Title: Just Tune In
Characters: Annabeth/Percy, Grover, Chiron, Travis Stoll, Clarisse, mentions of Chris, Thalia, Tyson, Jake Mason & Connor Stoll
Genre: Starts out with Humor, then comes some Angst and then there's Romance&Fluff
Warnings: Spoilers up to 'The Last Olympian' (not for 'The Lost Hero'). And Annabeth acting like a very hormonal teenager on stereoids :-)
Summary: Annabeth and Percy are together, but when your boyfriend has become the Master-Prankster, you have to put your foot down. And that's exactly what Annabeth does: now, if only she could actually find him.
A/N: This is written for ladyeni. There is also a brief reference to my first Percabeth story 'Counting Sheep' but it is not necessarry to have read that first. It is inspired by 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite' the 'Across the Universe' version.

Just Tune In

Just tune in, turn off, drop out, drop in, switch off, switch on, and explode.

- Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite by Eddie Izzard

Sometimes, being the girlfriend of Percy Jackson seemed like the most tiring job ever. Often, it made Annabeth grit her teeth, clench her fist and – almost every day – roll her eyes at him. On the really bad days, she'd even feel a huge temptation to hit him with something hard (like a pick-up truck)

Sometimes, when he decided to go with Travis and Connor Stoll and make the lava-pit in the training grounds expel paint, so everyone came back covered in green or blue or purple muck, Annabeth really, honestly wondered what in Tartarus' she was doing with an immature brat like that. Or when Grover and him sat playing cards and would get into the dumbest fights over anything at all or all the times he started fighting with Clarisse – someone she had surprisingly started to think of as a friend – or when he decided that walking in his sleep when there were Harpies about was a good idea…

Not to mention that one time, when Thalia and her Hunter's had come to visit and Percy had 'tripped' and accidentally ended up with his hand on Emma's left breast. It had been so much trouble, having to stop twenty angry girls from ripping her boyfriend apart (she had wanted to do the deed herself).

Some days, Annabeth really wondered why they were together. Why she put up with his immature and childish and stupid and silly behavior, his annoyingly sarcastic remarks, his love of himself whenever someone would mention his fight against Kronos, not to mention his hair that sometimes, when he'd decided not to brush it in the morning, seemed almost gravity-defying.

There were times when she could get so riled up that she was this close! to telling him that it was over, that he had to get his act together and stop sneezing in other people's coffee goddammit! And it was one of these times that Annabeth actually found herself storming towards his Cabin, intent on doing just that (breaking up that is, not sneeze in the boy's drink).

But when she opened the door (well, more like threw it open with a surprising fury), there was no one there. The entire cabin was empty. No Percy, no Tyson.

What in the name of…? She quickly checked her wrist-watch: Seven P.M. Time to clean. So where the hell was he and why wasn't he cleaning?

Slamming the door as she left, Annabeth decided to go to the Hermes' Cabin first, but Travis could inform here that he had not seen Percy all day. Thinking about it, neither had she, mainly because she was mad at him for the whole sprinkler-fiasco the other night (how anyone could think that putting soda inside those things where a good idea, she would forever wonder), and so had taken to avoiding him all day. Annabeth had just been sitting in her Cabin, mulling over why she had to fall for so big an idiot and finally coming to the conclusion that water-bombs over the doors where one thing and putting glue on people's pillows a whole other, and she was really way too good to be with someone who thought that was funny (granted, she had been one of those to laugh the hardest when Connor had been chasing Percy and Travis through the Camp with a pillow attached to the side of his head, but that was beside the point!)

But, as it is, breaking up with someone who apparently wasn't there, was a bit hard. And she was getting worried.

"Hey!" Grover's voice rang out as he caught up with her. "I heard you were looking for Percy?"

Annabeth almost screamed in relief, but quickly checked herself. She wanted to break up with the guy: he was probably in hiding because he was afraid that she hadn't gotten all the Diet Coke out of her hair yet and was intent on murdering him.

"Yes. Where is he?" Annabeth really tried to sound like she actually didn't care that much, but she was pretty sure that she failed at that. Hard.

Grover frowned. "Didn't you know? He got sent away on a Quest, just this morning. Really early actually." He grumbled a bit more about that, having apparently been woken up at that time.

Something inside of her froze, but Annabeth wasn't sure why. Was it because he hadn't told her? Hadn't thought that she would like to know that her boyfriend might be heading towards infinite turmoil and extreme danger?

Or perhaps it was the thought that he might be out there, in the middle of infinite turmoil and extreme danger, that made her wary?

Don't be ridiculous.

"No. He didn't." Annabeth mumbled, trying not to sound too sad at the fact. It didn't work, as Grover sent her a pitying look (for which she almost punched him).

"He probably didn't want you to worry: it was apparently just a small thing, just in town. He probably thought he'd be back before you would even notice."

Annabeth blinked and desperately tried to ignore the cold feeling that had taken hold on her heart. "Oh? Then why isn't he back yet?"

To Grover's credit, he really tried not to look worried (Annabeth was Percy's girlfriend after all, and well, a girl and she'd been acting pretty crazy lately, so he didn't want to unnecessarily upset her), but if there was one thing Grover was good at, it was worrying and so he didn't really succeed.

"I'm sure that… you know… he'll be fine." Grover muttered, quickly moving away before Annabeth could really start panicking in his proximity (because frankly, he'd been there and done that, and a panicking Annabeth was something that would scare even Atlas)

As she walked back to her Cabin to help the others clean, Annabeth told herself that Grover was most likely right and Percy would be back later that same day.

Only he wasn't. Not that day and not the next and when another day went by without anyone having heard from him, Annabeth practically marched to Chiron's office and demanded that she be sent out to look for him.

But it turned out she didn't have to: apparently, when Percy hadn't returned on the first day, Chiron had already sent a team consisting of Clarisse, Jake Mason and Chris out. Annabeth didn't want to think about the indications that this spoke volumes of how dangerous the mission actually was. She wanted to rip of Chiron's head for sending Percy alone, but she kept her temper in check.

Annabeth was actually a bit proud of herself: she didn't freak out (at least not completely) on Chiron when she heard the full details on the Quest. She didn't yell at Grover for not telling her everything immediately. And she didn't cry when the three other demi-gods brought Percy's bruised, battered and unconscious body back to the Camp. At least not in public.

"He'll be fine," Clarisse assured her, in a surprisingly gentle tone for someone of… well, for someone like Clarisse. "We've already checked his vitals and everything is in order: no bones broken, nothing permanently damaged. He just got roughen up a bit, that's all."

And Annabeth knew that it was true, hell she'd seen Percy look worse, but that still didn't stop her from sitting beside him for almost an entire day, holding his hand.

She'd completely schooled her features into a mask of irritation, when he finally woke up later that same evening.

"Annabeth? Wha… ow, bright." He muttered and immediately closed his eyes again. Annabeth quickly stood up to dim the lights around them, before sitting down in the chair by his bed again.

"How are you feeling?" She asked. Not that I care,

"Like someone hit me with a glacier." Percy muttered and pulled himself upright in the bed. If Annabeth's hands shot out to steady him and make sure he didn't hurt himself too much, none of them noticed.

She couldn't help but smile at his description, but then her face turned serious. "Why didn't you tell me you were sent on a Quest?" She asked, her tone sharp.

Percy shrugged, the motion making him grimace in pain. "Because… well, I figured it'd be fast. And I didn't want to worry you."

Annabeth cocked an eyebrow and leaned away from him (apparently, being in too close proximity didn't do much for her ly… acting skills). "I wasn't worried." She practically hissed the words. "I hardly even noticed you were gone."

Percy sent her a look like a kicked puppy. "Really?"

Annabeth silently cursed for wanting to cuddle him after that. Focus girl! Paint everywhere! Ink in your hair, it took a week to get out!

"Um… well… you know… things have been busy…" She really, really, really wished he would stop hanging his head like that, his bangs just covering his eyes so she couldn't see the hurt in them, just the pouting lips.

Oh damn.

"Alright, I was worried sick, okay?" She yelled out loud, making Percy jump and stare at her in surprise. "You… I mean… you just leave and everyone is like, 'oooh, Percy'll be back before you even notice' and then you're not and nobody's told me where you were or what you were doing or if you were laying half-dead in a moat somewhere or…." She quickly stopped herself, staring at him in equal shock.

"Um," Percy mumbled. Annabeth blinked.

"Um," She said. "Sorry for… yelling at you."

"Uh… that's… alright."

A heavy silence followed, sitting on her shoulders like a heavy weight she couldn't lift. Since when had things gotten so awkward and complicated?

"So… I think I should be… sorry too." Percy's eyes flicked back and forth as if not quite wanting to look at her.

"What for?" Making me sick with worry. Almost dying without permission.

"I know I have been a bit… well, ADHD-like in the past few days." He said it so blandly, rolling his eyes at his own behavior and it was the sweetest, most endearing thing Annabeth had ever seen. "And I know a lot of it has been put on you and I'm really, really sorry… especially about that virus on your laptop, you know, that was really not on purpose, I just wanted to borrow…"

"Percy," She interrupted. "It's alright. Hey, I knew what I was in for, didn't I?" And it was true. She couldn't really be mad at him, couldn't really break up with him for being an annoying idiot. He was her annoying idiot after all.

"Really?" The way his eyes lit up made her smile wider than she had in almost a week.

Annabeth just smiled and leaned forward, catching his lips in a quick kiss. "Yeah. Really."

Percy grinned widely. "Cool."

She rolled her eyes at him, tussling up his hair. "Just… don't ever leave without telling me again, alright?"

"Yeah yeah."

She shot him a warning look. "Percy… do you promise?"

He sent her a smug smile. "You were really worried, weren't you?"

"Percy!"

"Okay, I promise. I swear on… on my girlfriend's smarts that I won't ever just leave on a Quest without informing her first, even if Chiron tells me not to."

Annabeth nodded. She knew she was grinning like a fool, but she just couldn't help it: Because, sometimes being the girlfriend of Percy Jackson seemed the most tiring job ever, but…

"Do I get another kiss?" Percy grinned at her.

But in the end, it was worth it.

"Maybe if you tell me what you meant by there being a virus on my laptop?"

-FIN-