The walk back to Percy's apartment was excruciatingly silent.
Neither of them spoke as they walked, both of them too caught up in their own thoughts to actually engage in a conversation. It was mid-morning and all around them people were hurrying, each person stuck in their own little world. Percy found it interesting how everyone was always so focused in their own lives that they rarely took time to actually notice what was happening in the world around them.
Annabeth walked besides him, her hands were tucked into her sweatshirt, her brows were scrunched together and she seemed to be mumbling somethings to herself. Most of her hair had fallen our of her ponytail and was falling down the side of her face.
"Are you okay?" He asked quietly, and he wasn't sure she'd even heard him.
She didn't respond and he tried again.
"Annabeth?" He asked this time a little louder.
No response.
"Beth!" He said loudly this time and she stopped in her tracks.
"What?" She snapped at him.
Her eyes looked up and she looked around disoriented, like she had forgotten where she was for a split second. She shook her head absent-mindedly and softened her tone.
"What, what is it?" She asked again.
This was Percy's moment to study her. Her eyes seemed wild, and unfocused and she was gripping the sleeves of her sweatshirt.
"I just asked if you were okay?" He said, he wasn't mad at her for snapping, just distraught.
"Yeah I'm fine. Now c'mon, let's go." She said looking at him.
Percy would've believed her, he usually did, but she hesitated. She hesitated before answering him, and if there was one thing Percy had learned over the years about Annabeth, it was that she never hesitated, ever. Which meant she was lying to him.
She wasn't fine and he knew it. She was avoiding him, and biting her nails, and gripping her sweater, and getting distracted too easily, and getting scared in the middle of the day and she wasn't fine. But he couldn't just outright tell her this, because the truth was that he knew he most definitely wasn't one to judge.
"Annabeth, wait! I'm trying to help, you know you can tell me if something were wrong, right? You can tell me anything." He said, but she just kept looking ahead.
"I told you I'm fine." Her steps quickened.
Percy jogged up behind her trying to catch up.
"Slow down, I was just making sure!" He said as he tried to grab her by the arm.
As he grasped, he felt her flinch beneath his grip, and quickly let go.
"Sorry." He apologized, staring at her and she just looked away.
"It's fine, everything is fine just stop asking! I don't need your help." She said quietly and continued walking.
That shut him up. He followed her, staring at the cars and people that passed them by. Everything was wrong, Percy could feel it in his bones. What happened to us?, he thought to himself as he realized just how quickly Annabeth was slipping through his fingers.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED WE'VE BEEN?" Was the first thing Percy heard as he opened the door to his apartment, with Annabeth standing behind him.
There are only a few things in this world that are more embarrassing than having your mother yell at you for coming home late, and one of them is having your mother yell at you for coming home late in front of your girlfriend.
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Our Bedroom After the War (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)
FanfictionComing back home should've been Percy's dream come true, after all it meant he'd lived through his second war and he was finally getting a chance to live a normal life, right? Oh, how he wished it were that easy. There's a part that's never told abo...
