Annabeth collapsed in her rickety chair and buried her head in her hands. She never wanted to see the light of day again. All she wanted was to live in this bookstore and sleep under the receptionist's desk so she wouldn't have to drag her tired, sore legs to wherever it was she needed to go next.

"Shift's ending Annabeth!"

The voice of her elderly boss, Mrs Davis, woke her and she immediately straightened up and began to collect her things from the desk. She did have to leave soon if she wanted to get to the park on time. Who knew how long poor Jeremy the park dog would have to wait for her to bring him his dinner?

She had stumbled upon Jeremy a few years ago in the park near her home. Being followed around by a dog had been a little annoying at first, but Jeremy's spotted fur and soulful eyes had grown on her.

As much as she despaired to tell people that Annabeth Chase, the girl who never deviated from her life goals, had fallen prey to the allure of a cute stray dog, she had dutifully adopted him as her own ward. He was a perfectly well-behaved dog and had her little brother Bobby not been allergic to fur, she could have easily taken him in. But since she couldn't, she had to live with visiting him once every few days to feed him and keep him company.

She swung her bag over her shoulder, waved goodbye to Mrs Davis and set off for the park. She couldn't keep little Jeremy waiting.

She was the only one to look out for the poor thing anyway, wasn't she?

Percy grabbed his backpack, a bag of cookies and bounded out of the door to his apartment. His mum was still at work so he could squeeze in a visit to the park before dinner. He needed the comfort of little Poseidon to help him get out of the self-inflicted misery of having failed yet another geography exam.

"Oh well," he thought, "At least we can keep each other company."

He had first been acquainted with the little dog when he had been sitting on a bench in the park near his house. Waiting for his friends to show up, he almost hadn't noticed the pained cries of a puppy. When he had finally realised that there was a dog in distress, wow that was an awesome phrase, 'dog in distress', he had followed the sound to the lake.

More precisely, the middle of the pond where a dog was attempting to swim for dear life. He had waded in, grabbed the dog and put him back on dry land. They had both been fine, albeit very soggy and smelling like a pond. Since then, he had cared for the poor thing since he obviously had no one else to love him. And he had also obviously named it Poseidon because of its extreme averseness to water ever since.

He just hoped that no one ever found out that he was emotionally attached to a park dog.

As Percy rounded the corner to the park, he breathed in the fresh afternoon air. Jogging to a bench under a shady tree, he dropped his bag and waited for Poseidon to make himself known.

"Jeremy! Jeremy!" he suddenly heard a voice echoing through the empty park.

As he craned his neck to locate the source of the sound, he saw a curly blond mess. And what's more, that curly blond mess was sitting on the head of one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen.

With her blond hair pulled into a messy bun and her radiant smile, Percy thought that she was possibly an angel. He sat forward in his seat and made out the curls framing her face.

Really, she was absolutely beautiful.

But also apparently taken.

"Jeremy! Where are you?"

Percy sighed internally. He would curse whoever this Jeremy dude was to hell. He took out his cookies and began munching, waiting for the dog to show up to make him feel a little better.

Then he looked up and saw something. And sat forward. And widened his eyes.

Jeremy was a dog?!

It seemed so because the beautiful girl was petting one and feeding it something from her hand. Wait. That dog was Poseidon! This had just gotten very awkward. He tried to hide behind his cookies, which didn't really work because… they were cookies… He would die of embarrassment if he had to explain to her that he had initially thought that she was dating a dog.

But fate has its ways of messing things up so he looked up to find Poseidon bounding towards him and the girl looking on in curiosity.

"Woah Poseidon. How you doing? Fallen into any large bodies of water lately?"

This was their customary greeting and Percy swore that Poseidon understood because he gave him a dog hmph and brought the pretty girl forward. Percy stood up and looked at her, not really sure how to explain that he'd been this dog's dad for the past six months.

"Hello. I'm Annabeth Chase."

She put out her hand and Percy shook it.

"Nice to meet you, Annabeth. Uh, I'm Percy."

They both looked at each other and then at the dog.

"So. Jeremy, huh."

"So. Poseidon, huh."

They looked at each other for a while and Percy soon burst into laughter. Annabeth followed suit and Poseidon was soon barking his head off in glee.

"I've been feeding Poseidon for six months now. He's basically my kid though I don't admit to people that I've adopted a stray dog," Percy smiled and said.

"Aha! I've known him for years!"

Annabeth had a smug look on her face and her arms crossed over her chest. It was adorable.

"I'm sure he loves me more than you! I give him cookies," Percy retorted, "Cookies are unbeatable."

Annabeth's expression morphed into one of shock.

"You can't give him cookies! He'll get a stomach ache!" She seemed positively flabbergasted by the notion of feeding a dog cookies.

Percy looked at where Poseidon was frisking around on the grass.

"He seemed to really like them. And they're home-made."

"That doesn't mean that they're dog food!"

Not it was Percy's turn to look flabbergasted.

"Hey, I'll have you know my mum makes the best cookies in New York!"

He rummaged in his bag for the box and held it out to Annabeth, indicating for her to try one.

Annabeth just stared at them, as though the blue colour was a mark of the devil.

"They're blue," she said, deadpan. Stating the obvious must've been a thing, Percy supposed.

"Yes. So they are. Have one."

"You know you should never accept food from strangers, right? Especially not blue food."

Percy looked affronted and put a cookie in his mouth.

"See. It's perfectly fine. And the blue is for emotional significance."

Annabeth suspiciously picked up a cookie and put it in her mouth slowly. Her face gradually lit up, as one's face is wont to do when confronted with something as delicious as one of Sally Jackson's cookies. Her beautiful smile looked even more beautiful against the picturesque backdrop of the lush green trees.

"This is delicious!"

"Of course it is! Poseidon loves them."

Annabeth beamed. "Well, if we're going to co-parent Jeremy now, we need to come up with a new name. And a timetable for feeding. And proper food. And-"

"Okay okay. I get it," Percy cut her off while attempting to control his laughter.

Annabeth smiled and shook her head. "Fine, I'll stop talking. But we do have to discuss these things. As Jeremy's guardians, it's our duty."

Percy was going to reply, but then he had a spark of inspiration and in the spur of the moment, he blurted out, "Maybe we can discuss it in that cafe there."

Instantly regretting saying that, he attempted to add on. "Over coffee. Or tea, if that's what you like." He stuttered, "Or, never mind you're probably busy-"

"I think that would be great."

Annabeth beamed and started towards the cafe.

Percy breathed a sigh of relief and followed her.

As they talked over coffee and exchanged numbers, both were glad that they had met Jerdon (which was what the dog's name was to be since they couldn't decide on anything else.)

Because meeting the little dog had brought them together and they both knew that they were going to stay together for a long long time.