Disclaimer- I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus Series. (One can dream though) All rights go to the proper parties.

Note***- Will be boy x boy. (I promise, it is coming) Don't like? You don't have to read.

ΩΩΩ

January 8th

Percy POV

Apollo was up long before I was. I wasn't sure what time we had finally decided to end our ice cream and poetry night, but I was practically falling asleep on his shoulder by the time he left. I had tried to offer him his bedroom back, but he seemed to be intent on letting me have some privacy. I appreciated the gesture but I wasn't sure how much better it was than my bed on his couch.

True it was nice being able to roll without falling off the edge of the bed, but I was fine sleeping on the couch. Even if it wasn't a real bed, the apartment felt more like home than the house ever had, regardless of whether or not I had my own room.

It took a while, but I finally convinced myself to get out of bed and go see about some ambrosia. I hadn't had any in the last three days and I was beginning to feel, not exactly hungry but, off. I hadn't felt actually hungry since I became a god but I had found if I went to long without ambrosia, I begun to feel a little sluggish. It wasn't enough for anyone else to notice, but I felt like I was walking through the sand. I imagined the longer I went without eating, the stronger the feeling would get.

When I got to the kitchen, Apollo was already sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal. He seemed surprised to see me.

It was hard not to roll my eyes at his expression. I had only locked myself in his room for a day, not a month. I grabbed some ambrosia out of the tin and raised an eyebrow, "Morning Apollo."

He seemed to realize he was still staring at me because he looked away quickly, "Hey Perce. I didn't think you'd be up so early, I would have made breakfast."

I shrugged, "It's fine." I couldn't help but add, "I'm not hungry."

He laughed, "Very funny."

I felt a small smile appear on my face, "You clearly thought so."

He glared at me but I could see the amusement in his eyes. He opened his mouth to reply when there was a knock on the door. He glanced at it and frowned. "Well they wasted no time getting here."

I tilted my head in confusion, "Who?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Jason and Leo. They came to see you yesterday but..."

I winced. I didn't need him to say anything else. It was my turn to sigh. Sitting here with Apollo it was easy enough to forget anything had happened, but my friends' standing outside was a fairly strong reminder that it had.

I was tempted to avoid them again but that would have been cowardly. I couldn't avoid everything that reminded me of Annabeth. She was still my friend, just like they were. My relationship with the daughter of Athena may have been over, but that was no reason to lose my other friendships.

"I should go let them in."

I went to stand up before Apollo caught my arm and pushed me back into my seat. "Don't worry about it. I'll get the door, you eat. I have a feeling that you're going to be getting a lot of visitors today. I'd trust my feelings if I were you; I am the god of prophecy after all."

"Ya, but you can't see the future right now, remember?"

He winked and flashed me a smile, "Your point being?"

I rolled my eyes but he was already heading for the door. I rubbed the back of my neck and quickly took a few big bites of godly food. Foresight or not, I was pretty sure Apollo was right.

ΩΩΩ

Jason and Leo had also brought Calypso, Reyna, and Will. Though, I was fairly sure that one of Will's main motivations for coming over was to visit with Apollo. I could understand that. I was happy that Will was getting to hang out with his dad, even if it was under an alias.

What I couldn't understand was everyone attempting to avoid mentioning the elephant in the room. We all knew that they came over to make sure I was doing okay without Annabeth, so I wasn't sure exactly what avoiding any mention of her was accomplishing. By making sure to obviously not talk about her, they were actually making our break-up the only thing that I could think of.

It wasn't like I wanted to explain every reason that I missed her, but having them treat me like any wrong word may end up with me break into tears was beginning to grind on my nerves. It made me appreciate Apollo's technique even more.

Did I miss her? Of course. Was I sad that we had broken up? Yes. Did I regret that we had reached the point where giving up was better than continuing what we had? Definitely, but I couldn't change the past. Yes thinking about her was painful, but that didn't mean that everyone had to avoid any mention of her name. She was still important to me and I wanted to know that she was okay. As long as she was fine, I could endure the pain.

I admit that I was so caught up in my own thoughts, I had mostly zoned out on what everyone was saying. I only came back to it when they started talking about the group heading back to Camp Half-Blood tomorrow.

"So what time are you guys heading out?"

He would never admit it, but I could hear how sad the thought of Will leaving made Apollo. I could kind of understand it. It may have been hard growing up without knowing my dad, but it would probably be just as hard watching your kids go through trial after trial and be unable to help them.

I'd only been a god for a little over two months and godhood had already offered me an insight into how immortals thought.

The son of the poetry god shrugged. "We're thinking around noon-ish? We were going to head out first thing in the morning but Piper wants a chance to say good-bye to everyone. It's kinda hard to say no to her."

Leo laughed, "Ya that would be the charm-speak."

Calypso rolled her eyes, "Just because she can use charm-speak doesn't mean she is. I've only known her for a few weeks but I've still not seen her use it once."

Will smiled. It was a little eerie just how much he looked like his dad when he did. "She didn't. Everyone just likes her, we're all a little bummed she's not coming back with us."

I frowned. "Wait, what? If Piper's not going back to Camp Half-Blood, where is she going? I thought the reason she was at camp in the first place was because her dad was filming that movie in Australia. Is he already done?" Judging by the looks everyone was giving me, I had clearly missed something.

Apollo smirked. "I know I'm ridiculously attractive but I had thought we reached the point in our relationship where you could still focus on the conversation while I was in the room."

I blushed and stuck out my tongue; the god of music just winked.

Reyna rolled her eyes at me. "Well since you clearly weren't listening, Jason just informed us that Piper decided to stay in New Rome and attend classes here."

My eyes widened in surprise, "Really? When did she say this?"

The son of Zeus shrugged. "She only made up her mind yesterday. She told me she was thinking of it last week but she didn't want to say anything to anyone else until she decided for sure. Piper loves the training at Camp but she missed going to real school too. Camp Jupiter gives her both while also giving her a place free of monsters."

I raised an eyebrow and smiled. "And I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact her boyfriend currently lives here hey?"

The golden boy blushed. "Not that she's specifically told me."

"Well I'm happy for you guys. I know how much you both missed each other. I'm sure it will be a lot easier now that you're both living under the same roof."

Jason's face darkened considerable. "That's what we're hoping for, but don't worry. I already talked to Piper before I came over; you still get your room back."

I felt my smile drop off my face. "What?"

The son of Hephaestus nodded, "Yep. I was there when they talked about it. You're fine to head back home any time. Annabeth already said it's fine if Piper shares a room with her while she's trying to find a place to rent."

I was too stunned by this new information to roll my eyes when everyone threw the smith's son a glare at the mention of my ex-girlfriend's name.

I had known that Piper was only borrowing the 3rd bedroom in the house temporarily and that eventually I would be moving off of Apollo's couch, but that knowledge was the same as knowing the Earth was round. Just because you know it, doesn't really mean you spend a lot of time thinking about it.

I didn't know how to react. The house had never felt like a home to me and now that Annabeth and I had called it a quits, I was less thrilled than ever to be heading back. But what exactly could I say? No thanks, I'd rather continue to sleep on a couch? It wasn't like I could invite myself to stay with Apollo anyway. He had offered to let me stay when I needed him; I wasn't about to overstay my welcome. I would just have to go back to the house and try to make the best of it.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Instead of saying any of that, I just force a smile. "Ya, I'm fine. It's just that, because of recent events, I kinda forgot that I'd be spending so much time at the house."

Nearly everyone else seemed to accept that. The only ones who didn't look convinced were Calypso and Apollo, both of which were looking at me like they were trying to solve a puzzle.

ΩΩΩ

Jason insisted on taking me out to dinner. I really didn't want to, but I figured the best way to keep everyone from treating me like I was fragile was to pretend that I was fine. My unwillingness towards the outing only increased when Apollo declined the invitation to come. I wanted to convince him to join us so that there would be at least one person who wasn't looking at me like I was one word away from becoming an emotional wreck but, with how much time we had spent together as of late, I knew he must have been behind on training.

Reyna, Leo, Calypso, and Will broke off from the group before we even got to the restaurant saying that they had stuff to do before tomorrow, but I was fairly certain that they were going over to see Annabeth. I wasn't exactly sure why they wouldn't just tell me that's where they were going. Whether Annabeth and I were together or not, I still wanted to know that she was okay.

Break-ups were never easy; I knew she would need her friends as much as I did. Just because they were annoying me at the moment, didn't mean that I was unappreciative of their efforts.

When we got to the restaurant, I saw Piper, Hazel, Frank, and Nico already waiting for us. I had never been happier to see the son of Hades than I was at that moment. If there was one person at dinner who wouldn't treat me like I was about to break, it was him.

As soon as they noticed the two of us, Piper and Hazel both came over and gave me a hug. Frank thumped me on the shoulder and told me that he was here if I needed him.

ΩΩΩ

Dinner was better than I expected, though that was mostly due to the son of the underworld. The entire conversation was almost identical to the one I had in Apollo's apartment earlier. Everyone was going out of their way to avoid any mention of Annabeth, relationships, or love. Not that we generally spent a lot of time on those last two topics, but still. The change was obvious.

When Piper accidentally mentioned her mom, she literally clamped her hand over her mouth with a look of horror in her eyes. She immediately apologized to me and it was all I could do to stop myself from rolling my eyes. I said it was fine but when I caught Nico's eye, he looked like he was about to start laughing. I guess I wasn't quite as good at hiding my annoyance as I had hoped.

Overall, the outing wasn't nearly as painful as I would have thought. They wouldn't have known, but the restaurant they had chosen was the one that Annabeth and I had lunch at before our last disastrous date. The only part that had been hard was seeing a couple sitting at the same table we had sat at, looking ridiculously happy. Annabeth and I had done our best to keep our relationship together and knowing that we had been failing for so long, caused a shot of pain to stab me in the heart.

After dinner, everyone wanted to head back to the apartment to hang out some more. As much as I appreciated the offer, I wanted to be alone for a while. I told them that I was going for a walk and that they should just go home. They offered to come with me but I said no. They argued a bit but, surprisingly, it was Nico who convinced everyone to let me be.

After a lot of hugs and pats on the back, only Nico was left. He had remained silent through most of the good-byes but since that was his normal behaviour, I didn't read too much into it. Once Frank and Hazel headed back towards the barracks, I smiled at the son of Hades.

"Thanks Nico, I owe you one."

The son of the underworld shrugged. "No you don't, I know what you're going through. Sometimes you just need to be alone."

I didn't really know what to say to that. We hadn't really spent much time alone together since Nico came out to me and Annabeth. Though then again, we didn't spend much time just the two of us before that either. I understood why that was a little better now. I was still surprised to learn that he used to have a crush on me.

When he had first told me, I was more than a little shocked. It was not that he was gay, though that surprised me too. It had honestly never even occurred to me that he might not like girls, but people should love who they love. It was the fact that he used to have a crush on me. It took about ten minutes before I could wrap my head around that fact. You just don't think about a supposedly straight friend having a crush on you. Though then again, I didn't even realized Calypso or Rachel or even Annabeth had a crush on me before they told me.

It was pretty clear that I wasn't a child of Aphrodite...

I shook my head to dispel my rapidly derailing train of thought. "Either way, thanks for having my back."

The son of Hades nodded and gave me a small smile, "Anytime."

ΩΩΩ

I did end up going for a bit of a walk before heading back home. Once again, I stopped by Venus' fountain to call my mom. I told her about the break-up. She was sad for me but she didn't seem very surprised. It made me wonder if she knew it was coming.

When I finally got back to the apartment, I was surprised to see the entire living room full of instruments and stacks of books. There were already three bookshelves set against one wall and I could see another being pushed down the hallway.

When the door closed behind me, a very surprised Apollo popped his head out from behind the moving book case.

"Percy! You're back earlier than I expected." The sun god squeezed his way past the bookshelf and came out into the living room.

I looked around at the mess in confusion, "What are you doing?"

His face instantly went bright red. "I..." I picked my way across the floor so that I could stand beside him rather than having a conversation room across the room. "I was cleaning out my study."

I felt my eyebrows pull together in confusion. "Why?"

The god of the sun scuffed his foot against the floor and looked away. "I thought that... maybe... you'd want to move in with me rather than going back to the house."

I felt my jaw fall open. I didn't know what to say.

Apollo cleared his throat, looking highly embarrassed. "You don't have too... I mean, I just thought you might like having another option."

"You'd let me stay here?"

He finally looked up and met my gaze. His blush was just as dark as before but he nodded. "Yes."

I bit my lip and tried to hold back my excitement at the thought of not leaving. "Are you sure you won't get annoyed of me?"

"I like having you here. Like I said though, you don't have to. I just thought that... if you didn't want to go back, you might like having a real room rather than sleeping on the couch."

I felt a smile spit my face, "You have no idea how awesome that sounds."

He sounded hopeful, "Really?"

I nodded, "This place feels way more like home than the house ever did. As long you're sure, I'm okay with Piper keeping that 3rd room."

For the first time since the conversation had started, the sun god smiled. "I'm positive Perce. As far as I'm concerned, my home is your home."

I felt a tension that I didn't even realize existed evaporate from my chest. I may have wanted to know that Annabeth was alright, but that certainly didn't mean either of us would enjoy seeing each other every day and remembering just what it was that we lost.

"So, do you want some help moving that bookcase?"

ΩΩΩ

Together, the two of us got the rest of the bookcases out of his study and into the living room. I insisted that we take a bit of time to put some of the books and instruments back onto the shelves before we cleaned out the other odds and ends.

It took just about three hours before everything was put in its proper place, though that was mostly because Apollo decided to change how the poetry book were organized from alphabetically to by genre of poem. The only types of poems I could identify were haikus and limericks, so I wasn't much help. I pretty much just passed him the books and let him put them wherever they went.

I did have a lot of fun playing with all the different instruments he had before we put them on the shelves, though we both agreed the only one I had any talent for was the kazoo.

Once the rest of the house was in order, we finally went to gather the last few books and the guitar we left in my new bedroom. It may have not had any furniture, but I couldn't wait to move in. Apollo had already told me I could steal one of his couches until we could figure something else out.

The sun god was walking through the door ahead of me when he came to a sudden stop. I ran into him and barely caught my balance before I fell. I was about to ask him why he stopped before I caught sight of the room.

"Where in Hades did all this come from?"

The sun god shook his head, "I don't know, but I have a fairly good guess. The only question I have is how Poseidon knew..."

I stepped around him to get a better look. Sometime while Apollo and I had been reorganizing everything, a bed, dresser, and two nightstands had appeared. I could understand why he instantly thought of my dad. If the blue and sea-green bedding wouldn't have given it away, the dresser would have. The drawer handles were shells.

When I went closer to the dresser for a better look, I noticed a blue envelope sitting on top of the white wood.

"There's a letter here."

I heard the sun god cross the room to stand behind me as I picked up the note. I recognized my dad's writing on the front. "Good guess Apollo." I opened the envelope and pulled out the letter.

Percy,

Aphrodite just told the council what happened. For what it's worth, I am sorry that you and Annabeth couldn't work it out. She also told us that you were moving in with Apollo; I figured you could use something better than a couch to sleep on.

Your dad,

Poseidon.

P.S. Just a heads up, Athena's either planning a party or on a war path. I'm not certain which.

"Aphrodite certainly has a great deal of interest in you love life."

I sighed and slipped the letter back into its envelope. "Ya, she told me when I was on the quest to save Artemis that she was going to make my love life interesting."

He winced. "I'm sorry."

I laughed. "Nothing we can do about it. I'm just worried about my dad sending all this. Won't he get in trouble?"

The god of the sun shrugged, "I doubt it. You're a god now Percy. Temporary or not, he's allowed to help a fellow god whenever he wants."

"Huh," I looked around and smiled. "Saves us from moving that couch. Thanks dad." I dropped the envelope back onto the dresser and turned to the sun god. "Let's get the rest of the stuff out of here, I'm going to bed."

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Authors Note

Blah ting mope-y Percy is not the easiest thing I've ever done. But that's probably just because he's sad about breaking up with Annabeth. A Percy who was mope-y over Apollo? I think I could write that.

I'm not super happy with this chapter, but I ran out of time so it is what it is.

P.S. I couldn't resist explaining my interpretation of Percy's reaction at the end of BoO.

Next update will be September 27th

Next Chapter:

There were very few things as awkward as moving all of your things out of a house while your recently ex girlfriend watched...