Hey! I got a request from FieryDemon99 to write a Percabeth story centered around the saying "Live and let live". So here you go.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned here.
Dedication: FieryDemon99
Live and Let Live
Annabeth was scowling so much she nearly went cross-eyed.
"Percy," she said. "That is disgusting."
"It's mildly unhygienic," he argued, putting the cap of the carton back on.
"Percy, we've been living together for a year. You know I hate it when you drink from the carton. Do you have any idea how much backwash must be in there? Oh gods- I had some this morning…"
"Don't exaggerate." Percy said.
"I'm not exaggerating!" Annabeth said snatching the carton from him. "That's disgusting! We own glasses, Percy Jackson! They do have a practical use!"
"What are you watching?" Percy asked coming into the living room.
"Clash of the Titans is playing," Annabeth said not looking up from her sketchpad.
"Original?" Percy asked.
"Well, yes, look at the effects." She said.
"Cool," he said. He bent down to move some of the paper spread all over the couch but Annabeth's eyes shot up and she slapped her hand on a book.
"No!" She said. "Don't touch anything!"
"I don't get it, why isn't this milk the one we have to buy?" Percy said. It was in a blue carton, like she said he had to run out and buy. Did the shade matter or something?
Annabeth looked away. "Percy just read the labels."
"You said blue carton! I got a blue carton! I don't understand." He said.
"Whatever," she said turning back.
"Oh, come on, don't 'whatever' me like I'm too stupid to understand everything that goes through your ingenious brain." Percy said. He hated 'whatever'. She mumbled something.
"What?"
"Forget it," Annabeth said. "I'll just get the milk next time."
He hated 'forget it' too.
She sat on the couch's corner, legs extended in front of her. She felt Percy sneak up behind her and look down at the pages of the book she was reading.
For a few seconds she ignored it but she couldn't focus on the words and she got jittery. She felt his breath on her neck as he read over her shoulder. She snapped the book shut and turned around.
"Do you mind?"
"What, don't you want me to read?" Percy said.
"Yes, but not over my shoulder please. It's annoying." Annabeth said.
"I've been at it for, like, ten seconds." Percy said.
"It's annoying!" Annabeth defended.
"Hey, so you know Nico's girlfriend?" Percy said after he sat down at the table after delivering a cauliflower and broccoli casserole.
"Jane? Yes," Annabeth nodded, dumping a scoop of vegetables and cheese on her plate.
"Well she's from San Francisco," Percy said.
"I know." Annabeth said her face blank like she was waiting for things to get interesting- for a new piece of information to come up.
"Well," Percy added. "She went to the same school as your brothers, only a million grades older."
"I know." Annabeth nodded.
"Fine then," Percy huffed. "Just be a know-it-all."
"Well, Percy, I knew where Jane was from already." Annabeth said. "I'm not being a know-it-all."
"Can't you at least pretend?" Percy asked. "I mean, it'd be cool to be able to tell you something that you find interesting."
Grover had just finished retelling the story of that one time he and Percy had nearly gotten killed on the climbing wall and as per usual everyone present at the New-Roman BBQ was laughing.
"That will never not find that funny." Percy said.
"You can't use double negation, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said irritably. People often joked about the grammar Nazi, and maybe Annabeth was a member. But if she was going to be bothered to listen to something, then whoever talked should be bothered to say it correctly.
Percy opened the cupboard for a plate that morning but couldn't find any. He opened the dish washer expecting to find still-warm plates, but they were all coated with tomato sauce or cheese or oil and whatever else they'd eaten that week.
"Annabeth," he groaned.
"What's wrong?" She asked walking into the kitchen dressed for work, putting an earring on.
"You forgot to turn on the dishwasher," he said. "Again."
"Oh," she winced. "Sorry… I just remember that last night there was a documentary and I was rushing to clean up the table because I didn't want to miss it. And then I had a project due this morning… And I had a few things to look up on Daedalus' laptop."
The fact that her brain could never shut up and stop thinking and wondering caused more than one instant of 'whoops, I forgot to do this uninteresting but pretty necessary mundane thing'.
She made him march into the bathroom.
"Percy what's that?" She asked pointing.
He frowned. "Umm, the toilet."
"Correct. And what is on top of the toilet?" She asked.
"The… toilet seat?"
"Also correct," Annabeth nodded. "Now: while you may lift it up when you have to pee, I'm assuming that you're familiar enough with female anatomy to know that I do not. Ergo when you don't lower it when you're done, it isn't fun and genuinely pisses me off."
"Annabeth," Percy called after looking at his watch and realising that he couldn't afford to fruitlessly look around any longer. He had to call in for backup. "I can't find my boots."
"The black ones?" She called from wherever in the apartment she was.
"I only own one pair of boots." Percy said from the front door where he was knelt in front of the wardrobe.
"Well sometimes Grover leaves his lying around," Annabeth justified. "They should be under the guest bed."
"What? Why?"
"The wardrobe was cluttered," Annabeth replied.
"Is that where my warm coat is too?"
"No, that's on the top shelf of our wardrobe." Annabeth said. "I thought it'd be a better, more efficient, way of storing the winter stuff."
Percy rolled his eyes. Efficient or not, it'd really help to know where his stuff was.
"Candy!" He said when he saw her sit down in the living room with a yellow bag of MnM peanut candies.
She nodded. "I had some change when I stopped to get a coffee."
He held out a cupped hand and Annabeth poured some out before munching on some herself, watching a movie he'd picked out.
Percy slipped the bag from her hands, poured back in all of the candies that weren't blue, and started rummaging and hand-picking the blue MnMs.
"Oh, come on." Annabeth said rolling her eyes.
"Annabeth, I need to look something up for school." He said crossing his fingers behind his back.
She clutched Daedalus' laptop, currently in tablet form.
"No." She said.
"Please?" Percy asked.
"No, it's mine."
"I'm not going to break it." He said.
"No." Annabeth insisted.
"Don't you trust me?"
"Yes," Annabeth said. "But still no."
She opened the cutlery drawer to get a spoon for her lunch after nearly tripping on something of Percy's that he left laying around. Gods, he could be so sloppy and messy sometimes... Upon reaching into the separator meant for spoons, she got a knife. Then a fork, make that two forks, and the rest were knives.
"Percy," she groaned. "Put the dishes away right."
"No, I did tell you that Reyna called." Percy said. "But see, there's a Post-it here. It's written there for you, I took a message. I even wrote 'you're' right."
Annabeth shook her head. "I don't spend my free time scouring for Post-its around the house in case somebody called."
"It was hung on the fridge," Percy said. "Because I knew it was your turn to make supper tonight. I didn't not tell you, you just missed it."
"Percy…" Annabeth sighed. "Besides, you're using double negation again."
"This really isn't my fault!" Percy said hands up.
"Well when I ask you to tell me when someone calls, I want you to say it with your voice. As in, with actual words which are actually spoken to me?" Annabeth said.
"But I get Post-its on the fridge when Jason or Grover or Jake calls!" Percy said spreading his hands, scrambling to find the logic.
"Percy, just don't do it again." Annabeth said.
"But-"
"Just don't."
"Why do you always have to have the last word?" He grumbled.
Flurries were peppering the view of New York the pedestrians had. It was all very festive, on Christmas Eve. Still, Percy felt like he was going to be sick.
"We should get some hot chocolate," he suggested as they passed by a stand.
Annabeth nodded. She was bundled up in a longish black pea coat, a set of grey mittens, hat and gloves keeping her bundled up and warm. The ends of her blond hair stuck out from her hat and her cheeks were rosy. She looked really cute, with her absolute hate of the cold after living in San Francisco and Camp Half-Blood for so long.
They sat on a bench after he brushed off the snow, drinking their cocoa.
He finished his cup pretty fast, crumpled it, and threw it in a trash bin before turning towards her.
"Annabeth I have something to say," he said.
"Alright," she said bringing the cocoa to her lips to take another sip.
"Like, it's important." Percy said.
She turned to face him and he thought he might lose it.
"So I know that we're completely different and that that can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the day. And I know that I tick you off, just as much as I know that you tick me off sometimes- because we're so different. But they say 'live and let live' and I think we're becoming really good at that. I don't even mind all your quirks anymore, they're just part of who you are and all of that is beautiful to me. So we've got 'live' down, right?"
"Right," Annabeth said cautiously.
"And they also say 'opposites attract' and I think that that's also true. And I think that I like the 'live' part that we nailed down so much… I kind of want to make it something permanent."
He took her cocoa from her hands, put it on the bench and knelt on the snow in front of her.
He reached into his pocket, mentally gave himself a standing ovation for having it, and took the case out.
"So I'd like to say… Annabeth Chase, will you marry me?"
She jumped him and held on so tightly, he didn't think he'd live. But he was glad he did, because then he got to hear the whispered 'yes'.