This was originally written for Tori on her birthday last year, but I figured I might as well post it here now. I hope you guys like it. And yes, I do know that they didn't get together until after the Titan War, but this is fanfiction, so who the heck cares? Oh, and characters may be a little OOC.
Disclaimer: Yeah... No, I don't own them.
Setting - During Battle of the Labyrinth. No shroud scene. Percy has just come back from Ogygia.
It had been two weeks since Percy Jackson had vanished after the Mount Saint Helens eruption. Though Annabeth refused to believe that he was dead, she knew that, the longer went by, the greater was the chance that he actually was. And she hated the very thought of never seeing her best friend again. Especially after so long… As she did every day, she stood on the beach, staring out at the ocean, hoping for something that would tell her that Percy was still alive. Besides, she had a feeling she was falling in love with him, and she refused to believe that he would never get the chance to know about her feelings for him. "Please, Lord Poseidon. Make sure he comes back safely…" she said, half to herself and half out loud, as she watched the waves crashing against the sand, the foamy white tips breaking apart with a hiss, dampening the golden shores.
If she hadn't heard the familiar-sounding groan, she could have stood there all day, just staring. But she did, and she recognized the groan immediately, could tell who had made the groan by the sound of it alone. She had sort of trained herself to listen for that particular voice, after all. "Percy?" she wondered aloud.
A louder groan answered her question, this time coming from just over the sand dune diagonally to the right and in front of her. Once she reached it, she could swear that her heart almost skipped a beat as she looked down at the raven-haired young man who was slowly getting to his feet, and it was all that she could do to keep herself from sprinting down the dune to him. "Seaweed Brain!"
He looked up, his face breaking into a grin as he noticed her. "Annabeth!"
Within the next minute, he had managed to stagger to the top of the dune. He looked to still be a little unsteady, so Annabeth put his right arm over her shoulder and slipped her left arm under his other hand, supporting him. As she started to help him towards the Big House, one thing was still bugging her. "Hey… Seaweed Brain?"
Percy chuckled at the familiar nickname. That was a good sign. "Yes, Wise Girl?"
"It's been two weeks since Mount Saint Helens erupted. Everyone thought you had died. Well, almost everyone, anyway. Where have you been?"
"Ogygia. You know, Calypso's island".
Annabeth bit her lip, resisting the urge to scream in frustration, drop him to the ground right then and there, and storm off. Instead, she merely replied "Oh".
"To be fair, 75% of that time I was actually unconscious. Then the other 25% was spent alternately trying to convince Calypso to help me build a raft to get back here, telling her that I was never going to leave my friends (and the girl I think I'm falling for more and more each day) to stay on Ogygia with her forever, and feeling guilty about the possibility that I may have accidentally caused an earthquake and released Typhon from his prison when Mount Saint Helens erupted" came the response.
Annabeth shot her best friend a quick glance, wondering if she had heard him correctly just then, or if she had only imagined hearing what she thought she had heard. "Sorry, Percy, can you repeat that?"
"Which one? That I feel guilty about the possibility…"
She cut him off with a gesture. "No, not that one (that's probably one we should discuss with Chiron, though). The one before it. The one about never leaving your friends".
"That I was never going to leave my friends, or the girl I think I'm falling for more and more each day, to stay on Ogygia forever".
"Anything… particularly interesting… about this girl that you mentioned?"
Percy chuckled quietly. "Aside from the fact that she's got the most stunning eyes I've ever seen, and that the way her hair frames her face makes her look like a princess (well, I've always thought so, at least…)? Well, she's incredibly smart, has a quick wit and a talent for coming up with strategies right when they're needed the most, and is unwaveringly loyal to those she loves. She loves reading more than a lot of other things, is obsessed with architecture and design (though only in a good way, of course) and she seems to have her knife reserved for either monsters or the people who touch her things".
"And what's stopping you from being with this particular girl?"
"1: I have no idea how she feels about me. And 2: Her mother's the Greek goddess Athena. She scares me".
Annabeth was so focused on digesting this that she forgot to look where they were going and caught her foot on the bottom step of the Big House, both her and Percy taking a sudden tumble and smacking their heads against the wood of the building's deck. Despite slight bruising, both half-bloods were fine, and were on their feet again in a couple of seconds. "You mean what you just said, Percy? About thinking that you're falling for me more and more each day?" Annabeth questioned.
"Every word".
Before he can say anything else, she leaned in, capturing his lips with her own, kissing him. As she pulled away several seconds later, she grinned at him. "I've been waiting two weeks to do that. Oh, and Percy, promise me one thing".
"That depends what it is".
"Always come back".
His eyes met hers, and he nodded. "As long as you're here to come back to, I think I can manage that".
That was all that she had to hear before she kissed him again. And this time, she put everything she'd felt for him over the past four years into that one kiss. And unlike their kiss just two weeks before, this one was sweet, taking it's time. Because Annabeth knew that, no matter what happened to them when they went back into the Labyrinth to find Tyson and Grover, and to stop whatever Luke was planning, the two of them now had new reason to live. Because she had fallen for the raven-haired son of Poseidon, and he had, despite his innate stubbornness, fallen for her.
~Around 30 seconds later~
This time, Percy was the one to break the kiss. Looking her straight in the eyes, his own green ones unblinking, he promised "I will always come back".