A/N: Hey guys back with another update! Hope you like it!

This chapter happens after Chapter 11!

Having worked in the service industry for as long as he has, he's certainly developed somewhat of a thick skin to all the bullshit that comes with the job. Of course, that doesn't mean that things don't get to him.

Especially when it's been one shitty thing after another.

Earlier in the week, the precarious oven door (that admittedly had a tendency of getting stuck) decided to fling itself into its own proverbial flame and had stopped working all together. And though he can still use the stove (he's got no idea how that's happening but it's better not to question it) he's unable to bake.

Which, for Percy, is an imminent problem as his supply of blue chocolate chip cookies is dwindling.

So after five attempts he finally gets in contact with his landlord about it, only to hear that it's going to take a week. And with that happy news, he proceeds to go to work and deal with some of the worst customers he's had to face since moving here.

Suffice to say, Percy has had a very not-good day that's compounded into a not-good week at this point.

Trying to shrug off his irritation, he flips through the channels on his TV in hopes that something can distract him from this mess.

A familiar voice puts an end to the channel shuffling. "—we wanted to make it like a fairytale."

On screen is none other than his girlfriend. She's smiling at the interviewer who's asked yet another question about the photoshoot that Percy doesn't hear nor cares to.

The camera once again focuses on Annabeth as she replies. Oh, and there's another thing. He hasn't seen his girlfriend all week since she's been on said photoshoot (and evidently doing interviews about it too) which certainly hasn't helped matters.

He stares at the screen despondently, not hearing a word of the interview, all too consumed with how shitty his life has been.

A knock on the door jolts him out of it. What was that?

He gets up and looks through the peephole. A hooded figure is standing there, looking down. Immediately, he opens the door.

"Annabe—?" His question is halted as she enters the apartment and flops down on his couch. Closing the door behind her, he watches her take note of what's on the screen.

"Ugh, can we turn that off? That interview sucked, this entire week has sucked," are the first words out of her mouth. Before he can answer, she's already switching the channel.

It's not the channel switching that really annoys him, nor is it the fact that she showed up unannounced. In fact, he's not entirely sure what annoys him, but suddenly that anger he's been trying to distract himself from comes to the forefront.

He doesn't answer and she looks at him. "Why are you standing there?"

"I can't stand in my own apartment?"

It comes out a tad bit snippier than he meant it to. Annabeth frowns. "What's with the attitude? I was just asking."

There's a slight undercurrent of annoyance to her tone as well. He tries to ignore it.

"Want water?" he asks instead, already moving to the kitchen in an attempt to calm down. He doesn't want to blow up at her.

But she doesn't let it go, standing up, she follows him to the small dining table. "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing," he murmurs, pulling out a glass.

"Clearly, it's not nothing!" Annabeth pushes. "All you've done since I've gotten here is give me attitude. Why? What did I do?"

Nothing, she really hasn't done anything. And as he's trying to figure out how to word his apology, she mumbles under her breath, but he catches it.

"As if my shitty week couldn't get worse."

Somehow, that sets him off. He whirls around to face her. "You know, I've had a shitty week too! You don't see me complaining about it!"

"No?" Annabeth crosses her arms. "Instead, you're just acting horrible towards me! At least I wasn't throwing shade at you!"

"Oh come on, you were on a photoshoot! A customer literally threw coffee in my face!"

"How dare you!" Annabeth throws her arms in the air. "So you're important and I'm not?"

"You're always important!"

The last words ring loudly through the small space, his own mocking tone seems to echo in his ears. As soon as the words leave him, he wants to take them back.

As soon as he sees her face, he wants to slap himself.

No, no, no, no this is not how this was supposed to go. What the hell is wrong with him? How could he say such things?

In a second, he's by her side. "Oh my god Annabeth! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it like that! I don't know what got into me, I'm so sorry—"

She halts his stream of words by taking a step back.

The action halts his heart.

Fuck.

Fuck. He really fucked up. This is it. This is how he fucking loses the love of his life. He's screwed up so badly. How can he possibly make it up to her?

A part of him wants to fall to his knees and beg forgiveness, but he's frozen in place, heart beating so fast he feels like it's going to give out.

As she wipes a tear from her face, he watches his entire world shatter to pieces.

"Annabeth…" His voice is hoarse and foreign even to himself. He can't lose her. He needs to make it better, needs to fix this.

She looks at him, meeting his eyes for the first time and why is she getting blurry?

"Percy—"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Please, give me another chance, please don't—"

He can't bring himself to say the words. It's a terrifying thought. He feels wetness on his cheeks and realizes that he's crying. Now that's a sorry state. Crying and begging, she really shouldn't be with him in the first place.

Her hand touches his and he numbly follows as she leads them both to the couch to sit. His mind is racing, wondering if the touch is reassuring or she just wants him to sit down as she breaks up with him.

Annabeth sniffles beside him, before taking a deep breath and turning to him.

"Okay," she says, clearing her throat and gathering herself. "We need to talk, Percy—"

"Are you…breaking up with me?" his voice comes out in a whisper, the lump in his throat preventing anything more than that.

"What?" Annabeth looks at him with what looks like genuine shock. "No, of course not!"

It's like he learns how to breathe all over again. The relief that floods him is immeasurable.

"Percy," Annabeth begins again. "Did you actually think I was going to…?" she trails off, searching his face for the answer.

He's too busy trying to process the relief to attempt to hide any of his true thoughts from her.

"Oh, Percy!" She immediately reaches out, holding his hands in hers. "I wouldn't, I mean, how could you think that? Just because we got into a fight? Our first fight, by the way. And you think I'd just break up with you because of it?"

"I said some shitty things," he replies, unable to look at her. His gaze rests on where her hands are holding his.

"Yes, but you clearly apologized…and I was insensitive too…"

He quickly looks up at her. "No, you don't have to—" She cuts him off with a shake of her head.

"I do, and we need to talk about this. I know I kind of waltzed in here and just started complaining, without even asking how you were. I also pushed you, and it's not like I didn't yell back."

She holds up a hand to stop him before he can say anything.

"Please let me continue. I had a bad week, and I was in a bad mood, which explains my behavior but doesn't excuse it. I'm sorry for yelling and being insensitive."

She pauses to take another breath. "That said, you said some…things…and I want to hear your side of this."

For a moment, he just looks at her, both hands now back on her lap. She's looking to the floor and not at him. He's hurt her, and yet she's still trying to work this out. He owes her this.

"Thank you," he starts. "But I don't think you need to apologize. Obviously, I was in a bad mood and started giving you shit when you've done nothing wrong. I should have explained myself."

"Yes," Annabeth glances at him. "I would rather have you explain yourself then try to hide it."

"I wasn't trying to hide it…I was trying to get over it."

"But in repressing it you blew up at me, so next time," she looks at him pleadingly, "just tell me you're in a bad mood and I'll leave you alone."

He nods, ashamed by his own behavior. "I will. I'm sorry."

There's a moment of silence before Annabeth continues. "You…um…you said…" she starts haltingly, clearly nervous about bringing this up. "You said that it was a photoshoot…and that I was 'important'…."

He winces, knowing how bad those words were. "I didn't mean it, I was just mad, I'm so sorry."

She looks down again. "No, but you did. I mean, I don't think you would ever say that to me…but it came out because it's there, in the back of your head…"

"I…" How does he explain this? How does he even figure out what he's been subconsciously thinking? Annabeth sits in silence, waiting for his explanation.

"I don't really mean it," he finally repeats. "I think, maybe, it's just 'cause I've been serving people coffee and had a bad time that it was just hard for me to see how a photoshoot could be as bad. Not that!" he quickly adds. "Not that I actually feel that way! I know that what you do is hard work too and that you can also have bad days and it's not as glamorous as it seems! I think it's because that interview made it so…appealing that I just…"

He trails off, not sure how to explain this without making it worse.

"I had to be that way for the interview," she responds.

"I know!" he cries. "Oh, Annabeth I know! I don't ever want to lessen your life or your problems! I just, I was in a bad mood and my mind twisted things. I promise you I don't actually think that way!"

"Do you think I make things all about me?" she asks quietly, undoubtedly referring to the mocking comment from before.

"No! You don't! I was just salty for no reason, and I should never have projected that onto you! I..." he stares at his hands helplessly.

"I guess I've just been feeling so low about myself because of my week that I just…" he looks up at her. "I promise it's not about you, it's just because I feel bad about me."

Slowly, she nods, glancing up at him. "Okay."

He wants to take her in his arms and apologize until she believes it, he wants so desperately to make it better and he doesn't know how to do that.

"Can I…" he trails off, widening his arms a bit to resemble what he wants. Thankfully, she understands and in a second, she's in his arms and he's holding her close.

"I'm so sorry, Annabeth," he whispers, dropping a kiss onto her head.

"Me too…I should've asked you about yourself too before complaining."

He's about to tell her it's okay but she continues. "I'm sure that didn't help in you feeling so low about yourself…but I'll ask now, tell me about your week. What happened?"

It's not something he even wants to get into now, but she's asked. And he should answer. Last time he tried to bottle it up, it didn't work out.

"Well, it started cause my oven broke—"

"No! The cookies!"

He cracks a small smile at that. "Exactly, and I had to call my landlord five different times just to get ahold of him and of course he was an asshole about it and finally said he'd get a guy out in a week. And then I had this one customer who was horrible. She was rude, which sucks but is bearable, but after I made her drink, she took one sip and said it wasn't what she ordered. It totally was, by the way, even though it was a long complicated order. And when I assured her it was, she threw it in my face and demanded a refund and called me pathetic."

"Oh my god!" Annabeth rises from where she was resting on his chest to meet his eyes. "Percy! That's horrible, she's a bitch!"

Another small smile makes its way onto his face at her anger on his behalf. "Yeah, well, then I did actually mess up an order and the guy was rude about it and then I just had some generally mean people…"

Annabeth stares at him. "You never mentioned this in your texts…"

He shrugs. "I didn't want to bog down your photoshoot."

Annabeth looks him in the eye. "Next time, just tell me, Percy. Trust me, I'd rather know how you're feeling. Please?"

Even though he doesn't want to (he would hate to ruin a good time for her) he nods.

"Plus, my shoot sucked anyway, so…"

"Tell me about it," he urges. "Your turn, tell me about your shitty week."

Annabeth leans back on his chest.

"Well, the photographer was an asshole for one. Kept telling me I was doing everything wrong and so our shoot ran over a few hours. He also tried to physically move me, which I allow with some people, just not hi—"

"He what?" And all the anger is back in full force because how dare—

Annabeth puts a soothing hand to his chest. "Don't worry, I put a stop to that. Granted, he then added three hours to the shoot time but whatever."

"I'm going to punch him! Wait no, I'm going to dump coffee in his stupid face!"

Annabeth lets out a little giggle. "Iced or hot?

He looks down at her, a smile on his face, and holds her even closer. "Oh, hot of course!"

"He'll be so confused," she says, going along with it.

"He deserves it! No one pulls that kind of shit on my girlfriend!"

He feels Annabeth's smile onto his chest and for the first time all week, he thinks that maybe everything is going to be okay.

A/N: Shoutout to anon on tumblr for requesting a fight in this au! I think it's actually an important piece to this much bigger puzzle, because it can't always be sunshine and rainbows for them.

The fight I've written in this fic is something I think all of us have done at some point, been in a bad mood and taken it out, unwillingly, on someone we love. It's just a human thing. Plot-wise it's also their first fight, which is obviously going to be much scarier and a bigger deal for them even if it started with something trivial.

These oneshots are really starting to build the bigger picture of this series, I hope you guys are liking it! Please Review! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

And as always, thanks for reading!

See ya! :)