Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I'm afraid I still don't own PJO. What a sad world we live in.

Percy woke up the next morning, feeling fantastic. He hadn't gotten much sleep, but he felt great. He realized that Sara wasn't with him, and wondered briefly where she was. He heard the shower running. Percy had never been so tempted to blow off training. He wanted to spend the day with her, but he knew he couldn't. A glance at her clock told him that he really needed to go. He had espionage class in 10 minutes. He was pretty good at it, but he didn't enjoy it too much. The teacher wasn't very good at teaching it. But just because he didn't like it, didn't mean that he was allowed to skip it.

He climbed out of bed and got dressed as fast as he could. His clothes were scattered around Sara's bedroom, so it took him a few moments to collect them all, but he managed. As he dressed, he moved closer to the bathroom door.

"Hey, Sara?"

"Yeah?" he heard from the shower.

"I've gotta run. You wanna hang out tonight?"

"Tonight sounds great! Just text me when you want to meet. My phone's on the kitchen table, you can get your number."

"Sure, sounds good. Can't wait!"

He found her phone where she said it would be. It took him a second to get her number, and once it was seared into his memory, he put her phone back down and left her apartment. He needed to go back to his bunk before he could go to class. He had a few pens and notebooks in his footlocker that he would need to retrieve for class. Not that he really needed them, he just preferred to have them. He ran most of the way back to the training building

He got in the elevator and pushed the button for the second-highest floor. Once he got there, he dashed out, picked up his stuff from the footlocker, and went back to the elevator. He rode down to his class and got there just in time. He took his usual seat at the front.

The classes were like University lecture halls. The seats were arranged kind of like an amphitheater, and the lecturer would stand in front of the students and teach. Percy always sat in the front row. It was a matter of principle. On Earth, he had always sat in the back of classrooms. He made people think he was an idiot, so he could hardly sit in the front and take notes. But now that he was able, he sat front and center.

He saw that he was there before the lecturer. The rest of the 'class' was already there. He'd been the last to arrive. They were all just sitting patiently, waiting for their instructor. No one was talking. No one had anything to say to anyone else. Percy preferred it that way. He always hated classroom chatter.

A minute after he arrived, Chaos walked through the doors. Instantly, everyone sat up straight, as if they were snapping to attention. Chaos always had that effect, something that amused Percy to no end. He knew her far better than anyone else there, so he knew just how goofy she could be. But she inspired some serious reactions from the other recruits.

She walked in, looking very serious, as she always did in public. She caught Percy's eye and gave him a subtle wink. He waved at her from under the table in response. They always got a kick out of messing around with each other in public, when everyone thought she was totally serious. Once she was sure she had everyone's attention, she started to speak.

"Everybody listen to me for a moment. Your former espionage and spycraft instructor has been relieved. He will still act as an instructor for your combat training, but your theoretical training will be taken over by someone else. She will be here momentarily. Goodbye, everyone."

And she left again. Percy wasn't exactly distraught by the news. Their teacher obviously knew his stuff really well, but he just couldn't translate it to them. His classes had been a mess. He was willing to give the new instructor a shot. Hopefully, they would be better than the last guy.

The sound of high-heels became audible. The floors were made of black marble, so the sound of heels was very easy to pick up on, even without super hearing, which they all had.

A few moments after the heels were heard, the figure wearing them stepped into the class. The heels were around 4 inches, which propelled the woman to a height of 6'2. She was slim and very fit. Her legs went on for miles, from the heels all the way to the knee-length pencil skirt. There was a stylish white blouse tucked into the skirt. It was just the perfect balance of loose and tight. The top 2 buttons were undone. It was tasteful and showed a hint of cleavage without being overboard. She had blonde hair pulled into a messy bun, with a few loose strands to frame her stunning face. Even in the bun, it was obvious that her hair was quite long. Her eyes were the brightest shade of blue, and they were wide and alert. There was clear intelligence behind them. They were scanning around the class, seemingly memorizing faces, when they reached him. The woman froze at the sight of him. He was frozen at the sight of her too.

He had slept with his new teacher.

There was a very long, very awkward moment where the two just stared at each other. They knew that they had fucked up beyond measure. The penalty for fraternization between an instructor and a recruit was instant expulsion of both parties. Neither of them wanted to be expelled.

The ball was in Sara's court. She was the one with all of the attention on her. And she was getting a lot of attention. Percy was aware of the rising heartbeats of all of the males in the room, and quite a few females. He tasted the rise in their adrenaline at the sight of her. It made him seethe slightly.

After a very uncomfortable moment of staring, Sara decided to try and move on. She figured they could address it later. She had a class to teach.

"Alright, everyone. I'm going to be taking over your instruction of espionage and spycraft. Will someone please tell me where you all left off?"

A forest of hands shot up. Everyone wanted the chance to talk to her. Only Percy kept his hand down. He knew the answer to her question, of course, but he wanted to try and get through the next 6 hours with the least possible amount of interaction with her. She seemed ok with that. She called on some random guy to answer and nodded at whatever he told her. Percy wasn't listening.

The classes went by reasonably well. He tried to speak to her as little as possible, but he was forced to say a few things here and there. Sometimes, he needed to make something clear, or answer a question. He tried to talk to her without blushing or stammering too much, and he could tell she was struggling with the same thing. Every time he saw her, he was assaulted with visions of what they had been doing just a few hours prior. It was hard to see her in that skirt without thinking about her legs wrapped around his waist. It was hard to see her in that shirt without thinking about her gorgeous breasts bouncing. It was hard to see her lips without feeling her hot breath on his ear. And it wasn't helped by the attitude that everyone else had toward her. They were all trying to flirt with her. Not very well, but they were trying.

"Just you wait until combat training, assholes." Percy thought.

Eventually, they were done. 6 hours listening to Sara talk. Given how glorious her voice sounded, that should have been a treat beyond measure. Instead, it was torture. But they had both made it through. Once they were done with spycraft, they had interrogation and interrogation resistance classes for another 3 hours each. Percy tried to lag behind to get a chance to speak to Sara alone between classes, but she was hounded by 'questions' from everyone else. He grit his teeth and moved on.

Sara also took part in their next classes. Interrogation and interrogation resistance were less theoretical and more practical, so she changed into a pair of yoga pants and a tank top. The messy bun was transformed into a messy ponytail. She looked impossibly good.

Interrogation was an interesting class. It was basically learning how to extract information from people. There were all kinds of methods. There were lots of points on how to lead a suspect to a confession in an interrogation. There were points on how to get people to tell you things, without them even realizing that's what you were doing. There was also a decent amount of time spent learning how to torture people. Chaos pulled no punches. If information was needed, then it was to be obtained. By any means necessary.

Interrogation resistance was a pretty hellish time. If you were lucky, then it was learning how to keep yourself from revealing sensitive information by accident. If you were unlucky, then you got tortured. It was gruesome, but it needed to be done. If all recruits were taught to resist torture, then they would be able to refrain from giving away information that could cost lives. It was pretty shitty, but it was necessary. Typically, recruits were taught to resist water-boarding, being cut, being burned, being suffocated, and so on. Luckily, there were several trainers throughout those classes, so it wasn't just Sara. He could almost focus on the material being learned. Almost.

Eventually, class was over and everyone moved on for combat training. Percy was glad for the reprieve. He could focus on his opponent, and that was the end of the story. He had been with that particular group for 5 years, so they didn't provide him too much of a challenge in combat anymore, but they were still very good. He was nowhere near as bored as he had been before Chaos had given him his mission.

Again, he tried to get Sara alone as they went from the classrooms to the training area, but she was still getting hounded by everyone else. He rolled his eyes at them all, trying desperately to get get to speak to them.

"Fucking simps.' he growled to himself.

They reached the training area, and Percy started his workout. He pushed himself harder than he normally would, trying to burn off some energy. He hoped it would burn off some of his frustration too, but that wasn't the case. He could see everyone around him exaggerating their workouts to make themselves look better. He was willing to bet absolutely anything that it was to try and impress Sara. But something interesting happened as he was lifting weights. He caught a very strong scent. It smelled like... arousal. And it was intense. He could feel the dopamine in the room. He started tracking it. It was coming from Sara. She was staring straight at him while he worked out. He could see her cheeks were slightly red, he could hear that her breathing was uneven, and she was biting her lip. The dopamine was coming from her. It was radiating off of her. He was surprised no one else could sense it. But then, he supposed, they were all too focused on making themselves look good for her. It was somewhat ironic.

He wasn't sure how to react to that. The fact that she was getting turned on by watching him workout, was insanely hot to him. But he couldn't do anything about it. A thought occurred to him and he decided to test it out.

"Sara?" he mumbled as quietly as he could.

He saw her nod minutely.

"You can hear me?" he mumbled again.

She nodded again.

"All your dopamine is flooding the room. If you don't get yourself under control, I'm going to take you back to your place and fuck your brains out, right now."

He felt a fresh wave of dopamine hit him like a bag of bricks. Apparently, that had turned her on. But after it hit, he felt it begin to dissipate. He knew she was putting a lot of effort into masking it. He appreciated it.

"Thanks. I think we need to have a real conversation though. Tonight after the obstacle course, I'll be at your place."

"Ok. See you then." he heard her mumble from across the room.

Percy went back to his workout. Once he was done with weights, he moved on to cardio. He spent the entire time on a treadmill. He had no appetite for switching between machines. He just wanted to get through his day of training, so that he could talk to Sara properly.

After an hour on the treadmill, the whistle sounded to indicate that they were going to begin sparring. Percy made his way over to one of the rings as Chaos walked into the room. He could tell that everyone was beyond shocked. 2 visits in one day, was unheard of. She looked straight at Percy and made the 'Come with me now' motion with her finger. He felt his stomach drop. Did she know? Could she know? His mind was racing as he followed her to the elevator. He doubted that she knew. She hadn't known that psycho girl and the asshole instructor had been fucking, so he doubted that she knew about him and Sara. Even if she did, he would explain that they hadn't known, and hopefully, she would be lenient.

Percy could tell that Chaos wasn't happy. And he could still feel Sara's presence from the elevator, and she was utterly terrified. If it came to it, he would say that the whole thing was his idea. He would do what the asshole instructor had tried to do. He would take the fall and convince Chaos to keep Sara.

The elevator doors opened into Chaos' office and they walked out. She took a seat behind her desk, and Percy sat in his usual seat opposite her. There was a momentary silence before Chaos broke it.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Percy?"

That wasn't good. He figured it was best to play dumb. He was relatively sure that she didn't know about him and Sara. If he said something that gave it away without her even knowing anything, he would be seriously pissed at himself.

"I'm not sure what you mean."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, really?" she asked sarcastically.

"Yep. Not one clue."

She rolled her eyes and threw a folder at him from across her desk. He picked it up and opened it. It was the transcript from his psych eval. He nearly sagged in relief, but he made himself hold off. She would know that something was wrong if he looked too glad.

"Percy, I told you that this was important! It's more than some formality, this actually counts for something!"

"Look, I'm sorry that I was a little bit on edge, but the guy was a total tool!"

"Oh, is that right?" she asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, that's right! If I had been interviewed by a normal person, then maybe I would have come across less... psycho!"

Chaos went deep into thought.

"Ok... "she said slowly, "Then that's what we'll do."

He blinked.

"Huh?"

"I'll find someone 'normal' to interview you. You can take the evaluation again. And you better not fuck up again."

Percy paused. He had really been hoping for the entire process to be hand-waived away, but it looked like that wasn't happening. Instead, he was going to have to go through the whole thing again. He was going to have to lie through his teeth the entire time because there were no 'normal people' in Chaos' army. From what Percy had seen, they were all assholes. Except for one...

"Should I? "he thought, "No. No, that's a terrible idea. Unless it's a brilliant idea. Yeah, I'm sure it's brilliant."

"Can I make a suggestion?"

"About what?"

"About who you get to interview me."

"Oh. Sure, I guess."

"How about that new instructor? She seemed nice enough. Sunny disposition, laid back. I'm sure things would be fine if she interviewed me."

Chaos mulled it over, and Percy held his breath. If she went for it, then he was golden.

"Ok, that should work. I'll send word to her later tonight. The two of you will hold the interview tomorrow. The psych building will be in use, so you'll do it at her apartment."

Percy had to suppress the laugh that threatened to spill out of his mouth. He wasn't sure how exactly he had managed to swing this. Instead of meeting in some crummy room with some asshole, he was going to meet a stunningly beautiful woman that he had slept with, in her apartment. They would still have to hold the actual interview, but he was sure they could find ways to make it fun. They could conduct the entire interview while naked if they wanted to. And then they would have the entire day to spend together. If he were to guess, he would say that there would be a lot of nudity then too.

"I guess that'll work." he managed to say.

Chaos nodded.

"Ok, then it's settled. Go back to your training."

He nodded at her and left the office. He made sure not to seem too happy. But on the inside, he was doing jumping jacks. He rode all of the way down to the unarmed combat room and walked in. He caught Sara's eye as soon as he entered the room and winked at her to let her know that everything was ok.

"I'll tell you tonight." he mumbled.

He saw her nod in understanding. He decided to be a little extra cheeky. He walked straight over to her. He saw her eyes widen as he approached, but he could tell that she was excited. The smell of dopamine was coming back. It seemed that Sara had a thing for taking risks in public.

"Excuse me? I just came back, and I'm not sure where I should go to partner up." he told her, doing his best to sound confused.

Sara looked around the room.

"It looks like everyone else is taken. I guess I'll take care of you." she told him, voice as smooth as caramel. That voice was getting to him.

He genuinely hadn't been expecting that. He had just wanted to tease her a little bit. But now they were going to spar?

She led him to one of the rings.

"I'll go easy on you honey, "she said sweetly, "Can't go damaging that face of yours, can we?"

He bit his lip. She was teasing him, but she had touched on something. She had a lot more experience than he did, like all of the other trainers. She was going to kick his ass. And he was reasonably sure that she was going to take some amount of pleasure from it.

Sparring with Sara was interesting. As he had predicted, she kicked his ass. Also as he had predicted, she had taken a degree of joy from the act. Not in a malicious way, she just found it a little bit funny. But she had also taught him. She gave him some excellent tips. There were a few things that she advised him to do, which he never would have thought of. It was clear that Sara was very good at her job. They only sparred with each other the entire time they had hand-to-hand. By the end, she had beaten him dozens of times, and he had yet to beat her. But he had landed a couple of strikes on her, which was enough to impress her. She was even sweating by the end. He was exhausted. And she seemed to exude energy. She was grinning at him.

"Great spar... Cadet." she finished mockingly.

He had his hands on his knees, panting like a dog. He tried to glare at her but found himself unable. For some reason, he kept smiling at her instead. He wasn't sure why, but he was. He was so tempted to kiss her, there and then. But he knew he couldn't. If Sara's dopamine levels were any indication, she was grappling with the same dilemma.

He managed to recover enough to walk with everyone else to the knives training room. He started his workout just like before, though this time he made sure to show off a little bit since he knew he had an audience. He could feel Sara trying to hide her excitement, and he could feel her failing miserably. He liked it though. He liked that she couldn't quite hide how turned on she was.

After the exercise part, they moved on to sparing with knives. He paired up with some random guy. A random guy that he instantly disliked. The asshole couldn't stop staring at Sara.

"Boy, I'd give anything to fuck that pussy. You think she's a natural blonde?" the prick asked.

Percy didn't reply. He was going to kick this guy's teeth down his throat. The invisible signal went, and they began sparing. Percy opened by ducking low and slashing across the guy's stomach. The prick was too focused on Sara to react properly. Percy followed it up by slamming his elbow into the guy's mouth. He followed that up, by kicking him in the back of the head. From start to finish, the whole thing took 3 seconds. Percy looked up and caught Sara's attention. It wasn't very hard, since she'd been watching him the whole time.

"Excuse me? It seems my partner is unconscious." he said innocently.

Sara stalked over to him. She jumped into the ring with the grace of a ballerina.

"What seems to have happened, cadet?" she asked teasingly. She knew exactly what had happened.

"I think we have to assume the worst. Terminal stupidity." he said, mock-seriously.

Sara fought to stifle the giggle that threatened to escape.

"Yes, I'm inclined to agree. Let's let him recover, shall we?" she said.

He was about to agree when something interesting happened. Suddenly, the shadows of the room seemed to swing down to the unconscious jackass, lift him up, take him out of the ring, and place him on a bench. He knew exactly what had happened, of course. Sara had used Chaos' third blessing to manipulate the shadows. He had never seen it in action though. It looked amazing.

"I guess I have no choice but to fill in for your partner." she said

"I guess you don't. What should I call you by the way? I've been wondering all day." he pretended to ask.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked teasingly.

"I considered calling you 'mistress' but I felt that might be a touch risqué." he joked.

Sara was forced to clasp a hand to her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. As it happened, the hand proved ineffective. She was still laughing, it just came out very squeaky. After a moment, she regained her composure, though she was still grinning at him from ear to ear.

They started sparring, as they had before. But they were both more reserved that time. Neither wanted to cut the other. By the time they were done, they were both quite tired. But no matter how tired Sara was, she still glowed with some undefinable energy. He knew she was special. And he knew that he wanted her to be in his life, regardless of the rules about fraternization. It wouldn't be too long before he was a member of the army, and they could have whatever relationship they pleased.

Firearms practice went well. Percy showed Sara how he had made the shot from 12 thousand meters away. She was in awe as he managed to hit the 18 Km target. He also managed to consistently hit the 20 Km one. It wasn't quite perfect yet, but he was hitting center. Aside from snipers, he also put some time into refining his handgun technique. He still wasn't the best, but he was pretty damn good. Sara took the opportunity to give him some pointers on his form, by draping herself over his body to adjust his position. He wasn't sure how much she taught him, but he was having a lot of fun.

After firearms training, came the obstacle course. There wasn't too much to it for Percy. He had it boiled down to a science. He dominated it. He could feel Sara's heartbeat rise as he finished well ahead of his competition. She grinned at him. He grinned back at her.

After that, they were all dismissed for the night. Percy didn't go back to his bunk. He walked a very large circle around the city before he climbed into Sara's apartment through her window. She still wasn't back. He closed his eyes and looked for her with his senses. He knew it wouldn't be too difficult to find her. He still couldn't distinguish between individual heartbeats, but there were other ways to find her. Her voice, for example. It was truly unique. He had never heard anything else like it. He found her around a mile away. She was walking back, and she wasn't alone. There were a bunch of horny recruits with her that had 'questions' about whatever crap they came up with. They just wanted an excuse to talk to her. He heard her glorious voice telling them to ask her tomorrow, during class. He smirked to himself.

He went into her kitchen and found the bottle of whiskey that they had started last time. They hadn't even made it through their first glass. He poured one for himself, and one for Sara. He brought them back to the living room and put her glass on the coffee table, while he held on to his. He was determined to finish that one. She kept good whiskey.

Sara walked through the door a few minutes later. She had ditched the recruits a few blocks prior. She saw him sitting on her couch and smiled. She smiled wider when she saw her glass of whiskey resting on the coffee table.

"Why have those clowns been following me around all day?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Only slightly. I mean, seriously. Isn't there anyone else they can chase?"

"Literally no."

She laughed. She sat down next to him on the couch and scooped up her drink from the table. She was sitting the same way she had last night. She looked just as good.

"I think we need to have this discussion."

"I think we do. But not yet."

"Not yet? Why? What do you want to do first?" she asked sultrily.

"I think we should have this discussion tomorrow."

"Why would we... Ohhh. You naughty boy!" she cried in mock outrage as she realized what he meant.

"What do you mean 'naughty'? I think I had a pretty good idea!"

She gasped at him.

"So this was your idea!"

"Of course, it was my idea, who else would think to have you be the one to take my psych eval?"

"So what did you have in mind?"

"Well, naturally I have a few suggestions about how we can make the process more tolerable for both of us. Potential nudity, oral, so on."

She gasped again and swatted his shoulder.

"Well, I will have you know, Mr. Jackson, that I am not that kind of woman!"

"Really? What changed in the last 24 hours?" he asked sarcastically.

She just smirked at him.

"So, do we get the whole day off?" she asked.

"The whole. Fucking. Day."

She tilted her head.

"You know, I think you're on to something when you say 'fucking'."

"Well, I like to think so."

"If you like to think so, just imagine how much you'll like to do so." she purred.

The conversation didn't progress much further from there. He just picked her up and took her to her bedroom. The glasses of whiskey went undrunk, yet again.

"One of these days, "he thought as he pinned Sara to her bed, "we're going to make it through a full glass. But today is not that day."

Because they didn't need to be awake early the next day, they took their time. While their first time together had been somewhat frantic, they were able to savor it that time. They spent hours pleasuring each other. Exploring each other's bodies. Learning which spots were more sensitive than others. It was a damn good time for both of them. When they were done, they passed out in Sara's bed, holding each other for dear life, completely exhausted, and completely satisfied.

When they woke up the next morning, they would have been 3 hours late for training. But they'd both been given the day off so that Sara could conduct Percy's psych eval. It would take a few hours, but they were determined to find some way to make the process more palatable. Waking up late, after a night of intense fucking, was a good first step to achieving that goal.

Even though they'd both gotten some decent rest, neither wanted to get out of bed. Percy was in a comfortable, warm bed with a stunningly beautiful naked woman wrapped in his arms. He could die then and there, and he'd be happy. Sara was awesomely comfortable too. She liked Percy quite a bit, and having his strong arms wrapped around her as she woke up, was a fantastic experience for her.

But they needed to get up. Sara knew that she had to report to Chaos' office and pick up the transcripts from Percy's last psych eval. She was to use them as a sort of 'road map' in her approach. She was also going to receive a list of questions that needed to be asked.

Around half an hour after they woke up, Sara rolled over so that she was looking at Percy.

"You know I need to get up now."

He nodded.

"I know."

He didn't let go of her though. She grinned at him.

"I'm not sure that you do."

"No no, I'm 100% aware that you need to leave."

He started kissing her neck. He quickly found that special spot along her neck that made her melt. He'd found it last night when he'd been exploring, and he was determined to make use of his newfound knowledge. He was rewarded for his attention to detail, by Sara moaning throatily. The sound alone was enough to turn him on. The fact that she was naked, pressed against his body, was just icing on the cake.

"I reeeaaally need to go." she forced out.

He was tempted to keep going and make her late, but he figured that it wouldn't be the best idea. If Chaos wondered why Sara was late, she might be tempted to investigate. If she investigated, she would find the two of them in bed together. If she found the two of them in bed together, shit was going to hit the fan. He stopped kissing Sara's neck and moved his arms from her waist. She gave him a grateful look and climbed out of bed.

"I promise, we can pick this up where we left off, as soon as I get back." she told him as she walked, naked, to the bathroom.

"I'm holding you to that!" he called to her as she closed the bathroom door.

The sound of water splashing became audible. She was taking a shower. He was willing to bet that she was brushing her teeth at the same time. He figured she would be back out in a few minutes. He tried to schedule her plan. She was going to walk out of the apartment and make her way to the main training building, to Chaos' office. Maybe 10 minutes in there, and then she would walk back. All in all, she might be gone for half an hour. Which meant that Percy was going to be in her apartment, alone, for half an hour. He didn't really like that. He was perfectly comfortable there with Sara, but he didn't want to be alone in someone else's home. He would definitely feel awkward.

He decided to go to his cafe and get some coffee. It was a 6-minute walk, so roundtrip would be 12. He figured it would take 1 minute to get his coffee. That would leave him with another 17 minutes with nothing to do. He might as well sit down at the cafe for 15.

Sara walked out of the bathroom, wearing a towel the way women do. It went from just above her knees, to just above her breasts. He hated that damn towel. She must have noticed him glaring at it because she 'accidentally' dropped it. He didn't hate that damn towel anymore. With a massive grin, she started getting dressed, with his eyes glued to her the entire time. She was a fucking marvel.

Unfortunately, she finished getting dressed. She looked damn good though. She was wearing a charcoal-grey, knee-length skirt, and a pure white blouse. She looked very professional and absolutely stunning. She'd have their fucking tongues wagging. She gave him a quick kiss as she left and told him that she would be around half an hour. He gave himself a mental checkmark at correctly estimating the time it would take her, and started getting dressed. He climbed out of the same window he had used to climb in. He didn't want anyone in the building to see him leaving her apartment in the morning.

He casually strolled through the city, making his way to the cafe. He took his time. He arrived exactly 6 minutes after he left. He ordered himself a cup of coffee and sat down. He thought about sitting down at the table where he had spoken to Sara, but he reconsidered. It was a beautiful day and he wanted to sit outside in the sun.

As he sat with his coffee, he didn't pull out his phone. He didn't have a book with him. He just sat and did nothing. He rarely liked to do such a thing. Usually, when he was alone with his thoughts, he was plagued by images of his past. Gabe always cropped up in some way. That fucker would always torment him. Jack would make an appearance, without a doubt. That evil shit was going to have to die painfully. He often saw his mother. But he could never bring himself to remember the pleasant times they'd had together. He could never think about the times when they went to Montauk. He could never think about her bringing him bags full of blue candy. All he could ever think about, was the look on her face when he found her body. The look of sheer terror.

He thought about the woman he'd thought that he would marry. But he didn't think about the first time they'd met. He didn't think about their first kiss, or their first date, or the night he proposed, or any one of a million happy memories he had with her. He just thought about the image of his fiancee with a hole in her chest. He thought about how empty her eyes looked as she stared into nothingness.

Usually, that's exactly what he thought about. But not that time. Instead, he thought about Sara. He thought about how great she was. He thought about how wonderful she made him feel. He thought about Chaos, and how nice she was to him after he'd lost everything. For a very long time, she'd been his only friend. The only person he could talk to.

After nearly 15 minutes, he stood up with a smile. He walked back into the cafe and ordered 2 more cups of coffee. A minute later, he picked them up and started walking back to Sara's place. Precisely 6 minutes later, he got there. He would have walked through the front door, but he couldn't. He had the interview scheduled with her, so he was actually supposed to be there that time. But he couldn't. He'd left out of the window and he didn't have a key. Sara had locked up behind her when she'd left to meet Chaos. So, his only two options were to climb through the window as he had before or to break down her door. He decided to go with option A. Sara didn't seem like the type to easily forgive a broken door.

Climbing through a window while supporting and balancing 2 cups of coffee, was not an easy feat. Sadly, Sara lived 3 stories high. It was one hell of a climb, and the precariously balanced cups of scalding hot coffee weren't helping. But he made it. He climbed through her window, placed the coffees on the table, and sat down. Then, he decided to tease Sara slightly. If her reaction at training was anything to go by, she enjoyed his physique. He took off his shirt, and draped it over the back of the couch. He kicked his feet up on the coffee table, and sipped his coffee until he heard the keys turn in the lock, He knew for a fact that she was alone. If there were anyone with her, he would have sensed them and been dressed in 0.2 seconds. If Chaos was with her, then he would have had no way of sensing her directly, but there were other ways. He would have heard them talking, or he would have sensed everyone tensing up in her presence. But there was none of that. It was just Sara. He left his shirt off.

She walked into the apartment.

"Hey Percy, I-" she stopped talking as soon as she saw him.

He was lounging on her couch, casually sipping coffee, half-naked. She licked her lips. He saw her eyes roam around his chest. She started with his massive arms, went up to his basketball-esque shoulders, and then on to his powerful chest. From there, her eyes explored the multitude of scars that littered his body. Once she'd traced each one of them, her eyes wept downard to his abs. He had learned last night that she loved his abs. Her eyes concluded their journey at the prominent V-lines that led into his pants. She took a few moments to stare, and then took a deep breath.

"So, "he began innocently, "How'd it go?" he took another sip of his coffee.

"Yeah... umm... not bad. You?" she said, spaced out.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Me? What do you mean?"

"Didn't you ask how I was doing?"

He grinned at her.

"No, Sara, I didn't. Did you have trouble hearing me?"

She nodded.

"Some."

"What seems to be the problem?" he asked, faking concern.

"Your abs are way too loud." she teased.

He laughed at that. He was glad she was back. He stood up, picked up her coffee from the table, and walked over to her.

"I got you one. You seem like a latte girl."

"You're right. Thanks, I could really use this."

"No problem. Maybe this time we'll actually manage to finish a drink while we're in each other's company."

She blushed slightly but grinned harder.

"We'll see."

He grinned back at her and knocked his cup against hers, like a toast. She walked past him to the coffee table and put down a stack of papers and a recording device. As reluctant as they both were to do the psych eval, they knew that it was necessary. She turned around to him.

"Just to even things out before we get started..."

She started undoing the buttons on her shirt. One by one. Slowly. Percy felt his eyes darken as he watched her. She was slow and teasing. She took her time and put on a show. And it was a damn good show. Eventually, she was left standing there in just a bra. Not a sheer black like last time. This time it was a lacy red item. He was eager to find out if she was wearing a matching set. He took a step toward her, intent on resuming what they'd started that morning, but she put a hand on his chest.

"Not yet. Think about how much better it would be if we wait until after." she purred.

He just groaned in response. He really didn't want to wait. She grinned at him.

"Think of it as a reward." she whispered into his ear.

"Well, if it's a reward, "he whispered back, "Then it's gotta be really good, right?"

"Damn right." she promised.

"Alright. I guess I can wait a little while. If you're sure you can too?" he teased.

She scoffed in response, but Percy knew that she was bluffing. Dopamine was flooding the room, and it was coming straight from her.

They sat down on the couch and Sara pulled the recording device closer to her. She pressed record and tapped the microphone with her nail. Once she'd done that, she stopped recording and played it back. She heard the thunk of her nail hitting the microphone and nodded to herself. Once she had done that, she started recording again.

He raised an eyebrow at the process. He had noticed that she was very organized based on the way she kept her apartment, but he had no idea that she was borderline OCD. The way she ran through the whole thing with such fluidity told him that she was accustomed to doing something like that. He was sure that she had interviewed thousands of suspects during her time with Chaos. A big part of the army was collaborating with the various police departments on whatever world the mission was. She had explained it all to him when they'd met. Typically, if they needed help with a case or something like that, Chaos would send someone down there to assist. But assisting them meant that the operative would need to function by the rules of whatever police department they were helping. Most of them had similar rules to the ones established on Earth. If he had to guess, he would say that Chaos had something to do with influencing those rules throughout the universe. It would be too big of a coincidence otherwise.

"Psychological exam of Perseus Jackson conducted due to completion of the first 50 years of cadet training. Note that Mr. Jackson arrived punctually."

Percy smiled to himself.

"She's already better than that other asshole."

"Mr. Jackson, we're going to start with a few basic questions, if that's ok with you?"

"Fucking LIGHTYEARS better than the other one."

"Yes, that's fine."

"Excellent, "she grinned at him, "Where are you from?"

"Manhattan, New York, USA, Earth."

"Alright. And what emotions are brought out when you think of home?"

"I guess you could say that it's a mix."

"Of?" she prompted.

"There's a lot of stuff. A lot of grief. There's some nostalgia. Maybe a little joy."

"Why grief?"

He took a breath.

"I've... lost people there."

Which was the truth. He'd lost a lot of people there. More than he cared to even think about. Sara took a deep breath.

"Is it true that one of the people you lost, was your fiancee?" she asked timidly.

Percy could understand her awkwardness. He knew that things were complicated. They were in a pseudo-relationship, and it was as if they were haunted by a ghost. The ghost of someone that had been dead for 10 years.

"Yes, it's true." he choked out.

Sara nodded. She was looking very awkward. It contrasted deeply with the fact that she was sitting in front of him wearing a skirt and a bra.

"The two of you met at a summer camp, correct?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"The two of you were how old?"

"12."

"When did you begin to date?"

"When we were 16."

"And you were friends until then?"

"We were."

"At what age did you propose?"

"We were 18."

Sara nodded again. There was a long pause. She looked like she was trying to force herself to say something.

"If it's ok with you, "she started, "I would like to ask you some questions about the day she and your mother... passed."

Percy swallowed. He really didn't want to talk about it. Talking about it, was practically the last thing he wanted to do. But he knew that he had to. And he knew that he would much rather talk to Sara than the asshole that had interviewed him the last time. Plus, he felt like he almost owed Sara an explanation. He had only known her for a few days, but he felt close to her.

"She, my mother, and our friend, Piper, went shopping for wedding dresses in Manhattan. Piper was getting married too. She probably has, by now. They were going to spend the day together in the city. Make it into an experience. A whole day thing. I was back at our camp. At some point, I felt this terrible feeling in my stomach. I had no idea what it was. I still don't. I'll have to remember to ask Chaos about that. But it was pulling me somewhere, I just didn't know where. I followed it all the way to Manhattan. It led me to an alley. I saw her and my mother lying dead. They'd been shot."

He started choking up at the end. He hadn't talked about it out loud since it had happened. Not since the police had interviewed him right after. Sara gave his hand a gentle squeeze. Not romantically, but in a friendly way. It was a supportive gesture. He was glad for it. He squeezed her hand in turn and gave her a weak smile.

Sara reached over to the recording device and paused it. She leaned over and hugged him. He hugged her back. They stayed like that for a few minutes, before she pulled away. She gave him an encouraging smile. He returned it. she leaned back over to the device and hit record.

"Let's talk about your early childhood. How was it for you?"

He took a breath. Talking about that day was harder than talking about Gabe, but it didn't mean it was easy for him to discuss childhood abuse.

"Awful. My mother married some guy. Total creep. He started beating me when I was just 4 years old. He didn't stop until he died when I was 12."

Sara's eyes went wide. She hadn't read far enough into the transcript from the first interview to have read about Gabe. She didn't know about the abuse. He had told her about the wars, so she must have assumed that he'd gotten his scars from battle. That was how he'd gotten a few of them. But most of them came from Gabe. He could see in her eyes that she wanted to pause the recorder again and ask him about it. But he saw her stop herself. She knew that too many pauses on the tape would be seen as suspicious.

"How... How was it done?" she asked shakily. She looked like she was shaking with rage. The thought of someone beating him as a small child was making her go nuclear.

"Mostly hitting. Sometimes he would cut me."

Her jaw was clenching. Her hands were clenching and unclenching. He could hear her teeth grinding.

"Does this affect you in some way today?"

He wanted to lie, but he couldn't. Not to Sara's face.

"I have dreams. Dreams where he's still around."

Sara closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Moving on. You were sent on a mission 5 years ago, is that correct?"

"Yes, it is."

"What was the mission."

"Assassination of a tyrant."

"You were successful?"

She knew he was, but she had to ask for the tapes.

"Yes, I was."

"Do you feel any long-lasting consequences from taking the life of another person?"

"None. I killed a bad person. I have it from a good source that there's a democracy in place there nowadays."

She smiled at him lightly.

"No guilt, or remorse, or anything like that?"

"None. I have total confidence in my actions. If I had to, I would do it again."

She smiled at that.

"Ok. Was that the first time you'd killed another person?"

He knew why she was asking that. He had already told her about fighting in the wars on Earth. She knew the answer, but she wanted it on record.

"No, it wasn't."

"Who else did you kill?"

"I participate in 2 wars when I was on Earth. I killed many people, throughout several battles."

"How do you feel about that?"

"Not guilty, or remorseful. Maybe some pity? I knew a few of them. They used to be good people. They got corrupted by something powerful. But I don't regret it. It was them or me. I chose me."

"Ok. How old were you during these battles?"

"My first big battle, was when I was 15. I had several up until I was 18."

"Do you think living through several battles at such a young age could still be affecting you in some way?"

"In what way?"

"Post-traumatic stress is quite a common one."

"Nothing like that. I guess you could say that I was indoctrinated into this kind of life. I was born as a demigod son of Poseidon, and I've been in life or death situations since I was 12 as a result of that. I suppose I'm acclimatized."

"Alright. Let's talk about your time since arriving here."

They went on for a while after that. Sara had a lot of questions that she needed to cover. Luckily, after they started discussing his time in Chaos' realm, they were both able to relax a little bit. She asked about psycho girl and the asshole instructor. He told her about them. He made sure to put a light spin on it. She was desperately trying not to laugh into the recorder.

He was glad that they managed to move past the awkwardness. They almost started to have fun. Almost. It was still an uncomfortable conversation, given the context, but they moved on with it. They both figured that they might as well power through it as fast as they could and then spend the rest of their time having fun.

And they were successful in their goal. They managed to wrap it up in less than half the time that the other had taken. He was willing to admit that it was due to his greater cooperation with Sara. And he was sure that the knowledge that they were going to have phenomenal sex afterward, was only spurring them along to finish faster.

Finally, Sara asked the final question. Percy answered as fast as he possibly could. She gave him a thumbs up and ended the recording. As soon as they were done, she crawled into his arms and hugged him tighter than he had thought possible. He replied in kind. For a good few moments, neither of them said anything. They didn't really need to. Eventually, she spoke.

"You ok?" she said.

Her voice was muffled. She was talking into his chest.

"Not as bad as I was last time. You're a lot better than that asshole."

She snorted slightly.

"Thanks. I felt really awkward doing the whole thing in my bra though. I thought it would be sexy, but I just felt really stupid."

"You felt stupid? What about me? I'm totally bare-chested here!"

She snickered at him.

"Oh please! That's sooo not the same thing!"

"You're right! Mine's worse! Look, you can see my nipples and everything!"

She giggled at him. It was a glorious sound.

"That's true. You have very cute nipples though."

"What, these old things? Nah. Yours are way better."

She was laughing now.

"Well, I'm glad you think so!"

He nodded wisely.

"I'm no narcissist." he said sagely.

She rolled her eyes at him, but the effect was ruined by the massive smile on her face. She had the greatest smile he had ever seen. He was glad that they'd managed to break the tension. He wanted to have some fun before they had to have their conversation.

"Hey, listen. Do we need to talk about our situation?" she started.

"I think we're on the same page."

"Ok. Just to make sure though?"

"Alright. You wanna start?"

"Not particularly, but I will. We obviously can't have any kind of relationship. I'm an instructor here, you're a cadet. So, I propose that we spend the rest of the day fucking like bunnies, and then we call it quits."

He nodded. They both knew it was coming, but that didn't make it much easier. He really liked her, and he felt like she really liked him too. It was a shame to have to say goodbye when they didn't want to. What was even worse, was the fact that they were still going to see each other every day, for 21 hours per day, without being able to be together. But there was no other option.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

She nodded at him. Suddenly, he felt the urge to wrap her in his arms and never let go. So he did. He buried his face in her hair as her hands went around his neck. He heard her sniffle quietly. He fought to make sure that he didn't. After a few moments, they pulled back. Her eyes were a little red.

"It's just not fair, you know?"

He nodded.

"It's not. But at least it's not forever."

She quirked an eyebrow.

"I'll graduate soon enough. We'll both be members. Chaos told me that relationships between members aren't forbidden."

"Well yeah, Percy, but they're really hard. I tried it once, a long time ago. It crashed and burned. The odds that two operatives end up on the same planet for more than a couple days, are astronomical. If we started dating, we'd still never see each other."

"I could talk to Chaos. I'm sure I could convince her."

Sara hesitated.

"Look, let's not get our hopes up. Why don't we just enjoy ourselves right now?"

He nodded.

"Ok. Let's enjoy ourselves."

And on that note, they put all thoughts of saying goodbye, out of their minds and concentrated on having a good time. Sara's bra finally came off, swiftly followed by the skirt and the lacy red panties. Percy's pants went flying across the room, joined soon after by his boxers. They spent hours with each other. They already knew the best ways to pleasure each other, and they were applying their knowledge liberally. They moved from room to room. They went round after round. At one point they had to stop to rehydrate.

Eventually, when neither of them could move any part of their body, they collapsed in her bed. Neither of them was thinking about the fact that they were going to have to stop doing what they'd just done. Neither of them was thinking anything at all, really. They just held each other

A/N: Ok, that's that. Confession time: I started writing Sara, and I really like her. I think I might change this from a pertemis story. I'm really not sure. I think it could go either way. If you guys have a preference, PM me. If the majority says Artemis, I'll stick with Artemis. If the majority says Sara, I'll switch the pairing. To be clear, even if the pairing changes, Artemis will still feature heavily in the story later on. That won't change. Regardless of whether Percy and Sara are dating, he'll still join the hunt as a guardian. I think it could be interesting to have him be purely platonic friends with Artemis, while he pursues a relationship with Sara. Anyways, that's all. Let me know about the pairing. Stay safe, everyone.