A/N: Percabeth! Pre-established relationship.

Enjoy! For all you PJO fans, and even though this is a Percabeth story, I'm coming out with a long Percy/Artemis story soon. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you would like to read it I hope to see you back!

Enjoy

Gone Awry

Annabeth panted hard, her breath curling in front of her face, knife held in front of her as she crept through the forest, thick snow barely crunching underfoot. She had heard screams coming from all around her, her fellow campers being snared and caught up in traps, but now it was completely silent. She didn't know which one scared her more.

She quickly jumped as the floor gave out from under her, but didn't make it in time. She just barely managed to catch onto the edge, her knife falling into the pit. She swallowed hard and slowly hoisted herself up, sweat stinging her eyes. When she made it up she stayed on all fours and caught her breath. That was the third trap she had hit in the past ten minutes. She saw a blur race by her and her eyes widened. He had it.

She scrambled to her feet and raced after him, but he just kept getting farther and farther away. She swore and pushed herself to her limits. The man jumped, seemingly over nothing, and it took until she reached where he had jumped to she realize that he had to have done so for a reason. So she hurriedly jumped…but this time it really was too late. A snare tightened around her ankle and hoisted her upside down a few feet above the ground.

She heard cheering and she sighed, just dangling. Percy came up to her with a broad smile on his face, still holding the flag. He went in to kiss her playfully, but she turned her head with a disgusted look on her face.

"Just cut me down, Percy," she spat, a disgusted look on her face.

Percy cut her down, catching her and putting her on her feet. "What's the matter?" he asked, genuinely confused.

Annabeth pushed him off of her, a cold look in her eyes. "I can't believe you."

"What did I do?" Percy asked.

"Coming in beforehand and loading the forest with traps," she said, fists shaking in fury.

Percy grinned. "Brilliant, eh?" he said, totally oblivious to the mood.

"That's underhanded," she shot back.

"All's fair in love and war," Percy replied a little warily. He was finally catching on.

"This isn't war," cried Annabeth, not caring that some campers were gathering around them. "This is capture the flag! Show a little respect to your opponents!"

Percy's eyes narrowed. "I get it," he said. "If it had been you who had come up with it and you won, I guarantee you we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Then Annabeth's eyes narrowed…much more dangerously than Percy's. "Are you saying I'm being a sore loser?"

"Didn't come out of my mouth," Percy replied, his voice rising. "Why can't you just accept the fact that I outmaneuvered you?"

"Because you did it in a sneaky and underhanded way!" she yelled back, her face turning red.

"Yeah, because if you go into a real battle, the other side isn't going to set traps," said Percy, sarcasm lacing his voice. "This is supposed to be a battle simulation, not a little girl scouts' outing."

Annabeth pushed Percy hard, catching him off guard and sending him to the ground. There was a snapping sound as he impacted, pain shooting up his arm.

"Holy Gods, Annabeth," Percy moaned, cradling his arm. Annabeth felt the slightest twinge of guilt, but was too angry to care at that point.

"What the hell is your problem, Annabeth?" said Thalia angrily, coming up and pushing her.

"Stay out of this, Thalia," said Percy, standing up. Annabeth glared at him, and he said, "Look, Annabeth. I'm sorry for what I said, but I'm not sorry for setting traps. It's just part of the fight."

"Why can't you just quit being stubborn and admit that you were wrong?" Annabeth yelled.

"I'm sorry, alright Annabeth?" said Percy, annoyed. "I'm sorry for the stupid, underhanded, perfectly legal traps."

Annabeth shook her head at Percy and pushed her way through the crowd, not caring about their muttering. Not only did Percy cheat, but he mocked her with a sarcastic apology? That just didn't work. She wrenched the Athena door open and slammed it closed, tearing her armor off of herself. She let it drop on the ground and immediately climbed into bed, ready for this crappy day to be over.

She was awoken the next morning by a knock on the door, which she groggily answered. She had tossed and turned most of the night, too angry to properly fall asleep. So, naturally, she was scowling when she opened the door.

"Yes, Chiron?" she said when she saw who it was.

"You have toilet scrubbing and dish cleaning for a week," he said, his tone somber.

Annabeth resisted the urge to groan. That definitely wouldn't earn her any points. "For what?" she asked calmly.

"Fracturing Percy's wrist in three places," replied Chiron.

Annabeth sighed, the urge to argue almost overwhelming her. "Fine," she said shortly. "That's just great."

She went to shut the door, but Chiron gently stopped it. "Annabeth," he said. "You need to calm down. You're being a little unreasonable and harsh towards Percy."

"Well, he should've thought of that before he set traps, shouldn't he?" Annabeth replied defensively, her stomach churning again.

Chiron sighed almost inaudibly. "Well, have a good day and try to keep what I said in mind."

"Yeah, have a good day, too," replied Annabeth, sighing again as she let the door shut.

"Toilets and dishes for a week?" she raged. "That's so unfair! It's not my fault if Percy landed wrong!"

She received no sympathy from her cabin-mates, just scoffs and shakes of heads. She huffed and got dressed, pulling her hair into a ponytail because it would've been too much work to brush it. She went straight to the weapons shack and grabbed a wooden sword before going to the practice arena and beating the crap out of a dummy, Mrs. O'Leary watching with interest. A good fifteen minutes into Annabeth's attempted dummy-murder, Mrs. O'Leary let out a couple of happy barks and bounded towards the arena entrance, circling Percy with her butt up. Percy tossed a big bone to the other side of the arena, watching his hellhound pounce on it as he walked towards Annabeth, who was beating the dummy even more ferociously.

"What's up?" he said, shading his face with his hand.

Annabeth sighed and stopped beating the dummy, not looking at her boyfriend. "You really went and whined to Chiron?" she asked, finally glaring at him through cold eyes. Her stomach twisted even more as she looked at the cast on his wrist. She turned away though, still refusing to admit that she was wrong. "I've got toilet and dish duty for a week," she snapped.

"I'm sorry," Percy said, inching closer to her.

She didn't respond except to go back to her dummy beating, her throat burning and tears pricking her eyes. She didn't know why she was treating Percy so poorly or why she was responding the way she was, only that she was angry and she was right. Why was he the one apologizing when she had fractured his wrist?

Percy's hand gently came on top of hers, stopping her swings, and she turned angrily towards him. "You really have nothing to say in response?" Percy asked, looking at her expectantly.

She looked at him, her anger mounting. How dare he? "Yeah," she said coolly. "Leave me alone."

Percy's hand fell from hers as he scoffed and shook his head. "Really?" he said, searching her eyes. "Fine. I tried being nice and apologizing. You'd really rather me just leave you alone? After everything we've been through, you're going to let it end like this? Because now's your chance to speak up."

"Really?" Annabeth mocked. "You're really going to throw me under the bus and treat me like trash? I don't think I need someone like that in my life at the moment. So…yeah, I'm going to let it end like this."

Percy let out a disbelieving chuckle. "You're really breaking up with me because I set traps beforehand for capture the flag…wow," he said. "Wow, okay. That's cool if you value your pride more than our relationship. Consider this the last time we speak civilly to each other, I guess."

She was unable to respond as he shook his head one last time, turned, and left the arena. "Good going, Annabeth," said a voice from behind her. She turned around to see Thalia, who continued pouring on the sarcasm. "Great way to treat your boyfriend after fracturing his wrist. Good job apologizing. Oh wait, that's right…Percy apologized, even though he did nothing wrong."

Annabeth's lower lip quivered. "Be quiet," she said shakily, her emotions getting the best of her.

"I will once you start acting your age," said Thalia harshly. "You're acting like you're twelve, not eighteen. You're being stubborn and immature, and for your information Percy pleaded with Chiron for over a half hour to be given a punishment for provoking you."

Annabeth's sword fell on the arena floor with a clang, her tears threatening to spill over. "He did?" she asked numbly.

"Last night, he came to my cabin to ask me if I knew if there was something wrong with you," Thalia continued. Annabeth's throat began burning. "He's worried about you, fractured wrist and all, and here you are acting like the world's biggest psycho. You broke up with him because you lost in capture the flag…are you insane?""

By this point Thalia was only a couple feet from Annabeth, whose face crumpled as she burst into tears. "I'm a horrible person!" she wailed, staggering forward and hugging her friend, who sighed and rubbed her back comfortingly. "I-I don't know w-why I'm treating him l-like this, I'm just o-opening my mouth and my s-stupid brain is doing the r-rest automatically!" she cried.

"I think the answer to all this is to just apologize," Thalia replied soothingly. "Percy's pretty forgiving. Just make sure to think before you speak," she continued. "Everything will be alright."

"Thanks," said Annabeth thickly, giving her a smile as she wiped the tears off her face.

It was time to set things straight.

It wasn't until later that Annabeth found Percy, though not exactly in the manner she wanted to. It had been over three hours since she had initially gone looking for him and this was her fourth time knocking on the Poseidon cabin's door.

Oddly enough, Charles Beckendorf answered. "No children of Athena allowed," he said, scowling at her.

"Beckendorf, is Percy in there?" Annabeth asked.

"It's none of your business," replied Beckendorf.

"I'm his girlfriend, of course it's my business," replied Annabeth, not liking Beckendorf's attitude.

"Get out of here, Annabeth," said Percy's disembodied voice from behind Beckendorf.

Beckendorf sighed and stepped aside, allowing the two to talk face-to-face. Annabeth cringed as she saw his disheveled hair and puffy eyes. She hadn't really ever seen him cry before.

Percy shut the door and stepped outside, giving them privacy from Beckendorf. "What do you want?" Percy asked warily. "Come to have another go at me?"

"No, I came to apologize," she said. "I was being a complete idiot."

Percy blinked at her a few times. "Okay," he said.

"Uh," said Annabeth, beginning to blush. "You were right, and I was wrong. I was just being a sore loser, and I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you like that."

"I understood what you said the first time," said Percy. "And I said okay."

"Okay what?" said Annabeth. "That isn't an answer."

"It means okay, we're done," said Percy. "You came here to do what you had to do and I listened, so both parties are happy." After a long, awkward pause, Percy said, "You can go now."

"But…I…I'm sorry," Annabeth said softly, her heart rising to her throat painfully.

"What do you expect me to say?" replied Percy. "Do you want me to smile and hug you and kiss you and rejoice that you managed to do what you should've done in the first place?"

Annabeth took in a shaky breath. "That would be nice," she said defiantly, knowing the question was rhetorical.

"It would, wouldn't it," said Percy cruelly. "It would be great if I acted like nothing ever happened even though it obviously did. It would be great if I just gave in to your every whim and treated you like a goddess, wouldn't it?"

"Stop it," said Annabeth softly.

"Stop what?" Percy asked. "Am I bothering you?"

"Stop it!" Annabeth said louder.

"Does it bother you that I really don't care about your apology now? Does it bother you that I don't want to accept it and teach you how it feels to be treated like trash?" he asked.

"I said I was sorry!" Annabeth yelled. "I meant it! Please, please just forgive me! I was being totally unreasonable and you were right all along!"

Percy's expression faltered, then came back even stronger. "I'm going back inside now," he said through clenched teeth.

But Annabeth tackled him hard, landing on top of him and pinning him down. Percy struggled to break free, but she was in perfect position to use his greater weight and strength against him. "I'm not letting go until I get the answer I want," she said. "Because I know you want it, too."

Percy sighed and relaxed, realizing he wasn't getting out of this one. "Look, Annabeth," he said. "I suck at being mean. You know I didn't mean those things I said." Annabeth nodded. "But you hurt me worse than I've ever been hurt in my life, and I'm not talking about the fractured wrist. I never want to go through that again."

Annabeth sighed. "Look, I know I was being crazy and harsh, Percy," she said. "For some reason, I just couldn't stop the words from coming out of my mouth. But after talking to Thalia, I feel better. Can I please just tell you I love you and kiss you and we can pretend like the last twenty-four hours didn't happen?"

Percy didn't answer for over a minute, leaving Annabeth's heart to pound a tattoo against her ribcage. "Promise me it'll never happen again," he said vulnerably.

"I can't," Annabeth whispered sadly, leaning down so their faces were close to each other. "Relationships just aren't all that healthy if you don't have a few good fights every once in a while. It's like working out; you tear your muscle so it can grow back even stronger. You're sore for a little while, but you feel much better once it's over. And both of us aren't perfect, so I definitely can't promise that I'll never be mad at you again." Then she smiled and said, "But I can promise you that I'll never put you second to my pride ever again. That was just stupid."

Percy chuckled, then suddenly overpowered her and pinned her to the floor. He was smiling, though, as he said, "Yeah, that was pretty stupid."

They stared into each other's eyes for a long moment, then Annabeth whispered, "You know what else is stupid?"

"What?" Percy replied.

"That you haven't kissed me for almost a whole day and our faces have been less than a foot apart for over two minutes already," she said, her breath tickling Percy's lips.

Percy grinned at her and captured her lips with his own, smiling against them. Annabeth melted into him, rolling them over so she was on top, lingering as she pulled away from his mouth to smile at him lovingly.

They may have just had the hardest twenty-four hours of their relationship so far, but Annabeth knew that as long as they had each other, they could get through any curveball life would throw their way.

A/N: I know they both acted a bit OOC and childish (and the ending was kind of abrupt), but that's just the way I felt like writing it. If you didn't like it, then…well…you didn't like it. Tough.

On a lighter note, thanks for reading and please review! (If you can spare a few seconds!)