“you said he wouldn’t be here,” she hisses to piper, who shrugs.
“i didn’t know! maybe shel invited him. they’ve always been close,” piper replies, leading her to the bar and sitting on a stool. annabeth follows and piper orders two shots for the both of them, spinning on her stool to face her best friend. “beth, quit panicking.”
“i’m not panicking,” annabeth says defensively, taking the two glasses from the bartender’s hand and downing hers immediately. piper raises an eyebrow, touching the glass to her lips and she sighs. “okay, maybe i’m panicking a little. which is totally valid, because my ex is at my best friend’s party when i was told that he was not coming.”
“i’m sorry,” piper says, giving her an apologetic look. “listen, i know getting over him was hard, and this is one of the first times you’ve gone out since the breakup, so don’t talk to him, don’t even look at him. just enjoy yourself, okay? you deserve it. and you can go home if you want.”
“it’s not your fault,” annabeth mumbles, her gaze straying back to him. his dark black hair is an unruly mess as always, shirt tail sticking out of his blue jeans. he’s smiling, talking to hazel. pointing to something behind annabeth, he turns around and she looks away quickly. out of the corner of her eye, she can see his smile fading for a fraction of a second, something only she could notice, and she knows he’s seen her.
piper sees it too, but says nothing. she orders a couple more beers, gives annabeth’s hand a reassuring squeeze, and walks off in the direction of her girlfriend. annabeth sighs again, taking a slow sip from her drink. seeing percy again after weeks was… weird. her mind wanders back to their last conversation, how he walked out and he didn’t try to stop him. their relationship wasn’t easy, but at least they tried. even though they both knew it probably wouldn’t last.
she doesn’t know if it’s the alcohol thinking or her, but one minute she’s sitting on her seat, thinking back on their entire relationship, and the next she’s walking up to him, a friendly smile plastered on her face.
“hey,” she says casually, sliding into the booth. hazel glances nervously between the both of them, then at the empty beer glass in annabeth’s hand, and politely excuses herself.
“hi beth,” he replies awkwardly, the nickname rolling off his lips out of habit. she ignores the double flip her stomach does when she hears it. “what’s up?”
she had not prepared herself for this part of the conversation. “just wanted to say hi. so hi. okay, bye!”
she moves to get up, but he grabs her hand. “stay?” percy asks, something she should’ve said to him all those nights ago.
so she does.
she asks him about how estelle’s been doing, what he’s been up to for the past few weeks. they make small talk, careful to steer past anything even remotely relating to their breakup, which she’s grateful for.
after a while, she orders some more drinks, relaxing a little. the gap between their seats gets smaller and smaller until her body is pressed against his, her head on his shoulder. just like how it used to be.
“we shouldn't be doing this,” he mumbles.
“doing what?”
he shakes his head. “never mind. oh, i almost forgot. rachel says hi and she wants to know how you're doing."
“wait, what?” she straightens up, shifting away from him. "when did you meet her."
“it’s nothing like that,” he says quickly. “i bumped into her at the mall a couple days ago.”
“oh,” she replies, her words slurring slightly. relief floods over her. “so is there anyone who you’re bumping into like that?”
“beth, you’re drunk, you should be getting home.”
“no, i’m fine,” she insists. “you didn’t answer my question. there is someone, isn’t there?”
“no,” he replies immediately. “you really think you’re easy to get over?”
“i was just asking,” annabeth mutters coldly, turning away from him. “you’re not easy to get over either, by the way.”
percy opens his mouth to say something, but closes it. he sighs, leaning back and rubbing his temples. after a couple of excruciating minutes of silence, he picks up the jacket from the seat and pulls it around his shoulders. she still doesn’t look at him.
“look, i should go. are you sure you don’t need help getting home?” he stands up.
“yeah, i’ll be fine. i can call a cab or something,” she replies, playing with her fingers.
“alright. and i’m sorry about… everything. i'll see you soon, if you want,” he presses a small kiss to her lips and starts walking away. she takes a minute to register what just happened, blinking slowly, and turns around to stare at him. he looks completely normal, shouting his goodbyes to their friends and a loud happy birthday to piper, who waves back with a smile. as soon as he reaches the door he stops, though, seeming to have realized what he’s done, and backtracks to their booth.
“shit, i’m so sorry,” he says softly, rubbing the back of his neck ruefully. “old habits die hard, i guess.”
“yeah,” she swallows, her voice barely above a whisper. “don’t worry about it, it’s totally, completely, fine.”
percy doesn’t look convinced, but knows better than to argue with her. “okay, i’ll, uh, i’ll just go. call me when you get home,” he says and she nods.
he leaves, and surrounded by the loud noises of her friends and the blinding lights of the bar, annabeth feels completely and utterly alone.
its one week after the titan war and the dust has fully settled. like yeah there's a lot of repairs to be done but for the most part its calm and there's a moment of peace and one morning, some aphrodite camper makes an offhand comment about how percy and annabeth are really cute and someone says something about dates and percy goes into PANIC because it hits him that he is in fact a boyfriend now and dates are something he has to do.
he iris messages his mom (obviously) and kind of asks her for advice? its a lot of blushing and sally saying "HA I KNEW IT" before she tells him that they should just do something privately while still at camp, and the he can take her out for dinner when they're back in the city, since she's gonna be there too for school. he ends up asking her to hang out after the bonfire on the beach, and its a lot of blushing and stuttering from his end and he asks her after archery practice and she's blushy and nodding and she has to ask drew tanaka of all people for advice and something about the mundaneness of helping her heals a lot of aphrodite kids who just miss silena
she borrows a cute top from drew and wears shorts and he plans a little picnic for them (but its mostly desserts because they just ate dinner) and its cute and cosy and he gives her the coral pendant that night and its a lot of shy kisses melting into their regular conversations and at the end of the night when he drops her off to her cabin for lights out he makes her a promise that something better will come when they're in the city but she just kisses him again and tells him that this was enough
i had been wanting to read ‘we can find a way to break through’ for a while now and i just got around to it and GOD i wish i had read it sooner. the description was lowkey confusing for me but it sounded interesting too so i finally read it and wow🧑🏼🍳😘 chefs kiss yk? it was so good
Don’t worry, that fic confused me too LOL
fun fact: it was either that one or triangulum, and I chose triangulum✌️but ended up writing both in the next few months anyways
omg okay the fic u wrote for the prompt i sent was so so good chefs kiss🧑🏼🍳💋 wow BUT more importantly your tags reminded me that rockland came out bc i COMPLETELY forgot about it so thank you for that, i listened while i read and it made the whole fic even better😩🥰
ahsjdfjjd this is so nice i'm gonna cry thank youu 😭🥺
