March 6th

The concert ends with thousands of fans screaming and whooping and cheering for The Halfbloods. Despite her no longer being on stage, Annabeth felt an extra surge of adrenaline every time the audience let out another holler.

When he arrived into the wings, Percy donned his troublemaker smile and threw an arm around her shoulders. She winced and noticed his sweat stained shirt, though that didn't stop her leaning into his embrace as he pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Sort yourself out, smelly." Annabeth ordered, shoving him away with a wink.

Without complaint, Percy lifts his shirt over his head effortlessly. She'd be lying if she didn't admire the perfectly chiselled abs that he revealed, even despite the shine of sweat that coated his torso. A shiver passed through her stomach and Annabeth swallowed hard. Okay, Annabeth. Keep it in your pants. The stylist with dark hair and a knowing smirk raises an eyebrow when she catches Annabeth averting her eyes. Great, now everyone knew what she was thinking. Not that she was thinking anything like that - not that there was a 'that' to think about - not that she wasn't, but -

Good god, Annabeth, get a grip.

There's a flurry of movement as the crew pack away all the equipment. They wouldn't be loading the trucks tonight, as far as she was aware. They had another performance in Sacramento on Monday. That's why she had picked this weekend to visit.

Will pats her shoulder in goodbye when he and Nico are ready to leave. Like everyone seemed to be doing, he winked and sent her a teasing look. Annabeth would be quite thrilled if the ground swallowed her up right about now.

"Ready to go?" Percy looped his arm through hers and nodded to the overnight bag at her feet which she shoulders hastily.

He'd only spent one night in this hotel room, he told her as he unlocked the door with a plastic key card, but she wouldn't have known that from the state of the place. In one corner, Percy's bag lays unzipped, clothes strewn all around it, a towel lays bunched up at the bottom of the closet and Annabeth daren't even comment on the tangled duvet on his clearly unmade bed. At least he has the decency to look sheepish when she slots her own bag onto a shelf.

"I didn't really expect any company." Is his excuse.

Her sleepwear is a set of soft, blue pyjama shorts and top with a white lace trim because if she was only spending two nights with her boyfriend then she was determined to be comfortable as well as cute. Once dressed, she splashes a bit of cold water on her face to wake herself up before emerging from the bathroom. While she was gone, Percy had managed to shove most of his mess into one side of the room. As he wandered around in just some grey pyjama pants, he didn't seem under any pressure to find a shirt.

Without allowing him the satisfaction of catching her mid-blush a second time round, Annabeth collapsed on the bed.

Sleeping with him feels so much more intimate now they're no longer in each others apartment. There's no safety net of being able to escape back to her apartment if things get awkward and she's suddenly conscious of how close he is to her. His bare chest is under her palm, her head is resting in the crook of his shoulder and his arm is tucked under her waist to pull her closer. Though she can't see his face, she's fairly certain he's blushing from the heat that radiates from his face.

"I'm glad you flew over." The words fill the aching silence in the room. "I can't believe you kept it a secret."

A timid laugh escapes her like a sigh of relief. "Will knew, he was the one that helped me organise. And the one to make sure you weren't sharing a room with the sound guy - what's his name?"

"Beckendorf. Yeah, that might've been a little awkward."

Silence takes over again and Annabeth is hyper-aware of the way his breath catches her hair, making it waver.

"Are you flying back tomorrow?" Percy presumably checks the time because he corrects himself. "Today?"

If Annabeth's senses weren't already heightened from the sheer closeness of her boyfriend and the fact that they were very much laying in bed together in the dark, however innocent it might seem, she might have missed the slight inflection of worry in his tone - the way the pitch of his voice caught on the last syllable and wobbled. She reached for his hand beneath the covers.

"Katie's going on as Jenna on Monday so I don't need to hurry back." Underneath her palm, his chest relaxes. "Unless you want me to leave sooner..."

Percy doesn't reply verbally, instead choosing to pull her tighter against him and press a dozen kisses onto her face. No matter how much she pulls away to tease him, she can't deny the way her heart hammers against her ribs and the butterflies in her stomach do a full scale gymnastics routine. When he finally resigns himself to just nuzzling into her hair, she stops trying to wriggle out of his grasp.

Quietly, his breath hot on her ear, he whispers. "For the record, I would've totally said it back. You just took my by surprise is all."

There's a split second before he speaks again where she has to wrack her brain to figure out what he's referring to because it already feels like so long ago. Truthfully, she hadn't expected him to say it back, she didn't want to pressure him that way. Annabeth believed she had a pretty good idea about where his head was at when it came to their relationship and she knew that although he was the more poetic of the two of them and was capable of putting feelings into words, he was still just as scared of vulnerability as she was. They both had their struggles with emotions and maybe they had a lot to overcome for the sake of their relationship, but they had their ways. Annabeth was more for PDA and loved to wrap her arms around his shoulders and (though she would never admit it to anyone for the sake of Percy's masculinity) she was often the big spoon when they curled up together on the couch. Whereas, Percy was sweeter with his words and much more poetic than she could ever attempt to be. He could be clumsy in conversation and stumble over his responses, but give him a pen and paper and new colors, emotions and entire worlds would emerged on his page. It was magical.

She almost feel guilty when he whispers "I love you,", his lips pressed against the edge of her jaw. Then his thumb slips under the bottom of her shirt and caresses the soft skin of her stomach and all comprehensive thoughts slip out of her mind, replaced by his reassuring words and gentle whispers. Allowing herself to melt completely into his arms, Annabeth is fairly certain she's never felt more safe than she does with him.