a/n: possible drabble series. . the seven's friendship will END me

1

Annabeth waited impatiently at the foot of the van, tapping the ground with her shoes to distract herself from the bubbling worry in her chest. The corduroy pants she wore itched around her calves, and the heat made tiny hairs on her neck stick.

"―deserved it. How is it my fault that―"

Her heart leaped to her throat as she turned her head to the sound of Percy's voice, which led her to the sight of her boyfriend and Piper stuck in what looked like a fueled argument as they trudged towards her.

"You didn't have to do that. You know I could've handled it myself!" Piper said, her arms firmly crossed.

"Did you expect me to just stand there, then?" Percy asked incredulously. They were closer now, although they hadn't acknowledged Annabeth yet. "Who do you think I am?"

Without a word, Annabeth approached them. Even with her heart finally back to a normal rate, she felt a slight pang of fear after fixing her eyes on the specs of dried blood on Percy's wrinkled blue shirt.

"Where were you two?" she hounded, nearly afraid of the answer, if their attitudes and appearances were anything to go by. "We were supposed to rendezvous here an hour ago! I was about to call Jason and Frank to start a rescue party. Were there monsters?"

Percy crossed his arms as Piper uncrossed hers and murmured, "Monsters are an accurate term."

Being the ever level-headed one, Piper nudged him with her elbow and gave Annabeth a sheepish grin. "Sorry, Annabeth. We just got kinda...caught up with a couple of mortals."

"Mortals," Annabeth repeated, trying to make sense of the excuse.

"There were some bigoted assholes that hit on Piper," Percy began heatedly, ignoring Piper's panicking head shake. "And even after she told them something I'm not sure I can repeat without proper context, they kept spitting slurs and crap."

"You didn't have to beat them up," Piper protested weakly.

"You beat them up?" asked Annabeth, glad there was no out-of-this-world attacks, but upset something like this happened at all. "Right there on the street? Cops didn't show up?"

"Oh, the cops showed up," the son of the sea god replied darkly. Annabeth felt a tiny chill before deciding she'll confront him about the matter soon enough.

"You didn't have to beat them up," Piper said again, stronger than before. "It's dumb, yeah, but I'm used to it."

"You shouldn't be," Annabeth and Percy said simultaneously. There was something almost self-deprecating in Piper's voice, even if it was unintentional, and Annabeth tried not to dwell on the fact that this must've happened many times before, when Percy hadn't been there to punch anyone.

Percy addressed Piper in a stance that was able to come off as both frustrated and concerned. "I still don't get why you didn't do anything to them."

All though Annabeth frowned at his uncharacteristic venom, she did have to agree. Piper's charmspeak could make mortals kneel before her and fan her with big leaves and feed her grapes if she wanted. She had a gift that Annabeth was sure would be lethal if she were on the wrong side, so thank the gods she was on theirs.

"That's not the problem, Percy," expressed Piper, furrowing her eyebrows in frustration. "It was really great of you to defend me, and I would've totally decked them, too, but I wanted to prove I didn't need to resort to violence to show I'm better than them."

She sighed and went up on her tippy toes to peck his cheek. "But that was totally sweet. No one's ever beaten up anybody for me before."

Smiling hesitantly, Percy shrugged, like he hadn't just laid loose on some mortals only an half an hour before. "Next time I beat people up," he promised, "maybe we could do it, y'know, together."

"I'd like that."

Annabeth massaged the bridge of her nose. Only those two could go from brutal to slightly less murderous and make it seem like the world was such a beautiful place in the span of three minutes. "We'll discuss this again later. Just get in the van so we can go home. Not that this isn't heartwarming, but do I have to remind you we're on a schedule?"

They seemed a little bit happier than a few minutes ago, and now, with Percy yelling shotgun! and Piper racing before him to open the passenger seat door and Annabeth praying to every god she knew personally and impersonally that nothing else would go wrong, all they needed was a day where they didn't have to be heroes or vengeance-seekers or sadists or anything but what they were.

And, at the very least, they knew what they were.