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“You didn’t have to do that.”
Percy and Annabeth stood at the doorway to the bathroom, staring into it. Neither daring to go in.
The reason? At least five dead spiders on a now wet bathroom floor, very obviously drowned, as evidenced by the overflowing sink that was still dripping onto the tiled floor. And honestly, Percy felt as though another one could appear any time — he hadn’t flooded the shower drain yet to wash any stray ones away.
Annabeth, on the other hand, was stood in her towel, still dripping from the shower she’d leapt out of the moment the first spider had crawled out. She was slowly looking between the dead spiders on the floor, and her boyfriend. “Really, you didn’t have to do that, Perce.”
Percy’s foot was tapping, his eyes focused on the drain to see if any more would come out. There was still enough water on the floor to drown whatever decided to pop out of the drain.
And besides, were there even meant to be spiders in New Rome? Maybe there were, but not that many coming into the apartment where a daughter of Athena lived. He would have to have a word with Terminus about this. It was not fair for Annabeth to feel so unsafe there.
“Of course I did,” he answered simply, before reaching a hand out. The water on the floor carefully began to sweep away the spiders, ushering them over to the shower drain to wash them down. If he saw any of them twitch, he completely ignored that and continued to wash them down.
Maybe their corpses would be a signal to any of the other spiders that thought it would be a good idea to come up the shower drain and scare Annabeth.
“No, you really didn’t.” Annabeth gestured to the bathroom. “It’s a mess now!”
“We can clean it,” Percy answered simply as the last of the spiders was washed down the shower drain. As soon as that was done, he leaned on the door frame, facing her. “Besides, you know why I had to do it, right?”
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Because I love you.”
A small smile grew on her face at that. “Perc—”
“And we also have a reservation for tonight. It’s Valentine’s Day. I need to go with a date that isn’t absolutely covered in spider bites, preferably.”
He only laughed when she smacked his arm before walking into the bathroom, moving carefully on the wet tiled floor. “You’re a real asshole sometimes, right?”
He was simply grinning at her. “But you love me for it.”
Before she got into the shower, she glanced at him over her shoulder. “Are you going to leave me to shower?”
“Can I join you in the shower?”
She laughed. “No, because then we’ll definitely miss our reservation.”
He pretended to think about it, leaning his head back against the door frame. “I mean, some things are worth missing reservations for.”
“Absolutely not.” She turned and shoved him out of the room, laughing with him. “Let me shower! I’ll be out in five.”
He moved to sit back on the bed as she shut the door, grinning. “I’ll be waiting!” he called out as he heard the shower start up.