Percy runs into her again at the county fair a couple years after she leaves. She doesn't say hello, but then again she didn't give him much of a goodbye either. She never was one for pleasantries.

He isn't sure it's her when he stops her, placing a hand on her arm, but then she shoves him into the corn-dog cart nearly giving him a concussion, and then he isn't sure that is could be anyone else.

(He remembers the day she tries to teach him how to punch properly. "You have to put your thumb outside your fist Perce," she had said. She grasps his hand, pulling his thumb so hard he thinks it's bound to snap. He looks down at her but he doesn't say anything and he thinks maybe his silence was his mistake.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asks.

"Like what?" he says, grinning to throw her off. "You're seeing things in your old age, 'Beth."

"You're absolutely hilarious," she says rolling her eyes and walking away.)

"Annabeth," he breathes, rubbing his abdomen because she still has a killer punch. "It's me."

Annabeth stops where she is and turns around slowly, swallowing and tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Percy," she says offering a strained smile. "Long time no see." He stares for a while; doesn't say anything, just takes a moment to look at her. She looks almost the same as she did when she left, sunshine threaded into her hair and hurricanes in her eyes.

("I'm gonna beat you, Percy!" she says, laughing and when she turns back around to stick her tongue out at him, the sun hits her just right; her eyes turn into molten mercury, her hair turns into gold. He almost trips.

She laughs again. "You idiot," she says and that's when he falls. She laughs as she walks back to help him up.)

(She told him that she was going to destroy him, once, and he marvels at the accuracy of her thirteen-year old self.)

He's been feeling off the entire day, and this is what sets him off, seeing her after four years of radio silence. Something settles in the pit of his stomach and twists and it hurts to talk to her, hurts to be near her, hell it even hurts to look at her. "Yeah," he laughs bitterly. "Whose fault was that?"

"Percy it wasn't like that-" she says, taking a step towards him. He takes a step back that turns into three but he doesn't notice that he's moving until her face crumples and he feels his back hit the cool steel of the cart.

"Of course it wasn't," he says, tears stinging his eyes. He blinks rapidly, trying to shake it off.

"Percy," she begins sadly. She reaches for him but seems to thinks better of it and her hand drops like a stone in water. He looks down at his feet. She looks up at the clouds. She can't seem to be able to finish her sentence so he doesn't let her.

"Well," he says wetly, "see you when I see you." And then he turns and walks away, not even bothering to apologize to the vendor, but Annabeth doesn't move. When he looks back at her she looks like she's crying but he doesn't go back because she promised she wouldn't leave, and she did anyway. He can't be mad at her any more- he could never be mad at her for more than a few days, but he's done trying to forgive.

He calls his mom when he gets home because he doesn't know what else to do. He's crying a little by the time she picks up, and she notices because she always has. "Percy? What's wrong, kiddo?" she asks.

Percy takes a while before answering and his mom waits. "I saw her again today."

"…Annabeth?"

"Yeah."

His mom sighs. "I'm so sorry sweetie."

"Yeah." He listens to her breathe on the other end for a while before he says, "Thanks Mom."

"Of course," she says sadly. "She shouldn't shouldn't have-"

"Don't," he says harshly because even after all that's happened it hurts to hear someone talk about her like that.

He hears his mother gasp quietly. "Oh, Percy," she says, cloyingly sweet, unbearably pitying. He listens to her bustle around in the kitchen for another minute before he hangs up.

When he goes to bed that night he remembers the day in the fort when they were twelve, the hazy quality everything had taken on for just a minute or two as she crawled on top of him sleepily. "Promise you'll be you forever," she had said, and he remembers the feeling of her hands in his hair, careful and soft and gentle.

He tries to shake it off, tries to shake her off. It doesn't work.

Annabeth corners him after his shift at the used bookstore that he (and Annabeth) used to hang out in with a smile and a cup of coffee. "Figures you'd be working at this place huh?" she says. Percy offers her a smile because he could never be mad at her for long. He waits. He's been doing that for a while now.

Her smile falters a bit when he doesn't answer. "Look," she begins carefully. "I know that what I did was unfair and I should've told you, I just…I was scared and…" she trails off and taps her cup. "I should have told you," she repeats firmly. "And I'm sorry, I know it's gonna take a while for things to back to normal and could we be friends, please?" she says, looking up at him through her lashes.

Percy exhales slowly. He wants to say yes; he can feel the words crawling up the back of his throat, but he can't because this is Annabeth Chase. She already broke his heart the first time she left, and he can't let her love him and leave him again. "You know we can't go back."

She doesn't give up. "Coffee? At Katie's?" And then she gives him that look that even her mother couldn't resist and so he concedes and nods.

"Okay," she says tentatively.

He thinks it might be worth it to see her smile again.

"We both know I'm really really really sorry, and I'll buy you like…three coffees and a box full of cookies and handcuff us together-"

"That won't be necessary-"

"Just, whatever it takes you know?"

Percy sighs. "Okay. But it's gonna take a lot more than caffeine," he says gesturing to the cup in his hand.

"So…yes to the handcuffs," she says with that wicked grin of hers.

"What? No! Annabeth, you- stop laughing at me!"

Once she calms down she asks, "Ice cream?"

Percy grins at her tentatively. "You know me so well," he says, offering her his arm.

She beams, bright and unafraid and Annabeth and when she looks over at him again, it's like she never left at all.

Annabeth tells him about her parents fighting when they're in the sixth grade. She doesn't know why she does; she's never told anyone before. Percy doesn't understand it, even though his dad left a long time ago.

"I thought they loved each other," he says, his brow furrowing.

"So did I. But Dad said that sometimes people can fall out of love."

Percy's entire face scrunches up when he hears that. "Well how does that work?" He looks up at her. Annabeth shrugs.

Annabeth kicks the ground with the toe of her shoes. "My Dad says Mom might leave us."

Percy gets a strange look on his face, the kind that he gets when he's figured something out. "Well why would she do a crazy thing like that?" he says. He makes sure to try to reign in his expression so he doesn't give anything away and inadvertently scare her. He knows firsthand how well she can read people after six years.

Annabeth shrugs again. "She hasn't said anything to me, so she probably won't right?" she asks, panicking a little bit.

Percy hesitates. "Well, I would say yes but you hate it when I lie to you."

Annabeth hums in agreement. Sometimes it scares her, how well he knows her. The only other people who know her like that are her parents and one of them is about to leave her. She opens her mouth and then closes it again. Percy raises an eyebrow and waits.

"You won't ever leave will you? Not without telling me first?" she asks, carefully.

He smiles, big and bright. "'Course not. Never ever. Pinky promise."

(He tries to get her to spit shake on it too, but she runs away before he can grab her hand.)

Grover finds him the next day on her favorite swing at her favorite playground ever, or so she had said. He remembers watching her hair and wondering how it could look so much like gold and still be nothing like it.

"Hey, Perce," he says nervously.

Percy laughs. "You know don't you?"

Grover laughs too, but it comes out as a nervous bleat. "Know what?" Percy gives him a look. Grover nods. "Your mom told me," he says taking a seat on the swing next to him.

"Hmm."

Grover swipes a foot against the wood chips. Percy watches a squirrel duck behind a tree before he says, "She found me again."

Grover doesn't say anything for a while and when he does respond, he makes an effort to sound nonchalant, which Percy appreciates although it's not what he needs. "Oh," Grover says swaying a little on the swing. "What'd she say?"

Percy swallows. "She said she was sorry."

Grover blinks. "Did she say anything else?"

"She told me she'd make it up to me."

Grover sighs. "Did you forgive her?"

"No. But I want to."

"Then do it."

Percy laughs brokenly. "I can't," he says his voice cracking. "If she leaves again I...I can't..."

Grover sighs again. "Oh, Percy," he says, just like his mother. Percy walks away.

It's different now, with Percy. Of course, she knew this would happen; she's not stupid. She didn't think she could break a promise, leave, and then come back and expect Percy to be the exact same person he was before she left. But at the same time, she doesn't want half of Percy and she can't stand to see him pulling away from her constantly, so she corners him at the bookstore.

He greets her with a strained grin. "Hey, 'Beth, fancy seeing you here! What can I do fo-"

"Why do you keep shutting me out?" she asks, cutting straight to the chase.

His smile slips away. "I'm not, I'm just really tired-"

"You're afraid Percy," she says gently.

"I'm not afraid," he says defensively.

"I get it, I do-"

He laughs harshly. "You get it," he repeats flatly. He looks at his feet blankly trying to come up with a response. He can't seem to come up with anything to say, so he gives her a cold look and leaves. (She didn't know Percy could do cold. She didn't know a lot of things.)

She immediately follows, grabbing his arm when he tries to shove past her. "Percy what is going on?"

He laughs again. "You get it?" he spits at her. "No, you don't." He's shouting now, but he takes a deep breath to calm himself down. "I'm not the one who left you, so you don't get to act as if you're taking the high road," he says his voice so low Annabeth can barely hear him.

"Percy, I had my reasons for leaving-"

"Really? Then why didn't you tell me?"

"I-" she sighs. "I was afraid you wouldn't understand."

Percy scoffs. "I was your best friend." he says quietly. (She would've preferred if he had yelled. Quiet Percy is so much worse than an angry one.) She flinches at the past tense. "So what if I didn't get it? I would have tried. You should have let me try."

"I was afraid you wouldn't let me leave," she says holding his gaze. "I'm sorry," she says and it sounds wet and he knows that she's about to cry but he can't bring himself to care.

"You didn't even say goodbye," he says scoffing. And then he walks away.

She remembers then. ("You won't ever leave? Not without telling me first?")

notes: the angst is real my friends. i told y'all i would finish this! sorry it took me so long...please review (emphasis on review.)