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Percy knows that it comes with the territory. He knows being ‘The Annabeth Chase’s Boyfriend’ has its downs, but do the ‘downs’ have to be so painful?
When she’s home, it’s like she never left, like all the pain, aching, and yearning he endures while she’s gone never happened… then she’s gone again.
And of course he knows that it’s her job, that she has photoshoots to pose for and press tours to do, but he just wishes he could go with her, or that she had a job that didn’t take her away from him all the time.
He understands the appeal for her too. Her whole childhood was spent moving around, never having stable ground to land on, but now she can have it, and she chooses to keep moving around.
Percy tries not to take it personally, of course. She always comes back (eventually). It just gets hard when his mom wants to have dinner with the two of them and he has to explain that it’ll be just him (again) because Annabeth is in Paris posing for the front of Vogue-Paris.
His mother will give him a sorry look but praise him for dating ‘such a successful young woman, who doesn’t need anyone but herself,’ and how it reminds her of herself when she was younger and -maybe- that makes Percy feel a little better.
But when Annabeth is home, it’s like the hurting never happened, and all he can think about is Annabeth, and how happy he is that he has Annabeth in his life, and how she’s the best thing to have ever happened to not only himself but the universe. She is his whole world and he couldn’t be happier about it.
“I love you.” She kisses his nose, rolling over to press her back against him as his arm wraps tighter around her waist.
“I love you.” He says, muffled by her hair in his face. The lemon scent was all consuming, and he could drown in it and never complain.
“I mean it, Percy, I don’t think I could stay sane if it weren’t for you.” She pressed herself more into him, relishing the warmth he provided.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, between the tabloids and the celebrity gossip, I would go crazy if I didn’t have you to run away to whenever I need the break.”
“Would I be selfish if I said I wish you needed a break more often?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I want to see you more often. I want to be in every aspect of your life.” He confessed.
“You don’t want that, believe me.” She turned over to hide her face in his chest.
“I do, I really do.” He brushed the hair off of her cheek to try to look at her face.
“Once the world catches wind, Percy, you’ll hate me. You’ll wish you never met me.”
“I can’t believe you. I just don’t.” He chuckled, holding her tighter.
“I’d say watch, but I refuse to put you through that.” She finally extricated her face from his warm chest and scooted up so her face was by his. She rested her hand on his jaw, feeling the stubble of not shaving yet this morning beneath her finger tips.
“I want to go to Paris with you. I want to go to Venice, I want it all, Beth. If you’ll have me.” He kissed her hand.
“Why don’t we start with one show, and see how you feel?” She toyed with the hair that fell on his face.
“You mean it?” His face lit up with so much joy, he was sure she was regretting everything.
~
“Annabeth! Over here!” Percy turned towards the photographer calling his girlfriend.
“Smile that pretty little smile of yours, darling!” Another shouted.
Percy’s stomach twisted into knots as one misogynistic, sexist, offensive comment after another was thrown at Annabeth.
“Hike the shirt up!” Another shouted.
It took everything inside of him to not stop the shoot and make them apologize to her.
When she could finally take a breath and get some water he went up to her.
“Hey, Baby, what do you think?” She smiled breathlessly.
“I—” He didn’t know what to say, really. How can he explain that she shouldn’t put up with what these people are saying straight to her face.
“Annabeth, we need you to wear this outfit for the next two hours.” One of the interns on her team handed her an even skimpier outfit than the one she had on.
“I love this!” Annabeth gushed over what Percy could only call underwear.
“Are you sure you’re comfortable wearing that in front of all these people?” Percy asked, not meaning to sound as judgemental as it came across.
“Yeah, Percy, it’s my job.” She scoffed, walking off.
She came back out and Percy needed a minute. She looked too good. So good, he needed to think about his grandma for a minute….
“How are you feeling, by the way? Is it too much? Do you need to sit down, get something to eat? They have food for the team somewhere around here….” Her voice trailed off as she looked around for the table of food that most productions had set up. “I don’t usually get to know where it is, but if you find it—”
“I’ll grab you something.”
~
The next day, the bodega he always got breakfast at had a magazine with his face plastered on it.
“That was quick.” He muttered, as he ducked through the shelves to pick up the first copy. The headline read ‘Over before it begins??’, with his, Annabeth’s and some guy he’s never seen before’ s face on it.
Annabeth was pictured looking lovingly at Mr. No-Name and Percy could almost believe it.
The longer he stared at it, the more prominent the thought of how he doesn’t really know what goes on when she’s off modeling or filming things. All he knows is what she tells him. And why wouldn’t she date more than one guy? She’s ‘Annabeth Chase’, she could have any person in the world as her significant other, and Percy is just supposed to believe her when she says she loves him and only him? How can he? He’s just him and she’s her.
When Percy got home he wasn’t exactly expecting Annabeth to be there. Often, Annabeth would have to pick up and run off to a shoot in Milan on a whim, or Paris, maybe Singapore. Sometimes she wouldn’t be able to tell him she’s gone until she’s even gotten there.
“Hey, Perce, how are you feeling?” Annabeth asked, wearing one of his work shirts, legs crossed, leaning back on his couch, reading a book.
“I’ve… been better….” He trailed off, hiding his face in the fridge in hopes that by not actually looking at her, he would be able to keep his mouth shut about what he (hopefully) knows to be just tabloids fishing for reads.
“Are you okay?” She laughed, not realizing something was actually wrong. “Perce?” She tried again after he didn’t answer her, plopping the book in her lap, page folded over.
“I’m fine.” He said, closing the fridge and walking into the bedroom without another word.
“Are you sure? You’re acting off.” She said, the book tossed aside, following him.
“I said I was fine, Annabeth.” He sighed, sitting on the bed and futzing with the things in the nightstand, knocking some over.
“You don’t seem fine.” She crossed her arms.
“Well, I am.” He closed the drawer maybe a little harder than he’d meant too.
“Everything about you right now says otherwise.” She countered, her voice getting sterner by the sentence.
“Would you just drop it?” He nearly begged, not wanting to get into this right now.
“Clearly something happened between the time you went to get breakfast and now. Why won’t you just tell me what happened?”
“Because I can’t trust you!” He snapped.
“What?” Her glasses falling forward on her face.
“How do I know I’m the only one?”
“What?” She stepped closer.
“You leave on a whim, going god knows where with god knows who, doing god knows what—”
“What magazine?” She asked, not really asking.
“Star.” He mumbled.
“Percy, this is exactly why I didn’t want to expose you to all of this.” She sat next to him on the bed.
“I don’t need you to protect me, Annabeth. I need you to be honest with me.”
“I am being honest with you. You’re the only one. And the only one I want to be with.” She sat next to him, taking his hand.
“But this guy—”
“—is an old fling from when I first moved to New York. His name was Luke, and I worshiped the ground he walked on.”
“What happened?”
“He cheated on me.” She stated simply.
“Beth—”
“No, I’m fine, it was, like, five years ago—maybe?”
“I’m sorry.” Percy looked down bashfully.
“I love you, dipshit.”
“I better be the only dipshit in your life.” He smiled using his index finger to tilt her chin up toward him.
“I promise you’re the only dipshit I love.” She smiled cheekily before he closed the gap between them. “I have to leave for Milan tonight if you want to come?”
“Really?”
“You said you wanted to be a part of my life more.” She shrugged.
“I do. I really do.” He nodded excitedly.
“I’ll see if I scrounge up the money for another ticket.” She joked.
“I’ll text Ma.” He said giddily, laying back in the bed, phone over his face.