Author's Note: This is my first story for the Percy Jackson fandom. It starts out very angsty, but will eventually turn into pure Percabeth fluff, I promise. Mortal AU.
TRIGGER WARNING: ALCOHOL AND DRUG USE, MENTIONS OF PHYSICAL ABUSE
She appeared into his life while he was in a haze of alcohol and the bright city lights. To him, she was the prettiest woman in the world. He was starstruck by her.
…
That first night, they only shared four words. The night was filled with careful touches and passionate feelings. She was gone by the time the sun rose, leaving only her phone number.
…
The nights continued on like that, with few words and mumbled names. He was a fading low life actor, it wasn't like he had anything to do but get drunk and high and waste his life away anyways.
…
Slowly, somehow, he fell in love with her. In his eyes, she could do no wrong. They continued their secret meetings, despite him being in a relationship with somebody else at the same time. They were bound to be find out, but he didn't care.
They never met in the daylight, only the in the silent nights. The only ones who could tell their secret were the moon and the stars.
…
He broke up with his girlfriend three weeks later. No one could ever compete with his nightly visitor. She was the only one he wanted to be with.
…
The years flashed by. Days were a monotonous repetition of his office job. He went through his days in a hungover slump, barely making it back home before falling back to the monster. Nights were snapshots of the life he could be living. Flashes of sweaty bodies pressed together and the feeling of being alive that he only got when he was with her. She completed him.
…
He quit his job. She had been pressuring him into it for months now. He readily agreed.
…
They made it four weeks without his job. Then they couldn't afford more of their monster. The fights began.
First it was just yelled words, but soon, it was physical. Hitting and slapping.
She left.
In the shadow of her, he decided to change.
After weeks, he found a job. Not a good job, but at least it was progress.
He shaved his hair off two weeks after she left. The memory of her hands grabbing on to his hair was too strong. He needed every aspect of her gone.
…
He pulled himself together, slowly but surely.
It was a long process, but it was what he needed to do.
…
Weeks without her turned into months, the months turned into years. Soon she was just a fading memory. He blocked her from his brain, the memories being too much for him to deal with. In the words of his therapist, it was easier for him to forget than to struggle with the memories of her.
…
He had just received a big promotion, and he was over the moon. This was the chance he was waiting for. The first twenty or so years of his life had been hellish, but now he was reaching his full potential. He had been born for greatness, he had just forgotten it for a few years, but now he was ready for his destiny.
His happiness was shattered when he saw her again. She had grown her hair out longer, and she looked even better than when he had first met her.
She approached him quickly as he backed farther and farther towards the wall. He would not fall back under her spell. He knew he was in trouble when his back hit the rough stone counter. This was not how he planned to spend his day. He would not allow her to speak to him like this. Her voice was condescending, almost like she pitied him. He excused himself. She was a memory he was dying to forget.
His skin was still feeling overly flushed when another woman began making her way towards him. She was stunning, with her perfectly tanned skin and her blonde hair. She wore a loosely fitting light blue shirt and black shorts. Her gray eyes were filled with an unreadable expression.
He learned a lot that day: her name was Annabeth, she ran away when she was young and spent most of her childhood in foster homes, and that she had a love for cats. He also got her phone number and they agreed to meet a few days later at a local restaurant.
…
She sat between his legs in his apartment while he braided her hair. Methodically, he twisted the three strands around and around as they watched a movie on his small television.
After the first date, they agreed to meet again, and again. They had been "officially" dating for almost a month now.
Suddenly, she turned around and put her mouth on his.
He wasn't expecting it, and for half a second, he hesitated. She pulled away, her eyes once again unreadable. Her face asked a silent question, and instead of answering, he placed his lips onto hers. She reciprocated, and soon, he was straddling her on the couch, with her shirt pulled up and his lips on her neck.
That was the first time she stayed the night.
…
When he woke up, he panicked.
He thought he had slipped back into his life before. He hadn't had much physical contact with someone of the opposite sex in many years, and now, out of the blue, he had a woman in his arms again. She nuzzled her face into his neck as she began to stir from her sleep.
Watching her now, he felt an emotion he hadn't felt for another human in a long time, love.
He loved Annabeth. He loved how obsessed she was with trivia, and how she knew almost every question. He loved how she had become an architect, despite having been told that she would never be able to do it. He loved how passionate she was about things she cared for.
He traced "I love you" on her back during the minutes while she was waking up, assuming she hadn't known what he had traced.
She mumbled, her face in his chest, "I love you too". He stopped tracing and gazed into her eyes.
Then they resumed the activity they had been doing the night before.
…
They got married four years later. It was a quiet event.
They honey-mooned around the world. Her dream was to travel.
For years, they traveled. He worked as a journalist, and she worked online. It was perfect. They were happy.
They decided to settle down when they found out that they were going to be parents.
…
Their first child was a son, Luke. He was born in the early morning just as snow began to fall outside the window of the hospital room.
They had a daughter three years later, Allison. She was the polar opposite of Luke. As the sun set (Annabeth remembers the setting sun vividly, for some reason. Percy was never exactly sure why.), their second child entered the world. She was a screamer, so different from the solemn Luke.
…
The rocking chairs moved back and forth as Percy and Annabeth watched their grandchildren run through the grassy plains. Behind them stood the house where they had spent their retirement, rich with memories. Percy had just finished retelling the story of him and Annabeth meeting to their oldest grandchild. She had heard the story countless times, but always asked to hear it again.
"How did you know you loved her?"
"I knew I loved her when being around her filled me with so much joy that my heart felt like it was going to burst into thousands of pieces."
Author's Note: Review please!