Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson, its concepts, or its characters. No money is being made out of this.
She is sitting by the living room window, eyes heavy but determined to stay open, when she hears the rustle of his clothing as he shuffles past her into the kitchen. She knows it's Percy even without looking, but he hasn't noticed her; light spills into the living room as he hits the switch on the other side of the wall. Annabeth listens for the sounds he's not being particularly careful to conceal, even though it's the middle of the night: he takes a glass from the cabinet, places it on the counter, then opens the fridge and pours what is presumably water (she supposes it could easily be juice, although juice would mean he'd need to brush his teeth again before going back to bed and she suspects it would sound like entirely too much work for Percy, just to quench some half-hearted midnight thirst), closes the fridge.
She lets herself close her eyes for just a moment – just long enough to take comfort in his presence, in the fact that he's awake right now and just a room away, making noises in his mom's kitchen while she sits on his mom's couch, thoroughly at home even though she's only staying a couple of days. She likes her dorm at school well enough, but it is almost unfair to compare it to Sally Jackson's apartment, with its warmth and its comfort and its Percy. Annabeth is mid-contented sigh when a muffled yelp close by makes her nearly jump out of her skin. She swallows the annoyance at being startled, settling for shushing him instead.
"Gods, Annabeth," he hisses, reaching back toward the kitchen's light switch on his way out. The room is dark again, but her eyes adjusted long before he showed up, and the light from the city outside is enough for her to make out his form. He walks over and sits down next to her. "So what are you doing here all alone in the dark?"
"Couldn't sleep."
He tilts his head and squints at her. "Doesn't look like it. You look like you're about to nod off any second. In fact, I'm pretty sure you were already sleeping when I came in just now."
"I was not! I was just…thinking."
"With your eyes closed? About what?"
She can feel herself blushing. "Nothing."
Percy is smirking, and she wants to either punch him or kiss him. "Right. So, what's wrong?" Annabeth hesitates, and before she can reply he asks: "Is it the spiders again?"
"Yeah," she says, a little surprised he would know. "At Camp we have wards against them, and at the dorm I share a room with a mortal, so they don't come." Sally prepared their spare room for her, and although she appreciates the privacy and the thoughtfulness of her hosts, it didn't come without its downside: a child of Athena sleeping alone and undefended is an easy target for Arachne's spiders, invisible to mortals but real enough as they crawl all over Annabeth's skin in the darkness.
"I'm sorry," he says, and he sounds so sincere it makes her want to kiss him again.
"It's not your fault." She gives him a small smile, but there's a crease in his brow and his eyes seem more intense as he looks at her.
"Yeah." He plays with the hem of her sleeve for a moment. "So you're saying if there's someone else with you in the room, they don't show up? Or does it have to be a mortal?"
"I'm not sure, actually," she says, thinking she knows where this is going.
"I guess we'll find out." He stands and offers her his hand. "Come on, then."
Annabeth takes it, but she's not convinced it's the best idea. "I don't think your mother would appreciate it, Percy."
"It's okay, I'll just sleep on the floor." He's pulling her along. "Plus I'll explain it to her. She'll understand."
He sounds so confident that Annabeth feels herself automatically sigh with relief. It'll be okay now. Percy's with her.
"Let me go get my mattress," he says, but she follows him into his room to help. She picks up his blanket and pillow and dumps them on her bed, then goes back to help him haul the mattress over. Once it's been deposited next to her bed, Annabeth places the pillow and blanket neatly on top of it. She hears him turn out the lights in his room then he walks back in, carrying Riptide in pen form. He leaves her door ajar then moves to tuck the pen under his pillow. "If they show up, I'll be prepared. They'll think twice before messing with this child of Athena again." He gives her a wink and a smile, and Annabeth feels herself smiling back in spite of herself. Gods, she's probably blushing, too.
She turns out the light then crawls back into her bed, trying not to remember how the spiders felt on her before she escaped to the living room. Eyes closed, she reaches down in Percy's general direction. A moment later, she feels his hand close around hers. "Good night," she whispers, already half-asleep.
"Good night."
There are no more spiders that night.