A/N: Hello everyone! It's Fayecee again. My last day of school was last Friday, so to celebrate, I decided to write another drabble for my story, Drabbles & Demigods. The problem is, the idea I had ended up turning into its entirely own story/oneshot thing in my head. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this, so for now it's just an oneshot. This takes place a few years after TLO, and TLH never happened.

Read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned Percy Jackson, you would have seen a lot more Percabeth, and about half the characters that died in the books would have lived.

Bargaining With Apples

Percy was sitting in his cabin, trying to fall asleep. Needless to say, it was not going well, thanks to his ADHD. He had tossed and turned, kicked off his covers and readjusted them, and even went as far to steal Tyson's pillow off his bed (which he was not occupying at the moment) and use it to cover his head. Yet, sleep still evaded him. It felt as if hours had passed. He looked at his clock radio, and started.

It was only 10:32. Ten minutes after he went to bed. Percy groaned and threw the extra pillow away. A thought suddenly came to him. Shouldn't it be able to fall asleep, thanks to his Achilles curse? Ever since his little dip in the Styx, he was out cold whenever he sat down for more than a few minutes (this made it even harder to stay awake during history class).

There were only two explanations for this phenomenon: either the Stoll brothers had convinced the Hypnos kids to mess with his sleep pattern again, or his subconscious was excited about something and refused to shut down. Option one wasn't very likely—the last time the Stolls had pulled that trick, they ended up at the bottom of the canoe lake, thoroughly thrashed and beaten. Percy had a feeling the two sons of Hermes wouldn't do that any time soon if they valued their limbs.

Option two, on the other hand, was slightly more probable; the only thing was that Percy wasn't sure on was what there was to be excited about. He had to get up early tomorrow to set up the arena for his next sword fighting class, and that certaintly wasn't a very exciting prospect.

Percy lay there, still hunting for a good reason, when suddenly he heard a knock on his door. He quickly pulled the covers back on and made it look like he was sleeping. After a few minutes, the door suddenly opened and then shut itself. It appeared that no one had come in.

Percy suddenly had an excellent idea about what there was to be excited for. Stifling a laugh, he waited until somehow, his covers were once again ripped off and dropped on the floor. On instinct, he reached out into the apparently thin air. His hands met cloth and skin, and Annabeth let out a very un-Annabeth-like scream as he pulled her down on the bed with him. He hunted until he found the bill of her Yankee's cap, and then yanked it off the blonde's head. Annabeth appeared on his lap, in a fit of giggles.

"Don't do that, Seaweed Brain!" she managed to get out between laughs as she smacked his arm continually.

Percy just smiled at his girlfriend, apparently unfazed by the repetitive hitting of his arm. "And why not, Wise Girl?"

"You scared me! I thought you were asleep!"

"And I thought you were staying at the Athena cabin tonight!"

"Touché."

Percy joined Annabeth in the laughter. It felt so good to be able to do this—goof off with Annabeth without worrying about any wars, or quests, or what other people around them thought or said. They stayed in that state of peaceful laughter for a few more blissful minutes, and then their talk started to drift into other subjects. The two covered everything from Grover—("I heard he was up in Canada, trying to talk some nymphs into help protect the wild.")—to school—("I don't care about math! I'm going to end up hunting monsters for the rest of my life anyways. Why on earth would I need to know how to factor trinomials or whatever that junk is?")—and even a debate about which weapon would be better in a fight ("Percy, a knife is a lot better than a stupid sword. You can get closer to your opponent, which is better for offense, and if you can use a knife well, you're more skilled than most swordsmen.).

When the conversation came to Annabeth's blueprints for Olympus, however, the daughter of Athena seemed to become more animated than ever in the discussion. "Oh Percy, it's so wonderful! I have so many ideas and plans. It's almost done, but every time I go over my blueprints, I end up changing something. I can't believe I got this opportunity, you know, to—"

"Build something permanent," Percy finished, obviously bored.

Annabeth frowned. "Why did you say it like that?"

Percy sighed, and then said, "Because, Annabeth, that's what you've been saying ever since the gods gave you the job. Frankly, it got old a long time ago." He braced himself for the verbal and/or physical onslaught the blonde was going to release on him any second for such a insulting comment. He was thoroughly surprised, then, when Annabeth just let out a depressed sigh, put her hands on her face, and leaned back on his bed.

"You're right Percy. I have been saying that a lot," she mumbled through her fingers.

"Um, excuse me," Percy began, "but did you just say that I was right?"

Annabeth spread her fingers apart and glared at her boyfriend. "Don't get used to it, Seaweed Brain. I'm just so stressed with the job. It's amazing, but I have so much work to do. Sometimes I feel like I would have been better off just saying no when my mom asked." Near the end, Annabeth's eyes started to go misty. Percy knew her fatal flaw was hubris, meaning that she thought she could do everything better than everyone, even the gods. If she doubted herself now, then the pressure really must have gotten to her.

"Annabeth, don't say that!" Percy said incredulously, pulling her up in his arms and kissing her forehead. "You've always dreamed of doing something like this. So being the Official Architect of Olympus is harder than it looks. If anyone can pull it off, I know you can."

Annabeth smiled as she wiped a tear away from her eye. "Thanks," she sniffed.

"No problem."

They continued to sit there for a few minutes, with Percy gently kissing various areas on her face, before Annabeth asked, "Percy?"

"Mhmm?"

"Do you ever regret not taking Zeus's offer of immortality?" Annabeth continued, turning around to face him.

Percy thought about that for a second. "Sometimes. But then I think about what I used my gift for instead, and what I got out of saying no, and I think it's worth it.

"Besides," he got up from the bunk, "immortality is kind of overrated. If I ever really want to become immortal, there are other ways of doing it."

"Oh really?" Annabeth said inquisitorially, "And what may they be?"

Percy shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. There's some garden—I think it's called the Garden of the Hesperides or something like that—and word is they have these apples that would make you immortal if you ate one. So, all I'd have to do is swing by there, grab two apples, and POOF! We're immortal."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "You're not serious. Percy, there's a dragon guarding those apples! Not to mention you'd have to get by the Hesperides. Only a few heroes have even attempted to get the fruit. Luke… he tried and failed, and got that scar on his face as a result. The only hero who did it was Hercules, but he also killed the Nemean Lion with his bare hands. And even if you did manage to get two, Hera would do her best to get them back even before you could make it here. Plus—"

Percy smirked. "I wouldn't be so sure about that Annabeth." He walked over to the wall where a shield with a hurricane design hung. He lifted it off the nail and set it on the ground, revealing a silver safe in the wall. After twisting the dial a few times, the door clicked open. Inside was a small box, no bigger than a loaf of bread. Percy picked the box up and brought it over to his bunk. Slowly, he lifted the lid.

Annabeth gasped when she saw the two golden apples, perched precariously in the box. They looked almost too beautiful to eat, yet the aroma they emitted convinced her it was okay; the apples would be the most delicious thing she would ever eat. Even ambrosia and nectar would pale in comparison to the fruit. All her desire, all her temptation came bubbling to the surface, and she felt as if she would die if she did not at least taste a bite, a nibble of the food in front of her. She reached for one, but realized what she was doing right before her fingertips brushed over the shiny, metallic skin.

"Percy…." she whispered, bringing her hands to her mouth instead. "How…"

"I decided to get them a few months ago," Percy explained as he shut the lid, affected by the fruit too. "Y'know, just in case you wanted to try it. It was pretty easy, actually. All I had to do was distract the Hesperides with Mrs. O'Leary, then sneak up behind the dragon and—"

"You idiot!" Annabeth yelled, punching his shoulder. The aftershock of the apples had subsided. "You could've died! Immortality is not worth you dying! What on earth possessed you to do it?"

Percy rubbed his shoulder. "I was thinking about you! I don't want to lose you, Annabeth. One of the main reasons I didn't accept immortality the first time was because I didn't want to leave you behind; I didn't want to risk ending our relationship right then and there."

Annabeth stared at him, shocked. "Seaweed Brain—"

"No!" Percy cut her off. "Listen to what I have to say, Annabeth. Hear me out."

She looked a bit hurt. Percy never talked like that to her. In spite of herself, she gave a tiny nod, urging him to continue.

Percy took a deep breath to calm himself, then said, "I love you. I really do, Annabeth. I want to spend the rest of my life—no, eternity, with you. I did this so that can happen." He set the box down on the bed, and pulled Annabeth into his arms again. She looked like she was going to cry.

"Think about it. Think about how happy your mom would be; her favorite daughter, around forever, doing a job she loves. If we became immortal, you won't be as pressured by the whole architect job. You'll have all the time in the world to get your designs perfect. And if they don't last, or Olympus gets attacked again, you'll always be around to fix them." Percy finished, gently kissing her on the lips.

"So," he said after a few minutes of awkward silence, "what do you say?"

A/N: I think I'm going to leave it there :P Make sure you review if you want me to continue!