Archive of Our Own

Hop Above Tidal Waves with Me

2011

“I can’t believe she actually thought it would be a good idea to ask someone like him out,” said Piper from her perch on Annabeth’s bed. “I mean, I suppose I can see the appeal, but also… not happening. He’s so temperamental and rude and shallow and superficial—”

“If we let you, you could go on for hours, Pipes,” chuckled Annabeth.

Jason’s arm that was wrapped around his girlfriend’s waist squeezed a little. “And while it’s always a blast to hear you being so passionate about something—”

Tilting dangerously on the back legs of the desk chair, Leo scoffed.

“—I think we can spend one evening without gossiping about the latest Jackson-related news,” finished Jason, his eyes briefly trailing over to his friend before focusing back on Piper. “Seriously, we’re hanging out. We can talk about literally anything else and not about how you find the guy annoying but attractive.”

“The translation here, by the way,” Thalia chimed in, “is that Jase is jealous of that kelp head because you keep on talking about him.”

“It’s not my fault everyone kept on retelling the story of how he turned down Rachel!” protested Piper defensively. “I saw her face afterward—she looked like she was really hurt by him. And, I mean, she shouldn’t be! She should be celebrating! Everyone around here knows this guy is bad news. Falling in love with him is like falling in love with a black hole, okay? It’s dangerous and you’d better not do it if you’re smart.”

The legs of the chair screeched loudly as Leo dropped back down and gestured toward the balcony door with his head. “By the way, not that you’d care, but he’s literally standing right there while we’re talking about him.”

They all craned their necks to see the balcony from the floor above Annabeth’s apartment and off to the side. Standing with his arms leaning on the railing and his face to the view of the town below, they could all recognize Percy Jackson. Not that it was surprising—it was where he lived.

Annabeth shifted in her place on the bed, back leaning against the headboard. She let her hair fall like a curtain over her face to hide her expression.

“Ugh, I don’t know how you can stand it,” said Thalia. “Your family is, like, the number one people who don’t get along with the Jacksons. How come you ended up living right underneath them? I’d be too nauseous to be able to sleep if I were you.”

“And you can’t even go out to enjoy this peaceful evening on your balcony because he’s right there,” said Piper. “Remember? Remember when we were younger and we tried going out there while he was already on his own balcony?” She looked at Jason and Leo meaningfully. “He kept on mocking us until we finally came back inside, the jerk!”

Annabeth bit the inside of her cheek and sent another inconspicuous glance out the translucent door and up to the shadowed figure of Percy.

“Yeah,” she said in a what can I do tone of voice, “well, we’re not gonna move out of here. If anything, they should be the one to back down. We were here first.”

The others nodded in vehement agreement, and Annabeth swallowed back a tired smile.

1999

Her parents kept on warning her about him—not to approach him, not to talk to him, not to even look in his direction. He was off limits, and for good reason—his family was responsible for the murder of one of her ancestors with the help of the kind of unique magic none of the people in her family has managed to prove actually existed.

But it did, and they were still looking for that proof—for the Jacksons to slip up and finally reveal to their little town that the death that had occurred centuries ago was, in fact, theirs to blame.

“We haven’t caught them in the act, that’s true,” her mother had told her once with a calculating and irritated expression on her face, “but one day someone will find the evidence, Annabeth. Until then, we won’t rest. Not when that family has been falsely celebrated around here for generations.”

So Annabeth grew up determined to be the one who would obtain this slippery proof that the Jacksons really did have this magic. She knew plenty more people in her family had had that exact same dream, but this was different. She knew she could do it, and she would. She would accomplish what her mother and father could not.

“Hey,” called a voice above her.

Annabeth looked up from her game of Lego to the balcony of their neighbors from the apartment above. She frowned in confusion and distaste when she found the chipped-tooth face of Perseus Jackson peering down at her from behind the glass panes of his balcony railing, his palms pressed against the glass and most likely leaving stains there.

Pressing her lips together, she pointedly looked back down at her game and forced her mind to focus on the Lego building she was trying to construct out of all her yellow bricks. This was far more interesting than her upstairs neighbor who belonged to a family of murderers, after all.

Or so she was told, at least, and her parents never lied to her before.

A whiny sound came from the higher balcony. “Hey, ignoring people is rude, you know. My mom says you should always be kind to people, and that means you need to pay attention to me when I talk to you. It’s not very nice to ignore people.”

“It’s not very nice to kill people, either,” she countered with a huff, still not looking up from her game.

“I never killed anyone,” he bristled.

“Your family did,” she insisted.

“Did not.”

“Did, too.”

“Did not!”

“Did, too!” she snapped, and she finally drew her gaze away from the game to lock eyes with the boy, who was still looking down at her, but this time with a dissatisfied scowl. “And one day everyone will learn the truth and there’ll be a penance to pay—mark my words!”

He blinked down at her, his scowl abating as he tipped his head to the side. “Why would you want us to pay with peanuts?”

Annabeth’s hands balled into fists. “I said penance, you idiot!” she yelled.

“What does it mean?”

“Atonement,” she said impatiently, “penalty, reparation.”

Perseus’s eyebrows drew closer together as he shifted a little on his legs, still looking utterly baffled by what she was saying. It itched at her brain, staring at his openly flabbergasted expression. How could someone be this dim? Did he not speak English just like her? Was he actually stupid? How could he not know such simple words?

“Punishment,” she tried again.

His eyes lit up at that. “Oh, why didn’t you just say that instead of bringing up peanuts of all things,” he said.

She wanted to scratch his eyes out.

“Penance,” she gritted out.

“See, it still sounds like peanuts to me.”

Annabeth threw her hands up in frustration. “You’re hopeless!” she exclaimed and lowered her gaze back to her Lego blocks.

A chuckle came from above. “It’s fun, winding you up,” he noted gleefully.

She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming at him again. It was better to simply ignore him, right? Then he’ll leave her be, and she’d be able to concentrate on her precious Lego project without any distractions.

After a few long seconds of silence, though, she realized he didn’t get the memo.

“I don’t wanna hate you,” he said, his voice slightly smaller than before. “My mom always says that hatred helps no one, especially when you never even did anything to me.”

She started to say, “Your family—”

“But we never hurt each other in any way,” he cut her off firmly with all the authority of a six-year-old. “We can be friends, can’t we?”

She frowned down at her yellow tower, then craned her neck back to squint at Perseus and see if she could detect any malice or ill-will in his tone or face; but he looked perfectly sincere, like he honestly thought they had a chance of growing up to be friends rather than enemies like the rest of their families.

Annabeth’s first instinct was to dismiss the notion altogether and simply ignore him again until he finally got it through his thick skull that she wanted nothing to do with him. That was what she’d been taught, after all. Nothing good could come out of hanging out with someone like Perseus Jackson or any other member of that family.

But then she thought about her life mission of uncovering the truth and finally bringing justice to her family. She needed to get that proof that would let everyone know the Jacksons weren’t innocent, and wouldn’t it be easier to get such proof if a member of said family actually trusted her enough to show this mysterious power she’d heard so much about?

So she bit her lip hesitantly and met the genuinely hopeful eyes of her neighbor, trying to appear like she was being honest and truthful instead of conning. She figured by his widening grin that she was selling it just fine.

“I suppose we could try that…” she said slowly.

Perseus beamed down at her. “Awesome!”

He stood up and crossed his arms over the railing, leaning his chin on top of them as he kept on gazing down at Annabeth with a freckled face and a bright gleam in his eye. It was almost pathetic to think that he believed her that easily. It was that simple to trick him, huh? She almost pitied him.

“Your name is Annabeth, right?” he said.

She nodded. “And you’re Perseus.”

“You can call me Percy.”

Now she just had to wait however long it’d take for this plan to pay off.

2011

“O Juliet, you up there?”

Percy peered down at her and wrinkled his nose. “Why am I always Juliet in this? I don’t care that I’m on the higher balcony. I don’t want to be Juliet.”

Smiling sweetly up at him, Annabeth said, “Well, they both die by the end of the story, so does it really matter?”

“Yeah, but Juliet is the idiot who kills herself because her precious love gets killed, right? That’s the tragedy, isn’t it?” he said, holding out his hand to help pull her up from her balcony to his. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d kill myself over losing someone I’m supposedly in love with.”

Annabeth heaved herself over the railing with one last effort, her muscles straining in this familiar way she’d gotten used to over the years. Climbing to Percy’s balcony was something she started doing from the moment she was tall and strong enough to attempt doing so without fearing she’d drop all the way off the building and to the harsh sidewalk beneath.

She threw the geeky stickers on the railing panes a fond smile. She knew, technically, that they were more practical than anything—this way she could visit Percy’s balcony without anyone down below seeing her sitting with them. Still, she teased his choices of stickers more than once since it was just incredibly easy to fluster him by bringing up his past obsessions that helped him pick these specific decals.

Lighting up the place were strings of colorful and bright fairy lights—mostly blue ones, because this was still Percy’s space, so it stood to reason his favorite color would be the dominant one around. The aesthetic made the whole place appear to be almost ethereal and magical; like Annabeth just stepped into a whole different universe.

Once she was steady on her feet, Annabeth turned to face Percy again with a raised eyebrow. “Are you saying you wouldn’t drink poison if anything happened to me?” she gasped with a hand pressed against her chest. “Good to know my death wouldn’t make your life gray and miserable, I guess.”

He snorted. “Yeah, because you’re going to drop dead any second now,” he said wryly as he grabbed her hand and pulled her down to the floor so they could both sit there comfortably, hidden from the pedestrians on the street. “Can we veer away from the death-talk, please? We’ll just agree I’m not Juliet and be done with it.”

“I promise nothing.”

“Of course you don’t.” Percy leaned against the glass and crossed his legs. “So how was your day? I know you had friends over earlier because Leo yelled about it during recess today, so he kind of announced it to the entire school. Is Phoebe doing any better?”

Annabeth crawled over to the space beside him and leaned back as well, her head instantly dropping onto his shoulder as she set her eyes on the translucent door leading into Percy’s room. It was as messy as usual and the front door was closed—mostly likely locked since they were both wary enough of either one of Percy’s parents stepping in and seeing them.

“Phoebe is still coughing up a storm, according to Thalia,” she said. “She said they got her cough medicine and they’re gonna see if it helps. But for now she’s gonna stay home because she doesn’t want to keep on disrupting all of our lessons.”

“I wouldn’t mind not hearing our teachers every once in a while,” he commented.

“Shocking.”

He poked her side, eliciting a yelp out of her. “We’re not all nerds like you, Wise Girl. Some of us would rather spend the day outside instead of in front of a book. I’ll never understand how you can stand deciphering books when you have dyslexia. Like, it’s literal torture and you still spend half your life cooped up in your room so you can make your eyes bleed.”

“They don’t bleed,” she objected.

“Not yet. But you’re still young—just give it time.”

She let out a small chuckle as she burrowed more into his side, shifting her head until it lay more comfortably against the crook of his neck. A second later, Percy’s arm snaked around her, pulling her impossibly closer, as if the tiny distance left between them was simply too much for him to take.

“And yet you still buy me books for my birthdays, huh?”

“I would’ve gotten you something else, but I figured it would be best to make you happy on your birthday, not me.” He shrugged a little and his cheek rubbed softly against her hair. “But if you’re complaining, I can always find something else for your next birthday, you know. Wouldn’t want you to be dissatisfied on such a special occasion, now, would we?”

Annabeth grabbed his free hand and started playing with his fingers lightly. He didn’t fight her on it.

“A book’s great, Percy.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said, and she could hear the smirk in his voice.

Tapping her thumb over the back of his hand, she said, “By the way, I heard something about Rachel Elizabeth Dare from Piper today—”

Percy groaned. A moment later she heard the distinct sound of his head lightly bumping against the glass railing they were leaning on.

“Oh, gods, that was so awkward,” he whined. “She cornered me after class and wouldn’t let me leave until she asked me out, and there were so many people around. I swear, someone must have caught on film the moment my soul left my body, Annabeth. It was so bad!”

Lifting her head to level Percy with a deadpan look, Annabeth arched an eyebrow. “Oh, and here I thought it must have been worse for the poor girl who got rejected in the middle of the hall. My bad.”

“I mean,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, “it was probably less than pleasant for her, yeah, but imagine having to turn someone down without even being able to offer any proper explanation as to why you’re doing this. She looked at me like she expected me to provide some kind of good reason and all I could do was try to back away from that nightmare.”

“This is absolutely heart-wrenching,” she gasped dramatically.

“Ugh, never mind. I can see you can’t find it in yourself to be sympathetic for a change,” groaned Percy as he tickled her.

“No, hey, wait!” she shrieked, batting his hand away, though he just kept on coming. “This isn’t fair! Percy, wait, wait, wait, someone might hear us—”

“Then stop being so loud,” he countered, then yelped when she retaliated and tickled him back. “Hey, no fair, you already hurt me enough for one day—no, no, stop! Hahaha, Annabeth, I can’t breathe!”

“Serves you right,” she said between peals of laughter, trying to arch away from Percy while also determinedly trying to tickle him just as much as he was tickling her. “Shame on you, making a girl feel bad without explaining yourself, and then coming here and laughing and having a good time.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault I couldn’t tell her why I turned her down,” he argued breathlessly.

Annabeth managed to tackle him to the floor so that she was holding both his wrists, pressing his arms to the tiles as she peered down at him, her hair brushing against his face and making him scrunch up his nose.

“What would you have told her had you been able to explain everything, then?” she challenged with a smirk.

He twisted his wrists a little, then used enough force to flip them over. Annabeth shrieked in surprise when she found herself taking his place on the ground, her hands pinned to her head’s sides. It was Percy’s turn to grin down at her, his eyes twinkling merrily in the light that shone from his bedroom.

“I don’t know,” he said contemplatively, “probably something along the lines of: sorry, but I already date my neighbor, who also happens to be my best friend and one of the best people in the world. Oh, hey, I think you know her, Rachel—you know Annabeth Chase, don’t you? That girl you keep on going back and forth with?”

Annabeth giggled. “That last part is kind of unnecessary, I think.”

“You’re right. She’ll recognize your name. Everyone at school knows who you are by now, Miss Perfect Grades.”

She huffed and rolled her hands a little to let Percy know he should ease up his grip. He wordlessly obliged, loosening his hold without letting go completely. Annabeth entertained the idea of freeing herself now that he wasn’t pressing her down as strongly, but instead she remained right where she was, smiling up at Percy fondly.

“Sure, they know me,” she conceded. “But they know you, too.”

“I do have somewhat of a reputation, don’t I?”

“Poseidon’s skater-boy son? Yeah, you could say your name proceeds you.”

Percy let out a snort. “Yeah, I’d be surprised if such a small town could ever not know the son of someone famous, huh?”

“It helps that you’re not the son of his actual wife, I think.”

“Whoa-ho,” he laughed, “that’s a low blow, Wise Girl. I thought we were beyond petty shots.”

“We never ruled them out.”

“I vote against them,” he declared, then lowered his head and bumped their noses together. When he spoke next she could feel his breath against her lips. “At least when there’s no one to put a show for.”

She met his sea-green eyes, maintaining eye contact for a long moment, before she craned her head up to meet him halfway with a sweet kiss that made warmth blossom in her chest. Butterflies erupted in her stomach—something which she’d figured would go away soon after they’d start dating, yet it was still there after over two years—and she found herself grinning so widely, they were forced to pull away.

Laughing a little, Percy said, “Was that you agreeing to my terms?”

“Yeah, was that not obvious?” she said, fighting to try and tame her smile. “We kissed on it.”

“I thought we were supposed to shake on it.”

“We do things a little differently around here.”

Percy sent a look around. “Around here, as in this balcony or this town?”

She twisted one of her hands and freed it from Percy’s light grip, then brought it up to run her fingers through his hair. There was something addicting in the power she felt surging through her at the feeling of his head pressing against her hand, seeking her out subconsciously.

“Us,” she told him as she lowered her hand to the back of his neck so she could pull him back toward her, “around the two of us.”

This time he was the one who grinned madly.

2003

They were sitting on Percy’s balcony, leaning against the glass opposite each other without looking at one another, as if acknowledging each other would somehow make the tension even worse.

Percy was curled up on the floor, his arms wrapped around his legs as he frowned down at the floor tiles with a faraway look, clearly stuck inside his own head. Annabeth’s legs were crossed, her hands fidgeting in her lap as she chewed the inside of her cheek while trying to force her beating heart to slow down and accept the fact that there was no longer any danger around.

They were safe. They were.

She couldn’t help the frown that tugged her lips down as she thought back to the scare they just had, when Percy’s father knocked on the bedroom door and opened it a second later without waiting for a reply. Annabeth had flung herself under Percy’s bed and was forced to hold her breath and not make a single sound until Poseidon left, but it was too close a call.

“We have to have, like, a system for this,” said Percy eventually, his voice tight as he briefly glanced over at the closed bedroom door. “We can’t let anyone know we’re meeting up here. Our parents will kill us if they find out.”

She nodded vigorously. “A system, yes. We need to make some ground rules,” she said, and the fact that they were figuring out their next step was calming her down a bit. “We should… we should write it down, so we don’t forget.”

Wordlessly, Percy pushed himself off the floor and walked into his room and over to his desk. She watched as he flung things around, not caring for the mess he was leaving in his wake, until he managed to pull out two blank sheets of paper and a sharpie and pen, which were apparently the nearest writing utensils he had lying around.

Taking one of the papers and the offered pen, Annabeth shifted until she was hunched down over the paper, prepared to scribble down whatever they would manage to come up with. Percy, unlike her, spread himself on his stomach and let his feet fling back and forth in the air as he uncapped his sharpie and donned a ridiculously serious expression.

“Okay,” he said and looked up at her, “the first rule should be that you can only come up here if there’s, like, a sign from me that the coast is clear.” He tapped his sharpie on the floor thoughtfully. “What if I duct-tape a sign to the glass that says you can come over?”

She shook her head. “If either of my parents see this, they’ll freak out,” she told him.

“Oh, right… I can use, like, a special knock or something, right? To let you know no one’s around.”

Annabeth contemplated this. “No… I think it should be something more obvious. I mean, I might miss the knock. Or I could think that I heard it when you didn’t actually use it, right? No, the sign should be clearer than that.”

Percy frowned deeply and glanced around. “I wish I could just lock my door,” he said in frustration, “but Dad said they’ll only let me install a lock once I’m old enough, which I’m apparently not.”

She sent his bedroom a look, eyes lingering on the closed door. She wished he could lock it, too. It would have made everything so much easier. But of course he couldn’t. And until he could, they’d have to be extremely careful while meeting each other like this because Annabeth imagined there would be hell to pay if they were caught hanging out with each other—especially on her end.

It was kind of unfair, how it was obvious that Percy’s family was much less stern about the whole Hating-the-Chases ordeal. While Annabeth’s parents kept on lecturing her about it, Percy grew up with the knowledge that the two families were at each other’s throat and that he should keep his distance, but it was kind of obvious his punishment if caught would be far less drastic than Annabeth’s would be.

A part of her wanted to be jealous of him, but she also kept on reminding herself that her parents would see why she was doing what she was doing the moment they heard about the trust she was building with Percy. After all, it was all for their family’s sake. She was biding her time until her ‘friend’ decided he could reveal his magic to her. Her parents would understand this.

She hoped.

Her eyes landed on the drapes that were pulled aside to let the light from outside stream into the messy bedroom.

“Oh, I know!” she called excitedly. “If it’s safe to come, you can pull the curtains apart. If I can’t come, close them and I’ll know not to climb up here.”

Percy pondered this for a moment, then shrugged and started writing this down. “That’ll work. I mean, as long as Mom doesn’t open them herself. But I don’t think she ever did before.”

“We’ll see how this goes and go from there,” she suggested.

He nodded in agreement, and Annabeth quickly wrote down the idea, grimacing a little at her own illegible handwriting. Whatever—she had a mission to accomplish and her dyslexia wasn’t going to stop her; especially not when it wasn’t preventing Percy from taking down his own notes.

“We should probably make sure people can’t see us from the street, either,” she said once she was done.

Percy turned to look at the translucent railing of the terrace, legs still swinging behind him. “What, you wanna cover the glass? It’d look really suspicious if I put blankets or bedsheets out here. My parents would notice right away.”

“Then we’ll be more creative than that,” she said.

His head tipped to the side as he focused on her again. “You have an idea?”

She pulled her shoulders. “Not really,” she admitted.

Tapping his sharpie on his lips, Percy hummed to himself and looked all around at the railing, as if staring at the pane hard enough to make some kind of solution spring to his mind effortlessly. Which seemed to work, because a few seconds later, Percy’s face brightened up and he grinned as he pulled himself back to his feet.

“Wait a second, I’ll be right back,” he said as he once again entered his room and started looking through his drawers, pulling them open one by one and shoving things inside as he searched for something, mumbling “Come on, come on, where is it?” under his breath as he went.

Curiously watching this, Annabeth leaned back against the railing and furrowed her eyebrows. She craned her neck a little to try and see what exactly Percy was holding when he came back with something inside a nylon wrap which he waved around too much for Annabeth to see properly.

“I knew I still had it lying around somewhere,” he said proudly as he walked up to her. “Look, look, this could work, can’t it?”

He presented her with the view of what was inside the wrapping—all sorts of decals of aquatic animals and bubbles. Annabeth bent forward to observe the stickers better, then nodded slowly, a smile stretching her lips.

“This is perfect,” she said. “We’ll just need a lot more than just that.”

“I can get more. I’ll just ask Grover where he got these ones from. It’s a birthday gift, see? He thought I might like it. But I kind of shoved it in my drawer and forgot all about it. Now we can use it, though!” He put it on the floor, then lay next to it and pulled his paper and sharpie closer so he could resume their work. “All right, another problem solved. What next?”

They kept on bouncing ideas off each other for a couple of hours after that, perfecting their system so that they wouldn’t get caught red-handed, either at home or at school, where they had to act like they were distant and cold toward one another—something Annabeth figured would be easy, since her friendship with Percy was fake, but the more time the two of them spent together, the harder it became to convince herself she wasn’t seeing this boy as a genuine friend.

But it was fine. She wasn’t going to back out of her plan. She would see this through, because her family counted on her and Annabeth was going to do the impossible.

Even if it meant betraying the explicit trust put in her.

2011

Annabeth lingered behind after history class that day, fussing over collecting all of her things and shoving them in her bag neatly, careful not to wrinkle any of her papers and notebooks. A few seats to her left she saw Clarisse and Silena whispering to each other while taking their time with their own item collection.

At the front of the class, standing next to the teacher’s table, was Percy, his hands gripping the straps of his backpack so tight, his knuckles were turning white. He looked and sounded utterly desperate as he tried to argue with Mrs. Cox quietly about the papers he was supposed to hand in.

Which was actually why Annabeth was taking so much time to get out of class today—she wanted to know how things went, because this assignment was actually important for their final grade and she didn’t want Percy to fail just because of a mishap connected to it. She’s been around almost all the time he was working on writing that paper, so she knew it had taken him quite a bit of work to finish it.

“I swear, Mrs. Cox, I really did make it,” he whispered urgently. “I must have forgotten to put it in my bag. Just… just let me bring it in tomorrow. It’s only one day too late. Just one day.”

Silena glanced up at him for a second, clearly worried about him. It made sense, since she was one of the students in their school who sided with Percy and his family when it came to the whole murder-split of the town. Unlike Clarisse, which made it extremely bizarre to see the two of them hanging out together, but nobody felt like doubting Clarisse to her face, so nothing was ever said on the matter—not out loud, anyway.

Arching a brow skeptically, Mrs. Cox said, “Mr. Jackson, this isn’t the first time you did something like this. I’m not giving you an extension so you could fumble around and write this essay in a day to save face. You had two months to write this paper and you clearly wasted all that time. I’m afraid I’m going to have to fail you.”

“But I did write it!” he pressed. “I swear I did. It’s in my room. I nearly missed my bus this morning so I was in a rush and I forgot to put it in my backpack, but I did do it. I would’ve asked my parents to send me a picture as proof, but neither one is home right now…” He scratched the back of his head anxiously. “Please, just one day. I’ll hand it in first thing tomorrow. Please.”

“Last time I gave you extra time to get your work done, you handed me a half-finished mess I could tell you wrote in a couple of hours, young man,” she told him sternly. “And I know for a fact you’ve done the same with other teachers. So I’m sorry, but there are only so many second chances one can get. Maybe keep that in mind next time you get an assignment and want to delay working on it to the very last minute.”

She lowered her gaze back to a stack of papers on her desk—probably the class’s essays—and pulled up her pen so she could tap it on the desk repeatedly while letting her eyes skim over whatever was written on the top page.

Percy leaned back and blinked down at her, his shoulders hunching down in defeat as he seemed to realize nothing he could say would change Mrs. Cox’s mind. His hands dropped by his side as he hovered next to their teacher’s desk for a moment longer, as if a small part of him was still holding on to the tiny spark of hope that maybe—maybe—something would change in his favor if he only waited a moment longer.

Shoving her last book into her bag, Annabeth watched with her lip between her teeth as Percy turned tail and walked toward the door, apparently giving up completely.

In a rush—although she made sure she didn’t appear to be rushing all that much for the sake of everyone in the room but Percy—Annabeth slung her bag over her shoulder and walked toward Mrs. Cox’s desk with an air of annoyance and irritation.

“Ugh, you’re making it too easy sometimes, Jackson,” she said in exasperation, drawing four sets of eyes to her as she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. “Theoretically, nothing would make me happier than watching you fail just like that, but it’d be even better if you failed because your paper is actually not worth reading.”

He stared at her from the doorway, an upset scowl on his face that was only betrayed by that familiar warm twinkle in his eyes that was reserved for her.

Pointedly turning to look away from him, Annabeth looked at Mrs. Cox and said, “I can vouch for him. He really did do his best with this essay—not that his best is all that great, but I guess it must count for something.”

“I’m sorry I have a social life because I don’t study all day long,” he bit right back at her.

She threw him a glare. “Sure, be ungrateful when I’m trying to save your ass. Not like I expected anything else from you.”

“I don’t need your help with anything, owl head. You can take your help and shove it somewhere else.” He snorted and shifted his stance. “Besides, your word isn’t worth more than mine. What makes you think anyone would believe you and not me?”

“Maybe because I have a good reputation as opposed to one troublemaker I can name,” she said.

Mrs. Cox cleared her voice, making them both shut up and turn back to her. She eyed them both wearily, with the kind of look a great amount of the population in their town supported whenever any members of the Chase or Jackson families crossed paths and started bad mouthing each other to the point where they sometimes had to be dragged away from the scene.

“Ms. Chase, how do you know he worked on this assignment?” asked the teacher.

“He kept on talking to himself while writing it on his balcony, so while I was trying to enjoy peaceful afternoons, I had to listen to his moronic chants. It was annoying.”

“Because your architecture rants are just the most fascinating thing in the world,” he mocked frostily.

Annabeth threw him another scalding look. “At least what I say is important, relevant and actually informative. All you blabber about is invaluable. My words add something to the world, while your words just fill in space that doesn’t need to be filled, kelp head.”

“Stop!” called Mrs. Cox before Percy could retaliate. She looked between the two of them and pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “Don’t start this in my classroom. You’re going to give me a migraine. Just…” She focused on Percy. “I’m going to be at the school until five, Mr. Jackson. If you will hand in your essay before I leave today, I’ll check it like all the others. If not, I’m not giving you another extension. Is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said instantly, some of the tension in his body melting in relief.

“Good,” she said with a nod, then waved her hand dismissively. “Now leave, all of you.”

Not needing any more prompting, Annabeth whirled around and marched out of the classroom under the incredulous eyes of Clarisse and Silena. She made it a point to bump into Percy’s shoulder on the way out and smirking at him triumphantly, as expected of her. And she received a scoff from Percy in return.

“Bet you’re still gonna fail, Seaweed Brain,” she called over her shoulder.

“In your dreams, Wise Girl,” he retorted.

When she sent a look back toward him, she could see the way his lips were twitching as he held himself back from grinning. She quickly turned back around and walked away from there, swallowing her own smile as she went.

2005

I trusted you!

Well, yeah. She’d played her role diligently, so naturally he trusted her. That was the whole point, after all, and it had worked. Evidently.

How could you?

For her family Annabeth would do anything, right? That was obvious. So what if she hurt his feelings—she was doing what she thought was right. It wasn’t her fault his family was responsible for murdering someone in her family and then somehow managing to slip out of getting accused and blamed for it by playing the innocent card.

But gods, his voice kept on torturing her all the way back home, clutching her phone in a death grip so she wouldn’t accidentally let it fall and break. This small device contained all the evidence she needed to prove that Percy’s family had the powers her ancestor had been killed by. She needed to get it back home safely.

She tried to figure out how she’d present it to her parents. With a proud grin, of course, her head held high. She just did the impossible and they would have to be extremely proud of her once they saw the video.

She’d let them watch it with her out of the room, though, because the thought of watching it again, knowing she just betrayed Percy’s trust, made her chest tighten and guilt course through her veins along with her blood. She didn’t want to feel this way. This has always been the plan, after all, but she couldn’t help but feel like maybe… maybe she was making the wrong call here.

That hurt and horrified expression that had been on Percy’s face when he realized she’d taken a video of him using his powers while showing them to her haunted her every time she blinked. It tortured her more than her mom’s disappointed voice or her dad’s occasional aloofness.

Was it her fault for getting attached to her target? Probably. The point was never to actually become Percy’s friend, yet somewhere along the line she’d slipped; she’d become attached. And now she felt terrible, trudging toward her home heavily, every step feeling like she was fighting gravity just to push forward.

And gods, the beauty in those powers he’d shown her… it had been mesmerizing to watch—the way he controlled the water around him with nothing more than a thought. Annabeth had nearly forgotten to focus her camera, too taken by the wonderous scene around her. She’d known Percy and his family had some sort of magic, but this was… this was beautiful, as opposed to what she’d been envisioning as dark, appalling magic that could kill someone.

Okay, yes, controlling water made it easy to kill people. Someone with Percy’s abilities could literally drown innocents with ease. But that didn’t necessarily mean they would.

Percy would never murder anyone with these powers. He seemed to be so delicate with them, like they were a precious thing—a gift granted to him that he had to make the most of.

Before she knew it, she was standing in front of her apartment’s door, the hand holding the phone shaking from the force she was using just to grip it. Honestly, she wasn’t sure whether or not it would be a bad thing for the thing to shatter in her palm and sadly stop functioning right then and there.

It didn’t happen, but she could hope.

I thought we were friends!

Percy’s words kept on rolling around her head, filling her body from the tip of her head all the way down to her toes. She wanted to reach inside and rip this parasite right out of her, but this was the kind of thing even an operation wouldn’t have been able to get rid of for her.

Her free hand trembled as she went to pull her keys out of her back pocket. Once they were out, she held them up to the keyhole, then hesitated.

---

“Percy?” she said timidly, but he heard her even with her voice remarkably low.

She was standing on the terrace, her phone still safely gripped between her fingers as she stared at Percy, who was inside his bedroom, pacing back and forth with enough agitation to fill a city. His face once he snapped it in her direction was filled with terror and anxiety and anger.

The anger was righteous, she knew, but it still hurt.

Taking in a deep breath, she held up her hand with the phone inside. “I didn’t show it to anyone,” she said. “I didn’t send the video to anyone and I didn’t let my parents see it. Nobody but the two of us even knows it exist, I swear. I-I mean, I guess my promises don’t mean much to you anymore, but… but I’m serious. No one knows, and I won’t let anyone knows.

“You can-you can just erase the video, okay? Smash my phone if you’d like, I know I would have in your place.

“Just… I’m sorry,” she said, and her voice broke a little as she lowered her head so she won’t have to look at his face with fresh tears stinging in her eyes and streaming down her cheeks. “I’m sorry I led you on like that, and that I abused your trust like that. I shouldn’t have done any of it, I know that. You’ve been a really good friend to me, and I just spat in your face. I’m so, so sorry, and I don’t expect you to forgive me because I don’t deserve it after all of this.

“Just delete the video so you can see it’s really gone, and then I’ll leave and never bother you again.”

For several long moments nothing happened, and then she heard Percy’s slow, cautious footsteps as he walked out of his room and toward her. She glimpsed at his face only briefly and saw a blank, wary look that had never been aimed her way. It was like the slash of a knife to the heart, so she hurriedly averted her eyes back to the floor.

Her hand fell down numbly the moment slim fingers pried the phone out of her grip and Annabeth bounced up and down on her toes irritably, quietly listening to the way Percy unlocked her phone—gods, she’d even shared her password with him—and then tapped the screen several times to find the video and erase it from existence.

She half-expected him to still slam it on the ground once he was done with that, but instead he simply held it right back out to her, still not saying a word, which was unusual for him, but she figured he probably didn’t want to speak to her ever again, which stood to reason, so she simply grabbed her phone, put it in the pocket of her jeans, and then turned sharply on her heel and climbed back to her balcony, heart pounding painfully in her chest.

2011

“So you’re telling me you came all the way from university just to wish me a happy birthday?” said Annabeth with a teasing smile. “Yeah, right.”

“Okay, I do also want to take a few pictures from the school roof for a friend of mine in art major,” said Luke as they walked side by side through the school halls, drawing a few stares from the students around who recognized Luke as their previous football star, “but wishing you a happy birthday is just as important, isn’t it?”

She wasn’t sure why an art major student would want pictures of their little town taken from the roof. This place was small and normal to a fault. Annabeth would have wanted pictures taken from the top of the Empire State Building—actually stunning photos instead of boring ones of a place no one could even pin point on a map—but maybe there was some kind of beauty in this small town that she simply couldn’t see since she wasn’t artistic.

Well, she was somewhat artistic, seeing as she loved designing, but she liked designing buildings. Her creativity was limited to practical stuff more than stunning sceneries. Her head was more compatible with numbers than beauty, so it would stand to reason she wouldn’t understand an art major all that well.

“Well, I’m glad you came for a visit,” she told him honestly. “The school is definitely not the same without you. And the football team is falling behind.”

“I thought you didn’t care about football,” he said.

She didn’t. It was boring and never piqued her interest. Just a bunch of guys running around with an oddly-shaped ball. Not exactly the kind of thing that drew her, right? But Percy’s friends from the swimming team liked football and they kept on sharing what they knew with him, which meant that he shared it with her—mostly to get on her nerves.

“I hear the rumors,” she said evasively, then stopped walking once they reached the stairs leading up. “Well, I’ll see you around, right? You’re staying for a while, not leaving right away?”

“Yeah, your parents actually invited me over for dinner tomorrow. I think they would have done it today, but you probably already have plans with your friends to celebrate your birthday, right? Oh, and I’m going to visit Thalia, too. She’s supposed to be at work in a couple of hours so I’ll meet her there, we’ll catch up.”

“Yeah, just careful not to eat any of the food in that place—it’s probably poisonous,” she said. “A few of the kids in my class got food-poisoning after eating there, so…”

“Duly noted.” The corner of his lips quirked up and he backed up toward the stairs. “See you around, Annabeth.”

She waved him goodbye, then turned on her heel and walked down another corridor and toward the front door of the school building. She smiled and waved at a few people she knew, but she mostly just breezed past all of them, determinedly making her way to the courtyard and to the back, where wilder bushes grew.

Wading through the tall grass, Annabeth made her way to the figure sitting on the ground, camouflaged by the plants. She wouldn’t have seen him had she not been looking for him, which was exactly why she liked this place—it was useful whenever they wanted to meet up without anyone seeing (or at least recognizing) them.

At the sound of her feet crunching the leaves and twigs, Percy lifted his head from his phone and met her eyes. His face brightened the moment he saw her and he shoved his phone into his pocket without hesitation, scootching over to make some more room for her to sit down. Which was unnecessary when they had enough space as it was, but she still felt the way her heart fluttered giddily at the gesture.

“You look older,” he noted.

“Funny, I was just gonna say you look remarkably young from way up here,” she retorted without missing a beat while folding her legs under her beside him. “Oh, hey, that’s better.”

He chuckled and rolled his eyes at her, but still leaned in to peck her cheek and grab her hand. It was kind of ridiculous, how such an innocent act made Annabeth feel more flustered than she would have felt had he kissed her properly, on the mouth, but something about how domestic it felt sort of made the whole thing feel that much more real and thrilling.

“So,” he said, “I heard it was your birthday today.”

Which eluded to that morning’s events, when Piper had burst into the school with a flushed Annabeth in toe, announcing to just about everyone that this day was extremely special because Annabeth was eighteen. Then she’d turned to Percy specifically with a finger pointed straight at his chest, and told him not to even think about messing Annabeth’s day because she’d chase him down and do some horrendous things to him that seemed to leave Percy breathless and slightly mortified.

Snickering into her free hand, Annabeth said, “Gods, you should have seen your face when Piper threatened you. It was priceless.”

He snorted. “I wasn’t afraid or anything.”

“Sure you weren’t.”

Percy’s thumb brushed the back of her hand slowly. “She just caught me off guard with that. I swear Grover looked like he was going to puke for, like, an hour after that. I think he was afraid he was included in the threat.”

“He probably was. Everyone was.”

“Either way, we stayed out of the way, right? I think we did a pretty good job,” he said proudly, as if Annabeth would appreciate not seeing much of Percy on her birthday. “So you had a good day, right? No one messed it up? There wasn’t some kind of pop quiz or anything?”

“No, it was almost perfect,” she said.

His smile dimmed a little as he regarded her confusedly. “Almost? What happened?”

With twinkling eyes, Annabeth leaned forward and lightly squeezed Percy’s hand to signal for him to bend down. In a flash, his confusion abated. They kissed so lightly, it was almost ridiculously innocent. Frankly, she wasn’t all too upset over it, instead basking in the moment.

Seriously, this was supposed to be nothing new. This was supposed to be old news. The spark should have been gone now, leaving mostly the trust and the deeper kind of love the two of them shared now that they were way past their crush/insanely in love/honeymoon phase.

And okay, yes, it wasn’t quite the same as it had been in the beginning. Annabeth no longer held her breath nervously whenever she was around Percy. She no longer needed to worry he might decide she wasn’t good enough for him. She no longer felt inadequate or awkward or inexperienced.

They’ve gotten past the awkward first phase, where they weren’t sure how to navigate this new territory. They were familiar with each other, comfortable together in a way that was different than before. Their relationship was no longer this flitting thing that might break from every little thing, but instead this strong cord they could use to assist each other when things got rough.

They were relying on each other, counting on each other, trusting each other in a way Annabeth hadn’t even thought was possible until she realized she genuinely had someone she believed would always have her back, no matter what. They were planning a future together every now and then, exchanging their dreams and aspirations and accommodating them so they’d be able to be there together for this journey of life ahead of them.

But she still felt the warm, fuzzy feeling that spread through her body whenever his hand met hers. She still felt like she was drowning whenever they made eye contact. She still felt breathless whenever he told her he loved her, because it was like a reminder that it was real. She still felt the excited butterflies in her stomach every time they kissed, no matter how intense it was.

She hoped these feelings would stay forever.

Pulling away from the kiss, Annabeth’s eyes crinkled as she grinned at his happy and cheery face. He kind of looked like a little kid who just got the best presents for Christmas. Annabeth figured that meant he was feeling the same way as her.

“I barely saw my boyfriend all day,” she told him with a pout.

He grinned mischievously. “Wow, what kind of boyfriend does that?” he said. “You know what? You should probably dump him for that.”

“I’ll tell him you said that.”

“Well, someone should.”

Humming lightly, she waited for a second, then said, “Percy, my best friend said I should dump you.”

“Yeesh,” he wrinkled his nose, “I save my skin one day and people already wanna get rid of me. Fine. But you should at least get your birthday gift first, right?”

“Is it a book again?”

He smirked. “Not quite. Hold up.”

He started rummaging through his backpack. As usual, he didn’t seem to care about the mess he was creating, instead fully concentrating on finding whatever it was he got for her. Annabeth watched curiously as he shoved things around, ignoring the pencil that fell out and onto the dirt.

“Did you forget it?” she said, holding back laughter. It would just be exactly like Percy to forget to put something in his bag before leaving for school.

“What? No. I swear I remember putting it in this morning,” he said. He bent his head closer to the bag as he kept on searching, his tongue sticking out of his lips as he concentrated. “If I lost it, you have my permission to actually break up with me,” he told her with a small frown without taking his eyes off the messy bag.

“Are you kidding? Over a birthday gift?” she snorted. “I put up with you when you deleted my presentation for English Lit class the day before I had to talk in front of the entire class. This is nothing compared to that.”

Percy sent her a brief, bashful look. “Okay, that was an accident, and you promised never to bring it up again, you heathen.”

He went right back to looking for the gift, so Annabeth didn’t say anything and instead watched him silently, letting him concentrate. She figured she wouldn’t have liked losing a present for Percy, so he was most likely not all too content with what was happening. Still, the urge to tell him this wouldn’t have happened with a book was almost overwhelming.

After a couple more seconds, Percy’s face broke into a smile. “Uh-huh! I knew I put it in! O ye of little faith,” he added in her direction as he pulled a small box out of his backpack, completely disregarding the mess left on the ground that was currently filled with most of the stuff that used to be inside before Percy decided order was for people who didn’t fear losing their birthday presents for their girlfriends.

“Yes, okay, all right,” he muttered. He shook his head, as if to shake the agitation away, then beamed at her and held out the box for her to take. “Happy birthday, Annabeth.”

She didn’t need to open it to know it was a jewelry box. She recognized the symbol of the store it was bought from—not hard, considering it really was a small town, with two or three jewelry stores in total—but she still found herself wondering what made Percy go with this instead of a book, which was something he almost always knew she’d love for sure.

With one glance toward him, as if to make sure it was all right, Annabeth opened the little box and looked inside, her lips parting at what she was seeing.

It was a pair of earrings—tiny and silver—in the shape of owls. Both owls were identical, with matching blue eyes made out of some kind of gemstone Annabeth didn’t know the name of. Obviously, her first thought was sapphire, but they were too light in color to be sapphires.

“I… um…” she tried to speak, not taking her eyes off the small owls.

Fingers fidgeting, Percy said, “I know you don’t really wear jewelry, like, ever, but I just saw this a few days ago and I figured you might like it. I mean, if you don’t, I can just give you a book instead, because I did buy one I know you’d love, but then I saw the earrings, and… um…” He laughed nervously. “You know what? You don’t really need to choose, I can just give you the book later today. It’s just gonna collect dust in my room, really. I was gonna give it to you for graduation, but you can take it now, since I guess you’re not really gonna do anything with the earrings, and it was really stupid of me to buy them, huh? Seeing as you never wear earrings unless you have to—”

“For the gods’ sake, Percy, will you shut up for five seconds?” she said before he could continue his rant.

His mouth clamped shut at once with an audible click and his fingers stilled in his lap as he seemed to look all around instead of at her.

Tearing her eyes away from the earrings, Annabeth found herself smiling at the agitation that was rolling off him so very clearly. It reminded her so strongly of that moment after he’d confessed to her two years ago, and the memory was enough to make her feel like she could float right off the ground if she so much as wished to.

She didn’t, though, since he was down here and she didn’t want to leave him behind for anything.

“Hey,” she kicked his ankle lightly to draw his gaze back to her, “I love them, Seaweed Brain.”

Percy looked like he wanted to be happy about it, but was still hung up on feeling anxious and worried. “But… you don’t like jewelry.”

“Aw, but how can you say no to these little guys?” she said, lifting the box and holding it in front of his face to show off the owls. “I love them! And they’re small, so I don’t think they’ll bother me too much, which is good.”

He pressed his lips together for a second, then hesitantly said, “You know I won’t be offended if you return them and take the money instead, right?”

She punched his arm with her free hand. “I swear to every god in existence, Percy, if you make me tell you how much I love them again, I’m gonna—”

He laughed, finally looking relieved despite the fact that he was rubbing his arm. “Okay, okay, you like them. Got it.”

Annabeth eyed him for a moment longer, than said, “By the way, if you bought them, does it mean someone might see me wearing them and telling our parents? Because that would be unfortunate.”

A proud smirk crossed his face as he leaned back, feigning nonchalance. “As a matter of fact, no. I didn’t buy it here. I ordered it online. The cashier there is my mom’s friend and I didn’t want to take the risk, and since it’s a chain… I figured it would be safer that way—you’re welcome.”

“Oh, so you can have good plans every blue moon.”

“I resent that.”

She chuckled and closed the jewelry box—she’d have to drag her friends later to get her ears pierced to put them on—then kissed Percy again lightly before meeting his mesmerizing eyes.

“For good reason—you’re one of the smartest people I know,” she told him sincerely, and he looked somewhere between bashful and blissful. “Thanks for the present, Percy.”

“Happy birthday.”

2005

For a week after Percy’d shown her his magic, the drapes in his bedroom were shut closed, preventing her from seeing into his room no matter how much she craned her neck. But more than that—it was like a crystal clear message that let her know he wanted her to stay away and leave him alone.

It was their sign that visiting each other wasn’t safe. She assumed now the unsafe thing was simply her.

She still checked the drapes every day, though. Diligently. She wasn’t sure what she was waiting for, considering even in school Percy swiftly ignored her. Gods, Annabeth’s friends kept on trying to get a rise out of him, like they usually did, but instead of sniping back, he barely even glanced their way before walking away or turning to do something else.

While she still couldn’t fault him, she felt like she was becoming hollower and hollower with each passing day. Her friends were amazing and she loved them all very much, but they weren’t Percy; they weren’t her best friend or her neighbor or someone she found herself craving to be around more and more.

And that, by the way, was just fantastically ironic—the fact that now that she knew Percy would never talk to her, she suddenly realized that oh, yes, she had a little, tiny crush on him. It felt utterly wrong, to like someone she’d deceived and hurt this efficiently and deeply, but her heart didn’t care about such logic, instead yearning to be with one of the people who wanted the least to do with her.

Again—fantastically ironic.

But then, nine days after that catastrophic disaster, Annabeth entered her room and glanced up—more out of habit than anything else—only to freeze at the sight of the parted curtains and Percy standing on the balcony with his arms crossed over the railing, his hair blowing lightly in the afternoon breeze as he seemed to gaze out at the city.

For a moment she couldn’t move, unsure as to whether this was an invitation for her to come out and talk to him or simply her neighbor trying to enjoy some fresh air. But then she noticed his tense body language—rigid back, hunched shoulders, fidgeting fingers—and she figured this was a sign for her, all right.

Slowly stepping outside, she made sure the glass door leading to her own balcony made enough noise to announce her presence. When she looked up again, she found Percy already looking at her, his face softer than it had been for the last week. He was smiling at her, no matter how small it was.

It was baffling to her, but she still dared smile back.

“Hey,” he said.

She was knocked back to their first conversation—the two of them on different balconies, not really quite sure about each other.

“Hi, Percy,” she said back. “What’s up?”

The corner of his mouth tugged up. “Me, obviously.”

That was terrible. It made her eyes sting.

When she didn’t outwardly react, Percy shifted a little, then glanced down at the street below. “Wanna come up here before anyone sees us talking?”

She nodded, but she still hesitated for a moment before pulling herself up to his terrace. He didn’t call her out on it, instead opting to silently help heave her up, like he sometimes did; then he stepped back to give her some room to straighten up and get the stray hair out of her face.

And then it was just… silent. As in, awkwardly silent, to the point where Annabeth started going through the events of the day, wondering if maybe she’d done another thing she should apologize for. Maybe one of her friends had been extra hurtful toward Percy or his friends today? Maybe she’d hurt him in some new way?

But then Percy finally spoke up and said, “I forgive you.”

Annabeth stared owlishly at him. “What?”

“I forgive you. For taking that video,” he elaborated, tapping his finger on his thigh. “I, uh, I know you said I shouldn’t forgive you, but I do.”

She couldn’t help but shake her head at him, utterly befuddled. “But—why?”

“Because you let me delete it instead of showing it to anyone.”

“But I was going to do it.”

“But you didn’t,” he pressed with a small huff. “And, I mean, you let me delete it instead of just telling me you did it, which was nice. I just needed some time to wrap my head around it, sorry about that—”

“…don’t apologize,” she muttered in a daze.

“—but we’re still friends, right? I mean, it was touchy there for a moment, but you didn’t actually do it in the end, so… I forgive you. And I still trust you—although I guess not as much as I did before, but we can work on that, right?”

She gawped at him, speechless. She wasn’t sure what to think, much less what to say to any of this. How was she supposed to react to her best friend forgiving her for something that, in her eyes, was unforgivable? Especially when she knew how much loyalty meant to Percy. Betraying him was like the one thing she was sure would push him away, no matter what; yet here she was, listening to him as he told her that he forgave and trusted her against all odds.

“You’re crazy,” she found herself mumbling.

He frowned at her. “Hey, you’re supposed to be nice to me now, not insult me right after I told you I forgive you, Wise Girl.”

The nickname was the last straw.

Annabeth’s tears spilled over all at once and she threw herself forward, flinging her arms around Percy and mostly leaning against him as she sobbed with so much pure relief, it made her dizzy. And the feeling of Percy hugging her back—after a brief moment of shock—only made her feel even more overwhelmed.

Chuckling awkwardly close to her ear, Percy gently said, “I can’t believe you actually thought you could get rid of me this easily. Better luck next time, Annabeth.”

She squeezed him tighter.

2011

She was having a blast with her friends, despite Thalia not making it, claiming she had something to do that came up last minute and she couldn’t get out of. Annabeth was disappointed, of course, but she figured she and Thalia would be able to hang out with each other some other time so it wasn’t the end of the world.

But then the day was over and she made her way back home with her ears newly pierced and supporting a pair of small gold earrings she was told to wear for a little while there, which was a shame because it meant she wouldn’t get to see Percy’s face lighting up at the sight of her with his earrings quite yet, but she could be patient.

Checking the time, she smiled to herself. She wasn’t too late because she was always careful not to forget about her curfew. Plus, returning home early enough usually meant she’d have more time to stay up and talk to Percy before going to sleep, which she desperately wanted to do today, since meeting behind the school building for half an hour was less than satisfactory.

But everything screeched to a halt when she unlocked the door and stepped inside, only to come face to face with her parents’ disapproving faces immediately settling on her from the sofa in the living room. Even more surprising was the fact that Luke was sitting in there, too, frowning at Annabeth like he was seeing a stranger in her place.

And then they started talking, and Annabeth felt like the ground was slipping under her feet.

Apparently Luke saw her and Percy from the roof while taking those photos for his college friend. He told Thalia first, to see if she knew anything about it, and then rushed over to Annabeth’s house to let her parents know about it, instantly coming to the conclusion that this was an important matter they needed to get informed about.

Denying she had anything to do with Percy didn’t work, no matter how hard Annabeth tried to scoff at the idea and make it sound like Luke was the one in the wrong here, so she relented, eventually, and simply let her head fall down and her eyes lock on the floor so she wouldn’t have to see the disapproving scowls of her parents. It was bad enough she had to stand there to listen to their rants.

“I thought we taught you better than that, Annabeth,” her mother chided her. “I wouldn’t expect you to run behind our backs and date some boy, but to realize it’s not just any boy—it’s this unruly brat Poseidon had out of wedlock? Were you even thinking about anything besides yourself? If word got out, you would embarrass this entire family!”

“He’s not unruly,” argued Annabeth, “and it’s not exactly his fault how he came to be, Mother. He’s a good person—doesn’t that mean anything?”

Her father shook his head, as if words were failing him right now, trying to explain just how wrong her logic was.

Her mother had no such problem. “Hah, and you trust that boy to show you his true colors?” She waved her hand dismissively and snorted. “No, that entire family line is mad. They’d do anything to fool the people of this town, and now that you showed a smidgen of weakness, he decided to corrupt our family, as well.”

“He has a name, you know,” said Annabeth. “It’s Percy.”

“Annabeth,” said Luke, “that guy is bad news. Trust me, I’ve seen him and his friends at school. They’re not exactly pleasant company. And I heard more stories from Thalia—it doesn’t sound like the kind of person I’d call good. He’s acting around you to earn your trust, but it’s false. Don’t you see it? It’s so obvious.”

“He’s not lying to me!” she snapped. “He’s not a bad person and he’s not part of a bad crown. Thalia is just biased, like every other person who supports our side of this conflict. A conflict, might I add, that’s been dragging for centuries for no reason. No one can be sure anymore about what had happened back then. And nothing good would come out of maintaining this blind hatred toward people who haven’t done anything to hurt us!”

“Never hurt us?” scoffed her mother. “Then what do you call murdering a person? An act of kindness?”

Her father shook his head. “Annabeth, we know they were responsible. We’ve passed this down for years and years. We know what happened and we seek justice. Up until now, I thought you wanted the same thing. Does it mean nothing to you that your very own ancestor died while they all left scotch free?”

She tugged at her ponytail helplessly. “Yeah, we’ve been passing this same message down,” she agreed, “but Percy’s family has done the same thing, only they all claim that they were innocent. They truly believe they had no hand in that death. So how can you possibly claim our version is true while theirs is false when both sides believe their version just as strongly?”

“Unbelievable!” her mother exclaimed. “He already convinced you his family’s version of events is the correct one, I see.”

“No! He convinced me that our version isn’t necessarily correct,” argued Annabeth. “And either way, we both agree that this whole ordeal should be left alone already. We don’t talk about it much. We don’t care about what had happened in the past because we’re trying to create something right here, in the present. We have our entire future ahead of us and we don’t want to spend it being hung up on the past.”

Eyes narrowing, her mother said, “How long? How long has this been going on?”

Three sets of eyes landed on her, and Annabeth tried not to squirm in place too much. She felt hot all over and extremely upset. This was supposed to be a happy day, and it was shaping up to be her worst one. She was supposed to be talking to Percy on his balcony right now—not trying to explain herself to her parents and Luke.

“W-we’ve been friends since we were six,” she said, trying to keep her head held up in the face of the darkening faces all around her. “And unlike your repeated claims, I’m afraid I don’t think Percy’s been deceiving since then because I’m pretty sure he didn’t even know what this word meant back then.”

She left out the part where her original plan was to get evidence of the Jacksons’ magic by getting close to Percy. It’s been years since she’d abandoned that plan forever. She never even wanted to entertain the idea of her past-self stepping into her apartment with the video proof and showing it to her parents instead of allowing Percy to delete it.

“His parents must have put him up to it,” said her mother to her father with a grim face. “Ugh, I knew that Poseidon would do something like that. Undermine us by using his son. I knew he should never have become a parent. It was a shame when he had that bastard child with that girl—I was relieved to hear Amphitrite couldn’t conceive at first. I figured we’d have nothing to worry about after those two died, and he had to go behind his wife’s back.”

Annabeth balled her hands into fists. “Don’t call Percy that,” she said.

“He is an illegitimate child, Annabeth,” her mother said coldly. “Which you already know, like everyone else in this town. And with a cheating husband as his father, what kind of partner could that boy ever strive to be?”

“His father didn’t cheat on his wife,” argued Annabeth.

That had been an awkward conversation with Percy—for both sides. According to him, Poseidon and Amphitrite loved each other very much, but they had an open marriage, so when he went out with Sally, it wasn’t behind his wife’s back. This was all agreed upon—except for the part where Percy was born, that is. That wasn’t really part of the plan, but neither one of the parents protested it too much. Amphitrite even welcomed him somewhat warmly, apparently glad to have a kid, even if he wasn’t biologically hers.

But Annabeth knew her parents, and she knew that trying to explain to them that while it looked like cheating, Poseidon didn’t actually do anything wrong… well, it wouldn’t make them understand in the least. They will never accept the fact that this was agreed upon by all parties involved. To them it would just look immoral.

“Sure he didn’t,” said her father wryly. “If he got you to believe that’s all right, I don’t want to imagine how he treats you.”

She bit the inside of her cheek to try and ground herself. “He treats me fine,” she gritted out. “You can’t judge him for things the rest of his family may have done! You don’t know him. How can you already form an opinion about him, then?”

“We base our opinions on known facts, Annabeth, as should you,” her mother said. “I don’t want you around him anymore. This kind of bad influence is not welcome in this house and I will not let him sink his claws any deeper than he already had. This has gone on for too long as it is. I’m just glad Luke came here with the news before it was too late.”

“You could have gone to university still trapped,” her father said mournfully. “We wouldn’t have been able to keep an eye on things and make sure you were seeing the light if it got that far. No, it’s good that we found out now, when there’s still time to fix things. and we will, starting right now.”

“There’s nothing to fix!” screeched Annabeth in frustration.

Her mother scoffed. “Nothing to fix? Take a good hard look in the mirror and say that again, young lady. My daughter used to be sensible and aspirational. Our education was meant to inspire you; help you become the best you can be, Annabeth. And instead you’re trying to throw your life away just because you convinced yourself you like some good-for-nothing punk who’s very obviously deceiving you to win this conflict once and for all. And we won’t let this go any further untended for.”

Annabeth wanted to pull her hair out. This was getting out of control.

“No,” she said sternly. “No, you can’t do anything about it. There’s nothing to fix and nothing to worry about. It’s not my fault that you’re too hung up on your own beliefs to see that Percy isn’t the bad person you want to believe he is.”

“Annie,” Luke tried to say, but she shut him up with a glare.

“You can’t make me do anything anymore. I’m eighteen. I’m an adult as of today. I can hang out with whoever I want and date whoever I want, and you can’t control any of those things from this day forth.”

Her father’s eyebrows drew together. “You’re sabotaging your own future, honey, don’t you see? Did you even plan ahead? You’re going to university—a prestigious one, at that. Do you honestly believe you can keep this… relationship going while you’re not even near each other?”

“What makes you think we won’t be together after high school?”

Leaning back on the couch, her mother smirked. “Oh, please, if this boy can get into a place like that, I don’t even want to think what other kind of clowns can worm their way into this university. NRU is for the brightest, most dedicated kind of people, and I’m doubtful as to how motivated that Jackson kid is when it comes to his studies.”

Luke nodded. “I heard stories—he’s not exactly top of your class, Annabeth.”

She considered telling Luke to scram because this was none of his business, but she figured her parents would argue, both because he was the reason this argument was even taking place and because he’s always been like family. Her parents adored him. She couldn’t imagine they’d just kick him out to have this discussion without him sitting there.

Turning back to her parents, Annabeth plastered on a very fake smile and icily said, “No, Percy’s not the most dedicated student in the school, but he still got into NRU just fine. We opened our letters together, so I guess he’s smarter than you give him credit for.”

Her parents exchanged a look.

“You’re not going there, then,” her mother said with finality.

Annabeth scoffed. “Yes, I am. It’s always been my plan, and it’s going to change now. I don’t care if you don’t like Percy—we’re going to university together. You can’t stop us.”

“As long as you sleep under our roof—” her father started saying.

“I won’t. We’ll both be in the university’s dorms. Piper and I already plan to share a dorm room, and Percy’s best friend is going to share the dorm with him.”

“What did his family have to do to get him enrolled there?” huffed Luke as he crossed his arms over his chest, a frown marring his features. “Did they bribe the university or something?”

“They do have this kind of money,” Annabeth’s mother said darkly.

Annabeth grinded her teeth, but instead of saying anything, she just turned toward the hall leading to her bedroom, determined to get out of there as soon as possible and try to clear her mind. She was too riled up to continue this conversation right now. She didn’t even have the time to prepare herself for this nightmare.

She needed to tell Percy everything.

“Where do you think you’re going?” demanded her mother. “We are not done here, Annabeth.”

Not turning around, Annabeth mumbled, “I have nothing left to say.”

And then her blood froze when the reply she received from her mother was, “We can’t force you to do anything, that’s true, but we can work with what is still left in our control. So unless you snap out of this ridiculous rebellion phase, I’m withdrawing all of your university funds. You can’t go there without the money, can you?”

Whirling back around, Annabeth gawked at her mother’s stern expression. Her eyes were steely and her mouth set in a firm line. She was serious—she was going to prevent Annabeth from going to NRU by not allowing Annabeth to tap into the savings they had especially for that.

She searched her father’s face next, looking for a sign that he wouldn’t let her mother do this. Holding back this money would prevent her from going to NRU or any other university. She had money she’d earned from working odd jobs, but not nearly enough to pay for university. This was always something that was guaranteed by her parents.

If they’d refuse to pay for her until she broke up with Percy and stayed away from him for good… she’ll never see this money.

Without saying another word, Annabeth ran to her bedroom and out to the balcony, her mother’s voice calling for her to come back and settle down so they could solve this foolish mess together. But Annabeth ignored her as she climbed up to Percy’s balcony without checking the curtain first, her eyes already filled with tears that obscured her vision.

What did it matter if his parents caught her coming over, after all? They would surely hear about this soon enough, like the rest of their little town.

But she needed to talk to Percy. She had to let him know before he heard about it from someone else.

2009

Annabeth hummed into her phone to let Piper know she was still listening to her gushing rant about how much she was into Jason. It’s been going on for over five minutes and Annabeth was definitely besides herself, but she tried not to sound impatient as she paced back and forth in her room, glancing over to the high balcony outside every now and then.

Actually, the longer Piper talked to her about her crush, the more frustrated and pathetic Annabeth felt. Because Piper and the rest of their friends… they could all talk to each other about stuff like that, while Annabeth was stuck with her feelings tucked inside, too anxious to share them with Percy and too self-conscious and afraid of sharing them with her friends.

There were instances over the last year which made Annabeth believe that maybe—just maybe—Percy was reciprocating her feelings. Lingering looks, soft smiles, entwined fingers, or simply things he said that could go either way. But the doubt stirring inside her—the knowledge that she must have ruined and scarred their relationship beyond repair with that video she’d taken when they were twelve—made her bite her lip and shake her head.

Why would Percy ever feel anything beyond platonic feelings toward her after she’d betrayed him enough to say that he trusted her less than he had before? Maybe they would have had a chance before, but now? Now Annabeth was simply glad to still have him as a friend, and she was determined to at least make sure she never did anything to push him away again.

He may have given her a second chance, but she figured she wouldn’t get another one if she messed up.

But gods, these feelings had nowhere to go. Since she wasn’t confessing to Percy, she had no choice but to keep them tucked way deep inside her. And she couldn’t do what Piper was doing and babble about it to a friend because nobody could know about her connection to Percy. It was too risky.

Luckily, Piper’s mom called her for dinner eventually, bringing the drawn-out tirade come to a close, seeing as Piper had to go.

The moment she was off the phone, Annabeth tucked it away, then grabbed the plastic bag from her desk and raced out to the terrace. Warm air greeted her along with the silver rays of the moon. Seeing the open drapes made her smile to herself as she climbed up to Percy’s balcony.

She looked up once her feet were on solid ground and found Percy sitting on his bed and waving at her, meaning the door was probably locked to prevent his parents from walking in on them without warning.

As she entered the bedroom, Annabeth found herself looking around as if it was a strange place and not an area she was familiar with. She couldn’t help it, okay? She was mostly used to hanging out on the balcony, not Percy’s room. But he was clearly inviting her inside, so she figured he wasn’t feeling like stepping outside right now.

“Happy birthday,” she greeted the moment she focused back on Percy.

He grinned at her. “Thanks! By the way, that cupcake you left on my desk? It was great!”

Annabeth swallowed her satisfied smile. She had to buy blue edible dye to make the frosting blue, and then she had to hide it from her family so they wouldn’t notice anything was amiss. Plus, she had to sneak into the school very early in the morning so no one would see her before summer school started for the day.

“Mr. Colton nearly caught me sneaking into his classroom this morning, actually. I slipped right past him before he could see me, but it was a close call.”

Percy shrugged. “I think it was definitely worth it. One hundred percent. Best cupcake I’ve ever had. Even better—it was the only good thing about having to study during summer vacation,” he said. “And my mom baked a blue chocolate cake, too, so I had a lot of tasty food today. Oh, I saved you a piece on the desk, if you want.”

She turned to look and found a paper plate with a slightly crumbled chocolate cake that was, in fact, blue. Annabeth didn’t even hesitate before grabbing the plate and taking it over to the bed so she could sit beside Percy and eat it—Sally Jackson’s food was always delicious, she’d learned early on. She wasn’t going to turn it away if she could help it.

“Hey!” Percy protested when he tried to sneak himself a bite only for Annabeth to slap his hand away. “You can’t hit me—it’s my birthday. It’s a special day. This is the one time of the year when you have to be nice to me.”

“I am nice. Any other day I would have shoved you off the bed,” she said sweetly.

She smacked her lips together after taking another bite. Yes, this cake was divine.

For a couple of seconds Percy kept on pouting at her, but then he moved on and told her about his day. He hung out with his friends—Grover, Hazel, Frank, Rachel, Beckendorf and Silena—and spent the entire day with then from the moment Mr. Colton freed him and the other few students who were forced to take some extra lessons.

Annabeth listened happily, holding herself back from commenting about how miserable Percy had to be, stuck in a classroom even during summer. She usually teased him for it, but he was right—it was his birthday, and she was going to be nice. It was already a sore subject, the fact that his birthday had to start with more lessons. No need to make matters even worse.

Besides, Annabeth found that she couldn’t help but feel wholly mesmerized while watching Percy’s enthusiastic retelling of his day’s events. He was so animated, constantly moving his hands about to try and deliver his point across. And whenever he brought up something which made him extra joyful, his eyes would gleam and twinkle merrily, sucking her into their depths without her permission. She could just watch and listen to him for hours…

Gods, she had it bad for this guy, didn’t she?

“I wish you could have been there,” he said after a while, his smile dimming a bit. “It would’ve been fun to have you with us.”

“I wish I could’ve been there, too,” she said, cradling the empty paper plate in her lap and careful not to spread crumbs all over Percy’s bed. “Can you imagine, though? Actually spending our birthdays with each other? It seems impossible, doesn’t it?”

Percy didn’t seem to hear her, although he was staring at her rather intently. His eyes bored into her in an almost unnerving way, and for once in his life, he wasn’t moving. Annabeth wasn’t sure what was going on with him, but she found herself looking right back at him, waiting to see where this would lead once Percy snapped out of his thoughts.

And then, after what felt like forever, he said, “I wanted to tell you something.”

She tipped her head to the side. “Yeah?”

It was quiet again. Quiet for long enough that Annabeth was beginning to think maybe Percy won’t actually end up saying anything, after all. Maybe he regretted it, right? Maybe it just wasn’t important, maybe.

She opened her mouth to say something—though she wasn’t sure what—but he beat her to it.

“I like you,” he blurted out.

Annabeth’s eyes widened as she stared at the way his shoulders hunched a little and his head turned in every direction so he wouldn’t have to look straight at her. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes were wide open, like he was internally screaming, unable to process what he’d just done.

“You… like me?” she repeated weakly. “I-I don’t understand…”

He briefly met her gaze, and she could see he was baffled by her reaction. Then he quickly snapped his head in a different direction.

“How? Why?” she pressed. “I mean… I thought you didn’t trust me.”

Percy’s eyebrows furrowed as he finally let his eyes settle on her, searching her face for something. “What are you talking about? Of course I trust you.”

She shook her head. “No, but you told me—after I took that video—that you trusted me less. So why would you—”

“That was, like…” he hesitated for a second to think, then continued, “four years ago!”

“Yes, well,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself, “trust takes time.”

He stared at her like she was crazy for a long moment after that, just silently observing her.

It just didn’t make any sense, okay? They haven’t really talked much about the video incident, but Annabeth still remembered the way he’d told her it would take time. So she was giving him time, yet here he was, acting like he never expected to have this much time to work on building the trust with her.

“Annabeth, you’re one of the people I trust most in the world,” he told her, hesitantly grabbing her hand and watching warily to see if she would pull away. When she didn’t react, he went on. “You thought I was still upset over that thing? It’s been so long, I barely even think about it. I didn’t know this was still bothering you. I would have told you outright that you don’t need to worry.”

She bit her lip. “I don’t understand,” she said again. “How can you trust me again? What if I do the same thing again?”

“You won’t.”

“But—”

“You won’t, Wise Girl,” he insisted, squeezing her hand. “You didn’t even go through with it the first time around. You’re not gonna try again.” He grinned. “I trust you.”

He was genuine. Just like he had been when they’d first started talking to each other. Everything in him screamed trust and faith and comfort and sincerity. He really didn’t hold a grudge. He wasn’t waiting for her to mess up again. He truly believed she would never try to go behind his back and betray him again; which she wasn’t going to do, mind you.

“You like me?” she said after an extended moment of silence.

Percy’s grin tensed as he blushed again. “Uh…”

Annabeth took just one more second to look at him—search for a hint that would let her know Percy was regretting this whole thing and didn’t really mean what he’d told her—but all she saw was a bashful teenager whose hand was beginning to sweat, most likely from the nerves.

A giddy part of her wanted to laugh. Another part of her wanted to go back to her room and scream into her pillow about just how drastic a change this evening took since her conversation with Piper, when she’d pitied herself cluelessly. Something inside her tried to make the moment linger as much as possible because she knew it was special and didn’t really want it to end.

But in the end she chose to move and peck Percy on the lips. She wasn’t sure what she was doing because she’d never kissed anyone before—and she knew for a fact Percy hadn’t either, although there were more than enough girls at their school who would have loved nothing more—but whether or not it was good, she felt the butterflies in her stomach and the warmth that mixed with her nerves and spread all throughout her body.

This was a new level of perfect she just unlocked.

Percy stared at her with a goofy, stunned smile, his grip on her hand tightening a little, as if he was trying to make sure this was real and that Annabeth wouldn’t suddenly get up and leave him. His chest was almost completely still, like he was holding his breath and waiting for something to happen, and his eyes were gleaming with awe.

“Cool,” he said after a moment or two, voice cracking.

She couldn’t wipe her smile away if she tried. He was such a dork.

“Well, it’ll be easy to remember when we got together,” she said.

He furrowed his brows a little. “Wait, does this mean from now on I’m gonna have to give you a gift on my birthday, too? Because that’s so unfair.”

“You’re the one who brought it up,” she noted, then smiled at the way Percy wrinkled his nose a little without letting his smile up. “Oh, but it does remind me—I got you a birthday present.”

Percy blinked in surprise when she lifted the plastic bag she’d brought with her. “Oh. I thought the cupcake was the present. What’s this?” he said and reached out to tug the bag away from her so he could open it.

“Just fairy lights for the balcony,” said Annabeth as Percy rummaged through the different boxes inside, mouthing the colors of each string of lights. “I’m kind of sick of having to sit out there in the dark, you know?”

“Ooh, blue lights! Awesome!” he called excitedly and pulled out one of the boxes. “Thanks!”

“How come you look more excited about the lights than about the fact that we kissed and officially began dating, Seaweed Brain?”

He smirked at her as he stood up. “Okay, we never made it official, although I’m all in favor, obviously,” he said, then ignored her groan as he brightly added, “and these lights are blue. You know I love blue things, and unfortunately you’re not blue, so for now the fairy lights will receive all my love.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ll be blue if you keep on appreciating artificial lights over me,” she said, but she couldn’t hold back her smile, so she knew she didn’t exactly strike him as serious.

Percy rolled his eyes and tugged her to her feet and toward the terrace door. “Come on, help me hang them up.”

She obliged, which paid off later, once all the lights were twinkling above their heads as they sat together on the floor, kissing each other hesitantly and awkwardly with bright colors surrounding them like a halo.

2011

Annabeth stumbled onto Percy’s balcony, her vision too blurry to make out any details as she pushed herself toward the general direction of the glass door leading into his room. The drapes were closed, which would have bothered her any other time but now. She simply pushed them aside and stepped into the room, wiping the tears to try and spot Percy.

A quick search, though, revealed that he wasn’t in his bedroom. It was as messy as usual, with clothes strewn across the floor, his bed still unmade and a discarded skateboard resting on top of the desk, as if someone was going to dissect it or take it apart and had to leave before they got the chance.

“Percy?” she tried to call out anyway, though her voice sounded too weak and small even to herself. “Percy?”

No one answered. She could hear the TV in the living room, meaning either Percy was currently watching it, or one or two of his parents were right there, enjoying a peaceful afternoon, unbeknownst to the unwelcome presence in their apartment. She considered locking the door to make sure no one came in and surprised her, but she couldn’t really lock Percy out of his own room.

She pulled out her phone and sent him a message to ask where he was, but no reply came. At least she could tell Percy wasn’t the one sitting in the living room because she didn’t hear the ping of his phone. He was probably out of the house, most likely hanging out with Grover or another one of his friends.

Climbing onto the bed, Annabeth picked up a dolphin plushie she’d bought for his last birthday and pressed her face to it. She knew her tears were wetting it, but she figured Percy would forgive her for that. He could dry the plushie at will, anyway, so it wasn’t like it was a big deal, anyway.

She continued sitting there for a while, time flowing around her in a way that left her clueless as to how long it’s been. And then she heard the frantic knocks on the front door of the apartment, accompanied by several rings of the doorbell. It wasn’t Percy—he would have simply used his key to step inside, plus he was never this noisy—so it could be anyone else, really.

Annabeth tensed a little when she heard the unmistakable voice of her mother demanding to come inside and drag Annabeth back home with her. She sounded angry, upset and appalled—more than every before. Which wasn’t very surprising, but Annabeth still wished she could tune it all out somehow and become oblivious to everything around her until Percy finally showed up.

“I know she’s in here, Poseidon,” her mother said furiously. “Get her away from your son and over here right now, or so help me—”

“Why would your daughter be with Percy?” Sally’s flabbergasted voice chimed in. “They never hang out together. They have nothing to do with each other, as far as I’m concerned.”

Her mother scoffed. “Oh, don’t play innocent with me. I already know about your little ploy and I will not let Annabeth get sucked into it. So I demand that you hand her over this second. I might just call the police and tell them you kidnapped her, which would be an apt description of what’s happening.”

Annabeth sent her phone another desperate glance but Percy hasn’t even read her text yet.

“Athena, you’re talking nonsense,” said Poseidon. “Your child isn’t here, and she has absolutely nothing to do with Percy. So we’d appreciate it if you go blame someone else for whatever breakdown you’re having—”

“Be nice,” chided Sally. “You’re clearly distressed, Athena. Why don’t we sit down, have a nice cup of tea, and we’ll hear what happened, okay? Maybe we can help.”

“I’m not helping her,” protested Poseidon.

Annabeth’s mother sneered. “And I don’t need your help. I know Annabeth is in here. She told me—she told me she was dating that delinquent son of yours—”

“Percy?” Sally said, and she sounded confused. “He doesn’t have a girlfriend…”

“—so the moment she was out of her room I knew she came here. She’s in his room right now, I’m willing to bet. I want her out. This is my daughter, and I don’t care how much your brat brainwashed her. She’s coming back home with me this instant.”

Sally sounded both worried and slightly hurt when she said, “No, you’re wrong. Percy’s never even mentioned her. She would have gone to one of her friends rather than here. She has nothing and no one to look for in this apartment, Athena. So I suggest you leave…”

She kept on talking and arguing with Annabeth’s mother, but the girl’s attention drifted over to the sound of footsteps approaching the bedroom door. She stilled on the bed, her arms squeezing the stuffing out of the dolphin plushie she was holding as she finally looked up just in time to watch as the door swung open with a creak, revealing Percy’s father.

For a long moment the two of them just stared at each other, unmoving. Annabeth’s tears kept on silently streaming down her face as she embraced the plushie and held her breath, praying Poseidon would quit staring at her with this blank look. She knew he was going to kick her out to her mother.

But instead of snapping at her to leave his house immediately, Poseidon only pressed his lips together and slowly closed the door again, leaving Annabeth to stare at it in stunned silence, her hiccupping breaths the only sound around her apart from the loud voices coming from the apartment entrance.

“There’s no one there, as expected,” said Poseidon coolly. “So once again, Athena, leave our home before I call the police so I can tell them you’re disturbing us.”

Annabeth waited, wondering what her mother would do next. Will she believe Poseidon’s lie? Will she burst into the apartment and search for Annabeth on her own? Was she going to finally leave?

Instead, she heard Percy’s unquestionable voice confusedly ask, “Mrs. Chase? What’s going on?”

“You tell me,” her mother said, rounding on Percy immediately. “Where is my daughter? Where did you hide her?”

“I-I’m sorry?” spluttered Percy. “Why would I hide Annabeth? I was out with my friends. I haven’t seen her since the end of class today, and if she wanted to hide, she’d probably go to just about anyone else but me. Didn’t you know? We don’t exactly get along. But thanks for the house call and rude delivery…”

“I know the two of you are… dating,” her mother pressed, sounding like it pained her to say the word. “And Luke saw the two of you making out behind the school today, so do not lie to me, you insufferable—”

“Don’t call my son names, Athena,” said Poseidon frostily.

Her mother huffed. “Tell me where she is!”

For a moment it was silent, and then Percy’s levelled voice said, “I haven’t seen her since after school, okay? I was out with my friends and she went out with her own to celebrate her birthday, which I’m guessing isn’t going so great. She’s not gonna be here. Maybe she went to Piper’s if she’s upset. Or Thalia’s.”

“Or she’ll come here,” her mother seethed, “and you’ll hide her just to spite me.”

“Yeah, I’m just that bored,” said Percy, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Good luck finding her, Mrs. Chase. Let me know how it goes.”

The sound of the door getting shut followed immediately after. Annabeth could imagine her mother’s furious expression, standing in front of a closed door after hearing a teenager snarking up to her—especially a teenager she already couldn’t stand even without getting a solid reason.

“Percy,” said Poseidon.

“Honesy, what was that about?” asked Sally.

Annabeth didn’t hear Percy reply. Instead, she heard footsteps once against approaching the room, only this time they were quicker, like the person was rushing toward the bedroom. She was less than surprised when the door opened and she saw Percy standing there, a backpack hanging from one of his shoulders and a befuddled and concerned expression on his face as he took her in quickly.

“Annabeth, hey,” he said, voice much softer now. He dropped his bag behind him carelessly and crossed the room over to the bed so he could sit beside her and wrap his arms around her, squeezing the plushie between the two of them. “What’s wrong? What happened? How did this happen?”

“Luke saw us,” she whimpered, clutching the fabric of his sleeve firmly. “He told Thalia and my parents. T-they cornered me the moment I came back home. They started asking questions, but they only listened to half of what I said. I mean, I’m not surprised that their reaction was terrible, but…”

She shook her head miserably, feeling the lump in her throat choking her and preventing any more words from coming out.

Percy kept on holding her. “Okay. Okay, we knew this would happen eventually, right? This couldn’t have remained a secret forever—realistically,” he said. “We can handle this, right? A little extra judgement isn’t gonna kill us, is it? And I’m still here; I’m not going anywhere. You can always come here if you need to.”

Annabeth shook her head against his shoulder and tried not to sound too choked up when she said, “I can’t go back home.”

His turned a little rigid. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

With a shake of her head, she managed to make him relax just a tad, but she could still tell he was anxious to hear what else had happened. Obviously the sight of her mother’s frantic demands to know where Annabeth was wasn’t the best sign as to what was waiting for her back home, but it was more than this.

“They won’t let me go to university,” she said, voice muffled as she spoke into his shirt.

“What? Why?”

“They said they won’t let me use the money they’ve been saving as long as I’m with you. And she was serious, Percy—she won’t let me touch any of it. I don’t… I don’t know what to do.”

He didn’t reply, which was understandable. Considering Annabeth was the one to come up with plans most of the time, she wasn’t surprised that this time around Percy had no idea how to handle their current conundrum.

“Well, I mean,” said a voice from the entrance of the room, “you can always break up, right? Then you’ll have the money for your education.”

“Poseidon!” scolded Sally as she walked around him and into the room, holding a cup of hot chocolate out to Annabeth with a kind smile. “Here, honey, maybe this will help a little. I know it won’t solve your problems, but these kind of things should be taken one step at a time.”

Gulping, Annabeth retracted her arms from around Percy and pulled away, eyeing the steaming cup and the woman holding it warily. From the corner of her eye, she could see Percy nodding at her encouragingly, so she reached out and grabbed the mug, letting its warmth spread through her fingers.

“Thank you,” she said timidly.

“It’s no problem, dear.”

Poseidon stood beside Sally, his gaze trained on Percy. “You have a lot of explaining to do, young man.”

“Uh… can this wait?” said Percy rather impatiently with a not-so-subtle gesture toward Annabeth’s trembling figure.

“Yes, yes, of course,” the man said easily. “I just hope your mother doesn’t burst in here again, Annabeth. I always told people this woman was unhinged. Did they listen? Noooooo. Of course not. And now look what’s happening.”

“Maybe you should help me in the kitchen,” said Sally lightly, but she gave Poseidon a pointed look while herding him back toward the door. “We’ll make dinner, okay? You just… take your time, okay? We won’t let your mother set foot in this apartment unless you want her to, honey, all right?”

Annabeth held the hot chocolate closer to her chest and offered a nod in return. Sally smiled at her before stepping out with Poseidon in toe. They left the door open, which wasn’t all that surprising, but Annabeth couldn’t care less at the moment. They seemed to be okay with her presence there, which was good enough for now.

“I’m not going to leave you,” she told Percy after a long stretch of silence.

He smiled, slightly relieved. “Good. This would have sucked.” He shifted until he was sitting with an arm draped over her shoulders, holding her close. “We’ll figure it out, you know.”

She sniffed and took a careful sip from the hot chocolate. It was delicious but too hot, so she decided to give it some time to cool down first.

“Yeah, I know,” she said once her mouth stopped burning.

“Do you wanna talk about it? What your parents said?”

Her fingers cradled the mug more securely. “Not yet.”

“Wanna watch a dumb movie?”

“…yeah.”

A small smile tugged at her lips as she leaned her head on Percy’s shoulder, watching as he pulled his phone out and looked for something they might enjoy watching just to pass the time. He muttered to himself while doing so, thinking out loud, and it was familiar and safe in the most perfect way.

Several minutes into the movie, Percy’s head turned to her. “Um… I know this day isn’t exactly going according to plan, but… happy birthday, Wise Girl. I love you, no matter what happens now.”

She closed her eyes and let the words sink in slowly. Her chest felt warm and full.

“I love you, too.”