tushanshu_logs | (no subject)

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.

Piper is a godsend. Or maybe it was just her charmspeak. Either way, after their conversation, Annabeth is a little more calm despite even less time remaining. She ignores Percy for now and drags her brush through her own hair - which doesn't really help at all and just kind of puffs it out even more. Instead of worrying over that, she rushes for the closet to give her extra time to think, dropping unceremoniously on her knees to dig around for the sandals she'd gotten for the masquerade. Better than sneakers.

She glares at her curls in the mirror, then nudges Percy over so she can share said mirror and make an attempt to pull it back into a braid. It's out of her face and probably decent enough.

These stupid fish.

Percy jumps a little when he sees that glare, before he realises it's directed at the mirror, rather than him. He nudges her back softly. "I'm serious, you look great."

It's possible that he's not that most unbiased opinion here, because he would probably think she looked great in rags covered in monster gunk. But it's the thought that counts, right?

He's taller than her anyway, enough that he can still see the top of his head from behind her as she works her hair into a braid. He continues messing with his own, before tossing his hands in the air and giving up. "You'll still love me with bird's nest hair, right?" It's not that bad, but he's nervous.

Her lips curl into a small smile after he nudges her, and she nudges him back. Piper's right, and she knows it herself; it really doesn't matter what she ends up looking like to him. But most of it's for her own sake. Annabeth Chase likes to be prepared.

She ties up the braid at the end once she's satisfied it looks okay, then turns around to look at his actual face rather than their reflections. She brushes some of the hair out of his eyes, smiling. "I love you despite it and with it."

She's always kind of liked how messy his hair gets, to be honest. And right now, it adds to still feeling like them, fancy clothes or otherwise.

Percy's lips twitch up, and for a moment he considers just throwing aside the whole idea and staying in with her. They could find something to do, he's pretty sure.

But the thought gets dismissed almost instantly, because he wants to go out with Annabeth. Show her a good time, and maybe there's a part of him that wants to show her off, too. Because his girlfriend is amazing. "That's lucky," he remarks. "Because I don't think it's getting any better than this." He tilts his head at her. "You ready?"

She bites back a laugh, sliding her hand through his. And she's about to say yes, then her smile flickers for a moment, and she tugs her hand out to make for the bedroom. "Wait, one thing," she offers as explanation.

Should Percy follow her out, he'd be witness to Annabeth lifting the skirt of the dress just enough to slide her knife into the sheath at her thigh; she'd left it off while getting ready, not really wanting the weight of it against her as she darted around. Making sure it's tucked in safe and comfortably, she lets the fabric drop back down before turning back to her boyfriend.

"Okay, now I'm ready. I think. Let's go talk to some sea life."

He absolutely does follow her, and he can't decide if that's a great decision or a terrible one as he watches her slide her knife in place. "That shouldn't be allowed," he mutters, a little red in the face.

Let's go talk to some sea life. For a second Percy totally forgets what his story is and just kind of gives her a blank stare. And then he reaches out and tugs her to him, kissing her hard and fast. "Right. Let's go." A beat. "After this." And he kisses her again.

Edited 2013-08-08 21:08 (UTC)

"What?" Vaguely distracted by what she was doing, she misses the implication. At least until she spots the flush, and she almost starts teasing him over it.

Except then he's kissing her like that and she doesn't really care to find out anymore. Annabeth smirks with amusement as she easily kisses him back and then some for a few moments. "I thought we were on a time limit?" she mutters playfully, but not without mockery, against his lips.

It takes all of his self control not to mess up the thing she did with her hair by running his hands through it. He sets his hands at her hips instead, groaning a little at her words. "There's a thing called being fashionably late, you know..."