Work Text:
ADHD was a wonderful thing. It let you hyper focus. It let you avoid boring things. It kept you from distractions like food and sleep. And it let you since monsters coming at you in battles, giving you enough time to block attacks.
But it also meant that lying in wait for your boyfriend got old, fast.
She’d had a whole plan. Percy had been working so hard on his conference proposal, but today was the day it was due, so he was going to hunker down with Dr. Bauer before the 5 pm deadline.
And then he would come back to his dorm room and find his girlfriend in his bed. Wearing lingerie and eager to celebrate. Eager to reward him for anything and everything.
She’d gone out and bought lacy underwear. It was blue, and the panties successfully made her look like she had an ass (the bra didn’t manage to make her look like she had cleavage, but some things were just impossible.) She’d bought something that said it would give her hair beachy waves because she knew Percy loved both her hair and the beach.
She’d started spread out on his bedspread, using the royal blue as a background to her picture. Hair resting on the side of her neck. Propped up all nice and attractive. But at about 5:15 she’d gone bored. And by 6 she had just flopped down.
It was cold. So, by 6:30 she had moved under the comforter.
It was comfy. She buried herself in his blankets. Relaxing and peaceful and smelling like Percy. She had fallen asleep in this bed sated and comfy and wrapped in Percy dozens of times before. It was the most comfortable place in the world to be.
And then she was on a beach, sun on her face, as she watched Percy run though the waves, shirtless. The water ran down the planes of his chest. It normally didn’t, because he couldn’t get wet unless he tried.
Which meant this was a dream.
That was fine. She’d have the real thing soon enough.
It was a pleasant sort of dream, but the blunt object slamming down on her belly was no such thing.
She woke up with a squawk, sitting bolt upright, and was promptly met with a retaliating scream and a pillow to the face.
She and Frank both screamed at each other for another 10 seconds or so, until they recognized each other.
Because he was Frank Zhang, Percy’s roommate, her friend, Son of Mars.
“You’re not wearing any clothes,” Was all he could say, before snatching his backpack off the bed and promptly turning around.
“Yeah,” she agreed. Because the bra and panties set might have been too much for when Percy got there, but it was not enough for a surprise frank visit.
She just stared at his back for a while before it hit her that she should probably be less naked. She had her jeans and t-shirt in her backpack, she’d changed into the lingerie here. But she didn’t bother to put them on, instead she grabbed Percy’s hoodie, hanging on the lofting post. It was long on her, going almost halfway down her thigh. She zipped it most of the way up.
“I’m decent.” She promised Frank, but she still crawled back onto Percy’s bed.
Frank frowned at the action, “I’m going to study, it won’t be a good place to sleep.” Frank’s study habits were the exact opposite of hers. She required quiet and stillness, as few distractions as possible. He likes a little chaos. He played music, but possibly even a podcast or a let’s play. She and Percy spent the night together in Percy’s room, but they normally studied at Annabeth's.
Percy had said it made perfect sense. The stability of battle plans versus the chaos of the battlefield. Her boyfriend was so smart. It was hot.
“What are you working on?” Annabeth asked. Adjusting Percy’s pillows and sitting back in his little bed.
“Project management.” Frank groaned, and Annabeth could understand. She’d taken project management last year, and was doing some of it in one of her Berkley classes this year. It was pretty clear that between a former leader of Rome and a former fortune 500 executive, leaders of Rome were worse.
“Oh, I’ve got some stuff on that, check my backpack, grab my note cards, I’ll quiz you.”
Frank gave her a long look, and then nodded. Her backpack was next to Percy’s desk, easily recognizable by the embroidery she had done when she was full of nervous creative energy but couldn’t make another blueprint. Owls and swords and ocean waves against the white canvas.
Frank opened it up, and began searching through it, before he cursed, in French or Latin, Annabeth wasn’t sure, you could never tell with Romans who were also Canadian. He stood up, something in his hands.
“Seriously?” He whined. And At the point Annabeth had the decency to look sheepish. He was holding a pair of blue fuzzy handcuffs.
“I forgot those were in there.” Annabeth said. She’d actually been looking for them a couple of days ago. It was great that she’d found them. She just hated that it had been by poor Frank. “Um. if you hand me my backpack, I’ll get the cards out myself.”
He did, after he shoved the handcuffs back in. Annabeth pulled the flashcards out of the other backpack pocket, and all awkwardness forgotten, as it was with them, she and Frank started.
The thing both of them found with project management as a class was that it was something they both understood intimately, but couldn’t always articulate in modern, mortal business language. But between some of Annabeth’s flashcards and her notes, they worked towards it.
Frank was a much better student than Annabeth. He’d actually gone to school for most of his life, and had family who had expected him to excel. So he managed to avoid most of Annabeth’s biggest problems. She’d learned to make Flashcards second semester the year before, from Paul Blofis, but Frank had no problem with it, despite it only being his second year in college.
Also, he could read English.
Some war demigods had all the luck.
But it was still a pretty good hour, and Annabeth something out of the quizzing too, she thought. It was a good rhythm, and despite the distance, Annabeth and Frank both spoke the language of war, and that let them brush over misunderstandings in the literature.
Annabeth got so lost in the conversation that the sound of the door opening surprised her, and she tensed just a little bit as she looked up and over at Percy Jackson walking in.
He looked tired, his NRU T-shirt covered in sweat, but not tears or burn marks. He looked bleary eyed, not really seeming to look at Frank as he nodded to him, then his eyes landed on his bed, and her.
She wondered what he saw. His hoodie wrapped around her like an unshapely minidress, her legs scrunched up against her chest. Her hair in disarray, along with his bed.
She saw his eyes pan over her, and then unmistakable as it probably was unintentional, he licked his lips.
“Hey Wise Girl.”
“Hey, Seaweed Brain, you’re late.”
He dropped his backpack next to her’s, and then climbed up onto the half lofted bed. She was in the corner, but he half boxed her in more with his body, laying a kiss on her lips, and then her forehead, and then her bare knee, just to be safe.
“Sorry, Dr. B wanted to actually start talking about the presentation, which seems like a waste of time, because the proposal hasn’t even been accepted.”
“It will be,” Annabeth said with assurance, “No one knows classical maritime history like you, and Dr. B and my dad both think it's great. They’ll be chomping at the bits to have you.”
He kissed her again. A hand find itself to her thigh, where a notebook and index cards sat. “We’ll see.” He said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were waiting.”
“You should be sorry,” She teased, “the picture you would have come into two and a half hours ago would have been something.”
He chuckled, low, just a little dark. It went straight through her, “I don’t know, this picture is something.”
There was the sound of a clearing throat, and with a jump, both Annabeth and Percy looked up.
Right, Frank was still here. He was also beet red.
“Why do you always come here to have sex?” Frank asked with a sigh. “You have a dorm room too, Annabeth.”
“We don’t have sex with you in the room.” Percy said, which was only sort of true. Frank slept as a dog, and was a heavy sleeper in that form. And so sometimes…
But Annabeth had a different response, “Because Wendy,” Her roommate, “wants to be a Vestal Virgin, and is worried that having sex in her living space might sully her, or something,”
Frank frowned, “That’s dumb, Vestal Virgins had to be virgins, yeah, but that don’t have to pretend sex didn’t exist. Marrying a former Vestal Virgin used to be one of the highest honors and stuff.”
“Tell her that,” Annabeth advised. But anything else she was going to say was lost to the feeling of Percy’s lips on her jaw. “Mmmhm.” She hummed in appreciation.
“Oh gods,” Frank groaned again, “Ok, I’m going to the library while you guys...do whatever. I’m taking your notes, Annabeth.” She waved a hand in his direction, and then brought it up to card through Percy’s hair. “Gross.” He said. “I’m putting a sock on the door.”
It slammed behind him, but Annabeth was no longer paying attention. Percy’s hand was on the zipper.
She felt him stop about half way through, when what was underneath the hoodie became visible.
“See,” She said, “if you’d come home on time, I’d have only been wearing this.”
“Hmmm.” He hummed, looking down at her again, “I think I prefer the hoodie.” He said, leaning down and kissing right where the zipper sat across her abs, “But I think I’d prefer it all gone, now.”
And really, who was Annabeth to deny him that.