"What do you think of this one?"
Annabeth Chase twirls around from her view in the mirror to face her boyfriend, who is perched on the edge of their huge king-sized bed. He munches on the special packet of blue M&Ms which he had sorted a couple of weeks ago. Literally, he bought a family-size pack, emptied it all in a container and picked out the blue ones, labelling it 'Percy's Stash'. She didn't need to tell him how wrong it sounded, but well, it's Percy Jackson. What did you expect?
She really enjoys modelling all of these clothes for him, but she doesn't need to be the daughter of Athena to know that Percy is actually thinking of how to get her out of the clothes.
"It's . . . nice," Percy shrugs, staring at the yellow dress that's practically trailing on the floor, all puffy and fluffy and really, awkwardly cute. "Kind of reminds me of lemon meringue pie."
Annabeth narrows her eyes and turns back to the walk in closet with a furious look. "Never mind," she mutters. "Kind of reminded me of jaundice anyway." She shimmies out of the dress, shoving it down her body to her ankles, leaving her in her sky blue bra and underwear. This one could have been bought from anywhere, like Wal-Mart, but Percy likes her in anything and she knows he's checking out the curves of her legs and the angles of her hips. "I don't know what to wear," she sighs, flipping through the hangars. She can't believe that she sounded exactly like one of those girls who owned dozens of dresses but were ungrateful enough to ignore that.
This is a dinner with her father, just him and her, like she'd always dreamed of. No slightly annoying stepmother or younger, non-relatable step-siblings. Just spending some well-needed quality time with her dad.
"You should definitely go with the blue one," Percy calls through the wall and she smirks to herself. Despite that, she tugs it off the wall and quickly changes into it.
"You always say to go with the blue one," Annabeth says back once she steps out and sees that look she knows too well enter Percy's eyes as his eyes skim up and down the outfit indulgently. She can't help but press her lips together to smother a chuckle.
"Well, with blue, you can never go wrong," he shrugs.
"Excuse me, but since when do I ever go to you for fashion advice?"
"You know, Rachel says I have an abominable sense of fashion," he replies proudly, almost puffing out his chest. She laughs and steps closer to him, close enough to touch and ruffles his hair with a good-natured eye roll.
"You do know 'abominable' means 'terrible', don't you?"
"Yeah, but I thought she meant it in the way like the Abominable Snowman. Now that's a monster I wanna battle one day."
"And sadly," she says, jerking the scrunchie out of her hair, letting her long blonde curls tumble down her shoulders and he immediately reaches his fingers up to curl around them. She leans forward and quickly pecks him on the nose with her lips. "It doesn't exist."
As he pouts, she runs back in and soon comes out in something that looks like a secretary outfit — a nice, lacy white blouse with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows elegantly with buttoned strips, a fitted black skirt that isn't immodest but still shows off a great deal of her gorgeous legs and tan stockings complete with cute little ballet flats. Percy feels a stirring in his pants and swallows down hard, covering it up with a bite on an M&M. It's nearly impossible how sexy yet beautiful this woman can look without even knowing it.
"Mmm . . ." Percy says, clearly liking what he's seeing, wiggling his eyebrows and nodding in approval. "Sexy."
However, that's clearly not what Annabeth is going for. Her face falls and she stares at him with confused, furrowed eyebrows. "Sexy? What do you mean by 'sexy'?"
"I mean . . . Yeah, sexy. What's so bad about 'sexy'?"
"Seaweed Brain," she groans, briefly pinching the bridge of her nose, already beginning to unbutton her shirt, but facing the mirror on the side therefore he can't see what she's wearing underneath. Damn. It's not like he's distracted by her being so comfortable being shirtless around him, but come on. "This is a dinner with my dad and I shouldn't be going out so that some sleaze across the restaurant will be ogling me and having the nerve to ask for my number at the end."
"First of all, you will be great in whatever you're wearing and second, your scenario may actually be possible. I think I need to come with you on this one." Percy's already rising from his spot, probably going to go and whip out some random tuxedo that he'll look great in, but Annabeth lays a hand on his shoulder and pushes him back down.
"No, it's okay. Don't you trust me?"
"Yes, of course — "
"Then there's nothing to worry about," she interrupts, kissing his cheek. "Now." She goes back inside and after five suspicious minutes, comes out in a blouse dotted with small, delicate cornflower-colored flowers, practically radiating feminineness that makes him just want to tear it right off of her and kiss her hard until her cheeks are as red as one of Apollo's holy cows. "What do you think of this one?"
After a couple more shirts are tossed in the back, Percy actually notices that her bras keep changing. When she shifts down a strap of a nice one that he remembers being patterned with several fruits like limes and peaches which should have looked silly but it's Annabeth, making it look super adorable, he questions her on this, of course:
"Hold on! Just asking, but why are you changing your bras?"
"Oh, so you've noticed?" she laughs and he pouts a little. It's not his fault. Not really.
"Yeah."
"Well, some don't suit the outfits. Like, you can see it through the cloth sometimes."
"Still, it's not like — Excuse me? Are these other people in the restaurant going to be pervertedly undressing you in their minds?"
"Oh, I know you are." Percy can practically picture the small smile tipping up the corners of her lips.
"That so doesn't count. I'm your boyfriend. I'm entitled to undress you in my mind."
"I'm not exactly sure about that, but I'll write that into our vows if I have to."
"You better."
She struts out, donning a jet black button-down shirt with a red dragon stitching crawling up one sleeve. The emerald green fabric of the eye almost glows at him and she strikes an almost provocative pose. "Is this one good?"
He raises a hand to his chin, studying her, carefully trailing his eyes down, taking in everything slowly, pinning her with an appraising look. After a while of wandering his eyes around her toned and tanned frame (she'd discarded the skirt and was just wearing the shirt along with a pair of jean capris), he shakes his head in mock disappointment. "Hm, no. Probably not."
Annabeth spins around and Percy wets his lips, quickly looking for any more teasing glimpses of extra, unseen skin. But Annabeth catches on, not taking long at seeing what he's really playing at and shoots him a glare over her shoulder.
"You just want me to take off my shirt again, don't you?" she asks, eyebrows almost challenging him to answer.
Percy, however, totally replies with an almost childish, whining, "What?" at the accusation.
"No, Percy," she begins, running over to him. "This is very important to me. I just . . . want to impress my dad. Not looking like a sleaze, but not like I belong in some convent either. I want to look . . . " She pauses, looking for the right word. "Feminine. Powerful. Sophisticated."
"You're already all of those things, Wise Girl," he says, threading his fingers through hers and giving her this really tender smile that just warms her heart and makes her smile back. He rubs her knuckles with his thumbs, sending warm tingles down her skin. He traces the rim of her engagement ring, the diamond glittering in the lamplight. Percy slowly leans forward and plants a kiss on her throat, the same sensation traveling through her nerves, pushing his fingers into her well-curled hair, fingertips meeting that silkiness they're already way too familiar of and he sits back to say something else, until he notices her shirt's already unbuttoned halfway, the flash of skin staring him right in the face.
"Um . . ." he trails off, gulping down on the lump in his throat.
She smirks. "Still don't think this shirt is it, huh?" she murmurs, draping her arms around his neck and his hands slide up her hips to tighten around her waist in anticipation. He really wants to pick her up and just drive her body crazy, but . . .
"Oh, no. This one's perfect."
"Then what do you want to do?"
He pauses before looking up, gazing straight into her eyes, his own black with desire as he says, "I seriously don't want you to go since all of these clothes just make you more beautiful."
Annabeth looks down at him with lowered eyelashes, almost shyly, soft smile tinging her lips. "Yeah?"
"Not like you're not beautiful without your clothes on, because you sure as hell are —"
She chuckles and kisses him for a moment and just when Percy's about to really reciprocate, she breaks away, giggling that sweet little giggle of hers that makes his heart beat faster. "Don't wanna ruin my lip gloss just yet."
"You kill me, Wise Girl."
"Made a promise, Seaweed Brain. I'm never going to make things easy for you."
"At least make an exception for being the best boyfriend in the world."
"And why should I?"
"I'll literally shower you with owl-shaped candies."
Annabeth bursts out laughing, drapes one leg over his lap and slides a hand over the back of his neck. She pulls him forward and presses their lips together and while she's aiming for sweetness, he's urgent and wild in his gestures, hands smoothing up and down her back, tongue ramming into her mouth, first slowly lining her bottom lip before tasting the lemon fresh tang of her own tongue, making her moan and flatten herself against him. His thumb flicks along her waist and rips the rest of the buttons out, revealing that favorite bra of his. It's black, matching the silkiness of the shirt, with lacy, scalloped edges and adorned with several different shades of blue stripes. He runs his thumb along the edge, feeling the soft skin below her breast and slowly slides his fingers underneath the back, fingers tracing the knobs of her spinal column. She shivers against him and he sees the same desire kindle inside her eyes.
"At least let me drive you," he mumbles against her neck as she tips her head back. He's busy trying the unstrap the bra.
"Don't you want to see if the underwear matches or not?"
It probably does, but with a relenting, muffled groan, Percy sinks down to his knees, hands cupping around the area right below her hips and pulls the zipper of her pants down hard and fast with his teeth.
A/N: None's mine. Good or bad? Review! -N
