Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
The first time Annabeth Chase meets Percy Jackson, she is eleven years old.
Her family is fresh off the plane from San Francisco, and to her, New York City is another world. She should be intimidated by the city, with its numbered streets and buildings that seem to reach into the sky, but she isn't. When she sees the skyline of Manhattan, it feels like she is finally, finally home and she prays that her dad will decide to make the move permanent.
She's always loved architecture.
She and her dad are in the waiting in line at the Empire State Building- the very same one she's been reading about since she was a toddler. She knows all the facts about this skyscraper- and she would've expected the inhabitants of the city to, too.
So it's extremely puzzling when she sees a scrawny kid dressed in dark clothing asking the elevator manager if he can go up to the 600th floor.
She can see him a bit more clearly now- the boy is her age, maybe, and arguing enthusiastically with manager. His voice is just barely audible. And suddenly, as if the kid knows, by some miracle or divine force, that she is watching him, he turns around and looks her dead in the eye. And grins. The nerve of New Yorkers, really.
But after a split second, she realizes something.
His eyes are very, very green.
At thirteen years old, Annabeth's world is finally falling into place. Her father has finally decided to stay in one place- and it's the greatest city in the world. She and her step-mother are finally getting along. She finally has a best friend, who, though slightly naïve and not too intelligent, looks like he's in it for the long haul.
It's strange how things work out sometimes, she thinks. She didn't mean to become friends with Percy Jackson. It simply…happened. They had seen each other over the summer, found out that they were, in fact, going to the same school, and resolved to put up with each other out of sheer necessity.
She will never, ever admit it, especially not to him, but the kid is alright. He doesn't question her compulsive need for perfection and order, he listens to her rambling stories and childhood tales, and he makes bad jokes and jabs that (secretly) cheer her up.
At school, they don't spend much time together, because Percy doesn't have the intellectual capacity to make it into the accelerated classes ("I'm just not a massive geek, Annabeth. Sue me."), and spends more days in detention than not ("If you had to talk to Nancy every day, you'd push her into a fountain, too.").
On Annabeth's fourteenth birthday, Percy Jackson shows up at her house armed with a blue cupcake, party hats, and a backpack stuffed with tin cans.
His voice is laughing and bright and deliciously familiar. "Hey," he calls, "Owl always be your friend."
She glares at him, though there's no real heat behind it. "Percy, try to go one day without making a ridiculously bad joke, or 'always' isn't going to be very long for you, squirt."
Percy smirks. "Come on, Ms. Grumpy. It's your birthday. There are buildings to visit and 'appreciate'."
It's astonishing how much he knows about her, and vice versa. He know about her fondness for owls and grey, her issues with her family and her strange past, her intense love of all things architecture, and her desire to make something permanent. She knows so much about him, too. His obsession with blue food, his awesome mother, his not-so-awesome father, and his strange adoration of the ocean.
They tour the Empire State Building again. As they wait in line and talk about everything and anything, Percy gets a gleam in his eye that she just knows means trouble. "Wait here," he whispers in her ear, "I'll be right back. Promise."
She can only watch in horror as he makes his way to the elevators and shouts at the security guard, "Sir, would it be possible if you could take me and my friend to the 600th floor?", all the while gesturing wildly in Annabeth's direction. She blushes and shoots the people around her an embarrassed glance. "Percy, get back here. Sir, sorry to bother you. It won't," she says, sending Percy a meaningful look, "ever happen again."
When they finally get to the top, they laugh and laugh, because it's amazing how they have the rest of their lives to piss off security guards and cause disruptions and have so, so, so much fun.
She wouldn't have it any other way.
The next year, something strange happens.
Life is going good. She's getting good grades, the teachers adore her, and a great college is definitely in her future.
She has absolutely nothing to worry about. Percy isn't getting into (as many) fights anymore, and he's doing better in school. Together they make up their own two person team, their own unbeatable duo. She's smart and logical and fierce. He's funny and spunky and just a little bit wild.
Then Rachel Elizabeth Dare has to go and ask Percy on a date. She helps him get ready at his apartment, and his hands keep shaking. His eyes are a little bit dazed. She surprises herself by feeling a tiny stab of resentment, and immediately attempts to school her features back into a smile. Percy is her best friend, after all. She should be happy for him.
The silence is becoming uncomfortable. It's never ever been like this before. "I don't understand," she comments, trying to cut through the tension in the air, "why you're so nervous. You'll be fine."
Percy runs his hands through his hair and sighs. "I know. It's just that this is like, my first date. And, I don't know, I've never even talked to girls before." Seeing her affronted look, he grins, and adds, "It's different. You're…you're Annabeth. I've known you since…forever, I guess."
"Yeah," she agrees a little bit too quickly. "You should probably go now. You don't want to be late." And this is so incredibly strange and awkward, she adds in her head.
When he gets back, he looks disappointed. His voice is curt when he informs her that it didn't work out, and that he's fine.
A few minutes later, they are laughing and throwing popcorn at each other again, and it's all alright.
That summer, she doesn't see much of Percy. Between her summer classes and his surfing, there just isn't time. She hears he's been hanging out with some girl from some island. It stings, but it's not like she's going to go beg him to talk to her. She's not that desperate…yet.
When she does run into him again at the park towards the end of the summer, she's shocked by how different he looks. He seems almost unrecognizable. Surely, he can't be that tall, can he? When did his hair get so messy and his skin so tan?
She's reassured when she sees that he's still as muscle-less and lanky as ever, and that his eyes are still green, like the ocean. He asks her about her summer ("I don't think it's humanly possible for you not to study.") and makes more bad jokes ("Annabeth, let's just cut to the chase.").
Things can finally go back to normal, she thinks, like old times.
Except they don't. For some reason, whenever they look at each other, there's a lot of weirdness and blushing. When he compliments her, she feels a strange sensation in her stomach, and it is not entirely unpleasant.
The truth, it seems, is unavoidable.
She is completely and irrevocably enamored with Percy Jackson.
Her first thought, as she comes to this realization, is: How the hell did this happen? Upon reevaluation of the last few months, it's apparent that it really is the only logical conclusion. They're best friends. They've known each other forever. They understand each other.
She thinks about him in an entirely new way now, staring at him while he's talking, watching the way his mouth pulls up higher on one side than the other when he smiles, the way his hair is just as wild as he is, and her thoughts flash to him randomly and frequently. She admits to herself that he's more attractive than she had given him credit for.
It's his sixteenth birthday, and she shows up with a blue cupcake, party hats, and a backpack stuffed with tin cans. They go to the Empire State Building again, and Percy chooses to publicly humiliate them by loudly and dramatically asking for a trip to the 600th floor. Annabeth cannot even bring herself to send him an admonishing stare.
There are too many tourists in New York this time of year, and the time it takes them to get to the top is record-breaking.
Usually, when they get to the top, they burst into laughter and grins. But today is different. Percy keeps looking out at the city and scrunching his eyebrows, which is admittedly extremely adorable, but also worrying. She waits for him to say something, because she knows him well enough to know that if he wants to say something, he'll always just blurt it out.
Subtlety was never his strong suit.
"Annabeth." He looks her in the eye, and the tremor in his voice betrays his nerves. "I think that you and I should, um, go out."
He's made her wait so long, she cannot resist teasing him a little. "We're already outside, Seaweed Brain."
His expression is almost comical. "I meant that we should be together. As an us. But you don't, uh, have to agree, or anything. I mean, we can forget this ever happened. But I was thinking that we could—"
Annabeth Chase has been waiting for him for a long time, even when she didn't know it.
Patience has never been her strong suit.
And all of a sudden they are kissing and there is that same feeling again, the one she had so long ago, the one where she felt like she was finally home and she belonged somewhere. When they break apart, they are both grinning like fools. The people around them are staring and appear scandalized.
And it's surprising, because she's always been one for perfection, order, and rules, but at this moment, she couldn't care less.