A/N: I'd like to make a quick disclaimer before a continue one with the Author's Note. Not the I-don't-own-PJO-so-don't-sue (although I don't, so don't), but a disclaimer that this might be really, really awful. I'm sorry. It was a fabulous prompt given to me by BecauseI'Mageek, and I'm sorry to say that I failed at this prompt. I'm posting this anyway, not because I've polished it, but because before I do another non-prompt I have insisted to myself that I much do a prompt. And, therefore, I am publishing this because I want to give you guys a one-shot. And if I don't, I know I will feel horrible.

So, without further ado, welcome to Playing with Fire

Chapter 6: Playing with Fire

Dinner parties could be absolutely exhausting.

It wasn't like they actually required much physical effort, or anything. Quite the contrary, in fact. According to science eating dinner gave you more energy. But it seemed like, recently, dinner only drained Percy more.

But tonight was different. The guest was still one of Annabeth's clients and her spouse, but tonight was different. The dinner conversation was funny.

Eva, the client, and her wife, Rose, sat opposite Annabeth and Percy, grinning their heads off. The two had just finished a story about a guy who had somehow not managed to realize that Eva was married (or gay) and had given her thousands of dollars' worth of wine and had only figured out Eva's marital status upon inviting her (and a plus one) on a helicopter ride in Hawaii. The conversation that had ensued had greatly entertained the helicopter pilot, Percy was sure, seeing as the man had assumed there was going to be some three person action going on, only to realize that, in fact, Eva nor Rose had any interest in the man.

"Let me tell you the story of how Percy burnt down the kitchen," Annabeth said, in between bouts of laughter.

Percy reddened immediately and kind of wanted to hide underneath the restaurant's linen clothed table. But, being the super professional (I'm sure you are, Percy) fiancée he was, Percy chose to sit their calmly and try to secretly signal Annabeth not to tell the story.

But as Percy's signals became more frantic and Annabeth only continued to tell an exaggerated story of the time Percy had accidentally lit the kitchen on fire, trying to bake Annabeth a cake, Percy realized that it was hopeless; she was going to tell the story.

"His first mistake, of many, was choosing a vanilla recipe. Then he managed to use normal cooking ingredients to create a combustible cake batter."

That was very true, actually, although honestly, Percy had no idea how he'd managed to screw up a "simple" cake batter recipe so much that it had become combustible. Like—how was that actually possible? He had been putting a lot of the wrong measurements, he knew now—looking back on it, but what exactly had he done to make it explode?

"The thing about things that are combustible is, when put in the oven and turned up to 375 degrees, they don't usually fare too well," Annabeth said, giving Percy a look that said you're cute, but very stupid, "So, obviously, Percy put the combustible thing in the oven and then turned it up to 400 hundred degrees—which, as you might have noticed, is hotter than the required temperature."

That was true too. Percy had accidentally put in 400 hundred degrees (he really didn't know how to bake) and just put the cake in the oven. But while Annabeth made Percy sound like an idiot, he hadn't known the cake was combustible. And if he had, there was an 80% chance he wouldn't have put it in the oven. (The other 20% was more of a "I'm Percy Jackson and I saved the world twice, a cake isn't going to effing blow me up".)

"And so, the kitchen exploded. BOOM. Just like that. But it was a very small explosion, actually. So instead of just being a rather life threatening everyday explosion, it had to light the kitchen on fire on top of that. I get home five minutes later to find a partly exploded house and a very confused boyfriend just standing there. Watching the flames burn. Luckily I was able to call 911, although perhaps the neighbours got to the phone before I did and every party involved was okay. But it was very stupid. And he just stood there." Annabeth said. She rolled her eyes and the table exploded into laughter, all except Percy who just added a small chuckle.

Most of that was true. The whole explosion had really taken a number to Percy's mental state, hence the frozen-ness, and Annabeth had come home, on her birthday, to a partly exploded house and a very on-fire kitchen. But the fire department had never actually been called (were the neighbours on vacation? Percy didn't know). Instead, Annabeth had whacked him on the head and yelled something along the lines of, "DON'T YOU HAVE MAGICAL PLUMBING POWERS YOU GREAT BIG COMBUSTIBLE IDIOT?" And then Percy had remembered that he did, indeed, have magically plumbing powers so he'd used toilet water and sink water and whatever water in the house he could magically control and he'd put out the on-fire kitchen, leaving everything burnt and ashy.

That had been a low point in Percy's life. Despite the whole Tartarus thing, the kitchen exploding had been a low point in Perseus Jackson's life.

A/N: Bad? Awful? Just plain annoying? If it is any of those I sincerely apologize. But if you liked it then HOORAY I actually did something productive today. Does sleeping count as being productive? That's the real question here.

I'm still going to continue Coffee Shop Love, because I like writing drabbles and one-shots out of the far reaches of my mind, but I was thinking of doing a ten-ish chapter short story of an AU Percabeth over the holidays.

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?

xx

StrawberryofLife (officially thirteen!)