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Percy made his way back to his living room where Annabeth lounged on his mom’s couch, holding the blanket she requested.
“Thanks Perce,” she said, leaning forward to gently pull the blanket from his arms. Since Percy had rescued her from Mount Tamalpais, Sally and Frederick both agreed it was healthy for the two to see each other occasionally. They’d come up with a system to see each other once a month, alternating the first weekend of every month. Annabeth would come to New York for one and Percy to San Francisco for the next month. Annabeth knew Percy had gone through one hardship after another on their quest to find her, first Bianca then Zoe, but couldn’t help her annoyance that he didn’t take initiative to admit his feelings for her on Olympus. If not for her mother, it would have been the perfect moment, but now they had plenty of time. Why hadn't he said anything?
While Annabeth looked at the TV and pondered (she hadn't even unfolded the blanket yet), Percy sat down. He caught her deep in thought, nudging her shoulder gently, catching her by surprise.
“Sorry, Percy. I didn’t even notice you sat down. I was just, you know, thinking.”
“About what?” he teased ritualistically.
She blushed suddenly, to his surprise.
“I’m - uh. Just stuff with Luke - I mean -”
Percy pouted and looked away.
“No - no! I didn’t mean it like that, Percy, just like what he did and what Thalia did.”
He turned back towards her, “You know - uh,” he chewed his bottom lips, toying with his fingers, “I - I was going to ask - well tell - you something on Olympus. I won’t if you still have feelings for him.”
Annabeth scoffed, crossing her arms, “It’s not LIKE THAT Percy! He just cared for me when I was little.”
Percy scowled then exhaled to refocus, “I’m just saying, Annabeth. A lot has changed, or -”
She shifted closer, “Or what?”
He put his hands in his lap, lacing his fingers, “Maybe,” he looked at his hands, “I realized some things. It’s unimportant now.”
Annabeth placed one hand on his, “What if it’s not?”
They looked up at the same time, staring in stalemate for a few moments.
“Was that intentional?” thought Annabeth, moving her legs to in between Percy and herself. He drew a sharp breath in through his nose.
What she thought was about to happen really couldn’t. Annabeth exhaled and stood up, brushing her hands against her thighs.
She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again to squeak, “I am going to heat up some leftovers. Be right back!” Annabeth practically jogged to the kitchen, grabbing their leftover pepperoni pizza from earlier out of the fridge. She allocated two slices to Percy and one to herself since they already ate and, most importantly, because this was a ruse to keep him from kissing her. She felt it, they both did.
Since Annabeth was yet again deep in thought, the microwave ping caught her off-guard, Annabeth accidentally jumping in surprise.
“Skiddish?” said Percy’s voice behind her. She froze.
He took her hand and turned her around slowly to face him. She moved his hand that held hers to her waist. Percy pulled her closer, their noses barely touching.
“Annie …” he pleaded. She’d never seen him like this, so worked up and needy for her. They weren’t dating - they hadn’t even kissed.
Annabeth, while holding Percy’s hand, moved both of his arms to her shoulder. He tried to let go of her hand, but she kept holding it. She took a step closer, now their lips hovering over one another’s.
When Percy kissed her, she almost thought she imagined it at first. Annabeth’s head swam as she felt his fingers on the back of her scalp. Neither of them really knew how to kiss, both just smashing their lips onto one another’s again and again. Percy picked her off her feet slightly and Annabeth fell backwards into the fridge, knocking off some of Sally’s magnets.
“Aw, shit …” lamented Percy.
Annabeth gripped both sides of his face, “Don’t stop kissing me Percy, otherwise I’m -” he kissed her then pulled away aggressively.
He heaved breathlessly, placing his head on her chest, “We -” she pulled his chin up to gingerly touch her lips to his, “We don’t ever have to speak about this again, Percy. Not until all of this is over, Percy,” she spoke against his lips. He nodded, keeping his eyes right where he wanted to, pressing her against the refrigerator. They stood there momentarily, breathing heavily while staring at each other, before Annabeth wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him again. She pushed him off the refrigerator, him catching the hint and stepping backwards towards the couch.
He cautioned backwards, careful not to trip over himself or step on her foot, which he already did plenty of times on Olympus. The backs of his knees hit the couch cushions first so he sat, pulling her down onto his lap. She straddled him, rubbing her hands on the back of his neck then down to where his shirt met his pants. She ghosted her fingers above his waistline at the hem of his shirt, pushing up on the fabric, signaling Percy to take it off.
Percy obliged, fumbling awkwardly as he tried to use one hand to pull his shirt off, while keeping the other hand on Annabeth’s lower back. She noticed him struggling and giggled, but used her free hand to help him, lifting his shirt over his head and tossing it on the floor behind the couch. She returned to kissing him, dragging her fingertips up and down his chest, while her other arm rested on his shoulder, dangling. He took advantage of this using his free hand to lace his fingers with hers, pressing her hand to the couch. She didn’t realize this was some sort of endearing gesture and pulled her hand out of his, excitedly able to grip his face with both hands while pushing her waist further into his.
Using one hand to pull her body slightly to the right, he used the other to shift his lips from hers to her neck, this eliciting a little gasp of surprise from Annabeth. With this, she was obligated to move the hands on the side of his face to the back of his neck again. She tilted her head back and arched her back to lean down further, giving him more leverage and - well - real estate.
She leaned back to pull her shirt off as Percy clutched the sides of her ribcage. He didn’t even pause to take in how she looked in only a sports bra on her upper half, which annoyed Annabeth, but was obviously a lecture for later. Once her shirt dropped to the floor behind her, he kept her upright, kissing from her stomach up to her chest by gradually pulling her back down onto him.
Percy didn’t even notice that he was leaving marks on her from how hard he was kissing her, just thought about the fact they could possibly never be able to do this again and it was a result of this looming reality. With each bruising kiss, Annabeth let out short little breaths, ones he’d never heard from her before when they weren’t in this precarious situation.
Annabeth needs more of him on her, and just more of him in general. She sat up, peeling herself off him for just a moment to look at him. Placing both hands on his shoulders, she twisted her body to the side, dragging Percy with her and pushing him slowly down onto the couch. She smiled against his mouth because she got her way, both of them pressed as tight as they possibly could against one another.
One knee was still on each side of his waist.
He cemented his arms tighter around her while dazedly kissing her, which caught her off balance.
“Percy!” yelped Annabeth, as they both fell off the couch to the floor.
Percy fell on top of her, “Oh, sorry! So sorry!”
She laughed. “It’s - It’s okay!”
The expression on her face changed from hazy to terrified, “Oh - oh my gods. Percy,”
He was still laughing from his mistake but stopped immediately when Annabeth’s expression changed. Annabeth sat him up, throwing her head into her hands and sliding off his lap.
She stood above him, shaking, head still in her hands.
“They’re - they’re going to kill us!” she screamed, sprinting into his room. He sat on the floor, still so confused.
“She just pushed me down to lay flat onto the couch?” he thought, as he stumbled to his feet to run after her.
“Annabeth!” he exclaimed, jogging into his room (still shirtless). She sat on his bed, upright, resting her head on her knees.
Percy leaned against the doorframe awkwardly, “Did - did you not want this? You - you took off my shirt first, Annie.”
She flew to her feet and began to pace, “No - no! I did! I still do. I’m -” she stopped pacing and took a breath, pointer finger resting on her chin before she spoke, “No, I do. I really do. If we -” she pointed to the both of them, “are together, they can use it against us. He will use it against us.”
Percy crossed his arms, “Why do you care what he thinks Annabeth?” Percy said “he” in reference to Luke like he talked about a pair of dirty socks.
Annabeth shifted from one foot to the other anxiously, “Because it’s not just him. We’re battle partners. They kill one of us, they dismantle everything.” She took a step forward, “When I was gone -”
“Kidnapped.” interrupted Percy, scowling.
She pursed her lips, “Kidnapped, you nearly burned our entire plan, the entire plan of the Olympians to save us down to get me back.”
He scoffed and threw his arms in the air, “What the hell is wrong with that?” He uncrossed his arms, stepping towards her, “You’re everything to me. Everything. I could not live without you.”
Annabeth chewed her lip and took another step towards him. “Don’t say that,” she said softly. Percy inched forward again, close enough to touch her hand, “But it’s true. Please, I want to give us a chance. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. You can’t deny, especially after that -” he pointed to the couch outside his room, “- that we can work like this. Touching you just now was the most home I’ve ever felt, Annabeth.”
She blinked tears out of her eyes and took his other hand into hers, them both looking at the floor for a moment then back to each other.
“What do we do, Percy?”
He let go of one of her hands, touching his to her face, and kissed her again softly, pulling away just enough to speak, “This for now.”
She sighed against his mouth.
“And we don’t even have to tell anyone, Annabeth. We don’t owe anyone anything.”
Annabeth nodded, kissing him this time. Percy reciprocated quickly, gathering her back into his arms again, and him into hers. Wrapped around each other, they made their way quickly to his bed, the backs of Annabeth’s knees this time bumping up against its edge.
CLICK.
The two shot their dazed expressions to the front door.
Percy nearly dropped Annabeth as she let go of him.
“Percy! Our clothes!” she yelped, sprinting to the living room, hastily returning with their shirts. She tossed his shirt at him (a little too hard) and he stumbled back, still trying to get his bearings straight. They quickly re-dressed and Annabeth closed the door.
She looked at him for a moment, admiring how he looked while exasperated, before regaining focus herself.
He took a deep breath, “I will go cover for us to my mom, stay here for a second.”
“No! Bad idea! You’re a shitty liar!”
He scoffed, “She’s my mom, Annabeth.”
“Fine!” she pouted, sitting on his bed, “I’m going to go through your baby photos or something.”
Before he could beg her not to, the door opened, and he heard Sally laughing with Paul as they carried in the groceries - the reason why the apartment was empty. Percy heard the groceries be set on the counter, Annabeth ushering him to walk out into the living room.
He nodded, fumbling with doorknob before he stepped out of his room, which of course Annabeth rolled her eyes at.
Percy closed his door behind him.
“Hey, hey mom.”
Sally looked around, “Where’s Annabeth?”
Percy blushed, “Um .. she just needed a sweatshirt. She’s - she’s in my room.”
Sally glanced at Paul, “Paul, I think I left my Diet Coke in the car, will you grab it please?” He nodded. “Thank you, my love.”
Paul walked out, Sally watching for him to close the door. She shifted her expression to Percy, walking over to him. She placed both of her hands on her shoulders and hung her head to laugh for a moment before saying, “Percy, you have chapstick on.” She used her finger to wipe Annabeth’s Carmex off his upper lip.
Percy turned bright red and took a step back, “We - nothing happened! I’m -”
Annabeth ran out of his room, “We didn’t hook up! Or anything! We - we just kissed. I’m so sorry, Sally. You trusted us.”
Sally started laughing hysterically.
“Oh, I was placing bets with Paul when this would happen.” She ushered Annabeth over to her, “I really want the best for you two, especially you, Annabeth.”
Annabeth pursed her lips and nodded. Sally turned her attention to Annabeth next, draping one arm around her while fumbling in the back pocket of her baggy jeans with the other. She pulled out a $50 bill.
“Go to the movies or something, you two. Annabeth, your dad said you’re flying home for orientation and then coming back next weekend for camp?”
Annabeth nodded again.
Sally put the money back in her pocket, “I’ll hold onto this until next weekend. Just, please, tonight keep the door open.”
Percy rocked back to his heels, stumbling back a little bit.
“Yes, again! Nothing happened!”
Sally scoffed, “Oh, Percy. If that happened, you two would look a lot more guilty. Now, let’s make some real dinner and toss that leftover pizza in the trash. It’s probably been sitting in there for a while now.”
Percy and Annabeth both laughed feverishly as Paul returned, saying, “I couldn’t find your Diet Coke!”