A/N: Hey guys! Back again with another update! I really hope you guys like this one!

It starts out alright. It really does. He comes over a bottle of cheap wine she likes. They pour some out, cuddle on the couch, and catch up on the day.

It's nice and cozy and the lowkey Valentine's Day she was down for. But somewhere in the middle of it, she can't even place when, it starts going south.

Maybe it's the question about how the job search was going, or about his writing, but either way he ends up frustrated enough that it morphs into anger.

He's been a little high-strung lately, she's noticed it, and he just snaps at her.

"It's not your problem." The words are biting and she physically recoils at the tone. Many things come to mind, but she latches onto the specific words he said. It is her problem. Not in the same way or as much as him, but all of his problems are hers too. They're in this together. But at the moment it doesn't feel like it, and she's just shocked.

"Excuse me?"

He huffs and looks away, pushing her away to stand up. "Whatever, I'll figure it out."

She follows his lead and stands up, defiant as ever. "Um, hello, I'm here too you know. You don't need to go it alone."

His eyes are dark and he growls out the words. "It's easy to say that when you have a stable job, okay, and you don't need to worry about paying rent or helping out with groceries!"

It's a slap in the face. Yes, she has a stable job, but it's not fair to her to have him throw it in her face like it's a bad thing.

She's about to yell back when Hazel's words come to her. This is not the problem. She takes a breath to calm herself. She knows he didn't mean it, that it came from a place of anger.

In a calmer tone she speaks again. "I can help you Percy, you just need to let me in."

He crosses his arms and looks away. "I don't need your charity."

Now that pisses her off. She's just trying to help and be supportive like a good girlfriend and he's just throwing away all the care and love she has to give. It's worse than an outright rejection.

"It's not charity!" She knows she's raising her voice but she can't help it. "It's me trying to help you because I care about you!"

"Yeah, well, forget it!" he yells back and moves as if to leave.

Oh no, she is not letting him walk out on her again. She grabs his shoulder and tugs him back around. "I will not!"

He relents and turns back to her but the next words out of his mouth aren't as promising.

"Why won't you let it go!" he shouts back.

"Because you're my boyfriend!" she all but screeches.

The words stop him in his tracks.

"Because I care about you!" She's on a roll now. "Because I like having you in my life! Because I don't want to see you struggling!"

"Because..." Her voice gives out from all the yelling, "Because I love you."

She slumps her shoulders and he's fully turned towards her now, staring at her with wide eyes.

"Because I want this to work. Because I," she chokes up, "I don't want to let this go…." She whispers the last bit, tears starting to form.

He tentatively steps closer to her, reaching out an arm to gently touch her shoulder. She doesn't move, she can't even bring herself to look at him.

He moves even closer.

Her vision is a little blurry and she stares at the wobbly lines on her rug.

A second later he's wrapped her up in a hug that she immediately relaxes into. She can feel wetness on her head and realizes that he's crying too. She hugs him back tighter.

She doesn't know how long they stand there like that, just holding onto each other for dear life. And when they do part, she can see he's just as messed up as she is. It makes her feel a little bit better, a smile gracing her face for the first time.

This is ridiculous, this whole thing is so...stupid. And then it hits her that she's one of those people now, those people who fight on Valentine's Day. Her life is either a bad romcom or just really depressing and she can't help but laugh about it.

He looks at her as if she's insane, which to be fair, she probably does look the part with makeup everywhere, tears and a runny nose.

"What?" he asks.

"We just fought on Valentine's Day and I feel like I'm in a bad romcom."

He just stares at her for a bit before finally cracking a smile. "It's kind of depressing, isn't it?"

She nods, moving to get some tissues to mop up her face. "We're crying in the club." She holds on out for him. He accepts and they both proceed to clean up a little.

Percy stares at the tissue in his hand. "You'd think this would be for something else…"

She rolls her eyes but it's the most normal she's felt in such a long time. She walks over to the kitchen and fills up two glasses of water. "I think we're done with the wine."

He nods and takes a seat on the kitchen table. "Now all we need is some wilting flowers and the image is complete."

She simply hands him his cup and sits beside him on the table. The water feels good against her raw throat from the raised voices and crying.

"Are we really about to have a talk at the dining table?" Percy asks. He's nervous, she can tell, and is trying to cover it up with humor but they need to figure their shit out.

This can't keep happening.

They sit in silence for a minute while Annabeth tries to figure out how to start the conversation but, surprisingly, Percy beats her to it.

"I want to too," he says quietly. She looks up and sees something indescribable in his eyes. She can tell that he's serious, all traces of humour swept aside.

"I want this to work too." He pauses and tentatively grabs her hand. "I don't want to let this go either…I'm sorry."

He doesn't say any more, but that's all they need: honesty.

"It's okay," she replies after a moment.

They don't need to get into the specifics of the apology, they know what happened. They were both there. The simple words are enough, coming from a genuine place.

"You need to let me in," she says after some more silence. "Just like you said to me last time. I'm here for you, you need to talk to me."

He hesitates upon hearing the words. She knows it's hard, that he probably doesn't want to get into it. But not getting into it is what had led to all these fights, not talking about it had led to to this moment where they didn't have a choice but to talk about it.

They need to get to the core of it. He needs to talk about it.

And he does.

He pours out everything he's been thinking and feeling, the frustration, the feeling of not being good enough, the jealousy towards people who have stable incomes, the inability to write that's suddenly overtaken him. Everything.

And she listens.

Listens to it all.

"That's why I thought if I could visit Grover it might be better. I was just so tired of the same thing every day, rejection after rejection. I had hoped I could maybe turn to my writing but I couldn't even do that. I've had this dream for such a long time and it was falling apart because of my own inability. I just felt so useless. Seeing Grover was just a way to feel like I was getting away from it for a while."

He's got tears in his eyes and she just listens and nods and pulls him into a long hug when he's done.

He takes a sip of water and wipes his eyes before turning to her.

"How are you doing?" he asks softly. She hesitates, she doesn't want to make this about her.

But her thoughts trail off as she meets his eyes. He's asking her, truly asking her for the truth. No lies, no cover ups. The truth.

So she spills out everything that's been crowding her mind for the past month or so. She tells him about the weird emptiness that's been following her for months, about how alone she felt when she was forced to confront it, her guilt at knowing she had nothing to complain about and yet still feeling shitty.

"When you left, I knew deep down that it wasn't against me. It's just all of a sudden I felt so lonely and everything that I've been pushing away came back to stare me in the face. The truth is that I'm just floating by. I mean, you coming into my life changed everything and I felt like I made progress, but with you gone there was no distraction and I realized that I really don't know what I want to do in my life. I guess—" she shoots him an embarrassed look— "I guess I was just jealous that you got to get away from it all, and that you have this dream. I might have a stable job but I don't have a passion that drives my life like you."

She stops to take a breath. "I just felt so alone that the feeling of being left kind of consumed me."

Percy squeezes her hand. "I thought about you all the time Annabeth, every other thing reminded me of you. Juniper's Doctor Who coasters, a book from the airport, even this little girl with the same kind of hair you have who was running through the coffee shop chased by her mom. I never meant to make you feel like I was trying to get away from you."

She nods, squeezing his hand back. "I know, and I should have been so much better over our conversations. I know I made the situation worse by not being open with you."

He smiles back ruefully. "I think we both did that."

They sit in silence, looking into each other's eyes and there's a tug in her heart that makes her realize that even though she's been with Percy for a while now, this is the closest she's ever felt to him.

She stands up, tugging his hand so he does too and simply pulls him in for another hug. It feels like the weight of the world has been lifted off her chest and for the first time in forever she feels like okay.

"Thank you," she tells him, looking up to meet his eyes.

"For what?"

"For telling me everything. For opening up. For letting me in…"

He pulls her closer and kisses her on the head. "Thank you for doing the same."

She smiles and closes her eyes, leaning into him more.

This feels better. This feels better than anything they had before. This feels like something new.

"Well, you know me, I'm a slut for open and honest communication." She turns around to see his face.

His eyes are twinkling when he responds, "Oh yeah, that's definitely my kink."

And they both burst out laughing and she tugs him towards the couch, once again wrapping them both in a blanket. She pulls up a Youtube video and he makes a comment that he can see right through her thinly veiled plot of trying to get him into Youtube. She throws him a look of fake innocence and says she has no clue what he means.

He rolls his eyes with a grin like usual and she kisses it off like usual and it feels so familiar that it hurts in the best possible way.

Except this time, right before the video begins he grabs her hand and whispers. "We're not going to give up on this, we'll make it work."

And as the video loads in, she feels something in her heart agree.

-.-

It's hard.

They promise to work together to work through it, but it's still hard.

Like when Percy's had a particularly rough day. Annabeth has learned that instead of questioning too much, she should just cuddle until he feels good enough to tell her about it. But today it feels like too much.

He gently pulls away and she turns to look at him. Concern covers her beautiful face and he rests his hand on her cheek for a moment before completely pulling away.

"Hey babe, I think I need to go…just clear my mind a bit." He's careful with the word choice but he can still see her recoil at them. He mentally curses. This is what he's most afraid of.

"It's nothing against you," he rushes to explain, "I promise. You're…You're amazing. I just need some air or something."

She nods and he can tell she's hurt but trying to hide it. Fuck, this is not what he wanted.

He grabs her hands and pulls her close. "Hey," he whispers, "I'm okay, I promise. And you're okay and we're okay. I just need a sec."

And with that he pulls her in for a kiss. He tries to pour all his love and care into it so she knows he's not trying to leave her. She responds and he already feels a little better.

"I'll text you, okay?" he says standing up.

She nods, clearly blinking back tears. He knows he's hurt her. "I can stay," he offers quietly.

She sniffles and shakes her head. "No, it's okay. I'll be okay. Take your time."

He knows she's trying, trying for him, even if it's killing her.

"We're not giving up, we're making this work, okay?" he says.

"Yeah." She whispers back.

"I'll text you, and I'll see you soon."

She nods again and it kills him to leave even though there's a part of his brain yearning for some fresh air. He just needs to get it out, he needs to take a walk or just write or something.

He knows what she's feeling. He had felt it last week when she had asked him for some time last Wednesday because she just needed it.

And as much as he understood the sentiment, he hadn't been able to stop the pang of hurt that had hit him.

He gives her a reassuring smile as he walks out the door and makes a pact to come back or text her soon.

It's hard.

But they're making it work.

A/N: What did you think? Finally some good, open, honest communication! I don't know about you but I found it satisfying at least. And of course, that's just the beginning. The follow-through is the hardest thing, but they're pushing through it, making it work.

Dealing with problems like this, finances, or depression or just a rough patch in a relationship is hard because even if you can identify the issue, there needs to be a consistent commitment to the follow-through of working past it. And I wanted to also address that in this chapter of open an honest communication.

I hope that you guys liked this, that It feels more satisfying and hopeful than ever before.

Please Review! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

And as always, thanks for reading!

See ya! :)