Author's notes: Some more Percy/Annabeth fluff for you all. Hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Love, Actually

Whenever she came over to his place to do homework, Annabeth always claimed his bed – something about needing a lot of space for her notes and being comfy at the same time – while Percy was regulated to his uncomfortable, messy desk, which was what his mother said was the "chivalrous" thing to do in such a situation.

Like any teenage boy, he could care less about chivalry, and he didn't know why Annabeth just didn't let him join her on the bed right way. There was enough room for him and besides, half the time they ended up sprawled on there together while she corrected his Trigonometry homework and he read her English assignments out loud, making fun of her dramatic use of exclamation points and purple prose as he went. Or they ended up forgetting about the homework altogether and making out, which was probably why his mom wanted him to be chivalrous in the first place.

There was nothing different about today's arrangement, nothing out of the ordinary – okay, maybe Annabeth was wearing his old clothes because she'd gotten caught in a downpour when she'd come over and Sally had gone into complete mother bear mode at the sight of his soaking wet girlfriend, but even that wasn't something completely out of place. There was nothing to indicate that anything extraordinary or special was supposed to happen, which actually didn't mean much in his world, but still, there were usually signs when something important was supposed to happen.

Because when Percy looked up from his homework, grossly confused by the law of cosines, and glanced over his shoulder at his girlfriend, hoping for a distraction, that something important happened instead.

Percy realized he was in love with Annabeth.

It hit him like a blow upside the head – quick, hard, and totally unexpected – and dazed him momentarily.

He wasn't sure what had caused this sudden revelation. Maybe it was the way Annabeth was tapping her pencil against her bottom lip thoughtfully or how her hair was drying in curled cascades down or back or how his t-shirt slipped down her shoulder and she pulled it back into place without taking her eyes off the book in front of her, but there was just something about her in this moment that made his gut clench and heart skip into overtime as emotion rolled over him.

And it wasn't like that warm and fuzzy, hey my best friend just turned into my make out partner, awesome or I adore this girl enough to spend almost all my time with her sort of emotions he had felt had during the first months they'd been together. These feelings were the real deal – the kind of aching, heavy, oh shit feeling you get when you discover you've been hopelessly and permanently and actually in love with someone for the last couple of months, maybe even the last year, and all it took was the sight of her wearing a pair of your old boxer shorts to make all those scattered feelings and trembling hopes and dreams click together to form one perfect picture.

He'd thought there'd be more fanfare for a moment like this; falling in love was kind of a ginormous deal, wasn't it? If it was, then why hadn't he realized this when they had been fighting monsters together the week before? Why hadn't this deep feeling struck him the first time he'd seen Annabeth naked or during their first anniversary date last year? There wasn't anything significant about today; it was just so – so painfully normal.

But maybe, Percy thought as he watched her pull a piece of hair behind her ears and his heart flapped pathetically, that was what love was – being normal. Love didn't have to be rare, grand moments or the important milestones, and what made love special was that it could thrive during these soft, quiet moments of normality too.

Finally feeling his gaze on her, Annabeth glanced up at him and her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" she asked curiously.

He thought about not telling her, maybe saving his new found revelation for a special occasion or for later on down the road, but this was Annabeth. She might not have said those three little words to him yet, but she was always two steps ahead of him and had probably been waiting for him to catch up to her for ages. She deserved the truth, not just a brush off.

"Because," he begins simply, meeting her gaze. "I'm in love with you."

Annabeth's cheeks flushed a deep pink at this announcement and her mouth dropped open in surprise. She just stared at him for a long moment, as if she couldn't believe what he'd said, but then shook herself and cleared her throat, glancing down at the papers in front of her and shuffling through them carefully.

"You always know how to surprise me, Seaweed Brain," she said at last, and he could hear the trembling emotion in her voice. "I was expecting you to say, 'I need to copy your Trig homework, Annabeth' or something, geeze."

"Well, there's that too," he replied with a grin, getting out of his chair and throwing himself onto the bed beside her. He heard some of her notes crinkle underneath him, and he felt ridiculously pleased with himself when she glared at him with watery eyes. "So, will you show me how to do this triangle nonsense or should I just give you the homework now to save you the grief?"

"You are so hopeless, Percy," she sighed, pulling her math book over.

"But you love me for it anyway?" he teased, flipping the book open and turning it to the page he needed.

Annabeth set her hand on top of his, stilling his movements, and then leaned forward, pressing her lips against his lightly. It was a simple kiss, but her whispered, "Absolutely," against his mouth afterwards took his breath away all the same.

Yeah, Percy thought absentmindedly as she pulled away, her hand lingering on his cheek, it was moments like these that love actually was all about.