Aftermath-Percabeth

Chapter Twenty-Three

As Annabeth heaved her bag up the stairs, her lungs burned from the cold. After being in California she'd forgotten about how cold New York was in the winter.

"You coming?" Annabeth asked as she turned her head to face Percy. He sat on the stairs wheezing, his luggage besides him.

"I....hate....traveling...." he murmured as he rubbed his temple impatiently. "Why...why did w-we leave again?"

Annabeth smirked and rolled her eyes before joining Percy at the end of the stairs. "I think it was because you love me tremendously."

"That's right," Percy whispered as he kissed her forehead. He heaved himself up and finished the treacherous climb.

Once they reached their apartment they both instantly fell onto the couch, which groaned from under them.

Percy reluctantly sat up to face Annabeth, who was taking her golden curls out of a ponytail. "We really need a new couch."

Annabeth huffed as she readjusted herself. "Add it to the list of new things we need."

After a moment of comfortable silence, Annabeth decided to stand up.

"Are you insane?" Percy asked as he eyed Annabeth up. She had headed to the entrance to get her bag-to unpack.

Annabeth's habit of instantly unpacking had always bugged Percy. Why couldn't she just sit down and relax?

"There's a note for us," Annabeth said as she picked up a flimsy sheet of lined paper from the counter. "Hey, does Leo have a key to our house?"

Percy, instantly curious, stood up and limped to the kitchen weakly. "I haven't given him any..."

Annabeth's eyes moved as she read the words sprawled out in Leo's messy recognizable handwriting.

"Read it to me," Percy begged as she scanned the page.

Annabeth sighed and began reading aloud:

"'Dear Percabeth, I am aware you are vacationing or whatever, but I have an announcement! Since I am terrible with remembering phone numbers and I didn't bother to write your numbers down, I broke into your home. I know that sounds alarming, but hey, you're reading this, so it worked.'"

Annabeth eyed the door suspiciously as if it were broken, but everything seemed normal and in place.

She cleared her throat and continued reading. "'Anyways, you are cordially invited to the grand opening of Leo and Calypso's Garage (we're still working on the title). So, we plan to see you two December 28th 2019. If you two are not there and haven't seen this letter, then you better be prepared to suck up to us, since Calypso is pretty excited. Anyways, the address is on the back. See you at 6:30-8:00! Peace out in demigodness and all that! Love, Leo!'"

Percy blinked and rubbed his face. "That was...interesting."

Annabeth snorted. "Agreed. So I suppose we should attend."

"Yeah, or Leo'll kill us. What time is it?" Percy asked. Then he checked his watch he'd gotten from Tyson. His expression changed to horror. "Oh, no, it's seven-thirty!"

Annabeth frowned and started hauling her luggage to their room. "What do you mean? It's the 27th."

Percy shook his head and dragged her to the door. He pulled out his phone and flashed the screen in her face. It read December 28th 2019. "Let's go!"

Annabeth cursed under her breath before grabbing her coat and keys. They rushed down to their car, while Annabeth was still murmuring things about not being able to put away her luggage.