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As Percy walked down the path that was parallel to the Big House, Chiron’s voice had him spinning towards the large double doors that were the entrance to the Big House.
“Percy,” he started, “would you mind going up to the attic and getting an artifact for me? I need it for a Monster Lore lesson I’m teaching in twenty minutes” He called. “I would go up and get it myself but…” He gestured to his horse half.
“Yeah. Stairs and horses don’t mix well. I get it,” Percy replied. “What do you need me to get?”
“There should be a harmonica on a dresser up there somewhere,”
“A harmonica? Wait, never mind. I don’t really want to know.” He walked into the Big House and made his way up to the attic. He had never really liked the attic, always finding it a bit creepy, especially with the mummified body of the oracle. He scanned the room, brightening a little bit when he found what he was looking for. He rushed to grab it, grimacing when his hip knocked into an old table, causing an old stopwatch to fall to the floor with a thump. Damn, that thing was probably older than him. He knelt to pick it up, placing it back on the table where he found it. Grabbing the harmonica he left the attic, going downstairs and putting it on the large center table when he didn’t see Chiron anywhere. Harmonica task completed, he decided to go back to his cabin during his several free hours before dinner. He picked his way down the path, frowning when he saw several paths he hadn’t noticed before. Probably just the satyrs, he decided.
Lost in thought, he didn’t notice the soft sounds coming from within the cabin. As a demigod who was constantly getting attacked by monsters, he really should have. He also should have noticed the two pairs of shoes sitting just inside the door off to the right. And he definitely should have noticed when said soft noises stopped. He did, however, notice that the towel he had left draped over a chair when he’d gotten back from the beach that day was not there. Cursing, he drew Riptide.
“Drop it.” an oddly familiar voice said. Riptide clattered to the floor. The man behind him drew in a sharp breath. “I’m going to let you turn around now. And don’t freak out.” Percy furrowed his brows. Why would he freak out? He turned, and his jaw went slack.
The man was tall, had jet black hair, and sea green eyes that mirrored his own.
“Holy shit,” he said. “Holy motherfucking shit.” A laugh from behind him made him whip his head around. It was Annabeth but…older. And Gods, did she look good.
Standing tall at a good five foot ten, with her long hair draped down her back, which was slightly mussed. She was wearing—Oh Gods, was that his band shirt? It must have been because it was definitely oversized on her. And as he trailed his eyes down his brain froze.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
He was staring at Annabeth Chase in his T-shirt, and she wasn’t wearing pants. It suddenly became very clear to Percy what, exactly, he had interrupted when he’d barged into his cabin.
“I—um…” he couldn’t form words. Annabeth laughed again, and Gods, if it wasn’t the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard.
“I think you broke him,” his older self said, smirking. Come to think of it, his hair was even more hopelessly messy than it usually was.
Percy could feel himself grow redder by the second. He still couldn’t rip his eyes away from Annabeth, and how the sun peeking through the stained glass windows made colorful patterns across her glorious, toned, long legs. He tried to clear his throat, wincing when it came out as more of a squeak than he’d intended. He looked up to find both Annabeth and himself—wow that was weird— staring at him.
“Uh…what?” Great. They’d been talking to him for what had probably been the better part of a minute while he just stood there and stared at Annabeth in a way that he hoped wasn’t creepy—it’s not creepy if she was his future self’s girlfriend, right?—and had apparently asked him a question which he hadn’t heard at all. Brilliant.
“I asked how you got here,” Annabeth said patiently.
“Oh. I don’t really know, I think it probably had something to do with some spoil of war I touched in the Big House or something. I guess. I mean, I’m not really positive bu—” He was cut off by loud laughter that was coming from his now doubled-over older self. He scowled.
“Percy, give him a break,” Annabeth chastised him, looking amused. “He’s probably really shocked right now. Hell, if I saw you the way you look now as a young teenager I would have lost my mind,” While Percy tried to process that piece of information, older him responded.
“Oh yeah? And what do you mean exactly by the way I look now?” He smirked and raised an eyebrow. Annabeth rolled her eyes smiling as she turned to punch older him in the shoulder. Instead of letting her take the cheap shot though, older Percy grabbed Annabeth’s arm and spun her into his side, pressing a kiss to her hair.
Percy watched as all of this happen, nearly choking on his tongue when Annabeth’s — his, really—shirt rode up at her side while older him spun her, revealing the complete lack of underwear and exposing the upper half of her right thigh. His older self noticed this, catching his eye above Annabeth’s head, and giving him a look of understanding.
“Right, so we should probably figure this out now,” Annabeth started. Glancing up at Percy, she seemed to realize that he also was barely wearing clothes, only in the boxers he had hurriedly pulled on when they had realized someone was walking on the deck outside.
Percy had never really thought about it before, but how had his older self gotten out Riptide so quickly when he didn’t have any pockets? Quickly repressing the thought of being naked with Annabeth so he didn’t risk fully turning into a tomato—he’d been turned into a guinea pig once, he knew it was possible—he switched his train of thought to what the hell he should do.
Older Percy also seemed to realize his own lack of clothes, and made a beeline towards his closet, pulling out a pair of jeans and another band t-shirt for himself as well as what appeared to be women's underwear—Oh Gods, he really should not think about why he kept women's underwear in his cabin—, as well as grabbing Annabeth’s denim shorts and a black sports bra from the floor. Percy ripped his gaze away. Percy would not look at what was in his older self’s hand. He wouldn’t.
The underwear was black with lace.
Once dressed, the three of them headed out to the porch that faced the lake. Cabin Three was surrounded by trees on all sides, and no campers were walking the beach or suntanning today. Percy wasn’t exactly concerned about other people seeing and subsequently recognizing him, but he figured it would probably be less complicated if no one did.
“We need to figure out how to get you home,” Annebeth opened the conversation with. “We also don’t know how much time has passed since you got here. How old are you right now?’
“Fourteen.” He responded mouth dry.
“Ah yes. I definitely knew I had a crush on you by then,” older Percy remarked.
“Thanks” He shot an annoyed look at himself. Older Percy just laughed, snatching a chip from the bag Annabeth had brought outside with them.
“So how do you think you got here? It’s okay if you don’t know, but if you have any guesses, even if it might seem stupid, let us know. Anything can help even if it’s just process of elimination.” Now that Annabeth wasn’t mostly naked, Percy could pretty much think straight.
“I was in the attic of the Big House, looking for something for Chiron. He said he needed it to teach his Monster Lore class.” He started. “I was looking for something and I bumped into an old table with a stopwatch on it and the stopwatch fell. I reached down to grab it and put it back on the table. I came back to my cabin to hang out for a couple of hours because I didn’t have any activities between now and dinner and then I walked in on you doing—well. You know.” he sputtered out the last couple of words, his throat going dry again. “Sorry about that by the way,” He said awkwardly.
“Yeah. You should be,” his older self cut in, but Percy could tell there was no animosity behind it. Although, he didn’t really think someone could truly argue with themselves, so it didn’t really matter anyway. Annabeth elbowed him but they both could tell she wasn’t really focused on what their conversation had devolved to. She had that faraway look in her eye that both Percys knew meant she was thinking deeply about something.
“You said you touched a stopwatch?” She asked.
“Yeah. It must have been an old spoil of war or something.”
“Do you think it was set for a specific amount of time that you could have triggered when it fell?”
“Probably. I mean, I was definitely the last person who had touched it, the thing was covered in dust.”
“Maybe it’s like those old cars and TVs that you have to kick to get working. Or in this case, drop I guess.” Older Percy cut it.
“I think it's worth a shot,” Annabeth agreed. “We still don’t know how much time has passed in your time, but assuming it’s the same as here it’s almost dinner time. Past me will notice your absence and start getting worried.”
“Aw, you would have been worried about me, Wise Girl?” Annabeth rolled her eyes.
“Whatever Seaweed Brain, past me probably just needs past you for her capture-the-flag strategy,” She retorted.
“You guys do know you’re dating now, right,” Percy asked. Older him chuckled.
“Anyways, now all we have to do is get you to the Big House without anyone seeing,” Annabeth said. “C’mon.” Just then, the dinner bell rang, and Percy cursed.
“What’s wrong? Why can’t we just go while everyone’s eating?” Percy asked. It seemed like a perfectly good plan to him.
“Can’t. We have a head counselors meeting during dinner because we have campfire right after. Sorry kid.” Percy groaned. Of course they did.
“It’s fine, I can just hang out here. I’m assuming I’m the only person besides Annabeth who would just walk in?” He asked.
“Yeah, you should be. If anyone does come though, just hide in the bathroom or something.” He and Annabeth got up to leave, Annabeth shooting him a smile that made his heart hurt as they went back through the cabin to get to the front door.
Percy stared up at the ceiling as he lay on a very comfy couch that he very much did not have in his cabin in his time. He’d been tossing the bouncy ball he’d found on top of his dresser up and down for the better half of an hour now. Sitting up, he caught the bouncy ball and stood up, putting it back where he’d found it. He looked around, noting the new additions to his room. There were a couple random weapons strewn across the room, a glorious bed for himself that would never fit in his mom’s New York apartment (older him had still left the bunks though for Tyson, he assumed) as well as a set of nightstands framing the bed. Percy was sure there were other, smaller things that he wasn’t noticing, but would find later as he snooped. Because he would snoop. They had left him for so long with no way to entertain himself, and technically he wouldn’t really be snooping because it was his cabin.
Mind made up, he hopped off the couch and made a beeline for the nightstand that stood to the right of the bed. It wasn’t that full, only a couple of stray pieces of paper, a couple of random knives, a tin of Altoids, and some granola bars. Dissatisfied with the complete lack of interesting things—honestly, when had he gotten so boring—he moved to the left nightstand. This was much more full and was surprisingly well-organized given how bad his ADHD was. Although, Annabeth had been telling him finding a way to arrange his stuff with a method that worked for him made a big difference.
Glancing at the contents inside the drawer he took stock of what was in it: Candy, several squares of Ambrosia in a Ziploc—did Ambrosia expire?—a pair of sunglasses, several drachma, and—shit were those condoms? Percy ignored them and kept looking but slammed the drawer shut when he saw a little bottle with clear liquid inside of it. Ok. It was time to stop looking through older him’s shit. Percy wasn’t confident that his brain wouldn’t explode if he saw one more slightly sexually associated item in his older self’s cabin.
Hearing the crunching of shoes on the dirt/gravel path, he cursed, ready to hide behind the bed if he didn’t recognize one of the voices as his own. Straining his ears, Percy let out a breath when he realized it was just him and Annabeth.
“Seriously, I never really realized how adorable younger you is,”
“Yeah, adorable is not really the word I would use,” Older him responded. “But watching him lose his mind when he saw you like that was fucking hilarious,” he continued. “I still kind of have that reaction every time I see you though,” he admitted.
“Sweet, Jackson.” Percy could practically hear his older self’s eye-roll.
“Oh yeah? I can show you exactly how sweet I can be,”
“Really? That line? So generic Seaweed Brain, I’m disappointed.” Annabeth shot back. “I am still… frustrated we were interrupted though,”
“Yeah, it’s been way too long,”
“It’s been three days,” Annabeth said.
“Exactly. Way to fucking long.” Percy shut his eyes trying desperately, and failing, not to think of what they were talking about. The crunching was getting louder and if they opened the door right now, it would be very clear he knew exactly what they had been talking about. Percy moved away from the window, hearing one last sentence before he raced across the room and plopped down on the couch.
“Frustrated, huh?”
“Well I guess this is it,” Percy said, looking away to hide the shine in his eyes. To see this, he and Annabeth together, and alive, was something he hadn’t begun to let himself think about. “Do you think I’ll remember this?” He asked them both.
“Honestly, not at all. You and I have a bad habit of contracting amnesia,” older Percy told him. “Also I feel like if you remembered it, I would remember it, and I don’t”
“Oh.” Annabeth moved towards Percy, leaning down slightly to give him a hug, which was mortifying.
“You not remembering this doesn’t mean you won’t get it Percy. You will. Maybe a little sooner if you stop being an idiot about you and younger me for two seconds.” She told him. Percy nodded, and reached for the stopwatch.