Percy's POV

Well, he thought, at least this job was actually semi-important. Ya know, after two-freaking-years of being an agent. Finally, he was guarding someone semi-important.

He took a deep breath, bracing for anything, and knocked.

And subsequently waited.

For. A. Whole. Hour.

Finally, just as he was about to get up from his seating position and just leave and come back the next day, the door was flung open, with an apologetic, "I am so sorry! I was showering and doing otherwise cleansing personal things, when my doorman told me someone was here for an hour! Major apologies! Mr…?"

"Jackson," he said as he stood up, straightened his tie, and extended his formally. "Perseus Jackson, but I go by Percy."

Suddenly she flung his arms around him, but quickly pulled back, leaving him flustered as she said "Sorry! I'm a hugger. I don't generally do formal. That's my agent's job."

"It's, um, fine," he stammered. He realized he sounded like a nervous 15 year old and regained his composure. "So, have you ever had a live-in security guard before?"

"Nope," she said, turning around. He took that as his cue and stepped through the threshold into her apartment.

"You're my first one! But don't worry, there usually no problems. I think the biggest problem you'll have is an over-excited fan getting all grabby," she said as she chuckled.

He chuckled a bit as well and said, "So this'll be easy."

He looked to his left and saw an unlit, bare room. HE pointed to it and asked, "Is this my room Ms. Chase?"

She giggled and said "Annabeth. But yeah, it's all yours. No one's ever used it though, so no worries. Make yourself at home."

Crap. All his stuff was going to be delivered in the morning.

"Um," he started. She turned around waiting for him to speak.

"Is it okay if I sleep on the couch?" he asked really formally for asking to crash on her couch.

"Yeah, no problem. Just…why?"

"My stuff won't be delivered until next morning."

"Ohhhhh. That's a real bummer. Well, yeah, make yourself at home," she said with a smile.

She walked into her bedroom and gently closed the door behind her.

He sat on the couch, untied his bowtie, kicked off his shoes and set them under the couch, and unbuttoned his shirt.

He slipped off his shirt, grabbed a blanket off the loveseat, and saw a tiny dog the size of a Chihuahua, but not a Chihuahua.

He assumed it was a pet, so he covered it back up, patted where he thought its head was, and grabbed the other blanket.

He found the remote and turned the TV on to a marine biology documentary on Animal Planet. He loved sea animals. Currently they were doing a profile on dolphins, and he was deeply immersed in it within minutes.

Haha. Puns, he thought.

He heard a muffled good night and saw the light go off in Annabeth's room underneath the door. "Good night ma'am!" he yelled back.

"It's Annabeth!" she said with a chuckle.

Annabeth. Hm.

He woke up to the smell of freshly fried bacon and Belgian waffles.

Was that just a weird dream?

"Morning mom," he mumbled groggily. Cool, his voice had grown deeper.

He placed a kiss on his mother's cheek and she was giggling as he sat down at the table.

Wait. What? Since when did Mom giggle?

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and saw a red faced, giggling Annabeth Chase with a shiny spot of saliva on her face. Crap!

"Annabeth, I am so sorry about that!"

"No, it's perfectly fine," she said with a smile. "You were like more asleep than awake. Besides, I wouldn't mind being greeted like that every morning."

Then her face went an even deeper shade of red as his reddened a bit as well.

"Except without the Mom part," she said with another chuckle.

His face went even deeper as he nodded and gratefully scarfed down the waffles and bacon in front of him.

As soon as his plate was empty, it was immediately filled with four slices of bacon and two waffles, twice as much as he had on his last plate, and was even rewarded with a huge mug of hot chocolate. And he meant huge.

Then the waffles and slices of bacon disappeared, and the mug of hot chocolate was all that remained, held in his hand contentedly.

He suddenly realized she was his employer. Crap.

"Um," he began. "Thank you ma'am. I appreciate the meal."

"Oh, it's really no problem at all. I employed you to literally live with me. And protect me, sure, and yes, you do get paid, but I honestly don't mind cooking for two. It's a nice change," she said as she smiled.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Ever since I got my huge break as a singer at 18, I've been alone. Oh, sure, I had my friends. But this huge gap started to fill between me and my friends, until they became strangers with amazing memories."

He nodded, since he understood the friendship gap. At 18, he had applied for his job for the government and immediately began working there. For the first year, he could have no outside contact except for his family. That filled the gap between them all, one by one. Even his girlfriend, Reyna.

She had actually cheated on him with some guy named Leo Valdez, since he wasn't allowed outside contact for a whole year, but she broke up with him immediately after explaining her new relationship.

"I had security guards," she continued. "Different ones at every concert, and my vocal teacher, and my manager, but they're not exactly my friends. Sure, I had a little thing with my manager, Jason Grace, but I realized it was just more out of being alone than actual passion. So I decided maybe I need someone there for me all the time."

He nodded, smiling faintly to himself. Taking a sip of his hot cocoa, he dropped on the couch.

Of course, there was a knock on the door right when he made himself comfortable. He sighed, and turned around to grab it, but Annabeth was already there. His level of vision dropped to her rear. Her amazing rear.

He immediately looked up. She is your employer Jackson. Don't even dare to think like that.

She shifted her weight on her hips, causing a massive jiggle.

Nope.

"Hey Perce, they have your stuff here."

He got up and retrieved his bags from his co-worker, Frank Zhang.

He looked up at his eyes, down to his feet, and back up. Percy could see the disapproval written all over his face. Percy just shrugged, thanked him, and shut the door.

He put his bags on the ground next to the bed in his room and opened them. He threw his sheets on the bare mattress and started placing his clothes in the cabinet, organized by type of clothing. He put all his bathroom stuff in the bathroom right next to his room, and went back into his room to hang up a few posters that he had. Then he pulled out a picture of his mother, lightly brushed his lips against her forehead, and put it in the little space between the mirror and the cabinet.

"That was cute."

He jerked to the direction of her door and saw Annabeth standing there, grinning at him.

"I don't think I've ever seen a guy care about his mother that much."

"Yeah…well…she practically raised me. I had a crappy stepfather since my father left her before I was born for some reason. My stepdad, Gabe, couldn't hang on to a job worth crap. She had two jobs, and raised me as good as she could. It was good, except he was a total douchebag. I left for the first job I could get, and an agent also just sounded really cool. It pays well, so I hope my mom out a lot too, which is a bonus."

She was smiling. "What?"

"You really care about her, don't you?"

"You could say that. She was my world. Still kind of, but not as much since I have my own life now. Ya know?"

"Yeah. I get that."

After a few moments of content silence, Annabeth said, "Well, I have to go to the store."

"No," Percy said. "I'll go for you, just give me our grocery list."

"But I love grocery shopping! It's one of the rare times I feel…like a normal person for once."

He nodded. "Okay. We'll go together."

"Don't couples do that?"

He looked up at her face, and it was tinged with red.

"Well, yeah. I guess. But my job is to protect you, therefore, I shall protect you."

She giggled and said, "Sounds good. But let me go get sweatpants on first. Okay?"

"'Course."