AHS

***Being a demigod isn't easy. Being in high school only makes it harder. Annabeth notices that Percy is struggling with something at his school, but she's not sure, at first, how to help. Especially when he won't tell her what's going on.***

Chapter 1:

Near the end of January, Annabeth was over at the Jackson-Blofis apartment, helping Percy set the table for dinner. Sally was taking a nap while the chicken enchiladas finished cooking. Paul was in the living room, grading papers. Percy had asked Annabeth how her day was, so she was filling him in. The truth was, it had been stressful. She was still trying to catch up on some missed assignments, since she'd only been back from Boston for a few days.

"So, anyway, tomorrow I have to make up a Calculus quiz and give my presentation in Econ. Plus, I have that essay for my English class due by Friday." Annabeth huffed in annoyance as she laid down the last of the silverware. "The only reason I'm even getting this much time to catch up is because I gave the vice principal a copy of the program from Magnus's funeral."

"Good thing they don't know he's still alive," Percy said with a small grin as he set the final plate down.

"Technically he's dead," Annabeth said. "So it's not really a lie."

Percy smirked and shook his head. "You'll get it done. You always do."

"Yeah." Annabeth leaned against the counter, crossing her arms. "And at least there's only a few months left."

Percy nodded as he opened the cabinet to get the water glasses out. When he stretched his arm up, his shirt rose, revealing an inch of bare skin and the top of his boxers sticking out of his jeans. Annabeth was briefly distracted from her thoughts of homework. Paul is in the other room, she reminded herself with a mental shake.

"How was your day?" she asked Percy.

He shrugged and gave a non-committal grunt, then held out a glass for her to take. Once he'd passed her two, Annabeth went to fill them with ice and water. When Percy still hadn't answered, she said, "Seriously, how was your day, Seaweed Brain?"

"It was a day. At school." He filled up the other two glasses, then moved to put them on the table. "You know. The usual."

Annabeth bit her lip as she set the glasses on the table. Because of his past record of expulsions, the only school that Sally and Paul had found that was willing to take Percy was an alternative high school. Primarily for, as Percy had called it, "troubled kids." Some of them had just had unfortunate circumstances, like him. But, she knew, others were there because they'd legitimately chosen to cause problems at their other schools. Percy hadn't complained, but she knew it hadn't been an easy first semester. Unfortunately, it sounded like this one wasn't going much better.

"Can I help with anything?" she asked.

Percy gave her another small smile, then kissed her cheek, his hand resting briefly on the small of her back. "Nah, I'm good. Honestly," he added when she raised her eyebrows at him. "Like you said, we only have a few more months."

The timer went off on the oven before Annabeth could say anything else. Percy grabbed some oven mitts and pulled out the steaming hot enchiladas, swimming in a pool of sauce and melted cheese. Percy's smile grew into something more genuine as he set the pan on top of the stove and said, "Dang. Should have invited Grover over for dinner."

"He'd go crazy for those," Annabeth agreed. "He's out west right now, though, right?"

"Yeah. Doing his Lord of the Wild duties." Percy slid the oven mitts off, then stuck his head in the living room. "Hey, Paul, the enchiladas are done. Do you want to wake Mom up?"

And the rest of the evening was good.

A couple of days later, Annabeth and Percy found themselves alone in the Jackson-Blofis apartment. Percy's parents had gone out to dinner with some friends, so, once they'd left, Percy and Annabeth had escaped to Percy's bedroom. It had been a hectic few weeks, during which Percy had been hit by a plague spirit while driving Apollo and his demigod master Meg to camp, then later helped to destroy a giant golden statue before it could destroy camp. And apparently Leo had returned, with Calypso in tow. Meanwhile, Annabeth had been in Boston, checking in on her not-actually-dead cousin, Magnus. So, on top of the general craziness of the last few weeks, they hadn't had an opportunity to see each other much. They definitely hadn't had a chance to be alone in several weeks. If they wanted to take advantage of the opportunity now, sue them.

At the moment, they weren't doing anything more scandalous than lazily making out on his bed. Although Percy's hands were starting to wander under Annabeth's shirt, making her skin sizzle. She let her lips trail down his neck, feeling him swallow hard as she started to slide his shirt off. However, when she swung her leg over his and rolled on top of him, he hissed in pain.

Annabeth pushed herself up, taking her weight off him. "What's wrong?"

Percy winced, but she couldn't tell if it was from pain or annoyance that he'd reacted. "It's nothing. Just—"

"Oh my gods, Percy." Annabeth had looked down to see a massive bruise blooming across his ribcage, the edges of it visible where his shirt had been pushed up. She moved his shirt farther up to see the rest of the bruise. It looked like he'd been hit, hard, in the side. "What happened? Did you get attacked?"

"Nah, nothing like that." Percy looked like he wanted to tug his shirt back down, but then seemed to realize it was too late—she'd already seen the bruise. So instead, he pulled it the rest of the way off with a sigh. "We were playing basketball in gym and I just took a hard hit."

Annabeth studied his face, biting her lip. She didn't like the way he wasn't quite meeting her eyes. Although he could be telling the truth—he had taken a phys ed elective in order to make up some of the credits he'd missed last year in a relatively easy way.

After a moment, Percy rolled his eyes, then reached for her hand. "Honestly, Annabeth. I'm fine. It's no big deal."

She hesitated for another few moments, but finally relented. She leaned down again, carefully avoiding his bruise. "Why do you have such bad luck in gym class, Seaweed Brain?"

He laughed, his hand sliding up to her elbow. "At least it was just a mortal this time. Not cannibal giants." He kissed her lightly. "Especially since you weren't there to stab anyone and save my butt."

"Are you saying you need me?" she asked.

"Maybe." He kissed her again, pulling her closer, then grunted when he twisted, wincing again as he touched his side.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Annabeth asked. This time, she turned his face to her, making him meet her eyes.

"I'm fine," Percy insisted. "Just a little sore." The smirk she'd grown to love crept over his face. "You could probably help distract me from it, though. If you want."

It was Annabeth's turn to roll her eyes. But she shifted closer again and kissed him, long and slow and deep. After all, she didn't usually back down from a challenge. If her boyfriend wanted to be distracted from his sore side, she could definitely help him with that.

*Thanks for reading! There will be 6 chapters total in this story. Chapter 2 will be up next week.*