A/N: Hey guys! I'm back!

Featuring Artist Annabeth and Shy Engineer Percy, aka the college AU with a late night shift. (I'm kinda obsessed with them)

That's all I got to say, here ya go:

Annabeth was not an insomniac. As a matter of fact, she quite liked sleep, but there was something about staying up late into the night and into the early hours of the morning that fascinated her. It was a sacred time when everything was quiet, a peace washing over the world. It was dark and still but not in a scary way, she could only see the beauty in it all. The stars, the moon, the lights of the cities and towns, how the blue melted to black melted to blue again.

The night made her come alive, more awake, more aware of everything around her. It provided her a comfort, a pocket out of this world and time itself where she could just be. It made her want to draw.

Her fingers itched to hold the sketchpad, pencil already twirling in her hand, as she slipped on a warm hoodie. Most nights she could just stay in her room and draw, others she felt compelled to go out into the world.

Tonight was one of those nights. As quietly as she could, she gathered her bag, phone and keys and slipped out into the dark.

Not really having a concrete idea on where she was going, she picked a direction (vaguely leading to the quad) and started walking down it. She was just wandering around, lost in thought, enjoying the night air, when she happened across the brightly lit diner.

She knew about its existence, seeing as it wasn't that far away from campus or her dorm, but she had never seen it this late at night. In fact, she didn't even know it stayed open 24 hours.

It was an old-timey diner, small but cozy and inviting all the same. It stood out against the dark, yellow lights washing over the pavement. In this moment, it looked like something out of an old noir film. She needed to draw.

Quickly, she made her way over to the door and settled into a corner booth, sketchpad already out as she began drawing.

She wasn't sure how long she had been working when a she heard someone near her clear their throat. Her head snapped up at the sound and suddenly she was face to face with a guy giving her a sheepish smile.

He opened his mouth to say something but Annabeth wasn't paying attention. This guy was incredible. Tan skin, dark messy hair, strong jawline, the works, but what stood out most of all were his eyes. They were a bright sea green, the colors melding into each other so beautifully Annabeth wished she had brought her colored pencils or electronic sketchbook.

He was looking at her expectantly and she realized that she hadn't heard a single thing he had said.

A blush rose to her cheeks as she spoke. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

He smiled shyly back, as if he had seen her analyze him. "I said that I'm sorry to bother you but you haven't really ordered anything and technically you have to buy something to stay here…." He drifted off a bit apologetically.

"Oh, oh yeah. No I understand, can I get…" she paused, trying to think of something to order, "hot chocolate?" The ending lifted up into a question because she wasn't really sure if they had that here.

"One hot chocolate, coming right up," the guy confirmed before he walked away.

Woah, okay so the rest of him was just as good as his face. She tried to not blatantly stare at him as she moved around but she couldn't help it. She wasn't really a portrait person, preferring scenes and landscapes. But she did have that one class that was all about drawing other humans and…well he was one of the few people she actively wanted to sketch.

Absentmindedly, she flipped to a new page and started a rough outline of his face.

Once again, she was so focused on her work that she didn't see him approach, this time with a mug in his hand.

She was startled as he placed it in front of her. He quickly drew back.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. Annabeth tried to not follow the movement.

"It's alright, I was just really caught up in my work," she waved off the apology, smiling at him.

"I'm guessing you're an art student?" he hazarded as if he wasn't sure if he could be continuing the conversation.

She laughed. "Pretty obvious, isn't it."

He chuckled along. "Just a little."

"What about you?" she asked, figuring he was probably another student.

He winced. "Mine's not as exciting, it's engineering."

"I think that's pretty fucking cool. I've always liked science. I'm actually double majoring in psychology."

He grinned, "Damn, you must be smart."

"Speak for yourself, Mr. Engineering major," she teased back.

He shrugged, "I don't know about that, maybe it just makes me a nerd."

"I think nerds are cute." Oh shit, why did she say that.

The blush that rose to his cheeks made it worth it.

He stuttered out a response, muttering something about leaving her alone to continue her work and quickly hurried away.

She grinned as she watched him leave, stopping for a moment to turn back to look at her and blushing when he got caught.

He really was adorable.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Annabeth was back again the next night, partly because she hadn't finished the sketch of the diner and partly because she really wanted to see the guy again. She may have one or two drawing of his face in her sketchbook by now.

She went straight to her corner booth from before, pulling out her unfinished work and starting again. She hated leaving things off unfinished.

"Are you going to become a 2AM regular now?" a voice asked and she felt a smile make its way to her face.

"Maybe? The hot chocolate was good and the view is pretty damn nice." She added a wink and watched him blush again.

"So another hot chocolate?" he asked, stuttering slightly.

Resisting the urge to hug him, because he shouldn't be this adorable (that and he smelled really, really good), she chose to nod as an answer.

She wished she could say she worked on the diner scene, but when she saw him return to his place behind the counter, leaning on his elbow as he read from a textbook she couldn't help but draw him instead. (Not to mention his arms looked really fucking good like that.)

-.-.-.-.-.-

Annabeth figured that at this rate she would never finish the diner scene. It had been about five days since she had started the original drawing and it was progressing at a snail's pace. On the other hand, her pages were quickly being taken up by her newest inspiration and model, Percy.

Somewhere along those five days she had befriended the shy employee, whose name she learned was Percy, and realized that he was very quickly becoming more than an inspiration.

Some part of her thought that maybe Percy felt the same way, he did always blush at flirtations and had responded to a few of them, but seemed too shy to actually make any sort of move.

She was contemplating this as she rushed out of her class, making her way across campus to the quad to meet up with her friends. She almost didn't recognize him when she finally stopped at the edge of the grass to look for Piper.

But there he was, in all his Percy-ness, wearing dark jeans and a plain black t-shirt (different from his usual black polo and apron) and she was dumbfounded. It was weird to see him out of the diner, during the day. She only ever saw him during those early hours of the morning when everything was under the blanket of night, in the comfort of the cozy diner. It was like their own special time, their own special world.

It was a shock to see him outside of their little bubble. In a way it reminded her that all this was real. He was laughing at something his friend had said. Right, he had friends. Outside of his late night shift. He looked relaxed, if not a little tired (no doubt the late hours) and it tugged at her heart.

She realized that despite getting to know so much about him, their conversations lasted up to an hour nowadays, that she still didn't know everything. And she wanted more. They had seen each other every night for about a week and a half now and she wanted more.

She sighed as she watched him run a hand through his hair, a gesture that was even more appealing now that he was in a tight black t shirt. And she thought her crush couldn't get any worse.

She had half a mind to pull out her sketchpad right then and there to capture him in this element, but she was stopped when Piper ran up to her asking why the hell she hadn't been responding.

She mumbled an apology and walked away with Piper, only throwing one last glance at Percy before making up an excuse for her spacey-ness.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Annabeth figured it was time to take matters into her own hands. Percy was cute, hell he was hot, nerdy but hot. He was also really shy and despite all her flirtatious attempts he didn't seem to be doing anything about it. He could also just be ridiculously oblivious.

She walked into the diner at her usual time, determined to make a move this time. Besides she had finally finished the diner scene. For some reason, she hadn't liked the end result of the drawing, but for all intents and purposes it was done. So with that out of the way she was definitely ready to confront Percy. But upon entering she immediately lost her train of thought.

Was he…? Was he wearing glasses.

He looked up when she entered and gave her a bright smile. Holy fuck. The sight of Percy in glasses was…well she didn't really have the words but it made her want to slam her lips onto his and pull him as close as humanly possible.

She took a breath and closed her eyes, fuck.

"You okay Annabeth?" she heard him ask.

No. No, very much not okay.

She opened her eyes. "You're wearing glasses," she responded bluntly.

He blushed when she mentioned them, a hand automatically tugging them self-consciously.

"Yeah, I..uh..ran out of contacts so, I had to wear this old thing. It's not the best but-"

"They look good," the words left her lips before she could stop them.

He shrugged. "They're okay. Make me look even more nerdy," he tried to joke, obviously still a little self-conscious.

"I still think nerds are cute," she quoted herself from a while back.

I think nerds are hot, and sexy, especially ones who wear glasses out of the blue and make me want to die.

He blushed, "So you've said." He moved to fiddle with the glasses some more but she reached out and stopped his hand.

"They're fine," she stated as an answer to her actions and his surprised face. She took a breath,

"They're more than fine, they're good."

She stopped for a moment and moved closer, "Like really really good."

They were standing pretty close to each other at this point, all she had to do was reach up and she would be kissing him.

Percy's cheeks were permanently stained red at this point as he looked down at her.

His eyes, looking just as pretty from behind the glasses, flicked down to her lips for a second before snapping back to hers.

She had let go of his hand and he tentatively moved to wrap an arm around her. She shivered at the contact, reveling in the feeling of being held in his arms. She inched closer.

"Um…can I…" he whispered, the question hanging in the air. What a gentleman, she was seconds away from losing all self control.

She nodded, and he leaned down to capture her lips in his. It was a searing kiss, just more than something sweet and just under something more. Annabeth wasn't entirely sure she wasn't dreaming.

They broke away, slightly out of breath.

"I've wanted to do that for a while now," Percy finally spoke up, a hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. A nervous habit of his that she had noted.

Why didn't you? she wanted to ask. But honestly, he was so close and that kiss had been so good and he was still wearing those damn glasses.

Her response was to pull him into another kiss.

They finally broke apart after god knows how long and just rested against each other.

"You need to wear glasses more often," she finally said after she had caught her breath. Percy looked at her in all his post make out session haze, and she buried her face in his neck to avoid that look.

"I'll wear them just for you," he whispered back, his tone hinting at something more, the last thing she expected him to insinuate. She just smirked against his skin. God, he was going to be the death of her.

She stepped back and reached into her bag, that had been thrown on the counter top haphazardly, and pulled out a piece of paper.

"I was going to give this to you, but I guess it's a little out of order," she said as she handed him the paper.

It was a picture of a rose that she had sketched on graph paper, adding measurements to the stem and petals. Something she figured an engineer would appreciate.

"Wow, this is beautiful," he breathed, looking at her work. He grinned as he read the note and looked up at her, "Yes I'll go on a date with you."

-.-.-.-.-.-

Percy wandered around the shared apartment, cleaning up before Annabeth returned from classes.

He hadn't meant to come across her old sketchbooks, but he couldn't help himself as he started to flip through the pages. His girlfriend had showed him her work, but only the recent stuff.

He paused as he came across a set of pages that all seemed to be sketches of him. First one was his face, the other was him leaning against the counter of the diner reading a textbook, they went on and on and he realized that these were all from when they had first met.

He flipped another page to see a beautifully detailed drawing of the diner itself. There was a post-it-note attached that said incomplete.

Before he could examine the drawing further the sound of the front door opening made him get up, leaving the sketchbook lying wide open on the floor.

If he had looked closer he would have seen an addition to the picture drawn in pen. A figure. If he had looked even closer he would have realized that figure was him.

Annabeth would walk in later to see the sketch lying wide open, she would take the note that said incomplete and throw it in the trash.

A/N: So what did you think? Any other college peeps out there?(any engineers(!) or artists?) I personally love shy nerdy Percy!

Note that if this is ooc it's because it's supposed to be, I'm creating a different personality for them!

And thanks again to all of you guys for reading my work! I really appreciate the support!

Please Review! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

See ya! :)