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Anger Relief

How long have I been here? Percy wondered absentmindedly as he threw another punch at the peeling gym dummy in front of him. When he started it had been light out, but now as he took a break he noticed that the light had already faded from the sky and the crowd that had been inside the gym when he first came in had all but left. Percy sighed and looked at the clock. It was ten pm. No wonder that be was the only one here side from the few staff that were cleaning up. Percy's stomach whined about the dinner that he had missed in his determination to let out all of his pent up anger from the day at the gym.

Percy groaned. That just brought the whole thing back up again. The day had already started horribly. Today was his only day with an eight o'clock class(one of the main reasons why he hated thursdays) and he had woken up late. With fifteen minutes until class started, he struggled to get breakfast and to remember what the proper lace for his clothing was (Percy's pretty sure that the holes in his shirt are not meant for legs) and tripped down the stairs of his apartment building, careful not to wake his roommate Grover, to the garage below the building where his shit car sat next to the trash can. He unlocked and opened the door and put the key into the ignition. He turned and the car spluttered to life, only to die abruptly with a large bang. Percy brought the hammer that he kept for occasions like this. With a few choice taps inside the hood of the car, the car jumped to life, coming from a choking cough to a sweet purr. With a grin he left the garage with five minutes to get to class.

"Tardy -2pts"

Those were the words written at the top of the pop quiz that he had at the beginning of class and had gotten handed back to him on the way out the door. That and the large D- circled at the top of the page. He crumpled the page and prepared to throw it into the trashcan five feet away. He spun around and raised his hand to launch it over a few people walking near him, when he accidentally smacked someone on the face.

"I am so sorry…" Then he caught his breath. The girl he had smacked was beautiful. Gorgeous blond curls cascaded down her back, and startling grey eyes narrowed at him.

"mm hmm."

"Really, I didn't mean to."

"Ok, it's fine. I've got to go."

"Oh, yeah...um…"

"Will you let go of me?"

With embarrassment, Percy realized that he had been holding onto her arm. He let go. The girl nodded and spun on her heel and headed the other way. Percy smacked his forehead. He was such an idiot.

Finally the end of the day came. That meant swim practice. Percy had always loved swimming. His mom had always said that he might as well be part fish for all the time he spent in the water. Swimming was the main reason that he had been able to come to this college in the first place. That's why it was all the more important that he continue to excel and get better at it. But for some reason,today he was just not feeling it. It wasn't as if he was slower than usual, he just swam at the same speed all practice, getting the same time each set of laps. His coach let him off early and told him to not come to practice until he worked through whatever rut he was in. Percy pretended not to notice Luke Castellan's smirk as he packed up early.

That all led to now. Percy stood up. His stomach rumbled. Ten more minutes. He put his headphones in and pressed shuffle. He walked up to the punching bag. He imagines that he was punching all of his problems. His mum's abusive ex husband Gabe. Whap! All of his high school teachers who never took his seriously because he had dyslexia and ADHD. Bam! Luke Castellan's stupid smirk. Thud! Percy was panting now. He began punching the bag harder than he had all night, even adding in a kick or two. His song hit the loud, overly energetic climax and he felt a burst of energy. He felt the beat of his heart and his vision blurred as he lost himself in his exercise. Something tapped on his back and his tired, food deprived, angry mind did the first thing that came to mind. He swung his arm and his fist collided with something hard.

"Oww!" A high pitched voice called out in pain.

Percy's vision cleared. In front of him stood a familiar blond girl, holding the left side of her face.

"God! Is this a habit with you! Do you always hit people?!"

Percy unfroze.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry! Do you need an ice pack? I really didn't mean to-"

"Jesus! I'm fine. You need to stop doing that!"

Stop doing that? Oh! That's the girl he smacked from earlier! That's where he recognised her from!

"Holy shit, I didn't mean to punch you, but seriously, why the hell would you surprise someone who is angry and hitting things?!"

"Well how else was I supposed to get your attention?"

"Get my attention? Why would you need to get my attention?"

"The gym's closing idiot. I was telling you that you need to leave."

"Oh."

The girl started to walk away when Percy grabbed her arm.

"Wait! What's your name?"

The girl raised her eyebrow at him.

"Annabeth."

Percy nodded. He kept nodding until he glanced at Annabeth's face. She looked at him expectantly.

"And you are…"

"Oh, um, my name is Percy. Uh, yeah."

Annabeth cracked a smile.

"Percy huh? Well it was nice to meet you Percy, except for the whole punching thing."

"It was nice to meet you too Annabeth." He smiled.

They stopped when they reached the doors of the gym. Percy looked outside and noticed it was raining. Dark and raining. Yay. Then he realized that he had walked here and didn't have an umbrella. He didn't know the bus times, nevermind which bus to take. Annabeth was staring out at the rain as if contemplating something. Then she turned to look at him and smiled.

"Well, bye!" She stepped out the doors and walked towards one of the few cars in the parking lot.

Percy watched her leave. Then he thought about how he was going to get back to the apartment. It was a fairly long walk, and although this area was pretty safe, it was a college area and he felt nervous walking around in the dark by himself after hearing about all of the school shootings in the news. Percy guessed he looked pretty lost standing under the awning of the gym staring into the rain blankly instead of heading out to a car because Annabeth pulled up in her car and rolled down the window.

"Do you need a ride?"

"Actually, that would be great."

Percy waited for Annabeth to unlock the side door before he climbed in. Her car was comfy, not super new looking(that was putting it nicely-it looked ancient). The heater was on and so the car was nicely warm and soft music played in the background, something that he couldn't decipher over the sound of rain. As Annabeth drove they sat in silence. Percy occasionally snuck glances at her from the corner of his eye(let's be honest- he was definitely staring) and blushed every time she caught him in the act.

"So where do you live?"

Percy gave her the directions to his place. She dropped him off and he thanked her. Without waiting to watch her go he entered the building. He began climbing the steps to his floor. He walked down the hall and then stuck his key in the lock and turned. When he heard the satisfying chink of the door unlocking, he let himself in, closed and locked the door behind him and collapsed on the couch.

He begrudgingly got up and went to the bathroom to towel off his wet hair. He took off his shirt to put on a clean one, but before he had the chance someone knocked on the door. Grover must have locked himself out again. Percy dropped the clean shirt, knowing Grover would probably start freaking out if Percy took too long and walked over to the door, but when he opened it, it wasn't Grover standing there, but instead a dripping wet Annabeth.

Upon seeing him, Annabeth squeaked and her face turned scarlet. Percy remembered that he didn't have a shirt on. Without further hesitation he invited her in.

"Come on in. I'm sorry for the mess...didn't have time to clean...uh...just let me get a shirt."

Annabeth nodded and he walked to his room. He grabbed the shirt that he dropped earlier and tugged it over his head. He walked out to find Annabeth banging her head on the table.

"Um, are you ok?"

Annabeth groaned. Percy waited. She lifted her head.

"My car isn't working and my phone just died and my house is too far to walk to in this rain. I came to the only place I knew to come."

"Yeah, about that, how did you find my flat?"

"You're dripping wet. I just followed the trail of water."

"Oh, well, while you're here, would you like something to eat? I can make a mean microwave pizza."

Annabeth smiled. "That would be nice, thank you."

Percy got the pizza out of the fridge and put it in the microwave. He pressed the time indicated and watched it spin around. When the microwave beeped he got out plates and napkins and put the pizza on them. He spun around and handed a plate to Annabeth.

"Thank you."

"You are welcome."

Percy bit into the pizza and closed his eyes. Nothing beats pizza except for maybe his mum's famous blue chocolate chip cookies. He then heard a wierd noise and then complete silence. Then Annabeth gasped. When he opened his eyes everything was dark. What the hell? Have I gone blind?

"Damn it, the power's out."

Oh, duh.

"What am I going to do? Do you have a cell phone I could use to call my roommate or a cab?"

"Actually," Percy said." My phone is dead too. It died in the gym. And I couldn't drive you. My car is a piece of junk, I don't think it could handle this much rain. And even is it could, you would probably be as wet and safe walking as in the car."

"Thanks for offering and, um, I don't mean to intrude, but could I stay here, at least until the power is back on. And I know you barely know me and I could be a serial killer or something…"

"Annabeth, it's fine. And hey, maybe we're both serial killers."

Annabeth laughed. It was possibly the cutest thing he had ever heard, especially the snort at the end. Annabeth covered her nose and blushed. Aww. She's self conscious about her snorting. I don't know why I find that endearing, but I do. Annabeth interrupted his thoughts.

"What do you want to do?"

Percy looked at the clock. It was already past midnight, but he didn't feel tired.

"I was thinking of watching a movie, do you want to join me?"

Annabeth nodded. Percy gestured to the couch. She went and sat down on it while he looked through the movies. Once he had picked out the perfect movie he showed it to Annabeth.

"Finding Nemo?" Annabeth raised her eyebrow.

"Yeah! This is only the greatest movie of all time." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Ok, put it in."

Percy put the movie into his laptop and hit play. As the beginning music came on, he settled against the couch with Annabeth.

It was forty minutes into the movie and Annabeth had started snoring. Soft puffs of air came out of her mouth as she slept. The blue light from the movie cast over her, making her look soft, like she was under water. She was leaned against Percy's shoulder, not uncomfortably. Percy decided that he loved the way that she slept. That made him sound creepy. He didn't want to sound like he was moving too fast, he just met her, he looked at the clock, yesterday, but he was starting to develope the teeniest of crushes on her.

Percy settled into the couch a bit more, careful not to wake Annabeth. The calming sounds of Finding Nemo and the soft light and the rhythm of Annabeth's breaths and the rain outside quickly lulled him to sleep.

When Percy woke up, sunlight was streaming out the window. He was on the couch, by himself. The laptop blinked at him angrily, showing him that it was at nearly 0% battery after being left on all night without being connected to a powersource. That's right. There was a power outage. Percy stood and walked over to the nearest light. He flipped the switch. The lamp blinked to life. The power outage was over. Annabeth. There was no sign of her. She was gone. Wait. There's a note. Percy walked over to the kitchen counter. A note rested on the tile.

Percy,

Thanks for letting me stay here. I have eight o'clock classes today so I have to leave, but here is my number so you know where to reach me.

747-9224

Meet me at the Camp Cafe in the science area of the campus at 12.

-Annabeth

Percy smiled then looked at the clock. It was ten. He still had time. He got into the shower and took a quick shower and then put on boxers and dark wash jeans. He stood in front of his closet looking at his shirts. Which one do I wear? What? This is stupid. When have I ever cared about what I looked like. Just pick one. Just a random shirt. Percy closed his eyes and grabbed a plain white, crew neck t-shirt. He ran his hand through his hair a few times and then left the building, locking the door behind him.

Once outside, he decided that it was a nice day and the science area was not too far from here and that he would walk. He started walking towards the campus, pausing to look into a few shops. He stopped by a flower shop and wondered if he should bring Annabeth anything. No, I shouldn't. It might just scare her away. She never said this was a date and she probably wants me to come as a friend. He moved on.

Soon he was eating a croissant and sitting at one of the tables of the Camp Cafe. He was fifteen minutes early and so he opted to sit peacefully and people watch. He liked to create stories for the different people that he saw. The man running a briefcase and a poster of the empire state building was an architecture professor who went to the wrong classroom. The red head girl scowling at the man in the bowtie had been personally offended by him on many occasions. And the lady with five dogs was goin-

His thoughts were interrupted when Annabeth sat in the seat across from him.

"Aww. Isn't it customary to bring flowers on a first date?"

Shit.

Annabeth laughed. He must have said that out loud. Wait. Date? Date? Date! This was a date?! He looked up at Annabeth smiling at him.

"Hi, oh, uh, I meant to, flowers, and...stuff."

"You meant to flowers and stuff?" Annabeth mocked.

Percy cleared his throat.

"I meant to bring flowers, but I was, uh, running late."

"Mmmm. Mmm hmm. Yeah, you didn't know that this was a date."

Percy raised his eyebrows in surprise. Annabeth smiled.

"I was being a little cryptic. I wanted to make sure you came. It doesn't have to be a date if you don't want it to be." Percy shook his head.

"I definitely want it to be a date." This was the first time he had seen Annabeth sound uncertain, but at his words, she brightened up.

"Well I am going to go inside and get some food. I'll be right back."

Percy nodded. He watched her walk away. Her blond curls bounced with every step and she walked lightly on her feet. As she turned into the cafe she gave him a smile. He did an awkward little wave and smiled back. He knew it was early. It was the second day that he knew her, and it was their first date, but he felt like he and Annabeth were good together. Annabeth made him happier just by being around. She made him forget all of the bad things in his life and just focus on the good things. Like Finding Nemo. Blue chocolate chip cookies. Swimming. Nice weather like today's. She was the best anger relief if there ever was one.

A/N: This fic was based off of an au that I got off of tumblr. I am not going to write it all out because it is kind of long, but the gist of it is that person a is in the gym punching things because they are angry and then person b taps them on the shoulder and gets socked. I thought it would be fun. It was. I am sorry for the mediocre ending, but where I am it is getting late and I wanted to finish it tonight. I have very limited concentration and I knew that if I stop typing I would most likely never finish this story. Please fave, follow, and review. I will probably be writing at least one story a week until my creative juices start flowing again and I can finish my fic Live a Little. See you soon!

~skulls_surround_suns