*Please read AN at the end *

03:24 AM

She was exhausted. Again.

She lost track of time. Again.

Percy was most definitely going to lecture her about working overtime. Again.

She will be physically unable to leave a more than a meter from her bed tomorrow morning and blame herself for it. Again.

It was a horrible cycle.

But Annabeth couldn't help it. Architecture was her life and soul, her dream since she was a little kid. When teachers in school asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, the most common answers were 'princess' 'nurse' 'doctor' and 'ice-cream tester'. This is why Annabeth did not get offended when the kids threw her confused (and some dirty) looks in her direction when she stated that her dream job was to become an architect.

The idea just appealed to her in so many ways. She knew from a young age that she was in fact smarter than most kids, although sometimes she wouldn't even know where all the knowledge was coming from. It was like someone had inputted this extra piece of brain in her, just to store enough information so people could classify her as smart. Smart, but not stuck up. She hated the stereotypical idea of that intelligent people also possessed the quality of being cocky and arrogant. Sure, she tends to get a little…aggravated when people answer in the wrong tense or misspells a word, but surely that small habit can't place her in the 'stuck-up' category of their society?

Annabeth sighed out loud as she kicked of her heels and her sore feet were freed from their captive. Her toes were sore and her heels were rubbed red from wearing those blasted heels for a whole day. She limped slightly as she made her way through the narrow but long corridor, motivating herself that a big, comfy bed was within a few footsteps. She squinted at her watch, the only light source was the moonlight coming through the two small windows in the living room of the apartment.

03:28 AM. Shit. Percy's probably already drooled half a gallon of drool onto her pillow already.

Percy.

He's been swimming around in her head the whole day. Since she is working in her office in New York nearly all the time now – leaving at 6 in the morning and not returning till late- their time together was getting cut down more and more. Percy worked as a trainee lifeguard at their local pool and the staff and customers loved him to bits. Who wouldn't like a funny, caring, talkative 18 year old goof? Although Annabeth suspected, no, knew for a fact that those giggling high school girls were drooling over his looks, and not his not-so-funny jokes. (On second thought, if Annabeth was a giggly high school girl, she would most definitely drool over Percy, just maybe not so noticeably.) Although she was happy for both of them to have found a steady job for themselves, she missed him terribly when he wasn't around her.

There were no words to describe her feelings for Percy, and you would rarely catch Annabeth speechless. He was truly the best boyfriend she could possible ask for, sometimes if she looked at him for too long, she would start questioning him whether he was real or not. (And he would laugh at her and then would kiss her.) He stuck with her through thick and thin, and Annabeth constantly reminds herself that this was the scrawny, annoying 12 year old kid that showed up at Camp Half Blood and drooled in his sleep (Old habits stick around forever, they say).

Just the mere thought of Percy plastered a wide grin on Annabeth's face, and she speed-walked the rest of the way to their bedroom. She gingerly creaked open the door, just enough to admire the scene of Percy laying on their bed, hands sprawled on their pillows, and sheets tangled in his long legs. He always sleep shirtless and only left his boxers on, complaining that it got too warm at night. Not that Annabeth was complaining of course. This way, she could look at his abs and V-line without any hassle.

She chuckled and shook her head slightly at how childish he looked in bed, his mouth half open and drool on the edge of his lips. She tiptoed inside the bedroom, grabbed her towel, her pyjamas and undergarments and headed straight for the shower. The quicker the shower, the quicker I get to cuddle with Percy, Annabeth thought.

After her short, warm shower, Annabeth was finally ready for bed. She felt clean and refreshed, she had thrown on a loose tank top and some cotton shorts as pyjamas and felt extremely comfortable. But the hot steam from the shower had made her drowsy, and the drowsiness very quickly turned into exhaustion. She left her towel to dry in the drying rack in the bathroom, hastily brushed her teeth and stumbled back into the bedroom. She tried her best to wake Percy up as she crawled into the bed beside him, resting her head on his bare chest and wrapping her arms around his waist. She untangled the sheets with her legs and pulled them up so only her lower half of her body was covered. She planted a soft peck on Percy's chest which caused him to stir in his sleep.

'Sorry, did I wake you?' Annabeth asked after kissing his chest again.

'I was supposed to wait for you anyway, so great timing.' Percy replied while pulling her in closer to him. She didn't need to look, she could hear the smile in his voice. He was always smiling nowadays. It was a great change after the events of Tartarus. For the first few months, they would have the same continuous nightmares night after night. She would wake abruptly from her slumber, sweat dripping down her forehead and her palms sweaty. On the worse nights, she would bite her knuckles until they drew blood in order to withhold her loud sobs. The fact that she needed Percy by her side each night to chase away the nightmares, Annabeth hated herself for being so dependent on him. She would constantly scold herself for showing a sign of weakness. She knew Percy had it as bad as her, maybe even worse. Yet each night he would still remember to call her to tell her goodnight and sometimes they even Iris Messaged till morning. But those days were over. Now, since they lived together, the nightmares were slowly fading away. She was extremely grateful for Percy, to be able to fall asleep peacefully each night in his warm embrace.

She was broken away from her trail of thought when Percy moved his arms to pull the covers over them, tucking them in.

'I can feel you shiver in the middle of night,' Percy explained while tucking a golden curl behind her ear. He was fully alert now. 'Do you want me to get the extra blanket from the closet?' He asked, searching Annabeth's eyes for an answer. The concern and sincerity in his eyes made Annabeth's heart melt inside her body.

'I'm fine Seaweed Brain,' Annabeth said as she shrugged off the covers off her and Percy. 'I'd much rather freeze to death than to drown in your sweat.' She joked playfully.

'Oh come on, I'm practically naked and sweat can't even drown you.' He said while pulling the covers up again, this time snug under Annabeth's chin. 'And I don't want to have to look after 'Sick Annabeth' for week.' Annabeth rolled her eyes affectionately at his statement.

'Percy, I'm not cold.'

'But you will be,'

'Not in this exact moment in time,'

'Better safe than sorry.'

Annabeth made an annoyed huff and threw the covers off the bed. They landed on the wooden floor with a soft thump. After a heartbeat, Percy then let out a soft, quiet but hearty laugh he had tried to hold in. Annabeth soon joined in with her quiet giggles and soon the soft covers on the floor were forgotten. Once they calmed down from their laughing fit, they settled into a comfortable silence for a while, both with happy smiles on their faces and staring up at the ceiling.

You know in the movies, whenever a character comes up with a mind-blowing idea, a little lightbulb appears just above their head? Well, Annabeth would like to consider her sudden idea as a 'lightbulb idea'. A mischievous ghosted her lips and disappeared just as quickly as a loud sigh escaped from her lips, breaking the silence around them.

'You know what Percy? You're right.' She said dejectedly.

Percy raised an eyebrow and his face contorted into a confused expression. '…I am?' He was not used to Annabeth saying 'you're right' to him often, this time he didn't even know what he did.

'Yeah, you're right. I get extremely cold during the night-'

'Then why'd you throw our sheets-'

He was stopped mid-sentence when Annabeth shifted from her spot from the bed until she was straddling him.

'Pity I don't have anything to warm myself up with…' She replied slyly while running her index finger along Percy's chiselled jawline. Realisation hit Percy like truck and he would've smacked himself in the face if his hands weren't already travelling up to Annabeth's hips. He swiftly flipped them over so he was hovering about two inches above her.

'I know a guy who does the job nicely,' He growled, already dropping kisses down her neck and collarbone, yanking her tank top out of his way. Annabeth hands travelled to his soft, raven-black locks, messing his hair up even more and let out a content sigh as Percy sucked on a sensitive spot just below her ear.

03:55 AM

At that particular moment in time, Annabeth was no longer exhausted.

*Please take 2 mins of your time to read this long AN *

I am terribly sorry to have been gone for so long. As I explained before, I do not have an excuse and am ashamed to say that I was just lazy and had no motivation to write. I've been on my summer holidays for a while now, and this one shot idea has been nagging me for a while. I finally decided to type it up last night and posting it today. I've been trying to improve my writing a lot and I hope you guys can see that by comparing this piece to my other story. I worked on this till really late last night and I'm like super tired today (oops). I hope you guys enjoyed this fluffy Percabeth one shot (with a teeny, tiny bit of angst in the middle) and if you guys want to see more stuff of mine, please let me know. Thanks to all who read till the end of this long, soppy AN :p SEE YA GUYS SOON, I HOPE. (Reviews are deeply appreciated and I will reply to all )

-F 3