A/N: Hey guys! Back a little early this time with this month's update! Hope you enjoy!
He's been trying to place where he knows her from for the past five minutes. It doesn't help that she's turned to the side and his location along the back wall doesn't offer him much of a vantage point. But he can stretch his neck a little, if only she would turn toward him.
As if she's read his thoughts, she does, passing briefly over his face in her scan of the room. Not used to seeing her blonde hair let down or her more casual flowery blouse, it takes him a second to recognize her, but he finally does. She's Floor Seven, the woman who he often shares an elevator ride with on his way to work and dresses very professionally and presumably works on seventh floor of the large building.
She's turned to the side again, but he'd already caught the frown on her. It's evident that she's waiting for someone, but no one's shown up for a good fifteen minutes and the waiter has stopped by twice to check in.
Shifting in her seat, she takes a sip of her water, and that's when he notices the group of Karens on the left who are blatantly looking over and whispering amongst themselves, to the obvious discomfort of the girl.
Nothing pisses him off more than some anti-vaxxers who can't mind their own business, and he finds himself standing up indignantly.
As soon as he does so, he realizes he looks very stupid and he should sit down before someone actually notices. But then he sees Floor Seven pick up her purse, obviously gearing to leave, and his feet move him forward instead of back to his seat.
He stops in front of the lovely shade of blonde hair and a surprised face and declares loudly enough for the Karens to hear, "Hey! I'm so sorry…"
And with that he sits down across from her and leans in to continue in a low voice, "Hey, sorry, I don't mean to assume but it seems like someone's either super late or a no-show and I don't know if you recognize me but—"
She cuts him off with a smile. "Floor Fourteen."
He grins, letting out a small sigh of relief that she isn't mad at his weird (even to him) actions. "I also occasionally go by Percy, so do you mind if I join you?"
She nods, leaning back. "Not at all."
The waiter, noting this new development, appears promptly beside them.
"Would you like a menu?" he asks Percy.
"No, actually I was sitting at that table back there," Percy nods his head that his abandoned table, "Can you get the food I ordered sent here instead? I didn't know my friend was also here. I'm sorry about that…" he trails off apologetically.
The waiter nods and makes a note in his notepad and Percy makes a note to tip him well. As Floor Seven gives her order he takes the moment to observe her. Kind and courteous, sitting up a straighter with a slight smile as she talked. Definitely no longer upset. Percy takes it as a win.
He also chances a glance at the Karens who are watching the new development, still staring and still whispering. He is beyond tempted to flip them off.
Luckily, the waiter walks away, and she turns her attention to him, preventing him from doing so.
"Thanks for joining me," she says, a light blush of slight embarrassment covering her cheeks.
"Thanks for letting me, I don't know who you were supposed to see but whoever it is…" he trails off, he was going to say a jerk, but what if she was waiting on her mom or something? "…Is mean," he finishes lamely.
She shoots him a half-smile and says bitterly, "Yeah, mean enough that he's not getting any more dates. I'm sick of his bullshit."
So, it's like that. Percy offers an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, I know my words don't mean much, but I say he's a grade A idiot for missing out."
She looks at him curiously. "That's nice of you to say, but how do you know? What if I'm an asshole?" she adds, shrugging her shoulders.
He shakes his head. "Nah, no asshole asks politely for floor seven, they just lean across, shoving a little, as they press the button themselves."
Her eyebrows raise and her lips curve to a smile as she laughs. "Fair enough."
Leaning back, he crosses his arms. "I rest my case."
"What made you come over here?" she asks.
It's a question he knew he would have to answer at some point but honestly, he's not entirely sure. In fact, he wasn't even aware of what he was doing until he stopped right in front of her table. Would pissing off Karens while making a cute girl smile be a good enough answer?
"Well," he starts, "for one, that group of Karens to the left have been staring and whispering for the past ten minutes or so and it made me mad enough to want to do something about it."
Her face hardens. "Yeah, I did notice, you'd think they'd act a little more mature."
He chances another glance over at them, actually managing to make eye contact with one of them this time. Taking the opportunity, he glares hard at her. She quickly looks away and turns to her friends.
His companion notices the action. "Did you just glare at them?" she asks, looking at him in surprise.
He turns back to her amused smile. "It just kinda happened, couldn't control it." Like most of the things he hadn't expected himself to do today and didn't regret at all.
"Good," she says nodding, "they need to be put in their place."
Leaning back, he casually (or so he hopes) shrugs his shoulders. "Not all heroes wear capes."
It's the third time he makes her laugh and something warm inside of him flares up at the sight. He tries to brush the thought aside.
"Mine wears light blue button downs," she adds, still chuckling.
"Occasionally they're a lavender," he corrects with his nose turned slightly upward.
She holds up her hands. "Oh, of course, sorry, and lavender." And then, as if the thought just occurred, she adds, "you sure it's not lilac?"
Percy shakes his head. "Of course not, there's a clear difference!" The offended look lasts on his face for maybe five seconds before he breaks down into laughter with her. "Okay, well, according to my friend Grover, there's a clear difference."
"Looks like you have friends in high places," she says, "the few humans who can distinguish slight color differences."
"Well, I mean yeah…" he trails off, a sly smile overtaking his face, "being a hero and all that."
She rolls her eyes. "Oh, of course, how could I forget."
He's about to counter back when one of the ladies at the table gets up, waking past them.
"Babe, you're so funny!" she exclaims loudly as the lady walks by, causing her to glance over at the table.
Percy tilts his head at her as she smirks at the lady's retreating back. "So, it's like that huh?"
She shrugs. "Sometimes you got to fight fire with fire."
"Doesn't that make more fire?"
"Well," she starts, "it depends, in the case of a forest fire it can be beneficial to start another fire to rob all the nourishment for the fire, therefore putting it out."
He eyes her curiously. "You're a curious one, floor seven."
She smiles, leaning closer to him. "Sometimes," she whispers, "I go by Annabeth."
The waiter arrives then with the food, giving Percy enough time to reflect on this new information. Annabeth. The name suits her perfectly, beautiful, different, and yet flows off his tongue like he's said it a hundred times before.
She is, beyond doubt, intriguing. It takes a certain level of confidence to go along easily with everything that's happening. And she isn't, he now understands, someone who had needed the saving, yet she had accepted it nonetheless.
It makes him feel good. Her acceptance somehow means a lot, like he's passed a test or something.
"Annabeth," he says once the food is laid out. "A really unique name."
"So is Percy," she counters, picking up her fork.
"Yeah, I suppose. My mom picked it from a book she happened to come by in a library once while she was pregnant. I think," he adds, "it was the name of someone powerful."
"It's similar to Perseus, the Greek hero. Or…" she shoots him a smile, "Percival from the Harry Potter series."
He makes a face at that. "I'll take the Greek hero, thanks, no offence to Percival. He just wasn't my type."
She laughs. "Oh? Who's your type then?"
He shoots her an offended look. "Um, hello, everyone knows that the most underappreciated Weasley was Charlie! He got to deal with dragons and didn't even end up with a girl like Bill did. Plus, he shows up at the end with reinforcements."
She gives him a long appreciative nod. "A man of culture I see, who has read the books."
"Of course! Granted, there some of the only books I've read, I'm not that big of a reader," he admits.
"Not everyone is," she replies shrugging.
He gives her a look. "But you are." Something tells him that Annabeth spends time reading books and/or watching nature documentaries, because how else would she know the fire thing?
"A little," she smiles. "But I read mostly mysteries."
"An amateur sleuth?" he asks, eating a bite of his food.
"I don't know about that, I do enjoy them though, they're engaging."
He nods and there's a moment of silence as they eat. Annabeth, he notices, is someone who actually enjoys salads, because most of her meal is one and she's not sad about it at all. But it is slightly amusing when she chases a cherry tomato with her fork, a frown on her face.
"My mom used to grow tomatoes," he says, picking up the conversation. "They were the best tomatoes."
She nods emphatically. "The one you grow yourself are the best. My dad used to garden and we'd have great salads when I was young."
The conversation then turns towards food, as they exchange their thoughts on the variety of meals that exist in the world and then to the places they come from and then something or the other before finally, once again returning to salads.
"I got into the habit of adding olives because of my dad," she explains, "Fresh salads were a weekly thing before my mom left so I got used to the olives. I've just continued it since."
He nods, respecting the fact that she shared such personal information. "That's good of you, a lot of things can fall to the wayside if we don't try and keep them up."
He's not sure if that's a good answer or even if it makes any sense but she smiles, looking at him with her head titled to the side as if she's analyzing his words.
Blushing under her stare, he looks down at his, albeit mostly consumed, food, glad for a distraction.
"You're right," she finally agrees, "like the jerk who was supposed to be meeting me today."
The waiter arrives and it takes him a moment to discern her meaning. Presumably, she meant that whoever this jerk was had let their date fall to the wayside and she wasn't going to keep seeing him. Oh well, Percy thinks, his loss.
His entire time with Annabeth had been fun and engaging and, honestly, he's not sure how they've ended up on dessert already.
As cliché as it sounds, it hasn't felt that long at all.
"He wasn't really my type anyway," Annabeth continues once the waiter leaves.
He raises an eyebrow. "Oh? What is your type?"
She tips her head to the side a little as she looks at him, choosing her words carefully. "Well…I guess my type is…" she hesitates for a second. It's the first time he's seen her hesitate.
"Messy black hair, bright green eyes, a charming smile, and caring enough to save someone from a pack of mean Karens."
She smiles a little hopefully in his direction, but he can't stop the grin overtaking his face. It's the best answer he's gotten all night.
-.-
A week later, he walks into a little café seeing the profile of blonde curls tumbling down a light blue blouse. Much like before, he strides over without thinking, slipping into the seat in front of her.
This time however, the surprise on her face is replaced by a smile and hushed explanations replaced by a kiss.
A/N: So what did you think? This was a prompt given to me on tumblr (follow my tumblr: forevfagirlwrites to send prompts and read other oneshots) as the classic someone's been stood up for a date and someone else pretends to be it. I didn't do it exactly that way (because I wanted to be more realistic) but I think/hope I've captured the essence. I also wanted to try writing something more dialogue heavy so here we are.
I hope you guys liked it! Please Review, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
And as always, thanks for reading!
See ya! :)