Title: Apartment 23

Summary: College!AU Percy Jackson is a somewhat cowardly history major with a fondness for water; his new roommates range from a closet suicidal chain smoker, to an Italian Mafia member with a talent for gambling, to a possibly insane prankster with an obsession with fire; and the girl he's fallen head over heels for most likely hates his guts. Welcome to Apartment 23.

Genres: Drama/Friendship

Pairings: Percy/Annabeth/Luke, Nico/Thalia, Piper/Jason, Reyna/Leo, Hazel/Frank, Silena/Beckendorf, Clarisse/Chris, Travis/Katie

Warnings: Cursing and art forgery.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo Chapter Six

SILENCE STOOD up to meet the two new arrivals when the apartment door nearly slammed itself against the peeling wallpaper of the room.

The sight before the pair of college students was enough to send off alarm bells to even the most idiotic of people; it was as if they had walked into some sort of movie set and interrupted a particular scene being shot - an awkward moment where they would perhaps back off and say, "oh, sorry, didn't see you there."

But it wasn't a movie they had walked into, and the scene before them would be permanently etched into their minds for the rest of their lives.

Or, at least, that's what Piper assumed. She wasn't quite sure exactly what was going through the minds of her two friends - she wasn't a mind reader after all, as cool and useful as that would have been.

No, she wasn't a mind reader, but it was still relatively obvious how her two roommates felt about what they had just walked into so late at night.

Absolute and utter horror etching into Percy's face, vague irritation and exasperation clouding Thalia's eyes - one reaction from a newbie with no experience with lives like theirs, and another from a girl who had never experienced anything else.

Piper couldn't help but feel sorry for Percy. The poor guy had surely just been expecting a decently average college life, with a random wild party or two and maybe a slightly annoying roommate with OCD. But he had accidentally signed up for a world that he wasn't supposed to see: a world of crime and dust and no power or glory.

Just some messed up kids born into bad luck.

She hoped and prayed that Percy wouldn't lose the sunshine he held in his eyes after all of this was over.

(Because, one day, it will be over -

- right?)

Thalia took a stiff step further into the room, electricity seeming to crackle around the stains of the fuzzy dull carpet, beating like a pulse. She was beautiful, Piper had always thought, in a devastating way. She had no doubt that if the older girl had been born into a different life, she would have made the world stop turning, if even for just a few moments.

The dark-haired girl's lips curled into a scowl, half irritated and half derisive. Her trademark leather jacket curved itself over the space between her elbow as her arm found its way to the side of her hip, almost condescending. Piper found herself feeling ashamed under her glare.

"What," Thalia started, the word seeming to insert itself into the decently sized space between her and the others and hang in the air like a noose, "kind of shit is that?"

Piper blinked blankly. Ah. Right.

She had nearly forgotten about the forged painting dangling between Nico's and Leo's fingertips.

"It's The Starry Night, dumbass," Nico replied flatly, his long pale fingers seeming to seep into the sky like a poison.

"It's van Gogh's, darling," Leo added sweetly, his grin almost seeming to break through his face like cracks in glass. "Surely you've been educated enough to recognize it?"

"Shut your traps, you two," she deadpanned, her eye twitching ever so slightly. "I know what painting that is. What I don't know is why it's here. Isn't it supposed to be in some museum on the other side of the country?"

"It's a forgery," Piper now spoke up, almost dumbly. She almost cringed when she saw the dark glare the older girl threw her way in response.

"It's a forgery?" Everyone turned to look at the person behind the dark-haired girl, seeming to just consciously realize that he had arrived with her. Percy appeared paler than usual, almost paler than Nico, and he looked as if they had just heard news of the president being shot.

"You're forging a painting?" he squeaked out, distress falling over his face and down to his throat. "Do you know how illegal that is?"

"It's not illegal if you don't get caught."

Now, the group of college students shifted their attention towards the slim girl standing silently in the corner, with nocturnal black hair and eyes as blue as the sky in the forged painting. She was the type of person, Piper knew, that people found hard not to stare at. She drew your attention without trying to, her very presence able to command any room she walked into. It certainly helped that she was beautiful. Not in the way Thalia was, devastatingly and like a tragedy, or even the way Piper herself was - not exactly subtly, but in a way that made one know that she was trying to downplay it and was failing miserably.

Silena Beauregard was beautiful not only in looks, but in the way she was.

And she knew it.

"This painting was just asking to be forged," she went on blindly, oblivious to Percy's ever growing horror. "Have you seen the brush strokes?"

"It's a little hard not to," Jason spoke up from out of the blue, having been nervously silent since the moment Thalia and Percy had walked into the room.

Even clearly uncomfortable and troubled, Piper couldn't help but think that he was gorgeous. He was the image of a guy that every teen romance novel depicted, down to his looks to his personality. Everything about him screamed golden boy, and even now, after quite some time, she still couldn't help but be skeptical of the fact that Thalia of all people was his older sister. Although there were obvious similarities between them in appearance if one would look hard enough, the obvious differences between the two of them increased in clarity when it came down to their individual personalities.

Thalia was a walking tragedy and Jason was practically a god incarnate. No offense.

"Exactly," Silena agreed, nodding her head at Jason's half sarcastic statement. "You can literally see the brush strokes. It's like he's literally giving us a tutorial of how to copy his artwork. It's almost ridiculous, but it makes my life a whole lot easier."

"Which means you'll be copying more of his work, yeah?" Leo's implication was not lost on anyone in the room, least of all Silena. He lifted his chin towards the framed artwork beside him. "If I didn't know better, I'd say this baby was exactly the same as the original. Heck, I'd say it was the original. Maybe our old pal van Gogh painted two of these and just kept one in store for a rainy day in case he needed the money."

"Which you need, right?" Piper snapped, accusatory.

The life she led was not pretty, surely, but there was a line she knew that needed to be drawn when it came to crime, and forging an incredibly famous work of art was most definitely crossing that invisible line.

"Debts won't pay themselves, Beauty Queen," he replied cheerily, shooting a grin in her direction, almost condescending.

"Rejected," Nico interjected dully, a frown working its way onto his lips. "How boring. Choosing to forge The Starry Night was already mundane enough, now you want to go ahead and copy something else of his? Van Gogh was a one time deal, you know that."

"The guy was a card," Leo protested, seeming offended that the shorter eighteen-year-old could insult him so. "Cut his own ear off - do you know how much talent that takes? Plus, his paintings are classic, di Angelo. Can't go wrong with that."

"They're Post-Impressionistic, actually," Silena corrected helpfully, pleasant.

"Right. Post-Impressionistic. Whatever the heck that is."

"I think his paintings are beautiful," Piper spoke up, the words spilling out of her mouth like rain.

She wasn't quite sure why, but she couldn't help but feel strangely upset with how little respect her friends were giving towards the European painter and his works. Admittedly, she hadn't seen many of his paintings, and she didn't really know much about him. What she did know, however, was that the life he had led had not been a particularly happy one, and she thought that he deserved more than a couple of wrecked kids mooching money off of a forgery of one of his most famous works of art.

She wished he could have seen how happy his art made people now, and she wished that he could have seen the beauty of his own life like he had seen the beauty of the world around him.

Piper McLean always wished for a lot of things that she would never get.

"Maybe so," Nico allowed, seeing that she was not going to back down from her words. He was almost sulking. "But I still say we choose a different artist next time."

"Next time?!" Percy almost shrieked, his voice rising in pitch and nearly cracking.

Everyone ignored him, although Piper imagined that she herself felt a tiny bit more sympathetic towards his obvious plight than everyone else.

"Getting a little cocky, aren't we? You haven't even gotten away with this one yet," Thalia reminded plainly; and Piper knew from simple observation that the twitching of the older girl's fingers meant that she was itching for a cigarette. As always.

"I say Monet next time," Jason suggested casually, easily diffusing the argument about to emerge before it could even start. "He's a French artist, isn't he?"

That was another thing that Piper loved about him: he could calm any situation down without even making it known that he had done anything in the first place.

Silena frowned, her delicate lips curling down like a half moon. "Just because I'm French doesn't mean I can forge everything created by a French artist. Besides, have you seen his stuff? It's all water and flowers."

Piper noticed from the corner of her eye the way Percy perked up slightly at the word 'water', and she decided to make note of it for future reference.

"What's wrong with that? Pretty landscapes, right? Aren't you good with that sort of thing?" Leo asked carelessly, no use of tact.

The blue-eyed girl flicked his forehead mercilessly, ignoring the pained sound that emerged from his mouth at her action. She placed her hands on her hips and gave him a look of disapproval, resembling a teacher scolding one of the more troubling students in her class.

"I rarely ever go anywhere near the water, stupid." That was something that Piper liked about the girl - no profanity ever spewed from her mouth, as if she were afraid of damaging the prettiness of it by tainting it with crude language. "Besides, if you're looking for a forgery of flowers, then go ask Katie Gardner down the hall. That's her line of expertise."

"Are you kidding?" Leo looked as if she had just buried her fist in his gut like a wrecking ball. "She'd sooner shoot a bullet through my skull than do me any favors, much less forge a painting for me."

"Not only that," Nico interrupted matter-of-factly, "but she runs a flower shop, not a forgery business."

"Those are two very contradictory statements," Percy spoke up awkwardly, seeming to almost be in some sort of daze.

At this point, Piper was sure that the green-eyed student had figured out to not question what went on when it came to the lot of them, and just attempt to go with the flow until he could perhaps find a better place to stay - somewhere safer and more legal, perhaps.

"What about Manet?" Leo suggested with a wild grin; and Piper wondered just how her friend had gotten so knowledgeable when it came to famous artists.

"Now you're just looking for trouble," Jason said disapprovingly, although it was obvious that he wasn't surprised in the least at his roommate's suggestion. In fact, she wouldn't have been surprised if he had been expecting it.

"Controversial art," Nico reiterated thoughtfully; and she could have sworn that he looked to actually be considering it.

"I am not forging any of Manet's art," Silena snapped, appearing on the verge of slapping the two of them. "I know which two paintings you both are thinking of."

"Which ones?" Percy asked cluelessly; and Thalia just nonchalantly stepped on his foot in response.

"Anyway!" Piper interjected obviously, at the moment wishing that she could smoothly change the subject like Jason could. "It's getting pretty late. You should be getting back to your room now, Silena, right?"

She caught the implication.

The pretty eighteen-year-old sent them all a warm smile, her prior irritation abruptly disappearing. "I guess you're right. I'll see you all soon, then. We should meet up."

Leo winked in agreement. "By then I'll have your share of the money all ready for you."

"I'll be holding you to that," she said lightly as she passed them by, her gentle strides leading the way towards the still open door. "I'll see you all at the party?"

"What party?" Percy asked in surprise, causing the black-haired girl to turn her head towards him. He stilled as his gaze made its way over her face.

Silena smiled gently, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. "Apartment 23 is hosting a party tomorrow night, and all the students living here are invited. It'd be awesome if you could come, too."

'Oh,' Piper thought, impressed, 'she has him wrapped around her finger.'

"I'm Silena Beauregard, by the way," she introduced herself pleasantly, giving him a beaming smile rivaling the twinkle of a star. "You're Percy Jackson, right? I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow."

And, before he could stutter out a reply, she made her way out the door.

After a few moments, Leo let out a low whistle, a cheeky grin making its way across his face. "Damn, she's something, isn't she?"

Piper smacked him, but allowed an almost fond smile to appear across her lips.

(Yes, although their world was dark -

- she couldn't help but think that cracks of light were starting to spill in.)

...

notes (art):

The two controversial paintings by Édouard Manet that were vaguely mentioned in this chapter are Luncheon on the Grass (Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe) and Olympia.

Look them up if you wish.

...

a.n. I updated, holy cow.

Today in French class we had a lesson over French art, so you can bet that's why I made this whole chapter about art forgery. The idea of it just came to me randomly when I got home, so I decided that it would be interesting to incorporate it into this chapter.

I write the chapters of this story when I have the inclination to do so and the inspiration, and today both came to me from out of the blue. I'm surprised about this myself.

(Don't expect another update very soon, though - although I obviously have a plan for the next chapter, I doubt I'll get the inclination to write it any time soon.)

Also, I'm writing this half asleep, so please for now overlook the errors. I can barely even open my eyes, much less catch any mistakes I've made in this chapter. I seem unable to write anything for this story lately fully awake.