This is my first ever story, so if this isn't working right, sorry.
It was a fairly quiet day, at the Sunshine Ice Cream Parlor. No wild customers. No ridiculous ones. No particularly nice ones either, but Arthur didn't mind. Honestly, he didn't have coffee that morning, he wasn't feeling great, and was just glad his shift was almost over. Then, he noticed two people come in.
One had blond hair, tied up in a pony tail, with striking grey eyes. They were hardened, by something Arthur didn't understand since he couldn't understand how a (he just guessed her age by looking at her, which might be offensive, but Arthur needed to guess an age for his train of thoughts) 17-year-old-looking person could have gone through anything as traumatic as what he saw in those stormy grey eyes.
Yet, as hard and cold as they were, they were somehow... warm. Seeing how she looked at the person beside her, he suddenly felt like he had never seen love as strong as what was being directed to the person beside her.
Speaking of him, Arthur felt suddenly small. He stood straight, laughing at something the girl said. He wore a blue shirt, and denim pants. He twirled a pen in his fingers, and looked generally pleasant. His eyes, however, were different. They were green, sea green, yet, so much more. They told of countless battles, countless stories. They spoke of sacrifice, of loyalty. They spun tales of love, sacrifice, defeat and sorrow. They conveyed stories of death, heartache, but, at the end of it all, victory.
"I'd like 2 scoops of caramel toffee ice cream please," A slightly nasal, feminine voice spoke.
Arthur snapped out of his train of thought, smiled politely, and asked the middle-aged woman with expensive looking jewelry in front of him, "Anything else, ma'am?"
"Could you not call me ma'am? It's annoying. And no. This place doesn't even have good ice cream, forget snacks. I'm just here because it was the closest to where I was".
Arthur was startled by her bluntness, as well as her rude demeanor. He took a deep breath, and said, gritting his teeth, "Sure. That'll be $1.99".
He tried to brush off the rude words she had said earlier, but then she said, sticking her nose up a bit, and drawing some attention as her voice rose, "I refuse to pay after you disrespected me! I am not that old, nor am I about to sit back and watch as you rob me of my money. That price is outrageous!"
Arthur gaped at her. He thought the prices were perfectly fine, but apparently they were so expensive this woman with at least a $50 ring refused to pay them.
He was about to tell her, no, she had to pay, before a cold voice interrupted, "Excuse me miss, the prices here are perfectly reasonable price for what you got. The ice cream scoopers (AN: I have no idea what they are called officially) are huge on purpose. That is a lot of ice cream, and he was perfectly polite. 'Ma'am' is polite. You are not. You're holding up the line. He has the right to refuse you, so I suggest you walk yourself out before I do." He seemed to radiate anger, and though the glare was not directed at him, Arthur still shivered.
Arthur was gobsmacked. He couldn't believe the green-eyed-boy he had see earlier had that much confidence. Then again, from what he saw in his eyes, maybe he shouldn't be so surprised.
The woman had a similar reaction. She stared at him wide-eyed, and stammered for a few moments. After collecting herself, she gave a haughty, "Hmph!" and walked off.
The guy laughed, held his hand out to Arthur, and said, voice pleasant, "My name's Percy. You were really polite to her at first. Pretty cool, since I would have probably exploded. Sorry you had to be the victim of that. This is my girlfriend, Ann-"
"I can introduce myself, Seaweed Brain," She said, in a teasing, amused voice. "Annabeth Chase, this idiot's girlfriend. Anyways, I think I'll have a scoop of cherry".
Arthur blinked, then said hastily, snapping out of his awe at the two- he would never have been able to stand up for himself like that-, "O-oh, right, right. I'm Arthur. What would you like Percy?"
Percy beamed at him and said, "Four scoops of anything blue! And, also, the ice cream here is amazing, that lady has no taste, in jewelry, or in ice cream". And with that he left to sit down and wait for his ice cream with his girlfriend. He could still hear their playful banter as they left.
"Four scoops. Really Percy? You just said two was a lot!" He could hear Annabeth say.
"Annabeth, you know me better than that. Four scoops is easy for me."
A few weeks later, Arthur saw the woman again, and as she opened her mouth, he cut her off smoothly, and said, "I don't care." then left. Arthur had never stood up for himself like that before. Percy and Annabeth had really taught him something, and he hoped they were happy together, wherever they were.
At that exact moment, Percy and Annabeth were off fighting a hellhound, which wasn't exactly pleasant, but they had each other, and the hellhound was really easy, so Percy and Annabeth were actually pretty happy. Soon, they'd be off to New Rome. Yah, they were both, really happy.
And that, ladies and gentleman, is the Ice cream Fiasco.