I know this is a little late for Valentine's Day, but I was on a ship for seven days with no one to talk to except my family. So this was born xD

"There's some leftover chicken in the fridge!" My mother told me for the seventh time. I nodded.

"Yes, mom, you've told me."

She was running around, looking for a matching earring. Paul was waiting downstairs. She had a frantic look on her face as if finding this earring was life or death.

"Are you going to call Annabeth?" She asked me. She opened the fridge as if expecting to find her earring in there. I shrugged.

"I might. But she told me not to. She doesn't like Valentine's Day."

With a cry of victory, my mother found her missing earring buried beneath a can of coffee filters on the counter.

"Still," she said, putting her earring in her ear. "You should call her. Just because she doesn't like the day doesn't mean you can't see each other for the sake of it."

I leaned back in my chair. "Mom, do you realize you're urging me to invite my girlfriend over to an empty apartment?"

She froze, as if thinking about her bad parenting. I tried to help her out.

"You trust me?" I supplied for her. She grinned.

"No. But I trust Annabeth."

Well, that was a blow to my ego. "Gee, thanks mom."

She smiled, kissed me on the forehead, then grabbed her purse. I got up to close to the door behind her.

"Did I tell you about the chicken?"

I laughed. "Yes, mom."

She smiled, laughing along with me. Then she stopped and looked at me seriously.

"Now, Percy," she started, and I groaned, knowing what was coming next.

"Don't say it, Mom."

"Be sa-"

"Mooooooom!"

She ruffled my hair. "Goodbye Percy."

As I closed the door, I decided to call Annabeth after all. I was just picking up the phone when there was a knock at the door. I rolled my eyes. It didn't surprise me that my mom had forgotten something.

But when I opened the door, it wasn't my mother standing there.

'The most beautiful woman in the world' doesn't even cut it. She was so much more than that. I can't even describe her. But I knew who she was. I had met her before.

It was Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

I believe my next words were something along the lines of, "uh, um, uh, howdy!"

Yes. I said howdy to the goddess of love.

Aphrodite smiled and I thought that if she would just stay like that, Apollo would be out of a job.

"Oh, Percy. You are a cutie."

I grinned like an idiot at that.

"Well? Aren't you going to let me in? Chivalry isn't dead, you know."

I nodded and moved aside. Aphrodite breezed past me, leaving the sweetest smell imaginable. Around her, my apartment looked dingier than ever.

"Well, Percy." I had a feeling I might be drooling. "How are you?"

"Uhm. Good."

Aphrodite picked up one of my mother's canisters. It seemed to glow in her hand.

"Lovely. Tell me, Percy, what are your plans for today?"

"Uhm." Think, Percy, think. What day is it? "Uhm. Nothing. I think."

Aphrodite gasped as if I had just told her she was having a bad hair day. "Oh, Percy. You have to do something!"

"Well, er, Annabeth doesn't like Valentine's Day."

The goddess smiled and then shook her head, as if pitying me. "Please, Percy. Everyone like's Valentine's Day."

I didn't think this was true, but it wasn't as if I could argue. I could barely speak.

"Don't worry, I'll help you. Annabeth will be overjoyed. Trust me."

It was hard not to trust Aphrodite, especially when she smiled at you. I just nodded.

"Good," she told me, and I grinned. Then she leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.

xxx.

There was a knock on the door. I was in a kind of daze, it seemed like. When I opened the door, Annabeth was there. I didn't even remember calling her. Her eyes got suddenly wide and she appeared to be staring at something behind me.

"Percy... what...?"

I turned around and was immediately snapped out of my daze.

My apartment was decorated with streamers hanging down from the ceiling. There were hearts- paper hearts on the walls, balloons, 3D hearts, all with slogans saying things like I love you! and always and forever! But the most surprising thing of all was that everything was pink.

When I say everything, I mean everything. My walls were pink. The carpet was pink. The refrigerator was pink.

"Percy..." I was reminded of Annabeth, standing behind me. "What happened?"

"I... I don't know," I said truthfully. Annabeth walked in and picked up a pick canister. Then she looked at me and narrowed her eyes.

I was in for it now. She crossed over to me. Her hand came up and she ran her thumb across my cheek.

"What is this?"

I turned around and looked at my reflection in the microwave. There was an imprint on my cheek, a perfect pair of lips in red, so perfect it was as if they had been drawn on.

"Oh... oh!" The lips had jogged my memory. I turned to Annabeth. "Aphrodite!"

She raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"Aphrodite! She was here! She... she told me I had to do something for you. And then... and then this happened."

Annabeth looked around. So did I. My heart sank. My mother was going to kill me.

I explored the rest of my apartment. It was all pink. Even my bedroom was pink. The comforter, the sheets. The curtains.

I felt a hand on my back. Annabeth had a strange look on her face, like she didn't know whether to yell at me or laugh at me.

"What have you done, Seaweed Brain?"

I slipped an arm around her. "Do you really hate Valentine's Day?" I asked. She laughed.

"Well, I'm rather enjoying it right now."

"Speak for yourself. Your entire apartment isn't pink."

She smiled and held out a stuffed teddy bear holding a heart. "Happy Valentine's Day."

I looked around and saw another bear just like it, on my side table. I handed it to her. "Happy Valentine's Day."

I had just leaned down to kiss her when suddenly she walked over to my bed. There was a basket on my (pink) pillow that I hadn't noticed before. Annabeth started going through it.

It was definitely not safe to curse a goddess, but I was cursing Aphrodite.

The first thing she pulled out was a package of everlasting candles. Pretty harmless. But the next thing she pulled out was a package of condoms.

I blushed fiercely, but Annabeth just studied the box. Then she turned to me with a wicked glint in her eyes.

"They're scented."

I think I said something like, "Yuh-huh."

Much to my chagrin, she kept on going through the basket. She pulled out more condoms and then some, well, toys that that I'd rather not mention and which Annabeth quickly returned to the basket with a severe blush on her cheeks. Then she pulled out a little plastic baggie labelled Aphrodite's Aphrodisiacs.

"Oh!"

Annabeth shot me a look.

"It's just, well... that's where the word comes from, right?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Come here, Seaweed Brain."

I was a little apprehensive. "Come here," she said again. I took a few steps forward and then she grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me towards her. She pushed me backwards onto my pink bed. The basket of Aphrodite's gifts clattered to the floor and all I could think, as Annabeth kissed me, was that somehow, the goddess had been right after all.