Innocence

Pairing: Annabeth/Percy

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HOO

Annabeth was sitting at her desk trying to work her way through the math problems her class had been assigned that day. Normally she was able to focus and do her schoolwork well for someone with ADHD and dyslexia, but today it seemed that she could not focus at all. She was growing terribly frustrated and feared that she'd be on the brink of tears in a few mere moments. Grabbing her hair in her hands, she gave a slight but forceful tug and let out a sound of pure frustration and exhaustion.

She stayed with her head in the air, her eyes closed, and her hair in her hands for a minute or two and finally calmed down a bit. As she was turning back to the papers on her desk a picture caught her eye; it was a picture of her and Percy at Camp Half-Blood one summer. They were both tanned and laughing – Percy had been trying to take Annabeth's Yankees cap away from her and they were engaged in a small bout of tug-o-war when the picture had been taken. She had nearly forgotten about this picture, but that day resonated in her mind. It seemed that a good deal of her most fond memories involved camp, and, more recently involved Percy.

With the frustrating math homework forgotten, the picture thrown onto the desk, and her sneakers laced up hastily, Annabeth set out for a walk. She was not completely sure where she was going, but she didn't care. Memories of past summers kept her company the entire time; memories of times and innocence long gone now. Annabeth was entirely unaware of where her feet were leading her until she noticed she had come to a stop in front of an apartment complex. Percy.

She wasn't sure what had possessed her to come see Percy, but she went along with it. When she came to his door she thought she'd lose her nerve and just go back home. "Funny," she mumbled to herself, "that I would lose my nerve over seeing a Seaweed Brain."

She rapped on the door and then discovered she was biting her lip anxiously awaiting the door to open. When the door opened her breath caught; Percy had answered the door and it appeared he had woken up from a nap not too long ago. His hair was disheveled and he was without a shirt. She hoped that the blush she could feel rising on her cheeks wasn't noticeable. She had seen Percy without his shirt – multiple times at that – but it felt like it'd been years since she'd seen him, and truthfully she wasn't entirely sure how to react.

"Annabeth," Percy was surprised to see her, as he should be considering she herself was surprised to be here. "What are you doing here?"

She wasn't sure how to answer. She didn't actually know why she was here. "I, uh, was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by," Annabeth hesitated. "It's been a while since you and me, uh, hung out y'know, I, well, um…." She didn't think she'd ever stumble over a sentence so badly in her life.

Percy's eyebrows shot up both with amusement and shock. Annabeth never had trouble constructing sentences, and he was still getting over his surprise of seeing her in front of him. He took a moment to let her sink in; her hair was plaited messily, her shirt was a little rumpled, her face was flushed and her eyes were bright. She looked like a mess, a beautiful mess. He wasn't sure how long he'd been staring at her, but it didn't feel like long enough. It'd been months since they'd really had a chance to see each other – her being busy with the rebuilding of Olympus, and him trying his best to stay out of trouble at school.

Percy pulled himself out of his dreamlike state, "Would you, uh, like to come in?" Annabeth nodded and he pulled the door open all the way.

They spent the day talking about nothing and everything, with Sally coming in every once in a while to ask if they wanted anything to eat or drink. It was fun, the two of them hanging out together; catching up on all of the things that had transpired those couple of months they'd gone without much communication.

When Annabeth finally arrived back home it was dark out. She went back into her room to finish her math homework before bed and saw the picture of her and Percy on her desk where'd he tossed it before leaving. She couldn't help but smile.