Percy had been sitting on the beach for hours. He sat on the sand bank just down the hill from Camp Half-Blood and watched the waves. There was a certain comfort in watching the ebb and flow of the ocean. The size, strength, and sometimes even the direction of each wave and current was never quite the same, but even as unpredictable as they were, there was no doubt that the foam capped waves would dependably slosh on the shore as they always did. Percy felt a renewed calm that he hadn't felt in… well, in a long time.
"Hey Seaweed Brain." Annabeth's voice startled Percy out of the numb state he had fallen into. She smiled as if it was good to see him, but Percy noticed that the warmth didn't reach her eyes. They were stormy gray as usual, but they had glazed over like they had seen something horrible. And they had. That look was familiar to Percy. Everyone at camp shared that same vacant expression, those same dark eyes.
The ocean calm had left Percy; and he was almost forced to remember what had transpired not even 24 hours before. So many dead and so many more injured. Olympus left in disarray. And Luke…
Percy forced himself to push all of that out of his mind. He couldn't afford to think of those things whenever he looked at Annabeth. As she sat down carefully beside him, he tried to smile without it looking faked. Percy knew that he had failed miserably, but managed to turn his body towards her a bit when he said, "Hey there Wise Girl."
They sat in silence for a long time after that. Percy let the ocean calm him again, but his brain whirled and he could no longer think of nothing. It was over; the Olympians regained control and Kronos was gone. And yet, Percy felt that he had failed somehow. In the back of his mind he knew that he couldn't have done any more even if he had tried. Still Percy wished that he had done more; saved more of his friends or beaten more monsters. Especially after his dip in the Styx, he felt that he should have been able to kick extra monster butt. What hurt Percy the most was how grateful he was that Annabeth was okay. The whole world had crumbled around him, but his little bubble of close friends and family and remained relatively untouched. He didn't see how that seemed fair. He almost cursed himself for being so ungrateful. He didn't know where he would be if something happened to Tyson, or Grover. And he didn't know what he would do if something had happened to Annabeth…
Percy knew that everyone had to be worse off than he was, and in his mind, that was almost worse than death itself. There were people he barely knew feeling more pain than he had probably ever felt, and he couldn't do anything. And then there was the guilt that all these years at camp and he couldn't even name some of the campers he'd fought next to. But then again, maybe it was for the best he never knew some of them before their lives were cut short. Maybe it was selfish, but Percy was thankful that he didn't feel the loss of every camper. Still Percy felt as if he had to withstand the weight of the whole world alone.
No, not alone, Percy thought as he looked at Annabeth. She was surveying him carefully, as if he were to spontaneously combust at any given second. A strand of Annabeth's hair caught the sunlight differently and his eyes flickered to the streak of gray that still framed her face. A painful reminder of the weight they had both shared. And Percy remembered that he really wasn't alone. As if reading his mind, Annabeth reached over to touch the spot when he knew his own hair had gone gray.
Just like her hair caught the sunlight, Annabeth's eyelashes reflected golden light onto the smooth skin of her eyelids. They fluttered a bit as she scrunched her eyebrows together. Gods, Percy would give anything to know what she was thinking right now. He could almost see the gears in her head turning. He smiled at that.
Annabeth's furrowed eyebrows deepened, and she looked Percy directly in the eyes. Her eyes were swirling and stormy. What struck Percy was how vast Annabeth's eyes were. They seemed to go beyond the two dimensional, urging him to search deeper and deeper into their depths. Never before had the color gray been mesmerizing. It was so much so that he was lost in her eyes. They reminded him of happier times. He was twelve, sitting in a smelly truck as Annabeth talked about her dad and fingered her camp necklace. He was thirteen and Annabeth smiled as they danced on Olympus. He was fourteen and Annabeth had surprised him with a kiss. He was fifteen and though her shoulder could have looked better, Annabeth was alive and he told her his only weakness. Other memories he'd almost forgotten about flooded back to him.
"Why are you smiling? What's so funny?" Percy jumped a little when she said that. He felt his face flush, and Annabeth's ears reddened. She must've noticed him looking at them because she quickly pulled her hair out from behind her ears.
"Oh… Ummm… Nothing… Just, uh, remembering something." Percy wanted to punch himself for that stupid response. Well, it wasn't exactly a lie. He was remembering things. Annabeth cocked an eyebrow indicating that she didn't believe him, but let the matter drop.
Percy's fingers traced rough lines into the sand. The grains slipped over his palm and stuck there. Percy didn't know if it was just his "son-of-the-sea-god" bias, but just like everything about the beach, even the sand made him feel good. He liked how it was soft and welcoming, but also rough and hostile. He liked how it squished through his toes. He liked how no matter how well he'd thought he washed himself; he would still be miraculously sandy. He liked that it was so stubborn. It reminded him of Annabeth. She was stubborn and cynical and calculating and smart and good and funny and beautiful and what?
Annabeth sighed. She had slumped with her back on the sand, hands covering her eyes. That made Percy smile again. She really was beautiful; I couldn't even deny it anymore. And she didn't even try. It wasn't like Percy had never thought about her like that before. It was impossible not to. Percy had always had other things on his mind. Annabeth had always been a priority, but the whole Titan-Lord-rising-world-ending-and-he-may-or-may-n ot-get-his-soul-reaped aspect of Percy's life had occupied his time and brain power. His head might not be full of kelp, but he didn't have too much brain power to spare.
Annabeth peeked through her fingers. Whoops, he had been staring at her too long. Going for nonchalance, Percy nervously ran his fingers through his hair. Annabeth smiled; like that gesture had somehow made her happy, though Percy was at a loss for why. She turned to face him. Her back was to the ocean and the setting sun, and the wind sent a few tendrils of her hair across her face. She didn't do anything about them, and they continued to snake across her features. He was aware that she was talking, but it was getting really difficult to focus on what she was saying. The fading sunlight created a soft halo of gold around her. Gosh, Percy thought. She was a godsend. He chuckled at that. Really? Of all the words that his brain could have chosen, and he picked godsend.
"Percy, are you even listening? And for the love of Zeus, what is so funny?!" Percy had forgotten that Annabeth was even speaking. He felt familiar warmth spread over his cheeks and he knew he was blushing.
"Erm… Yeah, I, uh, just got distracted…" He tried to look at the ground, he really did, but he was drawn back into her eyes. She stared back for a second, momentarily dazed, before her brows furrowed again in irritation.
"So then what was so funny?" Percy made eye contact with his sandy toes. He shrugged a little bit and nervously brushed back his hair a second time. He knew he would have to tell her eventually. She hated not knowing things.
"Annabeth, did you know that you're a godsend?" He said, smirking. She was silent, and Percy looked up. To his surprise, she was smiling. It was a true, toothy, ear to ear smile. It was the kind of smile that is always genuine and just lights up a person's face.
"Yes, Seaweed Brain, I suppose I am a 'godsend'." Percy laughed and swiped a choice ringlet of hair behind Annabeth's ear. Her eyes held his yet again. She was close. Incredibly close. Her soft and steady breath tickled the hairs on the back of his neck. Percy worried that she could hear his rapid heartbeats and erratic breathing. Her smile became faint, but it was soft and welcoming. And suddenly they both moved at the same moment, closing the space between them.
Percy had always heard of kisses described as fireworks. He'd always thought that it had referred to that spark of electricity when your lips touched theirs, or the warmth that spread all the way to your toes. He never expected that it would go deeper than that. He flashed back to the first year that he had seen the fireworks at Camp Half-Blood. Small flares of light streaked through the sky, and his heart rate picked up in anticipation. No matter how prepared he was for the coming boom and the explosion of light, it still startled him enough to make him jump a bit each time. And that was what kissing Annabeth felt like. Each kiss was expected, but still sent that foreign ripple of startling energy coursing through him. And just as the fireworks filled him with childish joy, he was left inadvertently happy as Annabeth lightly pulled away.