Alternatively

Malfunction

Her body was limp in his arms and the time had come. Tears and emotions had been wrenched forth before, but this was the moment.

"Why did you do it?" his voice cracked, not by his own accord.

Her eyes searched his face and there was dare he say, desperation? "It's...not hard to figure out."

"You..."

"I love you, Matt," her hand rested against his face and his stomach clenched.

"But you're dying!"

She only smiled and he could practically hear the hearts breaking. "Some things are worth dying for."

He peeled back his hand from her wound, revealing an astonishing amount of blood. "You're crazy."

She managed a weak cough then froze, looking up at him with mild panic.

That wasn't how they rehearsed it.

"Uh, only crazy for you-oh no."

He felt a plop and suddenly he was holding the blood bag and it kept squirting red.

There were some chuckles in the audience.

Annabeth's eyes flickered from his face to the prop in his hand. In all of the run throughs, never had he pulled it from the pouch in her jacket like that. To be fair, they had only practiced with it once the day before, but it was still mildly concerning.

He looked off stage to where Micheal sat, trying to figure out what to do. The director just gestured wildly to continue the scene while other actors tried their damnedest to stifle their laughter behind him. Percy pulled his co-star closer to his chest, turning his attention to the audience. Bright lights kept him squinting to the front row, which offered him uncomfortable but humorous whispers and smiles.

Then the music started and he accidentally squeezed the bag, spraying them both with fake blood and spawning new laughter.

He never wanted to be in the play. The after school rehearsals, the theatre kids, the requirement to keep his grades up; the whole thing was a middle school nightmare. Still, a pair of puppy dog eyes on behalf of a certain Beauregard and slightly more uncomfortable pleas from a scrappy Underwood convinced him to "help a program out". The person who usually took the male leads transferred out of state and for good reason, no boy in the school wanted to step up to the plate.

Grover had to let it slip that Percy was a decent singer.

"It's not in vain that I leave," Annabeth started her first lyric, face scrunching as some of the blood landed in her mouth.

He snorted, bowing his head to avoid flashing a smile to the audience. His more immediate danger was the one he was holding; as top of the class, most kickass girl in all of seventh grade, Annabeth was intense about everything she did. Messing up a performance probably won't place him high on her list.

She laughed.

Quirking an eye brow, he met her eyes as she curled in towards him.

"Oh my god," she wheezed.

"Keep going!" Micheal hissed, basically losing his mind in the wings.

More blood spurted out, effectively blinding his left eye and prompting more laughter on and off stage.

"You're dying," Percy tried to continue, a little perturbed when Annabeth simply cackled, wiping more blood from his face.

She held her hand over her mic. "Give me a moment, I can't...oh my god."