A/N: Hey guys! Back again with this week's chapter! Hope you like it!

By the time Halloween comes around, they've been dating for three weeks and it's been the best three weeks he's had in a very long time. Being able to cuddle, kiss and hang out with Annabeth feels great, and he really believes that they've got a good thing going.

Until he's hit with reality. That Annabeth is an amazing and attractive person, who knows many guys and is, technically, still single.

Not that he believes she's seeing anyone else, or would do that to him, but…

It starts with how things usually do, him running behind. If there's one thing Percy will never know it's why he always waits till the very last minute to put together a Halloween costume. He loves Halloween. He likes dressing up. Those two things should add up to a level of preparedness that he just never has.

So he's scrolling through his phone, trying to find something he can throw together as Nico plays a video game.

"You should have started earlier," Nico says helpfully, mashing his controller as if it'll make the shots deal more damage.

"Shut up," Percy shoots back. "The only reason you have a costume figured out early is because of Will, otherwise you'd be right next to me."

"Not true," Nico counters, "I just wouldn't dress up."

Percy rolls his eyes. Will and Nico were the ones who had invited them to the Halloween Bar Crawl in the first place.

"Whatever," he responds lamely, deciding to focus his attention on his google image search.

"Why don't you ask Annabeth?" It's the first thing Nico's said all night that makes sense.

She picks up on the fourth ring. "Hey?"

There's sounds in the background and he curses under his breath because he forgot she was getting dinner with a friend today.

"Oh shit, sorry, I forgot you were out."

"It's okay, is everything alright?" She sounds concerned and he feels even more stupid. He glares at the back of Nico's head.

"Yeah, just didn't know what to be for Halloween so thought I'd ask..." he trails off, a blush coming to his cheeks even though she's not there.

She bursts out laughing, and even though his blush deepens, it's the best response he could have gotten given the situation. (Also her laugh just sounds nice.)

"Wow...um well I don't know...hey, Frank?" she says, addressing some other person.

And that's when he realizes that she hadn't actually specified what friend she was getting dinner with and he had just assumed it was Piper. Clearly, he was wrong.

"What are you being for Halloween?" she continues still talking to this "Frank" guy. Percy's not jealous. He swears.

He's just smacked into the wall of reality that Annabeth is not his girlfriend, and is totally capable of seeing and even potentially dating any other guy.

Frank responds with something he can't hear and Annabeth speaks to him. "How about a vampire?"

She wouldn't be so casual about speaking to Frank in front of him if she was interested and/or dating. Still, he frowns because that could be "Frank's" costume and he doesn't want to do that. "Isn't that a bit basic?"

Maybe that's a bit mean.

"Isn't it the day before Halloween?" she counters, another laugh in her voice.

Fuck.

Nico laughs when he asks him if he has a cape.

-.-

"So," Percy starts, leaning against the counter."Who's Frank?" He says it casually enough, but when she turns from her place by the cabinet, he's very clearly waiting for an answer.

She raises an eyebrow because it seems like he's been wanting to ask this question for a while. Probably since that phone call from a week ago.

"A friend," she responds lightly, and looks over the cups she's pulled out to gauge his reaction.

She had wondered at the time, if the slight shift in his tone over that conversation was real or imagined. Not that she blames his curiosity, she'd be pretty curious if Percy had been talking to a girl she'd never heard of before. But only because they weren't together.

As solid as everything seems right now, his question and tone alone show that it isn't. It had been around four weeks, but it was still early and they didn't have the security of a relationship to fend away thoughts or fears about losing the other to someone else.

"Oh, cool," He nods, hand reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone out of habit.

She rolls her eyes. He's not as smooth or subtle as he thinks. But it still makes her want to kiss him until he's reassured.

"Why?" she asks, biting back a smile, cups forgotten.

"Oh nothing, just wondering," he replies quickly, eyes not leaving his phone. She wonders if he's even looking at anything.

So she simply looks at him with her eyebrow slightly raised and a half-smile until he flushes under the weight of her gaze and looks up at her.

In two long strides, she's crossed her tiny kitchen to where he's standing.

"Just wondering?" she asks when they're inches apart. He's gotten redder.

"Yeah," he stammers.

She pulls him forward until he's crowding her against the counter, putting on hand on his chest, the other looping around his neck. "Really?"

He mumbles something unintelligible and she presses herself against him.

"What was that?" she asks again, breaking out into a grin this time.

He determinedly keeps his mouth shut but a hand sneaks up on her waist.

"Because it sounds like you're jealous," she continues, despite his silence.

"What, no, I—" his protests are cut short by her leg wrapping around his.

She leans closer to him, just slightly moving her hips and he sucks in a breath. Lips ghosting over his neck, she pushes herself on her toes to whisper in his ear.

"You sure?"

"Okay, maybe a little," he finally admits. He looks down but avoids her eyes. She tilts his chin up so he's forced to make eye contact.

His green eyes are blazing in a mixture of arousal and embarrassment. She shakes her head slightly and finally leans up to meet his lips.

When they pull away panting, she speaks again, hoping she's made her point clear. "He really is just a friend."

Percy responds by picking her up and carrying her to the bedroom.

-.-

The email about the "Fall Party" circulates around his work not long after, and he wonders if they meant to send it to temps.

"You going?" he asks, turning towards Leo and jerking his head towards the screen. Leo rolls over and glances at the email before leaning back and shrugging.

"I don't know, don't really know anyone except you, so if you're going…" he trails off.

"You know Calypso," Percy teases. "And you know we're allowed to bring a date."

Leo's eyes widen at the insinuation and Percy thinks he would be blushing now if his skin wasn't so dark.

"Yeah, well, you could bring Annabeth," Leo retorts, still clearly off his game.

Percy shrugs. "Fine, if you bring Calypso."

"Fine," Leo hastens to agree, clearly distressed from the conversation.

Percy shoots him a smug smile and Leo realizes what he's actually just agreed too. Honestly, Percy hopes it'll get things going between the two of them because the tension everytime she comes over is unbearable.

He smiles when Leo blushes even harder than usual as Calypso walks by.

-.-

Piper has been planning Friendsgiving since November started, and Annabeth is highly supportive and excited because Piper's cooking is actually amazing. So when the subject comes up once again and she demands Annabeth bring Percy, she's not surprised at all.

"Sure," she replies, shrugging.

"You have to bri—wait what?" Piper cuts herself off. "You will?"

Annabeth nods, taking a sip of her hot chocolate, remembering the last time she had been planning to make it with Percy and how that turned out. "Yeah."

Piper is clearly surprised but gives an appreciative nod. "Okay, good."

Annabeth's not sure why she's not all too worried about it. Maybe she should be, but things have been going good, and ever since Percy brought up Frank, they had kind of solidified that they weren't seeing other people, so she really doesn't think Percy is going to say no.

She feels okay about it, about them. It's honestly a little surprising.

Piper's staring at her with a curious look.

"What?" Annabeth asks, taking another sip just to have something to do.

Piper shakes her head. "Nothing, I'm just proud of you."

"Thanks, but why?"

Piper leans back. "Because you seem to be doing good with Percy, and you're okay with asking him to come to friendsgiving even though you aren't official. I guess I'm just proud of how far you've come and your level of commitment to this."

Annabeth nods. She hadn't thought about it that way but it's true. Now was the most confusing part of any relationship, that gray area of dating without being official. And in the past it would have gotten to her, she'd doubt the commitment, the relationship, even herself.

She doesn't know why this time is different. Maybe because of Percy and the type of person he is. Maybe it's just her growth.

"I think…I think I've just embraced the confusion," she finally says.

Piper tilts her head at her inquisitively. "Really?"

"Yeah, I know it's the exact opposite of who I am, but ever since college ended…" she trails off because this feeling of confusion isn't new. She remembers when she was close to graduating and how worried she was about what her life was going to be like after.

What would she do? Where would she live? She had her whole life in front of her and her emotions were pulling her seven different ways. She had finally gotten through it by just embracing that she was at a stage in her life where she was supposed to be confused. She was supposed to not have it figured out.

Piper nods, because she had been there for that meltdown.

"Well, I'm glad you're able to work through it. I'm happy for you." Piper smiles and Annabeth can't help but smile back. Piper, she thinks, deserves the world.

But now that the topic had come up, she can't stop the tiny part of her mind that brings up the worst and the worry that all this is gonna come crashing down, because accepting confusion still doesn't cause it to go away. She pushes the thought down and focuses on Piper, who's moved on to food and is debating between apple or pumpkin pie.

Annabeth votes apple.

-.-

After losing an intense game of rock-paper-scissors, with Nico, Percy trudges down the stairs to the trash room. It was entirely unfair since he had taken out the trash last week but Nico had pulled rock and he really had to stop with the scissors.

It's cold, as expected for mid-November, and he shivers in his Star War pajamas and faded t-shirt. Trying to make the trip worth it, he figures he should also check the mail. It's ten at night and he's not super worried about anyone else coming in.

And if they do, well...Star Wars is cool.

Nevertheless, he's beyond surprised when he hears his name being said.

"Percy?"

He jumps at the sound, spinning around to see a fully decked-out Annabeth with a full face of makeup who's just entered the building.

"Hey..." He waves weakly, not expecting to see her of all people, and not expecting her to look that good.

"Hey," she says back, stepping further into the warmth and taking off her gloves. "Nice pajamas."

He blushes. "Star Wars is cool," he mumbles back.

She laughs. "I never said it wasn't."

"How was Piper?" he asks, remembering Annabeth had gone to a coffee shop with Piper.

"Good." She seems a little distracted. "Actually it's good I ran into you, I need to ask you something."

Percy nods. "Yeah, me too, actually."

Annabeth looks taken back. "Oh, okay, you go first."

Suddenly, he feels like he's been put on the spot, even though he signed up for this. It's an interesting sight, with Annabeth looking all nice and him in his ratty clothes and messy hair.

"Um…will you come to my company's Fall Party with me?" he asks, nervous all of a sudden. His mind flashed back to the confident way he had spoken to Leo about it. That's definitely not how he feels now.

"Oh, uh," her eyes widen a little, "yeah, okay." She shoots him a small smile.

"Cool, so um, you had something you wanted to ask?" he prompts, trying to move on from his not smoothness.

Annabeth nods. "Yeah, um...will you come to Piper's Friendsgiving?"

It's his turn to be taken back. He was not expecting this. It feels like a big step, him meeting more of her friends and Piper, again.

He nods, glad and nervous all at once. "Yeah, of course! When is it?"

She smiles, appearing relieved at his answer. "Next Friday."

He stares at her. "Oh."

She gives him a confused look. "What? Why—oh wait, is that when—"she cuts herself off.

He nods.

A/N: And there you have it! So this one focuses more on their relationship. Something I think that fanfics can occasionally overlook is the in-between of actively dating someone and being in an official relationship. It's something that's very prevalent in real life and I wanted to bring it up in this chapter as the next course of natural progression.

I've made this fic as realistic as possible just to kind of show what life can be like in your early to mid twenties and I hope you guys are enjoying the ride so far! I'd love to hear if any of you have experienced any of these things before! But anyway, just a little relationship check-in chapter!

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

And as always, thanks for reading!

See ya! :)