Percabeth fic, set sometime during the HOO books. Rated T for reasons you will see later on.
Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan.
Practice
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Annabeth sighed. ADD was both a blessing and a curse; sometimes it allowed her to immerse herself in whatever she was doing and block out everything else, but other times – like now – it was the exact opposite. Knowing she wasn't going to make much progress, she poked her head over her massive book to glance at her boyfriend who was currently sprawled out on the floor of the common area. He looked positively bored. She closed the novel and set it in her lap, reaching over to grab her water. The movement caught Percy's attention and he looked up as she took a long gulp of the cold liquid.
She tried to come up with ideas to keep them entertained, seeing as they were stuck on the Argo II for the next couple of hours. It really shouldn't have been that hard to think of something, yet she was drawing a blank. She frowned to herself, moving to set the plastic cup back down on the table when suddenly it slipped and crashed to the ground, spilling her water everywhere. Stupid condensation. Percy got to his feet and walked over as she bent down to pick up the cup.
"I got it."
With one deft swipe of his hand, all of the water lifted into the air, gathered together, and floated into the container. Annabeth sighed and looked at him, grateful for the quick cleanup. "Thanks." He smiled at her.
Suddenly, a crazy idea crashed into her with the force of a freight train.
"Hey, Percy, could you try something for me?" His expression turned curious and she could barely suppress the excitement in her voice. "Could you try to lift just a little bit of the water? Like, a couple drops, maybe?"
He hesitated. "Um, okay." He extended his hand, eyebrows creased, and concentrated. Soon enough, a tiny bead of water was suspended in the air in front of her face. Percy looked confused and curious, but mostly shocked whereas Annabeth was nearly bouncing on her toes.
She bounded over to him and grabbed his hand, leading him out into the hallway and toward her room. "We have to try this out more!"
"Wait, did I just become one of your test subjects?" Percy groaned, letting himself be pulled along.
She turned and looked at him, eyes twinkling mischievously. "No."
- O - O - O -
"Annabeth, can't we take a break? It's been half an hour," Percy whined.
"I wonder…" Annabeth put a hand to her chin and gave the boy a once-over, completely ignoring his plea. The two sixteen-year-olds sat on the wooden floor in front of her bed, the cup of water sitting beside them.
"What?"
"Well," she began, "since you seem to be able to control tiny amounts of liquid as well as large amounts, I'm wondering if… maybe you can control body fluids as well?" Then she smacked his leg excitedly and sat up straight, folding her hands in her lap. As if it were the most normal thing in the world, she said, "Make me cry."
He stared at his girlfriend, wondering if she'd lost her mind. "I don't think so."
"Aw, come on," she pouted. She hadn't quite mastered the 'baby seal' look like he had, but it was a valiant effort.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because," he reached forward and cupped her cheek, brow furrowing, "I don't like seeing you cry. Besides, it's dangerous and I wouldn't be able to tell what's happening. I wouldn't be able to feel the effects of what I was doing and I don't want to accidentally hurt you."
Crap, he had a point. "Fine, then make yourself cry."
He dropped his hand and huffed, slightly annoyed, but complied. Sitting up straight, he closed his eyes and concentrated, focusing his powers inward. His mind prodded around his tear ducts, willing the tears to rise up. After a minute or so, he felt a slight pulling in the pit of his stomach. He opened his eyes to find everything blurry and a stinging sensation behind his eyelids. Suddenly, a waterfall of tears streamed down his face. He gave an incredulous laugh and she shifted onto her knees, leaning forward and laughing as well.
"This is so cool!" she exclaimed and he let his concentration drop, stopping the waterworks. He grinned at her and she grinned back, wiping the excess tears from his cheeks.
"Okay, so we know that I can control tears. What else could we try?"
"Well," she took a moment to think of something, "How about blood? It's mostly plasma, which is about 80 - 90% water. You probably don't want to mess too much with how it flows, but maybe you could control where it flows? That kind of thing?"
Percy thought about it. "Do you think I could control how fast wounds scab over?"
"Yeah, I think so. Small wounds, though." He shifted around, uncrossing his leg and fiddling with the skin on his calf. "What are you doing?"
"Scab," he replied, now picking at his skin.
Annabeth made a disgusted face. "Ew, really, Seaweed Brain?"
He shrugged and smirked. "For science." She wrinkled her nose, but said nothing.
He huffed triumphantly and flicked the scab away, ignoring her mumbled "that better not stay on my floor" and focusing on the small bit of blood that slowly trickled from the newly re-opened cut. It took a lot more concentration than he thought, but in less than a minute, a new scab had formed where the old one had been. He looked up at the blonde, beaming with pride, and wiped away the droplets of sweat that had formed on his brow. She nodded her approval. "That could come in handy."
"No kidding," he laughed, trying his best to avoid thinking about the very near future.
"Well how about the blood inside your body? Where it flows?"
He scratched his head. "…Is that possible?"
"I don't see why not," she reasoned.
"Yeah but – OW!" Percy yelped, throwing a scowl at his girlfriend and rubbing his upper arm in an attempt to soothe the pinched area. "That hurt!"
Annabeth grabbed his hand and pulled it away from his bicep, then pointed to the mark that was blossoming on his skin. "Try to keep that from getting red."
He looked at the offended area, which was already starting to look inflamed, and poured all of his concentration into it. He was careful to avoid making huge changes, lest he risk stopping the circulation or popping anything, but instead tried to let his mind flow along with his blood, as if it were being carried. It was a strange and slightly unsettling experience. Eventually, he came upon a place where he could feel the liquid diverting to where he'd been pinched, and willed it away toward his fingers instead. He watched with wide eyes as the red skin slowly regained its normal color.
"Huh. I guess I can do that."
"You guess?!" Annabeth was smiling so hard that her cheeks started to hurt. "I can't believe we've never tried this before! Come on, Percy do more. Make yourself blush."
He concentrated once more, feeling a little tired. They could only do this for so much longer, but he figured he'd humor her while he could. In no time, his face felt extremely warm, cheeks and neck tingling. She laughed and touched his face with cool hands before leaning forward and kissing him. This was so much better than her book.
All Percy could think about was how nice she smelled and how soft she was and how thankful he was for that leaky faucet. A familiar feeling curled in his chest and danced in his stomach; the same feeling he always got when she kissed him; the same feeling he suspected he would always get when she kissed him. Yet somehow, this felt slightly different. He realized too late that he still had control over his blood flow, and it was tugged down to… to…
Oh.
Oh crap.
Percy broke away, feeling extremely uncomfortable. "We should stop," he mumbled breathily. Annabeth's forehead creased, looking slightly hurt, and he panicked, suddenly realizing the implications of what he just said. "No, I didn't mean – I didn't mean the kissing, I meant the, uh… other stuff." He avoided her gaze and tried to tug down the hem of his shirt as nonchalantly as possible. "The kissing was fine. Great, actually. It's just that – " He cleared his throat. "Does it feel warm in here to you? Wanna go to the dic-DECK with me? To the deck? For fresh air?"
She stared at him for a moment. "Uh, sure?"
"Great, me too!" He grabbed her hand and all but yanked her to her feet, strolling quickly out of the room and trying hard not to smack himself in the face.
That was enough practice for one day.
End
I should be studying for economics tomorrow, but instead I decided to make Percy give himself an accidental boner. Time well spent, I'd say.
Please leave a review! Anonymous reviews and constructive criticism welcomed!
Vee