Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the song "Today was a Fairytale".
I looked up, my eyes burning from the smoke and ash in the air.
"Take my hand!" shouted Percy.
"I'm fine! Keep going!" I yelled, my voice hoarse. Tears streamed down my face as I blinked up at Percy's outstretched hand.
"Just take it my hand!"
"No! Go on- I'll catch up to you!" I yelled over the sound of rocks tumbling past me, plummeting out of sight.
"I'm not leaving you!" he yelled at me.
As I opened my mouth to protest, my footing slipped, leaving me clinging to the rock by only my hands.
"On the count of three, swing up!" shouted Percy. I nodded reluctantly.
"One!" I yelled. The heat from the oozing lava burned my face.
"Two!" Percy reached as far as he could from his position.
"Three!" I cried. I swung my arm up and grabbed Percy's hand, narrowly missing a chunk of falling debris. Percy began pulling me up to where he was. A little bit further... a little bit...
Finally, I swung my legs over the top of the rock climbing wall, laying on the ledge that waited there. Percy and I both gulped in lungfuls of fresh air as the rock wall continued to disintegrate below us.
"You were quite the damsel in distress!" panted Percy.
"Sure I was," I said, spitting a mouthful of ashy saliva out of my mouth.
"Oh, very lady like," said Percy.
"What?" I said, laughing. "I'm not actually a damsel, I can spit if I want!"
"Yeah, but spitting girls usually aren't the ones that get saved," teased Percy, bumping our shoulders together.
"What ever, Prince Perseus," I said mockingly, pretending to bow deeply. "How will I ever repay you for your chivalry?"
"Well, I wouldn't say no to a kiss..."
I pecked Percy on the cheek.
"I meant a real one," he said frowning.
"What was a fake about that?" I protested.
"Well, I'm just saying that if you were truly grateful, I would have gotten some lip action..."
"You'll take what you can get," I said flatly, to which Percy merely shrugged.
"That wall is a real bitch to climb," he remarked.
"Sure is," I said in a scratchy voice, inspecting the singed ends of my hair. "I'm going to need a real deep conditioner treatment after this."
Percy looked over at me and grinned. "You're pretty," he said.
"I look like a mess," I said, rolling my eyes.
Percy just smiled his lopsided grin, the one that made my heart skip a beat and took me to another planet.
Damn him for turning me into a giggly and hopelessly lovestruck girl... on the inside.
"Quit smiling like that," I muttered, pulling my battered body up off the ledge and into a somewhat standing position.
"Why don't we do something special tonight?" asked Percy, stretching and getting up himself.
"Oh, I don't know, I've got a lot of paperwork to file and these blueprints just came in for the new-"
"Great, I'll pick you up at six," he said with a wink, and then proceeded to backflip off the rock climbing wall, landing neatly on the ground.
Show off.
I climbed down the more conventional way via ladder, and set off across the lawn toward the Athena cabin. I had roughly an hour to transform my self from a sweaty, soot-stained, frizzy haired, and severely scratched girl into a clean and nice smelling female with shiny hair. Basically... I was screwed.
I climbed the spiral staircase up to my loft, trying to mentally go through my closet. As I entered my room, I found Piper laying leisurely on my bed, reading one of the books off my bookshelf.
"This is a really terrible book," she said.
"What are you doing up here, Pipes?"
"Hiding from the rest of the Aphrodite campers... they're having a Say Yes To The Dress marathon," she explained, rolling her eyes. "What happened to you? You look like you've been to Tartarus... again."
"Rock climbing wall," I said.
"Same thing," she said, shrugging.
"Anyway," I said. "I've gotta run, Percy sprung date night on me last minute, and I've got to be ready in an hour-"
"There's no way that's possible," snorted Piper.
"Come on, you've gotta help me!" I pleaded. I gave her my most convincing puppy dog face I could muster.
"Fine," she sighed. "Go shower. Be ready for extreme hair and make up when you get out!"
Fifty minutes later, I was looking totally date ready. Piper had put my hair up into a twisty updo and dressed me in a floor length sea green dress with gold gladiator sandals.
"Piper, you're my hero," I said, twirling in front of the mirror.
"Don't mention it," she said with satisfaction. "Now go have fun! Tell me all about it later!"
"I will!" I called behind my shoulder as I raced down the stairs. As my foot hit the bottom step, I heard Percy knocking on the door.
I opened it up to see him standing there in his favorite khaki shorts and grey t-shirt. He was tapping his converses impatiently, but seized as soon as he saw me.
"You look amazing," he said, grinning. "And... you smell really good." Success!
"You don't look too bad yourself," I said, taking him by the hand. "So," I asked as we started walking away from the Athena cabin. "What's the game plan?"
"You'll see," he said, wiggling his eyebrows mysteriously, tugging my hand and leading me toward the beach.
Ten minutes later we were standing on the dock, the sea breeze blowing salty air on our faces.
"Guess what my dad got me for my 20th birthday?" asked Percy, grinning.
"The ocean?" I guessed dully.
"No," he said obstinately. "A boat."
I looked at the two boats perched at the dock; one was a beautiful white sailboat with billowing blue sails and a pristine deck, and the other, well...
"Please tell me it's not the little rickety one that's falling apart," I said weakly, pointing at the small dinghy whose wood was cracked and faded paint was peeling.
"Don't worry, it's the new one," said Percy proudly. "Fully equipped with state of the art navigation, finely crafted sails, and dinner for two."
"Great!" I said. "I'm starving."
"Come on, Wise Girl," said Percy, scooping me up bridal style and hopping into the boat.
"You know, I'd say the sooner we get out to sea the better," I told him quietly, eyeing a group of campers that were beginning to collect at the other end of the dock. "We've got an audience."
"I'm on it," he said, pecking me on the forehead and setting me down, immediately yanking this rope and tying that one, fiddling with steering and goodness knows what else. Soon enough we left the shore far behind, and it was just us. Well, us and several of the gods that were no doubt watching us, namely Aphrodite.
After an hour of laughing, the usual bickering, and an attempt to teach me to steer the boat ("Annabeth, do not touch that button!"), I decided it was time to get this dinner for two going.
"Wow, sandwiches, potato salad, fruit... you thought of everything, Seaweed Brain!" I said, riffling through the cooler.
"Yep!" said Percy proudly, who brought the boat to a halt and walked over. "I even remembered utensils."
"Good," I said, pulling out the potato salad. "Because this looks delicious. Did you make this?"
"No, I swiped it out of Leo's fridge. He's actually quite the chef, did you know?"
"I didn't," I said. "Though I did know that he watches the food network frequently when you guys aren't around, so I suppose that explains it."
We ate our dinner on the deck on the picnic blanket rolled out over the wooden floor.
"Open up," I said, and tossed a grape into Percy's mouth from across the blanket.
"Nice shot!" he said, chewing. "Your turn." I opened my mouth obligingly, and Percy threw a grape in my direction... which hit me square in the forehead.
"Hey!" I cried. "That was on purpose!"
"Was not!" he said, rolling into a seated position next to me.
"Was too," I said, sticking out my tongue.
"Prove he," he growled playfully, and leaned in to kiss me. I happily kissed him back, wrapping my arms around his neck. He kept kissing me, his hands which had had been on my waist slowly working their way down to my hips, sending tingles up my spine. I felt the energy between us shift, and what was originally playful intentions had turned into something rawer and more passionate. I let Percy push me up against the side of the boat, finally breaking the kiss and leaving me gasping as he began to leave a trail of kisses down my jaw line and to my neck. He bit, sucked, and kissed me all the way down my neck as I moaned in pleasure, running my fingers through his hair as he worked.
It was defiantly a scarf day tomorrow.
I pushed him back and rolled over, putting Percy laying face up on the deck with me on top of him. We kissed furiously as I slowly undid the buttons to Percy's gray shirt, revealing more and more of his tan, sculpted torso with each one. Every move was right, making a sort of magic in the air, a special buzz that somehow shocked each brain cell yet put my senses into overdrive simultaneously. My heart was thumping wildly in my chest, allowing Percy's hands to grab at the zipper of my dress, fumbling with it until-
"Aughhhh!" I shrieked, jumping up as a wave of seawater drenched me.
Cursing, Percy summoned the water back over the deck and willed me dry. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "That was my dad. He really likes you... but I guess he doesn't like you enough to let us mess around in his domain."
"It's okay," I said, chuckling. "It wasn't anything you couldn't dry off."
"Probably for the best, anyway," said Percy, glancing at the sky. "It's getting dark, we should head back before they launch a search party. It seems like ever since I vanished, if nobody's seen me for ten minutes they start panicking."
"That's not true," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Is too!" he said, fiddling with the steering and setting our course for shore. "The other day I dozed off while I was doing some paperwork in the office, and by the time I woke up they had already sent campers out on Pegasi to start the search party."
I rolled my eyes, though I knew he wasn't kidding. We were quiet, letting the noises of the ocean full the silence.
"You know," I said after a bit, "Today was kinda like a fairytale."
Percy looked perplexed. "How many fairytales involve almost dying while rock climbing, then going on a boat date with your Son-of-the-Sea-God-Boyfriend and getting water magically tossed on you?"
"One with us as the main characters," I said simply. Percy just smiled down at me and kissed my forehead.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
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