Beyond All Expectation (Percabeth)

Chapter 33: The Necklace

Percy POV:

It was a random Sunday nearing the end of February. Annabeth and I had been to the hospital to visit Tyson, and we were sitting alone in a carriage on the subway. Annabeth was reading a book about architecture, scribbling notes on a piece of paper as she read. I rested my head against her shoulder and watched her write, enjoying the way her mouth twitched every time she read something interesting. 

The train came to a stop and people started walking into our carriage. A woman sat opposite from us. Annabeth looked up, smiled and started writing again on a new blank piece of paper. She slid the note over to me and I gave it a look. 

Cheryl, 43, single Mom originally from Nebraska. Just had an argument with her oldest Son about college. 

I took a closer look at the woman and smiled, nodding secretly to Annabeth. This was a game we liked playing often. Annabeth had made me into as much of a people watcher as she was. We liked to watch people and guess who they were and what they were doing.

I look across at the man standing near us. I took the pen from her and started writing. 

David, 67, lived in Manhattan all his life. Going shopping to buy presents for his grandkids. 

Annabeth nodded and chuckled as she rested her head against my cheek. I breathed in the lemon smell of her hair. 

Σε αγαπώ, I wrote on the paper under my last note, and she immediately sat up straight. Her eyes looked from the words, to me, back to the words again. There was a broad smile on her face. She bit her lip. 

"How did you do that?" She asked. 

I gentle traced her fingers with my own. "I've been getting Bianca to teach me. I know you're fluent, and your Mom's from Greece, so I thought I'd try learning it. I'm actually surprisingly good - like, I understand it more than most languages I've tried to learn in the past."

She leaned in closer and kissed me softly. "That's... like, the sweetest thing in the world, ever."

I laughed. 

"Oτιδήποτε για σένα," I said slowly. Anything for you. 

She smiled at me and hesitated for a moment, as if thinking of what to do next. She then reached into her bag and handed me a notebook. I began to open it but she held my hand before I could. 

"This is for Estelle," she said. "I've been writing her a book. I included a few drawings that I thought she could colour in."

I felt another pang in my heart; that feeling I got every time I realized I was falling more and more in love with her. My breath caught in my throat. 

"When... why did you do that?" I breathed. "You didn't have to."

She shrugged as if it was nothing. I wanted to tell her it was everything. "She talks to me a lot about the most random things. She has this crazy imagination. I wanted to write a story about everything she dreams of - I thought she might like it."

I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. How had I got so lucky? 

"Annabeth, you're amazing!" I laughed. "Come round tomorrow evening and give it to her yourself."

She shook her head. "I'm going shopping with your Mom tomorrow after school, and then I've got work. And I'm moving in to my Mom's apartment on Tuesday, I won't have time to come round. It's fine, you can give it to her. Just send me a photo of her face when she reads it."

I raised an eyebrow. "You're going shopping with my Mom?"

She laughed, as if I had said a joke. "Yeah, it's Monday."