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"Like - dress up fancy and mingle and stuff." He makes a face, which is easy to do when he's legitimately uneasy right now. "Supposed to listen, mostly. For the fish, not to people. He bagsed staking out the ocean I guess."

Cue pleading puppy eyes. "You'll come, right?"

Her face scrunches over his explanation which is still not all that descriptive, but he's pleading and it's over fish, and oh gods why is she actually considering this? Maybe she just hates seeing him nervous and uneasy like this.

"That's still not helpful." She runs a hand through her hair. "Where? When?"

"It definitely wasn't my idea. Just - anything to help the fish, you know?"

Oh man, that's so weak it's snapping under it's own weight. Percy hurries on, hoping that his next infodump will fluster her enough that she'll forget. He runs a hand back through his hair, justifiably nervous at this point. "Um. An hour?"

Annabeth is about to pester him further, because it's stupid, and there's got to be more detail than that. Even with fish emergencies as an excuse. Except -

"An hour?" The look she gives him is nothing short of incredulous. "An hour. You can't be serious. And you're only telling me now why?"

Congratulations, the lack of time for preparation and planning has successfully distracted her from the first and mysterious part!

Thankfully, Percy has been expecting that kind of reaction, and reacts accordingly.

"He seriously just came up to me and asked! He had clothes too which was kind of weird but - the fish, Annabeth."

Percy sets down his glass and retrieves the dress he'd gotten her with Vanessa. He'd made sure it was in her favourite colour and that she'd be able to strap a knife under it somewhere, but other than that he'd just had to trust their friend with the details. He hands it over, trying to cover his continuing nervousness with an eyeroll. "Atlanteans, seriously. This is what happens when you make friends with a king, I guess."

If this excuse and story had come from anyone else, Annabeth would have called them an idiot and ignored it. But coming from Percy, it sounds just enough like something he'd get roped into that immediate dismissal isn't an option (she can still call him an idiot, though).

Percy comes back with a dress and her face contorts into confusion even further, taking it from him like it's covered in spiders. "What - why did he have clothes? Percy, this is ridiculous. How did he even know you'd ask me to come along?" She's not aquatic ok. And even if she's thinking and overthinking and distracted by the randomness of it all, she's still Annabeth, and logic holes will be poked at.

Percy chooses to believe it's because of the situation that she's holding the dress like that, not because she thinks it's ugly. He hopes.

There's a part of his brain that is questioning (loudly) why he's doing this. It would be simpler if he'd just told her and they enjoyed a nice dinner together and that was the end of it.

But...okay, even though he's nervous? This is way more fun. He just looks at her for a second. "Do you even remember the last time we went out separately for more than like, an hour?"

It's her favorite color. It's a thought that creeps in, temporarily distracting her from everything else. And then she's back to the freaking out.

Annabeth opens her mouth to protest; they'd gone out separately for longer than an hour technically, but the point he's trying to get across is made. So she gets huffy. "Shut up." She holds up the dress, getting a better look at it, a grumpy look replacing the confused one. "I can't believe I'm actually considering this, oh my gods. How long is this supposed to take? Where are we even going?"

He grins. He doesn't even need to say it, he totally won.

"You know your options are coming with me, or coming to rescue me when I inevitably get arrested for flooding the place, right?" He nudges her a little. "I'll make it up to you. Promise. It's just for the evening, in the Fire Sector."

Annabeth groans, running a hand down her face. She doesn't miss the stupid grin on his face, and she glares at him over it. It's the principle of the thing.

"I don't know which option is the better one," she grumbles, but she's resigned herself to getting dragged along. At least if she's there from the start, maybe some of the damage can be minimized.

"Where's your stuff? What - what else am I supposed to do? You never told me how - fancy." Now that the drawn out agreement to help is out of the way, cue the freaking out over the whole dressing up bit. Within an hour. With the girl who's lucky if she remembers to brush her hair in the morning. The last time she dressed up for anything on the turtle had been the winter masquerade, basically a giant costume party, and she'd gone vaguely as her mother. And she'd had help. Percy is springing this on her with too short a time limit.

Edited 2013-08-06 01:27 (UTC)

He's just going to look at her again. This time it's mostly surprise, though, because he doesn't really see the problem. The hard part is the dress, right? "Annabeth..." He steps forward, closer to her, and there's a certain look in his eyes that says personally, he'd consider how she is right now to be perfect. "I really don't think you have anything to worry about. My stuff's over there." He waves at the door where there's something vaguely suit-shaped tossed over some convenient piece of furniture. "It'll be okay, okay?"

She can read him as easily as a book (in Ancient Greek), so she easily picks up on the intent in the way he's looking at her; her cheeks tint red, and she elbows him in the gut. It's appreciated, of course, but she's still thinking too much and quietly anxious. "That's still vague."

With a huff, she holds the dress out again; it looks like it'll fit, but it's not the only thing she has to worry about. Does she still have those sandals from the masquerade? Because sneakers are probably not appropriate. At least the skirt of the dress looks loose enough to be comfortable. "My knife better fit under this." Annabeth has the best priorities. She makes a vague gesture to the clothes he threw over the couch. "And you might have wrinkled that."

He oofs quietly when she elbows him, but that's par for the course. She's probably going to hit him a lot harder, later.

Percy spreads his hands. "You've seen the Atlanteans. I'm pretty sure they're used to girls carrying weapons." And then he pulls a face, running over to rescue his outfit. Vanessa had helped him with that, too, because he'd nearly forgotten that showing up in jeans and a t-shirt probably wouldn't get him in, beautiful girlfriend on his arm or not. "Come on, let's get ready. Who knows, maybe it'll be fun?"

"They better be," she mutters, though the annoyance is mostly aimed at the set up rather than Atlanteans as a species. How fortunate she'd already bought herself a sheath to hold her knife at the leg, just in case. She is nothing if not prepared, however far off a situation.

Annabeth sighs. She's fairly still now, but her mind is still running all over the place, and Percy can probably see it in her eyes. She doesn't even think about trying to hide it, because he'd see that, too. She gives him a shove, then starts for the bedroom to at least put the dress on. "You and your fish. Yeah, real fun."

Obstinate. Practically her middle name (one of them).

Percy catches her hand as she heads for the bedroom, tugging her back to him. He presses a soft kiss to her forehead. "I'm serious about making it up to you." And then he eases his lips over hers; gently, but no less intense for it. "However you want."

He doesn't mind making that promise, even though he's not actually dragging her out to save the fish. It's not like Percy has any qualms about doing things for his girlfriend.

They do have reservations, though. So Percy reluctantly lets go of her, turning to eye his own outfit dubiously.

She tries really, really hard not to smile, but she can't help the small quick of her lips when he kisses her, and she can't stop herself from returning it. "I'll hold you to that promise."

He lets go and Annabeth starts for their room, but she glances back at him and feels a little smug at the way he looks at his own clothes. "They're just pants, Seaweed Brain." And she doesn't wait for a response before fleeing into the bedroom and closing the door behind her.

Where she promptly spends a few moments staring at the dress and making a face at it. With a sigh, she changes into it quickly (and good, the skirt is spacious enough for her knife), except for one teeny tiny thing.

"Percy? Can you come here?"

Fancy clothes are confusing, so Percy's only in the trousers when he hears Annabeth's voice.

"Yeah sure, no problem." He pushes open the bedroom door curiously, wondering what she wants, and then abruptly comes to a stop. Because that sure is his girlfriend half dressed right now. "Um." Is it weird that her shoulder blades are really attractive to him? "Hi."

She doesn't even have to look at him, between the stop and the um, to figure out where his eyes and brain are. "Shut up."

One of her hands bats at the air behind her back, where strings and buttons remain undone on the dress. "Help me with this. I can't reach."

There is most definitely not a faint pinkish hue to her ears. Because that would be stupid, given he's seen her with a whole lot less at this point.

Percy forcibly kicks his brain back into action. Maybe he can take the dress off again later - wow, no, he needs to focus. On her back - no, the dress. Which needs to be done up.

"One of these days I really will stop talking, and you're going to miss my voice," he decides, once he's sure that his voice is going to work properly. He steps in closer, and if his fingers absently trace down the line of her spine - well. He's only human. He starts at the bottom, working the buttons with an ease born not from dealing with women's clothing, but taking armour on and off over the past half decade.

Edited 2013-08-07 01:56 (UTC)

Annabeth waves a hand dismissively. "Impossible. Because you will never ever stop talking."

She can't help the slight shiver when his hand trails down her spine, but he makes quick and easy work of the buttons, at least from what she can feel. She can't exactly see behind her. "Is that all of them?"

He snorts. "Hey, sometimes I sleep."

A soft kiss is pressed to the back of her neck before he does up the last button, because he kind of can't help himself. "Yep, good to go." And he's just going to take a step back and smile. Not over the top or otherwise dorky, just a genuine smile of appreciation. "You look beautiful."

"More than sometimes." She loves you, okok, really.

It certainly feels a lot more comfortable now that the back is all closed up, and she half turns around so she can actually see his face. Her lips curl into a soft smile, because it helps, somewhat, hearing him say it. "I hope you're planning on putting a shirt on." There's a thank you shoved in there somewhere, but he speaks Annabeth fluently so she's not too concerned about him missing it.

Percy raises his eyebrows a little, holding out his arms. "You don't think I look beautiful, too?"

He hears the thank you loud and clear, although he's not sure why he needs one. All things considered, it was pretty much his pleasure. He tugs her in close and steals another kiss, because why not? "Okay, I have to finish getting changed. We've got like, I don't know, half an hour before we have to go?"

She rolls her eyes. "You're a beautiful tropical fish."

Annabeth kisses him back easily, and then her face drops. "It's a half an hour now? Oh my gods, Percy!" And she's back to mild panic because planning and things and goddamnit Percy Jackson. She gives him another slight punch and another shove for good measure, moving to leave him the room to finish changing while she takes care of not-room things. Like panicking at Piper.

"Thank you." He grins easily, and then tries to back out of her reach when she makes to hit him, but he's too slow. "Ouch, Annabeth!"

He leaves the room grumbling, and shrugs into the rest of his fancy outfit. It all fits right, and glancing in his reflection seems to confirm that he looks okay. He'll be messing around with his hair when Annabeth comes out again, drying to get it to be at least somewhat dignified.