Chapter 2

/:.:\

"If you need me, wanna see me

Better hurry 'cause I'm leaving soon"

- listen before i go, Billie Eilish

/:.:\

Frankly, Annabeth's first glance at Perseus Jackson was a blurry photo of him on an Instagram fan account (she didn't intentionally search for it - sorry). It was a photo taken from his red carpet entrance at the 77th Golden Globe Awards from a rushed photographer trying to capture his rare smile with a click. Although the photographer received a distinctly visible photo of the billionaire himself, he wasn't able to catch the expression millions desired. Even so, Annabeth thought the blurry photo of him was kinda cute. Kinda being the key word. Regardless, Annabeth believed she was prepared for what she was getting into when she was placed undercover as the only child of Poseidon Jackson's secretary.

In real life, Percy Jackson looked similar to all the pictures the CIA provided her in her mission file and the other pictures she scavenged on the internet (she personally thought his selfies on Twitter are dorky) - tousled black hair, sea-green eyes, tall and dressed expensively (even his pyjamas seemed to be exorbitant from his Tweets). Paradoxically, his posture was the same (the slight slouch). But there were scanty details that the file (and the internet) missed; the crumpling suit, the askew tie, the weariness in walking, the boredom - he appeared to disregard the family business. Nevertheless, he still had the aura of confidence only an heir to a billion-dollar company could possess.

Annabeth looks to the reflective glass of the conference room by the elevators to make sure the strutt was indeed her boss - it was.

She rises to welcome him, and gives him his coffee sans the muffin, courtesy of Lauren. "Good morning, sir," Annabeth greets him. "Sorry about the muffin, the shop ran out."

"I was literally there a few minutes ago to get you a welcome gift. It looked like they still had a bunch of blueberry muffins."

Annabeth blinks. Uh- say something. "Well- that's nice of you, Mr. Jackson."

Percy gives her a small smile. "It is indeed. Well, I got you a bunch of muffins because I didn't know what kind you'll like. I was debating to just get you a chocolate muffin because everyone loves chocolate, but nowadays veganism is a thing and their chocolate isn't vegan." He shows her a box and opens it. "So I just chose some that my friends enjoy. Just choose any and I'll give the rest to my employees."

The box consists of twelve muffins; two chocolates, two blueberries, three raisin brans (ew), a double chocolate one, a lemon and three mixed berries. Annabeth asks if any are vegan.

"The raisin brans are," Percy replies.

Annabeth thought so and internally pukes. She hates raisin bran muffins with a burning passion. She loves muffins and oats separately, don't get her wrong, but just the taste of oat bran in a sugary type food makes her vomit.

When she was assigned this mission, her director forgot to mention she was vegan (after understanding her file, Annabeth thinks Chiron deliberately left that part out. He knows Annabeth cannot live without Big Macs). By the time Annabeth read the file herself to realize she was vegan, Chiron already retreated home. Thus, there was no arguing on her behalf or rejecting the mission altogether.

Annabeth sighs and grabs the raisin bran because it's required to follow your cover. She takes a small bite out of the muffin and pretends to swallow. She's going to throw it out when Percy leaves. "Mmmhm," she says to her boss, to which he preens, "This is really good."

Percy nods. "They do make the best pastries in Manhattan."

Yum.

Annabeth says as much while beaming, and as serious as you can with a vegan raisin bran muffin, but suddenly, Percy confusedly asks her, "Where's Edith?"

What.

Who the hell is Edith? And did her mother have no other pleasant names she enjoyed to name her child a 16th-century name? (Annabeth suddenly thinks she shouldn't be talking, her name is also idiotic, because like, Annabeth. Couldn't her mom decide between Anna or Beth?

Good God.)

"Her mother was a Jewish Christian."

"Huh?" Annabeth asks dumbly, "Excuse me?"

"You asked why her mother named her Edith," Percy tells her slowly as if speaking to a child. "My answer was because her mother was a Jewish who attended church."

Ah. Annabeth forgets she has a tendency to enunciate the questions she asks herself inwardly.

She must have still looked confused because Percy takes pity on her and says, "Well, do you know where's Edith?"

"Who's Edith?" Annabeth asks, dumbly again. She's making a big fool of herself right now. So much for first impressions and all that jazz.

"My secretary."

Oh? Oh!

Oh.

But- "I'm your secretary," she replies, slowly.

Percy shakes his head. "No, no- what?"

Annabeth rolls her eyes. Is he that dense? Thalia never mentioned that her cousin was that of an idiot. All she said was that he was an annoying idiot with too many cufflinks (apparently he has more than fifty pairs).

She glances at a businessman who passes them briefly and sucks in a deep breath, "I'm your secretary, I thought we already established that. If not, I'm your new secretary."

"Oh," Percy purses his lips, "When did she leave?"

"I don't know, sir."

"Okay."

There's an awkward pause, but before Annabeth can say anything remotely apologetic, Percy gives her a small nod, grabs the box of muffins and enters his office.

The door slams.

Annabeth sighs, she now hates this mission.

She leans back into her swirly office chair slowly, bored. Before anybody looks at her though, Annabeth spits out the raisin bran in her mouth, throws it in a Post-It, dumps the rest of the muffin in the bin beside her desk and wipes her hands on her skirt. Despite feeling like someone saw her (she wasn't all that discreet) little incident, Annabeth doesn't care. They can go suck themselves, and if anybody actually cares, she'll blame it on the flavour of the muffin. Because vegan raisin bran muffin.

Unfortunately, Lauren didn't give her much of a job description, nor did Chiron (he just told her to act normal and to blend in) and neither did Percy, who by the way, couldn't be any older than her and probably hates her. So in hindsight, Annabeth should have seen this coming and never should have accepted this mission.

Still bored, she looks around the office a little more intently than her pre-investigation. However, Annabeth notices nothing intriguing, except for the fact that cubicle worker #2 opened a window and cubicle worker #5 is picking his nose. (If you look a little more closely, you can see some mucus on his nose that he doesn't even bother to clean - ew.)

"Hey."

Annabeth looks up to see a rather attractive male standing in front of her. "Hi," Annabeth says, slightly in awe. "What can I help you with?"

The brunette man grins, "You're hot."

Annabeth gapes at his forwardness and internally cringes. Annabeth doesn't feel hot, not by a long shot. Sure, nowadays everyone says to love who you are inside and out, and seriously, Annabeth loves herself (she's a tad cocky about her achievements although still modest), but right now, she's wearing this ugly brown wig because she forgot to dye her hair and there's a spot on her head that's dying to be itched and she can't though, which is the problem. If Annabeth could trade an eye for it, she wouldn't even bat that eye. Her eyes are also this horrid colour of pale blue (it was a last-minute shopping spree at 11 pm at the dollar store because Target was closed for the night and Annabeth just grabbed and went. And in her defence (actually- no, but still) the lighting in the store was dreadful and it looked like a pretty sick blue and it was cheap (buy one get one free!) so she bought two pairs. However, lesson learned: never buy contacts at a dollar store in the middle of nowhere) instead of her usually grey, and Annabeth just really wants to bulge her eyes out so the contacts can just go plop! on her desk.

Outwardly, Annabeth smiles politely and says, "You're not too bad yourself."

The man smiles, pleased and says, "See you later."

And he winks.

But not any type of wink, no no no. He doesn't do the wink wink twitch twitch kind, nor the flirty sultry type, or the I feel like a loser but apparently this is cool kind, or the I know something that you don't kind, but the Spy kind. Annabeth understands and twitches her eyes towards the printer room she saw earlier when Lauren showed her her desk. The man smirks, which means gotcha! and flees towards the bathroom, she guesses, to signify, yes he'll be there in a minute or so.

Annabeth goes through her drawers and whacks her forehead. "God, I need some paper to write some stuff down," she mutters. Annabeth gets up from her seat and nods to the people who pass her.

She enters the printer room and scans the shelves of paper. Annabeth decides on cardstock because why not and grabs a sheet or two of letter paper to seem more secretary-esque. And also, she needs to steal some to do her grocery list tonight.

The door opens and she suspects it's the man because she can feel the presence of a masculine (this was an intensive activity in her training) and says without turning around as to not draw attention, "So, what's your position?"

"Oh! I'm Marketing."

Annabeth freezes for a second because that's not the guy, so she turns around and smiles thoughtfully, "That's cool."

"Thank you. I'm Octavian." He brings his hands out to shake.

Annabeth accepts reluctantly because Octavian is cubicle worker #5 and she can see a booger with hair on his hand - gross. His handshake is surprisingly strong for his scrawny body.

Octavian has small pale blue eyes with thin-rimmed rectangular glasses. He's wearing an oversized red suit for his gangly build and the tie he's wearing is neon green, which clashes horribly with his attire. Where you would find dress shoes, Octavian's wearing velcro brothel creepers with pink laces and Annabeth immediately feels remarkably uneasy. She also feels extremely lucky she's a brunette right now, and not her regular blonde hair because Octavian's a blond and just- oh my god. He's also very pale, like Edward Cullen, except Edward Cullen is attractive, and Octavian is most certainly not. The only pretty thing about Octavian is his nose, which Annabeth instantly disagrees - you can see long strands of hair inside.

"I'm An- Madison. I'm Madison."

He arches an eyebrow. However, it looks more like there's something in his eye and he's trying to rid it by raising his eyebrows. "An Madison? Shouldn't it be a Madison?"

Crap.

Annabeth blinks innocently. "A yes," she moves to the other side of the cramped room. "English isn't my first language. So I always mess up with my articles."

"That's quite alright," Octavian pauses. "What do you do here?"

Annabeth hangs her head. She doesn't want to talk to him anymore. Nevertheless, she tries for a smile and says, "I'm the young Mr. Jackson's secretary."

Octavian makes a face.

Annabeth frowns.

"Do you have a problem with him, Octavian?" Annabeth suddenly asks, forcefully. She just wants him to leave. "If you do, you can tell me. Don't be afraid. I won't tell."

Octavian fidgets. "Uh…"

"I'm listening."

"Uh…"

Annabeth's about to throw him up the wall and pin him there with her forearm around his neck if he wouldn't tell. In all honest, Annabeth isn't all that violent, not at all. It's just, this guy is being an extreme doofus. However, before Annabeth could grab Octavian's collar, someone opens the door.

It's him.

Thank god.

He nods at Octavian, then at her. He goes towards the printer and taps the screen for a few seconds. The printer warms up and starts shooting out several pages with black inked words. The brunette man goes towards the shelves that contain printing paper and takes a bunch to add to Tray #3. He leans on the Xerox, crosses his arms to his chest and faces them.

"So," he says, "Whatcha talking about?"

While he was doing his task, Annabeth and Octavian were deathly quiet. And he also being a spy, could tell they were having a rather intense conversation before he clacked through.

Octavian is the one who speaks first. He juts out his thumb and points it to Annabeth. "Madison over here, she's the young Jackson's new secretary."

He takes his papers from the printer, ruffles through them and asks Annabeth, "How do you like it so far?"

Annabeth looks at him closely and draws out that he must also be a field agent, like her. "It's great! Mr. Jackson is very nice."

He nods, "He is. He's also a great friend."

Annabeth smiles briefly but grows impatient. What's this guy's name? He looks like a Dan but also an Owen. Dan/Owen has dark styled brown hair and is wearing a grey Brioni checkered suit with a silk light blue tie. She imagines the CIA gave lots of funding for his mission, or he's just naturally rich.

Something she can't feel the same way, though. (Annabeth has been working at Starbucks forever. It doesn't pay that well, but she does get free drinks.)

"But he's also a loser."

Everyone gapes at Octavian and he shrugs, "He is."

"How so?" Dan/Owen demands. "He's such a sweetie."

Octavian waves his hand. "Nah, man. It's okay."

Annabeth immediately retches at 'man'. He said it so- Annabeth doesn't want to say 'man', anymore. God.

"Yeah, man. Tell me."

"Nah, I have to go anyway. Been here long enough."

Annabeth grows more uncomfortable by the minute. Octavian being cool is like her dancing, an embarrassment.

"Dude, just tell me."

The pale man turns to reach the doorknob and says, one last time, "Nah."

However, before Octavian can push open the door, Dan/Owen strides towards him and grabs his suit jack, turns him over to the wooden door and pushes his forearm to his throat. "Tell me," Dan/Owen whispers threateningly. "Or I'll suffocate you."

Octavian actually has the decency to look scared. "He said he'd pay for dinner when he took my team to dinner, but he never did. I had to pay a freaking five hundred dollar bill," he rasps. "I had to stop buying artichokes for a month!"

Annabeth wheezes. God, is this why he hates Percy Jackson?

Octavian looks towards her where she's slapping her knees and crackling like an idiot. "Shut up."

Dan/Owen lets go and Octavian falls to the ground with a thump. Octavian spins the doorknob quickly and exits out as if a cougar were chasing him.

Dan/Owen laughs. "Whatta loser." He shuts the door and locks it. "I'm Agent Solace."

Annabeth looks at Agent Solace like he's crazy. Which apparently he is, because no sane spy would say their name when there could be a possibility of bugs and cameras. Agent Solace sees her wild expression and soothes her and tells her that he checked this morning when no one was around. Annabeth feels like he's lying because as a liar, and occasionally compulsive one, she can detect lies like nobody's business (honestly, if you don't believe her, try her. You'll be amazed and envious and just overly stunned.). However, Annabeth relaxes a bit when she realizes he's the Agent Will Solace. The man who singly combated three drunken ring leaders when he himself was also drunk. Like, Annabeth's in awe and just wants him to autograph her forehead. Anyway, Annabeth brings her hands out to shake and says breathily, "Agent Chase."

Agent Solace doesn't acknowledge her thrust out hand and instead walks towards his papers on the printer. "Meet me in the basement tomorrow night. I'll tell you about my mission then."

Annabeth stops him before he can go out the door. "How did you get Octavian to tell you why he hates Percy?"

Will gives her a dazzling smile. "Honey, fear is a better motivator than annoyance. Use it."

He walks out swaying his hips and Annabeth can't help but gawk at him. That was her line!

She flips his backside the bird and walks out the door angrily, papers in hand.

If Annabeth actually checked for bugs herself, she would have realized that Will did indeed lie.

...

Logging off her computer, Annabeth knocks on Percy's door, briefly.

"Come in!"

She pokes her head in and says, "I'm leaving for the night."

Percy shuffles his papers and puts them in a folder. "Would you mind waiting for me? I just need to see my Dad."

"Sure," Annabeth says almost giddily. She can rummage through her boss' office for free!

"Just wait here."

Percy grabs a folder labelled Finances and exits the room, closing the door gently. Annabeth stops to listen if anyone is outside the door for a brief moment before (practically) running to Percy's mahogany desk.

She begins to open the drawers; the main drawer, which is situated in the middle of his desk like a pull-out keyboard shelf, is wide. It has many files - finances, presentations, more finances, software - but are all disorganized. Annabeth flips through a presentation file and sees many papers with a single word on top: See me in my office with the finances. She bits her lips and reads a bit of the paper. Annabeth chokes when she finds that Percy's father - Mr. Jackson - torn down the idea of a new aquarium for a museum in Queens, instead. She may not be an avid marine lover, but Annabeth would rather have an aquarium than one more museum (there were about fifty million museums in Queens alone). She puts the papers back in the file and moves on to the top right drawer. It's small, about the size of a 9' inch pizza box, but it's locked. Annabeth makes an irked strangled noise in the back of her throat because she doesn't have time to pick it, nor does she want to. Nevertheless, she sees a paper clip on his desk and uses it to unlock the latch. Annabeth opens the drawer and picks up a framed photo of Percy smiling wide at the camera with an older woman with long black hair and blue eyes. Her smile is alarmingly bright and she has her arm wrapped around Percy. Her face is a bit wrinkly around her eyes - Annabeth guesses she smiles frequently because there's also the fact that there's another photo of her, beaming very very widely. Annabeth's pretty sure the woman is his mom because they have the same bright eyes (not the colour, however, Percy's are more on the greener side), the kind and gentle smile and the same face (except the nose). Annabeth understands that his mom is very important to him because there are no other things in the locked drawer other than the fact that there are a bunch more photos of the same woman - younger, teenager, with a baby, etc. - and women's accessories. There is a lavender perfume bottle, a ring, some bracelets, a cloth and blue food colouring (?) (Annabeth's very confused). Anyways, Annabeth locks the drawer and looks through the other two drawers.

The middle one, which is wide and flat, holds papers and pens. Rummaging through a bit of the papers, Annabeth's bored and moves onto the last one below. This one, Annabeth deems, is the most interesting. It holds extoic blueprints with remarkable ideas; one of the blueprints, was an educational building, featuring a marvellous rec room (it has a slide!). Annabeth realizes then, that Percy Jackson is not what he seems.

Thanks, US Weekly.

Annabeth closes the drawer and goes to look at one of the paintings on his wall - she doesn't want to suppress her luck any further. Just as she's moving onto the next painting of Picasso (Annabeth wonders if any of his paintings are real), Percy opens the door and squeaks indignantly.

"I don't want to speak to you, Ally."

Annabeth turns to Percy, eyeing him curiosity. Who's Ally?

Percy squeaks again. "Oh! Madison! I forgot you were here, sorry," he apologizes. "I'll just get my keys from my desk and we can leave."

He maneuvers towards his desk and plucks a pair of keys from a bowl. He grabs a messenger bag off the ground, and smiles fleetingly at Annabeth. "You ready?"

"Oh... yeah, yeah yeah." Annabeth waves her hand and looks to the man by her. "What car do you have?"

He locks his office door and moves his hand to the small of her back. They walk towards the elevators before he tells her, "I have a Ferrari f250."

Annabeth peeks at the man walking beside her from the corner of her eye. It kind of hurts and all, because of the contacts, but she'll rather seem stoic than let him see her confusion. "That literally tells me absolutely nothing," she says bluntly. "Can you drive safely in it?"

Percy gives her a small smile. "Of course."

Annabeth does not believe him in the slightest. She gives him a push and tells him to walk faster as she's already by the revolving doors in the lobby ("Hey!" , "Walk faster, sir. You have long legs."). He jogs to catch up with her and drags her to his car (Annabeth went the wrong way; she went towards the ice cream stand instead of the parking lot. To be frank, Annabeth wanted her boss to buy her a treat before going home. Wasn't all in her favour though, today ("Madison, no. This way.").). Percy opens the passenger door for her and Annabeth slides into the car. He starts the engine and backs out of the parking lot. Conversationally, he asks her where she lives.

Crap. Oh crap.

Annabeth has not thought this through. Even though Chiron told her she lived in Manhattan, she just doesn't know where. She wishes right now she lives in Vancouver because there are less people and fewer houses. And plus there's like a bajillion houses/apartments in Manhattan and only like, a million in Vancouver. Fortunately, Annabeth's a spy (her annoying excuse) and blurts out: "8th Street."

Double crap, Annabeth realizes. That's like the most ghetto place she can think of.

Percy blinks. "That's- quite far away from work."

Annabeth tries for a smile, but she can't. She just realizes she's homeless for the night because she, for the life of her, can't remember where she lives. Aw, man.

"Yeah," Annabeth says, and looks out the window. They pass a pizza place. "I like to run."

He raises his eyebrows, but keeps his eye on the road. "Run?"

Annabeth swallows. "Yeah…"

Percy chuckles. "That's also quite far."

"I know."

Percy tilts his head and looks at her when traffic is slow - that's the problem with New York, even if it's like 2 am, there's still traffic and lots and lots of noise. Annabeth grows slightly uncomfortable the way Percy's looking at her; it's like he can see through her soul.

Then, he says softly, "Is it because you can't afford it?"

Annabeth sputters, "What! No! I-I…" she takes a breath to calm herself. "I-"

Yeah, she doesn't have an answer.

"If so, I have a spare penthouse on 60th Street that you can 'rent'. It's fine, really," Percy says when he sees Annabeth shake his head. "Madison, the place is growing to grow all dusty if no one's gonna live in it."

Annabeth shakes her head, not yet anyway. "No, I have the money. It's just… I like running."

Percy is still looking at her incredulously, but Annabeth reassures him. "I have a wonderful roommate. She and I- we live very comfortably." Annabeth even shows him a photo of Piper in bed for extra proof. The photo was taken when Piper still had ginger hair from her last mission in China and she was heavily intoxicated. Piper had mascara lines under her lines because Annabeth made sure that every time Piper mentioned her now ex, Micheal Yew, she would have to take a shot. Let's just say that Piper was more than just tipsy and couldn't even remember her name. The next day, however, Annabeth got her karma. Piper was puking everywhere and suffered a horrible (massive) hangover ("Gahhh! I hate you and I hate people, leave me alone!").

Percy nods, and the conversation is brought to a halt. Annabeth's about to open her mouth, but decides against it. She's supposed to be a quiet, nerdy secretary. Percy doesn't turn on the radio, so Annabeth can only look out the window to entertain herself.

They drive a bit longer and Percy asks her which building is hers. "That one," Annabeth points to a brick building with a chipped staircase. Percy parks the car by the curb in front of the building and unlocks the car.

"Well," Percy says, "It was nice meeting you, Madison. You'll get more work tomorrow. I just wanted you to get used to the office."

Annabeth gives him, what she hopes, a grateful smile. "Can't wait to work with you, Mr. Jackson."

"Percy."

Annabeth makes a questioning face.

"It's Percy outside work, and Mr. Jackson at work," he explains to her. "I sound like my dad."

Annabeth nods and opens the door. She smiles at her cute boss for a moment and says thank you. Said boss also smiles briefly and then he's driving away.

Annabeth sighs, she's freezing because it's February and she has on a thin blouse and it's windy.

She checks her phone to remember her new apartment for now (Chiron messaged her about it because it isn't really important, but Annabeth deletes his message because of creeps and other spies), and realizes in fact, she does live on 8th Street, and in the brick apartment Percy dropped her off at.

"Ugh, Chiron," Annabeth mutters, deathly quiet. "You funded me like no money. I have to get like another job, but I can't because that's not part of my cover."

Annabeth goes to 12E and picks the lock with the paper clip, she scowls.

1. Because she forgot her suitcase in a taxi and

2. This room's a mess and so small

Annabeth Chase officially hates her life.

...

A/N: HEY!

Long time no see. Hahah, my bad. But in my defence, yesterday was my birthday (guess what song I sang), I got good news (I won first place at an international piano and strings competition - yay!), I was trying to reach my goal of practicing 24 hrs this week (almost there) and I have a bunch of homework I have to do (I'm a big procrastinator and am too lazy to finish what I started).

SO, that's why. And, god, I re-read-ish Chapter 1 and omg, I have so many errors I thought I fixed but didn't so I wanna hide. I'll edit them, though.

And I know this chapter was very boring and very bad, and I'm sorry because I can't write and I've re-written this Chapter so many times that I kind of gave up and let it just flow itself. I know, not the best writer. But I'm kind of making it up on the spot and I have a few ideas that I'll dive deeper in the later chapters. BTW, just saying, Agent Solace is not OOC (is it that or OCC?). It's all part of this plot. heheh

Thank you for your lovely thoughts. I appreciate every one of them and it motivates me! (everyone says that but, it's true)

Anyways, have a beautiful day and wash your hands! And please tell me what you think!

:)

20200328 (happy birthday lady gaga!)