House of Balloons || Percabeth AU

2-1 (A)

Things seemed to be moving in reverse.

Annabeth recalled when she had first begun working for Neo Daedalus. A greenhorn with only a few months of interning experience starting at the biggest architecture firm in the city. No biggie.

She remembered how nerve wracking it was sitting in that waiting room. Out of all her graduating classmates, she and this raven haired kid next to her were the only ones who had made it past the second round of interviews. Her only consolation was that Percy looked as nervous as she felt.

Unlike now, they'd actually gotten along pretty well for the first few months. Having gotten the job, they relied on each other a lot. It wasn't easy getting accustomed to an entirely new environment, but it helped having a semi familiar person amongst all these suits. Long nights and hard hours were poured over tables doing the scut work that big shot architects deemed too good to handle themselves while getting paid dick for it. And that really offered a good foundation to bond with someone.

Annabeth didn't know where it all went askew.

She remembered when they got promoted to Designer I. They'd gone out for drinks with a few other colleagues and that had been the most fun she'd ever had at this firm. She barely even remembered getting back to her shitty little apartment, but it was a much needed mind numbing after endless months of stress.

But as she and Percy got more and more encrusted in their work, they'd drifted.

Egos clashed, words were thrown around, and the rest was a blur. Percy Jackson was the most stubborn, cocky person she'd ever met. He was also brilliant. And those things collided all too well with her own personality. Prideful and controlling.

All of that seemed to show full force this week.

With the competition weighing above their heads, Percy had changed, as had she. There was less banter between them now and hardly any greetings past a nod. The moment they were out of Chiron's office last week, she'd expected some cocksure boast about how he was going to win. A ridiculous notion, but not entirely unwelcome.

Compared to before, he was more or less a hardass now. Of course, she was as well, more so than usual, but he'd always been her amusing, facetious colleague firing off frequent jibs rather than the closed off, more professional one he was right now.

Annabeth wasn't sure if she liked that change.