Title: It's A Teenage Thing.
Author: justice incarnate.
Word Count: 3,187.
Summary: Annabeth has to study for finals, but she can't concentrate with all the hormones in the room. Add the sketchy UPS guy who may or may not be a monster, and Percy's nosy mother, well, things can get a little crazy. (Percy/Annabeth. Oneshot.)
Disclaimer: Nah. I'm not that cool.
Author's Note: It feels like there was something I wanted to tell you here. I'll remember it eventually.
Annabeth would rather deny hormones than embrace them. She was, after all, a teenage girl and she was going through, ahem, changes in her body and her feelings. It was a normal thing - and at some point in their life, like it or not, teenage girls had to deal with it.
But, there was always another option for Annabeth. After all, she was Annabeth. That was a good enough explanation.
So you see, she could just choose to avoid her hormones, for as long as physically possibly. If she could fight off monster at the tender age of seven, she could do this with no trouble.
Still...some things are easier said than done.
It was a normal Tuesday night at the Jackson household. Annabeth showed up around six-ish, sat down for a meal with the people she'd grown to call her "second family." After the meal, Percy and Annabeth resorted to the living room (Mrs. Jackson was too afraid of anything "happening" - if you know what I mean - to let them go to Percy's room. At least alone. The only times Annabeth was ever in Percy's room was when Sally or Paul were in close proximity and the door was wide open) to listen to some music and do homework.
Tonight was only different for two reasons: instead of writing an essay for World History, they were both studying for finals.
And Annabeth's ignored hormones were coming out to play. She guessed that after months of rejection, they got tired and began to attack with a ripened vengeance.
Now? She thought, tucking a loose strand of strawberry blond hair behind her ear and then proceeding to flip to the next page of the geometry book. She wasn't really reading anything, the words and shapes were just meaningless jumbles on the page. Out of all the times in the world, why now?
"Annabeth," Percy inquired, and she pulled herself out of the vortex that was her thoughts to glance up at him. She was laying on the floor, right beside the coffee table, while he took up space on the couch, books and papers strewn out around him randomly.
A fringe of hair was falling into his electric green eyes, which were wide and shiny and looking right at her, and his smooth pink lips were parted slightly, his tongue leisurely resting on his lower lip. He looked so innocent, with his eyebrows crinkled and the look of concern in his face.
He had no idea the kind of not-so-innocent things that were running through Annabeth's mind. Was this normal?
She felt herself flush, and she averted her gaze back to the textbook with a muttered, "What?" Her mouth felt dry, and she felt guilty for thinking such things.
"Didn't you have your geometry final today? Why are you studying it?"
Oh Gods, she hadn't even realized. Last week, they had compared their subjects for final by which days they had them, and they both had geometry on Tuesday. She was surprised that he remembered, and embarrassed at the same time.
"Oh," she began, and because she was the daughter of Athena, it didn't take her long to think of a clever excuse as to why she was studying geometry again. "I was comparing the answers I put on the test to the answers in the book. The questions are basically the same, anyway."
It took a second for it to sink in, but when it finally did, Percy rolled his eyes. "You would," he groaned, then returned to his work (which was actually just doodling a not-very-nice image of his French teacher with things like Fuck French, s'il vous plaît written in the margins of the lined paper).
Annabeth, closed the book and shoved it aside, thinking about what her final for tomorrow was. She was having a hard time remembering with all the hormones in the air, and she simply couldn't fail, because if she did, she might have an anxiety attack.
"Oceanography," he told her absently, not even hesitating from his current task at hand. When she didn't respond, just stared at him, he looked up at her through that fringe of heavenly oh-my-Gods-I-just-want-to-run-my-hands-through-it black hair. "In case you were wondering," he added.
She turned to dig her chin into her collarbone, her hair falling over her shoulder again. "I was wondering," she said out of the corner of her mouth, her eyes falling on the bookcase that didn't have any books on it. Rather, there were pictures, and a whole bunch of them, of Percy throughout the years. They were in chronological order, one for each year, but Annabeth couldn't draw her eyes away from the last one.
It was a picture from the summer before the battle. It was taken on the beach, the ocean and horizon falling into the background, along with random strangers and one Miss Rachel Elizabeth Dare.
Annabeth supposed she should have been jealous by the picture, what with Rachel at the beach with Percy and in a skimpy bikini, but she couldn't take her eyes off of him.
He was grinning a goofy grin into the camera, and he was completely dry (though Annabeth knew this was just because Percy could choose to get wet or not, and apparently he chose not to). His hair was wind-blown and tousled, the kind of tousled that's extremely sexy. A light sunburn danced across the bridge of his nose and the apples of his cheeks.
And he was shirtless. His bathing-suit was slung low on his hips, showing off the tiny indentations, like thumbprints that were pressed into him when he was a child, right below his hipbones. His chest was lean, yet slightly buffed (she guessed from all the monster-fighting), and his skin was the perfect kind of tan.
She ran a quivering hand through her wavy hair, and slurped up the drool that was lingering on the corner of her mouth, threatening to spill over.
"You're out of it tonight," Percy said curiously, pulling her from the galaxy of her thoughts - thoughts of him shirtless. "It's not like you."
Neither is all the feelings, she thought, but doesn't say anything. She knew better, for she was the daughter of Annabeth. Instead, she stretched her hand across the floor to grip her Oceanography textbook and pull it over to her. She flipped it open, to any page, and aimlessly scanned it for the answers she knew weren't there.
She began to tap the eraser of her number two - not number one, never number one - against her forehead. Maybe she was trying to tap all those unwholesome thoughts out of her mind, trying to push them out of her ears so they can land with a dull thud to the carpet below. She wouldn't be surprised.
The sudden feeling dawned on her that somebody was watching her. You know that feeling? A tiny little pinprick on the back of your neck that just makes you sense it. She looked up to see Percy's eyes studying her intently. She tried not to blush too much.
"What is it, Seaweed Brain?" she bit, looking down again to flip the page in the book (as if she was actually reading any of that nonsense. She only took oceanography so she could understand more about Percy and his powers.)
He didn't say anything; rather, he pushed all the papers and books around him to the floor and beckoned her by tapping the now available seat on the couch next to him.
She rose clumsily, and shuffled judiciously over to him. She gingerly sat herself down and peered at him through her eyelashes.
Suddenly, his lips were on hers, smooth, delicate. She could feel a stirring deep in the pit of her stomach, like a beast awakening after a millennium of sleep. His hands wrapped around her and pulled her flush against him, making her gasp into his mouth.
He took advantage of this and wiggled his tongue in, and Annabeth's hormones began to go haywire, frazzled and lively. She could feel her ribs taking a beating from her wildly rapid a heart. She could feel his hands on her back, the heat of them burning through her t-shirt. It was driving her crazy!
"Hey kids!" Mrs. Jackson called, bouncing into the room with too much enthusiasm. Annabeth squealed, and both her and Percy broke away from each other at an admirable speed, sitting on their respective sides of the couch. Needing a distraction, she busied herself with smoothing her hair down.
"Mom," Percy hissed, flushed as could be. Annabeth was positive her cheeks looked the same at that moment. She could feel the heat on them, burning as bright as daylight. A swell of disappointment clouded in the pit of her stomach, and she tried not to mirror it on her face by plastering a smile.
It wasn't like she didn't Percy's mom being with them, that wasn't the case. She had interrupted plenty of make-out sessions before, it must have been her motherly senses that had alerted her something was off, because she always came in right as they were mouth-to-mouth. There was always the chance that she had been spying on them the whole time, Annabeth wouldn't doubt it. It was the whole mother-bear going to extreme measures to protect her cub type of thing.
Annabeth couldn't say that she blamed her.
But this time, it was different. It wasn't just another quick make-out break in between homework. It was different - more heated, filled to the brim with passion and lust. Annabeth knew it was different, and a quick glance in Percy's direction showed he felt the same way. If his facial expression was anything to go by.
Mrs. Jackson didn't seem to notice the difference in the atmosphere, as she stared upon them with a salty-sweet smile and her hands on her hips. "So, young children," she emphasized the 'young children' part, as if to say Young children shouldn't be making out. "What're we up to tonight?"
Percy cleared his throat and smoothed out the wrinkles in his faded Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. He also wore plaid pajama bottoms, that absolutely didn't match the bright orange of the shirt, but somehow it worked. Annabeth thought he looked adorable.
"Studying for finals," he said sheepishly, indicating with his hands to the books and papers...that were all over to floor. "To be fair," he said, to his mother's skeptical look, "Annabeth was on the floor."
"Was being the key word," Sally mutters, but her expression doesn't change. Oh, poor Sally. All she was doing was trying to keep her young little boy for as long as possible. She didn't want to deal with the young man he was becoming.
An awkward silence filled the room, broken only by the ringing of the doorbell. They all stared at each other.
"I'll get it," Annabeth said, just to escape. She was already rising from the couch when Sally said,
"Annabeth, you don't have to do that-" she began, but Annabeth insisted that she really didn't mind. It would make her feel even more at home, actually, she had said. Like a part of the family. While she did mean a part of this, she hadn't said the other part - that it would get her out of the room for a fleeting moment, away from the awkward.
She walked toward the door precariously, feeling Percy's eyes on her backside. She gave it a little wiggle, and smirked, though he couldn't see her face. But he knew she was smirking. She knew he knew.
It happened right as she was opening the door. It hit her like a basketball to the gut, the sudden feeling that something was very, very wrong. A little twitch in the air, and the atmosphere had suddenly changed. It went from being awkward to being...dangerous?
She didn't have time to mull it over before the door was fully open, exposing a man in a brown suit, with a package in his scarred hands. He looked old and withered, worn down, like he had battled in World War II. His black hair was peppered with white, and his eyes were sunken into his face.
Annabeth blinked. He didn't look dangerous. In face he just looked lonely. Perhaps that feeling was all in her head.
"Package for Mrs. Jackson. Is she here?" he croaked, then hacked up nauseating coughing. Annabeth felt a pang of sympathy for the man, and she stepped aside to let him enter.
"She's right in here," she said, beginning to walk to the living room with him trailing a foot behind her.
Sally looked up as they both entered. Annabeth took her seat next to Percy on the couch as Sally stepped forward.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked the man, who stood silently behind the couch.
"Yessss," he hissed, then coughed slightly. Annabeth looked upon him, thoughts racing through her head. Was his tongue...forked?
Percy, oblivious to the sudden recognition of danger Annabeth had earlier, slid his hand onto Annabeth's knee, curling his fingers around it. Her heart leaped in her chest, and she was torn between Percy's suggestive smirk that made her heart flutter, and the UPS guy who may or may not have been a monster (though odds were, he was.)
"Percy," she whispered, leaning close to him. His eyes sparked up and he grinned wider.
"Yes?" he asked, pretending to be oblivious to what he thought she wanted, judging by the tone of his voice. His breath tickled her face and his hand around her knee began to gently caress, rubbing the palm in slow, soothing circles. She swallowed slightly, almost getting off track from the task at hand.
"Does that delivery guy look like a monster to you?"
He blinked, then looked slightly confused. He removed his hand with a fierce blush, then glanced up at the man that looked like he was turning to dust right before their eyes. He was making gentle small talk with Percy's mom as she signed off on the package. Normal small talk things - the weather was nice, she had a very clean house.
But his tongue was most definitely forked, like that of a serpent's. Percy's eyes widened, and he nodded at Annabeth. "Definitely a monster."
The man seemed to have heard Percy, and turned to look dead at him, his eyes flaring up for a tenth of a second. Then he looked back at Percy's mom, and smiled politely, putting back on the facade of poor old man with the tragic life story.
Annabeth mentally sighed. Things were bad when the hormones intruded, things got worse when Mrs. Jackson intruded. But things were starting to get to the worst place possible with the monster intruding. She was never going to pass this final if this kept up.
Mrs. Jackson finished signing for the package, and handed the man back his clipboard. As he reached for it, his image flickered, showing a scaly green serpent with glowing yellow eyes and that damned forked tongue that gave him away in the first place.
He went back to the facade almost instantly, but Mrs. Jackson noticed.
"Wait a minute-" she began and was cut off by a terrible hissing. The old man stepped back, and evaporated in a puff of green smoke, leaving in his place his true form. Sally was immobile, staring upon the serpent in fear. Percy and Annabeth jumped up at the same time.
"You know what's gonna happen, right?" he asked.
"We're gonna fail our finals?" she guessed, jokingly, reaching for her knife that was in her book-bag. The monster hadn't moved yet, but was just staring at them eagerly, like he was waiting to devour the two of them.
Oh, and Mrs. Jackson was standing stock-still.
When Annabeth rose, knife in hand, Percy already had Riptide out, and he was smiling at her. He kissed her quickly, and she would've melted and given into the feelings her hormones were causing, but their was a six-foot serpent three feet away. He pulled away, and they dove into their mini-battle, pushing Mrs. Jackson out of harm's way.
"What the heck is going on down there?" Paul, oblivious the entire time, called from down the hall.
Percy side-swiped the monster and grinned at Annabeth. "Poor mortal," he said in reference to Paul.
It was weird - the blissful happiness and carefree mood among the current circumstances, but it was there. Hormones and finals and monsters were just a little smudge in an otherwise happy moment among the two of them.
They moved together, stabbing at the monster, but it was quick and lithe. It slithered out of the blades' way. Annabeth dove forward, and slashed the blade through the snakes torso. She watched as it began to turn to dust, and Percy smiled at her.
"Nice one," he said. "But my mom's not gonna want to clean that." He gestured to the dust.
Sally, who heard herself being mentioned, blinked, dazed, then looked at the two of them. She shook her head. "Demigods," she muttered. "Always attracting monsters." Shaking her head, and tutting under her breath, she stalked off down the hall.
They put their weapons away like nothing had happened, then stood in the middle of the living room, contemplating whether or not to return to their original positions - Annabeth on the floor and Percy sprawled out on the couch.
Percy, seeming to read her thoughts, grinned mischeviously. "Studying can wait," he said, reaching for her hand and leading her to the couch.
The open window let in the breeze that danced over their skin, as the sun finally began to set in the New York sky, dousing the horizon with it's light and turning the sky shades of pink and orange.
Yes, Annabeth thought, sighing happily. Studying could wait.