Annabeth POV
Annabeth's fingers traced along the wall leading to her father's office. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she relaxed, put on her responsible-daughter smile, and knocked on the lightweight wooden door that was somehow the second-most intimidating door in the house. Obviously, the most intimidating door in the house was whatever door was hiding her step-mother.
A brief pause occurred before her father opened the door. Literally, a pause occurred. Frederick Chase paused the music of Bach coursing through his domain before welcoming his daughter into his study.
"Dad, I wanted to let you know that I will not be home for dinner tonight. I will be studying at the café I have come to enjoy." Annabeth swallowed, waiting for his response.
Frederick smiled and nodded, "Have fun, Annabeth. It does make the most sense to find somewhere a little more… peaceful."
On cue, Bobby and Matthew screamed and a loud crash echoed through the house. After the crash, a metallic rolling sound traveled down the stairs before a cat screeched. The Chases' did not own a cat. Or at least, the two Chases in the study had not yet been informed of the new cat the other three Chases had acquired earlier in the day.
Annabeth and her father locked eyes before letting out a shared, polite chuckle. Frederick shook his head, "I do not even want to know. Do text if you will be home later than ten o'clock. You know how I like to stay up to wait for you."
Annabeth nodded, her lips twitching into a small, rehearsed smile, "Yes, sir"
Leaving the study, Annabeth's breath came out slowly and with a slight shudder. There was absolutely no reason to fear her father. He was one of the kindest and gentlest men she had ever met in her life. Nothing suggested violence or fearmongering behavior. Yet, there was still that pressure. The pressure to be… well… to be Annabeth Marie Chase. She hated to see the disappointed look in his eyes whenever she was not Annabeth Marie Chase. Within five minutes, backpack strapped in next to her, Annabeth was out the door and on her way to the café.
Turns out, Annabeth Chase was incredibly intuitive. Intentionally leaving later than normal, she arrived at the café close to 4:30. This ensured the normal busy crowds of a Saturday would be long gone. Not many people would need caffeine towards the tail end of the day. At least, not until the end of the semester. She assumed (correctly) the café would be filled at night during finals week, students cramming unintellgible textbooks and delicious caffeine in harmonic unison. However, that was still just under a month and a half away. For now, the small, unassuming café was quiet, save for the footsteps of Percy moving back and forth behind the counter, cleaning and muttering to himself.
When she walked through the door, Percy's head snapped up and a wave of emotions rushed through his eyes. Some say the eyes are the window to the soul. People like Annabeth Chase, ones who continually guarded themselves and refused to let others guess what they were thinking, usually were rather cynical about that proverb. Annabeth herself took the phrase with a grain of salt. She knew how to hide anything and her eyes never betrayed her. Yet, people like Percy were why the proverb was invented in the first place. Looking at Annabeth's eyes was like looking at a concrete wall. They were unassuming, guarded, and with not a lot of pieces that stand out. Some concrete walls do have marks of other shades of grey and, in the same way, Annabeth's eyes gave some emotion, but it was never enough to grasp her true thoughts or emotions.
Percy's, on the other hand… or rather, on the other eye socket, were like beautiful stained glass windows. Each individual emotion was a different color that painted exactly who he was and what he was thinking prominently on the architecture of his face.
However, there are two dangers with stained glass windows. One, it is easy to foucs on the beauty of the separate parts and miss the whole. When talking with Percy, his eyes projected an easy confidence, a sarcastic exterior, like a bright red or deep purple attracting the eyes in stained glass. If one was not seeing the whole picture, it would be easy to be lost in the color. Percy's mask of a stereotypical jock was that distraction. If one could take the step back, however, they would see all the other colors that make up the stained glass window all the more beautiful. Percy's eyes showed more emotion than just cocky confidence. There was anxiety, humor, desire, determination, and so much more that made his eyes beautiful in her own.
The second danger of stained glass windows is that the window is broken easily. Percy's eyes were shattered. The pieces were still beautiful in their own right, scattered around on the ground of his emotional psyche, but they were not the cohesive whole, not yet. Annabeth looked into his eyes and saw all of this at once and her heart began to ache for him. She did not know what he went through or why he was the way he was, but she wanted to help him. Percy's appearance on the court was much like the first danger. His easy confidence out there masked the rest of the stained glass windows. Here in the café, his eyes were that of the second danger. Not dead, not dull, just… incomplete, scattered, broken.
Yet, when she walked in, she could see in his eyes something else. Stained glass windows are beautiful on their own, but when the sun shines strong through them, they achieve a whole new level of beauty entirely. His eyes lit up with sunshine the moment he saw her, a smile crossing his face. Eyes not only happy, but also…
Relief?
"Oh, my god. There you are. I thought you had died in a car crash or something!" Percy looked genuinely worried and concerned for her well-being, which touched Annabeth deep inside herself.
"My apologies. I wanted to come at a time when there were less customers, so we could actually talk."
Percy seemed to falter, his confidence being replaced by a brief flash of what could only be described as puppy eyes before the easy confidence came back. "Oh? And what's so important that you just want to talk to me, princess?"
Annabeth leaned on the counter, the two of them seperated by just that foot of wood. She smirked, as she watched Percy's breath hitch a bit, his eyes darting quickly between her own and her lips. "I just had a question."
"Y-yeah?"
Oh, so this is how a lioness feels.
Never one to be predictable, Annabeth stood straight up and smiled innocently, "How was basketball this week? I believe you had two games, correct?"
Stereotypically, children have goldfish as pets at some point in their childhood. Correlationally, most people can pinpoint the face goldfish make as they swim around in their little glass bowls. Percy vaguely resembled a goldfish as his mind very obviously tried to catch up to the sharp turn the conversation had taken.
"Oh. Yes. Basketball. Right." Percy blinked rapidly before shaking his head, clearing some sort of definite M-rated thoughts. Then his head snapped up, making eye contact suddenly before tilting in his confused puppy dog sort of way, "Why are you asking about my basketball games? I didn't peg you for a hooper."
Annabeth mentally made the note that hooper is most likely some sort of slang term for a basketball player. "You are correct, Percy. I do not play basketball. However, I am still interested in how it went for you this week. You looked like you were having fun last Friday. Additionally, you did listen to my architecture rant that one day, and I think it only fair that I listen to your basketball rant."
Percy rolled his eyes, smirking slightly; his cocky jock persona starting to appear. "Alright, princess, if you insist. Same drink, as always?"
Glancing at the menu for the first time in months, Annabeth nodded, "Decaf, if possible. It is a little later in the day. I do not want to be up until 2 am or something tonight."
"Decaf… coffee." Percy's voice deadpanned in the most teasingly annoyed customer service way possible.
The tone of voice change caused Annabeth to now be the confused one. "What is wrong with decaf coffee?"
"I don't see the point in decaf."
Annabeth merely stared back questioningly, which appeared to be just enough encouragement for Percy to get rolling.
"Coffee's only purpose is to give energy. If there isn't a need for caffeine, why in the world would I drink coffee? It doesn't even taste that good. It just… I don't know. Maybe it's cause I'm around it so much, but I just don't ever understand the point of decafe coffee…" He trailed off.
Annabeth held up her hand, the cause for his voice to trail off. "You work in a coffee shop."
"Yep."
"You dislike coffee."
"Yep."
"You still work here."
"Yep. What're you getting at?"
"If you dislike it so much, why do you work here?"
"A, Demeter's a friend of my mom. She asked one day, and here I am, three years later. B, money. Basketball shoes are expensive. Plus, I like treating my mom every once in a while. She deserves it."
Of course. Of course. Of course. He has to be so selfless. Gods above, he could have been a Greek hero.
"Percy, that is incredibly sweet. For what it is worth, I am glad that you work here. I would not have discovered my favorite drink otherwise." She smiled warmly before her eyes sharpened and an eyebrow raised, "You still have to tell me about basketball. Do not try to dodge it."
Percy sighed, turning around to work on her drink while he talked. "Yes, ma'am."
She watched his arms reach out towards the espresso grinder, flipping the switch.
"We had games on Monday and Thursday. Won both games, actually, which was pretty dope. Starting off 3-0 is always a great way to start the season. Tyson's been playing incredibly well. Not gonna lie, I was kinda nervous about a freshman starting at center, but he's proved he deserves it. He's not the greatest scorer and sometimes he looks lost out there, but he's young. He'll learn. His defensive instincts are incredible. Shot-blocking and timing is something to really behold."
Annabeth prided herself on being a rather intelligent student. It is what got her scholarship offers from around the country as a junior. She never got below a 93% in a class and her room was littered with academic awards upon excellence awards upon recommendations from past teachers for her exceptional prowess when it came to learning, understanding, and analyzing information. Yet, here, with Percy going on about his basketball team, she was utterly, completely, and hopelessly lost.
It was not too bad at the start. She could piece together what she knew of basketball and picture what Percy was talking about. However, when he began discussing strategies, she could no longer keep up and began focusing on other parts of his storytelling.
He is almost as relaxed as when he is on the court. His eyes are lighting up so bright. An authentic smile, not just his cocky one. He is adorable like this.
"The Wolves have such a great scorer in Malcolm Greyson. Coach decided that we'd run a box-and-one defense against him. Which absolutely exhausted me, obviously." At obviously, Percy looked up at Annabeth expectantly.
In her best understanding and encouraging voice, she responded, "Obviously."
By the time Percy had wrapped up, Annabeth had about half of her drink left and the time was pushing five o'clock. He had talked for a quite a while, but Annabeth had listened and tried to keep up. She was perfectly content to watch this version of Percy. The anxiety seemed to vanish. He relaxed. His eyes lit up, instead of having the shade of fear covering them from the sunlight of life. Yet, the moment he paused and his eyes glanced over the clock, that shade returned.
"Oh. S-sorry. I talk too long sometimes." He swallowed and turned around, hiding his face from her gaze and busying himself with dishes from making her latte.
Annabeth felt her heart break. What happened? Why are you so scared to be yourself, Percy?
Taking a sip from her latte, Annabeth took another step that would change their fates forever.
"Percy?"
Percy looked up from his dishes and turned around to look at her. She noticed his fingers tapping at his thighs.
"Are you doing anything tonight?"
Confused puppy again. Wow. He is cute when he looks like that.
"Nah, not really. Thinking about shooting hoops later tonight, but other than that, I got nothing."
"Would you like to go out to dinner with me, after you are done here? My treat?"
The words hung in the air like the character drawn in a game of Hangman. Technically, there should have been dread. The players did just draw a dead man hanging by his neck. Yet, because of the context, it is just charged with excitement and possibility.
"Oh, uh, sure! You don't have to pay though." Percy grinned and gestured to his tip jar, "Customers can cover part of it."
AN: What is this? A chapter within a month? Unbelievable. xD Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed this. We get a little look into Annabeth's own issues, so it's not just Percy's problems. They'll each be their own three dimensional characters, hopefully. Next chapter will be the big first date ;) Also, we support women asking men out here in this fic, alright? And honestly, it's probably more in character for Annabeth to ask anyway. Favorite, follow, leave a review, all the jazz. Or don't. I can't really control you. Til next time
~KCReal