PERCABETH ONESHOTS

oneshot #67: book savior

a/n: okay everyone always gets confused asjskjs so fair warning: this is an au. unfortunately, yes, another one. some of you like them, but a lot of you (including me) enjoy some normal, canon, fluffy percabeth. apparently, i'm lacking in that department lately. bear with me!

also this is super random and short? idrk know what i was going for but it's been raining here all day and i was just in this mood, so this happened. percy and annabeth already know each other, ig, you can imagine the rest.

have a fantabulous day nerds <3

///\

It was raining.

She wasn't against it, necessarily. Rain was cool. It kept the cycle going, the world needed it, essentially. Annabeth rather liked the rain, actually. It was one of the greatest opportunities (read: excuses) to pull on a sweatshirt and make her favorite tea, binge her re-read books and comfort movies.

Rainy days were some of her favorites.

Just not when she had a tower of books in her arms and no umbrella. Not when there was a parking lot and a long stretch of unsheltered pavement between her and her ride.

And the library was closing.

So she was stuck between the locked doors of warm cover and wall of paper-harming water falling in bullets.

Annabeth scowled at the irony. Her bag was slung over her shoulder, but it was filled with school books that she most definitely couldn't get wet. There was no room left for her pleasure reads, so they resided helplessly in her arms.

It was absolutely ridiculous.

She decided to pretend to busy herself with her phone, just to take the edge off her embarrassment--Annabeth knew she must look stupid standing there--but reaching her back pocket turned out to be quite the feat when you had no free hands and were blocked on all sides by dangerous rain.

Annabeth knew she'd made a mistake when the book highest in her pile tumbled off the top, plummeting face-down. Right into the muddiest, most unforgiving puddle around.

She snapped her eyes shut in a wince. There was no saving it now.

They're going to make me pay for that.

"That was close."

Her eyes ripped open, thinking they were going to met with her favorite shade of green. But an even better view claimed her line of sight; the previously-thought-to-be-dead novel she'd only just been mourning.

Annabeth snatched the beautiful hardback, clutching it to her chest with relief while simultaneously trying to balance her stack in her other arm.

"No thank you, then." Percy pursed his lips. "I see how it is."

Annabeth laughed, gently placing the revived book back in her pile. "You, my friend, have miraculous timing."

He gave her a tilted grin, reaching out to half her burden. Annabeth was reluctant to release them into his hold, but she was going to have to trust him this once.

"I figured you'd be here," Percy said, turning to face the onslaught of liquid book-killer, "so I decided to come to your rescue."

Annabeth tapped the spines of her books, glancing at him slyly. "Prince Charming, huh? Well I hate to say it, hero, but you seem to have forgotten an umbrella."

"I don't see one on you yourself, m'lady." Percy shrugged off his top layer, gesturing for her to give him the rest of the books. "But I happen to have brought a jacket, as the intelligent individual I am, so we can improvise."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, tentatively adding her load onto Percy's. He carefully covered them with the garment, brows furrowed in concentration.

"Great," he announced. "But now I'm freezing, so let's hurry."

They laughed, hurrying as far as they could go under the roof, until their feet met the splattering water at the edge.

"If you drop those books, Percy, you're paying for them."

He was quiet for a moment, almost contemplating her warning.

"Did I mention that your eyes match the very clouds in the sky today, Annabeth? Or how extra-curly your hair looks?"

"No buying time." Annabeth grabbed onto the back of his shirt so she wouldn't slip or lose him when they took off, giving him a little nudge. "Let's go!"

And then they ran as if for their lives, screaming incoherently (Percy) and laughing every time.