"You little—"

She cuts off his sentence, waving to Travis while increasing her pace towards the small DJ booth.

"How's it going?"

"Good!" Travis responds, looking up from his phone.

"I'll take first shift so you can see Katie," Connor says, poking his head from behind the booth as he messes with some wires. Standing up he walks towards them with a smile.

"You look great Annabeth!"

She smiles back at him. "Thanks, you too!"

Connor grins. "Oh, I know."

She raises an eyebrow at his confidence. "Do you? If so, then where is—"

"Alright, whatever," he interrupts her teasing. "Everything is good, now go and take your snarling guard dog with you."

She turns to see Percy standing by her side, he still hasn't said a word this whole time, but honestly snarling guard dog isn't that far off.

Failing at hiding her smile, she shakes her head and grabs Percy's hand to pull him along. "Down boy."

He shoots her and annoyed glance. "I'm not a fucking dog."

"No? Then why are you snarling like one?" she teases, noticing that despite his frown he hasn't pulled away from her grip.

"I'm not snarling!"

"Whatever you say!" She's fully goading him at this point, and he knows it.

His eyes narrow as he's undoubtedly about to strike back, but Rachel approaches them before he can.

"Hey Annabeth! The photobooth is all set up and…" she pauses, realizing Percy's there and turns to him. "Oh, hi Percy!"

Now Annabeth knows that Rachel and Connor have this unspoken kind of thing going on, but for some reason her mouth doesn't follow the logic and she ends up with a frown.

"Is everything okay?" Rachel asks, turning back to her and noticing the frown. Annabeth quickly schools her face into something passive.

"Yeah, sorry, just realized I need to ask Mr. Brunner something," she replies, waving it off. Then with a smile she adds, "but it's great to hear everything is set. You should let Connor know!"

And then she continues to pull Percy along, leaving a blushing Rachel behind.

"Who's the dog now?" Percy teases as soon as they're out of earshot.

She drops his hand, crossing her arms to look at him. "Still you."

Percy is not done gloating though. "Oh, but you were jealous!"

She rolls her eyes. Why did she ever feel the need to kiss him again?

"You want me to be Jackson, doesn't mean I was."

"Oh, so you wouldn't care if I went to go hang out with her then?"

Something inside her flares at the words. (Because it's rude to leave your date and she thinks manners are important.)

"You trying to run away from me?"

Percy's gloating grin immediately disappears and she wonders if maybe she said the wrong thing. Or maybe she just said too much.

He approaches her slowly, getting closer and closer causing her heart rate to spike with every step until, finally, he grabs her hand and pulls her closer to him.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily princess."

She looks up to meet his darkened eyes. "Good."

-.-

By the time the rest of the group makes it in, the music has started and there's a fair amount of people already in.

True to his word, Percy stays by her side the entire time, hand either on her waist or her lower back, driving her insane with every touch. Hopefully, it's hard to tell in the semi-darkened room and the crowd of people because she's not sure how much more she can mask it.

Especially when Piper pulls everyone to the dance floor. Annabeth doesn't really know how to dance so she mostly just moves in place and sings along to the words with Piper like she normally does.

But then Percy moves closer and she realizes that she actually brought a date to homecoming this year… and given how close he is he might be expecting the same thing as the other couples in the room.

Color floods her cheeks as she notices one of the girls in her science class effortlessly move closer to her date until they're touching, moving her hips seamlessly.

Yeah, Annabeth Chase can do a lot of things, but grinding is not one of her talents.

To save herself from embarrassment, she spins around to face him.

Nevermind, this is worse.

Now that she's actually facing him, she's pretty sure she's past schooling her face into anything neutral. His eyes scan hers and he must glean something because all of a sudden he's touching her again and pulling her closer.

Lips brush her ear as he whispers. "Want to get a drink?"

He barely waits for her nod, before pulling her towards the doors.

Out in the hall, it's slightly cooler and less populated, which helps. She lets out a breath as Percy walks over to the punch table and pick up two cups.

She's managed to get herself mostly together by the time he's back and handing her one of the cups.

"Thanks," she replies, taking a sip of the citrus punch. Sweetness floods her mouth, and she doesn't realize she's downed her cup until she reaches the end.

Percy is looking over at her with an amused smile. "Thirsty?"

It's subtle but there's something behind his tone that makes her flush all over again. It should be illegal for him to say things like that.

She nods towards his own empty cup. "You're one to talk."

His smile widens as he leans forward. "Only when…" he pauses to pluck her empty cup from her hand. Continuing to lean even closer, he finishes his sentence, "it comes to you."

His arm comes around her and she thinks he's about to pull her into a hug but he's just throwing out the cups in the trash behind her.

Of course, none of this helps to quell her racing heart.

And then, as if finally processing what happened and looking at Percy's self-satisfied smirk, her brain catches up to what just happened.

She grabs his hand and pulls him along before she even fully realizes what she's doing.

One of the photobooths happen to be, miraculously, empty and they're able to enter just as some others are leaving.

It's already small and he needlessly crowds her against one of the walls. It's the third time they've ended up like this tonight and she's so fucking tired of holding back.

Apparently, he is too because he surges forward at the same time she does, and his lips are finally on hers.

And it feels entirely too good.

It's like a dam has opened and all the tension that's been building up for far too long now releases into the kiss leaving her breathless and dizzy all at once.

Percy Jakson kisses her like he's drowning leaving her heart and lungs screaming and though the last thing she wants to do is move away, she needs a second.

So she pushes him back a little, needed the slight physical distance to even breathe.

He stumbles back half a step, looking at her with hazy confusion and she realizes just how her action probably looked to him.

She can almost see the thoughts forming in his head and before he can get to the end of them, she grabs his tie and pulls him back to her.

"You're not," she whispers between kisses, "getting away from me—" He breaks her sentence by pressing even closer to her causing a small whimper to escape her lips. One of his hands wraps around her waist and the other tangles in her hair. "—easily," she manages to get out before his lips meet hers again.

It shouldn't feel this good. She didn't even know it could feel this good, like her body is on fire in the best way.

"What the fuck is taking them forever!" A voice yells from somewhere outside.

Right.

This is not the time. Or place.

Once again, she has to push him back and attempts to fix her hair, hoping she doesn't look too disheveled.

Percy grabs her hand and quickly pushes out, keeping his head low and dragging her behind him.

They don't stay to hear any of what might be said.

Trying to pull herself together, she follows behind him as they once again enter the gym.

His hand is still holding hers and her lips are still tingling where his were, and her body wants to stay as close as possible to his.

God, she's a mess.

And she definitely does not want to dwell on her mind right now because it's starting to spell something she's not really ready for.

"There you guys are!" Leo's voice cuts through all of it, thankfully providing a brief distraction.

"Went to," Percy stops to clear his throat and she smiles, glad the effect was not lost on him either. "Went to get a drink."

"Oooh, good idea!"

Leo turns to the rest of the group. "Anyone else in?"

Thalia shrugs, following him out and Piper separates from Jason to walk closer to them.

Oh god. If there's one person who might figure anything out, it's Piper. Annabeth hopes the lighting is dim enough to hide her blush.

"Annabeth!" Piper shouts, grabbing her hand and pulling her away from Percy.

His fingers don't let go right away and that action alone causes her heart to cry out, but she lets herself be dragged onto the dance floor.

"You missed your favorite song!" Piper yells to be heard over the music. "What took you so long?"

"Line at the drinks table," she lies. She hates lying, but she hasn't even processed everything enough to explain it to anyone else.

But almost subconsciously, her gaze drifts towards Percy. He's standing on the outskirts, talking to Jason. But as if he knew she was looking, he looks up to catch her gaze.

She quickly turns away, knowing there will be no hiding her blush if she continues.

Damn, she really shouldn't have started that game of chicken, all the tension building…look what it exploded into.

"What's going on with you and Percy?" Piper asks, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"What?" A spike of fear courses through her and she wonders if Piper has figured it out.

"You two have been weird since he showed up at my place, are you guys fighting?"

With our lips, yes. But that's not the correct answer and she needs to stop thinking about kissing him.

"No, we're just…" she trails off, fighting the urge to look at him again. "Just a little awkward I guess."

That's what it should be.

It should be awkward to have Percy Jackson, the guy she hates, as her homecoming date. It should feel strange and weird to hold his hand and be civil.

And yet, kissing him had felt like the most natural thing in the entire world.

"Hmm…" Piper sways back and forth to the beat. "Percy doesn't really seem awkward… maybe it's cause' he likes you?"

If she went by the way he held her, and looked at her and then kissed her as if his life depended on it, then she'd hazard yes.

But…Piper has brought up a new point and another spike of fear. Because what if he doesn't like her? What if he just likes kissing her?

Her mind flashes back to how vulnerable he looked earlier when they were entering the gym, how worried he looked that she was trying to leave him and holds onto that. It must mean something right?

Hang on, does she want him to like her?

"Which would be good cause that's the plan." Piper continues.

Right…the plan.

She's going to be sick.

"I uh, need a break," she tells Piper before quickly turning around and nearly running off the dance floor.

She doesn't stop until she's out of the gym and down a thankfully empty side hall.

Breathing in gulps of air, she tries to calm herself because what the actual fuck is she doing?

She just made out with Percy Jackon, the player she's trying to play, and she liked it? And she wants him to like her? And she likes—

She's not cut out for this, this is not her game. She shouldn't, can't—

"Annabeth?"

Her name on his lips draws her attention faster than anything else. She looks up to see him standing there, brows furrowed as he slowly approaches her.

No words come to her, she's still not calm and she probably looks exactly like how she feels, a deer in headlights.

So she just stands there until he gets closer and closer and wraps his arms around her. All of sudden, she's slumping into him.

The very person she should probably be avoiding right now but she just leans into his touch and the panic starts to edge away. This feels…alright.

"You okay?" He asks, voice softer than she's ever heard it.

The tone makes her lean back to look at him, and there's that soft vulnerable Percy she's only caught glimpses of before.

She doesn't say anything, just looks at him until his lips are near hers again and she realizes she's been closing the gap this entire time.

And of course, now that the dam has broken, they fall once again into the flow of the kiss, soft and sweet this time.

Her head is spinning in the best possible way when they separate, almost panting harder than when they had been making out.

This feels different.

"Yeah," she finally manages to respond. "I'm okay."

"Good," he responds with a small smile. "Come on, we need to go find the others."

"No need."

They whip around to meet Leo and Thalia, both holding empty cups they were clearly about to throw away in the trashcan nearby. But they stand, semi-frozen looking at them.

"Fuck," Percy mutters under his breath.

A/N: They did it, they did the thing everyone wanted them to do in the last chapter lol, they finally kissed. I hope you guys liked this one, things are definitely progressing now. But what comes next, tune in next next week to find out!

Please Review ! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading!