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A tapping noise at the window of Athena Cabin wakes Annabeth from her sleep. Rubbing her eyes, she cranes her neck to get a glimpse of whatever’s on the other side of the glass.
She laughs a little to herself. Percy’s face is squished up against the windowpane, cheeks and mouth smushed. His eyes sparkle with mischief and there’s something in his smile that’s more than a bit suspect.
“Pssst, Beth!” he hisses. “Come out here!”
As much as she wants to go back to sleep, (not to mention sneaking out of her cabin in the middle of the night is decidedly not allowed) seeing Percy obviously outweighs this. She quietly puts on her sneakers and slips out of the door.
The air is still warm from the daytime, but not as muggy. Percy's in a pair of wrinkled jeans and a The Amazing Spider-man t shirt, and he still has that silly grin on his face. Annabeth's heart flutters at the sight of it.
It’s still a little surreal that Percy’s her boyfriend now. He’s a total doofus and he says the dumbest things and half the time he drives her completely crazy, but gods, she really likes him.
Percy’s holding two woven baskets in his arms. Weird. She figured he wanted to make out with her, which she would’ve been fine with. He must have something else planned. And he must've spontaneously planned it too, because his hair is mussed like he was lying in bed, about to go to sleep, and his jeans are the same ones he was wearing this afternoon, so he must've pulled them on hastily.
Annabeth touches a finger to one of the baskets. “What are these for?”
“I thought we could do a little midnight strawberry picking.”
Okay, this is officially kind of adorable. Between the little smile and the way the shadows from the light outside the cabin make him look all golden and the prospect of romantic starlit berry picking, she’s going to melt into a puddle.
This so beats making out against the side of her cabin. (though she wouldn’t mind doing that after the strawberry fields)
Annabeth drops a kiss on his cheek, then another. “That sounds perfect.”
Percy shifts the baskets so he can take her hand. Their fingers slot together and goosebumps prickle down Annabeth’s spine. She swears she’ll never get tired of the feeling of Percy’s hand in hers.
“By the way, I like your outfit,” Percy comments as they amble towards the strawberry fields, his lips quirking as he takes in her pajamas.
“Shut up.”
Annabeth’s pjs are unfortunately a matching set from Justice that she somehow hasn’t outgrown. They’re patterned with owls and owl you need is sleep is written across the shirt.
As if sensing her self-consciousness, Percy gives her hand a squeeze. “Honestly, they're actually pretty cute.”
Annabeth squeezes his hand back.
They’ve reached the fields, and Annabeth drinks everything in. It’s a cloudless night, so it seems like all the stars in the galaxy are visible. Rows of strawberries glisten in their patches, each one ruby-red and perfectly ripe.
“Do you know any constellations?” Annabeth asks as she bends down to begin filling her basket.
“Uh, besides the Big Dipper? Nope.”
A laugh bubbles out of her. “So much for romantic stargazing.”
“You don’t need to know all of the names of the constellations for it to be romantic. We can just, like, appreciate them and then kiss or something.”
“You literally take the romance out of everything.”
Percy holds a hand to his heart. “Excuse you, I’m the one who stole baskets from the shed so we could do this cute romantic thing, so don’t even start.”
“I guess you have a point.” Annabeth concedes, popping a strawberry into her mouth. The juices are sweet and tart at once.
They lapse into comfortable silence for a few minutes. Annabeth’s found a rhythm, twisting the berries off their vines with ease and efficiency. Percy on the other hand keeps squishing the strawberries in his hands, getting juice all over his fingers.
“Your fingers are stained all red!” Annabeth says with a giggle. She bites into another strawberry with a happy sigh.
“Your lips are practically maroon. And isn’t that like your tenth strawberry?”
“I swear, these things are more addictive than drugs. Half my basket is going to be gone before we even get back to our cabins.”
Percy tries one from his basket and closes his eyes. “These are like, actually magic.”
Annabeth rolls her eyes at this ridiculously cliche statement. “We’re at a camp for demigods. Literally everything is magic. You have magic.”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t mean it in the literal sense. It’s more on a spiritual level.”
“What do you mean?”
“I guess…maybe the strawberries aren’t magic. Maybe being with you is magic.”
She literally swoons, but pokes his shoulder and snorts because she has to tease him for saying something so gooey. “That’s disgustingly cheesy.”
Percy just laughs. “We both know you love it.”
They’ve gotten really close, chests nearly touching. She can practically count Percy’s eyelashes.
And then they’re kissing, and it tastes like strawberries and maybe a bit like magic, and Percy wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her even closer to him. He’s warm and solid yet somehow soft.
Eventually, after possibly a few seconds, a few minutes, or a few hours (time tends to stop when Percy’s lips are on hers) they break apart, finish their berry picking, and walk back to the cabins.
Annabeth’s not ready yet to say goodnight. How is she supposed to sleep through the rest of the night when her whole body is tingling with happiness?
She sets her basket of strawberries on the ground so her arms are free to wind around Percy’s neck. “Tonight was so great,” she whispers.
He smells like fabric softener and a little like the sea, familiar, safe. She’s had to grow up quickly and battle monsters and hold up the sky, but it’s all worth it because she’s here and he’s here and they’re together.
Annabeth Chase is just a tiny bit in love with Percy Jackson, and it might be the best feeling in the entire world.
Percy sighs into her hair. “‘night, Beth.”
She presses a kiss to his lips, lingers there for a moment, then pulls away. “Goodnight, Percy.”
After staring into his beautiful eyes for a moment longer, she tiptoes back into the cabin and crawls into bed.
(she might spin around, throw herself onto her bed, and kick her feet rather violently, but that’s nobody’s business but her own)