Chapter 6

(Imagine me and you, I do)

Annabeth had a perfect revenge scheme. She had been carefully biding her time and now the plan was ready to be set in motion. She looked over at Percy, who was smiling at a customer as he took their order. She then whistled softly, garnering Thalia's attention. She lightly nodded and Thalia gave her a thumbs up. She heard Grover snicker behind her and Annabeth shushed him.

She took out a bowl of flour from where she had hidden it on a shelf as Thalia called out to Percy, "Hey Jackson, open this damn door again, will you?"

"Why?" he questioned.

"Just do it okay? I don't have to tell you everything."

Percy shrugged and moved towards the door and as soon as he was in close proximity, Grover pushed Annabeth towards him. Annabeth, in an overly dramatic fashion, yelped and the bowl with its contents 'accidentally slipped' from her hold onto his face and T-shirt.

"What the fuck?!" he screamed.

His outburst made the entire cafe turn to observe the commotion. He gave them a nervous chuckle and Thalia spoke up, "C'mon guys, this is normal, we all know how clumsy people can be. Don't let this stop you from enjoying your mornings "

Percy turned to glare at both Grover and Annabeth. She just shrugged and offered him a sweet smile, "Oops!"

"Oops? Are you serious? What is wrong with you guys? My T-shirt and the floor are both ruined." He tried his best to be intimidating but the flour that puffed out of his mouth as he spoke didn't really help. Grover let out a bleat and Percy snatched the bowl from Annabeth and threw it at him.

"Hey, it was her idea, don't kill me! I want my child to meet their dad." With that, Grover scampered away, leaving a smug Annabeth to deal with Percy's wrath.

"Don't worry about the floor, look down, I already removed the carpet," Annabeth said, making him look down.

Percy gave an annoyed grunt, grabbed her hand, and pulled her into the break room.

"Why would you do this Annabeth?" He muttered through gritted teeth, as he began brushing the flour off of his face.

"Consider it payback, for my first day here." she replied slyly.

"That was almost two weeks ago, Wise Girl, I can't believe you still hold that against me and it was in good spirit." He whined.

"You scared me half to death, how the fuck was that in good spirit?"

"I was just trying to lighten the mood, things were so tense between us."

Annabeth bit back a smile at that, he had always been so considerate. "Well so was I, you looked really tense today."

"I did?"

"Nah, I just wanted to embarrass you."

"You are a mean person you know, I could fire you.

"Sally is my boss Percy, not you."

Annabeth let out a chuckle as he pouted like a child. "You should know better than to mess with Annabeth Chase, you peasant, this will teach -"

Annabeth's gloating was abruptly cut off as Percy took off his shirt, giving her a glorious view of his broad shoulders and that tattoo of the anchor she had come to love. As her eyes drifted over his frame, while he opened his bag and pulled out a clean shirt, Annabeth's mind wandered back to the night when they had finally broken the ice that was between them.

Percy's confession that he had reciprocated Annabeth's feelings when they were teenagers and the intensity with which he had looked at her undid all the effort she had put to convince herself that she was over him. But of course, she would have to squash all those resurfacing feelings back because she couldn't afford to break the friendship they had formed again and she had thought it wouldn't be a tough job since she had been doing this for almost 10 years now. Also, she was sure that Percy's affections for her were purely platonic now. He had already moved on years ago, he had even gotten engaged for Christ's sake. That piece of information had hurt her more than she was willing to admit.

She had already realized that Percy had gotten more attractive as soon as she had seen him again and thought that her attraction towards him had always been innocent but watching the muscles of his back flex as he pulled the shirt over his head, she was considering that maybe that attraction of hers was not so innocent after all. And after the knowledge of these newfound realizations, she was sure that controlling her emotions along with her hormones would be a daunting task. In other words, she was hopelessly fucked.

She was shaken from her thoughts by Percy snapping his fingers in front of her face. He was looking at her expectantly and had held out the hand holding out the ruined shirt.

"What?" she asked, desperately trying to keep the color off her face.

"I asked if you could see whether I got all the flour off from my hair?"

"Um- yeah sure." She craned her neck but couldn't get a good look at his hair even as she stood on her tiptoes. She jumped slightly and saw that he still had some flour left in his hair. She took the shirt from his hand. "Nope, there's still some left, let me help you."

Just as she was done, she felt Percy snake his hand in her hair and give it a tug. Ignoring the goosebumps caused by his touch, Annabeth frowned at him when she realized that he had stolen her scrunchie. Percy held it above her and when she made a move to get it. She huffed and tried again but he moved away from her reach. Annabeth glared at him and smacked him with the t-shirt when she realized he wouldn't give up.

"Aww, is Shortie mad at me?" he teased, flicking her on the forehead

"Fuck you!" she retorted and made a move to leave the room when she suddenly slipped and landed on her butt. She was still in shock from the stinging pain when Percy moved past her, chuckling "Thank you for avenging me Barb!"

"Fuck you Barb," Annabeth mumbled while she picked herself up and made her way out but not before steeling her nerves and calming herself. She had to be much more careful lest she accidentally revealed her feelings for Percy.

It was mid-afternoon during her lunch break when she received the call. She almost squealed in excitement and rushed to tell her friends the news. She found Grover first and almost squeezed the life out of him.

"Why is everyone attacking me today?"

Annabeth ignored his whine and started rambling, "I got it, Grover, it's done!"

"You got what?" Percy interrupted.

"I got the house, it's legally mine, I got a call from the family lawyer, the paperwork is done and Mother's attempts to stop the acquisition were futile."

Annabeth had turned to her dad for help to stop Athena's meddling, he had many connections and despite the initial delay, Nana's house was finally hers.

"That's awesome Beth, congratulations," he said, offering her a high five. She happily complied.

"Did Christmas come early?" A voice called out. They all turned to see Ryan, Chiron's nephew leaning against the counter. Annabeth had first met him when she had gone to the bookstore to look for a job. He had moved to Belt Buckle only a couple of months back and seemed pretty friendly.

"Ryan, hey!"

Before she could reply, Percy took his usual position behind the counter and offered him a smile that almost seemed forced.

"Good afternoon Ryan, what can I get you?"

"Hey man, um- I'd like Annabeth to surprise me."

Annabeth quirked an eyebrow as Ryan smirked at her. Percy turned to Annabeth and in a mocking tone told her to work her magic and surprise her admirer. Annabeth ignored Percy's behavior, she thought that he was still sour about the flour incident.

"So, what's up Annabeth?" Ryan called out, almost bending over the counter.

"Nothing much just got some great news, how is Chiron?" Annabeth asked, quickly trying to brew a quirky Starbucks order she had seen in a Tik Tok video. Before Ryan could answer her back, Grover chirped up and in a nervous tone asked Ryan to take a seat as he was holding up the line. Grover then offered her another congratulation and went back to wipe a few tables.

As she worked, she briefly wondered if Piper was looking over at her as for once everything in her life was working in her favor. She was slowly gaining back everything she had lost 7 years ago. She snuck a glance at Percy, who had a slight frown on his face as he made another customer's order. Well, almost everything in her life was working in her favor but she would settle for what she could get at the moment.

She chatted with Ryan for a few minutes when she came to deliver his order, not because she wanted to, but because she didn't want to come off as rude. She had an inkling that maybe he had a slight crush on her but she really didn't want to give him the wrong idea. She politely ended their conversation with a promise to stop by the bookstore tomorrow to buy some new books.

"Will you just try it?" Leo prompted her again. They all were lounging in the cafe after it had been closed for customers. Apparently, Percy had relayed the news of Annabeth getting the house to everyone and they all barged in to celebrate. Even though it made her heart burst to see them all so enthusiastic on her part, she would not participate in Leo's shenanigans.

"No Leo, I will not."

"Just once Annabeth, please." Beside him, she saw Calypso facepalm while Jason watched with an amused expression.

"Why are you so obsessed with the door anyway?" she questioned.

"I just want to see if you can open it or not."

"Did Percy put you up to this?" She wondered if Percy had been scheming with Leo to play a prank on her, to get her back for this morning. However, with the way Percy was glaring daggers at Leo, that was an unlikely scenario. Still, she was wary.

"I really don't trust you, for all I know, you could be playing some prank on me."

"It's not a prank, I swear, aren't you a bit curious? No one has succeeded except Sally and Percy." Annabeth was really tempted to give in but she knew better.

"No, now can we please let this go?"

"Oh c'mon just once-"

"For fuck's sake Leo, she doesn't want to, now drop it." Percy hollered suddenly.

Before Leo could open his mouth to reply, he continued. "Annabeth, when do you want to start the renovations?"

His attempt at changing the topic proved to be fruitful as they all launched into a discussion about the work that was needed to be done on the house.

The gang decided that they all would take Thursday off so that they could be done with the house by the end of the weekend. Annabeth profusely expressed her gratitude but they all shrugged it off as if it was no big deal. As they bid each other goodbye, Annabeth looked up at the sky and blew it a kiss, thanking Piper for giving her the push that made her reconcile with her family, not in name, but in bond.

Annabeth should have known that seven so-called adults trying to get a job done, which they had no prior experience in, would only lead to chaos. They had been working for 3 hours and so far had broken the old couch, mixed up the paint buckets, and had gotten Leo stuck in a window. The last one was actually a dare and probably had the best result out of all the 'work' they had done.

As she looked over to Thalia and Jason, who were trying to place the new wallpaper in the kitchen, and then to Percy and Leo, who were fixing the plumbing, she decided that they still had hope. They could do this, without professional help, well they technically didn't have any other choice because all her savings had finally run dry; she had underestimated the condition of the house. The thought that this place, her Nana's place, which had once housed such beautiful moments of her childhood was now in such a state of neglect made her doleful and she vowed to cherish this house, actually not house but rather this home, since calling it a house seemed to diminish the importance it had held in her life, and to protect her Nana's essence along with it.

She was interrupted by Percy when she called out that she would be heading to the attic to sift through some stuff.

"What?"

"Don't go there alone, there might be, you know," he said, his tone vague and quiet.

"No, I don't?"

"Annabeth, there might be spiders ." He whispered the last part and Annabeth instantly shuddered. She looked up to him at once to make sure he was not teasing her, and her heart warmed at the thought of him remembering her phobia, and making sure no one else heard about it when warning her about the attic.

"You're right, c'mon gimme a hand then."

"Where's the ladder?" She questioned as they reached the attic, her eyes drifting around.

"Oh yeah, that broke, when we got Leo out of the window." Percy muttered, giving her a sheepish smile.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and wondered out loud, "How are we supposed to go up there now?" She glanced at Percy, who seemed to be deep in thought, with his eyebrows scrunched together and tongue poking out. He looked so cute and Annabeth had to bite her cheeks to prevent herself from doing something impulsive like kissing him.

"Okay, I have an idea, interlace your fingers and I'll use your palms as a push to pull myself up, and then I'll pull you up."

"Dude, no, you'll break my hands," Annabeth exclaimed, shaking her head violently.

"C'mon, Wise Girl, I know the strength of those hands, remember how you knocked out Matt Sloan in seventh grade?"

"You do have a point, fine, here."

As Percy latched onto the hatch, Annabeth tried to avert her eyes in an unsuccessful attempt to ignore how strong his arms looked or how his loose shirt was giving her a view of his abs. What the fuck? She should not be lusting after her best friend. Before her mind wandered much, Percy reached out and held out his hand to her. She bit her lip hesitantly, contemplating whether this was a good idea or not.

"Don't worry, I won't drop you."

"How are you so sure?"

"Have you seen yourself? You're so tiny." That earned him a glare. He sighed and offered her a reassuring smile.

"Do you trust me? I'll pull you up."

"Okay, Aladdin but if I break my back, you will be paying the hospital bills." Annabeth huffed but finally relented.

She was actually surprised by how easily he pulled her up as if she weighed nothing. When she was almost in, her foot slipped on the edge of the hatch and she stumbled forward, grabbing Percy's shoulders to steady herself, but her momentum took him down with her and they both slammed onto the floor with a loud thud. Percy tightened his hold on her, wrapping his arms around her waist in an attempt to cushion her fall, while she pulled his face forward and with her free hand to protect him from hitting his head.

They both became rigid when they landed on the floor and Annabeth was so close to Percy's face that she could count his eyelashes but she didn't make a move to pull away from his hold and neither did he.

"You okay?" he whispered, eyes filled with concern.

"Yeah, you?" Annabeth asked, slightly moving the fingers of her hand which was supporting his head.

"I think you jinxed us but I'm fine."

"I didn't jinx us, my foot got caught, but thanks for cushioning my fall."

"Anytime...hey Annabeth?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you whispering?"

"I don't know, why are you?"

"I don't know" he shrugged, offering Annabeth a lopsided smile and she couldn't stop the chuckle from leaving her mouth. Percy pinched her side slightly and before she could let go of his head or maybe slam it on the floor in retaliation, they both shrieked and jumped apart when they saw a rat run beside them.

"Oh my god! I think my heart stopped for a second there," Annabeth breathed out. Percy looked equally frightened but as soon as his eyes met hers, he composed himself and turned around, checking out the condition of the attic.

"It seems like we will need to disinfect this place, look at all the spider webs, god knows what demons lurk around here." Annabeth moved behind Percy as he used the flashlight of his phone to move while they sifted through some boxes.

They found Nana's old gramophone, kitchen utensils, Annabeth's old books, and her skates before Percy opened a box and he halted.

She peeked over his shoulder to look at his discovery when he let out a low chuckle and turned around, showing her the contents of the box. Annabeth's eyes widened slightly as she held out some of the polaroids from the box.

"I forgot I even had these!" she exclaimed, shuffling through the polaroids.

"I still have the pictures Leo gave me, and they are definitely not in an attic."

She looked up at Percy as he whispered in a tiny voice and his expression was wistful and Annabeth thought that his disappointment was directed at her, disappointed that she didn't take these pictures, these memories with her to New York, and they were abandoned here, unattended, wrinkled, faded, and gathering dust, just like the friendship between them had been.

"I-I made some really stupid decisions." Annabeth knew that Percy knew she wasn't talking about just the polaroids.

"Hey, it's fine Beth, don't feel bad, no one is holding anything against you okay?" Annabeth was at a loss for words but Percy quickly gave her a light nudge and offered to take this box downstairs to show everyone.

"It's getting dark let's leave, we will come back here tomorrow to clean up, c'mon."

"Oh, I remember this one, it's from that Christmas where Percy and Grover gifted Annabeth smelly socks." Thalia cackled, pointing to the polaroid which was currently in Jason's hand.

"They were mine, the socks, I took special care of them when Percy told me about his prank." Leo chimed in.

"I still hate all of you for that, that smell is forever ingrained in my brain." Annabeth shuddered, hitting Grover on the shoulder.

"We felt bad afterward Beth, when we saw what you had got us." Grover pulled her in a sideways hug and shook her slightly.

"What did she get you?" Calypso questioned.

"She got me this really cool T-shirt and Percy got-"

"The guitar!" Leo exclaimed suddenly, holding up another polaroid and waving it in the air.

Out of the corner of her eye, she was Percy stiffen slightly, but her focus was on the polaroid in Leo's hands. She leaned forward, as did the others, and a tiny smile formed on her lips. The picture was of both Percy and Annabeth, him holding the guitar, staring at Annabeth, while she posed for the camera. Annabeth's eyes got a little misty as she recalled Percy's words from two weeks ago when he had admitted that he had been learning her favorite song to play for her. She again sneaked a glance at Percy, who was already staring at her.

"I didn't know you played Percy.", Calypso said, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Oh I'm sure he doesn't, I haven't seen him play in such a long time, do you even have the guitar now?" Leo questioned.

"I do, and he is right, Calypso, I don't play it anymore." Annabeth tried to ignore the hurt she felt at that admission, why didn't he play it anymore?

"Well I would love to hear you play Percy, I'm sure you are really talented."

"I'm not, I don't really know how to play it, I don't know why Wise Girl gifted me that."

"Shut up Percy, we have heard you play it a few times, back in high school, though I haven't seen that guitar since-Oh-" Leo immediately stopped his sentence, his eyes darting between Percy and Annabeth.

Annabeth suddenly wanted to crawl back into the attic and hide. If she had guessed correctly, Percy had probably stopped playing the guitar since she left. But why though? Did he look at it and was reminded of her betrayal? Did it remind him how she had left him?

Annabeth stood up and moved to sit beside Percy, who was again glaring daggers at Leo. She nudged his shoulder, "Hey, that guitar cost me a sizable chunk of my savings, so now I better hear you playing it okay? Give me my money's worth, Jackson."

He gave her a small smile, one that didn't quite reach his eyes, "I'm not so sure about that, Annabeth."

"Why don't you play anymore Percy? Did you not like the guitar?" Annabeth knew the reason he didn't play it anymore, but she wanted to know the actual reason why he didn't play it anymore. She wanted to know so she could help him get over it because she had seen how wonderful he was at playing that guitar.

"I loved it, Beth, I still do but I don't know, it was too- it has way too many memories attached to it- I-" he sighed and shook his head.

She was aware that everyone in the room was watching the two of them, so she leaned in and whispered,

"Well, you told me you had learned my favorite song right? I would like to hear it once, please."

"You-you would?"

"If you are comfortable with it then I would love to hear it."

"Annabeth I haven't played in front of someone in years."

"Does that mean you still play it when you're alone?", she questioned.

"I-uh-I," he didn't need to finish that sentence, his expression told her everything. Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief, smiling that he hadn't stopped playing out of spite.

"Percy, please. "

"You really want to hear me play?"

"I really, really do, I miss watching you play."

He then gave her a genuine smile and Annabeth's heart jumped up again.

"Well then, a song for the lady is long overdue."

A/N : I'm really sorry for not updating last week, I got sick and had some shitty days lol, but I'm back. Enjoy :)