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“Wise girl,”
Percy pulls on the strings of the fish hoodie he’s currently borrowing from his girlfriend, Annabeth, in the cold of the open aquarium. “You know just how to cheer me up: fish.”
Annabeth smiles at that and wraps an arm around him.
“I know you’ve been pretty stressed lately with all that marine biology work, so I thought maybe you could use a break.”Percy eyes the way her curly blonde hair bounces as she walks and talks, admiring its subdued glow in the blue lighting.
“Yeah, it’s been a LOT. I’ve barely had any time to spend with my awesome girlfriend.”They stop in front of a tall tank that stands at the center of the room and admire the scene before them. Percy notices there are only a few other people around on a Wednesday at four p.m., including two men, one with long black hair and the other with short white, looking like they’re having a nice conversation about a Cinnamonroll Tamagotchi… They have a sad gay moment and exit the aquarium, leaving Percy and Annabeth all alone to take in the fish.
“You ever think they should have names?”
Annabeth asks, pulling Percy out of his moment of people watching.
“Huh? I mean, I guess… Never really thought to do that, though.”
Annabeth points to a yellow fish with blue and white iridescent stripes (🐠).
“That one looks like it should be called Hallie.”
“What makes you say that?” Percy raises a brow to her matter-of-fact statement.
“Mostly vibes. Though it also looks like it has great music taste, I mean, it would totally listen to Haiden Henderson.”
“You’re right… Haiden Henderson is a very great and underrated artist, Percy Approved.”
Annabeth nods but then suddenly points up toward the top of the tank.
“Ooh! Look, it’s a betta fish! Those are my favorite!”A black betta fish begins to swim down toward her outstretched finger.
“Ooh, there’s a white one, too.” Percy looks at the fish circling each other in awe. Fish have always been his favorite thing about his major. (We’re going to ignore how two male betta fish can’t live together because they’ll fight for dominance. Satosugu reference.)
Annabeth’s gaze snaps back to her boyfriend, “Oh! We have to go to the gift shop!” She looks into Percy’s sea green eyes, looking even more beautiful surrounded by so much blue, and prays to the gods he’ll give in. She NEEDS some new fish stuffed animals for her collection.
Percy, the SIMP that he is, can’t resist her big, pleading grey eyes. Her mother’s eyes, the goddess he’s pretty scared of. He knows he wants to marry this girl one day, so he should probably be on good terms with her mom, but she’s definitely the scariest of the Olympians. Or, more likely, he’s just really nervous about this whole marriage thing… Yeah, probably that.
Putting his thoughts of marriage and in-laws to the side for now, Percy enthusiastically nods his head, willing to give in to any request Annabeth asks of him.
“Sure, I should probably buy a fish hoodie of my own.”
“Nah, I like it when you steal my hoodies.”
Annabeth pecks his cheek as they make their way toward the gift shop at the end of the hall. Percy faintly blushes and has half a mind to just kiss his girlfriend right then and there, but it’s probably best to not do that in front of the fish; kisses can wait for later.
After a lackluster gift shop where Annabeth only managed to find a small Nemo plush, they decide to head back to Percy’s on-campus dormitory for a dinner date. Nico, his roommate, is currently out of town with his boyfriend, Will, playing in a mythomagic convention, so they have the place alllllll to themselves.
“Kinda lame that’s the only thing you were able to find,” Percy comments toward the Nemo plush Annabeth is inspecting on their walk to his dorm.
“Yeah, but at least it was a good price. Only like six or seven dollars.”
She drops her arms to her sides and looks up at the sky, noting how a few gray clouds have rolled in.
“Looks like it’s gonna rain… we should hurry up,” Annabeth grabs Percy’s hand and starts speed walking to his dorm.
They make it inside just before the downpour begins, pelting at the windows and making Percy feel nice and cozy.
“Okay, it’s getting dinner time. What do you want to eat?” He stretches his arms above his head as he strolls into his small kitchen, peering into the cabinets for anything his girlfriend might want, “How do you feel about pancakes?”
She comes up behind him and rests her chin on his shoulder, “For dinner? I mean, sure.”
About thirty minutes and many burnt pancake corpses later, Percy presents to the love of his life a stack of blue sweetness.
“…Why are they blue?”
“Whimsy.”
“Yeah, okay. That makes sense.”
The two of them head to the living room and sit on the couch, knee to knee. Percy grabs the remote and looks through movie options, “Which do you wanna watch?”
“El Dorado! I’ve heard there’s a really pretty girl named Chel and songs written by THE Elton John!”
“Wow, that sure sounds great. I know someone *cough cough* who should REALLY watch that movie. It’s fun for the whole family! Ignoringthespecialparts.”
He hits play on the absolute peak movie and they watch in silence for a while, eating their blue pancakes. After an hour and a half of one of the best pieces of cinema ever created, Percy shuts the TV off and yawns.
“Man, I’m beat, you wanna go to bed?” Percy hopes he doesn’t come across as too obvious for the cuddles he so desperately wants, but Annabeth thankfully seems to not notice the hopefulness in his voice.
“Yeah, that sounds nice. I don’t wanna head back home in all this rain, so I’ll just stay the night.”
They make their way to Percy’s room, to the small but inviting twin-sized bed (see that’s secretly a midwestern emo song reference). Annabeth flops down on the side closest to the wall, hugging one of the many stuffed animals she left there on a previous visit, “I say I should get to steal some of your stuff, it’s only fair.”
“I don’t have anything worth stealing,” he falls next to her, draping his arm over her stomach, “and would you really want to deprive me of that manatee? He helps me sleeeeeeep.” Percy looks up at Annabeth with pleading eyes, “You don’t even miss him.”
“Okay, crybaby, you can keep the manatee,” she pets his head, smoothing out his dark locks, “I don’t need it, anyway…”
She pulls him up closer to her chest and presses a kiss to his forehead, “Who needs plushies when there’s you?”
His face definitely only heats up a tiny bit. “I feel like a manatee would be more comfortable than me… but I’ll take it,” he acquiesces at the peck of her lips.
Smooches, kisses, he doesn’t care, he’ll take anything his girlfriend has to offer his quickly-heating-up skin. The only thing he can’t stand is Annabeth’s avoidance of his lips, which is exactly what she’s doing right now, “Babe,” sea-green eyes full of need look up to taunting grey, “don’t torture me like this.”
The pitter-patter of the rain begins to pick up, going unnoticed by the pair, as Annabeth kisses him for real; the love shared in Percy’s little dormitory only for them.