Prompt 5: Annabeth POV fic—When Annabeth first realized she was in love with Percy and fluffy/embarrassing moments shortly after that when she's around Percy and trying to act normal

This was not good. Annabeth was in serious trouble. It was two days after her sixteenth birthday, they were experiencing a brief lull in the war with Kronos, Percy had come back to camp for her birthday (so she'd almost forgiven him for being in Manhattan the week before that), and they were paired up for the canoe races against a handful of other campers. As they crossed the finish line first—because of course they did, Percy was the son of Poseidon, he had a serious advantage over the other campers on the water (Annabeth told herself it was just good strategy to ask him to be her partner)—Percy pumped his fist in the air, and Annabeth laughed as they cheered. When he turned to her with his usual troublemaker smirking grin in place, Annabeth's heart started thumping and butterflies swirled in her stomach. She managed a smile that she hoped looked normal as she obliged his high-five. Once the race was over, though, she escaped as soon as she could, disappearing into her cabin on the pretense of having to look some things up on Daedalus's laptop for the Capture the Flag game tomorrow night. In reality, once she'd sat down cross-legged on her bed and opened her laptop, she buried her face in her hands, grateful for the empty cabin. She'd been denying it for a while—ever since Mt. St. Helens last summer, probably. But for some reason, in that stupid canoe in the middle of the lake, the truth had hit her hard.

She was totally in love with Percy Jackson.

Oh shit.

Not only was that a problem because he was her best friend, and because he'd been hanging out with Rachel Dare all summer, and because she couldn't figure out if he felt the same way about her, especially since he'd never mentioned their kiss last year, but also because of the prophecy. The one that implied that Percy maybe only had one more month to live.

So, given all of that, it really wasn't a good time to fall in love with her best friend.

Determined to forget about her feelings for now, especially since there wasn't really anything she could do about them anyway, Annabeth opened some files and buried herself in Daedalus's laptop for the next couple of hours.

Just as Annabeth's vision started to go blurry from staring at the computer screen, there was a knock at the open cabin door. She jumped and her pulse immediately went into overdrive when she realized it was Percy standing there.

"Hey," she said, hoping her cheeks weren't red. "What's going on?"

"Are you busy?" Percy stayed in the cabin doorway. Annabeth wasn't surprised. Only yesterday, Chiron had pitched an epic fit about campers with different godly parents being unsupervised in a cabin. To be fair, it had happened right after Beckendorf and Silena had been discovered alone in the Aphrodite cabin (possibly minus a few articles of clothing).

Was she busy? Annabeth glanced at her laptop, then shrugged. "Not really. What's up?"

"Well, um," Percy shifted nervously, shoving his hands in his pockets, then blurted out, "A few of us are going to borrow the camp SUV and take it to the nearest gas station to get snacks."

Of all the things Annabeth had expected, or hoped, to hear him say, that hadn't even been on her radar. She stared at him for a moment, then asked, "Why?"

Percy shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. "So, a few of us were playing truth or dare—"

"Again, why?"

Another shrug. "It was Connor's suggestion."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course it was. So why steal the SUV?"

"It's not stealing," Percy protested. "We're just going to…borrow it. Briefly."

"Uh-huh." Annabeth crossed her arms, giving him her best skeptical look, although a part of her was definitely thrilled that he had made the extra effort to come and ask her to go with them.

"Anyway," Percy said quickly, "you want to go?"

Annabeth hesitated. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

That damn troublemaker smirk crossed Percy's face. "Probably not. You in anyway?"

This was a really bad idea. Annabeth knew that. With all the monster attacks this summer, the risks were high when leaving camp. Especially for something this stupid. But Percy was grinning at her and everything felt easy again for just a moment. So she couldn't resist saying, "Sure."

Luckily, the twenty minute ride out to the gas station was fine. Nothing attacked them. The SUV was loaded with demigods, though. It was most of the head counselors. The Stolls were crammed into the back with Michael Yew and Chris Rodriguez. Beckendorf was driving, so Silena had ended up with the front seat to herself. Meanwhile, Annabeth was crammed into the middle bench seat, squeezed between Katie Gardiner and Percy, with Clarisse jammed against the window on Katie's other side. Annabeth wasn't sure exactly how she had ended up in this position, but she was practically on Percy's lap. Every time the car went around a turn, the momentum pressed her against him, making her heart stutter when their arms pressed against each other.

There was no plan once they reached the gas station, set on a back road a ways off the Long Island Expressway. There were no other cars there. The clerk, a bored looking guy in his twenties, nearly dropped his phone when they all walked through the doors.

"Sup," Beckendorf said.

"Uh, hey," the guy said. "Where, uh, where did you all come from?"

"Summer camp," Silena said sweetly, smiling at him and making the guy turn bright red. "Busy night?"

The guy seemed to realize he was staring, his gum threatening to fall out of his mouth. "Uh, no, not really. Only been like two other cars."

Annabeth stifled a laugh as she followed Percy and the Stolls farther back to where the good snacks were. However, when Connor started to put one in his pocket, she shot him a glare. "Absolutely not."

"What?" Connor said. "I didn't bring money."

"I did," Annabeth told him. Her dad had given her a summer allowance when she'd flown from San Francisco to New York in June, but she hadn't needed to use much yet, and she'd made sure to grab some cash before leaving tonight. "We're not robbing this guy. Snacks are on me."

"You're the best," Percy said, grabbing two different flavors of potato chips. Annabeth tried to ignore the way her heart fluttered at his words. Instead, she busied herself picking out sour gummy candy.

Luckily, Annabeth wasn't the only one who had thought to bring money. Between her, Silena, Katie, and Chris they were able to pay the guy for the snacks and top off the gas in the SUV. Laden down with snacks, the demigods piled back into the SUV and set off back towards camp.

Unfortunately, the drive back wasn't quite as smooth as the drive out had been. While they were still a few miles from camp, they ran into a problem. Literally. A Laistrygonian giant darted out of the woods and slammed into the SUV. Beckendorf jerked the wheel and the SUV sailed across the road and straight into the ditch.

Luckily, no one was hurt. But as more giants roared and barreled towards the SUV, the demigods quickly piled out, drawing their weapons and charging to meet the monsters.

Annabeth found herself back to back with Percy, as they'd been many times before in a fight. As they turned on the spot, keeping their eyes on a pair of giants slowly circling them, she said, "I told you this was a bad idea."

"Really, right now?" Percy said. One of the monsters tensed, preparing to spring.

"Yep. Duck!"

Percy dropped to one knee and Annabeth swung her knife over his head, neatly slicing through the giant, which gave a horrible screech and burst into dust. Unfortunately, Annabeth was standing so close to it that the dust blew back in her face. She gagged, then coughed, keeping her knife up, but her eyes were watering so badly from the dust and coughing that she couldn't see to attack.

Percy cursed, then shoved her down. She felt the swish as Riptide sliced through the air—and cut through the second giant attacking them.

Annabeth was still down, but her cough was mostly under control. Percy held out his hand, and she took it, letting him help her up. She tried not to think about how warm his hand felt wrapped around hers, but she couldn't ignore the sparks like electricity shooting up her arm.

"Thanks," she managed.

"No problem," Percy said. "This is what we do, right?"

Before she could respond, there was a shriek from the direction of the other campers, so they jogged to help. On the negative side, they'd brought almost all of the head counselors out of camp, which would have been hugely problematic if this fight had gone badly. On the positive side, they'd brought most of the head counselors out of camp, so they had some of their best fighters available for this. The Laistrygonians didn't last long.

Once the monsters were defeated, and everyone was sweaty, out of breath, and annoyed, they surveyed the wrecked SUV. The hood was crumpled, the back bumper was hanging half off, and one of the windows was cracked.

"I think Chiron's going to know we stole it," Percy observed.

In the end, Beckendorf got the SUV running enough to go limping back into camp. A couple of times, some of the others had to help get out and push to keep it moving up a rise or hill (except for Connor Stoll, who complained about a sprained shoulder from the fight, although Annabeth suspected he just didn't want to help push).

Finally, they got back to camp. By the time they'd shoved the SUV back up Half-Blood Hill, with a lot of cursing from various campers, everyone was even more sweaty and annoyed. However, as Silena pointed out, at least they had snacks.

"Exactly," Beckendorf said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "And tomorrow I'll get Jake and Nyssa to help me with that." He jerked his thumb at the banged up SUV. "We'll get it running, maybe even better." A glint similar to a mad scientist's crept into his eyes. "It could probably use a few new features in case of future monster attacks."

Annabeth and Percy took their snacks and drinks to a picnic table on the green between the cabins. The sun had set long ago, leaving the dark blue summer sky sprinkled with stars, wispy clouds drifting between them. For a while they sat quietly, just eating their snacks while the camp settled down around them. The silence didn't feel awkward, though; it was comfortable.

Eventually, Percy exhaled and said, "Well, at least we didn't die."

Annabeth nodded and crunched a chip. "I told you that was a bad idea."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you said that. Don't worry, next time I just won't ask." He said it lightly, while tilting his head back to catch a cheese puff that he tossed into his own mouth, but Annabeth still felt stung by the words.

"I don't want that," she said quietly. When Percy looked at her, surprised, a second cheese puff rolling off his shoulder, she tried to recover. "I mean, you can always ask. And if it sounds completely ridiculous, then I'll just say no."

Percy studied her for a moment. Annabeth couldn't read his expression. She was glad it was dark, though, just in case she was blushing. Finally, he said, "Okay, cool. Because it's always more fun when you go."

"Do you mean that?" Annabeth asked before she could stop herself.

"Yeah," Percy said, rolling another cheese puff between his fingers. "Of course I do."

"Oh. Cool." Hopefully the night was hiding her smile and her bright red cheeks.

They sat there a while longer, sharing snacks. Annabeth managed to toss a cheese puff right into Percy's mouth—and it only took about five tries. Later, back in her cabin and putting her laptop away so she could climb into her bunk, she had to admit that, in spite of the monster attack, it had been a fun night.