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“Very cute.”
Percy blinked the flash out of his eyes and watched as Annabeth slid the just-captured Polaroid into her pocket. “Is it?”
“I think so,” she said. “You always are. And now you’re repping me very nicely.” Annabeth nodded at the UC Berkeley shirt Percy had bought for himself as soon as they came to California to start their classes.
Percy laughed and kissed her temple. “Maybe I’m just wearing it so people think that I go here.”
“Oh, really.” Annabeth mimicked holding a microphone up to him. "What’s your favorite part of attending the University of California, Berkeley, Perseus?”
He wrinkled his nose and pushed her fist away. “I don’t like to be called that. You should’ve done your research beforehand, Annie.” Annabeth mirrored his face and he laughed. "You’re a bad interviewer.”
“No. You’re a bad interviewee,” she said, snapping another picture of Percy.
“You’re going to waste your film.”
She put the photo in her pocket with a laugh. “It’s not a waste. That’s why I brought it here.”
“To take pictures of me?”
She shrugged and took a sip of her beer. “To capture memories.”
They startled as an iPhone clattered to the ground between them. Percy gestured to it with his lips with his eyebrows raised.
“And this is all we've got, seeing as we don’t have one of those,” Annabeth said.
Percy grinned. “Yes you do.”
Annabeth lifted a finger to her lips conspiratorially. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“Fuck, man.” Percy and Annabeth turned their heads as the presumed owner of the iPhone crawled in front of them to pick it up. The guy looked up and parted his mouth like a fish as he saw Annabeth. “You’re hot,” he slurred.
Percy felt, just for a second, a flash of something ugly and hot in his chest. He looked to Annabeth, who pursed her lips and said nothing, her gaze set on the man on the floor.
“I said you’re hot,” he repeated, louder.
“I heard you.” When the guy didn’t move, Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “Bye?” The guy’s face went red as he got the hint and managed to get himself up and stumble away.
Percy turned to her, his jaw dropped. “Wise Girl. That was brutal.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“It wasn’t bad. Just brutal.”
“How was that brutal? There are worse things.”
Percy hissed, tugging at the collar of his shirt. “I don’t know. What could be worse than that?”
“Turning up to your own funeral is up there, I’d think.”
Percy felt his ears go hot. “Well.”
“Mhm,” Annabeth said with a self-satisfied nod, sipping her beer.
“Annabeth!” Percy watched as Annabeth turned to the girl who had called her name with a smile.
“Hi, Misty. Making the rounds?”
The girl laughed. “Yep. And you’re coming with me. You can help me cultivate the playlist a little more.”
“I don’t know how much of a help I’ll be with that.”
Misty scoffed. "You always say you don't know current stuff, but look at you. You're, like, the definition of current."
Annabeth laughed. "I don't know. I'm kind of useless in that department."
“I just don't believe you. You've heard the new Taylor Swift, right?” Annabeth shook her head. “Lana del Rey?” Annabeth shrugged. Misty frowned. “Maroon 5, Coldplay, Ariana Grande?"
“Okay. Wow. Jesus Christ. You really aren’t online.” Misty looked to Percy, her eyes wide as if asking for backup. Not like he could help much. He had a feeling he didn’t really want to, either. He had never heard of any of those people and wasn't totally sure she wasn't making them up.
“I’ll just come with you as you walk around,” Annabeth said with a laugh. “I’ll grab you a drink,” she said to Percy. “Do you want a beer?”
Percy wrinkled his nose. “Beer is gross. I’ll just take what I already had.”
“Gross and not blue,” Annabeth said as she flicked the brim of Percy’s hat, also, to no one’s surprise, blue.
“Well.” The color of the jungle juice was half the reason he’d gotten a cup of it in the first place. He didn’t want to admit that, but it was useless because Annabeth knew everything anyway.
Annabeth put her camera back in its case and slung it around herself. “I’ll be back,” she said with a grin, kissing Percy. “Taking this as collateral.” She plucked his cap off his head, pursing her lips and holding the brim of the cap not unlike how she did with her Yankees cap, striking a bolt of melancholy through Percy.
He pushed it away and laughed. “No, no, you’ve gotta put it on backwards,” he said as he turned it around on her head. “There you go. You make a perfect frat boy, Wise Girl.”
“I know. I fit right in here.” Percy turned as he heard Annabeth’s friend clearing her throat loudly as she shoved her phone into her pocket.
“Done flirting yet or what?”
Annabeth rolled her eyes with a laugh, giving Percy a smile as she walked away. He leaned against a wall and watched her go, a little in awe of her and where they were. California, to start with, was a crazy location. Being by a Roman camp was crazier, and the exclusive university attached to it being only one of two that Annabeth attended was the most insane thing to him at all.
He felt lucky. And buzzed. And maybe a little weird.
Percy – by not all but quite a few accounts – was a bad kid. Principals and stepdads and cops and godly future mother-in-laws tended to think that because of all of the expulsions he’d received and explosions he’d caused and alternative highschools he’d attended and celestial items he’d tampered with and news stories that had been written about him. He liked to lean into it, the impertinence and general bad-assery that was expected of him.
Truth be told, most of the things he’d gained a reputation for weren't really him. Quests were thrust upon him and monsters attacked and he reacted – that’s how that city bus blew up and the Goode band room got destroyed. Mortals don’t see all of it and gods refuse not to. And maybe he’d pissed them off on purpose, maybe he’d killed his piece of shit stepdad, whatever. Those were add-ons.
He spent his time playing basketball and attempting skateboard tricks and studying with his girlfriend to impress. He did not spend it at UC Berkeley parties populated with party drugs and red Solo cups that it turned out were actually used in real life and not just movies. And frat guys. And loud music with a lot of high-pitched repetition and bass and drums that he felt decrepit for not understanding.
He was out of his element.
But he was there, and he would stay there, because not only did he have a girlfriend to impress, he had one to be a teenager with. To the best of his ability, anyway. They had tattoos and gray hairs and scars and deaths and horrible stories between them, but Percy couldn’t say that they’d had many typical teenage experiences besides slow-dancing together when they were fourteen. But even then, their dance was interrupted by monsters and finished on Olympus.
So even though he was hesitant to accompany Annabeth to her new friend’s party, he wanted to feel typical with her. He didn’t regret how he knew her. But he wanted to feel normal with her. So, college party on a Friday night it was.
They were not everyone else, not by any means. Evidently, they weren’t anyone else either. Percy and Annabeth, since day one. Or day however many days into their lives it had been since they met at twelve years old.
Fucking twelve. Everyone knew that.
Percy looked across the room to catch a glimpse of Annabeth and saw the back of her as she stood next to Misty and talked to a guy that might even be taller than Percy, if it was possible. Maybe he wasn’t and his hair was just so tall it made it look like he was. It was really fucking high up on his head.
He leaned against the wall wearing a gross smirk and a too-familiar look on his face that Percy didn’t like even from far away.
So maybe not everyone knew.
First the guy with his phone, now this. Percy might have been more aware of people’s intentions than most. He’d had to become that way, and it was fine. It was helpful – nice, even. Except for times like this, he guessed, when he knew a guy wanted to hit on his girlfriend.
Percy was not an idiot. He was dumb, but he wasn’t fucking stupid. His girlfriend was hot, as iPhone guy had so eloquently put it. To call her his hot girlfriend felt like he was reducing her to those parts of her. She was Annabeth, Daughter of Athena, strategic genius, survivor of Tartarus, eighteen-year old war veteran. To tack on beautiful and girlfriend of Percy Jackson to all of that felt kind of like an insult.
But, well. Annabeth was very attractive. And she was Percy’s girlfriend. He was Annabeth’s boyfriend, more like.
And he thought that most people knew that, that they could tell. It wasn’t like either of them hid it, but there was close to no point in having to mention it in the first place, either. Pretty much everyone in their sphere knew who they were, both individually and together.
Maybe Percy’s six-ish years of demigod fame had gotten to his head, because how could he expect a mortal at a random college party to know that?
He couldn’t really help the voice in his head telling him that he should make the guy know it.
He swallowed hard and looked around the party for a few seconds like he would actually stay in his spot. He downed the rest of his cup and made his way over to the table adorned with bottles and jugs and pitchers of many different types. The speaker was over here, and it was louder than where he was standing before.
“I never thought about that,” the guy was saying as Percy came up to them. “That’s cool. Do you listen to vinyls, too?”
“Yeah, I guess. I kind of–” Annabeth started to say, and then she and Percy made eye contact. Upon seeing him, Annabeth’s face split into a smile that momentarily made Percy feel like he’d never had any problems in his life. “I was just about to find you,” she said, handing him a cup filled to the halfway point with the blue drink that made Percy’s throat dry just looking at it. "This is the last of that stuff. Misty's gonna get more."
"Thanks," Percy murmured.
“This is Sam,” Annabeth said to Percy, gesturing to the guy with the bad hair. “We’re in the same Architectural Design Fundamentals class.” She took a sip of her beer and nodded to Sam. “This is my boyfriend, Percy.”
“Hey,” Percy said. His voice was flat and his eyebrows were furrowed and he felt ridiculous for sizing this guy up. I bet I could beat him in a fight, he thought, and then immediately felt more ridiculous for thinking so, because of course he could beat a mortal in a fucking fight.
“You go to New Rome too?” Sam asked, sounding unimpressed.
Maybe not a mortal.
“Ah, yeah,” Percy said, taking a fidgety sip of his drink. “Do you?”
Sam hummed. “Yeah. Splitting time between there and here. I’m a legacy of Mars.”
Right. Of course, Percy thought. Then he frowned to himself and sent a quick mental apology to Frank, and then a halfway one to Clarisse. Then he took that one back, because though there wasn’t bad blood, Clarisse would never apologize to him for anything in her life and he felt he should return the favor.
“Cool,” he said.
The guy crossed his arms and nodded to Percy. “Are you a first-year? I don’t think I’ve seen you around.”
Percy clenched his jaw. “I am, but.” He coughed and his eyes darted to Annabeth quickly. “When’d you get to New Rome, Sam?”
“Lived there my whole life,” Sam said. “I leave, of course, but yeah. My whole life.”
Many times Percy had wished for an empathy link with Annabeth. It would make some fights a hell of a lot easier, if he could tell her in his head Behind you! Instead of actually having to vocalize it. And he could save a few drachmas by not having to Iris Message her all the time. And it would also make moments like this easier, where he could communicate I was fucking praetor and the proof is burned into my forearm, you dick. Annabeth, this guy is such a dick. Everyone at New Rome knows who we are. This guy sucks.
But he didn’t have an empathy link with her. He was really only getting the one empathy link he had back again, so he just kept the thought to himself and took another sip of his drink. “Well.” He rocked back and forth on his heels. “Gonna get going,” he said awkwardly.
“Was nice to see you, Sam,” Annabeth said courteously.
“Yeah.” Sam ran a hand through his hair. “See you later, Annabeth.”
See you later was innocuous. See you later from a weird guy with weird hair that Percy had already decided he didn’t like was not.
Later, Percy would not be able to describe what came over him. Actually, he would. Rage would probably be among the first words to come to mind, as well as anger and other synonyms for mad as shit.
“Annabeth used to be taller than me,” he said. “For, like, a whole summer. But now she’s not and I can do this.” He leaned down and held Annabeth's face in his as he kissed her, slow and deep. The kiss wasn't long, but it was rhythmically disjointed, stopping and starting like a song as their mouths connected and separated like Morse code or an EKG or something. Did Percy even know what an EKG was? He wasn't sure. Maybe he didn't ever have to know.
He ended the kiss, his chest rising and falling quickly. He crossed his arms and stared at Sam. “So. Yeah.”
Sam laughed sharply. "What?"
He looked affronted, shifting on his feet and finishing off whatever he'd been nursing in his cup. "Whatever bro," he said before walking away.
Percy blinked. “I’m, um.” He looked down at Annabeth. “What the fuck? I’m not as sober as I thought I was.”
Annabeth smiled softly as she grabbed onto Percy’s hand. “Yeah.” She kissed him again briefly, pulling back and fiddling with a bead on his necklace. “Water?”
Percy nodded and they walked together to find a bathroom, ignoring the looks they got as they walked in together. Percy headed straight to the sink, dumping the drink Annabeth had just given him down the drain, turning on the faucet and placing his head under the tap as Annabeth locked the door. “I hope you know I would normally not have participated in that,” she said. “But that guy was weird and I’m a couple beers deep, so. More than anything, that was really funny to me.”
He sighed. “I do know.”
“And it was…kind of hot.”
“Oh.” Percy was not strong enough to say anything else.
“Dwell on that later.”
“Will do.” Percy let the water run on his face and neck and the back of his ears for a few moments. He instantly felt better, less heated and more level-headed then he’d been a few moments before. before letting Annabeth in front of it. "Jungle juice is fucking fucked up."
"I believe it." She leaned against the counter and drank some water from the tap, recoiling and shutting it off. “I miss New York water.”
Percy snorted. “I’ll ask my mom to mail us some.”
“Sally, the life-saver…” Annabeth said with a sigh, turning around to hop onto the counter and face Percy. “You miss her too bad yet?”
Percy clicked his tongue. “I don’t know.”
“Really?”
Percy sighed. “I do miss her. But I’ve gone without her a few times. For a long time. Maybe I’m too used to it to be really missing her now.”
Annabeth nodded and “I know how you feel. Getting closer with my family is…”
“Yeah.”
“It’s not the same as you and your mom,” she said. “But I do know a little something about going a while without people I love,” she murmured.
Percy looked down at his hands. Sometimes, he felt that he couldn’t look at Annabeth head-on. She knew how strong his feelings for her were, how they were greater than humans and gods and concepts of best friends and partners, and he wasn’t scared of her knowing that like he had been for so long. It’s not why he couldn’t look at her. He felt like he could choke with it, the way she made him. Like he might look at her eyelashes and princess hair and perfect teeth and cheekbones and start crying and never be able to stop.
“I love you,” he told her softly, still keeping his eyes facing downward.
Annabeth grinned, looping her arms around Percy’s neck, sighing as lifted his head up, putting his hands on her hips. She kissed him firmly, pulling away but not before biting his lip gently. She put her arm around Percy’s waist, pulling him closer to her. “Right back fucking at you,” she said.
Though Percy had lost the Curse of Achilles, the small of his back was sensitive like a livewire, and he shivered a little, standing up straighter as Annabeth’s hand lingered. “Let’s leave, hm?” she said, looking up at him and sliding her hand up to his chest, placing it just over his heart.
“It’s, like.” Percy checked his watch. “Ten. Are you sure?”
Annabeth nodded. “I showed my face. I’m out.”
“What do you wanna do?”
Annabeth groaned, leaning her head on his chest. “Get some fucking water.”
Percy laughed, putting his hand softly on the back of her neck. “And then?”
“And then. I don’t know. I’m hungry. And it’s nice out. We could eat outside. And you could get your skateboard from my dorm and show me the trick you’ve been talking about.” She leaned back again, putting her hands on his shoulders. “You want to?”
Percy looked at her, wide-eyed. “Yes.”
Annabeth laughed and kissed the prominent freckle next to his eye. “Don’t know why I even asked.”
“Me neither,” Percy said as he opened the bathroom door. “Thought you were supposed to be smart or something.”
Annabeth laughed, hopping off of the counter and snapping another photo of him, laughing harder as he cringed at the flash. “Or something.”
Percy put her arm back around himself and kissed her cheek. “Buying you a camera was dangerous, Chase.”
°+°.∵. °+°
Annabeth’s dorm bed was more comfortable than Percy’s. He wasn’t sure if he thought that because it really was, or if he just associated her bed with hanging out with her.
“I don’t blame you, you know,” Annabeth said, interrupting the quiet.
Percy looked up at her, his question evident in his face. It was late, probably three or four in the morning, and he was tired and a little bit loopy. It hadn’t been long since their move to California, and at home it would be six or seven, so it felt even later.
“I get jealous too,” Annabeth said quietly. It wasn’t like Percy was hiding it exactly, but leave it to Annabeth to know how he was feeling and not let him get away with it without mentioning it. “Like, really bad. I wanted to wring Rachel’s throat for a bit,” she said,
“Yeah,” he says with a grin. “I remember that.”
She shrugs. “Now we’re friends.”
“Something tells me that’s not going to happen with me and that guy,” Percy says as he puts an arm around her. She puts her head on his shoulder, and he rests his chin on her head. She smells like the lemon soap that she likes, and the floral smell of her hair product, and strawberries, thanks to the lip balm that Percy used, probably more as Annabeth did. It was in a round container that he liked to play with, and it smelled exactly like strawberries, like the ones from camp.
“Me neither,” she says. “He wouldn’t shut the fuck up about my camera. Said it was hipster.”
“What a weirdo.”
“What a weirdo,” Annabeth repeated, leaning forward and grabbing her satin scarf from her bedside, reaching behind her to hand it to Percy.
“Let’s see a movie tomorrow,” he said as he started to drape it on her head.
Annabeth grinned and stretched sleepily. “What’s playing?”
“Um…” Percy stilled his hands and looked to the dimly lit ceiling as he thought. “Oh, the romcom about getting snowed in with a one night stand.”
“Scandalous,” Annabeth muttered.
Percy shook his head with a smile, gently securing the knot of her scarf. “And The Imitation Game,” which he only remembered was out because Annabeth seemed excited about the movie being made when she found out a while ago, “and then the new Hunger Games.”
“That’s supposed to be big, right?” Annabeth asked as she laid down, eyes closed.
“Yeah,” Percy said, drumming his fingers on his leg.
Annabeth cracked one eye open. “But?”
“Annabeth,” Percy said as he laid down with her, “having kids fight each other like that is so fucked up. I would feel so sad watching that.”
“That’s what we’ve been doing almost our whole lives,” Annabeth says groggily.
Percy considered it and frowned. “Even more fucked up for us to watch it, then.”
Annabeth laughed tiredly and went quiet before sitting up quickly. “Oh, shit,” she said. “My orange.”
Percy stopped and watched her for a moment, the low lights shining in her big brown eyes. It was fucked up how beautiful they were, he thought. How beautiful she was, and how she wanted him too. How she got jealous over him too.
Was it fucked up to feel good about that? Did he care? He’d gone to Tartarus for this girl, showed the worst of himself to her, and she stayed. He fell with her, she’d do the same for him, and he’d fucking do it again.
“What’s up?” he asked softly.
“Took an orange from the dining hall today. Was excited to eat it when we got back. Left it in the fucking…kitchen fridge,” she said, sleep in her words.
Percy looked at her closed door like he could see the kitchen through it. “I’ll get it for you, okay?” he said. “Just lay down.” He kissed her shoulder and got up to retrieve Annabeth’s orange like it was the last thing he’d ever do.
When he came back with it, the skin and as much pith as he could manage to peel off were safe in the garbage, and the slices pulled apart as she liked, Annabeth was as asleep as Percy had ever seen her. Which is to say, not sound asleep, because she’d always been a light sleeper, but she was breathing heavy enough it could almost be considered a snore.
He sat with her, untying her boots slowly and watching her breathe.
He, regrettably, woke her up again because he knew she would hate to go to bed with her shoes on and having not brushed her teeth, but they were better off for it. They shared the orange, brushed their teeth, and fell into Annabeth’s tiny dorm bed, tired and content and just that much older.