, and he laughs through his nose while he presses his lips to her temple. Her eyes close as she hums appreciatively. 

At some point, they begin to move away from the center of the dance floor after the heat of bodies around them become too much. There’s more light around the bar they stand at. Percy leans against the counter with one arm, holding Annabeth with the other arm while she talks animatedly.

“What was that?” Percy asks when Annabeth says something he doesn’t quite catch. He fixes her dress a bit, smoothing out a portion against the skin of her back. He can see the dress now, and he can’t seem to take his eyes off of it. Green suits her nicely.

“Were you not listening to me?” she chastises.

“I am,” he promises. “It’s just hard to understand what you’re saying when you’re drunk sometimes.”

“I’m not drunk.”

Percy pinches his fingers together. “Only a little bit.”

“Maybe a little bit,” she agrees. She continues saying something to him, and he really does try to listen, but then his eyes catch on something off in the distance, and he’s much more focused on that.

There’s a guy staring at Annabeth, though his eyes are too low for it to be at Annabeth’s face. She doesn’t notice him, too busy talking to Percy, but Percy certainly notices. It ignites a flame inside of him that only burns higher when the guy makes eye contact with Percy and smiles. The guy waits a few seconds while Percy holds daring eye contact before he starts walking up to them. Percy’s shoulders tense.

“Are you okay?” Annabeth asks suddenly.

“There’s someone coming over here,” he says quietly. “He’s been staring at you.”

Annabeth’s brows furrow, but she doesn’t get the chance to say something before the guy is next to her introducing himself. He doesn’t listen to what the guy says—he doesn’t want to know his name—so he chooses to keep his face stoic. 

He only tunes in when the guy asks to buy Annabeth a drink, and an envious, green monster rises in Percy’s chest. 

“I’m alright,” Annabeth says. “I have my boyfriend here for that.”

“Are you sure? It’s a free drink.”

“I said no.”

The guy’s smile doesn’t fall from his face, and that sends alarms ringing through Percy’s head. His smile is anything but innocent. It looks malicious, like a predator about to rip a prey to shreds, and Percy needs to get out of there.

Annabeth says something to draw the guy away, and she turns in Percy’s arms to plant a kiss to his jawline. Percy is looking over her shoulder in the general direction the guy disappeared to, and he feels sick. 

Annabeth’s palms press to his cheeks so he’s forced to look at her. When she kisses him, deeper than she had earlier, he can taste the bitter, sour feel of the lime on her mouth. It grounds him, if only for a moment, and he kisses her back.

“Ignore him,” she says, kissing him one last time. “The only person I’m looking at is you.”

“I don’t like how he was staring at you.”

Annabeth leans against the counter next to him and picks up the glass of the drink she’d ordered. She gives him a sly smirk. “Let him stare. Maybe he’ll realize what he’s never going to have.”

That manages to bring a smile back to his face as he takes a deep breath, but then Annabeth turns her head to look at someone that calls her name, and her fingers drop the glass in her hand. It shatters sharply against the ground.

“ Fuck. ”

Annabeth’s about to bend to the ground to pick it up with her bare hands, but Percy pulls her away before she can. He doesn’t want her to cut herself, and another part of him doesn’t want her bending over in the short dress.

“I’ve got it,” Percy tells her, moving her away from the glass.

“I can help,” she offers.

“Don’t worry about it,” he assures. He bends down to pick up the bigger shards of glass, leaving the smaller ones there and hoping that no one ends up walking around barefoot. Percy is so focused on picking up as much as he can that he almost misses when someone else bends next to him—another guy—and gives him a smile that is a little too friendly.

“Your girl have a little too much to drink?” the guy asks. It’s an attempt at small-talk, and one that Percy does not appreciate in the slightest.

Percy clenches his jaw and doesn’t give a response, turning his attention back to the glass on the floor. He imagines that he could see his reflection in it. He wonders if it would be envy-green staring back at him.

The guy says something else with a smile, but all it does is send more signals of jealousy through him. Maybe the guy means well, but he’s picking up after Percy’s girlfriend, and that makes him feel sick because Annabeth is his to pick up after.

When he stands and dumps the glass onto the corner of the bar, Annabeth is looking at him with something foreign in her eyes. Percy only focuses on it for a second because now he feels like he can see everyone staring at her. It might all be in his imagination, or it might not be. Everything seems amplified when he looks around. He feels disgust rising in him, despising the way everyone seems to be staring at Annabeth, and he knows that this is nothing more than jealousy, but it doesn’t ease the shaking frustration and disgust, disgust, disgust —

Disgust when he catches the first guy’s eyes raking over her.

“Should we leave?” Annabeth asks, like she can tell he doesn’t want to be here.

Percy shakes his head no. “I’m alright.”

“You’re not alright.”

“I am,” he assures.

“Let’s go.”

“No, Annabeth, you wanted to come here.”

“Not if you don’t want to be here.”

Percy knows this is his opportunity. Annabeth wouldn’t say anything to him if he decided to leave. She would let him, after all the times he’s gone along with her plans dragging him around to new places. She’s nice, and would never get upset if he felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave.

“I want to be here if you do.”

“Percy.”

“I’m not dragging you away from here. You’ve been looking forward to this.”

Annabeth sighs. “Why don’t you go, then?”

“I’m not leaving you here alone.”

“I’m not alone,” she says. “Piper and Jason are here. I’ll be alright.”

“I’m not comfortable with that.”

“Please, Percy, I can tell you don’t want to be here.”

“I want to be with you.”

Annabeth tilts her head. 

A part of Percy wonders if she really wants him to go. He thinks she’s the one that doesn’t want him there, and so he falters.

“Are you sure you’re okay with me leaving?”

“Of course, Percy.”

“You’re going to be okay by yourself?”

“I’ll stick by Jason and Piper’s side,” she promises. “Jason is a good guy. He’d fight in my honor.”

Percy cracks a grin. “I guess that’s one good thing about him.”

Annabeth smiles softly. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Percy looks around and is reminded of the disgust he felt earlier. He thinks maybe it’s for the best that he goes home, so long as Annabeth isn’t by herself.

“Hey,” Annabeth says, resting her chin against his chest so she can look up at him. “I love you, okay?”

“I love you too.”

“Go home,” she says. “I’ll meet you there later.”

“Get home safe, okay?”

Annabeth gets on her toes to kiss his chin. “I will.”

He watches as she moves over to where he assumes Piper and Jason must have been, and she shoots one last look over her shoulder and blows him a kiss before she disappears in the crowd and Percy turns around to leave. 

He makes it home an hour later after calling an uber to pick him up. He let himself look at the darkness outside. The lampposts light up the streets as they take the twisty roads down the mountain. He finds calmness is the dark greenery around them and the snow that is still falling.

The second he gets home, he falls into his bed, still in the clothes he’d been wearing earlier that day. It’s easy for him to fall asleep, and it’s hard for him to wake himself up too. He only wakes up properly when he notices that the bed is still empty several hours later, and the sun is about to come up. He checks his phone with a frown, and the second he does, his stomach drops.

He thought he felt disgust earlier that day, but disgust turns out not to be what he expected.

He expected disgust to be the churning in his stomach when he notices other people’s eyes on her. He expects disgust to be the moment when they’re drinking too much and he holds her hair back as she kneels on the bathroom floor, weak but with a swept smile on her face as she leans into the palm of his hand, or when they mix as much food into ice cream as they can just to see how far the other person will go to make the other laugh.

Disgust never quite looked to him like it does right now when he sits in the hospital room, listening to the steady beeping of the machine as it breathes for her. It’s not in the green light of the monitor that watches her every heartbeat. It’s not in the green of the stethoscope that lines the doctor’s neck, or the green of the bedsheets, the green on the t.v. that is bright in the dark of the room (though is the room actually dark, or it is the way his mind perceives it when there is a shadow of guilt— regret —hovering over him?)

No. 

Disgust takes form in his gut as he watches the person he loves lay unmoving, unable to function on her own, knowing that it falls on him. Disgust at his own actions, knowing that maybe if he’d done something different, she wouldn’t have to rely on the tube down her throat. Green is what he sees when he looks around the room, his world tinted sage, blurred through the tears in his eyes.

Green, guilt, jealousy, wishing it had been him.

He feels green when he begins to feel sick when bile rises in his throat as his eyes stay on Annabeth, whose eyes are closed and chest is moving rhythmically with the machines. 

They tell him that she’s going to be fine. That she got lucky when the car that was driven by Jason slid along the ice on the curve of the road and the car ended up flipping. She’s okay, they keep telling him, but she’s just asleep for a bit until she heals a little more. 

They tell him it’s not his fault—he wasn’t the one driving—but he feels like he did when he found her hand cut by the rock on the bottom of the cliff. He should have known better than to leave her there alone, even if she was the one who insisted.

He knows she’s going to be okay, but it doesn’t stop that tiny voice in the back of his mind from wondering if they were meant to be together but never meant to last. It leaves him mind as quickly as it enters because he can’t let himself think that. It doesn’t stop the thought from leaving a nasty blue bruise in his brain.

It’s not even a week later that she’s awake and talking like her usual self, but Percy still feels the panic sizzling deep inside him because he knows how easily things could have been different. It takes a while before it ends up being just the two of them, and when everyone else finally does leave, all Percy can do is sit on the chair staring at her while she stares back.

Annabeth tilts her head on the pillow. “You can talk to me, you know?”

Percy exhales, and he kind of wants to cry. “I know.”

“I was told you barely left the hospital?” She cracks a grin. “It’s like you’re in love with me, or something.”

“Was that even a question?”

“Not really. I’ve known for a while.” Annabeth is silent for a second, eyes analyzing his face. “It’s not your fault.”

“I left you there alone.”

“I told you to leave.”

“I shouldn’t have left you alone,” he says anyway. “I don’t care if you told me to leave. You weren’t sober, and I should’ve stayed with you.”

“If we’re going to blame someone, blame Jason,” Annabeth says, but he knows she’s kidding. “He was driving. How are they, by the way?”

“I don’t know,” Percy admits.

“You didn’t see them?”

“You were the one I was worried about.”

“You shouldn’t have been worried. Didn’t they tell you I was just taking a bit of a nap until the concussion went away?”

“They actually called that a coma.”

“Medically induced.”

“Still a coma.”

Annabeth smiles. “You’re annoying.”

“You are too, and I missed you.”

Annabeth coos at him and holds out a hand. He comes closer and sits on the bed next to her after she pats that spot for him. He notices a wince when he laces their hands together and brushes her hair out of her eyes.

“Does it hurt?” he asks softly.

“I’m okay.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

“A little bit,” she says. “Don’t worry about me.”

“That’s my job, worrying about you.” Percy bites his lower lip to stop tears from welling in his eyes. “You’re never allowed to do that again,” he murmurs. “When you said it was too soon for us to die when we were at the cliffs, I didn’t think you meant that we could die only a few months after that. “

“I wanted to see if you’d care. You passed.”

Percy gives her a scolding look. “I think it would have been much easier to simply ask me if I’d care if you died.”

“It’s not as fun.”

“You call this fun?”

“Didn’t I tell you I like attention?”

Percy smiles for the first time. “Next time you want attention, let me know. It would save me from a heart attack.”

“That’s pretty boring, but fine.”

“I love you so much.”

Annabeth closes her eyes against his hand and returns the words to him.

Disgust still lingers in Percy’s vision. When he looks back at that night, he doesn’t see disgust when he looks at the guys that stare at Annabeth. He sees it in his own actions. He tries to scream at his past self to not leave her there, but he can’t. Disgust is an ugly, green-eyed monster.

Disgust is what he sees when he looks in the mirror and knows that he’s never going to leave Annabeth by herself like that. It fades slowly, of course, but it stays there, and he supposes that’s the one good thing about this emotion. It prevents him from fully forgetting, and that’s what allows him to make sure he stays there with her. 

He thinks green is a color he would like to live without.

vi. joy

Percy never would’ve thought he’d be the one sneaking out, yet here he is.

He supposes it’s not technically sneaking out if he’s an adult living by himself. Either way, he’s not normally the one going to pick Annabeth up unexpectedly. It’s a bit more nerve-wracking because Annabeth isn’t even at her apartment. She’d been staying with her parents for a bit so they could help her move around, so he has to do his best not to be seen by the security cameras in her front yard so he can make it to the side of the house where he knows her bedroom resides.

He isn’t sure how her parents would react to a boy sneaking in Annabeth’s window, even if her parents know they’re dating.

Percy contemplates how he’s going to get through her window. There aren’t any trees nearby that he could climb up, and he’s not sure why that surprises him considering he’s only ever seen that sort of thing in the movies. He settles for picking up a rock and throwing it at her window like a cliche highschool boy trying to get into someone’s pants (though his intentions are much more pure than that ), and he hopes that it doesn’t accidentally shatter her window.

It’s a few seconds of no response, and brief panic overcomes him when he thinks he may have just thrown a rock at the wrong person’s house. Still, he’s about to throw a second rock when her window opens and Annabeth gives him a scolding look as the rock flies right past her head.

“You could have just texted me.”

“That’s no fun,” Percy says, coming up to below her window. She leans over the ledge and gives him a sleepy smile, and he almost considers letting her go back to sleep. The thought leaves his mind quickly when he remembers what he has to show her. She’s on the second floor so he can’t actually climb in, but that’s not what he’s here for anyway. “I want to take you somewhere, so come on.”

“At four in the morning?”

“Time has never stopped you before. You love showing up to my apartment and dragging me out without telling me where we’re going.”

“I have crutches.”

“I’ll carry you.”

Annabeth waits a few seconds, and he can tell she’s trying not to smile and encourage him, but she gives in and says, “I’ll be down in a minute.”

It’s actually more than a few minutes that Percy stands idle in her front yard, hoping no one drives by and sees a random guy standing in someone’s lawn. He can only imagine it doesn’t look great, and it would probably appear a bit alarming. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen before the front door creaks open and Annabeth hops out. She’d thrown on a black zip-up jacket—one that he recognizes from his closet and had been looking for for days—over her sweatpants. 

“You should’ve left from the window,” Percy muses, walking up the few steps of her porch so he can help her to his car. It’s a white jeep, and they hardly ever take his car, but it’s only appropriate considering he’s the one dragging her out in the middle of the night. He figures if it’s his idea, the least he can do is drive. Also, he isn’t sure how well driving would work out for Annabeth with a broken ankle.

“I don’t think a second story window and crutches would have a good outcome if I’m being honest.”

Percy laughs and opens the passenger door for her. She settles in and presses a kiss to his jaw while he buckles her up before he closes the door and moves to the driver’s seat. 

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll have to wait until we get there,” Percy says. He pauses while he tries to blindly shove the keys in the ignition. His tongue sticks out from between his lips in concentration, and he gives a triumphant aha! before he says anything more. “Have a taste of your own medicine.”

“If you’re kidnapping me, just know my dad knows I’m with you.”

Percy makes a shocked noise. “You told him!?”

“I needed his help getting downstairs.”

Percy blinks. “Now I’m slightly nervous about what he thinks we’re doing at four in the morning.”

Annabeth bumps his elbow lightly as he begins to pull out of her driveway. “He doesn’t care. He likes you.”

“I would hope so,” Percy says, sighing slightly. He supposes it’s a good thing her dad didn’t react like the first time he caught a guy in Annabeth’s room years before Percy even knew her. It also boosts his ego, knowing that her dad likes him. It feels like a feat in itself. “Did he say anything?”

“Not really.” Annabeth leans her head against the seat and stares at him in the dark. He can feel her eyes on him, and he wishes he could see them too. “You’re really not telling me where we’re going?”

Percy had planned to keep it a surprise, but Annabeth is looking at him with the most pleading eyes, and he can’t help himself. It’s kind of unfair how easy it is for Annabeth to get Percy to give in. All she has to do is give him a cute pout and whimper, and it’s like he forgets how to say no.

“We’re going to watch the sunrise,” he says. “There’s a nice place in the mountains.”

“Uh-oh,” she says. “Mountains? Let’s not get into a crash this time.”

“After last time? Absolutely not.” Percy moves one hand from the wheel to hold onto her hand. He even brings her knuckles to his lips to give her a few soft kisses. If he weren’t driving, he’d pepper them all over her face too. “I’ll keep you safe.”

Annabeth hums quietly and he can hear the soft, sleepy edge of her voice. “I know you will.”

The drive is just over two hours. He thinks Annabeth may fall asleep an hour in, but that turns out to not be the case when she suddenly speaks and points out a deer in the road, and Percy nearly goes into cardiac arrest. 

“Fucking hell, Annabeth, don’t do that!”

Annabeth just cackles at him. “I didn’t do anything!”

“You screamed at the deer! I thought you were sleeping!”

“You should work on your observation skills. Not once did I fall asleep.”

“Or maybe you should not scream at deer when I’m driving us up a mountain in the dark,” he suggests, shrugging a shoulder and looking at her. “Just a thought.”

Annabeth makes a kissy face at him, and all is forgiven.

They make it there just in time to watch the sunrise, and he’s proud of himself for managing to get the timing right. He parks the car backwards near the edge of the mountain so they can overlook the many trees below and the sky in the distance.

The grass is still dewy when they hop out of the car so he can open the trunk and lower the seats to sit in the back. He helps Annabeth back in and gives her a few blankets to wrap herself in when she complains of the cold before settling in next to her. She finds her way into his side, and his arm wraps around her so she can rest her head against him. 

They sit in silence as the sky begins to get light. The sun still isn’t peeking out, but the vast darkness slowly becomes lighter and the mist on the grass slightly glimmers. They’re far enough from the city that nature is easier to hear too, so he listens to the few birds chirping in the distance. 

“You’re quiet,” Annabeth notes softly, her fingers playing with the end of his shirt. 

“Just thinking,” he tells her.

“What about?”

“Everything.” Percy kisses her forehead. “Us.”

Annabeth doesn’t say anything to that. She just moves her right hand to his wrist and twists the purple beads she hasn’t seen in a while. He put it on that morning when he saw it laying on his bathroom counter. It still means a lot that she’d given it to him even when they’d hardly known each other. It was like she knew they’d end up here.

“I really did wear that bracelet every day.”

Percy looks at Annabeth in surprise. “What?”

“The purple bracelet I gave you,” she clarifies. “I used to wear it every day, but I knew you wouldn’t take it if you knew the truth. I really wanted you to have it.”

“ Annabeth, ” he scolds.

“I like seeing you wear it,” she admits. “Our little symbol of friendship.”

“There are other ways to symbolize our friendship than having me steal your bracelet,” he says, but her words make him appreciate it even more.

“It’s not stealing if I gave it to you.”

He supposes that’s true.

“How else was I meant to symbolize our friendship if you wouldn’t get the tattoo?”

Percy has to smother a grin. He doesn’t want to tell her quite yet, but it’s really hard. He’s bubbling with excitement, and words threaten to spill from his tongue, but she thankfully moves on to another topic.

“Remember when I told you that I’d get you high?” 

“The one thing you never did,” Percy says. 

“I will one day,” she promises. “I just remembered that and thought it was funny. At least I have you sneaking out.”

“You do,” he says with a smile. “You really are an awful influence.”

“Or fun.” They’re the same words she said forever ago. 

“Definitely fun,” he agrees, squeezing her tighter. She starts to squirm in his grasp, and he loosens his arms so she can reach her hand into her jacket. “What are you looking for?”

“I brought candy.”

Percy moves further away so she can properly pull the bag out of her jacket. He moves back into place a second later as he eyes the bag of sour gummy worms. He doesn’t question where she got them, or why she brought them.

“Do you plan on eating that for breakfast?” he asks hesitantly.

“That’s exactly what I plan to do.” Annabeth hands him the bag. “Open this?”

He does and hands it back to her, and she pulls out one of them. It’s the blue and pink one, and she offers it to him first. He lets himself take it and she goes to grab another one. This time, it’s the yellow and red one. He looks back up at the sky for the first time in a while and sees the sun beginning to shine through the trees. It casts a warm yellow glow on them, and Percy thinks it’s his favorite moment yet.

“What’s your favorite color?” Annabeth asks, chewing thoughtfully on the candy. “I don’t think you’ve told me before.”

Percy had a lot of favorite colors. It’s been blue most of his life, but he’s grown to love others. He found excitement in the purple surrounding fear when they’d been in a stranger’s backyard hiding from the police and struggling not to laugh when her friend got caught. He acknowledges that the blue of sadness and red of rage offer him something to love, even if they don’t feel as good in the moment. He is thrilled by the orange of surprise when they had their first kiss, really long overdue. Even the green of disgust reminds him that he has something to lose.

“Gold.”

None of the colors compare to the one that shines above them now. There’s something soft about the gold that illuminates them in the car, casting a spotlight on the relationship they’ve built. Nothing compares to the joy he feels knowing that this love belongs to him.

Annabeth seems to understand. “Mine too.”

Suddenly, Percy is reminded of the surprise he’d kept for Annabeth. It’s the main reason he’d wanted to bring her out here to the place where they could see the golden starlight in the first place. 

Percy’s index finger brushes against hers where her skin is marked with fading ink. He appreciates the yellow he can see that had been there when she’d first gotten it. He wonders if she plans on getting it touched up so that the fading colors can be brought back to life. Annabeth breathes a sigh against his neck while he traces the thin lines of black ink. He waits until she’s looking at their conjoined hands before he extends his own index finger for her to see, and she holds her breath.

“ Percy. ”

“I wasn’t planning on actually getting one,” Percy begins. “It was after the crash, and I was so scared, and I just wanted to be able to share something with you. I knew you would be alright, but I still…”

Annabeth smiles widely and lets out a gleeful giggle. “You got the tattoo.”

“I did,” he says, wagging his finger in her hand. “It hurt.”

“Oh, you baby,” she teases. It’s her turn to pick up his index finger and bring it closer to her eye so she can look closely at it. It’s only fitting that it’s a tattoo of the sun since they’re watching it come up. The color is more vibrant than hers is, but the line art is still similar, and Percy loves everything about it. “You got it for me?”

“Because we’re best friends,” he tells her earnestly.

“We’re more than best friends.”

“I know,” he says. “But I got this because you’re my best friend, and I can’t live without you.”

Annabeth’s eyes seem to water when she grabs his cheeks and pulls him in for a soft kiss. She tastes like sugar from the gummy worms, and he can feel the sour, sticky residue from it that only has him smiling into the kiss. He used to wish he never had to leave. Now he knows he never has to.

Percy’s never felt happiness like this. He doesn’t know how he ended up so lucky, or what he’s done to deserve this. All he’d done was show up to the most miserable class of his life, and the next thing he knew, he was sitting in a car with the girl who hit him with a pencil, and who he also happens to love, showing her their matching tattoos.

“Do you like it?”

“Are you kidding? I love it, Percy.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t get a matching tattoo with a boyfriend,” Percy teases. 

“I’ll let it slide this once since you got it as my best friend and not as my boyfriend.” Annabeth kisses him once more. “I’m going to marry you one day.”

Percy laughs silently into the kiss. “Not if I marry you first.”

“We’ll get married right here on this mountain,” she says. “We’ll do it at sunrise.”

Percy really likes the sound of that. What could be better than marrying his best friend?

“I’m going to get a lifetime of adventure with you, aren’t I?” 

Annabeth nips at his neck. “That’s a given.”

Percy wonders how he’s ever lived without this. It’s a weird feeling, knowing how they started and knowing where they ended up.

“When you hit me with a pencil,” Percy begins. “I bet you didn’t think it would end up like this.”

“I knew it would.”

Percy raises a brow doubtfully. “Did you?”

“Oh, for sure. I was like ‘I want to marry that guy. He’s hot.’ So I threw the pencil at you to get your attention.”

“You definitely got my attention,” Percy says. “Also the attention of the entire class. I don’t think I’m over that yet.”

“Please. No one cared except you.”

“It was still embarrassing and entirely your fault.”

“Wasn’t it worth it, though?”

Percy grins in awe. “It was definitely worth it.”

The sun is higher up now, and Percy would officially consider it morning. He felt bad bringing her out here so early, but he decides to be selfish and let himself enjoy it when she begins to drift off against his chest. He holds her head with his hand, playing with her hair in the way he knows she loves. He rubs her back and feels warmer than the sun when she has an almost imperceptible smile on her face. 

They fall in love like this. 

Fear, sadness, anger, surprise, disgust, and joy. 

They’re so different, vast possibilities for them all. They don’t always come in the way that Percy would’ve imagined, yet they’re still so similar.

They make life what it is: something to remember.

Before Percy met Annabeth, he was surviving. It wasn’t a bad life by any means, but he doesn’t know how he ever went without her. He doesn’t remember what it used to be like, not being woken up before the sun even comes up. He never wants to go back to that time. He wants all of her, waking up at three in the morning, diving off of cliffs. He wants the tears and love and laughter and everything in between . It builds them together, breaks them apart, creates an inseparable bond. Percy knows that each of these moments will be remembered. All along, they’ve been swimming on the edge of a cliff, falling in love. It was always going to happen.

Percy always wanted to build core memories like this, and now he has. He’s lived in each of them, and sitting in the back of his white jeep with Annabeth wrapped in his arms, he knows each of them were important in building this. He wouldn’t have gotten here without each of those moments and colors and emotions.

If someone had asked Percy what color he sees them as, he could have listed any color for a variety of reasons. Now, sitting in the warm yellow glow, he knows what his new answer would be. It’s the color of them, their love, and everything they’ve created.

He finally knows what color the two of them are.

Their love is golden like starlight.