Percy Jackson One Shots and Short Stories

#72 - On What Grounds? Coffee. (AU)

Chapter 72 - On What Grounds? Coffee. (AU)
published: Monday, 19 October 2020

Timeline: Mortal AU; Percy and Annabeth are 28 years old

Synopsis: Annabeth Chase walks into Starbucks every morning before work, and for some strange reason, the barista can never get her name right. Percy Jackson, barista by night and PhD student by day, finds that coming up with increasingly creative ways to get a customer's name wrong is a brilliant way to spend his 6am shift. 

Contain(s): Coffee shop AU; Percy, Frank and Hazel as coworkers; workaholic businesswoman Annabeth Chase

—*—

Percy slumped over the counter, peering warily at the door. It was 6.03am and the flood of customers were about to arrive; a mix of hungover youths, bleary college students, doctors and nurses, and slimy corporate workers.

The students were Hazel's favourite batch. "Just like we used to be," she would snicker. And Percy would remind her that, most of the time, Frank simply didn't even turn in his work. Not for lack of trying, but Frank could be very forgetful. 

Percy had worked at this same small joint for little over a year now, alongside Hazel and Frank, who were pretty much the best coworkers ever. 6am shifts were really shitty, but necessary for Percy to put himself through the NYU PhD program for marine biology. He had a day job, sure, at a research firm in Queens, but it didn't pay very well.

They had a routine every morning. Rock, paper, scissors to decide who got to greet the customers — the worst job, because at 6am, not many people were awake enough to be polite.

Percy lost today; he lost a lot, actually, and he'd have to check out Hazel and Frank's conspiracy against him one day. At 6.04am, Will Solace came in — a medical intern at the hospital down the street. Will had been coming here as long as Percy could remember; he worked some crazy hours and downed about five lattes a day, which couldn't be healthy.

Around the same time, Nico di Angelo, one of the college kids, stumbled inside and promptly opened his laptop. He and Will would sit together for fifteen minutes — sometimes in silence, sometimes with random conversation — and then they would walk out the door and head in their separate directions. Percy had no idea what the hell was going on there, but he'd just accepted it as normal after all these months.

Other customers, some new ones Percy didn't recognise and some regulars, came in. As 6.30am approached, Grover and Clarisse would arrive — preschool teachers, though Percy had never understood how someone like Clarisse could ever be allowed to be within a one-metre radius of children.

Shortly after, there was Reyna (just Reyna, because her surname was one of the world's mysteries) one of the less slimy corporate workers. She actually worked on Wall Street, but lived nearby, so she would pick up breakfast on her way to the train.

By 7 o'clock, Percy was slumped over the counter, zoning in and out of Hazel and Frank's conversation. It sucked to third-wheel with them sometimes, but it also meant that Percy didn't always have to put effort into talking.

The bells at the glass door jingled, and Percy glanced up to see a blonde woman walk in, pushing against the door with her back as she held her phone to her ear, her other hand gripping black, leather briefcase.

Oh, she's pretty, was Percy's first thought. Striking grey eyes, curly golden hair, tall and slim.

"She's new," Hazel whispered. "First impressions?"