PJO/HOO One-Shots

A Single Moment - Caleo Mortal AU

Hey guys! I'm finally back with a new update! School is taking over my life, so expect sporadic updates from now on, but I'll try my best. This is - you guessed it - another Caleo AU! I've been binge-reading Percabeth AUs lately and they're so much fun to read and write, maybe even a bit more than Canonverse, so I decided to try my hand at a Mortal AU (meaning no demigods, they're just mortals). This is shamefully cliche, but I'm still pretty proud of it, and I think you'll like it too! 

Summary: Elevator cliche; mortal enemies AU

Calypso sighed wearily as she chugged the last of her coffee, barely holding onto the stack of folders she clutched against her side as she stepped into the elevator, sinking into the corner after the pressing her floor's button. "Thank God," she muttered as she surveyed the empty space, soft piano music drifting through the silence. Calypso cherished the five-minute elevator ride each morning up to the 60th floor, where she worked at a well-known, prestigious law firm. She wouldn't give up her job for anything, but there were days when she wanted to quit on the spot and punch her project partner in the face for being an insufferable, lazy, good-for-nothing slob, and today was one of those days. Calypso had stayed up until three in the morning the prior night finishing her project partner's - yes, she chose to pretend he didn't have a name - half of their quarterly report, which in his typical fashion he chose to put off until the last minute. When she had texted him about it over her rapidly-cooling plate of ramen noodles the evening before, even though it was a week before the project was due, he had simply responded with a "I'll get it done, sunshine," to which she chucked her phone across the kitchen, watching silently as it slammed against the wall and fell to the floor with a loud crash. She glanced down at said phone, ignoring the large crack in its surface, rolling her eyes at the how ridiculously early it was. Just as the doors were about to slide shut, leaving Calypso in delicious silence and peace, a hand stuck through the small gap, effectively stopping the door's retreat. Calypso resisted the urge to scream in frustration, sinking even further back into the corner and burying her head in her phone. She vaguely registered a person step into the already-cramped space until they exclaimed in an all-too-familiar deep, teasing voice, "Same floor! Would you look at that, sunshine." Calypso flinched at the use of the nickname, grating her teeth in an attempt to reign in her growing anger. "We're project partners, idiot. Of course we're going to the same floor." Her eyes met his sparkling brown ones as a smirk spread across his face. He raised an eyebrow at her tone. "Someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" She clenched her fists, gripping onto the metal bar behind her with more strength than one would need to hold on. "Oh, we're talking about beds, are we? How about we talk about the fact that I waited three hours for you to tell me you finished your half of the project, and when you didn't, I had to sacrifice three whole hours of my sleep to finish it for you?" She could see the confusion take over his features, and something else followed it - hurt? Anger? Before it ultimately settled on anger. But she didn't have time to dwell on it before he spoke up, dragging a hand through his curly, chocolate-brown hair. "Typical. You always do this," he muttered. "Excuse me? I always do what?" Her voice raised slightly as she stepped towards him. He rolled his eyes. "Jump to conclusions. Decide that your work is better than anyone else's and do it for them because they couldn't possibly do it better than Little Miss Perfect." She gasped, tightening her grip on her the stack of papers she still clutched, certain they were wrinkled from her death grip on them. "What did you just call me?" He sneered in response, stepping closer to her. She tried her hardest to ignore his intoxicating scent - a delicious mixture of pine and slow-burning campfires. "Little. Miss. Perfect." He replied, bridging the gap between them with each word. She glared at him. "Lazy, infuriating, slacker," she shot back, poking her finger into his surprisingly well-toned chest. She once again saw something flash across his gaze, but this time, there was another unfamiliar undertone that followed. He scowled, leaning down and fishing something out of his backpack sitting by feet. She barely had time to register what he was doing before a flash of white shot into her vision, landing with a decisive plop at her feet. She could make out the title to his half of the report spread across of the top, and the scattered pile revealed just how long it was - past the required page count. She stared at it for a moment before slowly lifting her gaze, looking to his eyes. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Guess you have a decision to make," he clipped, gesturing to the papers in her arm. "Trust me or implement your fail-safe." She straightened at his words, huffing indignantly as she brushed a lock of caramel hair out of her face that was falling out of her impossibly messy braid. "Fail-safe?" she scoffed, watching his eyes light with a fire that made her heart flutter - wait, flutter? No, fill with contempt and hatred, that's what she meant. "Yes, fail-safe. Your favorite method. Since you can't seem to look past your own self-pride," he replied. "I can't believe how unbelievably-" A loud thud resounded in the elevator, cutting off the rest of her shout. A delayed jolt caused her to violently lurch sideways, slamming against the wall. She sat up with a renewed purpose, the adrenaline overriding her soon-to-be throbbing hip. He still stood there, only having moved an inch or so to latch onto the metal bar next to them. She scowled at him, marching over to the button panel. "What the Hades just happened?" she half-screamed, jabbing at random buttons so vigorously she was surprised she hadn't shattered the glass covering them yet. "The elevator stopped," a voice came from behind her, and she stomped her heel, whirling around to face him. "I got that, genius. What are we supposed to do now? I can't be late, but I'm sure you could." He rolled his eyes at her comment, sauntering up to the panel and pressing a large red button labeled "Emergency" in a much calmer manner than she had done with the others around it moments before. A moment later, it beeped, and he picked up the small hand-held telephone she seemed to have overlooked, glancing at her with a smug smile and he waited for a moment before speaking. "Yes, the elevator just stopped in the middle of the ride, and it won't move again." He glanced up at the frozen display above the panel. "Floor 34," he replied. "Yes, it's just myself and my project partner," he answered, shooting her a look to which she responded with a scowl. He hung up the phone a second later, pointedly stepping into her line of vision to force her to hold his gaze. "Thirty minutes." He held up a hand to silence her protests. "She's calling our boss. For now, you're stuck with me." She rolled her eyes skyward, taking a deep breath. "Whatever. Now, if I remember correctly, we were discussing your comments on my hard work." He sighed, shoving a hand through his perpetually messy hair. "Like I said," he began, glancing down at the papers still scattered across the floor from earlier. "You have a decision to make." Her anger flared with new purpose as she stepped back in front of him, glaring up at his tall frame. "I have no such decision to make, Valdez. Don't get some fantasy in your head." His eyes danced with enmity as he held her gaze. "Fantasy, huh, sunshine?" She stomped her foot, the clack of her heel echoing off of the tiled floor. "That is not what I meant! Now if you'd actually do something for once in your life, and stop being a infuriating-" She was cut off again, but this time by something she never had in a million years thought could happen. She barely had time to take a breath before she was suddenly being pushed against the elevator's wall, her back digging into the metal bar as his eyes caught hers, a silent question dancing in their depths. She barely processed her nod before his lips slammed against hers, causing her to gasp sharply into his mouth. A thousand tingles shot down her body, leaving goosebumps on her arms as one of his hands dug into her hair, her braid falling apart. The other rested on her waist as he continued to kiss her. Overcoming her shock, she began to kiss him back with just as much fervor, her hand playing with his hair as his lips moved against hers. She wasn't sure how much time passed before she pulled back, gasping for breath, her face burning and her heart beating wildly. He licked his lip, and it took everything in her not to pull him back down for another go-around. "What," she gasped, "-was that?" He smirked, his hand still firmly wrapped around her waist. "The only way to get you to stop yelling at me," he whispered, his lips inches from hers. She bit her swollen lip, wincing at the pain from the bruises that were sure to be forming. But she shook off the pain, dropping her stack of crinkled papers that she still held to the floor and watched as they scattered on the floor, mingling with the ones he had thrown down. "We have a week," she whispered, enjoying the ways his eyes stayed fixed to her lips as she talked. "Until the project is due. What do you say that we change it up a bit? Work on it together." Her ability to form complete sentences flew out the window when she was around him, but oddly, she didn't mind. Not after that kiss. Don't get her wrong, he was still the most infuriating, annoying, aggravating person on Earth, but Styx, did he know how to kiss. And maybe she was wrong about him. He had done his half of the project, after all. Leo - that's right, she finally felt that he deserved a name - grinned, his chuckle sending butterflies flapping away in her stomach. "Thank you, Sunshine," he whispered, tilting his head. "For trusting me." She smiled before throwing her arms around his neck, pulling him down into another breathtaking kiss. And when the firefighters arrived twenty minutes later, it took all it had in her to pull away from his kiss. She bit her definitely bruised lip and intertwined their fingers, squeezing his hand as the doors slid open.

What'd you think? I say this every time but this is completely out of my normal writing style, but I think I did well. And because I hate when stories leave off with the love interests in a precarious balance between friends and more-than-friends, here's a bonus epilogue!

Calypso absently stirred the pot on the stove, her mind wandering as she tapped her foot to the rhythm of the soft music floating in from the nursery. She had just turned off the stove when she heard the front door unlock, biting her lip as a smile broke out on her face. Not a moment later, a pair of arms wrapped around her waist, and she giggled, turning around and burying her face in his neck. "You're home," she whispered, enjoying the way his arms tightened around her before he pulled back and studied her. The look of pure adoration and love in his eyes as his gaze traveled over his old t-shirt that hung off of her small frame, the edges of her black gym shorts peeking out from under its hem made her heart flutter accompanied by the same butterflies she felt the first time she kissed him in the elevator three years ago. "You're so beautiful, sunshine," Leo whispered, pulling her into a kiss that never failed to make her blush like a schoolgirl with a crush. She smiled as he pulled away, kissing him on the cheek before turning around and pulling the pot off of the stove. "Go away before the food gets too cold," she whined, pushing his chest. He chuckled before shooting her a grin. "I'll be right back." And when he returned two minutes later, their two-year old son resting in his arms with a sleepy smile, Calypso swore she fell in love with her husband all over again. They found each other in the most unconventional way - but she wouldn't trade her family for anything else in the world. He was hers, and that's all that mattered. 

That's it for now! I wanted to take this time to thank all of you the tremendous amount of support on this book, we're almost at 230 reads, which is totally insane. I never thought this would pass 20 views, if I'm being completely honest. Your support means the world to me :)