A/N: I apologise for my English and for the wait…
Disclaimer: Rick Riordan
Before: Annabeth is sad, Percy is sad, they tell sad stories and eat comfort food. Percy has a crappy dad and Annabeth ran away when she was six. Percy doesn't believe in happy endings and Annabeth thinks she needs a boyfriend to be a better writer.
Boyfriends, girlfriends and pretending
It looked like Percy didn't believe his story would ever have a happily ever after.
"Yes, I'm sure the kid with dyslexia and ADHD will come far in this world. I'll end up as my father, alone, depressed and beating an amazing woman till she bleeds, to make me feel better." Annabeth reached over the table and gripped his hand with hers.
"Look at me Percy!" His eyes still looked down.
"Percy." He looked up.
"You are good. You are nothing like your father, because you are good. All the fights you've ever gotten into are to protect your friends. You are good! You know what your name reminds me of? Perseus, a Greek hero, he was the son of Zeus and was one of the few heroes who actually got a happy ending. You are a hero Percy, and you'll get your happy ever after." Percy started crying, but he smiled and made no attempt to wipe away the trails of saltwater that made their way down his face.
"So you really ran away when you were six?" She nodded.
"The best people have the rottenest luck."
The two of them sat together with two bags of candy between them. Annabeth and Percy were in a park in Greenwich. They sat in silence while admiring the cupcakes in a bakery close to the bench they shared.
"You know I could use a boyfriend." Annabeth said and Percy turned away from the sight of cupcakes and stared at her.
"We share the tragic tales of our childhood and now you need a boyfriend?" He laughed.
"Yes, I am in need of a boyfriend!"
"Do you need one because of Thalia and Luke or because of your writing?"
"Both I guess. I am so scared of being alone. But mostly the writing."
"But good god, you have a wonderful childhood to deliberate!"
"One of the reasons I love reading and writing so much is because I can forget about reality and the real world. I can make up a world filled with fantastic creatures and heroes. I want to write stories where running away and having bad fathers result in heroes, not outcasts who constantly get bullied. I believe that love can defeat evil and that endings can be happy even if the beginnings are sad."
The silence parted them again, leaving them isolated in their own minds. They were watching moments like movies in fast forward. Pictures of bloody mothers in hospital gowns, homeless with dirty clothes, a dad yelling, a daughter crying, bullies calling names, turned backs, pointed fingers and whispers containing your name.
"I would like to read your stories one day." Percy almost whispered.
"You would? Why?"
"Because I believe you're going to use your words right."
"No one has ever gotten to read what I've written before."
"Do you want someone to read it?"
"Maybe I will, someday in the future."
"But you need a boyfriend?"
A nod
"I'll be your boyfriend"
"What?"
"We can pretend, right? Pretended love is also a kind of love. It might not be the best, but…"
Silence
"Why would you do that? Like one of those stupid bets? We kiss and pretend and whoever falls in love first loses?"
"Of course not! Didn't you insist I was a good person?"
Another nod
"I just need something to take my mind of things. And maybe my mum would think about something else too. She has always liked you."
"We can pretend this summer, and maybe end it in the fall?"
Percy nodded this time.
"It's a deal then?"
"One more thing, it's for the benefit of your writing, right?"
Annabeth nodded.
"I want to read it, when it's done."
A moment's hesitation.
"Okay."
They shook on it.
They used the underground to get home and as Annabeth turned to walk to her apartment Percy gripped her hand, turned her around and kissed her. It still felt like fire. Fire that shot up from a dying campfire just to die as fast as it had lived. It was a short kiss.
"My second." Annabeth stated.
"Fifth." Percy said looking down. He answered the question Annabeth didn't ask with a single word: "Rachel."
"Oh."
"She was okay you know, until she needed to return to LA." And Rachel Elizabeth Dare had been okay. Last summer she had stayed in New York a couple of weeks and she and Percy…
"But she did hit Luke with her hairbrush." Annabeth said quietly.
"Her blue plastic hairbrush." They smiled, remembering, and without another word they parted.
"Where have you been all day?" Brunner asked, not looking up from the big book the rested in his lap. As Annabeth didn't answer, he looked at her, seeing the glee in her face.
"What happened?"
"I think I got a boyfriend…" Brunner smiled knowingly.
"Remind me to congratulate Percy next time I see him." Annabeth blushed and bent down to lay her arms around her father and hug him tight.
"So you're not going to threaten him about breaking your little girl's heart?"
"First of all, I don't have an ownership of your heart and second of all I'm not sure an old man in a wheelchair would scare him that much."
"Well you can threaten to run him over, that might scare him."
"Nah, I think that kid deserves a little happiness. Just as you do."
Minds are messy before you go to sleep. They are filled with old memories and future dreams, sounds of cars outside and a fan inside. Things you mean to do and the things you wish you didn't. Annabeth had trouble sleeping that night. She wondered over and over if she had done the right thing. How wrong was it to fake love? But it was Percy's idea. And when she first needed to fake it, why did it have to be Percy? They always fought. Was it simply because he had been there? Why did Percy want to help her? To many questions marks filled her mind.
She woke up of the sound of a pan flute. Her phone vibrated lightly on her table.
"Did you really need to call me right now?"
"Yes, why?"
"I was sleeping Grover!"
"Okay, whatever. I was wondering if you wanted to go to the movies. There is this nature documentary on, and I really want to see it! I've invited all the others. We can meet outside the movies and I'll pay. Bye!"
The call ended.
Annabeth braided her hair and found a dress in her closet; she hadn't worn it since last summer. It was blue and fitted with her sneakers. She applied mascara and looked closely at her own reflection as she brushed her teeth. She considered finding her concealer to hide the sleepless night under her eyes, but she was late. She left in a hurry and wrote a message in messy handwriting explaining where she was to her dad. When she opened her door she almost ran into Percy. He had obviously been waiting for her outside.
"I just thought, you know. We could discuss how to break the news to them, you know…" His face was red and there were marks of sweat under his arms.
"We need to run!" Was all Annabeth said to him as she dragged him into the elevator.
When the two of them reached the outside of the movies and saw Grover standing there alone, looking a little nervous.
"Thalia and Luke have already entered. The movie starts soon!"
"We're so sorry Grover!" Grover however, didn't respond, just turned around and hurried up the stairs. Just as Annabeth started to follow Percy gripped her hand. She squeezed it and felt how warm he was and understood he was nervous.
"We don't have to."
"No we don't." He said as he squeezed her hand harder and the two entered the glass door.
A/N: Okay, this chapter is a little angsty too, and it's a little bit cliché. But it does contain a few references to the series!
Thank you so much for the reviews! They make me very happy :)
Reviews are like Grover playing flute and blue plastic hairbrushes
