a/n: yep, sorry. I'll update extra fast this week to make up for it

disclaimer: duh

Change

Percy finished the coffee and sat back down at the table. He had been working on spreadsheets for the past few hours. It was really quite tiring. He was bored out of his mind and intellectually exhausted, so he figured he could use a break.

He quickly glanced in the direction of his room, where Annabeth had gone to take her call; if she saw him distracted she would surely throw a fit. Seeing the coast was clear, Percy opened a separate browser page on his computer and, after casually scrolling through some bouts of nonsense, he came across one of the articles that had been troubling Annabeth.

Percy had yet to read one for himself and he had to say, after reading it, he wasn't missing much. It was shabbily written and filled to the brim with ridiculous speculation. The video did interest him, however. He pressed the play button and noted the camera was located behind him, giving him a clear view of Annabeth's face.

Percy allowed the video to play and relived the fight with a much more level head. The audio was so bad that only a few words could be heard here and there. The green eyed man shook his head; it had been very reckless of them to fight about such private things out in the open like that. Annabeth kept a surprisingly rock hard exterior, only scoffing and snarling in response to his insults. The expressions really only validated the feeling that his harsh words were rightly placed.

Percy's thoughts changed, however, when he watched Annabeth's face suddenly recoil at something he'd said. She then cringed and seemingly forced her expression to morph back to normal, the cold and calculated eyes he was so used to seeing.

Percy rewinded the video, trying to decipher just what phrased had cracked her facade, even if the effect had been temporary. He watched Annabeth's mouth and concentrated on fitting words to her moving words.

'Obviously you!' she had screamed. What had he said back? Percy remembered being especially stumped by her retort and… then he remembered.

'My father was right. You're just like your mother.' Percy frowned, wondering why those words had affected her so much. They way Annabeth carried herself had always been a shadow of her mother. It wasn't exactly the same but definitely developing in that direction, nonetheless.

Percy's frown only deepened when his bedroom door swung open and Annabeth exited in a confident stride. There was something off about her walk, however, he observed. He couldn't put his finger on the change, but it was unquestionably there.

"Who was it?" Percy inquired cautiously, exiting out of the browser with limited movement so that she wouldn't see.

"None of your business," Annabeth snapped and roughly dragged the chair out of the dining room table. She sat down and returned her attention to the paperwork before her, not sparing Percy a single glance.

"Okay," Percy's brows lifted at her tone, but he left it otherwise. He went back to work, reviewing information in the spreadsheets. Despite himself, however, he kept peeking in the blonde's direction. He supposed it was the guilt, of knowing he had truly hurt her. He considered, for a moment, that it shouldn't have bothered him much, as she had thrown similar remarks his way.

There's a difference though, Percy's subconscious whispered, she never hurt you. Percy inwardly reprimanded himself, instructing his mind to think only of the spreadsheet before him. His eyes strayed regardless, and he found himself watching Annabeth as she sat, completely immobile, at the head of the table.

"Did you plan this?" she whispered, so softly had he not been paying an unusual amount of attention to her he would not have heard.

"Plan what?" Percy clarified, tilting his head up to run his eyes up and down her seated figure.

"This." Annabeth enthusiastically waved her arms in the space around her. "The article, the pictures, the videos - "

"What?" Percy scoffed loudly. Her gray eyes met his and he noted, with a furrow of his brows, that they were devoid of their usual fire. "How on earth would I have planned the article? I had no idea you planned on taking me to the park, smothering me in chocolate ice cream, and leaving me there helpless."

"I just - " Annabeth cut herself off and directed her gaze back down to the paperwork in front of her. "It's fine, never mind." She picked up a pen and began to write in the margins of the paragraph she was reading.

Percy continued to watch her out of the corner of his eyes and saw her pause, then stop altogether. The pen was still in her hand but she had completely stopped moving, frozen in space. As he covertly examined her closer, he noticed her hands were trembling. The movement was ever so slight, but it was still present nonetheless.

Percy's regard flashed to her eyes, which were inhumanly still, staring at the paper. It was clear she was neither reading nor annotating. Percy bit his lip, the smidge of guilt he'd previously felt rising as he wondered whether he might be at fault for his business partner's current state.

"Coffee?" he blurted out, hoping to break her from her daze. His sudden words, or word, was successful in the task as she was jarred from her blank state.

"What?" she asked, raising her whole head to look up at him.

"Do you want coffee?" Percy rephrased, standing up. He served himself some, so that the gesture would not be perceived as too out of the ordinary.

"Yes," Annabeth nodded, her eyes quickly returning to their emotionless condition after her response.

Percy silently poured her a mug full of hot coffee but before he left the kitchen counter he posed another, more meaningful, question. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Annabeth assured him, closing her eyes with a dip of her head. "Please just give me the coffee."

"You don't look fine," Percy voiced his observation and ignored her request. He crossed his arms across his chest. "You're shaking. You can't concentration. It's clear something is going on, so why don't you - "

"Will you just hand me the fucking coffee?" Annabeth bit out through a tense jaw. Her eyes stayed closed, and Percy remained in place, still refusing to bring her the beverage.

"Will you just tell me what's wrong?" the green eyed man countered, quickly growing impatient with the frustrating frame of questions.

"Fine," Annabeth exhaled sharply and stood up abruptly. "I'll get it myself." She strode over to where Percy stood and attempted to wrench the mug out of his hands. Her business partner, in return, pulled the mugs upwards, holding them high enough she couldn't reach.

Annabeth, in her current state, couldn't find it in herself to laugh or even sneer at the childish tactic. Instead, she found herself growing more and more frustrated with the series of events. After attempting to reaching for the cups for at least 30 seconds, she decided to take another strategy.

Annabeth's eyes desperately searched the cupboards behind Percy. Having finally concluded on her new plan, she pushed Percy aside and began to hastily pull the small doors open, looking for a cup or a mug or even a bowl, anything she could drink her coffee out of.

Annabeth found a perfectly usable mug and advanced towards the coffee maker. Percy simply watched with curious and worried eyes as she picked up the coffee pot with shaky fingers. As if she could feel his stare, she set it back down and turned sharply.

"You can sit back down," she advised him with bite and, though he was wary of her condition, Percy nodded and moved away from her, back to the table where he followed her instructions and lowered himself into his chair.

Annabeth kept her eyes on him, refusing to move until he resumed his work. So, Percy, much too curious - or perhaps worried, he'd never been good at distinguishing emotions - to work, pretended to type on his keyboard.

Annabeth, seemingly satisfied with the image, took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," she told him from the kitchen counter, her voice alarmingly cheery. "I don't know what's come over me." Percy grunted in response, not quite sure what she was expecting from him.

Apparently, it was enough though, as she plastered a smile on her face and picked up the empty mug she had pulled from his cabinet with shaky hands. Percy's jaw clenched at her trembling grip and watched as she then raised the coffee pot.

Annabeth's movements were tentative at first. She cautiously pouring a small amount of coffee into the mug before putting it down and tasting the hot liquid. She took heaving breath as it rolled past her taste buds and down her throat. She downed the rest of it an instant later.

Annabeth then went to refilling her empty mug. She hastily lifted the coffee pot with her severe grip. Percy heard his computer emit a small sound and looked away for a split second only to hear a deafening shatter followed by silence. His eyes darted to Annabeth who was holding nothing but air, staring solemnly at the ground.

"Shit," she barely whispered. "I can pick it up." The blonde dropped to her knees and began to haphazardly dig through the mixture of coffee and glass with her bare hands. "I can clean it."

"Chase!" Percy exclaimed, registering her actions. "Chase!" he called out again, quickly rising from his chair to help her. "Chase!" he yelled a third time as he picked up a towel and attempted to clean the disturbed area only her erratic hands were blocking him. "Annabeth!" he shouted, and she finally looked up.

"I can do it," she choked out. Her gray eyes, once so hard and cold, were again littered with hot tears.

"Let me help," Percy breathed, gently gathering her wrists with one hand. Annabeth nodded and slowly removed her hands from his grip, using them to push her hair out of her face. Percy turned his attention to the tiled floor of his kitchen and ran the rag along the affected surface.

"Sorry," Annabeth whispered as she watched him.

"It's no big deal," Percy said in a quiet voice, still unsure how to treat the blonde.

He stood up and placed the rag in the sink. He took Annabeth's hands and tried to help her stand up only to see her wince. The green eyed man frowned and examined her expression to discover a small smudge of blood along her hairline.

"Are you hurt?" Percy inquired, running his fingers along her head to inspect the damage. He was surprised when he pulled away and noted more blood had appeared. He frowned and turned his hands to scrutinize them. They too displayed small dashes of ruby red.

Percy directed his gaze back to Annabeth, who was observing her own hands with a sort of blank mystification. There was no question where the blood had originated. Her hands were painted in red, a mix of blood and coffee. In her right palm there two large shards of glass, tightly wedged into her soft skin.

Without words, Percy took her hand in his with a level of tenderness Annabeth was entirely unfamiliar with. He stared down at her injured hand, his eyes dark with concentration as the gears shifted in his head. She sucked in a sharp breath when he ran his finger gently over the affected area, jarring his attention.

"I'll do it fast," Percy supplied, feeling his words were rather useless in the situation. Despite his musings, however, the line seemed to have impacted Annabeth as the blonde nodded and swallowed thickly, her eyes never leaving her mangled skin.

Percy carefully reached down and took firm hold of one of the pieces of glass. The glass itself wasn't too thick, but it appeared to be lodged quite deep in her skin. He glanced up at her one last time and, after once again observing a pair of desperate gray eyes, he tugged hard on the shard, pulling it completely out of her hand in one effort.

"Mh," Annabeth whimpered at the quick pain, and her breathing went uneven again. Percy kept his eyes on her wound, knowing if he caught sight of her pained expression, it would only draw harmful memories that might impede his ability to help Annabeth tend to her trauma.

"Just one more," Percy told Annabeth, absently rubbing soothing circles into the soft underside of her wrist. The blonde closed her eyes and took a deep breath, preparing for the worst. As Percy plucked the second jagged piece of glass from her skin, however, she found the pain was much less than she'd expected.

Annabeth's gray eyes fluttered open after the majority of the pain dissipated. How? she mouthed, her eyes darting to Percy's from beneath her tear dewed eyelashes. He didn't seem to notice her question, and so it was left lingering in the cool air as he slipped his fingers off her skin and stood up. Percy's green eyes scanned the kitchen, seemingly searching for something.

Annabeth's fuzzy gaze followed his as it settled on one drawer in particular and narrowed as if deciphering its contents. Percy stepped forward suddenly and pulled it open, carding through its interior. Finally, he retreated, holding a roll of white gauze in one hand and a scotch tape in the other.

"Hold out your hand," he instructed, and Annabeth followed without objection.

She watched with mild fascination as he almost expertly saw to her wound, applying pressure and wrapping the gauze in a manner much too advanced for the average 23-year-old.

When Percy was done, he pulled back slightly and tilted his head, inspecting his work. "Does it hurt?" he asked softly, thin slitted eyes tracing the lines of her palm.

"No," Annabeth lied; the pain had definitely diminished, but it was nowhere near gone. The blonde stood up slowly, unsure whether or not to eradicate the warm feeling pooling in her limbs at his touch. Percy mimicked her movement, standing as well.

"You should sleep," Percy advised, completely detaching from her and awkwardly fitting his hands in the pocket of his sweatpants. Annabeth parted her suddenly parched lips to reply but was caught off guard by the look of concern swelling in the ocean of his eyes.

"I - I'm fine," she answered finally, taking a step away from her business partner. She turned away from him and momentarily shut her eyes. Business partner, she inwardly reminded herself, nothing more. At the thought, she was suddenly swarmed by her mother's requests and her extensive to do list and she felt the familiar crippling anxiety take over her body, directing her limbs one by one.

Percy looked like he wanted to protest her proclamation, but no sooner had he opened his mouth than she was suddenly marching back to her seat at his dining room table. There she sat down, looking stiff, almost robotic in nature. The dark haired man watched as her gray eyes desperately scanned the computer screen before her, returning to their prior monotonous state.

Annabeth gaze flew across the dozens of unanswered emails in her inbox. They all seem to bore into her with eyes of steel, melting her to a defenseless pulp. Her mother's emails stood out especially, every single one flagged as "important".

Annabeth glanced over a recent email she'd missed from Athena and felt black cloud surround her as she opened it. The dark mass consumed her as she read through the details of the Jackson Inc. ball and all the dignitaries she was expected to research before attending. It wrapped around her wrist, the touch so much different than Percy's, and brought her fingers down on the keyboard, disregarding the pained scream her injured hand emitted when she typed her response.

I'll get it done.

Annabeth took a deep breath and hit send. She paused afterward, her fingers hovering over the keyboard, an anxious twitch running through them. She pulled her eyes upwards and felt a shock plummet through her, stroking her spine and constricting her nerves, when she met a pair of blue green ones across the table.

Percy was watching her with a gaze laced with apprehension. Annabeth averted her stare, turning back to her work, the atmosphere around her marginally clearer. She lightly bit her lip, chasing away her thoughts with the act, and resumed her work.

Annabeth opened an email from an important client and began to compose an eloquent yet stern response only to be thwarted by Percy's voice, interrupting her train of thought.

"You're obviously not fine," Percy drawled from across the table, a shadow of his arrogance showing.

"I'm perfectly fine," Annabeth retorted, pressing her lips together primly. "I assure you." She received no reply and thus returned to her email. She had barely finished the following sentence when she was halted once again.

"You know, you wince every time you type anything on the right side of the keyboard," he remarked matter of factly from his chair.

Annabeth clenched her teeth, feeling her bones tighten. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to continue working at Percy's apartment tonight. Athena had made the public ramifications clear over the phone, and Annabeth was nearing her breaking point. She had reached it really, only to barely come back.

"I would have guessed observing my pain amused you, delighted you even," Annabeth shot back coldly, ignoring any and all care thrown her way.

"I see your opinion of me remains epically low," Percy growled. "Even after I helped bandage your cuts."

"I didn't ask for your help," Annabeth hissed, but the retort lacked its usual venom.

"Oh." Percy brows lifted and his features twisted into an ugly sneer. "So I was just supposed to leave you there to suffer?"

Annabeth words were caught in her mouth and she thickly swallowed the urge to warn him; She would have. I would - Annabeth didn't want to finish the thought, terrified of the potential outcome.

"C'mon," Percy decided in her absence of an answer. "You're way too tired to continue working." He stood up from his chair and made his way over to her. "You need to rest."

"No," Annabeth snapped instantly. "I told you." She threw her arms over her keyboard, worried he'd shut off her laptop. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine," Percy insisted, sounding tired."Take a break and get some rest." He tried to wrench the computer from her fingers but found the vice grip was near impossible to break.

"I don't want to!" Annabeth cried, thinking of all the work she still had to complete. It was too much. There was no time. She couldn't waste her precious seconds by resting. Annabeth felt her eyes burn in the drive of her complete desperation but set it aside, regarding it a problem for another time.

"I don't care!" Percy shouted. He accepted his current plan wasn't working and decided on a different course of action. He lunged forward as if to grab Annabeth's computer, but, at the least minute, he picked her up by the waist and, with a grunt, attempted to throw her over his shoulder.

"Jackson, no!" Annabeth screamed as he pulled her away from her job, from the endless tasks. She struggled against his strong arms, beating his chest mercilessly with her hands drawn in small fists. She felt hot tears stream down her cheeks, burning a path whether they descended. "Percy, I can't! I have to finish!"

"I'm sure you'll survive," Percy assured her, not yet noticing her tear stained cheeks. He pulled her to his chest, trapping her in his warmth and traveling to his sofa. It was only there, that he observed Annabeth's swollen eyes and runny nose.

"You don't get it," she told him, still fighting him - but even Annabeth would admit, her body had given up - as he set her down on the plush comforter.

You're right. I don't, Percy agreed in his inner musings. He pinned the blonde down and securely wrapped his arms around her shoulders so she was facing his chest, unable to move. He then shimmied a blanket onto them both, ensuring she would not escape without resting at least a teeny tiny bit.

After the blanket fell upon her, Annabeth was silent except for small pairs of sniffles. His arms loosened as he thought she was asleep, falling more comfortably to her waist.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Annabeth soft voice suddenly asked out of the blue.

"I wouldn't call this nice," Percy chuckled, but even he noted the words held none of their usual humor. He felt a sudden urge to inject the ease back into the pseudo conversation they were sharing. "Besides," he swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing directly above Annabeth's head. "I couldn't have had your blood staining my expensive kitchen tiles."

"I abandoned you in the middle of New York today," Annabeth remarked, her voice muffled by his shirt. "No money, no phone, no nothing."

"Not gonna lie. That was a dick move, Chase," Percy commented, again trying to keep the tone relatively light. "Don't think I'm not going to get you back for that."

"You didn't have to help me."

"Yes, I did."

Percy closed his eyes, trying to ignore both the serious undertone of her every word and the intoxicating smell of Annabeth's hair. He felt her sniffles go from frequent to occasional and finally stop altogether.

When Annabeth's breath finally steadied and her heartbeat no longer seems to encourage his, Percy lifted his hand from her fabriced waist, prepared to climb into his own bed, only to find himself lowering it and dozing off, feeling strangely warm and unfamiliarity content holding the once hostile blonde in his arms.

a/n: again, promise the next chapter will come soon.