Natural (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Something Missing

   Annabeth stared at her laptop screen, her stormy gray eyes scanning the page for her blog. Almost all the reviews were negative. She blew out a breath, leaning back against her chair and brushing her wavy blonde hair out of her face. "Shit..."

   The phone rang. She got up from her chair, her feet dragging as she walked across her room to her cell phone, which was on the charger, having been at three percent up until two mintues ago. "Hello?" she said tiredly. She hadn't had a proper night sleep in a week.

   "You sound like shit." A wonderful greeting from a wonferful friend.

   "Glad to know that not just my blog is shit, Percy," Annabeth said, plopping down on her carpet and picking at the individual pieces of fabric. On the other end, Percy laughed, and she could imagine the corners his sea green eyes crinkling up. The thought made her smile. "So what do you want?"

   "Sleepover night. Your place. Lots of pizza and blue cookies," Percy said.

   "I take it you had a good day?" Annabeth asked, pulling out a strand of her carpeting. Percy only invited himself over to her house when he was having a good day. Any other day, he would invite her to his place, seeing as he was more comfortable there. He always said that the amount of books in her place made his dyslexic brain scared.

   "Maybe. So what do you say?"

   "Sure."

~~~

   Percy was there within thirty mintues, holding two boxes of pizza, both large, and a tubberware container of blue chocolate chip cookies. A cookie was dangling from his lips, which were pulled up into a grin, and he had faded blue food coloring on his tan face, probably from when he had made the cookies.

   Annabeth snorted, letting him inside. "You look ridiculous." He ignored her, waltzing into her apartment and plopping down on the countertop, placing the pizza boxes and tubberware container next to him and taking the cookie into his hands and biting into it.

   "So," Percy said after finishing his cookie, "what makes you say your blog is shit?"

   "Trustworthy internet reviews." Percy snorted in response, sliding off the countertop and slinking over to her, throwing an arm over her shoulder and putting a kiss on her forehead.

   "Don't trust those. Your blog is gold and we both know it." Annabeth smiled, thanking her past self for befriending an idiot like Percy. He gave her one last squeeze with his toned arm, nuzzling his nose into her hair, then pulling away.

   "You're awfully affectionate today, aren't you?"

   "Yup," he answered, popping the 'p.' He walked over to the pizza boxes, taking both of them and offering one to Annabeth. She took hers and they walked to the couch, facing each other as they sat down. "But before I go into my great day, you tell me about those trustworthy internet reviews."

   Annabeth sighed, opening up the pizza box and taking a slice out. She stared at it for a second, then put it back down. "I don't know... It's just that people are getting tired of all the buildings."

   "Personally, I really like seeing the Empire State Building at the different times of day. The top always looks so mysterious."

   "Yeah, yeah, whatever," Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. She couldn't even tell if Percy was joking or not. "But the thing is that I'm getting tired of the buildings, too. The pictures, they're all just missing...something. I'm not sure what, though."

   Percy put down his pizza slice, giving Annabeth a look. "I know this is just a hobby of yours, but I want you to be happy, got it? If it's boring you, try taking a picture of something else. Maybe animals or people in their natural habitat."