Disclaimer- I don't own anything you may recognize.
Annabeth was doing really well. She wallowed in tears and sorrow for a day and then picked herself up. She went to work at nine every weekday and arrived home at 5:30. She put her heels and makeup on and gave her presentation. And, sure, she can't really remember the last time she hadn't come to work hungover, or, on the rare occasion, drunk, but no one has said anything.
So, yeah. She's been good. And then Percy Jackson got a girlfriend.
Her name was Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and she was beautiful, and Percy Jackson was in love with her.
Annabeth was never one to stress about how she looked, but she was aware of it. After all, she was raised by a stepmother who wouldn't leave the house without her hair curled and went to the grocery store in heels. So, yeah, Annabeth Chase liked to think of herself as an adequate judge of physical beauty. She's well aware that she's "magazine pretty", with an athletic figure and curves. And, while she never knew her mother, her father had been quite the looker during his prime, if the fact that he had hooked up with so many girls during the time that Annabeth was conceived was anything to go by, and she knows she has a pretty face that's a mixture of both her parents'.
But Annabeth Chase was an orthodox kind of pretty, the kind you find on the dolls little girls play with. She had an immaculate sort of beauty, with a sharp face and a stiff posture.
Rachel Elizabeth Dare was nothing like Annabeth. She had wild red hair and sparkling green eyes. Her facial features were soft and kind, and freckles dotted her entire face. She wore ripped jeans with doodles and paint marks on them. She was a simple, easy kind of pretty. She was Percy Jackson's kind of pretty.
Annabeth always knew that she and Percy were direct opposites. He liked waking up early in the mornings to watch the sunrise, while she stayed in bed to catch up on the sleep she lost the night before when she stayed up late working on blueprints. He was polite and sweet toward people, even if they were rude to him. She was brash towards everyone. Cleaning calmed her down, and he spent more time making messes than cleaning them up. She had a temper that could rival that of a lion, and he had more patience than she thought possible. She was egotistic and he would give a part of himself to a stranger. And so they fought. They fought over everything, from who needed to calculate the bills to who ate the last of the potato chips.
That's why she broke it off.
She was stressed; her father and stepmother were going through a split - a split, not a divorce, they were very clear about that fact - and her stepmother wanted to go back to Laos to be with her own family. Which, would be fine, if she didn't have a twelve-year-old and a fourteen-year-old who were just beginning to make friends at the school where they were, didn't know the language and had never lived a life with their parents separated, no less in different countries. Annabeth had offered to take them, but she was a twenty-six-year-old woman just beginning to launch her career, and no one knew how long she'd have to support two adolescent boys, one of them autistic.
On top of that, the weather was becoming an issue for the new bridge she was overseeing, so construction commenced at 5:00 a.m. Even better, the construction manager, Luke Castellan, kept hitting on her, which wasn't really something she wanted to deal with at any time of the day, no less at five in the morning.
All she wanted to do was come home to the love of her life, eat dinner on the couch, and complain to him, but whenever she brought up her workplace or familial problems he would shut off or argue.
She got tired. She started to just avoid him. On the off chance they did speak, they exchanged bitter words.
She had seen it before. Her stepmother and father rarely acknowledged each other during her childhood. When they did talk, they fought. The house was tense at all hours of the day. Her parents slept in separate beds. It wasn't even her father sleeping on the couch one night and then making up with Lulani in the morning. They each had their own room, complete with shelves and a vanity.
As much as Annabeth thought Lani was ostentatious and annoying, she had raised her, with her father, Fredrick, being the sole breadwinner of the family, and they spent a lot of time together. Annabeth was there when Lani was told that she had lost one of her unborn children and that they didn't need the double cribs in the nursery anymore. Annabeth was there when the doctor told Lani that her toddler was on the autism spectrum. She knew that Lani had lost Bobby's twin because of stress, and she knew that Lani was at a loss when it came to taking care of her baby, Matthew, who was diagnosed with Classic Autistic Disorder at age three.
So she stepped in. She changed baby Matthew's diapers and played airplanes with Bobby. She read books to the boys before bed, taught Bobby the alphabet, and got Matt to feed baby dolls. Unfortunately, that left Lani and Fredrick more time to fight. Annabeth watched them fight with mild disconnection and a hope that her own children were never in a home like the one she was in.
Except, she started to come back to a warehouse apartment with the same tension and stress in the air as the house from her childhood.
She thought about her decision for weeks. She lost sleep and cried; she wore her body out. Headaches and heartaches became her norm for months.
She knows damn well she was the one to break it off, alright? But that doesn't change the fact that the breakup hurt her. But, perhaps the breakup itself didn't hurt her as much as when he calmly told her, "It's alright, I've found another love to keep," because, god, she's been tearing herself apart over this decision, and he's been falling in love with someone else.
That was her whole fucking problem; she loved him with everything she had, and he loved Rachel Elizabeth Dare with everything he had, and she had no right to stake a claim on him because she was the one who broke it off.
Annabeth remembers waking up on weekend mornings to him in the rocking chair between the window and their bed, humming a tune and looking out over Lakawanna and Lake Erie. She would lay in bed and watch him, daydreaming about the life they would have five, ten, twenty years into the future. Perhaps he would be sitting in that rocking chair with their baby on his chest, sleeping silently. Or perhaps he would be in the bed with her while one of their kids bounced around on the bed. Maybe, when they were old and grey, he'd still be sitting in his chair, rocking and humming while looking out at their town.
It seemed like they could turn that daydream into reality. Now it was nothing but a hopeful fantasy.
It was not gonna happen while Rachel Elizabeth Dare is around.
He's gonna be sitting on their porch with a little redhead baby on his chest, and he's gonna wake up next to Rachel Elizabeth Jackson, and he's gonna sit with Rachel Elizabeth Jackson's hand in his, overlooking Lakawanna, and Percy and Annabeth's town will be Percy and Rachel Elizabeth Jackson's town.
Perhaps she's overreacting, but she knows she's not overthinking. She knows they'll make a family together. After almost eight years of dating, on her twenty-fourth birthday, he gave Annabeth a ring with his name engraved on it, saying that he hoped one day she would take his last name too. Two months after the breakup he came into their friend Hazel Levesque's jewelry shop and asked for a silver ring with his initials on it, in a size eight. Annabeth wears a size six. Rachel Elizabeth Dare wears a size eight. How does she know? She saw Rachel Elizabeth Dare wearing a ring with the letters P.T.J. engraved onto it.
Annabeth wore her own platinum ring with the letters PERSEUS engraved on it every day prior to the event. Afterward, she never wore it on her finger, but kept it on a chain around her neck.
0~0~0~0~0
She saw him again. Which meant she saw Rachel Elizabeth Dare again. Even better, it was at Malcolm's pottery studio that she saw them. Malcolm. As in, Malcolm Pace, her best friend, practically her brother. And they were on a date. At Malcolm's pottery studio. Her Malcolm.
She's a little bitter.
This was their date place. Annabeth still has the clay waves that Percy painted. It had been on their mantle, but when he moved out Annabeth placed it on their bedside table.
Annabeth heart twisted when she realized how fucking happy they looked. They laughed and joked with each other. When she and Percy came they would work quietly next to each other, her leaning on his shoulder. Somehow he always managed to get paint on himself, which meant Annabeth had to do a load of laundry that night, which mean they ran out of detergent, which meant Percy had to run to the store to buy more because 'Dammit, baby, you're the one who somehow managed to get green paint on your t-shirt while you were using blue paint, how does that happen?'
He left the studio without a drop of paint on himself and a large smile on his face.
Apparently, the memories of washing Percy's clothes manifested themselves into reality, because she found a pair of his jeans while folding her clothes.
She drank a half a bottle of Captain Morgan that night to get rid of his memory.
0~0~0~0~0~0
After the unfortunate run-in (well, sighting, since she hid in the back) with the happy couple Annabeth decided to go somewhere she knew she wouldn't see them: the beauty salon. She needed a haircut, anyway.
Most of the times Annabeth had gone to a beauty salon she waited in the corner while Lani got her acrylics done. However, being friends with the owner of the salon has its perks (read: she got to sit in the corner of the salon with a magazine). Two decades later and she's still sitting in the corner of the salon, although this time conversing with Piper, the daughter of the salon's original owner. Now Piper manages the place.
Piper says the only reason she hasn't lost her mind is the rather enthralling gossip the older ladies bring. Except, the gossip is considerably less amusing when you are at the butt of it all.
"I'm telling you, that little lady is so much better for our Perseus than that blonde."
"Oh. I agree. They'll make such pretty babies."
"What'd you say, Barb?"
"Oh yes, have you seen her eyes? They're absolutely dazzling!'
"What did you say, Barbra?"
"Oh did you see that ring he gave her? It's so cute, I wish Albert did something like that when we were young."
"Huh, what'd you say, Barbra?"
"Have you ever spoken to her? She's got such a sweet disposition, she's good for that boy."
"What, Barb?
"Ah, yes, that blonde was always so brash and brazen."
"What'd you say, Barb?"
"Yes, and her eyes were too narrow."
"And her legs were too long, she could never look sophisticated in anything she wore."
"What did you-"
"Goddammit, Agnes, will you just shut up, I haven't spoken a damn word in this conversation, I don't know what the hell they're talking about, our boy was happier with blondie, even Frances can see that, and she's blind as a bat. Martha's the one bitchin' over there!"
"What'd ya say, Barb?"
Annabeth said a hasty goodbye to Piper, who was looking at her with an undecipherable look and left the salon. Long hair was all the rage, anyway.
0~0~0~0~0
A week after the salon gossip session Annabeth went to the grocery store to buy ice cream and some beer. Because she was totally throwing a lit ass party and absolutely not binge-watching This Is Us and trying to cancel out Percy's memory with alcohol. Totally.
She was reaching for her third box of wine, a lovely $14.29 Bota Box Pinot Grigio, when the hand reached up to help her (which she didn't need, she was absolutely proficient in climbing grocery shelves with bottles of wine in her hands. Actually, she's grown proficient in doing most things with a bottle of liquor in her hands, but that's beside the point). But it wasn't just any hand. Oh, no, this fucking hand had a white scar running along the thumb. She knew damn well who that hand belonged to. Hell, she was there when he had tried to help his mother cook for Thanksgiving but ended up cutting himself, earning a life-long scar.
Percy handed her the tan colored box. She was suddenly self-conscious about her simple black tank top, legging, and tennis shoe ensemble but thankful for the oversized black sunglasses covering her red-rimmed eyes, complete with semi-circle shadows underneath them. Although, she wished she had worn makeup; the unusually large alcohol consumption was giving her terrible skin.
Percy cleared his throat.
Annabeth hiccuped.
They stared at each other.
It was awkward.
They both opened their mouths and closed them in perfect unison.
It got even more awkward.
Annabeth hiccuped again.
"You're, uh, you're gonna need a cart for that," Percy looked pointedly at her Vanilla Bean and Birthday Cake ice cream filled arms and then at her hands, which were loaded down with her six-pack of beer and three wines.
Annabeth looked down at her arms. "Oh, no, I think I'm- hic- alright."
She cleared her throat and shuffled her feet, causing a pint of Vanilla Bean ice cream to fall out of her arms.
Percy gave her a funny look before handing her his empty basket. Now it was Annabeth's turn to give him a funny look. He blushed sheepishly and pulled his arm (and, with it, the basket) away from her, leaning down to pick up her Vanilla Bean ice cream container, which he placed in the basket. He then held the basket out towards Annabeth, raising his eyebrows in an attempt to get her to put her breakfast-for-champions in the basket. Annabeth complied with a sigh.
He pulled the basket back from a confused Annabeth, who had reached out to take it, considering it now held her groceries. Unfortunately, there were two Percy's, and Annabeth reached for the wrong one. Thankfully The Real Percy caught her before she could fall flat on her face, though he was now balancing a rather tipsy Annabeth in one hand and her viands in another.
Again, his eyebrows raised, but his face quickly morphed into a stern look.
"Did you drive here drunk?"
Annabeth's eyes widened because every other word in that sentence started with a 'D,' and that was funny. So she told him so since she thought it was funny and she wanted him to be happy. That's why she let him go. That's why she's letting Rachel Elizabeth Dare have him.
Except, Percy didn't seem to think it was funny. She asked him why.
"You never answered my question, litt- Annabeth." The stern look on his face never disappeared, despite his small stumble where he almost called her one of his favorite pet names for her.
"No, Per- hic- Percy, I didn't drive here drunk. That wouldn't make you happy, and I want you to be ha- hic- happpppyyyyyyyyy," she burst into a fit of giggles.
"So how did you get here?" He was still holding her, no that she minded, he was quite warm. His body protected her from the air conditioning's breeze.
"I walked-ed."
"You walked."
"Uh-huh."
"Alone."
"Yep."
"At night."
"Yes."
"Less than an hour outside of Buffalo."
Annabeth had to think on that one. She never saw any buffalo on her way to the store, but Percy was really the only thing she could focus on, so she agreed. That, apparently, was not the right choice. He blew up.
"Goddammit, Annabeth, don't you know how dangerous that is? Huh? You can't just fucking walk alone at night on a fucking street to a fucking shady ass grocery store while you're fucking drunk! You could get hurt! My god, what possessed you to do such a stupid thing!?"
He was holding her really tight now, but it had been a long time since he held her (four months, one week, five days, thirteen hours, eleven minutes, and eight seconds) so she let him. She weakly reached for a beer in answer to his question. He glanced at it before turning back to her with a livid look.
"Fuck. Fuck you, Annabeth. How long has this been going on? Huh? Did you start when you started fucking that Bob the Builder dude?"
Annabeth just gave him a quizzical look, because the only Bob she knew was her brother and she was fairly certain that she had not fucked her fourteen-year-old brother. Also, he was an eighth grader, not a builder. She voiced her thoughts to Percy, who loosened his grip on her.
"What?"
"I said-"
"I know what you said."
"Then why did you ask?"
"Ju-just…" He sighed.
He set the basket down. Annabeth reached down for her ice cream, because she came here for some alcohol and sugar, not for a speech. He pulled her back up to his face. Well, really to his pecs, because she's a normal height for an average American woman and he's a mutant.
"How many drinks have you had?" His question threw her off because she had words at the ready on her lips for the topic they were on. Nevertheless, she began to count on her fingers the number of drinks he'd had before her stroll to the store, except, she couldn't remember what came after five, so that's what she said.
"Five of what?" He asked.
She just giggled, because she couldn't remember, and, really, they're this close to each other again and she can smell him and feel him and his muscles are taunt and rippling beneath his long-sleeved t-shirt and this is the conversation he wants to have.
"Let's. Let's just go home."
And that's when she lost it because he called it home but it hadn't been home in almost five months because fucking left, and no matter how many pictures she hung up of him around the apartment or how many of his favorite blankets she snuggled beneath he still wasn't there. The apartment was growing too cold and too lofty to be in alone.
He let go of her and turned to put the boxes and cans back on the shelf. She whimpered from the loss of his touch, though she hoped he interpreted it as a caused by him putting back her alcohol. She couldn't tell from the small smile on his face when he looked up at her.
Thankfully, he didn't put her ice cream back. Instead, he took her to the open check out aisle, where he simply gave the cashier her pints of ice cream, plus a pint of mint chocolate-chip, which she knew was his second favorite store-bought ice cream flavor. Their favorite was birthday cake. She ate it a lot more now that he was gone. She also ate more mint chocolate-chip, but that wasn't saying much since she hated mint chocolate-chip ice cream.
He wrapped his arm around her and she fought down the need to audible sigh, instead opting to lean into him.
He took the bag, thanking the cashier, and led her out. New York's autumn chill began to seem into her bones. Her thin Adidas windbreaker was doing very little to shield her, though Percy's body was doing a wonderful job.
She yawned as he led her up the metal stairs to what used to be their shared apartment. He moved the bag onto his wrist and reached into her purse, digging for the key. She blinked, realizing what he was doing and uncrossed her arms to make it easier for him, though it didn't do much since he had already found them.
She watched him try to shove the key into the hole, missing completely and scratching the door instead. She laughed quietly and took them from his hands, focusing on getting the key straight in the hole. She was sensible but drunk, and her vision was swimming. She opened the door and was greeted by their old Persian, Mum.
Her apartment was just as she left it; all of Percy's blankets were sprawled out across the couch, her laptop opened and it's screen black, though she knew that if she moved the mouse Justin Hartley's broken-hearted face would be on the screen.
Mum laid her head back down on her paws, not even bothering to acknowledge Percy. She had always liked Annabeth more. Mostly because Annabeth fed her.
"Good to see you too, Mum." Percy's voice was somehow simultaneously monotone and sarcastic. Annabeth smiled and walked over to the fluffball, who rolled over for her mom to rub her belly. Said mom obliged.
Annabeth stared sadly at the cat, though her mind was focused on anything but Mum.
"Annabeth," Percy called her name quietly.
Annabeth breathed in deeply and exhaled before turning to the man. He had set the bag down on the counter and taken out all the pints, a spoon in each one. He stood bent behind the island with his hands supporting his upper body. She walked over to him, toed her shoes off, tripped over one, and reached for the Vanilla Bean. It was soft from being out of the freezer for so long.
She stared down at the ice cream, not daring to meet Percy's gaze, which was focused intently on her.
"Annabeth," he called her name again.
She looked up.
"Let's go sit on the couch, yeah?"
"Yeah." It was nothing but a whisper, she doubted Percy even heard her.
They walked slowly over to the couch. Annabeth snuggling into the corner with Mum in her lap. Despite being disturbed from her slumber, the feline quickly nestled into her mom and closed her eyes again. Annabeth alternated between petting her fluff daughter and scooping her ice cream.
Percy watched her, his ice cream untouched. They stayed like that for a long time.
Annabeth was halfway done with her pint (she swears she's gained at least ten pounds since the breakup, but, then again, none of the carbs or fats she was consuming were substantial) when Percy spoke.
"Why?"
She was taken aback, having not expected him to speak.
"Why what?" She knew the answer, he knew that she knew the answer, she knew that he knew that she knew the answer. She just didn't want to answer.
"You know."
She took a breath. "Percy," she started, "I…we weren't working. And..you had said you found someone else.."
"Annabeth, I never loved Rachel. She was showing interest in me at the rehabilitation center, but I never did anything about it because I had you at home waiting for me. And then you stopped coming home. Or, at least, you were up so early in the morning and out so late that you might as well have not been home. Where were you, Anna? Who were you with? Do you understand what I felt, what I started to think? And when you were home you were talking about that Luke guy all the time, I got so tired, little mama. I wanted you home, I wanted someone to kiss goodnight and wake up to. Don't you get it, Anna? I missed you, dammit!"
Annabeth was on the verge of tears and his voice was raised and broken by the time he was finished. "Percy, god, I'm so sorry. It's just...construction started at 5 a.m. because of the weather and I went into to town to see Fredrick and Lani at night. I told you they were splitting, right? Lani wants to go back to Laos to be with her mom, and she wants to take the boys with her. They're just starting to make friends at their school, and Matt got a new teacher that he adores. They can't be without Lani, though, because Fredrick doesn't know how to take care of them. God, he's hardly ever even home."
"Well then why didn't you tell them we could take them?"
"I offered! But you were staying late at the center and kissing Streicher's ass for that promotion and I was gone for so much of the day, not to mention the financial problems we'd have with two little boys, it'd just be so hard."
Percy let out a long sigh and rubbed his hand over his face. Annabeth swirled her ice cream around in the tub, though Percy's was left on the table, long forgotten. He sat with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped and hanging down between his legs.
Suddenly Annabeth felt a large warmth lay on her bare foot. She looked over to see Percy's left hand resting on her foot and his right hand supporting his chin.
"Good god, what did we do?" Percy's voiced his thoughts, perhaps without realizing it, since he didn't turn his head to look at Annabeth.
Annabeth opened her mouth to say something but closed it when she realized her thoughts were too scattered to be comprehensible. She sat up, put her tub on the coffee table next to Percy's, and folded her hands, staring off into space to collect herself.
"You said - earlier - you said that you never loved Rachel. Do…. do you love her now?"
Percy finally turned his head to her and let out a breathy snort. "Nah. I mean, she's nice and stable, and she's easy to understand, but she's not you, you know?"
Of course. Rachel was everything Annabeth wasn't. Annabeth always knew she was a task, and too complex to be an enjoyable person to be around, she was just waiting for Percy to realize that fact. Now he has, and she's lost any chance of having him again. She knew she should have been kinder to him and his golden heart. To top it all off, she was too busy trying to build something permanent and beautiful that she forgot about the support beams and foundation.
She just nodded in response.
"And you, you weren't fucking the construction dude?"
Annabeth almost laughed at that. God, how many times had Luke tried to get her to sneak off with him just for her to make up some stupid excuse to get away from him?
"No," she said with a slight smile, "no I was never 'fucking Bob the Builder.'"
He nodded and began to look around the room. An awkward silence settled in between them. He stood up and walked over to the mantle.
"Got rid of my masterpiece?" She knew he was referring to the waves he painted.
"No," she had a small nostalgic smile on her face that seeped into her tone, "It's by the bedside table."
"Ah."
The silence returned.
"So."
Annabeth looked up.
"How's your family?"
She sighed. "I'm not sure. I haven't really talked to Lani or Fred lately. I took the boys out for ice cream a couple of times, and they seemed good, not too stressed, which is good."
He nodded.
"How's your family?" She asked.
"Good, they're good. Mom's been stuffing me with cookies. Estelle's, you know, Estelle. She had an audiologist appointment the other day. She's not getting any worse. You know, that's good, you know. Yeah. You know."
Annabeth nodded. The awkward silence settled in again. She was beginning to sense a pattern. She rubbed the tattoo of a mermaid on her foot and ankle, a habit she had picked up when Percy left. He would rub that tattoo when they were cuddling, or watching TV, or doing really anything where he had easy access to her foot. Which, surprisingly, was more often than one may think.
"Where do we go from here, Annabeth?" His voice broke her out of her thoughts.
She looked up at him. He was still at the mantle. She looked back down at her hand that partially covered her tattoo. She shook her head, "I don't know, ba- Percy. I don't know."
"What do you want to do from here?" His question didn't take her by surprise. He always was the problem solver in their relationship. Which was good, Annabeth thought, because she was always the problem maker. Maybe that's why he worked at a rehabilitation center, even if it was for sea creatures and not humans.
Annabeth knew exactly what she wanted to do from there, she just didn't want to say it. What would make her think he would want her back? Why would he? He's got a beautiful girlfriend now, who's simple and kind, and he's doing just fine. That thought, perhaps, was the knife in her heart twisting. The thought that he was okay without her and she was on her way to being an alcoholic, if she wasn't already there, burned her heart and caused her bones to feel 10x heavier. Maybe that's why she said what she said next. She had nothing to lose, nothing to gain.
"I want you to come back." Her voice was dry and rough.
He stared at her face for a while. She tried to read his face, but it was completely blank.
"I can't come and go as you please," he said at last.
"I didn't fucking want you to leave!" Adrenaline rushed through her as she spoke.
"Oh, I'm sorry, sometimes people get a little confused when the love of their life tells them they think they should 'call it quits' and end up thinking they don't love you anymore!" His voice had raised to the same level hers had and he stood up halfway through his sentence.
"I never fucking stopped loving you, but we're fighting so much I figured we were just too broken. I didn't want to keep you in our relationship if it was hurting you." Her voice lowered slightly.
Percy sat back down in his chair a wiped his and over his face. She knew he did that whenever he was stressed or tired, or, in this case, both.
"I'm sorry." Her voice was such a quiet whisper that even she didn't hear it.
"What?" He looked up. She just stared back at him.
"What did you say?"
"I said that I'm sorry." Her eyes never left his. Before he could even open his mouth she continued, "I'm sorry that I neglected you and our relationship and I'm sorry that I didn't put in the work our relationship needed and-" tears were streaming down her face as she realized all that she had done to lose such a wonderful man. Her throat closed up and she choked; whether it was on her tears or her spit she didn't know.
She felt Percy's big arms wrap around her and tuck her into his chest.
"I'm sorry too. I was irrational and I jumped to conclusions and I didn't communicate with you enough and I'm just so fucking sorry," he whispered the words into her ear in a rapid voice. She felt small drops of warmth on her head and realized that he was crying too. She hiccuped.
It was a while before they pulled apart. Annabeth laid her head on Percy's chest as he glanced at the digital clock on the microwave.
"It's late," he told her.
She moved her head to the other side and read the time.
1:29 a.m.
She nodded her head against his chest in agreement but made no indication or moving.
Mum, fuck that little furball, began to scratch at the place where Percy and Annabeth's skin touched, announcing she was ready for her humans to bring her to bed.
"She says it's bedtime," Percy chuckled.
Annabeth smiled at the sound of Percy's laugh and nodded against his chest, "She sleeps on my pillow now."
"Not on mine? What, is she trying to say that she's been fine without me in the apartment?" Percy asked with another quiet laugh. Annabeth decided against telling him, that she was sleeping on his side of the bed and Mum hated how wet his pillow became as she cried herself to sleep. Pathetic, she knew, that's why she kept the fact to herself.
"I'll take the couch," Percy stated. Annabeth almost tightened her grip on his arm and asked him to come to bed with her. Despite the emotional night they had she felt that was no longer an option.
She took a shaky breath and stood up to head to the bathroom. She deemed a shower unnecessary this late at night (early in the morning?) but knew she needed to wash her face when she glanced in the mirror. She splashed water on her face and then used the cheap face wash. She reached for her toothbrush but her hand found Percy's blue one that he had left. Oh. Yeah. He probably needed that. She trotted out to the living room to give it to him.
Percy looked up from arranging blankets and pillows on the sofa when he heard Annabeth's soft footsteps. She was holding the toothbrush out to him. He took it and thanked her, following her back to the bathroom. They brushed their teeth together in silence.
Percy stood around her awkwardly while she rubbed coconut oil and dotted pimple cream on her face. She always did take better care of her skin than he did. He fought back a smile as he remembered that his own skin had become much clearer once he and Annabeth moved in together and she started making him wash his face morning and night. He should start doing that again, he thought.
He caught Annabeth staring at him expectantly. He looked down at himself, wondering if he should ask for a change of clothes. He remembered leaving some of his sweats at the apartment since they were in her drawers and he couldn't bear to look at anything that reminded him of her when he had packed his bags. Realization came across her face when she realized what he was thinking. She nodded and began walking to what had been their shared room.
She hoped that she had a clean pair of Percy's sweatpants as she looked through the drawers. She had been wearing his clothes since he left. She sighed with relief when she found some old Adidas sweats. She tossed them to him and began to look for a shirt.
"Oh, it's alright, this one is comfortable enough to sleep in," he called out to her.
"Are you sure?" She knew the answer would be yes, she just wanted an excuse for him to stay with her longer.
He nodded.
"Do you need a clean pair of boxers?" She asked.
'Oh, yeah, she may still have my underwear,' thought Percy. They had shared and underwear and a sock drawer, and when Percy was packing he didn't want to look at all Annabeth's lingerie for fear that he'd remember all the, ah, fun times they'd had with said lingerie. And he hadn't wanted to sit and sort through fifty pairs of socks, so she had those, too.
Percy cleared his throat, "Do you still have them?" She nodded.
"You want some socks, too?" She remembered that he slept with his socks on. He always told her to do the same thing because apparently, her feet were 'Always so cold, little mama, Jesus. You'd think with as many pairs of fuzzy socks you own you'd use them at least every once in a while,'
"Please," he answered. She tossed him a pair of plain black boxers and white socks. She turned to him and crossed her arms over her body.
He cleared his throat again, "I'll just, um, go change into these." She nodded in response and he walked back to the bathroom. She changed into her own pair of pajamas and climbed into bed, but not before picking up Mum, who was weaving through her mom's feet and placing her on the bed. She lifted the covers for the feline to get under, but Mum ignored her. Instead, she sat on Annabeth's face, which, for the first time in around five months, was on her own pillow. She growled from underneath all the white hair and grumbled something about 'stupid spoiled old fluffballs that need to go on a diet' under her breath as she pushed Mum off and rolled over to Percy's side of the bed.
"Goodnight, bab- Annabeth,' she heard Percy call from the living room.
'Awww, he was gonna call me baby, he's so cute,' thought Annabeth's drowsy mind. She would blame her half-conscious state for her next words.
'Goodnight, baby."
0~0~0~0~0
When Annabeth woke up Mum was not on the pillow and the smell of coffee was in the air. She hates coffee, which must mean that Percy was up. Also, he liked to talk to Mum in the early mornings before Annabeth woke up, which was probably why said the cat was not with her human mother. The only time Mum would get out from under her mom's feet was when her dad held her. And even then, he had to hold her, not just pet her. Dad was only too happy to comply.
Annabeth really didn't want to get out of bed but she also really wanted to see Percy and Mum (mainly Percy though, she had enough Mum to last nine lifetimes). At last, she dragged herself out of bed, rubbing her arms at the cold chill that kissed her skin.
Sure enough, Percy was sitting at the table, having a conversation with Mum, who was laying in his arms like a newborn.
"G'morning. How's little girl and her daddy?" She asked as she turned the stove on to boil her water before moving to pick out her tea.
"Good morning to you too." Percy's voice was still rough with sleep, which was odd because he rarely woke up after 9:30 at the very latest and it was 10:41.
"When did you wake up?" She questioned.
"Like fifteen minutes ago," he answered.
"Hm," she mused, "that's late for you."
"Yeah, well, we had a long night, and I haven't been sleeping that well lately."
Oh yeah. Last night. Fuck.
She took in a breath as she sat down at the table.
"We still need to talk."
She let out her breath and nodded,"Last….last night, you asked me what I wanted to do from where we were. But, um, I want to know, um, what do you want to do from here?"
Percy looked down and continued to rub Mum's belly. Annabeth held her breath, the tears already stinging at her eyes. Why the fuck would she ask that. She knew the answer. She knew he was trying to figure out a way to let her down easy. She's just going to end up on his side of the bed crying again. She'd just going to end up stalking him on social media and wondering what he's feeling in all those pictures with Rachel Elizabeth Dare on his Instagram. She's just going to end up looking through old pictures of them together and looking through all his old things and reminiscing the memories associated with them. She's just going to end up on her couch with a bottle of Christian Brothers brandy and his old t-shirt.
His voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
"Can.. do you think we could try again?" He looked up at her tentatively.
She was ready to cry. In fact, her eyes were already wet and she was debating flinging her arms around him when he interrupted her thoughts for a second time, "I mean, we don't have to if you don't want to, I know you're already stressed an-"
Annabeth decided to fling her arms around him. Her heart fluttered as he let out a guffaw and wrapped an arm around her waist.
She leaned back to look at his face, her eyes shining, "You mean it? You're willing to try again?"
"I mean, if you're willing"
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Yeah, that's what I asked."
"I know, but why what?"
"Why are you willing to try again, Percy?"
Percy shrugged, his arm still around her waist and her arms still around his neck, "Life is just harder to face without my girl with me."
"But you have Rachel."
"Had, she won't be my girl at the end of the day," he corrected, "and, yeah, she was sweet, but I never stopped loving you, Anna. You're like my right arm. I missed my right arm." Annabeth grinned down at him, remembering how she'd told him that her favorite literature quote was "Salamanca is my left arm. I miss my left arm," from the book Walk Two Moons, and how he used to say that to her anytime he was gone for longer than a day.
Annabeth felt like that statement was long overdue.
Thank you so much for reading all of this. I have some ideas for a continuation of this story, let me know if you may like to read it. Also, this is my first story on FF ever, and it's really confusing, so please let me know if there are any formatting errors.