Three weeks, eh? Anyway, as promised, shout-out to If You Give A Duck Chocolate for being the 200th reviewer and for having an awesome name.

To VampireRide: I feel you man. So, how about from now on, shout-out for every 50th review?

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Percy Jackson—

Percy stared at Nico like it was some cruel twist of fate. The other man had to be joking right now. It wasn't some joke, was it?

"Am I on candid camera right now?" he asked Nico bluntly, looking around the car as if searching for hidden cameras.

"What?" the younger man looked like Percy had gone slightly insane.

"This is a joke, right?"

Nico looked at him pitiful, placing a hand on his shoulder, "I wish it were so."

Percy pushed the hand off quickly while Nico continued his pathetic speech, "Just my luck. To be unemployed on Friday the 13th. I always knew this day was destined to be the death of me."

"Lucky for you, your father owns a funeral home," Percy said under his breath. Nico shot him a nasty glare. Percy, ignoring this, continued, "Look, no one's going to lose their jobs. I'll figure something out. So don't panic. Don't tell anyone. Above all, stay away from Leo. If the word gets to him, I'll have two overly dramatic employees at my feet."

"Hey!" Nico protested weakly.

"Look, point is that I'll get it solved. I'm not going to let my employees go unemployed because of my personal relations. This is my issue and not for you to worry about it."

"Unless I'm jobless," Nico inserted in the middle.

"Shut the hell up, di Angelo," Percy barked in frustration. "Fine, I'll give that Chase girl one more chance, but if she blows it, that's it. I don't care about the consequences, but if it involves staying her after a wounded pride…"

"My…"

"I get it Nico. You will not go unemployed."

"Wounded pride?" Nico questioned.

"Don't ask," Percy's eyes narrowed, darkening by the second. He would never divulge what Annabeth had said to him to anyone.

Annabeth Chase, 3:00 P.M.—

Annabeth was surprised to hear her doorbell ring at this time of day. She wasn't expecting any guests, and frankly, she wasn't in the mood to after what had happened earlier that day. She had been sitting around, channeling her anger into her sketches.

Some company had contacted her around lunch to discuss an interview later for a position as a contracting agent. He had said he would call her back later once verifying some of the recommendations and paperwork required before the meeting.

She opened her door slightly, peering outside to find none other than her ex-tenant, Mr. Percy Jackson. next to him, carrying a rather large suitcase stood his boyfriend, Nico di Angelo. Nico had an uncharacteristically happy grin on his fact despite the fact he was carrying someone else's luggage.

Without offering any explanation, Percy pushed the door and entered with Nico trailing behind him with the suitcase. He entered his room, directing Nico to toss the suitcase on the bed before reemerging from the room. Annabeth stood with her arms crossed, demanding an explanation.

The explanation she got was curt and took her back.

"I decided that I would stay until I got my deposit wired back," he said without the hint of any emotion. It was as though he were doing her a service. Annabeth was rather fed-up with his condescending attitude more than anything.

"So, you think you can just walk back in?" she asked, feeling a sense of déjà vu having asked Thalia the exact same question a few days previously.

"Isn't that what you begged me to do?" he shot back with a smirk, knowing that he had won. Annabeth cursed those sea green eyes that bore back at her with contempt. Ignoring him, she turned to his partner with scorn, "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

He cowered under the steely grey eyes that glowered at him, "Yes m'am." For better measure, he saluted her once.

Annabeth heard Percy chuckle, turning around to face him when he called out, "See ya later Nico. Thanks for helping."

A muffled, "No problem," came from the other side of the now closing door.

Percy was leaning against a wooden table centerpiece in the center of the living room space. His legs crossed one another and his arms on either side of him. He gave the room an appraising look with some disdain showing up on his face.

"Well?" he demanded.

"Well what? What do you need, your highness?" Annabeth shot him an equal look of irritation. Why did she have to be stuck up with this jerk of all people?

Percy gestured to the ground. From what Annabeth could see, there wasn't much that she saw wrong. Percy gingerly picked up something from the ground with the tip of a pencil, an expression of disgust clear on his face. She saw the shudder visibly pass through his body as he moved it away from him.

Annabeth's face turned a beet red when she realized what he had in his hand. She quickly grabbed it. It was one of her red bras. How it had gotten there was beyond her knowledge. Maybe it had fallen when she had taken her clothes to the laundry. How she hadn't noticed was another issue.

"Are you going to bother picking this up?" Percy asked, now plopping himself down on the couch with his feet up on the table, the TV remote in his hand.

"Get your feet off that table. I made that," she asked of him. He shot her an amused glance but complied as he flipped through the channels, "So?"

"What?"

"Are you picking it up?"

"Picking what up?" Annabeth shot back in frustration. The guy had been there for less than ten minutes, and here he was ordering her around already. She was fine with the way the house was, and if he had an issue, he could fix it himself.

"Tidy up the house," he stated simply, as though it were no big deal.

"Excuse me?" the incredulity evident in her tone.

"You heard me," his green eyes were dancing in enjoyment as he riled her up. "This house. Now. It's a mess."

"This is my house, and I'd rather have my things were they are accessible and not stored in some corner."

"Tidiness is a virtue."

"Says who? It's more convenient to have my papers were they are rather than to disturb and rearrange them."

He then pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket which he then tossed up to her. She caught in deftly, examining it. It was their initial agreement paper terms when he had entered the house.

"Paragraph 3, line 4," he pointed out, still not bothering to get up from the couch, his eyes trained on the screen.

Annabeth's eyes quickly scanned to the mentioned area, her hands grasping the paper a little more tightly than necessary. It was one of his imposed conditions that she hadn't expected him to carry out. What guy kept his house neat anyway? She was reminded of a Macklemore quote, "I thought I was gay because I kept my room neat and straight."

Well, that explained that…

"You expect me to clean this up?" she asked rhetorically.

He answered anyway, "Obviously." The sneer reminded her of Snape from Harry Potter. He was yet to budge from his seat, so Annabeth assumed he wasn't going to lift a hand to help at all. His reasoning would be that since he hadn't created the mess, there was no need for him.

The next hour went by slowly as Annabeth restacked her papers in an orderly fashion. They weren't always all that messy. She had just been caught up with the whole Luke and Thalia issue to pay much attention to her house.

She placed all the power tools in their respective boxes, stowing them away for later use. As for the clothes, she tossed them in the hamper, resolving to redo her laundry as the pile had grown considerably in the last week.

"Finished," she announced, taking a seat across from him. He stood up wordlessly to go over to the nearest table near her workshop room. He lifted his pointer finger and with one swift motion, he ran it across the table. When he reached the end, he held up the finger now coated in a fine coat of dust, sawdust to be exact.

He tilted his head as though challenging her. She walked to the table, raising her hands defensively. "I use the saw every day. Obviously there's going to be dust!"

"When was the last time you dusted or even gave this place a wash?" he asked, now looking at the window blinds for signs of dust mites.

Without giving her a chance to reply, he opened a nearby cabinet, digging around for a moment before moving on to another drawer. At last, he found what he had been searching for. He held it out to Annabeth who took it gingerly, her small nose scrunching up.

"A rag?" she asked skeptically.

"Don't just stand around."

Percy personally took interest in Annabeth's cleaning duty to make sure a single speck hadn't been missed in the process. Under his watchful eye, Annabeth was forced to clean each individual blind.

"Ah, you missed a spot," he would point out in a semi-sing-song voice. He was becoming a nuisance, a painful nuisance. "While you're at it, you should mop the floor." Annabeth shot him a look of pure irritation before turning back to clean the remainder of the window blind.

It was past 5:30 by the time she had finished the blinds alone. Percy, bless his kind heart, had taken the trouble to hand her a mop and bucket from one of the closets.

"Why thank you kind sir," she curtsied mockingly. It went past his thick head as he simply told her to hurry up.

"Want to help?" she asked hopefully, brushing the blond hair out of her face.

Percy looked affronted, "Me? I'm the tenant. You're the landlady. Besides, I have to get ready for dinner."

"How long could you need for that?" Annabeth muttered under her breath so Percy wouldn't hear.

Annabeth picked up the mop, realizing she had never used one with her wooden floors. She had always preferred to stick to the all-purpose vacuum cleaner. Plunging the mop into the bucket of water and solution, she made a clean swipe of the floor, marveling at the now distinct strata of the clean and unclean floor. Percy gave her a victorious smile as he proved his point, his green eyes twinkling.

Annabeth steeled her eyes again before making the sweeping motion before Percy stopped her. He gestured for the mop in exasperation at her careless attitude. "You have to squeeze out the water before you put it on the floor again." He demonstrated once for her, his muscles rippled as he stretched. Annabeth admired the well-muscled torso, not paying much attention to what he was saying.

She shook her head, clearing her head of such thoughts. He had a bemused expression on his face as he held out the mop to her, waiting for her to take it from him. She grabbed it rather roughly from him, blushing fiercely underneath.

To hide her embarrassment, she continued to mop the floor when she felt a hand touch her arm. A shock nearly passed through her at the close proximity. She steadied herself, steeling her nerves as she looked at him. "What now?"

"The motion. It's all wrong. It has to be a continuous flow like a smooth arc. Your action is all choppy and just getting water everywhere. Watch me." With that he put one arm on the handle of the mop, just one hand in front of where Annabeth's hand was. With his other hand, he placed it on the portion of the body away from the mop, dangerously close to her waist.

Annabeth exhaled deeply, having never been this close to him. Before she had a chance to realize what was going on, he made a swift motion of the arm with the mop.

"Just like that," his arms were already back to their original crossed position across his chest. Annabeth was stupefied momentarily.

"You know what? This seems like this is going to take long," he judged from her expression. "Just hand me the mop. I'll finish it."

He grabbed it from her outstretched hands proceeding to mop down the remainder of the house. Annabeth watched carefully as he wiped the house. His focus was entirely on what he was doing, not the least bit distracted from what it was in front of her.

Sure he was pretentious ass, but there was a method to madness and she watched it play out in how he diligently he mopped the floor. Not a single bead of sweat was seen. Annabeth was sure he wiped it off when she wasn't looking. She on the other hand was covered in sweat and dust. She would need to take a shower later.

And just as he had said, he finished the entirety of the duplex in 30 minutes tops. He handed her the mop and bucket before going into his room. He wasn't much of conversationalist, was he?

Feeling hungry and realizing the time was almost 7:00 P.M., Annabeth checked in her freezer, looking for a possible Lean Cuisine to satiate her hunger. She didn't have the energy required to cook a full-fledged meal.

What had Percy said? That he had to get ready for dinner? As in he was going out. With who? Nico? Annabeth shuddered a little. She could just run down to the Target or Walgreens across the block and pick up a few frozen dishes that she could simply microwave and eat,

She made quick work of dinner. Going in and exiting the shop within twenty minutes (a personal record when it came to Target for her). She popped the dish into the microwave; she realized a little pathetically how excited she was to eat frozen lasagna.

Annabeth hadn't noticed Percy, so she assumed he had already gone out for dinner after changing. Once she had inhaled in the lasagna in practically one breath, she decided that it was best time for a bath.

She gathered her garments from the closet, procuring a towel hanging on the rack. She removed the contacts too and placed them in the case before heading towards the bathroom.

She opened the wooden door, thinking how she would need to put in a lock system soon now that there was a man living in the house. As Annabeth swung the door open, it revealed a man in his full glory.

His long black hair was slicked away from his handsome face. The face itself was dotted with water droplets, indicating that he had just been in the shower. His sea green eyes were clear and shining, a contrast against his tanned, youthful face.

Annabeth's eyes trailed down involuntarily. She had been right about imagining those chiseled abs. Sure he was a prick, but he was a prick with a great bod. She almost caught herself drooling.

Her eyes wandered below the six-pack to where the towel was…Or where she thought it was.

Annabeth's eyes widened in shock, her hand had to cover her mouth at that moment to prevent herself from shrieking. Percy had just taken notice of her from the high pitched noise she had made. His face, which had been turned to face the mirror to look for razor cuts, turned back to the front. His face mirrored hers immediately.

He had just stepped out of the shower moments beforehand, beginning to wrap the towel around when he was distracted by a stinging sensation on his cheek. He had just begun to examine it when a loud yelp of terror shook him from the mirror.

He immediately wrapped the towel around his lower torso, his cheeks a deep watermelon red which Annabeth only matched with her own tomato red. Perhaps, she hadn't seen anything…wistful thinking.

She backed away slowly with her arms up in the air by her sides. There was no way she hadn't seen anything.

Percy, on the other hand, was sure of one thing. Annabeth Chase had just seen him in full nude.

Almost 3000 words.

Yes, Annabeth and Percy are OoC. It's an AU, and that's how it will be.

So, I hope you haven't forgotten this story. Make sure to fave, follow, and review.

I don't proofread my stories. I always publish the first draft since I don't have the patience/time to go through it. Find any mistakes, let me know.

Also, like I said, every 50th milestone review gets a shout-out. I don't care if you hate/like this story. You are entitled to your own opinions, and that's what the review box is for. I'd just prefer if you didn't cuss at me for being a bastard/bitch. I've gotten a few of those…Anyway, review.

~TJ

Also, when is HoH coming out? I lost track...