A/N: Hi guys! So I spent forever on this story and it's so long I figured that I can publish it seperatly. For those of you who don't know this is from my story How We Could Have Met.
For those of you coming from How We Could Have Met, this is the extended ending version! :)
Hope you all like it! :)
Here ya go:
Annabeth arranged the last of the New Fiction books and stepped back to admire her work. Satisfied with the display she moved on towards the back of the store where the Doctor Who display was. She gazed at the eleventh doctor's sonic screwdriver a bit longingly. She wanted to buy it but she was saving up for the San Diego Comic Con. She sighed and turned away to correct some books that were disarrayed.
As she stood up she caught a glimpse of a guy working in the ever-present Starbucks that was in every Barnes and Noble. She moved to get a better view, she hadn't seen him in the past month she had been working there. Now that she was closer she could see the mop of messy dark hair and the tall lean figure of the new guy. When he turned she saw a pair of bright green eyes and a troublemaker grin.
He caught her eye and smirked causing her to turn away with a slight blush. Ugh, he seemed cocky and annoying.
She brought out her phone and opened up the tumblr app, as a picture of Jared Padalecki appeared on the screen she smiled. She could always count on Supernatural to make her feel better.
Since there weren't that many customers she contuined to scroll down tumblr. She loved her blog, even though it was what most people would call a mess. It ranged from fandoms to random architectural pictures and posts. Architecture was Annabeth's second passion (after her fandoms of course) and the career she wanted to pursue.
She heard someone approaching and quickly put her phone back into her pocket. A second later an woman appeared looking confused and asking for where she might get those wizard books for her daughter. If the woman called The Harry Potter series (quite possibly the best series ever written) "those wizard books" Annabeth felt seriously sorry for her daughter.
But she helped the woman nevertheless. She caught, who she had now dubbed, new guy's eye again. Though it seemed that he was the one watching her this time. She held his gaze and he raised his eyebrows at the challenge. She was the one to tear away because the woman she was helping asked her a question. When the woman had left she looked back over only to find a customer at the Starbucks and new guy at the counter. She was able to watch him better now that he was occupied and she had to admit that he was attractive. And her age.
The one bad thing about working in this Barnes and Noble was that there weren't many people her age, most of them were older and the one guy her age that she had befriended was great and most of the time occupied with his boyfriend. So seeing a new face, and she'll admit an attractive one, was a nice surprise. But there was something to this guy, he seemed like a challenge.
When her break started she made her way over to the Starbucks to, well to get a drink and maybe talk to him.
"Hey, give me a sec," was the first thing she heard him say, he was bent down under the counter getting something.
"Alright," she responded.
He looked up at her voice, and slowly straightened up,
"It's you," he commented raising an eyebrow and putting the newly retrieved cups on the rack.
"It is, but you don't even know me," she challenged back.
The corners of his mouth twitched up,
"I've seen enough sweetheart," he drawled, a slow smile taking up his face. The nerve of him, she narrowed her eyes.
"You think you're smooth?"
"I think I'm adorable," he replied with a grin. Her eyes widened, had he just made...probably just in accident.
"And I think you should make me a tall vanilla bean frappuccino," she replied, gaining her composure.
"Coming right up, can I get a name to match the pretty face?" he postioned the marker on the cup though it was completely unnecessary since there were all of two other people there.
"Annabeth."
"Annabeth," he said as if he was testing the name, "I like it, it's unique, suits you." The last compliment seemd genuine and he offered a real smile before turning around quickly to make her drink.
"Wait, don't I have to pay?" she asked.
"On the house for you," he said turning around and winking. As he made her drink, Annabeth tried to figure out the deal with this guy. He seemed so cocky, but he was truly nice at the same time.
"Here you go," his voice broke her out of her thoughts, "a vanilla bean frappaccino for the lovely Annabeth."
"Thank you," she almost blushed but managed to stop, she offered him a genunine smile and walked away.
It was when she had left the store did she realize she hadn't gotten his name, and kept wondering about the dark-haired green-eyed guy who may had made a Supernatural reference.
-LINEBREAK-
Percy laid back in his chair and grinned at the screen:
fangirl-owl is now following bluecookies7
He had been almost stalking this blog since two days ago, when he had first discovered it. This person had almost all of his fandoms and while there were some posts of buildings and stuff, he didn't mind. Hell he reblogged a bunch of underwater pictures and tattoos and other god knows what shit admist the Doctor Who and Sherlock.
And now seeing as his new favorite blog had followed him back made him even happier. He continued to scroll and came across one of those Ask Me posts, and hit reblog tagging it with #please #ask me #i'm bored.
He sighed as he shut doen his laptop and left for work, no one ever asked him stuff, even his followers. But it was worth another try.
As he drove to work his mind switched thoughts from tumblr to the girl who worked the Fiction section at the store. Annabeth. He had to admit that she was pretty, and she seemed chill. She was practically flirting with him...right? He had slipped in a small Supernatural refrence just to see if she'd react, but she hadn't said anything. Either way she seemed interesting.
The first thing he did after checking in and putting on the horrid green apron was scan to see if he could see her. To his disappointment she was no where to be found. Well to be fair he could only see part of the store, she could just be out of sight.
He gave up and turned his attention to a customer who had just walked up. The day went on and Percy spent most of his free time reading- well rereading- Harry Potter. (It was the few book series he would actually read...he wasn't a big fan of reading, especially long books. he preferred skateboarding really, or watching a show.)
Towards the end of his shift, she showed up, looking a bit worse for wear with strands of her curly blonde hair where sticking out and a streak of dirt on her face.
"Wow, what happened to you?" The words slipped out of his mouth before he could control what he was saying.
She glared at him and he immediately tried to make up for it.
"I didn't mean it like that, I just...you look a bit...it isn't bad, you look cute," He rambled out, without realizing what he was saying, again.
This time she just rose an eyebrow, he offered a small smile, it was true, there was something cute about the way she looked.
"I was stuck in the back room, shifting through huge dusty books," she finally offered an explanation.
"Damn, that must be tough, how did you end up with dirt on your face?"
Her hand went up to cheek immediately and she brushed it off.
"Ugh, I don't even know."
"I'm sorry, how about a free coffee to compensate?"
"I got free coffee yesterday, isn't that unfair?" she questioned.
"Well you especially deserve it today, don't worry, I got it covered," he winked at her. As he turned around and felt the blush rise to his face, he was actually flirting with her. He made her drink and handed it to her.
"Oh my god, thank you," she said as he took a sip, closing her eyes as if it was the most heavenly thing.
"No problem," he smiled at the look on her face. She waved and started to walk away, then turned around.
"Hold on, what's your name?"
"Percy."
-LINEBREAK-
Ask Me...
Annabeth contimplated for a minute, should she? bluecookies7 had been liking and reblogging a bunch of stuff of hers, and the tags did say they wanted someone to ask.
She gave in and sent an ask about what their favorite color is. Pretty standard but it was something. She hoped she wouldn't end up embarassed if this thing ended up weird.
After staring at the screen for a second longer she closed down the laptop and headed out to meet Thalia and Piper.
When she came back she was pleasantly surpisred to see that bluecookies7 had responded to the question and asked her the same in return. She read over the response again,
Blue, that's my favorite color. I know it's kinda of a plain answer but yeah, thanks for sending me an ask by the way, no one ever does and I had almost lost all hope :p What's your favorite color?
She thought about it, what was her favorite color? Percy's sea green eyes came to mind. She had to admit they were really beautiful, and the color was gorgeous. She typed her response.
No problem :) And I think blue is an excellent choice, the TARDIS is blue after all. Also, come to think of it your username does have blue in it. And my favorite color is sea green.
She sent the response and smiled, she might be making an online friend. This person seemed nice afterall. She wanted to say it was a he, but she didn't know for sure. Hopefully she'd be able to find out more about bluecookies7.
-LINEBREAK-
Percy rolled over in bed, and after seeing it was noon he almost panicked before realizing it was Sunday.
He stretched out and got his phone checking texts and emails in an attempt to waking himself more fully. He finally opened tumblr and saw that fangirl-owl had responded.
He smiled, waking up faster to see what they had written. After reading the response he decided to respond even though there wasn't anything to respond too. He wanted to keep the conversation going, he might finally have an online friend.
I like that color too, and yeah, would it be weird for me to tell you blue cookies are an actual thing? Well they are and they are delicious.
He sent the message hoping that this person would respond, he wanted to guess she was a she, but he wasn't going to generalize.
He scrolled a bit more before getting out of bed and making breakfast.
As he went through his day, Percy checked tumblr often, hoping he'd get a response. He finally got one in the evening that read:
Really? I've never had them, they sound interesting though. Also just wanted to know, what gender do you identify with? Just so I know which pronouns to use...hope we can keep talking!
Percy was unnaturally happy after seeing the message. Because one, they wanted to talk to him and two they were gender inclusive, respecting the LGBTQ community. While Percy wasn't part of it he was an ally, and his cousin Nico was gay.
He quickly typed a response.
I'm a cis male, can I ask the same question back? And yeah I hope we can keep talking too, you seem like a cool person.
About an hour and half later midway through a Supernatural episode Percy got a response.
Cis female, and thanks! So favorite doctor?
Percy frowned, she couldn't expect him to choose a favorite doctor, that was just...not natural.
He told her as much in resonse adding the supernatural gif. When he got a meme back he knew they were gonna get along just fine.
-LINEBREAK-
Annabeth yawned as she walked into the store on Monday for work. She had stayed up a bit too late chatting with her new online friend.
After signing in and heading to the fiction section with a cart of new books she allowed her eyes to peek towards the Starbucks. Percy was there, looking a bit too cute than should be allowed. His dark hair was messier than usual and his eyes blinked tiredly as he leaned back against the counter. She averted her eyes quickly, before he could catch her in the act and send that annoyingly attractive smirk towards her. So she might have the beginning of a crush towards the guy.
The day went by way to slow, and her lunch break didn't seem long enough. Well maybe it was because during her lunch break the Starbucks decided to get really busy therefore not giving her time to talk to Percy.
She was sorting through the New Books section when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and found herself face-to-face with Percy.
"Hey," he said lazily with a slow smile.
"Um, hi," she responded, flustered. Then getting control of herself, becuase they had never been this close wthout a counter seperating them and he smelled so good, she added.
"What are you doing here?"
"I work here," he raised his eyebrows at her as if he wondered how that was a qestion.
"I meant, here, in this section," she clarified.
"You're not the only one with a lunch break," he moved so he was leaning on the shelf. And god did she hate him for that, now he looked like a freaking male model posing. Plus, he had taken of the apron and that black shirt looked really good on him.
She looked down at the cart of book to avoid looking at him. Had he noticed her looking at him during her lunch break.
"Besides," Percy contiuned, "It got pretty busy when you were off, and I couldn't help but notice you seeming to want to walk over."
Shit. He had noticed. A faint blush made it's way to her cheeks.
"Did you?" she managed saying, turning to grab a book off the shelf to busy herself.
A second later she smelled his ocean breeze sent as he came up behind her.
"It's okay, I wanted you to come over too," Percy whispered slightly in her ear, and she was so glad he couldn't see her face.
The closeness lasted a second longer before he stepped away and started walking off,
"Catch you later Annabeth," he called with a grin as he sauntered off. As soon as he was out of sight, Annabeth let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. What the hell had that been? Was he actually flirting with her? Ugh, that laid-back, slightly cocky attitude was so much more attractive than she cared to admit.
Annabeth closed her eyes and groaned slightly, oh she was in too deep.
-LINEBREAK-
Percy still couldn't belive what he had done. He had walked over to Annabeth, the really pretty girl he might have a slight crush on, and full on flirted with her. He got butterflies just thinking about it. On the bright-side she had blushed so maybe the flirting was working.
As the time for her shift came close he started wondering if she was going to see him. What if she didn't come today because he had scared her off with the flirting? What if she didn't even like him? As he doubts started in his head he saw the familar head of blonde walking towards the counter.
"Hi," she smiled at him.
"You came," was his response.
"Why wouldn't I? I thought you wanted to see me," she said innocently. Oh, hell no. She was gonna play that game. Percy smirked, well two could play.
"I do, wouldn't want to pass up an oppurtunity to see a pretty girl," he replied in the most charming voice he could muster. To be fair she was looking just as gorgeous as she had earlier and talking to her once, hell full on flirting with her once, was hard enough without looking like an idiot. To do the same a second time, well he prayed he wouldn't look like an idiot.
"Aren't you charming," she said leaning in. Woah, she was flirting back.
"I try," he managed to drawl out. His heart beat a bit faster as she smirked.
"Well, here's a reward for your efforts," she mantained eye contact as she took a pen and a napkin and wrote out her number.
She picked up the napkin and held it out to him,
"Call me," she whispered, giving him a wink before straightening up and walking away.
Percy stood there for an entire minute after she had left, shocked that she had flirted back and she had given him her number and how freaking smooth and attreactive she was.
That slight crush might have just intensified, but Percy was to busy freaking out to notice.
-LINEBREAK-
Annabeth flopped on her bed and took a deep breath. A giddy feeling was washing over her. She had just flirted with Percy and given him her number. Wow.
She rolled onto her back and took out her phone, immediately opening tumblr. She had a new message from bluecookies7 linking her to this cool Harry Potter article he had found. She smiled and after checking it out messaged him back.
Bluecookies7 was another mystery, her new online friend was pretty awesome. After talking they had found they had smiliar views on most things and he got all her fandom references. He was so dorky and even though she had never seen him, cute. (Honestly, all you had to do was show him a picture of a seal or something to bring out his opnion on how cute it was follwed by an obscure fact about the sea creature)
She smiled as she got a response less than ten minutes later.
-LINEBREAK-
Percy laughed at his phone, fangirl-owl was slowly becoming his new best friend. Sorry Jason. Not only did she get his random fandom references, she was really funny and, even though he had never seen her, cute. (Really, all you had to do was to show her a picture of a cool building and she would get so excited talking about the angels and build and whatnot)
He hadn't asked her name yet, despite having talking to her for close to a month, mostly because he was afraid of violating her privacy and the off chance she might find him a creeper and not talk to him again.
He knew a couple things, that she was his age, and that she had blonde hair, and a ton about her personality and what she liked, but nothing that could actually help him paint a picture of what she might look like.
He sometimes liked to think that she looked like Annabeth, of course that was wishful thinking, but it was nice.
On the subject of Annabeth, things were just as intense. In the past few weeks the flirting game was strong. And he didn't really know where they were at, just that thet were somewhere.
-LINEBREAK-
Annabeth was torn. She realized this while making herself cereal one morning. She really liked Percy, and his laid-back, chill, and cool attitude. She knew she had a crush on him, and that they had been flirting a lot.
But at the same time, the mystery and cute dorkiness of bluecookies7 appelaed to her as well. Yeah, she didn't know his name, but she did know they were the same age. And they had so much in common as well. She liked that they could talk about fandoms and and understand each other.
And on the other hand, Percy. And so it went in circles and she realized she was torn. Obviously, Percy was someone who she knew in real life, and had a much bigger chance with, but there was that voice in the back of her head.
She shook her head as if that would help her clear the thoughts and started eating her cereal. Her phone buzzed not a minute later, letting her know she had a new message.
She checked her tumblr and saw a picture of the TARDIS on a sign in a library, with a caption that read: reminded me of you.
She smiled and was about to reply when something about the picture caught her off. She frowned as she looked at it. Did the end of the sign say -eenview? As in Greenview? As in the city she lived in?
She sent a hesitant message to bluecookies7 about it asking about the town. She waited for the response in a nervous excitement, what if it was her town? What if they lived near each other?
The response seem to take forever to come but it finally did a good ten minutes later with an answer of yes.
Her excitement built up as she contemplated asking to meet in real life. While she wondered, she got abother mesage, with bluecookies7 hesitantly putting out the idea of meeting along with a disclaimer about how he promised he wasn't a creep.
They continued to talk and made plans to meet each other the very next day at Calli's Cafe.
-LINEBREAK-
Percy walked into the cafe the next day, ten minutes early for once. He had to admit he was a bit nervous about meeting fangirl-owl for the first time. He scanned the cafe looking around to see of he could find her. He still didn't know her name (they had decided to keep that a secret till they met) so he just tried to glance around. There weren't that many people there, thankfully. As his eyes skimmed the cafe he found Annabeth in the corner reading a book.
Annabeth, what was she doing there. He walked over to her.
"Hey," he spoke, causing her to look up from her book.
"Percy? What are you doing here?" she asked, looking just as surprised as him.
"Oh, I'm waiting for someone," he answered, watching her frown a bit. "What about you?"
"I'm waiting for someone too, though I am early," she replied.
"So am I, mind if I sit here for like ten minutes?" he asked without even thinking. He bit his tongue after, realizing it was a pretty stupid thing to say, considereing they were both waiting for other people. He supposed he had said it because he wanted to spend time with Annabeth, but it was still pretty stupid.
"Sure," her response surprised him but he sat down greatefully.
"So who are you waiting for?" he asked casually.
"He's a friend," she responded, "I met him kinda recently."
"Oh that's cool," Percy gave a small smile. For some reason he felt a pull on his gut, the nervous excitment of meeting fangirl-owl was replaced with a different feeling. Was it...jealousy? Here was Annabeth meeting with some guy, some guy she probably liked. Why had he assumed that she had liked him. He looked at her and she gave him a nervous smile. For some reason she looked off too.
"So um, what about you, who are you meeting?" she asked after the small silence, clearing her throat slightly.
"A friend, I..uh..met her recently too," he replied. Annabeth nodded and looked down. She seemed a bit upset by that.
This whole thing was going too awkwardly. Percy suddenly wished he hadn't asked to sit with her.
They sat in silence for a bit longer and Percy finally checked his watch.
"It's almost two, she should be here, soon," he said a bit awkwardly.
"Oh, cool, yeah, that's when I'm meeting him too," her reply was just as awkward. they sat in silence a bit longer.
At 2:02 Percy got more anxous. She was punctual, this much he had learned, where was she? No one had walked into the cafe, in the past five miuntes, except an old man.
"She's not likely to be late, I wonder what's up," he muttered aloud.
"I'm sure she'll be here soon," Annabeth reassured, but she was looking nervous too.
At 2:07 Percy was conviced she has ditched. Unless she was a goth 14 year old boy of a mom with two kids, she hadn't shown.
"I don't think she's coiming," he said a bit dejectedly. Annabeth gave him a sympathetic look and he realized that her friend hadn't shown up either.
"I'm sorry, I didn't even realize, what about your guy?" he asked softly. Annabeth shrugged and looked down sadly.
"Looks like he ditched too."
"Check your phone, maybe he texted you?" Percy offered hating to see Annabeth so sad.
She pulled out her phone and looked at it blankly,
"No, no message."
There was a minute of silence where the two sat there and let it sink in that they had been stood up.
Finally Percy looked up,
"How about we get something to eat?" he offered. Annabeth looked at him,
"Are you suggesting a date?" she asked, looking clearly surprised.
Percy blushed a bit and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah, I guess I am."
Annabeth smiled, "Okay then."
Ten minutes later they were sitting in the same booth with food in front of them and smiles on their faces as they talked. After a moment of silence as their laughter died down from a funny story, Percy brought up the subject again.
"Look, I'm really sorry about your guy, that he ditched. It's his loss."
"It's okay, I shouldn't have expected much. Sorry about your girl."
"She's just a friend, we're not...dating or anything," Percy felt the need to clear up. Then changed the topic,
"Why wouldn't you expect him to come though? I though he was a friend..." Percy was aware he was going into sensitive territory but he wanted to know where she stood with this guy, before making a bigger move.
"Well, I've never actually met him," she started, "we met on tumblr and started messaging each other from an ask I sent him...I just found out yeterday we live in the same town so we made plans to meet. I guess, I just got to excited. I kinda liked him, I shouldn't have put that much hope into someone I have never seen."
Percy just stared at her, shocked at her confession.
No. Way.
It was her? fangirl-owl was her? The girl he liked and the other girl he liked were the same person, there was no way.
"Are you okay?" Annabeth's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"fangirl-owl?" he questioned.
Annabeth looked just as shocked, he could almost see the gears turning in her head.
"bluecookies7?"
Percy broke out into a huge smile, "No way! You are fangirl-owl! That's..."
Annabeth finally smiled back, "awesome, I belive the word you're looking for is awesome."
"Hell yeah, I can't belive we knew each other but didn't know each other."
"It is amazing, this is fantastic!" she smiled and he recognized the Doctor Who reference. Then something struck him,
"Hang on, you said you liked me."
Annabeth blushed, "I said I kinda like you."
"Kinda?" he rose his eyebrows.
"Well I liked you you...so..." she trailed off.
"Wait, so you like me, and well...tumblr me?" Percy couldn't belive his luck.
"This is a mess," Annabeth chuckled, we were both grinning widley and the excitement was contagious.
"Let's start over," she suggeted.
"Hi, I'm Annabeth aka fangirl-owl."
"Hi, I'm Percy aka bluecookies7."
-LINEBREAK-
"Well you were so smooth, I didn't think that the dork in tumblr was the same person," Annabeth pointed out as she sipped her drink.
"Ouch, that hurt Annabeth, right here," Percy said dramaically pointing to his heart.
"Oh shut up, the dork on tumblr was cute," she murmered leaning in a bit.
"And the Percy in real life?" he asked in a low voice leaning in as well.
"He was hot," she winked at him.
Percy leaned in clser so that his lips were just barely touching hers.
"Hot enough for a kiss?"
"Maybe," she whispered. Then leaned back in her seat.
Percy all but wimpered.
"Your ability to be Sam and Dean at the same time amazes me," she said instead.
"You know I made a Supernatural reference when I first saw you. You just didn't react."
"I wasn't sure if you were actually making a reference or just talking," she defended.
"Really, wow," he responded sarcastically, referencing the tenth doctor. As they both stood up to throw away thir trash and leave the cafe, Annabeth hit him lightly on the arm.
"Ow, what was that for?" he frowned at her.
"For being a sarcastic assbutt," she responded heading for the door.
He ran up, and opened it for her a second before she reached the doorway. They walked out of the cafe talking and laughing, and Percy might have slipped his hand over hers and she might have leaned into him.
Their first official date was to a convention, their kiss was cosplaying as Tenrose, and their wedding featured the song Carry On My Wayward Son with smiley face napkins and Tardis blue decorations.
That's the story of Percy and Annabeth and this is how they met IRL.
A/N: Well how was it?
And for my old readers, how was the extended ending?
Please Review!
See ya! :)
