AN: And it feels so nice to be back. This chapter should have been posted days earlier but a lot of things happened and this was the only time I got to finish this. Yup. Super thanks to KorrohShipper for being an awesome beta. Really.

So I guess here it is. I'm hoping you'd stay with me guys throughout the story.

P.S. I know it seems really uneventful but some things will speed up soon enough.

To be honest, Percy loves his job. Really.

No matter how emotionally stressed he is in trying to talk to couples on how to fix their marriage, he still manages to keep on a positive outlook and a hopeful smile. And that smile widens even more when he succeeds in fixing a relationship on the verge of crumbling. This is something he wanted to do even before he entered college. Percy knew that being a marriage counselor could probably help him get over his painful childhood.

And yes, in a way, it did help.

Percy, as a child, had never really experienced the thrill of having a dad. He was okay with it though. As long as he got his awesome mom, Percy never really cared about having a dad. But that was a half-truth, Percy knew that to himself. No matter how many times he tried to fill his heart with all the love and affection from his mom, there would always be a space that would remain unfilled, reminding the kid of the sad fact that he didn't have a 'father' to call. It would haunt him, at times when Percy tried to suppress the need to have a dad. He kept on ignoring this, but his mom, Sally, saw through that. And that's probably why she had married this 'Gabe' guy in the first place.

Everything seemed fine at first. Gabe had gave him toys, treated his mom to dinner and played with him. Looking back, Percy wished he should've known better. But he was still a child; vulnerable to all kinds of threat and mischief. Some time later, Gabe had started to change; he had drunk more beers and gotten angry often. Percy would hear his voice shouting hurtful things to his mom, followed by some helpless cries. Even though he wanted to go and punch that Gabe guy in the face, he needed to stay in his room and follow his mom's orders. On those times, Percy would squeeze himself inside the closet with his small hands covering his ears, desperately trying to block all the sounds. And when he would come out, he would pretend not to know where the purple bruise on his mom's cheek came from.

He had suffered through those years as much as his mom. Percy might not be hurt physically but those times left a dent in his memory as a child. All those pretendings and wishful thinking left him holding onto something that was barely even there. He hated himself for thinking like that though. How Percy wished he was someone more realistic and more practical, rather than someone who's hopeful for something so unsure.

But he couldn't be someone like that, simply because he is Percy.

As soon as Sally filed for divorce, things got a little better. Percy could now see his mom smiling more often than before, and he would gladly tell that he was the same too. The wounds slowly healed but those left scars that could only serve as a painful reminder of his past. So he promised to himself that he wouldn't let the things that happened to his mom be reflected on other people's lives. Sally might not have the luck in marriages but Percy would try his best to keep a marriage from turning into shambles.

And so the reason why Percy Jackson became a marriage counselor.

As Percy walks towards his house, he sees a couple sitting on a bench. They're pressed up against each other as if they're trying to share the warmth of their bodies. Their sweet gazes to each other makes Percy look away and a sad thought passes into his mind.

Ironically though, despite being a marriage counselor, he didn't have the luck in his own relationship. He only had two girlfriends his whole life and those two were back from when he was in college. After that, no one seemed to take an interest in him.

Or so he thinks.

Perhaps he just didn't find the time to invest in his own love problem, rather the lack of own love problem because of the so many pressing cases he's handling during the moment. Part of that problem is that no one seems to catch his eyes. Probably because he always had his eyes fixed at the matter at hand. Nevertheless, it doesn't change the fact that Percy Jackson, the marriage counselor doesn't have a love life.

Yup. Pathetic, he knows.

Dragging his limping self up to his mom's apartment, Percy knocks thrice before opening door and lets himself in. He's quite surprised to find his mom on the couch with a cup of coffee in hand while watching a documentary about plants. Kicking his shoes by the door, Percy approaches Sally and the woman turns her brown eyes to him.

"Where were you, Percy?" she asks.

Percy runs a hand through his hair and plops down to the seat beside Sally. He grunts as he feels the wounds on his leg stretch.

"I was at Mrs. Jones for an appointment. I couldn't refuse since there seemed to be a major problem when Mr. Jones left their apartment. I'm hoping he'll be back by tomorrow. His wife is worried sick," he replies with a sad, solemn voice.

Sally nods in understanding and nudges his side playfully.

"Any girls I should hear about?"

"Mom," Percy groans and hides his face in hands. "Why'd you keep asking that?"

"Why not? Shouldn't I be entitled to know what's going on with my son's love life?" she mutters with a smile.

"A non-existent love life, you mean."

"Percy..." Sally starts but notices the blood stains on his slacks. "What happened with your leg?"

"Oh, some grumpy cat got mad at me and did those—" he looks at the cuts hidden by band-aids "—on my leg."

"I told you to be careful always."

"I am careful. Good thing that Annabeth woke up and cleaned the cuts for me."

Sally's head whips to her son with a raised eyebrow. "Annabeth?"

"Yeah." Percy nods thoughtfully. "She's the owner of the grumpy cat. She's really nice though."

"Really nice, huh? I think there's something more to that."

Red tints his cheeks as he buries his face in a pillow to hide his embarrassment. "Seriously, Mom? We just met. It couldn't possibly be the work of fates, or destiny or some thing of the like," Percy says, finishing the line that his mom says in these moments.

"Well—"

"And no it wasn't a love at first sight," he finishes, effectively cutting of what his mom supposed to say.

"Okay, I won't comment on that. But trust me when I say, 'Mother knows best,'" Sally says.

With a cheeky smile, Percy nods in agreement. "I know that, Mom."

"Good thing we got that sorted out, my boy."

Percy visits the Jones again two days after.

There's a smile on his face that's probably brighter than the sun behind him. Thankfully, some of the issues of the couple were sorted out and even though there's still a lot of talking left to do, Percy can see the marriage is starting to heal. It'll probably not take too long before he passes by them on the road and they would smile at him like two people under the spell of love.

The thought widens his smile even more.

"Something nice happened today?" a voice breaks his reverie.

"Oh, hey." He turns to look at Annabeth, who looks like she just got home from work. Percy nods and grins cheekily.

"Everything is going great," he says and gestures to the couple behind the door. "I just feel really glad to be of help to them."

Annabeth beams at him as she fumbles inside her bag for her key. "That's really cool. How is your leg by the way? I hope Athena didn't do much inconvenience on your part."

"It still hurts but I can manage."

"I'm really sorry for her behavior. How about I make it up to you? Is that okay?" Annabeth asks, her eyes earnest and apologetic.

Percy wants to tease her a bit and ducks his chin to hide the toothy grin spreading from the thought. "Hmmm. . .I had to limp for the first few hours and it was really hard to take the stairs. . ."

Annabeth scrunches her eyebrows, as if thinking of a better offer.

". . .but I guess it would only be fair to take up on your offer, huh?" he finishes.

He hears her let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. I was thinking you'd reject my offer and have me fined instead."

Percy shrugs. "That's a lot of work to do for such small matter. I think I'll have coffee by the way."

"Okay. You don't mind waiting for a bit? I'm going to get changed."

"I don't mind. But you have to treat me another for tomorrow."

"Why, may I ask?" Annabeth faces him with a raised eyebrow.

"You gave me two days of pain you know," Percy answers innocently.

She laughs and shakes her head at him. "You're pretty demanding."

"I'm the victim here," he whines. "And my last name's Jackson if you're wondering."

"I wasn't wondering."

"Okay. I was just saying."

And as they get their coffee, Percy hears his mom's voice in his head: "I told you it was fate", and he only smiles wider in response.

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