Hey! I totally missed yesterday's update but I'm here right now! Sorry. Yesterday was pretty busy. I'll keep this author's note short for you.

iheartpickles: I don't know that song but I've given it a listen to and I like it. It'll take some time to get a plot line figured out but I'll work on it!

Smiles Burn In The Styx: ;) I don't know...

HoOisawesome: Percy's a little slow and not very eloquent...

Jedi1: Like I said... Percy isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer...

Nekotite: The angst train is docking so you better get on before it leaves!

TotallyCray-Cray: I'm here as promised! No more two month breaks!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Percy Jackson and the Olympians... Obviously since I am in no way, shape, or form Rick Riordan.

"Thank you so much for meeting me and discussing this with me."

"Well this land is beautiful and I'm sure such a brilliant architect like you will build beautiful things on it." Annabeth smiled at the UN representative. She had just secured the rights to the uncharted island that she and Percy were stranded on all those months ago. Because it was uncharted and belonged to no particular country, she pulled some of her mother's connections in Olive Branch's vast clientele in order to buy the land under her name and make it her own. After months of extra paperwork and late nights speaking with the UN representative, she had finally secured the island. She wanted to call it Ogygia because it was like her own little getaway, unknown to the world around it. She'd also loved Greek Mythology as a kid growing up and though Calypso was prisoned there, the island itself was beautiful, a paradise, much like her own island.

She had wanted to surprise Percy with a trip to the island for the weekend once it was hers and the single structure she wanted to build was complete. She was going to design a house. And, she was going to place it near the waterfall. The land there was perfect as the forest was already partially flattened by the plane when it landed. The construction team wouldn't have to tear down more trees. They just needed to clear the area a little better and she could work around the rest of the vegetation. It would have been perfect. It still would be perfect. She'd worked too hard for this to let it go to waste. And as much as she wanted to share the island with Percy, he'd practically told her that he didn't want a relationship with her anymore so was there anymore of a need to tell him?

The little voice in the back of her head told her that she should. That this wasn't just her island; it was theirs. They had survived on it together. It was their place. She shouldn't keep it from him.

But another part of her, the more dominant part, told her that the island, by law, belonged to her. It was under her name. Whatever she decided to do with it was her decision. He had absolutely no say, even if the whole reason she did it was so that they'd have an escape, a tropical getaway known only to them. She shook her head and gathered her things, ready to leave the conference room and fly back to New York for a few days in order to finalize her blueprints and meet with the construction team she was going to fly out to the island. She'd always hated throwing her family's money around for her own needs but she'd already spoken to her mother and father and they'd agreed that she had access to pull from their accounts and therefore had the right to make any purchase that she wanted without having to get their approval. Her mother, while not so approving of the motive, approved the business initiative to speak with clients and conduct an original transaction. Her father, on the other hand, was supportive if only for the motive behind her actions. He'd always been the one for her and her brothers emotionally as they grew up. He'd listen to their problems and talk them through, giving advice whenever it was needed. He was, in all senses of the word, a parent.

She stepped into the car waiting for her at the front of the building and signaled for it to take her to the airport. On the drive there, she checked her email and was pleased to see that construction had begun on the Tanaka hotel and on the Aquarium habitat. As soon as she was back in New York, she'd speak with another one of her contractors, Leo Valdez, to see about her island home. She sent him an email requesting for a meeting immediately upon her return.

The car pulled up to the private tarmac where the family jet was waiting. This trip was the first one she'd been on since the incident and she didn't trust the commercial planes anymore. Besides, it was so much easier to leave whenever she felt like it and not have to wait for flight times.

Take off was smooth, so was the flight. Seven hours of relaxation and having nothing to do allowed Annabeth to do something she never could do while on land: not think. She enjoyed a glass of wine and marathoned Scandal on Netflix. Percy had gotten her hooked to Once Upon A Time and she caught up to the season on Netflix fairly quickly. Fortunately, she'd looked the show up online and found that the next season would be posted within the next week. Now, however, she wanted to start a show on her own, but because she had so many shows that she found that she wanted to watch, she'd started a Queue. On her list was Scandal, which she was currently on season one, episode six, Grey's Anatomy, Chuck, The Walking Dead, Law & Order, and so many more. She wasn't sure she'd be able to get through all of them with how busy her schedule was but it was good to know that she had something to do when she had some time off to just relax.

"Ma'am," one of the flight attendants said walking up to her. "We'll be landing soon so we'll need you to shut off the computer and return your seat to its upright position."

Annabeth nodded her thanks for the head's up and handed her bowl of popcorn and glass of wine to the attendant before pausing the show and gathering herself for landing. When they touched down on the runway and stopped at the private hanger, she waited until she was cleared to leave and then hopped into the waiting car to take her straight to her apartment so she could shower and change and then later to Olive Branch for her meeting with Leo.

Upon arriving at her office three hours later, Gwen informed her that Leo was waiting for her in the waiting room. She told her to send him in and walked into her office. Annabeth only had enough time put her things away before Leo burst into the room, all smiles. "Annie!" he exclaimed, his arms opened wide. Annabeth frowned.

"Don't call me that," she said but walked into his open arms for the hug. "How have you been?" she asked once they pulled away.

"Good. Callie and I are expecting," he smiled. Leo and Annabeth have worked on a couple of projects together and had become fairly good friends. She knew that if she could trust anyone with her side project, it would be him. Annabeth's smile widened at the news. "Really? Calypso's pregnant? How far along is she?" Annabeth ignored the coincidence that Leo's wife shared the same name as the woman who's island was the namesake of hers.

"About five months."

"Do you know the gender?"

"No. I want to know but she wants to wait."

Annabeth nodded in understanding. "Well now I feel bad."

"Why?"

"I have a job for you, but it's out of the country. Sort of."

"What is it?"

Annabeth walked over to her blueprint rolls and pulled out her island plans. She laid them on the table unrolled them so that Leo could see. "It's a house," she said. After a beat, she added, "on my island." Leo blinked.

"How long would the job take?" Annabeth shrugged.

"However long you need. But as soon as possible would be best."

Leo studied the blueprints with an uncharacteristic amount of focus. "Well, because they're your blueprints, it'll probably take me two months. I assume you'll have a team for me to work with?"

"I have portfolios for you to choose from if your normal team is busy, transportation to the island will be arranged, and any other concerns you may have will be addressed accordingly, should you accept the job."

"And as always, you have everything figured out. Of course I'll accept. I'll talk to Callie about my being out of the country but with the baby, we could use the extra money."

Annabeth smiled. "I still feel bad for asking you to do this so I'll increase your normal wage an extra twenty an hour. And I do not want to hear any arguments about it." Leo's eyes widened.

"Annabeth… Thank you. So much. You don't know how much this means to me." He pulled her into a hug and she laughed.

"I pass these prints on to you. And you know the drill. Updates at the end of each week-"

"Pictures, video, the whole package. Got it," he finished, cutting her off. He rolled up the prints and secured them with a rubber band that he had around his wrist.

"And-" Annabeth started but was interrupted again.

"Don't ruin the prints," he said. "I got it. Don't worry, Annie. It's not my first rodeo."

As he was leaving the room, she called out after him, "stop calling me that!"

Annabeth shook her head before heading back to her desk to check her email. She saw that within the time that she'd last checked her email, she'd gotten three new emails: two from her other projects and the third from Gwen. She opened the email from Gwen and saw her schedule of the day. She'd need to read over her other emails for the two client meetings she had that day and then she'd actually be free to relax tonight. She could go hang out with Percy-

No. She couldn't do that. He didn't want to see her anymore.

The thought twisted her heart and she shook her head to dispel the painful thoughts. She spun in her chair to look out the window and just stared at the cityscape before her. Since that day she'd wondered endlessly where it all went wrong. Where would he get the idea that she wasn't committed to their relationship and how long had he felt that way before he confronted her? She was fortunate that she knew how to compartmentalize her emotions and thoughts because they never bothered her when she was working. However, whenever she wasn't working, Percy was all she could think about. She wanted so badly to go to him and apologize for her falling short but her pride refused to admit defeat and she wasn't the kind of girl to be dependent on a man. She never was. She was never going to be. But that didn't mean she could be a devoted partner. She did everything she could in her power to spend time with Percy but the timing of their relationship was just bad. Since they'd gotten back from the island, she'd been so busy with work and the transfer of the company and really, this was the busiest she'd ever been. She used to be able to go home by five and enjoy some sparkling and an old movie while working on a blueprint but recently, she'd had more and more dinner meetings with clients and late nights. She hated that her easy nights were gone but she knew that soon, now that her project count was dwindling as she finished each of them and the transfer getting closer and closer to completion she was getting more and more free time again. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she stood from her chair and made her way to her worktable to look for the proper blueprints and began making the appropriate adjustments, thankful for the distraction that work always gave her. And it managed to distract her for a good half hour before the door opened, pulling her attention away to something else.

•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•

Percy showed up to Olive Branch Architects with a bouquet of Annabeth's favorite flowers: white roses. It helps that white also meant forgiveness. He knew. He looked it up. He was currently in the elevator on his way up to Annabeth's floor. He hoped that she was there and that she wasn't busy because they really needed to talk and he really wanted to make things right.

When the elevator dinged, signaling that he'd arrived on the floor, he stepped out, only to immediately crash into someone, sending papers flying everywhere. "Oh, my gosh," he exclaimed. "I'm so sorry. I should have watched where I was going." He looked up from trying to gather the fallen papers to look into the eyes of someone he'd never thought he'd see again. "Reyna," he breathed.

"Percy," she replied, just as stunned.

He blinked. "You work here now?"

"Actually, I've worked here for quite some time."

He shook his head slowly. "I don't believe it. Reyna Arellano is an architect. I always thought that you'd be like the Secretary of Defense to the president or something like that."

"It's Ramírez. I go by Ramírez now."

"Is that so?"

Reyna nodded. "My dad's back in the picture and we've made up so… I started using his last name."

"Good for you."

"Yeah." Reyna looked like she was about to get lost in her thoughts but she quickly shook herself out of them. "Anyways, I guess that you were the Percy Jackson I was originally going to design an aquarium habitat for."

"I guess so. Small world isn't it?"

"Yeah. When I heard your name I thought it was you but I didn't say anything because how awkward would it be if it were some other person and not actually you. But it is. What are you, um, what are you doing here? With flowers?"

"I'm here to see Annabeth," he said awkwardly. He didn't exactly want to tell his ex girlfriend that he was here to see his current – if you considered their current situation as still together – girlfriend. Reyna nodded once in a way that was both awkward yet understanding.

"Oh. Alright." She blinked. "Well I guess I'll be seeing you around."

"Yeah." They stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, unsure how to complete their goodbyes, before simply walking away toward their respective destinations. When he arrived at Gwen's desk, no one was there so he figured that the secretary had gone to run a few errands. Taking in a deep breath, he walked up to Annabeth's door and was about to knock before hearing voices inside.

"What do you mean?" he heard Annabeth's voice ask.

"I mean, your guy. Is he not making you happy?" the other voice asked. Surprisingly, he recognized it.

"We're not even together anymore."

"What? How? When?"

"I don't know. It's complicated."

"How can it be complicated?"

"Well, he came in here and practically broke up with me but he said he wasn't breaking up with me so the line is just extremely blurred and I don't know. It's all so confusing. I've spent the last few weeks trying to figure it out but I'm nowhere close. It's ticking me off."

"I can see that. What was the name of your guy again? I forget. Something Jeffson."

"Jackson."

"Jackson Jeffson?"

"No. His last name is Jackson. His first name is Percy. Percy Jackson."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. Why?"

The familiar voice laughed. "Does he have green eyes and black hair?"

"Yeah. How do you know that?"

"That's my cousin!"

"What?"

"Yeah. You're dating my idiot cousin, who apparently is a bigger idiot than I thought he was. I can't believe I didn't make the connection before!"

Percy had heard enough. He placed a hand on the doorknob and twisted, pushing the door open. Sure enough, he saw Annabeth standing in the middle of her office talking to a very familiar face. The spiky black hair and the electric blue eyes were enough to confirm his suspicions. "Thalia?" he asked.

"Percy!" Both girls turned to face him, surprised at his sudden appearance.

"You two know each other?"

"Thalia and I are good friends. The best, actually," Annabeth answered. "What are you doing here, Percy?" The black haired man could feel his cheeks grow hot with embarrassment. He didn't want to tell Annabeth all of the things he wanted to say in front of his cousin. That was just too awkward for him.

"I just wanted to see if you were free. I wanted to talk to you." A beat. "In private." Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Alright. I get it. You want to talk alone. I'll be in the break room trying to see if anyone left their food in there without their name on it." She walked past Percy and out of the office, leaving the couple to themselves. Annabeth sighed. Whether it was directed toward him being in her office or toward Thalia's obvious announcement that she was going to eat unclaimed food in the break room, he didn't know. He cleared his throat to try and break the ice.

"I, uh, I brought you these. They're your favorite." He lifted the bouquet to show Annabeth the white roses. She stared at them, not moving to take them from him so he awkwardly placed them on the coffee table in between them. When he stood back up straight, his hand flew to the back of his neck – his tell that he was nervous. "Listen, Annabeth. I just wanted to clear the air between us. I don't think I was very clear when we last talked." She still hadn't moved, her eyes still studying the flowers on the table. "I don't want us to break up. I just… I'm not used to the whole relationship thing and it's weird for me to want to spend every waking moment with someone I can't stop thinking about but that's how I feel. I always want to spend time with you and when we can't, it just hurts. And I know that you're busy and I get that, I just… wish you would clear your schedule for me sometimes instead of trying to find an opening around your work. And then when Drew came to my office, she said some things that kind of solidified my thoughts and it just set me off. I began to doubt you, me, us. And I was stupid for that. And, I'm sorry." He waited for Annabeth to say something but she still continued to stand there, not looking at him. He wasn't even sure she'd heard him until she spoke.

"Drew," was all she said for a while. She was obviously working through all of the things that he'd said and was making it make sense in her head. "You listened to Drew and came to a conclusion without consulting me?" She still hadn't looked at him and her voice was so calm it scared him. "I'm not too great at relationships myself but I'm pretty sure that the number one thing that a relationship needs to have is honesty and you weren't honest with the way you felt about our relationship so you let me go on thinking that things were great when they weren't. I told you from the beginning that this company, my job, was very important to me. And I'm not saying that you aren't important to me either, but you have to understand that this, all of this, is a part of me. I don't know how to feel about all of this, Percy. I can't decide if I'm angry or disappointed or just plain sad. But I know now that we rushed into this relationship and with us being in the real world where we're not together twenty-four-seven, we need to take things slow and see if we really are supposed to be together, or if what we had was purely survival instinct."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that we need to start over. Try and be friends before we see if this is going somewhere."

Percy's heart twisted in his chest at her words and as much as he didn't want to, he knew that she was right. He looked down to steel his nerves before nodding solemnly. "I think that'd be best." When he looked up again, he saw Annabeth's eyes clouded over and ready to spill over tears. Knowing that she'd rather be alone to cry he muttered an, "I'll see you around," before leaving the office.

And there you have it!

And I'm still looking for one shot ideas as well you guys have anymore! :)

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