This is just another one of my fics where I make a big deal out of a few lines found in the book and expand it like nobody's business. I'm sure you're all familiar with this scene in the Mark of Athena. Some of you might remember it as the part where you flipped your shit because Annabeth totally pulled an 'I love you' out of thin air in the most casual, demigodish setting possible and Percy just took it in stride. I am making a big deal about this because if there is anyone worse with their emotions than Percy, it's Annabeth, and I am willing to bet that her 'I love you' was a slip of the tongue. Anyway, I'm not all too happy with how this turned out, but I might as well post it.

Written for prompt #23: Earnest of the PJO YAlit100 challenge over on LJ.

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus. If I did, I wouldn't be worrying so much about the little shit we call Nico Di Angelo.

Declarations
Slip of the tongue, heart on her sleeve

The bay explodes and a wall of water smashes against Octavian and his cronies, sending them careening into the harbor. When the water clears, Annabeth sees Percy standing on the dock, holding the knife she had thrown into the water seconds ago. He turns toward her, holds up the knife, and casually says: "You dropped this."

She flings herself towards him, throwing her arms around his neck and yelling: "I love you!"

For a moment, all Annabeth can bring herself to feel is mortification.

Oh gods, she cannot believe she just said that.

Granted, she's aware that she's most probably (definitely, a corner of her heart says) in love with Percy Jackson. She wasn't lying when she told Minerva that he is everything to her; but Annabeth is still her mother's daughter, and to her, love is a most vexing, most complicated emotion that stubbornly defies all logic, and she can't help but be wary of it.

She and Percy have barely been dating for four months before he disappeared for six. Six months before they saw each other again yesterday, so technically, they've only been dating for a little over four months. And even though they've been best friends for years before they started dating and she's had a crush on him for majority of that time, she still doesn't think that gives her enough leeway to drop the L-bomb.

And then there's the problem of having to save the world, again. She figures preventing an angry Mother Earth from obliterating the human civilization is a much more pressing matter to deal with than pondering the extent of her strong emotions for her boyfriend, so she was hoping to bury any and all conflicting emotions until the Giant war is won. She did the same thing during the Battle of Manhattan and even back when she was on the run with Luke and Thalia (the daughter of Zeus thoroughly chewed her out for it on both instances).

Of course, now that she's gone and blurted it out, that plan has gone down the drain. Now, she worries whether or not this will affect their dynamic. Undoubtedly, they're one of the best partnerships in Camp Half-Blood when it comes to fighting; but now she worries that their feelings have turned more into liabilities in that they'll be more prone to making sacrifices for each other instead of thinking about the bigger picture. Gods know Percy already has trouble with that, thanks to his unwavering loyalty, and Annabeth is worried she just added to that.

But then another part of her mind butts in and reminds her that feelings have never posed a problem in their relationship. If anything, it makes them stronger. Percy has always been at his strongest when he has something to fight for, after all, and she has spent far too much time with him to not have picked up on the very same characteristic. If anything, knowing that she... loves him (there was no use denying it now) will let Percy know – more than he already does – that she has his back and that at the end of the day, no matter how tiring or depressing a day it has been, he has one more person (aside from his family) to come home to.

Annabeth snaps at this part of her mind and tells it that, if it was such an expert on all this, then why was she freaking out so much about it?

You know why, that same corner of her mind tells her, forcing her to face the undeniable truth.

She can spout reason after reason as to why she thinks she shouldn't have told him she loves him, but what it all ultimately boils down to is her fear.

What if he doesn't say it back?

She knows Percy cares for her; she has never doubted that. A guy doesn't traverse the continental U.S., hold up the sky, or turn down immortality for just any girl, after all, not even stupidly heroic and self-sacrificing guys like Percy. But Annabeth is kind of ridiculously insecure about matters where her heart is involved. All her life, people she love betray her at some point. They come into her life, get past her defenses, make her give a little part of herself, and then – somehow, whether it's intentional or not – fail her. Her dad turned a blind eye when her step-mother so clearly detested her, Thalia turned into a tree when Annabeth needed her most and became a nomadic Hunter when she came back, and Luke joined Kronos in a desperate attempt to teach the gods a lesson. Since then, Annabeth has kept her love under lock and key.

That is, until Percy came along.

That's what scares Annabeth so much. Percy has a bigger piece of her heart than her dad, Thalia, and Luke have altogether. In the five years she's known him, he's managed to tear down every single wall she built up to protect herself. She might have been his anchor to the mortal world once, but she doesn't think he's aware of just how much he anchors her to this world. He is everything to her now, and the last thing she wants to do is to scare him off with her thoughtless declaration, make him leave like everyone else had because she allowed herself to love too much, too soon.

She doesn't think she can handle that sort of rejection. Not from him.

Something – she isn't certain what – breaks her out of her reverie. Even as a daughter of Athena, it astounds her that all the thinking she just did occurred within less than three seconds.

In the time she took to have a minor mental breakdown, Percy's free arm has wrapped itself around her waist. As he presses a tender kiss to her temple, she can feel him grin against her skin.

"Love you too." He mutters. It's soft and she's probably the only one who hears him, but she can't mistake the quiet joy she hears in his voice, nor can she ignore the familiar, raw honestly she hears ringing true in his words. Her chest nearly caves in in relief.

Of course, in all her thinking, she'd forgotten that this is Percy. This is the boy who confessed to thinking about something permanent with her – a future, a family of their own; big plans for a sixteen-year-old boy whose default mode is to have no plan at all. This is the boy who, against all odds, remembered her when he didn't know anything else beyond his name. How can she be so stupid, so doubtful?

For a moment, she forgets about the looming threat of war and her mother's token burning a hole in her pocket. It doesn't matter that they once again have the fate of the world resting on their shoulders, or that she has to embark on a solo quest which no child of Athena has ever returned from. Annabeth loves Percy, and he loves her back.

For a moment, all Annabeth can bring herself to feel is peace.

If it isn't too much trouble, it'd be great if you left a review to tell me how I can improve on this (especially Annabeth's characterization because, ugh, I don't think I got her right and it is bothering me like whoa).