Disclaimer: I do not own PJO, HoO, or any other familiar references. All rights belong to their original owners.

Spiders

Percy didn't think that, in his lifetime, he'd be thanking a spider for causing him to meet the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

But, wow. Look at him now.

And, okay. Maybe he'd give fifty percent of the credit to his History One paper, because that's what got him to trudge up to the library in the first place.

He'll be honest; this was his first time at The Bouchard University Library, even after almost four months of college. It's not that he didn't want to go; he just didn't have a reason to be there. And, yeah, okay, he didn't like the smell of old books. And he didn't like the quietness of the surroundings. His ADHD self couldn't stand the thought of being forced to behave for everyone else.

But here he was now. Mr. Brunner was an old-fashioned professor, and he didn't like papers sounding like Wikipedia all the time. He told Percy's class that if they were going to submit a paper with old and not-available-on-Google books as references, he was going to add a few extra points.

Now, Percy wasn't grade-conscious or anything. He just honestly believed he was going to need those additional points.

"This better be worth it," he muttered to himself, walking towards the humungous bookshelf that had a wooden sign that said, "History." Thankfully he already knew what he was going to be writing about (so he wouldn't have to spend so much time inside paper wonderland, ugh), and so maybe he was a little determined to get out as soon as possible.

He turned around the corner and was honestly surprised to be seeing another human being in the section. Well, you know, he knew libraries were a thing; he just didn't know that there was someone else sane enough to be immersed around the old smell and the dusty surroundings. Unless, of course, she was under Mr. Brunner's class, too. Now that would make sense.

The girl seemed frozen as she stared into the book she was holding. She didn't seem to notice Percy was there.

He shrugged, beginning to look at the book titles so he could get out of there already.

Suddenly there was something that sounded like a small yelp.

"Help," Percy thought it said.

He looked up and turned his attention to the girl, but she was still reading her book. He rolled his eyes at his paranoia and went back to the titles.

A few seconds later he heard it again, a little louder this time.

"Help."

Percy diverted his gaze to the only possible culprit. "Sorry, did you say something?"

It was confirmed it was the girl. She moved her head slowly in a nod. "Spa…Spa—"

He tilted his head, confused. "I'm sorry?"

"Spider!" she cried, finally having the strength to stretch her arms to keep the book as far away from her as possible. "Get it out! Get it out! Get it out! Kill it!"

Jeesh, Percy thought. She was creating enough racket for the whole library. The librarian was going to find her soon if she didn't shut up.

Percy stepped back from the shelf and sighed at the girl. He started to walk towards her. "All right. Where is it?"

She glared daggers at the books on her outstretched hands. Sure enough, when Percy got closer, he saw a small spider resting on the pages she opened her book to.

He also noticed that the girl had grey eyes that were really pretty, but were currently scary as it glared at the arachnid. Damn, he was glad he wasn't the spider right now.

"Kill it," she said again after a few seconds of just staring in horror at the spider.

Percy decided to tease the stranger. "But it's so widdle!"

"Ugh, no," she scoffed in disgust. "Kill it."

"Close the book, then," he instructed. "You're lucky it's not moving."

"I'm not closing the book!" Even though the girl looked scared shitless, she still had a lot of spunk. She was now glaring at both the spider and Percy. "There's going to be a mark on this precious thing!"

"What's precious?" he snickered. "The spider or the book?"

"The book, you idiot! Kill it before it decides to—"

She was cut off by Percy taking both of her hands and using them to close the book quickly. "Ha!" he cried out triumphantly. "Bet the spider didn't see that coming!"

"What have you done?!" she shrieked, which, Percy thought, was a little overdramatic considering he just saved her life. She opened her book and sure enough, stuck to the pages were the remains of the spider.

"I just saved you from a really horrible death, that's what I did."

"The book," she gasped quite dramatically. "It's tainted. It's stained. It's contaminated with eight ugly—"

"Are you in Mr. Brunner's class?"

She paused her dramatic complaining. "How did you know that?"

"You're in the History section, too. I figured you were doing that paper due on Monday." He grinned. "Yeah, I'm Percy, by the way."

But she glared at him. "Book-ruiner."

"You mean, life-saver," he chuckled. "Hey, I totally just saved your life. You should be thanking me over a cup of coffee or something. Then we'll get to know each other and fall in love and get married-"

"Yeah." She rolled her eyes. "You're dreaming. And getting way ahead of yourself."

"Oh, silly me," he laughed. "I don't even know your name yet. Then we'll do the getting to know each other part and the falling in love."

He didn't think it was possible for her glare to be scarier, but it happened anyway. He could admit, though, that she still looked really pretty. Beautiful, even. How come he never saw her before?

"Excuse me," she huffed at him, stepping back before walking away from the History section. "I have to get this book checked out."

"Without telling me your name?"

She stopped before turning around to look at him. "I suppose I do owe you." She cleared her throat. "Annabeth. My name is Annabeth." She started to walk away again before she realized she was still frozen on his spot. "Well? Are you coming for that coffee or what?"

Percy sent a silent thank you to a god in spider heaven.