(A/N Excuse me while I make Artemis regret not dealing with things as a kid and revert to schoolgirl behavior now.

Thank you so much for all the reviews!)

Artemis

Two weeks. It took two weeks for her to fully recover from her time in Greece. Thalia ran the Hunt smoothly, and Artemis watched from the background as she slowly returned to full strength. Feeling truly ready, she shifted into the older version Percy last saw her in and teleported to New Rome.

It felt odd being in the city in her Greek form. A large part of her wanted to shift to her Roman persona and visit her shrine, but she had business with a Greek.

Finding the correct apartment she knocked on the door. She could have gone straight in, but that seemed rude and she was here to offer thanks.

"I swear to the gods, Annabeth," was the loud grumbled reply as she heard him come to the door, "if you tell me one more statistic about what may or may not happen to that child," the door swung open, "I'm gonna- Artemis?"

She immediately regretted every decision that led to her being there. It appeared she had woken him up, even though it wasn't that early. But apparently he was already being harassed by his friend's distress. She didn't mean to add to that. Though really she wasn't...she just felt intrusive as she stared at him in his pajama pants. Apparently he didn't wear a shirt to bed. Her face heated, but she used her godly aura to hide it. Along with a lot of strength of will to keep her voice level.

"If you'd like me to come back another time, I can."

"Right. Um, no. Just...give me a minute." He shut the door in her face. She was shocked. Why did he shut the door in her face? She was about to get really angry and barge right in when he opened it again, this time fully dressed. Though his hair was still at odd angles on one side and flat against his head on the other. Doing a mental 180, she just barely kept her giggles in check. "Don't get me wrong, I don't mind seeing you, but usually when a god shows up they want something. So what do you need?"

Once again she wanted to be insulted by his comment, but she knew it was true.

"I needed to say thank you," she replied, still in his doorway as he blocked the entrance to his home. She wondered if it was intentional or he just wasn't thinking of normal and expected pleasantries.

"Oh, not necessary. I wouldn't have just left you hanging there." As he rubbed the back of his neck she decided to be bold and cut through the doorway while his arm was no longer blocking the entrance. He remained at the door awkwardly after he shut it. It seemed they both found the circumstance odd.

She looked around the barren space, making slow circles as she explained herself. "You could have actually. I'm sure there are some gods you'd love to leave tied, upside down, and powerless." He shrugged, but she could think of one war god in particular that didn't get along with the demigod. "And then you could have left me in Greece, but you risked introducing me to your friends. I'd like to see Walt again, if you could arrange it. I think I figured out who he is, and his master owes me a favor I never got to collect on."

"Right...from when Greek and Egyptian people mixed. The...ptolemaic time?"

"Mmhmm," she nodded. She found herself distracted by a window garden he had. In it was moonlace, which she hadn't seen in the mortal world before. "From your time with Calypso?"

"Yeah. It was one promise I could keep. They remind me…" he didn't continue, and she didn't feel it was her place to press. Calypso's curse was a cruel one, especially when considered by a goddess who had sworn off romance.

"This seems an odd place for you to reside. Besides the flowers there isn't much here…" She trailed off as she turned to face him, realizing she was being incredibly rude.

"I'm only here part of the year. Now I'm here for Annabeth. Usually, I'm at my place on Long Island."

"What's it like?"

"Messy," he shrugged.

"Well, I came because I wished to offer you a boon," she stated, getting back on track. "If your wish is within my power it is yours." She faced him as she said this with a smile on her face. She truly was grateful, and also all kinds of happy that she wasn't such an awkward mess as she had been while drained of her powers.

"There's not much…" he trailed off again, scratching the back of his head once again. "So, I know you're the goddess of maidenhood, but weren't you also associated with midwives?"

She blinked at the odd statement before remembering Annabeth was pregnant.

"Yes. I learned the craft of midwives in an effort to ease the suffering of young women. Childbirth is rarely pleasant, though great strides have been made over the centuries."

"Could you watch over Annabeth? She's been freaking out about every little thing she reads. And she reads a lot. I understand her concerns, but I'm going to go insane. I don't know how Ryan is staying in the same house as her right now." He speaks in a joking manner, but the goddess can tell he does worry for his friend.

"Of course. I was already planning on offering my blessing to their child. Thalia is beside herself. But I will watch out for Annabeth as well." Percy smiled at her admission, visibly relaxing. "However, that will not be your boon. I've seen you refuse to accept gifts offered you in the past, preferring to acknowledge those surrounding you, but not this time. You must come up with something entirely selfish and yours. You are a man, so it shouldn't be too hard," she smirked at him.

"Right, because I must be nothing but selfish if I'm a guy." She shrugged, still smirking. "What if I ask for a kiss?" Her smirk faltered. "You keep expecting me to be an ass, so maybe owing me a kiss would satisfy that expectation." He was the one smirking now. She knew he was just teasing her, but she didn't like being challenged.

"You would ask for something I wouldn't give, just to not receive anything? Are gifts truly that terrible?" He laughed lightly at her exasperation.

"I don't trust all the gifts I'm given. Most hold a singular purpose that makes me believe my path was manipulated into it being useful. My dad is about the only one I actually trust, though you and Hestia come close too."

Artemis was stunned. Once again, he was right. Gifts and rewards were often used as ways for the gods to intervene where they wouldn't usually be able to. But what truly surprised her was his honesty about not trusting them. She'd known it before, it doesn't take an Athenian to figure it out. But for him to say it? Even more surprising was that he nearly trusted her, despite her reputation for hating men and their lack of frequent communication. What reason did he have to trust her?

Realizing she was gaping she snapped her mouth shut and reached out her closed hand. She didn't know what she summoned, but she knew what power she was manifesting in it.

"When you decide on your boon crush this. If it's within my power it is yours."

He sighed, so she took the initiative and grabbed his hand in hers, pressing the object to his palm. On impulse she used his hand as leverage and stretched on her tiptoes to peck his cheek with a kiss. When she pulled back his mouth was agape in an "O" shape and the crests of his cheeks were tinged pink. She smirked, surprised with herself.

"Now you can't ask for a kiss." With a lopsided grin she turned away and teleported to her camp.

.

Percy

Percy softly touched the spot on his cheek she had kissed. It was just a light teasing peck, but it dumbfounded him just the same. He felt like he was 14 again receiving his first kiss. But this wasn't Annabeth, this was a goddess. And she wasn't afraid for his mortality, she was teasing him back when he had tried to talk her into a corner.

Really he should have known better than to challenge her, even in a small verbal spat, but as usual his impulses got the best of him. It didn't help that she was her matured self while visiting. He was every kind of embarrassed to have gone to the door thinking it was just Annabeth.

He was grateful she knocked though. Aphrodite wasn't as polite. What was it with him having strange encounters with goddesses in this apartment? If this kept up, he'd have to start keeping the place a bit more secure.

Shaking his head he contemplated telling Annabeth or Leo about the encounter. It was strange, so he wanted to talk it over with someone, but it also felt...private? Shaking his head again he decided against it. He needed to forget about her visit; unless he wanted to start making moon eyes at the moon goddess. She was amazing, no doubt it'd be easy to fall for her. But pining after an immortal was a bad idea and it would be exponentially worse to pine after an eternal maiden.

Percy flopped down on his bed and looked over the token in his hand. It was a flower made of opal. Or maybe moonstone? That would make more sense. The type of flower seemed familiar too. Glancing through his door to the window garden, he smiled as he realized it was moonlace, or at least resembled it very closely. He made a mental note to ask Meg at some point. The token had a small hole where the flower would have met the vine, so he could thread a cord or chain through it.

Setting it carefully on the nightstand in his room he went back to trying to catch up on sleep. He'd been out with Ryan and Frank late the night before. They checked the entire perimeter of Camp Jupiter and New Rome looking for any breaches or maintenance issues. Mainly they were avoiding Annabeth, Hazel, and Piper.

Everyone was excited to see Piper while she was visiting, but Piper's Aphrodite side was showing full force. With Annabeth pregnant and Hazel planning her and Frank's wedding, Piper was in overdrive.

Plus with him and her being the extra wheels when everyone was together...it got a little weird. They had tried to go on a date a few years back, but just ended up talking about Jason. They were still great friends, but when everyone else was pairing off they both felt wrong in that atmosphere.

Piper made it obvious she wasn't looking for love, but addressed possibilities as they arrived. She also made it obvious she expected Percy to find love. She never explained it as more than "a child of Aphrodite thing," but it was pretty obvious she expected something out of his nonexistent love-life. He just wished he knew what.

Rolling over he placed his pillow over his head. He did not want to be thinking about this right now. He wanted to be sleeping.

With a sigh, he finally got up and got ready for his day.

.

Thalia

Thalia couldn't figure out what was wrong with Artemis. She seemed to be recovered and back to her godly state, but something was off. It was similar to her time while Apollo was mortal, only instead of swapping between identities and splitting into two or more manifestations she was laying in her tent covering her face with a pillow over her head and shifting between ages.

This had been going on for at least an hour, though Thalia had no idea how long Artemis had been in this state before she came in.

"Lady Artemis, is something the matter?" she asked again. This was the fourth time she'd attempted contact. With a very heavy sigh Artemis removed her pillow. She'd been 20ish when she decided to reenter conversation capability, but as she turned to face the lieutenant she turned about 13 again.

"I'm just...I don't even know. I'm…" another sigh and a groan ended her line of thought as she reached for the pillow again. Thalia beat her to it and simply made eye contact. If the goddess was this stressed she needed a confident. If that wasn't Thalia, so be it, but she needed to know someone would be there for her.

"I might have… " she broke off into mumbling and blushed instead of finishing her sentence.

"My Lady?"

"I sort of… kissed Percy Jackson?"

Thalia felt her jaw fall open. She had to have heard her wrong, right? But thinking about it, Artemis's current state could easily be explained by embarrassment. Especially if her maturity levels resemble her "feeling like a schoolgirl with a crush." But that would mean she didn't just kiss him, which is ridiculous in of itself, but that she liked him. In a romantic way. Apparently Thalia took too long to respond as she was sifting through her thoughts, because Artemis began freaking out again, ripping the pillow from Thalia's grasp.

"It was just a peck on the cheek!" she shouted through the pillow. "It's not like I made out with him! It wasn't even a real kiss! Just- just- Ugh!" Her frame went limp with her head still under the pillow.

"A kiss on the cheek is normal Artemis," Thalia began softly. She was rewarded with her goddess peeking out from under the pillow's edge. "Your reaction is what worries me though." The goddess blushed, but didn't hide again. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Well, you know he helped me get back home while I was drained…"

"Yes."

"I wanted to thank him with a boon. You know, as one would normally do." Thalia nodded. "But he was being difficult," she scowled. "He asked me to watch over Annabeth's pregnancy and childbirth. Which is fine. But I wanted to thank him. And then he teased me that if I wanted him to be selfish he'd just ask for a kiss, because I would never give him that." Her face became extremely red as she explained what happened. Thalia didn't know she could blush so hard. "So after instructing him to come up with a wish, I...well, I kissed him (On the cheek!) and told him now he couldn't wish for that because he already got it." By then her blush had spread down her neck and up her ears.

"This all seems like normal banter between friends, Artemis." The goddess blinked at her like she wanted to argue, but held her tongue. "Unless there is something else?" she inquired gently. The goddess shook her head. "Something like an emotion tied to the kiss?" Thalia prompted. This got an odd look from the goddess, but she didn't immediately lash out, which was good.

"I've never…" she trailed off, fidgeting with her ruby ring. Thalia had asked once where he got it; she explained it was a gift from Aphrodite, but didn't go into more detail than that.

"Let's forget about it for now, Lady Artemis. We'll come back to it after you feel a little less out of sorts." Her patron god nodded. "Tell me about something else to get your mind off it."

"Like?"

"How was your hunt in Greece?"