AN: Woah! He's alive! Who knew he could update the story? xD Sorry y'all. I could make a ton of excuses as to why I haven't updated the story until now, but I just… haven't? Heh. Sorry. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Saturday Slip

Annabeth's POV

"You are not to hang around that whore Rachel any longer, Annabeth! She is not a good influence on you nor the family! Stay away." Susan's brown eyes flashed dangerously, two dark circles of unrelenting disdain and loathing.

Annabeth grimaced under the weight of the utter hatred coming from her step-mother, but she held her head high, her own stormy grey eyes of independence and righteous fury meeting Susan's. "Do not ever call Rachel a 'whore', Susan." The final word was punctuated with a tone of absolute contempt.

A slow smirk crossed Susan's face, "Fine. Do not hang around that slut." Her teeth clicked together, emphasizing the final 't'.

Matthew and Bobby's POV

"Annabeth's eyes…"

"I know, dude…"

"Run?"

"Run."

The two boys took off outside to play basketball, hoping to avoid the sheer maliciousness radiating off the two women of the household.

Frederick Chase's POV

"Alright, this squad would go here. I think the planes would have launched from over…"

Frederick's head snapped up as he heard something. It disturbed the normally calm, soothing Bach that played through his speaker in his study. Frowning, he walked over to his laptop. Beethoven? How did he get on here? Spotify's algorithm needs work. A few button clicks later and once again, Bach played through his speaker.

"Now where was I? Oh right, planes…"

Annabeth's POV

A lady should remain calm. Even when everyone else is trying to make her react negatively, she should remember to breathe. Do not lash out. Do not react angrily. Extract yourself from the situation.

Annabeth gritted her teeth together, turning on her heel and moving out of the room in a way usually used to describe her eyes: she stormed out. Ignoring Susan's look of victorious glee, the blonde teen snatched up her computer bag and walked right out to her car, bypassing her two step-brothers arguing over a possible foul call. They froze, very familiar with her expression. They had encountered a lot in the past, typically when a toilet exploded.

Annabeth sat down in her car, barely buckling her seatbelt before driving off, headed for Demeter's Drinks. It was Saturday. Not a Saturday that started off the best, but one she hoped would end a lot better. Thoughts barely seemed to move through her head as pure emotion raged. Annabeth was rather protective of her friends, even if she had not been raised in a household conducive to forming positive relationships with her peers. A comment like the one Susan made was completely unacceptable in Annabeth's eyes and she needed to see him.

Yes, she just learned his name. Yes, they had not talked a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but she just felt comfortable around him. She was not sure quite what it was, but he just helped her to relax. She hoped the shift change from Wednesday to Saturday would not cause the café to be too busy for him to talk with her.

Percy POV

HOLY CRAP IT'S FRICKING BUSY! Percy's eyes widened as the line just seemed to get longer and longer. He hadn't worked a Saturday in forever and he forgot how it would get. Luckily, he just had to take orders so far. He and Leo had flipped a coin to see who would take orders and who would make drinks. Leo was stuck on drinks and obviously frazzled, but Percy had no opportunity to help the poor teen.

Almost without any actual conscious thought, Percy tapped the buttons on his register, customizing each drink to each customer's preference. Of course, being super busy, they couldn't have really easy drink orders. They had to be highly unique. The mid-sixties woman couldn't order a simple small mocha latte. She had to order a half-caf, two pumps chocolate, one pump vanilla, all sugar-free with oat milk, steamed to exactly 121 degrees Fahrenheit small latte. The college-aged man couldn't order an earl grey tea. He had to order a medium split into two small cups London Fog with a pump of brown sugar lavender syrup (which of course Demeter doesn't keep on hand so poor Leo had to Macgyver something up that tastes like brown sugar lavender syrup) and almond milk.

Honestly, a busy café wasn't terrible overall though. Ignoring the amazing tips they got on the regular, the rush stopped him from thinking. Like, at all. It reminded him of when he was on the court and he just got tunnel vision and his mind processed information at a million times faster than normal. There wasn't time to stop and think. He couldn't get anxious when moving this fast. On the court, he was relaxed, decisive. Now moving in an automatic rhythm in the busy café, he felt that same zen-like feeling. Nothing stopped him. Anxiety seemed to vanish, reminding him of his care-free childhood.

Of course, that's when the flash of blonde princess curls at the end of the line stopped his flowing mind in its tracks. Like a locomotive smashing into a pure titanium wall, he stopped moving, finger hovering over an option of almond milk, oat milk, soy milk, skim milk, or normal milk. That's when the panic set in and his eyes met hers for a brief second. Her stormy grey eyes lit up a little like a sun breaking through the clouds after a tornado. His cheeks felt like the Sahara. What is she even doing here? How'd she know? It's a Saturday. Not a Wednesday. Wait, it's Saturday, right? He glanced at the clock. Yup, Saturday. So… why?

A small sting on the back of his head abruptly tore his attention away from Annabeth and her mysterious Saturday arrival and to the rubber spatula in Leo's hand.

"Dude! What the heck?"

Leo rolled his eyes, "Don't even think about 'what the heck'-ing me. Stop zoning. We've got customers." He tossed the spatula in the air before catching the handle and bopping Percy on the forehead, "Not just blonde ones." Percy's coworker and winked at Annabeth before smirking as he watched her flush slightly.

Percy glowered at Leo, "Get back to drinks, man. You don't want me coming at you during practice, do you?"

Leo rolled his eyes, "One-time occurrence."

"… you've said that the last five times."

Leo slapped Percy in the forehead with the spatula again.

A customer coughed, "As fun as this teen drama is, I have a six-hour drive ahead of me. Could I please get some caffeine?"

This time it was Leo and Percy who flushed slightly.

Annabeth's POV

She tried not to giggle, watching Leo and Percy interact with each other. Watching the slight competition between the two boys was… amusing. Testosterone does amazing things. When it came to her time to order, she smirked at the green-eyed boy slowly working his way into her heart. "I have to say, that was absolutely adorable."

Percy's face went from not-well hidden puppy dog excitement to the living definition of :| in about two seconds. Annabeth smirked harder, "Oh I am sorry. That was super masculine. Getting hit in the face with a spatula. Twice."

She watched his forearm muscles shift back and forth with curiosity. No. Not like that. Did I make him anxious? She pursed her lips slightly, before hearing his response.

Percy's voice shook her from the thought, "Got it. So extra syrup today, because you absolutely love as much sweetener as possible."

Annabeth gasped overdramatically, "Okay, okay, apologies. Do not add too much sweetener? Please?"

Percy spun the iPad register around and pointed to the notes on her drink, "Half sweetener. As always, princess."

A small smile twitched at the corner of Annabeth's lips as she handed the money for her drink over, "Thank you, Percy." He nodded and turned to the next customer as Annabeth found a small corner table, the last one available to work on her architectural blueprints. While she focused in and tried to distract herself with the calculations, a small part of her brain focused in on one small aspect of her interaction with Percy.

His voice had dropped. Not a lot. Not even a whole octave, but definitely a couple steps lower than normal. I do not know what to make of it. Have I just not noticed his voice before? Is he potentially getting a cold? Or is it more?

Her eyes moved from her screen when Percy brought her drink over to her table. Even with the rush of the day, Demeter's Drinks policy was to always bring the customer their drink at their table if they chose to dine-in. The pair's eyes locked. Annabeth searched for something to tell her about his thought process. Percy's eyes seemed guarded, shielded almost.

"Irish Cream, half the sweetener." Percy placed the drink down on the table, eyes dodging hers and staring over her shoulder. Under normal circumstances, someone might think he was looking at their face. Annabeth was too observant for that.

"Thank you." Annabeth gave him a small, comforting smile, watching his back as he returned to the counter. He is not all together today. His voice was lower again. His eyes were more protected. Maybe the rush of the people is getting to him.

Percy POV

"DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!" In 1973, famed sports announcer Howard Cosell screamed these words as George Foreman knocked then-undefeated Joe Frazier to the boxing mat in one of the most iconic boxing matches in sports history.

Why is this relevant? Well, Percy got a glimpse of the pain Joe Frazier must've felt on that mat after being knocked down for the final time in that match. His back was on the hard tile floor, his eyes open, staring at the ceiling. He vaguely heard Leo talking quickly, getting closer. His fingers twitched, muscles slowly testing the extent of the damage.

Percy hated coffee. He didn't think he'd need to repeat that. But when iced coffee spilled across the floor takes any remaining tread left on a beat-up pair of Converse and replaces it with Vaseline, it bore repeating. He noted Leo's face and blonde hair.

Wait. His what? Leo definitely doesn't have blonde hair. Percy squeezed his eyes shut before opening them and realizing that Leo was in fact Annabeth. Right, cause Leo left earlier, like two hours ago. I'm closing the café.

Wait…

She hasn't left yet?

Wow… why in the world would she stay this late?

Oh, shoot, she just saw me… yup… that's unfortunate. Smooth athlete there, Percy.

He smiled up at Annabeth, meeting her stormy grey eyes filled with a worrying light. "Was your coffee okay, princess?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "How about we focus on your back? Then we can talk about my coffee."

Percy groaned and sat up, a jolt of pain rushing down his spine, "I'm fine, I promise. Not the first time I've hit a hard floor. Normally I'm going a lot faster, not gonna lie."

Annabeth looked slightly confused for a second before shaking her head, "It does not matter what you are used to. The fact is you still fell and hurt yourself. Do you think you will be alright?"

Neck crackling as he rolled it, Percy winced, trying to hide the pain in his voice, "Oh yeah, I'll be good. Already done something like this before in front of you." He got up onto his knees, jumping onto his feet from a kneeling position, and stood up, leaning against the counter for support.

The two of them stood toe to toe, mere inches the part. Definitely not socially distanced, not that this alternate universe had a certain virus, but y'know, analogies. Percy, the extremely tough and not easily embarrassed man that he was, flushed first and dropped his eyes, turning away and limping slightly towards the mop bucket.

He could feel Annabeth's concerned gaze drilling holes into his back, but he refused to make eye contact. A small annoyed sigh escaped her lips before she spoke, "Coffee was better than okay. It was not too sweet. Thank you."

Percy glanced up, giving a small bro-nod, "Yeah, no problem. Just doing my job."

Annabeth POV

Boys. Are. Freaking. Idiots. She shook her head as she started her car, an extremely explicit mental image of what she wanted to do to Percy against the counter of Demeter's Drinks that would make him flush so adorably red implanted in her brain.

AN: Honestly, the difficulty in writing this chapter was figuring out exactly where to take it. I know exactly what scene I want to write in the next two chapters and I knew how I ended the last one with the summer time montage. The trick was figuring out how to bridge the two chapters together and so I ran into a bit of a writer's block. On the bright side, the next couple chapters should be out (relatively) soon? Maybe? If I can stay consistently motivated. Definitely less time between this and the next than this and the last one. Which isn't saying much, but y'know, still something. Anyway, leave a review, favorite, follow, all that good stuff and I'll catch y'all later!