"Annabeth Chase." Her step-mother's voice said again. Icy and sharp as the edge of a blade. Annabeth felt a red hot blush crawl up her face.
"Get up, young lady."
Annabeth obliged, knowing better than to not. She raked her hair back, flustered, combing it behind her ears.
"Y-yes?" Annabeth stammered, beetroot red. Helen said nothing, and turned and called down the stairs, "Frederick! Get up here!"
In a matter of seconds, Mr Chase was up the stairs with two small, paint covered boys in tow. They giggled and prodded each other as they ascended.
"Yes, honey? Hello Percy, Annabeth said you would be staying the night."
Percy smiled back, and for a moment, the tension ceased. Helen however, turned to stare incredulously at her husband.
"Wait. You knew about this?"
Frederick looked confused. "Yeah. I didn't think there was a problem."
"I walked in an they were sitting on the bed making out. They didn't even realise I was in there."
Bobby and Matthew, previously watching in curiosity, began to to choke with laughter. Annabeth flushed even harder and fixed them with her deluxe death glare.
"What's so wrong with that?" She challenged, "I'm seventeen for the love of Hades, not twelve anymore."
Frederick appeared conflicted between supporting his wife or his daughter.
"It's not such a big deal Helen," he said after a very long and awkward pause, "Look, they're fully clothed! Imagine that. Not many teenagers would be that sensible! Annabeth is though, she won't try anything. Even if she does-"
"Hey!" Annabeth interrupted, "I'm right here you know."
Frederick smiled at her, obviously suppressing a bout of laughter. He walked up to Percy and shook his hand firmly.
"Nice to meet you Mr Jackson. It's nice that this time your not here to tell me my daughter's life is at stake. Perhaps I can get to know you better. Also, Annabeth; you're paying for more popcorn."
"I think they ate more of each other than the popcorn," Helen muttered darkly. Bobby and Matthew howled so hard with laughter they sounded like wolves.
"Helen!" Frederick gasped, looking at his daughter who had proceeded from beetroot red to a bright magenta.
With that he walked out of the room, his chuckles ringing through the house.
Once the party had cleared out of the room, Helen lingering a few seconds to give them suspicious glances and Bobby and Matthew even longer to giggle, until Annabeth chased them out with a broom, Percy and Annabeth exchanged one glance and doubled over in a fit of hysterical laughter. With just that, the tension, earlier crackling like electricity, cut out, as if someone had turned off the switch.
Annabeth spread her arms towards the door.
"And voila," she said, "My family."
"Heck lot saner than the Olympians, I grant you that."
Mr Chase gladly ordered pizza when requested and handed them cans of coke with a smile. As they waited for dinner, they sat on the trampoline in the garden chatting aimlessly, the sun dappled by the trees, falling on the course fabric in beautiful patterns, reminding Annabeth of the way the shadows and the light played at the camp. Chasing each other along the crest of the hill like a game of tag. Annabeth should have felt homesick, but strangely, did not. Every time she glanced to the side, she saw her Seaweed Brain wearing a relaxed smile on his face as he sipped a coke. Such a sight that filled her with a warm, happy feeling. And even though if she looked beyond him, she could look into the kitchen and see her stepmother peering at them through the kitchen window, even that did not bother her.
There was the merry chime of a doorbell, sounding out through the house. Annabeth's brothers squealed with rapture and ran to the door, their quick footsteps like poundings of a drum.
"Annabeth!" Her dad's voice yelled from somewhere in the depths of the building, "Can you help your brother's get the pizzas?"
"Well, that's my cue," Annabeth murmured with a sidelong glance at Percy.
"Hold up, I wanna come." He said. They clambered out of the trampoline and through the back door. Snatching up the money her dad had left on the kitchen table, Annabeth wove through the furniture and towards the front door, where her brothers were chatting with a tall guy dressed in Pizza Hut uniform, six pizzas in his arm. He glanced up towards the two people hurrying down towards him.
"You paying miss?" He asked Annabeth at seeing the cash in her hand, his Texas accent thick. Annabeth nodded.
"How much?"
"Mm, lemme see, twenty five dollars,"(A/N: please bear in mind this is just a speculation because I have no idea how much they would actually cost) he said with a smile. He observed the curious bunch of kids. Bobby: small, brown eyes, dark hair, Oriental (another A/N: this isn't canon I don't think, but Helen is from East Asia right? And it's usually the dominant gene);Matthew: Also small, brown eyes, dark hair, Oriental; Percy: Tall, green eyes, black hair, Caucasian; Annabeth: Tall, grey eyes, blonde hair, Caucasian.
"Are y'all siblings?" The guy asked, confused.
"Sort of," Bobby said, "Matthew and I are twins'- he gestured between them- 'Annabeth's our half-sister'- he gestured to said girl-' And that's Percy, her boyfriend." He sniggered at the last part, and the delivery guy looked at Annabeth and smiled sympathetically, like
Hey, little brothers? A damned pain up the arse aren't they?
Each carrying two pizzas, the company retreated to the kitchen where Helen and Mr Chase where laying the table, juggling various pieces of crockery precariously placed on their arms.
"Shall I help?" Percy asked tentatively. Helen looked as if she'd been slapped across the face repeatedly by a toddler, put in an electric chair and then walked through a haunted house and received many a jump scare. That is to say: Shocked. Annabeth guessed that Percy's troublemaker smile and mischievous glint in the eye had made her stepmother automatically brand him as a delinquent.
"S-sure," Helen stuttered, "Thank you."
Percy smiled at her. "My pleasure."
As Percy took a few pates from Helen's arms, Mr Chase looked up and smiled tenderly. A kind, happy smile and walked over to Annabeth. Much to her chagrin, he handed his eldest the wet crockery in is grasp and nudged her towards the table, indicating for her to also help.
"Oh that's not fair!" She protested, glancing at her brothers, who were disassembling a small Lego model of the Golden Gate Bridge she had made earlier. "Bobby and Matthew never have to help." "That's because they break any ceramic they meet."
"But I saved the world. Surely that should merit for something?" Annabeth demanded. Her father just laughed and ruffled her hair. Then he assumed a more serious aspect. "Yes, but there were also some incidents during a certain trip that we need to talk about." He muttered. His daughter rolled her eyes and waltzed away, distributing the various utensils in her grip.
"So... Percy?" Percy looked up from his slice of pepperoni and wiped his mouth on a napkin. "Yeah?" Besides him, Annabeth looked down at her lap and sighed. Well, time for an interrogation.
"So, you're a son of Poseidon?" Frederick asked, clearly trying to make conversation. Percy nodded. "Yep, but it's honestly not all its cut out to be. Been to Camp Half-Blood since I was twelve."
"I can't stress how nice it is that we can have a nice dinner together now, rather than having to rush off after being told my daughter's mortal life is being threatened."
"That's understandable, Mr Chase." Percy replied, though his voice had an edge of humour. Frederick chuckled, and took a large bite of his Sloppy Giuseppe.
"And I understand you save the world. That's kinda your thing."
"Saved humanity many a time sir." Percy smiled winningly, though his pantomime was purely comical, so that he was almost pretending it was simply a risible idea. Annabeth supposed that this was just a mask to the true, raw pain. Just a facade. That beneath the cute, roguish face on the outside, beneath such countenance was sadness and the dastardly fear and panic coming hand in hand with these years of the endless perils they had faced over the expanse of these years. Of course, he was not joking when he said this, and though he could not convince those in vicinity, he could perhaps convince himself. And still the Chases tittered and chortled at his expressions. And as if a chain had been snapped, Percy's smile turned into something more comfortable, and Annabeth smiled at seeing his ease here. She wanted him to feel welcome.
Helen hadn't wanted Percy sleeping in Annabeth's floor, but once her step-daughter had reasoned that A) No nightmares (Sleep, yay), B) They had to wake early to get to their respective schools without disturbing the whole house with the movement,(More sleep, yay), and C) With Helen and Fredericks room on one side, and the boys' on the other, they had less privacy up here than downstairs (Just to put her distrustful Stepmother at ease). Annabeth hauled a soft mattress up the stairs, grabbed sheets, pillows, gave Percy a quilt from her bed and presently, there was a nice soft make-shift bed besides Annabeth's. She wriggled into her pyjamas as Percy brushed his teeth in the bathroom, and crashed onto her billet with a contented sigh. Seconds later, there was a knock on the door.
"Yo Wise Girl, you decent?" Percy said, possibly a little louder than he should have as if to prove a point to Helen in the other room. Annabeth thought she heard her dad laugh.
"Yeah." She answered, her voice muffled from her head buried under the blankets. With a creak, the door opened, and Percy walked in. He sat down heavily on his bed and nestled into the covers.
Suddenly, there was the audible sound of a mattress groaning as Percy sat up sharply in bed. Annabeth turned and raised her eyebrows inquiringly.
"Shall I turn the lights off?"
"What a gentleman. Thank you."
"Anything for you,my princess," He said feigning seriousness. Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Seaweed Brain?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up." She said, inclining her head to her parents room. Percy began to laugh. "Sure, your majesty"
Annabeth chucked a pillow at his head.
Once the lights had clicked off, Percy made his way back to his bed. Or tried to. The night was pitch black, and so one foot sent him sprawling over the waste paper bin. HIs reflexes kept him from hitting the floor and his hand shot out to the nearest object; Annabeth's desk. He righted himself laughing and blundered forwards, this time tripping over his own mattress. He pitched forwards, face planting his girlfriends's bed, and came up laughing. Annabeth to began to snigger, and helped him up. Unfortunately - or not so unfortunately- Percy came up with too much force and accidentally bashed his face against Annabeth's. She laughed, shrugged and pressed a kiss to his lips.
"Good night Seaweed Brain."
"Night Wise Girl."
They linked hands again, and as the night grew old, and the stars pricked sky which slowly turned lighter and lighter and they slept. And slept. And no nightmares knocked on the doors of their minds.