Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Prologue

When I woke up before the alarm, I nearly broke into tears of manliness. It was five o'clock in the morning and I did not appreciate being woken up by my own mind.

Internally cursing myself, I got up, grumbling, and was on my way to the kitchen- awaiting my usual breakfast of food and sitting alongside an empty chair which usually consisted of my mom... But of course, with my life, one of my only life joys I had just had to be taken away from me because there was this man who killed her and...

There was a girl sitting there, right where mom used to sit. Shaking myself out of my daze, I cautiously uncapped Riptide before making my way to the dining hall.

As I was about to place the sword under her neck and demand what was going on, she turned around quickly, a card in her hands.

"T'does not do thee well, Perseus," she said briskly. "To be a murderer."

"How...?" Usually I would've done something by now, but the girl just looked so... Depressed.

She waved my driver's license in the air half-heartedly. "'Tis this, identity card. But I do not see why thine people have names. Thou art a boy. But nonetheless, I do not wish thou harm, Perseus."

"Why are you in my apartment?" I raged, pointedly ignoring her confusing statement. "And how did you even get in?"

The girl scoffed, looking around. "Thou call this a place of living? In my place, we had the very best..." Her eyes glanced at mine, as if she didn't want to reveal anymore. "And as for getting in, thy lock was easy to break!"

A fifteenth (or was it sixteenth?) century rich girl who knew how to break into houses. Great.

"What do you want from me?" I asked tiredly, and I lowered the sword. "Why my house? Why not... Why not go to an actual mansion that is of your satisfaction, your highness?"

It was meant to be sarcasm but she seemed to take it seriously. Her eyes flitted around nervously. "Thou does not welcome guests?" She asked briskly.

"Hey!" I protested, and I couldn't help some sort of anger building up. "Breaking in, yeah, I don't exactly appreciate people coming in unexpectedly!"

"Is it not normal?" She questioned.

I threw my hands up in the air- exasperated. "Have you been living under a rock?" Then I remembered that where she came from, there were places much 'better!' than this. "Never mind."

"For thy information." She sniffed. "I have been living in a place that is not hither."

"Well, obviously. What do you want?"

She lowered her head as if she was shameful. "I did not know where to go. So I went to the first place where thither was a door and sat down on this chair."

"There are tons of doors!"

"Nay thither were not!" She defended, glaring at me. "The things thou consider doors are not doors! They have things on them!"

I realized that what she was talking about were something called Christmas decorations and explained it to her.

"But what is Christmas?" She questioned after my explanation.

"Okay, that's it," I concluded, before carefully tugging her arm and leading her towards the door.

She flinched and nudged me harshly in the ribs. I 'oofed' and lost my breath for a second, while she sat down in the chair again.

"I am not leaving," she declared and stubbornly crossed her arms. "I will stay hither until... Until the time is right."

I could've called the cops (even though it was unlikely that she knew what the police were) or kicked her out.

But I didn't.

Instead, I capped Riptide, and walked back to my bedroom but not before asking the most obvious question. "What's your name?"

She took some time to reply. As if figuring out if I was trustworthy or not. "Zoë Nightshade!" She called out.

She could've been a lonely monster who didn't know what Christmas was, and I was probably being an idiot for trusting her, but the only thought running through my tired brain was that, at least her name was normal.

Unfortunately, by the time I went back to bed without any food, I only managed to get two hours of sleep before the alarm shrilled and shrieked and my eardrums were starting to lose their job. I hurriedly crashed my fist on the thing, and it started to break. Fantastic.

As I got ready, I wondered if Zoë was still in my apartment before snorting.

And the answer was waiting for me as I opened the door while rubbing my eyes blearily from not getting enough sleep. I was just about to set forth to the kitchen when I saw Zoë staring at me behind the door.

"Art thou curious yet?" She asked me out of the blue, surprising me. "I have heard that thine people like to play games, so, I..."

"Gods, Zoë!" I yelped, before glaring. "I don't know how they do things in your place but here, we don't hang around people's doors the whole night unless you're a murderer!"

"Oh yes," Zoë shuffled around a bit. "About that..."

I gaped, and probably resembled the Great White Shark as it opened it's mouth for innocent, wee little dolphins. "No."

"Yes." It was Zoë who glared this time. "I do not see what is so bad about that."

"It's... It's murder!" I exclaimed, waving my hands in the air for effect.

"And? What is thine point?"

I realized the m word wasn't really going to do much good against this enigma. "It's wrong, Zoë! And that's it, you've stayed overnight, but I am not holding a murderer in my apartment!"

She glared at me fiercely, but I wouldn't budge. No one could beat my mom's glare. "And wherefore is that, Perseus?"

"Percy," I blurted out, out of habit. When she lost her glare to look at me questioningly, I repeated, "It's, Percy."

"Thou have a perfectly good name," Zoë stated as if she was the queen of names. "Wherefore not use it?"

I winced, remembering. "Well, first of all, it's a mouthful. And second, my mom named me that, yet even she says 'Percy.' But she's dead-"

"Honor thine mother, boy."

I could tell the name Perseus was going to stick around for some time. However, I really hoped that she wasn't.

"Please," I moaned, pointing to the door. "Get out."

"Nay. I told thou-"

"Yes, but I'm not going to hold a murderer in my house. I could go to jail for that!" But really, to be honest, after killing monsters and more, I wasn't really that surprised.

She seemed to ignore me and started talking. "He was an extremely vile male- and managed to make me get banished from my own lands- even though I had helped him in his quest for something. But I was a fool! A naïve fool! He had tricked me, and left me for the dragons! So I... So I set the dragon on him."

Dragons. Well, when you've got centaurs and Greek Gods lazing around, a thing such as dragons didn't really surprise me anymore. So I merely raised an eyebrow.

"A vile male..." I mused, before staring at her. I remembered the hunters of Artemis. "And yet, you don't mind staying here..."

"I have learned to appreciate what I have," Zoë concluded.

Well, at least she had an open mind. "I suppose..." I sighed. "I suppose I can let you stay here."

To tell the truth, I kind of expected a hug, but it never came.

"I was going to stay hither anyways, boy," she said haughtily. I was taken aback by her rudeness, but she hastily continued, as if seeing my incredulous expression made her rethink her actions. "I thank thou."

"Yeah, sure," I mumbled, starting to make breakfast. "You hungry?"

I sensed a nod, before making four eggs and sizzling some bacon. All blue.

When I served it on a plate and gave it to her, I saw that her obsidian eyes were staring at it warily. And I sensed the question that was soon going to follow.

"It's blue because my mom and my stepfather had an argument over blue food. So then my mom proceeded to make the food blue," I explained.

"Actually, I was going to ask thou what this is," Zoë said flatly.

"Oh." was all I said, before trying to explain to her what an egg was and what bacon was. "This," I said, pointing to the egg. "Is an egg, which comes from a chicken. And that is bacon, made from a pig."

"Animals?" Zoë asked.

I felt stupid, right there and then, because I never considered the fact that she might have been a vegetarian. So I finally asked the questioned. "Are you vegetarian?"

Thankfully, she understood. "Nay, silly boy." And proceeded to eat everything on the plate.

Man, she could eat. I always hear Annabeth or some other girl chastising boys and their appetite, but they had obviously never met this girl.

I thought it was the perfect opportunity to pry. "Since you're always commenting on my crappy living standards, where did you come from then?"

"Not from here," she responded.

I stared at her, actually stared at her, and for the first time that she came, I inspected how she looked. Obsidian eyes. A regal looking braid that held black hair. But no green tinges on the face. No three eyes. No space helmet.

"So..." I guessed. "You from another planet?"

"Nay," she replied, staring at me funny, but still taking carnivorous bites from her food. "I come from Earth. Just not from here."

"So you're a... Mortal?"

She looked at me disapprovingly. "Nay."

"A... Demigod?"

She gripped her fork and pointed it in my direction, although from her eyes, I could tell it held humor. "Nay, thee silly boy."

I simply grinned. "So... Tell me about where you come from? The fifteenth century maybe?"

Out of all the ways she could have revenge, I never expected her to drink the water before spitting it in my face. The shock factor was why I didn't dry myself off, and I let the water drip down my face. She harrumphed before letting the cutlery clatter on her empty plate.

Breakfast was over, but we still talked after that.

"I come from a place where only six other people other than myself live," she explained forlornly. "'Tis a very beautiful place, boy. Full of nature, and peace, and glory. We had our very own dragon protector as well- guarding the tree which spawned dozens of golden apples which would make one immortal forever. Except, I realize now that the place where I have lived- it was very isolated, away from any other place on Earth.

'Twas a time of peace back then. But that was until he came- the knight in dirty armor and an arrogant smirk on his face. He claimed he needed one of the golden apples for his quest, but secretly asked for my help- even though it was his quest.

So I foolishly helped him, calming the dragon so that the male could get past it and pluck one of the apples for himself. When he lodged with us overnight, my sisters found out about my doing and they kicked me out, saying that I had shamed their family.

The next day, when the male was starting to leave, I pleaded with him for I to go with him.

But he rejected me and left me without a home and a burning shame. After a few days of travelling, I saw a white light- as if 'twas my time to leave... And then somehow, I ended up in this apartment building and I stumbled my way across the building trying to find a door. And that is where I met thou."

I finished the last of my bacon, and while I crunched on the crispiness, I thought about her words. I wondered if the Fates or any 'Great Being' had anything to do with it- landing her in this apartment building, and I- the only one without Christmas decorations (partly because I was broke, and partly because I was Greek) was the one she had chosen.

"So this male," I started, but I could feel venom creeping in my tone when I said male. "He rejected you in his adventures?"

She nodded. "That is what I have said."

"So come with me to Camp," I offered, not really thinking at that time.

"A- a Camp?" She sputtered.

"Yeah," I said, grinning. "My second home, pretty much. But before that, I'll take you out to explore alright? I just hope you don't get culture shock..."

Hesitantly, she said the golden words that would change everything. "Alright, Perseus."

I grinned, and started to lead her out the building and into the world she had never been in before.

A/N: This is an AU, so there might/will be some plotholes, and if there are I'll try to clear it up. Thanks for reading!