Annabeth POV

I woke up slowly. The way that you wake up when you have an amazing night's sleep, and good dreams to go along with the deep slumber. My eyes remained closed as my mind leisurely came back to life.

I rolled over in my king bed, with my eyes still shut, enjoying the warmth from the expensive sheets, as compared with my itchy ones back in New York.

When I hit a hard object next to me, I froze, and my eyes shot open faster than a bullet. Slowly, careful not to move too much, I peered over to the other side of the bed.

Despite my best efforts to stop it, a smile came to my face as I viewed the scene in front of me.

The sun was peeking through my window, and lit up Percy's tan skin, making him glow. His face has no blemishes on it, and I wondered if he ever had a pimple in his life. His eyebrows were thick, and nicely sculpted, and he had lashes that would put my own to shame. They touched his cheek as his eyes remained closed.

The comforter on my bed was low on his body, and reveled his bare chest, that should have been encased in his rib brace, but he took it off before bed last night.

His body was lean and defined, and starkly resembled the athlete that I knew he was. I could see the top of the bruised section of his ribs, but the blankets covered the rest of the injury that I was beginning to realize the severity of. The bruise was a dark purple, laced with yellow and blue, and seemed to scream 'pain' at me. I could only imagine how Percy felt.

The events of last night slowly came flooding back to me. I remembered being so tired, and ready to go to bed, and hastily agreeing to share the bed with Percy, thinking nothing of it. I remembered him taking his shirt and rib brace off, and examining his bruises silently in the mirror. I remembered wanting so badly to help him fight his demons, but instead staying silent from my place on the bed.

When he finally came, and joined me in the bed, instead of placing a pillow between us like he had earlier suggested, I did the complete opposite, and moved closer to him, not quite touching, but if one of us moved even the slightest, we would brush each other. Percy recognized my gesture of comfort, and relaxed into the bed.

And let's just say, when I was 'asleep' I would move even closer to him.

After a solid minute of staring at Percy, as he slept soundly, occasionally letting out a deep breath that almost resembled a snore, I realized that my teeth were in dire need of some toothpaste and mouthwash.

Careful not to shake the bed too much and wake Percy, I lifted myself out of it, and trudged over to the bathroom.

I mentally debated if I should shower, and after remembering the airport grease that was currently occupying my hair, I made the wise decision to turn on the water, and quickly undress.

Twenty minutes later, I was dressed in skinny jeans and a sweater, and had my wet curls up in a towel, in hopes to dry them. After peeking out of the foggy bathroom, and into my old bedroom, I was pleased to see Percy still fast asleep in my bed.

I was glad that he was asleep, because any excuse to stay cooped up in my room and not down mingling with the rest of the family was one I was glad to take. I usually tried to keep my interactions with them all limited to meals and 'bonding' events.

Matthew and his girlfriend, Sarah, would also be joining us today, which added to the uncomfortableness that I usually felt. I was suddenly dreading dinner, where my dad and step-mom would ask Bobby how work was, and Matthew about his recent patients, and then their eyes would scan over me, before asking Fiona about her latest photoshoot, and Sarah about the baby.

Hopefully they would ask Percy questions about himself, to fill the silence that would come from me.

Remembering my conversation with Fiona yesterday, I stealthily crept out of the bathroom, grabbed my MacBook from my backpack that was leaning against my closet, and sat down at the vanity. I took the towel off of my head, and shook out my damp, blond curls.

I peeked over my shoulder, suddenly paranoid that Percy would wake up, and judge me for what I was about to do. After the computer came to life, I Googled, 'Percy Jackson' and took a deep breath before pressing the enter key.

I was immediately greeted with a picture of said skier, with his goggles on his helmet, and a huge grin across his lips. He was looking off into the distance, and seemed to be laughing at something somebody was saying. Next to the picture was a brief description with his age, height, and family members.

Damn, I thought. He has a Wikipedia page.

My grey eyes skimmed through this information that I already knew, from our earlier twenty questions game on the airplane. Born and raised in Aspen, Colorado. Twenty-four years old. Sponsored by big name brands. Many victories at skiing competitions.

I closed out of that tab, and opened a new one, titled, 'Percy Jackson Crash: Caught on Film."

With one more glance at the sleeping man in my bed, I opened the video, and watched as someone, presumably a bystander, filmed. The camera was shaky, and It was hard to see the details, but even without my contacts in yet, I could see a figure, Percy, going off of the jump, and landing on his side, hard. I cringed, and squeezed my eyes shut.

I scrolled down on the laptop a little bit more, to read more about the accident and its consequences. Apparently, he was on track like nobody had ever seen before. He was quickly setting records and on his way to earning a spot on the next winter Olympic team.

The next comment on the video expressed the viewer's hopes that Percy would come back from the injury, but another comment explained that he would never be the same skier, especially after failing in the peak of his career.

I suddenly slammed the laptop shut, feeling as though I was invading his privacy. I leaned back into the chair, as sympathy for this man coursed through my veins.

"Angel, if you wanted to know anything about me, you could have just asked," a raspy voice spoke from the bed.

I whipped my head around and was greeted with the sight of Percy, leaning on one arm, staring at me, his eyes flickering back to the laptop that I had just closed. His full torso was exposed, allowing me to gawk at not only his defined chest, but the severity of the bruise.

I stuttered as I tried to find the words to explain myself. "I… I was just…. I mean…."

He cut me off. His eyes were tinged with sadness, but thankfully no anger, despite the guilt that I felt.

"It's okay, Annabeth. It's probably about time I looked on the blogs to see what people are saying about me."

"You're not mad at me," I asked, in a timid voice. He let out a small smile, and shook his head, causing his hair to fall into his eyes. I wanted to play with it, once again.

"You didn't do anything wrong, unless you were posting mean things about me?" His voice trailed off at the end, signaling his weak attempt at a joke.

I let out a laughed, as I struggled to maintain eye contact, and not let me eyes drift any lower than his neck.

Silence filled the room, and I wanted to ask questions about his accident, and my newfound information, but I didn't know if that would be digger the knife in further. There seemed to be an elephant in the room, that I desperately wished to be gone.

Percy slowly raised himself from the bed, and it creaked underneath him. I stayed still as he quickly and quietly came over to me, until he was leaning over my shoulder.

"I want to watch it," he spoke softly.

I looked back at him, and after seeing his face so close to my own, I quickly turned back and pulled open the laptop, and pressed play on the video. I stayed still as a statue, careful not to move and hit Percy, who was so close to me.

When the video came to a stop he said, "I knew I shouldn't have attempted that without my coach. I already had a perfect routine that would have secured me a gold at the X-Games and probably a spot on the Olympic Team when the trails come."

I slowly turned my whole body over my shoulder, so I could look him in the eyes. His ever-changing eyes were misted over, as though he was stuck in a memory.

With a brief flash of courage, I raised my hand up, despite its shakiness, and cupped his cheek, that was wearing a very fine layer of stubble that I imagined he would shave later. I leaned my head closer to his, close enough where I could rest my own forehead on his.

"I think that you are going to come back," I whispered, careful not to break the intimacy of our moment. "Better than before."

And I want to help you do it, I wanted to add, but realized the implications of my words, and held them back.

He held my eye contact, and I felt him lean into my touch. "You know, Angel? I had my doubts, but I think it could happen."

I smiled at him, and enjoyed this moment. It felt like the calm before the storm.

I was suddenly aware of the fact that my entire family was outside of my bedroom, and this wasn't some personal safe-haven although it felt that way. It was almost noon, and we were expected to spend time with the rest of my family waiting downstairs.

He slowly stood up, and once he was standing, he bent back down to where I was sitting on the stool, and placed a slow kiss to the top of my head, before turning sharping on his heel and walking into the bathroom, presumably to shower.

I had a goofy smile on my face as I yelled, "Percy! Can I put your hair in a bun?"

He stuck his head out of the bathroom door that he was beginning to shut, gave me a laugh, and said, "Of course." And he shut the door behind him.

I looked at my hands, to see that they were still slightly shaking, and came to the realization that I had a big, fat crush on Percy Jackson. Not just the 'he's so cute' feeling. Or the 'I want to marry him' feeling.

I had real, legitimate feelings for my fake boyfriend.

What did I get myself into…?

A/N: Hello all. I hope you enjoyed this, and can see the blurring lines between Percy and Annabeth's relationship/ friendship. It is only going to escalate from here, and I am super excited to share all of my ideas with you. Once again, this is not edited.

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