Prompt: "How the hell did you get cake batter on the ceiling?" "Your guess is as good as mine."
"Percy."
"I know."
"Percy."
"Piper, I know."
Percy looks in horror at the mess that has suddenly appeared in the kitchen. There are globs of batter scattered across the counters and somehow has stained even the ceiling.
Piper has batter sprayed across her face and streaked through her hair. She's basically a cake monster, and right now the cake monster looks like she wants to rip his head off. Percy is amused to no end at the batter encrusted girl standing in front of him, but it would be horrible timing to start laughing.
"How the hell did you get cake batter on the ceiling?!" Piper shrieks at him, swiping her hand across her face.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Percy replies forlornly, looking around at the mess.
"No, Seaweed Brain, I know exactly how, it was a rhetorical question! You realize you're supposed to turn the mixer off before you take it out of the bowl?" asks Piper exasperatedly.
"Hey! Only Annabeth gets to call me that!" Percy screeches back.
"Oh, I think Annabeth would be perfectly fine with me calling you anything I want… At least after I show her what you've done to her kitchen," smirks Piper.
Percy is horrified at the thought of Annabeth finding out about the kitchen disaster. "No! Please!"
"Mmm," Piper muses. "Maybe you should think twice about crossing me next time."
Percy grumbles as Piper tosses him a rag and cleaner bottle, "What do you want?"
"Clean this place up," Piper replies smoothly. "I'll continue on the cake. Wouldn't want to stop baking just because you're a clutz."
Percy thinks before nodding. It seems like a good plan anyways.
Minutes later, he's somehow got most of the mess cleaned up, scrubbing the counters and cabinets. He's even managed to get most of the stains out of the ceiling with the help of a mop that ends up giving him and Piper a bit of a shower.
He offers to help Piper put the cake in the oven, and surprisingly she lets him. She uses the time to go over to the sink and wipe her face and hair, smiling to herself as if she wasn't just used as a cake batter canvas.
"What?" Percy asks, as he puts the cake in and sets the timer.
"You're really shit in the kitchen, you know," Piper says as she walks to the couch and flops onto it as Percy follows close behind.
"Hey, I'm not that bad," Percy whines, crashing onto the couch and intertwining his legs with Piper's. "I make all kinds of food. And you even said you love my chicken alfredo!"
"And that's why I'm wearing Annabeth's birthday cake, huh?"
"Fine," Percy sighed. "I've never baked a cake before. Annabeth's usually the one who bakes, but she makes it look so easy."
Piper grins at his whiny behavior, rolling her eyes. "Well next time, I'll bring a raincoat."
"There's no next time," Percy scowls in response. "You're mean to me."
"Oh, don't be a big baby," Piper shoots back, starting an episode. "Besides, I'm going to need your help for Jason's birthday."
Percy doesn't even bother responding as he turns to the TV. As it runs, he eventually falls asleep to the calming background noise.
Forty minutes later Percy wakes up to an alarm going off and Piper's foot on his face. He looks around groggily before snapping up, realizing what the alarm was for.
"Piper! The cake!" he shrieks. "We have to get it out!"
Piper raises her head, brushing the hair out of her face. "I think you can handle that yourself without screaming the place down, Aquaman."
Percy dashes to the kitchen pulling on a pair of oven mitts. "I think that's even worse than Seaweed Brain," he calls as he opens the oven.
"Well? How does it look?" Piper asks as she stands up and stretches.
Percy is pleasantly surprised at how nice it looks. "Somehow I think it turned out alright."
"Of course it's alright, I made it," Piper snarks back.
"Hey, I made it too!" Percy yelps indignantly.
Piper was having none of it. "All you made was a mess."
"Whatever," Percy huffs. He didn't dwell on Piper's harsh words for long, however, because this was the part of cake baking he was most looking forward to: the icing.
Within a few minutes, Percy has the counter set up with all the frosting and decorations. He and Piper both grab a pastry bag and start to make the cake look pretty. Piper is an unforgiving critic and makes sure to point out every mistake Percy makes.
"Slower, Percy," Piper instructs him. "We have plenty of time, the cake's not going anywhere. You have to take it slow if you want it to look nice." She gestures at Percy's badly decorated side as proof.
Percy frowns for a few seconds before grabbing a blob of frosting and smearing it on Piper's face. Piper lets out a squeal before dropping her own bag and turning to Percy, hands on her hips.
"I'm sorry," Percy says with a grin.
"No, you're not," Piper's eyes light up as she reaches for the frosting.
Percy laughs and tries to run away, but there's not much space in the kitchen and Piper catches up to him in no time. They both laugh as Piper tackles him and starts smearing the frosting over Percy's head. Percy manages to wiggle free and run around the kitchen with Piper trailing close behind, screaming with frosting in her hand. Within a minute, Jason pokes his head into the kitchen, clearing his throat. Both of them come to a screeching halt.
"Don't even try to blame each other," Jason smiles before they can argue. "Hey Piper, it's getting a bit late. Wanna grab some dinner soon?"
Piper looks at the clock and frowns, realizing that her time has flown.
"Oh yeah, we should probably head out now," she admits.
"I can wait until you guys finish… whatever this is," he gestures at the kitchen.
"No," Piper grins, "It's getting late. I think Percy can handle himself in the kitchen. At least I hope so."
"Alright then," Jason smirks as he walks into his room. "I'll just go grab my wallet and we can head out."
"Hey Piper?" Percy speaks up.
She chuckles at him as she turns back. "What's up?"
"I had a lot of fun today," Percy smiles sincerely at her.
"So did I, Water Boy," Piper beams, patting his cheek. "We should do this again."
"Well you've already enlisted me for Jason's birthday," Percy retorts with a lazy smile.
"And you best not forget!" Piper laughs as she moves to walk out the door.
"Piper, wait! One more thing," Percy calls out before she can leave.
She turns around expectantly.
"You've got a little something," he chuckles, gesturing at her face.
"Percy!"
Word Count: 1152
A/N: I really like the idea of a Piper x Percy bromance, since I feel like they both would be fun-loving and laid-back. I also really like the idea of some of the demigods moving out and living in an apartment together, so I decided to write this fic depicting that. Hope you guys enjoyed!
Also a live-action Disney+ PJO adaptation was announced! I'm so excited!