Chapter IX:

in the dark night, i hold onto the night / and laugh lightly at the sudden thought of you

Percy emitted a massive yawn as he tightened the apron behind his back. It was going to be a busy day again. He decided to repay the favor from Reyna, and told her to take the day off.

He couldn't remember a single thing that happened after he had kissed Piper at the cove. When he opened his eyes this morning, he was magically in bed, with Piper flopped on top of him like a dead horse. How he managed to sneak her in and out without anybody else noticing was quite the achievement. Although he suspected that his parents still knew about it, somehow. She did promise to bring Estelle in later, though, so he had something to look forward too.

The Pat McAfee show was playing through his portable speaker, which was a compromise that he had made with Reyna's mom. Unfortunately they were currently discussing the New England Patriots, who would be missing the playoffs for the first time in a bajillion years. At least him and Boston Connor could cry together.

What did help was Frank, who popped in again with his usual beef burrito. Their brotherly Monday tradition. He would cherish their stupid conversations forever. It was something he was definitely going miss once they both went off to college. And don't worry, Percy always paid him back.

"Dude, you and I had the same exact idea last night." Frank said through a mouthful of meat.

Percy frowned his brow as he unwrapped the tinfoil. "Huh?"

"The cove. I was taking Bianca there but we ran into you and Piper being all lovey dovey on the sand, so we left." Frank slapped his back hard. "My man. I knew you still had some game in you."

Percy's face was now lit up with a bright red hue, he didn't want to know what Frank had seen. No need to put it in words either. It was time to change the subject. "Whatever. How'd you and Bianca get alcohol? You guys were zinged out the wazoo the entire night."

Frank shrugged his shoulders and took a sip from his water bottle. Somehow he didn't look the least bit hungover. The man was just built different. Definitely Navy material. "I know a guy. Turns out Bianca is more wild than she puts on. But she's leaving tomorrow though, which kinda sucks."

Percy wiped the guacamole off his mouth and tried not to think about the fact that Piper would eventually do the same. It wasn't for a while though, they had at least two more months. "I know your cute ass gave her your PO box for Annapolis anyways."

"Shut up." Was all Frank could say. Percy pretended to not notice the way his own cheeks flushed.

An hour later, his favorite customer arrived to save the day, quickly followed by his second favorite. It had actually been a while since Estelle had visited the shop, and Percy was excited to show her all the new flavors. But knowing her, she would still get cookies and cream.

Of course, they had to wait in line first, which made Estelle pout and Piper laugh. Percy moved through the customers a little faster than normal just for them.

Percy smirked when they finally approached the counter. The old man that was in front of them had taken forever to decide whether he wanted a cup or cone. In the end, he decided on neither left without even buying anything.

"Ladies."

Estelle smushed her face against the glass as she took in the rainbow of frozen sugary goodness. "Ice cream."

"That's right Estelle, we got a bunch of new flavors." Percy took one of the sampling spoons and gave Estelle a piece of 'Monster Mash' to nibble on. "Hey, Sunshine." He said to Piper, who was also intently studying the flavors.

"Hey." She replied, absentmindedly adjusting the straps of her sundress in an oddly cute manner. He really liked the way she did her hair today, the waterfall braids made her look like she had stepped right out of an 80's TV show. "How are you?"

A series of sensory memories flashed through his mind at the speed of light, and the way the ends of Piper's mouth were curving up let him know that she was thinking the same thing.

Percy fake coughed into his elbow. "Alright I guess, nothing to report. Went to bed early last night as per usual."

"Sure, sure, mmhm. I'd like to try the Pineapple Express, please." Piper ran her fingers through Estelle's hair, who was in a world of her own while chewing on the plastic utensil. "What do you want, Estelle?"

"Cooookie and cweam." Estelle murmured in response, just as he predicted. "Please."

Percy made sure to give them the biggest scoops of ice cream that he could get away with and repeatedly denied any form of payment from Piper. Being the stubborn person that she was, it ended up in the tip jar instead. He could only shake his head.

"Make sure to stop by and say hello to Mama on the way back." Percy said to Estelle as they began to head out, giving her a little wave.

Estelle nodded her head rapidly and signaled to Piper that she wanted to be carried by spreading her arms out wide. Percy looked to Piper, who gave him a thumbs up before picking up the growing toddler. "See you later, bubby."

Percy tried hard not to smile at his new nickname as he greeted the next customer.

"Welcome to Rita's! The flavor of the day is…"

-Ω-

"Bubby?" Percy asked as they waited for the food to come in his favorite Italian bistro (to be fair, it was the only one). "Where'd you get that one?"

Piper dipped her piece of bread in the olive oil plate between them and jammed it into her mouth, showcasing another reason why Percy was obsessed with her. She just didn't give a shit. And it was awesome. "Just came into my mind. I don't know really."

"Uh huh." He said dumbly, effectively killing the conversation completely. She was in a slightly somber mood after founding out from him that Bianca was going back to Italy. He had to think of something to talk about. "Got any secret hobbies I don't know about?"

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Percy Jackson." Piper coyly drawled, tapping his shins underneath the tablecloth with her bare feet.

"What about guilty pleasures?"

Her face contorted strangely as she pondered the question, before arriving at a riveting conclusion. "Kpop."

Percy had nothing against kpop, people that hated it just because they didn't understand what was being said were overall wack people. "Explain the kpop scene to me like I'm four."

The look in her eyes as she talked gave off the clear impression that kpop was truly a passion for her. He learned that instead of singers, they were idols, and your favorite idol was called your bias. Piper's bias was Shuhua, from the girl group (G)I-DLE. Oh, and whenever they released new music it was always called a comeback.

Their plates of grilled chicken rigatoni interrupted her spiel about how CUBE Entertainment was mistreating a girl group that went by the name CLC. And no Percy wasn't faking interest, the drama in the industry sounded genuinely intense and cutthroat. A lot more captivating the the boring American music industry.

"Your turn." Piper said as they dug in. Percy didn't remember the portions being so big. "What's one of your guilty pleasures?"

If we were being one-hundred percent transparent, every teenage boy's guilty pleasure would be jacking off to videos of adult ballets and stalking their crushes on social media, but that wasn't exactly the type of thing that should be the topic of discussion in public.

"I don't really do anything besides play video games and work." Percy shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "Does liking the way you talk count as a guilty pleasure?"

He received another kick to the shins and an eye roll for his compliment.

"Please stop the crap, I know you're not this mushy."

"I promise I'm not lying." Percy protested. "Tell me about the other places you've been to with your dad."

Piper viciously stabbed a noodle, letting the vodka sauce fall back down to the plate before placing it in her mouth.

"I really loved London. I actually went to a boarding school there for a while. I spent my lunch hours walking around the streets with my best friend at the time, Sadie."

To Percy, anywhere outside the state of California sounded like heaven. He had never traveled abroad before. "What were the people like?"

"Well, most of my dad's peers also sent their kids to the same school. All of them, except for Sadie, were a bunch of entitled snobs and brats."

"And you think you're not?" Percy bravely joked.

Suffice to say, he got Piper's own version of a public display of affection after that one.

Author's Note:

Alrighty I am back. Hope everybody is having a good start to the new year. Hope you enjoyed reading and thank you to everybody that has left feedback. Make sure to check out my other works (here and AO3) and my betas. Peace and love.

Disclaimer: Lyrics from (G)I-DLE's 'Where Is Love.'