I know I said I would update next week, but I couldn't resist. I really like this chapter. I pretty much love the whole dinner party chapters (8, 9, 10).

Is anyone else watching the World Cup? I am :D Let me know if you are and which team you're rooting for.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO!


Living in Hell (Part Two)

The next day was a Saturday, so Annabeth and Percy found themselves sleeping in. Percy had woken up first at around ten, but he didn't know what to do, so he decided to just play it safe and he stared at the ceiling for half an hour.

At ten-thirty, Annabeth finally woke up. She trudged out to the living room, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

Upon seeing Percy sitting up staring at her, she scowled. "Oh man," she muttered disappointed. "I thought it had all been a nightmare."

Percy didn't say anything. He was still too tired. He wasn't a morning person, so if he said anything, he'd probably say something stupid and most likely get his ass kicked. He'd rather not have that.

Percy slowly stretched his arms, hearing the joints pop and crack. Annabeth wordlessly went to the kitchen and started scouring through cabinets. Percy slipped his shirt back on and followed her to her rather large kitchen with a granite island. Percy sat down and watched her bring out random ingredients.

"Did you secretly join the soup kitchen or something?" Percy asked sarcastically.

"No," Annabeth glared. "I'm having my dinner party tonight since you got us arrested last week."

Percy's eye twitched. "I'm not even going to continue with that argument. Anyways, so you're going to start cooking now?"

"People are coming at five, Percy. It's going to take a while to cook everything. Oh, and you need to clean your stuff so it looks like we're happily engaged." And then she hurried off to some other part of the house.

"I don't know about the happy part…" Percy mumbled, going back to the living room. He sighed as he picked up his one box and looked in it. It was filled with his clothes, along with one other box. He pushed those to the side and went to the next box, which was filled with little stuff like the few pictures he had, his whopping three books, and his DVD's and CD's.

He smirked to himself as he placed a picture on the shelf above the TV. She did say to make it look like they had been living together for a while…or at least, she said something similar to that. That's the way Percy had taken it. He figured this was a small way to get her riled (he knew she would eventually see what he was doing), and he would enjoy the small triumph.

After placing his pictures in proper places, he silently got up and made his way through the hall. Hugging the walls, he silently crept up and peeked inside her room.

Nothing.

He then crept up to the bathroom and leaned his ear against the door. He heard water running and he realized she was in the shower.

He smirked. Perfect.

He hurried back into the living room and pushed his boxes of clothes and other stuff into Annabeth's room. Then, he began his destruction.

He started off by hanging his work clothes in the closet, but then he decided to go crazy and he scattered a few clothes on the ground.

Chuckling evilly to himself, he grabbed his CDs and cleared a space on the dresser for them. He put his deodorant on the night stand next to Annabeth's perfume and jewelry.

He stepped back and admired his work. He thought it looked very nice. It actually looked like he had been living in the room for years, not just five minutes.

He heard the water shut off and cursed to himself. He grabbed the now empty boxes and threw them by the front door. He grabbed his black bathroom towel from one of the boxes and rushed to stand outside the bathroom door.

Just as he caught his breath, Annabeth walked out with her hair wrapped in a white towel and herself wrapped in a bathrobe.

She stopped at the sight of him, taking in his wide eyes and slightly flushed face. She narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing?" she asked suspiciously.

He just raised a brow innocently and held up his towel. "I need to shower."

She didn't relent for five minutes. She stared at him hard, trying to see what he was really up to, but then she finally backed down and stepped around him into her room, shutting the door loudly.

Well, our room, Percy thought, but she doesn't know that yet.

Percy quickly stepped into the bathroom and locked it shut (when she realized what he had done, he didn't want her stomping in and drowning him). He then relaxed his tense muscles and turned the water up until it was blazing hot. He stripped down and stepped under the water.

He started lathering up his hair with shampoo. He rinsed and did the same with the conditioner. It was when he was scrubbing himself down with her jasmine scented soap that he heard her outrageous scream of, "PERCY!"

Part of him was scared, but the other part—the bigger part—was laughing it up like a smart-ass. The two balanced each other out and he ended up with a smirk on his face. He felt his insides freeze a bit, though, when he heard the door rattle, but then he relaxed when it stopped.

He purposely stayed in the shower for an extra ten minutes (partly because he wanted to make her livid and partly because he didn't want to die yet). However, he couldn't stay in there for long—he found himself becoming a prune, and he did not appreciate that.

He reluctantly and very slowly shut the water off and dried himself with his towel and wrapped it around his waist. He shook his shaggy wet hair and, with a nonchalant expression that just screamed 'cool,' he opened the door, steam pouring out around him. He looked down at the awaiting Annabeth, who held a red, angry face.

Annabeth's mind was a fuzz right now. She was so angry with that stupid Percy! How dare he just barge into her room thinking he could make it their room?

When Percy finally stepped out of the bathroom, she wasn't sure whether to throttle him or slap the stupid smirk off his face.

"I specifically told you to stay out of my room!" she yelled. "It was one of the rules!"

Percy merely adjusted the towel on his hips. Annabeth glanced down, saw he was only wearing a towel, and blushed. She crossed her arms and glared harshly at him.

"Well," Percy started, meeting her gaze coolly. "You did say to make it look like we had been living together for quite some time…"

She felt her jaw clench. Dammit, she did kind of say that.

Man did she hate logic being used against her...

"Whatever. I can't deal with you right now." She waved her hands at him and rushed back into her room. Percy followed her silently and watched as she pulled together an outfit from the closet. She laid it out on the bed.

"I need to get cooking," she said. "You need to get the rest of your stuff cleaned up, but if you touch this dress,"—she pointed to the dress—"I will not hesitate to castrate you."

Percy swallowed. He took those kinds of threats seriously.

He saluted her. "Yes, Ma'am."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, and you need to wear something nice. I presume you have dress clothes?" she asked sarcastically, raising a brow.

"Have I been dressing like a hobo at work?" he shot back.

She wrinkled her nose. "No, as far as you're concerned." And then she left, slamming the door shut.

Percy groaned and flopped on the bed, being wary of the dress, of course.

Thinking about it, he really wished he had refused his dad's offer a few weeks ago. He wished he had said, "That's what you get for betting your company," and then left to become a hobo. Being a hobo would have been way better than going through this hell.

Annabeth had to force Percy out of her head. She needed to start cooking.

Personally, she didn't care to host a dinner party. In all actuality, she wasn't one for dinner parties. She wasn't the socialite that wanted everyone to like her. She was only doing this for Thalia and Luke since she had run into some problems last week.

In fact, the only reason she would host a dinner party is she loved to cook. Sometimes things didn't turn out right, but she usually was able to make some pretty good food.

She started off with getting her pork in the oven so it would be ready by the time people started coming over. Then, she moved on to the dessert—lemon cheesecake. It would have to sit in the fridge for awhile, so once she was done with the pork, she immediately started mixing the cake batter.

She heard the bedroom door open and close quietly and she heard Percy shuffle into the room and sit down on the stool across from her.

"So what are you making, anyways?" he asked, sticking his finger in the batter and eating it.

Annabeth slapped his hand hard and he glared at her.

"I'm making pork, potatoes, some shrimp, salad, cheesecake, corn, rice..."

Percy blinked. "That's a lot."

"Well it's a dinner party."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Well whatever you do, don't make spicy food."

"Why?"

"I hate spicy food. It gives me really bad stomach aches. You should keep that in mind for when we're married and you have to cook for me."

"Right…"

" Anyways, do you need help?"

She raised a brow and gave him a patronizing look. "Don't you have some cleaning to do?"

He pursed his lips and got up. As he walked to the living room, he called in a sing-song voice, "I try to help you. I try to be a better person, and yet you just shove me away. I don't think people will call that a happy marriage."

Annabeth ignored him and continued working. She poured the batter on the graham cracker crust and placed it in the fridge. She decided to work on the shrimp next. She pulled a big bag of them out of the freezer and stuck them in a big bowl. She filled it up with cold water and let them sit in the sink to thaw out.

She then decided to go set up the table.

"Percy!" she called, walking towards the dining room. "I need your help!"

"You didn't want it before! Why should I help now?" he called back.

She huffed. "Percy, I'm serious. Come help me!"

"No!"

"Dammit, Percy! Stop acting like a three year old!"

"Ask me nicely and maybe I'll help you!"

Annabeth pinched the bridge of her nose. In the next five minutes, she was going to lose a lot of her dignity.

"Percy, will you please come help me?" she asked in a calmer voice.

There was a shuffle and Percy finally came out of the bathroom wearing jeans and brown button down shirt with his sleeves rolled up. "I'd love to help you, dear," he replied with a mocking smile.

She resisted the urge to punch him and through clenched teeth said, "I need you to help me push the tables together."

She pointed towards the square table that needed to be connected with the main table. The two pushed the table—which actually took some effort—against the other one and sighed. "Thank you. You just saved me a lot of time."

"Glad I could help," he said and swaggered off to continue putting his stuff away.

Annabeth watched him walk away. He was different. In some ways, he had changed a lot since she first met him.

She shook her head and got up to continue cooking when the phone rang.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hey, Annabeth. It's Thalia."

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"I just wanted to see how everything was going. Did you want me to come and help?"

"Umm, actually…" Annabeth explained how Percy had "moved in."

"Oh, man. Ouch. I think that's a little harsh."

Annabeth sighed. "You have no idea. He's driving me nuts."

Suddenly, she heard a crash.

"Is everything okay—"

"I'll have to call you back, Thalia."

Annabeth hung up the phone. With deadly intent, she stomped to the bathroom, thinking he was still in there. She wrenched the door open, but found a Percy-less bathroom.

Starting to get suspicious, she went into her room and opened the door. The only thing she found was her dress lying on the bed.

Now she had a bad feeling, one that started in her gut and grew to her chest, spreading throughout her whole body. She went to the only other place that he could be: her study.

She slowly opened the door, afraid of what she might find.

She found her charming fiancé standing over a broken vase that he had accidentally bumped off the shelf.

Annabeth struggled to not scream.

"Ah!" Percy yelped as he turned to leave, only to be met with the fury that was Annabeth.

"Percy," Annabeth started, her voice dangerous, "when do you not cause trouble?"

"Um," Percy swallowed, "never…?"

"Just. Get. Out."

"Yup, yup."

Percy hurried out and Annabeth took one last look at the mess and sighed angrily. She shut the door and went after him.

"What the hell were you doing in there?"

"I was curious."

"Well I don't really appreciate you going in there without my permission."

"Why?"

She remained silent. "It's personal," she finally muttered.

Percy stared at her. He didn't miss the way she refused to look at him. He saw the way she suddenly became bitter. He realized how she had become so quiet.

"You need to leave," Annabeth spoke quietly. "I don't need you making more messes for me to clean up. Just go somewhere for a few hours."

She turned away and disappeared in the kitchen. Percy sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. Things were getting tense; maybe it was better that he left.

He didn't say anything as he quietly left the apartment. Meanwhile, Annabeth fought back the sudden angry tears that wanted to fall as she made her salad.

When Percy left, he knew something was wrong, but he didn't want to push her. It wasn't his place to do so anyways. If anything, she needed this time to herself. Plus—and he would never admit this out loud—he did feel a little guilty about going into her study and doing all that stuff to make her angry. Just a little, though.

So, with that, Percy decided to go have a little chat with his dad.

He went to his dad's house—more like mansion—and rang the doorbell. After a few minutes, Poseidon opened the door.

"Ah, Percy! Come in, my boy!"

Percy stepped inside and Poseidon grinned at his son. Percy glared at him in return, and his grin dropped. "What?" Poseidon asked innocently.

"You know what," Percy replied harshly. "I really don't appreciate you taking all of my stuff and dumping it at Annabeth's apartment."

"But you don't mind living with Annabeth?"

Percy stopped. He wasn't prepared for that answer. "What?"

"So you're just concerned with your stuff being taken?"

"Well…yeah…but—"

"Well I just thought that you were here to complain about living with Annabeth, but seeing as you didn't bring it up, I think you actually like it."

Percy felt his ears get hot. "I could never like living with her."

"Then why are you living there?"

"One, I have nowhere else to go, and two, you have something else up your sleeve."

Poseidon smirked. "You know me well."

Percy rolled his eyes. "So what's this other thing that's coming?"

"Well, to make sure that you couldn't leave, I sold your condo and made sure you couldn't find another one somewhere in the city."

Percy froze. "You sold my condo?"

"Yup."

"I loved that condo!"

"Son, it's a condo."

Percy glared. "Right now, I don't like you." He turned and left, and Poseidon just chuckled.

"You'll thank me later…"

So, having nowhere else to go, Percy now found himself going back to Annabeth's apartment.

He stepped inside and sniffed.

Smells good… he thought. He walked into the kitchen and found Annabeth stirring something in a pan on the stove.

"Percy, I need you to tidy up the living room and the bathroom. Then I need you to come help me peel potatoes."

Percy just sighed to himself and went to work. The way he saw it, if he was nice enough now, he could tease her during the dinner party.


So what did you think? Hope you liked it.

Hey, I wrote a story recently called Annabeth in Wonderland (PJO version of Alice in Wonderland) and I'm asking you guys to go check it out. I worked really hard on it and I want to know what you guys think about it. I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading and review please! :D

-Akatsuki Child