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knuffled · 1 year ago

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not so bad - chapter 8

last chapter of the punk!percy fic! hope you all enjoy

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Saturday, six on the dot. Annabeth sat in her car in the parking lot outside Sally’s and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. She had to reign in the itch to glance at her phone, which laid face up in the passenger’s seat, in case Percy texted her. When she got to the restaurant, she’d shot him a text letting him know that she was there, and he’d replied that he’d be out in a few minutes. It had only been a minute or two since then, but the wait felt intolerable to her.

The last time she’d been on a date was a total trainwreck. She’d been a sophomore going out with a college freshman named Luke, which should have been enough to clue her in to the fact that she was dealing with a creep, but in her hubris, she’d thought he saw something special in her, recognized her maturity even. In the end, it was because he’d assumed Annabeth was impressionable and easy, mistakenly so considering she had ditched him at the restaurant under the pretense of needing to use the restroom.

She didn’t have fears that her date with Percy would be like that, but in the three minutes she sat there, she became woefully aware of her own lack of dating experience. It had never mattered to her before, but she didn’t want to come across as lame and uncool in front of someone as effortlessly debonair as Percy.

Oof. Debonair. An SAT word. Definitely lame and uncool.

Annabeth peeked down at the outfit Piper had helped her choose: a billowy, black shirt-like blouse and a pair of high-waisted white pants. Even she had to admit the outfit looked good, but now that she had time to languish in her own mental prison, she wasn’t sure it would be to Percy’s taste. Annabeth buried her face in her hands. God, she should’ve gone with something more fun and casual.

A knock on her window made Annabeth jolt in her seat. It was Percy, motioning for her to roll down her window, so she did. As he rested a forearm against the doorframe and leaned in, the scent of his cologne caught her off guard and made her face prickle.

She shook her head to physically dispel her thoughts and said, “H-Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” Percy said, smiling. “I was thinking I could drive tonight, but I’ll leave it up to you.”

“Uh, yeah, no, that’s fine by me,” Annabeth said.

“Cool!” Percy said, straightening. “You can just leave your car here in the lot then.”

Annabeth nodded and turned off the ignition before grabbing the keys and her purse. Percy rocked on his heels, hands in his pockets, and grinned at her when she got out of the car. As they started walking, Annabeth took a second to get a proper look at him since she’d been too frazzled to before. He was wearing a black bomber jacket over a plain white t-shirt and a pair of black chinos. It was almost unfair how good he looked with such a simple outfit, like James Dean or something.

He must have noticed her staring because he coughed surreptitiously. “Am I too underdressed or something? I can head inside and change real quick?”

“Oh, no, you look good,” Annabeth said quickly. “Great actually.”

“Yeah?” Percy asked, ducking his chin. “Well, I think you’ve got me beat in the outfit department. You look, um- spectacular.”

It was a little pathetic how giddy that made her feel. “T-Thanks.”

Percy shot her a boyish smile that she couldn’t help returning. When they came to a stop in front of a blue Prius, Annabeth couldn’t help giving him a little shit.

“Who would’ve thought,” Annabeth drawled. “Percy Jackson drives a Prius.”

“It gets good mileage, okay?” Percy protested, his face turning pink. “And it’s environmentally friendly!”

Annabeth bit back a smile and shrugged. “Just seems like an odd fit for a brooding, bad boy-type.”

Percy rolled his eyes and opened the passenger’s side door for her, which was such an antiquated, chivalrous thing to do that it made her swoon just a little bit. He waited until she was settled before sliding into the driver’s seat and starting the car. As they pulled out of the lot, Percy reached to turn on some music out of habit, but a Nirvana riff blared through the speakers so loudly it felt like getting hit in the face with a shovel. He immediately shut it off, but Annabeth laughed at the way his cheeks flushed.

He ruffled his hair and muttered, “Sorry. Forgot I had it turned up that loud.”

“Was that Territorial Pissings?”

Percy turned to her, eyebrows raised. “You know that song?”

Annabeth nodded. “Yeah, one of my stepbrothers, Bobby, is obsessed with Nirvana. He got a guitar for his birthday, and he’s trying to learn their songs.”

He gave an innocuous look and asked, “And how has that been?”

“Awful,” Annabeth admitted. “Like, hearing a total newbie butcher Nirvana riffs on a shitty practice amp is miserable, especially when their bedroom is right to yours.” “Yeah, I’ll bet,” Percy said, laughing. “What kind of music do you listen to?”

“I like a lot of stuff.”

“C’mon, that’s a cop out answer,” Percy said. “Give me a guilty pleasure song.”

“I don’t believe in guilty pleasure songs,” Annabeth said, shrugging.

He gave her a sidelong glance. “Hmm, I can see that, considering you’re the heathen that puts pineapple on pizza. Shame probably isn’t in your vocabulary.”

Annabeth snorted with laughter, which made him smile. There was something so easy about talking to him. They must have driven for at least a half hour, but it felt like five minutes passed because the conversation flowed so well between them. Annabeth had seen in movies or heard from Piper that chemistry was important when it came to romance, but she’d never known what that meant. The idea of magically clicking with someone, feeling effortlessly seen and understood, sounded like a fantasy. At the very least, it wasn’t something she ever thought would happen to her. And yet, here she was, talking to this gorgeous boy that she hadn’t even known four months ago, and she suddenly understood what Piper had meant.

Eventually, Percy pulled into a parking lot and opened the door for her again. Annabeth tried to ignore the heat of his hand on the small of her back as he guided her inside the building. It was an indoor mini-golf course.

When Annabeth glanced at him, Percy shrugged and said, “A little cliché, I know, but you’re a competitive person so I figured getting your ass kicked is probably your love language.”

Annabeth barked a laugh. “Oh, is that right? You sound awfully confident.”

His eyes twinkled. “Only a little bit.”

They got a pair of clubs and spent the better part of two hours taking a child’s game far too seriously. True to his word, Percy did end up kicking her ass, but Annabeth did a damn good job for a first-timer. By his own admission, she would have won if they’d played as beginners. Still, it was a ton of fun since Annabeth tended to scare people off by being too intense and competitive, but instead that seemed to attract Percy, not push him away.

After mini-golf, they went back to the restaurant, which Sally closed early for the night on account of their date. Percy took her back into the kitchen and tossed her an apron, which surprised her.

“Uh, what’s this for?” “We’re gonna make a pizza for each other that we think the other person would like.” Percy shrugged off his jacket and tied his apron behind his back with practiced ease. “And it goes without saying, but no pineapple on mine, please.”

Annabeth toyed with the apron’s strands. “Uh, I should let you know, I’m kind of a walking disaster in the kitchen.”

Percy waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be watching you every step of the way.”

Despite her apprehension, Annabeth nodded and slipped on her apron. Percy grabbed some dough that had already been proofing in the fridge and showed her how to flatten it into an oblong disk with a rolling pin. He tossed them into the air himself since Annabeth stood a snowball’s chance in hell of pulling that off. After that, he showed her how to ladle the sauce and distribute cheese, but he let her have free reign over the remaining toppings. Since it was a secret, they worked at other ends of the kitchen, but Percy ultimately put the pizzas in the wood-fire oven, although he made a show of closing his eyes so he wouldn’t see her toppings.

Within a minute or two, Percy fished their pizzas out and cut them. Percy’s pizza for her was sausage and black olive, and her pizza for him was Calabrian chilis and feta.

Percy took a bite of a slice and made a sound of surprise. “Wow, this is great. I’ve never tried this combo before.”

“I had it once at a restaurant back when I lived in San Francisco,” Annabeth said. “It was one of my favorites there. I didn’t know you guys had Calabrian chili’s here, otherwise I would have ordered it.”

Percy nodded and then motioned for her to try hers as well. “It’s delicious.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Percy said, smiling. “Ever since I was a kid, if I was having a bad day or we were celebrating something or just because, my Ma would make a sausage and olive pie for me. It’s my favorite food.”

“It’s a good choice,” Annabeth said softly. “Could be improved with some pineapple though.”

That made him shake with laughter, and something about the sight of him sitting on the countertop, hiding his smile behind a hand like it wasn’t worth seeing, stirred something in her.

She craned up to kiss him, catching him by surprise. Instead of melting into the kiss, he broke away and met her eyes with a hard look on his face.

Panic and hurt rushed through her, but Percy whispered, “This- look, I know you only meant it as a joke earlier, but this isn’t all to like fulfill some bad boy fantasy or something, right?”

“It’s not, Percy,” Annabeth said quickly. “Why would you think that?”

He averted his gaze and said, “I, uh, have had bad experiences in the past with girls like building this weird idea of me in their heads, and then they’d get disappointed that I wasn’t what they wanted me to be. And like, that’s fine, but I really, really like you Annabeth, and I- I’m not sure-”

“Hey, listen to me,” Annabeth said, putting a hand on his cheek. “I like you. Like a lot. It’s honestly a little scary how much. The whole bad boy thing was an insensitive thing to say, I didn’t mean that, and I promise that’s not what I like about you or even how I think of you, okay?”

“Okay,” Percy whispered. He pulled her closer to him, hands resting on her hips, and put his forehead against hers. “Sorry for fucking up our first kiss.”

Annabeth breathed a laugh and leaned in to steal a kiss. “Oh, don’t worry about that. We have plenty of time to make up for it.”

#knuffled fic #percabeth #percabeth au #percabeth fluff #punk!percy

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