Percy's been to the gym tons of times. Hell, he goes to the gym thrice a week, at the least. And every one of his visits includes about an hour in the pool. Once in a while, there'll be an attractive girl doing laps or water aerobics or whatever, but Percy never ever gets distracted. Bikini-clad bodies and pretty faces don't affect him as much as it does other guys.
But, for some fucking reason, the girl with the blonde hair and tan skin floating at the opposite corner from where he was gets his attention immediately.
She rolls her eyes and momentarily glances behind her, straight at him, which causes Percy to stop breathing for a full five seconds.
Okay, Percy, stay cool. She's just a girl.
Without really meaning to, he slowly makes his way towards the pretty blonde. She's talking to a girl whose brown hair is adorned with feathers and beads, fully clothed and sitting on the edge of her seat. The closer he gets, the clearer their conversation becomes. Soon, he can make out what they're saying with a good 20 steps still between them.
Of course, it helps that their voices aren't exactly hushed.
"…can't believe you – seriously, Piper? You find out that Jason goes here and then you decide to drag me along with you so you won't seem like a fool being alone and now you won't even swim in the pool with me?" the blonde says, only sounding half-annoyed.
"I'm sorry, Annabeth," the brunette – Piper – sighs. "I'm just really nervous. I mean-"
Annabeth (Percy smiled. He can't help it; it was such a pretty name.) holds up a hand to stop Piper from talking. "I know – he's different from the other guys you've dated." She lolls her head then starts to float on her back, humming a song Percy doesn't recognize. Her eyes flutter shut and her lips slightly part as a soft sigh escapes. Piper says something about Annabeth 'being awesome' and 'thanks for understanding', but Percy's already shut the rest of humanity out.
His sea-green eyes are probably burning holes on Annabeth's face – all he can do is stare at her relaxed features, so peaceful that he forgets everything except for the slight twitch of her lips, a momentary smirk. It feels as if he's underwater; however, instead of drowning, he's in his own world – a world where only he and Annabeth's small smile exists, everything else so far away.
Piper's squeal of delight washes him back to shore.
"Annabeth!" she stands up and reaches towards Annabeth as much as she can without falling into the pool. Annabeth's eyes are open, quickly glancing around, before she sees Piper's outstretched hand. "He's here." She hisses, completely giving up on pulling Annabeth out of the water and instead runs towards a guy who just entered as casually as she could. She doesn't really do a good job, but Percy isn't paying attention anyway.
In fact, Percy's attention was solely focused on Annabeth that the last thing he sees is her pushing herself out of the pool – then maybe he catches a glimpse of the ceiling – before everything turns black.
The next thing Percy registers is that he's floating in midair. Well, it seems like it anyway. Although unlikely, his feet are most certainly not touching solid ground. Or any ground, for that matter. The second thing he registers is the slight pain he feels at the back of his head.
He opens his eyes slightly, adjusting to the brightness of the light shining above him. For a moment, all he sees is white and he slightly panics – is he dead? Is this heaven?
But then he hears the shuffling of footsteps, along with a pair of voices, and surely people don't walk when they're dead, right? (They float, he thinks.) Although his body is lying limp – which Percy's pretty sure happens when you die – he realizes that dead people can't breathe, can they? So he's surely not dead since, although shallow, he's breathing.
He shuts his eyes tight and rolls his head back, avoiding the bright light that's making his headache worse. Percy tries to listen in on the conversation, but the two people talking are doing so in a quiet manner, so he can't really catch anything. One of the two voices sounds vaguely familiar though. He decides to take a peek and is surprised to see Annabeth walking beside where his head was floating in midair. She's talking to someone in his direction and Percy follows her gaze and looks up, slightly leaning towards the right, to see a man about twice his age – and size – by his side, facing Annabeth. It's then when Percy feels arms beneath his shoulders and knees that he realizes that he's not floating in midair at all. Instead, the man – whom he recognizes as a regular attendee in the gym - is carrying him.
His mouth opens to say something – probably convince the man that he didn't need to be carried at all and that he feels perfectly fine – before he hears a thump and, once again, everything turns black.
The next time Percy opens his eyes, he's a hundred percent sure he's in heaven. There was an angel staring down at him.
(Percy's mind groggily registers that, yes, he's being cheesy and pathetic but, no, he does not regret thinking of Annabeth as an angel because she fucking is.)
"Hi there," Annabeth smiles at him and he returns it. He tries sitting up but Annabeth's hand reaches out to gently push him back down on the lounge chair. She's shaking her head. "Just lie down and rest for a while."
Percy nods slightly and does what he's told. He closes his eyes for a few seconds before opening them, adjusting to the light once more.
"Er – you, uh," Annabeth's eyebrows furrow slightly and she clears her throat. "You sort of have a line of drool running down the side of your mouth." She clears her throat for a second time as Percy feels heat rush to his face and he hastily wipes the back of his hand across his mouth.
She laughs, and now he feels the warmth spread to both his face and chest. The sound of her laughter is so beautiful that he doesn't mind hearing it every second of every day.
(Fuck, he's being a complete sap for a girl he just met. Wait, no, scratch that – they don't even know each other.)
"Anyway," she smiles again, leaning back on her seat. "you, uh, slipped by the pool and landed on your back, head first. You completely missed the 'Caution: Slippery When Wet' sign beside you. I was feet away, thank the gods, but needed the assistance of Al –" she points to the man, who is now in the water. Al smiles and waves at him, and Percy smiles and waves back before Al disappears beneath the surface. "– he had to carry you here. I checked your pulse, your breathing – everything I can. I even asked for some Advil if you felt like taking some.
"So, how're you feeling? Does your head hurt?" she looks concerned (and no, Percy's heart didn't warm at the sight, shut up.).
"Good, I guess." his hand reaches up to rub his temple lightly. "It hurt a while ago; I gained consciousness when Al was carrying me but lost it again after a while…" He looked up at Annabeth. (He realizes that she has stormy gray eyes. Percy's never seen gray eyes before and he blinks twice before even remembering to breath.) "W-what happened when I was being carried?"
Annabeth grimaces as if she was hoping that this wouldn't have to come up. She sighs and rubs the back of her neck. "Uh, we weren't looking where we were going and we sort of bumped into a table. Or, well, your face did." Her faced looked apologetic which made Percy chuckle for some reason.
"Hey, don't worry." he sits up and this time, Annabeth doesn't stop him. "I'm perfectly fine. Who knows what could've happened if you weren't there to help me out, so I have to thank you for that." Annabeth's look of worry and remorse slightly diminishes, but her brows were still furrowed with concern.
"Here," he hands out his hand for her to shake, which she takes. "Percy Jackson, 22 years of age. I live here in New York, my favorite color is blue and I have a goldfish called Nemo, named after my favorite film. See, I'm fine. No loss of memory, confusion, headache, etc."
Annabeth finally smiles as she lets go of his hand. (Percy may or may not have been disappointed when she let go. Also, his hand may or may not have felt cold.) "Annabeth Chase."
"A worthy name for a savior," Percy muses, and he bows his head. "I will forever be in your debt."
"Oh, shut up." she rolls her eyes, but her face turns pink. Percy thinks she looks so cute and he had to restrain himself from pinching her cheeks. And maybe kissing her, too. "And Finding Nemo, huh? Never pegged you as a Disney kind of guy." she says, an attempt to change the subject.
He leans back, looking absolutely affronted. He splays his right hand over his heart. "I am too a Disney kind of guy! In fact, I have been told a couple of times that I'd be a perfect Prince Eric. I have the black hair, as well as his love for the sea. Besides, we both have ladies swooning with our mere glance." Percy waggles his eyebrows then tries for a 'smoulder'.
Annabeth's eyebrows shoot up and her stormy eyes look amused. "Prince Eric? Yeah, right. Because Prince Eric always ignores signs, trips and falls on his head. And the smoulder is Flynn, not Eric. You're not even doing a good imitation of it." She shakes her head in mock disappointment, and Percy notices that she didn't comment about the swooning thing, which he interpreted as a good sign. This gives him a boost of confidence.
Percy nods solemnly. "And you're Ariel because you saved me from dying." At this, Annabeth scoffs. "So, yeah, I totally owe you. Don't worry, you don't have to kiss me before the sun sets three days after this."
"Good to know. I wouldn't want to think saving your life resulted into such punishment for me."
"How about I treat you to a movie and dinner, instead?" Percy asks just before he loses any of the confidence he gained.
Annabeth opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. She closes it, opens it again, then settles to nodding once, her cheeks full on red.
"Hey, you lost your voice. Just like Ariel." he smirks. "I guess I know what movie we'd be watching."
"Oh, shut up."