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Annabeth woke up and immediately thought she was dreaming. She was cuddled up in her cabin at camp, early morning sunshine leaking through the blinds and illuminating her face. The weight that had been on her chest for years now, the million-pound weight of the Great Prophecy gone in the blink of an eye.
It was August 19th. It was all over.
Annabeth immediately wanted to see Percy. She wanted to see him, touch him, kiss him because apparently that’s something they do now. She wanted to make sure he was still okay, to know without a shadow of a doubt he’d made it past his birthday. That the Fates weren’t playing some sick and twisted trick by ending his life at eleven fifty-nine last night.
She forced the thought out of her head, throwing the covers off of her before sneaking to the bathroom to shower.
Considering all she’d been through in the last week, Annabeth felt pretty great physically. On Olympus after they defeated Kronos and Luke’s sacrifice, she was convinced she was as close to death as she’d ever been. But after Apollo’s healing, she’d practically never felt better. Her wound from the poisoned blade was already gone, replaced with a white and jagged scar that she knew would probably never go away. She didn’t regret it in the slightest, though. She would take the huge scar over a dead Percy Jackson any day. She’d jump in front of the knife a million times over again if she had to.
Just the thought of him made her cheeks heat up. They’d only admitted their feelings just last night and she was already ridiculously smitten.
Who was she kidding? She had always been ridiculously smitten.
As much as she wanted to see him today, she was extremely nervous, too. What if he wasn’t in the right headspace last night? What if it was a post-prophecy high that he would regret in the morning? Were they still just friends? Were they more than friends? Were they boyfriend and girlfriend?
Annabeth had no idea. They’d never really been great at talking about their feelings. The fact that they liked each other was completely established. The status of the relationship? Not so much.
As she was getting dressed for the day, the morning bell rang, waking up her siblings and signaling the start of breakfast. She felt herself vibrating with anticipation, practically bouncing at the idea of seeing him again. She’d never been scared of him before, at least not like this. Did she hug him when she saw him? Should she kiss him? Would that be weird or too much? Should it just be a little fist-bump?
She was completely overthinking this. She scrunched her damp curls in the mirror, took a deep breath, and headed out the door.
Camp wasn’t the same. Camp would never be the same. They’d won the war, sure, but they’d lost so many people in the process. It weighed on her heart, thick and heavy, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she could have saved more people if she’d done something differently. If she could have planned something out better, if she had created a better defense strategy. If she could have been smarter, quicker, or more prepared. But she was her mother’s daughter, she knew the true cost of war. People had to die for others to live. It was a simple fact of life, something she knew she couldn’t change no matter how badly she hated it. It didn’t take away the sting, but it helped deal with it knowing they didn’t die for nothing. They died true heroes.
Luke died a hero.
Thinking about him made her sick to her stomach, but she knew it had to happen. He’d made the right choice, the only choice. He’d made so many mistakes, but in that moment, he’d redeemed himself. He wasn’t perfect, Annabeth knew that well now. But he was a hero. He would forever be a hero.
She swallowed the lump in her throat, refusing to cry on the way to breakfast. Luke wouldn’t be sad in Elysium today, so it does her no good to be sad here.
She was early, one of the only campers at the pavilion. She didn’t blame anyone, they’d had an exhausting week and she was sure most campers were soaking in every ounce of sleep they could get. She also knew Percy Jackson well enough to know that he would probably be the last camper to show up. She let out a deep breath, trying to remain patient and deciding some coffee would help with that.
Embarrassingly enough, she liked her coffee incredibly sweet. She couldn’t stand it bitter, but she loved the energy and the gentle taste. She drenched her mug in half and half and sugar.
“There is no way you can even taste the coffee in that,” a voice came from behind her, causing her to jump and spill some onto the table.
She turned to see Grover, a smirk on his face as he came up beside her to pour himself a cup. He had on a red beanie, his goatee a little longer than normal. “Shut up. You made me spill it.”
He grabbed a napkin, wiping it up in one clean swoop. “Sorry about that.”
She let out a laugh, genuinely happy to see him as she leaned against the coffee table. “It’s okay.”
He took a sip, the steam rising from his cup. “How are you feeling?”
She inhaled sharply and nodded. “I’m good.”
His expression fell, tilting his head to the side. “Annabeth.”
“I feel great,” she pulled up her sleeve to show him her scar. “Look how much better this looks. Apollo really knows what he is doing, I guess.”
Grover studied it for a second, unfazed. “Okay, but mentally, are you okay?”
Annabeth’s heart squeezed. She’d known Grover since she was seven and he’d truly been with her through it all. He knew how she ticked, how she functioned, how much these past few weeks had been on her. He knew how close she’d been with some of the people they’d lost. How much Silena meant to her. How much Luke meant to her.
She didn’t say anything, she just pulled him in for a hug.
He smelled like grass and the outdoors, but not in an unpleasant way. Like a soft summer day, reminding Annabeth of her childhood years at camp. They’d come a long way since then. She never really thought they’d actually make it this far.
“I’m okay,” she told him, giving him one last pat on the back. “I will be, I promise.”
“Okay,” he told her as he let go. “I believe you. But don’t think you are too cool to ask for help if you need it, okay? Even future architects of Olympus can’t carry everything on their own all of the time.”
Annabeth just laughed, still unable to comprehend that was her new job now. She wondered what twelve-year-old Annabeth would say if she could go back in time and tell her everything that had happened. Everything they’d accomplished. If she could tell her that she was getting to redesign Olympus. That they’d won the war and it was all over. That Percy Jackson was still alive and Olympus’s new golden boy, and that he might be her boyfriend.
“I’ll let you know, I promise.”
He gave her a small grin before pointing at her shoulder. “Don’t show Percy that for awhile, though. He was pretty torn up about that, and I know seeing that might make him feel worse.”
Percy, Annabeth thought to herself giddily. Gods, what was going on with her?
“Ew, gross,” Grover rolled his eyes, but a smile played on his lips. “I just said his name and you already got all heart-eyed!”
Annabeth’s ears burned. “That is not true!”
“It totally is! I just watched it with my own two eyes!” Grover pointed at her face, taking another drink of his coffee. “But I watched you both pine after each other for years and it was painfully hard to watch, so this is a lot better than that.”
“We didn’t pine after each other-”
Her statement made Grover burst into a fit of laughter. “Uh, yes, you did! You’re both terrible at hiding emotions and I have an empathy link with Percy. I’m just glad to see you two finally dating.”
She bit her lip. “We aren’t dating. At least, I don’t think so yet.”
“So, sticking your tongue down each other's throats in front of the whole camp isn’t dating–”
Her eyes widened, whipping her head around to make sure no one heard him. “Yuck, shut up! And it wasn’t in front of everyone, it was just us til everyone showed up.”
He snorted as he glanced over at the rest of the pavilion, his eyes fixating on something across the hall. “Speak of the devil.”
She followed his gaze, her heart threatening to jump out of her chest as she locked eyes with him. He was wearing a faded camp t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts, a bed-head of dark waves and pillow creases on his face. He raised his hand in an awkward wave as he made his way over, scrunching his nose with a sleepy grin that made Annabeth’s stomach fill with butterflies. He was the cutest boy she’d ever seen in her entire life.
“Hey guys,” his voice was low and gravelly, nearly giving out at the end. It sent shivers down her spine, but she immediately tried to ignore how attractive it was. “What did I miss?”
Blowing her cover and all of her plans to try to maintain some level of nonchalance, she threw her arms around his neck. He laughed and it vibrated against her chest, his warm and alive body pressed against hers. His chest rising and falling as he wrapped his arms around her waist, his hot breath against her ear.
He’s alive, the thought repeated over and over in her head. He’s sixteen and a day and he is alive.
“Missed me that bad, huh?” He was teasing her, she could tell, but it wasn’t as cocky as normal. He was just as scared as she was. It made her feel better.
She wanted to hang on to him forever, stay right there in his arms until the end of time, but she forced herself to back away. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
He smiled with a warmth in his eyes that Annabeth had seen so often, but never could quite name. Maybe she could now. Affection.
“How are you feeling, man?” Grover asked, patting his shoulder.
Percy shrugged, rubbing his tired eyes with both hands. “I’ve been better, but I’m feeling pretty good. I guess the whole Achilles curse thing helps with that. I just feel like I could sleep for another twelve hours.”
“Nothing is planned for the day,” Annabeth told him. “Chiron said we all could use a day of fun and rest. Maybe you could get a nap later if you needed to.”
Percy raised his eyebrows. “Sweet.”
“Well, lovebirds,” Grover’s nickname made Annabeth go rigid, forcing her gaze away from Percy. “I’m gonna go talk to Juniper. See you guys later?”
“See you, Grover,” they both somehow said at once. Annabeth wondered if she was as red as she felt.
He just snorted, giving them a wave before teetering off.
Suddenly, they were alone again. Annabeth swallowed.
“Hey,” Percy spoke up, his voice uncharacteristically soft.
“Hi,” Annabeth beamed. She couldn’t even attempt to mask her excitement, the overwhelming sense of joy she felt just standing beside him and watching his lips curve into a sheepish grin.
He scratched the back of his neck. “Want to go for a walk after breakfast? Or we can do whatever you want to do, I just wanted to hangout with you and–”
Annabeth nodded, probably way too quickly. “Yes, Percy, I’d love a walk. I’ll meet you outside your cabin. Does that work?”
He nodded and she got the courage to give his arm a squeeze before taking off towards her breakfast table. “Sounds great. I’ll see you in a few minutes?”
“See you in a few minutes. And Annabeth?”
She came to a stop, turning around to fully face him. His cheeks were faintly flushed in the morning sun, the creases along the side of his face starting to fade away. “You look pretty today.”
Annabeth thought every single molecule in her body might combust at that exact moment, feeling like her brain was getting rewired. He’d never called her pretty before. It felt like such a minuscule thing, something so small compared to the insurmountable kind things he’d done for her before. But it was so mundane, so boyish, so relationship-like that Annabeth thought she might faint on the spot.
His expression changed, his eyes widening and his arms raising in some form of defense. “I mean, you look pretty every day! But I just wanted you to know that-”
She giggled–like a real genuine, girly giggle–and it seemed to make him feel better. He laughed, too. “Thanks, Seaweed Brain. You don’t look so bad yourself every day either.”
She turned away, smiling like an idiot to herself as she tried to get herself together before her siblings' interrogation at the breakfast table.
-
Percy was already waiting outside his cabin when she got there, hair much calmer than earlier and a minty scent to his breath like he’d just now brushed his teeth. He gave her a toothy grin, not doing any favors for her already shot nerves.
“Sorry it took me a second, my siblings were being nosey,” she told him, running his fingers through some of her loose curls.
“About what?” he asked her smugly.
She shoved his shoulder. “I hate you.”
He smirked, grabbing her hand and intertwining his fingers with hers before tugging her forward. She felt completely frozen. His hand was warm and calloused, a lot bigger than hers now and she wasn’t sure when that happened.
“What? Too much?” He asked, panicked as his grip loosened and she gave his hand a squeeze.
“No, of course not,” she promised. “I like it.”
He let out a breathy laugh, starting their walk and dragging her with him. “Me too.”
They walked around the camp, laughing and teasing each other, hand-in-hand and ignoring the giggles and points when they were spotted by all the campers on their free day. Annabeth was much too captivated by Percy Jackson to care in the slightest. Eventually, their wandering brought them toward the woods, and Annabeth remembered the perfect place to take a break.
They ended up at the secret section of the beach they’d been going to since they were kids, a tiny stretch of sand along the Sound tucked on the far left side of the woods. Every summer during the Perseid meteor shower, Annabeth would drag Percy out there, and they would watch it along the sand. At night, you could see the sky reflected perfectly across the water. It was one of her favorite spots at camp.
She plopped down in the sand. “I hate that we missed the Perseids this year.”
Percy sat down beside her. “I guess we were a little busy.”
“Just a little bit.”
“You’ve taught me all the astronomy that I know, did you know that?” he told her, green eyes reflecting the sunlight beaming off the water. “New York City is so bright, it’s hard to really see anything in the sky but the moon. Mom always told me I had a constellation named after me, but I never could have found it until you showed it to me.”
The memories were years ago, but Annabeth remembered them like it was yesterday. She could still see her twelve-year-old self dragging Percy out here at night, his Camp Half-Blood shirt hanging off his shoulder and a huge pout on his face. She'd point out constellations to him, patiently explaining the stars while he asked question after question, pretending he wasn't actually interested. Eventually, though, the astronomy lessons would turn into hours of them lying in the sand, talking about anything and everything. “You always acted like you hated it.”
He shrugged, looking over at her with a soft smile. “Maybe at first, but I always had a great time. I just liked being with you.”
Annabeth was staring at his lips. They were slightly chapped, cracked like he was a little dehydrated. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to kiss him so badly. Instead, she put his hand over his in the sand. “I did, too.”
They didn’t say anything for a minute, listening to the waves crash gently onto the shore. She felt overwhelmed by the copious different emotions that she was feeling, her heart feeling like it was being tugged in a multitude of different directions. Love. Grief. Relief. Joy. Fear. Nostalgia. She didn’t think she’d ever felt so much in her entire life.
“Annabeth, I’m sorry about Luke,” Percy finally spoke up, his voice unsteady and thinner than normal. “I’m sorry you lost him, but I’m also sorry I spent so long refusing to see the good in him, too. Maybe if I would have just listened to you, this would have never-”
She shook her head, watching as his dark eyebrows tug together. “No, don’t say that. Nothing that happened was your fault. You gave him a choice and he made the one he had to make.”
He licked his lips, head twitching as he turned away from her again. “Yeah, but maybe we could have saved him earlier, you know? If I wasn’t being such a jerk about it all.”
“We all tried to get Luke to change,” Annabeth told him. “Even when you didn’t like him, you reasoned with him. Even Thalia and I reasoned with him, and if we couldn’t change him, no one else could. It was a decision he had to make on his own. There was nothing you could have done differently.”
Percy nodded, clearly unconvinced. “Maybe. But I know he meant a lot to you.”
Annabeth inhaled sharply. For four years, talking to Percy about her feelings for Luke typically ended in some sort of argument and one of them storming off. Her first instinct was always to defend him, but she didn’t really feel that way anymore.
“Luke meant a lot to me because Thalia and him were the first people who really chose me,” Annabeth explained, her voice shakier than she liked. “They found me and protected me, treated me like one of their own. I felt so seen with them, so safe because I’d never really felt that way before. But then we lost Thalia, and Luke was all that I had.”
Percy was intently watching her now as she continued. “I’d lost everyone I loved. I guess when Luke betrayed us, I wanted to hold on to hope that I still had someone else out there who loved me. I wanted to believe that he would still come back if I asked, that the boy who’d chosen me when I was little would still think I was enough to choose. I think it was just my weird way of dealing with it all.”
He was quiet for a second and Annabeth’s throat went dry, worried she’d upset him. But he finally spoke up. “He did choose you in the end.”
Annabeth let out a hollow laugh. It was true, and she knew that. When push came to shove, Luke had chosen her. He'd saved the world. But really, what other option did he have? Use the dagger or become a shell of himself, Kronos using his body as a host and enveloping Luke as a whole? She remembered the panic in his eyes when he'd tried to run with her all those years ago, terrified of what Kronos would do to him. He didn’t want to lose himself.
Maybe that was what made it so complicated.
She loved him. She believed he'd made the right choice. She believed that, in the end, he had chosen to save them. But she couldn't pretend that meant he would have made the same choice under different circumstances. If Kronos had offered him everything he'd wanted—the power to overthrow the gods, to rebuild the world the way Luke thought it should be—would he have walked away?
Annabeth didn't know. She didn’t like it, but she couldn’t keep the thought from circulating in her mind.
Luke had been a hero in his final moments. She would always believe that. But he was a complicated person and grief was a complicated thing.
“I guess so,” she told him. He was looking directly at her, hesitancy in his green eyes and a crease in between his eyebrows. Her heart swelled at the mere sight of him and all of the sudden, she felt that she owed him an explanation. “Percy, can I tell you something?”
He nodded like his life depended on the words that were about to come out of her mouth, shifting his body so he could lean closer to her. “Of course.”
“I know it’s always been obvious that I’ve had some strong feelings for Luke,” she sighed, fiddling with her father’s college ring around her necklace. “And I’m not going to deny that, I’ve always had feelings for him, but not in the way you would think. Not like the ones I feel for you.”
She felt herself reddening, immediately sheepish at the mention of their new relationship, or whatever this was. Her gaze suddenly became very fixed on the horizon. “I meant it when I said he was like a brother to me. Maybe the feelings were mixed up at the age of twelve because I didn’t understand them. Maybe it was a crush back then, sure. But getting to know you was when I realized what actually having feelings for someone felt like. You made me feel completely different emotions than I’d ever felt and it was nothing like I felt with Luke.”
She got the courage to sneak a glance at him and he was staring at her in what felt like awe. His lips parted in a gentle smile, his eyes wide as they awaited her next words.
Gods, she liked him so much.
“You were stupidly cute and annoying, impulsive and stupid. But most of all, Percy, you chose me. I never asked you to. You didn’t owe me anything. I didn’t do anything to earn your friendship. You saw me and decided I was worth sticking by, and you haven’t really left my side ever since. That means the world to me.”
Percy stared at her for a second, blinking. Annabeth panicked internally. Had she overstepped? Had she told him too much? Had she somehow managed to scare him off, just like she always felt like she did with everyone else?
But then, all of the sudden, he kissed her.
His lips were warm. He tasted like salt, just like he had yesterday, and just like he had when she’d kissed him on Mount St. Helens. She was beginning to wonder if this was simply a permanent Percy Jackson thing. She liked it.
He pulled away after a second, looking her dead in the eyes before he spoke. “Choosing you is easy, Annabeth. I hate that anyone ever made you think it wasn’t.”
He was so genuine. His voice was strong and confident as he said it, his eyes pressing into hers like he could lock the words in her brain himself and force her to believe it. She loved that it was such a simple concept to him.
It might have been simple to Percy, but it was mind-altering to Annabeth.
Her eyes began to sting with tears, but she let out a laugh. She already felt spent on emotions for the day, but she decided right now, in this very moment, all she felt was joy. Pure joy. She grabbed his face and kissed him.
This one was longer, a little stronger, too. She tried to communicate how much he meant to her in a way that none of her words could convey at the moment.
When she finally pulled away, she whispered against his lips, “Choosing you is easy, too.”
“You mean that?”
“Most of the time,” she teased and his lips curved into the perfect troublemaker smirk she’d fallen for all those years ago. He grabbed her around the waist and she squealed, dragging her closer to him as he nestled his head against her neck.
“Jerk,” he deadpanned but it was muffled against her skin, the hot breath tickling her skin. She wrapped her arms around him, finally letting herself just relax and not overthink this. He liked her. She liked him. It wasn’t complicated anymore.
She pressed a kiss to the top of his head. For the first time the whole day, she didn’t even hesitate.
Percy raised his head, a goofy smile on his lips. “So, what exactly are we, by the way?”
Annabeth laughed at the abruptness of the question. But, then again, wasn’t she asking herself that the entire day? She brushed a piece of his hair out of his face. “Whatever you want to be.”
He took a long breath, searching her eyes for a second before speaking. “I want to be your boyfriend.”
Butterflies. Millions of them taking flight in Annabeth’s stomach all at once at the mention of one silly little word. She tried to remain calm, but she’d never really been great at hiding her emotions. Especially not from him. “I’m okay with that.”
He laughed at this and Annabeth decided she wanted to bottle up the sound and keep it until the end of time. “You’re okay with that? Because that makes you my girlfriend, too.”
She nodded, just teasing him at this point. “I’m okay with that, too. I guess under those conditions, we’d be dating?”
He squinted at her, playing along. “Something like that.”
“I’m more than okay with that,” she told him, a warm feeling beginning to spread from her chest all across her body, even to the very tips of her toes. It felt bubbly, light, and deep somehow all at once.
She pressed her lips against his smile, working her lips against his with an urgency she’d never had before. Sure, they’d made-out yesterday under the canoe lake, but there was still a level of hesitancy to it. A level of uncertainty, a part of them holding back something because they didn’t know what they were or what they were doing.
She didn’t feel that way now. She was kissing her boyfriend.
Annabeth and Percy fundamentally worked well together. They fought well together, they knew each other's moves and counteracted each other. They understood each other. They normally knew the other’s move before they even made it.
Kissing wasn’t the exception. They’d developed a rhythm, a certain push and pull like they were both fighting to be the better kisser. And it made it incredibly fun.
She hoped he felt the same way. Gods, did he feel the same way?
She pulled away for a second, breathing heavily as he blinked like he’d been pulled from a trance.
“Too much?” Annabeth asked, her cheeks warm.
He shook his head without even looking up from her lips. “Of course not. And if I ever say yes to that, kill me.”
He kissed her, cradling both sides of her face with his hands. Annabeth laughed against his lips, her love for him threatening to bubble up and pour out of her. She wouldn’t tell him now, of course she wouldn’t. She wasn’t naive enough about relationships to tell a boy she loved him in their first twenty-four hours of dating.
But she loved him with every ounce of her being. She’d loved him for years now. She’d love him until they laid her in her grave, whether that was a year from now or sixty.
Their world had drastically changed over the past few days. They’d lost so much, seen so much, and experienced things no sixteen year olds should ever dream of seeing. She didn’t know how they would move on from this. She didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, when the Prophecy Rachel gave yesterday would come to fruition. She didn’t know when the constant pit in her stomach, the sting from all their losses would go away. She didn’t know if it ever would.
She didn’t know if she wanted it to.
But she knew that life would go on, whether she was ready for it or not. She could spend the rest of her life looking back at everything they’d lost, counting their mistakes and wondering what they could have done differently. Or she could keep going. They’d saved the world. They’d been given what felt like a second chance at life. Maybe they could make something good out of it.
She knew that the boy in front of her was alive and well. Ever since she’d met him, she thought he’d been a dead man walking. He’d made it despite all the odds stacked against him, and just his presence alone gave her enough hope to do just about anything. His goodness, his kindness, his loyalty, his passion—they reminded Annabeth that there was still something good left in the world. Something worth choosing.
Maybe pressing on wasn’t as selfish as it felt like. Maybe it was the opposite. Maybe the best way she could honor the dead was to make the most out of the life they’d sacrificed their own to give her. To give to all of them.
She broke away from him gently, running her fingers through the curls at the nape of his neck. He smiled at her, a smile that had gotten her through more than he could ever know.
She let go of him, brushing her hands off on her shorts before standing up to offer him a hand. He pouted, staring up at her through his thick eyelashes. “Where are we going?”
“Back into camp,” she told him as he took her hand. “We’ve probably been gone too long. People will talk, you know.”
She pulled him to his feet. “People already talk.”
She gave him one last peck on the lips, and apparently that was enough to put him in a better mood. “Come on, Seaweed Brain. We’ve got a camp to get back to.”