It had to stop.

It was so annoying being around them.

She needed it to stop.

And everyone agreed.

Well, everyone she needed to agree agreed.

They were like an awkward ex-couple that couldn't even make eye contact with each other.

So. Annoying,

Her best friend and the man she loved couldn't hate each other forever. She just wasn't going to allow it.

So if she had to scheme a little... Well that was no problem. She had some of the world's best schemers on her side. The planners, the thieves, the tech guys. Everyone she needed was on her side, hiding in her bedroom while she entertained Octavian outside. Playing soft music, offering a back rub, lulling him to sleep. He'd looked cute on her couch dozing while Travis Stoll took his wallets and keys. And then as Travis slipped out she sent out an "URGENT" text to Percy and gently shook Octavian awake.

"Hey, A lot's going on, maybe you should go."

"Oh is anything wrong?"

"No I just have some homework to do, summer assignment, bleh. And you seemed really tired so maybe you should go catch some z's back home." He shrugged.

"Alright, bye baby." She let their kiss linger and then sent him off. When he was gone Leo and Travis slid out.

"Please don't leave me with that technobabble dorkazoid again" Travis begged rolling his eyes tiredly.

"You did great. Pizza's on me."

"No, Pizza's on Octavian." He said, rifling through her boyfriend's wallet.

"Don't you dare. Leave his stuff alone. Leo, the cameras?"

"They're up. Percy's in the lobby, only elevator, going down, you timed this perfect Rach."

"Yeah well, I am the Oracle." Video Percy pressed the button with the sense of urgency she'd tried to convey.

"The elevator's about to hit bottom, send the text." She texted Octavian, you forgot your wallet and keys. Video Octavian checked his phone, frowned, and pressed level 7 again, leaning against the elevator wall. The elevator touched ground floor and Percy, who'd look anxious enough to almost run up all seven flights of stairs, got in without glancing at his fellow elevator companion.

Octavian, who was wearing his pikachu hoodie hood up, was staring at his ds. As the elevator rose neither frenemy noticed the other. Not until the elevator stalled dramatically at the fourth floor. When it stopped they glanced up. The elevator rested professionally between floors three and four,

"Leo, you're a genius. " Rachel declared.

"Uh huh." The monitor showed a frantic looking Percy and a mildly alarmed Octavian. Travis was snickering behind her,

It took another minute for Percy and Octavian to recognize each other, but when it happened it was like a bomb going off.

"What're you doing here? " Percy asked, sounding suddenly more aggravated than frantic.

"I left my keys and wallet at Rachel's. You? " He asked it so casually, like nothing was wrong.

"Rachel asked me to come, said it was urgent. " And like a switch being flicked calm and casual was turned off and panic and anger replaced them.

"What do you mean?! She would've told me! She got rid of me pretty quickly..." His skin turned the pale shade known only as boyfriend-worried-about-girlfriend-having-an-affair-eggshell.

"I'm not cheating on Annabeth with Rachel. " Percy said firmly.

"No, no I realized that. She wouldn't have texted me back up to her apartment if she had to worry about us running into each other and me figuring out an affair was going on."

"Augur..." Percy began, wheels turning slowly in his head,

"I think we've been set up. "

"The number you're looking for is no longer available. " A monotone female voice said when Percy tried calling it while Octavian fiddled with elevator buttons.

"Definitely a set up ." Percy scowled, and Octavian sighed.

"What do you think we have to do to get this elevator moving again?"

"Don't know. You could apologize. "

"For what?" His eyebrows raised analytically.

"The panda." Percy said, his scowl determined.

"Oh yes, Mr. Everybody-loves-me-Jackson I am so very sorry for doing my job! " Octavian snarled in a scarily animal-like way.

"How can everybody love me if half the universe wants to kill me!" He yelled back, his hand going for Riptide."

"Oh shut it. You're a hero. "

"My job as a demigod. " He hissed.

"Everyone hates me when I do my job! I never got a quest Jackson. I never got a chance to be hero."

"Like I want to be hero. Being a demigod is almost more trouble than it's worth. All you do is cut open teddies."

"Cut up teddies and be hated by everyone. "

"You ever consider that people hate you because you're a creepy jerk?"

"You ever consider that I'm a jerk because people made me that way?" Percy blinked, having always seen Octavian as the kind of guy who'd been spoiled and then grown up with no consideration of anyone else's emotions ever.

"How so Augur?"Octavian slumped against the elevator wall.

"Because by being Augur I'm immediately a freak! "

"Oh come on, everyone at camp is a freak it's what holds us together. "

"Maybe at your la-di-da camp but Camp Jupiter..."

"They're a little strict but mostly nice people. "

"You were there a week. I was there 15 years. Strict wasn't the problem. "

"Work with me Octavian. Explain exactly why your life is so bad? "

"Don't you get it? I tried to be nice once upon a time! I used to have a optimistic outlook! I tried to make friends! After years of being judged, laughed at, excluded and kicked around I gave up and got bitter. So I'm sorry you never met nice Octavian but I didn't have a choice! " He trembled on the ground, exhausted.

"We've all had judgers and takers and kickers in our lives. I had a Gabe Ugliano in mine, worse than any monster I ever faced."

"Steve Alexander. He'd get so upset he'd start throwing things..."

"How old were you?"

"Young as I can remember, three I think. And when my powers developed they saw me as a massive freak and sent me to camp. I was relieved, and tried to restart. But it..."

"Didn't work. My mom always instilled in me that I had a choice, but yours didn't. "

"Be praetor. Don't fail. For heavens sake you're upsetting your father. Stop crying." Stuff like that she'd said, he repeated it timidly as he sat by the wall.

"So that's why you wanted to be praetor?"

"Yeah. And you got it in a week. And everyone loved you."

"So you resented me."

"It never takes long for someone to become more popular than me." He sighed tiredly.

"They messed up. People make mistakes. I'm not saying give them another chance to be your friend, but maybe don't kill so many teddies." Octavian laughed.

"I hated doing that."

"Really? You looked like you enjoyed murdering my pillow pet."

"Years of practice. I could be an actor."

"Yeah maybe. Scoot over." Octavian scooted and Percy slumped next to him.

"What kind of games you got on that D.S.?"

"Pokemon Y."

"Cool, battery life?"

"Decent."

"Show me."

"Alright." He flipped open the d.s. and began to maneuver around the tiny world. Percy oohed and ahhed appropriately and neither noticed when the elevator began to ramble upwards.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare stood when the door opened with her hands on her hips.

"Really? Your first guess was affair?" And Percy was the first to defend his new friend.

I wrote this mostly on my phone but oh my word I'm so proud of it just look at this fluff. Also, thank you facebook for 1300 likes and counting! So sorry for errors, writing on the phone is difficult.