Chapter Text
When her dad calls, Annabeth turns off the phone.
They'd always been that way: Frederick writes a letter to camp and Annabeth burns it at the campfire, he apologizes to her and she proceeds to cover her ears. It was what Annabeth will later learn to understand as a weird and complicated "catch and release" relationship. Her dad catches and releases her, then, she gets caught and releases herself, breaking free of whatever expectation he ever had for her, or worse, them.
It's a sunny day in New York when Annabeth's phone rings, the air is dry and thick but she doesn't mind or notice because Percy's hands are stuck in her curls and she's laying on top of him. She doesn't care because he's playing with her braids while she gently kisses his neck...Annabeth doesn't register anything else outside of what is soon to be their bedroom, in their new apartment, the one that even though may only look like a blank space with a mattress, she loves enough to already call her home.
The phone keeps ringing. Percy pulls her in and closes the gap between them, she tugs on the hem of his shirt, momentarily breaking away, her patchy breath itching on his. The ringing doesn't stop, it gets persistent, stuck itself in their ears.
It gets louder and fills the room, but neither of the two are ready to part or intend to answer whoever it is that's calling, so they go on ignoring the noise altogether: Percy pecks her lips once again, his hand cupping her cheek.
But the phone keeps ringing, it never stops, and as much as she wouldn’t have rathered, Annabeth reaches a hand to the brown cardboard box near the bed, a temporary nightstand, and picks up, annoyed and eager to come back to her boyfriend, who was patiently waiting, still laying on the bed…his hand drawing circle motions on her thigh. She stared at the noisy screen for a few seconds too much, there was no name to the number, she hadn’t saved it, but she knew who it was.
Annabeth not only already knew the number, but also why she hadn’t saved it, and deep in her mind she also knew the reason it was calling. After a moment, Percy got up near her, his features bent in concern, wondering why this was taking so long, she felt him place a gentle hand on her shoulder: “who is i-” he tried to ask, but she’d already turned it off, interrupting him: the phone had stopped ringing.
Now their ears felt empty, the room was way too quiet and Annabeth's mood had somehow shifted along with the noise. The only sound was the ticking motion of the clock behind them. She smiled at him and slowly shoved his hand off her, plopping back down on the bed, Percy naturally followed her on the sheets, laying next to her once again, limbs intertwined: “It was no one” she mumbled in response, slowly passing each one of his curls through her fingers, careful not to meet his eyes, “-probably one of those call center people” she guessed against his skin, kissing his shoulder and tentatively traveling kisses up to his lips.
Percy knew she was lying, it was clear, but didn’t want to push her with other questions, he trusted Annabeth, and if she wanted to tell him, she would've done it at her own pace, plus he wasn’t sure his thought process was one to rely on for now, since his brain blacked out everytime she laid her lips on his skin…he was sure they could have dealt with whatever this was later, after they’d finished making out, at least.
Annabeth kissed him again and his worries melted through her lips, as expected, he could only focus on how she kept toying with the hem of his shirt and every little strand of his hair. Without him noticing, she’d slowly started to rest on top of him again, her braids were sprawled around the sheets and the smell of her shampoo started to fill the room. He put a hand on her lower back, under her top. As she parted her lips away from his, he pulled her in once again with a lazy kiss, her hands went up his torso, wrapping around his neck and the collar of his t-shirt. When Annabeth pulled away, they stayed still for a little more than a minute: their chests rising and falling, out of breath, her hair falling down on him, slightly tickling his face, then-
Annabeth’s phone is ringing again. It's loud and annoying, but this time, Percy is prepared enough to pick it up before she does. Landing out his hand to the box he takes a glance at the screen and reads the random number…a number he never saw before; sensing Annabeth's tension, his eyes turn to her, and feels her limbs stiffen against him, her breath catching up.
The phone rings. It keeps ringing: persistent, invasive and harsh. It cuts through the moment of peace and euphoria like a sharp knife and it fills up the whole place once again. Percy looks at it again, maybe it was one of those call center people, though the way she’d suddenly started acting told him otherwise.
Annabeth suddenly clears her throat and tries to talk, as if she’d just realized she had the ability to do so: “turn it off” she says, but her tone is iffy and high, way too hurried. Percy manages to stay calm, but the phone keeps ringing, and it keeps his nerves on the surface, it must be really urgent- he thinks, then asks: “why?” genuinely confused on the reason this is upsetting her so much.
Annabeth doesn’t bother to talk again, it feels like every word dies in her throat before it can come out, she feels her skin burning and the noise hurts her head. The ringing gets louder, or maybe it’s just echoing in her head, she doesn't know, but it needs to end: Annabeth abruptly rips the phone out of his hand and throws it on the floor, desperate to make it stop. Percy hears it break and smash itself on the ground before the ringing dies out.
Somehow, the abnormal silence that follows is even worse than the high-pitched ringtone.
He looks at her, partly confused, partly scared by her behavior, he’s not upset about the phone, but freaked out by the whole situation…when she meets his eyes, Annabeth seems to regain some clarity, she feels her brain clear out from the fog and slowly realizes that her reaction might have been too drastic. With a quick motion she gets off the bed and almost trips over the broken pieces “ fuck- I- I’m sorry, I don’t know what-” she mutters to herself, clearly still shook as she runs out of the room to get some kind of broom or cleaning equipment, leaving Percy to himself and the silence.
This was something Frederick liked to do, roughly, once a year. She assumed it had to do with the guilt he felt about neglecting her as a child...and also now: he probably needed it to fool himself and think he had an actual relationship with his daughter so that he could go on pretending she didn’t exist. Annabeth never cared, at first maybe it had been painful, but now she knew that these were harmless empty phone calls: that’s why she didn’t answer them anymore…she’d realized around senior year that her dad didn’t actually want anything to do with her.
Then, he'd usually call to offer her lunch, during college, and she promptly wouldn't know what to say, as it always happened with her father, just to end up with awkward small talk and, eventually, a proper invite to dinner...followed by a "bring that boyfriend of yours...if you want" because why would he bother to remember his name? It was stupid to even think about!
Needless to say she never showed up to any of those, she never even told Percy about those. She never told anyone: this was her stuff, her issue to deal with...and, as much as she hated to admit it: her family . Annabeth knew those weren't gonna be nice nights, nor nice trips for that matter, because the ones to San Francisco never had been.
Now she was freshly majored and living far away in New York, out of his reach, but still he insisted on calling her…calling her until she cracked and called him back, stepping all over what she wanted or needed as he always liked to do. He didn’t get to talk with her to feel better about himself: Annabeth wasn’t about to give him that, the least he could do was live with the consequences of his actions. So she turned off the phone, or smashed it on the ground: either way was fine.
As she leaned against the kitchen counter, mixed feelings about her dad reeled in her mind, her eyes closed shut: Annabeth had no intention to clean the mess she’d made anytime soon: now she just wanted to calm herself down, maybe unpack some of the moving boxes laying around…but whatever she might decide to do Frederick wasn’t gonna ruin the day to her, that’s another one of the things she wasn’t gonna give him. Along with forgiveness.
Annabeth took a deep breath, filled her lungs to max capacity and ran her hands through her hair, sinking in the peaceful silence surrounding her, more glad than she liked to admit to have destroyed that cursed ringtone. It felt the last way to finally get away from her father, his beliefs about her and every person connected to the man.
She was so into her own brain that she didn’t notice Percy had come in to actually pick up a broom and clean up the bedroom, when they locked eyes she walked up to him and, with neither of them saying a word, picked up the dustpan while silently following him to sweep the broken pieces away. Not talking at all felt okay, mostly because they’d learned how to communicate just with their looks years before and often even found it easier.
Annabeth’s gaze looked like she wasn't ready to talk about anything yet and Percy knew better than to make any more questions on the matter, he was patiently waiting for her to open up by herself and that alone made her want to talk with him more, to kiss him and say sorry, though she knew that wasn’t exactly how it worked: she wanted him to know her reaction hadn’t been his fault at all and that wasn’t to be done by a lousy apology with a kiss.
To be honest, she wasn’t sure if him not saying anything while cleaning up was also him playing some reverse psychology trick on her, like a “ not talking to make her talk” sort of thing, but again, Percy wasn't one to plot against her…or to plot anything ever; that was more her field.
In times like these it genuinely scared her: how well Percy knew her and how little she knew herself, it made her feel out of control, which usually resulted in her acting crazy like tossing stuff on the ground, for instance.
When Percy throws out the last pieces away and goes back to lay on the bed, he covers his face with both his palms, with Annabeth watching him from the ground she was sitting on, her legs crossed. She hears him sigh and bury himself deep in the mattress.
“It was my dad calling. That’s- my dad’s number” she spits out, as normally as she could possibly deliver it…Percy moves a gap between his fingers and peeks at her while talking, “your dad…?” he says, his words slightly muffled by his hands.
Then he puts away his palms and looks at her more, “that’s your dad’s number?” he repeats, a slight disbelief escaping his voice, Annabeth stares at him and pinches the bridge of her nose, “that’s what I said, yeah” she breathes out, he looks at her as if the information doesn’t make any sense, then says: “ your dad calls you…like your dad?”
Annabeth sighs, “yes Percy my dad, how many dads do I have? Yes my dad calls me” she answers obnoxiously, Percy stares at the ceiling, still spitting questions non-stop: like he’d been trying to keep them in for hours and was just now vomiting them up.
“when?” he asks, “sometimes” she shrugs, her tone is flat, “ why? ” he mutters to himself, brushes a hand through his hair, then keeps going, turning to her, on a more serious note: “what’s he say?” Annabeth once again eyes him…like she’s surprised by his reaction at the news intake, “I wouldn’t know…considering” she nods to the trash containing the remains of her cellphone, Percy slightly scratches his head, “oh. right.” he manages to say, still quite in his own head, then after a few seconds of quiet, inquires: “what do you mean ‘ sometimes’ ?”
Annabeth holds her head with her hands, while pretending to think about it, “I mean sometimes, sometimes he calls me” her tone is getting defensive and Percy shuts his mouth for a while, enough for the both of them to gather their thoughts, she sits up and goes to lay on the bed next to him, her eyes glue to the white ceiling as well.
Percy senses the same familiar anger settle at the bottom of his gut, as the quiet drowns him, the feeling grows strong in him: the more he thinks about Frederick the more his head gets caught up by itself. How didn’t he know this? Someone had been bothering her for so long and he didn’t know. He didn’t stop it. But did she want it to stop? Clearly, in a way, she did…so why didn’t she tell him? Again, how didn’t he notice someone like him had been trying to make its way into her life- their life…so persistently?
“you’re grinding your teeth” Annabeth’s voice brought him back from his trance, she was surprisingly fine, as if she’d needed the outburst from before and now was just better .
“I’m not” he retorts, she sighs, “you are” she turns to look at him, picks up his hand, “...’cause you’re getting nervous” she whispers, not specifically to him, just stating it as a fact. Annabeth starts lightly tracing the scars on his arm, trying to make his muscles relax and his jaw unclench. “that’s why I didn’t tell you” she explains simply, a small sigh escaping her lips, he feels it hit his neck, “because you always feel like it’s your responsibility” he turns to her and opens his mouth, she presses a finger to his lips, “ my father, my responsibility” she whispers it like a rule: a law that can't be broken.
“but-” Percy tries to talk, she cuts him off: “when’s the last time you saw your father?” he rolls his eyes “my father is a god” Annabeth answers just as as annoyed: “so is my mom”
“don’t try to change the subject” he retorts, she closes her mouth, “I think-” he starts, she loudly sighs, already expecting what he’s gonna say, “Perce-” she says, but he goes on “I think you should meet him” Annabeth groans in despair, Percy continues: “I think I should meet him too” at that she raises her eyebrows, he subconsciously crosses his arms, “what?”
“-I never met your parents” he adds, “it’s not like they ever wanted to meet you” she notes, “ouch”, Annabeth ignores him…”and you’ve met them” she clarifies, “yeah when I was 13-”
“-now we’re 25…some people would argue stuff has changed since then” he says, she doesn’t answer, knowing he’s right, “there’s no way I’m meeting him” Annabeth solidifies, Percy shrugs, “do what you want" he says, leaning into her and reassuringly kissing her shoulder.
"I will" she retorts, her tone getting more laid back from his touch, "I want to move on" Annabeth closes her eyes, he hugs her closer, "I know" he mumbles to her skin, "me too" his words are soft, "but can we really move on if you need to smash the phone everytime you see his number..?"
Annabeth abruptly opens her eyes, "I have moved on, Percy, and I don't need to forgive and I don't need to forget to do so" she sighs, "I just don't know why he keeps calling" her voice slightly breaks and she hears a small whisper in the back of her head that tells her she'd love to ask him. She'd be pleased to ask him why , or better, have a real conversation with her father.
"Annie..?" she hears Percy call her, and her skin shivers at the nickname, she answers with a harsh tone: "don't call me that" he curses under his breath, "sorry, it just came out- I meant to say- you sure you're fine?"
"yeah" she says, unconvinced, because honestly Annabeth was more confused than anything, all the beliefs about her father had risen up to the surface on a random summer day and completely disrupted every assumption she ever had about the man, Percy’s rambling wasn't helping.
She turns around to face him, their noses almost touching, "why do you want to meet him so bad?" There's genuine curiosity in her voice, her eyes can't settle on anything, traveling from his gaze to his hair and down to his mouth.
Percy bites his bottom lip in thought, choosing the right words, "Because he's part of you and you're part of him, I want to know him" he says after a few seconds, Annabeth's heart stings, 'you're part of him' replays in her head, “why don’t you wanna see him?” Percy then asks her, she kisses him out of nervousness, clearly avoiding the question, he lets her do it, automatically kissing her back.
She answers with their lips still nearly touching, “you know why” at that Percy sighs “no, that’s why I’m telling you to meet him” a beat passes, “ now I’m asking you why are you so afraid of him- of those people”
The question catches her off-guard, she doesn’t think she’s afraid of them. Annabeth just wants to forget it all, the grounding, the abuse and the neglect. She wants to watch it break and dissolve like the phone. The thing is…it can’t , and nothing will ever make it do so.
“I don’t know” she replies, her voice is small and low, Annabeth feels small herself, she curls more in his embrace, he kisses her head “that’s fine” he whispers, though she doesn’t feel like it. Not knowing things, for her, is the farthest thing from fine, he should know it by now.
Annabeth blankly stares at the space before her, the gap between her face and the covers, she doesn’t know- but wants to and could know if she tried. Her brain circuits back and forth through endless scenarios: it's clear, the solution seems to look her right in the eye.
“I want to go” the words leave her mouth before she has the time to think about it, Percy frowns, “what?” she shakes her head, looks him in the eye “I want to go, I want to meet him”
Percy’s eyes widen, “...really?” his tone is incredulous, Annabeth nods, “you’re right, I need to see him” she sounds definitive, determined. “you need to see him too” she takes a deep freeing breath, as if she’d just found the solution to a very complicated math problem “I can’t believe this- you’re right”
Percy eyes her “thank you” he says, with his tone ironically flat, Annabeth shrugs him off, “we’re going to California” she mutters unbelievably, just now realizing how crazy it sounds, then looks at him: “are we?”
“sure”, he sounds sincere and Annabeth’s features soften with gratitude, she cups his face and presses her lips on his, a growing smile appears on his face, “I love you”
They’d bought the car a little more than a year before, second-hand of course, but still decent overall, and it had been the first thing they ever got with their money together . Annabeth was overly proud of it, in a way, because it was theirs: it made her feel like they were moving forward, changing, growing.
She was sure Percy was proud of it too, because she still remembered the look on his face when he first drove it home from college, the pure euphoria in his voice… now , the car itself was pretty rundown, sure it worked, but at the end of the day it still was an old gray Toyota whose left door had a scratch along it; they didn’t care, they loved the car, the car was theirs, it brought them on, again, forward.
It still was an accomodation, maybe more expensive than they would've liked, but with Zeus not allowing them to board planes and public transport polluting with monsters, it was the only way.
At 7:00 sharp in the morning they get in the car, their bags are packed in the backseats and Percy is at the steering wheel, Annabeth stares out the window. They both sit still, the engine is off.
After a while he clicks his tongue, trying to fill in the silence “soo…”
“so what?” she cuts off, clearly on edge, he turns to her: “so we go? We’re doing this?” his hand is on the key, she stares at it, holds her head in her hands, “no- I mean, yeah but-”
“but what?” his words mirror hers and she understands he’s as scared as she is: they’re putting their jobs, their lives , on hold just for the sake of her reuniting with her dad. It’s nuts. Also Stupid, Annabeth thinks.
She sighs, her eyes are still on the keys, “-but what’s the plan?”
Percy winces, “...the plan?” she nods, “yes, the plan”
“there’s no plan ,’Beth” his tone is calm, but something inside her gets hurt somehow, there has to be a plan, something that guides them, what is she doing anyways? What is she getting them into?
“so what? We just show up there after two days of traveling with no warning?” Percy taps his fingers on the steering wheel, “pretty much, yeah” she stares at him, unconsciously fidgeting with the string of the car belt.
“...what are we gonna say to him?” she asks, he leans back in the seat, “I don’t know- we’ll figure it out as we go”
Annabeth feels as if he’s twisting a knife in her head, “ok”
Percy turns over to her, “ok?” she anxiously nods, still not meeting his eyes, her palms are running up and down her thighs, “yeah ok” she sighs, “we’ll figure it out”
He stares at her a bit, not really believing her words: “we can go back inside right now if you don’t wanna do this” she shakes her head, “no, I wanna go” she smooths down her hair and turns to him, “I mean it”
Percy turns the keys, the engine makes a noise, “if we’re doing this we need to trust each other” he says, she answers without skipping a beat: “I trust you with my life” he bites the inside of his cheek “me too”
Suddenly, she’s eager to take off: “okay then, start the car” he keeps tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, slightly bouncing his leg up and down, the car is on but stays still, “you’re sure?”
She rolls her eyes, he’s anxious too, if not more than her, Annabeth clears her throat “ Percy, start the car before I change my mind”
He sighs and waits a few seconds before hitting the pedal, to actually start driving, when he talks she decides to ignore the indecision in his voice: “I'm not answering your phone ever again-” the car still doesn't go, Annabeth rolls her eyes "Percy, go" the engine makes one last noise and the two start leaving New York behind.