Percy stepped out of the elevator and walked to the door of his apartment. Pulling out his key, he inserted it into the lock and opened the door, stepping inside. He closed the door as quietly as he could, even though it was still late in the afternoon.

The moment he turned around, he saw his mother standing at the kitchen counter, smiling at him. He also noticed a plate of cookies there, and of course, they were blue.

She's trying to soften me up so I'll tell her how it went. Well, I probably would've anyway.

"Cookie?" she asked.

"Sure," he replied, trying hard to keep a straight face, and reaching for one.

As he was about to take a bite, she finally burst.

"Oh, for crying out loud, Percy, will you just tell me how it went?"

He could've sworn he heard a chuckle from Paul in the other room. He merely smiled at her, since he'd been expecting this.

"Mom, I was going to tell you all along, I just wanted to see how long it'd take you to ask." He took a bite out of the cookie before continuing.

"It, er, went really good, actually. I got us a couple tickets on one of those architectural tours of the city, because she loves that sort of thing. She seemed to really like it…I think I stared at her a bit too much, though…" he added the last bit under his breath.

She didn't seem to catch the last part, because she was smiling as wide as he'd ever seen. She rushed over to him and wrapped him in a hug.

"Oh, Percy…so grown up..."

He was a bit taken aback, but he patted her back before managing to break free. His cheeks bright red, he continued.

"I wish she could've stayed longer though, she kind of had a project to work on."

"Project?" she questioned, having regained her composure now.

"Well, um…yeah, she's sort of rebuilding Olympus. You know, after what happened and all."

"That must be a quite a job," she said, a tinge of wonder in her voice.

"Yeah. She can handle it though, I know it," he said, not realizing he was grinning rather stupidly.

His mother laughed at the look on his face, and he awkwardly tried not to meet her eyes.

"I think you've suffered enough, you can go now," she said, still trying not laugh.

"Mmhmm," he mumbled absently, stuffing the rest of the cookie into his mouth and grabbing another before shuffling off to his room.

Flopping down on his bed, he gobbled down the second cookie and looked out his window again. He let his thoughts wander to Annabeth up on Olympus, holding blueprints, shouting orders, her gray eyes intense all the while. He definitely couldn't wait for her call, to hear her voice again. He dozed off after a while, murmuring about the bad part about being invulnerable before he was out.

--

When he awoke, Percy rubbed his eyes and looked over at his clock. It read: 7:00. He breathed a sigh of relief, since he was quite glad he hadn't slept too long. He stood and grabbed his phone off his bedside table, and noticed he had a new voicemail. Having a feeling who it was from, he smiled and listened to it.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain. Why did I have a feeling you wouldn't answer your phone? I bet you're sleeping. You and that stupid invulnerability of yours…anyway, things are going well so far, this really is exciting, you know! Well, I guess you wouldn't know…and promise me two things. One, that you'll answer your phone next time I call, and two, that you'll come visit sometime soon. It is rather lonely here…So, uh, I'll talk to you later. Bye."

His smile grew as he listened to the message, though he smirked when she made the comment about him being asleep.

But she was right…she knows me too well.

It wasn't too late yet, so he decided to call her back. He quickly dialed her number and waited. She answered on the second ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey."

"Percy?"

"Well, duh! Who else would it be! I got your voicemail, and I would've answered if I hadn't been, uh, sleeping."

"I knew it!" she said triumphantly. "You really do sleep quite a lot."

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, will you still be there tomorrow? I really would like to visit you, see you on the job and stuff, you know," he said.

"Of course I'll be here tomorrow, Seaweed Brain! I'm going to be here for quite a while, since this is Olympus we're talking about here." She paused for a moment. "But yes, please come visit, things do always seem better when you're around," she said softly.

"I will see you tomorrow then, Wise Girl," he said, a smile on his face.

"I look forward to it. So, um, bye."

"See ya," he said, and a second later, he heard a click as she hung up.

He stuck his phone back into his pocket, and walked out of his room and into the kitchen in search of something to eat. That was the other bad part about being invulnerable; he was ravenously hungry all the time.

Grinning a bit stupidly to himself, he let the picture he'd thought of before he'd fallen asleep wander back into his head. Thinking of her was something he'd been doing a lot of lately, and he was fine with that.

A/N: I guess this chapter was mostly a setup for the next one, where he'll go visit her on Olympus. I'm thinking of doing it in Annabeth's POV, but I'd like some feedback before I decide. Review, please!