This is an idea I've been toying with for a while now. Don't know if it turned out exactly the way I wanted it to, but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless. :) Not sure if I want to turn this into a multi-chapter story, but we'll see.
Disclaimer: These are not my characters.
"Did you get the intel from Chiron?" Annabeth asked as she made herself comfortable on Percy's couch.
Percy plopped down beside her and snorted. "Yeah, I did. This is one weird bad guy. If I was going to release some sort of mind-altering, mutation-causing biological agent, I wouldn't do it at a high school prom, of all places."
Annabeth shrugged. "To me it makes perfect sense. From what I gathered from Chiron's debriefing, this substance hasn't been tested yet. What better subjects to test it on than teenagers? Their bodies are stronger and in better condition than the majority of the public. If this poisonous cocktail he's created can work on them, then he'll know it can work on anybody."
Percy stared at her for a few beats, then sighed. "Outsmarted yet again. I should be used to it by now, but it still kind of stings my ego."
Annabeth smirked. "Don't worry, it'll hurt a little less as time goes on. You'll get used to it through lots and lots of repetition."
Percy raised an eyebrow. "I suspect that was a dig at my intelligence."
"Oh, I assure you it was. Anyways," Annabeth said, opening her laptop, "I've done some research on building schematics, best routes of entry, and location of control rooms in Goode High School. According to the intel, Kronos, our bad guy, plans to distribute the toxin through the fire sprinkler system. There are pipes that connect to a fire hydrant outside that feed the sprinkler system with water, but he's diverted those into some sort of tank that holds the toxin." She pulled the school's blueprints up on the laptop screen. "In order to stop him, we'll need to break into this control room," she said, indicating a spot in the northwest corner of the school. "This is where the controls for the fire and sprinkler system are. We can't divert the pipes back to the fire hydrant by ourselves; that requires lots of time and some serious engineering skills." She paused. "I mean, I could probably handle it, but I don't have enough time on my hands." Another pause. "But if I did, I could -"
"Annabeth!" Percy interrupted. "I get it, you're some super smart intellectual engineering/architectural genius, but you know...the mission?"
"Right, sorry." Annabeth cleared her throat. "As you can see, the room is pretty far from the gymnasium, where the prom is being held. Obviously, since mostly everyone will be in the gym, we have less of a chance of being disrupted by anyone."
"But Chiron said Kronos has quite a few henchmen under his command," said Percy. "They'll probably be on guard that night. What do we do about them?"
"You're right. There is quite a number of henchmen under his command. We don't know the exact number that will be at the school that night, but I'm guessing that there will be between 10-15 and that they'll be patrolling the halls, posing as chaperones or teachers."
Percy nodded. "We can get past them easy enough then. But 10-15 men? That's a small number for a big school."
"Well, you know Kronos' type. Cocky. Overconfident. He thinks he can easily get away with this. He doesn't know that we have eyes within his ranks," said Annabeth.
"How will we know if any of his henchmen are coming our way though?"
"Good question. I'm impressed," Annabeth teased, earning a slight scowl from Percy. "I've hacked into the school's security camera system." She pulled up another screen on the computer, showing the Goode High School halls from various camera angles. "That's how we'll keep an eye on them and take any necessary action if they get too close."
Percy rolled his eyes. "What do you need me for then? Seems like you've done more than half the mission by yourself."
"Two reasons, Seaweed Brain. One: to keep watch. The sprinkler system controls are pretty sophisticated for a high school. I can't work on deactivating the system while keeping an eye on the security camera footage at the same time."
"Great, so I'm your watchdog," Percy muttered sarcastically. "What's the second reason?"
"Well..." Percy could have sworn Annabeth blushed a little, but the moment was gone in an instant. "To be my date. It is a high school prom, isn't it?"
"Date?" Percy stared at her. "You mean, we're not just, like, breaking in through a window or something?"
"Why make things harder than they need to be? It's a perfect cover. We're just the right age, so it won't be hard for us to pretend that we actually are attending the prom. I even fabricated some tickets and student IDs." Annabeth reached into her bag and pulled out a dark blue tie. "Here," she said, handing it to Percy. "Wear this. It matches my dress."
Percy stared at the tie as if it was a foreign object. To him, it probably was, Annabeth reasoned. He glanced back up at her, looking somewhat confused. "But-"
Annabeth cut him off. "And I already rented a tux for you. You can pick it up here," she said, handing him a slip of paper with the name of the store and an address.
Before Percy could protest anymore, Annabeth swiftly closed her laptop, stuck it in her bag, and got ready to leave. "Bye!" she said brightly, winking at him. "Pick me up no later than 6:30!"
"Wait-" Percy began. But Annabeth had already left, shutting the door behind her.
Percy leaned back on his couch, smacked a hand over his face, and groaned.
Percy waited at Annabeth's door at approximately 6:40. He knew he would get a little flack for being tardy, but it was for good reason, he figured. Who knew it was so difficult to tie a tie? Despite that, he thought he didn't look too bad, considering he had never worn a tuxedo in his life.
Annabeth opened the door, all ready to scold him, but stopped when she got a good look at him. Percy briefly wondered why, but got distracted by Annabeth herself.
She looked beautiful. Her wavy blonde hair was casually twisted up, but still managed to look impeccably styled. She wore an elegant floor-length strapless blue dress that hugged her body in all the right places, flaring out slightly at the bottom. A simple silver necklace adorned her neck and she wore her favorite owl earrings. Black mascara and a hint of eyeshadow set off her wide gray eyes and she wore a bit of lip gloss too. Percy rarely ever saw Annabeth in anything but a ponytail, t-shirt, and jeans, with no makeup on her face, so seeing her like this was something he was unused to.
They soon realized that they'd been wordlessly staring at each other for quite a bit of time. Percy cleared his throat to break the silence. "Um, you look good," he managed to stammer. Smooth, Percy. Smooth.
She blushed a little. "Thanks." The corners of her mouth twitched up slightly. "You clean up nice, Seaweed Brain," she said. "Except-hold on a minute." She straightened his tie. "There, that's better."
Percy frowned. "Do you know how hard it was to get that thing on?"
Annabeth just laughed in response. She looks so pretty when she laughs, Percy thought idly. Then he shook his head to clear his brain. Those thoughts could wait until later.
She moved closer to him. Percy suddenly became hyperaware of everything, of her arm linking around his, of the way her leg brushed his whenever she shifted. "Well," she said. "Shall we?"
He grinned at her. "We shall."
They got into the school easily enough, posing as prom dates. Annabeth handed the fake tickets and showed their fake student IDs to the teacher at the door and tried not to think too much about Percy's arm wrapped around her waist. It's just an act, she told herself. Get over it, Annabeth.
As soon as they were ushered into the gym, they immediately snuck back out, their senses kicking into high gear as they watched for any henchmen. Several times they pulled each other around corners and ducked into empty classrooms. Annabeth was able to retrieve the laptop bag she'd hidden in an empty locker prior to the mission, and the two made their way to the control room.
As soon as they had gone inside and locked the door behind them, Annabeth quickly set her laptop on a storage shelf and booted it up, pulling up the security camera footage on the screen. Searching around the room, her eyes finally rested on what she was looking for: the control panel. "All right," she murmured. "Here we go. Warn me if anyone's close by. We'll need some time to hide everything."
Percy nodded. "Okay. Get to work, Wise Girl."
She thought about punching him in the arm for that, but decided to let it slide.
There was a keypad beside the control panel Annabeth had to deactivate in order to open the panel's cover. She fished a small circular device out of her bag and attached it to the keypad. A few seconds later, there was a quiet beep and then the clicking noise of a lock being undone.
Percy, who had been watching her from a few feet away, scowled slightly. "Why do you get all the cool gadgets?" he complained.
Annabeth opened the control panel cover. "Well," she reasoned as she studied the buttons and wires inside, "maybe it's because I'm not prone to accidentally breaking them, unlike some people I could mention..."
Percy sighed. "Touché."
Annabeth stifled a grin as her fingers tested the strength of a few wires. Her eyes wandered over to a section with numerous switches, all labeled. Hmm. So she could just flick the "sprinkler system" switch to the off position, and then cut the wire corresponding to that switch completely so that the system couldn't be easily reactivated. The school's repair fees would be pretty exorbitant, but it was the lesser of two evils considering the alternative was brainwashed mutant teenagers ravaging the city.
Annabeth took a pair of wire cutters out of her bag. However, before she could do anything with them, Percy spoke up. "Annabeth," he warned. "Some of Kronos' guys just had a chat - maybe they saw us sneaking down here. Two of them are heading this way."
Annabeth swore under her breath. She closed the control panel cover and removed her device from the keypad. "Okay," she said, dropping everything into her bag. "Do we have time to get out?"
Percy shook his head. "We could try, but the guys are moving pretty fast. It'd be risky. And there's not a lot of places we can hide that are close by."
Annabeth sighed. "Fine. Minimize that window, shut the laptop, put it in the bag, and hide it under that bank of storage shelves."
Percy obliged. "Okay. Now what? How are we going to explain why we're in here?"
Annabeth had been wondering the same thing herself. She had a plan...but she wasn't sure she wanted to put it into action.
The two flinched as they heard voices from outside, down the hall.
"Two kids? In here? Are you sure?" one voice asked.
"Yeah. They were being real sneaky about it too. Almost didn't see them," a lower, gruffer voice replied.
The two said something else, something they couldn't quite distinguish, but they could tell the voices were getting closer.
Percy and Annabeth exchanged panicked glances. "What do we do?" he hissed.
Annabeth winced. She wasn't sure if she wanted to do this right now, but she had no choice. Trying to hold back her blush, she loosened Percy's tie and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt. Percy's hands stopped hers as she moved to unbutton his jacket. "Annabeth," he said. She snuck a glance at him. His eyes were a mixture of confusion and terror and something else she couldn't quite identify. "What. Are. You. Doing."
Annabeth ignored him and pushed his hands away, using her own to unbutton his jacket, push it off halfway, and then unzip her own dress slightly. The voices were even closer now, almost right outside the door.
She glanced up at him again. He was looking at her as if she had lost her mind. Her own nerves threatened to make her chicken out, but she willed herself to stay focused. All right, she urged herself. Go for it.
She summoned all her inner strength, pushing all her uncertainty aside, and looked him straight in the eye. "Kiss me," she demanded.
Percy gaped at her. "What?!"
The men were definitely right outside. She could feel them jiggling the doorknob. "Damn it, Percy!" she growled. "Kiss me!" She pushed him up against the wall, as if to illustrate her point.
He glared at her for a second. Whether he thought she was crazy or was just angry she'd pushed him against the wall and was bossing him around, she wasn't sure. Annabeth figured she would have to just kiss him herself. She moved forward to do so, but was surprised when he met her halfway, tilting her chin up towards him.
The kiss was rougher than she expected. More passionate. Without meaning to, Annabeth lost her presence of mind. All she knew in that moment was his lips on hers, his musky smell, the feeling of his hands a bit lower on her back then she'd expected. She was only dimly aware of the door breaking open, of a voice saying, "See? I told you they were only in here to make out. Leave them be."
The door shut. Something in her registered that it was time to give up the ruse, that they'd already accomplished what they had to. But then his tongue skimmed her lips and every cell in her body wanted to allow him access. She pushed her thoughts away and let out an involuntary moan as he explored her mouth, which only caused him to pull her closer, their bodies flush against each other. She attacked him back, fighting for dominance, her hand tangling itself in his hair, her teeth biting down slightly on his lip. He made a low growling sound in response, his hands pressing harder on her hips. A small part of her mind that wasn't completely lost wondered if that would bruise later. She was both terrified and intrigued by the idea.
To her surprise, it was Percy who broke the kiss first, wrenching himself away from her. As her wits returned to her, she suddenly felt a debilitating rush of embarrassment. How could she have let this go on? How could she have let this get so out of hand?
As much as she didn't want to admit it, she already knew the answer. She had wanted it. And she had enjoyed it.
Percy was only inches away from her. He still looked somewhat upset, but his pupils were dilated, his sea green eyes darkened with lust. He looked almost dangerous. This was not the Percy she was familiar with. Her breath caught in her throat.
It occurred to her that he was waiting for an explanation, that he still didn't know why she'd basically thrown herself at him. She swallowed the nervous lump in her throat. Percy was slightly flushed, his hair tousled, his lips red from kissing, and she imagined she looked similar, if not more disheveled. She noticed he had a small, almost unnoticeable cut on his lip, probably from her biting down on it. Part of her was mortified. The other part of her was very, very aroused.
Flustered, she tried to explain, but all her usual articulateness had abandoned her. "I thought it would be a good diversion," she managed, still a little breathless. "If they thought we were in here just to make out in a place where the chaperones couldn't see us..." She trailed off. Percy nodded. Now that the heat of the moment had faded, he looked more like himself. He wouldn't meet her eye, obviously feeling a little sheepish. He focused on a spot behind her and raised an eyebrow. "Don't you have a job to do?" he asked. His voice was still a little lower and huskier than usual.
"Right. Yeah." She pulled herself away from him, untangling her limbs from his, and set to work deactivating the sprinkler system. Percy set up the laptop again and kept watch. Neither of them spoke.
Their mission was a success. They stole out of the school undetected. Annabeth shot a quick message to Chiron from her phone to let him know they had completed their task. Now it was up to someone else to complete the total dismantling of Kronos' plan. Their job was done, for now.
They were still silent as Percy drove her back home. The tension between them in the car was almost too much for Annabeth to handle. She thought she was going to explode.
They pulled up to her place, and Percy cut the engine. She was about to turn to him to say something, anything, but he had already left the car. She wondered briefly where he was going until he opened her door, offering her his hand to help her out. Annabeth unbuckled her seatbelt and took his hand. His touch sent a shock of heat through her, and her nerve endings felt as if they were electrified. She wondered if he had felt it too. She looked up as she got out of the car, accidentally making eye contact with him. The brief glance they shared before he looked away told her that yes, he had.
He walked her to the door, stopping right in front of it. It was almost as if they had been on an actual date, the irony of which was not lost on either of them. Annabeth took a breath and decided to finally address what had transpired that night. She summoned her courage. "Percy..." she began. She forced herself to look him right in the eye. Something in his expression caused the words to die in her throat.
"Not tonight, Annabeth," he said quietly. She didn't know what expression was on her face at the moment, but something about it made his soften. He let out a quiet sigh. "Tomorrow, okay?"
Annabeth nodded slightly, suddenly aware that there wasn't much space between them at all. And it was shrinking by the second, as she realized he was moving forward. She didn't know what was about to happen. She didn't know, and yet she wanted to know.
He kissed her lightly on the cheek. It could have been a quick, friendly gesture, but he lingered beside her a little longer. "Goodnight, Annabeth," he murmured close to her ear. He backed away. His eyes, so familiar to her, were now unreadable.
He walked back to his car, not looking back even once. Annabeth watched until his taillights disappeared into the night, feeling more unsettled than ever.