Percy sees her hair, first. The blonde ringlets fall to her waist and he is one hundred percent certain that she's a princess: until he notices she's wearing a bright orange t-shirt and denim shorts. Not the usual princess attire, but still stunning. She's weaving through the crowds, dodging people and strollers with expert skill, like she's on a mission.
Without even really thinking about it, he follows.
She enters The Emporium and he almost loses her in the midst of the crowds inside, but he just manages to keep her in sight. He follows her through the store to the pin displays - spinning racks filled with hundreds of collectible Disney pins, and shelves bursting with related memorabilia, like lanyards and bags. Percy doesn't really have the attention span to get into collecting anything, so he doesn't really get all the hype about these pins, but the girl is browsing the shelves with her brows furrowed, obviously looking for something particular.
It's while he's hovering by the shelf with the bags on it that he comes to his senses. Now that he's followed this stranger in here, what is he going to say to her?
"I just wanted to let you know you have hair like a princess, sorry for stalking you"?
No. He looks down at his scuffed shoes, cheeks burning. This is very unlike him. He doesn't normally follow pretty girls into crowded stores. Especially not when he has no idea what to say to them. Especially not when they're so completely and utterly out of his league.
He turns to leave, and his shoulder bumps someone.
"Sorry!" he blurts out immediately, gaze flying up to meet a pair of cold grey eyes.
It's the girl. She doesn't say anything, just blinks at him. He opens his mouth and then closes it, because she's left him kind of speechless.
"That's okay," she says eventually.
Percy is hit by the sudden realisation that she's going to leave and he's never going to see her again unless he says something, right now. His mouth moves before his brain has a chance to catch up. "I'm Percy."
She quirks an eyebrow, but doesn't look offended. "I'm Annabeth."
Annabeth. That's definitely a princess name.
He doesn't say that to her though. Instead he says, "It's crazy how busy it is in here, right?"
"Oh, yeah," she says, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I'm not really a fan of these crowds. Plus it means all the stock sells out faster…"
"Were you looking for something in particular?"
"Yeah - Hey, do you work here?"
"No, I - I'm on vacation with my family. I just thought…"
Annabeth's laugh stops him before he can make a fool of himself. "It's okay. I work here - well, not herehere, I work in the parks, I mean. I was just… checking, if you did too."
"Oh. No. Where do you work?"
"I'm a character attendant, so I'm all over the place. Mostly at Hollywood Studios, though," she explains.
Percy searches his memory. "The blue shirts who stand with the characters, right?"
"Yeah, that's me."
His job as a lifeguard at the local pool back home suddenly seems less fun in comparison. "Oh, cool. That must be a fun job."
"It is." A brunette girl across the store spots Annabeth and calls her name, waving an arm over her head to really get her attention. Annabeth rolls her eyes, but fondly. "Oh, I've gotta go, I promised some friends I'd meet up with them to watch the parade."
"Yeah, I should go find my mom," Percy says.
Before he can regret saying it - a twenty year old talking about finding his mom, what a cool image to project - Annabeth smiles and says, "I hope I see you around, Percy."
She's three steps away before he finds the courage to call out, "Hey, Annabeth?"
When she spins back to him her hair flies out around her shoulders. "Hm?"
"What pin were you looking for?"
"A Hercules one," she says. "Him and Meg. They're my favourites. Let me know if you find one, won't you?"
And then her and her friend disappear into the crowd, leaving a dazed Percy to make his way back to his family. He doesn't tell his mom about Annabeth, who he still isn't certain isn't a real life princess, mainly because he can't quite believe he got to talk to her.
So Sally is immensely surprised when they're in line to meet Sofia the First the next day and the character attendant starts talking to Percy as if they're old friends.
"What a small park," Annabeth says, sidling up to them at the end of the line. Her hair looks even more golden against the blue of her shirt, and the radio she has clipped on her belt makes her look official and important, matching her straight posture and steely resting expression.
Percy goes bright red at the sight of her, partly because it's so unexpected and partly because he really wishes they could have been in line to meet pretty much any other character.
"Oh, hey, Annabeth. What a surprise," he says, quickly pointing to his little sister Ava, "Sofia is one of Ava's favourites."
"She is pretty cool," Annabeth says, attention immediately zeroing in on the six year old holding Sally's hand. She drops down to Ava's eye level and Percy's heart does a somersault. "What do you like about Sofia, Princess Ava?"
Ava beams at the title and straightens the plastic tiara on her head with chubby little fingers. "I like that she can talk to animals!"
"No way! I like that too. I wish I had a magic amulet that let me talk to animals," Annabeth says, throwing a knowing glance up at Sally, who's beaming.
"Me too!" Ava exclaims. And then she points up at Percy and says, "My big brother can talk to animals, too."
Oh, no. He's shaking his head, but Annabeth's already latched on to the idea.
"Can he?" she asks Ava. And then, directly to him, "Do you have a magical amulet, too?"
"No, I - I can't talk to animals, it's a game -"
"He can talk to horses!" Ava says, voice loud and bright, and Percy really wishes his mom would stop laughing.
"Horses?" Annabeth echoes, eyes wide. She's obviously loving this.
"And dolphins!"
"Dolphins?!"
"And fish," Ava says, nodding her head solemnly.
Annabeth gasps. "Whoa, that's awesome. How can he talk to so many different animals?"
Percy tries to cut her off, but Ava grabs Annabeth's hand and pulls her in close to whisper in her ear. He doesn't catch what his sister says, but he does see Annabeth's eyes dart up to meet his as her smile softens.
"Well," she says when Ava lets her go, springing back up into a standing position. "I'm sure you'll have lots to talk to Sofia about then, right?"
Ava claps her hands with excitement.
Percy desperately wants to know what she said to Annabeth, but doesn't have time to ask before they're at the front of the line, and then Ava's babbling away to Sofia about their holiday and princess dresses and Sofia is nodding along as she signs Ava's autograph book.
Annabeth steps in to take it when it's signed and says, "Hey, Sofia. Did you know that Percy here can talk to animals too?"
He looks at her, panicked, but her wicked smile assures him that any attempts to resists are useless. He ends up having a full conversation with Sofia, her exaggerated movements translated by a highly entertained Annabeth, who insists on getting the whole family in for the photo.
He almost asks her to join, but chickens out at the last minute.
"You didn't tell us about Annabeth," Sally says as they eat lunch that day.
"I just ran into her yesterday, Mom, I didn't think I'd see her again."
Sally smiles knowingly at him over her burger. "She seems very nice."
"Yeah, she does."
"Maybe we'll see her again, while we're here."
"Yeah, maybe." Percy hopes so, but he also doubts it. The chances of running into her today were slim enough, he doesn't want to know the odds of seeing her again.
Sally doesn't push it, but she does keep throwing him sly little smiles when she thinks he's not looking. Ava, for her part, enjoyed meeting Annabeth just as much as she enjoyed meeting Princess Sofia, and she makes sure everyone is well aware of this fact.
The next day he almost trips over her.
She's sitting cross legged on the ground, leaning up against a fence by the World Showcase Gateway at Epcot, and Percy has to swerve awkwardly to the side to avoid stepping right on her. She's in her orange t-shirt again, hair pulled back into a high ponytail, and Percy doesn't understand how he didn't see her sooner because now he can't take his eyes off her.
"Hey," Annabeth says simply as he apologises profusely. She tilts her head back to peer up at him. "Is this a habit of yours now, bumping into me?"
"Literally," he replies with a grin, and she beams back. "What are you doing down there?"
She glances around and gestures for him to lean down. Her voice is low when she says, "I'm waiting for a special character meet and greet."
He quirks a brow at her. "And that involves sitting on the ground alone?"
"It's training," she says, and he nods like he understands, even though he doesn't. "Schedules aren't as strict, things can take a bit longer because they're all new to this. So it's more a general timeframe than a set thing. I'm waiting for Piper or Jason to message me times but… for now I'm just waiting. There'll be other cast members here soon, give it about fifteen minutes."
Percy tries to follow along. "And Piper and Jason are…?"
Annabeth's voice drops to a near whisper, so he has to crouch right in front of her and lean in close to hear. He can smell her lemon scented shampoo as her hair falls over her shoulder as she leans forward. "Friends with Meg and Hercules. That's who's coming out."
"Friends with?" She gives him a knowing look and suddenly it clicks. "Oh. Right! Yeah. Oh, wow. So you're waiting to meet Meg and Hercules, that's cool."
"Shhh! Don't say it too loud. As soon as they come out there's going to be a massive crowd, you have to keep it as quiet as possible for as long as possible." As Annabeth says it two more girls come and sit behind her. They flash her a knowing smile and she nods in greeting before turning back to Percy. "See? Already a line."
"Do three people make a line?" he asks.
"Four," she corrects, and he blinks. "There's four of us. You are going to meet them with me, aren't you?"
Of course he is, how could he not when she looks at him like that? "Yeah. Okay, yeah."
He settles down cross legged beside her and sends Sally a message explaining that he's hanging out with Annabeth and will meet up with them later. Annabeth is staring at him when he puts the phone back in his pocket.
"Thanks," she says, with no context at all, and he feels once again as though she's privy to information he is not.
"What for?"
"Waiting with me."
Percy's smile is easy, and Annabeth looks more relaxed than when he'd first arrived. "You're welcome. I couldn't help you find the pin, the least I can do is wait with you to meet them, right?"
"I haven't had any luck with the pin hunt either," she sighs. "Oh well."
Percy settles back against the fence. "Why are they your favourites?"
Annabeth's whole face lights up. Her eyes start to shine, and she swivels towards Percy as though she's about to tell him a fantastic story. "Something about the movie just resonated with me, from a really young age. I don't know what it is, exactly, but I've always loved it. It started my obsession with Greek Mythology - of course, the movie deviated a lot from the source material, but it's still a fun little interpretation. And the characters, I mean, how can you not love Meg? She's feisty and sarcastic and smart and… Anyway, when I was seven my parents brought me here - it was our last vacation as a family, before they separated - and I remember being so excited to watch the Hercules parade at Hollywood Studios. My dad put me up on his shoulders and Mom held my hand and all the characters waved at me, and it's one of the last happy memories I have of us all together. That's a big part of why I wanted to work here, actually. And on top of that, I ended up studying ancient mythology all through high school and even minored in it at college. All because of Hercules."
"Wow," Percy breathes.
Annabeth's cheeks flush a little pink. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just tell you my entire life story…"
"No, it's good!" he reassures her. "I like listening to you."
She looks up at him through her eyelashes and his heart beats double time. "You do?"
Percy nods, and Annabeth smiles.
The next fifteen minutes fly by as they swap stories - Percy tells her about life in New York, and she tells him about the one vacation she took there with her mom and the Yankees cap that she's still got. She talks about how she's moved around a lot, about how Disney feels more like home to her than any other place she's lived. He talks about Sally and Paul and Ava, and how happy this place makes them all.
When Hercules and Meg finally appear, the joy on Annabeth's face is comparable to Ava's at the sight of Princess Sofia. It doesn't seem to matter to her that these people are her friends in real life and that they were texting her ten minutes ago - she throws herself into the interaction wholeheartedly, dragging Percy in with her.
"Who's your friend?" Meg slyly asks Annabeth after they've been 'introduced'. She somehow manages to sign Annabeth's autograph book and stare Percy down at the same time.
Annabeth clears her throat and gives Meg a pointed look. "Percy," she introduces him.
He doesn't know what to do with his hands so he shoves them into his pockets. "Hi."
"Did he save you from a monster?" Hercules asks with an easy grin as he signs his autograph. "That's how Meg and I met."
"What a slice that was," Meg says.
Annabeth laughs, but before she can answer Percy offers, "We haven't had to fight any monsters yet, but if we do I think Annabeth will be the one saving me."
"I will?" Annabeth asks, sounding as surprised as Hercules and Meg look.
"Is Wonderboy here for real?" Meg asks, lips curling into a smirk.
"Oh yeah," Percy insists. "Look at you, you're definitely the hero out of the two of us."
Meg and Hercules share a knowing look as Annabeth stubbornly avoids everyone's gaze.
"Of course Annabeth's the hero, that's why she's wearing orange and gold: they're the official colours of heroes," Hercules points out once the autographs have been signed and they're trying to pose for a photo. "And Percy matches Meg, too."
Everyone looks down at what they're wearing, and Percy realises he's right. He's got on a purple t-shirt, matching Meg's dress, whereas Annabeth's orange shirt and tan shorts go with Herc's armour.
"It's a great couple's color scheme," Meg drawls, and Annabeth actually blushes.
"Does that make Percy the damsel in distress?" she quips, and everyone laughs.
Once the photo's been taken they all hug and say their goodbyes. Meg winks at them as they leave, and Hercules leans down to whisper something in her ear that makes her laugh. Percy wonders what they'll say to Annabeth about him later.
They stop a short distance away and Annabeth stores her autograph book safely in her bag before asking, "Are you busy tomorrow night?"
Percy mentally scans his schedule. "No, I don't think we have anything in particular planned."
"I've got a bunch of FastPasses for Magic Kingdom that are about to expire, do you wanna help me use them up?"
"Like… together? You and me?"
"Well… yeah. If you'd like. You don't have to, it's okay, I was just -"
"I'd love to." Percy grins at her.
"You would?"
When he nods, Annabeth finally allows herself to grin back.
When Annabeth said she had a lot of FastPasses, she wasn't lying. She hands a bunch over to Sally and Ava when they first meet up, and she and Percy still manage to go on almost every ride with almost no wait.
Her favourite is Space Mountain, but Percy prefers Splash Mountain - Annabeth screams and grabs for his hand as they go over the drop, and after that their hands just seem to keep on finding their way back together. They walk through the park hand in hand, they put their arms around each other for photos, and by the time they're standing in the middle of Main Street USA waiting for the fireworks, Annabeth has her head resting on Percy's shoulder.
He wipes his sweaty palms on his jeans and reaches into his pocket, hand closing around something small and cold.
"Hey, Annabeth," he says, and she stands up straight, eyes wide with anticipation. He thinks about how easy it would be to kiss her right now - how soft her lips would feel beneath his, how nice her body would feel enveloped in his arms. He clears his throat and pulls his hand out of his pocket. "I, um, I have to go home in two days, and that's going to suck."
She laughs a little, but she's frowning slightly, unsure of where he's going with this. "It is going to suck."
"But I wanted you to know you've made this vacation the best I've ever had, so, to thank you, I got you this…" Percy unfurls his palm to reveal the pin Annabeth was looking for on the day they met.
Meg and Hercules are standing back to back in full color enamel glory, and even Percy can admit that it is a pretty cool pin.
Annabeth gasps and grabs for it with one hand, her other one flying to cover her mouth. "Percy, oh my god! You found it! Where?"
He shrugs one shoulder and says with faux modesty, "You're not the only one with connections around here."
She throws her arms around his neck and hugs him tight. Percy buries his face in her hair and breathes in the scent of her and thinks that Disney magic is definitely real. To his surprise, when she pulls back, she doesn't step away or move her hands from behind his neck.
Instead, she murmurs one word - "Percy" - and then she leans in and kisses him.
It's soft and sweet and Percy feels as though he's about to melt with happiness. The bang of a firework going off makes them jump apart, but not for long; before they've even stopped laughing they're kissing again, the boom of the fireworks resonating through them, beating in time to their hearts.
Yeah, Percy thinks to himself, Annabeth is definitely a princess.
A package from Disney arrives at their apartment a week after their holiday ends. It's addressed to Percy but he opens it in the lounge where Sally and Ava can see too.
It's a beautiful, official sketch of Meg and Hercules, arms around each other. The artist has signed the bottom corner, but neither the signature nor the picture itself is what Percy's interested in.
He reads the message scrawled on the side of the sketch a few times just to make sure it's real, but even when he hands it over to Sally and hears her read it out loud, he still feels like it's a dream.
Wonderboy,
A little thank you present of my own. (I got myself one, too, so now we have a matching set.)
Thanks for letting me show you around my home - maybe next time you can show me around yours? I would love to see NYC again. Let me know, Percy.
Love,
Princess Annabeth
a.n. i worked as a character attendant at wdw and percabeth are my ultimate otp so this story is near and dear to my heart.
if you'd like to read more of my stuff i recommend following me on tumblr (i'm bananannabeth) as i tend to post stories there far more often than i do here. thanks for reading!