A/N: Here's the epilogue!
"What's up with you? You should be excited! Brunner is getting you some gigs. I mean, they're starter ones, but it's what you wanted!"
Leo's enthusiastically wiping down the already clean counter as he talks to her.
"I am excited, it's amazing."
"Then what's up?"
She shrugs. The truth is she's missing Percy. It's been two months and though they've been keeping in touch, it's not the same as him being there in front of her. Not to mention her song writing is not going well.
Leo frowns. "Annabeth…"
"Leo…"
Someone approaches the counter, and she steps back to make the order as Leo punches it in. Luckily, it's a simple coffee and muffin so she's done relatively soon. But when Leo turns to her, still insistent to find out what's wrong, she wishes it had been a larger order.
"I'm struggling with writing a new song."
"Oh." Leo pauses. "What's your inspirational generally?"
She lets out a short breath. Oh, if only. She's about to tell him it's a twelve-hour drive away when another customer approaches the counter, and she turns once again to prep the machine in case it's not something for the kitchen.
"Hey, what can I get you?" she hears Leo ask as Cali puts a plate of food she needs to serve to table seven. Taking the plate, she turns around just in time to hear the customer respond.
"Annabeth."
By some miracle, she doesn't drop the food as her eyes lock in with sea-green ones she'd only been seeing through a tiny screen.
Leo, seeing the two of them staring, takes the plate of food from her and hands it to another server that's shown up.
Immediately she steps closer to the counter, reaching out to touch his face. He's actually here, in front of her.
"Hey," he says softly, but any response gets caught in her throat. She still can't believe he's here, in LA. He hadn't even told her he was coming. Not that she's going to complain about the best surprise she's ever gotten.
"You were right," he says, talking for her. "LA is big and busy."
And warm now that he is here.
"Um, Annabeth, want to introduce us?" Leo pipes up as Cali pokes her head through the window to see what's going on.
Her heart is beating fast as a wide smile graces her face. Intertwining her fingers with Percy, she turns to Leo, eyes bright and whole.
"My inspiration."
A/N: And there you have it! If you're coming over from How We Could Have Met 2, hello! Thanks for checking out the epilogue! And if you just found this story by itself, this is actually a chapter from my How We Could Have Met 2 series that I published separately to include the epilogue! So if you liked this, feel free to check out that series!
Also, clearly, this fic is heavily inspired by Taylor Swift's new song tis' the damn season (technically her lyrics say to write it down, so I did) The lyrics Annabeth sings in the fic are from the song as well, so I'd recommend listening to it if you liked this!
In this story Annabeth learns to embrace her hometown and the things she was running from, which is why she doesn't let go of Percy when she leaves. So I wanted to add a bit where Percy comes to her instead to show that he also doesn't want to let her go.
Whether he stays in LA or not, that's up to you to decide, but I hope that the gesture comes across. There's so much to delve into with this 8k monstrosity, but I want to open it up to you guys, what are your thoughts?
Please Review! I'd love to hear them!
And as always, thanks for reading!
See ya! :)