AN: I actually had a really hard time with this prompt because I went back to read the first scenes with Percy and Annabeth after their reunion in MOA, and ... I really love the stables scene as their first quiet moment together. So, I hope this measures up decently.

Percy had never been particularly excited about going on quests, but he was especially unimpressed by this one. He had to wonder if this was payback from the gods for spending the last five years bad-mouthing them: that everything that could go wrong on this quest was already going wrong. No thanks to whatever mysterious spirit had claimed the scrawny kid's body— Annabeth had called him Leo— their team of seven now had no chance in securing support from the Romans. The thought is enough to depress Percy; while Camp Half-Blood is very much his true home, he found that he did admire the Romans and the city they had built for themselves. He hadn't even gotten to show Annabeth New Rome and the families that lived there …

Maybe, that was for the better, anyway. He knew, of course, why he wanted to show Annabeth New Rome; he wanted to show her that it was possible to have a future where they could build something permanent. To have a home, a family. But they were both still sixteen, just about seventeen. Maybe, it would weird Annabeth out to know that Percy was thinking about living in a whole house with her and having kids and stuff. Weren't they still kids? To be fair, it wasn't that Percy was thinking about having kids. Obviously, they were too young for that. Though, that was the least of the issues with that idea. But he wasn't actively planning his and Annabeth's futures down to what they would name their second son or daughter. It was just … the thought of having a future. Of living that long to still be together. They never got to see that back at Camp Half-Blood. What demigods did survive into adulthood moved away from camp, got real jobs, made completely new lives for themselves apart from their camp roots. The ones who did survive— the younger campers never got to see that. They didn't get to see that it was possible to make it that far and have a happy future.

And that's all that Percy wanted with Annabeth. Not a big home in the Roman style with four bedrooms for them and their kids. Although, he didn't mind the idea, that's not what Percy wanted. He just wanted to have a future with Annabeth. That was it. He just wanted to have the choice.

And thinking about how they did have that choice, imagining a future with Annabeth in a place like New Rome— it was all that had kept him going since he'd come to Camp Jupiter.

But now they were together again. Percy had Annabeth back in his sight, in his reach. He had already known how important Annabeth was to him, but he hoped to never have to truly feel so empty ever again.

After checking up on Jason and assuring Leo that he would be fine once he'd had some time to rest, Annabeth gave a few last orders, left Frank to keep watch over Leo, found a task to busy Coach Hedge, then she grabbed Percy's hand and led him to the cabins down the corridor from the mess hall. There were eight cabins in total, one for each demigod of the prophecy as well as one for Coach Hedge. Percy figured Annabeth was taking him to see which cabin was his, but Annabeth instead pulled him through a door marked with her name and quietly shut it behind them.

The room wasn't so cozy as Cabin 6 back at camp, but nothing could compare to home. But Annabeth's room was certainly fit to her tastes from the cool gray and subtle blue of the walls and bedsheets to the small bookcase and rather oversized desk. However, it took Percy a moment to find the desk under the mess of papers and scrolls and blueprints covering it. Her bed, too, was covered in notebooks, books, pens. Daedalus's computer was sitting open on her sheets, screen dark and sleeping.

Glancing around, Percy smirked. "Is this my room?"

"Very funny," Annabeth grumbled, bending to pick up some papers and toss them onto her desk. "Now, you see how much you've rubbed off on me."

He shook his head. "You were not like this when last time I saw you. At least, not this bad."

Percy looked back to Annabeth to see she was staring at him, standing perfectly still beside her bed. Her gray eyes were dark, their light subdued. Percy always thought her eyes looked stormy, a fierce kind of stormy. But if they were usually stormy, now they just looked rainy. Like dark rain clouds settling over the city to pull in a dreary day.

It bothered Percy.

"I really missed you, Percy."

His heart fell into his stomach. Looking at her, he could see tears forming in her glassy eyes. The rain was coming. He swallowed. "I missed you, too, Wise Girl."

Percy closed the unbearable distance between them, approaching Annabeth until their bodies were nearly touching. From head to toe, a tingle of electricity ran through Percy's body, a nervous and excited hum. He and Annabeth had only been dating for a few months when Hera took him. They were very comfortable trading kisses, hugging, holding hands, snuggling together. But as he stood toe to toe with Annabeth, his awareness flooded with a multitude of feelings upon finally seeing his girlfriend again and having a quiet moment with her …

The air between them was heavy, filled with a hundred different feelings and things neither of them needed to say aloud. But this moment was so different than any they had shared before. It didn't take long for Percy to sense that this moment was different. They both wanted to do something different.

He and Annabeth had mastered casual pecks on the cheek, Annabeth elbowing him as she smiled and leaned in for a kiss, Percy leaning over to kiss her after he'd said something particularly seaweed brain of him. They were used to quick, hurried kisses, spit of the moment kisses.

But they'd never shared a moment like this, Percy thought, as he and Annabeth met gazes like two magnets, both slowly moving in, carefully angling their heads, the air sizzling and crackling between them as they prepared to meet lips. Annabeth raised a hand to his face, and her shaky fingers danced against his cheek, moving up to trace his jawline, ear, tug on his hair. Then, she pulled him to her and closed the few centimeters between them.

Usually, when he kissed Annabeth, Percy's body would burst with shots of electricity and he would have to make a conscious effort not to explode any nearby toilets, but all he could feel now as Annabeth pressed her lips to his and pulled him closer … was how much he couldn't stand to be separated from her ever again.

He had missed this. So much. It almost physically hurt, and all Percy wanted was to make up for the time they'd lost. There wasn't anything casual about this moment, nothing innocent or unremarkable about this moment. When he reached to settle his arms around Annabeth and hold her to him, he realized just how much he couldn't bear the idea of ever letting go. Everything about the months they'd spent apart was wrong, and everything about the need they felt for each other, the closeness they craved, the touch they wanted to maintain, it was all right. All as Percy wanted to keep it.

When their lips broke apart, they stayed as they were, clinging to each other, foreheads pressed together. "I love you," Annabeth said. Her hands still shook against his face, and her body trembled, but her voice was as strong as Percy had ever heard it as she spoke the words. "I love you, Percy. I can't lose you again."

Warmth flooded in his chest, and Percy hugged her tighter. "I love you too, Wise Girl. I'm not leaving. I promise. I'm not ever leaving again."

She squished his face between her hands, eyes fluttering closed. "I searched for you for months. I was terrified."

"I know. I was too."

She shook her head. "You can't ever do that to me again. I swear, Percy Jackson, I will kill you."

He chuckled, kissing her nose. "I'll deserve it. But I won't ever leave you again. You know that, right? I won't ever leave you."

She just nodded.

They melted into a puddle on the floor, still wrapped in each other's embrace. It felt so good to hold Annabeth, and Percy wished they could stay like that for the rest of their lives. And then, maybe they could go to the Isles of the Blest. And they could hold each other there too.

"Everything's okay now. We're together again."

Annabeth uttered a sob that broke Percy's heart, and she burrowed into his chest. "I hate Hera."

He fought the urge to agree with her. Aloud, that is. "Don't— don't say that."

"I hate her, Percy. I hate her for taking you from me."

"We're together now."

"Oh, gods, I love you, Percy!"

"I know. I love you too."

He lost track of how long they stayed like that, and Percy counted it a miracle they weren't interrupted. Percy thought they might fall asleep like that, on the floor of Annabeth's room. But then she turned her head out of chest to look at him. "You should Iris Message your mom. It's getting late in New York."

"Is she okay?"

"She's been worried sick about you, Percy. You need to let her know you're okay. For months, we had no idea where you were, what happened. We had to imagine. It was hard, Percy."

"I left her a message when I was in Alaska," he told her. "I don't know if she got it, but I … I tried, Annabeth. As soon as I started to get my memories back, I wanted to contact you and my mom. I tried."

"I know, Perce. I don't know if she got it. I— I left New York with Jason, Piper, Leo, and Coach a few weeks ago. But I promised your mom before we left that I would find you. I'm bringing you back home. When all this is over."

"We'll go home together. We'll be together. We'll always be together."

If Percy were in Olympus right now, that was all he could think to ask of the gods. Please. Whatever happens on this quest, let me and Annabeth survive this. Let us have the future to see what else might happen.

For now, they had this moment. Percy knew it wouldn't last long before they were called back up to the deck, to check on Leo, check on Jason, exchange stories of their findings from the last several months, talk about the prophecy hanging above their heads.

But, for now, there was just him and Annabeth, in each other's arms, soaking in the relief they both felt at being reunited.

They would make it through this quest. They had to. But they would because Percy wanted to spend the rest of his and Annabeth's lives holding her just like this. I will. I will, Wise Girl, I swear it.

He kissed her curls, held her close, tried to convey all the joy he felt at being back in her arms in this hug until they were called back to meet with the others.

And as they rejoined their friends on the deck, walking hand in hand, Percy swore silently to himself, to the gods, to Annabeth, We're staying together. I'm not leaving her. He squeezed her hand, swearing it on the River Styx. Never again.