Hello everyone and welcome back to a new story! This is something I threw together really quickly, so I hope it isn't too bad. I got a random idea at 2AM and jotted it down, and here's the product of that. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any of the characters.

It was funny how the Fates worked sometimes.

It was funny how a horrible day at work could change her life so drastically, how she'd never believed in predetermination before that day, the way one thing led to another and another and another…

Even she had her impossible days sometimes, and it was really that impossible day that started everything.

One of her clients at her architecture firm had spent an entire hour-which had been booked to the max with meetings and appointments-yelling at her about the smallest defect in her bathroom, and no matter how much Annabeth tried to explain that that was the construction company's problem, not hers they just would not listen and kept screaming until she felt wild enough to throw the phone across the room.

Then she'd shown up to her meeting, twenty minutes late and scrambling to compose herself just to find out her top architect hadn't even shown up to work that day.

Finally, she'd discovered that her, the uber-organized boss of the firm, had lost the blueprints for her highest paying client's office building and had spent half of the afternoon desperately making calls and searching the entire building for it, just to find it under a stack of papers on her desk.

By the time she got home, the only thought she had was of a hot cup of tea and her favorite comfort book.

Just get inside your apartment and you'll be fine, you'll be alone, you'll be okay, she told herself desperately, fishing in her purse for her keys.

They weren't there.

Annabeth nearly growled out loud. She did not have time for this. Putting down her stack of papers, she dug around more desperately, practically dumping her purse out onto the floor.

Nonononononono…

Because she could not find her keys!

She felt a strange hot pricking at the corners of her eyes; tears were three seconds away from spilling down her face, and that was something she could not allow.

What was she going to do now? She began to panic; the building manager, Mr. Chiron, was gone on vacation and wouldn't be back for weeks, there was no one else who could give her a key. She couldn't drive back to the office; it'd be closed up for the night. Was she going to have to live in a hotel that night? What about clothing? Her work materials that were inside the house?

What was happening to her?

"Damn it!" she exploded, kicking the door, sending her papers flying everywhere as a stabbing pain shot up her leg, only serving to inflame her tamper further. "Damn it, damn it, damn-"

"Whoa."

Annabeth spun around angrily to see a guy around her age with a shock of black hair and deep, sea-green eyes coming out of his apartment with a slightly confused but amused look on his face.

"I mean, all of us have needed to attack a few doors now and then." he continued.

"What do you want?" she snapped. She was definitely not in the mood to deal with her irritating neighbor. She'd seen this guy around the building a few times, heard his obscenely loud music waaaaay too many times at 1:00 AM, but had never really gotten to know him. And yet here he was, talking to him like they'd known each other for years.

"Hey, I just heard some yelling from outside my apartment and was wondering who was getting kidnapped." he said with a small smirk.

Of course, the person who had to see her like this had to be the most annoying person in the building.

"If all you're going to do is be annoying, go do it somewhere else." she growled.

His brow creased over. "Seriously, what happened?"

"Nothing." she mumbled, turning away from him. "Forgot my keys at the office. That's it."

"That doesn't sound like nothing." he countered.

Annabeth scowled. Of course it wasn't nothing, but did he really expect her to just unload her problems on a virtual stranger?

"So, Ms…"

"Chase." Annabeth muttered.

"Ms. Chase." he finished with a small smile. "I said it doesn't really sound like nothing, unless you like sleeping in hallways."

She scowled more heavily.

He sighed. "Listen, are you going to talk to me?"

Of all the days he had to pick to try to get to know her, he had to pick today? "Fine." she muttered.

"One word! That's encouraging!" He had the goofiest smile on his face, but for some ridiculous reason she found the corners of her lips quirking up in response. "Um...I'd invite you over, but...well, my apartment is a mess…" His voice trailed off as he glanced back inside, as if mentally calculating how appalled Annabeth would be by the mess.

Annabeth groaned inwardly. Her options were both pretty grim: shell out a bunch of money for a hotel room, or enter a potential garbage dump-like-house. Out of the two…

"I don't mind." she heard herself say, before wincing. Ugh, of all the moments her mouth had to betray her, it had to be then?

He looked skeptical, like he knew she was lying, but pushed the door open either way.

"Come on in." he said with a sheepish grin.

Annabeth looked around in disbelief as she walked inside. His apartment was much smaller than hers, dirty clothes were strewn across every possible surface, the floor was in serious need of sweeping, and the sofa was covered with stains.

"Yeah...just don't look at anything too closely until we get to the kitchen." he sighed.

She approached the kitchen with apprehension; she'd learned from experience that the kitchen was normally the dirtiest room in the house.

But to her immense surprise, the kitchen was practically spotless.

"Whoa." Annabeth said, stopping short in the doorway.

He grinned. "My mom taught me to never cook without a clean cooking space."

"You...cook?"

"Don't have to look so shocked." he muttered, but he was smiling. "But yeah, my mom taught me how to cook when I was little. I've always loved it."

Her bad mood wasn't totally gone, but she could feel it kind of...ebbing away.

"Do you have any tea?" she asked.

"Um...well, I drink coffee." he said, turning around to riffle through his cabinets.

Annabeth wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah, that's the same reaction my mom has." he said, turning around. "But don't worry, I do have tea for my mom. Hopefully she won't mind if you borrow some." He finally pulled out a box of tea bags-Chamomile, but at that point she'd take anything.

"So," he started, dunking the tea bag into a cup of hot water and sitting down on a barstool at the kitchen table, "you still haven't asked me my name."

Annabeth blinked.

"For your information, it's Percy."

"Mr...Percy?"

He laughed. "No. My last name's Jackson, if you really want to be formal. But I'm not a huge fan of official titles and stuff. So...just Percy." He pushed the tea across the table.

Annabeth wrapped her hands around the tea. "Annabeth."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Annabeth Chase." He looked at the tea. "You can take a sip, I haven't poisoned it or anything." he said with a small smirk.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but finally gave a small smile before sipping at the tea.

"So she can smile!" Percy whooped. "I was beginning to think that frown was your permanent expression."

"Are you always this annoying?" she groaned.

"Apparently so." He paused for a second, as if considering something, then asked hesitantly, "If you don't mind me asking...well, I know losing your keys is a big inconvenience...but that seemed to be a really extreme reaction."

She stiffened, and he noticed, quickly adding, "It's totally okay if you don't want to tell me, it was a bit nosy-"

"No, no, it's okay." Annabeth quickly cut him off. "It's just been a pretty horrible day, and this was just...the icing on the non-existent cake, I guess."

Percy nodded. "That makes sense. I've locked myself out of my apartment a fair few times," he admitted sheepishly, "but Mr. Chiron's always been around so I could normally get a spare key from him. What happened today?"

Annabeth wasn't really sure how it happened, but she found herself spilling everything to Percy, every horrible little detail, and he really listened, drinking in every word.

"Wow...that's, like, the bad day of all bad days." Percy finally concluded after she'd finished.

Annabeth nodded, tracing her finger over her cup. She really did feel much better after telling someone about her day, even though she'd probably have to deal with the aftermath of the day tomorrow.

She quickly checked the time and realized with a sudden jolt how late it was.

"Well, I have to go if I want to check into a hotel for the night." Annabeth said, feeling a twinge of regret and setting down her empty cup.

"You're going to invite me over at some point, aren't you?" he asked with the most pathetic baby seal eyes.

"You just invited yourself over." Annabeth corrected, rolling her eyes.

"So that means it's a yes!"

Annabeth just shook her head as she got up.

"I'll see you around?" she asked as she neared the door.

"You'd better." he smirked, pulling the door open. "See you, Annabeth."

The door closed behind her, and Percy's green-eyed face disappeared from view.

She spent the rest of the afternoon not being able to get his face out of her mind, no matter how annoying it was.

And for some reason, she really did find herself hoping she'd see him again.

So...how was it? Not bad for 2AM writing! I'm not sure if I'll add a second chapter, I have the beginnings of one, but if it actually get finished or not is a totally different story. Please review!

See ya later!