I DON'T OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS, THEY ALL BELONG TO RICK RIORDAN

ARTEMIS POV

My phone alarm starts blaring in my ear, waking me up slightly. Although, as if on cue, my black Newfoundland, Leto, jumps on my bed and starts licking my face to force me out of bed. I laugh and shove her off before rolling out of bed and setting my feet on the cold, natural brick flooring of my studio apartment.

I stand up and walk to the bathroom, Leto nudging my side as I do so. I sigh and take a quick detour, filling up her food bowl and watching as she devours it almost instantly.

I return to my walk to the bathroom, glancing at myself in the mirror before quickly washing off Leto's slobber and my tiredness before continuing to get ready. I brush my teeth before I straighten my silver hair, and pull it back into a ponytail and put on a little bit of mascara and rushed to my closet. I put on a pair of black Lululemon shorts and a matching sports bra and thin jacket before grabbing my running shoes and throwing them on.

"Leto!" I call and she jogs into my room, her leash in her mouth. I smile, hook it onto her collar, grab my water bottle, and head down to go for a run.

About fifteen minutes into our run I pause to take a break, Leto whining impatiently as I do so. Before we can resume, a brown Newfoundland comes up to Leto, dragging his owner with him and successfully pulling him onto me.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!" The owner mutters to himself, shoving himself off of me and holding out a hand to help me up. "I'm so, so sorry. I just got him and he hasn't learned what the words 'stop' and 'no' mean, yet."

I laugh and grab his hand, letting him pull me up. "It's fine. Newfies are quite a handful, especially when you first get them." I respond with a smile. "What's his name?"

"Percy." The owner says, looking at me with a weird grin on his face. "Wait, no, that's my name. His name is Chaos." He shakes his head, his dark hair falling into his blue-green eyes.

I laugh again, looking at the two dogs as they sniff each other and play. "Well Chaos, I think, is fitting." I glance over at him.

"Yeah, that was just an accident I guess. I actually named him after the Greek god." He mumbled.

I smile. "Well, you're gonna love my name." I say, my slight Southern accent emphasized. "Hi Percy, I'm Artemis."

He laughs hard, before glancing at me again. "Are you serious?" He asks, quite amused.

I nod. "Yeah, dead serious."

He smiles again. "That's amazing."

"Thanks, I guess." I shrug, looking back over at Leto. "Oh, my dog's name is Leto, by the way."

He shakes his head, his smile growing by the second. "That's hilarious, you know. Since Leto is Artemis's mom and all."

"Yeah, I thought it'd be funny so I went with it." I grin.

He nods. "Yeah, I love your hair, by the way."

"Th-" Before I could respond, I'm cut off by our dogs barking at each other, almost as if they're trying to have a conversation.

"Well, that's my cue. I have to go get ready for work, anyways. Maybe I'll see you some other time?" I say, gently tugging on Leto's leash to get her attention. "Bye, Percy."

"Bye, Artemis."

I send him one last smile, to which he returns with his own, and run back to my apartment to get ready. When I arrive, I have about thirty minutes to quickly shower and pull on my deep purple scrubs. I finish my shower in about ten minutes before blow-drying my thick hair, which takes another ten minutes, and rush to my closet to change.

I blow a kiss to Leto as she lays on her giant pillow and rush out the door, climbing into my matte black Audi A7 and driving to work. No, I'm not rich, I've just worked since I was fourteen and saved up my money for things like these. Now that I'm twenty-two, I've saved up just enough for all of these beautiful things.

I arrive at Brookside Veterinary Clinic, where I am a vet tech, about five minutes and I walk in through the back door and am met with other techs rushing around, helping the five vets the run the place.

I hurriedly clock in before I'm whisked away by my favorite vet to work with, Dr. Casseras, a sweet, young woman only a couple years older than me who is in her early stages of pregnancy. She leads me to her office and before we walk in, she turns to me.

"I think you're going to like this patient." She gives me a sly smile and opens the door, following behind me. I'm greeted by a beautiful, brown Newfie and his equally as beautiful owner, Percy.

"Artemis?" Percy says, looking at me in disbelief.

I awkwardly smile. "Hey, Percy." I bend down and pet Chaos on the head before glancing back at Dr. Cass.

She gives us both a smile and looks between us. "You two already know each other? That makes this so much easier!"

I grin and look at Percy. "Yeah, Chaos kinda dragged Percy into me, literally, this morning." I glanced at Percy awkwardly and saw him doing the same and we both looked away.

She laughs. "Well, that's how the best love stories start." She whispers to me with a grin, although I think Percy heard as well because his cheeks flushed and he pushed his glasses back on his nose.

I rolled my eyes. "Well, what are we doing with poor Chaos?" I ask her.

She grabs Chaos's chart and glances through it. "Just his yearly shots."

I nod. "Eighteen gauge? I ask, pulling out the tiny bottles and syringes.

"For a dog as big as him, probably, yeah."

I grab out a few needles and twist them onto the syringes, sticking them into the bottle and pulling the liquid into each syringe.

As I'm doing this, she clears her throat. "So, Mr. Jackson, Chaos is a new patient?"

"Yup. Just got him."

"From where?" She asks, writing it down.

"The shelter." He responds, petting Chaos's head. "His owners ditched him in an abandoned house and the police took him there."

She nods and I place the syringes next to Dr. Cass and look at Percy. "That's awful." I say, glancing down at the sweet dog laying at Percy's feet.

"How old is he, do you think?" Dr. Cass asks.

Percy pauses. "The shelter said about three."

She writes that down and walks over to the counter, grabbing a few treats and hands them to me. "After each shot, give him one please," she looks over at Percy. "That is, if that's fine with you."

He nods and I sit down next to Chaos and pet him, distracting him from the shots and giving him a treat every few seconds.

"All done! You're free to check out. Just go down this hallway and take a left and you're golden." She says before leaving the room and going to get the file of her next patient.

I get off the floor, wiping off my pants and picking up the trash and throwing the needles in the Sharps container.

"Artemis!" Percy shout-whispers, scaring me.

"Holy crap you scared me. What?" I shout-whisper back.

He hands me a piece of paper with a grin. "You dropped this on your run." With that, he walks off to check out and I look down. On it, is his phone number with a note that says to 'call me'.

I shake my head, smiling to myself, and put it in my pocket and returning back to work.

Hope y'all enjoyed! I'll be updating almost every day, so yeah