This is the sort of crazy thing you come up with at 1 in the morning. Just a little one shot of Percy/Annabeth set the night after the battle in BoTL. Hope you enjoy.

I own nothing.

No, no there's no one else's eyes that can see into me. No one else's arms can lift, lift me up so high. Your love lifts me out of time, and you know my heart by heart...

- Heart by Heart, Demi Lovato

Broken Promises

She promised she wouldn't ever let herself love again. Not after what happened with Luke. And Annabeth Chase keeps her promises.

Until he came.

Stupid green-eyed pretty boy, she thinks bitterly. Why did it have to be him?

She's sitting by the creek, chin resting on her knees, legs drawn up to her chest. She comes here when she needs space, time to be alone. It's been her secret hiding spot for 8 years.

She knows it's stupid-coming to his domain when she's trying to get away from him. But she can't help it. The water pulls her here, just like his presence pulls her attention to him.

The irony nearly makes her smile. The Daughter of Athena drawn to her enemy's home turf. It's not smart, and it's not logical. It's sentimental-and that's one thing Annabeth never wants to be.

But Percy isn't her enemy. She knows that, despite the arguing and fighting and rows. He's the one person she would trust with her life, maybe even the only one. She doesn't know when that started and Annabeth hates not knowing.

She thinks of his face, of his brightness of his sea green eyes, and the tight sensation returns to her chest. She doesn't know when that started either.

Maybe during the time he risked everything to save her after she was abducted. She doesn't remember much of it-but she remembers the words the Daughter of Zeus whispered in her ears later that night on Mount Olympus.

He did it for you.

She still puzzles over it, but she can't quite figure out the meaning. He did it for you, Thalia told her, but she never explained why. She had figured out, long ago, how Kronos manipulated Percy. She knew his fatal flaw before he had known it himself.

Personal loyalty.

She knows that Kronos played her just like Grover and Sally Jackson. She knows that she was just another pawn in the big game. She knows that only one can survive, and nothing guarantees that it'll be her Seaweed Brain.

Her Seaweed Brain? she thinks with a jolt of surprise. He isn't hers, was never hers to begin with. She knows that his heart belongs elsewhere, maybe to a certain redhead, or a goddess on a lonely island miles away.

She knows where Percy spent those two weeks, knows why he came back-and it wasn't for her. He would never leave them to fend for themselves, not when he thinks it's his war to fight. Calypso and Rachel are beautiful-far more beautiful than she is or ever will be.

She knows Percy made his choice not to be with Calypso, knows that once he left he can never go back. It's Rachel then, has to be. She's tried to hate Rachel Elizabeth Dare but she can't. She gets where the redhead is coming from, and she can't hate her for it-not when she's feeling the same thing herself.

Annabeth knows falling for Percy Jackson isn't a good idea but she's doing it anyway.

In a few months, he could be dead. She could be dead. The world might have fallen to Kronos and the age of the Gods would be over. It's not exactly the most prudent time to start a relationship. But despite all that, she knows that if he asked her to be his girlfriend, she would say yes in a heartbeat.

She fell for him the way you fall asleep-slowly, and then all at once.

He's good-looking, even though he doesn't realize it. She sees the looks of the other girls in camp, even if Seaweed Brain is too oblivious to see it himself. But it's not just that he's hot. She knows if she were to be hanging off the edge of Tartarus right now Percy would sacrifice himself to save her. She knows he's selfless to the point of death, and she hates yet loves that about him.

He's brave. She knows that all too well from the past three years. He never gives up, and she understands why people look up to him-he's a natural leader. He inspires her to not give up on herself, on the world and the war. She doesn't know where she would be if Percy wasn't there, how she would be able to keep putting one foot in front of the other and carry on every day. She doesn't know where she would be if she didn't love him.

When she was younger, she used to admire the Hunters of Artemis. Used to want to join them when she was older. She even thought about it last year, considered it. But she wanted to ask him, know what he thought.

And that's when she knew. Because she never cared about anyone's opinions before, always just did what she wanted. But she cared about his. She cared what he thought of her decision.

She refused to acknowledge it at first, but then he squeezed her hand on Mount Olympus and turned to her, green eyes wide with desperation. She didn't understand what he wanted, until Artemis announced her decision to appoint Thalia as her lieutenant and she realized he didn't want her to join.

That's when she thought that maybe, just maybe, he had feelings for her too.

"Back again?"

Her heart seems to stop in her chest and she's already on her feet, her bronze knife gripped in her hand though she knows who it is. Percy takes a step back, arms up. "It's just me, Annabeth."

"Oh." She lowers her knife, and looks away from him. "I'll just be going then."

She walks past him, but his hand grips her wrist and stops her. "Don't go, Annabeth. Stay, please."

He looks directly at her, and she knows it's a lost case. She can't resist the pleading look in his green eyes. "Just for a while."

They sit down on the rock and she lets her hand fall into the water, feeling the coolness on her skin, and she can't help but notice how the clear water is almost exactly the same shade of his eyes.

"How did you know I was here?" she asks, just to break the silence.

"You're not the only one having trouble sleeping," Percy replies and for the first time she notices the tiredness on his face and the shadowed look in his eyes. He's just fifteen, but he looks so much older.

His hair-messy as always-falls into his eyes and automatically she lifts her hand to push his hair away from his face. That's when her mind catches up with her actions and they both freeze.

Percy gently catches hold of her wrist and she doesn't move, still looking into his eyes.

Her hand is in his and it feels so natural, so right, like his hand was always meant to hold hers. "Why did you do it?" he asks abruptly.

"Do what?" she asks, confused.

"Kiss me. On St Helens." His eyes search her own grey ones. They're just like the sea, she thinks. Unreadable and mysterious. The lie falls from her lips easily, although it nearly breaks her heart to say it.

"A good luck kiss. You're my best friend, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth laughs, but she knows he's not convinced.

"So if Grover was going to die tomorrow, you would kiss him?"

"Of course not," she replies instantly, and then her eyes widen when she realizes the trap she has fallen into. "Grover's your best friend too, isn't he?" Percy presses, and Annabeth's blood runs cold. He's figured it out.

"It's different," she protests weakly, but the game's up and she knows it.

"Tell me the truth, Annabeth," Percy asks her again, his voice softer. "Why did you do it?"

If she has to be honest, she doesn't know. She doesn't know why she acted so impulsively, but she suspects her messed up female hormones had something to do with it.

She just shakes her head and looks away, because she can't be so vulnerable with him, not right now when she's so confused herself. "Annabeth, look at me."

She doesn't want to, but his voice compels her. Reluctantly, she lifts her eyes to meet his and before she knows what's happening, his lips brush hers.

Annabeth has never been kissed before, but her instincts take over for her. His arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer, and her own hands reach up and lock around his neck. His lips are soft and salty, and he kisses her gently. She doesn't have a name for the myriad of emotions that floods through her, so she lets herself forget about the war, about Luke and Kronos, and focuses on the boy sitting beside her.

She doesn't break the kiss, and neither does he, both of them never wanting the moment to end. She pulls her lips away from his eventually, and she realizes that she's practically sitting on his lap but she doesn't care.

"I love you," Percy says, and Annabeth catches her breath because there's something in his voice that brings tears to her eyes. "I don't know what you did to me Annabeth, but I can't see you so hurt like this and not want to hold you and make you feel better. I can't see you every day and not want to kiss you."

The tears spill from Annabeth's eyes then, because out of every girl out there, he chose her.

So Annabeth does what any teenage girl would do when a boy tells her he loves her. She kisses him like her life depends on it, and then she pulls back to tell him the words she needs him to hear.

"I love you."

She leans towards him again and their lips meet. It's not a slow, sweet kiss anymore, it's full of love and desire and Annabeth feels the happiness spread through her body like a tidal wave.

She remembers as though from a dream the promise she made to herself-how she vowed never to love again. But maybe some promises are meant to be broken.