Piper

Once Piper gets over her initial reaction to Percy and Annabeth dating, she has to admit that she now finds them cute together.

It is still a little weird to see them bantering like children while having lunch. But now, instead of harsh smirks and condescending glares, there's a hint of playfulness with their interaction. Percy now has a lighter flair around him she hasn't noticed or seen before, but only burns brighter with every snarky comment and fond insults Annabeth seems to love to throw at him.

They are an odd couple, but they certainly have their normal moments too.

There's a time where Piper overhears Percy humming something under his breath while scrolling through his phone. Normally, it wouldn't cause her to pay attention, but she recognizes the song and almost gawks in surprise.

"Were you just tone deaf, or did I hear you humming, Style?" she asks.

He stops scrolling, and looks up, confused. "Did I? I didn't notice."

"Yes, you did. You were at the chorus."

His mouth moves an 'o', like he was really surprised he did just that. "Oh," he says simply. Then a fond smile graces his face, and he goes back to his phone.

Piper's eyebrows rise. "Um, aren't we going to talk about that? I didn't even know you listen to Taylor Swift."

"Oh, I don't," he says, nonchalantly. "But Annabeth does. She totally has a Spotify playlist full of Taylor's songs."

"Oh. Oh." A smirk then appears on her face. "I see."

Then, when they were having lunch and Jason was working on a homework about dams:

"I freaking hate this subject," Jason grumbles under his breath as he scribbles down on his notebook while the rest of the group are eating their lunches. "Why do we even need to learn the volume and history of the Hoover Dam?!"

"So you can estimate how long the rescue team takes you to find if you ever fall on the dam?" Grover suggests.

"Why would he ever fall on a dam, least of all, Hoover dam?" Piper asks, frowning. "That is so far-fetched and ridiculous."

Rachel raises her eyebrows, "You never know. Percy did blow up a school bus with a revolutionary war cannon."

Piper sees Percy take a deep breath, before starting the spiel that he has been reciting every single time the topic of the blown school bus comes up. "First of all, I didn't know that it was loaded. And second, only the bus blew up and there were no students inside, so I wasn't a mass murderer in case you're planning to ask."

Jason just slumps on the table, his defeated face smushed against his homework. "Yeah, well that didn't help me find the volume of the damned dam, so thanks I guess."

"Huh. It's actually a concrete arch-gravity dam," Percy says nonchalantly. He takes a casual bite of this cheeseburger, not at all looking bothered that his friends' gazes have turned to him in surprise. "Tc'has voyum of, wait, lemme 'wallow. It has a volume of…hmm, I think around 2.5 million cubic meters? I forgot the exact number."

He then notices their gazes at him. Piper is kind of amazed of how long it took him to notice.

"What?" Percy asks.

"What," they parrot back.

"What? Why are you looking at me all weird?"

"Uhh, did you just recited facts about Hoover dam, or am I dreaming?"

"Oh. Yeah I guess I did," he says, like they just asked him about the weather. "What about it?"

Leo squints at him. "Are you going to tell us how you knew these or are we going to guess?"

"Well, Annabeth sometimes tells me, scratch that, she often rambles about these ancient, cultural pieces; something along those lines. Well, I guess I picked some details up? It's really hard not to though, since she makes this very determined face every time she goes into this rambling phase that just makes you want to listen."

"Huh? So she just happened to know things about dams…?"

"Yep. She's a bit of an architecture nerd, though she really won't like that I just called her that." His eyes widen a bit. "Don't tell her I said that."

When she mentions it to Annabeth, the girl just shakes her head and mutters, "He's an idiot." But there is a smile on her face that says otherwise. "Knew it. He was totally calling me a nerd."

"Don't tell him I'm the one who snitched."

"I can't exactly make that promise," Annabeth says, after closing the door to her locker. As she turns to walk to her class, her smile turns to an exasperated but fond grin.

Yeah, they're totally ridiculous.

Annabeth

It's an uneventful day so far, Annabeth thinks as she walks towards the gates. Percy usually walks her home to uphold their façade and just to bother her with his not-so-smooth pick-up lines. However, these past few days, the swim team has been extending their usual practice by an hour or more, so he can't exactly join her in walking home now.

She pauses.

That doesn't exactly mean she can't join and watch him practice. She knows for a fact that Silena usually sits through Beckendorf's football practices, and Katie does the same for Travis too.

Maybe she can watch Percy's too. Just this one though, she thinks in case he develops an ego and starts teasing her for ogling him.

Which she isn't, just to be clear. She will just be watching and critiquing his form, absolutely no ogling involve.

None. Nada. Zilch.

She turns back and starts heading for the pool. Upon opening the doors, she's immediately hit with the strong smell of chlorine and the urge to walk away. The pool doesn't exactly bring the fondest of memories.

But she's here now, and Annabeth is everything but a quitter. So she chooses a bench to sit on and spots Percy standing on the first block, preparing to jump. He hasn't seen her yet, and she takes the opportunity to watch him.

He really is different from the boy she knew from childhood. For one, he's now taller than her, which she really didn't think was possible back then, and his scrawny frame has managed to grow into lean build and muscles. When he jumps, he cuts through the water like a hot knife through butter. His strokes are long and precise, and his form is immaculate as he swims through the lap.

Just as he reaches her side of the pool and prepares to rally back, Percy sees her. He stops swimming and leans on his elbows to look at her. There's a gob smacked look on his face.

"Hey! I didn't expect to see you here," he says, a bit breathless.

"Just wanted to see what's the hype all about," she responds. And just to annoy him, "I don't exactly see the appeal. It isn't really all that great."

Percy just smiles. "You're lying."

An irritated voice interrupts them, "Hey Jackson! I said no distractions! Get back in the pool now!"

His smile just widens, calls out a "Sorry coach!", before diving back into the water.

Percy does a couple more laps before he is dismissed. When he walks back to her, he's freshly showered and shaking his head like a wet dog. "So, did I live up to your expectations?"

"You're like a flopping fish out of water."

He grins. "Huh. Let's hope they will let a fish compete in the meet this Friday."

She turns back to him, surprised. "You compete?"

He just raises his eyebrows at her. "I don't exactly swim my ass off for hours just for fun."

Red tints her cheeks. He did have a point. "Yeah well, I haven't really thought of it that much. I just know that you swim."

"Well, I'll have you know that I'm one of the fastest swimmers in our team."

"I don't doubt that."

"You really sound like you doubt that."

"I don't. I mean, you were born so you were really the fastest swimmer out of the bunch."

"Wha—Annabeth, you crude, rude girl! I can't believe you're making a sperm joke."

"Looks like you're rubbing off on me."

"I am not rude. Tell you what, come to my meet this Friday and I'll show you that I'm really fast."

Her eyebrows rise. She had not expected that. "You want me to cheer for you?"

"You can just watch, but yeah, I am not opposed to cheering if you're down for that."

"I'm no cheerleader," she points out, as they make their way out of the pool room. Percy places a hand on her back as he leads her out.

He's done a lot of that, she thinks. Opening doors, pulling out chairs for her, steering her to safety if she gets too close to the side of the road. It kind of surprises her sometimes, that he does these things almost automatically. When they first started their fake dating plan, she hadn't expected a lot from him. After all, he did say that he didn't have experience in relationships. But then Percy was raised by Sally Jackson, which in her honest and unbiased opinion, is the best and kindest mother one could ever dream. It's only natural for him to be like her; kind and genuine.

"Who else are coming?" she asks.

"Well, my mom and Grover and Jason and—basically, the whole gang." He glances at her from the side, "And you, if—if you're coming."

"Okay."

"What okay?"

"Okay as in I'm going."

"Huh—okay. Cool. Nice. Really nice." Annabeth watches as his lips stretch into a wide, disbelieving grin, like he hadn't quite believe she's going. She rolls her eyes.

As if she'll say anything other than yes.

A/N: surprise! this is not abandoned, i'm just having a hard time writing lately. this is short and definitely not the best, but i needed to shell this out. i still haven't got out of my writing rut (and tbh, i just wanted to write all the fluff fillers, but i need to get at least the plot going so i can start on my self-indulgent percabeth fake to real deal feelings fluff)