This is based on the songs "hymn" by Fluerie and "I'll be waiting" by Isak Danieson. This is a mortal AU. Enjoy!

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Annabeth’s been living with self hatred after hurting the person she loves most. And right when she thinks she’s starting to heal and finally understand what she did was in the past, she just so happens to cross paths with him in her local grocery store. 

“Annabeth? Is that you?” 

“Percy- I-” the words get caught in her throat. 

“You tapped my shoulder,” he says to her, “do you need anything?” 

“No, sorry, I- uh- thought you were somebody else. I’ll go.” She turns to walk away and run home to her apartment to curl under her covers until she just… dies. She never expected to see him again after they graduated high school, and at this point she should have moved on by now. But now he’s right there. Like, right there, and looking at her with those same sea green eyes, and she’s just now realizing how much she’s missed him. And that’s a dangerous thought. 

“No, wait,” he calls after her. “You couldn’t reach something could you?”

Annabeth blinks. “No, I thought you were somebody else.” 

“I find that hard to believe. But, who?” 

“My boyfriend?” 

“Wow, ‘Beth, you’re dating a look alike?”

“No,” she deflates. “I couldn’t reach the pickles.” 

Percy raises an eyebrow. “You don’t like pickles.” 

“My boyfriend does.” 

“Right.” He grabs the jar of dill pickles off the top shelf and hands them to her anyway. He expects her to say something, she knows, but she doesn’t. She can’t say anything. “Well. All these years and you’re still short.”

“Hey, I’m five-seven. Not much shorter than you, Mr. six foot,” she finds herself teasing. 

“Oh-ho-ho, that’s where you’re wrong. I am now six foot three,” he says proudly. 

“Congratulations. You grew three inches,” she deadpands. 

Percy laughs, “You’re one to talk! You’re still the same height you were as a freshman. In high school.”

Annabeth rolls her eyes, but in all honesty, she’s missed this. She’s missed him. And maybe, just maybe, the fates- if they exist- decided to bring them back together. But that all goes crashing out the window when she sees the baby doll in his cart. So unless Percy plays with baby dolls, she can only assume he has a little one at home. 

It isn’t unrealistic. They’ve been separated for five years, and Annabeth couldn’t expect him to love her after what she’d done. But it's okay. It’s okay. A lot happens in five years. She’s happy he’s moved on and found someone to heal his injured heart. If only she could do the same. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Percy asks. 

“Yeah, just a tough day,” she lies and forces a smile. “I’ve got to go. Don’t want to keep that look alike boyfriend waiting.” 

Percy gives her a nod. “It was good seeing you again, Annabeth.” 

She smiles, something she hasn’t genuinely done in a long time. “You too, Percy. Maybe I’ll see you around.” 

It’s doubtful, but maybe a little hopeful too. 

***

That meeting put a damper on her mood and she found herself sprawled out on her bed that night, calling Piper. She tells her about her and Percy’s encounter. Her friend tries to be supportive, but they both know that what happened put a scar between Percy and Annabeth that runs too deep for healing, and there’s also a possibility that he’s found someone knew. 

When they end the call, Annabeth tries to get some sleep. But after another hour of lying awake with Percy plaguing her thoughts, she gives up. Which really sucks, because she has work early tomorrow morning. 

Instead, she turns the tv on and tries to forget it ever happened, which is way easier said than done. But it’s unlikely that she’ll ever see him again, which is both a devastating and comforting thought. 

Eventually, she falls asleep only to be woken by the morning sunlight three hours later. She’s way too tired to go into work today, and quite honestly feels sick from the lack of sleep, but she already promised Piper she’d bring in the blue prints today so she could add in the interior design. So she hauls herself out of bed and takes a refreshing shower. After changing into clean clothes and making a hot cup of coffee to get her going, she heads to the firm without a single thought of Percy. 

***

When they run into each other again during her lunch break at a small coffee shop downtown, she knows the fates are playing a cruel joke on her. 

“Annabeth!” he waves and heads to her table. 

Every fiber in her body screams at her to abort- to get out of there as soon as she can. This is a trap they’re getting caught up in, and Annabeth doesn’t want to get stuck. She doesn’t want to dwell in the past any longer. All this is just a stream of twisted logic that will sooner or later leave them both black and blue. The sooner they go their separate ways, the better. 

“Sorry,” she mutters, gathering her things in a disorderly fashion. “I was just leaving.” 

“No,” he chuckles like she said something funny, “I was hoping we could catch up.” 

No, no, no. 

“Is that a good idea?” she whispers. 

“I think it’s time we cleared some things up.” 

Annabeth shakes her head. “I don’t-” 

“‘Beth,” Percy pleads. “Please. You owe me this.” 

She sits back down and gestures to the seat in front of her. “What do you want to know?”

He asks where she’s working, if she did end up attending NYU, and he listens intently while she rants about the amazing classes she took in college and her dream job as an architect, and everything else. There’s warmth in his eyes, but Annabeth swallows down any hope she has. He’s just being nice. It’s a mystery to her how he can be so nice, so forgiving, when she hasn’t stopped beating herself up for what she did all those years ago? She could find out, but she’s too afraid to ask. 

She asks him about his life; his job; his family, and he eventually confirms he's single. Well, he tried dating Rachel Dare a couple years after they broke up, and something churns in her stomach because she’d always feared he secretly liked her. The feeling disappears when he admits it didn’t last longer than a couple months. Then she feels bad for feeling a spark of jealousy, because she’d had him, she’d loved him, but she’d let him go. He’s no longer hers to be jealous over.

“So no wife or anything? No kids? I saw the doll in your cart,” she asks. 

His eyes brighten. “Oh, it was a gift for my sister. She turns six this weekend.” 

She recalls the smiling one-year-old, dressed in the cutest white ruffle gown, her blue eyes bright until all things fell apart, and Annabeth never saw her again. She wonders, as Percy shows her recent pictures of Estelle, what it would have been like if they never fell apart. She’d still know Estelle, she’d still have Percy’s parents to confide in as hers never cared. However, she made her decision. Even if she did try to return to him, she fears he’ll love her less, unlike how fiercely he loved her in high school. If only she hadn’t let her fear take over and watch their relationship crumble within the span of ten minutes before she never saw him again. 

But then Percy’s face falls and she says, “and yeah, no. No weddings or anything. Rachel, I thought maybe, but that ended pretty quickly when she figured she was only my rebound. Besides, my last wedding didn’t really go as planned so I’m not rushing to have any at the moment.” He’s quite obviously joking with his smirk and bright eyes, but she feels like she got punched in the gut. 

She stands up, her chair scraping against the floors and quickly packs up. “I should go,” she says and hurries out the door, not looking back when Percy calls out for her. 

***

It’s a couple weeks before she hears from him again. Not that she’s keeping count. 

The days before her phone buzzed with a notification she’d been dreading (or anticipating, she’s not sure) had been refreshing. Piper stayed over for a weekend, her mission to help Annabeth get her mind off everything. Work clogged her mind the rest of the time, so yeah, so refreshing. 

But now she’s staring at her phone, heart hammering, and wondering if she should respond or not. 

Hi, this is Percy.

You left before I could apologize. I shouldn’t have brought it up. 

Want to get lunch and start over?

Start over.

That’s all she wants. All she wants is to start over. So why is she having such a hard time agreeing? Before her mind can catch up with her body, her thumbs are typing out an answer and sending it. 

Yes. 

She releases a breath and falls back against her pillows. Her phone buzzes again and she holds it above her face to read the recent message. 

Percy

Awesome. Does 12:30 work for you? 

Yes. Where are we going?

Percy

I was thinking that burger joint a couple blocks away from Goode.

Annabeth bites her lip. Her thumbs hover over the keyboard. Out of all the places they could go, he picks the place they used to go every Friday after school before going to his apartment to watch a movie with his family. If she goes, she’ll have to relive all those memories and she isn’t sure if she’s ready for that. Then again, if she wants to move forward, this might be the first step to doing so. 

Okay.

Percy

Okay. See you then.

She meets him outside the restaurant an hour later. When he shows up, green eyes shining and his lips pulled into a soft smile- not a smirk- she thinks maybe they have a chance at being friends. 

“After you, ma’am,” he says, holding the door open. 

“You make me feel old,” she grumbles but steps inside anyway. 

“Maybe because we are old?” He remarks, pulling out her chair. 

“I hardly count twenty-three as old,” she says and picks up a menu. 

After their food is ordered, Percy clears his throat, reaching over the table for her hand. Annabeth’s quick enough to pull it off the table and tuck it into the pocket of her coat before their hands make contact. It’s a much safer option- one that won’t make her fall deeper into his tide. 

“Look, Annabeth,” he starts, “I know we lost contact, but seeing you again-I missed you. You were my best friend and I miss having you around. Do you think we could try to be friends again?” 

Her heart stops. That doesn’t make any sense. 

“Friends?” she asks, her voice laced with confusion. He nods. “Why would you want to be friends with me? After what I did to you?”

He sighs like he’d known this is where the conversation was heading. “You’re long since forgiven for that. And I didn’t say we have to go back to the way things were, but I just want my best friend back, okay? And we don’t have to if you don’t want to. I understand things change, feelings change, so if you think it’s best we leave things where they’ve been, then okay. I’ll respect that.”

Tears prick the corners of her eyes, but they aren’t happy tears. She’d been broken since sixteen, and pulled herself away from Percy in fear of getting hurt again, and it only hurt worse when she left first. She’s been tethered like a feather, anxious in her roaming because she doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’d been so sure around him, though, but once she ran away and ruined everything, she was back to being stuck. All she knows is how to run away. She doesn’t know anything different. It’s a natural instinct now, so that’s exactly what she does. 

She calls a “cancel my order” before bolting out the double doors and down the sidewalk. How many times has she ran from him now? Oh it hardly even matters. It’s better this way. Isn’t it? 

But then he’s grabbing her hand and an electric volt shoots up her arm at his touch, an electric volt that should have disappeared years ago. She closes her eyes and turns around to face him. 

“Would you- would you stop running away? If you want to be apart again, then okay, but please tell me that. Don’t just take off running. Don’t do that again,” his voice, full of desperation, cracks. 

Her eyes burn. “I don’t understand. Why are you being so nice to me?”

His laugh is humorless. “Annabeth, you were my best friend and my first love. I’m not going to be an ass because of something that happened five year ago. I’ve grown up and learned to forgive you, and I- I promised myself if I ever saw you again, I wouldn’t leave.” 

Anger swarms within her and she shoves him. “Would you please just hate me! It’s what I deserve, okay? What I did, that sucked! I don’t deserve you to be this nice to me. I don’t deserve you at all!”

“What you did, that did suck but I’ve forgiven you, okay?”

“But I haven't forgiven myself!” 

Percy closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “I don’t care what happened back then, I still care about you. That’s why I wanted to meet up.” 

“I left you at the altar!” she shouts, tears freely running down her cheeks. 

Percy’s eyes soften as he looks at her, and his voice is equally as soft, “I was mad, yeah, cried, sure, but we were young. ‘Beth, we were only eighteen, right out of high school. We only dated for two years, and you had just gotten out of a bad relationship. How could I ever blame you for not wanting to commit to something like marriage at a time like that?”

Annabeth sniffs. “Maybe because I never spoke to you again? I never called to even let you know I was okay. I left you in the dark for years, Percy. How could you not blame me?”

“Annabeth, you were scared. It’s like… what do people say? Right person but wrong time. But like I said, I forgave you a long time ago,” he says.

“You may have forgiven me, but I haven’t forgiven myself, and I don’t think I ever will.”

“Well you should. I can’t hold you accountable for your choices. I don’t own you.” 

He never was one to keep a record or hold anything she failed to prove against her, was he? 

“I hurt you.”

“You did, but I’m not hurt anymore,” he tries to convince her. His eyebrows scrunch together like she remembers them doing whenever he didn’t understand something. “Didn’t you get my letter?”

Annabeth frowns. “What letter?” 

“I wrote you a letter a year after our wedding,” Percy says, “It was my last hope to bring you back. You weren’t answering my calls or texts, so I figured you’d check your mail.”

“I don’t remember getting a letter from you,” she says, quite sure of herself. 

Percy’s chuckle is nervous as he rubs the back of his neck. “About that. Piper let me use her name. I thought you’d look at something that was hers over something that was mine.”

“No,” she disagrees. “I would have looked.”

“Can you blame me for not thinking so?” 

“I guess not, no.”

“Anyway,” Percy says, shaking his head. “All I’m asking is that we try and start over, in whatever way you want that to mean. I’ll always be waiting, okay?”

Annabeth feels tears prick her eyes again, but this time, they might be out of happiness. But who in their right of mind would want to befriend the person who left them at the altar? Percy, that’s who. Because he loves too much. “I’ll need time,” she says, “to think about it.”

“Are you sure?” she questions, because who in their right of mind would want to befriend the person who left them at the altar?

“Take all the time you need.”

***

The next few months came and went.

Percy went back to Brooklyn where he’s been living for the past few years. It explains why she hadn’t seen him until now. He’d only been visiting Manhattan for Estelle’s birthday, which she already knew, but apparently decided to stay a couple extra days after seeing her again. She’s touched and quite overwhelmed by it. 

Annabeth struggled maintaining a healthy balance between work and personal life. She hasn’t thought much about what Percy said back in January, mainly because she’s been overwhelmed by the loads of work that has been slapped down in front of her. But also because she still isn’t sure what she wants. 

Well, that’s a lie. 

What she wants is to start over with him, but the fear of hurting him all over again stops her from doing anything about it. How is she supposed to know she’s ready to step back into a relationship? Even if it’s just as friends. But that’s the issue, isn’t it? Annabeth isn’t sure she wants to be just friends. They had been in love once, so who says they can’t learn to love each other again?

But what if he doesn’t want the same thing? He had made it crystal clear he wanted to start over as friends, and only friends. Maybe he’s scared she’ll leave again, too. If their relationship failed then, why would it work now?

Annabeth groans and falls face first onto her bed. Why does her mind have to be so complicated? Why can’t she just leave it all in the past? What will it take for her to leave it all behind and move on with her life, just as Percy did. How did he manage to forget the embarrassment, the pain of waiting for his bride to walk down the aisle, only for her to not show up. No, while he was ready to commit his heart to her, she was already hiding in her brother, Malcolm’s apartment, only telling Piper where she was. How did he move on from that pain? 

Forgiveness, a voice whispers. If only she was capable of forgiving. She can’t forgive her dad for pushing her away the moment her two brothers were born. She can’t forgive her mother for leaving her at the age of three. She can’t forgive her ex-boyfriend, Luke, for manipulating her into thinking it was her fault he cheated. He’s the reason she believes she’s undeserving of love. And she can’t forgive herself for hurting Percy. 

Annabeth wipes her eyes. She didn’t realize she was crying until she sat up to finish cleaning out her closet. There had been no time to do anything but work, so her apartment turned into a total nightmare. With April approaching, she knew she needed to do some spring cleaning, starting with her awful closet where she stores nothing but junk. 

She pulls another box out from underneath a pile of clothes and recognizes the writing: senior year. There’s going to be things related to Percy inside, she knows, but she wants to see it. She wants to be reminded of how happy she was. She tears the box open and reaches for the stack of photos she knows are in there. 

She’s smiling as she flips through the pictures. Most of them are of her and Percy, as she expected, and a few others with a couple friends she doesn’t talk to anymore. There’s some pictures of Luke that she immediately rips apart and throws away. But the pictures of Percy she keeps, holding them against her chest as she searches the rest of the box. 

A notebook Annabeth vaguely remembers lays at the bottom. It’s blue and tattered with ruffled pages but otherwise good as new. The pages are blank, save for a couple doodles and notes she remembers making with Percy. But there’s no emotional attachment to it like these pictures. She goes to throw it in the garbage bag but something falls from between the pages and lands at her feet. 

An envelope? 

With a frown, Annabeth grabs it off the floor and rotates it between her fingers. She almost drops it when she reads where and who it came from. Piper McLean. California. Only, Piper never lived in California. Annabeth remembers something Percy said; about that. Piper let me use her name. Her breath hitches in her chest and a fresh wave of anxiety washes over her. 

It’s the letter Percy mentioned. This is the end, she thinks. This is his tragic letter, writing instead of telling because it’s too painful to say he doesn’t want to see her again, because she runs when she’s scared. And this is when Annabeth dies. It might seem dramatic to some, but she thinks she might be suffering a heart attack with how hard her heart hammers against her chest. 

She inhales deeply before shakily tearing the envelope open. The letter is handwritten, the blue ink faded against the crumpled notebook paper. 

Annabeth, 

I know you probably don’t want to hear from me, and you’ll throw this letter away the moment you get it. I want you to know that I’m not mad. Well, I was, but I’m not anymore. I get it. We’re young. We weren’t ready for something as big as marriage, and I am so sorry if I ever made you feel pressured. I’m sorry, I don’t really know what I’m doing. I just had to get this off my chest. I’m not sure about a lot of things right now to be honest, but if there’s one thing I am sure of, it’s you, Annabeth. I love you. I’m in love with you, and whatever you decide to do with that, I’ll be waiting. I don’t care if I have to wait one year or fifty years, as long as I get to see your smile and hear your laugh. Even if you only want to be friends, I’m okay with that. PLease think about it. 

Percy. 

Annabeth’s standing in a puddle of tears when she’s done reading the letter for the fifth time. Okay, not literally but there’s an abundant amount of tears leaking from her eyes. She holds the letter close to her chest and closes her eyes, trying to calm her breathing. How could she have missed this? She’s certain if she would’ve opened the letter instead of tossing it with all her other junk, she would have started running back to him at the starting line. 

What she thought was an unconscious steam of twisted logic luring her into a whirlwind of hurt, was actually what she needed to fill the void in her heart. And all she’s done was push it away. 

As though the letter was medicine made to cure the toughest diseases, Annabeth feels the certainty replacing the confusion that’s been clogging her mind for the longest time almost immediately. She finally knows what she needs to do. She needs to find Percy and make everything right again. Sure, she’s anxious about what he’ll say- if he’s scared she’ll run again. But Annabeth admitted to her mistakes, and that’s a sign of maturity, as a sign she won’t make the same mistake again. 

So she leaves her bedroom- spring cleaning long forgotten- and tugs on a pair of dirty tennis shoes. Annabeth doesn’t bother putting on a light coat before hurrying down the stairs of her apartment building and through the doors, only to stop dead in her tracks on the sidewalk. 

Annabeth doesn’t know where Percy lives. 

“Shit,” she curses under her breath. 

There’s only one person she can think of that would know where Percy lives and heads over to the Upper East Side. 

***

The woman that opens the door is both familiar and a stranger. 

Annabeth knew her a long time ago when her hair was less grey and the wrinkles surrounding her eyes were nonexistent. The color of her eyes are the same, though, still the same welcoming blue they always were. She’s still wiping her hands on an apron tied around her waist, and- oh- there’s the same white streak of flour smeared across her forehead. 

For a moment, Annabeth thinks she’s crazy for showing up at her ex-boyfriend’s mom’s apartment unannounced years after breaking her son’s heart to ask for his address. She mutters an apology because she shouldn’t be here. His mom probably vowed never to see her again. She’s about to leave when she calls out her name. Annabeth freezes. 

“Annabeth? What is it, honey?” 

“I’m so s-sorry, Sally,” she stumbles over her words, “It’s stupid.”

“Nothing’s stupid if it’s bothering you, dear,” Sally says softly. 

Annabeth sighs. “I ran into Percy a couple months ago. I don’t know if he told you. I found something of his today and I need to return it, but I don’t know where he lives. I just thought-”

Sally waves her off. “No worries. Do you want me to give it to him next time he visits?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “This is something I have to do on my own.”

The older woman smiles at her knowingly. “Wait here.” 

***

Annabeth arrives at Percy’s apartment in Brooklyn an hour later. She rings the buzzer, “hey it’s annabeth,” and he lets her up without a single question. He lives on the second floor so she takes the stairs instead of the elevator. She holds the railing with her right hand while the other clutches his letter. 

Percy’s waiting for her when she arrives at his door. His hair is mussed like he just fell out of bed, and he probably has morning breath too, but she hardly cares as she throws her arms around his neck, hugging him close. 

“Woah, hey,” he breathes, hugging her back. “What brings you here?” 

“I was so wrong,” she says thickly after pulling away. “I was so wrong about everything.”

“What are you talking about?” Percy scratches his head. 

Annabeth swallows. Well, here goes nothing. “I got your letter.”

“You-?” He gives her a dazed look of bewilderment, but then his eyes widen. “Oh! You got my letter!”

“Yeah.” She can feel tears pooling in her eyes and words tumbling off her tongue before she can even approve what she’s going to say. “I was an idiot, Percy. I was so scared of getting hurt again after- after Luke,” she spits his name like he’s poison, “that I pulled away first before you even got the chance to leave. Percy, you’re nothing like Luke and I don’t know why I didn’t realize that before finding this letter. You were always there for you. You never once made me feel as though I didn’t deserve love. But I left and hurt you anyway, and I’m so sorry.”

Percy doesn’t once interrupt. He watches her intently as she spills out everything she’s been bottling up since the day she left. Sometime during her apology, his hand had found her and he squeezes it encouragingly. 

She swallows the lump in her throat. “I love you, and if you’ll have me, I’d like to start over.” 

Percy tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear, his fingertips brushing against her cheek. For one horrible second, he’s quiet, and Annabeth fears he doesn’t feel the same. But then he whispers, “I did say I’d be waiting, didn’t I?” and his lips are sliding over her own. His hands grip her waist and Annabeth feels at home. 

An asteroid could have destroyed the earth and Annabeth wouldn’t have cared. 

“I love you so much,” Percy breathes against her lips. Annabeth hums happily and deepens their kiss, carding a hand through his already messy hair, but he pulls away. He searches her face with his eyes and she’s pleasantly overwhelmed by the way he’s looking at her. “And I would love to start over with you.”

“I want to go slow,” she tells him quietly, pressing her forehead against his. 

“We can go as slow as snails if you want,” he says, completely serious. 

Annabeth laughs and kisses him again. 

***

Four years later, Annabeth walks down the aisle, and this time, she doesn’t run away.

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So yeah, hope you enjoyed!