When you are Young, they Assume you Know Nothin'
Percy found out that rent in New Rome was expensive. Why was the price of living so high even in a magical city of demigods? Was this a common occurrence around the world or was this what Annabeth called 'inflation?'
He didn't know and he wasn't going to ask, or she would go into an hour-long economics lecture.
His and Annabeth's small two-bedroom apartment ran them a pretty penny. Luckily, they split the expenses 50:50 so the burden was carried between the two.
Still, that didn't mean that it didn't hurt when his bank account took a massive hit every month when the rent money was taken out.
Annabeth was working at her architecture firm bringing in the big bucks while Percy was sitting on the kitchen island on Saturday morning after getting out of swim practice working on this résumé.
He thought he was doing a good job so far. It read:
Percy A. Jackson
Poor college student looking for a job, so he's not kicked onto the streets and starves to death. Please hire me!
Education
High School Diploma
Attending New Rome University
Experience
Hero of Olympus
Head Counselor of Cabin 3
Praetor of the 12th Legion
High School Swim Team Captain
Point Guard in High School Basketball Team
On College Swim Team
Special Skills
Can control water (I can do lots of things with it)
Talk to aquatic animals and horse-like animals.
Can make hurricanes.
Excellent Swimmer (duh)
Excellent Swordsmanship
Can piss anyone off in seconds.
Excellent cook and baker
Wrote a book 'Greek Gods' Check it out. Working on the second one right now
What kind of job was he looking for? He wasn't sure. Maybe just a job that will pay the bills will do. He couldn't afford to be picky when the next rent payment was starting to rear its ugly head.
He read it over, everything looked good so far. He would just have Annabeth look over it before he goes onto the job hunt.
He looked over at the clock and it was 2:35 PM. Annabeth got out of work at 3 on Saturdays so she should be here soon. He sent her a quick message asking if she was hungry and if she would want him to make her something. She responded a minute later and said that she had to skip lunch and was starving.
Alright, he would set the job hunt aside for the moment and make his wonderful girlfriend a delicious meal. It was one of his many (few) talents.
Percy was just finishing the last of the food when Annabeth came in. The door opened and she called out "I'm home," before taking her shoes off and making her way to the kitchen.
Annabeth wrapped her arms around Percy's waist and pressed a kiss on his shoulders.
"Long day?" He asked.
"You wouldn't believe it," she mumbled. "Victor, that asshole broke the model for the school redesign. We had to spend hours rebuilding it, on top of all my regular work."
"Sounds tough," he said. "I'm almost done here. Are you still hungry?"
"Yeah."
"Take a seat and I'll make you a plate."
She pressed another kiss on his back. "Don't take too long."
"Oh, I know," he chuckled. "I'm protecting myself. Hangry Annabeth is not a fun person to be around."
"I know, now hurry up before I take it out on you."
"You're as lovely as ever."
With that she split from him and took a seat on the kitchen island. Percy pulled two plates out the cabinets and loaded them with pasta and chicken parmesan. Both his mother's recipes. He also added a side of roasted broccoli and mushrooms. Once he was done, he placed a plate in front Annabeth and grabbed silverware to hand to her. He also poured them some soda.
Once he was seated, they began eating.
One of Percy's greatest joys in life was people enjoying his food. His mom called it the Jackson- gene-to-feed-and-take-care-of-others. It probably wasn't genetic (or maybe it was, he wasn't a geneticist) but he knew he inherited that trait from his mother. As you would imagine, Percy's face lit up when Annabeth took the first bite and her eyes brightened.
"…You know. You would make a perfect house husband."
"You think so?"
"Well, you still have to learn how to clean better. But you sure have the makings of a good one."
"…And you'll be my sugar mama?"
Annabeth nearly spit out and almost choked on her food. She took a sip of her drink. Once she was calm she said. "Let's not take it that far."
"I mean I think it would check out all the points. You're older than me, will probably make more money, you love my companionship and," he raised his eyebrows at her, "you love having sex with me."
"Is this your way of telling you don't have money to pay the rent?"
He shrugged. "Maybe, I'm still working on my resume and could use the help."
"I'll check it out once we're done eating."
"Deal."
Half an hour later, they cleaned the kitchen up and sat together on the kitchen island. Percy opened his laptop to the document he had been working on and let Annabeth see it.
"I worked hard on this, please be gentle."
Annabeth stared at the screen for a minute before she busted out laughing. Percy could only send her a glare.
"Oh my gods! Is this a joke? You can't seriously think this is a proper resume," she laughed.
"Hey! I said be gentle and here you are laughing at my efforts," he complained.
She laughed for another minute. "Ok, ok," she spoke. She stretched her hands over her head. "Ok, let me work some Athena magic and I'll have a killer resume ready."
"I trust you. You're way more experienced and batter at this than me."
"You know it."
Percy was just getting out of the shower when Annabeth called his name. He would have showered after practice but he had been distracted by his hunger.
"Percy, can you come over here please?"
He headed towards the kitchen where Annabeth was typing away at his laptop. He got behind her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "What's up?"
"I'm just about done. I just need you to look it over."
Percy nodded before turning his attention to the laptop and… wow. The document looked nothing like the one from earlier. Annabeth really had a way with words as she highlighted all his special skills and created a great objective statement. At some points it felt like she was talking about some else that was not Percy Jackson.
"Wow, Wise Girl… you're incredible."
She smirked. "Tell me something I don't know."
"I'm going to owe you a big one for this."
She pulled him closer to press a kiss on his lips. "I know how you can repay me."
Percy got excited. He knew that voice. It was the voice of horny Annabeth which was his favorite Annabeth. Actually scratch that, horny and naked Annabeth was his favorite. He pressed his hands to her side, trapping her as he deepened the kiss.
"Let me go grab a condom and we can desecrate the kitchen counter."
Annabeth pulled him back. "The condom won't be needed today. I want everything from you."
Gods, she couldn't just say things like that and not expect him to react. He went back to her mouth, pressing passionate kisses on her lips. He gently bit her bottom lip, causing her to gasp and allowing his tongue to go in. He pressed his hands on her ass and hoisted her onto the counter. Then he started unbuttoning her pants and lowering them. He was going to make this beautiful woman his today.
She gasped when he pressed his fingers onto her wet needy core. "Ok baby," he winked. "You asked for this."
And then they desecrated the kitchen.
New Rome was old fashioned when it came to job applications. Compared to the outside world where you could apply online, many of the places in the Roman city took in person applications and paper resumes.
Percy had spent almost the entire day going around the city asking if they were hiring. So far he talked to a mechanic (he didn't know shit about mechanics, it was a job more for Leo), the grocery store, the community center, the local school, a salesman, Frank and Hazel, and the university's administration.
They told him they would let him know if any opportunities came up. So now he was sitting at the bakery cafe underneath his apartment, waiting to see if anyone would call.
Five minutes turned into ten which then turned into an hour, which then turned into two.
Did job searches usually take this long? He asked himself.
"Oh, Percy! What brings you here?" Percy looked where the voice came from and saw one of the owners of the place, Mrs. Davis. She was a middle aged woman that reminded Percy of his mother. She was a legacy of Venus.
"Job hunting. Rent is really expensive, you know."
"Oh sweetheart I know it is. Is there anything that I could do to help?"
Percy stretched his hands above his head. He put on his most charming smile. "Maybe you could lower your rent prices on the apartment?"
"No, I'm sorry. That's more of a city thing."
"Worth a short."
"Sorry… but you know we're hiring here. Do you happen to have any experience with baking? We're looking for another baker."
Percy perked up. This could be the perfect opportunity. "Actually, yeah. My mom taught me how to bake and I bake a lot."
"Perfect!" She said, "Let me talk to my husband and we can get you set up. When can you start?"
"That… that easy?"
She chuckled. "Percy, we already know all about you when we interviewed you for the apartment upstairs. There's not much need for another interview."
"...Oh right. Then yeah, actually I could start right now."
"We'll have to discuss some times and pay and all those details." A smile crossed her face. "We'll also need to see what you can do in the kitchen."
"Yeah, yeah, I can do that," he said excitedly.
Percy spent the afternoon at the bakery making his mom's famous hazelnut panna cotta. He also made his mom's famous three layer cheesecake. This was going to be a piece of cake (literally).
Mr and Mrs. Davis' faces lit up when they tried the desserts. They went in for second servings.
"You, my boy are hired," Mr. Davis said.
"We would love to have you be part of the team Percy," Mrs. Davis supplied.
"Thanks. I look forward to it."
They spent about half an hour discussing his hours, pay and scheduling. They scheduled him so that the work wouldn't interfere with his school work and swimming. The pay was decent enough, nothing to write home about. It would pay the bills.
After he was done they gave him a full strawberry cheesecake (Annabeth's favorite). He went upstairs to the apartment where she was sitting on the couch watching an architecture documentary.
"I'm home," he called before taking his shoes off and putting the cake on the counter.
"Oh welcome home," she said. "How did the job search go?"
He smiled brightly. "Guess what."
She also smiled. "You got a job?"
"Yes!"
"Oh my gods, where?"
"Downstairs."
"The bakery?"
"Yes!"
"Congrats!" She cheered. "When do you start?"
"Tomorrow afternoon. They really loved my mother's recipes and they hired me on the spot."
Annabeth stood up and threw herself at him. "That's the Jackson baking for you."
"Yeah gotta love my mom," he said, wrapping his arms around her and spinning her. "You know the best part?"
"Yeah?"
"They said there's tons of leftovers at the end of the day and anything that's not sold we can take home."
"...You'll be bringing tons of baked goods into the apartment?"
"Yep. No more need for me to bake at home and we will never run out of baked goods."
"Are you trying to get me fat?"
He kissed her. "Nope, definitely not but…" he trailed off. "I think you'll look super cute with a bit more weight on you."
She pressed her lips onto his and somehow they ended up on the couch with Annabeth on top of him.
"Thanks by the way for helping me with my resume. I couldn't have done it without you."
"You're very welcome." Her expression darkened as her hand went to his belt buckle. "Why don't we have celebratory sex?"
Percy could already feel blood rushing South when she spoke to him like that. "Whatever you want, baby."
Then they desecrated the couch.
Hope you enjoyed this fluffy Percabeth college fic! Thanks for reading. This is like a part two to my fic 'Get me with those Green Eyes, Baby'.