BIRTHDAY
AN ORIGINAL FANFIC, WRITTEN BY CIMFAN
PERCY, ANNABETH

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. Rick Riordan does.

It was four A.M., and Annabeth was wild awake.

No, she wasn't on guard duty. Tonight was Jason's and Frank's turn to guard the Argo II overnight. Annabeth's turn was two nights ago.

But still, she couldn't bring herself to sleep. She turned from side to side in her bed, showered twice, tried reading a book, but nothing helped. That's probably why she ended up sitting on the floor in the stables, all by herself. Now, with Coach Hedge away, no one paid any attention to their curfew. It was almost impossible, with weird monsters attacks that required all seven of them awake.

So she sat on a blanket she'd brought to the stables with her, and leaned her back against the wall. Even the dim light and the silence that surrounded her weren't enough to get her even a tiny bit tired.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the first time Annabeth had trouble falling asleep. Ever since she and Percy had come back from Tartarus, she couldn't sleep straight from more than a few hours. And even if, by accident, she did fall sleep as soon as her head touched her pillow, her nightmares made sure she'd wake up, screaming for Percy.

Percy. She still couldn't shake this guilt she was feeling. If it wasn't for her, Percy would have never fallen into Tartarus and gone through all those troubles, trying to close the Doors of Death. She knew she couldn't have survived Tartarus without him by her side, but she still felt terrible about it.

She looked at the deep sea water beneath the ship through the door bay. The water was dark. She feared not knowing what would happen next. She didn't like it when the unexpected happened. As a daughter of Athena, she had to make sure she understood each and every step of the way. What way? It didn't matter.

She was so lost in her thoughts she hadn't noticed when the door to the stabled opened. She hadn't even noticed Percy until he slid his back on the wall and sat next to her, his left side pressed against her right side. "Knew you'd be here," he murmured.

She looked up to him. "Why aren't you asleep?"

He smiled, but his smile was lifeless. Sad. "I could ask you the same question."

Silence. She didn't reply but kept on looking at him.

He sighed. "Couldn't. Nightmares."

"Same," now she replied. She leaned her head on his shoulder. "I kept having all those horrible dreams about the arai and Bob and the empusai."

"I know," he said. "I've been having the same dreams."

Silence again. Annabeth enjoyed it, tough. Just sitting there with Percy by her side, hugging her shoulder, felt perfect. She didn't want to break the quietness, but a question was bidding her.

"Did you come searching for me?" she asked. "How did you know I was here?"

Percy sighed again. "You weren't in your cabin. Frank said he saw you sneaking out with a blanket, so I figured you'd be here."

Annabeth wouldn't admit it out loud, but for a boy who has kelps for brains, Percy was pretty smart.

"It was the only place I thought I'd be relaxed in," she could admit that.

"I get why you'd be thinking that," Percy agreed. "Anyway, I woke up and was wondering what the date is."

"July twenty first," she replied automatically. "Why would that bother you in the middle of the night?"

"Because," his tone was suddenly playful. Annabeth didn't know where he was going with it. "Then I remembered what happened last week."

Annabeth still didn't know where he was going with it. "Seriously, Percy, I don't need extra reminder of last week. I've had enough nightmares about it."

Percy's smile grew a bit smaller. "I know. Sorry. But I wasn't talking about that." He pulled out a candle and a match.

"What . . ?"

Percy laughed. "Since we were in no condition to celebrate last week, I figured a late night celebration would have to do."

Annabeth was still speechless. She hadn't given her birthday any second thoughts. She never made a big deal about it. She usually got a birthday cupcake from her siblings in Cabin Six – wow, now that she thought about them, she really missed those guys – gave it to one of her younger sisters and made everyone do an extreme cleaning of the cabin.

But this year . . . she couldn't believe she made it all the way to seventeen. Wow. It's been ten years since she had gotten to Camp Half – Blood. Back then, she didn't think she'd make it all the way to eight.

"Annabeth," Percy cut her string of thoughts again. "You've got that I'm-deep-in-thoughts-about-something look."

"I don't have that look."

"You totally do. You have all sorts of different looks you don't even know about," Percy stated. "But that's not the point." He gave her the candle. "I thought you could use your birthday wish. Thought it might lift your spirits."

Annabeth smiled. She reached out and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks." She said.

He did the honor of lighting the candle. Annabeth smiled through the whole process. ("Jeez, why doesn't this thing get lighten? Oh, man. Now I have to use another match.")

But finally, the candle was all set for her to blow. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She thought about sunny, warm days in camp, after the war with Gaea is over. She thought about having Percy and all her friends – preferably unharmed – with her. She thought about her mortal family, and getting along perfectly with her father, stepmom and stepbrothers.

With all that in mind, she blew the candle.

"Happy belated birthday, Annabeth," Percy whispered in her ear.

She turned her head towards him and kissed him on the lips while tossing the candle aside. He cupped her chin in his hand, not releasing her even when they broke apart to breath.

"Now I'm officially older than you," she teased him.

He smiled. "As long as we're alive and together, I don't care."

Wow. Long-long-long time, no see, huh?

So sorry for disappearing agin. I know I haven't updated since last summer, but I had a HUGE writer's block. Like, a tremendous writer's block.

What happened in the meantime? God, so many things! I turned 16, started junior year, had gotten a job, took a part in a theater production...

Anyway, I do plan on continuing this into a series of one-shots. I don't know when the next one-shot will be up, but feel free to judge me about it ;)

SOOOOOO, it's getting late here and my mom isn't really happy about me not going to sleep yet, so I guess this is goodbye for now.

LOVE YOU GUYS SO SO SO MUCH. DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

~CimFan (Rachel).

P.S. Blood of Olympus comes out in ten days! Is someone else freaking out as much as I am?!