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“I guess that teddy bear doesn’t have to worry about being stepped on.”
Percy looked at her, surprise and embarrassment on his face. Of all the things Annabeth thought she would find at Atlantida’s Royal Embassy at eleven at night, a barefoot Percy wearing blue flannel pants and a black shirt dancing with the massive plush she had won for him 24 hours ago wasn’t on her bingo card. She smacked her lips and raised an eyebrow at him.
“Funny seeing you here so late with such scandalous company, Perseus.”
“Percy.” Was his automatic response, making her chuckle. “I thought we had finally agreed that you wouldn’t use my full name.”
“Did we?” her tone was teasing and by the way he smiled at her, he had noticed it too.
It was his turn to raise an eyebrow at her, his signature smirk present on his face. “That’s what you called me yesterday.”
Yesterday, when she had decided that instead of more etiquette lessons they would go to Coney Island.
With the ball less than a week away Percy had been more stressed than usual, forgetting which spoon to use for soup and how to greet who according to their titles and positions. His attention was nowhere and everywhere, so she had decided he needed a distraction, and she had never been to Coney Island before. It was supposed to be a win-win situation except it had ended up being a lose-lose situation for her. The more time she spent with Percy, the more she found herself falling for his smile, his sarcastic, although terrible, jokes, that mischievous twinkle in his gorgeous sea-green eyes, and his kindness. Getting feelings at work was a bad idea, catching feelings for the future king of Atlantida was an even worse idea.
“Yesterday was different.” Annabeth took a step into the room, walking closer to him.
“How was it different?”
“I wasn't working.”
“You aren't working now.” Percy pointed at her clothes to prove his point. Like him she was currently wearing her pajamas, long black pants plastered with drawings of bagels, and coffee with a black tank top. “At least I have never seen you with your pajamas during work hours.”
“Don’t you know you are a 24/7 job?”
“And yet you still weren’t on duty yesterday.”
“I guess that’s true.” Annabeth sat down in one of the chairs circling the room, the one closest to him. “But there are more important matters to discuss than whether I'm on the clock or not.”
“You're going to ask me about Bessy, aren’t you?”
“You named him Bessy?”
“I think it really fits him, don’t you?”
“Fine.” Annabeth exhaled in defeat. “What were you and Bessy doing?”
Percy looked at the giant teddy bear, the one she had won for him yesterday at an arcade, with a sheepish look on his face. “Ah, well, practicing my waltz.”
She was glad Percy’s eyes were on Bessy, that way he couldn’t see the way she was melting at his statement and how he looked in that moment. Softly, she said. “You're too hard on yourself.”
That won a smile directed at her. “You are too hard on me.”
“Well yeah, that’s literally my job.” Annabeth laughed. Her carefree laugh that was a little too loud and not proper and that was becoming more common thanks to him. “But seriously Percy, you have improved so much in these past months, I don’t think you have stepped on my feet for weeks now.”
“I did yesterday.”
“Yeah because you were a nervous wreck and were overthinking everything. It doesn’t count.” Annabeth grabbed her phone and opened her music app, scrolling until she found the playlist she was looking for and clicked play.
“What are you doing?” He asked her the moment the music started playing. Annabeth wished she could tell him how adorable he looked when he was confused. How his usually brooding face was softer, his lower lip would pout and his nose would scrunch up. But she couldn’t, that would mean crossing an already blurred line.
“Proving a point,” she said instead and gently took the teddy bear from his hands, placing it on the floor. “Come on, let's dance.”
Percy didn’t move and Annabeth realized she had made a dumb move. Laughing and joking with him didn’t change the fact she was his bodyguard and he had been here alone, if Percy had wanted to practice with her he would have summoned her. “Unless you don’t want to, that’s okay too.”
She felt heat rush to her cheeks from embarrassment. Annabeth was the best of the best, she wasn’t the youngest bodyguard in the Atlantida royal family history for nothing. And yet she had never doubted herself as much as when she was alone with him off duty, she couldn’t understand why she was so affected by his golden skin and soft smiles. Before she could make things more embarrassing by running away towards her room, Percy finally spoke.
“I do want to, thank you, I really appreciate it.”
He gently rested one hand on her back and took her hand with his free hand and pulled her closer to him. It was the same position they had been in numerous times now, for multiple hours a day while he learned the basics of dancing. And yet something about this time felt different, intimate. Maybe it was the fact that the room was only illuminated by the moonlight coming through the windows or that the distance between their bodies was shorter than ever, but she was so sure Percy could feel it too. He was guiding her across the room, more comfortable with his dancing than she had ever seen him. His eyes were on hers the whole time.
“You're going to be at the ball, right?” He asked after a few songs, finally breaking the comfortable silence between them.
“Not as a guest if that’s what you mean.”
“ Oh.” She could hear the disappointment in his voice and she tried her best not to focus on that. “That’s not good news.”
“Why? You wanted to dance with me?” She hoped her tone was more playful than needy. She knew that it was not an appropriate question to ask, but she couldn’t help herself.
For once his face was unreadable. “It would have been nice to see a friendly familiar face.”
“Right.” It was her turn to be disappointed, of course, he didn’t really want her there, he just needed a familiar crutch to lean on. “Even if you won’t be able to see me, my job is to keep my eyes on you, so…”
“I still would like for you to save a dance for me.”
“Excuse me?”
“I think I can get away for one song, so you and I can dance somewhere else.”
It was a dangerous territory he was asking her to walk into. When her supervisor had told her Percy could be trouble she was sure he didn't mean this. The trouble Beckendorf had told her about definitely wasn’t about how Percy would cause her heart to do gymnastics, or how she would shiver at his touch, or how the feeling of being next to him felt right and she would fall asleep thinking of impossible scenarios between the two of them.
“That wouldn’t be proper, your highness.”
Percy shrugged, not caring that she had used his title to prove her point. “Nothing about me being crowned a prince is proper or traditional anyway. And you're my dance teacher, it’s only right.”
They had stopped dancing, but his hand was still holding hers while the other was resting against her back. Her skin was burning in all the places they were touching, her breathing faster. He was looking at her with those sea-green eyes, they were soft and full of hope. With him looking at her like that she would give him anything he asked.
“Okay then, I will be waiting for you.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Percy nodded at her and started leading them again in a dance, except they weren’t moving around the room anymore, only slightly swaying in the same spot. No matter how strong her feelings for him were growing, she knew that she would never be able to act on them. He was a prince, she was his bodyguard, nothing could happen between them. But what she could do was focus on right now. The way his hand was resting on her waist while his other hand held hers, because once he became king all she would have left of him would be these memories.