This is a long overdue rewrite of the very first story I published on here way back in 2011. This one is a little more angsty than the other one, just be warned.
Anyone else coming back to the fandom after the TV show announcement?!

Annabeth rubbed her temples as she struggled to decipher the text on the screen in front of her. A few weeks ago, her brother Daedalus, the great inventor himself, had given her one of his very own laptops to study. He had designed countless plans for a myriad amazing inventions. He had designs for everything from war machines to a knife that slices and toasts bread at the same time.

She was so grateful and honored by the fact that she was given the opportunity to even touch the computer, let alone dive into the files upon files of material created by the man she once called her inspiration.

Annabeth wouldn't dare to complain about having the opportunity of a lifetime. No, she wouldn't even dare to do such a thing. How could she complain that almost all of the plans were written in Ancient Greek, Latin, and English? How could she complain that sometimes it seemed like the man just strung random words from all three languages together and called it a sentence?

How. Could. She.

"This is utterly impossible!" She threw her hands into the air to keep from tossing the laptop across the room.

"Hey, Annabeth," a voice called out from the doorway to her cabin. Her eyes flashed and she rounded on whoever it was that had dared to disturb her during her scheduled down time when she had made sure the 'Do-Not-Disturb' sign was prominently posted.

"Did you not see the sign—?" Annabeth stopped with her dagger mere inches from the offenders' throat when she finally registered who the perpetrator was. Percy was staring at her, eyes wide in surprise and hands held up in a mock surrender. "Oh, it's you," she turned and sheathed her dagger. She couldn't look at him when he had that shocked expression on his face. It was too close to how he looked when she… A blush crept it's way onto her cheeks as flashes of what she did at Mt. St. Helens flooded her thoughts.

"Is this a bad time?" He asked as he followed her into the cabin.

"No," she said as she plopped unceremoniously back down on her bunk and buried her head in her pillow to hide her rapidly flushing cheeks. "I—ugh, this stupid—I can't—I don't know how anyone could—" She decided she was officially brain dead and was no longer able to put coherent sentences together, especially with Percy in the room and the memory she had from their not-so-long ago shared moment playing on repeat in her mind's eye. She settled for a loud, long groan.

Percy smirked as he sat beside her on her bunk. "What's wrong, Wise Girl?" He joked. "Can't figure something out?"

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain," her muffled voice called as she nudged him playfully with her foot. "And, no, for your information, I can't."

"Can I help?"

She sat up and rolled her eyes. "I don't think anyone can help me with it, honestly. Not a half-blood, at least."

"Why?"

Pulling the file back up, she tilted the laptop so he could see. "Can you read this?"

He turned his attention to the text, most likely seeing the letters swim around the screen just as she had. She tried not to notice how close they were sitting. She really did. And she would've been successful if he hadn't adjusted just enough that his leg brushed up against hers and sent a shiver up her spine. Yeah, they were sitting much too close, but she didn't dare move away.

She tried to distract herself by studying his face. Big mistake. His eyebrows were all scrunched up in the way that always made her heart sigh. Her eyes traced his features, committing this moment to memory because the gods don't even know if they'll have a moment like this again. Not with the threat of his prophecy looming over them. That unspoken uncertainty. She hated uncertainty.

"Yeah, this is completely unreadable," his voice broke her out of her thoughts. "What was he thinking?"

She forced her attention back to the screen. "I have absolutely no idea. How is anyone supposed to translate all of this accurately?"

"Well," he said after a minute, "I know that if anyone can figure it out, it's you, Wise Girl." She felt him tuck a hair back behind her ear and her heart skipped a beat before she looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Sorry," he said quickly, a blush blooming on his cheeks. He balled the offending hand and nearly slammed it into his lap. He opened and closed his mouth trying to say something to save the situation, but evidently he couldn't find the words. All Annabeth could think was how much he looked like a fish gasping for air.

She blinked and tried her best to collect herself. "Don't be, it's okay."

He only nodded, suddenly very interested in the floorboards. She wanted to say something, anything to diffuse… whatever tension was standing between them. The words were just getting lost on the way to her mouth.

After a few awkward moments, she heard him clear his throat. "I should probably go."

He started to get up, but she managed to grab his wrist. "N-no. Please stay," her voice wavered just a little bit before quickly adding, "I mean, I could use the help."

"Yeah, of course," he said quietly. If she was right, and Annabeth usually was, she could've sworn that Percy was blushing as he sat back down next to her. She also noted that he was sitting closer to her than he had been just moments before. (If her blush deepened at the realization, she would never tell.)

Pushing those thoughts aside, they went back to her notes as the couple struggled to make heads or tails of the inventors utter gibberish. After a while, she found herself fixated on the strange wording of a particular phrase. She pondered aloud what the possibilities could be and how they would relate to the mechanics of the invention depending on what Daedalus' original intention was when her train of thought was completely derailed.

"Gods, you're stunning," she heard him mutter from reality.

She froze. "What did you say?"

She watched his eyes widen. "Oh… you heard that?"

"Did you just say…" she swallowed, willing her heart to slow down, "what I think you just said?"

"Uh, no?" He offered her a weak smile. "You know, you don't usually hear me when I say things when you're focusing really, really hard so I thought—"

"You think I'm stunning?"

"I, uh," Percy stuttered and his face was as red as the camps strawberries. "Yes?"

She blinked, mouth hanging open. Annabeth's brain had completely stopped working. Sure, she had her suspicions about his feelings for her. But to actually have them presented to her was an entirely different story and she had no idea what to do with it. She wasn't cool or confident like the Aphrodite girls. She had never even had a boyfriend. How was she supposed to deal with a situation like this?

"I mean," his voice brought her back to reality. "When you're trying to figure something out and you get frustrated that you can't, your nose does this thing. It gets all scrunched up and it's, you know…" he trailed off.

"It's what?" she managed to say. She could feel her cheeks get hot and she knew they were just as red as his.

He squeezed his eyes shut, obviously regretting ever opening his mouth. "It's cute, Annabeth. When you scrunch your nose up, I think it's cute, okay. Sorry. I know that's probably weird. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head over to the climbing wall and take a lava shower—"

"It's not weird," she interrupted.

"What?" he searched her eyes for an answer she wasn't sure if she was ready to give.

She cleared her throat, summoning her nerve. She'd faced titan lords, monsters, even whole armies. Surely she could talk about her feelings. Right? "You, uh—you do something like that, too," she fingered the hem of her shirt. "Your eyebrows get all scrunched up. I think it's…" she coughed again in an attempt to keep her courage. "I think it's cute," she finally said with conviction, meeting his eyes.

A full minute passed as she silently stared at him, wishing she was able to express everything she had been feeling.

Again, she thought back to their shared moment in the volcano. The prophecy had ended up being about Luke, but at that moment, she was sure it was about Percy and she was sure she was going to lose him. The thought of losing a best friend, again, would be worse than death. She kissed him because she needed him to know. She wanted him to have something to come back for. She had to give him something real to fight for.

And she wished she was able to voice all of that now.

Finally, Percy broke the silence. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Mount St. Helens," he said as if he'd been reading her mind. "Why?"

She stared at her hands in her lap, suddenly feeling incredibly vulnerable. "What do you mean, why?" she mumbled.

"Why did you…" he trailed off and she heard him take a shaky breath. "Why did you kiss me?" he repeated in a whisper.

Being vulnerable was not something she was comfortable with. "Was it not okay?"

"N-no, it was more than okay," Percy said a bit too quickly. "I mean, you're a good kisser. Wait, no. I mean, you are, I just don't have anything to compare it to, so I don't really know for sure. No, that's not what I meant. I just—" he cut himself off and heaved a big sigh. "I just wanted to know… why. Please."

She took in a shaky breath and steeled her eyes on his. "Do you remember what the last line of my prophecy was?" she asked, praying to the gods he would understand.

His brow furrowed. "And lose a love to worse than death," he recited. "But what does that have to do with…" he paused, noticing her expression. "Oh."

Once again, she couldn't meet his eyes. "I had no idea what that line meant and I didn't want to tell you what it was because I…" her voice faltered. "I thought it was about you."

"You thought…" she heard him mumble, but she was on a roll now.

"And then when you came back, I was so happy that it wasn't about you. That I wasn't going to lose you. And then finding out about Calypso and you suggesting for us to work with Rachel I…" she faltered again, wiping the traitorous tears from her cheeks. "I thought that maybe I had lost you. That maybe you had chosen someone else. That I would have to watch you be happy with someone who wasn't me."

Her words hung in the air around them, the implications of them clear. Neither of them spoke, and that was just as well. Annabeth was afraid if she opened her mouth again, she wouldn't be able to stop rambling. And, if she was honest with herself, she was scared of what Percy would say about all of this. They had been friends for so long and now… Everything was getting so complicated and confusing and she was just about ready to drag him down to the Underworld herself and take a nice swim together in the river Lethe.

Fortunately, the horn signaling lunch time hummed through the walls of the cabin momentarily distracting her from the tension.

"Look," she said, getting up and getting ready to head to the dining pavilion. "Forget about the whole thing, and forget I said anything about it. Please?"

She turned to him expecting him to be near the door, but he was still sat on her bunk staring at the floor.

"Percy?"

"You…" he mumbled in a daze, finally meeting her eyes. "You love me?"

She shifted uncomfortably really wanting him to drop the subject. Obviously, he didn't feel the same way or else he wouldn't just be sitting there. "Percy, I said forget it—"

"No," He stood up abruptly and walked over to her more determined than she'd ever seen him. "I won't forget it."

He stepped in close, really close, but for some reason she couldn't move. She didn't want to. Her lips were inches from his. She could feel his hot breath against her lips and the heady blend of saltwater and sunscreen that followed him was making her head spin.

He brought his hand up to slowly brush another strand of hair out of her eyes. "Do you love me?" His voice was barely above a whisper.

"Yes," she exhaled, finally letting go of her fear.

The corner of his mouth perked up softly. The hand against her cheek tangled itself in her curls at the base of her neck. The other found hers and laced their fingers together automatically. His eyes drifted towards her mouth. She watched utterly transfixed as his tongue darted out to moisten his bottom lip. He leaned in and she closed her eyes, ready to let her sense take over...

"Hey, Annabeth! I know you're working on that thing, but it's lunch time and Chiron—"

Annabeth and Percy sprung apart immediately at the sound of her cabinmate Malcolm calling from the door. Percy shoved his hands in his pockets. Annabeth feigned interest in one of the many maps covering the walls.

"Uh, Chiron told me to come check on you," Malcolm finished, a smile creeping up on his face. "But, I guess Percy has that covered." He gave Percy a sly wink. "No worries, you two. I'll tell Chiron you'll be down soon."

"Malcolm—" Annabeth started, but he was already gone and she could hear him singing that stupid camp song about her and Percy kissing in a tree.

She balled her fists. "What's the use of a Do-Not-Disturb sign if no one abides by it?" She muttered.

Percy laughed. "I mean, it is his cabin, too."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes and chuckled, lamenting their lost moment together.

"You know," Percy offered as he stalked back towards her, donning a mischievous grin that made her stomach do flips. "I don't have any cabin mates."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She smirked, knowing exactly what he meant.

He shrugged innocently. "No disturbances."

She punched him playfully, grinning. "You're hilarious."

He held up his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, I'm just throwing it out there."

She rolled her eyes, but didn't protest. It would be nice to have some actual alone time with him. "Come on, Seaweed Brain. I don't want any rumors started."

She headed for the door, but he caught her wrist. "Wait," he said gently.

"Yeah?"

He glanced around the room. "I just wanted to say that… well, you too."

She shook her head. "What?"

"I—uh, you know…" he swallowed, "I love you, too."

She smiled and stepped forward to place a chaste kiss on his cheek. He gave her a dopey grin. She laughed and tugged on his hand. "Well, come on. Let's eat! I'm starving."

She dragged him out of the cabin and together they walked hand-in-hand to the dining pavilion.