"I have nothing to wear."

Percy looks up from his position on their bed, unfazed. He was used to her dramatic complaints about having no clothes but based on the fact that his closet was overflowing and he's pretty sure he hasn't seen her wear the same outfit twice at work yet so far, he knew it wasn't true.

"Help me, please."

"Close your eyes and grab whatever," Percy says, glancing back down to his phone. "We have to leave soon, and you're nowhere near ready, but I am both your boyfriend and coworker who also has to be there, and I will pick you up and drag you out of the apartment—" He cut off immediately, dodging the heel she threw at his head with a laugh. "You look good in anything, and that's coming from both me and your deeply-involved students, so just pick something."

Annabeth stomps her foot in front of the closet like a toddler. She fingers her lanyard holding her school ID before giving up and turning around. She makes her way to right in front of Percy, staring down at him for a few seconds before she's climbing on top of him, forcing him to abandon the phone in his hand.

"What are you doing?" he asks, but he's laughing as she headbutts him.

"I'm trying to curl up in a ball and die," she says.

"Not on my lap," he scolds. His hands smooth down her wild hair, knowing that it's going to add another ten minutes to their voyage down to the school because she wasn't going to leave until she looked perfect.

"Yes, on your lap," Annabeth mumbles from where her face smashed into his chest. She jerks around for a second, trying to get comfortable, and then she's on her back, Percy's arm cradling under her and supporting her neck. "If I have to die, I want to do it with you."

"No one's going to die," he says softly. His hand taps her hip, thinking for a moment, before he decides to humor her. "Talk me through the problem. What's going on?"

"I have no clothes." The way she says it, Percy would've thought someone got hit by a car.

Percy looks to their closet dubiously. "Then why am I looking at about twenty outfits?"

Annabeth pauses her moping to follow his eyes. She blinks as though she didn't see any of those. "I don't see anything."

"You could always go nude," he proposes.

Annabeth scoffs, bonking him on the head with a random throw pillow she picked up from behind him. "This is a school event, and all of our students will be there. You want them to see me naked?"

"That is a very valid point." Percy hums. "Tie a bed sheet around yourself and call it a day."

"You're useless to me."

Percy rolls his eyes and rocks her back and forth. He was rushing her to get out of the apartment because he knew she would take longer to get ready, but the reality was that they had some time. They had at least another hour before they absolutely had to be leaving.

Besides, she looked so comfortable in his arms, cradled sideways, body turned in towards him, that he didn't have the heart to bother her. Especially not when her eyes started to slowly blink and flutter shut.

He lets her drift off to sleep, if only for five minutes. As he looks at her, he starts to notice something that's been occurring to him a lot more recently.

Every time he looks at Annabeth, he sees more than just her. He sees a little girl with ribbons braided into her hair bouncing around between them. He sees a future with her that he wants so desperately to fulfil. He doesn't think it's going to happen — at least not anytime soon — but he knows he wants a life like that. They're both still so young, and they're so in love, and they deserve it.

Percy keeps rocking her gently, imagining what it would be like if maybe he was rocking a baby to sleep, or holding his family in his arms while they watched a Disney movie because their child was so excited to see a princess. It's a life he's always dreamed of, and now he knows it's a life he has a chance of making come true.

"You gotta wake up, baby," he whispers when he looks back at the clock. Somehow, half an hour had passed by. "We really have to leave soon."

Annabeth stirs slowly. She wipes the sleep from her eyes, and as if on cue, her phone dings from its position in her back pocket. Percy's hand digs it out for her, holding it for both of them to see, and it's a message from someone he did not expect.

"Why does Piper have your phone number?"

Annabeth shrugs, taking the phone from him. She types out a response lazily, and Percy can't hide his amusement at her blatant distain for Piper.

(Piper: where are you

Annabeth: none of your business, peasant

Piper: why can't you love me?

Annabeth: you are peasant)

A second later, Annabeth's forcing herself to get out of his arms. The absence of her body heart leaves Percy empty and cold, but it's replaced by her lips pressing against his momentarily. He tries to grab her and keep her against him for longer, but she makes it a brief kiss, pulling away to head back in front of the closet.

"Does any of this scream I'm a math teacher but not one of those ugly ones?"

"You could wear a blow-up dinosaur costume and you would still scream hot math teacher," Percy tells her. He goes to her side, picking up one of his favorite outfits of hers and holding it in front of her face. "Wear this."

The smile that morphs onto Annabeth's face makes him think that she was planning this the entire time. Her hand had brushed by that specific piece of fabric a million times over, but when it's him that tells her to wear it, it's suddenly exactly what she was looking for.

Annabeth Chase was his little troublemaker, never making things easy for him. He doesn't mind.

And because he's spent the last half hour thinking about their future kids, he doesn't catch himself until it's too late.

"Are you going to be like this with our kids too?"

Annabeth stops what she's doing to look up at him, and now he can feel the blush start at his neck and travel its way up his face. She doesn't say anything for a few painful beats, until her jaw is going slightly slack and she struggles for words.

"I— what?"

"Nothing," he manages, already turning on his heel to walk out the room, out the front door, and to the middle of the ocean to become friends with an individual piece of krill, or something.

"No, tell me!"

Percy stops by the door, not ready to face her, but he knows she isn't about to let him get away, so he lets himself look at her. Surprisingly, she's looking at him with a smile.

"You said something about our kids?" she prompts.

"No."

"Lie to me, then." She bites her lip and smiles. "Come on. Please?" Now he can see the excitement on her face, and everything comes crashing back to him.

Clear as day, he can see the picture of Annabeth holding an infant on her hip, one hand sorting through their closet — no. It's the closet of a nursery, filled with dresses and onesies. And Annabeth is dressed in a flowing white shirt and black dress pants to go to work, her blonde hair cascading down her back. He sees a baby that can't be more than six-months-old with her tiny fingers tangled in Annabeth's curls, and Annabeth is bouncing her as she finally pulls out a pink romper, but not before throwing him a teasing glance and telling him, there's nothing for her to wear.

Percy's heart stops when he imagines Annabeth holding the baby out to him with an endearing smile, asking nicely for him to change the diaper — he'd complain, but he'd still do it because he'd do anything she asked of him. And when their baby is in her outfit for the day, Percy's kissing Annabeth goodbye by the front door so she could get to the school while he dropped the baby off at his mom's before meeting her in her classroom.

It's so real that a part of him thinks he saw a glimpse of his future.

A sudden boost of courage, Percy says, "When we have kids, they're going to have so many clothes that it'll look like the closet exploded, and you're still going to say that there's nothing to wear, right?"

Annabeth drops the clothes she was holding onto the floor just so she could take a step closer to him. He allows his arms to rest against her waist, locking behind her, and her arms wrap around his neck. "When we have kids?"

And Percy falters. "I mean— I thought you wanted kids?"

"I do," she assures quickly. "But the way you said it… it was so real, like— kids."

"Kids," he repeats. "Do we want to have kids?"

"Eventually," she tells him. "I'd like to be married first, though."

Of course she would, and that's why he loves her. She knows what she wants, and she'll do anything to get it.

"Get married first," he repeats again. "We've been together for a year."

"And I really like you. I think a wedding would be a pretty good next step."

"And then kids," he adds.

"And then kids." She looks around, and he thinks maybe she's looking at their future too. "Let's check back in two years and see where we're at," she says. "Then we can seriously consider this."

"But you do want kids?" he asks.

"I want kids, if only to tell you that she needs more clothes."

"You're using me for my money, woman."

"You love it."

And he really does, because it means that he'll get to have kids with her. The only concern really is that he knows she's going to buy a million things for that baby, and they're both teachers that don't make that much money. Still, they'll manage. They always do.

"I do love it," he says, "and I love you."

Annabeth kisses him once and says, "Here's to closets and kids and not enough clothes."

Now that's something to celebrate.

last chapter for now but it's very possible there will be more. there's about twenty million other fics i can post but idk if you'd like to see those because they're all around 1-2k. if not, i have a pretty big fic coming hopefully soon and i think you will like it hehe. until then, review? love u!