Percy huffed as he blended another frappuccino. It was early, he was tired, he didn't want to be at work. What else was new? However, he relied on the money he made in the local Starbucks to pay for his apartment in New York which just so happened to be pretty close to where his mom was. It was kinda nice living so close to her but still being able to maintain his own home.

He handed the iced coffee drink to the customer. He'd never understand why people still bought these so late in the year. The late autumn months were brutal, especially up north in New York. Why would anyone subject themselves to such... low temperature? He decided to stop letting it bother him when he was able to convince himself that it didn't matter as long as he got paid.

The day was slow for their location in a usually crowded part of town, so Percy leaned lazily against the counter. Soothing jazz music flitted around in the café, just loud enough for the ravenette to hear in a moderate crowd and it was smooth like the whipped cream Percy's fingers ached from squeezing out of cans everyday.

With no sign of customers for about fifteen minutes, he finally groaned in frustration and rested his face on the cool counter. It was soooo early, like 8 in the morning. Why couldn't people go a whole day without coffee in the morning, it was just ridiculous! And why didn't he just switch to the later shift already? He remembered when a familiar ding! sobered him up from his slightly dozing state.

He rests against the counter differently now, propping his chin up on his hand from his elbow, back arched behind him at an ever so perfect angle since the counter sat low. His eyebrow raised knowingly at the regular morning customer above his glittering green eyes.

"The usual?" he asked in the tone he always used for this particular customer. This made the man grin just a little bit, the corners of his lips slightly turning up. This had always become Percy's goal, as the first few times he'd come along, he looked so upset and depressed about who knows what. Percy hated the seemingly permanent frown and started doing ridiculous things to try and make him smile. This ridiculous pose he was always greeted with seemed to be the favorite. The man nodded his head barely, but just enough for Percy to catch, as he always did.

He swept his close cropped hair out of his eyes as he grabbed one of the plastic cups he'd need. As he poured the needed ingredients into the blender, he stole quick glances the regular customer he'd come to know as Nico (he kind of had to know what name to call out on the especially busy days). Nico had a pale olive tone for his skin and shagged black hair that didn't look crazy, but flipped out in various places ever so cutely. He normally wore a lot of dark colors, skull tee-shirts and skinny jeans with vans or converse, the classic gothic style of the 90's. The young man always had this alluring, mysterious air that drug Percy in like a moth to a light bulb. His eyes were so deep, the barista always had to avoid direct eye contact with him or else he'd get sucked in like Tartarus from those old Greek myths he learned about in high school.

Before pouring "the usual" into the cup, Percy always nonchalantly wrote his phone number on the bottom of the cup, trying to, what was it they called it, put himself out there? He'd not dated anyone since he and Annabeth broke up and quite frankly, this guy was just his type.

He handed Nico his Salted Caramel Mocha Frappuccino with extra whipped creame, a caramel sauce swirl, and a dash of miniature chocolate chips. "The usual!" He traded him for the swipe of his debit card, like always. He watched as the man took a sip.

"You are the ONLY barista who ever makes these just how I like them." he said quietly in his vaguely Italian accent while smiling up at Percy. He took another long slurp from the green straw. Percy felt his cheeks heat up a little bit at the compliment... or maybe it was from the strong slurps Nico was taking so suggestively from his green straw, he couldn't really bother to care though.

"Thanks," he chuckled a little, "I'm just doing what I don't get paid enough to do."

Nico pulled his mouth away from the straw a moment to scoff in amusement, "I hear that." Percy looked at him with his sparkling sea-emeralds in wonder. The customer seemed to notice though and flushed, "I mean, nobody seems to get paid enough for their jobs these days." and Percy broke out into a laugh.

"Well where do you work? You're always rushing around so early in the morning, you must have somewhere to be." Good. Maybe this would help him get to know him better so he wouldn't ask out a complete stranger.

"I'm actually a student at the University nearby." He pointed a direction that Percy obviously couldn't follow through the walls, but the hand gestures were cute. "I'm a double major in archaeology and nursing."

"Nursing? Impressive." Percy stroked his hairless chin in thought of seeing the young man in scrubs. It was freaking adorable! He smirked.

"Not really, it's really just learning how to take care of patients around their operations and such." he took another slurp from his cup before holding his hand up to look at his wristwatch. His eyes widened a little, "Crap, I've talked too long. I should really be going!"

"See you tomorrow!" said Percy and he smiled as he saw Nico wave back. However, moments later, his awesome mood was ruined and he was crestfallen as he watched Nico toss the cup in the trash can on his way out. Was it something I said? Maybe he's turned off to how straightforward I am? Percy wondered to himself. At this point, he'd never find out because, heck if he was going to just up and ask the guy out. What if he were straight? The guy would probably stop coming to the Starbucks and Percy would be stuck in his boring job with absolutely nothing to look forward to throughout the day! He sighed longingly and continued his work for the day.

This system continued for weeks. Percy had long since given up on Nico actually calling him, but he knew that the younger man was obviously shy. He convinced himself that maybe he was afraid to call or something. Whatever it was, he kept writing his number under the cup only for the half-Italian to either not notice or pay no mind to it and throw it away on his way out, leaving Percy to wonder what was wrong with himself for the rest of the day.

When Nico walked in one day while talking and laughing with some pretty girl with cinnamon toast hair was when Percy finally decided to give up. He no longer put his number on the cup, and even though he was still very friendly, you could tell that Nico knew something was up. Percy's normal antics were no longer greeted with a smile but with a look of slight confusion, his eyebrow raised in an almost uncharacteristic way for him.

"Okay, spill it, what's up?" Nico finally asked one day while the barista was in the middle of throwing ingredients into the blender. He jolted in surprise.

"What?" he must've zoned out while staring at him or something.

"There's something up with you. What's wrong? My fraps have been lacking and it's starting to really bug me." Percy looked surprised at the young man. This was new.

"I, uh... I don't know," he lied. Like hell he was just going to tell this guy what was really going on in his mind. Oh it's nothing, I just have this really huge crush on you and I'm sad that you obviously have a girlfriend, so I'm depressed and messing up your frappuccinos because you're distracting me. That would go smoothly.

Nico stared him down and set his jaw in an annoyed fashion. "Okay, guess I'll just take my drink and get out of your hair then." he swiped his debit card and took the drink. "I'll see you around." He said, making an almost saluting signal with two fingers pulling away from his forehead and left.

Percy was at a loss. Great, he really screwed this one up. Now the guy wasn't going to come back. He sighed loudly in self-pity and leaned his head on the counter, his head between his arms. Or at least, he tried to, but his arm slipped on something. He stood up and looked at the counter. Upon it was a neatly folded piece of parchment paper.

Bewildered, Percy picked it up and unfolded it. His heart nearly stopped as he stared at it, and he knew that this wasn't the last he'd being seeing of the half-Italian.

You're kinda stupid, you know that? Good thing you're cute. ;) (XXX) XXX-XXXX Call me!

-Nico

A/N: Whew! I'm done!

Okay, so this idea came from tumblr. My senpai, aglaophonoss said she wanted this AU where Nico always ordered this really complicated thing that Percy always remembered and Percy writes his number on the bottom of the cup to get Nico's attention but Nico never notices. One day when Percy gives up, Nico just gives him his number all neatly folded. I loved the idea and asked permission to write it and so here we are!

I'm a little conflicted on the ending. Was it too short? Too fast paced? Was Nico and/or Percy out of character? I don't know. DX I kinda feel like I should've done it better but I didn't want to keep senpai waiting!

Oh and the girl described was Hazel, so NOT Nico's girlfriend, but his sister. Percy didn't know that though so yeah.

So uh, review the story and let me know what you think. I hope you like it more than I do. DX

~EK