House of Balloons || Percabeth AU

7-2 (A)

Annabeth had her hands on her hips as she looked around her apartment with a deep scowl. Everything was a mess. Which was a little ridiculous because not twenty minutes ago, this entire place was clean. There wasn't anything in it of course, but it was still clean.

Why did she think moving was a good idea at this time of year? Back when she planned it though, there wasn't a competition looming over her head. True, she couldn't really help the timing of the previous residents' lease being up, but still.

She had called out of work for two days to take care of this thrilling escapade. That meant two days of appointments being pushed back. And worse, two days without working on the project. She was falling a bit behind on it now. If that wasn't enough insult to injury, the movers demanded she pay them more to set up all her heavy furniture for her.

Growing up in this city, she knew when she was getting played. Two hundred dollars on top of what she was already paying them? It might've been the holiday season, but she wasn't a damn charity foundation. Honestly, did they think of her as a desperate fool stupid enough to fall for such brazen extortion? Well, she wasn't... but it would take forever to do all this by herself and if she wanted to get back to work ASAP, then she'd need a little help.

And so, without thinking, she found herself dialing his number.

Only two hours later, there was a knock on her door. She figured it was some variant of a Karen, ready to complain about all the noise she was making. But to her surprise, Percy was standing there in his work clothes with a smile on his face and a few things in his hands.

"Hey, Beth."

Something compelled her to spout: "Jackass."

He immediately caught on. "Chode," he returned, lips twitching dangerously.

They stared at each other for a moment, the silence spreading thin until they simultaneously burst into convulsing laughter. It probably wasn't all that funny, but to them, it was fucking hilarious.

"I can't believe we used to call each other that," he managed in between breathy laughs, hardly coherent. "Talk about a throwback."

"Can you imagine what the others thought? I didn't even know what 'chode' meant at first," Annabeth wheezed, wiping a tear from her eye. "Urban dictionary was not very, um, elegant about it. Though, I have to question why you knew it."

"I was a high school boy once. You learn selective things."

"I'll take your word for it."

Letting him inside, she gave him a brief hug when a certain otherworldly smell hit her senses. He had brought her coffee again. And there was probably another bagel and chocolate chip muffin in that paper bag.

"I figured you forgot to eat with all this going on."

He was right.

"I've been meaning to ask you about this!" She exclaimed as she accepted the food, flashing him a grateful smile. "How did you know my breakfast order?"

"What do you mean? You've been ordering that same thing for the last seven years. Probably more."

She blinked, faltering. "Yeah, but—how did you know that?"

He turned somewhat sheepish. "Uh, well, I used to work at the campus cafe. And you used to come in sometimes."

Wait...

"You mean back at NYU?"

"That's the name of our school, so yeah."

"Okay, smart ass," she tittered, knocking her elbow against his. "But you remembered that after all this time?"