A/N: MAJOR MARK OF ATHENA SPOILERS! Little fluffy romance piece set on the Argo II a night or two after the first night Annabeth snuck into Percy's cabin.

This chapter is probably rated T+ if I had to give it a safety rating. Nothing explicit.

I hope you like it!

When Annabeth passed him the note at dinner, for a brief second Percy was convinced it was an accident. She had this weird ability to be as subtle as possible. Which is why Percy ended up involuntarily shivering when she reached over him to get the salt and, so discreetly he couldn't have been sure if it had been an accident or not, brushed her chest against his arm, leading Percy to jump half a foot and slam his knee into the table.

Conveniently Piper had just done an impression of koi-fish Frank, so no one had really been paying attention.

When Percy got up from the table, he darted into his room to read Annabeth's note without even momentarily pausing to respond to Jason, who asked him who was on duty that night. Jason would have to wait for an answer.

Annabeth was wrong when she said she'd never make things easy for him – she should have said she wouldn't make things easy for anyone.

And Percy would be damned if that wasn't his favorite thing about her.

Which is why, when the note said, "go to bed late tonight and leave your door unlocked" and nothing else, Percy's mind shot to about a million different places, and he forgot how to think.

It was probably one in the morning by the time Percy rolled into bed, showered and hair brushed, and he was beginning to wonder if Annabeth's note meant anything along the lines of what he had hoped it had meant.

Of course the moment he thought that, the door opened.

"Annabeth," said Percy, a little distracted as Annabeth brushed her hair over her shoulder. "Exactly what," he swallowed hard, trying to keep his eyes off of the fact that Annabeth kind of definitely was not wearing a bra, "is the logic of you coming here this late?"

"I think you might need a memory refresher," said Annabeth. "In case you need a little reminder of Camp Half Blood. And me." A little less graceful than she probably intended it, Annabeth stretched, and her shirt rose to a little above her belly button. When she smiled at Percy with her head tilted to the side, he got it. Oh, he got it.

"Oh, gods," said Percy, grinning. "You're using a line on me, aren't you?"

She shrugged. "Maybe a little."

Percy's grin broadened. "And you're breaking the rules?"

Annabeth waved the thought away. "Rules are for people without prophecies that dictate their lives." Annabeth silently turned the doorknob and shut the door, leaning up against it. In the split second before their eyes met, Percy took her in. He'd never be able to properly articulate it – effective communication was more Annabeth's forte – but she really was, and probably always will, the only thing that he could really depend on. She knew him better than anyone. She fought through months to get him back.

And she looked damned good in shorts and a tee shirt and those really inexplicably attractive hiking boots she wore all the time.

Percy wasn't particularly sure how he had gotten so lucky but he had a feeling it had something to do with the fact that at least one thing in his life had to go right.

"Coach is going to find us," Percy began, his eyes still locked on Annabeth as she walked over to his bed quietly, "and he's going to kill us, and then humiliate us, and then discipline our mortified corpses. And it'll be all your fault."

Annabeth shrugged. "Well you need your memory back."

"I have my memory back."

Annabeth leaned forward and kissed him firmly. "Yes," she murmured against his lips, "but I'm thinking you might want some tactile refreshers."

Percy's arms wrapped around Annabeth as he fell into the pure idea that she was just there. It had been so long since they had been able to be with one another, so long since the two of them had been alone, and so, so long since the two of them had been together since that first time the night before Percy was stolen.

Percy really should have suggested to Annabeth that they stop, or just talk for a while. That was the gentlemanly thing to do, right?

But, really? It had been months without her. He missed her too much to give up the opportunity for the two of them to be here. And, judging by the way Annabeth was twisting her hips against his, she wasn't too worried about him being a gentleman.

"Mm," mumbled Annabeth against Percy's lips, "missed you."

Percy pulled her down on top of him, the two of them melting together. It was like fading into a memory, except this Annabeth had weight and made those perfect little noises and her skin was soft and real and there.

"I don't know how I survived," Percy breathed against her jaw, "I don't know how I spent so much time alone without you, how I was able to breathe without knowing you were safe for so long."

"You knew I saw safe," she said with a smile, gasping a bit at the end of the sentence as Percy grazed his teeth gently along the sensitive spot below her ear. "I'm always safe."

"But I couldn't be sure," he muttered. Percy sat the two of them up, ending up with Annabeth straddling his lap. "I wasn't sure."

"Hey," she said, cupping his jaw. "We're here. We're both safe. Well, unless Hedge catches us. Then we might end up dead, then grounded. But we're right here. We have right now until the end of time together." She pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. "I love you, and you love me, and that's all we need to worry about. No prophecies, no worries, no sword fighting." She brushed a little bit of his hair out of his face, and he leaned into the touch. "Just you and me. For the rest of our lives. And no one is ever tearing us apart again."

Percy couldn't even find the words to respond. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Annabeth's waist and, with more of a growl than he intended, "Never letting you go again."

They fell into each other and, after, the two of them slept more soundly than they had in months.

Annabeth was lucky she had a strange skill of waking herself up at the right time, because at sunrise she had just enough time to kiss Percy awake, throw her clothes back on, and kiss Percy a few more times for good measure. With a wave, she darted back to her cabin to sleep for a few more hours until Hedge went around slamming doors open.

Percy, on the other hand, couldn't get back to sleep. He was still dazed.

She was here, and she was real.

And she was his.