Hey guys. Thank you so much to the kind people who reviewed, followed and favourited. I see all of you and am grateful for the support. New chapter because mocks are over and I have a short break! Hope you enjoy the chapter. See you at the end.

'cause we've no time for getting old

Percy really hates Boston. He also kind of hates Annabeth right now.

Percy screams really loudly into his pillow and punches his bed and kicks his blanket because he's angry. Like, seething, pissed, mad, boiling, seeing red. He's angry at his stupid girlfriend; he's angry at all the stupid people in the entirety of Boston, Massachusetts; he's angry at stupid geography; he's angry at his stupid professor.

There's a simple reason for this very long chain of anger. Percy has a ten-page assignment due in exactly one hour and thirty-seven minutes, of which he has finished about three pages. It's on his worst subject, too—some crap about the importance of algae. Seriously, though. Algae. To Percy, algae is just a very misleadingly-spelled word for sea mould that exists for the sole purpose of torturing poor souls like Percy who chose to study marine biology at Harvard University because Lucifer thought it a suitable punishment for their multitude of negligible sins.

Oh yes, Percy has discovered the amazing show called Lucifer on FOX, and it's also one of the reasons why he has procrastinated so much on this assignment.

But binge-watching Lucifer and cursing his wifi for having such shitty connection that keeps on timing out isn't the main cause of his ire. In fact, it can be argued that the source of all the pain in Percy's life as of this very moment can be traced back to the moment he met a certain blonde.

Not Jason. That's a long story for another day.

The blonde's name is Annabeth Chase, a.k.a. Percy's girlfriend. Tall, statuesque, intelligent and drop-dead gorgeous, in Percy's opinion. Grey eyes, untameable wavy hair, t-shirts, form-hugging jeans, and a very large dose of know-it-all.

"Annabeth, answer, goddammit," Percy groans, slamming his phone down for the fifteenth time, then proceeds to pick it back up to check all his social media apps to see if she's replied to his messages on any of them. Unfortunately, she hasn't even opened any of his thirty Snapchat pictures. Reflecting on this, he probably shouldn't have spammed her. Knowing Annabeth, she might be awake but just ignoring him to make a point—she hates when he goes crazy with social media because her old phone that she can't bear to throw out because she's grown way too attached to its ancient interface can't process too much and just lags.

One hour and thirty-three minutes left. It's now ten twenty-seven at night in California. One twenty-seven A.M. in Boston, where Annabeth is. Percy has probably never known Annabeth to be asleep so early—she's way too hardworking to let sleep get in the way—but if there ever was a good time to heed his pleas for her to take care of herself and let things work out the way they are meant to, then it's definitely the day Percy desperately needs her advice on a paper that's worth at least ten percent of his final grade. He groans again in despair, staring blankly at his computer screen.

"Shut up!" A muffled voice penetrates the wall of Percy's room, coming from the opposite side of the hall. It's Jason, Percy's cousin and roommate. They live closer to Café Jupiter than they do to Harvard, a decision that Percy made so that he wouldn't be constantly surrounded by frat parties and horny guys. He still keeps his dorm room on campus, though, because it came with the swimming scholarship.

It's still a miracle to him and his mother Sally that Percy, never the top of his class, got into Harvard, and on a scholarship, too.

Percy hears a thud and a sigh, then the thumping of feet on the floor. Jason's messy blond head appears at Percy's doorway.

"It's ten thirty, Perce, and I'm exhausted. For once I don't have to study or pull an all-nighter for work. Can you please just shut the fuck up and stop with your groaning so I can get some rest?" Jason's voice is grumbly and the blond is clearly annoyed, but Percy only grins.

"Yeah, cuz, you desperately need some beauty sleep. Look at you," he teases.

Jason smirks, blue eyes sharpening. "Look at me," he echoes, gesturing to his shirtless torso, all toned, lean muscle. "If I still need beauty sleep, then you, cuz, need beauty hibernation."

Despite his dire situation, Percy lets out a guffaw. Jason sighs again, noticing the bags under his black-haired cousin's eyes, and with one mighty leap, lands on Percy's queen-sized bed in a graceful belly-flop hailing back to his high-school quarterback days.

"Okay, what's up? I'll tell you what's up. Me. So since I'm not falling asleep again anytime soon, mind telling me why you're moaning like it's the first time you've seen Annabeth in years?"

Percy gasps dramatically, hurling a punch at Jason's arm, which the blond deftly dodges. "You know that she's the loud one."

"Anyway," Jason rolls his eyes, "do you need help or what?"

"Not really. I don't know. I have a paper due in an hour and a bit."

"Well, are you having problems with research?" Jason prods.

"No… no. I know all there is to know about charophyta and chlorella and their places in the marine ecosystem," Percy frowns.

"So you're having trouble with writing all of it down coherently?"

"Give me some credit. I'm literate as hell."

Jason collapses into the blankets. "Then what, pray tell, is keeping you and I awake at this ungodly hour?"

"It's not even eleven yet, you baby."

"Percy." Jason sobers up, all mirth gone. He sits up and regards Percy inquisitively, his gaze unwavering, insightful. "Seriously, man. Tell me what's really going on here. We both know it isn't about algae."

Percy lets his head hit the wall. "I don't know, it's just—sorry I kept you up. You can't help me. I need Annabeth."

Jason's brows lift comically in a eureka moment. "There it is. It's Annabeth! You miss her, don't you?"

"Of course I miss her!" Percy shrieks, throwing his arms up. "It's been three months, goddammit, since the last time we were together in person. Three months since she finished that internship with that Daedalus guy, three months since the day she should have found a job and moved back to Cali."

"It's not her fault—"

"I know it isn't! I'm not pissed at her. It's the goddamn ignorant people in Boston! Annabeth is a first honour MIT architecture and structural engineering graduate and has interned for one of the douchiest, best professionals out there, but somehow no one's lining up to offer her a stupid job?"

Jason nods calmly, letting Percy's yelling die down. "Can I speak now?"

"Please do."

"You're calm?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Here's what I think. You need to give her some more time to figure out her chances in Boston. Annabeth may be an idealist when it comes to achieving her dream, but she's not naïve. If she's exhausted all possibilities, she'll look for opportunities elsewhere. That's when you come in. She might fare better in Cali, which is where the big business is at. So, the plan is, you find some time to have a long talk with her about where she's headed and where you two are going. In a few months, if she still hasn't found a job, when she's ready to move on, you can try convincing her to move to Cali and live with us."

"A few months?" Percy mumbles. Jason can't believe that that's the only think Percy took away from his monologue.

"Yes. You know Annabeth."

Percy finally gathers the strength to sit up, pulling his laptop back onto his lap. He looks his cousin in the eye, and feels a wave of gratitude for finding Jason course through his heart. "Sounds like a plan."

Jason goes back to his room shortly after. With a little less than an hour left until midnight, Percy finishes his paper on his third favourite aquatic plant and submits it with one whole minute to spare. That night, both Percy and Jason sleep soundly, dreaming of two different people.

It comes as no surprise when the paper scores an A.

Did anyone guess that the new POV would be Percy's? Bromantic!Jercy is the best. Also, Annabeth is introduced. She'll come in at a later date.

Another big thank you and all my love to those who reviewed my one-shot: high hopes (takes me back to when we started). It means a lot, because I honestly poured my heart into that piece. Writing it made me cry, so I hope it can also touch other people who understand Reyna's feelings through experiences of their own, which was one of the reasons that I fell in love with writing her character.

Again, drop a short review to spur my creative inspiration :)

time-failed-us