Dark Hair, Green Eyes

Summary: In which Annabeth is a fangirl, just like you and me, who loves to watch anime, until she started having problems with dark haired, green-eyed characters, because they all remind her of Percy Jackson. Also in which Percy saves her from a burning building and they bond through fandoms.

A/N: Beware of the multitude of anime refs. Hi to the Snk/Aot and Naruto fandoms! I

Note: I haven't watched Hyouka, Chuunibyou and 07 Ghost yet. The rest of the animes that were mentioned yeah, I have watched.

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For all the fangirls and fanboys out there.

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The First Encounter.

I was peacefully watching an anime on my laptop that faithful weekend when I first had an encounter with Percy Jackson. I've gone through a thick pile of paper work for school, and I thought I deserved to splurge on several episodes until school resumes on Monday. And just when I was so into the intensity of it all, the sounds, the settings, the characters and freaking heart-stopping plot twists, the Fire Nation attacks.

And by Fire Nation I mean the fire alarm.

Apparently, it'd been blaring on for so long, and the fire's already eaten a huge chunk of our house, and my entire family had already gotten out, and I couldn't hear or even notice it all because my earphones had been doing their job splendidly. I was also too caught up in wanting to know what happens next. I only noticed when hideous black smoke like giant snakes creeped into my room.

Panic bubbled like a bad brew of acids in my chest, speeding up my heart and constricting my airways. I couldn't tell where all the smoke is coming from. When I opened the door, my heart almost stopped. It was like I was in hell – almost everything outside was burning, and the fire was close to ravaging my doorway, and then my room. The air was rippling from the heat, and I had to avert my eyes because the smoke stung. I was pretty sure I'd be dead in a few seconds.

Until I saw the dark hair and green eyes.

It was hard to see in the blur of black, red, orange and yellow that was smoke and fire. But like some sort of fireproof god, he waded through it. Okay, I know that's impossible. Maybe he just walked where the fire hasn't eaten the floor yet, and my oxygen level was critical. But that's not important.

What was important is how he seemingly waded through the flames, his green eyes clear, a solid contrast against the hot colors. "She's in here!" he yelled and walked closer. When he got near enough to touch my shoulder, I fainted. I don't know if it was because he was so godlike or whether the lack of oxygen was getting to me. Again, that doesn't matter. What matters is how his voice sounded as he desperately asked me if I were okay, and whether I could hear him.

And that's all that reeled in my head until my eyes fluttered open again, only to meet a sterile white ceiling and fluorescent white lights. I was surrounded by my family, my stepmother, my father and my younger brothers. I was strapped with nubbins against my nose. We were in the hospital.

Thankfully they managed to put the fire out before it caused further damage. Most importantly, it spared my room, where all my important things are, which are namely my school papers, my fiction books and my laptop that contains all my anime. Yes, I have my priorities straight.

And ever since, I couldn't get those dark hair and green eyes off my mind. Hey, can you blame me? I nearly died! So naturally, these things make an imprint. So there.

Percy Jackson.

This is the part where I tell you that I'm not one of the unfairly pretty and popular girls of Goode High, and that I'm just a humble nerd with my humble but smart group of friends who also enjoy wearing jeans and t-shirts every day and reading books and getting A's instead of getting drunk at parties blah blah blah. I mean, can my existence get anymore cliché? The only non-cliché thing about me is my hair, because I'm blond, and I have the highest GPA among sophomores. So two points to my hair for breaking the monotony that is the cliché life of me, Annabeth Chase.

So it's safe to say that I know nothing about Percy Jackson, except for the following: a.) his name, b.) that he's a jock, a competitive swimmer, to be exact and that c.) he's waaay out of our social league. I was just assembling my papers in my locker that Monday after the fire, when he decided to attack me from the back with an adorable 'Hey.' I jolted and the papers came flying like giant chunks of confetti.

"Oops, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you," he said, as he bent down and started to help me. It was only when I met his eyes and his everything else that I realized it was Percy Jackson. He was wearing faded jeans, worn out shoes, and a grey shirt under the school swim team jacket. His hair was disheveled, as usual. It was the first time I've ever gotten so close to him, so it was the first time I noticed his eyes. They were the exact same ones as the godly hero's, the one who save me from the burning house.

"Percy?" I muttered sheepishly, then blinked several times, unaware of where to look, "uhmm, thanks."

"Sure thing, Annabeth," he gave me a smile as he helped me up. He must've sense the confused look I had, because he started to say, "Oh, you must not remember much from the incident. You were pretty disoriented."

"I.. I remember now," I said, feeling timid against his stature. Keep calm, Annabeth. He's just a dude you can do without; a most likely douchey dude who is a proven futureless delinquent who wouldn't give you the time of day and is trouble anyway. He's just talking to you! Act normal. Act like you don't care. Act like boys talk to you all the time! I tried to make my brain shut up by focusing on putting my papers in a plastic envelop.

"Yeah, I came to get you. We were calling out to you, but you couldn't hear us," he explained. I tried not to meet his eyes, which was easy given I had a lot of things to tinker with in my locker. His blinking and his lashes were killing me. "What were you doing in there?" he asked.

His smirk and the way one of his eyebrows was raised made me blush. I looked away. Shit, no way was I going to admitting to him that it was because I was too caught up in an anime! That would be stupid. It was stupid. I was stupid. My mind reeled with a bunch of covers to save face. "I fell asleep," I muttered, and immediately inwardly cursed myself. That's the best you could think of, Chase?

Percy just chuckled. "You might've been too tired from studying."

Partly true, I thought. But my rest was not sleep, it was anime. Suddenly, there was this awful awkward silence that settled in the air. It became more prominent when his eyes started wandering and he started to fiddle with his fingers. Say something quick, Chase! Don't make him go away just yet! That moment I wondered if my inner thoughts had an off switch.

"So, I uhmm, I should probably thank you," I muttered, gathering the courage to meet his eyes. He immediately brightened up.

"No problem!" he replied in a flash.

"I am wondering what you were doing though, in a situation like that."

"I'm a volunteer fire fighter!" he said brightly, and I could sense how proud he was of that. I've never seen him like this. Well, I've never seen him all that much, to be exact. This conversation is the longest I've seen of him, longer than the total of the times I've seen him in the past. Which is total proof off how off this is, and why you should never tread this path, Chase. Shut up, brain.

I raised an eyebrow in response. "That means you're not supposed to be the one charging into a person's burning house to rescue somebody. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to leave to the well-trained, senior firefighters." This time, he was the one that I made blush. Two points for Chase! I let my brain relish that one.

"I know," he began to scratch the back of his head, "but I'm a bad-ass."

He smiled at me, and it made me want to melt into a puddle of unicorn tears. "So I've heard," I replied. Smooth, Chase. Smooth.

"I just knew that that was where you lived," he began, "and I just had to-"

The bell rang. Since it was on the wall immediately next to us, so it was excruciatingly loud. My body jerked in surprise. He said his casual, cool guy goodbye, waved, and headed to his class. All the while I stood there thinking: What? What was it? What was it that you had to? What was it that you had to do, Percy Jackson?

Stupid bell. I headed back to class knowing that I might never know the answers, because I might never talk to Percy Jackson again.

Eren Jaeger

Ever heard of the anime Shingeki no Kyojin, or as known in English, Attack on Titan? I'd tell you about how much of a masterpiece it is, but that'd be too much work. I can tell you this: it's addicting. You're hooked from episode one, because it's no longer shy from those rattling, WTF plot devices. It just grips your heart and squeezes out the blood making a shower of red like cherry blossoms. And it's only episode one!

But what really drew my attention, or more like, who really drew my attention, was Eren Jaeger, the protagonist. He's a freakin' idiot. And I love him for it. Of course, he's the type of character to be weak, to want to get stronger, to want to handle to fate of the world on his shoulders, to want to avenge and fight for the people he loves, and to have dreams that are close to impossible. Typical shounen anime protagonist. But that's not the problem.

The problem is that he reminds me so much of Percy. He could easily be the anime version of Percy, albeit more intense. A lot more intense, since Percy comes off as more chill and laid back and Eren is all RAAAAGGGEE! But you get the point. Every time I see Eren's dark hair and green eyes, I can't help but think of another pair of green eyes and dark hair that I know of, that I've seen up close and personal. Every time Eren was on the screen, Percy Jackson's image thrummed at the back of my mind. And Eren Jaeger, with all his shounen-anime-protagonist glory, was on the screen a lot. So I thought of Percy. A lot.

He saved my life, okay? And Eren is the hero type of character, too. So sue me.

I thought about completely dropping the anime altogether, just because I don't want Percy haunting my thoughts, for obvious and cliché high school caste system reasons. But Attack on Titan is just too good for you to drop. Whenever an episode comes to an end, it taunts you, seduces you. My inner self is not too cooperative either, screaming More! More! I know you want more! all the time.

So my inner self does not want me to get caught up with Percy Jackson, but does want me to continue watching an anime that just makes me even more caught up with Percy Jackson? The id, your inner desires, is a weird place. It makes insanity within reach.

Another episode ended. Of course, I was left with a billion questions left to be answered by the next freakin' episode. To watch or not to watch? That is the real question, Shakespeare. I buried my face against my palms and leaned against my desk (which was safe from the fire, thank God!) I let out a muffled scream. Then I hovered my hand over my laptop's touch pad. Time to choose: shut down or one more episode?

I choose one more episode, naturally.

To All the Anime Character with Dark Hair and Green Eyes

"What?! YOU STOPPED WATCHING ATTACK ON TITAN?"

"I know, Rach, it's just that.. I couldn't handle it," I half lied. Well, it was partly true. It's not that I couldn't handle the anime itself – I just couldn't handle how of all the features Hajime Isayama could have chosen for an anime character, it just had to be the ones that were just like Percy's. If you're wondering why I'm annoyed so much, it's because I'm not really the crush person. I've been through all those sleepovers with my friends, I've gone through them writing this boy's names on their notebooks, through them freaking out whenever said crush is in close proximity, squealing, lots and lots of squealing (boy is there a lot of squealing when it comes to crushes) and eventually, heart break.

And I've always just been an observer, the closest thing I had to feeling infatuated was with that of an anime character I'd root for. But now, I can't stop my anatomy from secreting the feels, realizing that maybe it's true what the say – you have no control over your feelings. And it's frustrating! I didn't want to have to deal with something so pointless – liking someone who's only ever interacted with you out of duty, who has never even given you the time of day in the past, and will probably never will again, unless your house catches on fire again, which, is not worth the risk.

It's actually easier to accept your feelings with an fictional character than that with a real person, because with a fictional character you've accepted from the start that it could never be. Heck, you can even ship them with another character! But with a real person? Yikes.

So yeah, I may have dropped Attack on Titan at some point, because I always end up romanticizing a boy I've had only minutes to talk to. And it's frustrating because I wanted. To know. What happens. Next.

But to be honest, it was all the same with other animes with the dark haired, green-eyed boys. I mean there's Houtarou Oreki from Hyouka, Togashi Yuuta from Chuunibyou, Teito Klein from 07 Ghost.. I've tried to move on to these new series but why do these characters have to be here? They have freakin' dark hair and green eyes too, and it's not helping with my cause!

Even freakin' Haru from Free!, the damn swimming anime, reminds me of Percy! And he even has the wrong eyes – Haru has blue eyes! True he's got the dark hair and the impeccably gorgeous, sculpted swimmer's body that Percy also has but the eyes are all wrong! I had to stop watching Free! too, even though I really liked it, just because I see Percy everytime Haru is on – scratch that, I see Percy every time somebody freakin' swims in the damn anime.

Crushing on someone is hell. Get me out of it.

As much as I want to get help form my best friends Rachel and Piper, I knew that it would be a bad idea because they'd get all matchmaker on me. The worst is that they'll be totally obvious about it whenever he's around, making these suggestive eyebrow wiggles and speaking in these weird teasing pitches, that Percy would be bound to find out! And that's the last thing I want to happen!

But if I don't talk to someone about all the feelings I'm having, I'll explode. Or maybe it won't happen all at once, like maybe the feels would just boil from deep within me, slow but surely rising like magma, until it seeps through my pores and I start having these mild breakdowns until it gets worse and I dissipate into a pile of nothing.

But maybe that's not as bad as Percy finding out about my feelings.

Ha nope I'm telling Rachel and Piper.

There's No Getting Over It

I still didn't know who the Female Titan on Attack on Titan is, because Piper and Rachel's advice hadn't been kicking in yet (and frankly I'm not sure if I got it – the more you fight your feelings, the stronger it gets. But if you embrace it, the easier it would fade. I want the feelings gone how can they be gone if I embrace it?!) And already, the age-old and cliché science lab partnership gets thrown into the agenda.

Of course we don't get to pick. Of course our obnoxious, stuck-up teacher had to pick for us, and of course she had to choose the last person we wanted to be with at the moment – the gross kid, the mortal enemy, or the crush. And of course, I get the crush.

And you wouldn't believe the look Rachel and Piper gave me! I could see their internal screams of joy, and I shot them a wolf glance. You're supposed to be helping me get over him! I try to convey to them with my glare.

Percy made his way to the desk we were assigned to, casually smiling at me. And there I was again, up close and personal with the actual dark hair and green eyes that started it all. Act cool, Chase. This time, my inner self seemed to have sense.

"Hey, Annabeth," he said shyly, and then sat down. Shy would be the last word I'd think of to describe Percy Jackson, given all the buzz about him at school. But that was what he seemed to be as he took his place beside me. He also seemed to be restless, as if he had all this energy stored inside him that he gradually released like steam by making the tiniest movements, like tapping his pen on his desk, tapping his foot, lots and lots of tapping.

The teacher gave us the instructions, and we had to fill up the exercise answer sheet before the end of the period. I read our sheet, and Percy peered closer so he could read, too. He smelled good. Then he scratched the back of his head, which I was starting to find really endearing.

"God, I'm not very good at this," he shook his head, "all these chemical equations are just swimming around the paper for me."

"Don't worry, I've got this," I tried to sound confident.

"I wish I could learn to do it for myself though, I'm gonna need it. I won't have you around for exams, would I?"

My heart was being weird.

"But," he brightened up, but died down as soon as it happened. "Never mind," he looked down timidly, "it's gonna be really hard to teach me."

"Why is that?"

"I'm dyslexic."

Oh. I didn't know that. A part of me was happy that I was learning more and more about this guy who I've been crushing on. He began tapping his pen on the desk, this time a different rhythm.

"That's why I do my best with swimming," he sighed, almost wistful, "it's not like my grades are gonna get me anywhere."

"And what about volunteering at the fire station?"

He turned to me then smiled, as if he was really glad that he was asked this question. "Well, I like helping people out. It's the best I can do without powers like Naruto, I guess."

I raised an eyebrow. Of course everyone's heard of Naruto, but only a few have the sense and the bravery to openly acknowledge him, given this culture of geek hate. Maybe he watches or reads it? Nah kid, jocks got no time for that, said my inner self. And I had to agree. Maybe he thinks –or knows- that I'm of the anime kids and Naruto was the only character he could think of that he could make a comparison with.

"Sorry, you're probably not into this cheesy stuff," he began, "but I think he's pretty cool, Naruto I mean. I wanna be like that. I mean, not necessarily like that, like a ninja, but I wanna have his drive, you know? To never give up, to save his friends."

I was stunned.

"You watch or read Naruto?"

He nodded, then chuckled. "You seem weirded out," he said, his tone challenging, "can't I watch anime?"

I shrug, caught off guard. "I don't know, I guess you're supposed to do whatever it is you popular people do."

"And I guess you honor students also have nothing else better to do than study?" he teased.

"Good point."

"It's just.. he inspires me a lot. You should try it, Naruto I mean."

My switch was flipped in that exact moment, like all nerves clicked like a billion Christmas lights that exploded like fireworks. You probably understand how it is to be a fangirl, finding out someone is the same fandom as you, and you're like – We are one, my friend. And yes – I was having that moment with Percy Jackson, someone who was just a mystery for me, had I not been too caught up in that one anime.

"I have watched it," I smiled, "I also wait for the manga updates."

That seemed to brighten him up. "Me, too!"

Wow. Just wow. I guess Percy and I aren't so far apart from the social spectrum after all. Maybe everything I've heard about him was wrong. In this one conversation, I've learned more about him than a year's worth of gossip. I'd tell you how my senses are on fire and how my heart is going doki doki, but I bet you already knew that.

"This is so freakin' cool. Naruto is sick, man. I wanna help people, too," said Percy, smiling and locking his eyes with mine.

"So you're going to be a firefighter one day?"

"Well, after high school, I'll step it up a bit," he smirked, and I could sense a bit of pride in the shimmer in his eyes. "I'll join the military."

"Really? Which one?" I replied, stunned with his answer. I did not expect that.

He smirked and replied, "the Recon Corps." God, this guy is a winner.

"No, kidding. I'll join the Navy. My Dad's a high ranking officer there," he said, and spark in his eyes died down. He looked wistful again. I could sense that it was because of his father. "He and my mom got a divorce when I was really young. But still, I think what my Dad does is pretty cool."

He smiled at me. I melted. I had a front row seat to his eyes, and I was actually starting to peel through a layer of it somehow. I was starting to more about him, I was staring to have a view of the real Percy Jackson, through his gorgeous green eyes.

"Or maybe I'll stick to firefighting. It's still pretty darn heroic. Besides, with my grades right now, I might not pass the exam for the Navy.."

Oh. Right then was a light bulb moment for me. Because obviously, I'm not getting over Percy Jackson any time soon. Hey – you can't let go of someone of the same fandom so easily (unless they have a different ship, then it's friendship over. Kidding!) And this was the perfect opportunity to pay him back for saving my life, despite him not supposed to have been the one to do that.

I gathered up my courage and told him, "I can help you out."

He straightened his back and stopped tapping with his pen. He looked at me, considering my offer. "Do you still have time for that? I mean, you probably have lots of school work and anime lined up?" He smirked. And was it a smirk.

"Uh, it's the least I can do, after everything. You kind of risked your life for me, and you barely knew me."

"I had to! Could you imagine it if I hadn't? Then I wouldn't be able to see yo-" he abruptly stopped, then blushed, which made me feel all warm around the face.

"What?"

"Nothing," he replied, nodding his head, almost chuckling. Again, I had to gather my bravery.

"Just accept it," I said, "I'll help you get into the navy, you give me a bunch of anime episodes.."

"It's a deal," he held out his hand for me to shake, and I obliged.

Yeah, I was not getting over his dark hair and green eyes any time soon. In fact, I was find out more things to love about him, in time.

The End.