#set the day before piper's dumb ass gets arrested (between chapters 93 & 94)

[couvers]

4 & 9 for the dialogue prompts with percabeth !! any time period works<3

4. “Stop laughing.”

9. “This is your fault.”

It had been Percy's idea. He should have known it was a bad one, though he wasn't quite sure he could completely call it bad. His bad idea had resulted in uninterrupted Annabeth time, which alone should have made it a good idea.

That time had become increasingly difficult to come by since graduation, between Percy's intensive training schedule and Annabeth focusing on getting Piper through the breakup. Sometimes, lately, it felt like they were living worlds apart. Percy didn't begrudge Annabeth the fact they had less time for each other, especially since it was mostly because of him and she'd already taken the entire summer off just for sake of being around to support him, and he knew they'd get through it once his competition season ended, but he really did miss her.

Relationships were a two way street, though, and Percy wasn't about to let a pesky thing like always being sore and exhausted get in the way of his making an effort, because Annabeth had made a massive effort the last few weeks – basically living at his beck and call even while also balancing Piper’s needs; waking up to see him off every morning even on the mornings she was exhausted from having her sleep interrupted by Piper’s nightmares; doing chores for both of them while he trained so he didn't have to worry about anything when he got home at night.

On his way home the Friday before he and Annabeth would be leaving for Omaha, Percy had the perfect opportunity to make that effort, because Piper intended to stay at work late making up for what she’d missed after her emergency trip to Malibu. Percy also knew Annabeth was still a little shaken from Luke’s surprise visit the night before, no matter how hard she tried to put up a strong front. Hell, he was still shaken over that visit. They both needed this time alone together.

Confident in his plan, Percy stopped at the store to pick up a few things he knew they didn't have at the apartment, but would need. Getting Annabeth and Piper’s pantry in working order had been a massive task over the last few months, a constant work in progress that had him at the store more often than should ever be necessary. It didn't take long, though, and soon he stepped through the front door to discover her sprawled out on the couch, looking like an absolute vision in his NYU Swimming hoodie and a pair of shorts.

Before Annabeth could even get the question out, Percy held up his bag from the store and said, “Let’s bake cookies.”

“I don’t feel like burning the apartment down tonight,” Annabeth replied, staring at his bag in much the same way someone would look at an active bomb timer. She wasn’t too far off the mark, honestly.

“I will make sure you don’t burn anything down,” he assured her, kicking off his shoes and dropping his duffle bag by the door. Piper was probably going to yell at him for it when she got home, but that was a problem for later. Hopefully by then they would have cookies to placate her.

When Annabeth continued to stare at him and the bag with plain disdain, he lifted it again, shook it, and curled his bottom lip into an exaggerated pout. “Please?”

“That’s never worked when Piper’s tried it on me and it’s not going to work when you do it, either,” she said, but it was a lie. He’d seen Piper’s pitiful expressions work on her before and he could see her resolve wavering right there on the couch, too. A second later she groaned and set her phone on the coffee table. “Fine.”

Her mood improved quickly once they were in the kitchen. There were countless excuses to touch her, which Percy had been counting on, and Annabeth didn’t mind him wrapping his arms around her from behind and directing her hands as she measured ingredients based on the recipe from his mom on his phone. About halfway through preparing the dough she got overheated and peeled off her (his) sweater, and Percy had the added bonus of enjoying the view of her in nothing more than a dark blue camisole instead. He seriously loved his girlfriend in blue, and it matched perfectly with the shade their hands turned when they added a few drops of food coloring to the dough at the end of the prep process.

Once the first batch had been put in the oven, Annabeth and her blue hands started munching on leftover chocolate chips, tossing the occasional chip in Percy’s direction to catch in his mouth. Most of them landed on the floor, so he decided to give up on the game. Instead he crossed to where she leaned against the counter. Percy used his blue hands to lift her onto the counter and they wasted the last few minutes of bake time enjoying the hint of chocolate on each other’s lips instead.

“No, forget about them,” Annabeth whined when he pulled away at the sound of their timer going off.

“That’s how you burn the apartment down, Beth,” he replied with a throaty chuckle, though he wasn’t too happy about the interruption, either. She stuck her tongue out at him.

Percy placed the first batch on the cooling rack and slipped the second batch into the oven, not at all surprised that Annabeth remained seated on the counter behind him, just watching. Her arms were around him instantly when he returned to her, and this time they spent the whole eight minutes of bake time on hungry lips, teasing tongues, and wandering blue hands. For the first time in his almost twenty-three years of life, Percy felt like cookies baked too fast. He definitely wasn’t ready to pull away from her again when the timer went off a second time.

“Can we try them yet?” she asked, once he’d set the second batch to cool, still watching from the counter.

“An hour ago you didn’t even want to do this,” Percy reminded her, testing one of the cookies from the first batch with his finger to make sure it had cooled enough. In his eyes, the cookies looked just about perfect. Sally Jackson would be proud, and he had half a mind to take a picture and send it to her. They had talked at length about the sorry state of Annabeth’s kitchen experience.

Annabeth nodded, not even bothering to deny the truth, and kicked her heels against the cabinet beneath her. “But I did do it, so now I deserve to reap the rewards of my hard work.”

“Your hard work? I did most of the work here,” he objected, though he picked up two cookies and came to stand between her dangling legs. This time there would be no timer to call him away, and he definitely looked forward to enjoying the taste of their cookies on her mouth.

“My hands are blue,” she told him, snapping one of the cookies out of his hand. “I earned this.”

“Don’t worry, I’m an expert at washing food coloring off skin,” Percy replied, smiling when she narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. Neither of them bothered to say another word before biting into their cookies.

He really wished he had not bitten into that cookie. Overpowering just about every other flavor was salt. Just salt. Like the whole cookie was salt and nothing else, not even chocolate chips. Both of them choked on their bites, faces scrunching up in twin expressions of disgust. Percy had time to run to the trash to spit it out, but Annabeth had to spit the thing straight into her hand. As she slipped off the counter to dump her handful of half chewed cookie in the trash, Percy went to the fridge for a bottle of water and guzzled half of it down.

Annabeth immediately reached for the bottle as soon as he’d finished taking his first drink, following his example, and it was then Percy burst into laughter. She shoved his shoulder gently as swished a little water around in her mouth and he laughed harder. “Stop laughing!”

“What did you do?” he asked, getting another shove when he continued to laugh.

“Me?” she replied, pointing to herself and shaking her head. “This is your fault.”

“You were the one who measured everything out.”

“You were supposed to be watching me so this wouldn’t happen – and stop laughing.”

Percy couldn’t have stopped laughing if he wanted to, and he kind of didn’t even want to. “I just don’t understand how you got so much salt in them.”

Her eye twitched, the adorable and sexy little twitch that had entranced him the first time they’d spoken months before and had only become more endearing with time. Annabeth tossed the emptied plastic bottle at him and turned on her heel to storm away. “This is why I didn’t even want to make the stupid cookies!”

“Beth, wait,” Percy called after her, easily catching up to her two step head start. He slipped his arms around her waist from behind and held tight, her halfhearted struggle to escape no use and only making him laugh more. “I’ll bake another batch for you. You can just sit and watch from the counter.”

“It’s too late,” she grumbled. “You ruined cookies.”

“I’ll make dinner, too,” he continued, leaning down to press his lips against her neck. The first time he’d made her eye twitch like that, he’d had to walk away. Now when he did it – and he did it pretty often – he got to enjoy the process of appeasing her, and the exceptionally good mood that always followed.

Annabeth considered his offer carefully, tilting her head to the side to allow him better access to her neck in the meantime, which he took full advantage of. “On one condition,” she decided.

“What’s that?” Percy asked against her skin, a smile pulling at his lips.

“You have to wear your apron,” Annabeth said firmly.

His smile grew a little wider. “That’s not much of a condition.”

“Only your apron,” she amended, her voice smug and taunting, a challenge to test his resolve. It seemed they’d transitioned from eye twitching mad to exceptionally good mood unusually fast that evening.

God, did he love her.

#this turned out like twice as long as i want these to be generally #but since it's two prompts in one... i'll use that as an excuse #set the day before piper's dumb ass gets arrested (between chapters 93 & 94) #apt 305 #my writing #dialouge prompt