PERCABETH FLUFF

Capture The Flag...But Also Ditch The Flag

A/N: Here's one-shot of Percabeth after the war, around seventeen, nearing Percy's eighteenth birthday. They play Capture The Flag and come face-to-face in a duel to the death...or at least to the lips ;).

PERCY POV

"I haven't seen Annabeth anywhere," I claimed when we were playing Capture The Flag. Frank was the leader of my team, Clarisse the leader of the other. We don't go according to skill when we're choosing captains for Capture The Flag, if that was the case, Annabeth and I would always be the leaders. But we liked to switch it up, so everyone learns the values and responsibilities of leadership.

Jason stared at me for a long, hard moment, and I quickly put on my confused, blank face, the one I've used as self-defence since I was a baby. It always works. It worked with Jason, too. "You better be honest, Percy. I know she's your girlfriend, but she's got a hook on us, she overheard Frank and I talking about a certain area of the camp where we hid our flag. We need guards on all sides of the rose bush fields, Annabeth could be lurking anywhere, for all we know."

"I'll go look. I know my girlfriend the best. I'll know where to find her, so don't keep everyone trapped here or we'll never win," I said. Frank stared at me hesitantly and then nodded, "Fine. Go search for Annabeth, Percy. Justin, Ricky and Becky, go find THEIR dumb flag! I'm PRETTY sure it's in the woods left of the training arena. Go, go, go!" Frank yelled.

I took off at full speed, running to where I thought Annabeth might be. I know her strategy pretty well... lurk around the corners, knock out everyone in sight, and then some kind of complicated plan about distracting the strongest holds, aka the guards of the flag, can be anyone (In this game, it was Frank and Jason) and steal the flag.

I ran full laps around the entire area of the rose bush fields, my heart rate going up to a million miles an hour, until I saw the sharpest glimpse of a blonde lock of hair. I stopped, panting, my hands on my knees. Being as quiet as I can, I carefully analyzed the area. She was here, and she was stuck here until she struck dumb on me, and knocked me out. I was not going to let that happen. If she moved, she would make a sound, and I'd catch her in an instant. 

I kept scanning until I spotted a thick bush, Annabeth-sized, and approached it. How was I going to do this? Well, I didn't get much time to think about it because a hand shot out of the bush, pointing a dagger straight at the tip of my chin. "Surrender, Seaweed Brain," she said from inside the bush. "Never," I grinned wildly, and she leapt out of the bush, the tip of her dagger lowering from my chin to the middle of my chest. "I caught you, Wise Girl. I outsmarted you," I said, letting the words hit her. 

She didn't take a second of it. "What makes you think this wasn't my plan all along? To stay in a spot where I know that you'd look for me, and instead of going hunting for you, I let you find me, so you'd be out of the picture while my teammates were attacking Frank and Jason as we speak?" she said with a satisfied smirk.

I opened my mouth in awe. I couldn't believe it. "You tricked me!" I said, pointing an accusing finger at her. "No, I just manipulated you guys into thinking of the wrong strategy. I let Jason and Frank see me eavesdropping on them, and I knew they'd send you to look for me and eliminate me from messing up your plans. And now I can knock you out," she said. I took Riptide out from my back pocket and uncapped it and it transformed into my well-known sword. "What makes you think you'll win?" I said. "And since I've pressed you into telling me your entire plan by saying that I outsmarted you and pricking your ego, I'll send floods to take out your teammates right now," I said. Annabeth frowned, and huffed, "Bring it on, Kelp Head."

My sword and her dagger clashed, and we went back and forth, expecting each other's unexpected moves and dodging them perfectly. I began to get tired of trying to beat her, and I could see in her eyes she felt the same thing. "You know," I said, while ducking her as she jumped over me from behind as an attempt to knock me over. "I'd like to see who'd win if you and I weren't competing in this game," I said as she moved over the blade of my sword as I dipped to her feet to try to trip her, but failed in doing so. She opened her mouth, probably to call me an idiot, but then stopped and dropped her weapon, which made me step back in surprise. "That's not a bad inquiry," she said, "Maybe..."