A/N: Hey guys! I'm back with something that has been in the works for like forever now and I've finally been able to finish it.
First of all, Shoutout to Penguin1127 for giving me this prompt! I'm so sorry this took so long for me to write, I actually started it a while back but was stuck on how to finish it and the characterizations. It's not exactly the same as you detailed but I hope you like it nonetheless!
Second of all, this goes for any of the other prompts I've gotten, I do try my best to write them, but sometimes it just takes a very long time :P And sometimes I just can't write anything good enough, so it all depends but I promise that I do try!
Third of all,
Here ya go:
Annabeth's movements are graceful and precise. Each turn, each jump, each spin is measured perfectly in time with the music. It flows easily despite the strictness in the steps.
The music gets louder, her movements speed up, both building a crescendo until the last note where everything suddenly stills.
There is a moment of silence before Rachel lets out a breath.
"Wow, that might have been the best run yet Annabeth!"
Annabeth is a bit breathless but nods in agreement, meeting Rachel's eyes in the mirror.
"Seriously, if you keep this up you'll be ready for the show in no time," Rachel continues.
Annabeth moves to get a sip of water, listening to her friend go on about the run. She is pretty proud of it too, obviously there were things left to fix, but at least she has gotten the steps down.
They start to pack up, this being the last run of the day, when Rachel reminds her of something she has been actively trying to forget.
"Oh, and I won't be here for the next week and a half, but don't worry I think you'll like my replacement." She ends with a wink it doesn't help Annabeth feel any better about it.
She makes a face. "Why do you have to leave anyway, the show isn't that far out and you really should be practicing with me," she all but grumbles, causing an amused look to take over Rachel's face.
"Come on Annabeth, it won't be that bad. He's a nice guy and knows his stuff. Besides," she adds with a smirk, "you wouldn't want me to miss out on this art convention."
Annabeth sighs, because Rachel is right. She doesn't want to pull her friend way from something like this and she knows the replacement probably won't be that bad, but she just doesn't want to deal with it.
"I promise it won't be bad, and I'll make sure to bring over you some tea from that one lady who's always there."
Annabeth perks up at that because damn that lady's tea is good.
"Okay, fine," she accepts, only somewhat reluctant.
With that thought in mind and the promise of tea, they leave the studio.
-.-.-.-
Annabeth is back again the next day, nervousness really starting to take over. She's always been a somewhat shy person, and despite being in the spotlight a few times, she still was.
Meeting a new person was usually fine, but working with and dancing in front of a new person was bit more nerve-wracking then she would like to admit. Nothing she couldn't handle though, she was a dancer after all, and had to do this sort of thing often.
That's what she tells herself and that's what goes flying out the window when she saw who exactly was going to be Rachel's replacement.
He is undeniably attractive, with tan skin and fluffy black hair. He meets her eye as she enters the room and flashes her a smile. Heat creeps up Annabeth's face as she manages a smile in return.
"Hey! You must be Annabeth, I'm Percy, Rachel's standby for the week," he says cheerfully.
"Hello," she responds quietly, quickly moving to the corner of the room to set down her bag. She focuses on getting her things together and the heat finally starts to leave her cheeks. She takes a deep breath as she starts to lace up her shoes.
Percy looks a bit confused, she can see that much through the mirror, and quickly looks away before they can make eye contact. She should probably be a bit more open and outgoing, but something makes her curl it all up inside.
She starts her stretches in silence and closes her eyes as if prepping for the dance itself. And that's not a lie, she is, but it has the added benefit of blocking his face from her vision.
She finishes all too quickly, and finally turns to face him again.
"Ready?"
Looking a bit off put he nods and sits down at the piano.
The music starts and finally, finally, she feels comfortable again. She lets herself sink into the movement, every leap and turn a natural act. It's as if the music is flowing through her is moving her arms and legs for her.
She finishes the piece with a dramatic pose.
"Wow," Percy breaths, breaking the momentary silence. "That was amazing!"
She meets his eyes in the mirror and allows herself a small smile.
He just continues. "Seriously, that was some of the best dancing I've ever seen!"
"It's not perfect," she mumbles, a blush once again rising to her face. And it really wasn't, just a warm up, her legs hadn't been completely straight, and the spins could have been better.
"If that's not perfect to you, I can't wait to see what is," he whistles.
She needs to stop this conversation now, one because she hasn't blushed this much in a while and two this many compliments couldn't be good.
So, she straightens again and calls next.
-.-.-.-
After a good half hour Percy calls for a break. Not that she wants one but he's almost pleading so she gives in.
He immediately stands up and stretches, his shirt lifting just enough to see a sliver of tan skin. She looks away quickly.
"Damn, I need to remember to stretch too, I'm starting to feel cramped. It's been too long."
Her curiosity is peaked and she glances over from behind the bottle of water she is drinking. "You haven't played in a while?"
She didn't mean to start a conversation, but the words slipped out and he's grinning like he was waiting for the chance to talk to her.
"Yeah, I've been on a little bit of a break recently, trying to focus on getting my masters. It feels good to be back in front of a piano."
He shoots her another smile and she smiles back.
"You're good for someone who hasn't played in a while," she says softly. She watches his eyes light up.
"Thanks!"
And before he can ask her anything she asks to continue with the practice.
The music starts once again, and Annabeth is lost in the dance. When it finally ends and it's time to leave she has a smile on her face from a post-dance high.
Percy walks over to her as she packs up and she doesn't realize until she turns around to find him that close.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he apologizes, seeing her reaction.
His eyes are sea green, how could she not have noticed before.
"It's alright," she mutters. There's an awkward silence and she considers just dashing out of the room before he speaks.
"I just wanted to say that your dancing really is beautiful and I'm glad to be working with you for the week." His eyes are bright and honest and it's too much for her to take.
"You too," she manages to say, "I..uh…I got to…" and she practically runs out, leaving him standing in shock.
-.-.-.-
Annabeth's heart is still pounding as she enters her apartment from the short walk over. She isn't sure if it's because of the light jog or Percy.
She groans as she realizes her situation and ends up flopping down on her couch. She's never really felt this way about anyone before. For some reason Percy peaks her curiosity. Not only is he attractive he's…nice.
Not that other guys aren't nice, Jason, her friend Piper's boyfriend is very nice. But her mind drifts back to the bright look on his face when he had come up to compliment her. He seemed genuine in his words, as if he really did like it and really did want to spend the week with her.
Ugh, and she had reacted in the worst possible way to his kind words.
She lets out a sigh and resolves to get her shit together the next time she sees him, which is tomorrow, which basically means she's going to get over this stupid little interest that she's started to develop and move on with her life.
-.-.-.-
Her resolve nearly breaks when she walks in to another brilliant smile and greeting by Percy the next day. She feels guilty about yesterday and wonders if she should say something.
But her mouth can't seem to form the words so instead she offers a smile and wave and walks to her corner again.
He leaves her alone as she sets up her stuff and stretches, but she can tell he's watching her. She catches him staring with his head cocked a little to the side as if he's trying to figure something out. He looks away quickly when their eyes meet in the mirror. Was that a hint of a blush on his face?
He clears his throat and quickly asks, "Are you ready?"
She nods.
And once again it begins.
Dancing is the easy part for her. The steps are now ingrained in muscle memory and she's focusing on the details, curving her arm, straightening her legs, all the small specifics that are needed to be flawless.
The hard part is during break when Percy wants to have a conversation and she tries not to shy away.
"How long have you been dancing?" he asks as he takes a sip of water.
She shrugs and fiddles with her water bottle. "Since I was five." Feeling the need to elaborate she continues, "My mom signed me up for a class as an activity and I just…fell in love with it I guess."
She tries not to blush at the cheesiness. He nods. "It's impressive."
She shrugs again. "A lot of dancers start at a young age."
"True," he agrees, "but not every one of them are just as in love with it as they were at five years old."
There is a silence as the meaning behind his words sink in. Her face is turning pink and he just has a warm smile on his face. It's too much again. She mutters a thanks and takes a sip of water just to have something to do.
"Let's go again," she manages to get out after taking a few sips. Her face is still pink and the thought lingers a bit in the back of her mind as she picks up the dance.
At the end of practice Percy approaches her once again. This time she's ready and doesn't jump.
He looks a bit nervous which is new cause that's really her thing.
"Hey Annabeth, I was wondering…uh, if you'd like to get some coffee with me?"
She freezes cause in all honesty she was not expecting that. He seems to take the reaction as a rejection because he immediately backtracks.
"I mean it's fine if you don't. Maybe some other time? I'll see you tomorrow!" And it's his turn to run out of the room.
She stands there frozen, still processing what just happened. Okay, breakdown:
Percy asked her to get coffee
She froze
He took it as a rejection and left.
Great.
With her back to the mirror, she slides down to sit on the floor. Why did she freeze?
Because you wanted to say yes, her mind answers back.
On the rare occasion a guy had asked her out in the past she had been able to politely decline, albeit a little flustered. But with Percy she had wanted to say yes.
Her stomach turns as she realizes this. That and the fact that now tomorrow would be extremely awkward.
She feels horrible. He had just been trying to be a nice person, trying to get to know the person he would be working with for the week. And she hasn't been all that accepting of that.
And she still wants to say yes.
She sighs, maybe it was time for her to give it a chance.
-.-.-.-
As soon as she enters the room the next day Percy opens his mouth and gets hallway through the word sorry, before she cuts him off.
"Yes."
He stops. "Wait what?"
She takes a deep breath. It's now or never. "Yes, I'll have coffee with you."
He looks shocked. "Oh. Okay. I mean, uh, thank you. Would you want to go today after practice?"
She nods and makes her way to her corner heart beating wildly. She can't believe she's done this. The normal silence of the routine falls into pace as she gets ready. Looking into the mirror, she can't help but notice Percy sitting at the piano staring at the sheets in front of him with a smile on his face, it brings one to hers too.
Practice continues as normal with just slightly more blushing and not at all discreet smiles. And as if in a hurry to end, it flies by in a blur of sounds and leaps and spins.
"Ready?" he asks as she zips up her bag and pulls the strap onto her shoulder. She nods because as much as she was looking forward to it, now that it's time she's more nervous than anything.
He leads the way out, chattering about the coffee place and how he discovered it a while back and its undoubtedly the best that's out there. She nods along and tries not to let the nerves get to her.
They set down their stuff at a table and Percy offers to order for her which she gratefully accepts. Once he's walked away she lets out a breath she hadn't known she was holding and tries to calm down. She needs to relax.
The place itself is tiny and quaint and comfortable and there's some combination of smooth jazz playing in the background. Finally taking it all in she actually does relax.
And then Percy returns with drinks in hand and a sweet smile and her heart is doing flips.
"So," he says after they've settled down, "Tell me about yourself, I've been blabbing enough as it is."
She shrugs because she really doesn't know what to say. "I like to read?"
It half comes out as a question, but it launches into a discussion about books and that leads to movies and that leads to a million other things and she finds herself really enjoying the conversation.
She's less shy now that she's actually started to talk and is in the middle of ranting about the injustice of Ron's portrayal in the Harry Potter movies, because somehow after all this time the conversation has come back to that, when it hits her the way he is just looking at her.
There is adoration in his gaze and she halts midsentence because she just has never seen anything like that before.
He frowns at her abrupt stop. "Annabeth, why'd you stop?" he asks.
She takes a sip of the coffee, which is actually really good, to avoid answering. He simply waits.
"Just…" she blushes, "the way you were looking…" She doesn't know how to say more.
He smiles. "I don't know if you know this Annabeth, but you're pretty awesome."
She blushes even more (she didn't know that was possible) and sputters out something only half intelligible.
"No really," he says and there's that honest genuine look in his eyes again, "You're talented, passionate, you love to read, and you're a Harry potter fan! Not to mention, you're…well beautiful."
She just sits there frozen.
"I'm really glad you said yes to this. I'm glad I'm getting to know you better."
Shit. How the hell is she supposed to respond to that. Because if she's being honest, the fact that a guy like Percy asked her out in the first place is shocking. That and he's actually a good person. And the more she's getting to know him, like how he agrees that the new Spiderman movie is the best, and how he talk about his little sister and mother and his weird obsession with blue food, the more she likes him.
Wait.
She likes him.
The thought makes her heart beat a million times faster. She actually has a crush on this guy.
That's never happened before.
And there he is sitting in front of her with a warm smile and kind eyes.
"I…I don't know what to say," she manages to get out because suddenly she's all too aware of every little movement.
"You don't have to say anything, just thought you should know," he says and takes the final sip of his own coffee.
Right. Coffee.
She moves to drink hers too because she needs something to do.
There is a silence before she moves to check the time and damn it's late. How had they talked for so long?
"I should…I should get going," she says, gesturing to her phone and the time.
He blinks as if he too just realized it.
"Yeah of course. It's getting late," he agrees.
They stand up and Annabeth just wants to run away but she wills herself to stand for a bit longer as he gathers his stuff.
"This was good, I had a fun time," he begins and she's seen enough movies to know where it's heading.
"Yeah me too," she agrees and takes a step back. "I had fun, I'll uh, I'll see you tomorrow!"
And with that she hurries out of the café leaving a confused and slightly hurt looking Percy.
-.-.-.-
She's breathing too heavily by the time she gets home because the panic is starting to set in. What is she doing?
She just went on a date and she likes the guy and he seems to like her and he would've probably kissed her but she ran away and it's just a mess.
It probably boils down to she's never really had a real crush before, maybe once in middle school, but after that she just didn't really get crushes. She could appreciate attractiveness but found it hard to actually like someone.
It led to a lot of questions and google searching before the term demisexual appeared and it made a whole lot more sense why she wasn't ready to jump a hot guy like the rest of her friends.
She needed some kind of emotional connection to feel a sexual attraction. And in a way some sort of connection to feel romantic attraction.
This in turn, had naturally led her to get to the age of twenty-six without ever really being in a relationship, or going out on a real date, or…or kissing anybody.
So she had gotten over the whole love thing, because honestly society seemed to place too much of her worth on her love life so she had made a simple decision to just ignore and remove it from her life.
Except, now, she realizes, that she actually likes Percy. After getting to know him she not only likes him as a person, she's actually starting to develop a crush.
It's counterintuitive because she's only known him for a few days and she's demi but this is the most interest she's ever had in anyone. So it's a big deal for her.
She sinks back into her couch as she realizes that she once again left him hanging in away after a really awesome date. She needs to stop doing that. It's like a part of her just reflexively curls up and hides and deflects even when she doesn't want it too. It's a cultivated natural response from years of practice she guesses.
She ends up lost in her thoughts and falls asleep on the couch.
-.-.-.-
The next day she's tired, has a horrible kink in her neck from the couch, and extremely nervous to face Percy.
He's there as always with a smaller smile this time. He seems more withdrawn and greets her with an awkward wave and a hi.
She sighs and walks over to him instead of her corner. She should explain herself.
"Listen, Percy, I-" she begins but he cuts her off.
"Annabeth, I just.." he looks helplessly at her, "I just need to know what page your on because I can't keep going on like this, it's confusing and if I did something wrong, please tell me because-"
She shushes him and moves to set her bag down on the floor. She sits down and invites him to join her.
"I'm sorry for running out like that," she begins once he's sat down. "You did nothing wrong. I really did enjoy myself last night, it was a lot of fun."
"Then what," he implores looking lost and hurt and confused and it dawns on her that she's been so focused on herself. Percy must be feeling awful too, wondering if he did something wrong, if she's just playing with him. He probably has is own insecurities and issues and doubts.
She takes a measured breath and begins again. "I like you Percy. I really like you. And the thought is scary because I haven't really liked anyone. It…It takes a lot for me to like someone."
He's silent and she's grateful that he's just letting her continue.
"And you're really amazing, I just…don't know how to do this."
He gives her a questioning look.
She takes a shaky breath. "I've never done this before, in fact I've spent so much of my life just ignoring it and focusing on other things that I…I don't know what to do."
She's trying hard not to cry because that's the last impression she wants to make but her eyes are wet and his gaze softens. He holds out his arms, inviting her for a hug and she reflexively moves away. But after a second she overcomes it and sinks in.
Percy's hugs might be the best thing in the world.
They sit there in silence for a while until she composes herself some more and pulls away.
"Annabeth," he begins, "it's okay. It's okay to feel nervous or scared or not know what to do. We'll figure it out. We'll take it slow, at your pace. And make it up along the way cause there is no 'right' way to do this."
She nods.
"But," he pauses and looks at her intently, "you're going to need to choose it."
It's her turn to look questioningly.
"I know you said you've spent your life shying away from love, and that's okay. But if you want to try this out, give us a chance, you're going to need to choose to love. To give love a shot. Can you do that?"
He's silent after that, waiting for her and she appreciates the space he's giving her. She understands what he's saying and it makes sense. She has spent a long time closing herself off.
It was time to take a chance, a leap if you will, and choose love.
She nods. "Yes, I'm willing to do that."
The smile she gets in return makes her heart twist in a way that made her feel warm and giddy at the same time.
-.-.-.-
The lights dim. A solo piano begins a slow tune and in the shadows a figure moves until leaping up to have the spotlight shine down.
She twirls her way around the stage, arms reaching high and soaring through the air as if she's flying. She looks content and happy.
She has always loved to dance, always lost herself in it. It was her first love in life and the way she dances just radiates her passion.
The music flows clearly and beautifully and the red haired woman behind the keys seems lost in the song as well. The audience is frozen in awe, at the beauty before them.
The story is that of love. And when she bows and the curtains fall to the applause she's met by another love. A newer love with sea green eyes and a wide grin. A love that pulls her close in a warm hug with a small kiss that makes her heart dance.
A/N: So there you have it! What did you think? I wanted to make Annabeth's characterization a little different. I wanted to bring to light the idea of not finding love or having your first kiss till you're older. Because not everyone gets a high school or even college relationship, and that's perfectly okay, it's not a bad thing and it doesn't mean anything towards you. Sometimes it's just how things work out.
That and I wanted to show the concept of being demi, because not a lot of people know about it but maybe they actually are. Of course my description in the story is just a summary, I encourage you to do your own research to learn more about it. I'm personally demi and have a hard time romantically liking people so I added that in, it could be different for someone else.
Anyway, thanks again to Penguin1127 for the prompt! It's late but really long so I hope that helps to make up for it :P
Please Review! I'd love to hear your thoughts! And as always, thanks for reading!
See ya! :)