"I can't believe you talked me into this."

"You cannot tell me you're not having fun!"

Annabeth slammed her foot down in the corner of the pad on the floor, making music start on the TV screen.

"When did you even see these old things?" Percy moaned. He thought he'd hidden them pretty well behind the TV.

Annabeth sent a smug little smile in his direction, "When I was going on my little rampage in here."

"You little-"

"Dance, Percy! Unless you want to lose?"

Clumsily, the two danced in the living room of the Jackson apartment. Percy remembered only too well when his mom and him had been at the department store, and seen the new 'Dance, Dance Revolution' game. They'd used to play it a lot, but he'd hidden them once the option showed up.

"You're really bad. Remind me to not ask you to prom." Percy teased at the blonde. She slapped his shoulder, (pretty hard actually.) Looking over at her, he couldn't stop the smile. Just like Annabeth, to be a try-hard at everything. Her tongue was stuck between her lips as she concentrated on the arrows moseying on up the screen.

"Yeah, well you're not the best dancer in the world either." she retorted after slamming both her feet down.

"That's not true. It's because I'm wearing socks. I used to be a beast at this game."

"Key words there Seaweed Brain: used to!"

"Just for that," Percy brought his feet up, tearing his socks off, unfortunately missing some arrows, but jumped immediately back into the game.

The song finished with both of them slamming their left feet onto the little bead-filled mat.

Percy's grade was an A, and Annabeth's was a B.

"I can't believe you beat me." She sounded literally surprised.

"I can't believe we just did that at," Percy glanced at the clock, "2:34 in the morning."

Annabeth laughed slightly as she collapsed back onto the couch. Percy sat next to her, just letting his gaze fall on her as she laughed.

He still found her shockingly beautiful, every time he looked at her. Her blonde hair was fanned out on the couch, and her eyes were closed, with her face turned up towards the ceiling.

He was still cursing the events of the day before, and all of the thoughts that plagued him. But he hadn't even stopped listening to the little green monster for a moment to think what she may have been feeling. And that definitely wasn't how a couple was supposed to act.

"I'm sorry." His voice had gotten extremely quiet, and he barely heard himself over the loud music of the game. He shook his head, trying to convince his voice to be heard.

But his voice wasn't allowing him to go louder. He was about to try again when she said in the same tone his had been, said "I know."

She looked truly upset, and he'd been the one to cause it. He tried to move closer to her, so he could show her how truly sorry he was, even if her had to grovel, (though Annabeth wasn't a fan of groveling,) when she held a hand to his chest to keep him from moving any closer. Her eyes still had that sad look about them, but they were sharp now too.

"We're not doing this. And if this is going to happen all of the time with us…I don't know what we'll do."

Dread filled Percy's whole being. He'd been expecting these words sometime or another. She was doing it. She was going to break it off.

"But what happened today," she fixed her gaze upon the DDR mat in front of her. "I'm not even sure what happened today. I don't know what was going on with you at all. You've never, and I mean never, acted like that to me. I don't think you've acted like that to anybody. So, I'm confused. I don't know what's going on."

Every one of her words was like a little nick of celestial bronze to him. He hated seeing Annabeth like this. She was supposed to be smiling, or have her concentrated look at one of Daedalus' files, or look of wonder as she kept building up Olympus again.

It was the least he could do, to tell her the truth. He took a deep breath. It took almost all of the courage he had to say what he did next.

"So who's Brian?"

The emotions in Annabeth's eyes boggled him. First, she looked shocked that he knew the name of this boy. This made the jealousy build up a little more power, but then it disintegrated again when her look turned to one of confusion, then to one of understanding, then one of…glee?

Her real smile he'd longed for the whole night broke across her lips. She started laughing lightly, but she looked genuinely happy.

Why is she smiling? This is tearing me apart!

That's all? That's why he'd been so cold, or so weird all day? Because of Brian? At first it had confused her. How had he known who he was? But then she remembered the call she got earlier today, and like a snap of fingers, she understood.

Percy had been jealous.

That was the thought that made her smile. The whole time, she'd been so worried that they were falling apart, and they really weren't meant for each other, when he was just jealous of some asshole!

His look was full of distress. She just kept chuckling softly to herself, and grinning. If something was so funny, he wanted to be let in on the joke, not sitting here confused, with that annoying little monster clutching at his back.

And then chaos came into the room. Literally.

The door to Percy's apartment broke down, sending little particles of wood everywhere, and in the doorway, stood Thalia, Nico, Grover, and Tyson.

"Nice job, big guy!" Thalia congratulated the Cyclops as he rubbed his fist.

Percy and Annabeth held the same expression, that simply said, "WHAT?"

Grover had that look of panic on his face, that he gets when he smells monsters, and Nico just looked angry.

"What are you guys doing here?" Percy asked, now looking thoroughly confused.

"Sorry to interrupt all the love, but you guys really need to get out here." All of the rest of their friends behind them nodded, Percy was afraid Tyson's head would fall off he was nodding so hard.

"Why? What's going on? What are all of you doing here?-" Percy kept asking, but Annabeth was up, her dagger at the ready. She knew Thalia too well, and she knew by just her look, that she was serious.

Percy gave Annabeth an odd look, but pulled Riptide out of his pocket. They both followed their friends down the flights of stairs, and out onto the sidewalk.

Percy clenched his jaw when he saw the same scene he had in Annabeth's driveway. There stood Brian, leaning against his car. His face lit up when Annabeth came into view. She got a disgusted face.

"Annabeth! I've finally found you baby!"

She groaned, rolling her eyes. "When will you get the hint?" she whispered under her breath, but Percy heard it, and frowned. What was that supposed to mean?

Percy lead the group closer to the car, but Tyson whimpered, and refused to go any further. Grover didn't look much better.

"You like him? I made him myself." A voice cut through the night. It was sharp, but had this note to it, almost a tempting note, a convincing one.

They all looked up to the form that was lounging on the hood of Brian's car that they hadn't noticed before. The huge form moved off of the car, and came to rest next to the annoying boy.

"Hello Percy Jackson. Nice to finally meet your acquaintance isn't it?"

Why do they all always say that, when really all they want to do is eat me like fried chicken or something?

The thing finally fell under the street lamp, and Percy flinched. The thing was disgusting. It was small, but extremely obese. It leered at them with ink black teeth, and green venom slipped down it's chest.

Annabeth gasped. She felt like slapping herself. She should've known there was something sketchy about the boy, and all of his advances.

"Who are you?"

The leer got even uglier, if that was possible, and it answered, "I'm Zelos. The demon of Jealousy. But you already knew that, didn't you Percy?"

A/N: I'M BACK!