Natural (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Cute

   Once outside the coffee shop, both Piper and Annabeth realized they were still holding hands. Annabeth looked curiously down at their hands and calmly pulled away, seemingly unaffected. Piper, however, was a blushing mess. How could she have been so absolutely stupid? Now Jason would never let her hear the end of it.

   "Piper, is it? Are you alright? Your face is all red." Piper snapped out of her thoughts to see those beautifully gray eyes filled with concern. No, bad Piper. Don't think about how beautiful Annabeth is, with her wavy blonde hair, tanned skin... Don't think about those wonderful lips on yours-

   "Yeah, I'm fine," Piper answered with a smile, mentally burning the train of thought. Annabeth gave her a weird look, but continued walking. Her hands were trailing over the camera around her neck absent-mindedly. "Have you taken any pictures today?" she asked, trying her best to break the silence that had settled over them.

   "Hm? Oh, no. I was pretty worried about accidentally uploading Jason's picture to my blog. I was afraid he'd sue me, you know?" It seemed a bit like Annabeth's mind was everywhere at once. Once she had started talking, she'd raised the camera to her face, looking through the lens at the buildings around them.

   "Jason would never do that," Piper said with a laugh, "he wouldn't hurt a fly. Literally." Annabeth's lips turned up into a fleeting smile. It was gone within seconds. She brought down the camera, sighing and stopping her feet. Piper stopped beside her, wondering what was causing the sad expression on Annabeth's face.

   "Do you ever... like doing something, but get tired of it?" Annabeth asked, turning to Piper, her eyebrows furrowed, causing a little wrinkle in between her eyebrows to form. It was cute. Wait, Piper. Pay attention.

   She sighed, kicking at the sidewalk. "To tell you the truth, that's kind of how I feel about modeling. I like it, but I don't like having to pretend to be happy and stuff. I don't know. It's weird," she finished, shrugging her shoulders. "Why do you ask?"

   Annabeth looked around at the people giving them dirty looks because they were, in fact, standing in the middle of the sidewalk. She would give herself dirty looks, too, if that's even possible. "Do you want to go eat something? Or, like, hang out at my apartment?" Piper blinked, then nodded. "Cool."

   In her mind, Annabeth was half wondering why she trusted Piper so much. Maybe it was because Percy had been there when they met. Maybe it was because she liked her blog. Maybe it was because she liked the way Piper's face turned pink when they realized they were still holding hands.

   Nevertheless, Annabeth lead the model to her apartment, too busy thinking about various things to talk. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a little voice was telling her that her silence may be uncomfortable to Piper, but Annabeth had absolutely zero idea on what to say. 

   "Here it is," Annabeth said, gesturing to her door while pulling her key out of her pocket. She opened the door for Piper, who walked in, ever-changing eyes drifting around the apartment. Suddenly, Annabeth felt very self-conscious. 

   "Quite an impressive collection of books," Piper said, a soft smile on her lips as she walked farther in and picked a book off of the nearest book stack. "'Gods and Fighting Men?'"

   "Greek mythology. Bascially all the tales of the gods and their demigod children." Piper nodded, putting the book back.

   "Sounds interesting." Annabeth shifted uncomfortably. What was she supposed to do now? Sure, she'd invited Piper over, so this was entirely her own fault, but she had no idea on how to entertain her. Piper gave the room another glance around, then leaned against the couch, her fingers picking at the worn fabric. "So how about Jason and Percy? What do you think of them possibly getting together?"