Somehow, at some point in the night, Annabeth fell asleep.

She awoke to sunbeams streaming in through the window. There was a small lump between her knees and a downwards glance confirmed that Blackjack the kitten had decided to curl up there to sleep. Her body ached, but that good kind of ache you get after a hike or a particularly effective workout.

Annabeth stretched out and sat up, glancing down at Percy's sleeping form before turning carefully (so as not to disturb the cat) to get a good look at the pictures on the walls in the daylight.

They were almost all polaroids; photos of ancient Greek ruins, marble statues, the ocean. Some were dated, others were labeled with names. She saw people too– a kind looking middle-aged woman hugging a boy with a shock of black hair from behind. A girl with curly red hair sharing popsicles with the same boy. And–

Her eyes widened in shock, and she got on her knees to better examine the picture that caught her eye. Percy had his arm around a guy about their age, with curly brown hair and a goatee. They were grinning at the camera, wearing matching orange shirts and green lanyards.

Annabeth heard Percy stir beside her, felt the way his body shifted the mattress as he sat up in bed.

"Mmm 'morning," his voice was husky and low, "did you sleep alr–"

"You know Grover?" She looked back at him in time to see his features change to surprise.

"Uh… Yeah," Percy cleared his throat, brow furrowing, "yeah, we volunteered together on a restoration project in Greece several summers ago. He's probably the closest thing I have to a best friend." He frowned, "How do you know him?"

"We grew up together."

Percy froze. "...Wait, seriously?!"

"Yes."

"You… oh fuck." He groaned, falling backwards onto the mattress, covering his eyes with an arm, "Shit. Fuck."

"What?! What is it?"

"You're that Annabeth?!"

"What do you mean that Annabeth?!"

"The one Grover was always talking about! He said he had a friend minoring in classics and—" Percy stopped. Annabeth winced. He lifted his arm from his face, staring at her with confusion, "You… you only minored in classics?"

Annabeth felt her face grow hot, "I… that…"

"No way." He sat up, "Annabeth Chase, classics professor, doesn't even have a Masters in the field?!"

Annabeth groaned, covering her face with her hands.

"How the hell did you get this job?!"

"It's… it's complicated!" Her cheeks burned red hot. Percy had been the absolute last person she wanted to find out about this and now he had figured it out by sheer coincidence. Annabeth peeked between her fingers, but to her surprise, Percy looked impressed.

"It's hard for people with degrees to get these kinds of gigs," He bulldozed forward, full steam ahead, and Annabeth felt indignant.

"I have a degree! It's just… it's just not–"

"What's it in?"

She struggled to answer. It's not that it mattered if he knew or not, but if she said she majored in Architecture he'd have questions. Questions she didn't feel like answering. Questions she didn't want to confront.

"Um… it's… it doesn't matter!" Annabeth huffed, crossing her arms. Percy's eyebrows raised but he didn't push it, and it dawned on Annabeth that something was strange about what he said, "Wait… he told you he knew an Annabeth who was in classics in some capacity and you never connected that to me?"

He shrugged, "I pretty much had forgotten all about that until you brought it up. I mean, Annabeth could be a common name–"

"It's not."

"Right." He grinned, "Well, to beat out other candidates with masters and PHds for this job, you must be really something."

"I have a masters!" She complained again as he got out of bed and pulled on his sweats. She averted her gaze. Despite sleeping together, she still hadn't really gotten a good look at his body, and it was something she still felt a bit shy about.

"Not in classics though." He sent her a smirk over his shoulder as he stretched and headed out towards the kitchen. Blackjack had awoken and he scampered off the bed after his dad. "You want breakfast?"

That was a bad idea. Annabeth knew it was a bad idea. But then her stomach growled and while her brain was saying, 'No, I can't, I should go.' what her mouth said instead was, "That sounds great."

She found the boxers he'd given her to wear the night before tossed beside the bed and pulled them on, perching on a stool beside the island counter as Percy bustled around the kitchen, pulling out ingredients and filling a bowl with wet food for Blackjack which the cat happily pounced on as soon as it was placed before him.

"Waffles okay?"

She nodded.

"With strawberries and cream, or syrup?"

"Both?"

"I can do both." Percy began mixing the batter as Annabeth picked up her phone where it had been charging on the counter, scrolling through emails and texts. A student wanted an extension, a fellow teacher needed a resource, a potluck was coming up– nothing particularly exciting. She yawned, rubbing at her eyes.

"Did you sleep okay?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I slept fine."

"You were kind of restless." He began scooping the mix into the waffle iron.

Annabeth sighed, "That's just kind of how I sleep."

"You move around a lot?"

"Yeah."

It was quiet for a moment, then–

"I can drive–"

"I'll walk–"

They spoke simultaneously and Percy laughed, "I guess we had the same thing on our minds?"

Annabeth nodded, "You don't need to drive me home after breakfast. The bus stop isn't far from here."

"You sure?" He opened the waffle maker, navigating several pristine waffles onto a plate before adding whipped cream, strawberries, and passing it to Annabeth along with the syrup and a fork. Annabeth stared down at the plate, for the first time realizing that the waffles in front of her were bright blue in color.

"Annabeth?" He nudged her for an answer, but all that came out of her mouth was–

"Why are they blue?"

Percy laughed, already making up his own plate and coming around the island to sit next to her, "It's this thing from when I was a kid. My mom made blue food for special occasions and it just became habitual."

"And this is a special occasion?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow, poking at her breakfast with her fork.

Percy shrugged, giving a noncommittal hum before changing the subject, "Seriously, I can drive you."

"And risk someone seeing us? Bad idea."

He laughed again, "Who would see us? It's a big city."

"With my luck the entire faculty will be outside your door when I leave." Annabeth muttered, scooping some waffle into her mouth. Her eyes widened and an inadvertent moan escaped her throat.

"Good?"

"God yes." She ate another piece with a happy hum, stabbing a strawberry with her next bite, "I didn't realize waffles could taste like… that breakfast cereal, with the cinnamon? What did you put in this?!"

A smile flitted across Percy's lips, "You got one ingredient already. I just add a few teaspoons of cinnamon and half a cup of brown sugar."

"Well you're a genius."

"Never thought I'd hear those words coming from your lips."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "A cooking genius, that is. It doesn't count."

"Fine, fine." They ate quietly for a few moments, then, "Hey, you got something on your face." He pointed to a spot on his cheek.

Annabeth frowned, reaching up to wipe at it, "I do?"

"Yup– other side, no, not– Here." Percy leaned forward, taking her face in his hands and licking her cheek.

Annabeth instinctively pushed away, brow furrowing, "You couldn't have used your hands?"

"Nope. Don't want to waste any." He chuckled, though he didn't move away. Annabeth tilted her head at him, frown still in place as she rubbed at her cheek.

"What?" She asked, feeling self-conscious.

"You have something on your lips too."

Annabeth blinked, "Is this your way of coming on to me?"

"Is it working?" His gaze was unwavering, even as she rolled her eyes and huffed.

"I need to get home!"

"Why?"

"Because I have… things to do!"

"What things?"

"Just… stuff!"

"Annabeth, if you don't want to fuck this morning you can say so. You don't need to make up an excuse."

Her face burned as she stuttered out, "That– you… I'm not–! Ugh! I didn't say that!"

Percy smirked, catching some whipped cream on his finger and reaching forward to dollop it onto her nose, "So you do want to?"

Annabeth huffed, going cross eyed for a moment at his gesture and reaching for a napkin to wipe it away, "I didn't say that either!" She rubbed her nose clean, "I don't think it's… We shouldn't… make this a habit."

He raised his brow, "Really? Because I thought all the rules we made last night implied that this would be a habitual thing."

"Okay, maybe, but I mean like… we just slept together not even 10 hours ago and you already want to–?"

"Yup."

She sighed, picking another strawberry off her plate and popping it in her mouth as she mulled it over. True, it was probably a bad idea to do this too often, but… She kind of wanted to try it again. Make sure their crazy sexual chemistry the night before wasn't a fluke. For science. Yeah. For science. Just this once.

"Okay." She said.

"Really? You're sure? You don't feel pressured or–"

"I'm sure." She replied, hopping off the stool and turning to make her way back to the bedroom when Percy caught her around the waist.

"Now where are you going?"

"To… to bed?"

He chuckled, and Annabeth cocked her head to the side. "What?!"

In moments, both his hands were on her hips and he was lifting her and she found herself perched on the counter, Percy's arms on either side of her, trapping her in. "Mmm, we already fucked in the bed."

"... So we can't again?"

"We can, but…" He reached behind her, pulling back with a can of whipped cream and a mischievous smirk, "I'd rather not make it too messy, you know?"

Annabeth complained loudly the entire ride home, slumping down as far as she could in the passenger's seat while Percy looked amused beside her.

"I told you I would take the bus!"

"Yes, you did." He agreed.

"This is not the bus!"

"How astute of you to notice!" Her glare was met with a grin, and Annabeth huffed, sinking even lower in her seat as they stopped at a red light.

"You know it's not safe to sit like that–" He began.

"Shut up and drive Jackson."

But, of course, he didn't seem capable of shutting up, and a beat of silence later, Percy was talking again.

"Why are you complaining, I'd think my rad camaro with leg room and no people would be better than a bus."

"You're people." She argued.

"Other people." He countered.

Annabeth grumbled, "I'd prefer the bus to your stupid car, thanks."

Percy patted his dashboard apologetically, "She doesn't mean that, baby."

Annabeth stared at him, then groaned, "Please say you're not one of those weirdos who talks to their car like it's a girlfriend."

"Hey! I don't!" He thought for a moment, "Well, not all the time."

"Let me out, I'm walking the rest of the way."

"Nice try. That's a no." He turned at the next light glancing at Annabeth again and chuckling to himself, "Come on, you can't hate my presence that badly. You seemed pretty pleased with it last night, in fact. And this morning–"

"Please stop talking."

"I'm just saying, you got pretty creative with that whipped cream–"

"You are actually the worst."

"I'm just stating facts." He shrugged, "And the fact is, you like having sex with me."

Annabeth grumbled under her breath, covering her face with her hands, "Well don't get too full of yourself. It's been a while so I'm pretty sure any attractive person showing interest would have gotten the same treatment."

"So you admit I'm attractive."

"You're passable."

"And you're saying you slept with me anyway, after a dry spell?" Annabeth realized her mistake too late as he continued, "So really that's even more flattering, because you could have chosen to hold out for someone more than 'passable' and yet you still 'settled' for me." Percy glances at her with a grin. She was annoyed at how much he'd been grinning since that night at the Halloween party.

"That– that wasn't… oh you're impossible!"

"I try."

They turned onto her street and Annabeth reached to unbuckle quickly, ready to shower and change out of the clothes she had been wearing the day before and to maybe read a book or grade papers or watch more trashy tv before curling up in her fluffiest pajamas for a long weekend rest.

Percy's hand covered her own, stilling her movements, "Wait."

Annabeth swallowed, not looking at him, "What?"

"Are you sure you don't want to stay through Sunday?"

"...What?!"

"I'm just saying, we can drive back right now, no questions asked."

Annabeth stared at him, aghast, "You're… insatiable!" She undid the buckle and scrambled out of the car, Percy laughing behind her.

"Don't I get a kiss goodbye?"

"In your dreams, Jackson!" She slammed the door shut, and spun on her heel, marching into her apartment building and grumbling under her breath, cheeks feeling warm despite the drizzly weather.

When Annabeth stomped into her apartment and slumped against the door, the night before as well as her morning played in her head on repeat. She lightly smacked her cheeks with her hands, trying to snap out of it.

She had slept with Professor Perseus Jackson. And she had liked it.

With a groan, she pushed off from the door and headed to the shower, hoping she could focus on something, anything else.

Annabeth spent her day after her showers in fluffy pajamas, as planned, grading papers while yet another trashy dating show played in the background. Those had been Piper's fault– They hung out once at home and she had gotten Annabeth hooked on "Love and Robots", where contestants had to e-Date each other and guess whether they were talking to a real person or an AI. And then Annabeth had finished the season on her own, and found another show. Then another one.

'I used to watch educational things.' She mused silently to herself.

'This could be educational.' The voice in her head reasoned.

'How so?' She asked herself.

'Well, it could fix your abysmal dating life.'

Annabeth huffed through her nose, her thoughts already annoying her, 'I got laid literally twice in 12 hours, I think I'm doing okay.'

'Ah, but you're not dating him.'

She slammed down a paper, realizing she had been reading the same sentence over and over again, 'And that's a good thing!'

'Is it?'

She kicked her legs off the couch and stalked to the kitchen for a popsicle, muttering under her breath. She didn't want to date Percy! That's why they agreed to this arrangement– no strings, no feelings, no hurt.

So why couldn't she stop thinking about him?

Sunday morning, she was awoken by her cellphone buzzing. Groggily, Annabeth reached for it, clicking it on and holding it to her ear, "Hello?"

"Mom collapsed." Bobby's voice echoed in her head and Annabeth jerked to sit up.

"What?! When?"

"Just now," He sounded scared, "Dad is taking her to the doctor, I… Matthew and I are home."

"Shit…" Annabeth exhaled heavily through her nose, rubbing her temple, "Okay, okay, I'll be over in a few. Do you guys want ice cream?"

"We're not really– yeah. Yeah ice cream would be good."

Annabeth hurried to dress as soon as they said goodbye, speed walking to the convenience store on the corner of her street to grab the aforementioned ice cream. Three pints; one for each of them. Then, it was simply a matter of catching the next bus to the suburbs and she was walking in the front door, greeted by the solemn faces of her brothers.

They didn't say anything– they didn't need to. Wordlessly, Bobby got spoons and Matthew grabbed bowls, while Annabeth set the melting ice cream on the counter. They'd been through this before. Everyone knew the drill.

Once they were settled in the living room with their ice cream, Matthew turned on cartoons, but no one was really paying attention to them. Annabeth scooped a chunk of cookie dough into her mouth, mulling over what would happen if the cancer was back.

"Was Helen conscious?" She finally asked.

Bobby nodded, "Yeah, yeah she seemed fine, she just kind of… fell over while making breakfast. Dad insisted on taking her to get checked, you know, just in case…" He trailed off, sniffing before digging back into his chocolate fudge.

"I'm sure she's fine." Matthew piped up from his seat on the floor, voice strained despite the casual tone, "Chemo did a number on her, it's probably just… that."

"Probably." Bobby repeated, but he didn't sound convinced.

Annabeth sighed, putting her bowl on the coffee table, "Look, guys, Helen is a strong lady. She'll be okay, no matter what. And she has you two to support her, and Dad… and me. Let's just take this a step at a time, okay?"

The boys both nodded slowly, before turning their attention back to the television and cartoon hijinks. Annabeth gnawed on her lip, holding in her own concern. Matthew and Bobby were only 17… that was way too young to lose a parent.

'You'd know.' The voice in her head said.

'My mother is still alive.' Annabeth thought back.

Her brain didn't respond, but the fact that Annabeth had lost her mother long before she could even comprehend it weighed heavy on her heart. Sure, she was out there, somewhere– Annabeth saw her on the news sometimes, campaigning. But that was the extent of their interactions, and always had been. One-way, distant, loveless.

The boys had a mother. One who loved them and cared for them, one they may have to watch fade away, and Annabeth couldn't find it in herself to feel pity for her own situation when her brothers were facing something far worse.

She fiddled with her phone, lost in thought, not even registering the cartoon duck getting smashed by an anvil that should have killed him, nor the slowed breathing of Bobby as he drifted off to sleep on the couch beside her, nor Matthew leaving the room, mumbling something about it being "raid day" on his computer.

If the cancer was back… would it be like last time? No, it couldn't be… the boys were grown now, and her dad–

Well. It might be a bit like last time, regardless of how old or capable Bobby and Matthew might be.

A few hours passed. Annabeth cleaned up the ice cream, and the kitchen as well, still messy from the unfinished breakfast of that morning. She could hear Matthew talking with some buddies over headset in his bedroom; video games always helped him relax, and she had fond memories of watching him, perched on his bed, listening to him explain mechanics and storylines to her.

Bobby reacted to strain a bit differently. He boxed. And he slept. Annabeth remembered picking him up from the gym and how he'd pass out in the car on the way home. He napped in the afternoons. He'd sleep through dinner. Annabeth even got one or two calls from their school, complaining that he was sleeping during classes.

"Stress response," the doctors had said when Annabeth took him to get checked up. They'd prescribed an anti-anxiety medication and it was just one more thing their family had to worry about.

She was finishing the dishes when her parents walked in, Frederick helping Helen to the stairs without so much as a backwards glance at Annabeth.

"Is she okay?" Annabeth called after them.

"They ran some tests." Her father waved her off, "We'll know more later in the week."

That was it. No "Hello", no "Thank you for coming over", no "Oh you didn't have to clean!" But Annabeth knew what to expect by now. She checked on Bobby, still passed out on the couch, before poking her head into Matthew's room.

"Hey, I'm leaving."

Matthew nodded, focused on the computer screen, "See ya, 'Beth."

She knew he couldn't pause an online game, but part of her still ached for a better goodbye. Sighing, Annabeth gathered her things, took one last look at her childhood home, then walked out the door and began her trek back to the bus stop and her lonely little apartment.