hi! long time, no see, guys. i'm sorry if it seemed like i dropped off the face of the earth, but with sudden influx of school work and then suddenly being out of school indefinitely, a lot has been happening in my life and i'm so, so sorry. i promise to be better – i actually have the time to be better.

little life update: college is a thing i have to look at now. i'm doing pretty alright in school (though this adjustment to online school is not my thing) and of course i trying to shoot big for yale which isn't gonna happen but a girl can try. i've also been painting a lot! and i think i'm decently okay. if you want to check some of it out, pm me and i'll give you my instagram account.

i think that's all. i wrote this in maybe three days, so it may not be the best, but i'm trying to get into the groove again. warning: it's extra fluffy. enjoy!

Renting an apartment with her best friend was the best decision Annabeth had made in a long time.

For one, it was a financially sound arrangement – the rent was split 60/40 since Annabeth had the higher paying job, and paying only 60% of an already overpriced rent happily agreed with the frugality her father instilled in her since birth.

Secondly, she never had to worry about what her next dinner would look like since Percy was practically her personal chef – whether it was homemade pizza or instant noodles with pasta sauce, he always had enough to make it delicious. Combined with her being able to wake up to a hot breakfast every morning, she felt as privileged as the Queen – if the queen was still in her twenties.

And thirdly, there was no one she'd rather be stuck in quarantine with. Even combined with the fact that he was a total dickhead at times, she never disliked having him around. He knew when to leave her alone when she was Zooming her professor about her upcoming essay on Grapes of Wrath, but he also knew how to keep her from withdrawing too far into her head.

Like now, when he let her dye the front of his hair for her own entertainment.

She's perched on the bathroom counter with a plastic bag covering her head, smearing blue dye in Percy's hair as her own sets. The Daily News podcast plays on her phone.

"Why does it smell like that?" Percy asks, scrunching his nose as he examines the box. Annabeth clips the piece of hair out of his face and removes her gloves. "Is my hair gonna fall out?"

Annabeth had been dozing off as she typed the last of her essay when Percy suddenly yelled for her. Every sense in her body grew alert as she rushed toward the bathroom. He turned toward her with a box he found under the sink in his hands; she nearly smacked him upside the head for scaring her like that.

They both decided against dying their whole heads in fear of their hair frying – Percy had helped Annabeth incorporate the dye throughout the ends of her hair the way she had always wanted to in middle school (her mother never allowed her because it would "ruin the purity of her natural blonde," whatever that meant), and now Annabeth was helping Percy achieve the skater boy dream Avril Lavigne would fawn over.

"No, I think you'll be fine," Annabeth says, but the look on Percy's face let's her know she didn't assure him. "And if it does… it'll grow back. You need a haircut anyway."

She shrugs, and Percy frowns. It was his idea to put the dye in their hair in the first place, and though Annabeth was adamantly against it at first, that narrative quickly switched when it came his turn to do so. Annabeth thought he looked cute. Especially when his hair was clipped back like a seventh grade girl with a grown out fringe.

"Thanks," Percy says, tossing the box into the trash as Annabeth ties a plastic bag over his head to let it set. "Guess I'll just have a temporarily receding hairline before I'm 30."

Annabeth cradles his chin between her thumb and forefinger and squishes his cheeks, making Percy frown harder. "At least you'll still be adorable."

She hops down from the counter, taking her phone with her and turning quickly out of the bathroom before he can see the growing blush on her face.

On any given day, Annabeth wasn't home much at all. She had classes from 8 to 12, then work from 2 to 6, then she'd hole herself up in the campus library until they kicked her out, in which she'd drag herself home to enjoy a warm meal before passing out on the couch and waking up in her bed. She only ever really enjoyed having Percy as a roommate on the weekends, when he would force her to go to his friend's frat party or to see the latest superhero movie. But now they were nearing two weeks of mandatory isolation, and while she anticipated growing tired of his constant presence, she soon found herself enjoying it.

Maybe a little too much.

Like, she found the way he brushed his teeth while smiling was adorable. And the way he spoke out loud to himself while reading wasn't nearly as aggravating as she thought it would be. And waking up to discover which mismatched sock combo he decided on was quickly becoming part of her morning routine.

Having him home all the time was like coming home, except instead of leaving and coming back, she came home every time she saw him sitting on the couch browsing Netflix.

"What if it doesn't look good?" Percy asks, following her out of the bathroom. "What if I look stupid and you laugh at me every time you see me?"

"Then you better get used to me laughing a lot," Annabeth teases, entering the kitchen and leaning over the counter to peer at the open Chinese take out menu. "Besides, you have dark hair. You probably won't even notice it."

Percy comes up behind her, and before she can prepare herself, he wraps his arms around her waist and rests his head on top of hers, putting his full weight on her. She groans and gives him an upward glance.

"Yeah," he says into the plastic bag on her head. "At least I'm not a Blondie that has to deal with a bad dye job."

She throws her elbow back into his arm, but it's not enough for him to let go. She sighs, letting him crush her into the counter.

She glances over their highlighted menu items – Percy had taken the initiative to mark their individual favorite entrees to quicken ordering time. She blamed her Cancer sun for being indecisive, but Percy held it up to her being picky.

"Do you want Chinese for lunch? Or do you want to exhaust the last of our ramen supply?"

He hums, and the vibration travels down her spine. "I don't feel like waiting."

"Then ramen it is."

She stands, but he doesn't let go. His arms had slipped under her shirt, pressing against her bare skin. Her face burns red hot.

"Please let me go, Percy," Annabeth says, trying to pry his steel hands apart. His grip only tightens around her.

"But you're warm," Percy claims, blowing back the part of the bag in his face. "And you never let me hug you."

Her heart flutters, and she curses it. How dare her own body betray her like this? Percy was a guy, but he wasn't a guy. He was practically family - how could she possibly have physical reactions to a person she knew ate boogers until well past the age he should?

"There is always time for hugs later," she says, clenching her teeth, pulling his fingers from one another. "Let me boil the water."

"But I'm the cook in this household."

Household. He used the word so domestically it startled her. This was their household that they owned together. Their home. Together.

Together.

Annabeth quickly shakes the thought of her head and peels him off, scurrying the cupboard carrying their pots and pans. Usually, the cupboard was a cluttered mess, but after Annabeth got so frustrated yesterday she threw a pan across the room, the two decided to organize it. Annabeth easily produces a small pot and puts it on the stove.

"Which is exactly why you should let me do the easy stuff," Annabeth says, running the tap into a big pitcher. "It'll be ready in a few minutes. And after we're done eating, we can wash the dye out in the shower."

Percy sidles up to her and throws an arm over the shoulder as she turns on the stove, his green eyes twinkling mischievously. "Together?"

Annabeth scoffs and shrugs off his arm. "You wish."

They sit on opposite ends of the sofa forking salty noodles into their open mouths, watching Set It Up on Netflix for the dozenth time. Despite its stupidity, it was one of Annabeth's favorites. Her high school days of pretending to like avant-garde foreign films were over. She was a rom-com girl till the day she died. Ramen broth splashes onto her stained pajama pants, and she dabs at it with a napkin.

"Remember when we had to read Cyrano for Mr. Blofis' class senior year?" Percy asks, propping his feet onto Annabeth's lap. "And how it sucked and made no sense at all?"

Though disgusted, she notes the blue and orange complementary colors of his sock choice. "I liked Cyrano. It was… romantic. He just wanted the girl he loved to be happy by any means necessary."

Percy rolls his eyes, though with broth dripping down his chin and a Wal-Mart bag tied around his head, it was anything but malicious. "But being the wingman for another guy trying to pursue the girl he was in love with? He should have just sucked it up and told her."

After Annabeth finishes and Percy obnoxiously slurps the rest of the liquid from the bowl, it was about time to wash the dye out. Percy volunteered to stick his head in the sink to do it, so Annabeth grabbed a towel from the closet in the hall and hopped in the shower.

Normally, Annabeth valued her time in the shower, scrubbing every inch of her body with her purple loofah and washing her hair with strawberry scented shampoo. But now, as she turns the shower on, she couldn't stop thinking about Percy's taunting earlier prospect.

It was weird, this transition from travelling to school and work and interacting with her friends to suddenly being at home all the time and being stuck with one person to fulfill her human contact quota for the day. Was it the delusion of not being able to go outside making her hallucinate her weird, sudden onset attraction to the man whose alarm sound was still Mr. Brightside? Or was seeing him all the time igniting the dormant feelings that had always been there?

She watches swirls of blue flow down her drain. It's satisfying, in a way; it felt like an actual representation of her thoughts washing away, for them to be forever lost to the New York sewer system.

Ten minutes later, she's wrapped a towel around herself and begins to comb her hair. She didn't have the fortune of being able to dry brush her hair, unless she wanted to walk around with a lion's mane for the rest of the day. She had to instead deal with pulling wet clumps of blonde – and now blue – hair from her wide-toothed comb.

She stares hard at herself in the mirror. She didn't hate the blue. In fact, she'd go so far as to say she liked it. It was definitely more green than she'd thought it would be, but that was probably due in part to her hair color. With her curl pattern and tan skin (which would soon turn back to pale from the lack of sunshine she would be getting), it even felt mermaid-esque. Her eleven-year-old self would freak.

The door suddenly jiggles and bursts open, and Percy peeks in his head. Annabeth jumps, and the jolt would've made her towel fall if she hadn't caught it in time. She finds herself blushing for the dozenth time today.

"Jesus, have you heard of knocking?" Annabeth says, clutching her towel to her chest. "I totally could've been completely naked right now."

Percy rolls his eyes. "You act like I've never seen anything."

"You're a dick."

"Yeah, yeah." He opens the door and slides into the bathroom, pointing toward the wet hair plastered against his forehead. "But look! My hair's blue now."

The color came out surprisingly well in his hair considering how dark it was. She couldn't decide if it was emo, surfer, or skater boy chic. She reaches out to stroke a strand on his forehead. Percy's cool breath fans across her face, and she could've sworn his eyes flicked down to her lips.

"I see that," Annabeth says, stepping back a little and adjusting her towel so she could free both of her hands to finish combing her hair. "It's... you."

"And that's good right?" His reflection raises a dark eyebrow. Annabeth reluctantly smiles and nods her head. "Good. And you–" he looks her up and down– "look like Aquamarine."

Annabeth readily smiles this time. "Like the mermaid from that movie?"

Percy approaches her until he's directly behind her, and he bends down toward her ear. "Yeah," he whispers. "Which is fine by me, because I always thought she was hot."

Another tick for the blush counter.

Once she's finished, she retires to her room and logs into her computer to finish an assignment that was due that night. It was an internet scavenger hunt – nothing that required too much brain power or energy, but enough to keep her mind occupied for the next hour so she wouldn't think about Percy's incessant flirting.

Part of her wanted to believe it was nothing and that he was bored and teasing her because that's what their relationship consisted of – meaningless flirting, playful insults, poking and prodding each other right until either one was on edge, but never too far. They'd known each other too long for it to mean something; if anything was going to happen, it would have.

It was always annoying to explain that to other people. Their questions were always the same: if you're not dating him, why are you living with him? How could you guys be just friends? He must want something from you, right?

It wasn't like that with Percy. She never expected anything from him other than his companionship and vice versa. They'd been best friends since middle school. Annabeth didn't think she could ever date someone knowing what they were like in middle school.

And yet, as she's waiting for the page to load on her laptop, she was beginning to see how weird their situation was.

To be objective, they were the textbook definition of a relationship: an emotional association between two people. They lived together, did activities the other liked, ate dinner together, knew each and every one of the others likes and dislikes, and had in-depth conversations with one another. It was dating without romance. It was… well, a friendship.

But suddenly, she wasn't so sure.

Because she could recall a time in the 10th grade when she'd find herself scribbling Annabeth Jackson into her notebook before furiously scrubbing it out when an eraser. She always used to get jealous toward the girls who flirted with Percy because he was on the swim team. She remembers when seeing him was the best part of the day, and how gratifying it was now that she could see him all day, every day. Even posting when she was posting a picture of the two of them to her Instagram, she always got a smug feeling from being able to say they lasted past high school and that he actually enjoyed spending time with her.

Developing a crush on your best friend was not fun, she decided. Especially when once she was done with her homework, she saw him waiting on the couch for her with Animal Crossing loaded up on the Switch.

She hops over the back of the sofa and settles into the cushions next to him, taking the Switch for his hands. Percy went out and picked up the game curbside of their local GameStop last week, and it was the only thing that kept Annabeth from going completely insane during such a hard and weird time. Percy never understood her obsession; he was still stuck on playing Minecraft and the occasional Doom: Eternal.

It was easy like this. Percy would throw an arm around her shoulders, which, no matter how she was feeling about him, she'd always gladly accept. She would lean into his chest and fish for sea bass to sell until either of them fell asleep. If it was her, he'd carry her to bed. If it was him, she'd violently shake him awake and make him go to bed.

At the end of the day, he was still her best friend. And that's all that mattered.

Well, at least, until he said the first of the next two life-altering phrases of the night:

"We should get married."

Annabeth completely messes up the catch she's about to make, almost fumbling the Switch onto the floor. She sits up and turns to look at him with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry, what?"

She doesn't think she's ever seen his face so red.

"I said, we should get married."

She draws her eyebrows together, letting out a short laugh. "Are you feeling okay?" She places the back of her hand against his forehead, but she's not sure if it's warm because he's running a fever or because he's blushing so hard. He swats her hand away and grabs her wrist. Annabeth can't do anything but stare.

"Okay, I know that came out of nowhere, but hear me out." He pushes a hand through his hair, exhaling slowly through his nose. "I… I think it'd be a good idea"

At Annabeth's skeptical eyebrow, he says, "Look at it this way. We work well together. We've been friends for almost half our lives, we already live together, and, as far as I know, we like having each other around. We've been stuck in the house together for two weeks, and it's actually been… nice."

Her eyes darts between his two, open, earnest ones. Over the years, she's learned how to read Percy like a book. She knew his every tick, every expression, every tone inflection. He was being honest. She sits back a little, the smile slipping from her face.

"How… how long have you been thinking about this?"

Percy shrugs, but she can tell it's no more a movement than an answer. "Uh, I don't know. For a while, maybe. I wasn't sure I was going to even say anything until I said it."

She slowly nods her head. She's severely aware of the sound of blood rushing through her head. Percy still hasn't let go of her wrist.

"Oh. Well, why now?"

He reaches out to grab her other wrist, pulling them into his lap. Her eyes follow their intertwined hands.

"Because I think I just realized that with you laying here next to me, nothing else even matters."

Annabeth giggles nervously and pulls her hands away, tucking a chunk of hair that fell out of her braid behind her ear. "Percy, we're barely old enough to drink. We've never dated. And you'd be breaking a lot of girls' hearts if you tied yourself down so early."

He searches her face as his own begins to soften. He scoots closer to her until their legs are pressed against one another's.

"Annabeth, I don't want any other girl."

She's almost certain she's about to go into cardiac arrest. This was happening so fast. She hardly realized that she might like the guy mere minutes ago, and now marriage was on the table.

And some crazy, twisted part of her was considering it.

"But how do you know that? What if you walked out of the house right now and found the love of your life standing right outside the door?"

"Then I'd ask you how you could be in two places at once."

She laughs humorlessly, throwing her hands in the air and shaking her head in bewilderment. "Percy, what are you saying? That we should go from friends to engaged, just like that? Do you know how our friends would react? Our families?"

"My mom would probably be ecstatic."

"And Percy, marriage is a big deal. Like, a huge one. We'd be a legal family that has to like, have a bank account together and be accounted for on each other's taxes and be recognized under the federal government as a pair of two people who decided to commit their lives to each other."

"There's no one I'd rather do it with."

"Percy, I don't even know what dating you is like. We've been friends so long, but what if suddenly getting all romantic changes things? What if we decide we're better off as friends? How would that change our relationship?"

The tight muscles in Percy's shoulders tense a bit. The sunlight streaming through the window catches his long eyelashes and makes them look white, almost as light as hers when she was a baby. Had he always had freckles along his nose bridge?

She's staring at him, but she can't stop herself. "And what if you suddenly decide that you can't stand the sight of me anymore and want a divorce? Do you know how expensive that is? Would we sign a prenup? What if we get a dog? Who would get the dog?"

"Annabeth," Percy says, grabbing her hand. There's a sad look in his eyes, and Annabeth immediately wilts from her rant-high. "You can say no. It was just a thought, really, and we can just forget abo-"

"Maybe."

Percy's eyes widen. "Maybe?"

She glances around their tiny little New York apartment. At the bookshelf filled with her old history and architecture novels as Percy's collectible Marvel figurines. At the photos in fake sterling picture frames of their younger selves at camp on the walls. At their recycled denim carpet and the Play Dough stuck into it from the time Estelle came to visit. At their old tweed couch they found at a garage sale for fifty dollars that definitely smelled like moldy pennies and stale Cheetos. At the crack in their glass coffee tables from after an intense game of Uno. At him. At his messy, now a little bit blue hair. At his big, excited eyes.

Annabeth sighs and rubs her temples, but there's a reluctant smile growing on her face. She nods her head. "Yeah. Maybe."

Percy immediately attacks her with a giant hug that pushes her back flat against the sofa, and while the sudden onslaught of his body weight knocks the breath out of her, she wraps her arms around him, laughing.

"I didn't say yes," Annabeth says, voice muffled into his shirt. It was an "I'm with her!" shirt she bought for him ironically for her birthday last year. Now, it was oddly fitting.

Percy buries his face into her neck and sighs. "I know. But the fact that you stopped to consider let's me know I didn't fall in love with you for nothing."

He pulls away and casts a loving gaze down on her, his eyes travelling down to her lips. Annabeth fights off a blush.

"You're in love with me?"

Percy nods his head. "Yeah. I'm surprised you didn't figure it out earlier."

She beams and before she knew it, his lips were pressed against hers in what had to be the best kiss of all time. She tangles her fingers into his hair and pulls him closer to her. His lips were surprisingly soft considering she didn't know if he even owned Chapstick, and he tasted like ramen noodles.

For a second, he pulls away, and Annabeth pouts.

"Okay, one quick, unrelated question: since the blue and blonde hair made you kind of look like a mermaid, do I get to call you Seaweed Brain now?"

That was the other life-altering question, if you were wondering. Annabeth shoves Percy off of her, shaking her head in mock disbelief.

"Absolutely not."

yes, cheesy, i know. unrealistic, i know. but what else did you expect from me?

until next time! ~ Aja :)