A/N: This is a short oneshot set post-HoO.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus.
Percy Jackson was sitting on the beach, letting the ocean take all of his worries away.
To be more precise, Percy didn't have a lot to worry about. Everything was going great. Since the war had ended, his life had become surprisingly easy and comfortable. He was spending the weeks at Camp Half-Blood and going home to see his mom and Paul every other weekend or so. The nightmares still followed him, but even those had become easier to handle.
However, he was still a little concerned about Annabeth. Since they had escaped Tartarus, they had been attached at the hip. She had taken it a lot worse than Percy had. She was finally getting back to her old routine during the day, but she spent the night curled up in Percy's arms, shuddering and crying from her nightmares.
And it killed Percy that he couldn't do anything to help her. He couldn't fight the nightmares for her.
But Annabeth assured him that she was getting better too. She was gaining her weight back, which Percy couldn't be happier about (he hated that he could feel her ribs when they were making out) and her hair was getting longer again and she was beginning to smile every once in a while.
Percy sighed as the breeze ruffled his hair. He didn't see how it could get better than this.
He changed his mind when he saw Annabeth walking toward him.
She grabbed his arms and hauled him up off of the ground. He barely had time to blink before she crashed her lips to his.
Percy kissed her back with equal fervor, but when he felt her hands running down his chest and unclasping his belt, he pulled back in surprise.
"Uh, Annabeth-" He didn't get any farther in his sentence before she cut him off with another searing kiss.
When her hands didn't slow down and she was dangerously close to unbuttoning his jeans, Percy knew something was wrong. They had spent a lot of time together, and they had had plenty of make outs sessions and several close calls, but they had never actually done it.
He broke away from her lips and gently grabbed her wrists in his hands. "Babe, we're on the beach. Slow down. What's wrong?"
Her eyes were filled with lust, but she looked a little scared and frantic. Her pupils were blown wide, and her ponytail was starting to fall down.
"I want you," she said, pushing herself up onto her toes so she could kiss his jaw. "Please, Percy. Please."
He winced inwardly. She knew that he hated it when she begged. He always gave in and did whatever she wanted, but this… she didn't want this. She wanted to wait.
"Annabeth, tell me what's wrong." He said, ignoring her sad puppy-dog expression.
She pressed closer and rubbed her hips against his. Percy fought to smother the moan that bubbled to hip lips. "Nothing is wrong," she said.
"I know you, Annabeth, and I know that something is wrong. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble if you tell me now," he threatened, ignoring how he wanted to lay her down in the sand and kiss her and-
She sighed against his skin. She tangled her fingers with his when he finally let go of her wrists. "I had a nightmare and I couldn't find you."
Percy immediately felt bad. He hadn't told her where he was going, and he definitely didn't know that she was going to go to sleep or he would have stayed with her.
"I'm sorry. I should have been there." He said, pulling her into a tight hug.
She clutched desperately at him, pressing her body against his. "I just… I freaked out. It was a ten."
Percy flinched and tightened his grip around her, understanding her terminology immediately. Since they had gotten back to Camp, they had figured out that they felt better if they didn't talk about their nightmares too much. They still felt like it was a little too soon, so they had both categorized the dreams on a scale of one to ten. One was just about the fall. Five was losing each other. Eight was one of them getting hurt. Ten was one of them dying.
"And then you weren't there, and I knew it wasn't real, but I could still hear you screaming and-" Annabeth rambled, pressing even closer and crying into his shirt. "You weren't there when I got up, and for a minute I really thought you were gone and-"
Percy pulled Annabeth's head up and pressed his lips to hers, cutting off her desperate speech.
But she pushed back and buried her head in his chest whispering, "That's why I came to find you. Please, Percy. I just need you to take it away. Please."
He hesitated for one second before kissed her.
Percy pulled back when Annabeth started pulling at his jeans again.
"Annabeth, no," he said softly.
She scrunched her nose and eyebrows. She looked mad before something in her expression changed. She pulled her hands out of his pants and jerked away when Percy put one of his hands on her shoulders.
"It's because you don't want me, right?" Annabeth said.
Percy rolled his eyes, "It pisses me off that you could even think that right now."
"Well," Annabeth said coldly. "What am I supposed to think? Especially when you push me away like that! There's only one reason you would do that, and if you can't admit to it, then—"
He lunged forward and grabbed her before pulling her in for a heated kiss. He knew that it wasn't the best way to end an argument, but with Annabeth acting like she was, it was about the only option that would stop her from storming off and not speaking to him until midnight tonight when her nightmares came back.
Since the end of the war, their whole relationship had been tense. They kept having arguments—and it wasn't just stupid arguments like they had before. These were intense arguments that could seriously damage their relationship. Of course, they probably wouldn't end it (since Tartarus they couldn't stand not being near each other) but Percy knew that more damage wouldn't be a good thing.
Percy broke off their kiss and pushed his forehead against hers. He opened his eyes to find hers slammed shut.
"Don't ever say anything like that to me again," Percy said. His voice was deadly calm, but it was the only way she would listen to him right now. "You know that I love you. You know that I have always wanted you. Don't throw that in my face."
Annabeth didn't pull away this time, but she opened her eyes. "Then why can't we-?"
Percy stopped her, "Because you are not thinking clearly right now. You just had a nightmare, and I get that you're upset, but we're not having sex for the first time right now. It would be fucking romantic out here on the beach, but gods, Annabeth, not now."
She rolled her eyes, "Did you plan that pun?"
"What pun?" Percy asked.
"'Fucking romantic,'" Annabeth said. "It was a pun because we would actually be fucking, and it would be romantic because—"
"Stop," Percy ordered. He didn't want to hear her. It was hard enough for him to say the word "sex" without blushing. Annabeth always made fun of him for it, but being a little innocent was half of his charm.
She huffed a laugh, "If you can't even stand to hear the word, I'm worried about actually trying to do it with you."
He pretended to be upset, "Hey, now, that actually hurt my feelings. You better start trying to boost my confidence instead of just stomping it into the ground."
Annabeth shrugged, and she finally moved closer to him. He felt one of her arms circle around his neck, and she stood up on her toes so she was almost the same height. One of her hands threaded through his hair, and he leaned into her hand.
"Sorry for, you know," Annabeth whispered. She pressed her lips to his a few times in between her words. "I should be really glad that you're not pushing me into it like most teenage guys would be."
"Yeah, well, you know. I'm pretty great." Percy said softly.
She smiled lightly and rolled her eyes, but there was something really sincere about the gesture. "I know. Do you want to go take a nap? I know that you didn't sleep any last night."
He nodded and hurriedly buckled his belt back before someone caught them and thought that something was up. They would be in so much trouble. Chiron was already pissed about them sleeping in the same bed (he couldn't do anything about it though) and they definitely didn't need him thinking that they were doing stuff on the beach. Gods, they would get so made fun of.
Annabeth untangled herself from him and stepped back, holding out her hand. There was an apologetic look in her eyes, and she was biting her lip. She had never been very good at apologizing, but Percy was grateful that she understood that she needed to give him some sort of apology. It made him feel important, and if she could tell him that she was sorry for something, then that meant he was important to her. That was all Percy needed.
He took her hand and followed her, smiling to himself the whole way back to his cabin.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Leave a review!
-SomethingMoreCreative
