Lives Collide

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.

The Olympia family dinner, a few weeks after the Ball, could not have been any more awkward. Normally it was simply boring with small talk and waiting until it was time to leave.

Now, however, Poseidon was glaring at Hera, Hera was ignoring him, Zeus was darting looks between them while Hades just wished that he was back in his own house. Persephone was maintaining some sense of indifference while Apollo and Artemis were waiting for someone to lose it.

So the large dining room of the penthouse was quiet, with only the scraping for cutlery across plates and the sipping of wine. Finally, after the main course but before dessert, Poseidon snapped out, "Are we really not going to talk about it?!"

Hera turned to him as if he had asked for the weather forecast; relaxed and guiltless.

"Don't; don't give me that 'I don't know what you're talking about' look! You sent those men after Percy!" Poseidon yelled, slamming his fist onto the table.

All the plates and glasses shook with the force and Artemis lazily placed a hand on her wineglass to still it.

Hades leaned forward and looked across the table at Poseidon. "Look brother, I understand that this is a very tense situation but if you could calm yourself-."

"Calm myself? After what she did? She's psychotic!"

"Well we knew that already," Apollo muttered, causing Zeus to clear his throat. "I'm not going to say she's sorry but I am making sure that Hera doesn't repeat those actions towards Percy again."

Poseidon snorted and said, "Do you really think you can control her; she's far more talented than you think, right?" The end of the sentence was directed towards the woman sitting across from him.

She just sat back in her chair and sniffed haughtily. "That boy does not belong in this family."

"Oh I highly doubt we can be called a family," Artemis said, "At least Percy has the sense to stay at arm's length."

"You better not be siding with him!" Hera exclaimed, "Before you know it, he'll be splitting us apart and we'll be left with nothing."

"Oh for goodness sake!" Persephone finally said, "We are already separated! We all hate coming to this dinner. You are just paranoid that Percy is targeting you; which I wouldn't blame him for."

"Enough!" Poseidon yelled, cutting through their arguments. "Percy does not care what you think of him, nor do I. All I care about is that he is safe. He is the heir now and you all will just have to get used to it!"

He turned to Hera once more before speaking in a scarily calm voice. "I am willing to do what Hades suggested and remain calm-for Percy's sake. But one more move against him and I will stop at nothing to bring down whatever name you have made for yourself with my brother's money."

With that he stood up, the chair skidding against the hard wood floor. "I think now would also be a good time to leave. Excuse me."

-The next day-

Annabeth stood outside the office door, debating about wither or not to step inside. She fumbled with the phone in her hand tapping her fingernails off it. Finally taking a breath, she knocked on the door and waited for an answer.

After hearing a clear "Come in" Annabeth turned the handle and stepped inside. The square office had windows on the right wall, looking out at the city, while a desk stood opposite the door. A large bookshelf covered the wall behind the desk and a blue carpet layered the floor.

"You wanted to see me?" Annabeth said as she closed the door behind her.

Athena looked up from the document on her desk and nodded to her daughter. "Yes, have a seat."

Annabeth walked forward and sat down on one of the two chairs in front of her mother's desk. Athena continued to write her notes on the paper and Annabeth couldn't help but feel like another one of her mom's clients waiting for a moment to speak with her. Hey, at least they got to speak to her.

Athena finally put down her pen and sat back in her chair. "Your father called me this morning. He told me that the two of you have been talking."

Annabeth knew that she should be worried. She had called her father soon after she and Percy had reunited. Yes, she had been mad at him for so long because he had moved to San Francisco after remarrying. It had felt at the time that he was abandoning her; it still felt like that. However, Annabeth was a little more knowledgeable about the situation now. Her father was the ex-husband of one of the most powerful women in the city; if she wanted to make his life difficult it was would have been very easy for her. Her mother could hold a grudge like no one else. He felt trapped and he wanted to protect his new wife; he also wanted Annabeth to get the best in life so he left her with her mother, thinking that she would be at least sympathetic to her own daughter.

So Annabeth had reached out to him. He had been so excited; told her all about her half brothers, Bobby and Matthew. Apparently they couldn't wait to meet her if she ever did want to visit. She in turn had told him all about school and Percy. Her dad had threatened to interrogate him for her but Annabeth had just laughed happily. They were starting again and it felt really good.

So Annabeth wasn't worried about her mom knowing; she was fact a bit grateful to her father. He knew that the only time Athena would have taken an unscheduled call would have been early in the morning and since he lived across the country, it meant that her father had gotten up early just to call her about Annabeth.

Athena cleared her throat and added, "He asked if you could come visit him soon; I said that it probably wasn't a good idea."

Annabeth frowned and grasped the phone even more tightly. "I think that's my decision. I'm eighteen now, you can't tell where I can or can't go."

Athena raised an eyebrow at her answer and Annabeth forced herself to meet her mother's steely gaze. She had never been one to hide her thoughts or feel intimidated but her mom could make her feel about a foot tall very easily.

Athena paused for a moment and then asked, "Is that something Percy Jackson told you?"

Annabeth tensed; Athena was crossing a line now. She had never approved of Percy: a boy who didn't fit into one of her neat little boxes and didn't back down from her distain of him.

Annabeth took a breath and then replied as calmly as she could with, "Percy is my boyfriend but he doesn't tell me what to say or what to do. He's not you, Mother."

Before Athena could respond, Annabeth rambled on. "I know that you have always at least tried to do what you think is best for me but now I would like to take control of my own life. And that means visiting Dad and dating Percy."

She looked at her mother again only to see Athena looked shocked and slightly angry. "I knew this would happen someday of course," Athena said, "You would rebel and take it out on me-."

"No Mother!" Annabeth interrupted as she stood up. She needed her mom to listen to her for once. "I know that you always try to what's best for me but you don't know me well enough for that. You don't like me talking to Dad, you don't like Percy and you won't even listen to my idea of taking an architecture course in college. And all of those things are what make me happy."

Athena stood up and placed her hands on her desk, looking at Annabeth with her business gaze. "You want to talk to your father? Be my guest but that boy and architecture? Really Annabeth? I thought your standards would be a little higher than that."

"My standards are actually great; you are just too narrow-minded to see it. I'd like to ask are we done here but I think I'll just leave instead."

With that Annabeth turned on her heel and walked from the room. She was out of the building and onto the street when she let herself breath normally. She had never fought with her mom like that before but she also knew it was about time. Annabeth looked down at her phone and quickly dialled Percy's number. She caught a taxi by the time he answered the phone and she said, "Hey are you at the diner?"

"Yes; everything ok? What did your mom want?" "To run my life," she replied, "But I think I just told her where to stick it."

Percy laughed and this caused Annabeth to smile too. "Well alright! How about you stop the diner and I'll make you some one of my famous blueberry smoothes while we talk."

Annabeth thought for a second before replying, "Are those smoothes the ones your mom used to make for you when you got good grades?"

"Yes; they happened very rarely so I learned to make them for myself."

Annabeth laughed and said, "Alright I'll be there in a few."

Over at the diner, Percy hung up his phone and put it back in his back pocket. It was a slow time of day and he had decided to reorganise the food stock in the kitchen with Jason while he had the time. The others were busy out front and Percy gave them a glance through the gap in the wall before grabbing the box in front of him. It was filled with packets of pasta and he had put it down to answer Annabeth's call.

Jason past by him with his own box of food and said, "Put your back into it Percy; not all of us are multi-millionaires able to slake off."

Percy aimed a kick at his friend the best he could with the box in his hands but Jason dodged away with a laugh. Percy grinned and adjusted his load before following his friend.

The past few weeks had been just as boring and frustrating as he had suspected they would be. He had been forced to sit into his father's meetings as well as having to take lessons from experts on how to run the various businesses. He hadn't minded taking the tours of the shops, schools and actually meeting the employees however. Learning about their lives and how they liked working for Olympia Inc. was interesting; he also realised that they didn't have enough charity and non profits organisations in the works. That was something he was trying to fix. Percy had talked to Malcolm about the scholarships and he had made a sound business like argument. He had charts, the cost of it, the befits of it and a list of people who were already perfect for the scholarships. Poseidon had seemed impressed by it all; Malcolm and some others had obviously been working hard at the proposals. If everything kept going at the right pace, then Piper might find herself at Olympia Academy by the next school year.

But the combination of running the diner, going to meetings, the extra lessons about things that bored him and trying to spend time with Annabeth and his friends was draining him. He was pretty sure that he had fallen asleep standing up at least three times in the last two hours. But Percy knew it would pay off...eventually.

He and Jason moved the stock around, thankfully finding someone gone off fruit before it stunk up the place. By the time everything was back in its rightful place, Annabeth had walked through the kitchen door.

She looked slightly frazzled but New York traffic could do that to a person. She waved a hello to the others but went straight to the kitchen door. Percy smiled at her and she felt that nagging pain of worry lift from the spot between her shoulder blades.

"Hey," he said, pulling her into a hug immediately.

She sighed into his chest and he mumbled, "Tiered?"

She nodded her head and Percy looked over at Hestia to ask her to cover for him, only to see her already giving him thumbs up. The two of them walked hand and hand up the stairs to his apartment and they collapsed onto the couch. Percy placed Annabeth's legs over his lap and she leaned her head beside his on the back of the couch.

"Your mom didn't take the news about your dad well huh?"

Annabeth shook her head and replied, "No. He called her this morning-which means it would have been really early in San Francisco-just to see if I could visit. She said no for me and I lost it." She sighed again and Percy rubbed his fingers over her jean clad knee.

"I called Dad afterwards in the cab a few minutes ago and he was fine with knowing that I really did want to visit. In fact he mentioned that he would love to show me around the university he lectures at. It has a really good course on architecture and I even applied to go there in the autumn."

She bit her lip and looked at him carefully after she said this but Percy only frowned slightly as he seemed to be thinking. "Actually, I'm pretty sure I applied there to-for a course in teaching."

Annabeth grinned at him as she asked, "You want to be a teacher?"

Percy nodded, "Ya, I think so. Or maybe a councillor; that may all change now because of the inheritance but hopefully my Dad's lawyers will sort something out. I just really liked the sound of going to school on the other side of the country from the Olympia family."

He looked so at ease; so oblivious. "Percy," she said, "You do realise that we are talking about going to college? Together?"

Percy looked at her in surprise and paused before responding. "Annabeth going with you to college has been the plan since I met you. It may have gone off course after the Academy Storm Out incident but now that we're back together? It's you and me; like it's always been."

She tried to contain the wide smile on her face; she tried not to kiss him senseless for being so perfect. She failed at both. After pulling away from him finally, Annabeth said breathlessly, "My dad suggested a weekend trip to San Francisco. I could meet my brother, see the university and see him. Do you want to come with me?"

Percy had been in an Annabeth haze after the kiss but he managed to realise that a weekend away with his girlfriend sounds just about perfect. "Are you sure your Dad won't mind me butting into your bonding time?"

"No; he actually wants to meet you. Please don't laugh when he tries to intimidate you."

"I will look appropriately terrified."

"Thank you."