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“What do I have to do to wake up like this everyday?”
Piper’s voice sounded muffled from having her head buried in Annabeth’ neck. She dropped a kiss on the pale skin and felt her girlfriend’s breathy laugh, so she did it again. It was nice to know that Annabeth was ticklish, but when she looked up, she saw Annabeth’s — not so — angry look and gave her a guilty smile.
It was a sunday, 20th december, five days to christmas. Due to the holidays, their college had announced a break, and after a couple tough months and it was great to finally have some time to themselves. They were spending most of their time like that — snuggling on a bed, or the couch, or anywhere comfortable enough to do it — and, to be honest, both Annabeth and Piper couldn’t remember a happier moment in their lives.
They were both lying on their room’s bed, snuggling against each other. After about twenty minutes since they started, Piper and Annabeth switched places, which meant that now Annabeth was the little spoon. Piper would joke about it whenever she had the chance — and whenever she thought her girlfriend would be okay with it —, saying things like “so, you’re a switch, right?”, always careful not to make Annabeth uncomfortable, but she just laughed when the words came out of Piper’s mouth.
“What do I do with you, McLean?” she said, moving a little so that she could press a light kiss against her chin.
Piper felt her heart softening with the affection. “We’re pulling out the last names now, Chase?” she teased, hugging Annabeth tighter and feeling when she chuckled in her arms. “But I do have a couple ideas of what you could do to me.”
Annabeth stared at her kaleidoscope eyes with a gaze so intense it made Piper weak. She could feel the fondness and the love in her stormy grey eyes, and, honestly, if she weren’t so in love with Annabeth Chase by now, she would definitely have fallen for her now.
But she felt like she did. Every single day she fell in love more and more with her.
“What do you have in mind?” the blonde asked, arching her eyebrow.
A playful smile colored Piper’s face. “You could stay here with me, let me kiss you a couple times, play with your hair,” she paused, getting out of the spoon and lying Annabeth straight on the bed, then getting on top of her. She leaned forward, pressing a kiss against her lips. “Then you can get up and make us both lunch.”
“Tempting, McLean. But perhaps it’s your turn today.” Annabeth said, stealing a quick kiss and pushing her girlfriend away.
She groaned in frustration. “I really thought this work.”
Annabeth laughed and this time she was the one on top of her girlfriend. She leaned onto her and buried her face in her neck, smelling the sweet perfume that was already a classic of Piper McLean. She felt the small and soft hands hugging her closer, a silent beg that Annabeth knew way too well. It meant I love you and stay forever and I can’t spend one day without having you in my arms and touching you is a privilege and I love you for letting me do it.
Touch was Piper’s love language, and Annabeth was fluent in it.
She let out a breathy laugh. “You tried to bribe me with cuddles?”
“I think bribing includes doing something you don’t want to do so that the other person will do something for you they don’t want to do as well.” she said. “But I really want to cuddle. So, no. It’s not bribing.”
This time, Annabeth really laughed. Her breath against Piper’s neck made her shiver and the sounds coming out of Annabeth were so contagious she found herself laughing until tears formed in the corner of her eyes.
“You, Piper McLean, are an idiot.”
Piper chuckled. “Yeah, but I’m your idiot. And you love me.”
She kissed her again, a slow, deep kiss, moving their lips in a synchronite that was already something automatic to them, as if they had all the time in the world — and honestly, when it felt that good, how could the world dare not to stop the time for them?
“Yes, I do.” Annabeth answered, laying her head on Piper’s chest and her hands automatically moved to her blonde curls. “And everyday I love you more and more. I can’t imagine a life without you."
“You don’t have to,” Piper said. “I pretend to bother you until the last day of our lives, Chase. Is that good for you?”
“Forever would be great for me.” she replied, looking at Piper with such endearment in her face that she felt like dying.
Dying would be a beautiful thing to do next to her.
Annabeth was about to kiss her again, but the obnoxious sound of her phone ringing made her step away. She leaned to the bed table to grab it, but the name showing on the screen made her groan.
“Who is it?” Piper asked, reading Annabeth’s body language and realizing that something was obviously wrong.
Annabeth pulled the charger off her phone and showed the name on the screen to her girlfriend.
Frederick, the name read. Piper knew Annabeth’s relationship with her father wasn’t exactly the best. He hadn’t been a present father, emotionally speaking, and his wife — Annabeth’s stepmom — was not the best either. Ever since he found out about their relationship, he got a little more distant.
Fortunately, homophobic acts — at least coming from him — was never something she had to deal with, but the uneasy, the weird looks and the disappointment on his eyes, clear signs of someone who didn’t fully agree with his daughter behavior .
He called her every now and then, they talked about things like how’s Bobby and Matthew? Are their grades good? How’s that old neighbour of us? When is aunt Marjorie’s baby due? The topic relationships was never touched, and it wasn’t exactly what Annabeth wanted.
The day he said he needed time to process it was the day Annabeth stopped talking to him. She had been feeling guilty ever since, and it took her a while to fully understand that it wasn’t her fault, that her sexuality wasn’t dirty or anything bad. Now, her father was looking for her again, sending messages and calling her and trying to start conversations.
He sent her a message a couple weeks ago, asking her to come to christmas.
We’d be happy to have you, Annabeth. And, if both you and her are okay with it, we'd be happy for your girlfriend to join us too.
A long time ago, she decided to stop thinking about him. She had Thalia, Percy, Grover, Silena, and many others — her friends, her family —, and she had Piper. They all were so supportive of her and would do anything to see her happy and safe. If she couldn’t manage to have her father’s support and acceptance, she would find it somewhere else. And she did.
The phone kept ringing until the call went to the voicemail, with both of them staring at it. The joy, a few minutes later shining in Annabeth’s eyes, wasn't there anymore. It could be just as simple as blocking the number, changing her number so that he wouldn’t call anymore, but she never even considered these options and Piper knew why.
“Christmas’ Eve is in four days,” Piper said. “You still have time to decide it.”
“I’ve made up my mind already.” she said, but they both knew it wasn’t true.
Piper pulled Annabeth back to the bed, hugging her tight enough so that she could complain of shortness of breath if she went for longer.
“I know you think you don’t need your father, and it’s true, you really don’t,” Piper kissed the top of her head. “But you want him. You want the support, you want the love and the father–daughter moments you’ve never had in your childhood or even in adulthood.”
Annabeth sniffled, her hands started to shake a little and Piper knew these signs already. She was holding back tears, holding back the feelings she left stuck for so long inside of her.
“Do you think he really wants to give it a shot?” Piper asked.
“I think so. I don’t know.”
“Do you want to give it a shot?”
“Can we not—”
“Yes, of course.” Piper said. “But, think about it, ok? I was lucky enough that my father was there for me, and I want it for you. If you think there’s a chance he really wants to fix things, you should wonder if it’s worth it.”
Piper pulled Annabeth’s face so that she could look straight into her eyes, reading what could be seen from them. There was doubt, anticipation, indentation, pining, fear.
“You said forever, right?” she asked rhetorically. “Forever it is, then.”
They kissed again, and a silent I love you hovered in the air, the three words obvious enough that they could be said without a sound.
At some point, Piper fell asleep on Annabeth’s arms. She expected to wake up and find her girlfriend cuddling with her, just like she had bribed — yes, she admit it — her. But Annabeth was nowhere to be seen.
She got up and grabbed an oversized t-shirt hanging on the bedpost, putting it on over the sports bra. The smell of food was the one to expose Annabeth, along with the sound of the onions in the frying pan.
“I thought it was my turn to cook.” Piper said, hugging Annabeth from behind and pressing a kiss on her cheek.
“It is, but I am a good girlfriend. You can still peel and cut the potatoes, though,” she replied, not turning to properly greet Piper — and she assumed it was because she didn't want to get distracted by her and burn their lunch again .
Piper smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
“And, another thing…” she said, turning around to look at Piper.
“Yes?”
“How do you feel about meeting my brothers on christmas?”
Piper smiled, a smile bright enough to light the whole room.
“Why not?”