Percy sat silent in the cab with Catherine and Diane Chase, his ex-mother and sister-in-law. The younger of the two was fidgeting beside him, looking like she wanted a conversation but understandably didn't want to interrupt her mother's mourning. Both women were strikingly similar and both were hellishly beautiful. Annabeth's 'Prince Charming' had made sure to keep him and his ex-wife separate as if he was afraid of something blossoming between them.
Catherine broke the depressing silence. "You know, I prefer you to that other guy. So did dad." She wrung her hands in her lap.
Percy looked over at her, astonished. He may have blushed.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" Catherine continued, one of her hands clasped in her mother's, Percy nodded. "I think we were all a bit shocked by it, why did you and my sister get a divorce? You always seemed so happy and in love."
"Catherine." Her mother scolded, smiling apologetically at Percy.
Percy gazed out at the softly falling rain. He shook his head. "The paparazzi had been on our case forever, the fans were great but even people that didn't know us voiced that our relationship was wrong." Cat looked at him, her eyes telling him what he had known all along, 'That had happened since the start of your relationship.'
"And then I was working more than ever, and we were fighting more often over the little things. And I guess, because we were always separate, we had our doubts and the fights were worse and being apart meant less time to discuss our problems. And then it just imploded." He looked at Cat dead on, "And I didn't stop it."
They arrived not long after at the Chase's Long Island house to the sound of a fight. The man, he was simmering, disbelieving, but the woman was on full boil.
The woman was Annabeth.
"How can you say that, Eric? How can you accuse me of something like that on a day like today?" Percy could see them, Annabeth's hands were thrown into the air in exasperation.
"He's your ex-husband." The man replied. "And I have a right to know where I stand."
Annabeth turned back to face him, Percy had never seen her so livid. "You're right. You're absolutely right." Percy nearly laughed, the poor guy was done for, not that Percy was complaining. He looked around and found Sophia on the trampoline, completely oblivious. Good. He thought.
"Get a hotel." Was all Annabeth told Eric before she walked into the house. But Eric was stubborn and followed her.
"I'm not going to a hotel after one fucking fight." Percy's smile faded. That was what he had done, all the time. "I'll sleep on the couch if I must." He conceded. Percy almost admired him.
/
They divvied out the rooms after they had eaten the pizza they ordered, but Annabeth and Diane and Catherine hadn't really eaten. They each would have their own rooms, Sophia would have Matthew's, the middle and absent child's, and Percy would have the spare, Annabeth made sure Eric took the couch with her death glare.
Diane was the first to retire to her room, followed by Cat. Percy let them be, it had been a tough week.
Sophia was yawning when he picked her up to take her to bed. He was all too aware that Annabeth was following him and Eric's eyes were trained on her every move.
He lay Sophia down and tucked her beneath the covers. Annabeth bent to kiss her and wished them both 'goodnight.' She was halfway to the door when Sophia asked a question.
"Will I ever see Grandpa again?"
Annabeth looked close to tears, Percy held her wrist. "You go do what you need to do. I've got this." He was referring to the shower Annabeth had alluded to wanting before.
Annabeth seemed dazed, her eyes not moving from his hand on her wrist. So he let her go. "Come up and tell me when you're done." She left the room, and Percy couldn't shake the feeling that her invitation held a double meaning.
He turned back to his daughter, "Now sweetie, do you remember when we buried Goldie in the backyard." Percy spoke softly as he referred to the goldfish they had bought her when she was three. Sophia nodded. "It's a bit like that. You're not going to see Grandpa again, but he'll always be with you because he loved you so much." Sophia nodded in understanding.
He stayed with her, singing to her, until she fell asleep and then some until he heard Annabeth shut off the shower in her en suite and a sufficient expanse of time had lapsed. He tiptoed out of the bedroom and passed the sleeping Eric. He may have shown his sleeping form a finger, but it was too dark to tell.
He knocked softly on Annabeth's bedroom door and was ushered in by Annabeth, she must have feared waking up the rest of the house or Eric seeing her in just a robe. At least, that's what it looked like in the moonlight cast into the open window.
Annabeth pressed herself against the door in realization of their predicament. Percy just stood in the centre of the small room - there was approximately three strides between him and his ex-wife - gazing at her.
Her figure was bathed in the moonlight from the window behind him, he could see the shine in her eyes, possibly fresh tears, and the dampness of her hair. He could also make out the vee neck of the fluffy robe she was wearing. The robe had been her father's so it was entirely too large for her. Not that Percy minded. The neckline dipped to the valley of her breasts where he could distinctly point out the different shades of her skin - but that could have been his memory filling in what the darkness hid.
He gulped down the thoughts running through his head. "Sophia's a little upset, but she's sleeping soundly now." Even Percy couldn't tell if that was a hopeful lilt in his tone.
Annabeth cocked her head to one side. The robe fell down the shoulder she had bent away from revealing that dark freckle that was usually hidden by a bra strap.
"You're sleeves are rolled up." She whispered.
Percy hadn't even realised he'd done that. He nodded stiffly.
And suddenly there wasn't three strides between them, but Percy wasn't sure who had moved. All he knew was that he was backed up against a wall and he was devouring his ex-wife's lips with his own.
"I love it when your sleeves are rolled." Annabeth mumbled against him. He knew he shouldn't be doing this but he turned them over, pressing her against the wall.
He stepped back from her intoxicating aura and he looked at her, her eyes were dark and her lips were parted as she tried to catch her breath. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have."
Annabeth bit her lip like she didn't agree. He couldn't stand it, he stepped closer to her. She wrapped her hands around his shirt front and collar and pulled him closer. His hands found her tiny waist in the expanse of fabric and he held her against him. Their breaths mingled until neither of them could keep up the facade.
Their lips met in a passionate scramble to apologise. Percy groaned into her mouth as she ripped open his shirt and let it drop to the floor. This was her cue to slip her hands down the length of his back and trail them up again, the tips of her fingernails scraping his skin.
Somewhere in the back of his mind Percy knew what he was doing was wrong in so many ways. But it was hard to believe that tiny piece of him when it felt so good to be pushing her into the wall as her tongue pushed into the walls of his mouth.
He was panting already and he felt the best kind of light headed when his pants dropped, leaving him in his boxers. He moved his lips to her neck as he slid the robe tie undone. He could hear her breath catch at his slowness. His hands waited until his lips were done. Annabeth tried to divest herself of the robe but every time she moved her hands from his back or his hair or his boxer's elastic to do so, he would push his hips away from her and she would stop trying.
Percy lifted his head from Annabeth's throat and kissed up her chin, licked across her jaw line, rubbed his lips into her hairline and kissed down her t-section to her lips. He rested his forehead against hers and tried to catch his breath, but it mixed with hers and made him all the more urgent.
In the calm that followed as their eyes met in the moonlight and their foreheads kissed, Percy could see the lust in her eyes. And he knew he shouldn't have but he did it anyway.
Slowly Percy unravelled both his hands from her - one had been curled tightly around her waist and the other had been fisting her hair - and rested them both on her hip bones through the fabric that covered them. In the pale moonlight he crawled his hands to that damned vee neck collar and pushed each flap aside with his wrists and his hands held her breasts.
Annabeth's head was thrown back, arching into his touch and her moan probably woke the house. But he didn't care because she was reaching down his boxers and rubbing him into a diamond hard existence, pulling him free from the confines of the loose fabric. And now he was nearly as loud as she was.
He pushed the rest of her robe to the floor and lifted her, cupping her thighs to spread them around him, feeling the heat of her centre as it pressed into his abdomen. He knew he shouldn't, so this time he didn't. It had been over a year since they had done this, he wasn't going to do it against the wall.
Percy walked them to the bed, their lips tangling with their teeth and tongues. Annabeth must've sensed his worry and anticipation because she crossed her ankles behind him and effectively pushed him inside of her. She was so warm and wet and tight that Percy wondered why he'd ever tried to replace her, no other woman had elicited this feeling.
He was holding her hips to him and she was dragging her fingernails into the skin stretched across his shoulder blades. Both of them barely breathing despite their pants. Percy was rocking them and the bed, he was moving more erratically and without the constant rhythmic pace he had kept them at before. Annabeth's hands gripped his butt cheeks to steady herself as she arched higher into him and to drive him deeper into her.
The sheen of sweat on both of their foreheads was clear in the moonlight as they climaxed, shaking in each other's arms, Percy collapsing onto her, Annabeth's fingers twirling his hair as his face was hidden first by her shoulder then in her chest as she moved him to a position both of them would appreciate.
When they caught their breath, Percy rolled over - off of her - missing the heat of her skin. They both lay silent, looking up at the ceiling, basking in the gravity of what they'd done.
Annabeth rolled to her side, one hand reaching over, her fingers splaying in the small hairs that peppered his hard pectorals, her elbow rested on his equally defined abs. She closed her eyes and seemed to breathe him in. He looked over at her, meeting her eyes.
"We can't." He whispered.
"I know." She smiled, kissing him, possibly for the last time. Her lips moved languidly against his and her tongue was soft as it explored his mouth. He gripped her elbow, it had been digging into his stomach.
"We shouldn't have." He murmured into the kiss.
"Since when have we followed the rules?" She asked, her lips trailing down his throat as she straddled him.
He struggled with his next words, "We shouldn't." She was warm and wet and teasing on his stomach.
"Just one last time." Her voice was husky and low, his eyes shot open at how erotic it sounded.
"One last time." He agreed in an intoxicated state, not because her lips were moving lower. The finality of it hitting him hard.
For a last time it was an awful lot like their first time, starting slow and unsure and then building pace until they both rolled away from each other, breathing hard and clutching the thin sheet to their separate bodies.
"I should -" Percy began when he could feel his legs again.
"Yeah." Annabeth nodded, looking up and not meeting his eyes. He watched her throat rise and fall as she gulped.
He wanted to tell her he loved her, but that would have made their situation stranger than it was now. He wanted to ask her where they stood now, he didn't want to be her 'fuck buddy.' But he slipped on his pants and shirt wordlessly, making sure all the buttons aligned - maybe to ensure nobody recognised anything as off, maybe to spend more time with her.
"Do you want me to wake up Evan so you're not alone?" It was the hardest thing to ask, not just because the guy was his replacement but because it was a well-known fact that whomever you cuddled with after sex became more intimate with you in a 'love' sense, but he needed to make sure Annabeth was alright, especially after just losing her father, being alone would not be good.
Annabeth smiled and breathed quickly out of her nose like a silent laugh and she shook her head before watching Percy slip out of the door but hopefully not her life.
