When it comes to words, Percy Jackson isn't one to actually spit them out the way he means to. They formulate in his thoughts perfectly but when he actually tries to say emotional things, they either don't come out, or come out trapped out. Somehow, "I love you," always turns into, "You're my best friend." And he can't figure out how it got muddled up between that link behind his mind and his mouth.

He spends as much time with Annabeth as he can. Most of the time, it's at camp. They e-mail a lot. They chat on Facebook, tweet on Twitter. But sometimes, it's rushed. Percy has to go teach some sword lessons or do some stuff in the ocean as the son of Poseidon, Annabeth needs to work on Olympus and the camp.

So really, there isn't much time that they can spend together. He can't take the time to plan anything out - he's ADHD, for one, and ADHD kids? Not good at planning. At all. Pile the school and homework, basketball and swim meets on top of that and Percy's got a pretty damn tight schedule.

"Sorry gotta go swim meet," says Percy on his mom's cell phone on the way out of the changing room. "Tell you how I did but-"

"Jackson, get over here! You're our best, we need ya!" the coach calls as Annabeth says, "Wait, I need to-"

"Coming!" Percy yells, a finger over the microphone. "Bye!" And then the phone is tossed in his locker as he sprints to the pool, getting a scowl from the coach, silently conversing the lecture that he might seriously hurt himself. Percy won't, of course - Achilles curse.

And he really wants to spend more time with his girlfriend but he just can't.

Another time they're actually face-to-face. It's Annabeth's birthday, March 11th. And she's over at Percy's with a dinner and a cake and she's opening presents. Percy's present is a silver necklace with a heart attatched to it - cheesy, yeah, but hopefully it'd mean a lot coming from him - he blew two months of allowance to get it for her.

And he gets the reaction he hopes - the wide gray eyes, the bright smile of awe, and the soft, "Wow, Percy," from her. He's sitting on the couch right beside her and wants - badly - to whisper, "I love you," into her ear, but instead somehow: "Let me help you put that on."

And that's another moment completely screwed.

Later. Summer '11.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain," says Annabeth, laughing. "Take my hand. I'm not going to kill you." A roll of eyes from her. And she's looking amazing tonight - blonde hair loose around her shoulders, gray eyes actually outlined with eyeliner, and a white tank top and jeans. Probably the most she's ever cared to dress up in a long time.

"Are you sure about that?" Percy asks, but he does take Annabeth's hand. "You could. If you wanted. I still can't believe we're having a dance."

Another roll of eyes. "You asked me. Are you sure that you're not just going along with this?"

Now they're slow dancing to the song "When it's Time" by Green Day. For a split second Percy wonders how Thalia's reacting to her favorite punk-rock band doing a slow song then in that same second he gets slightly angry at himself for thinking of something else when he's slow dancing with Annabeth. And then he fights away all the emotions.

"Completely sure, Wise Girl," Percy says with a smirk.

I love you come on Percy say it I love you just say it -

"I, uh-"

"MONSTER!" shouts one of the new kids.

Awkwardly, Annabeth lets go of Percy and grabs her knife. There's about two seconds of where Percy's brain is buzzing with activity and at the same time completely dead and then he realizes that there's a dragon that's somehow broken through the camp borders (then again, it could be the Stolls - he heard something about a "big tame dragon" earlier today) and grabs Riptide while swearing in his head that he wasn't fast enough.

Camp slips by and it's almost time for Percy's senior year in high school. Last night of camp. Most people are packing up. But Percy and Annabeth go to the beach for their last night to watch the sunset, and they're sitting on the sand, holding hands.

As the sun starts to set, Percy suddenly says, "Annabeth?"

"Yeah?"

And this time there's not really any thought or any planning to it, and this time it comes out perfectly.

"I love you."

And Annabeth smiles, her eyes shining. "I love you too, Seaweed Brain."

It's just a quick jump from that before they both lean into a kiss.

So tell me when it's time to say I love you.

A/N: I was listening to this song (When it's Time by Green Day, if you didn't know) on YouTube and trying to think of a good plot idea.

And I was wondering if somehow I could combine Percy Jackson and Green Day.

And then BAM. "WHEN IT'S TIME = PERCY/ANNABETH!"

And then I wrote.