A/N: Hey guys! Back just in time once again, when will I learn :P Anyway, hope you enjoy it!
They say everyone who looks into their family history will find a secret sooner or later.
She doesn't know who "they" are but she's fairly certain that "they" are wrong. An hour into sorting old photographs and letters has yielded nothing of note. The letters are about so and so's sickness and a new pleated skirt design, and the photos are bored looking adults and impatient looking children.
There certainly doesn't seem to be a secret lying about. Then again, if it was a secret, it wouldn't really be lying about would it…
She sighs and pushes the box away, that's enough of deciphering long spindly writing. She stands up, brushing the dust off her jeans and heads over to the old desk. There are still more letters and photographs to go through.
Who knew her grandmother had kept so much of this stuff? It was interesting, she thinks as she lightly peruses the other letters, to get a glimpse of life from back then.
Her family history went way back to the colonel times, when America was on the verge of a revolution. It was a miracle that these letters had survived this long and it was clearly because of the careful preservation from generation to generation.
They didn't write letters anymore…she wonders how the next generations would keep it going.
Her eye catches some words about the pleated skirt design. Seriously? Were colonel times that boring that all they could talk about was sewing a pleated skirt?
Well it's not like they had Netflix…
She moves aside some letters and found the skirt mentioned again. This was the third time!
Wait….
She grabs the letters and sits back down.
Maybe "they" were right after all….
-.-.-.-.-
A day later finds Annabeth in a library trying to locate some research materials on the revolutionary war. She might be crazy, but she has a hunch that maybe her family had something more to do with it than anyone knows.
It's a desperate sort of quest and she's not exactly sure how or where to begin. It leads her to stand in front of the shelf that mostly covers the topic staring blankly at the titles.
She hadn't though this far ahead.
"Can I help you with something?" a quiet voice breaks her out of her stupor.
She turns to find a young man with a cart full of books. He pushes his glasses up and she can see his nametag that reads: Percy.
His head is titled to the side like a puppy and she can't help but think just how cute he is.
"Um…" she starts, debating whether or not to enlist his help, because that would be a whole thing and she doesn't want to bother him.
"I'm okay," she decides finally.
"Alright," he responds quietly and offers her a small smile as he quickly walks away. Was it just her imagination or did he look disappointed?
Half an hour later she's made no progress, she can't focus on the titles in front of her and her thoughts keep wandering back to quiet librarian Percy who just wanted to help.
She couldn't see but she feels like he walked away with a kicked puppy look.
Giving in, or up (depending on how you look at it) she abruptly leaves the shelves and marches to the help desk where he's sitting behind a computer.
She takes a moment to glance appreciatively over his messy hair, square glasses and soft smile. He's officially way to cute to be hiding away in the nonfiction section of the library.
"Hi," she says as she approaches.
Her voice clearly startles him, and she apologizes immediately.
"I'm sorry, I guess I do need help after all."
"What can I do for you?" he asks in his low quiet voice and she ignores the part of her brain that answers "a lot."
"Well, I'm kind of on this mission…it's kind of a long story…" she trails off, still not sure if he wants to commit to this.
"I'd love to hear it." God he's so nice.
And with that prompt, she launches into the letters and the pleated skirt and the connections with the war she she's somewhat made.
As she explains the story, she can see him getting more and more invested. By the end he's clearly got some ideas and it's adorable how excited he is to share them.
He leads the way to the section she was in before, talking about some specific kinds of books she could check out and she's not even listening anymore because just hearing him talk and seeing his face light up is enough.
Who knew the quiet librarian could have so much to say. She wonders what other talents he's quietly hiding.
She stops the distracted train of thought before it gets worse and tries to focus on the topic at hand.
He does have some good ideas and she walks away with a few books on specific events.
"Thank you so much for all your help Percy," she says as they walk back to the desk. "You're really smart to have thought of all this, it's impressive."
Because, quite honestly, it is.
And all of a sudden he's shy again. "It was my pleasure." And with that he quickly hurries back to the desk with his face down.
She watches him leave and wonders why he's retreated back into his quiet shell and what she can do to get him to come out of it again.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Annabeth's new mission is to spend as much time in the library while he's there as she can. It helps that she's also legitimately interested and invested in trying to connect the revolutionary war stuff to her old family letters. But peering at him over a book every now and then made it all the better.
Percy, she quickly learns, was just that sweet of a person. From kids with projects to adults with niche interests, he was attentive and kind.
Except when it came to her, he became a little more retreated.
For some reason, it bothers her, because clearly, he was interested in her research, but what he had against her she can't fathom. She has always been nice to him.
After a few attempts at talking to him she gives up and almost storms back to her table. Why she is frustrated she doesn't know. Maybe it's because she had hit a block in her research, maybe it was because the cute librarian ignored her, and maybe it was the fact that she can't figure out why!
She sits there for a bit, facing away from him this time, trying to calm herself.
She ends up pushing the books away and resting her head down on the table. This is better. She is tired of staring at words now.
A few minutes later she feels a light tap on her shoulder. Pushing down the urge to growl at whoever had dared to bother her she slowly lifts her head up.
Percy is standing there, with his stupid cute face, wearing a concerned and slightly apologetic smile.
"Hey, do you need some help?"
Ugh, for once his low quiet voice is annoying.
"Not from you apparently," she grumbles back, turning away.
She ses the beginnings of the kicked puppy look she had imaged from before as he said a quiet okay and started to leave.
Immediately her heart sinks, the look was just was heart wrenching as she had thought it'd be.
"Wait-Percy!" she calls after him.
Somehow, he still stops and turns around.
"I'm sorry." She sighs. "It's just, it's been a long day and I'm not having much luck. Sorry for snapping at you."
"it's okay," he responds. He further surprises her by pulling out a chair and sitting at the table beside her. "Maybe I can help?"
He looks at her with the stupid cute face and she can't bring herself to do anything other than nod.
He stays for a whole hour and talks about potential theories and lets out small smiles at her jokes.
It's later she realizes that he had spent his break time with her.
-.-.-.-.-.-
She's back again the next day and he has a book waiting for her.
"I was thinking about it last night," he starts, eyes shining, "and I think you should focus on the Boston Tea Party, that might be your connection!"
He thought about her project in his free time, it's beyond sweet. And it doesn't help that he looks so good in that light blue sweater vest and the urge to kiss him is strong, but she wills it away and takes the book. An hour later she actually could kiss him because he's actually figured it out!
Turns out that her way distant relatives, could have been a grandma (she's not sure) had played a key role in coordinating the Boston Tea Party through codes written in letters. Who knew a pleated skirt could mean so much?
She's ecstatic at the knowledge and immediately runs to tell Percy about it. She's so excited that the words probably aren't making much sense, but it doesn't matter because he's just as excited now.
They walk over to her table and she lays out the pieces.
"I can't believe you thought of this Percy! You're a genius!"
He's blushing at the words and she feels him retreating into his quiet-ness again.
"I'm glad I could help. Here, let me help put the other books away." And before she knows it, he's grabbed the extras and walked away.
But she's so over this retreating thing, and she's still on the high of finally figuring everything out and maybe that's what prompts her to rush after him.
He is, predictably, in the history section putting books away.
"Okay, you are going to explain yourself now," she says as soon as she catches up.
He jumps at her voice and she doesn't bother to apologize this time.
"What?"
"Oh, don't play dumb. You are clearly interested in my research, why do you hate me though?"
"Hate you?" He looks genuinely surprised at the words.
She rolls her eyes. "You avoid me, retreat into your quiet-ness…." She waves a hand as if that that explains everything, "Why? What did I do?"
He looks down. "I don't hate you…I'm sorry…"
"Well-" she starts but is cut off by him squaring up and moving closer to her.
"I never meant to make you think I hated you," he says quietly. He's looking at her intently now, his glasses highlighting the green in his eyes.
It's gorgeous.
She's fucked.
"It's quite the opposite really." The words silence her.
As does the kiss that follows shortly after.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Annabeth is trying very hard not to push her boyfriend up against the shelves of the history section where he's currently returning books. The stretch up towards a high shelf shows her exactly enough skin to make her hands itch towards it.
He only notices her watching him when he turns back to the cart.
'Hey-" his low voice it cut off by her invading his space.
Even after all this time, he blushes shyly at her once he notices the way she's looking at him.
"You need to stop," she tells him.
"Stop what?"
"Looking like I want to push you against that shelf," she responds.
He chuckles at the sentence and reaches for another book.
"Not sure how I can do that."
She makes a face at him. "Figure it out."
He finishes with the book and turns to her, the soft look in his eye turning into a gleam.
"You figure it out first."
She can't respond because his lips are on hers and she's up against a shelf.
A/N: So what did you think? This was just a fluffy one for the sake of being fluffy. I like to throw a mixture of these in to the series too (that and I can't always think of something complex to write about :P and the end of the month is approaching and I need an update so this happens lol) (but-side note-my drabble series is like a shorter version of the complex kind of stuff I add to my stories on here, so if you like that kind of writing, I'd check out my weekly series: Semantics of Love)
Anyway, self promo aside, I hope that you guys liked this one! Also, any OG readers who caught the reference to some of my other work from How We Could Have Met? (It was also published separately from the series as its own thing, to give a hint) (*cough* Our Stories *cough*) ;)
Please Review! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one!
And as always, thanks for reading!
See ya! :)