A/N: Hey guys! Back with the ending to the cliffhanger, hope you like it!

He actively tries to stop his mind from jumping to the worst possible conclusion, but he can't help the punch to the gut at the sight in front of him.

It doesn't work. Annabeth notices his gaze and immediately rushes to explain.

"Oh, um, Percy, meet Frank, my friend from college."

So this is Frank, the vampire guy. He's buffer than Percy, with short cropped black hair (unlike his own). He's also directing a smile towards him that Percy has trouble returning.

"Nice to meet you dude," he says, standing up and holding out his hand in greeting.

Percy shakes back, noticing the strong grip. "Yeah," he says quickly and turns back to Annabeth.

"I can leave if this is a bad time." He once again tries not to let the hurt or anger seep into his tone, but given by the look on Annabeth's face, he knows he once again hasn't succeeded.

"Oh no man, I was gonna head out soon anyway," Frank speaks up, moving towards his jacket. "This was fun. Thanks for having me over Annabeth."

"Oh, yeah of course. But you don't have to leave Frank," Annabeth protests lightly as he gathers his things. Percy fails at calming the flames in his stomach at the words.

Franks shakes his head. "Nah it's cool, I have to hit the gym anyway."

He's a gym buff, of course. Not the kind of guy Annabeth would like, he thinks. Probably...maybe he should go to the gym.

"Okay, well...thanks for coming over, we'll do this again sometime," Annabeth responds, giving him a quick hug.

Percy is totally cool.

Franks says another goodbye, waves at him (and Percy waves back because he knows he's being irrational and needs to be polite).

Annabeth turns back to him as soon as she closes the door.

"You're back early," are the first words out of her mouth.

Percy's excitement has long since drained and turned into something more akin to frustration. "Yeah, thought I'd surprise you."

"I'm certainly surprised."

There's an awkward moment of silence before Annabeth asks if he'd like a drink.

He doesn't but he says yes for the sake of it.

She goes into the kitchen and he sits on the couch. Where Frank had just been sitting. He really needs to get over himself.

Annabeth returns, handing him a can of Pepsi, and he's glad to have something else to focus on besides the obvious tension in the room.

"How was your trip?" she asks finally.

He takes a sip and pushes down the image of the reception he'd been hoping for, the one that involved a lot more smiling and kissing.

"Good," he replies. "It was good to get away for a bit. I got a lot of writing done."

Annabeth nods, fiddling with her own can. "That's nice."

"What have you been up to?" he asks.

She shrugs. "Watching Youtube, hanging out with friends."

"Like Frank." It slips out before he can control it.

Her eyes harden. "Like Frank." Her tone is harsh and he probably deserves it, but he's already been feeling on the rocks about everything given the way their last conversation had gone and he just can't take it.

"That's nice," he says sarcastically.

"As nice as hanging out with Rachel, I'm sure."

It's like a slap in the face and he turns to see the anger in her eyes.

"Rachel is just a friend!" he yells.

"Yeah, so is Frank!" she yells back.

"Ugh," he throws his hands up, "I can't believe I came back early for this to happen. I thought you'd be happy to see me!"

There's no more tension now, it's all rushing out and he knows he should get a grip but then—

"Well, you wanted to get away didn't you," she sneers back.

"That's unfair!" he shouts. "You can't fault me for that!" He knows he's not helping, but he just can't seem to stop himself.

"And you can't fault me for having a friend over!"

He growls in frustration. He needs to leave before he says something else he doesn't mean. His chest is heaving in the exact opposite way he had hoped and the feeling of coming undone is back.

"Well, feel free to call him back, because I'm leaving," he says, storming through the door. He doesn't look back to see her face.

-.-

Annabeth's face is morphed into a mixture of confusion, anger and hurt. Percy just walked out on her.

He walked out on her.

She can't believe it. She doesn't even know how they got here.

One second they were fine, well...they weren't fine. They haven't been fine. All the anger rushes out of her, quickly replaced with hurt. She thought she had cried out all her tears, but they're sliding down her face on their own.

She knows she shouldn't have snapped back. She hadn't meant it. Hurt and anger had caused her to lash out and now...now she was really left alone because Percy walked out. The tears come out faster and she wants so desperately for him to come back.

Curling up in a tiny ball, she cries for the second time that week.

She doesn't know when she stops, she just knows her eyes hurt, her body is stiff from her position as she hasn't moved since he had left. It's not a healthy thing, but she's making all sorts of bad choices today anyway, so what's one more.

So she stays there, curled up on the couch for some more indeterminate amount of time before finally the voice in her head (that sounds suspiciously like Piper) yells at her to get up and she manages to sit.

Her back hates her and the dried tears cracked her makeup, causing her face to harden. A part of her wants to reach for her phone, the other wants to never check it again. It's dark out, so it might be late. She doesn't know. She doesn't want to know.

Eventually, she forces herself to go to the bathroom. Her makeup is decimated, eyeliner and mascara tracks breaking through the concealer she had put on. She takes a deep breath. She needs to take care of herself right now. She has to do this for herself.

Gently, she wipes off her makeup and washes her face. The clock on the microwave reads nine thirty when she gets herself a glass of water. She drinks it even though she doesn't want to and goes to her closet to dig out one of her own hoodies instead of Percy's.

With that all done, she starts to straighten some things up. The place is clean, there's only a few glasses and plates out, but just clearing them away makes her feel like she can breathe a tiny bit easier.

Cleaning and arranging is nice. Everything has a place and everything is easy to get in order. Unlike her emotions, which are currently at war with each other.

She feels horrible about the things she said to Percy, but also feels horribly hurt by the things he said to her. And beneath all this are all the emotions she's been carrying all week.

But most of all, she just misses him.

She hates this. This fighting and being hurt and angry. She doesn't want it, she's done being hurt over all this. She's done being angry.

So without really thinking about it, she gets up, grabs her shoes and keys and phone and walks out the door.

It doesn't really strike her what she's doing until she's in front of his door, about to knock. And that's when the anxiety comes back in full force. What is she going to say? How are they going to fix this?

She almost backs away from the door.

Three, two one, she forces herself to knock.

When the door opens she's not sure if she's relieved ior not that it's Nico.

"Hey Annabeth, what's up?" Nico says, shooting her a small smile.

"Is Percy there?" she asks tentatively.

Nico sighs and the apologetic look says it all. "He isn't…he left half an hour ago."

Annabeth tries not to take that as a sign that some irreparable damage has been done to their relationship. She tries to swallow through the rock that seems to have formed in her throat.

"Did he say where?"

Nico shakes his head. "He said he just needed some space to think about things."

Annabeth nods and fails to ignore the pit in her stomach that's forming, because even though she's ready to address everything she never really considered if he would be or not.

"Sorry, Annabeth," Nico says, looking genuinely very sorry.

Annabeth nods again, because she's not sure she can trust her voice, and moves to leave. Nico shuts the door and she stops trying to gather herself.

She leans against the wall of his apartment and blinks back tears once more.

-.-

Percy's anger had lasted the amount of time it took him to walk to his room and see a picture of him and Annabeth on his nightstand before it all had melted out of him.

Now he just feels like shit. It's his fault they had gotten into this fight and he knows it. If only he had kept his cool, they wouldn't have blown up at each other. It had been because of the build-up of tension, of feeling that there was something off, and then seeing Frank...it had been the last straw.

He leans back, running his hands over his face, still feeling like shit when the front door opens and Nico walks in.

"I thought you wouldn't be back for another couple days," Nico says, regarding Percy's position on the floor in front of the couch.

"I came back early," he mumbles through his hand.

"Yeah, I see that," Nico comments. "Why?'

He hears Nico move around the room, dropping off his keys and coat.

"I wanted to surprise Annabeth." He's still talking through his hands but he can feel Nico drawing closer.

"And did you?"

His silence gives Nico his answer. "Ah," he says and Percy feels him plop next to him. "So what happened?"

Percy hesitates. He knows it's going to sound horrible if he says it out loud. After all, it had been so dumb and so his fault.

"Come one, spit it out," Nico urges, nudging him a little.

Percy lifts his head from his hands to look at him. Nico has the same impassive face he normally does, but there's a hint of concern.

He sighs and tells him the story as quickly as possible, as if that'll make it pass faster. Nico stays silent through the entire thing and when Percy finishes, he just nods his head.

"I see."

"What do you see?" It comes out more irritated than he meant and Nico gives him a look.

"You guys got into a fight, over something stupid. It was bound to happen at some point, you'll bounce back."

Percy frowns. "But what if we don't? As irrational as the things were, they were things we were both thinking…what if…?" He swallows because it's something he hadn't really considered until this point. "What if she just hates me after this?"

"She's not going to hate you," Nico assures.

"How can you know that!"

"Because I know you two, and I know you guys have handled a lot of things that could have turned way worse. So what if you slipped up this time? It happens. As long as you guys can talk it out, you'll be fine."

Nico's lazy confidence gives him hope. He makes it sound like it's the most obvious thing in the world and Percy wonders if maybe it is and he's just assuming the worst.

"You should talk to her," Nico urges. But Percy shakes his head. He's not ready, not yet. He needs to figure some things out.

Standing up, he gathers his coat, keys and phone.

"Where are you going?" Nico asks.

"I just need to think, figure some things out." Nico nods, and as good as he is at masking his emotions, Percy can see the worry coming through.

"I'll be okay," Percy assures, looking him in the eyes. "Thank you Nico." Nico had genuinely made him feel a whole lot better about the entire thing.

Nico nods again and Percy slips out the front door, closing it slowly behind him. He's not sure where exactly to go from here.

He takes a breath. He needs a space to think.

So he turns around, goes for the door right by his apartment, and climbs up the stairs.

It's been a month since he's been back. His heart tugs as he remembers the last time, filled with kisses and three words that meant everything.

He blinks hard at the cracked concrete. The chairs are still there, no longer covered in snow, but the air is still cold. He finds he likes the bite of it. He shuffles over to the chairs. His green one is a bit damp and the metal that borders it is cold, but he sits down anyway.

It reminds him of the warmer days, chilling on the chairs, watching the sunset with a soda or beer with Annabeth by his side.

The simpler days. Where did it all go wrong?

And so he sits there, thinking and beating himself up about it all, when he hears the creak of the door opening. The flood of yellow light illuminates blonde curls and surprised eyes.

A/N: As I mentioned in the last authors note, and a few of you called it, it wasn't some big reveal. Just an old friend. It just goes to show how easily things can spiral if the communication isn't there. If Percy hadn't felt weird about the obvious tension with the last conversation, he probably wouldn't have reacted this way, and the same goes for Annabeth.

But sometimes things do spiral out and the hardest thing to deal with in the fight is that it's not just you but another person, and how they are going to react to the same situation will be different from you. Either way, as you can see, it's coming to a head now, so it's just up to them to work things out.

I know this isn't a fun chapter but I hope that you guys liked it nonetheless, maybe you can find it relatable? I think little things are often the cause for bigger problems since other things haven't really been resolved.

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

And as always, thanks for reading!

See ya! :)