It was another night of the same shift for Percy until Annabeth came in through the door with a ring of the bells.

She came in with grace, striding along with her oversized cardigan wrapped tightly around herself. Her phone was clutched tightly in one hand, while the other held her eco-bag. She doesn't seem to notice Percy when she first walks in even though he's the first thing you see when you enter. She looks at the floor and at the bottom shelves of the bodega and roams around looking for what she desires. Percy isn't sure if he should catch her attention because he isn't sure if she saw him or maybe it was his slouching behind the register that blocked her view. Or maybe she just wasn't interested?

He called on her anyways. "Hey."

Her eyes cast up, shaking some hair from her plastic clip that was holding it together instead of a bun this time. The curls framed around her face bounced as she flicked her head to his direction. "Oh. Hi." She tucked her stray hair back into it's place behind her ear and smiled. "I should've assumed you were there."

They don't break eye contact and they're just looking at each other. He doesn't know why every time they talk it's so awkward, but it figures it's because they're both not the most social people to exist on this planet. Percy personally didn't find the need to socialize; he had everyone he needed and could ask for and hardly found socializing to be a good pastime. Annabeth on the other hand, as Percy observed before, was quiet. She didn't talk too much out of her own accord. He also figures it's because they hardly know each other. They've only really talked to what he could count on one hand.

The quiet of the night didn't make things any better, however.

His eyes glance over to the clock; it's three in the morning. He takes another look at her and he notices that she looks tired still, just like the last time he saw her here. "Another run for Angel? Or just can't sleep again?"

"No," she replies, her hands still around her sweater, not reaching for anything amongst the shelves. She's still looking at him, but the frozen time around them seemed to thaw from her movement of replying. "Not this time. Just here for a coffee, if that's okay?" It didn't make sense why she was asking if getting coffee at the bodega that served coffee was fine, but Percy ignored it.

"Of course, hold on."

She took a seat on the barstool like last time. Percy clarifies, "For here?"

"Yes, if that won't be too much of a bother for you."

Percy gestured around the empty bodega, his hands waving around the air. "It's been like this for a few now. You're welcome to stay, always. Half decaf?"

She smiled. "Yes please."

Percy slid a mug across the counter and down to her counter. He filled half of the mug with decaf and regular. He shook his head while he poured it in for her, knowing well that the caffeine content would still be enough to keep her awake. He had a grin that he quickly put away.

She took the hot coffee in her hands, gratefully cupping the mug in her delicate fingers just peeking out from her sweater. He noticed that the mug had a drawing, which it wasn't supposed to have, of a dancing toothbrush. He must've grabbed Silas' mug instead of the blank standard mugs they use for people who sit in.

"Thankyou," She says, and she takes a sip and closes her eyes. She looks as if she's really enjoying it. Coffee from a coffee pot can't be that good.

"So what's got you up so late this time, wandering into the bodega?"

She opens her eyes. The way it seemed in slow motion was bizarre to him. Lethargy, perhaps? Her eyelashes were very long, he noticed. "Insomnia, again. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"You come here from your dorm?"

She nodded, and a strand of a curl bounces along with her head next to her eye. "Yes I did," she took another sip. "Worried?" She shot.

Percy was taken aback at her boldness. It was short of accusatory. Daring, almost. She must've noticed from the last time she was here that he was, indeed, worried for her safety in the dawn of these hours. "Uh, yeah, actually. A little bit. It's like three in the morning."

She couldn't blame him, could she? While she looked so frail and tired, she was just walking about the city like it was no big deal from wherever she lived. He wasn't going to say anything about it, but he wished he could do something about it.

"You don't have to," she takes another sip. "I have a taser in my bag."

"A taser's not gonna do anything once it's knocked outta your hand with a kick." He points out.

"Sounds like you have experience?"

Definitely daring.

"No, just worried, really. It wouldn't have been different with anyone else."

He needed to get that across. He's not worried about her because she's a frail girl walking around the dangerous streets of Manhattan at night. It was because there were men who were determined to have their way if they wanted in any possible way. Not her; them.

She nods, slowly. "Then what do you propose that I do when I need a fix of coffee in the middle of the night?"

"Well, first of all, it's called a coffee machine," He grinned. "I'm sure you can get one at any store nearby."

"Something about your coffee has me wanting it at these 'dangerous hours'," she takes another sip. "It's very good."

"Okay well," Percy had to think of a solution. "How about this: when you feel that happening, you should just come early and study while I'm at my shift," he suggests. "You know. Whenever you get the feeling you can't sleep or something. It would help me out too. It gets lonely here, you know?"

When his shift ends at six, he could take her back home he figures. It wasn't like he could just leave during his shift for the bodega to fend itself and take her back home so that he could have some sort of peace that she went home okay.

She has her eyebrow raised and the way she's looking at him may suggest that she thinks he's insane. "You want me to stay here?"

"Yeah. At the start of my shift— twelve," college students roamed the streets at that time plenty. "and you can get whatever work you need to get done, done here."

"I mean," She's still looking at him a little weirdly. "I guess I could do that. Take advantage of my insomnia instead of staying up wondering when I'll fall asleep."

While he doesn't think she would appreciate it he's holding her hostage because he doesn't want her to be in danger in the city streets, he's grateful she accepts. "Great. Coffee will be on me since you'll be sacrificing your time."

"Oh, well, you don't have to."

"Annabeth, a coffee here," He pointed to her coffee in her hands with his eyebrows. "If we are speaking realistically, doesn't even cost a dollar including my labor costs of making it. It's really no big deal."

"Quite the economist," Annabeth smiles. "If I come here everyday, that's at least thirty dollars you'll be losing each month."

Quite the economist, his mind echoes.

"A loss I'm willing to lose." He remarks. "Besides, coming here every day? That implies you don't sleep well everyday. I wouldn't want you here, but a hospital."

"You're right." She says, and her lips never fade short of a slight smile.

"How's your roommate? Angel?"

"She's quite alright."

"No weird cravings today? Did you tell her what I said?"

"I did," she laughs. "She already knows."

"You don't need to pick up anything for her?"

"No, but I might buy some pickles just in case."

"Right over there, in case you were wondering," He pointed to an arbitrary shelf. "So what keeps you up? Just insomnia?"

She picked up a little coffee straw from the counter and stirred some cream into her coffee. "Yeah. I've had it as long as I can remember."

"No reason to it?

Annabeth kept stirring, looking at the swirling crème of the light liquid. Her eyelids looked heavy. "When I was younger, my mom used to think it was depression. The psychiatrist at the time agreed with her."

"Do you?" Percy wondered.

"No. I didn't have depression... at least I don't think I did then."

The statement weighed heavily onto the air around Percy. "And now?"

She smiled slightly. "I'm not so sure."

Percy was surprised she was so open to him. The last few times they tried to talk about their personal lives, Annabeth had been the one to push it off. He wondered briefly what could have changed her mind.

"Well, you know, I'm here if you need to talk about anything," he fingers the thread on his apron that has come loose. "If you trust me, that is."

She nodded. "I'll keep that in mind." Annabeth quietly answered him.

A momentary silence filled them. It was the observation he made all over again, and he might have been right. Annabeth: dancing around the eye of a storm. He noted that it had a glum feeling to it the last time, and it was certainly present at this moment.

Percy made a few observations about her while the silence flowed. Her looks juxtaposed the way she carried herself. She had blonde hair, lightly tanned skin, and from what Percy noticed now, brilliant gray eyes. He doesn't think he knows anyone else with this specific eye color, but then again he never really noted the color of a certain person's eyes when he talked to them in the first place. Objectively speaking, she was very pretty. Based on what she purely looked like, Percy would've guessed her kind of crowd was more on the popular side.

However everything else about her contrasted the fun, sociable-looking exterior of her. She was silent, saying only what's necessary to answer. Percy's heard that silence is more powerful than words. That proverb was one that could have possibly suited Annabeth the most in Percy's opinion. The way she dressed also contrasted her image. From what Percy's seen so far, she dressed comfortably; modest. She always had a thick layer of her cardigan over her shoulders. Her terrible posture spoke volumes about her. Depression, if she had it as implied, weighed thick over her shoulders just like her cardigan and pushed her down a little. A crammed glumness to an open, sunny-looking girl.

His own eyelids felt heavy.

Conclusively, he thought, he was just glad she was here with him.

Annabeth's head snaps up, momentarily startling Percy out of his daze. She opened her lips to speak. "You've lived in New York your whole life?"

"Yes, you made the observation from my accent." Percy answers.

"How is that like?"

The turn of atmosphere let Percy relax. Answering her questions should be a breeze. "It's alright. The city is a nice place to keep yourself always busy. Sure does take your mind off of things."

"That must be nice. Living in the city and growing up here must've been a dream."

"I wouldn't put it that way," Percy said. "I didn't really get to enjoy much of it. I was homeschooled and didn't have many friends to go out to places and explore."

"Oh," She took another sip of her coffee, and Percy gave her a refill. Full decaf this time.

"How old are you?" She abruptly asked.

"I'm twenty-two."

"Twenty-two years in the city?"

"Pretty much. I lived in Long Island for a bit though, if that's any relevant."

"Where do you live now?"

"Chinatown."

"With your family?"

Percy winced. "No, I live alone. I have since I graduated high school."

Annabeth nodded. She probably knew how that was like, living in the dorms away from family. Except it was probably a much happier version than what Percy had to put up with everyday. "How's Chinatown like? I've never been yet."

"Didn't you live here two years?"

"Not very the explorative type."

"Yet you're willing to walk all over from where you live to here for a coffee or two."

"I guess."

A brief silence.

"Inquisitive today, are you?"

She blushed. "No, just curious."

He looked at the time. It was four. "Are you tired yet?"

"No. Must be the coffee this time. Oh! Which reminds me, I almost forgot to pay." She digs into her eco-bag but Percy stopped her.

"On me, remember?" Percy shooed her bills away. "It starts today. Officially."

Her eyebrows furrow. "Does that mean I stay here until your shift is over today?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Okay. You should consider yourself lucky I'm not tired."

"Don't worry, I am."

;;

They do nothing but talk.

He gets to know her a little better; nothing deep. He learns that she likes having root beer floats on a couch when a storm strikes the land because that's what her and her father used to do as a little girl. She has two brothers, twins, that she loves playing baseball with when she goes back home. She likes the Cubs, even though they don't do well during the seasons. She doesn't take too much offense to it when Percy gloats about the Yankees win last season. "One day they'll rise to the top." she just shrugs. He also learns that she was born and raised in Chicago. Percy doesn't notice a particular accent. But then again, he can't really differentiate it from what's "normal". But she certainly doesn't speak like people he's known or grown up with.

She learns a bit from him too. He articulates about how he used to go to Far Rockaway to the beaches with his mother when he was younger. This was after his father started running the company, of course. He didn't want to talk about him so he talked about the good times with his mother or with his friends after home school playing basketball at a church court. He talked about his experience with girls and how they were always short lived and never got anywhere, and Annabeth in turn gave her own testament to a boy she dated two years prior.

"He proposed." She declared matter-of-fact-ly.

Percy almost spilled his orange juice. "He proposed? How old were you guys?"

"I was eighteen, he was twenty-one."

"I'm assuming it didn't work out." He inferred, judging by how she talked about him in the past tense during their conversation.

She shook her head, confirming his thoughts. "No, I wasn't ready for something that heavy at the time."

"Yeah, I don't think I could ever imagine getting married." Percy really didn't. He could barely look after himself, it wasn't like he could take care of someone else as well. He felt by the way he was, he would take sole responsibility for that person and put their needs over his... and that was something he just couldn't do right now. You think I could've supported her then? Marty's voice rang in his brain, reminding him of tougher times being overcome with tougher circumstances, but certainly he couldn't do that. At least Marty had some sort of income that could sustain a family. Percy could merely sustain himself. "So that's why you guys split?"

"I turned him down and we tried to make it work after that, but turning down something to that heavy extent and trying to make it work afterwards was something we both couldn't handle at the time. So we each took our separate ways."

"Wow. You at eighteen, already being asked to commit for a lifetime."

"It's a little bizarre if I think about it now," Annabeth tucked her curly strands behind her ear. "Sometimes that's what occupies my mind with my insomnia. The 'what ifs'."

"What if you married him?"

"Yeah."

"Well," Percy started off, dragging the word so he could gather his thoughts. Annabeth looked at him with a tentative gaze, ready to hear what he thought of her presumptive future. "Think it would've been hard as a journalist to keep up with. What are you trying to do? Investigative?"

"No," Annabeth answered. "I'm looking into writing articles as an architectural journalist. Someone who writes about various architecture concepts for laymen to understand."

Percy humored her, just a bit. "See, you'll be very busy. Travelling, researching, writing. You can't really have someone there to take the time up that you don't have."

Annabeth nodded, as if Percy gave her the most reasonable explanation she could've heard in this century. But she then cocked her head in inquisition. "What makes you think you'll never want to be married?"

Percy shook his head. "I mean, look at me," he gestured around to the empty room. "I work at a bodega during the nights. I live in an apartment where I pay month-to-month rent. In Chinatown. I come from a very broken family, to mention that at the least.

That was the sad reality of his life. Subjected to life of loneliness because of his shitty hand that he was dealt indirectly given to him by this father. Self pity wasn't welcome in Percy's life, but it did sure seep its way in the corners of his brain.

"There's no way I could just waltz someone into my life 'cause I'd ruin theirs."

Annabeth didn't speak. So he added, "Plus, if my temper were anywhere near my father's, I doubt anyone would want to put up with that. Nor would I want anyone to. My parents don't really have the best marriage, either. So there's that."

He just stood there, his hands supporting his weight as he leaned against the wall opposite of Annabeth, a counter separating the two of them. He blinked, being pushed back into reality and not believing that he just said that. So raw and honest to someone who might not even feel the same level of trust being received. He pulled a thread from his apron and started seething on his anger towards himself. It was a sudden shift of emotion, from shock to anger. He wasn't angry at her, not at all; he was glad he could talk to her, but now he was afraid of what she'd think of him.

To his shock, however, she said, "I think I understand that."

Percy raised an eyebrow at her. "You have anger issues?"

She laughed. "No I just understand what you mean by not wanting someone to deal with your demons."

And they left it at that. Another one of their, at this point trademark, silences flowed and they just stared at each other. Annabeth's face had an expression that Percy could classify as sympathy. He found himself being comforted by her slight smile instead of angered. Under normal circumstances should anyone look at him like that, he would've been enraged that they would feel sorry for him. But something about how her eyes dripped of sincerity and warmth towards him knew that she wasn't blaming him or putting him at fault for whatever his life had managed to throw at him. Even though he'd hinted that his anger was something she probably didn't want to see, and had shown her proof through cuts and bruises on his face on how far it could go, she still was sitting here, looking at him, and smiling ever so slightly with the humor from his joke dwelling in her eyes.

He didn't know what exactly he was feeling —a warm sensation spreading from his chest — from the shared moment of silence, but he didn't think it was necessarily bad. Something about their encounters had started to sprout that in him. A feeling of bliss would wash him over like their encounters were made of feather.

Percy noticed her empty mug, and the time nearing the end of his shift. "I've kept you in torment long enough. More coffee for the road or?"

"Oh, is it time to go?"

Percy refrained from saying 'I'm afraid so'. "Yeah, it's the end of my shift. So what do you say?"

"I think I'll be okay on the coffee. I'll stop by during the day for one probably, though."

"Okay. Hold on I gotta clean up, wait for Silas to come, and then we can leave. Oh, speaking of him, there he is."

The man in question came in through the double doors, his hand running through his mop of curly hair as he walked in with a bright smile on his face. "Hey Percy! You're free to go now, so go home and get some sleep." he walked past Annabeth, probably assuming she was just a customer, but when he turned to the counter to face her he recognized her. "Oh, Annabeth! Hey, it's been a while."

"It has, how have you been?"

"Pretty great. What are you doing here so early?"

"Just a late night coffee. How were midterms for you?"

"I actually have one today."

"Good luck, I hope you do well."

"Thanks," Silas said, looking at Percy and the two of them, his eyes darting back and forth like a tennis match. Percy awkwardly rubbed his arm watching the two of them talk. "You two know each other?"

"Yeah," Percy confirmed. "I met her at the library and she comes here pretty often."

Annabeth nodded in agreement. Percy continued, "Let's go, I'll walk you home."

"Oh, no that's not necessary." she waved her hand and then gestured to the windows. "It's light out."

"No, seriously, it's no trouble," he went to the register, put in a couple dollar bills to make up for the coffee Annabeth had from his pocket, and hurried out. "Let's go. Silas, I'll see you during the day. I read that passage you wanted to pick at and made some notes we could go over if you want."

"Yep, see you then. Bye, Annabeth. It was good seeing you. Come around more often!"

"I will." she promises, and Percy has a a feeling it's one that she'll keep.

Lots of thanks to not-optimistic-petrol-biscuit and their overwhelmingly warm support! This chapter is dedicated to you :)