Warning: Rated for graphic violence, dub con and language!

Summary: A vigorous training session leads to an almost kiss between Percy and Annabeth. But multiple events winds up with Annabeth storming off. While she is gone, monsters attack Percy and he is brought to a slave house. :O

Characters: Mostly Gen (Percy) with Percabeth glimpses. They're 16 in this story.

FYI: I've only read the first book and seen the film, so the characters are a bit OOC And I guess you could safely say it's an AU to the POJ series. Also, I should warn you that English is not my first language... But my dad is English so hopefully it's not too bad. Also; first fic etc etc. OK, all excuses out of the way, now on with the story :D

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"Grazed knees"

"Something happened, that I never understood
You can't leave
Every second, dripping off my fingertips
Wage your war
Another soldier, says he's not afraid to die

Well I am scared..."*

---

---Chapter one: 'I Look Away'---

He looked so young and helpless the first time she saw him. He was laying unconscious in his sickbed and Annabeth could remember the feeling of disappointment over the fact that this boy was supposed to be The One from Chiron's prophecy. He was so pale and weak looking. This was not how she had envisioned him. But then he opened his eyes and everything changed. A pair of clear, sea green eyes staring up at her, wide with panic. Annabeth caught herself taking a short breath and taking a step back. He was looking to her for answers or words of comfort, but all Annabeth could do was to look down at her shoes, hoping he hadn't noticed her blushing.

---

Annabeth was a loyal daughter. Her mother hated the boy's father, so naturally she would hate the son. The plan didn't go quite as smoothly as she had hoped though. He was too brave, too humble, too caring...

In the beginning, Annabeth had thought he looked a little young, but there was no doubt that the boy was cute. And in addition he had a quirky sense of humor and a sort of clumsy charm that was impossible not to like. And his eyes, well, they just messed up everything.

She had tried so hard to not make it show that she liked him. And although she hated to admit it she liked the way he looked at her, his eyes filled with admiration at her fighting skills and knowledge.

She had always been rough with him during training, a lot rougher than she should have been perhaps. She just wanted him to respect her; she wanted him to keep looking at her the way he did.

A few years and a lot of experiences later, Annabeth and Percy were best friends now. He was taller and broader, a little anyways, and not as easy to beat during training as before. The truth was, it was nearly impossible.

Annabeth had been struggling all week. It was as if she was at a stand still with her training. And that Saturday morning during an early training session with Percy, was no different.

She had woken up at 6 in the morning with a gasp and a hammering heart from a horrible nightmare. In her dream she had been too weak to protect Percy from a giant spider, and it had ended up killing the both of them. Annabeth didn't take nightmares lightly.

With her heart still pounding in her chest, she had turned up at Percy's cabin at 7 in the morning demanding he'd come practice with her.

His messy black hair was sticking up at all angles and he was barely awake as he stood there squinting at her.

When she told him about her nightmare he was not at all listening. He was sort of swaying on the spot, contemplating whether he was awake or still dreaming. Apparently he decided on the latter, for in the next second his eyes closed and he looked like he was about to fall over.

"You have to come practice with me!" Annabeth blurted and Percy's eyes flared open again.

"Jesus christ, Annabeth" He had croaked "It's Saturday" He blinked a few times and scrunched up his face in confusion "It's not even light out, are you alright?"

"Come on Seaweedbrain!" Annabeth said a little louder and reached out to grab his arm. "Time to practice"

Percy dodged her grasp to lean against the door frame and yawn widely. He rubbed his face roughly and looked at her gloomily, sleep still swimming in his eyes.

"You're not normal" Percy said hoarsely.

He looked really cute, but her nightmare was still fresh in her mind and Annabeth didn't have time for this right now. She reached out and grabbed a hold of his t-shirt and started dragging him out the door.

"Come on Seaweedbrain, don't be lazy" She commanded.

"Can I at least put on some pants?" Percy mumbled confused as he stumbled after her into the chilly morning.

An hour later they were well into it.

Annabeth in full battle gear, Percy barefooted, only wearing a pair of tattered jeans hanging so low on his narrow hips they looked like they were about to fall off him and a gray t-shirt that appropriately said "HELL NO!" In large green letters.

Although Percy had been half asleep earlier, his senses were fully alert now. And Annabeth was struggling. She could not get to him. When she swung her sword at him, he was too quick and parried her away her weapon. She was drenched in sweat while Percy on the other hand looked annoyingly unaffected.

The whole week had felt like an endless struggle and it was getting to her. She felt like she was almost getting worse. Chiron had tried telling her that it was just a stage of her progression; it meant that she was getting better. But it didn't feel like she was progressing at all and right then she was getting more and more frustrated with herself. She was also highly annoyed that Percy didn't seem to struggle at all.

In a moment of distraction Annabeth suddenly felt her sword fly out of her hands. In the next second Percy had a firm grip on her and his sword was pointed directly at her throat.

But Annabeth wasn't about to give up. There was always a way out of a fight if you just used your brain. She could read in Percy's facial expression and the way he was loosening his grip on her that he was under the impression that they were finished training. He should have known better.

She acted on her reflexes and landed a hard kick into his unprotected stomach. While Percy crouched over gasping for air she landed another kick to his arm and his weapon flew out of his hand. Pleased with herself Annabeth swiftly picked up her own sword before running over to get Percy's weapon. But just as she reached for it a large spider crawled across the handle. She winced and jumped back, and in the next second Percy was there to grab it.

It wasn't fair.

Annabeth felt tears pressing behind her eyes from pure disappointment in herself. She couldn't do anything right! It was like the whole universe was against her.

She was breathing hard through her nose as she glared at Percy. He was slightly hunched over with one arm hugging his middle, but non the less he was holding his sword firmly in front of him ready to continue.

She felt a little bad. She knew Percy would never have done the same to her. He had never laid a hand on her like that, and he never got mad at her when she hurt him by accident and sometimes even on purpose. He simply let the water heal him and continued fighting without a word of complaint.

Annabeth glanced down at his bare feet standing in the wet grass. His jeans were wet up to his knees. His t-shirt was ripped a few places from previous training sessions. She remembered that t-shirt. It had been a gift from Grover and her a few years back. It was a bit too short on him now.

She could see in Percy's face that he wanted to go. A light breeze played with his black hair and he shivered a little.

When Annabeth charged him once again, Percy simply stood there, and let her crash into him. The impact sent them flying to the ground.

Annabeth scrambled to get on top of Percy and pinned his arms over his head. They stared at each other in silence while trying to catch their breaths. His wide eyes had such a clear quality to them and the color never seized to hypnotize her.

"You win" Percy panted and smiled.

It was difficult to remain clearheaded when she was this close to his face. His lips were slightly parted and she could feel his warm breath against her face. She shook her head and snapped out of it.

"No, I didn't" She said angrily, pressing his wrists hard against the ground and glaring down at him. "You let me win on purpose"

He laughed a strained laugh while trying to shift his position underneath her weight.

"Why would I do that?" He asked, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

Why couldn't he see that she was serious? Annabeth was not playing.

She tightened the grip she had on his waist with her thighs and pressed his wrists down with her hands.

"OK" He whimpered breathless, "I've clearly done something to upset you"

He drew his eyebrows together and looked up at her in disbelief, like he was still trying to figure out if she was being serious or not. He was visibly at a loss of what was going on.

But Annabeth had so much anger and disappointment built up inside from the previous week. If felt really, really good to to let it out on Percy...

"You always let me win!" She spat.

He looked confused for a minute. As if he genuinely didn't know what she was talking about. "...What?" He said "I don't always win. You just don't like it when I do!"

He made another feeble attempt of trying to shake her off him. Annabeth wasn't heavy but she was in full armor and she was strong and using all her strength to hold him down. Percy was starting to feel very uncomfortable, and it was starting to show in his expression. "OK, this has been awesome, but you're kind of hurting me. Could you please get off?"

"No." She said stubbornly, "Not until you admit that you let me win out of pity"

"Out of what?... Annabeth, come on" Percy groaned. "Even if I did let you win, which I didn't, that's considered polite."

"No, its not, its insulting" She pressed on. "I don't need any favors from you. How am I going to get better if you keep letting me win?"

Percy looked at her; his mouth hanging open and eyes wide in bewilderment, "I don't always win you lunatic. If that spider wouldn't have..."

"You don't have any disadvantages like that!" Annabeth retorted.

At that moment Percy seemed to give up.

"Yeah, ok..." He mumbled and rolled his eyes, before his head lolled to the side and he stared longingly towards camp where everyone else was enjoying their breakfast by now. Or sleeping comfortably in their beds.

Seeing that Percy was clearly annoyed with her, made Annabeth's pulse quicken and only seemed to heighten her desperation. She knew it was time to let him go, she'd gone to far. She was letting all her anger out on Percy. And Percy was the last person she wanted to hurt.

Percy looked wearily back up at her, his eyebrows drawn up in his forehead. "Are you finished?"

He looked like he was seriously sick and tired of her. It freaked Annabeth out and again she acted on her reflexes. She grabbed her sword swiftly and pointed it directly at his throat.

"Whoa, you're not taking this a bit far are you?" Percy said throwing his hands up.

She got up to her feet unsteadely, the sword still pointing at Percy's throat.

Put the sword down! Annabeth tried to command her arm. It wouldn't listen.

"Annabeth." Percy started "Seriously. I'm sorry if I offended you by letting you win. It's just that I'm really fucking hungry and I knew you were never going to stop. I'm sorry, OK? I know how you get when.. UNH!"

She cut him off my placing a foot on his chest.

"Jesus Christ Annabeth, so you had a bad week!" Percy spat. "Remember last week when I had a bad weak and everyone, even Jack, kept beating my ass?"

"That was last week," Annabeth said, her voice was weak, and her arm was shaking.

"Fine" He sighed wearily. "I'm truly sorry I gave up on you today. I really am"

His sea green eyes were gleaming with genuine regret, when what he should have done was pushed her away a long time ago and stormed off.

Annabeth couldn't fight the tears pressing behind her eyes any longer. She had gone too far this time. A feeling of intense remorse was starting to grow inside of her. Her fatal flaw; hubris, or deadly pride, had shown its ugly face once again. It wasn't the first time. And now he was going to hate her forever. She threw the sword to the side and sunk down on the ground beside Percy.

"I'm sorry..." She wisphered.

For the love of Hera, don't you cry! Annabeth thought to herself, while she tried to swallow the annoying lump that had formed in her throat.

She heard him sitting up behind her before she could feel him tugging gently at her ponytail.

"It's ok" His voice was soft. He put his warm hand on her arm. It felt really, really good. His touch always brought her comfort and she felt a tingling sensation in her stomach.

She could be so ridiculous at times, why did he put up with her? She turned around and let him guide her towards him. He clumsily brushed some hair away from her face.

"Your hands are dirty" She complained and pushed him gently away.

"There you go again" Percy grinned and let himself fall back, arms up, as if she had pushed him really hard.

Damn it, he wasn't supposed to let her go. But in the next moment he grabbed her arm and pulled her firmly towards him. She slammed on top of him with a huff. He wrapped his arms around her and Annabeth rested her head on his shoulder.

"Sorry" Annabeth said quietly after a while, "I don't know what got into me"

"You just had a bad week" Percy said and pulled her face into his dirty hands to looked at her. He squinted his eyes and turned her head this way and that in his hands, as if her head was an object he was investigating. It made her giggle "You know you're my favorite sparing partner, right?"

Was he speaking? She could see that his lips were moving. She was thankful that she was wearing her armor, or else he would have noticed her hammering heart.

"When I train with you," Percy continued "it's like I'm in a real scrap and I actually have to use my brain to get out alive. I mean, you think you give it all... I do too."

She wasn't used to thinking that guys could be beautiful, but Percy really was. He had dark eyebrows slightly arched above his clear eyes. And even though he had quite a boyish face, his cheekbones and jaw line were defined enough. He had a small nose and his lips were full and really soft looking. He wasn't handsome in a manly way like Luke. Even though Percy had grown significantly since she'd first seen him, he still had that adorable boyish face. She just loved everything about it, and she figured she could stare at him forever and never get tired.

She suddenly remembered the fact that she was being watched. By the boy she was daydreaming about.

She snapped out of it quickly and shook his hands away, 'Yeah, of course" She stammered and cleared her voice "I know that!" She wasn't sure exactly what he'd said.

Percy arched an eyebrow and laughed "Oh, ok wisegirl. Sure"

Annabeth bit her lip, "I'm sorry I kicked you" She said and rolled off him. She propped herself up on her elbow beside him and carefully placed her hand on his flat stomach and started rubbing it gently. She was surprised at her own move, she'd never done something like that before, it had just felt like the natural thing to do.

He seemed to be enjoying her touch, or at least he didn't tell her to stop. She could feel her pulse rising rapidly.

Percy crossed his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. "Everyone has flaws. You're afraid of spiders. And, you know, the other thing that I'm probably not supposed to mention because then you'll get mad at me, and you'll stop doing that thing you're doing with your hand right now, and I don't want you to stop..." The end part of his sentence he said with less confidence.

Annabeth wasn't about to get mad because she didn't want to stop either. It was really intriguing touching him. Especially in a way that he seemed to be enjoying. She wondered if he'd like it if she moved her hand underneath his shirt...

She slowly let her hand slip underneath his shirt. She felt very brave but avoided his eyes.

His skin felt warm and very soft. But he was kind of bony, there wasn't a gram of fat on his body. When she moved her hand up to his chest she could feel his ribs underneath her fingers, kind of poking through his skin. But he was starting to develop some muscle. And he had a nice natural built. He wasn't exactly big, like Luke. But who cared, she liked his body. A lot...

"And my flaw is..." Percy mumbled, reminding her that they were having some kind of conversation. He was speaking in a low hoarse voice now. Annabeth found it strangely attractive.

Their eyes met for a second, but they both looked away quickly. When Annabeth glanced back, Percy was looking up at the sky above, following the billowing clouds with his eyes as they rapidly changed shape.

"You're... Pretty and it's kind of distracting at times" He admitted.

She removed her hand from his body to bring it up to his face. She was shaking a little bit and the look that he was giving her made her weak on the inside. She put her hand on his face. His cheek also felt warm and soft, like the rest of him. She carefully let her hand run through his thick black hair. It felt soft between her fingers. It felt so good to touch him, it was so comfortable but also the most exciting thing she had ever done..

His eyes looked sort of drowsy but awake at the same time. She had never seen that expression on him before. His lips were slightly parted as he stared at hers. He looked so cute and different...

She suddenly caught herself leaning down instinctively. His warm breath was on her face again, making her head swim.

Then a horrible thing happened, reminding her that once again that this was not her week. It was her damned battle reflexes reacting before she could understand what was going on. She had felt something crawling up her arm. It was definitely not an ant, it was something bigger. She had remembered the spider from earlier and screamed in fright and jumped back brushing her arm frantically while searching the ground for the spider, when it suddenly deemed on her. She held her breath and glanced up.

Percy was sitting upright on the ground, staring wide-eyed at her, his arm sort of hanging in the air in front of him.

"I'm sorry" He stuttered, "I just thought you were going to..." He put his hand away quickly. "I misunderstood"

The thing that felt bigger than an ant had been Percy's hand. Of course. He had been trying to caressing her.

No! No no no no! She wanted him to touch her more than anything in the world! She wanted to turn back time more than ever. And also hit herself senseless for ruining everything.

"I thought you were a spider" She croaked.

"That's what my hand feels like to you? Your biggest fear?" Percy sounded crushed.

He jumped up to his feet. "You can't just!... I thought you were... I thought" Percy babbled and he put his hands at his waist as he started pacing in a circle. He looked embarrassed. And really fed up with everything that had happened. He stopped to glare at her, "Maybe next time brush your teeth, because I... I didn't..."

Annabeth felt her heart sinking in her chest. She got up to her feet and stood before him.

He had stopped pacing and stood staring back at her. His eyebrows were pulled up in his forehead and all the anger had vanished from his face. He opened his mouth as to speak, but Annabeth had already turned and was on her way back to camp.

The monsters appeared out of thin air.

And before Percy could comprehend what was going on someone had thrown a blanket over him and as something hard slammed into the side of his face everything went black.

***

Thank you so much for reading! I'm sorry if it was filled with grammar mistakes, but as I said, English is not my first language. But if you like the story I'll be happy to continue it! :D

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Rick Riordan.

*1 - Far lyrics by Snow Patrol