Author's Note: So I decided to write a short little Percabeth drabble for Valentine's day, as they are my OTP, so this is what appeared. A bunch of drabbles. I hope you like it. Please review, maybe? Awesome. It would mean so much! You are all very wonderful.
Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Tiny Stories
1. Falling
Annabeth always needed a explanation. A definition. Just something to describe how she felt when it happened. The shaking, the weird sensation of an irregularly beating of a quick heart, the heated face, and open-lipped smile of determination. He just smirked. Oh, that bastard.
So as they walked back to her cabin, shoulder to shoulder, hands brushing hands, she began murmuring her thoughts.
"There is this certain degree of aeronautics involved in falling, you know? The hesitation before, gravity pulling, taking the hands of the person and placing them where necessary, the rupture of atmosphere, and afterwards the ripples left collecting on the clouds."
Percy leaned in, pressing his lips against hers as they stood in front of the cabin's door. "Oh?"
She grinned and felt it all again, finally understanding. "The same can be said about a kiss."
2. Stars
"Do you see those?"
Annabeth looks at him, following his fingers. They are pressed against each other on a blanket, whispering in the dark of night, scars of light touching the black ocean above them. Oh, how the night rose in beautiful, greying clouds. She raises an eyebrow.
"Stars?" She asks, smirking. "What are those? I've never seen them before."
Only two have appeared, just two, beautiful bulbs of white light.
"Oh shove it," He says, but he laughs too. "You see them?"
She nods, pressing her chin against his chest, looking at his eyes anyway. "Yes."
"That one over there, and that one there."
She nods again, glancing up at those two stars, far apart from each other. "What about them?"
He wraps her closer to him. "We're those two stars."
"Oh?" She murmurs, ignoring the powerful pumping of her chest.
"Yes. And alone we are separate stars, but together we are an entire universe."
3. Break
All day she's been wondering. She has no idea why, but since the early morning this same thought is in her head. When she walks to his apartment and buzzes in, her face red and almost embarrassed, he doesn't ask what's wrong. Following her closely as she leans into the fridge and pulls out an apple, he places himself against the pantry door, waiting, letting her take her time with what she has to say. He knows she's flustered and likes to perfectly form her thoughts before she questions him, unlike his unabashed self that would accidentally blurt out something hilariously awkward she would bring up from time to time with a heartfelt, "oh Seaweed Brain."
So, deciding that he needs a distraction from waiting, he follows her motions, taking an apple and washing it in the sink with a light stream of water. She watches his back carefully.
It pulses on her tongue. She waits for all her thoughts to convene perfectly, listening to the quiet padding of his finger gripping a kitchen towel, drying the shining fruit. "Do you think we'll ever break up?"
He doesn't turn around to look at her with a surprisingly soft glance, but what he does instead reassures her even more so. He laughs.
"Gods no."
4. Everything
She stands slightly away from him, washing her legs in the ocean, removing dribbles of sand from rolling around with him earlier. He smiles, remembering the cool laughter of her voice, wrapping his fingers with ribbons, shadows cascading of his fingers as her hair plummeted down her back, wet and salty. Looking at her now, his eyes twinkle, wishing to reach out and touch her, lightly, pretending that she is still the his rope to the mortal world. Part of him knows, no matter how many years since he passed through the Tiber and lost his invincibility, that the small of his back is still preciously connected to her, and, whenever she touches it, he feels most alive, more so than ever before.
She catches him watching. "What?"
At once, revealed in the light of leftover day washing their arms, turning their bodies golden, pale blue and cloudless sky warming the breath around them, is her gaze, clear and pure, light and fond. It's as if, her eyes wandering through his appreciatively, she knows everything. And she does. Oh, how she knows everything he's ever wanted, feared, loved, hated, dreamed - oh everything.
He smirks. "Nothing."
But somewhere she knows too. Her hands reaches from her side, taking his pinky finger and clenching it tightly, ready to never let go.
5. Valentine
Here she was, looking for an explanation. His laughter stood out from the rest of the night, the hand cut bunch of drawstring clasped roses leaning in a glass jar they had cleaned out, and upon her lips she tasted a sweet disposition that came from his chapstick (or perhaps more so from the fact it was his lips and she could never, ever, become used to that beautiful fact). He walked with his hand around hers, hips bumping hips occasionally, and the snow-light gripping their eye sight brightly, as if it was afternoon, not past eleven, their shadows replaced with quiet footsteps. She smiled. Oh, how wonderful it felt to be his, and only his. To forget everyone else and know he was hers.
But quietly, a question disrupted her blissful pause from a hectic daily life. Why do you love me?
He hadn't asked. No, Percy had much more tact than that, or perhaps he was just too dumb (and she meant that endearingly) to think of that. Either way, it puzzled her mind as if he was asking her, not her own conscience wondering.
And she came up empty-handed.
Well, that's not true. She could feel it, Annabeth knew exactly what emotion swirled through her, she had read enough to know what love felt like, at least at its most basic symptoms. And she knew she loved him, the words had spilled out on nervous occasion with simple determination from both sides. But here in this moment, she couldn't exactly explain why she loved him. She only knew she did. And, for awhile she thought that was enough, but, ever since the beginning of this god forsaken, consumerism driven holiday of buying dumb (albeit exceptionally cute and heartwarming) gifts, Annabeth had begun wondering why. Why, why, why. Why Percy?
She sent a sideways glance his way, stumbling a little at his half-smile, quiet intrigue hiding behind the swirling green of his eyes. After their early dinner and ice skating full of euphoric grins and laughter, they cooled down by walking New York, Percy holding her close, his protective side showing. He made side comments about odd stores while she dragged on about architecture, and, sometimes when she felt the need, would stop him in front of a store and window shop for a moment, ignoring the heat of her face when she, almost by muscle memory, stopped in front of a jewelry store, gazing open-mouthed at engagement rings. When she had looked back at him, avoiding his eyes, she found a fond smile, one that spelled readiness, not fear. And that's why, moments after they walked from the store, she lost control of her lips.
"Why do you love me?"
She covered her mouth quickly, but it was done. Shoot. That was a dumb question, and she knew he knew she would over analyze his response all through the night. She avoided his gaze again, but his hand squeezed hers firmly, her mind likening his motions to that of a promise. She let her eyes find his.
He pulled her into his arms, his hand reaching under her chin and pressing her forehead against his, his eyes sparkling.
"You tether me to the earth," He said, moving her hand to the small of his back, the place his Achilles' had once been.
"And you propel me to the stars," He continued, pressing his lips against her forehead. Her gaze went past his to the sky, lingering on the stars, remembering the moment from their teenage years long ago. Their universe, here, together.
She smiled and leaned into him, rising on her toes to kiss him properly.
"I love you."
Author's Note: And that is the end of all that fluff. God, I just love writing fluff! Well thank you for reading this. Happy Valentine's Day to you all, you are all wonderful! Now please, do me a favor and review this story? Thank you so much.
-St. Walker
