Him or her? (A Pipabeth story)

Chapter Seventeen

Piper's POV

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Silence.

Slowly, Piper sat up and moved to the end of the bed, letting Annabeth turn over and sit up on her knees. The amount of fear and guilt she could feel radiating off her and Annabeth was immense. Had it been anyone else that walked in, She reckoned that both of them would have faces red with embarrassment. Unfortunately, Annabeth's face was drained of all colour, and Piper felt the complete opposite of warm.

"Percy....I...." Annabeth looked down, not knowing what to say.

Piper watched as Percy — who was still standing in the doorway — kept looking between her and Annabeth, his gaze mostly falling on Annabeth. Percy's face was a mixture of multiple different emotions. The time in the cabin seemed to stand still as both Piper and Annabeth were frozen, waiting to see what Percy would do. Piper stood up from the bed and took a few steps sideways when Percy started moving forwards. He sat in front of Annabeth on the bed with his legs crossed. Piper braced herself mentally as he started to speak.

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Percy's POV

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Percy had no idea what was going on. Walking into the Athena cabin looking for Annabeth, the last thing he expected to see was Piper lying on top of Annabeth and the two of them looking like they'd just finished a kiss.

He had no clue what to feel or say, everything was so confusing. The one thing he knew he was never going to do, was get angry. Percy had seen people getting angry, and it never solved a problem. Plus, the reason why he had gone to find Annabeth, was because he had been thinking about their earlier conversation. It did suck that the two of them had been drifting away, but he had to admit that it felt strange and unnatural when they suddenly started to feel for each other again. It wasn't right. People move on too. How can he be angry at Piper and Annabeth? He had been around Piper enough to know that feelings can't be controlled. The only problem, was how jealous it made him and how Annabeth hadn't mentioned this before.

Shaking his head, Percy walked forwards, noticing how Piper walked further away and feeling guilty, and sat down across from Annabeth on her bed. Annabeth looked up, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she opened her mouth to speak. Percy pressed a finger to her lips and spoke instead.

"Before you speak, there's something I want to know. I want to know, had this unfortunate interaction happened, if this..." he motioned between Annabeth and Piper, "...is something that you would have told me about, or something that I would never have known about."

"Percy," Annabeth spoke, "of course I would have told you. Leaving this would have been wrong. I am so sorry—"

"Don't apologise. There's nothing to apologise for. Sure you probably should have mentioned this earlier, but I can understand why you would hide this." Percy paused for a second before continuing. "I know people in relationships generally tell each other everything, and that's probably the only reason this would make me feel bad. We were drifting apart anyways and it's only natural. What I've learnt from our lovely friend standing over there," Piper ducked her head at that statement, but Percy could tell he was smiling, "is that feelings can't be controlled. So let me break this down for you, though I know you're smart enough that you understand what I'm saying anyways."

Annabeth smiled shyly, ducking her head. Percy lifted her chin until they were both looking at each other. He spoke slowly.

"I am completely fine with you being with someone else if that's what you want. A bonus is that it's someone I already know. My only issue, is that I wish you'd told me sooner. But so long as I know this is something you weren't going to hide from me forever, I'm happy for you."