Pipercy isn't everyone's cup of tea. Don't like? Don't read. This is an experiment.

Frankly, work is exhausting. And it's not even the sea creatures he heals which tire him out (really, they're rather calm during his exploration of their burns, scratches, and cuts). It's his colleagues.

Triton, (first of all, what kind of name is that?) seems to delight in torturing him. Misplacing the fish food, hiding the bandages; gods, they're not five anymore!

Tyson is nice, but he's a little bit out of it . . . most of the time. To be honest, he's a charity case that Percy had taken on. The guy was nice — overly so — and tried, but he wasn't the kind of help Percy needed.

The day had ended fine — animals healed, storage containers properly placed away, and everything was normal. With the staff working for him, even that was an accomplishment.

And so Percy slid open his car, glanced at the clock, and decided it was time to eat dinner. Mumbling incoherently, he turned on the ignition and then glanced back at the clock, nearly jumping in surprise. One o'clock? AM? When did that happen?

He kept the car on, the heater keeping him warm, as he decided what to do. It didn't take very long — there was only one place he could eat at this time of day (that wasn't McDonalds; after seeing his cousin Nico go through a Happy Meal phase, he couldn't stand the place).

Percy sighed and started off on his way to grab a cup of coffee from Starbucks.

He's the only one there. When he walks in, only one person is in the coffee shop — and she's yawning from behind the marble countertop.

"Hey," he said, perched on the ordering counter, "could I have a latte? Caramel?"

"What size?" she yawns again, and suddenly he wants to too.

"The biggest one you've got."

She smiles sleepily, "Coming right at you, sir," as she starts towards the coffee machine.

He looks around the room; they're still the only people there. Why not make conversation? "Please don't call me that . . . after work, I never want to hear 'sir' again."

She smiles again, more brightly. "Bad day?"

"You could say that," he groaned.

"Yeah, I get it. My dad's making me do this job so I can pay for my masters," well, he thinks, that's random, but we're making progress. And all he really needs right now is someone to talk too. His employees don't make for much good conversation.

"Not to be rude, but how would working here help you pay for your masters? I'm sure you don't earn very much," that probably came out really rude.

"I don't," she says, carrying the coffee over to him at the return counter. "And he's loaded. I don't need to pay for my masters. I've got a gigantic trust fund. He just wants me to work here because his assistant, Jane, said that it would be good for me to do some real work."

"I see. So he won't pay for your masters until you work here for long enough?

"Yeah. Jane just hates me."

"Understand you there."

She's pretty — he looks at her now and he can see eyes dancing different colors, hair flowing despite choppy braids. She looks alive — something he doesn't see much of in his boring everyday routine.

They chat for a little while longer, talking about random things . . . what she's getting her masters in (psychology), what his job is (aquarium veterinarian), different types of coffee . . . Percy doesn't realize how much time's gone by until he looks at the clock on the far side of the shop. Time has flown by . . . it's two AM and his coffee is cold.

"I have to go," he tells her sadly. She was interesting . . . and pretty.

"Well, bye, then," she says, smiling at him. She isn't close to tired anymore.

He turns to walk to the door and then flips around again. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Piper," it suits her. Musical. Like her voice. "And yours?"

"Percy," he grins. But before he leaves he hears a thump as something hits the floor. Turning back once more, he glances Piper's phone, now fallen on the marble floor. She bends down to pick it up, but he's there faster than her hand.

The case has got a shark on it.

He sees his favorite animal and he knows he's fallen in love (can it even happen that fast?).

She reaches for it back, but he pulls it away from her. Opening it (no password) he fiddles around before handing it to her.

"Put my number in. I'll call you later!" And he doesn't give her a chance to reply as he sprints to his car.

When I first arrived at fanfiction, I couldn't even dream of shipping non-canon . . . as a girl still in the 'ew, boys' part of my life even romance seemed disgusting . . . and now, here I am. I really like Percabeth . . . it used to be my OTP (now Dramione is). But, frankly, it's an overused ship. I really wanted to experiment with something not canon — besides Thaluke — and now that I've finally written this, I think that I'm over my canon prejudices. Piper and Percy are kind of cute together, even though this was a weird AU that was really OOC. Ugh, I'm rambling, aren't I? It's late and I'm supposed to be in bed . . .

So, to conclude my rant . . . I'm finally over my weird 'Canon is life' phase and I might start writing less canon now and more rare pair or odd pair stuff. Percabeth and the like is getting sort of boring.

-An incredibly sleepy middle schooler who needs to get to bed ASAP before she falls onto the freaking comfy looking computer

PS I wrote this in twenty minutes. Sorry if it's weird.