A/N: Alright. Here's a short one-shot until I can get the next chapter of Minding Your Business up (which is taking a long time. It hit seven thousand words this morning, but it should be done soon).

I felt like the characters were a little OOC. So let me know what you think about it.

Obviously, this is set in The Battle of the Labyrinth when Percy gets back from Calypso's island. I thought this moment needed a little more explanation on Percy's part so here we are.

Reviews are appreciated!

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

Percy finds Annabeth on the beach a few hours later.

He had walked in on the camp burning his shroud earlier today. Even after being marooned on Calypso's island and all of the weird things that had happened to him, it had been one of the strangest things he had ever seen. Seeing Annabeth in front of everybody looking completely broken without him had wrenched his heart. It felt like someone had ripped his heart out of his chest and stomped on it.

She had hugged him, and he had been too surprised to hug her back before she realized she was making a scene and pulled away. He really thought it was unfair. After two weeks without her, he just wanted to be close to her.

Without a word to her, Percy threw himself down in the sand taking a seat where she was sitting with her knees pressed to her chest. She had a blue blanket wrapped tightly around her, like she was cold.

"What, Percy?" She asked. Her voice was raw, like she had been crying again.

He shrugged. "Nothing. I just needed to be next to you."

"No you don't. You just wanted to make sure I wasn't mad at you anymore." She said tiredly, not even bothering to toss him a look.

Percy resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he shifted his body so he was facing her, and he hesitantly took one of her curls in his hand. Her body stiffened and she glanced over at him before turning her gaze back to the ocean.

"I've always liked how your hair smells." He blurted out. He groaned inwardly. Really? This wasn't the best time for his ADHD to act up.

Note to self, Percy thought, try to filter what comes out of your mouth!

"Uh, okay, weirdo." She said. "Stop pulling my hair."

He grinned cheekily. At least he had gotten her to talk to him. "No way." He paused and let his grin slip off of his face. "I really missed you, Annabeth."

She finally broke down and looked at him. Her eyes were watery again, like they had been at the pavilion, and as Percy watched, she swiped her hands across her face.

"When I heard the explosion I thought you were dead. I came back to Camp and for two whole weeks, two weeks, I thought you were dead. I thought I had just lost my best friend. You're all I have left, Percy. Thalia… my dad…. Luke…. They all left me. You're it. You're my whole world." He shoulders slumped and she seemed to collapse in on herself. "And I thought you were gone."

Percy felt like someone had just sucker punched him in the throat and kicked him in the shins at the same time. He couldn't figure out how to answer her. Annabeth had never been one to express her feelings (especially about him to him) and right now Percy felt like he had just gotten all of her emotions in one short confession.

How could he have been so stupid? So maybe he hadn't had a choice in getting shipped off to Calypso's island, but he had hurt Annabeth. He should have gotten his butt back him sooner!

"Annabeth," He said softly. "I am so sorry. I shouldn't have been gone that long. I am so, so, so, so sorry that I didn't come back to you sooner."

She wiped another tear away. "Yeah. Why did you come back?"

Percy sat up. What? Had she really just asked him that?

"Both of us know that I know where you were. And both of us know that you probably did fall in love with her." Her voice caught on that sentence, but she pressed on. "If you loved her, why did you come back? Why didn't you just stay there and avoid all of this?"

The first thing Percy feels is anger. How could she even think that he would do something like that? Here was his best friend, one of the most important people in the world to him, asking him and basically telling him that he should have stayed there. She knew him better than anybody on the face of the earth and she knew that Percy would never ever do anything like that. The prophecy was his responsibility and he accepted that. So why would she try and tell him that he should have avoided this?

But then Percy noticed that her shoulders were tensed. She wasn't looking at him, but he knew that she was crying again. Percy realized that Annabeth knew that he would have come back anyway, but she was still angry and upset about it. He probably hadn't helped the situation out anyway when he suggested that Rachel help with the quest.

Percy had always been a little oblivious and slow to pick up on things, but he was catching on. Annabeth needed him to be here for her. After two weeks without him, she just needed to be beside him and know that he was there for her. And Percy intended to give it to her.

"Annabeth Chase, I would never have done that." He said forcefully, turning her head to his so he could look into her eyes. "I wouldn't ever push all of this off to you and Nico and everybody else."

She didn't answer and tried to jerk her head away from his, but he didn't let go of her chin.

He let his face and voice soften when he said, "You mean everything to me, Annabeth. I wouldn't let you go."

Her gray eyes widened like she didn't believe him, but after a few more seconds, she blinked.

Percy was determined not to let his gaze flick down to her lips. Back at Mt. Saint Helens, Annabeth had kissed him, but Percy couldn't figure out if he should act on it or try and forget about it. Sure, when he was gone he was thinking about Annabeth, but after being on Calypso's island, he didn't know if he really liked Annabeth the way he had liked Calypso.

But you could learn, some part of him whispered. It would be easy.

And maybe it would be easy to learn to… love Annabeth. He probably could. He knew everything about Annabeth (well everything that she gave him) and she knew everything about him. They were battle partners and best friends, and Percy would trust Annabeth with his life.

But did that mean he… loved her?

No, Percy decided. He knew how it felt to love somebody, and even thought he liked Annabeth a lot, he didn't love her. Not yet.

But Annabeth was always two steps ahead of him so if he was already here…

No. She had Luke. Maybe she did care for Percy, but he couldn't deny that she felt something for Luke.

Maybe they were both a little confused. Maybe they both needed some time to figure out what they wanted.

Percy scooted closer to Annabeth and wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders.

"Everything is going to be okay, Annabeth." Percy said softly.

She turned into him and let her head fall onto his shoulder. Percy wrapped both of his arms around her body (had she always been this small?) and pulled her into his lap. Her face was buried in his neck, and she had one of her hands pressed to his heart.

Percy thought his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He was sure Annabeth could feel it.

He fingered the blanket that was wrapped around her body. Why did it look so familiar?

"Hey, where did you get this blanket?" Percy asked.

Annabeth stiffened a little, and then said, "From your bunk."

Percy really couldn't figure out what to say. "Well no wonder it looks familiar."

She laughed nervously, and the sound made Percy smile. He hadn't heard her laugh in a really long time. "You can have it back." She said.

"Nah, that's okay. You keep it." He found himself saying.

Annabeth looked up at him for a second before burying her face in his shoulder, and Percy tightened his arms around her.

They sat at the beach for the rest of the day, ignoring the calls for dinner. They just sat together, listening to the waves crash onto the shore.

Percy knew that things weren't definite between them. He knew that things between them weren't even easy.

But Percy also knew that good things came with time (Wasn't that what his mom had told him all of those times?). If the time limit he had waited had anything to do with how good something would be, then things with Annabeth were going to be freaking awesome.

And Percy had no problem waiting on anything that would be freaking awesome.

A/N: Leave me a review and tell me what you're thinking! Thanks for reading!

-SomethingMoreCreative

P.S. On the note of Minding Your Business, would you prefer I update as soon as get the chapters written or would you want me to wait and write them all then update on a specific day?