He again awoke the next morning. But he felt numb.

That happened.

He sighed and rolled over on his side, not really wanting to get up. He didn't want to talk about it.

After half an hour, he didn't hear anything coming from the living room. Slipping on a pair of basketball shorts, he walked out his room and opened the door. On the table, there was a plate of Belgian waffles and a note.

He picked up the note and read it:

Good morning Percy! Well, hopefully it's morning when you read this. Anyway, I just had a quick errand to run with my brother Bobby, and I should be back before noon since this won't take very long.
And, I kinda wanna talk about last night. If you're okay with that.
Signed,
Annabeth Chase :)

He sighed. He glanced at the clock and saw it was barely 10. He sat down and started eating his waffles.

He finished, showered, dressed, and plopped right down on the couch.

What have I gotten myself into?

He sighed again, and got up.

Time for a drive.

He walked to his car, an old Dodge Challenger, and exited the parking lot.

He ended up at a Starbucks a few miles away from the apartment, downing a venti vanilla bean Frappuccino and an iced lemon pound cake, watching PewDiePie on YouTube.

After a few videos, which sent him laughing his butt off, he looked at the clock and saw it was 11:45. He walked back to his car and drove back to the apartment.

He went up in the elevator listening to We Are The Champions by Queen, and trying to hang on to all the inspiring lyrics from the song.

He exited the elevator, stood in front of AC14, and took a deep breath.

He opened the door and saw her standing there, smiling with something that looked exactly like a Christmas present.

"Hiya Perce."

"Um…hey. Uh, I mean, hello ma'am," remembering to be professional.

"What's this?" he asked, pointing to it.

"I just got you a little something," she said. "Open it."

She handed the box and he tore the wrapping. He opened it and saw a shirt in it. He took it out and examined it. And smiled.

On the front, it simply stated:

SECURITY GUARD

AGT. PERCY JACKSON

And on the back, it said:

(By the way,

my identity is a secret)

"I love it," he told her. "I'll wear it often."

"I ordered a button down variation as well so you can wear it with a tie or bowtie."

He chuckled and thanked her.

They were standing too close.

"So," she said, taking a bit of a step back. "Um. About last night."

He nodded, running his hand through his hair. "I'm sorry about that Annabeth."

She shook her head saying, "No, it's fine. I really liked it. But I'm just wondering what we are."

"Well…we're definitely employer and employee. I can easily tell you that much," he said, pausing. "Wait, did you get this with Bobby?"

"Yeah, but that's beside the point. Percy…what are we?"

He sighed deeply and muttered "I don't know Annabeth. I don't know anymore. Cause, I mean, I can't date you."

"What? But Percy, why?"

"I'm your security guard Annabeth! I just…I cannot date you. I work for you."

"But Percy, plenty of things like this turn into relationships!"

He didn't respond since he didn't know how to respond to that.

He heard Annabeth sigh, and then she asked something he'd never expected to leave her lips.

"Do you not love me?"

When he didn't respond, she quietly said something that shocked him even more, but gave him this joyful, interesting feeling.

"Cause I think I love you Percy. A lot."

"I…" he sighed. Do I honestly even have the courage to say it? He looked into her eyes and saw only desperation, love, worry, and questioning. No. I don't. "I don't know…" he whispered.

She sighed, but nodded. "Okay Percy. Okay."

She turned around and headed to her room, and he had never felt more horrible in his entire life. But he couldn't let this grow into anything more just employer and employee, because he knew what would happen. And he wasn't sure if it would be good.

Sometimes he wondered what exactly happened to the both of them, but he knew he had to avoid it no matter what.

He sighed, and walked back into his room. He rolled out his weights from under his bed and figured he may as well lift while he has all this time left on his hands for the entire rest of the day.

He started some shoulder presses, but he found that he was distracted. By her. By his feelings for her. Feelings that he wasn't supposed to have.

Does it make me a bad person to love her? I feel like I should feel bad, but…I don't.

He abandoned the hope of getting lost in weightlifting. He lied on his bed, listening to My Chemical Romance play softly in the background. Well, okay, quietly. MCR isn't exactly known for softness.

Annabeth's hair is soft.

NO.

So he settled for a nap.

He woke later to knocking at his door and hearing something close to dinner. He rose out of his bed, stretched, and opened his door.

He saw two plates of spaghetti and a huge bowl of it in the middle of those.

Then he noticed they were on opposite sides of the table.

Oh.

Annabeth usually sits next to me…he thought hurtfully.

He sat down to the plate with more spaghetti and an extra garlic bread, since he assumed that was his, and waited for Annabeth to show up to come eat.

She came out of her room in short shorts and a sports bra, and turned on the TV to Hannibal.

She sat across from him and determinedly avoided even looking at him, never mind making eye contact with him.

Ouch.

He demolished his plate and pieces of garlic bread, and grabbed some more, and then devoured that as well.

Annabeth got up, since she finished a bit before he did, and grabbed some bowls and the tub of cookie dough ice cream. She popped it open and tried to scoop it out, but failed since it was pretty frozen.

"Here," Percy said. "Let me get that."

She nodded, turned around, and looked slightly up at him for the shortest possible time.

He noticed her eyes red and the place under her eyes were both puffy and red, like she had been crying really hard.

Suddenly, their arms were wrapped around each other and she was crying into his chest while he rubbed her back lightly.

Then they were kissing, her lips pushing roughly against his.

EMPLOYER.

He pulled back.

"Um," he said. "Feeling any better?"

She nodded, smiling. "Yeah. Sorry if I made you feel any worse though."

"Nah, it's fine."

They separated, and suddenly everything seemed to hit her all at once, and she went back to not looking at him.

I guess you can't win every battle.

He scooped out the ice cream, put a bowl with way more than he had in front of her and she started eating it. He finished his bowl, washed and dried it, and went back into his room.

He said goodnight to Annabeth as he walked past her, and she nodded vaguely in his direction.

He sighed, entered his room, and slid underneath his covers.

He liked last night a lot better than tonight.

He heard her wash and dry dishes, turn off the TV, and heard her approach his room.

She poked her head in a small crack in the door and told Percy goodnight with a weary smile.

He smiled as soon as she left, and let sleep gladly consume him.

That is, until he heard a scream.

A/N: CLIFFHANGER :O Well, y'all have fun with that then cx It may be a while till I update again since, unfortunately, all my teachers are deciding to throw end of the year projects in my face all of a sudden. Yippee. So y'all have fun with that cliffhanger, but I promise I will try to update ASAP. Trust me, I know the torture of waiting super long for an update first hand. I'm sorry. K, bye. Have a nice week! Or however long it is until I once again post a new chapter cx