***This is just a short, semi-drabble piece, but I kind of liked the idea.***

Percy had been gone about two months when Annabeth found the picture. It was a dreary, gray February day, the kind that left her feeling miserable. The previous week's snow clumped in ugly, dirty lumps along the streets, after melting just enough to make the sidewalks treacherous. Annabeth, navigating the icy streets, wiped tears from her eyes. She was on her way back to her dorm after leaving Sally's apartment. Today had felt more hopeless than usual, and they'd found it difficult to reassure each other that Percy would make it home safely from…wherever he was. But today, for the first time, Annabeth felt like neither of them believed it. Which hurt.

Luckily, she managed to evade the other girls in the dorm and escaped to the privacy of her room. Dropping her backpack on her desk chair, she debated about doing homework for all of ten seconds before deciding she was just too drained. Especially after she made the mistake of looking at her bulletin board, hanging over her dresser, which contained at least a dozen pictures of Percy—with her and Grover after their first quest, from other summers and winter breaks over the years, from the great four months they'd been dating. Her heart twisted. Angrily, she swiped away another tear.

Exhaustion washed over her in a wave. Along with visiting Sally twice this week, she'd made multiple Iris-messages to relatively friendly monsters and minor deities around the country, asking for information, but no one knew anything. Plus, the IMs weren't working so great at the moment, apparently courtesy of Gaea. Then, there had been the unsuccessful trip over to Medusa's old lair in New Jersey, a long shot, she'd known, but still, it felt like doing something, rather than sitting around worried out of her mind for yet another day.

"Screw it," she muttered. She had a pre-calc test tomorrow, but she was prepared for it. Nothing else was due before the weekend; she could afford a night off.

Shivering from the cold and damp outside, Annabeth decided to take a hot shower. Afterward, maybe she'd curl up under the covers and watch a movie. Anything but a romantic comedy.

It had been a couple weeks since she'd done laundry, so she was running low on t-shirts. Reaching to the back of the drawer, her fingers brushed against something that wasn't fabric. Frowning, she pulled the object out.

It was a picture.

It must have fallen off the bulletin board and slipped through a crack into the dresser. When she saw what the picture was, a new sob rose in her chest.

She remembered this picture. They'd taken it in late November, after they'd been dating about three months. A few weeks before Percy disappeared. They'd been sitting on the couch in his apartment. It was a Friday night and they were going out to dinner with his parents, but neither Sally nor Paul was home from work yet. The two of them had just been talking, catching each other up on their week. Annabeth was sitting with her legs across Percy's lap. One of his hands rested lightly on her shin. His other arm was stretched across the back of the couch. Everything just felt easy.

The idea for the picture came up when Annabeth was telling Percy the story of how a girl in her class made a huge production at lunch of deleting photos of her now ex-boyfriend off her phone after finding out that he'd cheated on her. "So she's calling him all these horrible names, which he probably deserved, as she's going through her photos, until she gets to the one that's on her lockscreen, which is this photo of them kissing. Then she holds up her phone and hits delete. So now her wallpaper is basically blank. And she goes, 'Fresh start, moth—' actually, I'm not going to say it, but you can guess what she said. It was kind of hilarious. But then, later, she was crying in the bathroom. I talked to her for a few minutes, and she was saying she should have seen the warning signs, because he could be kind of shady, but she'd just really liked him. Anyway, I ended up giving her a hug and we went back to class when she'd calmed down. But it just made me very grateful that you are a nice, not shady guy."

"Thanks." Percy grinned, but his eyes became serious when he said, "And I'd never cheat on you. Mostly because I wouldn't want to do that to you. But also because I don't think you'd just delete my pictures and call me names. You'd probably stab me or something."

"It would be tempting," Annabeth admitted. "Honestly, though, it's not something I even worry about. Because that's not who you are."

"Definitely not," Percy agreed.

Annabeth rested her hand on his forearm. "And I would never cheat on you, either. Just to be clear."

"I know."

"Good."

After a moment, Percy said casually, "You know, everyone seems to have those stupid kissing pictures. Maybe we should do one."

"Seriously?" Annabeth wrinkled her nose. "But they're so cheesy."

"Well, yeah." Percy scooted a little closer. "But cheesy's not always bad, right?"

He looked so cute up close, sea-green eyes pleading, but with just a hint of mischievous sparkle in them, that Annabeth didn't want to say no. Reaching for her phone, which was balanced on the arm of the couch, she said, "I guess cheesy isn't always bad. Come here, Seaweed Brain."

It took several tries to get the shot right, especially since they both kept laughing. But when they finally got it, Annabeth had to admit the picture was kind of cute. "I don't hate it."

"Good." Percy took the phone out of her hand and set it on the couch behind him. "Now without the paparazzi…"

"That was your idea," Annabeth started to say, but Percy interrupted her with a kiss and she happily let him. Until the front door opened and they scrambled apart as his mom walked in.

Later that week, Annabeth had printed off copies of the picture for both of them. She'd hung hers on her bulletin board, but at some point it must have slipped off and fallen through the crack at the back of her dresser. Now, looking at it, Annabeth's heart felt like a heavy, dull weight. Not only because Percy was missing, which was bad enough. But it also reminded her of that conversation, which made her think about the fact that Jason had shown up with no memories…and almost immediately gotten together with Piper. A tear trickled down the side of Annabeth's nose.

Then determination surged through the misery. She wiped the tear away and forcefully pinned the picture back in the middle of her bulletin board. Even though it felt a little ridiculous, she told it fiercely, "I will find you. And we will figure this out. No matter—no matter what." Her voice shook, but she kept her eyes fixed on the picture. "That's a promise, Percy."

She kept that promise. She found him.

And he had never forgotten her.

It was June. Annabeth stood alone in her nearly empty dorm room and took a deep breath as she looked around at the last things that needed to be packed up. Her bed was stripped bare. The desk and dresser were empty. All the pictures had come down from the walls and bulletin board. A few shirts still hung in the closet and a half-full box sat on her nightstand, waiting for the final items to be added. But Annabeth didn't feel sad looking around the nearly empty room. Instead, a giddy bubble of happiness seemed to float through her. She was a high school graduate. A few years ago, that had seemed like an impossible goal. She'd doubted she would even live to the end of high school. But she had. She'd survived and accomplished more than one impossible thing.

Not alone, of course…

She smiled as Percy came back in after carrying some boxes out to the Prius. They were heading to camp to stash her stuff before going to Boston to meet up with Magnus and help him out. Then, in a few weeks, they'd be on their way out to California to get ready for college in the fall. It almost felt too good to be true.

"How much is left?" Percy asked.

"Not much." Annabeth moved to the closet to grab the clothes that were left and add them to the box on her nightstand. "I try to travel light, Seaweed Brain."

Percy raised his eyebrows. "Tell that to the loaded trunk and full backseat of the car."

"Some of that is your stuff."

"Um, yeah. A single backpack. Face it, Wise Girl. You're a hoarder." He grinned and dodged as she tried to swat his arm.

"Am not. Everything I own fits into a Prius. I'm pretty sure that's the exact opposite of being a hoarder."

"Whatever you say." Percy was still grinning, even as Annabeth shot him a glare over her shoulder.

He flopped onto the bare mattress, stretching his legs out, which made him a tripping hazard as Annabeth went back and forth from the closet to the nightstand. She was considering moving the now nearly full box, or just telling Percy to move, when he asked, "What's that?"

What looked maybe like a piece of paper was sticking out from behind her dresser. Annabeth bent down and picked it up. A smile spread across her face as she realized what it was. She held it up for Percy to see. "Remember this?"

It was the old photo of them kissing. Percy smirked and shook his head. "Yeah, I do. What's it doing back there, though?"

"It must have fallen down when I was cleaning stuff up." Annabeth studied the photo another moment, recalling the last time she'd found it, when everything seemed hopeless. She wished she could tell that girl it would be alright. It wouldn't be easy, necessarily. But things would work out.

She jumped when Percy slid an arm around her waist, then smiled again when he said, "I think we need to update that, don't you?" Her phone was already in his hand.

"Maybe." Summer breeze from the open window ruffled Annabeth's hair as she turned and tilted her head. Sunlight poured into the room and Percy smiled when he kissed her. Annabeth hoped the picture turned out because she absolutely wanted to capture this moment.

***Thanks for reading! I'm on tumblr at justabooknerdposts.***