Percabeth meets Ruikasa

Annabeth is........ Smart?

Percy and Annabeth were seated together on a short orange bench in front of the WonderStage. The curtains were closed.

BOOM!

"Do you think they're okay?" Percy leaned into Annabeth, and she could smell the ocean on him. It reminded her of home.

Tsukasa popped his head out of the curtain and shouted, "We are just experiencing a couple of difficulties. The show-  BOOM! -will begin shortly! EMU STOP THAT!" He smiled at them before popping backed behind the curtains.

Percy looked at Annabeth with a questioning look. Annabeth giggled and pecked him on the lips before leaning into him to watch the show. Percy wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in even closer. "When we get back, you're helping me with homework."

"No, I'm not." She smirked. Then frowned.

"You okay?"

"It's just..."

"You don't think we'll make it home."

She looked up into his sea green eyes. "Maybe not."

"At least-" BOOM! "At least we have each other." He pulled her into his chest and kissed the top of her forehead as he had done so many times before.

Annabeth sighed. "Alright."

"HEY! No making out in the audience!" Tsukasa called. "I see you back there!"

Annabeth laughed and pulled away from Percy. "We're not I swear!"

"Alright..." he narrowed his eyes as he slowly pulled back behind the curtain.

"When's the show gonna start?" Percy called. Tsukasa stuck his head back out. "Oh, like right now."

He stepped out from behind the curtain and opened his mouth to talk, but a hand pulled him back behind the curtain. Annabeth heard some hushed arguing and then Rui stepped out.

"Welcome to the WonderStage at Phoenix Wonderland! Today is the first ever showing of "The Maiden's Lover", written by your's truly, and starring Tsukasa Tenma, Nene Kusanagi, and Emu Ootori. Apologies if there are any complications during the show, as this is the first ever showing. Enjoy!"

He stepped behind the curtain before it opened wide to a brightly lit forest scene.

(I'm not going to write an entire play sorry ✨🤩✨)

The curtain closed.

Both Percy and Annabeth stood up and clapped.

"Thank you!" Said Tsukasa and the four ran up to them and stood imploringly.

Percy smiled wide. "Of course we'll join!"

"Uh, I don't know. All that performing and stunts isn't for me."

Percy looked at her in disappointment. Then grinned. "I saw you had some robots and stuff. Maybe Annabeth could help you with those! She's, like, really smart."

"Percy, I am not really smart. There are tons of people who are way smarter than me."

Percy raised his eyebrows at her.

"Hm. Are you good with robots?" Rui implored.

Annabeth blushed. "I mean, kind of."

Percy scoffed. "Of course she is. She once built a giant bronze dragon that could actually fly and breathe fire."

"That was Leo."

"Didn't you fix it once?"

"Well..."

Rui grinned a grin that Annabeth discovered only he could make. It was like a serial killer was trying to let you in on a secret, but.. in a nice way.

He grabbed her hand and began running, pulling her along. He stopped when they got backstage.

"Alright. You ready?"

"For what?"

He smiled again and pulled a string hanging from the ceiling. The floor dropped away, and beneath were some stairs.

"Alright, follow me." He began down the steps and Annabeth followed. There were a lot less steps than Annabeth expected, so she assumed that this room was just the inside of the stage.

Rui flicked on a lamp in the corner of the room, revealing half-finished robots and machinery. The walls were covered in drawings and diagrams.

"Woah." Annabeth looked around in disbelief. This type of room was the type she thrived in. She closely inspected a diagram of what appeared to be a Tsukasa-bot. Next to it were drawings of a Nene-bot and an Emu-bot.

"Are these your friends?" She pointed at them.

Rui walked over. "Oh, yeah." His cheeks turned a slightly pinkish color. "I was hoping I could replace the real ones with bots on April Fool's, but.... I didn't really get to that." He pointed at an unfinished pink piece of machinery, which Annabeth could only assume was Emu's bot.

Replace the real ones with bots? She knew it was an April Fool's prank, but that was still an odd idea, and even if it wasn't, getting those bots perfect would have taken ages.

"Soooo.... Do you think you could maybe become my building partner?"

"Of course!" Annabeth tried to hide her excitement, but she just couldn't. She loved building and drawing, and all those things that people like Percy didn't enjoy. Though, Percy referred to himself as "normal". I mean who throws away their notes after a test?! Not "normal" people of course.

"Alright! What do you wanna make first?"