I just realised that I published this to ao3 awhile ago, but never here.

Disclaimer: This is A Mess™and nowhere near as good as Rick R's writing

Annabeth wasn't sure why she was here, really. Sure, she loved Piper and Reyna, and they were her best friends. But sitting around in a sketchy bar, watching said best friends get shit-faced while all she herself had to nurse was a club soda (hey, someone had to be the designated driver) was not really her idea of a good time. Add having to death glare at every creepy guy (which was every single one of them) who so much looked her way to the mix and you got one very bored, tired and, quite frankly, pissed off Annabeth Chase. She'd always been told that she looked like every stereotype of a typical Californian girl, aside from her eyes. Those, she had been told far too often, were the same shade of steely grey of the sky before a storm hit; ready to strike someone down at any moment. This particular trait became particularly useful for immediately combating unwanted attention- all it took was one stare.

She managed to do quite well for most of the evening. Especially considering that she was indeed bored, and looked it too. She also almost definitely had the 'I would literally give my soul to be lying in bed watching Netflix and not here, amongst hundreds of gross, sweaty drunk people'. Which, for reasons that were unknown to all members of the female species seemed to translate into 'I'm bored and want to get out of here. Please approach me and tell me how much you want to take me home and stick your dick in me' in bar-creep.

But all of that changed when an admittedly, pretty cute and slightly panicked-looking boy began walking in her direction and didn't stop, no matter how many looks she shot him.

"Look, I know the last thing you probably want right now is some stranger walking up to you in a bar because by the looks of it, you probably don't even want to be there. Trust me, I've had the same look many a time in my short legal age life."

She raised an eyebrow; like she hadn't heard the whole "I hate to do this and I'm 'reluctant' to approach you right now, but you're cute and I just had to talk to you" a thousand times already.

"I'm Percy, and I'm the one percent of twenty one year olds who don't drink. Trust me, I understand," he repeated.

She didn't respond but that didn't seem to put him off in the slightest.

"I know this is really forward and –ugh, I'm so sorry to ask this. But my ex is here and it's only a matter of time before she notices me, and," he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and turned roughly the same shade as Piper's strawberry daiquiri, "can-can I kiss you and pretend I'm taken so she'll finally back off?"

She stared at him, eyes all but bulging out of their sockets.

"I know, I know, I seem like a ginormous creep right now."

"Little bit."

Initial shock over, she took a moment to consider. On one hand, he could be lying, playing on her sympathies to get into her pants. On the other, he did seem pretty genuine. She could recognise the look of someone who'd ended up with an ex out of a bad relationship who they just couldn't shake off. It was a slightly heartbroken, but mainly panicked and desperate look. She knew exactly what that looked like because that was how she looked. She'd been there. No, she was still there. The reason she was here. Piper and Reyna had dragged her out for a girls' night out. Which, by now she well knew translated into taking Annabeth out in the hopes that she'd meet somebody cute and settle down into a nice relationship. Only that never worked. And that brought her right back to Percy's case because the reason she was so paranoid, so scared of getting into a relationship that she hadn't so much dipped her pinkie toe into the dating pool in years was Luke. A relationship that'd ended because he was toxic, possessive; so bad for her that she hadn't even seen it until her friends had finally sat down and had a talk with her about it. So bad that it took her months to realise and finally get out.

So, she put her hand on either side of his face, pulled him in gently, and kissed him. He pulled back in surprise at the suddenness of it, then went right back in, bumping his nose with hers and then laughing. He turned his head and they were kissing again. He tasted salty like ocean spray, beach air. And those blue raspberry candy belts. His hair felt soft laced in between her fingers. She pulled back for a few seconds to breathe, and then went straight in again. They went on for what felt like seconds, but was probably more like minutes, when they heard the distinct sound of someone clearing their throat. She didn't care, she wanted to carry on. But then Percy broke the kiss. A red haired girl was standing there. She would have been pretty if not for the fact that her face was twisted in anger and jealousy.

"Percy, baby, if you're trying to make me jealous, then you've succeeded. Actually, it hurts to see you go from me to someone like her."

"Rachel, it's over. I broke up with you over a month ago."

Annabeth stood up, nose to nose with the her," It must hurt to see him with me, knowing that I'm so much prettier than you. And you know why, 'Rachel'? Because no matter how much makeup you cake on, you will always be ugly on the inside."

"Actually," Percy started up," I think it'd be more of a shame to go from someone like her, back to someone like you."

She fumed, "Well, if you two are so happy together, fine. But you're never going to find someone like me."

"That's kind of the point."

"Well, whatever. You two deserve each other."

And with that, she stalked off, heels clicking behind her.

Percy turned to her, "You did me a huge favour back there. I owe you one, I should buy you dinner. Or, actually, two."

"You totally do. But I may have another idea," she handed him a napkin with her number scrawled on the front," I've dabbled in having bad exes. I might need you to return the favour sometime."

His grin only grew, "You bet."

I swear I don't actually hate Rachel, I just couldn't think of another ex for Percy to have